Daily Log

Enough stuff going on I feel like writing somewhere I can fid it again, doubtful that anyone else will bother.

Eyes have gotten little better since I was diagnosed with posterior vitreous detachment (left eye) a month ago. I have an appointment to see optometrist again on Feb. 5. Bigger problem has been with my nose. Hard to describe, but it is very annoying, somewhat painful, and very frustrating, as it seems like no combination of picking and snorting and blowing or anything else can clear it. I've resumed steroid nasal spray, which never did much good for sinus allergies and tended to irritate after awhile. Gets worse during the night, under the CPAP mask, which tends to cut my sleep short. Pain/weakness in hips seems somewhat under control, but always threatening. I should manage to pick out a new doctor for things like that, but that's a depressing task. I've had severe allergies since the 1980s, and my nose has been a big part of the problem, but despite perennial complaints no doctor has ever come close to helping. The hip problem dates back more than a decade, although it has come and (until now) gone.

Laura has a more acute problem that she doesn't want me to "blab" about. She saw doctor today and prognosis seems not too bad. Will be a problem for next couple of months, but probably not much longer.

Tried to do an update to Christgau website last night. I have a local database/website, and update the public one through a two-step process: a tarball of changed files, followed by a MySQL database dump. I've been fighting software updates for years to keep using Latin-1 8-bit characters, while the world is moving toward UTF-8 (multibyte, covering all languages, whereas Latin-1 just takes care of Western European languages). The problem seems to be that while my copy of the database is happy with Latin-1, and the dump file I get from the mysqldump command is Latin-1, when I import that dump on the server using PhpMyAdmin (a web-based management program -- with CPanel on the server, I've stopped using shell commands) takes and/or stores the file as UTF-8, despite me setting every switch I can find to Latin-1. (One clue is that when I used PhpMyAdmin on the local machine to create a dump, it came out as UTF-8 -- again, with all the switches set to Latin-1.)

I've been procrastinating working on that all day (8:42 PM as I write this), but need to give it another shot. The simplest thing would be to just import the dump file and see what happens: I'd at least get my updates, and the accent characters wouldn't be any worse than what's on the server already. Still, my goal has long been to fix this problem when I next dealt with it. I still have several blind spots (e.g., what's really in the database?) and other sources of confusion (e.g., why is the text encoding from the HTTP headers set to "windows-1252"?).

I did the file update last night, without a hitch. The database changes include about three months of recent EW reviews, plus I've added stubs for the Dean's List records that Christgau hasn't reviewed yet. Those stubs are broken links until I get the database updated. Also, Christgau is hoping to link to those reviews from an article he is writing for the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll (out next week?), so I have a commitment there.

I did make one small change to the RSS feed, fixing a HTTP header problem. Possibly the first time I've written PHP code to modify HTTP headers, so something I'm long overdue learning. That might be the way to fix the "windows-1252" coding error, although presumably the source lies deeper in Apache configuration (but I've looked for it there many times, to no avail). I've been meaning to port the RSS feed and the Q&A system from Christgau's website to mine. Should take little more than a couple of hours in each case, but the task has dragged on for more than a month now. Just hard to get optional work done under the recent conditions of my life.

Music Week

Music: current count 31033 [30993] rated (+40), 251 [257] unrated (-6).

After posting yesterday's Weekend Roundup, I read a few more pages into Ben Fountain's Beautiful Country Burn Again (mentioned in the post) and found this bit, so relevant to the week's news:

Even a cursory run through American history shows Exceptionalism has been used to justify monumental bloodshed, oppression, and profit. Cotton Mather saw "the evident hand of God" in the colonists' wholesale slaughter of Native Americans in King Philip's War, a genocide that would eventually roll all the way to the Pacific under the quasi-religious doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Over 300 years of slavery were justified on biblical grounds, as, variously, a means of saving African souls, or adherence to a divinely ordained natural order. For invasion and conquest in the name of liberty and democracy, we have the land grabs in Mexico in 1846-48, the Philippines in 1899-1902, and Panama in 1903. For the softer sorts of grabs -- i.e., imperialism -- in the early twentieth century, the career of Major General Smedley Butler (1881-1940) provides a useful guide to U.S. adventures in Mexico (again), Central America, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and China. A partial list of U.S.-sponsored or actively supported interventions, regime changes, and coups d'état for the latter half of the twentieth century would include Iran (coup, 1953), Guatemala (coup, 1954), Vietnam (coup, 1963; the war, 1965[?]-1973[?]), the Dominican Republic (intervention, 1965), Child (coup, 1973), Argentina (coup, 1976), Nicaragua (war, 1980s), El Salvador (war, 1980s), Panama (invasion, 1989), and Haiti (coup, 1991; invasion, 1994; coup, 2004). Underneath all the high-minded missionary rhetoric, you will usually find the throbbing heart of the profit motive.

You can add Venezuela to that list. In fact, you can wonder why Fountain didn't include it in the first place (or Colombia, which has been the main base for US troops in Latin America for 20-25 years now).

Still spending a lot of time checking out 2018 albums that have shown up on various EOY lists (see my Aggregate), but not finding much there. Three of this week's four A- releases are actually 2019 releases, all jazz, one dating back to 1966-67. Also got into some old music, as I noticed a Curtis Amy reissue, and followed that thread. I've long admired Amy's 1963 album Katanga, so thought it might be fun to hear more.

Expect a Streamnotes on or near the end of the month. I'll freeze my 2018 list then, and try to work up some stats for the year. The Music Tracking file is showing 1074 graded albums in 2018 -- still down from 1185 in 2017, but not as much as I had expected. I was surprised a couple months ago to find my Jazz and Non-Jazz best-of lists were already evenly balanced. Usually I start out with a big jazz advantage, then they even off as I catch up with EOY lists. This year, the opposite has occurred: starting close to even, I'm not up to 63 A/A- jazz, but only only 53 A/A- non-jazz.

I've been trying tonight to do a database update to the Robert Christgau website, and I keep running into character set problems. The database was originally designed and built in 2001, at which point doing everything using Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1 8-bit characters) seemed to make most sense. That was the default for MySQL at the time, but over the years MySQL and damn near everything else moved on to UTF-8. Until recently I've been able to keep chugging along by twiddling various settings to insist on Latin-1. At this point, I'm still able to use mysqldump to create a SQL file with Latin-1 encoding, but when I try to do the same thing through PhpMyAdmin, even when I explicitly specify ISO-8859-1 output, I'm getting a UTF-8 file. While I can use the command line on my machine, I've gotten into the habit of using CPanel and PhpMyAdmin to import my SQL dumps into the public server. Even when I start with a Latin-1 SQL dump file, and set the character set options in PhpMyAdmin to use ISO-8859-1, the import operation seems to be filling the database with UTF-8. The result has been that accented characters coming from the database are garbaged. (Of course, one suspicious thing is that "latin1" seems to be preferred by mysqldump, while PhpMyAdmin insists on "ISO-8859-1.)

A few weeks back, I announced that I would be creating a discussion list for technical and design issues for the Christgau website (and a few others I work on, including my own). Only a few people have written to me to sign up, and I have yet to use the list. If you're willing to help me figure out these technical issues, or if you just want to lurk as I struggle with them, write me and I'll sign you up.

New records rated this week:

• 10^32K: The Law of Vibration (2018, self-released): [dl]: B+(**)
• Amnesia Scanner: Another Life (2018, Pan): [r]: B+(*)
• Baloji: 137 Avenue Kaniama (2018, Bella Union): [r]: B+(***)
• Boy Azooga: (One) (Two) (Kung Fu!) (2018, Heavenly): [r]: B+(*)
• Brothers Osborne: Port Saint Joe (2018, EMI Nashville): [r]: B
• Cloud Nothings: Last Building Burning (2018, Carpark): [r]: B+(**)
• Christopher Dell/Johannes Brecht/Christian Lillinger/Jonas Westergaard: Boulez Materialism: Live in Concert (2017 [2018], Plaist): [bc]: B+(**)
• Moppa Elliott: Jazz Band/Rock Band/Dance Band (2017-18 [2019], Hot Cup, 2CD): [cd]: A-
• Iro Haarla, Ulf Krokfors & Barry Altschul: Around Again: The Music of Carla Bley (2015 [2019], TUM): [cd]: A-
• Alexander Hawkins: Iron Into Wind: Piano Solo (2018 [2019], Intakt): [cd]: B+(**)
• Human Feel [Chris Speed/Andrew D'Angelo/Kurt Rosenwinkel/Jim Black]: Gold (2017 [2019], Intakt): [cd]: B+(*)
• Juan Ibarra Quinteto: NauMay (2017 [2018], self-released): [r]: B+(*)
• The Jayhawks: Back Roads and Abandoned Motels (2018, Legacy): [r]: B
• Lil Baby: Harder Than Ever (2018, Quality Control): [r]: B+(**)
• Lil Baby & Gunna: Drip Harder (2018, Quality Control): [r]: B+(***)
• Lil Wayne: Tha Carter V (2018, Young Money/Republic): [r]: B+(**)
• Meek Mill: Championships (2018, Maybach Music Group/Atlantic): [r]: B+(***)
• Proc Fiskal: Insula (2018, Hyperdub): [r]: B+(**)
• Joey Purp: Quarterthing (2018, self-released): [r]: B+(**)
• Orquesta Del Tiempo Perdido: Stille (2016-17 [2018], Shhpuma): [r]: B
• Tom Rainey Trio With Mary Halvorson and Ingrid Laubrock: Combobulated (2017 [2019], Intakt): [cd]: B+(***)
• Mette Rasmussen & Chris Corsano: A View of the Moon (From the Sun) (2015 [2018], Clean Feed): [r]: B+(**)
• Mette Rasmussen/Tashi Dorji: Mette Rasmussen/Tashi Dorji (2016 [2018], Feeding Tube): [bc]: B-
• Wadada Leo Smith: Rosa Parks: Pure Love: An Oratorio of Seven Songs (2016-17 [2019], TUM): [cd]: B+(*)
• Teyana Taylor: KTSE [Keep That Same Energy] (2018, GOOD Music/Def Jam, EP): [r]: B
• Assif Tsahar/William Parker/Hamid Drake: In Between the Tumbling a Stillness (2015 [2018], Hopscotch): [dl]: A-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Ran Blake/Jeanne Lee: The Newest Sound You Never Heard (1966-67 [2019], A-Side, 2CD): [cd]: A-

Old music rated this week:

• Curtis Amy & Paul Bryant: The Blues Message (1960, Pacific Jazz): [r]: B+(***)
• Curtis Amy & Frank Butler: Groovin' Blue (1961, Pacific Jazz): [r]: B+(**)
• Curtis Amy: Way Down (1962, Pacific Jazz): [r]: B+(**)
• Curtis Amy: Tippin' On Through (1962, Pacific Jazz): [r]: B+(*)
• Curtis Amy: Groovin' Blue/Way Down/Tippin' On Through (1961-62 [2013], Fresh Sound, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• Curtis Amy Sextet: Peace for Love (1994, Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(***)
• Ran Blake & Jeanne Lee: Free Standards: Stockholm 1966 (1966 [2013], Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(***)
• Paul Bryant: Burnin' (1960, Pacific Jazz): [r]: B+(**)
• Paul Bryant Featuring Curtis Amy & Jim Hall: The Blues Message (1960 [2010], Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(**)
• Bumble Bee Slim: Back in Town (1962, Pacific Jazz): [r]: B+(**)
• Curtis Counce: You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce! (1956-57 [1984], Contemporary/OJC): [r]: B+(**)
• The Curtis Counce Quintet: Exploring the Future (1958, Boplicity): [r]: B+(***)
• Les McCann Ltd.: On Time (1962, Pacific Jazz): [r]: B+(*)

Weekend Roundup

Trump's lockout ended on Friday, for three weeks, anyway. I wouldn't make a big deal about Trump blinking or caving. He's a born bully, and still dangerous, so you'd just be taunting him. On the other hand, I'm pretty much convinced that the purpose of the lockout was to try to intimidate the new Democratic House, so we might as well acknowledge that in that regard he failed. Perry Bacon Jr. explains Why Trump Blinked, although the info graphic on "Trump Approval Ratings" is probably all you need to know: approve, 39.4%; disapprove, 56.0%. Those are his worst numbers since the 2016 election, and those numbers have never been above water.

Another big story was the much anticipated indictment and arrest of Roger Stone. My right-wing cousin on Facebook: "Gestapo tactics used against Roger Stone! A old man, his wife and a dog. A SWAT team in full gear for arresting! For shame F.B.I." Of course, Stone's not the first guy who's been Gestapoed by the FBI. That's pretty much their standard operating procedure. I can't even especially blame them here, given that the NRA has pretty much guaranteed that every criminal in America will be armed. The risk, of course, is that a half-cocked SWAT team member will freak out and kill someone for no good reason. We had a prime example of that here in Wichita, about a year ago.

Still, the bigger story is the coup that Trump & Co. tried to pull off in Venezuela. This one was a bit unorthodox. Normally, one tries to secure power first, then quickly recognize the plotters to help them consolidate power. This time Trump recognized the coup before there were any "facts on the ground," thereby alerting Maduro to the plot. As I recall, GW Bush recognized a coup in Venezuela [in 2002] that ultimately failed, but even he wasn't as premature as Trump.

This coup has been preceded by decades of vitriolic propaganda aimed at delegitimizing the democratically elected Chavez and Maduro governments. This has made it very difficult to know what reports are fair and accurate. On the other hand, the historical record is clear that the US has long exploited Venezuela (and virtually every other country in Latin America), leading to chronic poverty, extreme inequality, and harsh repression nearly everywhere -- and this has long made me sympathetic to political movements, like Chavez's, that have sought to halt and undo neo-liberal predation (even in cases where I don't particularly approve of the tactics). Whatever the facts here, Trump's actions are fully consistent with US policy of more than a century, and as such should be opposed.

Some links on Venezuela:

• George Ciccariello-Maher: Venezuela: Call it what it is -- a coup.

• Susan B Glasser: We interrupt this crisis: Trump, Venezuela, and the crazy politics of the shutdown:

  In typical Trump fashion, the decision about Venezuela happened quickly, at the last minute, and apparently without the normal process that would have accompanied such a significant move in any other Administration. . . . [Senator Marco Rubio] demanded that the Trump Administration recognize Guaidó as the country's interim leader. Rubio's prodding, along with that of exile groups, sent the Administration "scrambling," McClatchy News reported. . . . Just a few hours later, Trump went ahead and did it, joined by a strong lineup of other countries, including many of Venezuela's neighbors, as well as Canada and France. . . . In fact, Trump, who governs by personal instinct, has had an odd obsession with Venezuela from early on in his Administration, when Rubio brought the wife of the jailed opposition leader Leopoldo López to make an in-person appeal to Trump in the Oval Office. Trump professed his willingness to take military action against Venezuela in the summer of 2017, at the same golf-course photo opportunity where he threatened to rain down "fire and fury" on North Korea. . . . In the absence of long-standing views on many foreign-policy issues, the President has chosen, as he so often does, to personalize things with Venezuela. Rubio has figured that out, and adroitly played off it, especially since the Trump personnel shuffle last spring, which brought two like-minded hard-liners into the Administration's key foreign-policy jobs: John Bolton, as the national-security adviser, and Mike Pompeo, as Secretary of State. Both had advocated tough measures against the leftist regime of Maduro's mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chávez. Now, with Venezuela descending into political and economic crisis, members of both parties, including those, like Rubio, who have been wary of Trump's America First and damn-the-allies approach to much of the rest of the world, are supportive of Trump's decision.

• Greg Grandin: How the right is using Venezuela to reorder politics.

• Jake Johnson:

  • Confirming US orchestration, report details Pence's key phone call to Venezuelan opposition leader.

  • So-called 'Trump Resistance' mostly silent as US president openly foments coup d'etat in Venezuela.

• Ben Norton:

  • Venezuela's US-backed coup leader immediately targets state oil company, requests IMF money.

  • US backs coup in oil-rich Venezuela, right-wing opposition plans mass privatization and hyper-capitalism.

  • Every single member of US Congress approved crushing sanctions on Nicaragua: A bit of old news (Dec. 14, 2018), but background showing that this week's attempted coup is consistent with recent US policy -- and that Democrats have yet to develop a stance that promises anything different.

• Jon Queally: While criticizing Maduro, Sanders says US should 'not be in the business of regime change' in Venezuela: Sanders points out, "The United States has a long history of inappropriately intervening in Latin American countries. We must not go down that road again."

• Michael Selby-Green: Venezuela crisis: Former UN rapporteur says US sanctions are killing citizens.

• Nahal Toosi: Elliott Abrams, prominent DC neocon, named special envoy for Venezuela. Leave it to Trump to pick an envoy with a 100% track record of putting his personal ideological concerns over practical national interests, and a 0% track record of negotiating the end of any conflicts.

• Alex Ward:

  • Venezuela is in a major political crisis. Here are 5 scenarios for what could happen next.

  • Former US military official: don't invade Venezuela.

Some more scattered links this week:

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • 2 winners and 3 losers in the deal to end the government shutdown: Winners: Nancy Pelosi, air traffic controllers. Losers: Donald Trump, DREAMers, basic rationality and people who like to plan.

  • Elizabeth Warren's proposed tax on enormous fortunes, explained.

  • Pete Buttigieg announces his 2020 presidential campaign: Democrat, mayor of South Bend, IN, and seems to be pretty impressive in that role, but doesn't have a lot of good opportunities for advancement.

  • Elizabeth Warren's book, The Two-Income Trap, explained: She wrote a number of books before getting into politics, and this one from 2004, so-authored by Amelia Warren Tyagi (her daughter), was her first to attempt a non-academic audience: The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents Are Going Broke.

• Lara Bazelon: Kamala Harris Was Not a 'Progressive Prosecutor'.

• Jacob Bogage: Daniel Snyder's new $100 million purchase is the first superyacht with a certified Imax movie theater. Still, this pales next to Jerry Jones' "$250 million, 357-foot superyacht." One thing that especially struck me in Paul Krugman's discussion of "the great compression" was the virtual disappearance of yachts among the rich c. 1960 (you know, back when the top-bracket marginal income tax was 90%).

• Julian Borger: and others: How Trump has changed America in two years.

• Robert L Borosage: Watch how progressives respond when Trump isn't wrong: "Occasionally the president finds himself on the right side of an issue, and Democrats can't reflexively act." But, of course, many do.

• Arielle Brousse: I'm from Atlantic City. I've seen how Donald Trump's false promises devastate a community.

• Robert A Caro: The secrets of Lyndon Johnson's archives.

• Aida Chávez: Congress is pushing sanctions against supporters of Syria's Bashar Al-Assad. Two obvious problems here: one is that the US has no business unilaterally imposing sanctions on foreigners; the second is that this guarantees that the US will continue to be hostile to Syria, making it harder for Assad to restore order and rebuild the country, and making sure the US will be unable to do anything constructive. The fact is that Assad won. Reasonable people should try to work with him: withdraw foreign support for opposition groups, and try to work out amnesty/exile agreements rather than risk harsh repression (which will lead to more resistance, and more terrorism).

• Adam Davidson: Robert Mueller got Roger Stone: One of the week's big stories, but it's been obvious that Stone was going down almost from the start of the investigation.

• David Dayen: Trump's CFPB fines a man $1 for swindling veterans, orders him not to do it again.

• Gaby Del Valle: Amazon is asking companies to create new, Prime-exclusive brands. This is basically a tactic aimed at consolidating and reaping rents from monopoly power. If/when Washington gets serious about antitrust enforcement, prohibiting this is a good place to start.

• Tara Golshan: The government is going to reopen. But what's next is going to be tricky.

• Karl Grossman: Darth Trump: Pushing to turnspace into a war zone.

• Sean Illing: If you want to understand the age of Trump, read the Frankfurt School: Interview with Stuart Jeffries, author of Grant Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School. I read a lot of Frankfurt School 35-40 years ago, but have hardly cracked open a book since. I did pick up Dialectic of Enlightenment a few months back, and noticed that I had underlined close to half of the book, which provides inadvertent testimony to how deep I once found it. I quit mostly because I got to where I wasn't learning new things -- I had internalized their critical stance to such a point I could anticipate how they would handle any new problem. Still, I'm not sure they very useful insights into Trump. On the other hand, the history is bound to be interesting. They're a generation of left intellectuals who fled Fascism and found something nearly as ominous in America. Trump easily reminds people of the former, but understanding the latter is more important, and harder.

• Paul Krugman:

  • The sum of some global fears: "Setting the table for a smorgasbord recession." Cites four major risk areas (China, Europe, trade war, and the shutdown). I don't find any of those arguments very convincing (although the drag induced by the latter has yet to be measured, even if Trump doesn't resume the shutdown during the next round of brinksmansip.)

  • The economy won't rescue Trump.

  • The real governments of Blue America.

• Robert Mackey: The plot against George Soros didn't start in Hungary. It started on Fox News.

• Michaelangelo Matos: Fault Lines is an excellent history of US political dysfunction: Short review of book by Kevin M Kruse and Julian E Zelizer, Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974.

• Dylan Matthews: 24 years ago today, the world came disturbingly close to ending.

• John Nichols: Trump is entering the terrible twos -- the tantrums are going to get worse.

• Gail Pellett: Gringos without a car -- an ecological decision pays off in cultural literacy.

• Robert Reich:

  • A new message from Democrats: it's time to empower workers in America.

  • The shutdown has exposed the disaster that is Trumponomics.

• James Risen: Roger Stone made his name as a dirty trickster, but the Trump-Russia coverup may finally bring him down.

• Joshua Rothman: How to escape pseudo-events in America: The lessons of Covington.

• Amanda Sakuma:

  • The government is reopened (for now). But the recovery process may take awhile.

  • Steve King still doesn't think of himself as racist.

• Gabriel M Schivone: Why are Guatemalans seeking asylum? US policy is to blame. Headline could be clearer. US policy is why they flee Guatemala. Why they come here is harder to say. Perhaps because Americans are so insulated from the effects of their government abroad?

• Matt Taibbi:

  • The annual 'Misremembering Dr. King' editorials roll in: "This year's offerings in one of the most dependable clichés in American journalism.

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, crusher of sacred cows.

• Jeffrey Toobin: The dirty trickster: "Campaign tips from the man who has done it all." Long profile on Roger Stone. The length attests to how long this story has been anticipated.

• Tim Wu: Antitrust's most wanted: "The 10 cases the government should be investigating -- but isn't." Only keeps it down to ten by including four whole industry segments.

• Li Zhou: Why the government shutdown finally ended: "Floundering government services, sagging approval ratings, and a failed Senate vote all became too much for even Trump to take."

• Ben Zimmer: Roger Stone and 'Ratf--ing': A Short History.

PS: I asked for comments last week on a possible book outline, and got essentially zilch back. To save you the trouble of a click, I'll just paste them in here:

One thing I feel I need to decide this week (or, let's say, by the end of January, at latest) is whether I'm going to try to write my unsolicited advice book for Democrats in 2020. Say it takes three months to write, two to get edited and published, that gets us to July, by which time we'll probably have a dozen Democrats running for President. (I'm counting four right now: Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julian Castro, and Tulsi Gabbard; Wikipedia lists more I wasn't aware of, plus an announcement pending from Kamala Harris tomorrow.) [Ballotpedia lists eight "notable" declared/exploratory Democratic candidates.] But that's just a measure of how soon what Matt Taibbi likes to call "the stupid season" will be upon us. I have no interest in handicapping the race, or even mentioning candidates by name. I'm more interested in historical context, positioning, and what I suppose we could call campaign ethics: how candidates should treat each other, the issues, the media, the voters, and Republicans. And note that the book is only directed toward Democrats who are actually concerned enough to get involved in actual campaigns. Even there, it won't be a "how to" book. I don't really know anything about running a campaign. It's more why we need candidates in the first place, and what those candidates should say.

Some rough ideas for the book:

• I'm thinking about starting off with a compare/contrast between Donald Trump and George Washington. They are, by far, the richest Americans ever to have won office, and otherwise couldn't be more unalike (unless I have to deal with GW's ownership of slaves, which suggests some similar views on race). The clearest difference is how we relate to money, and how we expect politicians with money to serve.

• I'd probably follow this up with brief compare/contrasts between Trump and selected other presidents. I might find various presidents that offer useful contrasts on things like integrity, diligence, intelligence, care, a sense of responsibility, a command of details, tolerance of corruption. I doubt I'd find any president Trump might compare favorably to, but it might be helpful to make the effort.

• Then I want to talk about political eras. Aside from Washington/Adams, there are four major ones, each dominated by a party, each with only two exceptions as president:

1. From 1800-1860, Jefferson through Buchanan, interrupted only by two Whig generals (and their VPs, since both died in office, Harrison especially hastily).
2. From 1860-1932, Lincoln through Hoover, interrupted only by two two-term Democrats (Cleveland and Wilson).
3. From 1932-1980, Roosevelt through Carter, interrupted only by two two-term Republicans (Eisenhower and Nixon/Ford).
4. From 1980-2020, Reagan through Trump, interrupted only by two two-term Democrats (Clinton and Obama).

There's quite a bit of interesting material I can draw from those periods. Each starts with a legendary figure, and ends with a one-term disaster. (I suppose you could say that about Washington/Adams as well, but that's a rather short descent for an era.) In each, the exceptions substantially resemble the dominant party. But the Reagan-to-Trump era does reflect an anomaly: each of the first three eras started with a shift to a broader and more egalitarian democracy, whereas Reagan was opposite. Each era had a mid-period nudge in the same direction (Jackson/Van Buren, Roosevelt, Kennedy/Johnson, but also GW Bush). Of course, the anti-democratic tilt of Reagan-to-Trump needs some extra analysis, both to show how it could run against the long arc of American history and why after 1988 it was never able to post commanding majorities (as occurred in previous eras).

• I then posit that in 2020 the goal is not just to defeat Trump but to win big enough to launch a new (and overdue) era. This will be the big jump, but I think if Democrats aim big, they can win big -- and it will take nothing less to make the necessary changes. This is possible because Republicans, both with and without Trump, have boxed themselves into a corner where all of their beliefs and commitments only serve to further hurt the vast majority of Americans. It will be tough because Republicans still have a stranglehold on a large segment of the public. But this spell can be broken if Democrats look beyond the conciliatory tactics and marginal goals that marked the campaigns of Obama and the Clintons.

• At some point this segues into a lesson on the need for unity and tolerance of diversity within the Democratic Party. I'll probably bring up Reagan's "11th commandment," which served Reagan well but has since been lost on recent Tea Partiers and RINO-bashers (although the post-election fawning over Trump suggests that Republicans will come around to backing anything that wins for them).

• I'll probably wind up with a brief survey of issues, which will stress flexibility and feedback within a broad set of principles. I can imagine later doing a whole book on this, but this would just offer a taste.

Book doesn't need to be more than 300 pages, and could be as short as half that. It is important to get it out quickly to have any real impact. I would consider working with a co-author, especially someone who could carry on to do much of the promotion -- something I'm very unlikely to be much good at.

While I can imagine that this could be worth doing, I can also think of various reasons not to bother. The obvious one is that I haven't been feeling well, having a good deal of back pain, and having a trouble with my eyes -- things that have taken a toll from my normal workload over the last few months. I also seem to be having more difficulties coming up with satisfactory writing. I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to write up a response to a particularly annoying Facebook rant, and never did come up with anything I felt like sharing. I am especially bothered by self-destructive arguments I see both on the left and the right of the Democratic Party spectrum, and this sometimes tempts me to throw up my hands and leave you all to your fates. On the other hand, sometimes this tempts me to think that all the help you need is a little clarity that I fancy I can provide.

Just knocked this much off the top of my head, in two sets of a couple hours each, so this is very rough. Next step will be to try to flesh out a bit more outline, maybe 3-5 times the length, with a lot of bullet points. That would be the goal for the next 7-10 days. If I manage that, I'll circulate it to a few friends, then make a decision whether to proceed. The alternative project at this point is probably a memoir, which is something that can take however much time it takes (or however much I have left).

Comments welcome, and much appreciated.

I haven't made any notable progress in the intervening week, which is probably not a good sign. I have started reading Ben Fountain's book, Beautiful Country Burn Again: Democracy, Rebellion, and Revolution, which is mostly reportage of the 2016 campaign, but a cut above, partly the writing -- Fountain is best known for his novel (Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk) -- and partly because he pays as much attention to the public as to the politicians. (The paperback subtitle is Trump's Rise to Power and the State of the Country That Voted for Him. I can't say it's helped me a lot in thinking about my book, but does keep my head somewhat in the game.

Other books I've read on the 2016 election and/or Trump (latest to oldest):

• Katy Tur: Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History
• Allen Frances: Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump
• David Frum: Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic
• Mark Lilla: The Once and Future Liberal
• Mark Singer: Trump and Me
• Jonathan Allen/Amie Parnes: Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign
• Bernie Sanders: Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In
• Matt Taibbi: Insane Clown President: Dispatches From the 2016 Circus

Music Week

Music: current count 30993 [30949] rated (+44), 257 [263] unrated (-6).

No real reason I didn't post this on Monday, except it was a rough day and I didn't feel like writing an introduction. Been adding some polls to the EOY Aggregate, and will probably keep doing that until I get to the end of the Metacritic Top-Tens list, decide what to do with the lists on Acclaimed Music Forums bulletin board, and/or the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics poll comes out. (No idea when, but I hear that Robert Christgau will have a small piece there. Last year's came out on January 22, but as of this writing it's not there yet.) I can give you a link for the Uproxx Music Critics Poll, which was hastily opened back when nobody knew whether the Voice would do anything. They got "nearly 200 critics" to vote, and the top of the list is (in brackets, first the record's position in my EOY Aggregate list, then my grade):

1. Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour (MCA Nashville): [2: B]
2. Janelle Monáe: Dirty Computer (Bad Boy) [1: A-]
3. Mitski: Be the Cowboy (Dead Oceans) [3: B]
4. Pusha T: Daytona (GOOD/Def Jam, EP) [4: B+(***)]
5. Cardi B: Invasion of Privacy (Atlantic) [5: A-]
6. Lucy Dacus: Historian (Matador) [37: B+(*)]
7. Ariana Grande: Sweetener (Republic) [15: B]
8. The 1975: A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships (Dirty Hit/Polydor) [40: B]
9. Boygenius: Boygenius (Matador, EP) [46: B]
10. Noname: Room 25 (self-released) [9: A-]

Finishing scores for Other records in my EOY Aggregate top 20 (here the bracket number is the Uproxx finish):

6. Robyn: Honey (Konichawa/Interscope) [14: B+(**)]
7. Idles: Joy as an Act of Resistance (Partisan) [88: B+(***)]
8. Low: Double Negative (Sub Pop) [18: B+(*)]
10. Parquet Courts: Wide Awake! (Rough Trade) [21: A-]
11. Kamasi Washington: Heaven and Earth (Young Turks, 2CD) [23: B+(***)]
12. Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel (Mom + Pop Music) [39: B+(***)]
13. Sophie: Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides (MSMSMSM/Future Classic) [26: B+(***)]
14. Christine and the Queens: Chris (Because Music) [43: B+(**)]
16. Arctic Monkeys: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (Domino) [30: C+]
17. Kali Uchis: Isolation (Virgin EMI) [22: A-]
18. Blood Orange: Negro Swan (Domino) [84: B+(**)]
19. Beach House: 7 (Sub Pop) [15: B+(**)]
20. Black Panther: The Album (Music From and Inspired By) (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope) [19: B+(***)]

I can't says as I recognize many of the critics who voted for Uproxx. (I wasn't invited, nor was I invited to Pazz & Jop, despite having voted in the latter every year since 2003 -- and a few years back in the 1970s.) I still think Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer has to be a pretty solid favorite to win Pazz & Jop. Monáe leads Album of the Year's Aggregate, with 364 points to 353 for Mitski and 295 for Musgraves. My list had that same order, albeit with a much larger point edge, until this last week, when Musgraves edged into second ahead of Mitski. Metacritic (link above) has Musgraves edging Monáe out, 98.5 to 97 (with Mitski at 88), followed by Idles, Pusha T, Cardi B, Low, Robyn, Christine and the Queens, and Ariana Grande.

I'm not real sure what's going on with Acclaimed's spreadsheets (they don't seem to be publicly available as such), but the latest summary I've seen lists the top ten as: Janelle Monáe, Low, Idles, Pusha T, Mitski, Robyn, Kacey Musgraves, Sophie, Kamasi Washington, and Beach House, followed by Rosalia (El Mal Querer), Arctic Monkeys, Cardi B, Courtney Barnett, Parquet Courts, Blood Orange, Christine and the Queens, Jon Hopkins (Singularity), Kali Uchis, and US Girls (In a Poem Unlimited). Acclaimed has less of a US focus, with a lot of non-English lists from Europe and a few from Latin America -- places where Musgraves falls down and Idles (and Rosalia) pick up.

Maybe I'll find time (and inspiration) to say more about this when I wrap up my own little project.

New records rated this week:

• Aphex Twin: Collapse EP (2018, Warp, EP): [r]: B+(***)
• Archivist & Fugal: Undertow (2018, BleeD, EP): [r]: B+(**)
• Daniel Avery: Song for Alpha (2018, Phantasy Sound/Mute): [r]: B+(*)
• Daniel Bennett Group: We Are the Orchestra (2018, Manhattan Daylight Media, EP): [r]: B
• Ran Blake/Clare Ritter: Eclipse Orange (2017 [2019], Zoning): [cd]: A-
• Samantha Boshnack's Seismic Belt: Live in Santa Monica (2018 [2019], Orenda): [cd]: A-
• Bruce: Sonder Somatic (2018, Hessle Audio): [r]: B+(**)
• Dillon Carmichael: Hell on an Angel (2018, Riser House): [r]: B+(*)
• Extra Large Unit: More Fun Please (2017 [2019], PNL): [bc]: B
• First Aid Kit: Ruins (2018, Columbia): [r]: B
• George FitzGerald: All That Must Be (2018, Double Six): [r]: B+(**)
• Helena Hauff: Qualm (2018, Ninja Tune): [r]: B+(***)
• Will Hoge: My American Dream (2018, Thirty Tigers/EDLO, EP): [r]: B+(**)
• Christoph Irniger Pilgrim: Crosswinds (2018 [2019], Intakt): [cd]: B+(**)
• J.I.D: DiCaprio 2 (2018, Dreamville/Interscope): [r]: B+(*)
• Michael Kocour: East of the Sun (2018 [2019], OA2): [cd]: B+(*)
• Adam Kolker & Russ Lossing: Whispers and Secrets (2014 [2018], Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(*)
• Kukuruz Quartet: Julius Eastman: Piano Interpretations (2017 [2018], Intakt): [r]: B+(*)
• Kuzu: Hiljaisuus (2017 [2018], Astral Spirits): [bc]: B+(***)
• Maribou State: Kingdoms in Colour (2018, Counter): [r]: B+(*)
• Bill McHenry Trio: Ben Entrada La Nit (2015 [2018], Fresh Sound New Talent): [r]: B+(***)
• Dave Meder: Passage (2018 [2019], Outside In Music): [cd]: B+(***)
• Miss Red: K.O. (2018, Pressure): [r]: B+(***)
• Kelly Moran: Ultraviolet (2018, Warp): [r]: B+(*)
• Whitey Morgan and the 78's: Hard Times and White Lines (2018, Whitey Morgan Music): [r]: B+(*)
• Greg Murphy Trio: Bright Idea (2018 [2019], Whaling City Sound): [cd]: B+(**)
• Eva Novoa's Ditmas Quartet: Live at IBeam (2016 [2018], Fresh Sound New Talent): [r]: A-
• Objekt: Cocoon Crush (2018, PAN): [r]: B+(**)
• Ross From Friends: Family Portrait (2018, Brainfeeder): [r]: B+(**)
• Dave Rudolph Quintet: Resonance (2018 [2019], self-released): [cd]: B+(*)
• Jamie Saft/Steve Swallow/Bobby Previte: You Don't Know the Life (2018 [2019], RareNoise): [cdr]: B
• Troye Sivan: Bloom (2018, Capitol): [r]: B
• Sleaford Mods: Sleaford Mods (2018, Rough Trade, EP): [r]: B
• Caitlyn Smith: Starfire (2018, Monument): [r]: B
• Walter Smith III: Twio (2018, Whirlwind): [bc]: A-
• Walter Smith III/Matthew Stevens/Joel Ross/Harish Raghavan/Marcus Gilmore: In Commmon (2017 [2018], Whirlwind): [r]: B+(**)
• Wing Walker Orchestra: Hazel (2017 [2019], Ears & Eyes): [cd]: B+(*)
• Ken Vandermark/Nate Wooley: Deeply Discounted II/Sequences of Snow (2018, Pleasure of the Text/Audiographic, EP): [bc]: B
• Leon Vynehall: Nothing Is Still (2018, Ninja Tune): [r]: B+(**)
• Jamie Lin Wilson: Jumping Over Rocks (2018, self-released): [r]: B+(**)
• Peter Zak Quartet Featuring Marcos Varela: One Mind (2017 [2018], Fresh Sound New Talent): [r]: B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• André Hodeir: Essais: Complete Paris & New York Sessions (1954-60 [2017], Fresh Sound, 2CD): [r]: B+(*)
• Sun Ra: Crystal Spears (1973 [2019], Modern Harmonic): [bc]: B+(**)

Old music rated this week:

Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music From Vintage Disney Films (1988, A&M): [r]: B+(*)

Grade (or other) changes:

• The End [Sofia Jernberg/Mats Gustafsson/Kjetil Moster/Anders Hana/Greg Saunier]: Svårmod Och Vemod Är Värdesinnen (2018, RareNoise): [cdr]: album title wrong D+

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Layale Chaker & Sarafand: Inner Rhyme (In a Circle)
• Stephan Crump's Rosetta Trio: Outliers (Papillon): February 19
• Yelena Eckemoff/Manu Katché: Colors (L&H Production): February 22
• Hiljaisuus: Kuzu (Astral Spirits/Aerophonic): February 26
• Dave Rempis/Brandon Lopez/Ryan Packard: The Early Bird Gets (Aerophonic): February 26
• The United States Air Force Band Airmen of Note: Global Reach (self-released)

Weekend Roundup

The shutdown, or as David Frum put it, "the President's hostage attempt," goes on, revulsing and alienating government workers and the public on top of the revulsion and alienation they first felt when he took office and started to self-destruct the government. (The exception, or so we're told, is the ICE border agent union, which relishes the idea of moving from the backwaters of law enforcement to the closest thing we've ever had to Hitler's SS.) As I've noted before, the first and foremost job of every Chief Executive is to keep things working. In many regards Trump had already broken the organizations he was responsible for running before he shuttered offices and halted paychecks (e.g., see the story below on EPA prosecutions). His new cudgel is blunter, and dumber.

The first thing that popped into my mind when Trump insisted on shutting down the government is that this is why we don't negotiate with terrorists. Except I couldn't use that, because I believe that we should negotiate with terrorists, with hostage-takers, with all manner of brutes and bullies. I'd even be willing to quote Winston Churchill, something about "jaw-jaw" being better than "war-war." But Trump sees this as a test of power, to be resolved by bending Congressional Democrats into submission. The reason terrorists have such a poor reputation for negotiating is that, like Trump, they're insatiable. Republicans have played this budget chokehold card many times since 1995, always coming back for more, so what Trump is doing is completely in character. The difference this time is that Democrats didn't win a major election just to let Trump trod all over them. They were voted in to resist Republican tyranny, and this is their first serious test.

One thing I feel I need to decide this week (or, let's say, by the end of January, at latest) is whether I'm going to try to write my unsolicited advice book for Democrats in 2020. Say it takes three months to write, two to get edited and published, that gets us to July, by which time we'll probably have a dozen Democrats running for President. (I'm counting four right now: Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julian Castro, and Tulsi Gabbard; Wikipedia lists more I wasn't aware of, plus an announcement pending from Kamala Harris tomorrow.) But that's just a measure of how soon what Matt Taibbi likes to call "the stupid season" will be upon us. I have no interest in handicapping the race, or even mentioning candidates by name. I'm more interested in historical context, positioning, and what I suppose we could call campaign ethics: how candidates should treat each other, the issues, the media, the voters, and Republicans. And note that the book is only directed toward Democrats who are actually concerned enough to get involved in actual campaigns. Even there, it won't be a "how to" book. I don't really know anything about running a campaign. It's more why we need candidates in the first place, and what those candidates should say.

Some rough ideas for the book:

• I'm thinking about starting off with a compare/contrast between Donald Trump and George Washington. They are, by far, the richest Americans ever to have won office, and otherwise couldn't be more unalike (unless I have to deal with GW's ownership of slaves, which suggests some similar views on race). The clearest difference is how we relate to money, and how we expect politicians with money to serve.

• I'd probably follow this up with brief compare/contrasts between Trump and selected other presidents. I might find various presidents that offer useful contrasts on things like integrity, diligence, intelligence, care, a sense of responsibility, a command of details, tolerance of corruption. I doubt I'd find any president Trump might compare favorably to, but it might be helpful to make the effort.

• Then I want to talk about political eras. Aside from Washington/Adams, there are four major ones, each dominated by a party, each with only two exceptions as president:

1. From 1800-1860, Jefferson through Buchanan, interrupted only by two Whig generals (and their VPs, since both died in office, Harrison especially hastily).
2. From 1860-1932, Lincoln through Hoover, interrupted only by two two-term Democrats (Cleveland and Wilson).
3. From 1932-1980, Roosevelt through Carter, interrupted only by two two-term Republicans (Eisenhower and Nixon/Ford).
4. From 1980-2020, Reagan through Trump, interrupted only by two two-term Democrats (Clinton and Obama).

There's quite a bit of interesting material I can draw from those periods. Each starts with a legendary figure, and ends with a one-term disaster. (I suppose you could say that about Washington/Adams as well, but that's a rather short descent for an era.) In each, the exceptions substantially resemble the dominant party. But the Reagan-to-Trump era does reflect an anomaly: each of the first three eras started with a shift to a broader and more egalitarian democracy, whereas Reagan was opposite. Each era had a mid-period nudge in the same direction (Jackson/Van Buren, Roosevelt, Kennedy/Johnson, but also GW Bush). Of course, the anti-democratic tilt of Reagan-to-Trump needs some extra analysis, both to show how it could run against the long arc of American history and why after 1988 it was never able to post commanding majorities (as occurred in previous eras).

• I then posit that in 2020 the goal is not just to defeat Trump but to win big enough to launch a new (and overdue) era. This will be the big jump, but I think if Democrats aim big, they can win big -- and it will take nothing less to make the necessary changes. This is possible because Republicans, both with and without Trump, have boxed themselves into a corner where all of their beliefs and commitments only serve to further hurt the vast majority of Americans. It will be tough because Republicans still have a stranglehold on a large segment of the public. But this spell can be broken if Democrats look beyond the conciliatory tactics and marginal goals that marked the campaigns of Obama and the Clintons.

• At some point this segues into a lesson on the need for unity and tolerance of diversity within the Democratic Party. I'll probably bring up Reagan's "11th commandment," which served Reagan well but has since been lost on recent Tea Partiers and RINO-bashers (although the post-election fawning over Trump suggests that Republicans will come around to backing anything that wins for them).

• I'll probably wind up with a brief survey of issues, which will stress flexibility and feedback within a broad set of principles. I can imagine later doing a whole book on this, but this would just offer a taste.

Book doesn't need to be more than 300 pages, and could be as short as half that. It is important to get it out quickly to have any real impact. I would consider working with a co-author, especially someone who could carry on to do much of the promotion -- something I'm very unlikely to be much good at.

While I can imagine that this could be worth doing, I can also think of various reasons not to bother. The obvious one is that I haven't been feeling well, having a good deal of back pain, and having a trouble with my eyes -- things that have taken a toll from my normal workload over the last few months. I also seem to be having more difficulties coming up with satisfactory writing. I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to write up a response to a particularly annoying Facebook rant, and never did come up with anything I felt like sharing. I am especially bothered by self-destructive arguments I see both on the left and the right of the Democratic Party spectrum, and this sometimes tempts me to throw up my hands and leave you all to your fates. On the other hand, sometimes this tempts me to think that all the help you need is a little clarity that I fancy I can provide.

Just knocked this much off the top of my head, in two sets of a couple hours each, so this is very rough. Next step will be to try to flesh out a bit more outline, maybe 3-5 times the length, with a lot of bullet points. That would be the goal for the next 7-10 days. If I manage that, I'll circulate it to a few friends, then make a decision whether to proceed. The alternative project at this point is probably a memoir, which is something that can take however much time it takes (or however much I have left).

Comments welcome, and much appreciated.

Meanwhile, some scattered links this week:

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • The controversy over Ilham Omar calling Lindsey Graham "compromised," explained.

  • Trump tried to illegally withhold disaster relief money from Puerto Rico.

  • The emoluments clause, explained.

  • William Barr, Trump's nominee to serve as attorney general, explained.

• Michelle Alexander: Time to break the silence on Palestine: "Martin Luther King Jr. courageously spoke out about the Vietnam War. We must do the same when it comes to this grave injustice of our time."

• Yoni Applebaum: Impeach Donald Trump: "Starting the process will rein in a president who is undermining American ideals -- and bring the debate about his fitness for office into Congress, where it belongs." Even after the 2016 election made impeachment possible in the House, I didn't have any enthusiasm for this particular agenda. But I noticed this line: "The question that determines whether an act is impeachable, though, is whether it endangers American democracy." I'm not sure that really defines the principle, but it sure describes Trump. Long piece, pretty comprehensive.

• Jonathan Blitzer:

  • As the shutdown continues, Trump offers a deal that Democrats are sure to reject.

  • The uncounted families torn apart at the border by the Trump Administration.

• Frank Bruni: BuzzFeed's controversial Cohen story raises question: Did Trump want to be President? "His campaign was a marketing venture. That's why he didn't want to put business on hold."

• Will Bunch: The huge problem with Mueller's Trump-Russia probe that no one talks about.

• Isaac Chotiner: The disturbing, surprisingly complex relationship between white identity politics and racism: interview with Ashley Jardina, author of White Identity Politics

• Jane Coaston:

  • Why Republicans took so long to call out Steve King's racism.

  • Republicans remove Rep. Steve King from committee assignments for defending white nationalism.

• Jason Ditz:

  • US airstrike kills 23 in Eastern Syria, mostly fleeing civilians.

  • Trump announces US will develop space-based missile defense: Hey, you think the border wall is a stupid waste of money, offering false security bound up with unsound policy-- you ain't seen anything yet.

• Ben Ehrenreich: To those who think we can reform our way out of the climate crisis: "Our only hope is to stop exploiting the earth -- and its people."

• Robert Fisk: Bernie Sanders, Israel and the Middle East.

• David A Graham: Trump's entire shutdown approach, encapsulated in one tweet.

• Charles Glass: "Tell Me How This Ends" "America's muddled involvement with Syria.

• Umair Irfan: How Trump's EPA is letting environmental criminals off the hook, in one chart: "Referrals for criminal prosecutions for environmental crimes are at a 30-year low."

• Rebecca Jennings: The controversy around Trump's fast-food football feast, explained.

• Cameron Joseph:

  Trump's companies boosted foreign worker visa use to 10-year high.

• Fred Kaplan:

  • Trump's Star Wars fantasy: "The president is proposing the most ambitious and costly missile defense system since the Reagan era. It won't make us any safer." I lobbed my wisecrack under Jason Ditz's piece, above. If you look at this sanely, there are maybe 8-10 countries around the world that this system might theoretically defend us from, and they are (with good reason) more afraid of us than we are of them. Why can't we just negotiate a stand down where we each give up the offensive capability this prays to shoot down? That would be much safer and much less expensive, especially for the US (the only nation rich and deranged enough to try to deploy a complete defensive system, as well as the only nation with a trillion dollar plan to rebuild its entire nuclear arsenal; other nations wouldn't have to do more than countermeasures, such as the "dumptruck full of gravel" that Chalmers Johnson wrote about -- enough to destroy every satellite around the earth). Of course, it's possible that space-based anti-missile systems never were a serious technical idea. Back when Reagan first unveiled his "Star Wars" fantasy, Doonesbury suggested that its SDI acronym really meant SFI: Strategic Funding Initiative: i.e., a scam for contractors to soak up billions of dollars.

  • Trump and Putin's cone of seclusion: On the lack of notes on meetings between Trump and Putin. Title sounds like a flashback reference to Don Adams' TV spy comedy, Get Smart's cone of silence.

• Dara Lind:

  • w/Li Zhou: Here's Trump's latest offer to end the shutdown -- and why Democrats aren't interested: Main points:

    • $5.7 billion in funding for a physical barrier on the US-Mexico border.
    • Three years of temporary protections for DACA recipients.
    • A three-year extension of protection for TPS holders.
    • $800 million to improve care for children and families at the border -- with millions more for enforcement.
    • Modest changes to asylum for Central American children and teenagers.

  • w/Javier Zarracina: By the numbers: how 2 years of Trump's policies have affected immigrants.

  • Even with the shutdown, the Trump administration is suing to take land for the border wall.

  • William Barr paved the way for Trump on immigration. Now he might help Trump go even further.

  • William Barr hearing: attorney general nominee's immigration record aligns with Trump's: "Barr was building a border wall back in 1991."

• PR Lockhart: Supporters of Confederate monuments had a very bad week: "The battle over Confederate monuments is still raging -- and states are losing.".

• German Lopez: There are no "feel-good" government shutdown stories: "The government shutdown is causing a lot of people to suffer. There's nothing good about it.".

• Pankaj Mishra: The malign incompetence of the British ruling class: "With Brexit, the chumocrats who drew borders from India to Ireland are getting a taste of their own medicine."

• Andrew Prokop: The weekend's Trump-Russia news, explained: Big story here is Adam Goldman/Michael S Schmidt/Nicholas Fandos: FBI opened inquiry whether Trump was secretly working on behalf of Russia, but the timing says more about the FBI's defense instincts in response to the Comey firing than anything Trump had done.

• JM Rieger: Trump used to brag about the click-in online polls his former fixer tried to rig.

• David Roberts: Here's one fight the Green New Deal should avoid for now: "The smart political move is leaving the question of what counts as clean energy as open as possible."

• Jennifer Rubin:

  • Here's an alternative to Trump's extortion.

  • Trump is moving the polls: His are down, and Pelosi's are up.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • T-Mobile spent lots of money at Trump's hotel while awaiting approval for lucrative merger: "The chain of events highlights Trump's unprecedented conflicts of interest."

  • Trump promotes Pat Buchanan column that makes white nationalist case for his border wall.

• Amanda Sakuma:

  • Why Trump and Pelosi are caught in a bitter, petty game of one-upmanship: "The Trump v. Pelosi shutdown travel fight, explained."

  • Rudy Giuliani just muddied the waters even more about the 2016 Trump Tower Moscow talks: "The president's lawyer says Trump Organization had 'an active proposal' in Russia until October, November 2016."

• Dylan Scott:

  • Trump is looking for a new way to cut Medicaid -- without Congress.

  • Congress has 7 big ideas to cut drug prices. Here's how they work. Any/all would help (and I can think of a few more), but my preferred solution is: "7. Rip up our patent system and start from scratch." Actually, I'd be willing to phase the patent system out, first by incrementally reducing the 17-year term down to zero, in the meantime replacing the monopoly grant with arbitrated licensing fees. As this phases in, you shift research and development costs to "open source" public development, which in the long run will be more effective. I'd also try to internationalize this system, inviting other countries to share in, and add to, the cost savings and development bounty. The article talks about prizes as incentive for private development. I think there is a place for that, but it shares with patents the problem of being a high-risk, high-reward startegy, and tends to reinforce secrecy. I'd rather see more development subsidized up front, so there is very little risk, with prizes more as a way of recognition and reputation-building.

  • House Democrats are frustrated the shutdown is drowning out the rest of their agenda.

• Emily Stewart:

  • The shutdown's effect on the US economy, explained: "The longer it goes on, the bigger the risk is of broader damage."

  • Nancy Pelosi uninvites Trump from the State of the Union until the shutdown is over.

• Matt Taibbi:

  • Has the government legalized secret defense spending?

  • Return of the Neocons! "The new 'Bulwark' is the latest signpost on the road back to power for America's most disgraced brand of politics."

• Jeffrey Toobin: William Barr and the crucial role of the Justice Department.

• Janie Velencia: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants to raise taxes on the rich -- and Americans agree.

• Alex Ward:

  • Felix Sater, the spy, criminal, and mafia-linked executive tied to Trump Tower Moscow, explained.

  • Trump Tower Moscow, and Michael Cohen's lies about it, explained.

  • The Pentagon extends US troop mission at southern border for 9 months

  • The US apparently kept no detailed notes of Trump-Putin meetings for the past 2 years. I'm not sure this is the "big problem" Ward claims, but it's kind of weird. It reflects the fact that Trump doesn't really make American policy on Russia, and doesn't trust his own government not to leak the dumb things he says. Ward is probably right that the Russians do have detailed notes. Perhaps some day we'll get to read them. Whether we believe them is another matter.

  • John bolton's obsession with fighting Iran is making Trump policy more dangerous.

• Robert Wright: How Trump could wind up making globalism great again: I found this after I wrote the introduction above, but this confirms my basic insight into Trump's "art of the deal":

  A few days before the 2016 election, journalist Andrew Sullivan wrote this about Donald Trump: "He has no concept of a nonzero-sum engagement, in which a deal can be beneficial for both sides. A win-win scenario is intolerable to him, because mastery of others is the only moment when he is psychically at peace." . . .

  Still, in Trump's hierarchy of bliss, dominance does seem to rank at the top. "I love to crush the other side and take the benefits," he wrote in a book called Think Big. "Why? Because there is nothing greater. For me it is even better than sex, and I love sex." He went on to observe: "You hear lots of people say that a great deal is when both sides win. That is a bunch of crap. In a great deal you win -- not the other side. You crush the opponent and come away with something better for yourself." . . .

  Now we've got a president who not only resists playing nonzero-sum games but actively fans emotions that impede the wise playing of them. And as if that weren't enough, the fanning of those emotions can recalibrate the games, making lose-lose outcomes even worse than they would be otherwise. . . . Trump's policy instincts make good governance hard, and his political style makes the consequences of bad governance grave.

  Most of the piece goes into Trump's trade deal strategy, which is a lot like his strategy everywhere else: to demolish his opponent no matter how much it winds up hurting himself. Then there is this:

  Alternative histories are speculative. But the general principle makes sense: If your policies [Bush in Iraq, Obama in Syria and Libya] bring instability that in turn breeds fear and hatred, then candidates who thrive on those things are more likely to get elected. So if there's a chunk of international law designed to prevent instability -- such as the UN charter's constraints on transborder aggression -- maybe you should pay some attention to it, especially if you're going to go around singing the praises of the rules-based international order [he quoted Iraq War supporter George Packer, chastising Trump for this]. Yet many American politicians who sing those praises also championed the Iraq and Libya adventures.

  That those people include Hillary Clinton -- the only alternative to Trump in the 2016 election -- tells you how far the American political system is from taking global governance seriously. On the one hand, we had a candidate who ostensibly supported the UN charter but casually disregarded it. On the other, we had Trump, who denounced various US military adventures but disdains the international law that stands in opposition to military adventurism.

Marianne Cowan Pyeatt posted this on Facebook:

For many, many years there were so many things going on behind the scenes and all we got was propoganda. We didn't know that govt in DC had been overtaken by socialists and that the exucation system was being used to indoctrinate socialism. Given that the MSM is completely and utterly a tool of the left, Social media is the only platform left to many people. I'm sorry if you are tired of political posts. But, we Are literally talking about losing the identity and values of our nation to a group that has quietly manipulated us for decades. Maybe a political post had never changed your mind, but, you can't say that you are only hearing one side these days.

I replied:

You know, back in 1966, I dropped out of high school in Wichita, KS, in part because I disliked the schools force-feeding me their political and cultural dogmas. I started reading on my own, looking for things that helped make sense of the world around me -- at the time, the big issues were the Vietnam War and racial turmoil. Within two years, still a teen in Wichita, I embraced socialism. Fifty years later, having worked for a living while still reading vast amounts of history and economics, my views have moderated somewhat, but I still believe that the only way to secure personal freedom and high living standards for everyone is through social democracy. That's been a lonely view -- at least until Bernie Sanders showed that the label is no longer poison and the ideas have genuine popular appeal. Still, you can't be talking about real socialists (like me) because we don't secretly control anything. Mass media in America is owned and controlled by the rich, which includes a smattering of social liberals among a majority of staunch conservatives. It's the latter who have endowed and directed secretive societies that have endeavoured to infiltrate public institutions and to dominate public discourse -- some of the more notorious examples are the Federalist Society's certification of right-wing judges and ALEC's lobbying of state legislatures. Forerunners of these groups have been ranting about socialists since the 1890s, a tactic which really took off with the McCarthy "red scare" of 1947-54. As your post shows, some people continue to be taken in by this paranoid fear of subversives -- probably in part because they rightly feel that they have been losing their freedom to today's ascendant "robber barons" (most other people have the same feeling, but lack the conceit to blame their woes on an imaginary left). But we socialists are not your enemy. We offer the only viable path out of the ever-tightening noose of a short-sighted, self-interested, out-of-control plutocracy.

Marianne is the wife of a second cousin in Mountain Home, Arkansas. She is normally a fine person, the mother of three lovely (now mostly grown) children. Her husband is a government worker -- a county health inspector -- and she's done office work (I've never delved into the details). But somewhere along the line she got active in Republican politics, and convinced her husband to follow suit. I don't know for sure, but I rather figured that her mother had much to do with her politics. I never met the mother (now deceased), but she was German, and according to stories I've heard complained bitterly about how ordinary Germans like herself were mistreated after losing the war, blamed for the war, etc. Not sure why she immigrated to the US, but it seemed to have liberated her from the "collective shame" that was customary in Germany in the 1950s, allowing her "inner Nazi" to come out. (Not that any of the stories tried to depict her as a neo-Nazi, but, you know, that's something I'm rather quick to sniff out -- in part, I suppose, because I've known Germans who were not.)

My cousin (her mother-in-law) is a solid anti-war Democrat, and I recall a lot of political strife in the family over the Iraq War. Our great-great-grandfather was a Union officer in the Civil War, after which he moved to that Ozark niche in Arkansas -- a patch of two (and a half) counties that was solidly Republican ever since, even when the rest of the state was 95% Democrat. He held office as a Republican, and the family was pretty solidly Republican when my mother was growing up, but my cousin's father (my uncle Ted) switched to the Democrats with FDR. He was a deeply compassionate man, touched by the poverty of the Great Depression, and legendary for his efforts to help neighbors down on their luck -- a sense of ethics that has been passed down, although it has met a stone barrier in Marianne.

I also wanted to comment on Allen Lowe's post:

to me Bernie's biggest problem is a lot of his supporters; not all of you, I mean, some of my best friends . . .

The problem with a lot of these people is that anyone who doesn't go with Bernie, advocate for Bernie, report on Bernie, endorse Bernie, or do Bernie with everything, is a sellout. That's really the view of a certain core of his followers. And I gotta admit, it means I will never support Bernie, because if he wins I gotta listen to these nuts for another bunch of years. And I do think Bernie has done a lot of good for the party, and we owe him a lot.

Now remain calm, as I said, you are not ALL like that. But enough of you are to make me wanna turn heel and run away (or run train outta the station, whatever the hell that means).

I wrote back (after tons of other comments):

Going back to the original post, it sounds like you're pretty desperate to find a reason to slam Sanders. The closest analogy I can come up with is that a person might like a band's music but decide not to go to one of their concerts because you don't like the people who show up there. The difference is that at the concert you're all there together, but after an election neither you nor any other voter has real access to a candidate. It's a different kind of participation. But more importantly, you don't seem to understand how "selling out" works. If Sanders wins, you're not stuck with four more years of Sanders supporters accusing you of selling out. Half of them will be accusing Sanders of selling out, and the other half will either shut up or lamely defend him. Your fear is only realized if Sanders loses and some other highly compromised candidate wins instead, leaving his supporters nothing to do but backbite people who "knew better" but failed to support him. Of course, supporters of every other candidate tend to do the same thing. If Sanders seems to have more of them, it's because more people see him as making a difference that matters. If you weren't so committed to opposing him, you might appreciate that more.

One thing I noted in the comments was Terri Hinte complaining that Sanders had voted against the Magnitsky Act ("he and Rand Paul, birds of a feather?"). I wasn't aware of that, but count it as one more reason in his favor. The United States government should not be arbitrarily judging and punishing foreign individuals because someone decides that their business runs counter to America's supposed interests. Maybe there should be an international tribune that can do that, according to some kind of consensus international law, but this is just one of a number of cases where the US has arrogated itself to be sole judge-and-jury over the rest of the world.

Allen responded:

oh come on, Tom, that's not how it works; he lost the last campaign, and it pretty much neutralized his crazies; they were quiet until the latest election. And this ain't a concert, so it's a bad comparison. He wins, and like the tsuris the Dems are having now with the progressive caucus, his people feel empowered, and they are all over us like white on Condoleezza Rice. There are many other politicians with just as many or more followers; he doesn't have a plurality on people who think he's making that difference (though I think he has made a crucial difference, btw). But I do see his followers or their types as already attaching themselves to the "we are the only pure ones" bandwagon, so it may just be too late. I know and like a lot of these people, and can work with them, but about every day I encounter one of 'em popping up on a thread. They remind me of nothing so much as the student radicals I know in the '60s who used to stand up at every meeting and shout "we gotta burn it all down." They were always right and everyone else was a sellout. And there are enough of them now to start a fire.

My first possible reply went like this:

Not much to actually respond to here. Sure, I know people who are too "purist" to vote for any Democrat, but I wouldn't call them "crazies" -- they're not violent, and they can be counted on to demonstrate for good causes. All the Sanders supporters I know -- and I stood three hours in a caucus line that voted 3-to-1 for Sanders -- are reasonable people. After 2016, they were the ones people who organized the run for Mike Pompeo's House seat, and they came closer to winning than any Democrat had since Dan Glickman last won in 1992 -- with zilch support from the national Party, which was putting all its effort into a losing contest in Georgia. What tsuris? There's a legitimate debate within the Party as to whether Democrats would be more successful if they moved toward the left. I can see both sides there, but suspect that left policies (if implemented) would be more effective -- and one thing Democrats sorely need are tangible results.

I didn't post that. Tried a second attempt, and got so frustrated I commented it out of the notebook.

Music Week

Music: current count 30949 [30913] rated (+36), 263 [260] unrated (+3).

Rated count remains healthy despite my various disabilities. The breakdown shifted rather dramatically toward "recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries" -- probably because I finally added a few rather deep compilation-oriented lists to my EOY Aggregate and its Old Music companion, including the complete Jazz Critics Poll: Reissues/Historical list. Some other late-breaking polls I picked up:

• El Intruso Encuesta 2018: I was invited to this poll, but didn't reply in time. Short on albums, long on categories I don't care much about.
• Free Jazz Collective: Happy New Ears Poll Winners; also Top 10 Lists from their writers.
• Jason Gross (Ye Wei Blog)
• Jim Macnie (Lament for a Straight Line)
• Phil Overeem: through December 2; he did a later December 28 update that I haven't sorted out yet; also Finalized Top 10 LP and Singles List.
• Dave Sumner (Bird Is the Worm): Link only lists 31-50, with the rest dribbling out slowly on his blog; most recent is 19, but I figure I already know 1-10 from his JCP ballot.
• Derek Taylor (Dusted)

The James Brown compilation topped the Ye Wei list, and could have rated higher had I spent more time with it. The FOLC is one of those retro-rock things Phil Overeem especially loves. I was vaguely aware that a lot of Sun Ra had been reissued last year, so when my first two picks turned out to be especially good, I tried out a bunch more. Trying to figure out the lay of the land, I jotted down a list of 85 more Sun Ra albums on Napster that I haven't heard. I should return to them at some point.

There is a new XgauSez over on Robert Christgau's website, as well as the 2018 Dean's List. I wanted to get the reviews caught up, but in the end decided just to post the list. Still don't feel up to starting the planned site redesign, and probably shouldn't risk it until I do.

I gather there is a Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll in the works, so that will probably wrap up my EOY list madness. Christgau held back his point assignments for the poll, although I wouldn't expect them to post ballots this year after they failed last year. Christgau will be writing some kind of piece for the poll. For the first time in 15+ years I didn't get an invite, so I find myself losing interest. Much more info can be mined from my own EOY Aggregate anyway.

New records rated this week:

• Art Brut: Wham! Bang! Pow! Let's Rock Out (2018, Alcopop!): [r]: B+(**)
• David Binney: Here & Now (2018, Mythology): [r]: B-
• Itamar Borochov: Blue Nights (2018 [2019], Laborie Jazz): [cd]: B+(**)
• Peter Brotzmann & Fred Lonberg-Holm: Ouroboros (2011 [2018], Astral Spirits): [bc]: B+(***)
• Chuck Deardorf: Perception (2017-18 [2019], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• The Delines: The Imperial (2019, El Cortez): [r]: B+(***)
• Bryan Ferry and His Orchestra: Bitter-Sweet (2018, BMG): [r]: B+(**)
• Joe Fiedler: Open Sesame (2018 [2019], Multiphonics Music): [cd]: B+(***)
• Miho Hazama: Dancer in Nowhere (2018 [2019], Sunnyside): [cd]: B+(**)
• Janczarski & McCraven Quintet: Liberator (2016 [2018], ForTune): [bc]: B+(*)
• Brandon Lopez: Quoniam Facta Sum Vilis (2018, Astral Spirits): [bc]: B+(*)
• Loretta Lynn: Wouldn't It Be Great (2006-17 [2018], Legacy): [r]: B+(**)
• Quinsin Nachoff's Flux: Path of Totality (2016-17 [2019], Whirlwind, 2CD): [cd]: A-
• May Okita: Art of Life (2018 [2019], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Ernie Watts Quartet: Home Light (2018, Flying Dolphin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Zeal and Ardor: Stranger Fruit (2018, MVKA): [r]: B+(*)
• Denny Zeitlin/Buster Williams/Matt Wilson: Wishing on the Moon (2009 [2018], Sunnyside): [r]: B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Gordon Beck Quartet: When Sunny Gets Blue (1966-68 [2018], Another Planet): [r]: B+(*)
• James Brown & the Famous Flames: The Federal & King Singles As and Bs 1956-61 (1956-61 [2018], Acrobat, 2CD): [r]: A-
• Feeling Kréyol: Las Palé (1988, Strut, EP): [r]: B+(*)
• Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!! And Rights!! ([2018], FOLC): [bc]: A-
• Gumba Fire: Bubblegum Soul & Synth-Boogie in 1980s South Africa (Soundway): [r]: B+(**)
• Guy Lafitte: His Tenor Sax & Orchestra 1954-1959 (1954-59 [2018], Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(***)
• Guy Lafitte: Quartet & Sextet Sessions 1956-1962 (1956-62 [2018], Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(**)
• Dave McKenna: In Madison (1991 [2018], Arbors): [r]: B+(**)
• John Prine: Live in Asheville '86 (1986 [2016], Oh Boy): [bc]: B+(**)
• Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Sun Ra With Pharoah Sanders & Black Harold: Judson Hall, New York, Dec. 31, 1964 (1964 [2018], Enterplanetary Koncepts): [bc]: B+(**)
• Sun Ra: Astro Black (1972 [2018], Modern Harmonic): [r]: B+(*)
• Sun Ra: The Cymbals/Symbols Sessions: New York City 1973 (1973 [2018], Modern Harmonic, 2CD): [bc]: B+(***)
• Sun Ra & His Arkestra: Discipline 99 (Out Beyond the Kingdom Of) (1974 [2018], Enterplanetary Koncepts): [bc]: B+(**)
• Sun Ra: Of Abstract Dreams (1974-75 [2018], Strut): [r]: A-
• Sun Ra and His Arkestra: Taking a Chance on Chances (1977 [2018], Enterplanetary Koncepts): [r]: B+(***)
• Sun Ra: God Is More Than Love Can Ever Be (1979 [2018], Cosmic Myth): [r]: A-
• Sun Ra: Sun Ra Plays Gershwin (1951-89 [2018], Enterplanetary Koncepts): [r]: B
• Jesse Sharps Quintet & P.A.P.A.: Sharps and Flats (2004 [2018], Nimbus West/Outernational Sounds): [r]: B+(***)

Old music rated this week:

• Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra: We Travel the Space Ways (1960 [2012], Enterplanetary Koncepts): [r]: B+(*)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Joshua Redman/Ron Miles/Scott Colley/Brian Blade: Still Dreaming (2017 [2018], Nonesuch): [r]: [was B+(**)] B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Moppa Elliott: Jazz Band/Rock Band/Dance Band (Hot Cup, 2CD): February 14
• Iro Haarla, Ulf Krokfors & Barry Altschul: Around Again (TUM)
• Alexander Hawkins: Iron Into Wind: Piano Solo (Intakt)
• Heroes Are Gang Leaders: The Amiri Baraka Sessions (Flat Langston's Arkeyes)
• Human Feel [Chris Speed/Andrew D'Angelo/Kurt Rosenwinkel/Jim Black]: Gold (Intakt)
• Greg Murphy Trio: Bright Idea (Whaling City Sound)
• Tom Rainey Trio With Mary Halvorson and Ingrid Laubrock: Combobulated (Intakt)
• Dave Rudolph Quintet: Resonance (self-released)
• Wadada Leo Smith: Rosa Parks: Pure Love: An Oratorio of Seven Songs (TUM): February 15
• Ernie Watts Quartet: Home Light (Flying Dolphin)

Weekend Roundup

For many years now, I've identified two major political problems in America. The most obvious one is the nation's habit and obsession with projection of military power as its leverage in dealing with other nations. As US economic power has waned, and as America shed its liberal ideals, it's become easier for others to challenge its supremacy. In turn, American power has hardened around its military and covert networks, placing the nation on a permanent war footing. This near-constant state of war, since 1945 but even more blatantly since 2001, has led to numerous social maladies, like domestic gun violence and the xenophobia leading to the current "border crisis."

The other big problem is increasing inequality. The statistics, which started in the 1970s but really took off in the "greed is good" 1980s, are clear and boring, but the consequences are numerous, both subtle and pernicious. It would take a long book to map out most of the ways the selfish pursuit and accumulation of riches has warped business, politics, and society. One small example is that when GW Bush arbitrarily commanded the world to follow his War on Terror lead ("you're either with us or against us"), he was assuming that as US President he was entitled to the same arbitrary powers (and lack of accountability) corporate CEOs enjoyed.

I used to wonder how Reagan was able to affect such a huge change in America despite relatively sparse legislative accomplishments -- mostly his big tax cut. The answer is that as president he could send signals to corporate and financial leaders that government would not interfere with their more aggressive pursuit of power and profit. Reagan's signals have been reiterated by every Republican president since, with ever less concern for scruples or ethics or even the slightest concern for consequences. All Trump has done has been to carry this logic to its absurdist extreme: his greed is shameless, even when it crosses into criminality.

Still, what the government lockout, now entering its fourth week, shows, is that we may need to formulate a third mega-ailment: we seem to have lost our commitment to basic competency. We should have seen this coming when politicians (mostly Republicans) decided that politics trumps all other considerations, so they could dispute (or ignore) any science or expertise or so-called facts they found inconvenient. (Is it ironical that the same people who decry "political correctness" when it impinges on their use of offensive rhetoric are so committed to imposing their political regimen on all discussions of what we once thought of as reality?)

A couple things about competency. One is that it's rarely noticed, except in the breech. You expect competency, even when you're engaging with someone whose qualifications you can properly judge -- a doctor, say, or a computer technician, or a mechanic. You also expect a degree of professional ethical standards. Trust depends on those things, and no matter how many time you're reminded caveat emptor, virtually everything you do in everyday life is built on trust. We can all point to examples of people who violated your trust, but until recently such people were in the minority. Now we have Donald Trump. And sure, lots of us distrusted him from the start of his campaign. He was, after all, vainglorious, corrupt, a habitual liar, totally lacking in empathy, his head full of mean-spirited rubbish.

On the other hand, even I am shocked at how incapable Trump has been at understanding the most basic rudiments of his job. There's nothing particularly wrong with him having policy views, or even an agenda, but the most basic requirement of his job is that he keep the government working, according to the constitution and the laws as established per that constitution -- you know, the one he had to swear to protect and follow when he took his oath of office. There have been shutdowns in the past -- basically ever since Newt Gingrich decided the threat would be a clever way to extort some policy concessions from Bill Clinton -- but this is the first one that was imposed by a president.

His reason? Well, obviously he's made a political calculation, where he thinks he can either bully the Democrats into giving him something they really hate ($5.7 billion so he can brag about how he's delivering that "big, beautiful wall" he campaigned on) and thereby restore his "art of the deal" mojo from the tarnish of losing the 2018 "midterms" so badly, or rouse the American people (his base, anyway) into blaming the Democrats for all the damage the shutdown causes. Either way, he feels that his second-term election in 2020 depends on this defense of political principle. Besides, he hates the federal government anyway -- possibly excepting the military and a few other groups currently exempt from the shutdown -- mostly because he's bought into the credo that "politics is everything, and everything is politics" (which makes most of the Democrat-leaning government enemy territory).

On the other hand, all he's really shown is that he's unfit to hold office, because he's forgotten that his main job is to keep the United States government working: implementing and enforcing the laws of the land, per the constitution. One might argue that using his office for such a political ploy is as significant a violation of his trust as anything else he's done. Indeed, one might argue that it is something he should be impeached for (although that would require a political consensus that has yet to form -- not that he isn't losing popularity during this charade).

Some scattered links this week:

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • Trump's Hannity interview reveals a president out of touch with reality:

    But this is the crux of the matter. He doesn't consider this issue very important. It's not important enough for him to offer Democrats anything of substance in a legislative swap, and it's not important enough for him to have bothered to learn anything about the issue or even develop a specific proposal. He is imposing huge costs on a huge number of people, but he personally is suffering nothing more than the indignity of hanging out in the White House.

    And he's so unselfconscious that he actually threw himself a pity party in the midst of all the problems he's causing. There's no apology here for the inconvenience, followed by an explanation of why he's doing it. Because he's not sorry. He wants us to feel sorry for him. And that, in some ways, is the most disturbing thing of all.

    Yglesias focuses on the workers who aren't getting paid, but there are much larger potential costs to many more people if you can factor in the work that doesn't get done, and the signals not doing this work. Much of what the government does is meant to keep companies honest and trustworthy. Losing that doesn't seem to bother Trump, and indeed most people may not notice the loss -- until it's too late.

  • FBI agents' union slams Trump, says the shutdown is harming national security.

  • The more Trump talks, the less likely it is he'll get his precious steel slats: "To get things done, the president needs to shut up." That Trump keeps trying to make political hay out of the lockout suggests he's only concerned with the political optics. (On the other hand, if it isn't talked about on Fox & Friends, is it even real to him?).

  • Joe Biden is the Hillary Clinton of 2020: "Americans want outsiders, reformers, and fresh faces, not politicians with decades of baggage." In particular, "Why nominate another Iraq hawk?" With Clinton on the shelf, it's hard to think of any Democrat with more easily attacked baggage than Biden. (John Kerry has similar problems -- some exactly the same. And sure, Andrew Cuomo and Rahm Emmanuel were on track to catch up, but they're already pretty thoroughly discredited.) Biden is a guy that some in the media enjoy touting and that most Democrats would settle for, but no one really likes him. (You do know that Leslie Knope's "hots" for him was a joke, don't you?)

    It's not just that Biden, despite his currently strong polling, would make for a weak candidate if he runs. The entire spectacle of once again re-fighting every intraparty battle from the past two generations of Democratic Party politics would be bad for almost everyone at a time when Democrats should be talking about their ideas for the future rather than raking over the past.

  • The real crisis is that Trump has no idea what he's doing.

  • The shutdown is intractable because Trump's wall is ridiculous and Republicans know it: "Conservatives won't trade the wall for anything good because they know it's a bad idea.".

  • Taxing the rich is very popular; it's Republicans who have the radical position: "But TV news anchors are rich."

  • Networks giving Trump free airtime on Tuesday refused to air Obama's 2014 immigration speech.

  • The "skills gap" was a lie: "New research shows it was the consequence of high unemployment rather than its cause." Nothing on who knew better at the time, although I suspect that when I start looking around, Dean Baker and Paul Krugman will have something to say on that.

• Peter Baker: Trump confronts the prospect of a 'nonstop political war' for survival.

• Russell Berman: The impact of the government shutdown is about to snowball.

• John Cassidy:

  • Trump's great diversion can't last much longer.

  • John Cassidy: Trump's speech was a big non-event.

• Coral Davenport: Shutdown means EPA pollution inspectors aren't on the job.

• Tom Engelhardt: Living on a quagmire planet: "Honestly, this could get a lot uglier."

• Trip Gabriel: Before Trump, Steve King set the agenda for the wall and anti-immigration politics.

• Masha Gessen: Searching for a substantive response to Trump's hateful speech: "Shutting down the government over the border wall is to policy what writing a pouty letter to Kim Jong Un is to diplomacy, and the leader of the Senate opposition should have no part in elevating it." Then Gessen finds the response she's looking for, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

  The one thing that the President has not talked about is the fact that he has systematically engaged in the violation of international human rights on our border. He has separated children from their families. He talked about what happened the day after Christmas -- on the day of Christmas, a child died in [Customs and Border Protection] custody. The President should not be asking for more money to an agency that has systematically violated human rights; the President should be really defending why we are funding such an agency at all. Because right now what we are seeing is death, right now what we are seeing is the violation of human rights, these children and these families are being held in what are called hieleras, which are basically freezing boxes that no person should be maintained in for any amount of time. . . . He is trying to restrict every form of legal immigration there is in the United States. He is fighting against family reunification, he's fighting against the diversity visa lottery. . . . This is systematic, it is wrong, and it is anti-American.

• Jeffrey Goldberg: Unthinkable: 50 moments that define an improbable presidency: I'll just list them, and you can go to the page for links and details:

  50. Donald Trump touches the magic orb
  49. A cabinet officer likes private planes too much
  48. The president praises the congressman who body-slammed a reporter
  47. An overcompensating press secretary lies about crowd size
  46. Trump tells the Boy Scouts about a hot New York party
  45. A name-calling feud ends with the secretary of state's ouster by tweet
  44. The WikiLeaks president goes silent
  43. The nation loses its consoler in chief
  42. The first president to complain about an election he won
  41. Trump waits 19 months to pick his science adviser
  40. The president's most trusted adviser is his own gut
  39. A White House economist creates facts for the president
  38. Trump holds a top secret confab on the Mar-a-Lago dining terrace
  37. The president just wants to go home
  36. Trump threatens to strip security clearances from his critics
  35. Mueller's "witch hunt" is good at finding witches
  34. Trump leads the country to the longest government shutdown in American history
  33. The chief justice of the United States corrects the president
  32. Trump disseminates Soviet propaganda
  31. The White House punishes a CNN reporter for asking questions
  30. The buck stops over there
  29. The president tries to kick transgender service members out of the military
  28. Trump tweets the wisdom of Mussolini
  27. Turkish agents assault protesters near the White House
  26. Trump helps the Saudis cover up a murder
  25. "We're gonna have the cleanest air"
  24. The president can't stop talking about carnage
  23. America gets a first daughter
  22. The UN General Assembly laughs at the president
  21. Rain stops Trump from honoring the dead
  20. The president learns about separation of powers
  19. The president learns about the Justice Department
  18. The president lies constantly
  17. Trump threatens to press his "nuclear button"
  16. Public humiliation comes for everyone in the White House
  15. The CIA dead become a TV prop
  14. You know you're in a constitutional crisis when . . .
  13. Trump mocks Christine Blasey Ford to a cheering crowd
  12. A new term enters the presidential lexicon: "shithole countries"
  11. Trump throws paper towels at Puerto Ricans
  10. "I have the absolute right to pardon myself"
  9. Covfefe
  8. The president calls his porn-star ex-paramour "horseface"
  7. Trump picks the wrong countries for his travel ban
  6. Trump declares war on black athletes
  5. James Comey is fired
  4. Putin and Trump talk without chaperones
  3. The president still hasn't released his tax returns
  2. "Very fine people on both sides"
  1. Children are taken from their parents and incarcerated

  Saddest thing about this list? I didn't have to look any of them up. Second saddest thing? The umbrella didn't even make the cut.

• Rebecca Gordon: Confronting "Alternative Facts": "A Twenty-First-Century Incredibility Chasm: Life in the United States of Trump."

• Greg Grandin: Bricks in the Wall: A history of US efforts to fortify the border with Mexico, starting in 1945 with a 10-foot high chain link fence that stretched 5 miles near Calexico, CA, built with materials that had been used in Japanese-American internment camps. Grandin has a new book on the subject: The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America.

• Glenn Greenwald: As Democratic elites reunite with neocons, the party's voters are becoming far more militaristic and pro-war than Republicans: I can't help but think Greenwald has cherry-picked a few facts here and turned them into a gross slander of the Democratic Party base.

• Jack Healy/Tyler Pager: Farm country stood by Trump. But the shutdown is pushing it to the breaking point.

• Sean Illing:

  • Why so many people who need the government hate it: "Everyone benefits from welfare. Here's why most people don't know that." Interview with Suzanne Mettler, author of The Government-Citizen Disconnect. Pull quotes:

    "If individual citizens withdraw from public life, the only people in society who have power are those with lots of economic power."

    "We have to find a way to recapture that sense of the government as an instrument of good in our lives, and we have to stop thinking of it as the enemy."

    "If we become more and more anti-government, we're against ourselves. We're against our own collective capacity to do anything."

  • Trump's ties to the Russian mafia go back 3 decades: Interview with Craig Unger, author of House of Trump, House of Putin.

• Paul Krugman:

  • Trump's big libertarian experiment: "Does contaminated food smell like freedom?

    "Government," declared Ronald Reagan in his first Inaugural Address, "is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." Republicans have echoed his rhetoric ever since. Somehow, though, they've never followed through on the radical downsizing of government their ideology calls for.

    But now Donald Trump is, in effect, implementing at least part of the drastic reduction in government's role his party has long claimed to favor. If the shutdown drags on for months -- which seems quite possible -- we'll get a chance to see what America looks like without a number of public programs the right has long insisted we don't need. Never mind the wall; think of what's going on as a big, beautiful libertarian experiment.

    Seriously, it's striking how many of the payments the federal government is or soon will be failing to make are for things libertarians insist we shouldn't have been spending taxpayer dollars on anyway.

  • Melting snowballs and the winter of debt.

  • Elizabeth Warren and her party of ideas: The tide has turned:

    Today's G.O.P. is a party of closed minds, hostile to expertise, aggressively uninterested in evidence, whose idea of a policy argument involves loudly repeating the same old debunked doctrines. Paul Ryan's "innovative" proposals of 2011 (cut taxes and privatize Medicare) were almost indistinguishable from those of Newt Gingrich in 1995.

    Meanwhile, Democrats have experienced an intellectual renaissance. They have emerged from their 1990s cringe; they're no longer afraid to challenge conservative pieties; and there's a lot of serious, well-informed intraparty debate about issues from health care to climate change.

• Eric Lach: The corrupting falsehoods of Trump's Oval Office speech.

• Dara Lind: Trump's advisers push for emergency declaration -- while assuming it'll be stopped in court.

• German Lopez: Democrats need to think way bigger on guns: Doubts about focusing on background checks.

• Dylan Matthews: All 20 previous government shutdowns, explained. In my introduction, I blamed the phenomenon on Newt Gingrich, but most of these were prior to 1985 (mostly when Reagan was president). This doesn't go into further threats made by Gingrich and later Republican threats aimed at Obama, although it does include the 2013 shutdown. Related: Javier Zarrancina/Li Zhou: The astonishing effects of the shutdown, in 8 charts.

• John McWhorter: Trump's typos reveal his lack of fitness for the presidency.

• Greg Miller: Trump has concealed details of his face-to-face encounters with Putin from senior officials in administration.

• Kendra Pierre-Louis: Ocean warming is accelerating faster than thought, new research finds:

  As the planet has warmed, the oceans have provided a critical buffer. They have slowed the effects of climate change by absorbing 93 percent of the heat trapped by the greenhouse gases humans pump into the atmosphere.

  "If the ocean wasn't absorbing as much heat, the surface of the land would heat up much faster than it is right now," said Malin L. Pinsky, an associate professor in the department of ecology, evolution and natural resources at Rutgers University. "In fact, the ocean is saving us from massive warming right now."

  But the surging water temperatures are already killing off marine ecosystems, raising sea levels and making hurricanes more destructive.

• Brad Plumer: US carbon emissions surged in 2018 even as coal plants closed.

• Andrew Prokop:

  • How the big new New York Times scoop changes our understanding of the Trump-Russia probe: "In May 2017, the FBI opened an investigation into whether President Trump was working on Russia's behalf."

  • The past 24 hours in Trump-Russia news, explained.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Mo Brooks's CNN interview shows how detached from reality Trump's GOP has become.

  • Trump's latest press gaggle was remarkably nasty, even by his standards.

  • Trump undercuts his own messaging by trying to fundraise off the border "crisis".

• Amanda Sakuma:

  • New polls show Americans blame Trump and the GOP for the shutdown.

  • Why thousands of Los Angeles teachers are going on strike.

  • Trump wants credit for staying at the White House over weekends while the shutdown drags on.

  • This is now the longest government shutdown in US history.

• Eric Schmidt/Mark Landler: Pentagon officials fear Bolton's actions increase risk of clash with Iran.

• Adam Serwer:

  • Trump the toddler: "The president is pursuing a child's strategy for getting what he wants."

  • What's the difference between Steve King and Donald Trump? "The congressman from Iowa has drawn rebukes from Republicans for his statements about white supremacy and white nationalism, but he shares many of his views with the president."

• Aditi Shrikant: National parks are getting trashed amid the government shutdown. This strikes me as one of the most telling stories of the lockout. I've spent a lot of time working late in offices, and as such I've noticed people coming in to clean them up every night. It turns out that it takes a lot of work to keep any place inhabited by humans from turning into a dump, but most office workers, clocking in and out on expected schedules, never see that.

• Emily Stewart:

  • How Trump could use a national emergency to get his border wall, explained: "He has broad leeway to declare an emergency, frankly, whether one exists or not."

  • Republicans worry Trump's national emergency could set a new precedent for Democrats: "Tomorrow, the national security emergency might be, you know, climate change."

• Dominic Tierney: The US isn't really leaving Syria and Afghanistan: Author sees mostly technical problems, largely because the US military is much better at building bases than dismantling them -- especially when it wants to do one and not the other. There's also the problem of not having a coherent plan let alone viable allies. And up and down the command chain there are people who can't be trusted not to fake a crisis or provocation if it serves their agenda. Whenever you give someone like John Bolton the opportunity to explain what Trump means, it's likely to spin around 180 degrees.

• Alex Ward: The government shutdown is hurting America's diplomats -- and diplomacy.

• Benjamin Wittes:

  • The chain reaction that began when Trump fired James Comey is speeding up.

  • What if the obstruction was the collusion? On the New York Times's latest bombshell.

• Robin Wright: Pompeo and his Bible define US policy in the Middle East:

  Pompeo's speech had three dimensions: it was anti-Obama, anti-Iran, and in favor of so-called traditional allies, as Robert Malley, the president of the International Crisis Group and a senior National Security Council staffer in the Obama Administration, told me. "The first reflects a politicization of foreign policy for which it is hard to conjure up a precedent. The second an ideological obsession that does not comport with reality. And the third an implicit celebration of an autocratic status quo that masquerades as a tribute to stability. Pompeo's self-proclaimed message was that America is a force for good. Whether that ever was the case, his speech was proof that, today at least, it plainly is not."

  For more on Pompeo's speech/mission:

  • Martin Chulov: US will expel every last Iranian boot from Syria, says Mike Pompeo.

  • Jen Kirby: Pompeo's Cairo speech revealed the total incoherence of Trump's Middle East policy.

Music Week

Music: current count 30913 [30874] rated (+39), 260 [251] unrated (+9).

The 13th Annual Jazz Critics Poll results were published by NPR early Saturday morning, with two pieces by Francis Davis:

• The 2018 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll: Top 50 new albums (blurbs by various authors on top ten), five additional blurbs on "Solitary No. 1s" (records that only received one vote, a 1st place, including one I wrote on The Music of Anders Garstedt), and one blurb and top ten (or less) standings for the other categories: Reissues/Historical, Debuts, Latin, Vocals.
• Wayne Shorter Travels the Spaceways, with Davis's own year summary plus his own annotated ballot.

As has been the case since 2009, I tabulated all of the ballots and formatted them and complete totals here. Since I posted all that, I've had to update the files a few times. Most troubling were cases where I counted votes for the wrong record by an artist (one of the Esperanza Spalding votes should have been for her 2017 album; two of the Mingus votes should have gone to Live in Montreux 1975. Other problems were routine typos, but all (so far) have been easy to fix.

Bigger problem is that I never got copied on Richard Scheinin's ballot, so it didn't get counted. Still unresolved what to do about that, but I took the trouble to dig his top-25 list out of his Twitter feed and added it into my EOY Aggregate. I've also added the entire new and historical album lists, but thus far I haven't dipped into the individual ballots. I've started to pick up individual ballots from All About Jazz writers (only a few of whom voted in JCP), and before long I'll take a look at the JJA member lists (which I wasn't able to find until today). I'm also doing some mop-up on rock/pop lists, but I'm starting to skip lists of little/no interest (chiefly metal). Don't know how long I'll keep this up, as the EOY list season is basically done, and the 223 lists I currently have logged give a pretty fair picture, at least in rock/pop, hip-hop, and (somewhat less) electronica.

While most of the records below are 2018 releases I've noted on lists and am belatedly checking out, two of the new A- albums are 2019 releases (and another by Quinsin Nachoff will show up in next week's report). I'm also treating Eric Dolphy's Musical Prophet as a 2019 release: physical CDs don't hit the market until Jan. 26, although a digital release came out Nov. 23, and enough critics heard and voted for it to finish 3rd in JCP -- alas, not me, not that it would have cracked my ballot (even if I didn't follow my recent rule of only voting for historical records I have physical copies of).

So the only new A- this week from the 2018 lists turns out to be Spiritualized, which at 49 was the highest-rated album I hadn't heard yet. I once loved their 1997 album, Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, but last time I checkec them out the record got a B-. Wound up playing the new one three times. Next few EOY Aggregate records I haven't heard don't seem more promising: Julia Holter, Iceage, Kurt Vile, Deafheaven, Anna Calvi, Cat Power, Drake, Troye Sivan, Ghost, Lump, MGMT, Daughters, Florence + the Machine, Jorja Smith, Elvis Costello, First Aid Kit. I'll probably play a few of those before end of January.

Among the top 50 JCP albums, I've managed to hear 47. The exceptions are numbers 50 (Elio Villafranca), 48 (Noah Preminger/Frank Carlberg), and 1 (Wayne Shorter). None of those are available on Napster or Bandcamp, nor do I recall any download offers. Shorter's Emanon is a 3-CD live set with a hard-cover graphic novel costing $53.82 on CD and $156.38 on vinyl. Not sure how well this was serviced -- I don't even get email from Blue Note these days, which hasn't been a problem given that everything else they release is available on Napster, and since they decided to bet on hip-hop fusion they haven't released much that's worth hearing. (This year: two ***, from Rosanne Cash and Charles Lloyd/Lucinda Williams; two **, from Kenny Barron and Dave McMurray; five *: Ambrose Akinmusire, Terence Blanchard, Nels Cline, GoGo Penguin, José James; five B or worse.)

On the other hand, I've only heard 5 of the top-ten historical, with Dolphy's Musical Prophet the only physical (too late). Francis Davis remarked to me that the new albums list seemed to be governed by "more is better": 3-CD Shorter (and Sorey); 2-CDs from Akinmusire, Coleman, Halvorson, Salvant, Washington, plus separates that could have been joined by Threadgill and Thumbscrew (we counted the former separately, but merged the latter), plus 6-CD monsters from Okazaki and Kimbrough -- all in the top-20. But the real home of gigantism is the historical list, where the top 8 were all 2-CD or more, topped by the 21-CD The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles and the 11-CD Sextet Parker 1993. (I had naively assumed that the latter was just a repackaging of Braxton's brilliant Charlie Parker Project 1993, so didn't bother investigating further, but the full digital is available on Bandcamp. I should take a close look at the site and see what else is accessible.

I've been tempted to revisit several albums after seeing how they placed in various lists. The only one with a regrade so far is Tierra Whack's 15-minute EP Whack World. When Christgau placed it in his top-10, I thought it might overcome my prejudice against EPs. Even without the video, it feels remarkably full. I also gave Mitski's Be the Cowboy (last week's Christgau A-, number 2 in my EOY Aggregate) another chance, but didn't for a moment feel like moving my grade above B. I'm usually a sucker for a well-crafted pop album, but there are several this year that do precious little for me (Robyn, Ariana Grande; I like Sophie a bit more, but a recent retry didn't help it). Right now re-listening to Joshua Redman's Still Dreaming (number 2 for Francis Davis), which will probably get a small bump.

Just finished reading Suzy Hansen's Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World, which winds up with a thoroughly damning critique of US foreign policy, not least because it pains her so much to admit to it all. But the cinch for her seems to have been returning to the US (Brooklyn, Mississippi) and seeing first-hand how the imperialist bile rots the nation from the inside. At a more detail level, she illustrates without coming to any real conclusions the ambivalences she feels about Kemal and Erdogan and their respective cults with their peculiar ways of both dovetailing with and rebelling against American hegemony.

New records rated this week:

• 6lack: East Atlanta Love Letter (2018, LoveRenaissance/Interscope): [r]: B+(***)
• Christopher Ali Solidarity Quartet: To Those Who Walked Before Us (2018, Jazz Och Solidaritet): [r]: B+(**)
• Atmosphere: Mi Vida Local (2018, Rhymesayers Entertainment): [r]: B+(**)
• Baco Exu Do Blues: Bluesman (2018, self-released): [r]: B+(**)
• Blue Standard: A Good Thing (2018 [2019], Big Time): [cd]: B
• Benjamin Boone/Philip Levine: The Poetry of Jazz: Volume Two (2012-18 [2019], Origin): [cd]: A-
• Sheldon Brown Group: Blood of the Air (2018, Edgetone): [cd]: B+(*)
• The Coathangers: Live (2018, Suicide Squeeze): [r]: B+(**)
• CupcakKe: Eden (2018, self-released): [r]: B+(***)
• Kris Davis/Matt Mitchell/Aruán Ortiz/Matthew Shipp: New American Songbooks: Volume 2 (2018, Sound American): [bc]: B+(**)
• Dos Santos: Logos (2018, International Anthem): [r]: B+(*)
• Dave Douglas Quintet: Brazen Heart: Live at Jazz Standard: Saturday (2015 [2018], Greenleaf Music, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
• Fire!: The Hands (2018, Rune Grammofon): [r]: B+(**)
• Tim Hecker: Konoyo (2018, Kranky): [r]: B
• Carlos Henriquez: Dizzy Con Clave: Live From Dizzy's Club Coca Cola (2018, RodBros Music): [r]: B+(***)
• Here's to Us: Animals, Wild and Tame (2018, Hoob Jazz): [r]: B+(**)
• Rolf Kühn: Yellow + Blue (2018, Edel/MPS): [r]: B+(**)
• Jon Lundbom Big Five Chord: Harder on the Outside (2018 [2019], Hot Cup): [cd]: B+(***)
• Mad Crush: Mad Crush (2018, Upon This Rock, EP): [r]: B+(**)
• Adrianne Lenker: Abysskiss (2018, Saddle Creek): [r]: B+(*)
• Jack Mouse Group: Intimate Adversary (2017 [2019], Tall Grass): [cd]: B+(*)
• Grant Peeples & the Peeples Republik: Settling Scores Vol. II (2018, Gatorbone): [r]: B+(**)
• Rae Sremmurd: SR3MM (2018, Ear Drummer/Interscope, 3CD): [r]: B
• Rejoicer: Energy Dreams (2018, ,Stones Throw): [bc]: B+(**)
• Jay Rock: Redemption (2018, Top Dawg/Interscope): [r]: B+(*)
• Jeff Rosenstock: Post- (2018, Polyvinyl): [r]: B+(*)
• Greg Saunier/Mary Halvorson/Ron Miles: New American Songbooks Volume 1 (2017, Sound American): [bc]: B+(**)
• Boz Scaggs: Out of the Blues (2018, Concord): [r]: B+(*)
• Serengeti: Dennis 6e (2018, People): [r]: B+(**)
• Spiritualized: And Nothing Hurt (2018, Fat Possum): [r]: A-
• Stephan Thelen: Fractal Guitar (2015-18 [2019], Moonjune): [cd]: A-
• Martin Wind: Light Blue (2017 [2018], Laika): [r]: B-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

• Eric Dolphy: Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions (1963 [2019], Resonance, 3CD)
• Svein Finnerud Trio: Plastic Sun (1970 [2018], Odin): [r]: B+(*)

Old music rated this week:

• Chicago Farmer: Midwest Side Stories (2016, self-released): [r]: B+(**)
• Eric Dolphy: In Europe Vol. 1 (1961 [1990], Prestige/OJC): [r]: B+(**)
• Eric Dolphy: In Europe, Vol. 2 (1961 [2006], Prestige/OJC): [r]: B+(**)
• Eric Dolphy: In Europe/Volume 3 (1961 [1990], Prestige/OJC): [r]; B+(***)
• Eric Dolphy: Conversations (1963, FM/Vee Jay): [r]: B+(***)
• Eric Dolphy: Iron Man (1963 [1990], West Wind): [r]: B+(***)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Tierra Whack: Whack World (2018, self-released, EP): [r]: [was: B+(***)] A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Ran Blake/Clare Ritter: Eclipse Orange (Zoning): February 15
• Itamar Borochov: Blue Nights (Laborie Jazz): February 1
• Samantha Boshnack's Seismic Belt: Live in Santa Monica (Orenda): March 15
• Sheldon Brown Group: Blood of the Air (Edgetone)
• Chuck Deardorf: Perception (Origin): January 18
• Joe Fiedler: Open Sesame (Multiphonics Music): February 25.
• Miho Hazama: Dancer in Nowhere (Sunnyside): February 8
• Christoph Irniger Pilgrim: Crosswinds (Intakt): January 18
• Michael Kocour: East of the Sun (OA2): January 18
• Dave Meder: Passage (Outside In Music): February 8
• Quinsin Nachoff's Flux: Path of Totality (Whirlwind): February 8
• May Okita: Art of Life (Origin): January 18
• Jamie Saft/Steve Swallow/Bobby Previte: You Don't Know the Life (RareNoise): cdr, January 25
• Wing Walker Orchestra: Hazel (Ears & Eyes): February 15

Names I had to add death dates for (*names I was aware of): Misha Alperin, Charles Aznavour, Robert Barry, Eddie Campbell, Eddie Clearwater, Vic Damone, Nathan Davis, Sonny Fortune, *Aretha Franklin, *Roy Hargrove, Fred Hess, Algia Mae Hinton, Morgana King, Denise LaSalle, Lazy Lester, Didier Lockwood, Kasse Mady [Diabaté], Geoffrey Oryema, Perry Robinson, Philip Tabane, Marlene VerPlanck, Bill Watrous, Tad Weed, Tony Joe White, Wesla Whitfield, *Nancy Wilson.

Weekend Roundup

Another pretty awful week, followed by a few hours grabbing a few links in case I ever want to look back and see what was happening, other than my own misery.

One point I've been wanting to make is that over quite some number of presidential administrations, I've noticed a pattern. At first, presidents are overwhelmed and wary of screwing up, so they tend to defer to their staff, in many ways becoming prisoners of whoever they happened to install -- usually the choice of their staff plus the party's unelected Washington insiders. However, presidential staff are usually careful to flatter their boss, faking fealty, and over time all that deference (even if insincere) bolsters the ego of whoever's president. Meanwhile the president gets comfortable, even a bit cocky about his accomplishments, so starts to impose his opinions and instincts. There are often further stages, and two-term presidents tend to go to seed six years in (Eisenhower and Reagan are obvious examples; Nixon didn't get that far; Clinton, Bush II, and Obama were sidelines with enemy-controlled Congresses). But we've clearly made the transition from Trump being the front man to actually being in charge, running an administration and party that is increasingly deferential to his every whim. And while most of us thought Trump was pretty nuts to start with, he used to stay comfortably within the Republican Party playbook. But increasingly, his chaos and madness are becoming uniquely his own. Sure, he still has to walk back an occasional notion, like his decision to withdraw ground troops from Syria. He may even find he has to give up on his budget extortion ploy (aka, the shutdown).

Lots of bad things are likely to come from this, but one can hope that two recent trends will only take firmer and broader root. The first is the understanding that what's wrong with Trump and what's wrong with the Republican Party are the same things, all the way down to their shared contempt for democracy and the people. The second, an outgrowth of the first, is that the Democratic Party is changing rapidly from a party that opportunistically tries to pass itself off as a "kinder, gentler version" of conservative/neoliberal orthodoxy to one that is serious about solving the real problems of war and powerlessness and inequality that have hurt the vast majority of American voters so grievously since Reagan.

I didn't write much about these themes below, but there's plenty of evidence to back them up.

Some scattered links this week:

• Trevor Aaronson/Ali Younes: US ramps up bombing of ISIS in Eastern Syria following Trump withdrawal announcement.

• Bruce Ackerman: No, Trump cannot declare an 'Emergency' to build his wall.

• Rachel M Cohen: Could expanding employee ownership be the next big economic policy?

• David Dayen:

  • Nancy Pelosi rams austerity provision into House rules package over objections of progressives.

  • w/Rebecca Burns: Steve Mnuchin is a dunce.

• David Frum: The great illusion of The Apprentice: "Even more than wealth, the reality-TV show promised its viewers accountability."

• Masha Gessen: What does Donald Trump think about when he thinks about "wall"?

• Elizabeth Goitein: What the President could do if he declares a State of Emergency.

• Tara Golshan: Republican Sen. Pat Roberts expected to announce retirement, giving Democrats hope of a blue Kansas. Actually, the Democrats would enjoy better odds running against Roberts, who (much to their surprise) nearly lost in 2014, than against a generic (but much younger and very likely more right-wing) Republican.

• Greg Grandin/Elizabeth Oglesby: Washington traind Guatemala's mass murderers -- the the Border Patrol played a role.

• Ryan Grim/Glenn Greenwald: US Senate's first bill, in midst of shutdown, is a bipartisan defense of the Israeli government from boycotts.

• Mehdi Hasan:

  • Mehdi Hasan: Elizabeth Warren has a track record of taking on the rich and powerful. Don't write her off for 2020.

  • Critics say Bernie Sanders is too old, too white, and too socialist to run for President in 2020. They're wrong. On the other hand, the question for other candidates is whether they are as clearly and credibly free of the corruption and cronyism that, fairly or not, plagued the last two Democratic administrations, as Sanders is?

• Hassan Hassan: Moscow's little-noticed Islamic-outreach effort: "Russia is promoting Islamic moderation in unison with Arab powers -- and further cementing its position in the Middle East."

• Nathan Heller: The philosopher redefining equality: "Elizabeth Anderson thinks we've misunderstood the basis of a free and fair society."

• Jack Hitt: The real story behind the Havana Embassy mystery.

• Daniel Immerwahr: The Lethal Crescent: Where the Cold War was hot. Book review of Paul Thomas Chamberlin: The Cold War's Killing Fields: Rethinking the Long Peace.

• Umair Irfan: A brief guide to David Bernhardt, Ryan Zinke's replacement at the Interior Department.

• Robert D Kaplan: Time to get out of Afghanistan: "The United States is spending beyond its means on a mission that might only be helping its strategic rivals." Kaplan has been a hawk on Afghanistan at least since his 1990 celebration of the CIA-sponsored Soldiers of God: With the Mujahidin in Afghanistan, and even before 9/11 he's frequently hired on as a paid consultant to the US military, while writing propaganda like Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground. So fair to say, if he's throwing in the towel, the "mission" is totally fucked.

• Jen Kirby: What you need to know about Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's new far-right president.

• David Klion: The Blob: Ben Rhodes and the crisis of liberal foreign policy. Book review of Rhodes: The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House.

• Mike Konczal: The Green New Deal is good for the planet -- and the Democratic Party.

• Paul Krugman:

  • The economics of soaking the rich.

  • Who's afraid of the budget deficit?.

  • The Trump tax cut: Even worse than you've heard.

  • Hope for a green new year.

• Akela Lacy: Rep. Ro Khanna on Afghanistan: "Trump's instincts to withdraw are correct, but the tactical implementation matters".

• Lawrence Lessig: Trump's border wall demand is constitutionally illegitimate.

• Dara Lind:

  • Trump is the obstacle to a shutdown deal.

  • How the Border Patrol union became Trump's closest shutdown allies.

  • The border wall fight at the center of the government shutdown, explained.

• Mujib Mashal: CIA's Afghan Forces leave a trail of abuse and anger: "The fighters hold the line in the war's toughest spots, but officials say their brutal tactics are terrorizing the public and undermining the US mission." Rather telling, at this late date, that the author still thinks there is a "US mission" in Afghanistan. Also that Afghan Forces' tactics are any more brutal than what the US has been doing there for the last 18 (or is it 41?) years.

• Ella Nilsen: House Democrats officially unveil their first bill in the majority: a sweeping anti-corruption proposal: "Democrats will take up voting rights, campaign finance reform, and a lobbying crackdown -- all in their first bill of the year."

• Gail Pellett: An alternative reflection for 2018 -- thank you note to writers who nurtured my mind and soul.

• Andrew Prokop:

  • Impeachment of the president, explained.

  • The 10 new Democratic House committee chairs who are about to make Trump's life hell (co-written with 7 others).

• Alissa Quart: Middle-class shame will decide where America is headed: "Who can appeal to the people who feel the cost like they've gotten a raw deal?"

• Robert Reich: In Trump's mind, all deals are private. 'Public interest' means nothing to him: "At least a scoundrel knows when he is doing wrong. But the president is blind to the very idea of public interest."

• David Roberts: The Green New Deal, explained: "An insurgent movement is pushing Democrats to back an ambitious climate change solution."

• Aaron Rupar: Trump's bizarre Rose Garden news conference shows why he's impossible to negotiate with: "Unhinged, incoherent, oblivious, and dangerous.".

• Amanda Sakuma:

  • TSA agents are calling in sick rather than work without pay during the shutdown.

  • Trump's Syria withdrawal now comes with conditions, Bolton says.

• Stephanie Savell: This map shows where in the world the US military is combatting terrorism -- where "terrorism" is basically anything that challenges American political and economic power.

• Tom Scocca: It's good to talk about impeaching the motherfucker.

• Adam Serwer:

  • Trump is making it easier to get away with discrimination.

  • America's two political parties are asymmetrical.

• Emily Stewart: Why Trump taking credit for low gas prices is a bad idea.

• Matt Taibbi: In 2019, let's finally retire 'electability'.

• Margaret Talbot: The House Democrats' best path forward: "To counter Donald Trump, and to prepare for 2020, the Party needs to think big."

• Ben Taub: Iraq's post-ISIS campaign of revenge: "The corruption and cruelty of the state's response to suspected jihadis and their families seem likely to lead to the resurgence of the terror group."

• Steven K Vogel: Elizabeth Warren wants to stop inequality before it starts: "Redistribution is important, but it comes too late." On the other hand, we're not talking about a future threat. It's already too late.

• Jon Wiener: 2019 will be the worst year of Donald Trump's life.

• Ian Wilkie: Now Mattis admits there was no evidence Assad used poison gas on his people.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is floating a 70 percent top tax rate -- research backs her up: "Some studies indicate she's aiming too low."

  • Friday's solid jobs report should heat up tensions between Trump and the Fed.

  • Conservatives' obsession with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's high school, explained.

  • Why Trump's top economic adviser is taking credit for Apple's weak earnings.

  • "Auld Lang Syne," explained.

  • Elizabeth Warren announces 2020 presidential exploratory committee.

• Li Zhou: Trump just warned the shutdown could last for years. That's pretty unlikely.

Daily Log

Noted in my twitter feed yesterday, a quote from Donald J. Trump in 2013: "A shutdown falls on the President's lack of leadership. He can't even control his party and get people together in a room. A shutdown means the president is weak."

Possible 50-word piece for NPR:

Joakim Milder/Fredrik Ljungkvist/Mathias Landraeus/Filip Augustson/Fredrik Rundkvist: The Music of Anders Garstedt (Moserobie)

Swedish trumpeter Garstedt left a scant legacy when he died at age 31, but 18 years later five [former] bandmates revive his music brilliantly. The two saxophonists (Milder and [Fredrik] Ljungkvist bob and weave, while pianist [Mathias] Landraeus anchors a free-ranging rhythm section: tricky postbop as coherent as classic swing.

Added this in the cover letter (much more than 50 words):

You have several obvious options here. Cover only gives the last names, so you can save space by dropping the first names, but then you have to add them to the review. If you leave them in the credit, scratch the bracketed [Fredrik] and [Mathias] in the text. My normal practice in cases like this (and I mostly write super-terse reviews) is to spell them out up front, but you may want to budget your space differently. You can also save space by dropping the bassist (Auguston) and drummer (Rundkvist). They are much less recognized than the first three. You could drop Landraeus, in which case you could get rid of the parenthetical, since "two saxophonists" matches the two remaining names names are saxophonists (Ljunkvist also plays some clarinet, but I already skipped over that.) You could even reduce the credit to Joakim Milder. Ljungkvist is better known in US, but Milder is a couple years older and may have a better connection to Garstedt (really hard to tell).

I dropped [former] when trimming words, but it might help clarify. I originally had "vibrant" instead of "coherent" and don't have much of a preference. Maybe "as classic swing" should be changed to "as any classic"? Thought about adding "wax and wane" after "bob and weave," but didn't think I had the space.

Previously wrote:

Two tenor saxes (latter also credited with soprano and clarinet), plus piano-bass-drums. The composer was Swedish, played trumpet, died in 2000 at age 31, didn't leave any records under his own name, not many side credits either (one each with Fredrik Norén and Christian Falk). The musicians claim ties to him, and bring his music brilliantly to life.

---

Dec 2018