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Monday, April 29, 2024
Music Week
April archive
(finished).
Music: Current count 42200 [42126] rated (+74), 31 [30] unrated (+1).
Two weeks of listening here, although it seems like much longer,
so much so that I can barely remember hearing the earliest entries,
let alone why. I mean, where did all those Walter Davis albums come
from? Probably Clifford Ocheltree, but didn't that start with Billy
Boy Arnold? I think Ride came from a list of Pitchfork reviews --
that's certainly where I noticed Austin Peralta. Little things like
that set me off on various tangents.
One thing that helped is that I finally sorted my demo queue by
release date (as opposed to order received, with variations), so I
could be reasonable sure I could just grab something and not worry
about it not being released for 2-3 months. Still, new records came
in almost as fast as old ones got played, so the unrated count
barely moved. And it should be noted that several top-rated albums
this week only got reviewed because I was sent CDs -- most obviously:
Broder, Core, Four + Six, Schwartz, Shner.
Still, I've largely lost track of new releases that don't find
me. And I'm nearly helpless when it comes to downloads (although
I did manage to dig out a batch of Ivo Perelmans -- no idea whether
I managed to catch up, but another one came in the mail today, so
definitely not). I may have to break my 2024 resolution not to do
tedious projects like the
EOY list (which in some
earlier iterations also tracked review grades or in some cases mere
mentions). I've already let my
tracking list spread out, but I
haven't maintained it regularly enough for it to be very useful.
Last week's Music Week was the victim of an executive decision to
first finish a
Book
Roundup post that I started several weeks earlier, but kept
researching ever deeper on. Even so I didn't manage to notice
a single one of the books Michael Tatum reviewed in his first
Books Read (And Not Read) column. (Note to self: check out
that
New York Times list he cites. The fiction half is beyond my ken,
but I have previously noted seven of the non-fiction fifty, with one
more in the draft file.)
After Book Roundup, I had to finish a
Speaking of Which, also started but held up. It's fair to say
that we're living in what the Chinese would call "interesting times" --
so much so that nearly everywhere I turned I ran into pieces that
seemed like noting (317 by the time I posted Sunday evening) and
commenting on (15302 words). And even while I'm trying to knock
this out by end-of-Monday, every break I take results in me adding
more notes to Speaking of Which. (Look for red stripes on right
border.)
I appear to have recovered from my big tech problem of the last
few weeks: I haven't been able to send email, with all efforts
producing a "AUP#CXSNDR" error, which is some kind of dirty look
the system gives you without ever explaining why. I contacted Cox
to find out why, and, well, I didn't. I did learn a bunch about
their customer service department, exploring endless variations
of five or six basic scripts for not helping you while eventually
steering the conversation around to "it must be your fault" and
"why don't you bug someone else about it?"
First, there's "Oliver," their chatbot, occasionally relieved by
"live people," who seem to be playing a Turing game to see if you
can discern whether their stupidity is artificial or organic. Then
there's their phone service, which starts with a gauntlet of menu
options and numbers you have to peck in, before you arrive at a
"level one" person, who acknowledges your problem, thanks you
profusely for being such a good customer, and ultimately passes
you off to a "level two" person, who presumably will actually
help you.
Mostly what "level two" people do is fill out tickets that get
passed to supposedly more technical people who are firewalled from
customer contact, presumably because their time is so precious, or
because your time is deemed without value or utility. You are then
advised that it takes them 72 hours to get to the ticket, and even
then never on a weekend or after business hours. Eventually, they
write one line in the ticket and close it, and someone (probably
a "level two") calls you once and leaves you a garbled message in
your voice mail. (Never once did we actually catch a callback.)
When you call them back for more information, the number they leave
is the original gauntlet number, and all they can wind up doing is
reading you the one-liner, which they don't understand either, and
open another ticket, where you have to repeat all the information
again.
This took over two weeks, with frustration levels rising,
especially when they got sidetracked on clearly irrelevant
asides. (I could do four more paragraphs on them, but the details
hardly matter. In the end, I recalled one garbled message, and
gave it enough thought to devise a test. It was "your email is
working, but there is a security problem with tomhull.com." The
obvious, and still unaswered, question is what is that security
problem? But the right question was what does my email have to
do with "tomhull.com"?
The answer to that seems to be that I had included a link to
my website in my email signature, which evidently they scanned
and did something wholly improper with. The reason they might do
something like that is because normally all of their customers
look like Cox, but some of them may be bad actors, so Cox would
like to give their customers other identities they can then
discriminate against. So, once Cox decided to treat my email
like it came from tomhull.com, they then consulted their various
email blacklists, saw tomhull.com on one, and rejected it (with
no explanation or evident recourse). As far as I know, there was
no good reason for them to do so, but I'll probably never find
out, because the people who decide these things are insulated
from feedback, much like Cox is.
I tested this hypothesis by removing my signature line, and
hitting send. It hung, I canceled, and hit send again, and then
it worked. Losing the signature line is a small price to pay
compared to dealing with what Scott Adams caricatured as "the
preventers of information services." Now I have a month's backlog
of email to go through and reply to as still seems relevant. If
you were expecting to hear from me but didn't, try again.
Last Monday in April, so the monthly archive (link above) is done,
but not yet indexed. I also still need to index the Book Roundup,
among lots of unfinished business. Stil have house projects, and
much more tidying up. Book writing is on hold, and I'm beginning
to wonder if that will ever change. I've had to do little bits of
programming lately, which remain fun although a bit nerve-racking.
Weather is nice here, for a short while until the heat comes.
New records reviewed this week:
- Nicki Adams/Michael Eaton: The Transcendental (2023 [2024], SteepleChase LookOut): [sp]: B+(**)
- John Basile: Heatin' Up (2024, StringTime Jazz): [cd]: B+(*)
- Owen Broder: Hodges: Front and Center, Vol. Two (2021 [2024], Outside In Music): [cd]: A-
- Paul Brusger: A Soul Contract (2022 [2023], SteepleChase): [sp]: B+(*)
- Caporaso Ensemble: Encounter (2023 [2024], Psychosomatic): [cd]: B+(*) [04-26]
- The Castellows: A Little Goes a Long Way (2024, Warner Music Nashville, EP): [sp]: B+(**)
- The Core: Roots (2022 [2024], Moserobie): [cd]: A-
- Arnaud Dolmen/Leonardo Montana; LéNo (2023 [2024], Quai Son): [cdr]: B+(**)
- Dave Douglas: Gifts (2023 [2024], Greenleaf Music): [cd]: A-
- Four + Six: Four + Six (2024, Jazz Hang): [cd]: A-
- Eric Frazier: That Place Featuring "Return of the Panther Woman" (2024, EFP Productions): [cd]: B+(***)
- Kenny Garrett & Svoy: Who Killed AI? (2024, Mack Avenue): [sp]: B+(**)
- María Grand With Marta Sánchez: Anohin (2024, Biophilia): [sp]: B+(*)
- Frank Gratkowski/Ensemble Modern: Mature Hybrid Talking (2022 [2024], Maria de Alvear World Edition): [sp]: B+(**)
- Noah Haidu: Standards II (2023 [2024], Sunnyside): [cd]: B+(**)
- Alexander Hawkins/Sofia Jernberg: Musho (2023 [2024], Intakt): [sp]: B+(*)
- Ill Considered: Precipice (2024, New Soil): [sp]: B+(***)
- Matt Lavelle/Claire Daly/Chris Forbes: Harmolodic Duke (2023, Unseen Rain): [sp]: B+(**)
- Matt Lavelle: In Swing We Trust (2022, Unseen Rain): [sp]: B+(**)
- Matt Lavelle: The House Keeper (2022 [2023], Unseen Rain): [sp]: B+(**)
- Matt Lavelle & the 12 Houses: The Crop Circles Suite Part One (2022 [2024], Mahakala Music): [bc]: B+(***)
- Andy Laverne: Spot On (2023 [2024], SteepleChase): [sp]: B+(**)
- Shawn Maxwell: J Town Suite (2023 [2024], Cora Street) [05-01]
- Ron McClure: Just Sayin' (2024, SteepleChase): [sp]: B+(***)
- Ava Mendoza/Dave Sewelson: Of It but Not Is It (2021-22 [2024], Mahakala Music): [sp]: B+(***)
- Cornelia Nilsson: Where Do You Go? (2022-23 [2024], Stunt): [sp]: B+(**)
- The Michael O'Neill Sextet: Synergy: With Tony Lindsay (2021 [2024], Jazzmo): [cd]: B+(**)
- Chuck Owen & Resurgence: Magic Light (2019-23 [2024], Origin): [cd]: B+(*)
- Charlie Parr: Little Sun (2024, Smithsonian Folkways): [sp]: B+(*)
- Ivo Perelman Quartet: Water Music (2022 [2024], RogueArt): [cdr]: A-
- Ivo Perelman/Chad Fowler/Reggie Workman/Andrew Cyrille: Embracing the Unknown (2024, Mahakala Music): [sp]: B+(**)
- Ivo Perelman/Barry Guy/Ramon Lopez: Interaction (2017 [2024], Ibeji Music): [dl]: A-
- Ivo Perelman/Mark Helias/Tom Rainey: Truth Seeker (2022 [2024], Fundacja Sluchaj): [dl]: A-
- Ivo Perelman/Tom Rainey: Duologues 1: Turning Point (2024, Ibeji Music): [dl]: B+(***)
- Rich Perry: Progression (2022 [2023], SteepleChase): [sp]: B+(**)
- PNY Quintet: Over the Wall (2022 [2024], RogueArt): [cdr]: B+(**)
- Dave Rempis/Pandelis Karayorgis/Jakob Heinemann/Bill Harris: Truss (2023 [2024], Aerophonic/Drift): [cd]: A- [04-23]
- Ride: Interplay (2024, Wichita): [sp]: B+(*)
- Angelica Sanchez/Chad Taylor: A Moster Is Just an Animal You Haven't Met Yet (2023 [2024], Intakt): [sp]: B+(***)
- Marta Sanchez Trio: Perpetual Void (2023 [2024], Intakt): [cd]: B+(***)
- Radam Schwartz: Saxophone Quartet Music (2023 [2024], Arabesque): [cd]: A- [05-01]
- Shabaka: Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace (2022 [2024], Impulse!): [sp]: B+(**)
- Idit Shner & Mhondoro: Ngatibatanei [Let Us Unite!] (2023 [2024], OA2): [cd]: A-
- Sarah Shook & the Disarmers: Revelations (2024, Abeyance): [sp]: B+(**)
- Skee Mask: ISS010 (2024, Ilian Tape): [bc]: B+(*)
- Geoff Stradling & the StradBand: Nimble Digits (2023 [2024], Origin): [cd]: B+(***)
- Jordan VanHemert: Deep in the Soil (2023 [2024], Origin): [cd]: B+(**) [04-26]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
- Chet Baker & Jack Sheldon: In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album (1972 [2024], Jazz Detective): [cd]: B+(**)
- John Coltrane Quartet + Stan Getz + Oscar Peterson: Live/Dusseldorf March 28th, 1960 (1960 [2024], Lantower): [r]: B+(*)
- Franco & O.K. Jazz: Franco Luambo Makiadi Presents Les Editions Populaires (1968-1970) (1968-70 [2024], Planet Ilunga): [bc]: A-
- Gush: Afro Blue (1998 [2024], Trost): [sp]: B+(***)
- Yusef Lateef: Atlantis Lullaby: The Concert From Avignon (1972 [2024], Elemental Music, 2CD): [cd]: B+(**)
- Merengue Típico, Nueva Generación! (1960s-70s [2024], Bongo Joe): [sp]: A-
- Austin Peralta: Endless Planets [Deluxe Edition] (2011 [2024], Brainfeeder): [sp]: A-
- Rail Band: Buffet Hotel De La Gare, Bamako (1973 [2024], Mississippi): [r]: A-
- Sonic Youth: Walls Have Ears (1985 [2024], Goofin'): [sp]: B+(***)
- Sun Ra: At the Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-1977 (1976-77 [2024], Jazz Detective, 2CD): [cd]: B+(*)
- Art Tatum: Jewels in the Treasure Box: The 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club Recordings (1953 [2024], Resonance, 3CD): [cd]: A-
- Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors: Live in Antwerp (1995 [2024], Elemental Music, 2CD): [cd]: A-
Old music:
- Billy Boy Arnold/Jimmy McCracklin/Charlie Musselwhite/Christian Rannenberg With Keith Dunn/Henry Townsend with Ben Corritore: The Walter Davis Project (2013, Electro-Fi): [sp]: B+(***)
- Walter Davis: Volume 1: 2 August 1933 to 28 July 1935 (1933-35 [1994], Document): [sp]: B+(***)
- Walter Davis: Volume 2: 28 July 1935 to 5 May 1937 (1935-37 [1994], Document): [sp]: B+(**)
- Walter Davis: Volume 3: 5 May 1937 to 17 June 1938 (1937-38 [1994], Document): [sp]: B+(*)
- Walter Davis: Volume 4: 17 June 1938 to 21 July 1939 (1938-39 [1994], Document): [sp]: B+(*)
- Walter Davis: Volume 5: 21 July 1939 to 12 July 1940 (1938-39 [1994], Document): [sp]: B+(**)
- Walter Davis: Volume 6: 12 July 1940 to 12 February 1946 (1940-46 [1994], Document): [sp]: B+(**)
- Walter Davis: Volume 7: 12 February 1946 to 27 July 1952 (1946-52 [1994], Document): [sp]: B+(**)
- Walter Davis Trio: Illumination (1977, Denon Jazz): [sp]: B+(*)
- Walter Davis Jr. Trio: Scorpio Rising (1989, SteepleChase): [sp]: B+(**)
- Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerard: Who's That Knocking? (1965 [2022], Smithsonian/Folkways): [sp]: B+(***)
- Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerard: Won't You Come and Sing for Me (1973 [2022], Smithsonian/Folkways): [sp]: A-
- Radam Schwartz: Two Sides of the Organ Combo (2017 [2018], Arabesque): [sp]: B+(**)
- Sonic Youth: Confusion Is Sex (1983, Neutral): [sp]: B+(**)
- Sonic Youth: Kill Yr Idols (1983, Zensor, EP): [sp]: B+(**)
- Sonic Youth: Bad Moon Rising (1985 [1986], Blast First): [sp]: B
- Sonic Youth: Anagrama/Improvisation Adjoutée/Tremens/Mieux: De Corrosion (1997, SYR, EP): [r]: B+(*)
- Sonic Youth: Slaapkamers Met Slagroom/Stil/Herinneringen (1997, SYR, EP): [r]: B+(*)
- Sonic Youth: Live in Los Angeles 1998 (1998 [2019], Sonic Youth Archive): [bc]: B+(***)
- Sonic Youth: The Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities (1994-2003 [2006], DGC): [r]: B+(*)
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Karrin Allyson: A Kiss for Brazil (Origin) [05-17]
- John Ambrosini: Songs for You (self-released) [06-01]
- Roxana Amed: Becoming Human (Sony Music Latin) [05-02]
- Isrea Butler: Congo Lament (Vegas) [06-01]
- Caporaso Ensemble: Encounter (Psychosomatic) [04-15]
- Carl Clements: A Different Light (Greydisc) [05-23]
- Coco Chatru Quartet: Future (Trygger Music) [lp] [03-28]
- Devouring the Guilt: Not to Want to Say (Kettle Hole) [06-08]
- John Escreet: The Epicenter of Your Dreams (Blue Room Music) [06-07]
- Ethel & Layale Chaker: Vigil (In a Circle) [05-17]
- Layale Chaker & Sarafand: Radio Afloat (In a Circle) [05-17]
- Galactic Tide Featuring Andy Timmons: The Haas Company Vol. 1 (Psychiatric) [06-01]
- Phillip Golub: Abiding Memory (Endectomorph Music) [06-21]
- Jake Hertzog: Longing to Meet You (self-released) [06-01]
- The Bruce Lofgren Group: Earthly and Cosmic Tales (Night Bird) [06-01]
- Bruno Rĺberg Tentet: Evolver (Orbis Music) [06-01]
- Jason Robinson: Ancestral Numbers (Playscape) [05-14]
- Marta Sanchez Trio: Perpetual Void (Intakt) [04-19]
- Radam Schwartz: Saxophone Quartet Music (Arabesque) [05-01]
- Luke Stewart Silt Trio: Unknown Rivers (Pi) [05-03]
- Natsuki Tamura/Jim Black: NatJim (Libra) [05-17]
- Amber Weekes: A Lady With a Song: Amber Weekes Celebrates Nancy Wilson (Amber Inn) [06-01]
- Randy Weinstein: Harmonimonk (Random Chance) [05-15]
- Christopher Zuar Orchestra: Exuberance (self-released) [05-11]
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Speaking of Which
Blog link.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Book Roundup
Post date tentative was April 16 (expected to be delayed, which
it certainly was).
Blog link.
Next draft.
Friday, April 19, 2024
Daily Log
I've been unable to send email via Cox for more than a week. All
email send operations produce the following error message:
Sending of the message failed.
An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded:
message rejected. Refer to Error Codes section at
https://www.cox.com/residential/support/email-error-codes.html
for more information. AUP#CXSNDR. Please check the message and try
again.
I need some way to embed hidden info. Does this work?
Monday, April 15, 2024
Music Week
Expanded blog post,
April archive
(in progress).
Tweet: Music Week: 22 albums, 3 A-list
Music: Current count 42126 [42104] rated (+22), 30 [37] unrated (-7).
We have some friends my late sister virtually adopted -- we consider
them virtual family -- who live on a farm in the Arkansas Ozarks, and
they made a big push to get all of their closest family and friends to
congregate there for the eclipse. We didn't give it much consideration,
but my brother and his son and their families drove there from Washington
and back, stopping here in Wichita both ways. (My brother's daughter and
her family also made the trip, but flew in and out of Tulsa, bypassing
us.) The rapid-fire visits took up a big chunk of my time the last two
weeks. We did more cooking on the first leg, but on return I schemed to
get help on a bunch of housework tasks. Both activities cut my normal
output way back, as is evident here.
They finally left on Saturday afternoon. After that, I cobbled together
a bit of
Speaking of Which, which I posted late last night. I should go back
and do some reviewing and editing and such, but I started feeling ill
that night, and that's carried over today, so even this bit of shovelware
has become a chore. Probably nothing serious, but at my age, one does
fret a lot more than in the past.
But also I've lost a good ten hours since Thursday trying to get Cox
to solve an AUP#XSNDR error in SMTP that totally keeps me from sending
email. As best I can figure this out -- which, by the way, is probably
better than anyone at Cox has yet managed -- is that when I send a piece
of email (using Thunderbird connecting to smtp.cox.net), the SPF or DKIM
list of legit IP sender addresses doesn't include the one Cox my one
(assigned to me via DHCP, or substituted in transit?), and some forwarding
server notices the discrepancy and kicks it back (which takes about 20
seconds, so there may be multiple stops for multiple lists before it
fails).
I only have a couple things to say about the records below. The brief
dive into Ken Colyer came about because someone sent me a typo correction
to a Penguin Jazz Guide
file I put together ages ago. When I was glancing through it I noticed
a Colyer album I hadn't heard, so tried to track it down. I've always
liked trad jazz, and that shared fondness was one of the things that
I loved about Penguin Guide.
The Rail Band album is pictured but not reviewed below. Read about it
next week. It comes from Robert Christgau's
Consumer Guide:
April 2024. I've reviewed most of those albums already, including
an A grade for Heems/Lapgan; A- for Cucumbers, Dan Ex Machina, and Kim
Gordon; similar HMs for Four Tet and Messthetics/James Brandon Lewis;
and lesser grades for Buck 65, Adrianne Lenker, Vampire Weekend, and
Waxahatchee. I've played Buck 65 four more times since the CG came out,
and I always react the same: sounds really great for 10-15 minutes, then
my mind wanders until it returns with a "what the fuck?" ending. Still
a B+(***). The other three are probable EOY list frontrunners that I
can't sustain any serious interest in (despite having noted multiple
A-list albums from each). Still, I'm rather impressed that Bob can
still put on his "rock critic establishment" robes and lobby for
critical consensus like he advocated for fifty years ago.
Hope I'll be able to knock out a
Book Roundup this week. Still, feeling pretty lousy at the
moment, pushing this out with no Speaking of Which updates.
New records reviewed this week:
- Cyrille Aimée: Ŕ Fleur De Peau (2018-23 [2024], Whirlwind): [sp]: B+(**)
- Florian Arbenz: Conversation #10 & #11: ON! (2023 [2024], Hammer): [sp]: B+(**)
- Cďtric Dümmies: Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass (2023, Feel It): [sp]: B+(*)
- Hilary Gardner: On the Trial With the Lonesome Pines (2024, Anzic): [sp]: B+(*)
- Arve Henriksen/Harmen Fraanje: Touch of Time (2023 [2024], ECM): [sp]: B+(*)
- Jazz Ensemble of Memphis: Playing in the Yard (2023 [2024], Memphis International): [cd]: B+(*)
- Benji Kaplan: Untold Stories (2023 [2024], self-released): [cd]: B+(*) [05-01]
- Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones: New Monuments (2024, We Jazz): [sp]: B+(**)
- Joăo Madeira/Margarida Mestre: Voz Debaixo (2022 [2024], 4DaRecord): [cd]: B+(**)
- Old 97's: American Primitive (2024, ATO): [sp]: B+(*)*
- Jonah Parzen-Johnson: You're Never Really Alone (2024, We Jazz): [sp]: B+(**)
- Ernesto Rodrigues/Bruno Parinha/Joăo Madeira: Into the Wood (2023 [2024], Creative Sources): [cd]: A-
- Dave Schumacher & Cubeye: Smoke in the Sky (2023 [2024], Cellar): [cd]: B+(***) [04-19]
- Shakira: Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (2024, Sony Latin): [sp]: B+(***)
- Curtis Taylor: Taylor Made (2024, Curtis Taylor Music): [sp]: B+(**)
- Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us (2024, Columbia): [sp]: B+(**)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
- Sonny Rollins: Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European Tour Recordings (1959 [2024], Resonance, 3CD): [cd]: A- [04-20]
Old music:
- Ken Colyer's Jazzmen: Club Session With Colyer (1956 [2000], Lake): [r]: A-
- Ken Colyer's Jazzmen: Up Jumped the Devil (1957-58 [2001], G.H.B.): [r]: B+(**)
- Ken Colyer and His Jazzband: Colyer's Pleasure (1963, Society): [r]: B+(***)
- Joan Díaz Trio: We Sing Bill Evans (2008, Fresh Sound New Talent): [sp]: B+(**)
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Sam V.H. Reese, ed.: The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins (New York Review Books): paperback book.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Speaking of Which
Blog link.
My company left Saturday afternoon, so I didn't really get started
on this until then. Sunday I started feeling sick, and ran out of
energy. No idea whether Monday will be better or worse, so I figured
I might as well post this while I can. Maybe I'll circle back later.
Big news stories are pretty much the same as they've been of late,
so you pretty much know where I stand on them.
Not a lot of music this week, but if I'm up to it, I'll try to
post what I have sometime Monday. Another pending problem is that
I'm unable to send email, and Cox doesn't seem to have anyone
competent to work on the problem until Monday.
Notable tweets:
Yousef Munayyer
[04-03]:
Joe Biden knows backing Israel's genocide in Gaza could cost him the
election he says American democracy depends on.
Joe Biden doesn't care.
Imagine hating Palestinians so much as a US president that you'd
throw away American democracy for it.
Steve Hoffman
[04-10]:
[meme]: Christians warn us about the anti-Christ for 2,000 years,
and when he finally shows up, they buy a bible from him.
Rick Perlstein
[04-10]:
I mean, protecting criminal presidents from accountability actually
is perfectly on-brand for an organization devoted to the legacy of
Gerald Ford.
[link:
Famed photographer quits Ford over Liz Cheney snub]
Initial count: 188 links, 6,611 words.
Top story threads:
Israel:
Mondoweiss:
Eman Alhaj Ali: [04-10]
This year, Eid in Gaza is bittersweet.
Ruwaida Kamal Amer:
Michael Arria: [04-11]
The Shift: Are the Dems shifting on Israel? "More Democrats are
beginning to criticize Israel, but it will add up to an actual policy
shift?"
James Bamford: [04-12]
How US intelligence and an American company feed Israel's killing
machine in Gaza. "Now, soldiers and intelligence specialists are
being trained at Camp Moshe Dayan to finish the job -- to bomb, shoot,
or starve to death the descendants of the Palestinians forced into the
squalor of militarily occupied Gaza decades ago."
Ramzy Baroud: [04-12]
Killing humanitarian workers as a strategy: Israel's endgame in
Gaza.
Isaac Chotiner:
Jonathan Cook: [04-09]
Israel's killing of aid workers is no accident. It's part of the plan
to destroy Gaza.
Dave DeCamp:
Keith Gessen: [04-13]
Is this Israel's forever war?: "Foreign-policy analysts whose
careers were shaped by the war on terror see troubling parallels."
The way I'd put it is that Israel has been in a "forever war" since
1948, and they were psychologically prepped for "forever war" much
earlier. They say they always have to fight because of antisemitism,
and there's certainly been lots of that, but their wars since 1948
have just generated more antisemitism, and more war -- even when
you seem to be winning, they just go on, like, forever.
Especially
when you set out to conquer other people, they fight back, and if
you beat them down, they fight back again. Britain went to war in
the 16th century, and was almost continuously at war somewhere or
other until they gave up on their colonies in the 1960s (or the
1990s before they settled the "troubles" in Northern Ireland). The
US was continuously at war from the day Henry Luce proclaimed the
"American Century" until, well, still working on "forever." In
time, Americans walked away from several wars -- most obviously,
Afghanistan and Vietnam, which were never going to surrender their
independence.
Sahar Ghumkhor: [04-08]
For Israel's TikTok serial killers, there is a pleasure in inflicting
racial terror in Gaza.
Faris Giacaman: [04-10]
The Palestine Walid saw, from the little prison to the big
prison.
Eliza Griswold: [03-21]
The children who lost limbs in Gaza: "More than a thousand
children who were injured in the war are now amputees."
Tareq S Hajjaj: [04-11]
'Come out, you animals': how the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital
happened.
Tony Karon/Daniel Levy: [04-11]
After the carnage: "Solutions crafted by outsiders to avoid,
suppress, and restrict Palestinian agency are bound to fail.
Palestinians should decide their own future." How dumb (or
senselessly cruel) do you have to be not to understand this?
Back on Oct. 8, I dusted off my plan for a free Gaza, the only
real requirements being that Israel has no control or presence
and that the people of Gaza be free to select their own leaders
and organize themselves as they see fit. Democratic processes
and individual rights could be conditions for receiving aid,
which Gaza needed sorely even then, but the right to select
their leaders, form of government, etc., is theirs and theirs
alone. Otherwise, they'll never be wholly responsible for their
own actions. If they elect Hamas, I'll pity them, but I shouldn't
be able to stop them. And Israel, having shown nothing but contempt
and inhumanity to Gaza and its people ever since 1948, doesn't
deserve any hearing at all.
Menachem Klein: [04-09]
Netanyahu isn't the only one interested in prolonging the war:
"A broad coalition of political forces, from Israel's far right to
the Zionist left, have different motivations for turning the war
into the new normal."
Ibtisam Mahdi: [04-10]
Against the magnitude of death, our pens feel powerless in Gaza:
"Israel's onslaught made me a refugee, a bereaved sister, and a mother
to starving children. My journalistic endeavors have become almost
impossible."
Nina Martin: [04-13]
How famine and starvation can affect generations to come:
"Research on WWII's Dutch 'Hunger Winter' has terrifying implications
for Gaza's children -- and for their children."
Qassam Muaddi: [04-14]
Unleashed: Israeli settlers rampage through West Bank villages, kill
two people, injure dozens: "Israeli settlers went on a two-day
rampage in the region northeast of Ramallah when a settler teenager
was reported missing on Friday. They burned dozens of houses and
killed two Palestinians, while effectively blockading some ten
villages."
James Ray: [04-12]
The killing of Ismail Haniyeh's children exposes Israel's weakness:
"Israel has always punitively killed the families of leaders and
resistance figures as collective punishment. It is a sign of Israel's
inability to extract a military victory on the ground." Doesn't it
also suggest some "soft" targets for the "eye-for-an-eye" crowd? My
own way of thinking is that identifying a credible opposition leader
like Haniyeh presents an opportunity to negotiate, to find common
grounds and convert an enemy into a partner. Killing his family just
makes any such resolution more difficult. It sends the message that
you can never trust us, because we'll never be satisfied until we
kill you and everything and everyone you hold dear. As long as that's
Israel's position, it's hard to blame Hamas for any form of resistance,
even acts that out of context seem completely abhorrent.
Fayyha Shalash: [04-11]
Israel shuts down a town in the occupied West Bank, cancelling Eid
for Palestinians.
Jeffrey St Clair: [04-13]
Intolerable cruelty: Diary of a genocidal war.
Mosab Abu Toha: [02-24]
My family's daily struggle to find food in Gaza.
Maknoon Wani: [04-09]
Israel's spy-tech industry is a global threat to democracy.
Robin Wright: [03-22]
What it takes to give Palestinians a voice: "A new poll conducted
during war in Gaza and escalating tensions in the West Bank allows
Palestinians to tell the world what they want for their future."
I'm pretty skeptical of this, partly because it's pretty easy to
rig polls to produce certain results, but also because Palestinians
have no real sense of what can be done -- nearly everything one can
imagine is proscribed by Israel -- and also no real accountability
from their leaders.
Israel vs. Iran:
Will Porter:
James Carden: [04-14]
Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to drag the US into war with Iran.
Juan Cole: [04-14]
Netanyahu, empowered by Biden's grant of impunity, baits Iran into
his genocidal Gaza war.
Dave DeCamp: [04-14]
Israel's missile defense against Iran attack estimated to cost over
$1 billion.
Kevin Drum: [04-13]
Iran sues for peace:
Drones? And a few small missiles? All of which Iran knew would be
routinely shot down? This was obviously intended to be a pinprick
attack, just enough to save face but not to do any serious damage.
It couldn't be more obvious if Iran spelled out a message on the moon.
This is similar to Iran's measured response to Trump's assassination
of General Soleimani: one flurry of firepower that was inconsequential,
then Iran announced they were satisfied as long as they didn't have to
respond to further attacks.
Belén Fernández: [04-14]
Sorry, but Iran is not the aggressor here: "Amid the Israeli genocide
in Gaza, Western condemnation of the intercepted Iranian attack on Israel
is sickeningly cynical."
Mel Gurtov: [04-14]
The Israel=Iran confrontation: Episode or war?
Michael Hirsh:
Iran's attack seems like it was designed to fail. So what comes
next?
Murtaza Hussain:
Israel and Israel alone kicked off this escalation -- in a bid to drag
the US into war with Iran.
Patrick Kingsley: [04-14]
Strikes upend Israel's belief about Iran's willingness to fight it
directly: "Israel had grown used to targeting Iranian officials
without head-on retaliation from Iran, an assumption overturned by
Iran's attacks on Saturday." Also in the New York Times, their
idiot-savant columnists offer what they imagine to be helpful
advice while reassuring us of their loyalties:
Daniel Larison: [04-12]
Biden should not follow Netanyahu into war with Iran: "The Israeli
government appears to want to goad Tehran into a military response to
divert attention from the slaughter and famine in Gaza and to trap the
US into joining the fight."
Aaron Maté: [04-14]
Seeking Middle East 'quiet,' Biden fuels regional carnage.
Trita Parsi: [04-14]
Iran launches risky attack on Israel: "Biden could have thwarted it,
but chose to put Netanyahu before US, which is now at risk of getting
dragged into war tonight."
Vijay Prashad: [04-12]
Violating diplomatic missions.: "From Israel's bombing of Iran's
embassy in Damascus to Ecuador's raid on the Mexican in Quito, leaders
feel emboldened by the impunity granted by the Global North."
Barak Ravid: [04-14]
Biden told Bibi US won't support an Israeli counterattack on Iran.
Scrolling down I see earlier posts: "Iran launches retaliatory drone
and missile attack on Israel"; "Iran warns US to stay out of fight
with Israel or face attack on troops"; "Biden returns to the White
House as imminent Iranian attack on Israel is possible."
Ali Rizk: [04-09]
Hezbollah leader ups ante after attack on Iranian consulate.
Israel vs. world opinion:
Nadeine Asbali: [04-12]
Does anyone in the UK really know what 'British values' are?
Perhaps not, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that people in Ireland,
India, Palestine, and dozens of other former colonies have a pretty good
idea of "British values." I even know a few things about them from 1775
America.
Synne Furnes Bjerkestrand/Bayan Abu Ta'ema: [04-13]
Jordanian protesters demand ending normalization with Israel, despite
arrests.
Ellen Cantarow: [04-14]
Dead on arrival: Israel's blowback genocide.
Helena Cobban: [03-18]
It's past time to end the demonization of Hamas.
Marjorie Cohn: [04-14]
Nicaragua takes Germany to the World Court: "Germany is second
only to the US as the largest supplier of weapons to Israel."
Jack Crosbie: [04-09]
l
Inside the pro-Palestine movement bird-dogging Biden everywhere he
goes: "These activists turned Biden's ritzy New York City fundraiser
into a night of protests against Israel's war in Gaza."
Richard Falk: [04-12]
Western powers never believed in a rules-based order.
Saleema Gul: [04-10]
Debate over political response to Gaza genocide marks pivotal moment
for Muslim Americans.
Ali Harb: [03-11]
'Reject AIPAC': US progressives join forces against pro-Israel lobby
group: AIPAC is the dominant American lobby for whichever faction
is currently in power in Israel -- effectively it is a tool of Israeli
foreign policy, as tightly controlled as the diplomatic and espionage
efforts -- and it has built such vast influence over both US parties
that nearly every politician in Washington follows whatever line they'
are given. One way they enforce their power is by recruiting and funding
primary challenges, especially to progressive Democrats who recognize
social injustice even when it's practiced in Israel. So this is, in
jargon Israelis should understand, self-defense, or as those behind
Reject AIPAC put it, "a crucial step in putting voters back at
the center of our democracy."
Katherine Hearst: [04-09]
Naomi Klein enters the mirror world of conspiracy, colonialism and
fascism: On the use of Klein's Doppelganger for understanding
"the current Israeli onslaught on Gaza."
Abir Kopty: [04-13]
Police raid Berlin conference as repression of Palestine activism
escalates in Germany.
Robert Kuttner: [04-08]
If not now, when?: "Has Biden's pressure finally ended Israel's
war on Gaza's civilians? O4r is the US allowing Bibi one more head
fake?"
Blaise Malley: [04-09]
Samantha Power: Aid workers says crisis in Gaza 'unprecedented'.
Branko Marcetic: [04-13]
Biden's attempt to get tough on Netanyahu quietly failed.
Mitchell Plitnick: [04-13]
The liberal Jewish community is beginning to fracture over the Gaza
genocide: "J Street is reportedly losing staff and support as
they prioritize Israeli militarism over Palestinian rights. The
Gaza genocide is revealing the tension between Zionism and liberal
Jewish values, a divide which will only continue to grow more stark."
Dahlia Scheindlin: [03-26]
Inside Israel's disturbing denial of starvation in Gaza.
Rick Sterling: [04-09]
From Six Day Victory to Six Month Failure: "As Israel's international
stature grew after the Six Day War, it is collapsing after the Six Month
Siege and Massacre in Gaza."
Ramsey Telhami: [04-11]
I resigned from World Central Kitchen because it refused to tell the
truth about the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Yanis Varoufakis: [04-13]
The speech that got me banned from Germany. "Judge for yourselves
what kind of society Germany is becoming if its police ban the
sentiments below."
Philip Weiss: [04-08]
Biden has no emotional attachment to Israel, it's about politics.
America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire:
Election notes:
Robert F Kennedy Jr: And suddenly we have a cluster of
stories on the third-party candidate:
Trump, and other Republicans: But first, let's open up
some space to talk about abortion politics:
David W Chen/Michael Wines: [04-10]
How the GOP molded the Arizona court that upheld the abortion
ban: "Arizona's former governor, Doug Ducey, expanded the court
to seven justices. All solid conservatives, they upheld a 160-year-old
abortion ban that presents a political risk to Republicans."
Rachel M Cohen: [04-11]
Florida and Arizona show why abortion attacks are not slowing
down: "The judges aren't done."
Susan B Glasser: [04-11]
Donald Trump did this: "On abortion, Arizona, and the 2024
Presidential election."
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling:
Kari Lake is trying to make people forget her real abortion
stance.
Sarah Jones: [04-11]
Abortion opponents can't be 'pro-family'.
Ed Kilgore: [04-10]
In a first, Arizona Republicans rush to dismantle a total abortion
ban.
Eric Levitz: [04-09]
Arizona's ban spotlights the fraudulence of Trump's "moderation" on
abortion.
Dahlia Lithwick: [04-12]
Arizona's atrocious abortion law is just the latest example of what
Roe didn't protect.
Harold Meyerson: [04-11]
On the origins of Arizona's new old abortion ban. If Dobbs had
been less of a political hatchet job, they would have started by
clearing the field of all pre-Roe bans, and also of the recent
"trigger bills," forcing states to at least think about what they
were doing. Still, even people who anticipated such rude shocks
were taken aback by this case, a law passed 48 years before Arizona
had enough [white] people to qualify as a state, even before the
end of slavery.
Anna North: [04-08]
Trump may sound moderate on abortion. The groups setting his agenda
definitely aren't.
Nikki McCann Ramirez: [04-10]
Fox News' prime-time shows mentioned Arizona's abortion ban exactly
zero times.
Bill Scher: [04-09]
Trump can't run from his biggest accomplishment: Overturning Roe.
Michael Tomasky:
Trump's abortion gambit proves he's bad a politics.
Bob Topper: [04-14]
Roe v. Wade: Reasoned v. the right.
Ali Breland: [04-13]
Kamala Harris isn't letting Trump dodge on abortion.
We can also group several stories on Trump's court date
on Monday in New York:
That hardly exhausts their capacity for senseless cruelty, starting
with their Fearless Führer:
Biden and/or the Democrats:
Jonathan Chait:
David Dayen: [04-10]
TSMC chips deal promotes the logic of Biden's industrial policy.
John Nichols: [04-05]
More than half a million Democratic voters have told Biden: Save
Gaza! "The campaign to use 'uncommitted' primary votes to send
a message to Biden has won two dozen delegates, and it keeps growing."
I'm sorry, but these are not impressive numbers. And it is telling
that you don't actually have a candidate -- one more credible than
the underappreciated Marianne Williamson, that is -- leading the
challenge (as Eugene McCarthy did in 1968). The obvious difference
is that Americans were more directly impacted by war in Vietnam
than they are now in Gaza: even though many of us are immensely
alarmed by Israel's genocide, its impact on our everyday life is
very marginal. Also, Biden is widely seen by Democrats (if rarely
by anyone else) as the safe option to defend against Trump, who
most Democrats do regard as a clear and present danger. The main
reason there is that the all-important donor class seems to be
satisfied with Biden, but would surely throw a fit (as Bloomberg
did in 2020) if anyone like Sanders or Warren made a serious run
for the nomination. Also, perhaps, that back in 1968, few people
really understood how bad throwing the election to a Republican
would turn out to be.
Evan Osnos: [04-06]
Joe Biden and US policy toward Israel.
Matt Stieb: [04-11]
Biden's leverage campaign against Bibi isn't producing dramatic
results.
Legal matters and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Economic matters:
Ukraine War:
Connor Echols: [04-12]
Diplomacy Watch: Ukraine risks losing the war -- and the peace:
"It's now unclear if the US Congress will ever manage to send more
aid to Kyiv."
Dave DeCamp:
John Mueller: [04-09]
Ukraine war ceasefire may require accepting a partition: "Kyiv
wound likely see significant economic and political benefits --
and move closer to the West -- from a cessation of hostilities."
This has become obvious a year ago, but after Ukraine recovered
territory along the northeast and southwest fronts in late 2022,
they held out big hopes for their much-hyped "spring offensive"
of 2023. Nine months later, the "gains" were slightly negative.
Since then, most of the action has been away from the unmovable
front: notably drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and on
Ukrainian power plants. Which is to say, punitive terror attacks,
reminders of the ongoing cost of war that have no bearing on its
conclusion. Before the war, there were two basic options: one was
the Minsk agreements, which would have unified Ukraine but given
Russian minority rights that could have kept western Ukraine from
moving toward economic integration with Europe; the other was to
allow secession following fair referendums, which would almost
certainly have validated the secessionists in Crimea and Donbas
(but probably not elsewhere). In a divided Ukraine, the west
could more easily align with Europe, while the east could keep
its Russian ties. Either of these would have been much preferable
to the war that maximalists on both sides insisted on.
John Quiggin: [04-03]
Navies are obsolete, but no one will admit it: Examples here
start with Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which seems to have provided
little beyond Ukrainian drone target practice, and the US Navy in
the Red Sea, which hasn't been able to thwart Houthi attacks on
Red Sea shipping (Suez Canal traffic is down 70%).
Around the world:
Boeing:
OJ Simpson: Famous football player, broadcaster, convicted
criminal (but famously acquitted on murder charges), dead at 76. I'm
not inclined to care about any of this, but he did elicit another
round of articles:
Other stories:
William J Astore: [04-11]
There is only one spaceship earth: "Freeing the world from the
deadly shadow of genocide and ecocide."
Charlotte Barnett: [04-10]
Declutter, haul, restock, repeat: "The content creators making
a living by cleaning one purs tower, acrylic plastic box, and egg
organizer at a time."
Emmeline Clein: [04-12]
How capitalism disordered our eating: "From Weight Watchers to
Ozempic, big business profits off eating disorders and their
treatments."
Russell Arben Fox: [04-10]
Thinking about Wendell Berry's leftist lament (and more). The Berry
book is The Need to Be Whole: Patriotism and the History of
Prejudice. Also segues into a discussion of Ian Angus: The
War Against the Commons: Dispossession and Resistance in the Making
of Capitalism. The destruction of the commons is a major theme
in Astra Taylor's The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things
Fall Apart, including a critique of the famous "tragedy of the
commons" theory that I was unaware of but long needed. Scrolling
down in Fox's blog, I see a couple pieces I had read in the Wichita
Eagle. (He teaches here in Wichita, and I believe we have mutual
friends, but as far as I know he's not aware of me.)
Robert Kuttner: [04-09]
The political economy of exile: Searching for safe havens from
Trumpism, or escaping from "shithole countries" if you're rich enough.
Michael Ledger-Lomas: [04-14]
The outsize influence of small wars: Review of Laurie Benton's
book, They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence.
These "small wars" were mostly directed by European powers against
their would-be colonies, most fought with a huge technological edge
which complemented their legal scheming, distinguishing them from
the large wars Europeans fought against each other. That's pretty
much the same definition Max Boot used in his book, The Savage
Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power.
Walter G Moss: [04-14]
2024 US anxieties and Hitler 1933: "Here is a friendly reminder
that all it would take for Trump to be elected is a series of mistakes
by the electorate -- many of them not especially earthshaking."
I figured this was a bit far-fetched to include in the section on
Trump, the Republicans, and their more mundane crime interests,
but Hitler-Trump comparisons are a parlor game of some interest for
those who know more than a little about both. Speaking of parlor
games for history buffs, Moss previously wrote:
Yasmin Nair: [03-27]
What really happened at Current Affairs? This looks to be way too
long, pained, deep, and trivial to actually read, but maybe some day.
And having thrown a tantrum or two of my own way back in the days when
I slaved for someone else's parochially leftist journal, it may even
hit close to home. From my vantage point, Nathan J Robinson is a smart,
sensible, and prodigious critic, and Current Affairs is one of my more
reliably insightful sources as I go about my weekly chores. That such
qualities can go hand-in-hand with less admirable traits is, well, not
something I feel secure enough to cast stones over.
John Quiggin: [03-29]
Daniel Kahneman has died.
Ingrid Robeyns: [04-13]
Limitarianism update: Author of the recent book, Limitarianism:
The Case Against Extreme Wealth, with links to reviews, interviews,
etc. Comments suggest that the concept is better than the title.
Luke Savage: [04-13]
The rich: On top of the world and very anxious about it: "The
small handful of ultrawealthy winners are firmly ensconced in their
positions of privilege in power. Yet so many of them seem haunted
by the possibility that maybe they don't deserve it."
Robert Wright: [04-12]
Marc Andreessen's mindless techno-optimism.
Li Zhou: [04-10]
The Vatican's new statement on trans rights undercuts its attempts
at inclusion.
Tuesday, April 09, 2024
Music Week
Expanded blog post,
April archive
(in progress).
Tweet: Music Week: 25 albums, 7 A-list
Music: Current count 42104 [42079] rated (+25), 37 [39] unrated (-2).
Last week was severely disrupted, with several days not spent
anywhere near the computer -- mostly Washington family passing
through town on their way to Arkansas for the eclipse -- so I
figured there was no point playing new music I'd need to take
notes on. So what little I have below was mostly picked up after
they cleared out Saturday, leaving me to cobble together what
turned out to be an exceptionally long
Speaking of Which (217 links, 12552 words). Several links
to music pieces there, including a bunch on Beyoncé.
We did two manage two family major dinners during the week.
The first (plate pictured
here) featured three Ottolenghi recipes (roast chicken with fennel,
mandarins, and ouzo; sweet potatoes with scallions and dates; and a
pearl barley salad) plus old standby recipes for caponata (Sicilian
eggplant and zucchini), horiatiki (Greek chopped salad), and mast va
khiar (Iranian yogurt with cucumbers, scallions, sultanas, walnuts,
and mint), with pineapple upside-down cake for dessert.
Leftovers went into a second dinner which my nephew Mike took charge
of, adding kofta/chicken/swordfish kebabs, pitas, hummus, asparagus,
quick pickles, eggplant slices topped with spiced yogurt, a spinach
salad with dates and almonds, and a mixed bean salad. Another friend
made a carrot cake and white-chocolate cookies. Much more chaos than
I can handle on my own anymore, but I can take some credit for having
the kitchen and pantry organized.
The eclipse was rated at 88% here, so we got the idea, but it
wasn't much compared to what we saw on TV. The dimming was less
than we often get from passing cumulonimbus clouds.
I only heard about the passing of
Clarence "Frogman" Henry after my cutoff, but decided I might
as well squeeze his compilation in here.
Albert "Tootie" Heath also died last week, and my exploration
of his first albums also got promoted.
As noted, I finished Tricia Romano's brilliantly titled book
on the Village Voice, The Freaks Came Out to Write.
My own involvement with the Voice dates back to 1968-69,
when as a high school dropout in Wichita, KS, still in my teens,
I started subscribing, not so much for the politics -- for that
I had I.F. Stone's Weekly, The Minority of One,
and Ramparts -- as for the bohemian culture. I followed
them for most of my life, which in the late 1970s included a
few years living in New York, and thanks to Bob Christgau, they
even published me, both in the
1970s and
much later (most notably
Jazz Consumer Guide. So, while I
was never mentioned in the book, there was a strong sense that
it tracked much of my life: lots of stories I knew, at least
partly (often indirectly), some I didn't, and a few more I could
have added to.
Moving on, I finally got around to Cory Doctorow's
The Internet Con, which I had identified as "in my queue,
waiting for my limited attention" back in my latest
Book Roundup, dated Sept. 23, 2023 -- and way overdue for
a sequel. I see now that I failed to index that post, so more
drudge work to do.
The other still-pending book from that list is Franklin Foer's
The Last Politician, which the death of the political book
project has made unnecessary, especially on top of my mounting
disappointment with "Genocide Joe." At least when we talk about
"lesser evils" in 2024, there won't be any serious debate over
the evil term.
Next week will also be disrupted, as our guests head home from
Arkansas, hopefully passing through here again. Hopefully they will
be a bit less rushed heading back. Where that leaves my weekly posts
I neither know nor much care. They merely mark time while I age
rather gracelessly.
New records reviewed this week:
- Neal Alger: Old Souls (2023 [2024], Calligram): [cd]: B+(**)
- Thomas Anderson: Hello, I'm From the Future (2024, Out There): [sp]: A-
- Sam Anning: Earthen (2024, Earshift Music): [cd]: B+(***) [04-05]
- Alex Beltran: Rift (2022 [2024], Calligram): [cd]: B+(***)
- Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter (2024, Parkwood/Columbia): [sp]: B+((**)
- Martin Budde: Back Burner (2023 [2024], Origin): [cd]: B+(*)
- Mackenzie Carpenter: Mackenzie Carpenter (2023, Valory Music, EP): [sp]: B+(***)
- Chromeo: Adult Contemporary (2024, BMG): [sp]: B+(**)
- Hannah Frances: Keeper of the Shepherd (2024, Ruination): [sp]: B+(*)
- Gossip: Real Power (2024, Columbia): [sp]: B+(**)
- Helado Negro: Phasor (2024, 4AD): [sp]: B+(**)
- Last Word Quintet: Falling to Earth (2021-22 [2024], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
- Molly Lewis: On the Lips (2024, Jagjaguwar): [sp]: B+(*)
- Ms. Boogie: The Breakdown (2024, self-released): [sp]: B+(*)
- Sam Outlaw: Terra Cotta (2024, Black Hills): [sp]: B+(*)
- Jim Rotondi: Finesse (2021 [2024], Cellar Music): [sp]: B
- Claudio Scolari Project: Intermission (2022 [2024], Principal): [cd]: A-
- Tyla: Tyla (2024, Epic): [sp]: B+(**)
- Bob Vylan: Humble as the Sun (2024, Ghost Theatre): [sp]: A-
- Dan Weiss: Even Odds (2023 [2024], Cygnus): [cd]: A-
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
- Burnt Sugar/The Arkestkra Chamber: The Reconstru-Ducted Repatriation Road-Rage ReMiXeS (2020-21 [2024], Avantgroidd): [bc]: B+(**)
- Pete Jolly: Seasons (1970 [2024], Future Days): [sp]: B+(*)
- Mixmaster Morris/Jonah Sharp/Haruomi Hosono: Quiet Logic (1998 [2024], WRWTFWW): [bc]: A-
Old music:
- Kuumba-Toudie Heath: Kawaida (1970, O'Be): [yt]: A-
- Albert Heath: Kwanza (The First) (1973 [2015], Elemental Music): [sp]: B+(**)
- Clarence "Frogman" Henry: Ain't Got No Home: The Best of Clarence "Frogman" Henry (1956-64 [1994], MCA): [sp]: A-
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Noah Haidu: Standards II (Sunnyside) [04-12]
- Chuck Owen & Resurgence: Magic Light (Origin) [04-26]
- Idit Shner & Mhondoro: Ngatibatanei [Let Us Unite!] (OA2) [04-26]
- Geoff Stradling & the StradBand: Nimble Digits (Origin) [04-26]
- Jordan Vanhemert: Deep in the Soil (Origin) [04-26]
Monday, April 08, 2024
Speaking of Which
Blog link.
I don't have much time to work with this week. Writing this on
Friday, I expect that the links below will be spotty. I also doubt
that I'll have many records in the next Music Week, although that
can run if I have any at all.
My company left Saturday morning, headed to Arkansas
for a better view of the eclipse on Monday, so I finally got a bit
of time to work on this. I collected a few links to get going, then
spent most of Sunday writing my "one point here" introduction, and
adding a few more links. I got a little over half way through my
usual source tabs before I had to call it a day. On Monday, I tried
to pick up where I had left off -- not going back to the tabs I had
hit on Sunday, but picking up the occasional Monday post as I went
along. Wound up with a pretty full post, dated Monday. I marked this
paragraph as an add, because it's a revision to my original intro.
This should go up before I go to bed Monday night. Music Week
will follow later Tuesday. Very little in it from before Saturday,
but I've found a few interesting records while working on this.
But I do want to make one point here, which is something I've been
thinking about for a while now.
I've come to conclude that many of us made a fundamental error
in the immediate aftermath of October 7 in blaming Hamas (or more
generally, Palestinians) for the outbreak of violence. Even those
of us who immediately feared that Israel would strike back with a
massive escalation somehow felt like we had to credit Hamas with
agency and moral responsibility -- if not for the retaliation, at
least for their own acts. But what choice did they have? What else
could they have done?
But there is an alternate view, which is that violent resistance
is an inevitable consequence of systematic marginalization, where
nonviolent remedies are excluded, and order is violently enforced.
How can we expect anyone to suffer oppression without fighting back?
So why don't we recognize blowback as intrinsic to the context, and
therefore effectively the responsibility of the oppressor? I don't
doubt that Israelis were terrified on October 7. They were, after
all, looking at a mirror of their own violence.
It's pretty obvious why Israel's leaders wanted to genocide. The
Zionist movement was born in a world that was racist, nationalist,
and imperialist -- traits that Zionists embraced, hoping to forge
them into a defensive shield, which worked just as well as a cudgel
to impose their will on others. What distinguishes them from Nazis
is that they're less driven to enslave or exterminate enemy races,
but that mostly means they see no use for others. In theory, they'd
be satisfied just to drive the others out -- as they did with the
Nakba -- but in practice their horizons expand as the settlements
grow.
The question isn't: why genocide? That's been baked in from the
beginning. The question is why they didn't do it before, and why
they think they can get away with it now. The "why not" is bound
to be speculative, and I don't want to delve very deep here, but I
can imagine trying to sort it out on two axes, one for the people,
the other for the cutting-edge political leaders. For the people,
the scale runs from respect for one's humanity, and dehumanizing
others. Most Israelis used to take pride in their high morality,
but war and militarism broke that down (with ultra-orthodoxy and
capitalism also taking a toll). As for the leaders, the scale is
based on power: the desire to push the envelope of possibility,
balanced off by the need to maintain good will with allies.
Ben Gurion was a master at both: a guy who took as much as he
could (even overreaching in 1956 and having to retreat), and was
always plotting ahead to take even more (as his followers did in
1967, meeting less resistance from Johnson). Begin pushed even
further, although he too had to retreat from Lebanon under Carter
before he found a more compliant Reagan. Netanyahu is another one
who constantly tested the limits of American allowance, only to
find that Trump and Biden were pushovers, offering no resistance
at all. Genocide only became possible as Palestinians came to be
viewed by most Israelis as subhuman, while Netanyahu found his
power to be unlimited by American sensitivity.
So, while Israel has always been at risk of turning genocidal,
what's really changed is America, turning from the "good neighbor"
FDR promised to Eisenhower's "leader of the free world" to Reagan's
capitalist scam artists to Bush's "global war on terror" to the
Trump-Biden cha-cha. I chalk this up to several things. The drift
to the right made Americans meaner and politicians more cynical and
corrupt. The neocons came to dominate foreign policy, with their cult
for power that could be rapidly and arbitrarily deployed anywhere --
as Israel did in their small region, Bush would around the globe.
The counter-intifada in Israel and the US wars on terror drove both
countries further into the grip of dehumanizing militarism, opening
up an opportunity for Netanyahu to forge a right-wing alliance with
America, while AIPAC held Democrats like Obama and Biden in check.
Trump automatically rubber-stamped anything Netanyahu wanted, and
Biden had no will power to do anything but.
By the time October 7 came around, Americans couldn't so much as
articulate a national interest in peace and social justice. But
there was also one specific thing that kept Americans from seeing
genocide as such: we had totally bought into the idea that Hamas,
as exemplary terrorists, were intrinsically evil, could never be
negotiated with, and therefore all you could do to stop them is to
kill as many as you can. It wasn't a novel idea. America has a sordid
history of assassination plots until the mid-1970s, when the Church
Committee exposed that history and forced reforms. But Israel's own
assassination programs expanded continuously from the 1980s on, and
American neocons envied Israel's prowess. Under Bush, "high value
targets" became currency, and Obama not only followed suit, he upped
the game -- most notably bagging Osama Bin Laden.
There's a Todd Snider line: "In America, we like our bad guys
dead." That's an understatement. Dead has become the only way we
can imagine their stories ending. We long ago gave up on the notion
that enemies can be rehabilitated. In large part, this reflects a
loss of faith in justice, replaced by sheer power, the belief that
we are right because we have the might to force them to tow the
line. That was the attitude that Europe took to the South in the
19th century. That was the attitude Germany and Japan made World
War with.
That attitude was discredited -- Germany and Japan were allowed
to recover as free and peaceful nations; Africa and Asia decolonized;
the capitalist world integrated, first with a stable divide from the
communists, then by further engagement. There were problems. The US
was magnanimous to defeated Germany and Japan, but in turning against
the Soviet Union, and in assuming security responsibility for the
former European colonies, and in maintaining capitalist hegemony
over them, Americans lost their faith in democracy and justice, and
embraced power for its own sake. And when that failed, they turned
vindictive toward Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, and elsewhere.
The Israelis were adept students of power. They learned directly
from the British colonial system, with its divide-and-conquer politics,
and its use of collective punishment. They worked with the British to
defeat the Palestinian revolt of 1937-39, and against the British in
1947-48. They drew lessons from the Nazis. They learned to play games
with the world powers, especially with the US. Trita Parsi's book,
Treacherous Alliance, is a case study of how they played Iran
off for leverage elsewhere, especially with the US. The neocons, with
their Israel envy, were especially easy to play.
So when October 7 happened, all the necessary prejudices and
reflexive operators were aligned. Hamas were the perfect villains:
they had their roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, which qualified
them as Islamists, close enough to the Salafis and Deobandis who
Americans had branded as terrorists even before 9/11; they had
become rivals with the secular PLO within the Occupied Territories,
especially after Israel facilitated Arafat's return under the Oslo
Accords -- a rivalry which led them to become more militant against
Israel, which Israel intensified by assassinating their leaders;
when they finally did decide to run for elections, they won but
the results were disallowed, leading to them seizing power in
Gaza, which Israel then blockaded, "put on a diet," and "mowed
the grass" in a series of punishing sieges and incursions; along
the way, Hamas managed to get a small amount of aid from Iran, so
found themselves branded as an Iranian proxy, like Hezbollah in
Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen -- Israel knew that any hint of
Iranian influence would drive the Americans crazy.
Not only was Hamas the perfect enemy, Israel and the United
States had come to believe that terrorists were irrational and
fanatical, that they could never be negotiated with, and that
the only way to deal with them was by systematically killing off
their cadres and especially their leaders until they were reduced
to utter insignificance. The phrase Israelis used was that their
goal was to make Palestinians realize that they were "an utterly
defeated people." When I first heard that phrase, a picture came
to mind, of the last days of the American Indian campaigns, when
the last Sioux and Apache surrendered to be kept as helpless
dependents on wasteland reservations.
On its founding, Israel kept a British legal system that was
designed to subjugate native populations, to surveil them, and to
arbitrarily arrest and punish anyone they suspected of disloyalty.
They discriminated legally against natives, limiting their economic
prospects, curtailing their freedom, and punishing them harshly,
including collective punishments -- a system which instilled fear
of each against the other, where every disobedient act became an
excuse for harsher and more sweeping mistreatment.
After Hamas took control of Gaza, those punishments were often
delivered by aircraft, wielding 2,000-pound bombs that could flatten
whole buildings. Hamas responded with small, imprecise rockets, of
no military significance but symbolic of defiance, a way of saying
we can still reach beyond your walls. Israel always responded with
more shelling and bombing, a dynamic that repeatedly escalated until
the horror started to turn world opinion against Israel. Having made
their point, Israel could then ease off, until the next opportunity
or provocation sent them on the warpath again.
The October 7 "attack" -- at the time, I characterized it, quite
accurately I still think, as a jail break followed by a brief crime
spree. In short order, Israel killed most of the "attackers," and
resealed the border. The scale, in terms of the numbers of Israelis
killed or captured was much larger than anything Palestinians had
previously managed, and the speed was even more striking, but the
overall effect was mostly symbolic, and the threat of more violence
coming from Gaza dissipated almost immediately. Israel had no real
need to counterattack. They could have easily negotiated a prisoner
swap -- Israel had many times more Palestinians in jail than Hamas
took as hostages, and had almost unlimited power to add to their
numbers. But Israel's leaders didn't want peace. They wanted to
reduce Palestinians to "an utterly defeated people." And since
there was no way to do that other than to kill most of them and
drive the rest into exile -- basically a rerun of the Nakba, only
more intense, because having learned that lesson, Palestinians
would cling even more tenaciously to their homeland.
That's why the immediate reaction of Israel's leaders was to
declare their intent to commit genocide. The problem with that
idea was that since the Holocaust, any degree of genocide had
become universally abhorrent. To proceed, Israel had to keep the
war going, and to keep it going, they had to keep their ideal
enemy alive, long enough to do major devastation, making Gaza
unlivable for anywhere near the 2.3 million people who managed
to live through decades of hardships there, with starvation
playing a major role in decimating the population.
In order to commit genocide, Israel had to supplement its
killing machinery with a major propaganda offensive, because
they remembered that what finally stopped their major wars of
1948-49, 1956, 1967, and 1973, and their periodic assaults on
Lebanon and Gaza, was public opinion, especially in America.
But Netanyahu knew how to push America's buttons. He declared
that the only thing Israel could do to protect itself -- the
one thing Israel had to do in order to keep this mini-Holocaust
from ever happening again -- was to literally kill everyone in
Hamas.
And Americans fell for that line, completely. They believed
that Hamas were intractably evil terrorists, and they knew that
terrorists cannot be appeased or even negotiated with. And they
trusted that Israelis knew what they were doing and how best to
do it, so all they really had to do was to provide support and
diplomatic cover, giving Israel the time and tools to do the job
as best they saw fit. And sure, there would be some collateral
damage, because Hamas uses civilians as human shields -- it never
really occurring to Americans that those super-smart, super-moral
Israelis can't actually tell the difference between Hamas and
civilians even if they wanted to, which most certainly they do
not. And if anything does look bad, Israel can always come up
with a cover story good enough for Americans to believe. After
all, Americans have a lot of practice believing their own atrocity
cover up stories.
The hostage situation turned out to be really useful for keeping
the spectre of Hamas alive. There is no real way for Americans to
evaluate how much armed defense Hamas is still capable of in Gaza --
their capability to attack beyond the walls was depleted instantly
as they shot their wad on October 7 -- so the only reliable "proof
of existence" of Hamas is when their allies show up for meetings
in Qatar and Cairo. And there's no chance of agreement, as the only
terms Israel is offering is give up all the hostages, surrender, and
die. But by showing up, they affirm that Hamas still exists, and by
refusing to surrender, they remind the Americans that the only way
this can end is by killing them all.
And while that charade is going on, Israel continues to kill
indiscriminately, to destroy everything, to starve, to render
Gaza unlivable. And they will continue to do so, until enough of
us recognize their real plan is genocide, and we shame them into
stopping. We are making progress in that direction, as we can
see as Biden starts to waver in his less and less enthusiastic
support, but we still have a long ways to go.
The key to making more progress will be to break down several
of the myths Israel has spun. In particular, we have to abandon
the belief that we can solve all our problems by killing everyone
who disagrees with us. Second, we need to understand that killing
or otherwise harming people only causes further resentment and
resistance. People drunk on power tend to ignore this, but it's
really not a difficult or novel idea: as Rabbi Hillel put it,
"That which is hateful unto you, do not do to your neighbor."
Moreover, we need to understand that negotiated agreement
between responsible parties is much preferable to the diktat
of a single party, no matter how powerful that party is. It's
not clear to me that Israel needs to negotiate an agreement
with Hamas, because it's not clear to me that Hamas is the
real and trusted agent of the people of Palestine or Gaza,
but some group needs to emerge as the responsible party, and
the more solid their footing, the better partner they can be.
Israel, like the British before them, has always insisted on
picking its favored Palestinian representatives, while making them
look foolish, corrupt, and/or ineffective. Arafat may only have
been the latter, but by not allowing him to accomplish anything,
Israel opened up the void that Hamas tried to fill. But Hamas has
only had the power it was able to seize by force, and even then
was severely limited by what Israel would allow, in a perverse
symbiotic relationship that we could spend a lot of time on --
Israel has often found Hamas to be very useful, so their current
view that Hamas has to be exterminated seems more like a line to
be fed to the Americans, who tend to take good vs. evil ever so
literally.
Initial count: 217 links, 12,552 words.
Top story threads:
Israel:
Mondoweiss: Probably the best of the day-by-day reports,
but once again they took the weekend off. Too bad Israel didn't.
[04-01]
Day 178: Israel withdraws from al-Shifa Hospital, leaving evidence
of a massacre in its wake: "Dozens of bodies are still being
recovered from the rubble of a destroyed and burnt al-Shifa Hospital,
following a two-week Israeli raid and siege on the hospital." After
missing over the weekend, this invaluable series returns.
[04-02]
Day 179: Israel kills 7 international aid workers in central Gaza,
passes law banning Al Jazeera: "The World Central Kitchen called
the attack that killed seven of its aid workers 'unforgivable' as
Israeli forces killed 71 people across the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile,
the Israeli government voted to approve a bill banning Al Jazeera."
[04-03]
Day 180: Israel calls killing of WCK workers 'mistake,' UN reports
at least 195 aid workers killed since October 7: "Israeli media
says the World Central Kitchen aid team was intentionally targeted
with three missiles, as an UN expert says the strike shows Israel
aims to force aid organizations out of Gaza."
[04-04]
Day 181: Child deaths in Gaza on the rise, hostage negotiations
'stuck': "WHO chief Ghebreyesus said he was 'appalled' at the
destruction of al-Shifa Hospital. Meanwhile, pressure on Netanyahu
increases domestically to strike a hostage deal with Hamas as the
UN Human Rights Council considers an arms embargo against Israel."
[04-05]
Day 182: Israel says it will 'temporarily' allow aid into Gaza:
"Following international outcry at the targeting of World Central
Kitchen aid workers, Israel said that it would 'temporarily' allow
aid into Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli forces raided the al-Aqsa Mosque
compound and killed a Palestinian man in Tulkarem."
Al Jazeera:
Yuval Abraham: [04-03]
'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing spree in Gaza:
"The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects
for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human
oversight and a permissive policy for casualties."
Linah Alsaafin: [04-03]
Israel's brutality is increasing -- and so is its denialism:
"The atrocities at Al-Shifa Hospital are clear, but Israeli
politicians say not a single civilian was killed. It's just
one of several outlandish claims Israel has made recently."
Eric Alterman: [04-02]
Banning Al Jazeera moves Israel one step closer to dictatorship.
Tareq Baconi: [04-01]
The two-state solution is an unjust, impossible fantasy. This
is accurate as far as it goes:
Repeating the two-state solution mantra has allowed policymakers to
avoid confronting the reality that partition is unattainable in the
case of Israel and Palestine, and illegitimate as an arrangement
originally imposed on Palestinians without their consent in 1947. And
fundamentally, the concept of the two-state solution has evolved to
become a central pillar of sustaining Palestinian subjugation and
Israeli impunity. The idea of two states as a pathway to justice has
in and of itself normalized the daily violence meted out against
Palestinians by Israel's regime of apartheid.
The key thing you need to understand here is that Israel has
never offered the only thing that makes two states possible, which
is complete independence. Given this, we should admit that Israel
has never made an honest two-state offer. Moreover, Israel has
always managed to scuttle third-party two-state solutions, and
that's happened often enough that no one should credit them as
serious possibilities.
Also:
A single state from the river to the sea might appear unrealistic or
fantastical or a recipe for further bloodshed. But it is the only
state that exists in the real world -- not in the fantasies of
policymakers. The question, then, is: How can it be transformed into
one that is just?
Back in 1947, when the UK gave up on its mandate in Palestine,
the logical solution would have been to allow a democratic government
to be formed, with constitutional safeguards to protect minorities.
Whether such a state would be fair and just is a counterfactual we
can only speculate on. The population at the time was divided about
2-to-1 Muslims over Jews, with a small Christian minority. The Jews
wanted to rule, and being outnumbered lobbied for partition, so they
could establish a state and military, for defense and expansion if
the opportunity arose. Muslims and Christians were disorganized --
deliberately by the British, especially while suppressing the 1937-39
revolt -- so it's unclear what they wanted (anything from liberal
social democracy to theocracy was possible, but Jews had reason to
be wary, given that the revolt was largely triggered by opposition
to their immigration, and that nominal leader -- initially appointed
by the British -- Hajj Amin al-Husseini had taken refuge in Nazi
Germany after the revolt failed).
British colonial rule was built on divide-and-conquer politics,
reinforced by savage collective punishment, and that fed into a
fondness for partition strategies, which had already proven to be
disastrous in Ireland and in India. Britain also retained a large
degree of control in the nominally independent Arab monarchies of
Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq, which in theory attacked Israel on its
declaration of independence in 1948, but actually moved to deny
Palestinians sovereignty in their allotted partition (reduced in
size by Israeli military gains, and increased in population by
fleeing refugees).
Even if one doubts that a Palestinian majority in 1947 would
have established a fair and just single state, especially one
that would have allowed for further Jewish immigration from a
still-ravaged Europe, why not pursue such a solution now? The
Israeli position is that such an idea is a "non-starter," as it
would mark the end of the Zionist dream of a safe haven for Jews
from everywhere. The assumption seems to be that if power ever
shifted from Jews to Arabs -- which is neither inevitable nor
impossible given current demographics and trends -- that the
Arabs would treat the Jews as badly as the Jews have treated
the Arabs since 1948. I doubt that would happen, but to allay
such fears, there are ways to design safeguards while still
allowing a vast expansion of personal freedom for Palestinians.
The biggest problem is that Israelis, especially those in the
settler movement, are accustomed to living with state support
for their hatred and violence, and they will resist any change.
Hence, it is imperative to convince Israelis that profound change
is the only way to recover their bearings as respectable people.
That task is at least as difficult as convincing George Wallace's
Alabama to accept civil rights, and as difficult as convincing
Oklahoma to stop stealing Indian lands. Neither of those cases
worked out as well as one hoped, but at least we realized that
continued unfair and unjust treatment would only perpetuate
hostilities that would ultimately hurt everyone.
Ramzy Baroud: [04-08]
Irremediable defeat: On Israel's other unwinnable war: "Historically,
wars unite Israelis. Not anymore."
The problems continue to pile up, and Netanyahu, the master politician
of former times, is now only hanging by the thread of keeping the war
going for as long as possible to defer his mounting crises for as long
as possible.
Yet, an indefinite war is not an option, either. The Israeli economy,
according to recent data by the country's Central Bureau of Statistics,
has shrunk by over 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023. It is
likely to continue its free fall in the coming period.
Moreover, the army is struggling, fighting an unwinnable war without
realistic goals. The only major source for new recruits can be obtained
from ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have been spared the battlefield to study
in yeshivas, instead.
70 percent of all Israelis, including many in Netanyahu's own party,
want the Haredi to join the army. On March 28, the Supreme Court ordered
a suspension of state subsidies allocated to these ultra-Orthodox
communities.
If that is to happen, the crisis will deepen on multiple fronts.
If the Haredi lose their privileges, Netanyahu's government is likely
to collapse; if they maintain them, the other government, the post
Oct-7 war council, is likely to collapse as well.
In 1967, Israel conquered the near world -- larger professional
armies with tanks and aircraft -- in six days. Now, with at least
ten times the firepower, they've spent six months demolishing
housing and hospitals, just to root out a few thousand Hamas
lightly-armed "militants," and have little to show for it but
shame and disgrace.
Nora Berman: [03-29]
'The most moral army in the world' is posing with Palestinian women's
underwear in Gaza.
Connor Echols: [04-02]
US, Israeli attacks on UNRWA push agency toward collapse.
Or Kashti: [03-24]
Oct. 7 Hamas attack is tearing apart Israeli human rights group
B'Tselem:
B'Tselem
is a very important Israeli non-profit which has done vital work
in documenting the atrocities committed by Israelis against
Palestinians since its founding in 1989. They were quick to
call for a ceasefire after Oct. 7, but this was complicated by
internal divisions over how much blame to direct at Hamas, and
whether to echo propaganda points which were used to justify
Israel's genocidal counter-attack. I'm having trouble following
this piece, but noted that the divide led to the resignation
of Eyal Hareuveni, who I know mostly as a jazz critic. This
also led me to:
Joshua Keating:
Takeshi Kumon: [03-20]
Israeli startups hope to export battle-tested AI military tech:
I got this link from a Naomi Klein
tweet, who added: "not mere disaster capitalism -- genocide
capitalism."
Gideon Levy: [04-07]
In six months in Gaza, Israel's worst-ever war achieved nothing but
death and destruction.
Alice Markham-Cantor: [04-02]
'The drones are shooting at anything that moves' in Gaza; "Facing
famine, civilians search desperately for food under the threat of
Israeli bombs."
Jack Mirkinson: [04-04]
The ghoulish ostentatiousness of Israel's latest war crimes: "It's
as if Israel is flaunting its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians."
The past few days of Israel's war on Gaza have been hard to bear.
In quick succession, the world watched Israel withdraw from the
Al-Shifa hospital complex, revealing stomach-churning scenes of
death and destruction; bomb Iran's embassy in Syria, which could
escalate the conflict across the Middle East; and kill seven
humanitarian aid workers with World Central Kitchen (WCK) in what
even some US officials said appeared to be intentional air
strikes. . . .
The assault on Gaza has been horrific from the start. But it is
hard to shake the feeling that the near-total leeway Israel has
been granted by the United States and its allies has gone to its
head. Bulldozing bodies in plain sight. Bombing diplomatic facilities.
Targeting aid workers from the most Washington-friendly relief
organization. There is a ghoulish, ostentatious quality to these
actions. It's as if Israel is showing off, flaunting its ability
to cross every known line of international humanitarian law and
get away with it.
James North:
Rick Perlstein: [02-21]
The neglected history of the state of Israel: "The Revisionist
faction of Zionism that ended up triumphing adhered to literal fascist
doctrines and traditions."
Mitchell Plitnick: [04-05]
Netanyahu's endgame and the Israeli far-right's regional ambitions:
"The events of recent days suggest we may be seeing the Israeli endgame
take shape. Netanyahu's far right government's goals are not limited to
Gaza: it wants to take over all of Palestine and start a war with
Hezbollah and Iran as well." I wouldn't call this an "endgame," as
I doubt that the far-right wants the games to end. They thrive on
violence and hatred, and want to keep it going.
Will Porter: [04-08]
Israel lets AI decide who dies in Gaza.
Vijay Prashad: [04-05]
How Israel weaponizes water: "Even before Israel's most recent
attack on Gaza, 97 percent of the water in the sole coastal aquifer
of Gaza was already unsafe for human consumption."
Dave Reed: [04-05]
Engineering social collapse in Palestine: "Despite its claim that
the goal of the war in Gaza is the elimination of Hamas, Israel's
actions reveal its true intention: the collapse of Palestinian
society."
Mouin Rabbani:
All shook up: Regional dynamics of the Gaza War: This is a
chapter from the first significant book to come out about the
Gaza war since October 7,
Deluge: Gaza and Israel From Crisis to Cataclysm, edited
by Jamie Stern-Weiner (OR Books).
Richard Silverstein:
Norman Solomon: [04-03]
When an escalation in war isn't newsworthy to the New York Times:
"Why is the Times ignoring the latest huge transfer of 2,000-pound
bombs from the US to Israel?"
Jeffrey St Clair: [04-05]
Incident on the Al-Rashid Coastal Road: "In the anodyne language
of military slaughter, it's called a 'triple tap' -- three successive
strikes to make sure you've eliminated your target -- the target in
this case being the occupants of three vehicles of the World Central
Kitchen."
Noga Tarnopolsky: [04-07]
Israelis are hostages of Netanyahu: "With the prime minister still
refusing to resign, every day feels like October 7."
Amanda Taub: [04-02]
Israel bombed an Iranian embassy complex. Is that allowed?
Well, when you ask the New York Times, you're liable to get: "Israel
can likely argue that its actions did not violate international law's
protections for diplomatic missions, experts say."
Ishaan Tharoor:
Peter Wade: [04-07]
José Andrés: Israel is conducting a 'war against humanity itself':
"'The [World Central Kitchen] convoy was deliberately attacked, it was
obvious . . . This was targeted,' the humanitarian chef said of the
killing of seven aid workers in Gaza."
Brett Wilkins:
Robert Wright: [04-05]
How the US media encourages Bibi's dangerous brinksmanship.
Oren Ziv: [04-05]
Israeli teen jailed for refusing draft: 'I'm willing to pay a price
for my principles': Ben Arad.
Israel vs. world opinion:
Mohammad Jehad Ahmad: [04-04]
Zionists have tried to silence me through doxing and intimidation.
"A Palestinian teacher describes being targeted by Zionist groups with
doxing and public harassment. He urges the New York City Chancellor of
Education to take action before it turns violent."
José Andrés: [04-03]
Let people eat.
Michael Arria:
Samer Badawi: [04-02]
Even without a UN veto, Gaza remains hostage to American power:
"The downplaying of the Security Council's ceasefire resolution
shows why the world can no longer look to Washington as the arbiter
of a rules-based order."
Mayar Darawsha: [04-03]
Judge Aharon Barak is repeating Israeli propaganda at the ICJ:
Israel was able to appoint Barak as an "ad-hoc judge" on the ICJ,
but he's "less like a judge and more like a mouthpiece for official
Israeli propaganda."
Lawrence Davidson: [04-04]
Sick cultures: When belief systems turn pathological: Comparative
examples, from the US and Israel.
David French: [04-07]
Israel is making the same mistake America made in Iraq:
Americans may be impressed by this argument, but Israelis won't be:
Think of those words: "renewed insurgency." That means Israel was
doing exactly what we did for much of the Iraq war -- fighting again
over ground we had presumably already seized. And the sad reality of
those terrible battles reminded me of a seemingly counterintuitive
truth: In the fight against terrorists, providing humanitarian aid
isn't just a moral imperative; it's a military necessity.
The terrible civilian toll and looming famine in Gaza are a human
tragedy that should grieve us all; they are also directly relevant
to the outcome of the war. A modern army like Israel's can absolutely
defeat Hamas in a direct confrontation, regardless of whether it
provides aid to civilians. But as we've learned in our own wars
abroad, it cannot preserve its victory unless it meets Gazans' most
basic needs.
Israel has an answer to complaints like this: you don't have to
win hearts & minds if you simply kill everyone. The Americans
never considered that option in Iraq. Bush even fantasized that he
was liberating people, and that they'd respond by thanking him.
Netanyahu doesn't imagine that for a moment. He knows deep in his
bones that Palestinians will never forgive him. He knows they'll
remember him as long as Israelis remember Masada. So what if every
martyr he kills produces another one. That's just more Palestinians
he needs to kill. As long as the net kill ratio is positive, he's
good.
Kelly Garrity: [04-08]
Elizabeth Warren says she believes Israel's war in Gaza will legally
be considered genocide.
Melvin Goodman: [04-05]
Meet the newest apologist for Israel: Rear Admiral John Kirby:
Spokesman for Biden's National Security Council.
Mel Gurtov: [04-06]
US complicity in Israel genocide takes another step.
David Hearst: [04 -07]
For the defenders of Israel's war on Gaza, the game is up:
"Staunch allies calling themselves friends of Israel are beginning
to realise they are also friends of the murderers of western aid
workers, friends of genocide and friends of fascism."
Chris Hedges: [04-02]
A genocide foretold: "The genocide in Gaza is the final stage
of a process begun by Israel decades ago."
Hebh Jamal: [04-07]
Germany is becoming a police state when it comes to Palestine
activism.
Jonathan Ofir: [04-06]
We Israelis are the biggest Holocaust deniers: "The Jewish state
learned that it can commit its own Holocaust in Gaza and deny that
it exists."
Ilan Pappé: [02-01]
It is dark before the dawn, but Israeli settler colonialism is at an
end: A talk given to Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) on
their annual Genocide Memorial Day, by one of the premier historians
of Israel/Palestine. Also from the same issue:
James Ray: [04-07]
No, Senator Schumer, Netanyahu isn't the problem: "The problem
isn't just with Benjamin Netanyahu. It is with Zionist settler
colonialism." But it's been Netanyahu's meal ticket all along, so
he's an obvious symbol.
Alex Skopic: [04-04]
Israel's propaganda machine is filling the internet with misinformation:
"A sophisticated network of websites is spreading pro-Israel posts
and suppressing content that 'harms Israel's image.'"
Bret Stephens: [03-12]
Israel has no choice but to fight on: He's totally in the bag
for Netanyahu, so much so he thinks he can set up a mock argument
and expound on his position as brilliantly as Socrates. You'll be
hard-pressed to find a premise that makes sense, but his deductions
are even more far-fetched. "So what do you suggest the Biden
administration do? Help Israel win the war decisively so that
Israelis and Palestinians can someday win the peace." It's hard
to stop quoting this nonsense. Every line makes my blood boil,
less from disbelief that anyone could be this cruel and stupid
than from amazement that anyone could be so oblivious in their
arrogance.
Enzo Traverso: [04-06]
The Gaza massacre is undermining the culture of democracy.
Kathleen Wallace: [04-05]
The death of plausible deniability: An ethnic cleansing in real time.
Philip Weiss: [04-07]
Weekly Briefing; The sudden urgency of isolating a pariah state.
Many good points here, including his rejection of "three lies the
establishment is now telling about Palestine to justify not isolating
Israel:
- "If Netanyahu were gone Israel would behave differently." This is
"patently false."
- "We have to get back to preserving the path to a two-state solution."
He realizes this will never happen without radical change in Israel,
and counters: "We have to get to human dignity and equal rights, no
matter the political boundaries."
- "The Hamas atrocities of October 7 are unique and a cause for
war." Not so: "they were inevitable as the slave revolts of the
1830s in the U.S. They will happen again so long as Jewish supremacy
is the law for Palestinians."
America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire:
Edward Hunt: [04-08]
An illegal war with Houthis isn't stopping the Red Sea crisis:
"US attacks in Yemen are dangerous and unnecessary. Any real solution
starts in Gaza."
William Leogrande: [04-02]
Watching US Cuba policy in the theater of the absurd.
Christopher Mott: [04-08]
Bibi's push for a long war undermines Israel's best friend -- America.
Vincent Ortiz: [04-06]
US sanctions on Iran are devastating and ineffective. Not the
words I would use, for while partly true they misread the political
dynamics on both sides. US sanctions actually reinforce the most
regressive factions in Iran. If the idea was to weaken them and to
encourage more accommodating factions, sure, they're ineffective.
But if the idea is to promote hostility that would bind neighbors,
like Saudi Arabia and Israel, more closely to the US and its arms
industries, then they're working splendidly. How "devastating"
the sanctions are to ordinary Iranians is less clear. They can
be, especially for small countries that depend on imports (like
Gaza), but large, self-contained economies (like Russia and Iran)
can hobble along indefinitely, while credibly blaming the US (as
opposed to their own incompetence) for shortages.
Trita Parsi: [04-08]
Iran says it won't strike Israel if US gets Gaza ceasefire.
Paul R Pillar: [04-05]
Is Israel's plan to draw the US into a war with Iran?
Nick Turse:
Adam Weinstein/Trita Parsi: [04-04]
Biden's inaction on Gaza puts US troops at risk.
Election notes: There were presidential primaries on April 2,
all won as expected by Biden and Trump:
Connecticut: Trump 77.9%, Biden 84.9%;
New York: Trump 82.1%, Biden 91.5%;
Rhode Island: Trump 84.5%, Biden 82.6%;
Wisconsin: Trump 79.2%, Biden 88.6%; also
Delaware has no vote totals, but gave all delegates to Trump and Biden.
The next primary will be in Pennsylvania on April 23.
Trump, and other Republicans:
Jonathan Allen/Matt Dixon/Garrett Haake: [04-07]
Trump tells billionaires he'll keep their taxes low at $50 million
fundraising gala.
Isaac Arnsdorf: [04-04]
How Steve Bannon guided the MAGA movement's rebound from Jan. 6.
Excerpt from the book,
Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement's Ground War to End
Democracy.
Another review:
Zack Beauchamp: [04-06]
The right-wing scammers who paved the way for Trump: "A new
book shows how conservative grift started long before branded
bibles and $400 sneakers." Interview with Joe Conason, whose
book (not identified in the article, not out until July 9) is
The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked
American Conservatism. Needless to say, any book that starts
with Joe McCarthy and leads to Donald Trump has a lot of Roy Cohn
in the middle.
Luke Broadwater/Alan Feuer: [04-04]
GOP Congressman's wild claim: RBI entrapped Jan. 6 rioters:
Clay Higgins (R-LA).
Mark A Caputo: [04-02]
Trump won't commit on Florida abortion vote: "Sunshine state voters
will decide whether abortion belongs in the state constitution. But
one Florida Man won't weigh in on the 'A-word.'"
Jonathan Chait: [04-04]
Trump indifferent to Palestinian death, but moved by images of building
damage: "Another deranged interview."
Kyle Chayka: [04-03]
Trump's social-media Potemkin village: "After an IPO last week,
Truth Social is confronting the gaping incongruity between its
valuation and the paltry reality of its product."
Ryan Cooper:
[04-01]
Will voters hear about Donald Trump's deranged health care agenda?
"A second Trump term means tens of millions of people losing insurance
and chaos in hospitals."
[04-04]
The pious one, Donald Trump: "The least likely embodiment of
Christian virtues in American life is practically runnintg as an
evangelical minister." I find it interesting when people who don't
particularly believe in Christianity come around to defend the
decency of the religion's fundamental tenets from the embarrassing
depredations of the loudest Christians:
Indeed, in one of my favorite verses, Jesus says not only do you go
to Hell if you do not care for the hungry or sick, welcome the stranger,
and visit people in prison. He further says that if you do those things
for "the least of these brothers and sisters of mine" you are doing them
to Jesus Himself. It's a profoundly egalitarian sentiment -- not only
does God instruct Christians to help the worst-off in society, He
identifies Himself with the worst-off.
After all, this was Nietzsche's whole problem with Christianity. In
his view, it replaced the aristocratic "master morality" celebrating
power and domination with an egalitarian "slave morality" in which it
is wrong to oppress the weak.
David Corn:
Igor Derysh:
Chauncey DeVega: [04-02]
"Perfectly predictable": Dr John Gartner on why "a malignant
narcissist like Trump" sells Bibles: Gartner says, "It fits
perfectly into both his personality disorder's hypomanic grandiosity
and its paranoid sense of grievance." Gartner is one of several
interviewed for this review of Trump/Republicans' efforts to
politicize Easter.
Maureen Dowd:
Abdallah Fayyad: [04-04]
Trump has set up a perfect avenue for potential corruption: "With
Truth Social going public, big investors could easily buy influence
in a second Trump term."
Susan B Glasser: [04-04]
Donald Trump's amnesia advantage: "The 2024 race comes down to just
how much America has lost its collective mind about its disastrous
former President." I don't quite buy this argument. No doubt, the
people who expected Trump to be awful saw plenty to confirm their
fears. But, at least in the short term, how many of the people who
basically supported Trump were really disappointed? The economy
was increasingly inequal, but pretty solid until the pandemic hit,
and the Democrats bailed him out then, shoring up businesses and
protecting workers. But if you survived Covid -- and those who
didn't aren't in the equation any more -- you came out of it about
as well as you went in. Trump didn't just into new wars, and he
significantly withdrew from Afghanistan (while leaving Biden to
be blamed for the defeat he negotiated). Pollution and climate
are issues with longer-term impact, so unless you were aware at
the time, you're probably unaware still. Unless you pay close
attention, for most people there's little practical difference
regardless of who's president, so it makes sense that lots of
people will base their vote on charisma, style, and affinity --
with Trump, qualities you either love or hate.
Jeet Heer: [04-08]
His billionaire buddies' bribery bails out Trump, again and again:
"The problem isn't that the former president is broke but that he's
for sale."
Brian Karem: [04-04]
Trump's revenge against Julian Assange broke the media: "How
Trump's petty vindictiveness makes the media worse." I don't doubt
that the prosecution of Assange was meant to scare media outlets
away from exposing secrets, or that Trump is vindictive -- Obama
started on Assange, but Mike Pompeo was always his most rabid
inquisitor, and Pompeo's influence grew under Trump -- but the
media broke on several fracture lines, and the one Trump was most
directly responsible for was in capturing media attention for his
outrageous showboating, while decrying as "fake news" anything
that displeased him, and thereby making news out of "fake news."
Robert Kuttner: [04-02]
How Republicans screw workers: "Efforts by Obama and Biden to
enforce labor laws have been systematically undermined by right-wing
courts and legislators. This should be a prime election theme."
Amanda Marcotte:
Kelly McClure:
Dana Milbank: [04-05]
Trump swindles his followers again.
Anna North: [04-08]
Trump may sound moderate on abortion. The groups setting his agenda
definitely aren't.
Heather Digby Parton: [04-05]
Marjorie Taylor Greene is out for Republican blood: "House Speaker
Mike Johnson may have to be saved by Democrats after MTG is done with
him."
Ben Protess/Matthew Haag: [04-04]
New York Attorney General questions Trump's $175 million bond deal:
"Letitia James said in court papers that the California company providing
the guarantee was not qualified to do such deals in New York."
Rebecca Solnit: [04-02]
The Republican party has become a full-fledged anti-sex movement.
Michael Tomasky: [04-01]
The Trump double standard: He's the least persecuted pol in America:
"Anyone else who did all the Things Trump has done, or stands accused
of having done[*], the wheels of justice, legal and political, would
have moved more swiftly." [*] Why this disclaimer? "Innocent until
proven guilty" is a legal principle we should respect, but what he
actually did is a matter of well-established historical record.
There is uncertainty about when and how he will be punished (if at
all), but at least regarding what he's been charged with, the facts
are pretty clear.
Fareed Zakaria: [04-05]
How Trump fills a void in an increasingly secular America.
I've been reading Tricia Romano's oral history of The Village
Voice,
The
Freaks Came Out to Write, and ran into a section on Wayne
Barrett, who started reporting on Trump in the 1970s, and published
the first serious book on Trump in 1992. The discussion there is
worth quoting at some length (pp. 522-524):
TOM ROBBINS: Wayne appreciated the fact that Trump could be
a serious player, given his willingness to play the race card, which
was clear from his debut speech that he was gonna go after illegal
immigrants and Mexicans. As long as you're going to outwardly play
the race card in the Republican primary, you can actually command a
lot. And Wayne understood that. He was surprised as the rest of us the
way that Trump just mowed down the rest of the opposition and that
nobody could stand up to him.
WILLIAM BASTONE: He knew that Trump was appealing to
something that was going to have traction with people and that wasn't
just a passing thing. I said, "Wayne, don't you think people see
through this and they understand that he's really just a con man and a
huckster and a racist?" The stuff goes back, at that point, almost
thirty years with his father and avoiding renting apartments to Black
families in Brooklyn.
And he was like, "No, that's gonna be a plus for him, for the
people that he's going to end up attracting." I was like, "You're
crazy, Wayne. You're crazy."
There was talk that he may have used racially charged or racist
remarks when he was doing The Apprentice. And I said, "So
Wayne, if it ever came out that Trump used those words or used the
N-word?" And Wayne said, "That would be good for him." He was totally
right. And then nine months later, he's talking about shooting people
on Fifth Avenue. Trump understood that "there's really nothing I can
do [wrong] because these people hate the people I hate, and we're all
gonna be together."
TOM ROBBINS: When I was at the Observer, I had a
column in there called Wise Guys. And at that point, Trump was talking
about running for president. This was 1987, that was thirty years
before he actually ran, almost. He was focused on this from the very
beginning. And none of us took him seriously. . . .
As someone who worked with the tabloid press for a long time, the
people who invented Trump were all those tabloid gossip reporters who
dined out from all of his items over the years and who reported them
right up until the time he ran for president. This is one of the great
unrecognized crimes of the press. We in the tabloid press created
Trump; it wasn't Wayne. Wayne was going after him.
JONATHAN Z. LARSEN: This is the media's Frankenstein's
monster. Trump would call, using a fake name, saying, "I'm the PR guy
for Donald Trump. I really shouldn't be telling you this, but he's
about to get divorced, and he's got three women he's looking
at. There's Marla Maples. There's so-and-so." Very often the people
that he was speaking to recognized his voice. They loved it. It was
free copy.
Barrett really did have some incredibly good information on Trump,
how he built Trump Tower. The head of the concrete union was mobbed
up. There was this crazy woman who bought the apartment just
underneath Donald Trump's because she was sleeping with the concrete
guy, and she wanted to install a pool. It's astonishing, the stuff he
got. It's a national treasure now that we have Wayne Barrett's
reporting. As soon as Trump became president, everybody was picking
through all of Wayne's files.
The ellipsis covers a section on Barrett's Trump book, and stopped
before a section on Barrett's horror watching the 2016 returns. By
then Barrett was terminably ill, and he died just before Trump's
inauguration. I remember reading about Trump in the Voice
back in the 1970s, so I was aware of him as a major scumbag, but I
took no special interest in him otherwise. Anything I did notice
simply added to my initial impression.
Biden and/or the Democrats:
Aaron Blake: [04-05]
Gaza increasingly threatens Democrats' Trump-era unity.
Ben Burgis: [04-04]
Democratic voters are furious about US support of Israel.
Rachel M Cohen: [04-01]
You can't afford to buy a house. Biden knows that.
Page S Gardner/Stanley B Greenberg: [03-15]
They don't want Trump OR Biden. Here's how they still can elect
Biden. "Our new survey of these voters shows the president can
still win their support."
Robert Kuttner: [04-04]
Liberals need to be radicals: "The agenda for Biden's next term
must go deeper to restore the American dream." The substance here is
fine, but why resort to clichés? The "American dream" was never more
than a dream. One can argue that we should dream again, and work to
realize those dreams for everyone. Back in the 1960s, the first real
political book I bought was an anthology called
The New
Radicals, edited by Paul Jacobs and Saul Landau, and I immediately
saw the appeal of the word "radical" for those who seek deep roots of
social problems, but nowadays the word is mostly used as a synonym
for "extremist." But perhaps more importantly, I've cooled on the
desirability for deep solutions (revolutions) and come to appreciate
more superficial reforms. I would refashioned the title to say that
"liberals need to be leftists," because the liberal dream of freedom
can only be universalized through solidarity with others, and is of
little value if limited to self-isolating individuals.
Tim Miller: [04-05]
Joe Biden is not a "genocidal maniac": "And it's not just wrong
but reckless and irresponsible to say he is." I agree with the title,
but I disagree with the subhed. Genocide wasn't his idea, nor is it
something he craves maniacally. But he is complicit in genocide, and
not just passively so. He has said things that have encouraged Israel,
and he has done things that have materially supported genocide. He
has shielded them in the UN, with "allies," and in the media. I've
thought a lot about morality lately, and I've come to think that it
(and therefore immorality) can only be considered among people who
have the freedom to decide on their own what to say and do. Many
people are severely limited in their autonomy, but as president of
the United States, Biden does have a lot of leeway, and should be
judged accordingly.
I realize that one might argue that morality is subordinate to
politics -- that sometimes actual political considerations convince
one to do things that normally regard as immoral (like going to war
against Nazi Germany, or nuking Hiroshima) -- but the fundamentals
remain the same: is the politician free to choose? One might argue
that Biden's initial blind support for Israel was purely reflexive --
lessons he had learned over fifty years in AIPAC-dominated Washington,
a reflex shared by nearly every other politician so conditioned --
but even so, as president Biden had access to information and a lot
of leeway to act, and therefore should be held responsible for his
political, as well as moral, decisions.
Miller goes on to upbraid people for saying "Genocide Joe." He
makes fair points, but hey, given the conditions, that's going to
happen. Most of us have very little power to influence someone like
Biden -- compared to big-time donors, colleagues, and pundits, all
of whom are still pretty limited -- so trying to shame him with a
colorful nickname is one of the few things one can try. In a similar
vein, we used to taunt: "Hey, hey, LBJ; how many kids did you kill
today?" And sure, LBJ was more directly responsible for the slaughter
in Vietnam than Biden is in Gaza, but both earned the blame. Biden,
at least, still has a chance to change course. If he fails, he, and
he alone, sealed his fate.
Elena Schneider/Jeff Coltin: [03-29]
Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted Biden's glitzy New York
fundraiser: "The event padded Biden's cash advantage, but laid
bare one of his biggest weaknesses." The Biden campaign's response
seems to be to try to exclude potential protesters:
Lisa Lerer/Reid J Epstein/Katie Glueck: [04-07]
How Gaza protesters are challenging Democratic leaders: "From
President Biden to the mayors of small cities, Democrats have been
trailed by demonstrators who are complicating the party's ability
to campaign in an election year." By the way, better term here
than in the Politico piece: you don't have to be "pro-Palestinian"
to be appalled by genocide. You can even be consciously pro-Israel,
someone who cares so much for Israel that your most fervent desire
is to spare them the shame of the path Netanyahu et al. have set
out on.
Washington Monthly: [04-07]
Trump vs. Biden: Who got more done? The print edition has a
series of "accomplishment index" articles comparing the records
of the two presidents. You can probably guess the results, especially
if you don't count corruption and vandalism, the main drivers of the
Trump administration, as accomplishments:
Paul Glastris:
Introduction: Who got more done?.
Bill Scher:
Legislation.
Jacob Heilbrunn:
Foreign policy: This is by far the most problematic area, because
while Trump did real damage -- especially by wrecking openings Obama
(Kerry?) had negotiated to Iran and Cuba -- Biden overshot what were
supposed to be corrections "strengthening the international liberal
order" but turned into provoking a war with Russia over Ukraine and
not deterring Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Caroline Fredrickson:
Courts.
Garphill Julien:
Trade.
Rob Wolfe:
Regulation.
Brigid Schulte:
Work & family.
Will Norris:
Antitrust?
Marc Novicoff:
Immigration?
- Merrill Goozner:
Health care.
- Suzanne Gordon/Steve Early:
Veterans.
Legal matters and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Economic matters:
Ukraine War:
Around the world:
The bridge:
Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter: I played the album (twice),
and will present my thoughts in the next Music Week. I figured I
was pretty much done with it before I started collecting these,
but thought it might be interesting to note them:
Other stories:
Hannah Goldfield: [04-08]
In the kitchen with the grand dame of Jewish cooking: Gnoshing
with Joan Nathan.
Luke Goldstein: [04-02]
The in-flight magazine for corporate jets: "The Economist has
channeled the concerns of elites for decades. It sees the Biden
administration as a threat."
Stephen Holmes: [04-04]
Radical mismatch: A review of Samuel Moyn: Liberalism Against
Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times.
David Cay Johnston: [04-05]
Antitax nation: Review of Michael J Graetz:
The
Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America,
explaining "how clever marketing duped America into shoveling more
tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations."
Sarah Jones:
Natalie Korach/Ross A Lincoln: [04-05]
Meta blocks Kansas Reflector and MSNBC columnist over op-ed criticizing
Facebook: "The company says Friday afternoon that the blocks, which
falsely labeled the links as spam, were due to 'a security error.'"
A Wichita columnist also wrote on this:
Orlando Mayorquin/Amanda Holpuch: [04-07]
Southwest plane makes emergency landing after Boeing engine cover
falls off. And just when I thought I'd get through a week with
no Boeing stories. Then I noticed I had two more waiting:
Rick Perlstein: [04-03]
Joe Lieberman not only backed Bush's war; he also helped make Bush
president: "A remembrance of this most feckless of Democrats."
Nathan J Robinson: And other recent pieces from his zine,
Current Affairs:
[03-28]
My date with destiny: "Reviewing major issues in the Israel-Palestine
conflict." Starts with an anecdote about a "massive argument -- with
a popular streamer named Destiny," then gets down to business with
extensively documented sections on the following:
- Starvation in Gaza: Is it happening and who is responsible?
- Is there a genocide?
- Is there apartheid in Palestine?
- Zionism, 1948, and the obstacles to peace
I'm getting to this piece very late in my cycle -- well after
writing my introductory screed and several other lengthy comments --
otherwise I'd feature it up top, at least as one of the best
historical background pieces I've seen recently. Along the way,
he mentions the following:
[2023-10-16]
The current Israel-Palestine crisis was entirely avoidable:
Interview with Jerome Slater, author of
Mythologies
Without End: The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,
1917-2020, conducted right after the October 7 revolt.
[04-02]
What Trump understand about war: "Donald Trump's militarism is
even worse than Biden's. But he's keeping relatively quiet on
Israel-Palestine, probably because he knows the public doesn't like
war." This is fundamentally right, but I'm finding a lot of details
to quibble with. [Something to do later.] But the point I'd most
want to stress is that while Trump sounds more militarist -- he
gropes the flag, wanted to stage Moscow-style tank-and-missile
parades, wants to be seen as a tough guy -- his political skill
is to identify "messes," blame them on Democrats, and claim that
nothing like that would dare happen under his watch (because, you
know, he's such a tough guy). And wars are always messes, so they're
easy targets for Trump.
[04-08]
Why we need limits on extreme wealth: Interview with Ingrid
Robeyns, author of
Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth.
[2023-06-14]
We must banish 'bootstraps' mythology from American life:
Interview with Alissa Quart, around the time her book
Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves From the American Dream
came out in hardcover, but note that it's coming out in paperback
on April 9.
Rob Larson: [01-30]
Let's test the 'intelligence' of tech billionaires.
Alberto C Medina: [04-05]
The case for Puerto Rican independence.
Lily Sanchez: [03-20]
Against incrementalism.
Alex Skopic: [03-25]
Ye and the problem of fascist art: "The rapper's embrace of
Nazi ideology is strange and awful, but it can teach us a lot
about how far-right politics spread."
K Wilson: [04-05]
Why the right constantly panics over societal 'decadence':
From Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West through a
number of recent references, including Nick Fuentes and Jordan
Peterson (and Alexander Dugin, who fears a similar decline, but
in his case, caused by the West).
Jeffrey St Clair: [04-04]
The day John Sinclair died: "The poet, musician, writer, pot
liberator, raconteur, Tigers fan, jazzbo, political radical,
producer of MC5, founder of the White Panthers and occasional
CounterPunch, John Sinclair died this week at 82."
Michael Stavola: [04-03]
Wichitan involved in deadly swatting arrested after reportedly doing
donuts in Old Town: This story, where Wichita Police murdered
Andrew Finch, keeps getting sicker. The trigger man not only got off,
he's since been promoted, even after the city agreed to pay $5 million
to the victim's family, while they managed to pin blame on three other
pranksters. There's plenty of blame to go around. Not even mentioned
here is the gun lobby and their Republican stooges who did so much to
create an atmosphere where dozens of trigger-happy cops are dispatched
to deal with an anonymous complaint, totally convinced that everyone
they encounter is at likely to be armed and shoot as they are.
Carl Wilson: [03-25]
Sweeping up kernels from Pop Con 2024. Includes links to key
presentations by
Robert Christgau,
Michaelangelo Matos,
Glenn McDonald,
De Angela L Duff,
Alfred Soto, and
Ned Raggett.
I scribbled this down from a Nathan J Robinson
tweet: "very interesting discussion of how, during World War I,
attrocities attributed to German soldiers were used to whip people
into a frenzy and create an image of a monstrous, inhuman enemy --
atrocities that later turned out to be dubious/exaggerated, well
after the fighting stopped." That was followed by a scan from an
unidentified book:
. . . stated that the Germans had systematically murdered, outraged,
and violated innocent men, women, and children in Belgium. "Murder,
lust, and pillage," the report said, "prevailed over many parts of
Belgium on a scale unparalleled in any war between civilised nations
during the last three centuries." The report gave titillating details
of how German officers and men had publicly raped twenty Belgian girls
in the market place at Ličge, how eight German soldiers had bayoneted
a two-year-old child, and how another had sliced off a peasant girl's
breasts in Malilnes. Bryce's signature added considerable weight to
the report, and it was not until after the war that several
unsatisfactory aspects of the Bryce committee's activities
emerged. The committee had not personally interviewed a single
witness. The report was based on 1,200 depositions, mostly from
Belgian refugees, taken by twenty-two barristers in Britain. None of
the witnesses were placed on oath, their names were omitted (to
prevent reprisals against their relatives), and hearsay evidence was
accepted at full value. Most disturbing of all was the fact that,
although the depositions should have been filed at the Home Office,
they had mysteriously disappeared, and no trace of them has been found
to this day. Finally, a Belgian commission of enquiry in 1922, when
passions had cooled, failed markedly to corroborate a single major
allegation in the Bryce report. By then, of course, the report had
served its purpose. Its success in arousing hatred and condemnation of
Germany makes it one of the most successful propaganda pieces of the
war.
Thursday, April 04, 2024
Daily Log
My brother and his wife came to visit yesterday. They wanted to go
out to eat the famous fried chicken at Stroud's, so we did that. I've
never been there without thinking that I could do a better job, a riff
that actually started with my mother thinking just that, which she
definitely could and did, hundreds of times.
I offered to cook one day, and Steve said that one thing he wanted
to do on this trip was have a "good family dinner." So I proposed to
cook for Thursday evening. I figured we'd also invite Ram and Jerry
over -- our nephew, and Jerry's about as close to family as a friend
can get. As I was waking up, I thought through a number of possible
menus. What I came up with was:
- Roasted chicken with fennel and clementines: An Ottolenghi recipe,
marinated in ouzo, best with chicken thighs.
- Roasted sweet potatoes & dates: Another Ottolenghi, original
called for figs but mejdol dates are better, with scallions and
balsamic glaze.
- Caponata: Eggplant, zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes, with an
extra bit of sweet and sour, from Jenkins, a variation on ratatouille.
I picked this over several Ottolenghi recipes, because it's easier
both to shop for and to cook, and exceptionally good.
- Horiatiki salad: My standard Greek chopped salad. I considered
an Ottolenghi spinach salad, and shopped for it, so it's still an
option.
- Parsley & barley salad: Another Ottolenghi. I figured I had
the barley, so would be an easy side.
- Mast va khiar: Iranian cucumber-yogurt-mint salad, with scallions,
sultanas, and black walnuts. Last minute addition, one I often make,
which goes with everything.
- Pineapple upside-down cake: Jerry's favorite, a belated birthday
cake, with vanilla ice cream on the side.
I figure I can make a substantial start on this tonight, then finish
it up rather easily tomorrow. First went shopping this afternoon. Took
two Dillons, as the first one didn't have chicken thighs with skin on,
and the second didn't have any out, but found some in the back. Main
substitute was mandarins for clementines. I also wound up buying eggplant
in both stores, as it looked much better in the second. Not sure what
I'll do with the surplus.
Minimum plan for cooking tonight: marinate the chicken; bake the cake;
make cucumber-yogurt. I may also go ahead and roast the sweet potatoes,
although they're pretty easy day-of. Barley salad would also be an easy
project tonight. For that matter, I could do the caponata (except for
the vinegar, which goes in just before serving).
Tomorrow, the chicken will be timed to be served straight from the
oven, so there's very little to it, and the timing is straightforward.
The caponata takes a few hours to cook down, but little attention. The
sweet potatoes is just presentation after the wedges are roasted. The
salad is just chopped, then dressed with a little olive oil.
I should make a pitcher of iced tea, since that's my brother's
preferred beverage. I have a bake-it-yourself baguette, so if I
get bored, I might consider some kind of canapés. Still hard to
see that I need much more.
Mike & family are coming on Friday, but will probably be
late -- they're driving from Washington. There should be leftovers,
plus various things that can be improvised as needed. Plan is for
him to cook dinner on Saturday, inviting a few of his friends over.
We haven't discussed menu yet, but any excess shopping can be folded
into that meal.
Post-dinner update [03-05]: Got the minimum, plus the barley salad,
done Wednesday night. I should probably cut the cake time down a bit,
as it came out a bit dry. It's designed for a 9-inch cake pan, but I
use a 10-inch stainless steel skillet (two metal handles instead of
the long wooden one).
Started Thursday by roasting the sweet potatoes. Caponata recipe
was more complicated than I remembered. Called for roasted red bell
peppers, which the 475F for the sweet potatoes was perfect for. Cut
the eggplant and soaked it in brine. Then the veggies had to be cooked
separately, added to the roasted peppers: onion/garlic, eggplant,
zucchini, then the tomatoes (I used a large can of peeled, adding a
small can of fire-roasted crushed). When I had the tomatoes reduced
to a thick sauce, I added the sugar/vinegar, the cooked veggies,
some spices, capers, and eventually some chopped green olives. I
kept the heat on low until I served it.
I finished up the sweet potatoes, adding sliced dates and sauteeing
the scallions. I usually have store-bought balsamic glaze, but didn't
have enough, so had to make a batch from scratch. Chicken went into
the gas oven about 5:15. Looked pretty good at 6:00, but I flipped
the broiler on for good measure. I moved the pieces to a baking dish,
then scraped the drippings (after pouring off some fat) into a saucepan
with the leftover marinade, reduced it, and poured the sauce over the
chicken. Truly spectacular dish.
Seven people: Steve, Josi, Ram, Jerry, Beth, Laura and me. Jerry
and Beth made a "fashionably late" entrance, by which time we were
all pretty sated. Gave us a breather before dessert. Kitchen was a
mess, but cleaned up fairly quickly. Lots of leftover caponata, mast
va khiar, and barley salad. Only one piece of chicken left (of 10
thighs, about 5.25 lbs), and a few slivers of sweet potato.
I didn't get to bed until close to 4. Didn't sleep well, waking
up at 7, then finally got up around 9. I should use the time to
write on Israel/Gaza, since I won't have much free time until
Sunday (if then). Heard from Mike that they have a tire problem,
which left them in Rock Springs. So if they make it tonight, it
will be a long drive, arriving late. He's still planning on cooking
dinner for his friends Saturday.
Tuesday, April 02, 2024
Music Week
Expanded blog post,
April archive
(in progress).
Tweet: Music Week: 40 albums, 7 A-list
Music: Current count 42079 [42039] rated (+40), 39 [31] unrated (+8).
New records reviewed this week:
- 1010benja: Ten Total (2024, Three Six Zero): [sp]: A-
- Miguel Atwood-Ferguson: Les Jardins Mystiques Vol. 1 (2023, Brainfeeder, 3CD): [sp]: B+(***)
- Jim Baker/Steve Hunt/Jakob Heinemann: Horizon Scanners (2022 [2024], Clean Feed): [sp]: B+(**)
- Peter Brötzmann/Paal Nilssen-Love: Chicken Shit Bingo (2015 [2024], Trost): [bc]: B+(*)
- Christie Dashiell: Journey in Black (2023, self-released): [sp]: B+(**)
- Empress Of: For Your Consideration (2024, Major Arcana/Giant): [sp]: B+(**)
- Julieta Eugenio: Stay (2023 [2024], Cristalyn): [cd]: A-
- Four Tet: Three (2024, Text): [sp]: B+(***)
- Kim Gordon: The Collective (2024, Matador): [sp]: A-
- Guillermo Gregorio: Two Trios (2018-20 [2023], ESP-Disk): [cd]: B+(***)
- Guillermo Gregorio/Damon Smith/Jerome Bryerton: The Cold Arrow (2022 [2023], Balance Point Acoustics): [sp]: B+(**)
- Mercer Hassy Orchestra: Duke's Place (2022-23 [2024], Mercer Hassy): [cd]: A- [04-15)
- Jlin: Akoma (2024, Planet Mu): [sp]: B+(***)
- Julien Knowles: As Many, as One (2023 [2024], Biophilia): [cd]: B+(*) [04-26]
- Anysia Kym: Truest (2024, 10k, EP): [sp]: B+(*)
- Ellie Lee: Escape (2024, self-released): [cd]: B+(***) [05-24]
- Adrianne Lenker: Bright Future (2024, 4AD): [sp]: B+(***)
- Kali Malone: All Life Long (2024, Ideologic Organ): [sp]: B+(*)
- The Messthetics/James Brandon Lewis: The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis (2024, Impulse!): [sp]: B+(***)
- Travis Reuter: Quintet Music (2022 [2024], self-released): [cd]: B+(***) [04-19]
- Schoolboy Q: Blue Lips (2024, Interscope): [sp]: B+(*)
- Altin Sencalar: Discover the Present (2024, Posi-Tone): [sp]: B+(*)
- Matthew Shipp Trio: New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz (2023 [2024], ESP-Disk): [cd]: A- [04-05]
- Jacob Shulman: High Firmament (2024, Endectomorph Music): [cdr]: B
- Jacob Shulman: Ferment Below (2024, Endectomorph Music): [cdr]: B
- Ronny Smith: Struttin' (2024, Pacific Coast Jazz): [cd]: B+(*) [04-19]
- Mary Timony: Untame the Tiger (2024, Merge): [sp]: B
- Erik Truffaz: Clap! (2023, Blue Note): [sp]: B+(*)
- Julia Vari Feat. Negroni's Trio: Somos (2024, Alternative Representa): [cd]: A-
- Fay Victor: Herbie Nichols SUNG: Life Is Funny That Way (2023 [2024], Tao Forms, 2CD): [cd]: A [04-05]
- Waxahatchee: Tigers Blood (2024, Anti-): [sp]: B+(***)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
- Sven-Ĺke Johansson und Alexander von Schlippenbach: Über Ursache und Wirkung der Meinungsverschiedenheiten Beim Turmbau zu Babel (1994 [2024], Trost): [bc]: B+(**)
- Microstoria: Init Ding + _Snd (1995-96 [2024], Thrill Jockey, 2CD): [sp]: B+(*)
Old music:
- Guillermo Gregorio: Faktura (1999-2000 [2002], Hat Now): [sp]: B+(**)
- Pauline Anna Strom: Trans-Millenia Consort (1982, Ether Ship): [sp]: B+(***)
- Pauline Anna Storm: Plot Zero (1982-83 [1983], Trans-Millenia Consort): [sp]: A-
- Pauline Anna Storm: Spectre (1982-83 [1984], Trans-Millenia Consrt): [sp]: B+(**)
- Pauline Anna Storm: Echoes, Spaces, Lines (1982-83 [2023], RVNG Intl): [sp/bc]: B+(***)
- Julia Vari: Adoro (2015, Alternativa Representa): [sp]: B+(**)
- Julia Vari: Lumea: Canciones del Mundo en Jazz (2013, Alternativa Representa): [sp]: B+(*)
- Julia Vari: Bygone Nights (2018, Alternative Representa, EP): [sp]: B+(*)
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Chet Baker & Jack Sheldon: In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album (1972, Jazz Detective) [04-20]
- John Basile: Heatin' Up (StringTime Jazz) [04-01]
- Nicola Caminiti: Vivid Tales of a Blurry Self-Portrait (self-released) [05-10]
- The Core: Roots (Moserobie) [04-12]
- Arnaud Dolmen/Leonardo Montana; LéNo (Quai Son) [03-29]
- Dave Douglas: Gifts (Greenleaf Music) [04-12]
- Yelena Eckemoff: Romance of the Moon (L&H PRoduction) [05-10]
- Eric Frazier: That Place (EFP Productions) [03-29]
- Jazz at the Ballroom: Flying High: Big Band Canaries Who Soared (Jazz at the Ballroom) [05-03]
- Maria Joăo & Carlos Bica Quartet: Close to You (JACC)
- Yusef Lateef: Atlantis Lullaby: The Concert From Avignon (1972, Elemental Music, 2CD) [04-26]
- Shawn Maxwell: J Town Suite (Cora Street) [05-01]
- Modney: Ascending Primes (Pyroclastic) [05-18]
- Mike Monford: The Cloth I'm Cut From (self-released) [05-04]
- Mute: After You've Gone (Endectomorph Music) * [05-13]
- The Michael O'Neill Sextet: Synergy: With Tony Lindsay (Jazzmo) [04-19]
- Sun Ra: At the Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-1977 (Jazz Detective, 2CD) [04-20]
- Art Tatum: Jewels in the Treasure Box: The 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club Recordings (Resonance, 3CD) [04-20]
- Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors (1995, Elemental Music, 2CD): [04-20]
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