Music Week

Expanded blog post, April archive (incomplete).

Music: current count 31371 [31344] rated (+27), 252 [251] unrated (+1).

May just be seasonal allergies, but feeling too lousy to even take a stab at writing an introduction. I still have XgauSez to edit and post before I go to bed tonight, so need to get onto that while I can.

A couple of notes, though. I've been talking about moving computers around for a month or more. I finally got that done this week. Best thing so far is that I have two relatively uncluttered desks to work on, instead of one hopelessly messy one. Also I moved the speakers above the desk, where they sound better and I can access the controls. (Also, now both computers have speakers. Subwoofers are still under the desk, where they should be, and that space is less cluttered than before. No website work yet, but I should get to that soon.

Delighted to see Michael Tatum's A Downloader's Diary (49) finally posted. I checked out a couple of his recommendations below (also found a new live Pet Shop Boys he didn't mention). Also continuing to pick albums off from Phil Overeem's 25% through the briar patch list.

Finally, I finally did manage to cast a Downbeat Critics Poll ballot, a day past the deadline, but seems likely to be counted (not that I could ever tell from the results). I didn't do a very good job of collecting notes this time, but here is what I have.

New records reviewed this week:

• Charlotte Adigery: Zandoli (2019, Deewee, EP): [r]: B+(**)
• Etienne Charles: Carnival: The Sound of a People Vol. 1 (2019, Culture Shock Music): [r]: B+(**)
• Ben Lamar Gay: Confetti in the Sky Like Fireworks [This Is Bate Bola OST] (2018 [2019], International Anthem): [r]: B
• Ariana Grande: Thank U, Next (2019, Republic): [r]: B+(**)
• William Hooker: Cycle of Restoration (2018 [2019], FPE): [r]: B+(*)
• Amber Mark: Conexão (2018, Virgin EMI, EP): [r]: B+(**)
• Wynton Marsalis: Bolden: Music From the Original Soundtrack (2019, Blue Engine): [cd]: B+(***)
• Xose Miguélez: Ontology (2018 [2019], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Billy Mohler: Focus! (2019, Make): [cd]: A-
• OGJB Quartet [Oliver Lake/Graham Haynes/Joe Fonda/Barry Altschul]: Bamako (2016 [2019], TUM): [cd]: B+(***)
• Nicki Parrott: From New York to Paris (2019, Arbors): [r]: B+(**)
• Jeremy Pelt: Jeremy Pelt the Artist (2018 [2019], HighNote): [r]: B+(*)
• Pet Shop Boys: Agenda (2019, X2, EP): [r]: B+(**)
• Pet Shop Boys: Inner Sanctum (2018 [2019], X2): [r]: A-
• Joshua Redman Quartet: Come What May (2018 [2019], Nonesuch): [r]: B+(***)
• Ruby Rushton: Ironside (2018 [2019], 22a): [r]: B
• Jim Snidero: Waves of Calm (2019, Savant): [r]: B+(***)
• Dave Stryker: Eight Track III (2019, Strikezone): [cd]: B+(**)
• James Suggs: You're Gonna Hear From Me (2018, Arbors): [r]: B+(**)
• Fumi Tomita: The Elephant Vanishes (2018 [2019], OA2): [cd]: B
• Warren Vaché: Songs Our Fathers Taught Us (2019, Arbors): [r]: B+(***)
• Dann Zinn: Day of Reckoning (2018 [2019], Origin): [cd]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Louis Armstrong: Sparks, Nevada 1964! (1964 [2018], Dot Time): [r]: A-
• Imamu Amiri Baraka: It's Nation Time: African Visionary Music (1972 [2018], Motown): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington: In Coventry, 1966 (1966 [2018], Storyville): [r]: B
• Ben Lamar Gay: 500 Chains (2013-14 [2018], International Anthem): [r]: B+(***)
• Ben Lamar Gay: Grapes (2013-14 [2018], International Anthem): [r]: B+(*)
• Ben Lamar Gay/Edinho Gerber: Benjamin E Edinho (2011-13 [2018], International Anthem, EP): [r]: B+(*)
• Joanne Grauer: Introducing Lorraine Feather (1978 [2018], MPS): [r]: B+(*)
• Kankyo Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environental and New Age Music 1980-1990 (1980-90 [2019], Light in the Attic): [r]: A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Juan Álamo & Marimjazzia: Ruta Panoramica (Summit)
• Larry Koonse: New Jazz Standards Vol. 4 (Summit)
• Lisa Maxwell's Jazz Orchestra: Shiny! (Uncle Marvin Music): May 17
• Sam Ospovat: Ride Angles (Skirl)
• Marcos Silva: Brasil: From Head to Toe (Green Egg): May 3

Weekend Roundup

I don't feel up to writing much about Julian Assange, but following his arrest in London, I anticipate that I'll find a bunch of links this week and should collect them together. Assange is an Australian, a computer programmer who came up with Wikileaks, a system to collect and publish anonymously submitted documents. That's always seemed like a noble endeavor, an aid in exposing how the rich and powerful conspire in private to manipulate and profit, and for a while he seemed to be doing just that. He quickly ran afoul of those powers, most notably the US government, which set out to charge him with various crimes, and quite possibly orchestrated a broader smear campaign against him. Assange, in turn, sought asylum from criminal charges, and since 2012 has been sheltered by the Ecuadorean embassy in London. I don't know how much Assange has had to do with Wikileaks since 2012 (or how much freedom he has had to do anything), but his brand name wound up playing a role in Trump's 2016 campaign when it framed the release of hacked emails from the Clinton campaign. One effect of the DNC dump was to expand the Democratic side of bipartisan outrage against Assange, especially as Clinton's drones tried to paint him as a Putin accomplice.

I don't have strong opinions about Assange one way or the other, but I did welcome his release of leaked documents on the Iraq War and the US State Department. (See my September 2, 2010 entry, Troops, on the "Collateral Murder" video, anti-war vet Ethan McCord, and a related speech by Barak Obama -- what I said then is still pretty relevant today.) Releasing the DNC emails didn't particularly bother me either, although the timing was suspicious (immediately after the release of Trump's Access Hollywood tape, allowing the media to spin scandal on top of scandal), as was the lack of any RNC/Trump campaign emails to balance the picture.

Anyhow, the Assange links:

• James Ball: You don't have to like Julian Assange to defend him.

• Nicholas Casey/Jo Becker: As Ecuador harbored Assange, it was subjected to threats and leaks.

• John Cassidy: The indictment of Julian Assange is a threat to journalism.

• Patrick Cockburn: Accusing Assange of being a 'narcissist' misses the point.

• Jonathan Cook: After 7 years of deceptions about Assange, the US readies for its first media rendition.

• Glenn Greenwald/Micah Lee: The US government's indictment of Julian Assange poses grave threats to press freedom.

• Colin Lecher: Read the United States' indictment against Julian Assange: "One count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion."

• Anna North: The rape allegation against Julian Assange, explained.

• Richard Pérez-Peña: Extraditing Assange promises to be a long, difficult process.

• John Pilger: The Assange arrest is a warning from history.

• Andrew Prokop: Julian Assange was just arrested and now faces extradition to the United States.

• Nathan Robinson: Many Democrats and liberals are cheering Assange's arrest. That's foolish.

• Emily Stewart: The debate over what Julian Assange's arrest means for freedom of the press, explained.

• Matt Taibbi: Why the Assange arrest should scare reporters.

Let's also break out multiple links on Israel's elections:

• Klulood Badawi: The Israeli election put the bigotry of its political class front and center.

• Zack Beauchamp: Israeli democracy is rotting from the inside: "Tuesday's election results exposed two major threats to Israeli democracy."

• Patrick Cockburn: Netanyahu's victory tells us who holds power in the Middle East.

• Jonathan Ofir: Why Israeli election results may have a positive aspect. Well, not really, but anyone who still clung to the notion that the center-left might agree to a two-state deal should realize now that there's no such group left to pin your hopes on (as opposed to the old days when there were groups that seemed willing to consider a deal, even though none actually went through with it).

• Israel Shamir: The Israeli elections came to naught.

• Richard Silverstein: Netanyahu wins and will be next Prime Minister of the Judeo-Ethno-State. Not on Israel, but also by Silverstein: Sudan democratic awakening, Libya civil war pose regional threat, invite Saudi meddling: with automatic support from Trump, natch.

• Kate: Israeli forces shoot 66 Palestinians at Gaza protest, killing 15-year-old boy: Not on the elections, just another routine week of occupation and conflict.

Scattered links on other topics this week:

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • Julian Castro really wants to talk about immigration, but it's most impressive talking about his work.

  • Trump's sister quietly retired in February, and it's actually a big deal: Something here I didn't know: that Trump has a sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, who is a US Court of Appeals judge (appointed, by the way, by Bill Clinton in 1999, although Ronald Reagan appointed her to US District Court in 1983). She retired to escape an investigation into the possibly fraudulent scheme whereby Fred Trump transferred property to his children to evade taxes.

  • Elizabeth Warren's new plan to make sure Amazon (and other big companies) pays corporate tax, explained: "No more claiming big profits to investors while paying nothing to the IRS."

  • Progressives should worry more about the odds that Joe Biden will win: "Liberals are assuming the former vice president will fade on his own, a trap Republicans fell for with Trump." They may both be front-runners, but not many similarities beyond that. Trump campaigned as an outsider, whereas Biden is the most complete insider even considering a run. The most comparable 2016 Republican is Jeb Bush, although I'd give Biden better odds than I gave Bush -- he may not have much of a program or a real following, but at least he's not a laughingstock.

  • Immigration makes America great. This is a good general "explainer" on most of issues related to immigration. I'm more of a moderate (or maybe skeptic?) when it comes to promoting immigration: I'm concerned about the downward pressure on labor markets immigrants pose; I worry that immigration feeds our right-wing tendencies to ignore the needs of impoverished natives; I've noted that many immigrants lean to the political right (in many cases becoming jingoistic -- the Cubans are an obvious case, since US immigration law favors anti-communists). I've noted, for instance, that no less than five (of 16) Republican presidential candidates in 2016 has at least one foreign-born parent (including Trump, who also has a foreign-born wife). Still, I don't doubt the general economic advantages of immigration at present (or slightly elevated) levels. And the problems I've noted would go away if we had a better political atmosphere.

  • Trump's flailing shake-up of the Department of Homeland Security, explained: Key subhed here: "Trump's been in tantrum mode for weeks."

    But Trump is an all-stick, no-carrot kind of guy. His idea of doing a deal with Democrats was to cancel DACA protection for young undocumented immigrants and then offer to reinstate it in exchange for sweeping concessions. And he wants to get Mexico to do favors for him by threatening to hurt both countries' economies unless they do what he wants. This incredibly punitive, wildly ineffective approach to dealmaking has been a hallmark of Trump's approach to the presidency from Day 1, and it appears to be derived from his success as a business executive at using his greater wealth to stiff contractors and shareholders.

    But in the presidency, this kind of bullying doesn't work at all, as you can see from his lack of success in getting border wall money appropriated. A reasonable response to policy failure would be to try to go in a new direction, but Trump seems entirely uninterested in that. So rather than rethink his approach, he's now inclined to burn through administration personnel, even though shuffling the names on an org chart around isn't going to alter any of the fundamentals of the situation.

  • Howard Schultz only has one idea about politics, and it's bad: "Making him president won't fix the problems of partisanship."

  • Trump's possibly illegal designation of a new acting homeland security secretary, explained.

• Zack Beauchamp: Republicans are taking Ilhan Omar's comments on 9/11 out of context to smear her. Well, when did they ever let context complicate a good smear?

• David Dayen: Betsy DeVos quietly making it easier for dying for-profit schools to rip off a few more students on the way out.

• Sean Illing: Why conspiracy theories are getting more absurd and harder to refute: Interview with Nancy L Rosenblum, co-author (with Russell Muirhead) of A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy.

• Umair Irfan: A brief guide to David Bernhardt, Ryan Zinke's replacement at the Interior Department: "Three things to know about the former oil lobbyist who's just been confirmed as the new Secretary of the Interior."

• Kalpana Jain: 4 key things to know about India's elections Thursday.

• Jen Kirby: The new Brexit deadline is October 31.

• Dara Lind: The post-purge agenda: what the White House wants next on immigration: "Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are pushing for a multi-pronged asylum crackdown."

• German Lopez:

  • New Zealand Parliament votes 119-1 to ban assault weapons.

  • Most Americans agree Trump has made race relations worse.

• Ella Nilsen: Why the Senate is blocking a new net neutrality bill, a year after trying to save it. The House passed a bill. McConnell refuses to allow the Senate to consider it. Trump says if passed he will veto it.

• Anna North: A Texas bill would allow the death penalty for patients who get abortions: "The bill is unlikely to pass, but it's part of a larger trend."

• Trita Parsi: Trump's Iran terrorist designation is designed to lock in endless enmity. Related: Daniel DePetris/Richard Sokolsky: Bolton and Pompeo are steering Trump toward war with Iran; Robert Mackey: On the eve of Israel's elections, Netanyahu thanks Trump for sanctioning Iran at his request.

• Andrew Prokop:

  • Former Obama White House counsel indicted in charges stemming from Mueller probe: Greg Craig, "charged with two counts of making false statements in a Justice Department inquiry into whether his law firm Skadden Arps should have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) because of its work for the Ukrainian government." Craig left the Obama administration in 2010. Got involved in Ukrain at Paul Manafort's behest.

  • What does Bill Barr mean when he says he'll review US "spying" on Trump's campaign? "Barr voiced sympathy to some long-running conservative criticisms about the Russia probe's handling."

• Gabriela Resto-Montero:

  • Democrats unite to condemn Trump tweet linking Ilhan Omar and 9/11.

  • Trump officials say sanctuary city migrant plan under review.

• Josie Duffy Rice: Jussie Smollett and the impulse to punish. Chicago's outgoing mayor Rahm Emmanuel, cementing his reputation as a grandstanding dickhead, ordered the city to sue Jussie Smollett for the costs of investigating him before dropping charges, some $130,000.

  Given the failures of law enforcement in Chicago, [F.O.P. president Kevin] Graham is not in a strong position to castigate [Cook County states attorney] Foxx. In the first half of 2018, Chicago police made an arrest or identified a suspect in just fifteen per cent of murder cases. Similarly, Emanuel's concern about the costs of the Smollett investigation is misguided at best; in 2018 alone, the city paid a total of a hundred and thirteen million dollars in police-misconduct settlements and related legal fees. . . .

  As Matthew Saniie, the chief data officer for Foxx's office, recently wrote, in Cook County, cases in which the defendant, like Smollett, pleads not guilty to a fourth-degree felony end in a deferred prosecution seventy-five per cent of the time. Foxx runs the second-largest prosecutor's office in the country, responsible for prosecuting crimes in Chicago and a hundred and thirty-four municipalities. Her staff sees almost half a million cases every year. Prosecutorial discretion is one of the pillars of our justice system, and it is her job to discern what deserves her staff's attention, as opposed to what has grabbed the most public attention.

• Aaron Rupar: Trump promised his sons would keep business out of politics. He's admitting that was a lie. This links to: Elaina Plott: Inside Ivanka's dreamworld: "The 'first daughter' spent years rigorously cultivating her image. But she wasn't prepared for scrutiny."

• Kirk Semple: Central American farmers head to the US, fleeing climate change.

• Peter Stone: Trump hotels exempted from ban on foreign payments under new stance.

• Benjamin Wallace-Wells: Bernie Sanders imagines a progressive new approach to foreign policy: While the rest of the field plays catch up with his 2016 platform, he breaks new ground. But his main break with the bipartisan orthodoxy is thus far limited to sensibility. He's more likely to promote peace and respect than the others because he values them, but he's yet to get down to the specifics it will take to deal with Israel/Palestine, to pick the one case other politicians most fear.

• Alex Ward:

  • How America's relationship with Turkey fell apart.

  • Trump laments that US troops can't get "rough" with migrants at the border.

  • Trump just tweeted that he wants to put huge tariffs on EU products. Here's why.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, April archive (incomplete).

Music: current count 31344 [31312] rated (+32), 251 [249] unrated (+2).

Back in business. I figured all it would take to get Napster working again was a reboot -- it broke following a software update that didn't require one but involved a new Flash module, so I suspected that threw things out of sync. Still, I didn't want to do that for other reaasons, but was forced to when the computer freaked out and gave me a swizzle patterned screen. That suggested something far worse, but the reboot fixed that too.

Working Napster gave me a chance to catch up with the last couple weeks of Robert Christgau picks -- Stella Donnelly/Sharon Van Etten and Pedro the Lion/Jason Ringenberg -- where only the B+ record didn't disappoint. (Actually, I couldn't find Ringenberg's Stand Tall on Napster, but was able to fish a Soundcloud link from my email trash, so thanks to the publicist.) Guess I'm still missing the Ariana Grande/Amber Mark week -- I had the former's Sweetener way down at B, a grade split matching Mitski's Be the Cowboy, but haven't heard the more recent one.

Took a dive into George Strait after panning his new one, mostly because I noticed an unheard Christgau A- in the database (Something Special), and it panned out. I had his first Greatest Hits (1985) at A-, so it made sense to check out its source albums (just three of them). I'm not sure that grade holds up, but didn't recheck it. Still, after dismissing most of his songs as unmemorable, I've wound up with "You Look So Good in Love" stuck in my mind all week.

Other records suggested by various sources, most prolifically Phil Overeem. The tip on Angel-Ho came from breathless hype in The Nation ("Angel-Ho is the future of pop music"). I dug up Petra Van Nuis after she wrote to me (so sometimes that works). Strait and Mandy Barnett just showed up in Napster's featured lists.

Making fair progress on most projects, although not enough on moving the computer. (Will do that after I post this, I promise.) Biggest one is a new piece of badly-needed pantry shelving, which needs one more coat of paint before I drag it in and bolt it to the wall. I have a couple more projects in that space, ready to roll as soon as the first one is operational. Still, more projects seem to present themselves all the time. Dug up a couple plastic drawers full of CDs today, and my wife argued that I should get rid of them (something about the hoarding being psychotic). I had a plan a couple years back to start donating CDs to a local library, but never followed through on it -- partly because I was working on the Jazz Guide, maybe because they kept naming various buldings after the Kochs. The reason for having a substantial library is to look things up, but I'm fast losing my ability to do so, not to mention my prospects of ever writing anything worthwhile on the subject.

Still, the project I feel more pressing need for is to come up with a system so I can quickly identify where all my tools (and hardware) are. I'm forever thrashing, trying to find things I know I have somewhere, sometimes even having to buy more tools to replace those I've lost (most recently, a set of hole saws). In fact, thrashing seems to be the word for the week, maybe even the season.

New records reviewed this week:

• Angel-Ho: Death Becomes Her (2019, Hyperdub): [r]: B+(*)
• Art "Turk" Burton: Ancestral Spirits (2019, T N' T Music): [cd]: A-
• Romain Collin: Tiny Lights: Genesis (2019, XM): [cd]: B+(**)
• The Comet Is Coming: Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery (2019, Impulse!): [r]: B+(**)
• Jordon Dixon: On! (2019, self-released): [cd]: B+(***)
• Stella Donnelly: Beware of the Dogs (2019, Secretly Canadian): [r]: B+(***)
• Steve Earle & the Dukes: Guy (2019, New West): [r]: B+(***)
• Fleurine: Brazilian Dream (2018 [2019], Pure Imagination): [cd]: B+(**)
• George Freeman: George the Bomb! (2018 [2019], Blujazz/Southport): [cd]: B+(**)
• Polly Gibbons: All I Can Do (2019, Resonance): [cd]: B
• Girls on Grass: Dirty Power (2019, self-released): [r]: B+(**)
• Pablo Lanouguere Quintet: Eclectico (2019, self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
• Jenny Lewis: On the Line (2019, Warner Bros.): [r]: B+(*)
• Helado Negro: This Is How You Smile (2019, RVNG Intl): [r]: B+(*)
• New Orleans Jazz Orchestra: Songs: The Music of Allen Toussaint (2018 [2019], Storyville): [cd]: B+(**)
• Pedro the Lion: Phoenix (2019, Polyvinyl): [r]: B+(*)
• Jason Ringenberg: Stand Tall (2019, Courageous Chicken): [sc]: A-
• Royal Trux: White Stuff (2019, Fat Possum): [r]: B+(**)
• Sir Babygirl: Crush on Me (2019, Father/Daughter, EP): [r]: B+(***)
• George Strait: Honky Tonk Time Machine (2019, MCA Nashville): [r]: B
• Terraza Big Band: One Day Wonder (2017 [2019], Outside In Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• Sharon Van Etten: Remind Me Tomorrow (2019, Jagjaguwar): [r]: B+(*)
• Petra Van Nuis & Dennis Luxion: Because We're Night People (2018, String Damper): [r]: B+(*)
• Dave Zinno Unisphere: Stories Told (2018 [2019], Whaling City Sound): [cd]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Burnt Sugar/The Arkestra Chamber: Twentieth Anniversary Mixtapes: Groiddest Schnizzits: Volume Two (2001-17 [2019], Trugroid/Avantgroidd): [r]: B+(***)

Old music:

• Mandy Barnett: I Can't Stop Loving You: The Songs of Don Gibson (2013, Rounder): [r]: B+(***)
• The Comet Is Coming: Channel the Spirits (2016, The Leaf Label): [r]: B+(***)
• George Strait: Strait Country (1981, MCA): [r]: B+(**)
• George Strait: Strait From the Heart (1982, MCA): [r]: B
• George Strait: Right or Wrong (1983, MCA): [r]: B+(***)
• George Strait: Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind (1984, MCA): [r]: B+(**)
• George Strait: Something Special (1985, MCA): [r]: A-
• George Strait: The Best of George Strait [20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection] (1983-93 [2002], MCA Nashville): [r]: B+(**)
• George Strait: 50 Number Ones (1982-2004 [2004], MCA Nashville, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration (Pi, 2CD): April 26
• Art "Turk" Burton: Ancestral Spirits (T N' T Music): May 3
• George Freeman: George the Bomb! (Blujazz/Southport)
• Wynton Marsalis: Bolden: Music From the Original Soundtrack (Blue Engine): April 19
• Xose Miguélez: Ontology (Origin): April 19
• Billy Mohler: Focus! (Make)
• New Orleans Jazz Orchestra: Songs: The Music of Allen Toussaint (Storyville): April 19
• OGJB Quartet [Oliver Lake/Graham Haynes/Joe Fonda/Barry Altschul]: Bamako (TUM): May 17
• Dave Stryker: Eight Track III (Strikezone): May 3
• Fumi Tomita: The Elephant Vanishes (OA2): April 19
• Dann Zinn: Day of Reckoning (Origin): April 19

Weekend Roundup

One of my principles here is not to bother with politician horserace links, especially presidential candidates. One thing I've long held is that a president is only as good as his (or someday her) party, so the big question to ask any presidential candidate is: what are you going to do to get your party elected and make it an effective force? Still, every now and then I have opinions on specific people. When Greg Magarian griped about Tim Ryan and Michael Bennet getting a burst of press attention, as have recent stories about Beto O'Rourke and Pete Buttigieg raising great gobs of money, I commented:

Worth noting that O'Rourke and Buttigieg are principled neoliberals, and are raising money as such. They can do that because their youth and inexperience hasn't saddled them with the sort of baggage the Clinton establishment bears. That's bad news for Biden, who would be the obvious next-in-line for Clinton's donors if they didn't suspect that the brand is ruined. They may also be thinking that running someone young and outside might help crack Sanders' lead among young voters -- something Biden has no prayer of doing.

The one candidate I've been hearing the most (and most negative) about is Joe Biden. He hasn't announced yet, but evidently the decision has been made, the timing around Easter. Biden has led recent polls, but that can be attributed to his much greater name resolution. I've always figured the decision would turn on whether he's willing to risk his legacy on a very likely loss, but I suppose the decision will turn mostly on whether he can line up sufficient funding. (I had some doubts that Bernie Sanders would run, but when I saw his early funding reports, I immediately realized I was being silly.) Clearly, he didn't run in 2016 because Hillary Clinton had locked up most of his possible funding. That's less obvious this year, but a lot of competitive candidates have jumped in ahead of him.

Biden isn't awful, but he has a lot of baggage, including a lot of things that wound up hurting Clinton in 2016 (like that Iraq War vote). Some of those things could hurt him in the primaries, especially his rather dodgy record on race and crime, and with women. Other things, like his plagiarism scandal, will hurt him more in the general election. But the big problem there is that he was a Washington insider and party leader for so long that he makes it easy for Republicans to spin this election into a referendum on forty years of Democratic Party failures. Obama was largely able to avoid that in 2008, but Clinton couldn't in 2016.

Also, there is the nagging suspicion that he isn't really a very good day-to-day candidate. Last time he ran for president he was an also-ran, unable to get more than 1-2% of the vote anywhere. He got the VP nod from Obama after Clinton decided she'd rather be Secretary of State, and one suspects that the Clintons pushed for Biden as VP because they didn't regard him as a serious rival in 2016 (when a sitting VP would normally have the inside track to the nomination). And he's exceptionally prone to gaffes. He managed to avoid any really bad ones running with Obama, but running on his own he'll get a lot more scrutiny and pressure. Nobody thinks he's stupid or evil -- unlike Trump, whose base seems to regard those attributes as virtues -- but nobody is much of a fan either (well, except for the fictional Leslie Knope, which kind of proves the point).

For more, if you care, see Michelle Goldberg: The wrong time for Joe Biden:

Beyond gender, on issue after issue, if Biden runs for president he will have to run away from his own record. He -- and by extension, we -- will have to relive the debate over the Iraq war, which he voted to authorize. He'll have to explain his vote to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, which, by lifting regulations on banking, helped create the conditions for the 2008 financial meltdown. (Biden has called that vote one of the biggest regrets of his career.) In 2016, Hillary Clinton was slammed for her previous support of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which contributed to mass incarceration. Biden helped write the law, which he called, in 2015, the "1994 Biden crime bill." . . . No one should judge the whole span of Biden's career by the standards of 2019, but if he's going to run for president, it's fair to ask whether he's the right leader for this moment. He is a product of his time, but that time is up.

Other political news last week included the death of Ernest Hollings, the long-time South Carolina senator, at 97. I was, well, shocked to see him referred to in an obituary as a populist -- a thought that had never crossed my mind. I would grant that he was not as bad as the Republicans who served in the Senate alongside him (Strom Thurmond and Lindsey Graham), or his Republican successor (Jim DeMent). Still, those are pretty low standards.

By the way, a couple of non-political links below: subjects I used to follow closely in more carefree times. See if you can pick them out.

Some scattered links this week:

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • The Democratic debate over filibuster reform, explained. One way you can tell whether Democratic candidates actually care about implementing their platforms is where they stand on this issue. The strongest position so far is from Elizabeth Warren.

  • Boeing's effort to get the 737 Max approved to fly again, explained.

  • The controversy over Joe Biden's treatment of women explained.

  • The Great Awokening: white Democrats' newfound racial liberalism is transforming politics.

• Jonathan Blitzer: How climate change is fueling the US border crisis: "In the western highlands of Guatemala, the questio is no longer whether someone will leave but when." Two further installments: The epidemic of debt plaguing Central American migrants, and The dream homes of Guatemalan migrants.

• Philip Bump: Nearly everything Trump just said about Puerto Rico is wrong.

• Jane Coaston: FBI director: White nationalist violence is a "persistent, pervasive threat". Related: Weiyi Cai/Simone Landon: Attacks by white extremists are growing. So are their connections.

• Sean Collins: Barack Obama warns against a "circular firing squad" over ideological purity in politics: Sounds like Obama is attacking the left, once again counseling compromises that ultimately prove ineffective, but his centrist-neoliberal allies are every bit as ideological, and if anything have more experience in using their spite against the left to make sure even their lame compromises rarely change anything. I'm reminded how John Lewis refused to purge Communists from the UMW, because he appreciated that they were the union's most passionate and effective organizers. The centrists need to realize that they need the left in order to attain anything significant once they've worked their compromises. And as the article shows, left-leaning polticians aren't actually doing things to undermine party unity -- other than making solid policy proposals and arguing them on their merits. Obama, on the other hand, is showing himself to be irrelevant. Some may feel nostalgic for his basic competence and his devotion to the threadbare pieties of Americanism, but as a politician you have to judge him on his inability to deliver the change he campaigned for and his failure to build a party that could protect, sustain, and extend even his most modest dreams.

• Tara Golshan: Congress passes historic resolution to end US support for Saudi-led war in Yemen.

• David M Halbfinger:

  • An Israel charts a future, color and chaos abound in its election.

  • Netanyahu vows to start annexing West Bank, in bid to rally the right.

  • In Israeli election ads, to stir up the base, anything goes.

  If you've followed Israeli elections, you may have noticed that since the late 1970s, the only time Israeli politics have shifted left was when the Bush I administration made clear its displeasure with Yitzhak Shamir's obstruction of the Madrid Peace Talks. Israeli voters noticed, and voted the more flexible Yitzhak Rabin in, leading to the Oslo Accords, which Clinton allowed Netanyahu and Ehud Barak to turn into a charade. But as Clinton, Bush, Obama, and even more explicitly Trump kowtowed to Israel, Israelis had no reason not to indulge their chauvinist prejudices, with each election pushing the government ever further to the right.

• Sean Illing: How digital technology is destroying our freedom: Interview with Douglas Rushkoff, exploring the theme of his recent Team Human and earlier books like Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation (2009), Program or Be Programmed (2011), Present Shock: When Everything Happes Now (2013), and Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus (2016) -- he's sort of a latter-day Neil Postman. (The one book I've read by him is Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism, where he sees Judaism as an evolutionary step toward atheism. I could make a similar claim for Calvinism, based more on personal history.)

• Sarah Kliff: Trump does have a health care plan. It would cause millions to lose coverage.

• Mike Konczal: Should the Green New Deal repeat the failures of Cap-and-Trade?

• Paul Krugman:

  • Donald Trump is trying to kill you: "Trust the pork producers; fear the wind turbines." I will add this quibble: if you ever find yourself standing under a wind turbine, you'll find that they are very ominous and unpleasant, emitting loud noises as the huge blades screech and whine above your head.

  • Republican health care lying syndrome: "Even Trump supporters don't believe the party's promises."

  • The incredible shrinking Trump boom: "At least corporate accountants are having some fun." I suspect this title could be used for a much broader investigation than this note on the effects of the Trump tax cut.

  • GOP cruelty is a pre-existing condition: "Republicans just won't stop trying to take away health care."

  • Republicans really hate health care: "They've gone beyond cynicism to pathology." Related: Jamelle Bouie: An opening for Democrat: "On health care, this isn't what Trump's voters bargained for." Bouie writes:

    But while Trump's decision to govern for conservatives has netted him high approval ratings with Republicans who remain loyal to him, it has also undermined the coalition that put him in the White House, threatening his prospects for re-election.

    We saw some of this with the midterms. The drive to repeal Obamacare was a major reason Republicans lost their majority in the House of Representatives. The attempt made Trump's approval rating plunge to the mid-30s, lower than that of other presidents at that point in their first term. Large majorities opposed the bill to repeal and replace the health care law, and 60 percent said it was a "good thing" it failed to pass. Forty-two percent of voters named health care as their top issue in the midterms, and 77 percent of them backed Democrats.

    In 2016, Trump ran without the burden of a record. He could be everything to everyone -- he could say what people wanted to hear. And he used that to reach out to working-class whites as a moderate on the economy and a hard-line conservative on race and immigration.

    Now, as president, Trump is a standard-issue Republican with an almost total commitment to conservative economic policy. Those policies are unpopular. And they have created an opening for Democrats to win back some of the voters they've lost.

• Dara Lind:

  • The border shutdown was a reality show threat, but the border slowdown is real.

  • Trump's decision to cut off aid to 3 Central American countries, explained. Related: Kevin Sieff: US officials said aid to El Salvador helped slow migration. How Trump is canceling it.

• German Lopez:

  • Trump is blaming Mexico for the US's drug problem. He should blame a failed war on drugs.

  • Justice Department releases damning report on Alabama's gruesome, violent prisons.

• Jonathan Mahler/Jim Rutenberg: How Rupert Murdoch's empire of influence remade the world: Part 1: Imperial reach, followed by Part 2: Internal divisions, and Part 3: The new Fox weapon.

• Louis Menand: What baseball teaches us about measuring talent: Review of Christopher Phillips' new book Scouting and Scoring: How We Know What We Know About Baseball. Noted because this is a subject I've spent a lot of time on, albeit not very recently.

• Kelsey Piper: Google cancels AI ethics board in response to outcry: I can imagine many angles to this, but the best reported one was opposition to Heritage Foundation president Kay Coles James, underscoring the notion that conservatives have no credibility when it comes to ethics -- although Google's inclusion of a "drone company CEO" was even more blatant.

• Douglas Preston: The day the dinosaurs died: "A young paleontologist may have discovered the most significant event in the history of life on Earth."

• Andrew Prokop: Some Mueller team members aren't happy with Barr's description of their findings.

• Aaron Rupar: Trump plans to nominate a second loyalist to the Fed: Herman Cain: You got to give Trump some credit for learning here. When the Fed chair opened up, his staff gave him two options. While he picked the lesser inflation hawk, he still wound up with a guy who repeatedly raised the Fed funds rate, constricting the economy (and especially speculators and scam artists like himself who benefit most from cheap money). No doubt this got him thinking: Why not pick some loyal political hacks instead of letting the bankers limit his choices? Stephen Moore was his test case, and while Cain isn't as much of a hack as Moore, he's even less "qualified" (in normative terms).

• Amanda Sakuma: Trump attacks Rep. Ilhan Omar hours after a supporter was charged with threatening to kill her: Subhed: "He wants to drive a wedge between Jewish voters and the Democratic Party." TPM emphasized the latter in its coverage of Trump's speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition: Zeke Miller: Trump tries to lure Jewish voters: Dems would 'leave Israel out there'. Related: Matt Shuham: American Jewish orgs to Trump: Netanyahu is ot 'our' Prime Minister. On the other hand, Netanyahu is Sheldon Adelson's Prime Minister -- Adelson owns the newspaper in Israel most closely associated with Netanyahu, and Adelson is the Republican Party's most visible Jewish bankroller, so that's probably close enough for Trump.

• Emily Stewart: What's going on with Mar-a-Lago and Chinese spies, explained. Related: Fred Kaplan: Mar-a-Lago is a foreign spy's dream come true.

• Matt Taibbi: The Pentagon wins again: "In an effort to prevent non-defense cuts, House Democrats grant the DOD exactly the raise it wanted."

• Alex Ward:

  • Saudi Arabia is detaining American activists 6 months after Khashoggi's murder: "The Saudi crown prince is cracking down on free speech and torturing activists. The US won't push back."

  • Trump has a strong foreign policy narrative for 2020: Sure, someone smarter might be able to spin this bullet list into an attractive political spiel, the items don't mesh into a coherent strategy, and he's got a lot of unsettled, and therefore risky, affairs. Still, I'm more worried that Democrats will try to counter Trump's chaos by talking stronger and more belligerent, and thereby turn Trump into the anti-war candidate.

• Philip Weiss:

  • The Israeli spring won't happen next week (and that should cause reflection)

  • Trump brags he blew off calls from world leaders to give Adelsons the greatest gift: Jerusalem.

• Sean Wilentz: The "reputational interests" of William Barr. Related: Benjamin Wittes: Bill Barr has promised transparency. He deserves the chance to deliver.

• TomDispatch:

  • Andrew Bacevich: Behind fronds of fakery, here's some real news.

  • Dilip Hiro: India and Pakistan, and a planet in peril.

  • Rajan Menon: Whose money? Not yours.

  • Danny Sjursen: On leaving the U.S. Army.

  • Tom Engelhardt: Donald Trump naked as a jaybird.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, March archive (incomplete).

Music: current count 31312 [31297] rated (+15), 249 [253] unrated (-4).

Rated count way down, about half of what I consider a solid week. When I dropped to 29 last week, I described that as a "lazy week." Could say that again, but the real reason for the drop off is that the Flash plugin on my computer is fucked up, making it impossible to use Napster (or, for that matter, Spotify). That left me with playing CDs (9) and using Bandcamp (6), and I didn't really have much to choose from or look for on either. Unplayed CD queue is currently only 7 deep, and I don't just randomly play unknowns on Bandcamp. On the other hand, the Bandcamps generally got two spins, and the CDs more than that (I'd guess Larry Fuller got 7-8 plays -- not that I needed more than 2, but it made for pretty pleasant background music). All that lead to a couple anomalies. Only one A- is the lowest weekly total in quite some time, and I'm actually not real solid on it -- I've never been much of a Betty Carter fan, and should probably go back and check some of her earlier releases (and re-check The Audience With Betty Carter, which I have at B- even though it wears a Penguin Guide crown). It could be that I promoted it at the last minute because I came up with nothing else.

The other anomaly is the high percentage of B+(***) grades (8/15). Certainly the multiple replays helped out. At this point, I'm pretty sure the jazz records (especially the CDs) have plateaued, but three of the Bandcamps might merit further investigation: Mekons, Quelle Chris, and Mdou Moctar. I think I have those three pegged right, but they're close, and it's worth noting that I have the immediately previous albums by all three at A- (It Is Twice Blessed, Everything's Fine, and Blue Stage Sessions).

Priorities for the coming week will be to reconstruct my crashed tax file, finish (paint) a new pantry shelf, and finally get my computers rearranged and reconnected (hopefully fixing the Napster problem, and allowing me to get onto some website work). Also have my DownBeat Critics Poll invite, so that will be another (pretty much wasted) chunk of time. One website task I did manage to get done last week was to build a book page for Robert Christgau's new essay collection, Book Reports: A Music Critic on His First Love, Which Was Reading, due out from Duke University Press on April 12. Info and various links on that page. Still to be done is the nasty task of embargoing most of the pieces that appear in the book, so this is your last change (for several years) to squirrel away free copies of most of the book.

New records reviewed this week:

• Laura Antonioli: The Constant Passage of Time (2018 [2019], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Michaël Attias: Ëchos La Nuit (2018 [2019], Out of Your Head): [cd]: B+(**)
• Blu & Oh No: A Long Red Hot Los Angeles Summer Night (2019, Native Sounds): [bc]: B+(**)
• Chord Four: California Avant Garde (2016 [2018], self-released): [cd]: B+(***)
• Larry Fuller: Overjoyed (2018 [2019], Capri): [cd]: B+(***)
• Ross Hammond & Sameer Gupta: Mystery Well (2018, Prescott): [bc]: B+(***)
• Remy Le Boeuf: Light as a Word (2017 [2019], Outside In Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Mekons: Deserted (2019, Bloodshot): [bc]: B+(***)
• Mdou Moctar: Ilana: The Creator (2019, Sahel Sounds): [bc]: B+(***)
• Ivo Perelman/Mat Maneri/Nate Wooley: Strings 3 (2018 [2019], Leo): [cd]: B+(*)
• Ivo Perelman/Mat Maneri/Nate Wooley/Matthew Shipp: Strings 4 (2018 [2019], Leo): [cd]: B+(***)
• Quelle Chris: Guns (2019, Mello Music Group): [bc]: B+(***)
• SOL Development: The SOL of Black Folk (2019, self-released): [bc]: B+(**)
• Tiger Hatchery: Breathing in the Walls (2017 [2018], ESP-Disk): [cd]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Betty Carter: The Music Never Stops (1992 [2019], Blue Engine): [cd]: A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Romain Collin: Tiny Lights: Genesis (XM): April 12
• Jordon Dixon: On! (self-released): June 7
• Polly Gibbons: All I Can Do (Resonance): April 19
• Pablo Langouguere Quintet: Eclectico (self-released): May 31

Weekend Roundup

Started late, figuring I'd "just go through the motions," and I'm giving up with maybe half of my usual sources unexamined. Anyhow, this should suffice as a sample on what's gone on this past week.

One piece I intended to link to was an article in the Wichita Eagle a few days ago about sex abuse in the local Catholic diocese, going back to the 1960s or earlier. My closest neighborhood friend attended Catholic schools and often talked about how sex-obsessed the priests were -- not that he was himself abused, but something I found completely baffling at the time. That was something I often wondered about When the scandals in Boston and elsewhere were finally exposed, but until this article appeared I had never seen mention of Wichita. Can't find the article on the Wichita Eagle website -- although I did find an earlier one, KBI investigating clergy sex abuse cases in Kansas, asks victims to come forward, mostly on Kansas City, KS.

Some scattered links this week:

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • Trump EPA appointees want more air pollution -- that's a very bad idea: "Fine particulates are, if anything, massively under-regulated. . . . The question of exactly how much we are under-regulating particulates seems somewhat open to me, but the sign of the error is very clear."

  • The emerging 737 MAX scandal, explained: "It's more than bad software."

  • Amy Klobuchar's $1 trillion infrastructure plan, explained: "Fulfilling a pledge Trump infamously left on the cutting room floor." Seems like a nice, round ballpark figure, but I suspect the need is much more. Also note that you could triple it and it would still cost less than the Iraq War debacle.

  • Elizabeth Warren's plan to make farming great again, explained: "A crackdown on agribusiness conglomerates, and more."

  • The panic over yield curve inversion, explained: "A key financial indicator says a recession is coming soon (maybe)."

  • It's time for Congress to do its job and investigate Trump:

    It's worth remembering how Mueller's investigation came into existence. Back in 2017, Trump's relationship with Russia was the only question that Republicans, who controlled Congress, wanted to investigate.

    Even on Inauguration Day, there were plenty of obvious lines of inquiry into Trump to pursue. There were the credible allegations of sexual assault (allegations that have only multiplied since then), the campaign contributions that helped Trump University investigations go away, the fake charity Trump ran for years, the dubious financing of his real estate ventures, and, of course, the mystery of his tax returns.

    Since he's taken office, the list of questions worthy of investigation has only grown. There's his family members' weird security clearances, reporting that a group of Mar-a-Lago club members appear to be running the Veterans Administration, and the prosecution of Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen, which seems to have implicated Trump personally in a crime.

    The problem with all of this has been that Republicans didn't and don't care. It was not until Nancy Pelosi took over as speaker of the House this January that there was anything Democrats could do to take on these questions without Republican help.

    Democrats got behind Mueller's investigation because it was the only game in town, not because it seemed incredibly promising. It was Trump's abrupt decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, followed by months of incredibly guilty-sounding tweets and other statements from the White House, that led many of us to believe Mueller was likely to uncover something big.

• Michael Ames: How Bowe Bergdahl may end up being the key to peace with the Taliban: Author of the book American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the US Tragedy in Afghanistan, which my wife recently read and touts as one of the best books written on the whole misbegotten Afghanistan fiasco.

• Ross Barkan: Will Rachel Maddow face a reckoning over her Trump-Russia coverage? I've done my best to avoid her for more than the two years she's been obsessed with Trump/Russiagate, but I've seen enough to suspect that she's earned her winning spot in The Post's Mueller Madness bracket -- she beat Ann Navarro, John Oliver, John Brennan, and Stephen Colbert along the way. I've watched Colbert regularly over the period, although he's sometimes stretched my patience with his jokes on Mueller, Putin, and "treason" (a word that should never be uttered). Of the other 30 bracket picks, I recognize about two-thirds of the names, but only follow a couple regularly -- Jimmy Kimmel, Paul Krugman -- with another half-dozen I've read on occasion. Most of those have a much broader critique of Trump, so I doubt they'll have problems moving on.

• Jamelle Bouie: Oliver North showed Republicans the way out: "Belligerence, shamelessness and partisanship can take you far."

• Alexia Fernandez Campbell:

  • Maryland just became the sixth state to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour: Over the Republican governor's veto.

  • Thousands of workers at US factories in Mexico are striking for higher wages.

• Jane Coaston: The Mueller investigation is over. QAnon, the conspiracy theory that grew around it, is not.

• Steve Coll: The media and the Mueller Report's March surprise.

• Coral Davenport: Trump's order to open Arctic waters to oil drilling was unlawful, federal judge finds.

• David A Farenthold/Jonathan O'Connell:

  • How Donald Trump imflated his net worth to lenders and investors.

  • New York attorney general subpoenas Duetsche Bank for information related to loans to Trump, signaling new inquiry.

  • Trump 'inflated his total assets when it served his purposes,' Cohen alleges in his hearing, citing financial documents.

• Mary Fitzgerald/Claire Provost: Trump-linked US Christian 'fundamentalists' pour millions of 'dark money' into Europe, boosting the far right.

• Masha Gessen: After the Mueller Report, the dream of a sudden, magic resolution to the Trump tragedy is dead.

  Of course, Donald Trump has not single-handedly destroyed the American public sphere. It had been in decline for a while, with the horse-race culture of its political campaigns, the anti-intellectual posture of many of its politicians, and its media's obsession with entertainment. But Trump has forced the deterioration to new lows. This is true of Trumpism in general: its elements -- corruption, xenophobia, isolationism, disdain for the media, denigration of the government, and lack of transparency -- are not new phenomena but are, rather, long-standing trends. But Trump represents a quantum shift, a leap into the abyss. And much of the descent has gone underdiscussed by public figures and undercovered by the media, which has been focussed on the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, to the exclusion of much else.

  The Mueller investigation, as a media story and a conversation topic, has been irresistible largely because it promised a way to avoid thinking of Trump as an American development. The Russian-collusion story dangled the carrot of discovering that Trump was entirely foreign to U.S. politics, a puppet of a hostile power. It also held the appeal of a secret answer to our catastrophe, one that would make the unimaginable suddenly explicable.

  The truth about Trump has been in plain view all along. The President has waged an attack on political institutions, the law, and culture, and has succeeded to an astonishing extent. We are no longer surprised, for example, that more than a month passes between White House press briefings, or that the President and his spokespeople lie openly and routinely. The assumption that the Administration should at least act as though it were accountable to the public has vanished, and we barely took notice.

• Tara Golshan:

  • w/Dylan Scott: The big divide among 2020 Democrats over trade -- and why it matters.

  • Congress is at a stalemate over disaster relief because Trump doesn't want to help Puerto Rico: "Trump told senators he thinks Puerto Rico got too much funding compared to mainland states."

• Joshua Gotbaum: The federal government gave up on retirement security: "As companies shortchange employees with pensions, Treasury and Labor look the other way."

• David A Graham: The Steele Dossier set the stage for a Mueller letdown.

• Sean Illing: Did the media botch the Russia story? A conversation with Matt Taibbi. Also see links to Taibbi's latest pieces, below.

• Jen Kirby:

  • British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit agreement fails for a third time.

  • 6 unanswered questions from William Barr's summary of the Mueller report.

• Sarah Kliff: Donald Trump is very committed to taking away your health insurance:

  But in office, Trump has attempted to implement an agenda that does the opposite. He's backed legislation, regulations, and lawsuits that would make it harder for sick people to get health insurance, allow insurance companies to discriminate against patients with preexisting conditions, and kick millions of Americans off the Medicaid program.

  This week, his Justice Department filed a legal brief arguing that a judge should find Obamacare unconstitutional -- a decision that would turn the insurance markets back into the Wild West and eliminate Medicaid coverage for millions of Americans. By at least one estimate, a full repeal could cost 20 million Americans their health care coverage.

• Elizabeth Kolbert: Louisiana's disappearing coast: "The state loses a football field's worth of land every hour and a half. Now engineers are in a race to prevent it from sinking into oblivion."

• Dara Lind:

  • Trump's threats to close the US-Mexico border, explained.

  • Why Trump isn't being charged with obstruction -- even though Mueller didn't exonerate him.

• Dylan Matthews: The government failed to stop the last recession. It can prevent the next one. A smorgasbord of ideas, none of which strike me as especially good (or even appropriate), but perhaps worth thinking about. My impression is that recessions are mainly caused by asset bubbles and excessive leverage, and none of these really address those problems. Some do fit under the rubric of "automatic stabilizers," which don't prevent recessions but do limit the damage.

• Ella Nilsen:

  • Trump's vision for higher education is limiting student loans and prioritizing for-profit colleges.

  • Senate Democrats unveiled an anti-corruption companion bill. Mitch McConnell is already blocking it: "All 47 Senate Democrats have signed on to the For the People Act, which the House passed earlier this month."

• Michael Paarlberg: Enough collusion talk. It's time to focus on Trump's corruption: "If there is a silver lining to the confusion and disappointment of Russiagate, it is that we can now pay attention to the real fleecing." This piece could have been written two years ago, and would still have come too late. I always hated the "collusion talk" -- basically, four reasons: it lazily recirculated cold war prejudices, ignoring the fact that Russia's motives have fundamentally changed (from left to right, from inept socialism to the oligarchy of mafia capitalism); it assumed that a temporary alignment of interests (both Putin and Trump wanted to bend their governments to better support the rich, and both were deeply cynical and contemptuous of democracy) amounted to an alliance; and they saw Trump (even as president) as naive and submissive to the stronger and more cunning Putin; and finally, it was embraced most fervently by Hillary Clinton's fans, because it seemed to offer an explanation for her loss that she couldn't be held responsible for -- by a devious, hostile foreign power dedicated to hurting Americans by denying us the blessings of her wise and generous rule, which brings full circle to the lazy thinking of the first point. As Masha Gessen notes above, Russiagate seemed to have the appeal of a magic bullet, but it ignored the simpler explanation, which was that Trump was no more than a "useful idiot" for Putin, the Kochs, the Mercers, and a cast of others (including Israelis and Saudis and Chinese and less notorious "foreigners") -- made useful precisely because he was and is so utterly, shamelessly corrupt. So sure, let's talk about his corruption now, as many of us have been doing since he selected his cabinet and started cashing in chits at his hotels. But we should also acknowledge that a big part of why Clinton lost was that she was tainted by the same corruption as Trump: in fact, he could even brag about the favors his campaign dollars bought from her. Still, I suspect that corruption misses the real crux of the problem with Trump. There is a deeper problem with Trump, and indeed with nearly all Republicans these days, and that is worldview: their understanding of how the world works, and of how people should live and act in the world.

• Martin Pengelly: Trump is the 'world's worst cheat at golf,' new book says. The book is Rick Reilly's Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.

• Andrew Prokop: Mueller's many loose ends: "What comes next now that the probe is finished."

• David Roberts: The Green New Deal aims to get buildings off fossil fuels. These 6 places have already started.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Trump's latest comments about the border indicate he doesn't understand how trade works.

  • Trump's latest attack on Adam Schiff is a new low, even for him: Not really, especially "for him." But then I never thought Schiff's uncritical siding with America's "intelligence agencies" was a smart bet.

  • Trump is making stuff up about the Great Lakes, for some weird reason.

  • Stephen Moore's unpaid taxes are the latest example of Trump failing to vet high-profile nominees. Related: Allegra Kirkland: Trump Fed pick once found in contempt for failing to pay child support.

  • Trump on Mueller report he hasn't seen yet: "It could not have been better".

• Amanda Sakuma: Georgia passes 6-week 'fetal heartbeat' bill that bans most abortions.

• Dylan Scott:

  • Trump's health care agenda is a legal disaster: "The federal courts are slamming the Trump administration for pursuing unlawful health care policies."

  • Federal judge blocks Medicaid work requirements in Arkansas and Kentucky.

• Sabrina Siddiqui: From victory to vengeance: Trump scents blood in 2020 fight:

  t felt like a victory lap. At a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday night, surrounded by a sea of red Make America Great Again hats, a defiant Donald Trump held the podium before a raucous crowd.

  "After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is finally dead," the president declared in a 90-minute speech.

  Basking after the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, which clouded the first two years of his presidency, Trump falsely claimed "total exoneration."

  He vowed retaliation against some of his sharpest critics and suggested consequences for the media were in order. He spoke of doing away with Barack Obama's healthcare law. And he threatened to shut down the US-Mexico border as early as next week.

  It was a stark reminder of how Trump views his executive authority and a glimpse of his looming fight for re-election.

• Emily Stewart:

  • "AOC sucks" is the new "Lock her up": "The right's attacks on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mirror criticisms of Hillary Clinton: Well, basically because no one on the right thinks before attacking: their vitriol is "one size fits all."

  • Betsy Devos is still struggling to explain cuts to Special Olympics funding. Trump later reversed his budget cut.

  • The economy is growing. Democrats want to know who's benefiting. Reminds me of the line that trial lawyers should never ask a question they don't already know the answer to. I mean, you know the answer to this one.

  • Recessions, and the fear that another one is just around the corner, explained.

• Matt Taibbi:

  • On Russiagate and our refusal to face why Trump won:

    Trump would already be president-elect before he was taken seriously as an electoral phenomenon. Right up until the networks called Florida for him on election night, few major American media figures outside of Michael Moore -- who incidentally was also right about WMDs and ridiculed for it -- believed a Trump win possible.

    The only reason most blue-state media audiences had been given for Trump's poll numbers all along was racism, which was surely part of the story but not the whole picture. A lack of any other explanation meant Democratic audiences, after the shock of election night, were ready to reach for any other data point that might better explain what just happened.

    Russiagate became a convenient replacement explanation absolving an incompetent political establishment for its complicity in what happened in 2016, and not just the failure to see it coming. Because of the immediate arrival of the collusion theory, neither Wolf Blitzer nor any politician ever had to look into the camera and say, "I guess people hated us so much they were even willing to vote for Donald Trump."

    Post-election, Russiagate made it all worse. People could turn on their TVs at any hour of the day and see anyone from Rachel Maddow to Chris Cuomo openly reveling in Trump's troubles. This is what Fox looks like to liberal audiences.

    Worse, the "walls are closing in" theme -- two years old now -- was just a continuation of the campaign mistake, reporters confusing what they wanted to happen with what was happening.

  • As the Mueller probe ends, new Russiagate myths begin.

• Peter Wade: Poll: Only 29 percent of Americans say Mueller Report clears Trump.

• Alex Ward: Russia is a threat to American democracy, with or without collusion: Two subheds: "Russia is still a threat to American elections" and "There was still a lot of Trump campaign contact with Russia." Both statements are certainly true, but also taken out of context and blown out of proportion. The biggest threat to American democracy is the outsized influence of special interest money, especially its ability to focus and control media. Putin's Russian state is essentially a protection racket for international oligarchs. It's no surprise that they would want to steer other countries' elections and politicians to advance their interests -- indeed, pretty much everyone with the means tries to do the same thing (not least, Americans who have interests/allies all around the world). On the other hand, Russia's budget is trivial compared to (to pick one of many domestic example) the Koch network, and due to history they have to lurk in the shadows (in stark contrast to Israel and Saudi Arabia).

• Li Zhou: The Joe Biden and Anita Hill controversy: "He just keeps apologizing -- without saying anything new."

• New York Times Editorial Board: The secret death toll of America's drones: "President Trump is making it harder to know how many civilians the government kills by remote control."

Daily Log

New York Post Mueller Madness brackets:

• Rachel Maddow (MSNBC host) + + + +
• Ana Navarro (CNN contributor) - Maddow
• John Oliver (HBO "Last Week Tonight" host) + - Maddow
• Donny Deutsch (MSNBC contributor) - Oliver
• "Morning Joe" (MSNBC) - Brennan
• John Brennan (MSNBC national security analyst) + + - Maddow
• Don Lemon (CNN anchor) + - Brennan
• Chris Hayes (MSNBC host) - Lemon
• Bill Kristol (The Bulwark editor) + - Chait
• Natash Bertrand (The Atlantic writer) - Kristol
• Ryan Lizza (Esquire correspondent) - Chait
• Jonathan Chait (New York Magazine writer) + + + - Maddow
• Paul Krugman (New York Times columnist) + - Boot
• Jennifer Rubin (Washington Post blogger) - Krugman
• Max Boot (Washington Post columnist) + + - Chait
• Adam Davidson (New Yorker writer) - Boot
• Alec Baldwin (SNL actor) + + - Colbert
• Brian Ross (ABC former correspondent) - Baldwin
• Chuck Lorre ("The Big Bang Theory" producer) - Kimmel
• Jimmy Kimmel (ABC "Jimmy Kimmel Live" host) + - Baldwin
• Stephen Colbert (CBS "The Late Show" host) + + + - Maddow
• Ken Dilanlan (NBC intelligence reporter) - Colbert
• Joy Behar (ABC "The View" co-host) - Avenatti
• Michael Avenatti (Stormy Daniels' lawyer) + - Colbert
• Benjamin Wittes (Brookings Institute senior fellow) + - Milano
• Molly McKew (information warfare expert) - Wittes
• Alyssa Milano (actress) + + - Griffin
• Seth Abramson (University New Hampshire professor) - Milano
• Kathy Griffin (commedian) + + + - Colbert
• Laurence Tribe (Harvard Law School professor) + - Griffin
• Robert De Niro (actor) - Tribe

Daily Log

Got this letter from David Akalugo:

I peruse your site regularly & I have to say thanks since it's a useful treasure trove & a nice contrast to Robert Christgau's work (comparing grades helps).

I searched Bob Dylan on your site recently & noticed you graded Blood on the Tracks as a B, which stunned me since most (Christgau included) regard it as a classic. what's the reason(s) why you disagree with the consensus? I'd love to know.

My reply:

I'm afraid the grade conceals how intensely I dislike "Blood on the Tracks." I never was a folk music fan, and the only Dylan I owned before moving to St. Louis c. 1972 was "Rainy Day Women" (which I loved), so when I finally started listening to his albums -- everyone I knew there had most of them -- I found myself out of sync with the prevailing opinions. That was the case with pretty much everything -- in the late 1960s I mutated from believing in everything Americans were supposed to hold dear to scrutinizing (and often rejecting) all the cant I heard. My problems with Dylan only got worse as he released new albums. I found myself reacting almost precisely opposite to Christgau (who was a mentor and would soon become a friend) and his rock critic consensus building, which (as someone who was pretty insecure and habitually uncertain) was rather fitful for me. I think at the time everyone was looking at Dylan's decline and trying to find shards of hope, with most latching onto "Blood" as his second coming. I actually wrote an A- review at the time (see: "Rekord Report 3"), but looking back at it I can now see the resentment building. It bubbled over after Christgau panned two records I had initially liked much more: "Desire" and Bette Midler's "Songs for the New Depression" (with a Dylan duo). I eventually graded both down to B, but that only made me hate "Blood" more. After that, I gave up on Dylan, and didn't listen to anything until I found myself enjoying "Good as I Been to You" in 1992 (or maybe it was the Traveling Wilburys in 1988). Since then I've been through nearly everything. "Blood" still turns my stomach, although "objectively" it's well crafted with memorable songs -- Maria Muldaur and Bettye LaVette have picked up some for their own superb albums. So discounting my personal baggage it's probably an OK album. But as the grader I feel I'm still entitled to a little pique.

Links:

• grade list
• Rekord Report 3

Music Week

Expanded blog post, March archive (complete).

Music: current count 31297 [31275] rated (+22), 253 [251] unrated (+2).

I expected a "lazy week," so my lowest rated count this year shouldn't be a surprise. Was real low until the weekend, when I settled down to write up a lengthy Weekend Roundup. Even then, I ran into a problem when Napster stopped playing (could search and select records, but couldn't fetch any music). Probably the Flash plugin got hosed, and could get restarted by rebooting, but I had too much stuff up in the air to bother). Played some CDs -- the week's three two A- and one B+(***) records. Beyond that, I mostly searched on Bandcamp (9 this week, vs. 5 on Napster). Trad jazz pianist James Dapogny died last week. I went looking for missing records and couldn't find any -- I especially recommend Original Jelly Roll Blues (1993) and Hot Club Swing: Small Group Swing (1994) -- but that led me to singer and sometime duo-partner Carol Leigh. Still, neither of the records below involve Dapogny.

I didn't get around to moving the computer last week, even though I had planned to do it right after last week's Music Week. I'm going to swear off predicting when I'm going to get that done. Weather should be relatively nice next week, and I have a couple of woodworking projects on tap, so that may be more fun. Took a couple of days last week making a rather spectacular dinner. Menu, as best I recall:

• Roasted chicken with fennel, clementines, and arak [Ottolenghi]: sub ouzo for arak.
• Sweet potato gratin [Ottolenghi].
• Cauliflower bacon gratin [Greenspan].
• Pumpkin gorgonzola flan [Greenspan]: did one large one instead of individuals.
• Spiced butter carrots [Greenspan].
• Piperade stir-fry [Greenspan].
• Orange & olive salad [Greenspan, but I mostly did Wolfert from memory].
• Profiteroles [Reichl], with coffee/chocolate chip ice cream and hot fudge sauce.

I used a lot of eggs and cream. I originally wanted to do veal marengo [Greenspan], but the one grocery store that routinely stocks veal chops had none (no veal at all, no lamb, seafood counter already shut down. I've made that chicken recipe a number of times, so was able to amend my shopping list from memory. Might even have been an improvement on the veal, although that's another marvelous dish. I had to make the fudge sauce and assemble the profiteroles after dinner, and couldn't serve them all at once, but our guests coped.

This is the last Monday in March, so my Streamnotes (March 2019) file is complete.

New records reviewed this week:

• Cyrille Aimée: Live (2018, Mack Avenue): [r]: B+(**)
• Cyrille Aimée: Move On: A Sondheim Adventure (2019, Mack Avenue): [r]: B
• Chat Noir: Hyperuranion (2018 [2019], RareNoise): [cdr]: B
• Stephan Crump/Ingrid Laubrock/Cory Smythe: Channels (2017 [2019], Intakt): [cd]: A-
• Ex Hex: It's Real (2019, Merge): [bc]: B+(**)
• Paolo Fresu/Richard Galliano/Jan Lundgren: Mare Nostrum III (2018 [2019], ACT): [r]: B+(**)
• ICP Orchestra: Live at the Royal Room: First Set: 6 May 2015 (2015 [2018, ICP): [bc]: B+(*)
• ICP Orchestra: Live at the Royal Room: Second Set: 6 May 2015 (2015 [2018], ICP): [bc]: B+(**)
• Anthony Joseph: People of the Sun (2018, Heavenly Sweetness): [bc]: B+(*)
• Liebman Rudolph & Drake: Chi (2018 [2019], RareNoise): [cdr]: A-
• Dan McCarthy: Epoch (2019, Origin): [cd]: B+(***)
• Levon Mikaelian Trio: Untainted (2019, self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
• Sean Noonan: Tan Man's Hat (2018 [2019], RareNoise): [cdr]: B
• Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah: Ancestral Recall (2019, Ropeadope): [bc]: B+(*)
• Dexter Story: Bahir (2019, Soundway): [bc]: B+(*)
• Urbanity: Urbanity (2018 [2019], Alfi): [cd]: B

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Sun Ra and His Spirit of Jazz Cosmos Arkestra: WUHY Radio Philadelphia 1978 (1978 [2019], Enterplanetary Koncepts): [bc]: B+(*)
• Townes Van Zandt: Sky Blue (1973 [2019], Fat Possum): [bc]: B+(*)

Old music:

• Aceyalone: All Balls Don't Bounce (1995, Capitol): [bc]: B+(**)
• Aceyalone: A Book of Human Language (1998, Project Blowed): [bc]: B+(**)
• Carol Leigh: Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night (1984 [1996], GHB): [r]: B+(**)
• Carol Leigh/Dumouster Stompers: Back Water Blues (1993 [2016], GHB): [r]: B

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Michaël Attias: Ëchos La Nuit (Out of Your Head): April 5
• Betty Carter: The Music Never Stops (1992, Blue Engine): March 29
• Stephan Crump/Ingrid Laubrock/Cory Smythe: Channels (Intakt)
• Fleurine: Brazilian Dream (Pure Imagination)
• Larry Fuller: Overjoyed (Capri): May 17
• Remy Le Boeuf: Light as a Word (Outside In Music): May 24
• Matthew Shipp Trio: Signature (ESP-Disk)
• Terraza Big Band: One Day Wonder (Outside In Music): May 3
• Tiger Hatchery: Breathing in the Walls (ESP-Disk)
• Dave Zinno Unisphere: Stories Told (Whaling City Sound)

Weekend Roundup

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller handed a report in to Attorney General Bill Barr on Friday, and Barr released a letter to Congress "summarizing" the report, spun primarily to let Trump off the hook. Publication of the full report would be a fairly major news story, but all we have to go on now is just Barr's spin. For example, see: Tierney Sneed: Barr: Evidence Mueller found not 'sufficient' to charge Trump with obstruction. That's always seemed to me to be the probable outcome. Anyone who thought Robert Mueller would treat Trump like Ken Starr and his crew did the Clintons clearly knew nothing about the man. Moreover, letting Barr break the news is resulting in much different headlines than, say, when James Comey announced that he didn't find sufficient evidence to charge Hillary Clinton with any crimes in her email case. At the time, Comey buried the conclusion and spent 90% of his press conference berating Clinton for her recklessness and numerous other faults. You're not hearing any of that from Barr, although when the final report comes out -- and presumably if not released someone will manage to leak it -- the odds that someone else less in Trump's pocket could have reported it more critically of Trump are dead certain. As I write this, reactions are pouring in. For instance: William Saletan: Look at all the weasel words Bill Barr used to protect Trump.

No time to unpack this now, and probably no point either. I started to write something under Matt Taibbi below, wasn't able to wrap it up neatly, and left it dangling. I'll return to the subject at some point, hopefully with better perspective. But I would like to make two points here. One is that anyone who tried to pin the word "treason" on Trump has committed a grave mistake. The word assumes that we are locked in a state of war that is fixed and immutable, something that we are not free to make political decisions over. It is, in short, a word that we should never charge anyone with, even a scoundrel like Trump. Moreover, it is a word that through its assumptions indicts its user much worse than its target. Those Democrats who used it should be ashamed and apologetic. (Needless to say, the same goes for Republicans who hurled the same charge at Obama and the Clintons.)

The second point is that we need to recognize that what we allow politicians (like Trump, or for that matter the Clintons) to get away with legally is a much bigger scandal than whether they ever get caught violating the law. Indeed, if you take the Mueller Report as exonerating Trump, you're inadvertently arguing that anything a person can get away with is fair and acceptable.

Little bit of insight I picked up from Greg Magarian on Facebook:

It's so fucking easy to be conservative. That's maybe the gratest under-the-radar reason to hate conservatives: because all they have to do is stand around and let the world keep sucking.

Best news I've seen this week: A century with Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Some scattered links this week:

• Matthew Yglesias: Probably his least interesting bunch of pieces since Trump was elected -- maybe he's letting his election as "Chief Neoliberal Shill" (beating out Scott Linciome in the finals, and a host of other obvious candidates along the way) go to his head, or maybe he's just letting his mind wander as presidential campaign news starts to heat up (although it looks to me like 16-18 months too early for that).

  • Beto O'Rourke standing on countertops, explained.

  • The case for making 2020 the real Year of the Woman.

  • Joe Biden's plan for an early VP selection is a terrible idea.

  • The demobilization of the resistance is a dangerous mistake.

• Fred Barbash/Deanna Paul: The real reason the Trump administration is constantly losing in court.

• Zack Beauchamp:

  • The Barr letter is a massive political victory for Trump.

  • Trump's free speech executive order isn't about free speech: "It's actually about power -- specifically, the conservative attempt to seize it on college campuses."

• Walden Bello: Why free trade is bad for you (or most of you at any rate): "Free trade is simply a euphemism for the corporate capture of international trade."

• Ajay Singh Chaudhary: The Amazon drama: "The Amazon HQ2 story is a microcosm of twenty-first century capitalism and a parable about the changing nature of politics for the left."

• Jane Coaston:

  • Trump's feud with Kellyanne Conway's husband, explained.

  • Rep Devin Nunes's bizarre $250 million lawsuit against Twitter, explained.

• Gaby Del Valle: Boeing and other companies put safety at a premium.

• Vikram Dodd: Anti-Muslim hate crimes soar in UK after Christchurch shootings. Coincidentally: Ayal Feinberg/Regina Branton/Valerie Martinez-Ebers: Counties that hosted a 2016 Trump rally saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes.

• Juliet Eilperin: Federal judge demands Trump administration reveal how its drilling plans will fuel climate change.

• Nicholas Fandos: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump use private accounts for official business, their lawyer says.

• John Feffer:

  • After Trump: "Centrist liberalism is dead, and Trump is a disaster. But progressives can use what he's done to remake America and its place in the world." I doubt the first premise here, but that may just be semantics: neoliberal foreign policy -- support for globalized capital protected by a world-wide military umbrella cemented through alliances with dependent countries and occasional fits of fury with any countries that aren't adequately deferential -- is so embedded in the psyches of centrist Democrats that it's automatic even if they are dead. Still, Trump's "America first" doctrine fractures those alliances, revealing the underlying weakness of American hegemony, and it's going to be hard to restore anything like the Pax Americana that thrived after WWII and through the collapse of the Soviet Union.

  • What's missing from Bernie Sanders' 'Progressive International': "To challenge fascists and weak-tea liberals, Sanders has called for a Progressive International . . . but it's not very international."

• Masha Gessen: Jacinda Ardern has rewritten the script for how a nation grieves after a terrorist attack.

• Lloyd Green: Kushner, Inc review: Jared, Ivanka Trump and the rise of the American kakistocracy: Review of Vicky Ward's book, Kushner Inc.: Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. New word for me, reportedly coined in the 17th century: kakistocracy: "a system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens."

• Karen J Greenberg: Trump wants to take away your citizenship: "The current administration is bent on making it easier to denaturalize American citizens." [Title from The Nation.] Also at TomDispatch: William Astore: The Death of Peace: "America's senior generals find no exits from endless war."

• Conn Hallinan: Nuclear powers need to disarm before it's too late: "The world's major nuclear powers are treaty-bound to move towards disarmament. The India-Pakistan clash underscores the need to get moving."

• Rosalind S Heiderman/David A Fahrenthold: Trump's legal troubles are far from over even as Mueller probe ends.

• Sean Illing: How the politics of racial resentment is killing white people: Interview with Jonathan Metzl, author of Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland, who says:.

  I look at the rejection of the Affordable Care Act in the South. I look at policies that make it far easier for people to get guns and carry guns everywhere. I look at tax cuts that benefit wealthy Americans but cut roads, bridges, and schools in poor and working-class areas. Every one of those policies has been sold as a policy that will make America great again. But they have devastating consequences for working-class populations, particularly working-class white populations, in many instances. . . .

  I found that if you lived in a state that rejected the Medicaid expansion and blocked the full passage of the Affordable Care Act, you lived about a 21- to 28-day shorter life span on the aggregate. So it was costing people about three to four weeks of life in those states.

  When I looked at states that made it incredibly easy for people to buy and carry guns pretty much anywhere they wanted, I found that this correlated with hundreds of deaths that wouldn't have happened otherwise, particularly in white populations, because gun suicide rose dramatically. And I found that if you lived in a state that cut away infrastructure and schools and funding, that correlated with higher high school dropout rates.

  All these variables are associated with shorter life expectancies, so this is what I mean when I say these policies are killing people.

• Umair Irfan: The Midwest floods are going to get much, much worse: "An 'unprecedented' flood season lies ahead this spring, according to NOAA."

• Fred Kaplan:

  • Trump's North Korea strategy is an incoherent mess: I think Kaplan is way off-base here (although I wouldn't dispute "incoherent" either viz. Trump or his free-wheeling administration). Starting talks should have started a process to unwind sanctions, even with only the loosest general agreement of reducing tensions. The fact that Kim has called a halt to testing of rockets and nuclear warheads is significant, as is Trump's decision to suspend "war games" in the region. Both sides have gotten the other's attention, and made some tangible progress, so why not start to unwind the sanctions that had so severely isolated North Korea as to convince them of the necessity of building a nuclear threat? The only reason the US hasn't budged on this issue is that hard-liners like Bolton have convinced Trump to keep up maximum pressure, that all he has to do is to hang tough until Kim surrenders everything. Yet what happened was that Treasury tried to add even more sanctions, only to have Trump publicly withdraw them. Kaplan thinks "Kim is gaining the upper hand," but aside from making Trump and his administration look even more schizophrenic I can't think of any advantage Kim accrues. Sure, he can go back to sabre rattling, but the only reason for that in the first place was to get Washington's attention, to start the process of talking. But until he gets some sanctions relief, all he's got to show for his scheming is some pictures socializing with one of the world's most reprehensible oligarchs. The only good news on this front since the Hanoi summit ended is that South Korea is starting to act on its own, in its own search for peaceful resolution, rather than letting Trump and Bolton mess things up. See: Josh Rogin: The United States and South Korea now openly disagree on North Korea.

  • Gun crazy: "Trump's record-setting military budget is bloated, illegal, and doomed."

  • Base instinct: "Trump thinks US military deployments are a protection racket, and nothing will convince him otherwise."

• Sarah Kliff:

  • Nikki Haley is wrong: Finland takes care of new moms way better than the US.

  • /Dylan Scott: We read Democrats' 9 plans for expanding health care. Here's how they work. Since I have it up (it was foolishly recommended by a FB friend), here's a link to Ezekiel J Emanuel: Bernie Sanders thinks he can vanquish health insurers. He's wrong. I read Emanuel's book, Healthcare, Guaranteed: A Simple Solution for America, when it came out in 2008, along with another dozen books on the subject. What he recommended then was marginally better than what we had then, and his new plan is marginally better than what we have now, but he's always been a shill for the insurance companies (see his "full disclosure" buried deep in this piece), and his only core belief is that billionaires shouldn't be inconvenienced by politicians, who in any case will never be able to buck the rigged system. (His brother is Rahm Emmanuel, so he should know something about how that system works.) On the other hand, why would you even consider health care policy from someone who wrote Why I Hope to Die at 75?

  • A spinal surgery, a $101,000 bill, and a new law to prevent more surprises: "How New York state fought surprise medical bills -- and won."

• Jen Kirby: The brewing fight over making the Mueller report public, explained.

• German Lopez: It took one mass shooting for New Zealand to ban assault weapons.

• Dylan Matthews:

  • Robert Mueller was never going to end Donald Trump's presidency.

  • George W Bush really did lie about WMDs, and his aides are still lying for him: Specifically, Ari Fleischer.

  • What Alan Krueger taught the world about the minimum wage, education, and inequality/a>. For more on Krueger, see Paul Krugman: Mourning the loss of Alan Krueger.

  • How to tax the rich, explained: "It's no accident that the Democratic Party went from wanting a 39.6 percent top tax rate to wanting much more."

• Nicholas Mulder: Who's afraid of the International Criminal Court/ Mike Pompeo, for one.

• Ralph Nader: Greedy Boeing's avoidable design and software time bombs.

• Andrew Prokop:

  • Bill Barr's letter summarizing Mueller's findings, explained.

  • The Mueller report: what we know and don't know.

  • Mueller is done. Trump's legal woes aren't.

  • The Mueller report: what we know and don't know.

  • All of Robert Mueller's indictments and plea deals in the Russia investigation.

  • 9 questions about the Mueller report you were too embarrassed to ask.

  • Robert Mueller has completed his report: "But we don't yet know what it says."

• Brian Resnick: What Mozambique's unfolding flooding catastrophe looks like.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Stephen Moore, the Trump loyalists nominated to the Fed, explained. Oddly enough, when Trump picked Larry Kudlow as his chief economic adviser I had him confused with Moore. Maybe I'll be able to keep them straight from here on, although their stupidities are pretty interchangeable. Presumably Moore will back Trump and fight for low interest rates. On the other hand, as Catherine Rampell reminds us in a tweet:

    Funnily enough, when we DID have deflation -- during the depths of the financial crisis -- he argued for tighter monetary policy, suggesting that the Fed was about to stoke hyperinflation. Of course, a Democrat was in the White House then.

  • Trump's untruths about Veterans Choice illustrate the sheer audaciousness of his lies: "Trump takes credit for a program he didn't create in order to demean the late war hero who in fact created it." I'm not opposed to giving McCain credit where credit is due, but can we please stop this reflexive reference to him as a "war hero"? It's true that he fought in a war, and one may certainly sympathize with his suffering during that war, but nothing he did was heroic, and indeed the only thing Americans should feel about that war is ashamed. In fact, I have more respect for Trump's (no doubt selfish) efforts to avoid that war than I do for the "gung ho" enthusiasm of McCain, Kerry, and many others. [PS: I wrote the above before I read this piece on POW fetishism: H Bruce Franklin: Trump vs McCain: an American horror story. If pressed, I would have guessed that the reason Trump's base so hates McCain has nothing to do with Vietnam; what they can't forgive him for is losing to Obama. I feel that same way about Hillary Clinton losing to Trump.]

  • Kellyanne Conway's stunningly irresponsible advice: read New Zealand mosque shooter's manifesto.

• Dylan Scott:

  • Idaho voted to expand Medicaid. Republican lawmakers are trying to roll it back.

  • What we know about Trump's reelection odds -- no matter which Democrat runs against him: "Who knows! We're in uncharted territory."

• Matt Taibbi:

  • 16 years later, how the press that sold the Iraq War got away with it:

    In the popular imagination, the case for war was driven by a bunch of Republicans and one over-caffeinated New York Times reporter named Judith Miller. . . . It's been forgotten this was actually a business-wide consensus, which included the enthusiastic participation of a blue-state intelligentsia. The New Yorker of [David] Remnick, who himself wrote a piece called "Making the Case," was a source of many of the most ferocious pro-invasion pieces, including a pair written by current Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, one of a number of WMD hawks who failed up after the war case fell apart. Other prominent Democrat voices like Ezra Klein, Jonathan Chait, and even quasi-skeptic Nick Kristof (who denounced war critics for calling Bush a liar) were on board, as a Full Metal Jacket character put it, "for the big win."

    The Washington Post and New York Times were key editorial-page drivers of the conflict; MSNBC unhired Phil Donahue and Jesse Ventura over their war skepticism; CNN flooded the airwaves with generals and ex-Pentagon stoolies, and broadcast outlets ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS stacked the deck even worse: In a two-week period before the invasion, the networks had just one American guest out of 267 who questioned the war, according to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

    This is an excerpt from a new book, Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another, which seems to be available as some kind of subscription deal [actually, here's a better link]. Following that link led me to another title: "It's official: Russiagate is this generation's WMD." I'd like to quote something here, but I'm having trouble making sense of Taibbi's point -- other than the broader one that the media (both right and "left") is corrupt, stupid, and vain, and as such rarely credible, but you know that by now, don't you?.

    PS: Pulled this from Taibbi's twitter feed:

    As a purely journalistic failure, however, WMD was a pimple compared to Russiagate. The sheer scale of errors and exaggerations this time around dwarfs the last mess. Worse, it's led to most journalists accepting a radical change of mission. We've become sides-choosers, obliterating the concept of the press as an independent institution whose primary role is sorting fact and fiction.

    The problem I have here is that the WMD lie was simple, coherent, and obviously directed by the White House, US security services, and their allies, "Russiagate" is a vacuous mix of charges and innuendo, poorly sourced, and reeking of sour grapes from the excuse-hunting sore losers around Hillary Clinton. If you take that as a strict definition, journalists like Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald are right to be critical, but how much of the media has chosen to be that narrowly partisan? Rachel Maddow is certainly one, and I'm sure there are many more -- including a bunch I habitually avoid. On the other hand, some journalists have helped sort fact from fiction, and those facts note that: a fair number of Trump campaign staff had considerable contacts with Russians and instinctively lied about them afterwards; also it is clear that Russian cyber operators actively campaigned for Trump, often reinforcing Trump's own campaign messages, although it is not clear to what extent (if any) the two campaigns coordinated (in this, Russia was acting much like the many "independent" PACs that favored Trump for supposedly didn't coordinate with the Trump campaign); and after the election, Trump and his circle lied about the contacts and eventually organized a massive PR campaign to counter and discredit the Mueller investigation, which led to uncovering further embarrassing facts and behavior. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has turned out to be the most thoroughly corrupt ruling clique in American history, with dozens of inadequately reported scandals -- perhaps because it's been convenient for both sides (originally Trump/Clinton, with varying degrees of party allegiance) to focus on the banner charges: "collusion with Russia" (often hysterically inflated to "treason") and "obstruction of justice." [ . . . ]

  • How to blow $700 billion.

  • The Pentagon's bottomless money pit.

  • Trump wants more war money than last year and Democrats don't seem to mind.

  • Turns out that trillion-dollar bailout was, in fact, real.

• Alex Ward:

  • Trump just made a highly controversial decision about Israel -- again: He recognized Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, seized from Syria during the 1967 war, in violation of UN resolutions and international law (something Trump has no interest in or concern for). For another view, see Robert Mackey: Trump offers Netanyahu part of Syria to boost Israeli leader's flagging re-election campaign.

  • New survey shows Americans are unhappier than they've been in years.

• Jennifer Williams: The massive anti-Brexit protest march in the UK, in 19 photos.

• Richard Wolfe: No collusion, plenty of corruption: Trump is not in the clear.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, March archive (so far).

Music: current count 31275 [31246] rated (+29), 251 [252] unrated (-1).

Rated count down, probably by a lot mid-week, but I spent a lot of time on the computer hacking out Book Roundup then Weekend Roundup, and made up ground late. I checked and found that this was the third week in the last two months with exactly 29 records. Would have been more except that this has been another banner A-list week.

Two came out of my jazz queue -- David Berkman, not out until April 5, and Tomeka Reid/Filippo Monico -- and they qualify as news. Three were tipped off by Phil Overeem (Little Simz, Dave, and Robert Forster -- although the first two took a revisit before I became convinced). One (Todd Snider) was written up by Robert Christgau (along with Leyla McCalls's Capitalist Blues and Our Native Daughters' Songs of Our Native Daughters, both A- here in previous weeks). I was tipped off to the final one (Matt Brewer) by a Chris Monsen tweet. Various other sources led me to lower-rated records, but somehow the best tips keep coming from friends.

I've put off my office/computer reorganization, but should buckle down and get it done this week (tomorrow I hope, after I get this post up and get some fresh light to work with. Still some things unclear about how it's all going to get put back together.

Getting some decent weather after several rough months. (The "bomb cyclone" was kind of a dud here, although it lived up to its billing a hundred miles north of here, even more so between there and Denver.) Maybe I'll take some time and work on the yard and/or my nephew's house. Also still stuck with a lot of stress over myriad health issues -- but generally looks like a lazy week coming up.

New records reviewed this week:

• 2 Chainz: Rap or Go to the League (2019, Gamebread/Def Jam): [r]: B+(**)
• Abhi the Nomad: Marbled (2018, Tommy Boy): [r]: B+(***)
• Allison Au Quartet: Wander Wonder (2018 [2019], self-released): [r]: B+(**)
• The David Berkman Sextet: Six of One (2018 [2019], Palmetto): [cd]: A-
• Matt Brewer: Ganymede (2018 [2019], Criss Cross): [r]: A-
• Chai: Punk (2019, Burger): [r]: B+(*)
• The Coathangers: The Devil You Know (2019, Suicide Squeeze): [r]: B+(***)
• Theon Cross: Fyah (2017-18 [2019], Gearbox): [r]: B+(*)
• Dave: Psychodrama (2019, Neighbourhood): [r]: A-
• Joey DeFrancesco: In the Key of the Universe (2019, Mack Avenue): [r]: B+(**)
• Carolyun Fitzhugh: Living in Peace (2018 [2019], Iyouwe): [cd]: B
• Robert Forster: Inferno (2019, Tapete): [r]: A-
• Girlpool: What Chaos Is Imaginary (2019, Anti-): [r]: B
• Larry Grenadier: The Gleaners (2016 [2019], ECM): [r]: B+(*)
• Vijay Iyer/Craig Taborn: The Transitory Poems (2018 [2019], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Julian Lage: Love Hurts (2018 [2019], Mack Avenue): [r]: B+(***)
• 4WD [Nils Landgren/Michael Wollny/Lars Danielsson/Wolfgang Haffner]: 4 Wheel Drive (2018 [2019], ACT): [r]: B-
• Little Simz: Grey Area (2019, Age 101): [r]: A-
• Nivhek: After Its Own Death/Walking in a Spiral Towards the House (2019, Yellow Electric): [r]: B+(*)
• Tomeka Reid/Filippo Monico: The Mouser (2018 [2019], Relative Pitch): [cd]: A-
• Sigrid: Sucker Punch (2019, Island): [r]: B+(**)
• Todd Snider: Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3 (2019, Aimless): [r]: A-
• Carol Sudhalter Quartet: Live at Saint Peter's Church (2018 [2019], Alfa Projects): [cd]: B+(**)
• Paul Tynan: Quartet (2016 [2019], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Claudia Villela: Encantada Live (2018 [2019], Taina Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• Sheck Wes: Mudboy (2018, Cactus Jack/GOOD Music/Interscope): [r]: B+(***)
• Nate Wooley: Columbia Icefield (2017 [2019], Northern Spy): [r]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• James Booker: Vol. 1: At Onkel Po's Carnegie Hall, Hamburg 1976 (1976 [2019], Jazzline): [r]: B+(**)
• Kid Creole & the Coconuts: Live in Paris 1985 (1985 [2019], Rainman): [r]: B+(*)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Laura Antonioli: The Constant Passage of Time (Origin): April 12
• Chord Four: California Avant Garde (self-released): May 3
• Levon Mikaelian Trio: Untainted (self-released): March 26
• Ivo Perelman/Mat Maneri/Nate Wooley: Strings 3 (Leo)
• Ivo Perelman/Mat Maneri/Nate Wooley/Matthew Shipp: Strings 4 (Leo)

Weekend Roundup

Stories that caught folks' interest this week included an airplane that aims to crash, mass slaughter of Muslims in New Zealand, and the revelation that some rich people got caught trying to cheat their way into getting their kids enrolled by elite colleges (as opposed to the proper way, which is to give the colleges extra money). On the latter, I'd like to quote Elias Vlanton (on Facebook):

Missing the Forest for the Trees: A few rich people bribed their kids into elite colleges. So what? The real scandal is an educational system that favors rich students over poorer ones (regardless of color) from the first day of pre-K through crossing the graduation stage, diploma in hand. If every bribing parent is jailed, the real injustice of social inequality will remain. Ending it is the real task.

The post was accompanied by a photo of some of Elias's students, who look markedly different from the students caught up in this scandal. This seems to be one of the few crimes in America with a means test limiting it to the pretty rich. Actually, I feel a little sorry for the parents and children caught up in this fraud -- not so much for being victimized (although they were) as for the horrible pressures they put upon themselves to succeed in a world that is so rigorously rigged by the extreme inequality they nominally benefit from. I got a taste of their world when I transferred to Washington University back in 1973. That was the first time I met student who had spent years prepping for SATs that would assure entrance to one of the nation's top pre-med schools. It was also where I knew students who tried (and sometimes managed) to hire others to write papers and to take graduate school tests -- so I suppose you could say that was my first encounter with the criminal rich. I always thought it was kind of pathetic, but it really just reflects the desperation of a pseudo-meritocracy. And true as that was then, I'm sure it's much more desperate and vicious today.

One more thing I want to mention here: I saw a meme on Facebook forwarded by one of my right-wing relatives. It read:

YESTERDAY IN THE PHILIPPINES A CHURCH WAS BOMBED BY MUSLIM TERRORISTS KILLING 30 CHRISTIANS. NO MEDIA COVERAGE.

I suppose the intent was to complain about news coverage of the mass shooting in New Zealand, where a "white nationalist" slaughtered 50 Muslims, implying that the "fake news" media is playing favorites again, acting like Muslim lives are more valuable than Christian lives. I thought I should at least check that claim out. Google offered no evidence of such an attack, at least yesterday. However, I did find that two bombs had been set off on January 27, 2019, at a Catholic Cathedral in Jolo, Sulu, in the Philippines, killing 20 people. There's a pretty detailed Wikipedia page on the attack, so that could be the event the meme author is referring to. I've also found an article in the New York Times, although the emphasis there is more on the growth of ISIS within the long-running Islamic separatist revolt -- which started immediately after he US occupied the Philippines in 1898, and has flared up repeatedly ever since, most recently in response to Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte (one of Trump's favorite strongmen). (Also another article in CNN.) The context stripped from the meme doesn't excuse the atrocity, but it does help explain American media's limited interest. I have several links on the New Zealand shooting below, and they too reflect our rather parochial interest in the subject. Although pretty much everyone deplores the loss of life in all terrorist atrocities, the New Zealand one hit closer to home (for reasons that will be obvious below -- see, e.g., Patrick Strickland).

Some scattered links this week:

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • "Jexodus," the fake departure of American Jews from the Democratic Party, explained: Starts with two Trump tweets, not that he coined the term but it was the sort of thing that stuck to his brain. To quote:

    • "Jewish people are leaving the Democratic Party. We saw a lot of anti Israel policies start under the Obama Administration, and it got worse & worse. There is anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party. They don't care about Israel or the Jewish people." Elizabeth Pipko, Jexodus.
    • The 'Jexodus' movement encourages Jewish people to leave the Democrat Party. Total disrespect! Republicans are waiting with open arms. Remember Jerusalem (U.S. Embassy) and the horrible Iran Nuclear Deal! @OANN @foxandfriends

    If anyone's antisemitic here, it's Trump, with his assumption that American Jews will flock to whichever party that gives Israel the most uncritically blind support. Trump assumes the old charge that Jews feel more allegiance to Israel than to America, and his second tweet makes plain how he sets US policy based on his own political calculation.

  • The Manafort case is a reminder that we invest too little in catching white-collar criminals: "It shouldn't take a special counsel to catch a tax cheat."

• WJ Astore: Big walls, fruitless wars, and fortress America: Review of Greg Grandin: The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America.

• Frida Berrigan: A mother swept away by climate change: About "Generation Hot": "some two billion young people, all of whom have grown up under global warming and are fated to spend the rest of their lives confronting its mounting impacts." Also this week at TomDispatch:

  • Allegra Harpootlian: The school shooters of the planet.

  • Bob Dreyfuss: The rise of the hardliners: "Is a war with Iran on the Horizon?"

  • Rebecca Gordon: A 1970s feminist looks back at a joyous time.

  • Greg Grandin: Donald Trump, pornographer-in-chief.

• Max Blumenthal: US regime change blueprint proposed Venezuelan electricity blackouts as 'watershed event' for 'galvanizing public unrest'. Related: Ben Norton: Venezuela coup leader's oil plans revealed: Guaidó hopes to privatize state-controlled industry.

• Robert L Borosage: Democrats must expose Trump's betrayal of working people.

• Jamelle Bouie: The trouble with Biden.

• Philip Bump: Reminder: The president regularly spends the weekend hobnobbing privately with rich clients.

• Jane Coaston: The New Zealand shooter's manifesto shows how white nationalist rhetoric spreads: "The same language featured in the alleged gunman's manifesto is seen in white nationalist writings and outlets around the world."

• Gaby Del Valle: A Yelp-style app for conservatives wants to protect right-wingers from "socialist goon squads": "63red Safe claims to identify which businesses are 'safe' for conservatives." The notion of "socialist goon squads" strikes me as pure projection, but I don't doubt that the fantasy is being embedded in reactionary minds as an excuse for forming their own goon squads, maybe even igniting civil war. It's not like it hasn't happened before. Indeed, in 1993 and 2009 Republicans went to unprecedented extremes to fight back from loss of presidential power, and unlike then it's pretty clear that Trump is not going to bow out gracefully. Still, this app belongs to a long line of hucksters who exploit and prey on conservative fears.

• Tara Golshan:

  • Trump said he wouldn't cut Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. His 2020 budget cuts all 3. "Trump said he wouldn't be like 'every other Republican.' He is."

  • Trump's 2020 budget proposal seriously uts the nation's safety net.

• Sean Illing:

  • Why are millennials burned out? Capitalism. Interview with Malcolm Harris, author of Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials. There's a very striking chart here, showing that from 1948 up to about 1973 productivity and hourly compensation increased (almost doubled) at the same rate, but after 1973 (and especially after 1980) they started to diverge: hourly compensation actually declined up to the late 1990s, then rose slowly, winding up about 20% higher, while productivity more than doubled again.

  • An autopsy of the American dream: Interview with Steven Brill, author of Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America's Fifty-Year Fall -- and Those Fighting to Reverse It (also, back in 2015, America's Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System). Starts with five examples of American decline: the fifth is the one I always find the most damning (although it's arguably a consequence of the more prosaic first four): "Among the 35 richest countries in the world, the US now have the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy."

• Conor Friedersdorf: Parts of an ongoing series remembering 1968:

  • The unlearned lesson of My Lai.

  • Learning from 1968's leading anti-immigration alarmist: "Enoch Powell gave his xenophobic 'Rivers of Blood' speech 50 years ago -- but lessons of its reception still apply today."

  • 1968 and the Making of Modern America.

• Naomi Fry: The college-admissions scandal and the banality of scamming:

  This week's exposure of the college-admissions scam is significant exactly because, in its trite ordinariness, it makes granular and concrete what is usually abstract and difficult to pin down. The parents who responded "I love it" to Singer's criminal propositions reminded me, viscerally, of Donald Trump, Jr.,'s breezy e-mail reply when, in 2016, he was told of a Russian source's ability to share dirt on Hillary Clinton: "If it's what you say I love it." When the e-mail was revealed, in 2017, I felt a similar satisfaction. In both cases, casual corruption, usually obscured by several layers of secrecy and legal trickery, was finally laid bare. The people involved were so self-satisfied and secure in their power that they greeted unethical, perhaps felonious proposals with complete nonchalance.

• Masha Gessen: How I would cover the college-admissions scandal as a foreign correspondent.

• Monica Hesse: Where is William H Macy in the college admissions scandal?

• Miriam Jordan: Trump Administration plans to close key immigration operations abroad.

• Jen Kirby: UK Parliament rejects second referendum in latest Brexit vote.

• Brian Klaas: A short history of President Trump's anti-Muslim bigotry.

• Mike Konczal: The failures of neoliberalism are bigger than politics: A response to "an excellent discussion with economist Brad Delong" (cited last week). Delong argued that neoliberals need to ally with the left because there are no viable options on the right. Konczal points out that left neoliberals have deeper problems: much of what they expected their pro-market plans to accomplish has failed, or worse. For another comment on this, see Three-Toed Sloth. Konczal works for the Roosevelt Institute. Some recent articles and reports there:

  • Powerless: How lax antitrust and concentrated market power rig the economy against American workers, consumers, and communities.

  • Profit over patients: how the rules of our economy encourage the pharmaceutical industry's extractive behavior.

  • Public comment to the Federal Trade Commission on the preliminary approval of the Staples-Essendant merger.

  • Rejecting the theory of the firm: why the 'free-market' economy is a myth and how to rebuild public power.

  • Unstacking the deck: a new agenda to tame corruption in Washington.

  • Why this matters: workers pay for the 'free-market economy myth.

• Paul Krugman:

  • Don't blame robots for low wages.

  • The power of petty personal rage: After some examples:

    The point is that demented anger is a significant factor in modern American political life -- and overwhelmingly on one side. All that talk about liberal "snowflakes" is projection; if you really want to see people driven wild by tiny perceived slights and insults, you'll generally find them on the right. Nor is it just about racism and misogyny. Although these are big components of the phenomenon, I don't see the obvious connection to hamburger paranoia.

    Just to be clear: To paraphrase John Stuart Mill, I'm not saying that most conservatives are filled with rage over petty things. What I'm saying instead is that most of those filled with such rage are conservatives, and they supply much of the movement's energy. Not to put too fine a point on it, pathological pettiness almost surely put Donald Trump over the top in the 2016 election.

    Indeed, pathologically petty is a pretty fair description of Donald Trump.

  • America the cowardly bully: "What the world has learned from Trump's trade war." Easy to make fun of Trump's "trade war" negotiations, and easier still to make light of the "improved" agreements he's made, not least because their impact on actual trade effects is so negligible -- the bottom line is that the US under Trump is running even higher trade deficits than even before. Still, I recoil at "the deal would do little to address real complaints about Chinese policy, which mainly involve China's systematic expropriation of intellectual property." That's only an issue because rent-seeking IP owners have inordinate influence over US trade negotiations. It's not something that benefits average people anywhere in the world, least of all in the US. Indeed, in most cases that's not something we should be forcing Americans to pay for, let alone Chinese.

• Michael LaForgia/Matthew Rosenberg/Gabriel JX Dance: Facebook's data deals are under criminal investigation.

• Matthew Lee: US bars entry to International Criminal Court investigators.

• PR Lockhart: American schools can't figure out ow to teach kids about slavery: The game-playing examples sound awful, and I can't think of any way to redeem them. But there's been a tremendous amount of research since I was in school -- I was ten when the Civil War centenary came along, close enough you could still see and touch its artifacts and legacies, although political interests made sure there was plenty of smoke to obscure the reasons and repercussions. I can't remember what I learned at the time -- I had a wonderful US history teacher in 8th grade, and learned tons of stuff from him, but nothing on the Civil War era stands out -- but by the early 1970s the picture had changed considerably. By then, two major books on racism had appeared: David Brion Davis: The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture (1966), and Winthrop Jordan: White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negrok, 1550-1812 (1968). Those books made it clear how racism was invented to justify and perpetuate slavery. Along with those books, I read everything by Eugene D Genovese, who showed how the economic institution of slavery grew into self-contained worldviews of slaveholders and slaves, and much else, including C. Vann Woodward, Eric Foner, James McPherson, David Montgomery -- scholars influenced by the civil rights (and labor, at least for Montgomery) movements. I'm less familiar with later books, but I gather they follow along similar lines. It should be simple to put together a survey of what we know about what we know about race and slavery in American history, but we're still plagued by people wanting to impose their political agendas on the past. Perhaps such impositions are inevitable, but they came easier (because they made more sense) fifty years ago, when America's major wars -- Revolution, Civil War, WWII -- could be justified as steps toward a freer, more equal and just world. That narrative has always been burdened with nasty details, but lately conservatives have added more obstacles to understanding. The fruit of such constant thrashing is often ignorance and indifference, which is what these examples add up to.

• Dylan Matthews: Andrew Yang, the 2020 long-shot candidate running on a universal basic income, explained. I'm not going to do many links on presidential candidates, partially because I want to downplay the presidency relative to other political campaigns (e.g., Congress), and partly because these days professional politicians are so practiced in the art of boilerplate they almost never say anything interesting. On the other hand, Yang is someone cut from different cloth, with real ideas (not that I've taken the trouble to see whether I agree with many of them), and that makes him worth pointing out. At the bottom of the article, there's a list of "who's officially running so far," eleven names, 8-10 you probably already know, one I wasn't even aware of: Marianne Williamson is Oprah's spiritual adviser. She's also running for president. I only mention her because I'm always fascinated by things I didn't know. I see no reason to take her seriously, but she's no less qualified and probably more fun than Ben Carson. She may even be competitive with her most similar match among Democratic hopefuls: Kamala Harris. Oh, speaking of similarities, I have very little worth saying about new candidate Beto O'Rourke, but his track record (a few years in the House, losing high-profile Senate race) matches pretty closely one previous presidential candidate: Abraham Lincoln.

• Bill McKibben: A future without fossil fuels? Review of two short reports: 2020 Vision: Why You Should See the Fossil Fuel Peak Coming, and A New World: The Geopolitics of Energy Transformation.

• Dana Milbank: This is what happens when corporations run the government: Specifically, Boeing. Also note: Tara Copp: Trump's defense secretary faces ethics complaint over Boeing promotion. This influence peddling suggests why we've wound up with titles like America last: After 42 other countries put safety first, US finally joins ban on flights of Boeing 737 Max aircraft, itself a link to the more modestly titled Boeing planes are grounded in US after days of pressure. That pressure happened because US pilots had been complaining for months. See Kalhan Rosenblatt/Jay Blackmann: US pilots complained about Boeing 737 Max 8 months before Ethiopia crash.

• Suresh Naidu/Dani Rodrik/Gabriel Zucman: Economics after neoliberalism: A forum, with additional responses (Corey Robin pointed me to this piece). Starts with a straightforward statement of the problem:

  We live in an age of astonishing inequality. Income and wealth disparities in the United States have risen to heights not seen since the Gilded Age and are among the highest in the developed world. Median wages for U.S. workers have stagnated for nearly fifty years. Fewer and fewer younger Americans can expect to do better than their parents. Racial disparities in wealth and well-being remain stubbornly persistent. In 2017, life expectancy in the United States declined for the third year in a row, and the allocation of healthcare looks both inefficient and unfair. Advances in automation and digitization threaten even greater labor market disruptions in the years ahead. Climate change-fueled disasters increasingly disrupt everyday life.

  It's certainly possible for reasonable people to disagree on how best to deal with these problems, but the basic political divide in America today isn't about competitive solutions. It's about our ability to see problems like these. One camp simply denies their existence, or denies that they matter as problems, or denies that anything can be done about them without making matters worse. The effective difference between the last three is nihil. The article makes a lot of worthy points. For a taste, here are some pull quotes:

  • Economics is in a state of creative ferment -- a sense of public responsibility is bringing people into the fray.
  • Neoliberalism -- or market fetishism -- is not the consistent application of modern economics, but its primitive, simplistic perversion.
  • Economics' recent empirical bent makes it more difficult to idolize markets because it makes it more difficult to ignore inconvenient facts.
  • Economics does not necessarily have definite answers, but it does supply the tools needed to lay out the tradeoffs, thus contributing to a more informed democratic debate.
  • Taking contemporary economics seriously is consistent with recommending fairly dramatic structural changes in American economic life.
  • These proposals all show a willingness to subordinate textbook economic efficiency to other values such as democratic rule and egalitarian relationships among citizens.
  • Many economists dismiss the role of power, but these tackle power asymmetries frontally and suggest ways of rebalancing power for economic ends.

  One good idea here might be retiring "neoliberalism" in favor of "market fetishism" -- which really gets to the point, shorn of the increasingly muddle political overtones. (The original neos tried to hijack a well-established political tradition, although their ideas ultimately had more appeal to the right.) Some more pieces I noticed at Boston Review:

  • Bethany Moreton: Kochonomics: The racist roots of public choice theory: Review of Nancy Maclean: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Plan for America.

  • Dani Rodrik: Rescuing economics from neoliberalism.

• Sharmine Narwani: US officials offered my friend cash to take down Tehran's power grid: and now they seem to have succeeded in Venezuela.

• Anna North: What the college admissions scandal reveals about the psychology of wealth in America.

• Natalie Nougaryède: A chaotic Brexit is part of Trump's grand plan for Europe. Isn't "grand plan" a bit beyond Trump's grasp? Roger Trilling was closer to the mark when he described conservatives as only capable of "irritating mental gestures," although they're more frequent and more impactful in the Trump era than ever before. Still, something is missing here. It may make sense that Trump wants Europe to be divided and weakened so it would be easier prey for American control, but why should anyone in Europe support that? Two possible reasons I can think of. One is that there's some sort of "fraternal order of neo-fascists" where politicians with similar reactionary instincts overcome their natural nationalist dislikes to cheer each other on. The other is that international business concerns back right-wingers everywhere because deregulation and chaos suits their business model.

• John Quiggin:

  • Opportunity costs: can carbon taxing become a positive-sum game?

  • Too big to ignore: "Monopolies and oligopolies have come to dominate Western economies, and the case for braeking them up is strong."

• Brian Resnick: Trump wants to cut billions from the NIH. This is what we'll miss out on if he does. "Is spending money at the NIH a good deal? The research is incredibly clear: Yes."

• James Risen: Paul Manafort didn't get off easy -- unless you compare him to whistleblower Reality Winner: written before Manafort's second sentencing, but still "Winer performed a public service," and "was sentenced to 63 months, which is the longest ever handed down to someone accused of leaking to the press." Related: Henry N Pontell/Robert H Tillman: Manafort's sentencing shows again that white-collar criminals get off lightly: I'm not sure I'd place much weight on a single case with so many political overtones, but the general point is probably right, not that the perspective shouldn't be flipped: that non-white-collar criminals get treated more harshly. There are several pretty obvious reasons for this, but one that is rarely mentioned is that as the US has become an increasingly unequal society, the law has increasingly been used to impose a system of class control: to lock up more poor people, to regulate more through probation, and to intimidate still more with the threat of horrific consequences should they stray out of line. It's surely no coincidence that harsh sentencing and mass incarceration grew at the same time as we were cutting taxes on the rich, dismantling civil rights protections, and reducing regulation in ways that made white-collar scofflaws (like Manafort) more likely to think they could get away with bending the laws even further.

• Sigal Samuel: The case for spraying (just enough) chemicals into the sky to fight climate change: I'm willing to keep an open mind on geoengineering proposals to counteract global warming, but this particular plan -- "injecting aerosols into the high atmosphere to reflect sunlight back into space" -- strikes me as a lot like spraying perfume to cover up the stench of rotting bodies in the basement. I'd also be skeptical of claims like "no bad side effects."

• Dylan Scott:

  • The legal fight over the Trump administration's most aggressive play to cut Medicaid, explained.

  • p> California Gov Gavin Newsom is halting the state's death penalty.

• Somini Sengupta/Alexandra Villegas: Tiny Costa Rica has a Green New Deal, too. It matters for the whole planet.

• Adam Serwer: White Nationalism's deep American roots: Singles out Madison Grant, whose 1916 book The Passing of the Great Race was acclaimed as "bible" by Austrain fan-boy Adolf Hitler. Grant was also the subject of Jonathan Peter Spiro's book, Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant (2009). I've long been aware of how American race law provided models for other countries, especially for South Africa's Apartheid laws, so the news that Nazi Germany borrowed from American precedents was obvious. I recently read James Q Whitman's Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law (2017), which I would fault on two counts: one is that he spends way too much time tiptoeing around the feelings of his American readers; the other is that he misses the one obvious difference, which is that Nazi race law was aimed at purging (ultimately annihilating) "inferior races," while American racism originally meant to maintain a stable, powerless, low-cost labor force. American racism found its ideal state where it started, in slavery. However, there is another less-discussed American root for annihilationist racism: the relentless war against native Americans. Indeed, it is little wonder that white racists around the world have always turned to the US for inspiration: we have so much history to choose from -- something to fit every raging prejudice.

• Amy Davidson Sorkin: What Pelosi means when she said, of impeaching Trump, 'He's just not worth it" -- to work, impeachment requires substantial Republican support, and until that arrives, Democrats are better off campaigning against both Trump and Republicans, rather than trying to split them. Related: Adam Gopnik: The pros and cons of impeaching Trump.

• Emily Stewart:

  • The Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes and controversy, explained: "Two crashes in less than six months."

  • Boeing's cozy relationship with Trump complicates the FAA's decision to not ground Boeing planes.

  • Trump's budget hinges on economic growth numbers no one believes.

• Patrick Strickland: White nationalism is an international threat: "The Christchurch attacks point to a disturbing web reaching from the United States, to the United Kingdom, to Greece, and beyond."

• Yanis Varoufakis: A European spring is possible: "The DiEM25 proposes immediate financial changes to end austerity and fund a green -- and hopefully post-capitalist -- future." For some background on Varoufakis, see two pieces by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian: Saving the sacred cow: "Yanis Varoufakis' vision for a more democratic Europe." And: Yanis Varoufakis's internationalist odyssey.

• Alex Ward:

  • The New Zealand shooter called immigrants "invaders." Hours later, so did Trump.

  • North Korea just threatened to end talks with US and restart weapons testing.

  • The US plans to test missiles banned for decades. Some fear it could spark an arms race.

  • Senate passes resolution to end US role in Yemen war.

• Li Zhou:

  • Trump just used his first-ever veto to save his national emergency.

  • 12 Senate Republicans just helped Democrats block Trump's border wall national emergency.

  • Neomi Rao is officially Brett Kavanaugh's replacement on the DC Circuit. She's faced scrutiny for her writings on sexual assault.

Book Roundup

I've fallen way behind here. The last Book Roundup appeared way back on April 21, 2018, eight months after the previous one on August 18, 2017 (full list and archive is here, but it's one long file). The way this works is I pick 40 books per post, and write a few words on each, mostly based on descriptions and comments at Amazon, plus whatever else I happen to know or find. (Given the long delays, I've actually read thirteen books from this batch,[1] and bought several more.) I've been known to do multiple posts in quick succession when I catch up from far behind, and will likely follow this one up with another (or two or maybe three) in pretty quick order.

In addition to the chosen 40, I list many more books in uncommented lists, either under selected books where they seem to be related, or at the end. I've included related book lists all along, especially when I would find a cluster of related titles and didn't find reason to comment on them individually. More recently I started appending a generic list of books without comment, and since they're easy, I've turned them into a time-saving measure (which also makes the list more comprehensive). Again, due to the long lead time here, you'll find more below than ever before.

In the past, I've added extra lists of paperback reissues of books I've previously noted -- especially books I had since read and wanted to write more about. None of them this time, but perhaps in the future. As far as domain, the chose books are primarily on politics, history, and the social sciences (especially economics), although I'll make an exception here and there, whatever strikes my fancy. My main reason for doing this is to familiarize myself with what people are writing about issues I care about.

[1]: Read: Gregg Carlstrom: How Long Will Israel Survive?; John Dower: The Violent American Century; Ben Fountain: Beautiful Country Burn Again; Thomas Frank: Rendezvous With Oblivion; Robert Gerwarth: The Vanquished; Masha Gessen: The Future Is History; David Satter: The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep; Jill Lepore: These Truths; Kevin Peraino: A Force So Swift; Michael Ruhlman: Grocery; Quinn Slobodan: Globalists; Sarah Smarsh: Heartland; Timothy Snyder: The Road to Unfreedom. Waiting on the shelf: Tom Engelhardt: A Nation Unmade by War; Steve Fraser: Class Matters; Michael Tomasky: If We Can Keep It.

Alan I Abramowitz: The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump (2018, Yale University Press): One of several recent books that try to make sense of recent changes in partisan alignment, especially as right and left have become more stuck with their limited party options. This one focuses on "an unprecedented alignment of many different divides: racial and ethnic, religious, ideological, and geographic." OK, with Trump, mostly racial. Other recent books:

• Avidit Acharya/Matthew Blackwell/Maya Sen: Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics (2018, Princeton University Press).
• Kwame Anthony Appiah: The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity (2018, Liveright).
• Morris P Fiorina: Unstable Majorities: Polarization, Party Sorting, and Political Stalemate (paperback, 2017, Hoover Institution Press).
• Bernard L Fraga: The Turnout Gap: Race, Ethnicity, and Political Inequality in a Diversifying America (paperback, 2018, Cambridge University Press).
• Francis Fukuyama: Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (2018, Farrar Straus and Giroux).
• Matt Grossman/David A Hopkins: Asymmetric Politics: Ideological Republicans and Group Interest Democrats (paperback, 2016, Oxford University Press).
• Asad Haider: Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump (paperback, 2018, Verso).
• Marc Hetherington/Jonathan Weiler: Prius or Pickup? How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America's Great Divide (2018, Houghton Mifflin).
• David A Hopkins: Red Fighting Blue: How Geography and Electoral Rules Polarize American Politics (paperback, 2017, Cambridge University Press).
• Daniel J Hopkins: The Increasingly United States: How and Why American Political Behavior Nationalized (paperback, 2018, University of Chicago Press).
• Ashley Jardina: White Identity Politics (paperback, 2019, Cambridge University Press).
• Donald R Kinder/Nathan P Kalmoe: Neither Liberal nor Conservative: Ideological Innocence in the American Public (paperback, 2017, University of Chicago Press).
• Steve Kornacki: The Red and the Blue: The 1990s and the Birth of Political Tribalism (2018, Ecco Books).
• Amanda Marcotte: Troll Nation: How the Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set on Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself (2018, Hot Books).
• Michele F Margolis: From Politics to the Pews: How Partisanship and the Political Environment Shape Religious Identity (paperback, 2018, University of Chicago Press).
• Lilliana Mason: Uncivil Agreeement: How Politics Became Our Identity (paperback, 2018, University of Chicago Press).
• David Neiwert: Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump (2017, Verso).
• Benjamin L Page/Martin Gilens: Democracy in America? What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It? (2017, University of Chicago Press).
• Greg Sargent: An Uncivil War: Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics (2018, Custom House).
• Kay Lehman Schlozman/Henry E Brady/Sidney Verba; Unequal and Unrepresented: Political Inequality and the People's Voice in the New Gilded Age (2018, Princeton University Press).
• Bill Schneider: Standoff: How America Became Ungovernable (2018, Simon & Schuster).
• John Sides/Michael Tesler/Lynn Vavreck: Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America (2018, Princeton University Press).
• Salena Zito/Brad Todd: The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics (2018, Crown).

Andrew J Bacevich: Twilight of the American Century (2018, University of Notre Dame Press): A collection of essays since 9/11/2001, 480 pages. He's a conservative anti-war, anti-intervention, soldier-turned-scholar, has written a bunch of books in the meantime, including: The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War (2005); The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (2008); Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War (2010); Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (2013); and America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History (2016). Entitled to a lot of "I told you so's."

Becky Bond/Zack Exley: Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything (paperback, 2016, Chelsea Green): A primer for grass roots political change, written by two "digital iconoclasts" who have worked for the Bernie Sanders campaign. Title probably a nod to Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. There are actually quite a few activist primers out recently, such as:

• Andrew Boyd, ed: Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution (paperback, 2016, OR Books).
• Adrienne Maree Brown: Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (paperback, 2017, AK Press).
• Charlene A Carruthers: Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements (2018, Beacon Press).
• Mark Engler/Paul Engler: This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century (2016, Nation Books).
• Laura Grattan: Populism's Power: Radical Grassroots Democracy in America (paperback, 2016, Oxford University Press).
• Sarah Jaffe: Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt (2016, Nation Books).
• LA Kauffman: Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism (paperback, 2017, Verso Books).
• LA Kauffman: How to Read a Protest: The Art of Organizing and Resistance (2018, University of California Press).
• George Lakey: How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning (2018, paperback, Melville House).
• Amanda Litman: Don't Just March, Run for Something: A Real-Talk Guide to Fixing the System Yourself (paperback, 2017, Atria Books).
• Jane F McAlevey: No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age (2016, Oxford University Press).
• Sroja Popovic: Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World (paperback, 2015, Spiegal & Grau).
• Jonathan Matthew Smucker: Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals (paperback, 2017, AK Press).
• Micah White: The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution (paperback, 2016, Knopf Canada).

Bryan Caplan: The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money (2018, Princeton University Press): As a high school dropout, I should sympathize with the argument that our education system is inefficient and ineffective, that much of what is taught there is of little value, and that people can learn essential life skills otherwise. And that should be even more true now than it was when I was in school, as the system since then has evolved into more of a credentials mill than a source for widespread knowledge development. Elements of Caplan's critique are certainly correct, but his proposal -- spend less on general education and more on vocational training -- misses some key points. In particular, in an increasingly complex technological civilization people need more knowledge just to function as responsible citizens. Just as important, they need to be able to reason independently, and to continue to learn for the rest of their lives. I managed to do that, for the most part in spite of my formal education, but rather than throwing everyone else into the deep end to see who swims, wouldn't more people be better off if we changed the educational system to help people learn and develop -- rather than just train people for the jobs we think we need now?

Gregg Carlstrom: How Long Will Israel Survive? The Threat From Within (2017, Oxford University Press): A decade ago, Richard Ben Cramer wrote what I thought the best single book on the intractable problem of the Zionist State's continuing domination over the Palestinian people in Greater Israel. His simple thesis was that Jewish Israel was divided into a half-dozen very distinct tribes that were being held together by their common enemy: the people they displaced in settling Israel. Thus, they had to keep feeding the conflict, lest they lose themselves as a people. That's what they've done since then, ever more intransigently, to the point where it's rotting the nation from within. We got our first really good picture of how pervasive this is in Max Blumenthal's 2013 book, Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel (not that close readers couldn't recognize the problem much earlier, even before the 1948 War of Independence). Carlstrom adds a few more years onto Blumenthal's story. Not pretty, although I suspect that had he waited a year or two into the Trump era, where the US has totally given up any pretense of independence, the story would be even grimmer.

Elizabeth Catte: What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia (paperback, 2018, Belt Publishing): Examines the history of Appalachia (especially West Virginia) and various stereotypes that have been popularized, especially by J.D. Vance: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of Family and Culture in Crisis (2016), a book that journalists discovered looking for explanations of why Trump was so successful there.

Amy Chua: Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations (2018, Penguin Press): Stresses the role of group identity in elections both in the US and abroad. Chua has in the past been especially sensitive (maybe a bit chauvinistic too) to how the Chinese diaspora rose to economic prominence and political antipathy all around southeast Asia -- cf. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability -- so I imagine she builds on that here, a much broader (though not necessarily deeper) foundation than our recent carping about identity politics.

Tom Engelhardt: A Nation Unmade by War (paperback, 2018, Haymarket): Another collection of essays from the author's TomDispatch website, where he and a few dozen regular contributors have meticulously chronicled the frustrations and failures of the post-9/11 "global war on terror" -- a vain and desperate defense of the worldwide empire American neocons claimed as its triumph over communism. Actually, that empire had always been based on more than a little self-delusion, and its costs and contradictions had already become evident when one of Engelhardt's writers, Chalmers Johnson, wrote The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (2004). Engelhardt follows up, recounting the attendant chaos and confusion. Also, by other Engelhardt writers:

• John Dower: The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II (paperback, 2017, Haymarket Books).
• John Feffer: Splinterlands: A Novel (paperback, 2016, Haymarket Books): a novel.
• John Feffer: Frostlands: Book Two of the Splinterlands Series (paperbck, 2018, Haymarket Books).
• Greg Grandin: The End of Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America (2019, Metropolitan Books).
• Alfred W McCoy: In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power (paperback, 2017, Haymarket Books).
• Nomi Prins: Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World (2018, Nation Books).
• Daniel A Sjursen: Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge (2015, ForeEdge).
• Rebecca Solnit: Call Them by Their True Names: American Crises (and Essays) (paperback, 2017, Haymarket Books).
• Nick Turse: Next Time They'll Come to Count the Dead: War and Surival in South Sudan (paperback, 2016, Haymarket Books).

Ronan Farrow: War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence (2018, WW Norton): Based on interviews with Secretaries of State from Henry Kissinger to Rex Tillerson, this reports on the decline of the US State Department. There is certainly an interesting book to be written on this, but it needs to be paired with the increasing power of military and intelligence sectors, and how both reflect a shift as Washington politicians have lost faith in international institutions and law, preferring to act unilaterally (at most giving lip service to an ad hoc "coalition of the willing"). In the "sole superpower" view of neocons like John Bolton, diplomacy is disparaged not just as ineffective but as an admission of weakness. The curious thing is that there is absolutely no evidence that the US acting on its own is anyway near as effective as diplomacy. Such a book would also note that the shift to the now dominant neocon view has mostly been driven by a blind, unthinking "alliance" with Israel, such that the more Israel defies international law and censure, the more isolated, bitter, and ineffective the US becomes.

Ben Fountain: Beautiful Country Burn Again: Democracy, Rebellion, and Revolution (2018, Ecco Books): Author of a well-regarded novel, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, sees America has stuck in some sort of eighty-year cycle, leading to crises -- the first two were the Civil War and the Great Depression -- requiring major upheavals to put the nation back on track. Much of the book is election reporting, which sounds like old (and much too rehashed) news, but none of the books I've seen so far really makes sense of 2016's nonsense, so maybe we should give continuously referring back to history a chance. One thing that's a pretty safe bet is that Fountain's not going to argue that Trump is the answer to the present crisis, unlike Lincoln and Roosevelt. Still, even as Fountain writes about 2016 and the bad feelings evident there from all sides, his real subject is the coming crisis -- 2020, maybe even 2024, surely not much further out. But even there, don't expect history to repeat itself. Buchanan and Hoover were procrastinators, not least because they didn't see any way out of their dilemmas, but Trump is a man of action, corroding and breaking everything he touches. It's only a matter of time before his damage can no longer be shrugged away as fake news.

Thomas Frank: Rendezvous With Oblivion: Reports From a Sinking Society (2018, Metropolitan Books): Collection of scattered essays, which makes this seem less coherent than Frank's recent string of books -- Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? (2016), Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right (2012), The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Ruined Government, Enriched Themselves, and Beggared the Nation (2008) -- although the net effect does much to prove how prescient The Wrecking Crew's analysis was.

Steve Fraser: Class Matters: The Strange Career of an American Delusion (2018, Yale University Press): The story of how the subject of class has repeatedly been expunged from American history and consciousness, taking a half-dozen case moments from the Mayflower to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech as examples. Fraser wrote about this same subject more broadly in The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power (2015), noting that with Occupy Wall Street the pendulum was suddenly flipping back.

Robert Gerwarth: The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End (2016; paperback, 2017, Farrar Straus and Giroux): On November 11, 1918, Germany surrendered, signing an armistice ending the war they launched in 1914 by invading Belgium and France. For Western Europe (and America), that ended what was then called the Great War, but by then the Russian Tsar had been overthrown, replaced by a revolutionary Soviet, and multi-ethnic empires in Austria-Hungary and Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) had also collapsed. For several years after, war, revolution, and reaction continued in Eastern Europe, at least up to 1923 when the Communists consolidated power in Russia and a nationalist government in Turkey had driven both foreign and native Greeks from Asia Minor. In the longer term, the Treaty of Versailles, dictated by the victorious imperialist powers of Britain and France, was widely viewed as unjust, an insult that festered and grew into a second, even more deadly World War. Another recent book that covers this territory is Prit Buttar: The Splintered Empires: The Eastern Front 1917-21 (2017; paperback, 2018, Osprey), the fourth volume in Buttar's history of the Eastern front, following: Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914 (2014; paperback, 2016, Osprey); Germany Ascendant: The Eastern Front 1915 (2015; paperback, 2017, Osprey); and Russia's Last Gasp: The Eastern Front 1916-17 (2016; paperback, 2017, Osprey).

Masha Gessen: The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia (2017; paperback, 2018, Riverhead): Chronicles the failure of Russia to develop a liberal democracy after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the discrediting of Soviet Communism, by tracking a small number of individuals -- mostly intellectuals, descendents of Soviet-era elite families who tended to become liberal opponents of Yeltsin and Putin. Tends to view the willingness to submit to an authoritarian state as rooted in psychology rather than as the sort of ideological belief system Timothy Snyder claims. Other books by Gessen and/or on Putin and Russia:

• Masha Gessen: The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (2012; paperback, 2013, Riverhead).
• Masha Gessen: Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot (paperback, 2014, Riverhead).
• Masha Gessen: Where the Jews Aren't: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region (2016, Schocken).

• Masha Gessen: Never Remember: Searching for Stalin's Gulags in Putin's Russia (2018, Columbia Global Reports).
• Stephen F Cohen: War With Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate (paperback, 2019, Hot Books).
• Mark Galeotti: We Need to Talk About Putin: How the West Gets Him Wrong (paperback, 2019, Penguin Random House).
• Nina Krushcheva/Jeffrey Tayler: In Putin's Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones (2019, St Martin's Press).
• Michael McFaul: From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin's Russia (2018, Houghton Mifflin).
• Arkady Ostrovsky: The Invention of Russia: The Rise of Putin and the Age of Fake News (2016; paperback, 2017, Penguin Books).
• Peter Pomerantsev: Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia (paperback, 2015, PublicAffairs).
• David Satter: The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship Under Yeltsin and Putin (2016; paperback, 2017, Yale University Press).
• Angela Stent: Putin's World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest (2019, Twelve).
• Shaun Walker: The Long Hangover: Putin's New Russia and the Ghosts of the Past (2018, Oxford University Press).
• Tony Wood: Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War (2018, Verso).
• Mikhail Zygar: All the Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin (2016; paperback, 2017, PublicAffairs).

Steven M Gillon: Separate and Unequal: The Kerner Commission and the Unraveling of American Liberalism (2018, Basic Books): Officially, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, chaired by governor Otto Kerner (D-IL), a group appointed by President Lyndon Johnson following riots in Newark and Detroit. They took a fairly hard look at racism and poverty, and recommended bold new programs to end both. You'd think that was the right in line with Johnson's "Great Society" agenda, but Johnson rejected the report, and Nixon built his campaign -- especially in his 1972 bid to pick up Wallace voters -- on race baiting. Gillon regards the failure to follow up on the report as a failing of liberalism, but what really damaged Johnson and Humphrey was their leading role in the Vietnam War, followed by the crippling loss to Nixon, and later to Reagan.

Anand Giridharadas: Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World (2018, Knopf): As more and more of the world's wealth sinks into the clutches of the very rich, a few of them are stepping up with offers of philanthropic aid, offering to somehow turn the world they're sucking dry into a better place -- without, of course, undermining their exalted place in it. Related:

• David Callahan: The Givers: Money, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age (2017, Knopf; paperback, 2018, Vintage Books).
• Daniel Raventós/Julie Wark: Against Charity (paperback, 2018, Counterpunch).
• Rob Reich: Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better (2018, Princeton University Press).

Jeff Goodell: The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World (2017; paperback, 2018, Back Bay Books): Makes sense: Earth climate warms, ice melts, flows into sea, which rises, flooding coastlines, where many of the world's largest cities are. Goodell has written several books related to climate change, like Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future (2007), and How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth's Climate (2010). Every Roundup the shelves of climate change books grows ever more imposing:

• Jeffrey Bennett: A Global Warming Primer: Answering Your Questions About the Science, the Consequences, and the Solutions (paperback, 2016, Big Kid Science).
• Peter Brannen: The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions (2017; paperback, 2018, Ecco).
• Ashley Dawson: Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change (2017, Verso).
• Barbara Finamore: Will China Save the Planet? (paperback, 2018, Polity).
• Joshua S Goldstein/Staffan A Qvist: A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow (2019, PublicAffairs).
• Hal Harvey: Designing Climate Solutions: A Policy Guide for Low-Carbon Energy (paperback, 2018, Island Press).
• Paul Hawken, ed: Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (paperback, 2017, Penguin Books).
• Robert Henson: The Thinking Person's Guide to Climate Change (2nd edition, paperback, 2019, American Meteorological Society).
• Albert C Hine/Don P Chambers/Tonya D Clayton/Mark R Hafen/Gary T Mitchum: Sea Level Rise in Florida: Science, Impacts, and Options (2016, University Press of Florida).
• Dhar Jamail: The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption (2019, New Press).
• Lucy Jones: The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them) (2018, Doubleday).
• Thomas E Lovejoy/Lee Hannah, eds: Biodiversity and Climate Change: Transforming the Biosphere (paperback, 2019, Yale University Press).
• Michael E Mann/Lee R Kump: Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change: The Visual Guide to the Findings of the IPCC (2nd edition, paperback, 2015, DK).
• Michael E Mann/Tom Toles: The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy (paperback, 2018, Columbia University Press).
• Todd Miller: Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security (paperback, 2017, City Lights).
• Robert Muir-Wood: The Cure for Catastrophe: How We Can Stop Manufacturing Natural Disasters (2016, Basic Books).
• Dustin Mulvaney: Solar Power: Innovation, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice (paperback, 2019, University of California Press).
• Jeff Nesbit: This Is the Way the World Ends: How Droughts and Die-offs, Heat Waves and Hurricanes Are Converging on America (2018, Thomas Dunne Books).
• Orrin H Pilkey/Linda Pilkey-Jarvis/Keith C Pilkey: Retreat From a Rising Sea: Hard Choices in an Age of Climate Change (2016; paperback, 2017, Columbia University Press).
• Kim Stanley Robinson: New York 2140 (2017; paperback, 2018, Orbit): a novel, sure, but illustrates Goodell's point, exactly.
• Mary Robinson: Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future (2018, Bloomsbury).
• Joseph Romm: Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know (2nd edition, paperback, 2018, Oxford University Press).
• Elizabeth Rush: Rising: Dispatches From the New American Shore (2018, Milkweed Editions).
• Roy Scranton: We're Doomed. Now What? Essays on War and Climate Change (paperback, 2018, Soho Press).
• Mark C Serreze: Brave New Arctic: The Untold Story of the Melting Arctic (2018, Princeton University Press).
• Varun Sivaram: Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet (2018, MIT Press).
• Jeffrey St Clair/Joshua Frank: The Big Heat: Earth on the Brink (paperback, 2018, Counterpunch).

• Peter Wadhams: A Farewell to Ice: A Report From the Arctic (2016, Allen Lane; paperback, 2017, Oxford University Press).
• Joel Wainwright/Geoff Mann: Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future (2018, Verso).
• David Wallace-Wells: The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming (2019, Tim Duggan Books).

Chris Hedges: America: The Farewell Tour (2018, Simon & Schuster): Author has become increasingly gloomy about the state of the nation -- one might trace this through such books as American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (2007), Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of the Spectacle (2009), The Death of the Liberal Class (2010), The World as It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress, and Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt (2015), winding up with this combination of high moral outrage and down-and-out journalism. Seems to mostly be reissued columns, which makes for a relatively scattershot book.

Michael Isikoff/David Corn: Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump (2018, Twelve): With the Mueller investigation not even done rounding up even the usual suspects, this is probably just a quickie trying to sum up what little is known about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. What is pretty clear is that Russia-backed hackers weighed in forcefully for Donald Trump, although it seems like sheer scapegoatism to credit the Russians with more influence than the Kochs and Mercers and other quasi-independent Trump backers. I'd be especially surprised if they have any "inside story" on why Putin would wager such a risky bet. Most of the speculation I've seen seems to be little more than projection. Isikoff and Corn wrote a decent book on the Iraq War (Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War), which recommends this over most competing books, like:

• Seth Abramson: Proof of Collusion: How Trump Betrayed America (2018, Simon & Schuster).
• Luke Harding: Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win (paperback, 2017, Vintage Books).
• Seth Hettena: Trump/Russia: A Definitive History (2018, Melville House).
• Greg Miller: The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy (2018, Custom House).
• Malcolm Nance: The Plot to Hack America: How Putin's Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election (paperback, 2016, Skyhorse).
• Malcoln Nance: The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin's Spies Are Winning Control of America and Dismantling the West (2018, Hachette).
• Greg Olear: Dirty Rubles: An Introduction to Trump/Russia (paperback, 2018, Four Sticks Press).
• Roger Stone: The Myth of Russian Collusion: The Inside Story of How Donald Trump Really Won (paperback, 2019, Skyhorse).
• Craig Unger: House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia (2018, Dutton.
• Clint Watts: Messing With the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News (2018, Harper).

Kathleen Hall Jamieson: Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President: What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know (2018, Oxford University Press): A subject sure to be much written about, especially as the Mueller investigation sorts through and eventually discloses (or leaks) its evidence, but for now this is probably the most comprehensive, detailed analysis we have of what Russian hackers did in 2016 and what the effect was (see Jane Mayer's article in The New Yorker). Jamieson has written/contributed to a bunch of books analyzing elections, going back to Everything You Think You Know About Politics . . . and Why You're Wrong (2000, Basic Books).

Jill Lepore: These Truths: A History of the United States (2018, WW Norton): House historian for The New Yorker, her less popular early work includes The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity (1998), and New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan (2005), which prepared her well to write a book about the use and abuse of history by the Tea Party Movement (The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle Over American History). This is, as advertised, a single-volume history of American political life and ideals, at once huge (960 pp) and schematic, with an eye for telling details (many I never knew).

Daniel J Levitin: Weaponized Lies: How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era (paperback, 2017, Dutton): Interesting case example of what happens when Donald Trump gets elected president. Levitin is a neuroscientist who's written books like The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, and A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics: A Neuroscientist on How to Make Sense of a Complex World (which in a saner world would just be a basic update of Darrell Huff's 1954 classic How to Lie With Statistics). So he started with a recognition that human brains are fighting a losing battle against complexity, "information overload," and the flood of calculated misinformation, then panics when he sees where the nonsense he had tried to reason with has gotten us. This new title is actually just a revision of his Field Guide, where circumstances actually seem to call for a fresh review. I expect more books along these lines will appear. For now, I also note:

• Julian Baggini: A Short History of Truth: Consolations for a Post-Truth World (2017, Quercus).
• Bruce Bartlett: The Truth Matters: A Citizen's Guide to Separating Facts From Lies and Stopping Fake News in Its Tracks (paperback, 2017, Ten Speed Press).
• Matthew D'Ancona: Post Truth: The New War on Truth and How to Fight Back (paperback, 2017, Ebury Press).
• Brooke Gladstone: The Trouble With Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time (paperback, 2017, Workman).
• Michiko Kakutani: The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump (2018, Tim Duggan Books).
• Hector Macdonald: Truth: How the Many Sides to Every Story Shape Our Reality (2018, Little Brown).
• Lee McIntyre: Post-Truth (paperback, 2018, MIT Press).
• Cailin O'Connor/James Owen Weatherall: The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread (2018, Yale University Press).
• Sophia Rosenfeld: Democracy and Truth: A Short History (2018, University of Pennsylvania Press).
• Ryan Skinnell, ed: Faking the News: What Rhetoric Can Teach Us About Donald J Trump (paperback, 2018, Societas).

Michael Lewis: The Fifth Risk (2018, WW Norton): Journalist, has written a stack of very readable books, nominally on finance and business but mostly about interesting people. This one goes into three government bureaucracies -- the Departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Commerce -- and finds people who for years now have been doing useful, important work there, and takes a look at what Trump and his minions are doing to those people and all that work. Mostly they are shredding data, and purging the departments of the workers with the expertise to collect and analyze that data. It seems that facts and data have become troublesome for profit seekers in industries that have Trump's ear. This is refreshing compared to the reporters who get all the muck they can rake from twitter feeds, the Washington gossip mill, and playing "gotcha" watching talk shows. Sure, those things are symptomatic of the rot in Washington, but the real stink you're going to have a hard time escaping will be coming from out-of-the-way places, like Lewis' chosen departments.

John Meacham: The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels (2018, Random House): Biographer, has written books on Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, and GHW Bush, takes a sweeping look at American history, specifically the struggles for expanding rights and greater economic opportunity -- a legacy that we (as opposed to certain conservatives) take pride in when we think of American history (as opposed to numerous other threads that we increasingly find shameful).

Yascha Mounk: The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger & How to Save It (2018, Harvard University Press): The election of Donald Trump has produced a tidal wave of books on how the ignorant masses are rising up to turn to fascism against liberal democracy, as if the effete corruption of the Clintons actually represented the latter. To the extent that Trump gives off the stink of authoritarianism, such books may be warranted, but the bigger problem is how the center-left parties have turned their backs on their natural supporters. Not sure what Mounk's proposal is, but the way to save democracy is to make it pay off. More books along these lines:

• Yascha Mounk: The Age of Responsibility: Luck, Choice, and the Welfare State (2017, Harvard University Press).
• Madeleine Albright: Fascism: A Warning (2018, Harper).
• Wendy Brown/Peter S Gordon/Max Pensky: Authoritarianism: Three Inquiries in Critical Theory (paperback, 2018, University of Chicago Press).
• William Davies: Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason (2019, WW Norton).
• Barry Eichengreen: The Populist Temptation: Economic Grievance and Political Reaction in the Modern Era (2018, Oxford University Press).
• Erica Frantz: Authoritarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know (paperback, 2018, Oxford University Press).
• William S Galston: Anti Pluralism: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy (2018, Yale University Press).
• Henry A Giroux: American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism (paperback, 2018, City Lights).
• Benjamin Carter Hett: The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic (2018, Henry Holt).
• John B Judis: The Nationalist Revival: Trade, Immigration, and the Revolt Against Globalization (paperback, 2018, Columbia Global Reports).
• Brian Klaas: The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy (2017, Hot Books).
• Steven Levitsky/Daniel Ziblatt: How Democracies Die (2018, Crown).
• David Neiwert: Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump (2017, Verso).
• Pippa Norris/Ronald Ingelhart: Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism (paperback, 2019, Cambridge University Press).
• David Runciman: How Democracy Ends (2018, Basic Books).
• Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century (paperback, 2017, Tim Duggan Books).
• Cass R. Sunstein: Can It Happen Here? Authoritarianism in America (paperback, 2018, Dey Street Books).

Lawrence O'Donnell: Playing With Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics (2017, Penguin Press): Broadcast journalist, something I assume moves him to the shallow end of the pool, but this is not a bad time to take another look at the 1968 election: like 2016, a time when a very unpopular and untrustworthy Republican managed to eke out a victory because many people trusted the establishment Democrat even less, most of all because the latter was associated with the longest and bleakest war(s) in American history.

Kevin Peraino: A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China, 1949 (2017, Crown; paperback, 2018, Broadway Books): Chronicles a single turning-point year as Mao's revolutionary forces swept through the major cities of eastern China, while Chiang Kai-Shek's nationalists retreated to Taiwan, and Madame Chiang -- a major figure in her own right -- was frustrated in her lobbying efforts in New York and Washington. Some more context would have been useful -- fortunately I had previously read James Bradley's The China Mirage: The hidden History of American Disaster in Asia, which laid out the romantic relationship between missionary-minded Americans and the Soong family (most notably Mme. Chiang). Still, I don't know much about Mao's gains up to 1949, or American thinking on China until the blame game of "who lost China?" took over, after the fact. Some more recent historical books on China:

• Richard Bernstein: China 1945: Mao's Revolution and America's Fateful Choice (2014, Knopf; paperback, 2015, Vintage).
• Wang Hui: China's Twentieth Century: Revolution, Retreat and the Road to Equality (paperback, 2016, Verso).
• Daniel Kurtz-Phelan: The China Mission: George Marshall's Unfinished War, 1945-1947 (2018, WW Norton).
• Rana Mitter: Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945 (2013, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; paperback, 2014, Mariner).
• Stephen R Platt: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War (2012, Knopf; paperback, 2012, Vintage).
• Stephen R Platt: Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age (2018, Knopf)
• David J Silbey: The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China: A History (2012; paperback, 2013, Hill and Wang).
• Helen Zia: Last Boat out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution (2019, Ballantine Books).

Michael Ruhlman: Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America (2017, Henry N Abrams): Food writer, first noticed (by me at least) for his memoirs on studying to become a chef -- The Making of a Chef (1997) and The Soul of a Chef (2000) although I also have his tip books The Elements of Cooking (2007) and Ratio (2009) but only one of his cookbooks -- Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing (2005) -- rarely if ever used (although it sure seems like a good idea). This is a history of grocery stores, bound to be interesting -- as one reviewer put it, "a lot of memoir, a smattering of rants, endless lists."

Quinn Slobodan: Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (2018, Harvard University Press): A history of neoliberal thinkers starting with Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, their roots in the old Hapsburg Empire, their Geneva School in the 1920s-30s, moving in to the Mount Pelerin Society up to the World Trade Organization. Focus is mostly on Europeans, with some political support from the US right but neither author nor subject seems to have much respect for American economists like Milton Friedman. One thing that is striking is that while the degree of overt racism varied, all were concerned with replacing crumbling colonial regimes with private ownership, in effect ensuring that imperialism would survive by privatizing it.

Sarah Smarsh: Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth (2018, Scribner): Author "was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side." Grew up on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita (also in Wichita), and seems to have kicked the fates of her mother and grandmother, while still remembering enough to write movingly about people like herself.

Timothy Snyder: The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018, Tim Duggan Books): Historian, has written a couple of major books on the especially bloody and cruel war between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia for eastern Europe. I've long been bothered by his tendency to treat Hitler and Stalin as political equivalents, a sloppiness broad enough to let him slip Putin into the same mold. His key here is the obscure Vladimir Ilyin, offered here as the architect of a "politics of eternity" which binds Putin to the totalitarians of yore. Snyder does his best to chronicle Putin's offenses against liberal democracy, up to and including his shadow war with Ukraine, but his focus on ideology (and demonizing Putin) slights other possible factors, like the economy. Despite the subtitle, Europe and America are scarcely mentioned.

Jason Stanley: How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (2018, Random House): Philosophy professor at Yale, previously wrote How Propaganda Works (2015). Focuses on actual politics in the US here, which means you can count him among the minority who believe that certain common political ideas and strategies fit the F-word framework. One obvious point makes it into his subtitle: the rallying of a self-considered nationalist core into a political movement defined in opposition to all sorts of others that diverge from the model. Republican propaganda has increasingly been build around that focus from Nixon to Reagan to Bush to Trump. The second obvious point is the willingness of the fascist leaders to run roughshod over democratic processes, to reduce law to a tool of power, and to use violence as a means for asserting their power. The Republicans aren't yet as vicious and brutal as fascists under Musolini and Hitler, but they lean that way, and their followers respond emotionally (if rarely phsyically) to their taunts.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life (2018, Random House): Fourth in a series of books that seek to approximate a logic of how the world works -- Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan started off by looking at statistics and its exceptions. One point here is that the world is run by determined minorities imposing their will. Other points: "For social justice, focus on symmetry and risk sharing"; "Ethical rules aren't universal"; "Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find)." The title -- a phrase I've always found suspicious -- is also given unconventional examination: "Never trust anyone who doesn't have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them." Maybe, but I also don't trust people who want you to put more of your skin in their game. They're looking to make you pay for their mistakes.

Sandy Tolan: Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land (2015, Bloomsbury USA): Author of one of the best books ever on the Israel/Palestine conflict -- The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East (2007) -- returns with another very specific, concrete story of Palestinian and Israeli musicians transcending the conflict through "the power of music," but also "determination and vision."

Michael Tomasky: If We Can Keep It: How the Republic Collapsed and How It Might Be Saed (2019, Liveright): Political analyst, writes for Daily Beat and New York Review of Books, a resolute centrist adrift in a world where the center hasn't held. Starts with a "chronology of polarization" that almost exactly matches the four era division I've been threatening to write about. His command of history is strong, even if I'd nitpick a bit. Ends with a "fourteen-point agenda to reduce polarization" that strikes me as mostly crap, some specific ("reduce college to three years and make year four a service year"), some vague ("vastly expand civics education"). And like most centrists, he's much more bothered by the left than the right ("insist on a left that doesn't contribute to the fracture"). I probably need to read this, but I'm not likely to be happy with it.

Lawrence Tribe/Joshua Matz: To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment (2018, Basic Books): For some people, it's impossible to think of the colossal mistake American voters made in November 2016 without thinking of rectifying it through given constitutional means: impeachment -- a feeling which goes deeper with each scandal or other embarrassment (i.e., almost daily). The rest of us don't deny the requisite "high crimes and misdemeanors" the constitution calls for, but recognize that impeachment has been a purely political matter since it was first contemplated as a way to get rid of the almost universally loathed John Tyler. Tyler dodged impeachment; Andrew Johnson was impeached but not removed from office; Richard Nixon wound up resigning before the House voted. Bill Clinton was impeached in the most cynical of all such affairs, but Republicans in the Senate never had a prayer of mustering the two-thirds majority. As long as Republicans hold power in Congress Trump is safe, not least because Trump has done very little that offends them. Still, if you want to read about impeachment (or the 25th amendment, which allows the cabinet to stage a political coup with mere consent of Congress), there are plenty of books to choose from. Tribe is probably first choice because of his long practice writing about the Supreme Court -- most recently Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution (paperback, 2015, Picador). Also recent:

• Jeffrey A Engel/Jon Meacham/Timothy Naftali/Peter Baker: Impeachment: An American History (2018, Modern Library).
• Alan Dershowitz: The Case Against Impeaching Trump (2018, Hot Books).
• Elizabeth Holtzman: The Case for Impeaching Trump (2019, Hot Books).
• Allan J Lichtman: The Case for Impeachment (2017; paperback, 2018, Dey Street Books).
• Barbara A Radnofsky: A Citizen's Guide to Impeachment (paperback, 2017, Melville House).
• Cass R Sunstein: Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide (paperback, 2017, Harvard University Press).

Siva Vaidhyanathan: Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy (2018, Oxford University Press): Author of an eye-opening book on Google -- The Googlization of Everything (and Why We Should Worry) (2011), with previous books on Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Proprety and How It Threatens Creativity (2003), and The Anarchist in the Library: How the Clash Between Freedom and Control Is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System (2004). Not a technophobe or luddite, but casts a wary on the business manipulations of your formerly private life. Some other recent books on web society:

• Ken Auletta: Frenemies: The Epic Disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else) (2018, Penguin Press).
• Yochai Benkler/Robert Faris/Hal Roberts: Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics (paperback, 2018, Oxford University Press).
• James Bridle: New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (2018, Verso).
• Talina Bucher: If . . . Then: Algorithmic Power and Politics (paperback, 2018, Oxford University Press).
• Virginia Eubanks: Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor (2018, St Martin's Press).
• Franklin Foer: World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech (2017; paperback, 2018, Penguin Press).
• Donna Freitas: The Happiness Effect: How Social Media Is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost (2017, Oxford University Press).
• Scott Galloway: The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (2017; paperback, 2018, Portfolio).
• Tarleton Gillespie: Custodians of the Internet: Platform, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions That Shape Social Media (2018, Yale University Press).
• Alexander Halavais: Search Engine Society (2nd edition, paperback, 2017, Polity).
• Matthew Hindman: The Internet Trap: How the Digital Economy Builds Monopolies and Undermines Democracy (2018, Princeton University Press).
• Tera Karppi: Disconnect: Facebook's Affective Bonds (paperback, 2018, University of Minnesota Press).
• Jaron Lanier: Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (2018, Henry Holt).
• Roger McNamee: Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe (2019, Penguin Press).
• Martin Moore: Democracy Hacked: How Technology Is Destabilising Global Politics (2018, Oneworld).
• Safiya Umdia Noble: Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (paperback, 2018, NYU Press).
• Corey Pein: Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley (2018, Metropolitan Books).
• Bruce Schneier: Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World (2018, WW Norton).
• PW Singer/Emerson T Brooking: Like War: The Weaponization of Social Media (2018, Eamon Dolan).
• Jamie Suskind: Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech (2018, Oxford University Press).
• Zeynep Tufekci: Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragiity of Networked Protest (2017; paperback, 2018, Yale University Press).
• Tim Wu: The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age (paperback, 2018, Columbia Global Reports).

Sean Wilentz: No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation's Founding (2018, Harvard University Press): Wide-ranging American historian -- his masterpiece is The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, but he's also written (much less reliably) The Age of Reagan: A History 1974-2008 (2008). Here he expands on a theme that Jill Lepore emphasizes in These Truths: A History of the United States: that many of the founders of the American Republic were conscious of the problem of slavery, especially as it contradicted their revolutionary appeals to liberty and equality.

Bob Woodward: Fear: Trump in the White House (2018, Simon & Schuster): I suppose every time I do one of these I should pick out a recent Trump book and hang a list under it. This one is probably the best-selling, with its usual load of insider dirt. Some others:

• Amanda Carpenter: Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies to Us (2018, Broadside Books).
• Stormy Daniels: Full Disclosure (2018, St Martin's Press).
• Justin A Frank: Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President (2018, Avery).
• Major Garrett: Mr. Trump's Wild Ride: The Thrills, Chills, Screams, and Occasional Blackouts of an Extraordinary Presidency (2018, All Points Books).
• Marvin Kalb: Enemy of the People: Trump's War on the Press, the New McCarthyism, and the Threat to American Democracy (2018, Brookings Institution Press).
• Laurence Leamer: Mar-A-Lago: Inside the Gaes of Power at Donald Trump's Presidential Palace (2019, Flatiron).
• Omarosa Manigault Newman: Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House (2018, Gallery Books).
• John Nichols: Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America (paperback, 2017, Nation Books).
• Bill Press: Trump Must Go: The Top 100 Reasons to Dump Donald Trump (and One to Keep Him) (2018, Thomas Dunne Books).
• April Ryan: Under Fire: Reporting From the Front Lines of the Trump White House (2018, Rowman & Littlefield).
• Cliff Sims: Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House (2019, Thomas Dunne Books).
• Sean Spicer: The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President (2018, Regnery).
• GB Trudeau: #SAD!: Doonesbury in the Time of Trump (paperback, 2018, Andrews McMeel).
• Rick Wilson: Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever (2018, Free Press).

Robert Wuthnow: The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America (2018, Princeton University Press): I get why farmers and small town dwellers find the federal government distant and aloof, but what makes them think they're so different from other people in America? Part of this is that they're more invested in a cult of self-sufficiency: they feed themselves, fend for themselves, and don't see why others shouldn't do so as well. Such views have made them easy pickings for the cynical political manipulators on the right, but they are probably justified in their suspicion that the changes in what Hillary Clinton calls "the more dynamic parts of the nation" is at the root of their relative decline. Wuthnow previously wrote Small Town America: Finding Community, Shaping the Future (paperback, 2016, Princeton University Press).

Also noted:

Anne Applebaum: Red Famin: Stalin's War on Ukraine (2018, Doubleday).

Michael Beschloss: Presidents of War: The Epic Story, From 1807 to Modern Times (2018, Crown).

Max Boot: The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right (2018, Liveright).

Preet Bharara: Doing Justice: A Prosecutor's Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law (2019, Alfred A Knopf).

Timothy Caulfield: Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: How the Famous Sell Us Elixirs of Health, Beauty & Happiness (2015; paperback, 2016, Beacon Press).

Amy Chozick: Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling (2018, Harper).

Chris Christie: Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics (2019, Hachette).

James R Clapper: Facts and Fears: Hard Truths From a Life in Intelligence (2018, Viking).

Mike Davis: Old Gods, New Enigmas: Marx's Lost Theory (2018, Verso).

Michael Eric Dyson: What Truth Sounds Like: Robert F Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America (2018, St Martin's Press).

Daniel Ellsberg: The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner (2017, Bloomsbury).

Norman G Finkelstein: Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom (2018, University of California Press).

Doris Kearns Goodwin: Leadership: In Turbulent Times (2018, Simon & Schuster).

Alan Greenspan/Adrian Wooldridge: Capitalism in America: A History (2018, Penguin Press).

David Harvey: Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason (2017, Oxford University Press).

Seymour M Hersh: Reporter: A Memoir (2018, Knopf).

Eric Holt-Giménez: A Foodie's Gide to Capitalism (paperback, 2017, Monthly Review Press).

Robert Kagan: The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World (2018, Knopf).

Robert D Kaplan: Earning the Rockies: How Geography Shapes America's Role in the World (2018, Random House).

Naomi Klein: The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists (paperback, 2018, Haymarket Books).

Stephen Kotkin: Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941 (2017; paperback, 2018, Penguin Press).

Andrew G McCabe: The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump (2019, St Martin's Press).

Ralph Nader: To the Ramparts: How Bush and Obama Paved the Way for the Trump Presidency, and Why It Isn't Too Late to Reverse Course (2018, Seven Stories Press).

Catherine Nixey: The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World (2018, Houghton Mifflin).

Michelle Obama: Becoming (2018, Crown).

David Quammen: The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life (2018, self-published).

Alissa Quart: Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America (2018, Ecco).

Ben Rhodes: The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House (2018, Random House).

Dani Rodrik: Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy (2017, Princeton University Press).

Helena Rosenblatt: The Lost History of Liberalism: From Ancient Rome to the Twenty-First Century (2018, Princeton University Press).

Arundhati Roy/John Cusack: Things That Can and Cannot Be Said: Essays and Conversations (paperback, 2016, Haymarket Books).

Bernie Sanders: Where We Go From Here (2018, Thomas Dunne Books).

Neil Sheehan/Hedrick Smith/EW Kenworthy/Fox Butterfield/James L Greenfield: The Pentagon Papers: The Secret History of the Vietnam War (paperback, 2017, Racehorse Publishing).

Robert Skidelsky: Money and Government: The Past and Future of Economics (2018, Yale University Press).

Neil deGrasse Tyson/Avis Lang: Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military (2018, WW Norton).

Yanis Varoufakis: Adults in the Room: My Battle With the European and American Deep Establishment (2017, Farrar Straus and Giroux).

Alex Von Tunzelmann: Blood and Sand: Suez, Hungary, and Eisenhower's Campaign for Peace (2016; paperback, 2017, Harper).

Vicky Ward: Kushner, Inc. Greed. Ambition. Corruption. The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump (2019, St Martin's Press).

Thomas Weber: Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi (2017, Basic Books).

Gordon S Wood: Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (2017; paperback, 2018, Penguin Books).

Lawrence Wright: God Save Texas: A Journey Into the Soul of the Lone Star State (2018, Knopf).

Daily Log

Saving this because it's on the fleeting medium of Twitter, although I'm not sure it deserves much better. Final four in Neoliberal Shill of the Year bracket (started with 64): Tyler Cowen, Scott lincicome, Alan Cole, Matthew Yglesias. That lead Yglesias to tweet this thread:

• As we enter the Final Four, I'd like to address a major criticism of my candidacy -- the perception that "Yglesias isn't a neoliberal at all, just some kind of zoning guy."

  For starters, false!

• I'm out here shilling for the merits of carbon pricing, for congestion pricing, for optimism about the trajectory of global living standards over the past two generations, etc.

  But the housing issue is supremely important to the cause of neoliberal globalism!

• There are plenty of regulations here and there that one can criticizing, but if you want to seriously make a difference to middle class living standards through regulatory reform housing is the only area that's big enough to move the needle.

• Immigrants, of course, are going to need a place to live.

  Absent a policy framework for abundant housingthen immigration becomes a zero-sum scramble for scarce resources in you end up with Brexit.

• And of course there's trade -- sustaining "manly" blue collar jobs has been neoliberal globalism's Achilles heel.

  But you know what's not getting outsourced to China? Construction jobs! But we need to make sure those investments can happen in productive areas.

• In short, a heavy emphasis on land use issues is the cornerstone of any successful neoliberal shill agenda.

  Vote Yglesias to maintain the open society!

Music Week

Expanded blog post, March archive.

Music: current count 31246 [31207] rated (+39), 252 [257] unrated (-5).

Surprised the rated count is so high, as the week went by in a daze -- often literally, as the latest correction for my failing eyesight disorts my rectangular view of the world into a slightly tilted trapezoid. I feel lucky not to have fallen down, but have had numerous mishaps where I reach for something (say, an elevator button) and miss. Not sure whether I should go back and complain, or count my blessings that details have gotten a lot sharper. Still, one bummer is that the eyes and/or glasses have contributed to a reading slump.

Also, I had a moment of terror mid-week, when my computer screen went black. Problem seems to be a relatively new LG monitor lost power, but I haven't fully checked that out. I swapped in an older Samsung monitor, which worked, but isn't quite a sharp. I went out and bought a new HP 25-inch monitor, but don't have it plugged in yet. I've had a plan for some time now to rearrange my work area, so this disruption complicated things -- and in my dazed mental state slowed me down even further. I keep letting little things get in the way. For instance, I decided that it would be better to cut a hole in the side of the desk to route wires through, then couldn't find my hole saws. After spending a couple days looking everywhere, I broke down and bought a new set -- but haven't gotten around to using them yet. I seriously intend to do so after I get this posted.

One thing the new arrangement will let me do is use two computers again. I'll use the second computer for some much procrastinated website development. One thing I need to do for the Christgau and other websites is convert the character set from ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) to UTF-8. It's hard to work with two different character sets on the same computer. And I don't want to commit myself to changing everything over at once, so this seems like a sensible migration path. I have everything I need to do this now. Still not looking forward to painful crawling around the floor to get it all hooked up. More details on the tech advisory mail list as I get it all working.

As for this week's music, I worked my way down to the bottom of Phil Overeem's end-of-February 2019 list, leaving four records unheard: three I couldn't find (DKV/Joe McPhee, All the Young Droogs, and the Clifford Thornton Memorial Quartet) plus the Bob Mould record I have yet to look for). Meanwhile, Overeem has moved on with a March list I haven't gotten to (although two records there -- by James Brandon Lewis and Rosie Flores -- are listed below, having gotten to them on my own).

This week's regrades were Robert Christgau's EW picks this week. I had played them previously, liked the music, didn't get much out of the words, so I thought they merited an extra listen. Like the music even more, still didn't get much out of the words (Malibu Ken is reportedly funny, which I usually get even if I don't get it all; I'd say Serengeti is funnier). Also caught up with Christgau's previous week alt-rap picks, which I liked a bit less. Maybe too avant, the exact opposite of the old school People Under the Stairs, easily my favorite hip-hop album this week.

Only B+(***) record below I might have cut short is the Branford Marsalis, which sounds a lot like his good ones -- easily his best since 2012's Four MFs Playin' Tunes, which was more pointedly titled. Old music by Chick Corea and Stanley Turrentine was suggested by Napster -- evidently a couple of those are new digital reissues.

Trying my hand at stuffed peppers (with lamb, currants, pine nuts, and feta cheese), a dish I've never done before. It never seemed suitably fancy for a main course, yet too big for a side dish, especially in a typical feast with so many sides no one would want a whole pepper. On the other hand, might be perfect for a single-dish dinner for two.

New records reviewed this week:

• Bali Baby: Resurrection (2018, Twin, EP): [r]: B+(**)
• Bali Baby: Bubbles Bali (2019, Billmania Media): [r]: B+(**)
• Better Oblivion Community Center: Better Oblivion Community Center (2019, Dead Oceans): [r]: B+(*)
• Randy Brecker & NDR Bigband: Rocks (2017 [2019], Piloo): [cd]: B
• Czarface/Ghostface Killah: Czarface Meets Ghostface (2019, Silver Age): [r]: B+(**)
• Angel Bat Dawid: The Oracle (2019, International Anthem): [bc]: B+(*)
• Dreezy: Big Dreez (2019, Interscope): [r]: B+(**)
• FAVX: Welfare (2018, Miel de Moscas/Burger, EP): [bc]: B+(**)
• Michael Foster/Katherine Young/Michael Zerang: Bind the Hand(s) That Feed (2018, Relative Pitch): [cd]: B+(*)
• Guillermo Gregorio & Brandon Lopez: 12 Episodes (2017 [2019], Relative Pitch): [cd]: B+(**)
• Hama: Houmeissa (2019, Sahel Sounds): [r]: B+(*)
• Izumi Kimura/Barry Guy/Gerry Hemingway: Illuminated Silence (2018 [2019], Fundacja Sluchaj): [bc]: B+(**)
• Brian Krock: Liddle (2018 [2019], Outside In Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Lapis Trio: The Travelers (2017 [2019], Shifting Paradigm): [cd]: B+(*)
• James Brandon Lewis: An Unruly Manifesto (2018 [2019], Relative Pitch): [cd]: A-
• David Liebman/Jeff Coffin/Victor Wooten/Chester Thompson/Chris Walters/James DaSilva: On the Corner Live! The Music of Miles Davis (2015 [2019], Ear Up): [r]: B+(**)
• Branford Marsalis Quartet: The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul (2018 [2019], Okeh): [r]: B+(***)
• Mdou Moctar: Blue Stage Sessions (2018 [2019], Third Man): [r]: A-
• Jessica Pavone: In the Action (2018 [2019], Relative Pitch): [cd]: B+(**)
• People Under the Stairs: Sincerely, the P (2019, Piecelock 70): [r]: A-
• Powder: Powder in Space (DJ Mix) (2019, Beats in Space): [r]: B+(**)
• Psymun: All Killer No Filler (2018, self-released, EP): [bc]: B+(*)
• Idris Rahman/Leon Brichard/Tom Skinner: Wildflower (2017, self-released): [bc]: B+(**)
• Alfredo Rodriguez/Pedrito Martinez: Duologue (2019, Mack Avenue): [r]: B+(***)
• Rüfüs Du Sol: Solace (2018, Reprise): [r]: B+(*)
• Catherine Russell: Alone Together (2019, Dot Time): [r]: B+(**)
• Dua Saleh: Nur (2019, Against Giants, EP): [bc]: B+(**)
• The Specials: Encore (2019, Island): [r]: B+(*)
• Lyn Stanley: London Calling: A Toast to Julie London (2018 [2019], A.T. Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• Tallawit Timbouctou: Hali Diallo (2011 [2018], Sahel Sounds): [bc]: B+(***)
• David Torn/Tim Berne/Ches Smith: Sun of Goldfinger (2015-18 [2019], ECM): [r]; B+(***)
• Typical Sisters: Hungry Ghost (2017 [2019], Outside In Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Trevor Watts/Stephen Grew: Let It Be: Live in Liverpool (2018 [2019], Fundacja Sluchaj): [bc]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Travailler, C'est Trop Dur: The Lyrical Legacy of Caesar Vincent ([2018], Swallow, 2CD): [r]: B+(*)

Old music:

• Chick Corea: The Complete "Is" Sessions (1969 [2002], Blue Note, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• Chick Corea: The Song of Singing (1970 [1989], Blue Note): [r]: B+(***)
• Chick Corea: Verve Jazz Masters 3 (1972-78 [1993], Verve): [r]: B+(*)
• Joe McPhee & Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Bricktop (2015 [2016], Trost): [bc]: B+(**)
• Stanley Turrentine: Comin' Your Way (1961 [1987], Blue Note): [r]: B+(*)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Aesop Rock and Tobacco: Malibu Ken (2019, Rhymesayers): [r]: [was: B+(**)] B+(***)
• Serengeti: Dennis 6e (2018, People): [r]: [was B+(**)] B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Dan McCarthy: Epoch (Origin)
• Paul Tynan: Quartet (Origin)
• Claudia Villela: Encantada Live (Taina Music): April 12

Weekend Roundup

No introduction, other than to note that I hadn't planned on including anything on the Ilhan Omar controversy, mostly because I still haven't bothered to track down what she said and/or apologized for. I'm pretty careful to make sure that nothing I say that's critical of Israel can be misconstrued as anti-semitic, but that canard is used so often (and so indiscriminately) by Israel's hasbarists that it feels like a waste of time to even credit the complaints.

One more note is that I expected to find more on the record-setting 2018 trade deficit, but all I came up with was the Paul Krugman post below, where the main point is that Trump is stupid, specifically on trade and tariffs but actually on pretty much everything. Krugman's explanation that trade deficits reflect a savings shortfall doesn't really tell me much. As best I can understand it, deficits are a means by which wealth transfers from consumers to the rich -- primarily the foreign rich, but much of that money comes back to domestic rich for investments and sales of inflated assets. I remember some years ago William Greider proposed a blanket, across-the-board tax on imports aimed at restoring a trade balance -- evidently such a thing is OK under WTO rules, and it would get around the balloon problem Krugman refers to -- but I've never heard about it since. Strikes me as a good idea (although I'm not sure how it would interact with exchange rates).

Also thought a bit about writing an op-ed on Trump and Korea. Specifically, I wanted to pose a rhetorical question to Trump, to ask him why he lets people like John Bolton undermine his chances for forging a signature world peace deal, and securing a legacy as something other than, well, you know, a demagogue and a crook.

Some scattered links this week:

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • The 1888 tariff debate Trump can't stop talking about, explained: "Trump's side won, and it was an unpopular disaster."

  • The Democratic debate over filibuster reform, explained: "Nobody runs on Senate procedure, but without changing it, nothing is going to happen."

  • Fox News's propaganda isn't just unethical -- research shows it's enormously influential: "Without the 'Fox effect,' neither Bush nor Trump could have won."

  • Allen Weisselberg, House Democrats' next investigative target, explained: "The Trump Organization CFO knows things President Trump would prefer kept secret."

• Erin Banco/Betsy Woodruff: Team Trump keeps pushing deal to send nuclear tech to Saudis. Related: Lachlan Markay: The nuclear energy industry goes MAGA to win over Trump.

• Fred Barbash: Wilbur Ross broke law, violated Constitution in census decision, judge rules.

• Zack Beauchamp: A Clinton-era centrist Democrat explains why it's time to give democratic socialists a chance. Interview with economist Brad De Long, who worked in the Clinton (or should I say Rubin?) Treasury Department, and identifies as a neoliberal.[1] However, De Long has realized something more: not so much that neoliberalism doesn't work as that there is no political center for maintaining it in a way that works for the common good.

  The core reason, De Long argues, is political. The policies he supports depend on a responsible center-right partner to succeed. They're premised on the understanding that at least a faction of the Republican Party would be willing to support market-friendly ideas like Obamacare or a cap-and-trade system for climate change. This is no longer the case, if it ever were.

  "Barack Obama rolls into office with Mitt Romney's health care policy, with John McCain's climate policy, with Bill Clinton's tax policy, and George H.W. Bush's foreign policy," De Long notes. "And did George H.W. Bush, did Mitt Romney, did John McCain say a single good word about anything Barack Obama ever did over the course of eight solid years? No, they fucking did not."

  The result, he argues, is the nature of the Democratic Party needs to shift. Rather than being a center-left coalition dominated by market-friendly ideas designed to attract conservative support, the energy of the coalition should come from the left and its broad, sweeping ideas. Market-friendly neoliberals, rather than pushing their own ideology, should work to improve ideas on the left. This, he believes, is the most effective and sustainable basis for Democratic politics and policy for the foreseeable future.

  The premises here are the weakest: I doubt that since Reagan's win in 1980 there has ever been even so much as a "responsible center-right" faction in the Republican Party -- Republicans have only welcomed "bi-partisan" deals on their own terms, which is that they must (like NAFTA, "welfare reform," or "no child left behind") hurt the Democratic base and discredit the Democratic Party leadership in their eyes. More importantly, Democrats only needed this "responsible center-right" alliance because they didn't have sufficient votes to pass policy legislation on their own. And that was basically because they kept undermining their historic base (unions and the working class) while chasing donors in high-tech and finance. The result was that the growth they pursued above all else was soaked up by the rich, leaving their base with nothing to show for their votes. Left democrats generally accept neoliberal economic ideas, but part ways in one crucial respect: they understand that what it takes power to ensure that the economy works for every one, and that sacrificing power (as the neoliberal democrats repeatedly did) makes nostrums like growth totally meaningless. The important thing about this piece is that De Long gets that, and that realization has moved him from opponent to enthusiastic supporter:

  Our current bunch of leftists are wonderful people, as far as leftists in the past are concerned. They're social democrats, they're very strong believers in democracy. They're very strong believers in fair distribution of wealth. They could use a little more education about what is likely to work and what is not. But they're people who we're very, very lucky to have on our side.

  That's especially opposed to the people on the other side, who are very, very strange indeed. You listen to [Never Trump conservatives] like Tom Nichols or Bruce Bartlett or Bill Kristol or David Frum talk about all the people they had been with in meetings, biting their tongues over the past 25 years, and your reaction can only be, "Why didn't you run away screaming into the night long ago?"

  [1]: De Long pointed me to this Neoliberal Shill Bracket, evidently an annual ritual among the breed, where DeLong was highly seeded but failed to advance to the Elite 8 round. It's a little hard to follow given that nominees are only identified by their twitter handles, but the round of 8 gives us: Tyler Cowen, Will Wilkinson, Scott Lincicome, Alex Nowrasteh, Alan Cole, Megan McArdle, Noah Smith, and Matthew Yglesias. (DeLong lost to Austan Goolsbee, who in turn was eliminated by Noah Smith -- last year's winner.) The person who runs this circus defines the core values of neoliberalism here. They tout their belief in "classical liberal freedoms," "equal rights," and "intelligent regulation and redistribution" -- making them more conventionally liberal than we usually associate with the term -- but those are all secondary to "we believe in free markets, and the power of markets to alleviate poverty and generate unparalleled economic growth." Nice theory. Too bad things don't work that way.

• Jonathan Chait: The most unrealistic promise Democrats are making is to restore bipartisanship.

• Chris Cillizza: Donald Trump is laying the groundwork to delegitimize the 2020 election. I suppose this story is meant to shock, but he already did a bang up job of delegitimizing the 2016 election, so of course he's sowing the seeds for denying his future embarrassingly shoddy showing. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton only hurt herself by trying to prod Trump into agreeing that if he lost he'd bow out responsibly. He never took the bait, and in the end she was the one who had to prematurely concede.

• Steve Coll: The jail health-care crisis: "The opioid epidemic and other public-health emergencies are being aggravated by failings in the criminal-justice system."

• Colin Drury: Netanyahu says Israel 'belongs to Jewish people alone' in attacks on nation's Arab population/a>. Related: Ruth Eglash: Wonder Woman takes on Netanyahu with anti-racism post on Instagram: Not my idea of a big deal, but I like the contrast. Also: Richard Silverstein: Pompeo: If Bibi wants a Fascist government, fine by us.

• Ben Ehrenreich: The shameful campaign to silence Ilhan Omar. Related: Wajahat Alli/Rabia Chaudry: Want to combat hate? Stop the hazing of Ilhan Omar and start listening; Hanna Alshaikh: The Ilhan Omar controversy shows how little we care about Palestinian lives; Phyllis Bennis: The Democratic Party attacks on Ilhan Omar are a travesty; David Dayen: Ilhan Omar's victory for political sanity; Tara Golshan: Three 2020 Democrats express concern that attacks against Ilhan Omar will stifle debate on Israel: "Warren, Sanders, and Harris all come out in support of Omar; Sarah Jones: The Democratic Party needs Ilhan Omar; Richard Silverstein: Israel lobby and pro-Israel House Democrats tried to excommunicate Ilhlam Omar, they failed.

• Masha Gessen: Why measles is a quintessential political issue of our time.

• Tara Golshan:

  • The anti-Bernie Sanders campaign being pushed by former Clinton staffers, explained: "Former Hillary Clinton aides really want Bernie Sanders to get the Clinton treatment." Presumably that means to be abused as unfairly as Clinton was, although for Clinton's truest believers the fact that he challenged her at all, and in the process exposed some (by no means all) of her faults is something that can never be forgiven. Of course, the same people were every bit as bitter on losing to Obama in 2008, even as Obama bent over so far as to turn his administration into a Clinton rerun -- so much so that Sanders' principled criticism of Obama was used as a cudgel, helping Clinton to pick up many Obama votes, especially in the early primaries in states Sanders wasn't well known in. The quotes here are a mix of stupid and cruel; e.g.: the Clinton aide accusing Sanders of "saying things that don't resonate with a lot of people who don't share his privilege as a cis white man in politics."

  • Bernie Sanders's real base is diverse -- and very young.

• Adam Gopnik: The pros and cons of impeaching Trump.

• Garrett M Graff: How Giuliani might take down Trump: "The parallels between the Mafia and the Trump Organization are striking, and Giuliani perfected the template for prosecuting organized crime."

• Glenn Greenwald: NYT's exposé on the lies about burning aid trucks in Venezuela shows how US government and media spread pro-war propaganda.

• Sean Illing:

  • The conservative movement was destined to produce Trump: Interview with Corey Robin, author of The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism From Edmund Burke to Donald Trump (second edition; the first subtitle ended with Sarah Palin).

  • Want less poverty in the world? Empower women. Interview with Agusto Lopez-Claros, co-author of Equality for Women = Prosperity for All (with Babiyyih Nakhjavani).

• Ed Kilgore: Trump owns the swamp now, and it's awash in lobbyists:

  Most of these people are not as famous (or infamous) as, say, the former oil industry shill and coal lobbyist who have serially run the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump. But 350 ex-lobbyists represent a lot of special interests. And their greatest concentration, the Post notes, is in the Executive Office of the President, where 47 ex-lobbyists toil to set policy for the entire federal government.

• Paul Krugman: Tariff Man has become Deficit Man:

  Republicans in Congress spent the entire Obama administration inveighing against budget deficits, warning incessantly that we were going to have a Greek-style fiscal crisis any day now. Donald Trump, on the other hand, focused his ire mainly on trade deficits, insisting that "our jobs and wealth are being given to other countries that have taken advantage of us."

  But over two years of unified G.O.P. control of government, a funny thing happened: Both deficits surged. The budget deficit has hit a level unprecedented except during wars and in the immediate aftermath of major economic crises; the trade deficit in goods has set a record.

• Jonathan Lambert: Greener childhood associated with happier adulthood. Paul Woodward's title for this is more explicit: "We need contact with nature for the sake of our sanity."

• German Lopez: Marijuana legalization is winning the 2020 Democratic primaries.

• Dylan Matthews: Democrats have united around a plan to dramatically cut child poverty: "The American Family Act, one of Democrats' biggest policy initiatives of 2019, explained."

• Jane Mayer: The making of the Fox News White House: "Fox News has always been partisan. But has it become propaganda?" Indeed, it has. This article has gotten a lot of attention for its revelation of how Fox knew about and killed he story on the Stormy Daniels payoff before the election -- a clear decision to manage the news for Trump's benefit. But the piece is much, much bigger than that one headline-grabber.

• Ella Nilsen:

  • House Democrats just passed a slate of significant reforms to get money out of politics: "Democrats passed their sweeping anti-corruption bill known as HR 1. It's already doomed in the Senate."

  • Democrats' major investigation into White House security clearances, explained.

  • Progressives want to go further than tuition-free college -- here's their proposal to make it debt-free.

• Osita Nwanevu: Democrats push to make Washington, DC, the fifty-first state.

• Toluse Olorunnipa/Josh Dawsey: Trump's massive reelection campaign has 2016 themes -- and a 2020 infrastructure.

• Andrew Prokop: House Democrats launch massive obstruction of justice and corruption probe aimed at Trump: "They've requested documents from 81 people or entities. Here's who they are."

• Adi Robertson: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says 'we should be excited about automation': "Robots aren't the problem, she says -- economics are." Hard to exaggerate how smart this is, at least compared to the usual blather politicians of both parties spout about Jobs:

  New York congressional representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes that people should welcome robots taking their jobs -- but not the economic system that can make it financially devastating. During a talk at SXSW, an audience member asked Ocasio-Cortez about the threat of automated labor. "We should not be haunted by the specter of being automated out of work," she said in response. "We should be excited by that. But the reason we're not excited by it is because we live in a society where if you don't have a job, you are left to die. And that is, at its core, our problem."

  Also note this pull quote: "Not all creativity needs to be bonded by wage."

• David Rothkopf: The Mar-a-Lago connection to the Cindy Yang affair raises huge security risks. Related: Chas Danner: Everything to know about the spa founder selling access to Trump.

• Emma Sarappo: Trump will reportedly ask Congress for another $8.6 billion to guild the wall.

• Eric Schmitt/Charlie Savage: US airstrikes kill hundreds in Somalia as shadowy conflict ramps up.

• Gabe Schneider: Why Sacramento is still protesting Stephon Clark's death, one year later.

• Dylan Scott: A single-payer advocate answers the big question: How do we pay for it? Interview with Matt Breunig.

• Emily Stewart:

  • Fox News reportedly killed a story about Stormy Daniels before the election -- to protect Trump.

  • "Tim Apple" is funny until it isn't.

  • Elizabeth Warren wants to break up Google, Amazon, and Facebook. "Big tech is probably not going to love the 2020 field." There are lots of good reasons for aggressively applying antitrust law and principles to those and more (remember Microsoft?), but I don't really subscribe to the core antitrust idea here: that we need more competition, basically more companies figuring out more ways to exploit us. An alternative approach would be to stand up non-profit utilities in each of these niches, and pay for them through general revenues (largely allocated according to actual use). I've yet to see anyone really develop this idea, but it's pretty obvious once you think of it.

  • Why the DNC isn't letting Fox News host a 2020 debate.

• Jeffrey Toobin: Adam Schiff hires a former prosecutor to lead the Trump investigation.

• Siva Vaidhyanathan: Facebook's new move isn't about privacy. It's about domination. Related: Sam Biddle: Mark Zuckerberg is trying to play you -- again.

• David Wallace-Wells: Could one man single-handedly ruin the planet? After mentioning Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, he gets to an even more ominous test case: Brazil's new president, Jair Bolsonaro.

• Alex Ward:

  • A top Trump official may have just doomed US-North Korea talks.

  • Why North Korea's restored rocket site isn't cause for worry -- yet.

  • The chaotic Trump-Kim summit aftermath, explained.

Daily Log

Scraped from a twitter image: Neoliberal Shill Bracket:

The Neolib Podcast Region:
 1. @economeager - Rachael Meager               + +
       Asst Prof LSEEcon STICERD_LSE development & econometrics
16. @secretarycarson
 8. @mnolangray                                 +
 9. @neeratanden
 5. @ModeledBehavior - Adam Ozimek              +
      Economist
12. @jneeley78
 4. @tylercowen - Tyler Cowen                   + + + +
      Bloomberg
13. @ZacharyCraves
 6. @DKThomp
11. @karlbykarlsmith - Karl  Smith              +
      "do you even FRED bro?"
 3. @willwilkinson - Will Wilkinson             + + +
      Niskanen Center VP for Research, NY Times, Vox
14. @CathyReisenwitz
 7. @senatorshoshana - Shoshana Weissmann       + +
      RSI digital media manager
10. @ianbremmer
 2. @calebwatney                                +
15. @Timodc

The Sticker Club Region:
 1. @s8mb - Sam Bowman                          + +
      used to run ASI; "I invented neoliberalism"
16. @nihilistspicer -
      "antifa DSA who happens to know Econ 101"
 8. @titonka
 9. @erikbryn                                   +
 5. @jbarro                                     +
12. @ebwhamilton
 4. @scottlincicome - Scott Lincicome           + + + +
      trade lawyer, Cato Institute
13. @ernietedeschi
 6. @lymanstoneky
11. @NKaeding                                   + +
 3. @glenweyt                                   +
14. @BillKristol
 7. @AlexNowrasteh - Alex Nowrasteh             + + +
      Cato Institute analyst of immigration policy
10. @svaneksmith
 2. @hamandcheese - Samuel Hammond
      Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy, Niskanen Center
15. @ahardtospell - Alex Muresianu              +
      Economic policy and memes; LoConservative, AmConMag, dcexaminer, ArcDigi

The Reviving Neoliberalism Region:
 1. @BetoORourke
16. @ComfortablySmug                            +
 8. @salonium                                   + +
 9. @clark_packard
 5. @AlanMCole - Alan Cole                      + + + +
      Business economics and public policy Wharton, tax policy guy, high
      priest emeritus of DBCFT
12. @CardiffGarcia
 4. @patrickc                                   +
13. @bkavoussl
 6. @dylanmatt - Dylan Matthews
      "my tweet portal is whack"
11. @asymmetricinfo - Megan  McArdle            + + +
      DC blogger, "Live From the WTC"
 3. @ossoff
14. @sonyaellenmann                             +
 7. @Austen                                     + +
10. @kylebrussell
 2. @jaredpolis                                 +
15. @qjurecic

The Meetup Region:
 1. @Noahpinion - Noah Smith                    + + +
      Bloomberg opinion writer, chief neoliberal shill 2018
16. @NeeraJKA
 8. @KarlMuth
 9. @jodiecongirl                               +
 5. @Austan_Goolsbee                            + +
12. @TheStalwart
 4. @delong - Brad DeLong                       +
      
13. @byrdinator
 6. @_TamaraWinter                              + +
11. @MarcGoldwein
 3. @MarkLutter
14. @JosephMajkut                               +
 7. @willmacaskill
10. @jaketapper                                 +
 2. @mattyglesias - Matthew Yglesias            + + + +
15. @zck

Music Week

Music: current count 31207 [31174] rated (+33), 257 [252] unrated (+5).

Lots of good records this week, mostly early 2019 releases that I checked out after Phil Overeem posted his Best Rekkids of '19 - End of Febru-weary Edition, with "30 pretty damn decent releases." I had previously heard N:

1. Harriet Tubman: The Terror End of Beauty (Sunnyside -18) [B+(*)]
4. Heroes Are Gang Leaders: The Amiri Baraka Sessions (Flat Langston's Arkeyes) [A]
11. Eric Dolphy: Musical Prophet (Resonance -3CD) [A-]
23. Matthew Shipp Trio: Signature (ESP-Disk) [B+(***)]
27. Bad Bunny: X 100PRE (Rimas Entertainment -18) [B+(*)]

I sampled 11 more below, coming up with 5 A-, 3 B+(***), 1 B+(**), 1 B-, 1 C. I looked up but didn't find 4 more (DKV, All the Young Droogs, M'dou Moctar, and the Clifford Thornton Memorial Quartet -- a 2018 release I've looked for several times) -- basically only got down to 14, but Michael Tatum recommended Our Native Daughters, so I prioritized that, as well as the jazz releases (Ward, Ill Considered).

The DKV (Ken Vandermark sax trio with Kent Kessler and Hamid Drake) is a 6-CD box on the Catalytic Bandcamp, but they only have 3 tracks available -- far short of anything I can review in good conscience. Until they stopped providing full albums a little over a year ago, I tried to review everything they released (missing only a few monster sets), but gave up after that, finishing 2018 with 8 unreviewed Ken Vandermark titles in my music tracking file (plus various of his cohort, including Overeem's favorite, Joe McPhee) -- certainly one reason why my 2018 Best Jazz list came up shorter than recent years.

I also took a fairly deep dive into Ill Considered, a British jazz quartet (sax, bass, drums, extra percussion), made possible by their Bandcamp page -- only skipped An Ill Considered Christmas (see Phil Freeman's review). Rhythmically, they remind me of Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, but rawer, with a lot more sax appeal.

Missing from this week's A-list is James Brandon Lewis' An Unruly Manifesto. I was all ready to write it up based on a download when an actual CD showed up in a package from Relative Pitch, but when that happened I decided I wanted to listen some more. When I stopped writing Jazz Consumer Guide for the Village Voice, I stopped requesting review copies. But only some publicists stopped sending records, so I kept writing up what I got, filling in obvious holes by streaming. For the last 3-4 years, the one US label I most regretted not getting service from (and not being able to find on a streaming service) was Relative Pitch. (Well, Tzadik was competition, after they pulled their releases from Rhapsody.) So this package was the week's most pleasant surprise. Will get to them soon (with Lewis first).

I decided I was done with the EOY Aggregate mid-week, but today I figured I'd add in the albums I graded but hadn't shown up in any other list. I got tired of that pretty quickly -- last one I added was Chrome Hill's The Explorer (Clean Feed) -- so decided not to hold this post up for closure. The late adds to the file moved it back a bit toward the consensus of aggregators like Acclaimed Music; e.g., Pusha T reclaimed 4th from Cardi B, and in the biggest shift, Low rose to 8 over Noname and Parquet Courts. Also, the Arctic Monkeys (which I dislike even more than Double Negative) is back to up a tie at 16 (with Kali Uchis).

Expect an XgauSez later tonight. I keep postponing my website redesign work, mostly because everything sucks here. But I did decide that one thing I need to do is to move my computer back to the old desk, making it possible to use a second (presently inaccessible) computer for development work. To that end, I ordered another UPS, which is here waiting to be plugged in, ready for the move. (Has been for a week, but any day now.) When I get going, I'll explain why this matters to my "tech advisory" mail list. If you'd like to join in on that discussion (or just lurk), let me know and I'll sign you up. I expect to have plenty of questions, and could use the help.

New records reviewed this week:

• Aesop Rock & Tobacco: Malibu Ken (2019, Rhymesayers): [r]: B+(**)
• Atomic: Pet Variations (2018 [2019], Odin): [cd]: B+(**)
• Marcia Ball: Shine Bright (2018, Alligator): [r]: B+(*)
• Yugen Blakrok: Anima Mysterium (2019, IOT): [r]: A-
• R.L. Boyce: Rattlesnake Boogie (2018, Waxploitation): [r]: B+(*)
• Robert Ellis: Texas Piano Man (2019, New West): [r]: B
• Rosie Flores: Simple Case of the Blues (2019, The Last Music Company): [r]: B+(**)
• Fidel Fourneyron: ¿Que Vola? (2019, No Format): [r]: B+(***)
• Mimi Fox: This Bird Still Flies (1985-2018 [2019], Origin): [cd]: B+(*)
• Ill Considered: Ill Considered (2017, Ill Considered Music): [bc]: A
• Ill Considered: Live at the Crypt (2017, Ill Considered Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• Ill Considered: Ill Considered 3 (2018, Ill Considered Music): [bc]: A-
• Ill Considered: Live at Total Refreshment Centre (2018, Ill Considered Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• Ill Considered: Live in Camden Town (2018, Ill Considered Music): [bc]: B+(**)
• Ill Considered: Live in Nantes (2018, Ill Considered Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• Ill Considered: Ill Considered 5 (2018 [2019], Ill Considered Music): [bc]: B+(***)
• Ill Considered: Ill Considered 6 (2018 [2019], Ill Considered Music): [bc]: A-
• Kel Assouf: Black Tenere (2019, Glitterbeat): [r]: A-
• Rebecca Kilgore/Bernd Lhotzky: This or That (2017, Arbors): [r]: B+(*)
• Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Miri (2019, OutHere): [r]: A-
• Doug MacDonald Quartet: Organisms (2018 [2019], self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
• Pat Martino: Formidable (2017, High Note): [r]: B+(*)
• Marilyn Mazur: Marilyn Mazur's Shamania (2017 [2019], RareNoise): [cdr]: B+(**)
• Joe McPhee/John Butcher: At the Hill of James Magee (2019, Trost): [bc]: B+(***)
• Our Native Daughters: Songs of Our Native Daughters (2019, Smithsonian Folkways): [r]: A-
• Kassa Overall: Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz (2018 [2019], self-released): [bc]: B+(**)
• RGG/Verneri Pohjola/Samuel Blaser: City of Gardens (2017 [2018], Fundacja Sluchaj): [bc]: B+(**)
• Ustad Saami: God Is Not a Terrorist (2019, Glitterbeat): [r]: C
• Nick Sanders Trio: Playtime 2050 (2017-18 [2019], Sunnyside): [cd]: B+(**) [03-15]
• Greg Ward Presents Rogue Parade: Stomping Off From Greenwood (2017 [2019], Greenleaf Music): [r]: B-
• Anna Webber: Clockwise (2017 [2019], Pi): [cd]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Sir Shina Peters & His International Stars: Sewele (1986 [2019], Strut): [r]: A-

Old music:

• Atomic: There's a Hole in the Mountain (2012 [2013], Jazzland): [bc]: B+(*)
• Rosie Flores: Girl of the Century (2009, Bloodshot): [r]: B+(*)
• Rebecca Kilgore/The Harry Allen Quartet: Live at Feinstein's at Loews Regency: Celebrating "Lady Day" and "Prez" (2011, Arbors): [r]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• The David Berkman Sextet: Six of One (Palmetto): April 5
• Chat Noir: Hyperuranion (RareNoise): cdr, March 29
• Carolyun Fitzhugh: Living in Peace (Iyouwe): March 15
• Michael Foster/Katherine Young/Michael Zerang: Bind the Hand(s) That Feed (Relative Pitch)
• Guillermo Gregorio & Brandon Lopez: 12 Episodes (Relative Pitch)
• Brian Krock: Liddle (Outside In Music): April 26
• Lapis Trio: The Travelers (Shifting Paradigm)
• James Brandon Lewis: An Unruly Manifesto (Relative Pitch)
• Sean Noonan: Tan Man's Hat (RareNoise): cdr, March 29
• Jessica Pavone: In the Action (Relative Pitch)
• Tomeka Reid/Filippo Monico: The Mouser (Relative Pitch)
• Typical Sisters: Hungry Ghost (Outside In Music): March 22

Weekend Roundup

Three fairly major stories dominated the news this past week: Trump walking away from his summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un without even making a serious proposal or showing any interest in long-range peace; Michael Cohen's congressional testimony, where he made a case that his own crimes were directed by Trump; and Trump's "free-form" speech at CPAC's annual convention. We'll take these in order, then conclude with the leftovers, including some stories that are actually bigger and more ominous than the headline grabbers: a dangerous border skirmish between nuclear powers India and Pakistan, US escalation against Venezuela, the impending indictment of Israeli PM Netanyahu, the usual gamut of Washington scandals, and some hopeful legislation that Democrats are introducing (and campaigning on).

Some links on Korea and the summit failure:

• Jason Ditz:

  • South Korean President will work to help US, North Korea reach a deal.

  • US, South Korea to cancel large spring military exercises.

• Fred Kaplan: Love can't buy a nuclear deal: "Trump and Kim failed to reach a breakthrough in Hanoi. For now, that may be for the best." It bothers me a lot when otherwise astute observers say things like this. War is so horrific no one should ever argue that walking back from the peace table is a good thing. What this really shows is that Kaplan, like so many American "experts," doesn't see costs and risks to perpetuating the status quo, especially the cruel sanctions regime. In the lead up to the summit, I didn't bother citing the many pessimistic forecasts, like Kaplan's own Trump's bargaining position with Kim Jong-un is unbelievably weak. Kaplan is half right about that, in that there is virtually nothing the US can do to force North Korea to capitulate. On the other hand, the US has one great asymmetric advantage, in that we know that Kim's "nuclear threat" is mere bluff, while US sanctions cause real pain with little or no cost or risk. I could expand on this much more, but right now don't have the time or stomach. But I will leave you with two points: one is that Trump is exceptionally capable of negotiating a realistic deal with Kim because he identifies with strong dictators and has no inclination to judge them morally (also because he doesn't have any compelling graft not to deal, as he has with Iran, Yemen, and Venezuela); the other is that this summit demonstrates a common thread in Trump's foreign policy, which is his utter contempt and callousness in all his dealings with the world.

• Jen Kirby: North Korea contradicts Trump on the reason a summit deal fell through.

• Jeffrey Lewis:

  • Anyone could have seen Trump's failure in Hanoi coming. Except Trump.

    When President Richard M. Nixon opened relations with China, he did not demand that Mao Zedong abandon the bomb. Mao would simply have refused, and the historic moment would have been lost. Trump faces the same fundamental choice. If he does not accept the reality that we now live with a nuclear-armed North Korea, then we are doomed to the collapse of negotiations, and perhaps even a return to the terror of 2017, punctuated with Trump's taunts of "Rocket Man" and boasts about whose button is bigger.

  • The real North Korea summit is inside the Trump Administration.

• Jon Schwarz: Breakdown in Hanoi Summit shows the real danger on the Korean Peninsula: Donald Trump's America.

• Alex Ward: Trump is missing his opportunity to press Kim Jong Un on human rights: On the other hand, Kim missed the opportunity to press Trump on same.

• Robin Wright: After all the swagger, Trump's talks with North Korea collapse.

Some links on Cohen and this week in the "witchhunt":

• Natasha Bertrand: Michael Cohen's road map for Democrats.

• Isaac Chotiner: A legal editor on what we learned from Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony: Interview with Quinta Jurecic, managing editor of Lawfare.

• Maureen Dowd: The sycophant and the sociopath.

• David Frum: Uncontradicted: "Republicans on the House Oversight Committee impugned the integrity of Trump's former lawyer -- but failed to defend the president from his key charges."

• Jen Kirby: Michael Cohen: I probably threatened people for Trump hundreds of times.

• Andrew Prokop: What Michael Cohen's testimony means for the Russia investigation.

• Emily Stewart:

  • Why the answers Michael Cohen gave to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's questions mattered: "AOC got Cohen to name names -- and help build a case for getting Trump's tax returns."

  And some links on Trump and this year's CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) orgy:

  • Aida Chávez: At Conservative conference, speakers were obsessed with the Socialist bogeyman.

  • Jane Coaston: CPAC 2019 reveals a base in thrall to Trump.

  • Andrew Kragie: The 7 most bewildering moments from Trump's CPAC speech.

  • Olivia Nuzzi: Self-care is a self-celebration for Trump at CPAC.

  • Aaron Rupar: CPAC speakers keep saying Democrats want to ban cows and legalize infanticide. They don't.

  • Amanda Sakuma: The 7 most bizarre moments from Trump's long-winded CPAC rant.

  ---

  Still more scattered links this week:

  • Matthew Yglesias: Bernie Sanders is poised to open up a painful intraparty debate about Israel.

  • Michael A Cohen: Mitch McConnell, Republican nihilist. Wish I could also share Fintan O'Toole: The King and I, a review of Chris Christie's Let Me Finish and Cliff Sims' Team of Vipers (locked behind paywall).

  • Rachel M Cohen: Labor unions are skeptical of the Green New Deal, and they want activists to hear them out.

  • Sam Cowie: Jair Bolsonaro praised the genocide of indigenous people. Now he's emboldening attackers of Brazil's Amazonian communities.

  • David Dayen: It might be time for a "War Dogs" sequel: Report on a Defense contractor TransDigm Group, which a recent report revealed "'earned excess profit' on nearly every parts contract it made with the Defense Department."

  • David A Graham: Trump aides keep writing memos to protect themselves: "Their urge to document the president's requests and interactions is justified by his behavior."

  • Greg Grandin: How the Right is using Venezuela to reorder politics: "The social-democratic wing of the Democratic Party must find a way to put forth a compelling counter-vision."

  • Maggie Haberman: et al.: Trump ordered officials to give Jared Kushner a security clearance: Not much of a story, but much cited this week. Kushner eventually got his clearance, and nobody seems to know exactly why it took so long -- in his position, it should have been automatic (not that he ever should have gotten the job). So the interest now seems to be catching Trump in another bald-faced lie (video link included).

  • Murtaza Hussain: Trump and Brexit proved this book prophetic -- what calamity will befall us next?: Interview with Martin Gurri, author of The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium (2014). For a flavor, here are the pull quotes:

    "The year 2011 proved to be the moment of phase change, when digital anger passed over into political action."

    "Elites currently seem to be more concerned with re-establishing their distance from the public than with reforming the system or restoring their own authority. They equate legitimacy with clinging to the top of the pyramid."

    "When you abolish history, you lose your memory and it's like you've had a stroke. That condition can lead you to do crazy things."

    "If we select the elites, we can un-select them. When it comes to politics, we can support politicians who fit into the digital age and are willing to compress the pyramid and dwell closer to the public."

  • Jen Kirby: Trump delays more tariffs on China in hopes of a trade deal breakthrough.

  • Sarah Kliff: Medicare-for-all: Rep. Pramila Jayapal's new bill, explained. Related: Ryan Grim:: The special interests behind Rep. Pramila Jayapal's Medicare for All bill are not the usual suspects.

  • Paul Krugman: Socialism and the self-made woman: "What Ivanka Trump doesn't know about social mobility."

    O.K., this was world-class lack of self-awareness: It doesn't get much better than being lectured on self-reliance by an heiress whose business strategy involves trading on her father's name. But let's go beyond the personal here. We know a lot about upward mobility in different countries, and the facts are not what Republicans want to hear. . . .

    Look, Ms. Trump is surely right in asserting that most of us want a country in which there is the potential for upward mobility. But the things we need to do to ensure that we are that kind of country -- the policies that are associated with high levels of upward mobility around the world -- are exactly the things Republicans denounce as socialism.

  • Elie Mystal: Running the Democratic primary through 'Trump Country' is the road to defeat: "Yes, we're looking at you, Bernie Sanders." Basically says don't waste your breath on the deplorables, or anyone else who lives in parts where they're statistically significant -- in effect, arguing that demography is destiny, and going even further than Clinton in admitting that Democrats have nothing to offer people who aren't part of their focus groups. Dismisses Sanders as "just the most prominent white man in the race right now." Adds that: "Both Trump and Sanders campaigns could be read as promising to put a white man 'back on top,' where he always thinks he belongs." As if any differences between the two pale in comparison to checking a couple of boxes on census forms.

  • Nomi Prins: Survival of the richest: "All are equal, except those who aren't."

  • Corey Robin: Why has it taken us so long to see Trump's weakness? Robin blames the "Historovox" (a word I hope never to hear of again):

    Perhaps the answer lies in a new genre of journalism that forgoes the pedestrian task of reporting the news in favor of explaining it through the lens of academic research. Ensconced at Vox, FiveThirtyEight, dedicated pages of the Washington Post and the New York Times, and across Twitter, the explainers place great stock in the authority of scholarship -- and in journalists who know how to wield the authority of scholars. This genre first arose under the roseate glow of Obama, reflecting the White House's warm embrace of science and smarts. Now, in the age of Trump, it's less a happy affirmation of wonks and geeks than an anxious cry of the Resistance. Being smart, honoring research, favoring truth: These are the emblems of the world Trump wants to destroy and that the explainers wish to preserve. . . .

    Short-term interests and partisan concerns still drive reporting and commentary. But where the day's news once would have been narrated as a series of events, the Historovox brings together those events in a pseudo-academic frame that treats them as symptoms of deeper patterns and long-term developments. Unconstrained by the protocols of academe or journalism, but drawing on the authority of the first for the sake of the second, the Historovox skims histories of the New Deal or rifles through abstracts of meta-analysis found in JSTOR to push whatever the latest line happens to be.

    It's not hard to think of suspect examples -- indeed, most of the efforts to sketch Trump into the long histories of fascism or populism miss more than they discover, much like the efforts to psychoanalyze Trump as a sociopath -- but everyone brings some framework to their observations, and it's usually better to have one that's tested and coherent, rather than just falling for whatever PR slant most tickles your fancy. I, for one, have found Vox exceptionally useful since Trump became president. They do a relatively good job of summarizing news and putting it into a context that is historical and scientific, and their political slant isn't unpalatable (not that I don't find bones to pick). On the other hand, I've found The Nation (which should be closer to my politics) to be nearly useless (except for Tom Engelhardt's remarkable TomDispatch, and whatever Mike Konczal contributes).

  • Jon Schwarz: CNN hires Trump official who used same anti-press rhetoric as man who sent bombs to CNN.

  • Richard Silverstein: Both of these articles were occasioned by Netanyahu's decision to bring the ultra-right Kahanist political movement into his governing coalition:

    • Pompeo: If Bibi wants a Fascist government, fine by us.

    • American Jewry must break with Judeo-Nazism:

      American Jewish groups have rightly condemned the new merger. But almost all have refused to name or condemn the author of this atrocity, Netanyahu. . . . In case anyone needs any further proof of Netanyahu's fascist proclivities, look no further than Europe, where he's cultivated not just the worst of the far-right parties, but outright anti-Semites like Hungary's Viktor Orban and Poland's Law and Justice Party. These are parties which unabashedly worship a national past in which fascism and Jew-hating were rampant. Even worse, the modern successors have developed a bad case of historical amnesia about these proclivities.

  • John Sipher: Putin's one weapon: The 'intelligence state': "Russia's leader has restored the role its intelligence agencies had in the Soviet era -- keep citizens in check and destabilize foreign adversaries." As noted, the role of the secret police dates back to the Tsars. It's always been justified by the presumed weakness of the nation and state, something it tends to perpetuate.

  • Emily Stewart: Sen. Brian Schatz will introduce a new bill to tax stock trades and curb high-frequency trading.

• Matt Taibbi: This battle of billionaires was inevitable: "A surprise decision over a Pentagon contract seems like the latest volley in a war between President Trump and Jeff Bezos." Billionaires will always be jealous of one another, but the main interest here is an open-ended contract to turn management of the DOD's cloud computing over to a private contractor, under rules that curiously exclude all competitors other than Amazon.

• Alexia Underwood:

  • The recent spike in tensions between India and Pakistan, explained. Related: Rafia Zakaria: War-weary Pakistan is ready for peace: "As peace rallies were being held in Pakistan, much of the media in India were pushing for war." Also: Pankaj Mishra: India and Pakistan are already at war on truth; and Robert Fisk: Israel is playing a big role in India's escalating conflict with Pakistan.

  • Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to be indicted on bribery charges pending hearing. More: What Netanyahu's indictment means politically.

• Peter Wade: Police who shot Stephon Clark will not be charged, District Attorney announces.

• Mark Weisbrot: Trump's other 'national emergency': Sanctions that kill Venezuelans: "The humanitarian crisis will get rapidly worse if the most recent sanctions continue."

• Li Zhou: The Senate just confirmed a former coal lobbyist to lead the EPA: "Three things to know about Andrew Wheeler."

Music Week

Music: current count 31174 [31145] rated (+29), 252 [249] unrated (+3).

So-so week, rated count actually a good deal more than I expected, given all the distractions. Since I went to weekly review dumps, I guess that means that the last Monday of the month is the closing date for the archive Streamnotes (February 2019) -- posted at the same time as this Music Week. February's record total of 123 (91 new) is quite a bit less than January's 201 (153 new).

Still listening more to 2018 than 2019 records (15-4 below), even a couple hitherto unnoticed 2017 releases. Should probably write a longer intro, but not feeling it at the moment.

New records reviewed this week:

• Jakob Anderskov: Mysteries (2017 [2018], ILK): [r]: B+(**)
• Julian Argüelles: Tonadas (2017 [2018], Edition): [r]: B+(**)
• Rafiq Bhatia: Breaking English (2018, Anti-): [r]: B+(**)
• Carsie Blanton: Buck Up (2019, So Ferocious): [r]: A-
• Martin Blume/Wilbert De Joode/John Butcher: Low Yellow (2016 [2018], Jazzwerkstatt): [r]: B+(**)
• Dinosaur: Wonder Trail (2018, Edition): [r]: B
• Endangered Blood: Don't Freak Out (2018, Skirl): [r]: A-
• Hot 8 Brass Band: On the Spot (2017, Tru Thoughts): [bc]: B+(**)
• Hot 8 Brass Band: Take Cover (2019, Tru Thoughts, EP): [bc]: B+(*)
• Ohmme: Parts (2018, Joyful Noise): [r]: B+(**)
• On the Levee Jazz Band: Swinging New Orleans Jazz (2018, Big Al): [bc]: A-
• Pilgrims [John Wolf Brennan/Tony Majdalani/Marco Jencarelli]: Oriental Orbit (2017, Leo): [r]: B+(*)
• Chris Potter: Circuits (2019, Edition): [r]: B-
• RAM: RAM 7: August 1791 (2018, Willibelle): [r]: B
• Dave Rempis/Brandon Lopez/Ryan Packard: The Early Bird Gets (2018 [2019], Aerophonic): [cd]: A-
• Valee: GOOD Job, You Found Me (2018, GOOD Music, EP): [r]: B+(**)
• Kate Vargas: For the Wolfish & Wandering (2018, self-released): [r]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Gboyega Adelaja: Colourful Environment (1979 [2018], Odion Livingstone): [r]: B+(**)
• African Scream Contest 2 (1970s [2018], Analog Africa): [bc]: B+(***)
• Dur Dur of Somalia: Volume 1, Volume 2, & Previously Unreleased Tracks (1986-87 [2018], Analog Africa, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
• Orhestre Abass: De Bassari Togo (1972 [2018], Analog Africa, EP): [r]: B+(***)

Old music:

• African Scream Contest: Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds From Benin & Togo 70s (1970s [2008], Analog Africa): [r]: A-
• Carsie Blanton: Ain't So Green (2005, self-released): [r]: B+(***)
• Carsie Blanton: Idiot Heart (2012, self-released): [r]: B+(*)
• Carsie Blanton: Not Old, Not New (2014, So Ferocious): [r]: B+(**)
• Carsie Blanton: So Ferocious (2016, So Ferocious): [r]: B+(*)
• Andrew D'Angelo Trio: Skadra Degis (2007 [2008], Skirl): [bc]: B+(***)
• Andrew D'Angelo Trio: Norman (2015, self-released): [bc]: B+(***)
• Endangered Blood: Work Your Magic (2012 [2013], Skirl): [r]: B+(***)
• Kitchen Orchestra/Alexander Von Schlippenbach: Kitchen Orchestra With Alexander Von Schlippenbach (2013, Whats Cooking): [r]: B+(*)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Atomic: Pet Variations (Odin)
• Lyn Stanley: London Calling: A Toast to Julie London (A.T. Music)
• Carol Sudhalter Quartet: Live at Saint Peter's Church (Alfa Projects)
• Assif Tsahar/William Parker/Hamid Drake: In Between the Tumbling a Stillness (Hopscotch) [A-]

Weekend Roundup

When I started this exercise, I reassured myself that I would just go through the motions, collecting a few notes that I may wish to refer back to after the 2020 election. While I've written very little on it, I've thought a lot more about my four-era synopsis of American history, and I'm more convinced than ever that the fourth -- the one that started in 1980 with Ronald Reagan -- ends definitively with Donald Trump in 2020. I doubt I'll ever manage to write that book, but it's coming together pretty clearly in my mind. I'll resist the temptation to explain how and why. But I will offer a couple of comments on how this affects the Democratic presidential field. For starters, it is very important that the Democrats nominate someone who is not closely tied to Reagan-era Democratic politics, which means the Clintons, Obama, and Joe Biden. Those politicians based their success on their ability to work with Reagan-era constraint and tropes, and those have become liabilities.

It's time for a break, which could mean an older candidate with clear history of resisting Clinton-Obama compromises (like Bernie Sanders) or a younger candidate who's simply less compromised. Second point is that Republicans have become so monolithically tied to Trump, while Trump has become so polarizing, that no amount of "moderation" is likely to gain votes in the "middle" of the electorate. On the other hand, these days "moderation" is likely to be seen as lack of principles and/or character. In this primary season I don't see any reason not to go with whichever Democrat who comes up with the best platform. Still, there is one trait I might prefer over a better platform, which is dedication to advancing the whole party, and not just one candidate or faction.

I don't intend to spend much time or space on candidates, but I did note Bernie Sanders' joining the race below, a piece on his foreign policy stance (which has more to do with the shortcomings of other Democrats), as well as a couple of policy initiatives from Elizabeth Warren -- who's been working hard to establish her edge there. I've been running into a lot of incoherent spite and resentment against Sanders, both before and since his announcement, often from otherwise principled leftists, especially directed against hypothetical "purists" who disdain other "progressives" as not good enough. I'm far enough to the left that no one's ever good enough, but you make do with what you can get. I sympathize with Steve M.'s tweet:

Everyone, pro and anti Bernie: Just grow the fuck up. He's in the race. Vote for him, don't vote for him, let the process play out, then fight like hell to enact whoever wins the nomination. STOP DOING 2016 BATTLE REENACTMENTS.

Of course, if Hillary throws her hat in, all bets are off.

Some scattered links this week:

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • Democrats welcome an increasingly diverse America; Republicans aren't so sure.

  • The looming expiration of the federal debt ceiling, explained

  • Giving housing to the homeless is cheaper than leaving them on the streets.

  • Amazon's $0 corporate income tax bill last year, explained.

• Jamelle Bouie: Sanders has an advantage, and it's not about economics: "He has put forward a foreign policy vision that pits democratic peoples everywhere against illiberalism at home and abroad." I wish he was better still -- Laura blew up about some comments he made the other day on Venezuela, but he's not as kneejerk reflexive as most Democrats, or as gullible when someone pitches a war as humanitarian -- but he's closer to having a framework for thinking about America's imperial posture than almost anyone with a chance to do something about it. By far the biggest risk Democrats are running is the chance they may (as Hillary was) be tarred as the war party.

• Ted Galen Carpenter: How NATO pushed the US Into the Libya fiasco: I think this was pretty obvious at the time, although once the US intervened, as it did, the war quickly became something all sides could blame on America -- particularly as the US had a long history that had only grown more intense under Bush and Obama of absent-minded intervention in Islamic nations. Obama later said that he regretted not the intervention per se but not planning better for the aftermath -- an indication of lack of desire or interest, not that Bush's occupation of Iraq turned out any better. (Of course, the fiasco in Iraq was also excused as poorly planned, but no one doubted the interest and excitement of the Bremer period as Americans tried to refashion Iraq in the image of, well, Texas.) One point that could be better explained is that Europe (especially France and Italy) had long-standing commercial ties to Libya, which America's anti-Qaddafi tantrums (at once high-handed, capricious, arbitrary, and indifferent to consequences) had repeatedly undermined. After NATO fell in line behind the US in Afghanistan and (for the most part) Iraq, Europeans felt America owed them something, and that turned out to be Libya. That all these cases proved disappointing should prove that NATO itself was never the right vehicle for dealing with world or regional problems.

• Ben Freeman: US foreign policy is for sale: "Washington think tanks receive millions of dollars from authoritarian governments to shape foreign policy in their favor." Not just authoritarian governments, although you could argue that the most obvious exception, Israel, qualifies. For that matter it seems likely that many other nations (democracies as well as dictatorships) are every bit as active in buying American foreign policy favors -- so much so that singling out the "authoritarians" is just a rhetorical ploy. Original link to TomDispatch. By the way, in the latter, Tom Engelhardt quotes from Stephen Walt's new book, The Hell of Good Intentions: America's Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of US Primacy:

  [T]he contemporary foreign policy community has been characterized less by competence and accountability and more by a set of pathologies that have undermined its ability to set realistic goals and pursue them effectively. To put it in the bluntest terms, instead of being a disciplined body of professionals constrained by a well-informed public and forced by necessity to set priorities and hold themselves accountable, today's foreign policy elite is a dysfunctional caste of privileged insiders who are frequently disdainful of alternative perspectives and insulated both professionally and personally from the consequences of the policies they promote.

  Although "good intentions" often fail, Walt is being overly generous in accepting them at face value. Up to WWII, US foreign policy was almost exclusively dictated by private interests -- mostly traders and financiers, with an auxiliary of missionaries. WWII convinced American leaders that they had a calling to lead and manage the world, so they came up with a great myth of "good intentions," although those were soon shattered as they embraced slogans like "better dead than red."

• Greg Grandin: How the failure of our foreign wars fueled nativist fanaticism: "For nearly two centuries, US politicians have channeled extremism outward. But the frontier is gone, the empire is faltering, and the chickens are coming home to roost." Adapted from Grandin's new book, The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border in the Mind of America.

  Had the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq not gone so wrong, perhaps George W. Bush might have been able to contain the growing racism within his party's rank and file[1] by channeling it into his Middle East crusade, the way Ronald Reagan broke up the most militant nativist vigilantes in the 1980s by focusing their attention on Central America. For nearly two centuries, from Andrew Jackson forward, the country's political leaders enjoyed the benefit of being able to throw its restless and angry citizens -- of the kind who had begun mustering on the border in the year before 9/11 -- outward, into campaigns against Mexicans, Native Americans, Filipinos, and Nicaraguans, among other enemies.

  But the occupations did go wrong. Bush and his neoconservative advisers had launched what has now become the most costly war in the nation's history, on the heels of pushing through one of the largest tax cuts in the nation's history. They were following the precedent set by Reagan, who in the 1980s slashed taxes even as he increased the military budget until deficits went sky-high. Yet the news coming in from Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere began to suggest that Bush had created an epic disaster. Politicians and policy intellectuals began to debate what is and isn't torture and to insist that, whatever "enhanced interrogation" was, the United States had a right to do it. Photographs from Abu Ghraib prison showing US personnel cheerfully taunting and torturing Iraqis circulated widely, followed by reports of other forms of cruelty inflicted on prisoners by US troops. Many people were coming to realize that the war was not just illegal in its conception but deceptive in its justification, immoral in its execution, and corrupt in its administration.

  Every president from Reagan onward has raised the ethical stakes, insisting that what they called "internationalism" -- be it murderous wars in impoverished Third World countries or corporate trade treaties -- was a moral necessity. But the disillusionment generated by Bush's war on terrorism, the velocity with which events revealed the whole operation to be a sham, was extraordinary -- as was the dissonance. The war, especially that portion of it allegedly intended to bring democracy to Iraq, was said to mark a new era of national purpose. And yet a coordinated campaign of deceit, carried out with the complicity of reporters working for the country's most respected news sources, had to be waged to ensure public support. The toppling of Saddam Hussein was predicted to be a "cakewalk," and US soldiers, according to Vice President Dick Cheney, would "be greeted as liberators." But Cheney still insisted that he needed to put in place a global network of secret torture sites in order to win the War on Terror.

  As thousands died and billions went missing, the vanities behind not just the war but the entire post-Cold War expansionist project came to a crashing end. . . .

  War revanchism usually takes place after conflicts end -- the Ku Klux Klan after World War I, for example, or the radicalization of white supremacism after Vietnam.[2] Now, though, it took shape while the war was still going on.[3] And border paramilitarism began to pull in not only soldiers who had returned from the war but the veterans of older conflicts.

  Notes: [1] Of course, "channeling" racism wasn't something Bush II worried about, after Nixon, Reagan, and Bush I had built their winning presidential campaigns by cultivating it. It was by then part of the Republican brand. [2] What about the Red Scares following both World Wars? Even wars that were definitely won seem to have left a hunger for more, starting with the search for scapegoats. [3] Or should we say, the war abroad dragged on even after most Americans lost interest in or commitment to it?

• Alex Isenstadt: Trump rolls out massive corporate-style campaign structure for 2020.

• Sarah Kliff: Elizabeth Warren's universal child care plan, extended: More evidence that Warren is running away from the pack in producing serious thinking about and proposals for policy. For another, see: German Lopez: Elizabeth Warren's ambitious plan to fight the opioid epidemic, explained.

• Natasha Korecki: 'Sustain and ongoing' disinformation assault targets Dem presidential candidates: "A coordinated barrage of social media attacks suggests the involvement of foreign state actors." I bet not just those scary foreign state names but PACs and slush funds all over the world, any outfit with a cross to bear or an interest to push.

• Anna North: The Trump administration is finalizing plans to strip funding from Planned Parenthood.

• John Pilger: The war on Venezuela is built on lies. Also related: Timothy M Gill: Why is the Venezuelan government rejecting US food supplies?

  We can surely debate the cruelty of Maduro's domestic policies and his inability and unwillingness to seriously combat the economic crisis, perhaps in an effort to benefit his cronies. Yet, Maduro is not incorrect about the U.S.'s disingenuous behavior.

  At the same time that the U.S. is portraying itself as a literary protagonist with its supplies situated on the Colombia-Venezuela border, its policies are intensifying hardships for Venezuelan citizens. If it truly wanted to help Venezuelans, it could work through international and multilateral institutions to send aid to Venezuela, push for dialogue, and take some options off the table, namely military intervention.

  Above all, the U.S. is currently damaging the Venezuelan economy with its sanctions, and its supplies on the border will do very little to solve the crisis writ large. If sanctions haven't felled governments in Iran or Syria, to name just two examples, it doesn't seem likely that they will fall the Maduro government any time soon. They'll only perpetuate suffering and ultimately generate acrimony towards the country.

  The US has put this kind of pressure on nations before, imposing huge popular hardships as punishment for the government's failure to surrender to American interests. Crippling sanctions failed to break North Korea and Cuba. Iraq held out until the US invaded, then resisted until American troops withdrew. Syria descended into a brutal civil war. The US is on a path of goading Maduro into becoming the sort of brutal dictator that Assad became. One might cite Nicaragua as the exception, where the Sandinista regime relinquished power to US cronies, for what little good it did them.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Trump's pick to chair new climate panel once said CO2 has been maligned like "Jews under Hitler": "William Happer has bizarre, backward views about climate science." At first I was perplexed by why Trump would even bother. Then I found: Robinson Meyer: Democrats establish a new house 'climate crisis' committee: adding another study helps muddy the waters. For more, see two interviews with David Wallace-Wells: one by Meyer: The 3 big things that people misunderstand about climate change; the other by Sean Illing: It is absolutely time to panic about climate change.

  • The backlash to CNN's decision to hire a GOP operative to coordinate 2020 coverage, explained. Related: Margaret Sullivan: CNN's hiring of a GOP operative as political editor is even worse than it looks.

• Stephanie Savell: US counterterrorism missions across the planet: "Now in 80 countries, it couldn't be more global." See the map.

• Tim Shorrock: Why are Democrats trying to torpedo the Korea peace talks? That's a good question. You'd think that Democrats would realize by now that the conflicts created and exacerbated by America's global military posture undermine both our own security and any prospects for achieving any of their domestic political goals.

  "Democrats should support diplomacy, and remember the most important president in this process is Moon Jae-in, not Donald Trump," Martin said. "Moon's persistent leadership toward reconciliation and diplomacy with North Korea represents the fervent desire of the Korean and Korean-American people for peace. Members of Congress from both parties should understand that and support it, skepticism about Trump and Kim notwithstanding."

• Amanda Sperber: Inside the secretive US air campaign in Somalia: "Since Trump took office, figuring out whom the US is killing and why has become nearly impossible."

• Emily Stewart:

  • Banks made record profits last year thanks to the Republican tax cuts.

  • A Coast Guard officer's arrest is the latest example of the rising problem of right-wing terrorism in America: "Christopher Paul Hasson wrote he was 'dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth.'"

• Matt Taibbi:

  • Thomas Friedman is right: Pie doesn't grow on trees. Taibbi is the reigning champ of parsing Friedman's blabber, but instead of translating his pie metaphors into English, Taibbi is so overwhelmed by the moment he just transcribes them into page-straddling German nouns. The Friedman piece in question: Is America becoming a four-party state? I would start by sketching this out as a 2x2 chart, labeling the vertical columns Republicans and Democrats. The top row for leaders of both parties who think that all you need is growth (which mostly means pandering to big business); the bottom row for the resentful masses who feel they haven't been getting their fair share of all that growth. I imagine this less as four squares than as a capital-A. The top row is narrowed, the partisan differences marginal, while the bottom row diverges as to who to blame. Friedman pines for the good old days when all elites of both parties had to do was compete with each other to better serve the rich, when no one on either side stooped to pandering to the masses.

  • Bernie enters the 2020 race with defiant anti-Trump rhetoric.

  • Does Washington know the difference between dissent and disinformation?

• Margaret Talbot: Revisiting the American Nazi supporters of "A Night at the Garden": A seven-minute documentary film nominated for an Oscar, based on a 1939 pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, and its relevance today.

• Jeffrey Toobin: Roger Stone's and Jerome Corsi's time in the barrel: "Why the mismatched operatives matter to Trump -- and to the Mueller investigation."

• Alex Ward:

  • Trump just reversed his decision to pull all US troops out of Syria.

  • Lindsey Graham: Pulling troops from Syria is "the dumbest fucking idea I've ever heard": dumber than putting them there in the first place? Ward seems to agree with Graham, overlooking the key fact that the US has never had a coherent plan for Syria, making intervention in the war not just stupid but an act of wanton nihilism. For more on Graham (and Trump), see: Susan B Glasser: Audience of one: Why flattery works in Trump's foreign policy.

  • Trump is exploiting the Venezuela crisis in order to win the 2020 presidential election: "He's using it as a way to label his Democratic challengers as socialists."

• Sean Wilentz: Presumed Guilty: A book review of Ken Starr: Contempt: A Memoir of the Clinton Investigation, a reminder of the days when so-called Independent Investigators really knew how to run a witch hunt. Perhaps the new piece of information here is the extreme contempt that Starr and his minions, including Brett Kavanaugh, held for Hillary Clinton.

• Li Zhou: The House will vote Tuesday on blocking Trump's national emergency.

Mar 2001