Music Week

Expanded blog post, April archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 33056 [33307] rated (+49), 216 [219] unrated (-3).

Surprised by the high rated count, but I guess I haven't been doing much else. Lists by Chris Monsen (although I also should have looked here) and Phil Overeem gave me some ideas to check out.

Last week I noted that I had been working on my Jazz Guide files, bringing them up to date, and I published links to the ODT files. Now I've updated an additional series of files, where I've scraped up my non-review political, music, and miscellaneous writings (most easily from the Notebook. I've written up an Index page that provides links to the ODT files. You are welcome to download those files and read them (although not to copy, modify, or redistribute them without my permission. The ODT file format is used by the free software suite LibreOffice. The format is publicly available, so it's possible that other programs can import and display the files (e.g., Microsoft Word since 2010). I need to look into possibly exporting the files into other formats (certainly, PDF is possible). I imagine E-book format(s) would be more useful, but I'm not a user let alone expert, so that's something I'll need to learn more about.

The writing in these "books" is almost identical to things I've published elsewhere on the website. (I've corrected errors where I noticed them, but have done very little editing, even though I understand that a lot of editing is called for.) Most of this was done by cut-and-paste from web browser or from my trusty emacs text editor (which preserves a bit less markup). The main thing about these files is that the Jazz Guides are sorted by era then artist name, while everything else is presented oldest-to-newest (FIFO, as opposed to the LIFO you get reading a blog).

It remains to be seen how much editing I will eventually manage to do, but the collection phase completion makes it much easier to do something with the writing. I've always wanted to write books, and I sense that time is running out for that. My wife has taken a stab at sifting through the 2000-09 political blogs, but hasn't come up with as much as a plan there. I have a few rough ideas, and I'll try to develop them as I find time. One thing I wonder about now is how easy it would be to organize the music reviews into a reference website (possibly using Mediawiki). I doubt they are adequate as is, but wonder if other people might find them a useful framework to build on. Would be nice to have some kind of comment framework here, as I could use some feedback.

By the way, I got one letter last week which raised my spirits. Also noted how hard it is to find vaguely remembered things on the website, so I cobbled together a Google-based Website Search function, which appears on many (but far from all) pages (bottom of the left nav section on blog pages). This is based on code I had written for Robert Christgau, and does nothing more than add "site:tomhull.com" to a Google search string, redirecting the output to a new tab/window. Still, I've already found it faster than my relatively knowledgeable guesses as to where things are. A while back I realized that the ancient Sitemap needs a major revision. I did a tiny bit of work on it, then dropped the ball.

Someone pointed out that Wikipedia's page for John Coltrane's A Love Supreme cites my A+ grade under "Professional ratings." As a side effect, whoever did that created a stub redirect page for Tom Hull (critic), which is currently empty (aside from the useless redirect).

Got an invite to participate in DownBeat's critics poll, but they're on a tight deadline this year, which I'll be up against soon. They claim one can fill the ballot out in 45 minutes, but it usually takes me 6-8 hours (and not just because I find so much to gripe about along the way).

Got Democratic Primary ballots from the state party today -- due back early May. That one was easy: ticked the box for Bernie Sanders, signed the ballot, and sealed the envelope. The state has refused to pay for presidential primaries in the past, so the parties have been left to organize caucuses. The last two caucuses I attended (2008 and 2016) involved hours of waiting in line, after which they just counted votes and sent us on the way, so this one will be much more efficient. They're even allowing for ranked choice voting, but in what is now a two-person race I didn't see any value in that. This system was figured out before Covid-19 wrecked everything. We also filled out the census online, so no anxiety there either.

New records reviewed this week:

• Harrison Argatoff: Toronto Streets Tour (2019 [2020], self-released): [cd]: B+(*)
• Jeich Ould Badou: Music From Saharan WhatsApp 03 (2020, Sahel Sounds, EP): [bc]: B+(*)
• Kelsea Ballerini: Kelsea (2020, Black River): [r]: B+(*)
• Marshall Chapman: Songs I Can't Live Without (2020, Tall Girl): [r]: B+(**)
• Childish Gambino: 3.15.20 (2020, RCA): [r]: B
• Gerald Cleaver: Signs (2017-19 [2020], 577): [r]: B
• Avishai Cohen Big Vicious: Big Vicious (2020, ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• Jennifer Curtis & Tyshawn Sorey: Invisible Ritual (2020, New Focus): [bc]: B+(**)
• Jay Electronica: A Written Testimony (2020, Roc Nation): [r]: B+(*)
• Lily Hiatt: Walking Proof (2020, New West): [r]: B+(**)
• Sigurd Hole: Lys/Mørke (2019 [2020], Eivesang, 2CD): [r]: B+(*)
• Gabe Lee: Farmland (2019, Torrez Music Group): [r]: B+(**)
• Gabe Lee: Honky Tonk Hell (2020, Torrez Music Group): [r]: B+(**)
• Grégoire Maret/Romain Collin/Bill Frisell: Americana (2020, ACT Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Mr. Wrong: Create a Place (2020, Water Wing, EP): [bc]: B+(***)
• Mythic Sunship: Changing Shapes: Live at Roadburn (2019 [2020], El Paraiso): [r]: B+(**)
• The Necks: Three (2020, Northern Spy): [r]: B+(**)
• Gard Nilssen's Supersonic Orchestra: If You Listen Carefully the Music Is Yours (2019 [2020], Odin): [r]: A-
• Onipa: We No Be Machine (2020, Strut): [r]: B+(***)
• Tineke Postma: Freya (2018 [2020], Edition): [r]: B+(**)
• Princess Nokia: Everything Is Beautiful (2020, Platoon): [r]: B+(***)
• Princess Nokia: Everything Sucks (2020, Platoon, EP): [r]: B+(**)
• Andreas Røysum Ensemble: Andreas Røysum Ensemble (2020, Motvind): [r]: B+(**)
• Skepta, Chip & Young Adz: Insomnia (2020, SKC M29): [r]: B+(**)
• Torben Snekkestad/Agustí Fernández/Barry Guy: The Swiftest Traveler (2018 [2020], Trost): [r]: B+(**)
• Soccer Mommy: Color Theory (2020, Loma Vista): [r]: B+(***)
• Sufjan Stevens & Lowell Brams: Aporia (2020, Asthmatic Kitty): [r]: B+(*)
• Nora Jane Struthers: Bright Lights, Long Drives, First Words (2020, Blue Pig Music): [r]: B+(*)
• Superposition: Superposition (2018-19 [2020], We Jazz): [r]: B+(***)
• Tamikrest: Tamotaït (2020, Glitterbeat): [r]: B+(**)
• Sophie Tassignon: Mysteries Unfold (2020, RareNoise): [cdr]: B+(*) [04-24]
• The Tender Things: How You Make a Fool (2020, Spaceflight): [r]: B
• The TNEK Jazz Quintet: Plays the Music of Sam Jones (2020, TNEK Jazz): [cd]: B+(*)
• Stein Urheim: Downhill Uplift (2018 [2020], Hubro): [r]: B
• Wako: Wako (2019 [2020], Øra Fonogram): [r]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Tony Allen/Hugh Masekela: Rejoice (2010 [2020], World Circuit): [r]: A-
• Cadence Revolution: Disques Debs International Vol. 2 (1970s [2020], Disques Debs/Strut): [bc]: A-
• Jamaican All Stars [Studio One] (1970-74 [2020], Studio One): [r]: B+(*)
• Léve Léve: Sao Tome & Principe Sounds '70s-'80s (1970s-80s [2020], Bongo Joe): [r]: B+(***)
• Ana Mazzotti: Ninguem Vai Me Segura (1974 [2019], Far Out): [r]: B+(**)
• Ana Mazzotti: Ana Mazzotti (1977 [2019], Far Out): [r]: B+(***)
• Ranil Y Su Conjunto Tropical: Limited Dance Edition ([2020], Analog Africa): [bc]: A-
• Ranil Y Su Conjunto Tropical: Stay Safe and Sound Ranil Selection!! ([2020], Analog Africa): [bc]: B+(***)
• Yabby You: King Tubby's Prophecies of Dub (1976 [2020], Pressure Sounds): [bc]: B+(***)

Old music:

• Disques Debs International Volume 1: An Island Story: Biguine, Afro Latin & Musique Antillaise 1960-1972 (1960-72 [2018], Disques Debs/Strut): [bc]: B+(***)
• Mr. Wrong: Babes in Boyland (2017, Water Wing, EP): [bc]: B+(**)
• Papa Bue's Viking Jazzband: Greatest Hits (1958-70 [1989], Storyville): [bc]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• The Ian Carey Quintet + 1: Fire in My Head: The Anxiety Suite (Slow & Steady) [04-24]
• Dave Stryker With Bob Mintzer and the WDR Big Band: Blue Soul (Strikezone) [06-05]

Weekend Roundup

I wanted to write an intro this week objecting to people who are still ragging on "Sanders-ites," as in:

one of the most discouraging things about the Sanders-ites who continue to rail against Biden is their appalling lack of understanding of how government works. Their schematic recitations of corporate behemoths who apparently control the every move of Biden, Schumer, and Pelosi reflect a profound lack of any grasp of the realities of American political life, which is that action and reaction occur in a lot of different and even hidden places.

I don't have any problems with arguing that it's more realistic to aim for incremental reforms than for ideal solutions, but this isn't about tactics or goals. The point here is to disparage people for wanting something more than the centrists/moderates are willing to argue for. I can't help but take these attacks personally. Even if there are people on the left too pig-headed to compromise their principles, I don't see any value in attacking them personally, let along generalizing and slandering them as a group. But every day I see attacks on "Sanders-ites" like this, and I'm getting sick and tired of them, and their high-handed authors.

Should write more, but will leave it with I'm more sad than angry or anything else that Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee. I'm not especially bothered by his positions or his record -- needless to say, not for lack of points I'd argue with -- but I do worry that he'll prove an inarticulate and hapless campaigner (as we already have much evidence of). Still, the sad part has little to do with Biden personally. It shows that most Democrats are reacting to fear -- not just of Trump and the Republicans, but of their expected reaction to the changes Sanders is campaigning for. That may go hand in hand with being uninformed and/or unimaginative, but I can't fault anyone for excessive caution -- especially in the middle of a crisis so unprecedented no one can honestly see their way beyond.

Some scattered links this week:

• Yasmeen Abutaleb/Josh Dawsey/Ellen Nakashima/Greg Miller: The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged.

• Michael Ames: Why an Idaho ski destination has one of the highest Covid-19 infection rates in the nation: This first came to my attention when a generally right-wing relative in Twin Falls complained on Facebook about all the Blaine County license plates at Costco. Even in Idaho, denialism fades fast as the virus nears. Interesting side-point here is the perception that it's the globe-trotting elites who are propagating the spread of Covid-19, thereby endangering everyone else.

• Kate Aronoff: Darling, let's do coronavirus in the Hamptons this year: "The rich continue their tradition of escapist virtue signaling."

• Dean Baker: Every post in his Beat the Press blog is worthwhile, especially: Getting to Medicare for All, eventually.

• Peter C Baker: 'We can't go back to normal': how will coronavirus change the world?

• Josh Barro: Oil prices are cratering. That's not a good thing.: "A barrel now sells for around $20 -- the lowest in two decades." Whether it's a good thing is arguable. Sure, it's bad for the economy, or at least for oil producers, but they're some of the most reprehensible oligarchs around: if anyone has to go broke, let it be them. You might think that cheaper gas will encourage people to buy and burn more, but it's only cheap for the moment because demand has fallen way below supply: use more and you'll pay more. Personally, I think this would be the perfect time to raise the gas tax. Related:

  • Trump to hold in-person meeting with big oil CEOs to discuss Covid-19 relief.

• Rosemary Batt/Eileen Appelbaum: Hospital bailouts begin -- for those owned by private equity firms.

• Zach Beauchamp: Trump is mishandling coronavirus the way Reagan botched the AIDS epidemic: Interview with Gregg Gonsalves.

• Max Boot: Who could have predicted Trump would be such a bad crisis manager? Everyone, actually. No, I haven't started caring what Max Boot thinks, but once in a while he hits on a title which crystalizes a key insight. In that regard, this one is much better than The worst president. Ever. Boot has Trump displacing John Buchanan, who used to be widely regarded as the worst president ever. I've never been clear why history judges Buchanan so harshly. I mean, what the fuck could he have done differently? He didn't have the moral standing or the political base to confront the slave states, and he didn't have the leadership skills to defend the Union. On the other hand, nothing he could have done to satisfy the anxieties of the slaveholders would have been accepted by the "free" states, with their increasing command of the economy, supported by a majority of the population. Sure, he dithered, postponing an increasingly inevitable war, which broke out in the lame duck months of his term.

• Katelyn Burns: Sen. Kelly Loeffler sold at least $18 million more in stocks before the coronavirus crash than previously reported.

• John Cassidy: The coronavirus is transforming politics and economics.

• Steve Coll: The meaning of Donald Trump's coronavirus quackery.

• Ryan Costello: COVID-19 outbreak in Iran exposes twisted aims of Iran hawks. Related:

  • Esfandyar Batmanghelidj: Will the Trump administration block Iran's request for an emergency loan to combat COVID-19? Yep. [According to a Trita Parsi tweet.]

  • Daniel Brumberg: COVID-19 and Iranian relations.

• Meagan Day: Joe Biden is wrong about single-payer and coronavirus.

• Jason Ditz: Trump orders anti-drug Navy ships to Venezuelan coast: The return of "gunboat diplomacy," following indictment of Venezuelan president Maduro for something involving narcotics:

  This will be one of the biggest US military operations of the sort since 1989, when the US invaded Panama and ousted Gen. Manuel Noriega on drug charges. Attorney General William Barr wrote the legal justification for Noriega invasion, and also wrote the recent justification for a bounty against Maduro.

• Abdul El-Sayed: In the middle of a pandemic, our for-profit healthcare system is failing us.

• David Enrich/Ben Protess/Eric Lipton: Trump's company seeks to ease financial crunch as coronavirus takes toll.

• Michelle Goldberg: Jared Kushner is going to get us all killed.

• John Harris: [Boris] Johnson seems unable to unify us. Who will speak for the country? But he does quote Johnson as saying, "One thing I think [the] coronavirus crisis has already proved is that there really is such a thing as society." That is directly opposite of Conservative icon Margaret Thatcher's famous maxim, "there is no such thing as society."

• John F Harris: Trump is an authoritarian weakman. I could cite dozens of alarmist pieces against which this is arguing (e.g., Lucian K Truscott IV: Trump is preparing the ground for a totalitarian dictatorship). Trump certainly has the desires of a dictator, and he plays the demagogue to the hilt, but he's something he lacks -- heart? stomach? brains? maybe he's just too lazy? -- keeps him from seizing power (although his underlings are eager to do so, even their reach seems to have self-imposed limits).

• Doug Henwood: This downturn could be worse than the early 1930s "We could experience in months what took three or four years to unfold after the 1929 stock market crash. Things are going to be very bad unless we see some serious structural reforms."

• David Ignatius: Inside the ouster of Capt. Brett Crozier: the Navy aircraft carrier captain who "pleaded for help against the coronavirus pandemic sweeping his crew" and was fired for his trouble.

• Fred Kaplan:

  • Trump is ginning up a war with Iran while the coronavirus spreads through the military.

  • Hungary is a dictatorship now. Kick it out of the EU and NATO.

• Elizabeth Kolbert: Pandemics and the shape of human history.

• Paul Krugman:

  • The Covid-19 slump has arrived: "But we're already botching the response."

  • Notes on the coronacoma (wonkish): I think this is basically right:

    What we're experiencing is not a conventional recession brought on by a slump in aggregate demand. Instead, we're going into the economic equivalent of a medically induced coma, in which some brain functions are deliberately shut down to give the patient time to heal.

    To simplify things, think of the economy as consisting of two sectors, nonessential services (N) that we can shut down to limit human interactions and hence the spread of the disease, and essential services (E) that we can't (or perhaps don't need to, because they don't involve personal interaction.) We can and should close down the N sector until some combination of growing immunity, widespread testing to quickly find and isolate cases, and, if we're very lucky, a vaccine let us return to normal life.

    For those (like me) still receiving their regular paychecks, this period of shutdown -- call it the coronacoma -- will be annoying but not serious. I miss coffee shops and concerts, but can live without them for however long it takes.

    Things will, however, be very different and dire for those who are deprived of their regular income while the coronacoma lasts. This group includes many workers and small businesses; it also includes state and local governments, which are required to balance their budgets but are seeing revenues collapse and expenses soar.

    How big is the N sector? Miguel Faria-e-Castro of the St. Louis Fed summarizes estimates that are as good as any: 27 to 67 million people, which he averages to 47 million. That's a lot; we could be looking at a temporary decline in real GDP of 30 percent or more. But that GDP decline isn't the problem, since it's a necessary counterpart of the social distancing we need to be doing.

    The problem instead is how to limit the hardships facing those whose normal income has been cut off.

• Rob Larson: Bill Gates's philanthropic giving is a racket.

• Jill Lepore: The history of loneliness.

• Sharon Lerner: EPA is jamming through rollbacks that could increase coronavirus deaths.

• Eric Levitz: Trump condemns New York for planning ahead on coronavirus.

• Anatol Lieven: The pandemic and international competition: How the US can save itself with a 'Green New Deal'.

• Simon Mair: What will the world be like after coronavirus? Four possible futures. The two axis/four square grid reminds me of Peter Frase's Four Futures: Life After Capitalism, where "barbarism" here becomes "exterminism." [PS: Frase summarized his thesis in 2011, here: Four Futures.]

• Dylan Matthews: Coronavirus could lead to the highest unemployment levels since the Great Depression.

• Harold Meyerson: Medicare for All's teachable moment.

  The linkage of health insurance to employment -- an accident of American economic history -- never made much sense, and when unemployment is pervasive and a pandemic has been loosed on the land, it makes no sense at all.

  This is the teachable moment for universal health coverage not linked to employment status. Democrats should seize this moment and teach. For those who have to be dragged screaming to this, they can advocate it as a temporary measure, during which time its popular support would likely only increase.

• Ian Millhiser: Texas's election law could disenfranchise millions during a pandemic.

• Jim Naureckas: Can you hide a pandemic? There's no need to believe Beijing on China's coronavirus success. Note: "Neither the Chinese government nor U.S. intelligence agencies are particularly trustworthy services." On the other hand:

  If any of the thousands of researchers who have been scouring Chinese coronavirus statistics in search of patterns that could help defeat the pandemic elsewhere have detected signs of "fake" numbers, Bloomberg doesn't seem to know about it.

  The reality is that it's very hard to hide an epidemic. Stopping a virus requires identifying and isolating cases of infection, and if you pretend to have done so when you really haven't, the uncaught cases will grow exponentially. Maintaining a hidden set of real statistics and another set for show would require the secret collusion of China's 2 million doctors and 3 million nurses -- the kind of improbable cooperation that gives conspiracy theories a bad name.

  China is slowly and carefully returning to a semblance of normalcy (Science, 3/29/20). If China is merely pretending to have the coronavirus under control, the pathogen will rapidly surge as people resume interacting with their communities. Once international travel is restored, it will be quite obvious which countries do and don't have effective management of Covid-19.

• Terry Nguyen: How the Trump administration has stood in the way of PPE distribution.

• Ella Nilsen: New York is in dire need of ventilators. China just donated 1,000. Isn't one measure of world power the ability to offer aid to other nations in time of crisis? This dramatically shows that China can do things the US cannot. Indeed, the not-so-United States have been left on their own to beg foreign nations for supplies, while at the same time locking down exports and imposing sanctions on others (like Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela). You might argue that this is less a question of "greatness" than of cultural norms: after all, the US is built on rugged competition, which often means screwing your neighbors. Countries like China and Cuba (see Cuban docs fighting coronavirus around the world, defying US), with their Communist backgrounds, are used to the idea of sacrificing oneself for the common good, which gives them a temporary edge when most people are in dire need. On the other hand, when/if this blows over, people around the world are likely to look back and remember who helped and who didn't. The US benefited from a reservoir of good will built up in the 1940s, maintained long after the US stopped doing anything to deserve it. Also note: Patriots plane arrives in Boston carrying critical N95 masks for medical workers: the masks were imported from China. Also: Lara Seligman: Russia sends plane with medical supplies to U.S. for coronavirus response.

• Anna North:

  • "We are on our own": How the coronavirus pandemic is hurting child care workers.

  • What it takes to get an abortion during the coronavirus pandemic.

• JC Pan: The pandemic's shameless profiteers. Related:

  • Andrew Marantz: Alex Jones's bogus coronavirus cures.

  • Amanda Marcotte: Behind the right's obsession with a miracle cure for coronavirus: It's not just about Trump.

• Alex Pareene: Joe Biden is wasting a crisis.

• Paul R Pillar: The war metaphor and the coronavirus.

• Nomi Prins: Wall Street wins -- again: "Bailouts in the time of coronavirus":

  As I wrote in It Takes a Pillage: An Epic Tale of Power, Deceit, and Untold Trillions, instead of the Fed buying those trillions of dollars of toxic assets from banks that could no longer sell them anywhere else, it would have been cheaper to directly cover subprime mortgage payments for a set period of time. In that way, people might have kept their homes and the economic fallout would have been largely contained. Thanks to Washington's predisposition to offer corporate welfare, that didn't happen -- and it's not happening now either.

• David Roberts: Gutting fuel economy standards during a pandemic is peak Trump.

• Nathan J Robinson:

  • Everything has changed overnight: "The Democratic primary is no longer over. This is a historic crisis requiring nothing less than FDR-style ambition and leadership. We've got just the guy."

  • Where is Joe? "Biden has failed completely to show leadership during a crisis. There is no excuse for it."

• Philip Rocco: Wisconsin's pandemic primary will put voters' lives in danger. I keep seeing efforts from all over the political spectrum (well, in the Democratic Party, anyhow) to shame Wisconsin into postponing its primary election. I, for one, would like to see the election proceed, if only because the gravity of the crisis makes it even clearer that political choices have real consequences. Biden has cruised to victory everywhere since the sudden convergence on Super Tuesday, but has shown virtually no leadership skills during the crisis, while the importance of Sanders' program has become even more striking. Wisconsin should be a good state for Sanders (as it was in 2016), so this could be a pivot point in the election. Unfortunately, the campaigns have degraded to such an extent that we'll never know what free debate and unencumbered participation (real democracy) might reveal. (In fact, 538's polling averages for Wisconsin show Biden with a solid lead, 51.6% to 36.0%, and increasing leads in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Georgia.) One point I do agree with is that we need to figure out how to universally vote safely by November. Few things are more essential in times like these than democracy.

• David Runciman: Too early or too late?: "On political timing and the pandemic."

• Aaron Rupar: Trump says 200,000 Americans could die from coronavirus, because he's done "a very good job."

• Jon Schwarz: The Democratic Party must harness the legitimate rage of Americans. Otherwise, the right will use it with horrifying results.

• David K Shipler: Welcome to the Fourth World: "How Trump has initiated America's undoing -- and how coronavirus is helping him speed it up."

• Richard Silverstein: Israeli election: There was a moment of hope, now it's gone.

• Cady Stanton: Coronavirus shows the need for DC and Puerto Rico statehood.

• Paul Starr: How the right went far-right: "The media once quarantined neofascists. Not anymore." Review of Andrew Marantz: Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation.

• Jeff Stein: Americans hit by economic shocks as confusion, stumbles undermine Trump's stimulus effort.

• Matt Stieb: Trump is fighting a war against governors, not the coronavirus.

• Sheryl Gay Stolberg/Nicholas Fandos: From afar, Congress moves to oversee Trump coronavirus response: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she would move to form a special committee to scrutinize the Trump administration's response, including how more than $2 trillion in federal relief money is being spent."

• Matt Taibbi: Bailing out the bailout: "It will take years to sort through the details, but Trump's $2 trillion COVID-19 response looks like a double-down on the last disaster."

• Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: Reality has endorsed Bernie Sanders.

  When Bernie Sanders's critics mocked his platform as just a bunch of "free stuff," they were drawing on the past forty years of bipartisan consensus about social-welfare benefits and entitlements. They have argued, instead, that competition organized through the market insures more choices and better quality. In fact, the surreality of market logic was on clear display when, on March 13th, Donald Trump held a press conference to discuss the COVID-19 crisis with executives from Walgreens, Target, Walmart, and CVS, and a host of laboratory, research, and medical-device corporations. There were no social-service providers or educators there to discuss the immediate, overwhelming needs of the public.

  The crisis is laying bare the brutality of an economy organized around production for the sake of profit and not human need. The logic that the free market knows best can be seen in the prioritization of affordability in health care as millions careen toward economic ruin. It is seen in the ways that states have been thrown into frantic competition with one another for personal protective equipment and ventilators -- the equipment goes to whichever state can pay the most. It can be seen in the still criminally slow and inefficient and inconsistent testing for the virus. It is found in the multi-billion-dollar bailout of the airline industry, alongside nickel-and-dime means tests to determine which people might be eligible to receive ridiculously inadequate public assistance.

• Anya van Wagtendonk:

  • Trump has nominated one of his lawyers to oversee coronavirus relief funds: Brian Miller.

  • US allies express dismay over US handling of global medical supply chain.

  • Trump has fired the intelligence watchdog who first flagged Ukraine whistleblower complaint: Michael Atkinson.

• Peter Wade: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hospitalized for coronavirus.

• David Wallis: Uncle Sam needs to start giving us all free hand sanitizer. Businesses seem to be able to find supplies, but as far as I can tell it's impossible for the rest of us to track down sellers -- especially given that shopping around is being discouraged. Same for face masks, which now have become obligatory outer wear, but all the focus so far has been on getting them to hospitals (which, sure, need them even more than we do).

• Richard Wolffe: As the numbers of dead and unemployed grow, Trump looks and sounds smaller.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • America has no federal response to this crisis.

    But while Donald Trump enjoys playing president on TV, he's always been lazy about doing the actual job. So while he's taking advantage of the crisis to stage daily extra-long episodes of the Trump Show with guest appearances from Mike Pence and public health officials, the executive branch of the federal government is mostly missing in action.

  • /Christina Animashaun: New unemployment claims surge to record-high 6.6 million. That's double last week's 3.307 million, which was about 5 times the highest previous week ever. We're in totally uncharted territory.

  • Biden can unite progressives and swing voters with a focus on climate.

  • Trump's coronavirus poll bump, explained.

  • We can do it: A wartime-style mobilization to bear coronavirus and mass unemployment.

• Joshua Zeitz: Why the Trump administration won't be able to make the stimulus work: "As the New Deal shows us, it takes expertise, professionalism and skill to execute massive government programs -- qualities the White House lacks."

• Li Zhou/Ella Nilsen: "This one is scarier": Obama-era officials say current economic crisis is fundamentally different from 2008.

Daily Log

Finished updating my Record Guide files, bringing them current to March 30, 2020. Current file sizes:

• Recorded Jazz in the 20th Century: 848 pages (342,992 words).
• Recorded Jazz in the Early 21st Century: 1880 pages (868,126 words).
• Non-Jazz Record Notes: 1989 pages (851,268 words).

Music Week

Expanded blog post, March archive (done).

Music: Current count 33007 [32971] rated (+36), 219 [212] unrated (+7).

Not an exceptional week, but as expected, rated count topped 33000. Unless things change, that's more a measure of time than anything else. I'd reckon my average haul per week is about 30, so I chalk up another thousand every 30-35 weeks, roughly 7-8 months. Looking back, I crossed 32000 the week of September 2, 2019, so I must be averaging a bit more. This week got off to a slow start, but picked up speed when I delved into Pharoah Sanders' back catalog. Didn't find anything there I had missed as good as Tauhid (1966), Village of the Pharoahs (1973), Africa (1987), Welcome to Love (A+ in 1990), or Crescent With Love (1992).

Spent some time last week adding recent reviews to my Jazz Guide draft files. Got up to December, so I should finish that task this week. Page counts up to 835 (20th Century, 335k words) and 1855 (21st, 857k words). I'm also collecting non-jazz capsules (827k words, but works out to 1928 pages with a less dense font). The guides are sorted by artist, so that can get tedious. The non-jazz capsules are just collected in order published, so that's easier.

You can download the guides here and here. They are in LibreWriter ODT format. LibreOffice is free software, with a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation editor, and other programs -- presumably everything that's in Microsoft Office. You can download and install it on Linux, Microsoft, and Apple computers, at no charge. You can import most file formats (including Microsoft Word), and can use it to generate PDF and HTML files. You can probably open an ODT file in Microsoft Word (post-2010 releases).

I doubt if these are very useful, other than that they consolidate widely scattered reviews by artist, in some kind of order (by recording date for 20th, release date by 21st). It would be an insane amount of work to turn these into a useful guides: the most obvious step would be to move the biographies to the artist heads, even though that may reduce most record "reviews" to mere grades. I'm thinking now that it may be best to copy them to a website (perhaps using Mediawiki?). Presumably, the current editing is a necessary step in that direction (although it also feels like a time sink).

March had five Mondays, so more records than usual this month: 186. The monthly archive is here.

New records reviewed this week:

• Lakecia Benjamin: Pursuance: The Coltranes (2020, Ropeadope): [r]: B+(*)
• Jerry Bergonzi: Nearly Blue (2019 [2020], Savant): [cd]: A-
• Andy Bianco: NYC Stories (2020, Next Level): [r]: B+(*)
• Vito Dieterle: Anemone (2018 [2020], Ride Symbol): [cd]: B+(***)
• Vito Dieterle/Joel Forrester: Status Sphere (2019 [2020], Ride Symbol): [cd]: B+(**)
• Amina Figarova Edition 113: Persistence (2018 [2020], AmFi): [cd]: B
• Monika Herzig: Eternal Dance (2019 [2020], Savant): [cd]: B+(*)
• Dua Lipa: Future Nostalgia (2020, Warner): [r]: A-
• Harold Mabern: Mabern Plays Mabern (2018 [2020], Smoke Sessions): [r]: B+(**)
• Christian McBride: The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons (2013 [2020], Mack Avenue): [r]: B+(**)
• Thollem McDonas/William Parker/Nels Cline: Gowanus Sessions II (2012 [2020], ESP-Disk): [bc]: B+(**)
• Arúan Ortiz With Andrew Cyrille and Mauricio Herrera: Inside Rhythmic Falls (2019 [2020], Intakt): [r]: B+(**)
• Painted Faces: Tales From the Skinny Apartment (2017 [2019], ESP-Disk): [r]: B-
• Vanderlei Pereira and Blindfold Test: Vision for Rhythm (2020, Jazzheads): [cd]: B+(*) [05-22]
• Radical Empathy Trio: Reality and Other Imaginary Places (2017 [2019], ESP-Disk): [bc]: B+(*)
• Dave Sewelson: More Music for a Free World (2018 [2020], Mahakala Music): [r]: A-
• SFJazz Collective: Live: SFJazz Center 2019: 50th Anniversary: Miles Davis In a Silent Way and Sly & the Family Stone Stand! (2019 [2020], SFJazz): [r]: B+(**)
• Shabaka and the Ancestors: We Are Sent Here by History (2015 [2020], Impulse!): [r]: A-
• Kandace Springs: The Women Who Raised Me (2020, Blue Note): [r]: B
• Ohad Talmor: Long Forms (2015 [2020], Intakt): [r]: B+(***)
• Waxahatchee: Saint Cloud (2020, Merge): [r]: A-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Antoinette Konan: Antoinette Konan (1986 [2019], Awesome Tapes From Africa): [bc]: B+(*)
• New Improvised Music From Buenos Aires (2012-17 [2019], ESP-Disk): [bc]: B+(***)
• Charlie Parker: The Savoy 10-inch LP Collection (1944-48 [2020], Craft): [r]: B+(**)
• Pharoah Sanders: Live in Paris 1975 (1975 [2020], Transversales Disque): [r]: B+(**)

Old music:

• John Coltrane Featuring Pharoah Sanders: Live in Seattle (1965 [1994], Impulse!, 2CD): [r]: B+(*)
• Harold Mabern: The Iron Man: Live at Smoke (2018, Smoke Sessions, 2CD): [r]: A-
• Charlie Parker: In Sweden 1950: The Complete Recordings (1950 [2002], Storyville): [bc]: B+(**)
• Pharoah Sanders: Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) (1970, Impulse!): [r]: B+(***)
• Pharoah Sanders: Thembi (1970-71 [1971], Impulse!): [r]: B+(*)
• Pharoah Sanders: Black Unity (1971, Impulse!): [r]: B+(**)
• Pharoah Sanders: Live at the East (1971 [1972], Impulse!): [r]: B+(*)
• Pharoah Sanders: Love in Us All (1972-73 [1974], Impulse!): [r]: B+(**)
• Pharoah Sanders: Love Will Find a Way (1978, Arista): [r]: B
• Pharoah Sanders: Save the Children (1998, Verve): [r]: B+(*)
• Pharoah Sanders/Graham Haynes: With a Heartbeat (2003, Evolver): [r]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Harrison Argatoff: Toronto Streets Tour (self-released -19)
• Jerry Bergonzi: Nearly Blue (Savant)
• Jeff Hamilton Trio: Catch Me If You Can (Capri) [07-17]
• Monika Herzig: Eternal Dance (Savant)
• Samo Salamon/Igor Matkovic/Kristijan Krajncan: Common Flow (Sazas)
• Samo Salamon/Igor Matkovic/Kristijan Krajncan: Rare Ebb (Sazas)
• Diane Schuur: Running on Faith (Jazzheads) [05-08]
• The TNEK Jazz Quintet: Plays the Music of Sam Jones (TNEK Jazz)
• Sophie Tassignon: Mysteries Unfold (RareNoise) [04-24]
• Lou Volpe: Before & After (Jazz Guitar) [04-01]

Daily Log

John Chacona posted a food photo of kiyiana, and Shelly Rae Barnard followed up with a recipe:

Sauté 1/2 c chopped tomato, 1/3 c chopped kalamata [olives], and 1/4 c fresh oregano in 2 T olive oil, until liquid from tomato evaporates. Pour mixture of 4 beaten eggs, 1/3 c crumbled feta, and 1/4 c grated romano; allow to cook on med-med/low heat until you can flip half the omelette over the other. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and pepper.

Was tempted by this, but couldn't find eggs on last grocery trip, and I'd have to substitute dried oregano.

Diane Kochilas has something similar in The Food and Wine of Greece: Kayianas (p. 270): adds sausage, omits oregano (and the parsley garnish), replaces the olives with a green bell pepper, the cheeses with 1/2 cup kefalotyri (or parmesan).

Kochilas also has a Kayianas recipe on the web, which includes the olives and oregano (albeit less, with fresh mint an alternative), adds garlic, omits the sausage and pepper, and garnishes with parsley. The feta/romano mix strikes me as a good substitute for kefalotyri (which I've only found once in Wichita, using for saganaki -- most often I use haloumi for that).

Weekend Roundup

News this week is pretty much all coronavirus. Most striking number below is Anthony Fauci's projection that coronavirus will kill more than 100,000 Americans, and that millions will be infected. The US now has more confirmed cases than any other nation -- even China, despite a head start and nearly four times as many people (see How the US stacks up to other countries in confirmed coronavirus cases; note the graphs, which plot spread over time; also note how little testing has actually been carried out in the US).

Or, if you're more concerned about money than people, the number of new unemployment filings last week broke the previous record, by a factor of five. We're now seeing projections that unemployment will shoot to 20%, and that this quarter's GDP will drop by more than 10%. For comparison, the total drop in the 2008 "Great Recession" over two quarters was 4.3%. Congress passed a $2 trillion "stimulus" bill late last week. I'd call it more of a stopgap. I'm especially struck by how eager Republicans are to break the bank when one of their own is president, compared to how chintzy and vindictive they are when a Democrat is in the White House. Much like Republicans managed to undermine Obama's $700 billion stimulus bill in 2009, Democrats worked hard to make this bill more fair to workers and the newly unemployed than Trump initially wanted.

Ran through this rather quickly, without many comments. You can look up the technical stuff yourself (here's the Vox index; American Prospect has a relatively good political-oriented series, including David Dayen's "COVID-19 Daily" briefs). Occasionally I note speculation on what happens "after" -- still, I find this impossible given that I don't have any real idea how far this falls apart, or when (if ever) a "new normal" stabilizes. I've seen pieces comparing coronavirus to global warming, but don't find them to be very credible (yet). Also, not much below on politics. Nothing in the last week (or month) has convinced me that Biden is the right person to take on Trump, yet it feels unseemly to try to convince his Democratic supporters of that at this particular moment. It seems significant that this poll shows only 24% of Biden supporters to be very enthusiastic, vs. 53% of Trump supporters. (His 24% not only compares poorly to Trump, but to Hillary Clinton's lame 32% four years ago.)

Some scattered links this week:

• Davey Alba/Sheera Frenkel: Medical expert who corrects Trump is now a target of the far right: "Dr. Anthony Fauci, the administration's most outspoken advocate of emergency virus measures, faces a torrent of false claims that he is mobilizing to undermine the president."

• Zeeshan Aleem:

  • The EPA appears to be using coronavirus to make huge concessions to polluters.

  • Civil rights icon Rev. Joseph Lowery has died: He was involved in the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, and remained an activist to his death, at 98.

• Jillian Ambrose: Oil price may fall to $10 a barrel as world runs out of storage space.

• Andrew J Bacevich: Judgment Day for the national security state: The coronavirus and the real threats to American safety and freedom.

• Ross Barkan: If sanitation workers don't work, nothing works.

• David Blanchflower: Pandemic economics: 'much worse, very quickly'.

• Katelyn Burns: Republicans are using the pandemic to push anti-abortion and anti-trans agendas. Needless to say, I agree with this New York Times editorial: Make abortion more available during the pandemic -- not less.

• Bob Cesca: GOP Groundhog Day: Why do we keep electing Republicans? They're no good at this.

• Marjorie Cohn: Team Trump tried to bully the ICC into dropping war crimes probe but failed.

• David Dayen: The man who knew: "An interview with Barry Lynn, whose prediction about the dangers of centralizing our manufacturing has sadly come true amid the coronavirus outbreak."

• Jesse Drucker: Bonanza for rich real estate investors, tucked into stimulus package.

• Lee Fang:

  • Debt collection industry deems itself essential to "financial health" of consumers, fights Covid-19 shutdown.

  • Charles Koch network pushed $1 billion cut to CDC, now attacks shelter-in-place policies for harming business.

• Robert Fisk: What Trump is doing in the Middle East while you are distracted by COVID-19.

• Peter Kafka: The pandemic is driving media consumption way up. But ad sales are falling apart.

• Roge Karma: Coronavirus, anxiety, and the profound failure of rugged individualism: Interview with Johann Hari, author of Lost Connections: Why You're Depressed and How to Find Hope, where he: "advances an argument that is both radical and obvious: Depression and anxiety are more than just chemical imbalances in the brain; they are also products of our distinct social environments -- social environments that have left our core psychological needs unmet."

• Stephanie Kelton: As Congress pushes a $2 trillion stimulus package, the "how will you pay for it?" question is tossed in the trash. Probably where it belongs, but one can't help but note the partisan asymmetry: when a Republican is in the White House, Republicans in Congress are more than willing to spend whatever it takes, but elect a Democrat and they're always whining about deficits and insisting on austerity -- not least to make an Obama look bad. How they escape blame for their machinations is hard to fathom, but controlling their own propaganda networks helps. Also the fact that Democrats see their base broadly as including not just the vanishing middle class but also business and the poor (who are always hardest hit in a crisis) makes them willing to help Republicans, where the opposite is rarely true.

• Ezra Klein:

  • What both the left and right get wrong about the coronavirus economic crisis: Interview with Adam Tooze. Nothing very profound on left or right, leaving room for what Tooze gets wrong: as a historian of economic crashes, he sees much that is familiar from past crashes but has little to offer on what's different, which I'd say has less to do with money and more with psychology.

  • The debate over ending social distancing to save the economy, explained.

• Peter Kornbluh: Secret US intelligence files provide history's verdict on Argentina's Dirty War: "Recently declassified documents constitute a gruesome and sadistic catalog of state terrorism."

• Robert Kuttner:

  • Coronavirus: The Jonathan Swift solution. Related:

    • Chauncey DeVega: Trump's death cult finally says it: Time to kill the "useless eaters" for capitalism.

    • Nick Martin: Give me capitalism or give me death.

  • The end of American exceptionalism: "The word means different things to different people -- but it's gone."

• Jill Lepore:

  • The National Emergency Library is a gift to readers everywhere.

  • What our contagion fables are really about: "In the literature of pestilence, the greatest threat isn't the loss of human life but the loss of what makes us human."

• Andrew Levine: Neither Biden nor Trump: Imagine Cuomo: Figured this would be a pan of the mini-boomlet touting NY Governor Andrew Cuomo as a possible relief pitcher for a flagging Biden, but I found Levine plying the "parallels between [Cuomo] and FDR":

  Two governors of New York state, both from established political families -- the one patrician, the other old-school "ethnic" and therefore, by sympathy and conviction, working class -- both non-ideological but, by nature, experimental and open to measures that right wingers would, at best, be wary of or would, more likely, categorically oppose.

  FDR was hardly a "socialist" in the usual sense of the term. He had no quarrel with private ownership of means of production. Quite to the contrary, his aim not at all to move beyond capitalism, but only to save it from the capitalists.

  To that end, he was amenable to the kinds of social democratic measures that Sanders and, in her own way, Warren favor. The New Deal was many things, but at least sometimes and in some respects, it had a counter-systemic thrust that linked it to the socialist tradition, in much the way that Sanders' "democratic socialism" does.

  Cuomo seems cut from a similar cloth.

  That's true enough for FDR, but I have my doubts about Cuomo, who's been tightly aligned with business interests (above all the huge finance sector) all along, during a period of history when political support has been unprecedentedly transactional. As I've noted before, FDR wasn't predisposed to look left, but while he tried a broad mix of left/right proposals, he found that the most successful came from the left. Cuomo might find the same, but I wouldn't rate him as more likely to do so than Biden, who at least seems to have some empathy for working people, something Cuomo has never been noted for. Indeed, the other big difference between FDR and Cuomo was the former's polio, which gave him a sense of how the high and mighty could be humbled. Also on Cuomo:

  • Akash Mehta: Even in a pandemic, Andrew Cuomo is not your friend.

  • Alex Shephard: How Andrew Cuomo became a media darling.

• Michael Luo: The fate of the news in the age of the coronavirus.

• Farhad Manjoo: How the world's richest country ran out of a 75-cent face mask.

• Sara Morrison: Tom Coburn, the Senate's "Dr. No," has died at 72.

• Nicole Narea: Trump's reckless promotion of hydroxychloroquine to fight coronavirus, explained.

• John Nichols: This is what an opposition party it supposed to sound like: "Bernie Sanders's moral outrage and devastating sarcasm struck back against a GOP assault on poor and low-income workers."

• Anna North: A sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden has ignited a firestorm of controversy.

• Lois Parshley: The coronavirus may hit rural America later -- and harder: "Rural communities 'tend to be older, with more chronic illness,' making people more at risk of severe Covid-19."

• Heather Digby Parton:

  • Trump's magical thinking: Snake oil, an Easter resurrection and killing Nana for capitalism.

  • Trump's inept coronavirus response: Is he just trying to protect his failing business?.

• Cameron Peters: Bernie Sanders wins the Democrats Abroad primary. This doesn't mean much, but it's the only primary this week.

• Paul R Pillar: The nationalist response to the coronavirus.

• Nick Pinto: America's Crisis Daddy Andrew Cuomo exploits coronavirus panic to push bail reform rollback in New York.

• Anna Sauerbrey: Germany has relatively few deaths from coronavirus. Why? Not mentioned here, but the one thing I know about German health care is that they keep patients in hospital much longer than elsewhere -- especially compared to the US, where prices are astronomical and stays patients are often rushed out with excessive haste. What that suggests to me is that Germany has more beds and nurses per capita than elsewhere, which is exactly what you'd want in face of a pandemic.

• Dylan Scott: How do 3 million newly unemployed people get health care?

• Tierney Sneed:

  • 'It got real, fast': COVID-19 has devastated the normal practice of medicine.

  • Why the pandemic is putting primary care docs in a major financial pinch.

• Rebecca Solnit: Who will win the fight for a post-coronavirus America?

• Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins: Confronting the long history of massive inequality: Interview with Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century and now Capital and Ideology.

• Matt Taibbi: After Richard Burr's coronavirus scandal, will the government finally crack down on congressional insider trading?

• Anya van Wagtendonk: Trump says he won't comply with key transparency measures in the coronavirus stimulus bill: "The administration says it won't provide documentation for audits into $500 billion in corporate bailout funds."

• Emily Todd VanDerWerff: The coronavirus has given Trump something he's always wanted: A chance to totally take over TV.

• Tim Wu: Bigger brother: Review of Shoshana Zuboff: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • Top economists warn ending social distancing too soon would only hurt the economy.

  • Fauci predicts over 100,000 Covid-19 deaths in the United States: "We're going to have millions of cases."

  • Joe Biden's message on coronavirus: It's time to tell the unvarnished truth.

  • Biden calls for widespread application of Defense Production Act.

  • State data indicates we're headed for another record unemployment week.

  • /Christina Animashaun: New unemployment claims soar to 3.3 million, shattering previous records.

  • Cable news should cancel the Trump Show: "Airing Trump's daily 'briefings' live misinforms people and undermines public health officials."

  • The coming unemployment catastrophe, in one chart. Based on Goldman Sachs 3/19 projection of 2,250,000 new claims. The actual number this week was 3.3 million, chart amended in link above.

  • Monday's dramatic Federal Reserve announcements, explained.

• Li Zhou/Ella Nilsen:

  • /Ella Nilsen: The House just passed a $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package. It now heads to Trump's desk.

  • A handful of Senate Republicans think the coronavirus stimulus is too generous to workers.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, March archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 32971 [32935] rated (+36), 212 [216] unrated (-4).

I did a bit of website work last week. Robert Christgau told me that he's working on a piece on his wife Carola Dibbell's novel, The Only Ones, which is set in a post-pandemic dystopia, something more immediately imaginable this week than a month or two ago. Her website got wrecked when my server bit the dust last year, and I've been slow to rebuild it, so he wanted me to do some work on that: in particular, to restore the Notices page, with its collection of links to reviews and interviews. I did that, and fiddled with the menus a bit. He also sent me Carola's 1998 B-52s piece, and I scrounged up a previously missing 2003 Gaby Kerpel review.

A bigger chunk of work was taking a twitter thread Carola wrote in September 2019 about her cancer treatment, and formatting it as a plain old web page. This still needs some work. I haven't yet figured out how to do the video links. The images are handled a bit better, but still not right. With one exception, I'm using the ones cached by Twitter, but they're in various sizes, given somewhat uniform treatment by transformations and windowing in the CSS code. The thing that would help the most would be to vertically center the clipping rectangle over the image, instead of positioning it from the top. That's more/less what Twitter is doing, but don't quite see how.

I did set it up so you can click on an image and see the original, although that may not be obvious. I'll try to do some more work on this in the next week or two. One thing worth checking out is the Bibliography, particularly if you can find and submit any of the currently missing pieces. My plan is to move the archive from Christgau's website to Carola's, probably duplicating their joint pieces.

Three 2019 releases in this week's A- haul: two (Jeb Bishop, Wojtek Mazolewski) didn't appear on any 2019 lists, so I'm including them on my 2020 list; the other (Ben Webster in Denmark) was one that I knew about and looked for, but it's only recently become accessible via Storyville Records' Bandcamp page. Also found the first volume to the Hank Jones set I reviewed last week, and a few more items of interest. Storyville is a Danish label which has specialized in picking up archival recordings of American stars, especially on tour in their environs. Also a fair number of releases by Scandinavian artists. I'm looking forward to exploring the label further.

I will flag a slight caveat on Irreversible Entanglements: I'm not fully satisfied with my understanding of the record, but I usually limit Bandcamp releases to two plays, after which I go with my best guess. I also gave an A- to their eponymous first album, and a B+(**) to their EP. On the other hand, I've never given Moor Mother (vocalist Camae Ayewa) better than a B+(**) for her hip-hop albums. I like the jazz group quite a bit, but she's still something of a mystery to me.

Still another week before I have to close out March Streamnotes. Assuming a normal week, the rated count should clear 33,000.

PS: Just heard that pianist Mike Longo, 83, is a casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic -- see Nate Chinen's obituary. I have four of his albums in my database, notably [B+(***)] Step On It, a 2013 trio with Bob Cranshaw and Lewis Nash.

New records reviewed this week:

• Daniel Bingert: Berit in Space (2019 [2020], Moserobie): [cd]: B+(***)
• Jeb Bishop Flex Quartet: Re-Collect (2015 [2019], Not Two): [r]: A-
• Jeb Bishop/Jaap Blonk/Weasel Walter/Damon Smith: JeJaWeDa: Poineer Works Vol. 1 (2019, Balance Point Acoustics): [bc]: B+(*)
• CP Unit: One Foot on the Ground Smoking Mirror Shakedown (2018 [2020], Ramp Local): [r]: B+(***)
• Aaron Diehl: The Vagabond (2020, Mack Avenue): [r]: B+(*)
• Expansions: The Dave Liebman Group: Earth (2018 [2020], Whaling City Sound): [r]: B+(*)
• Fire! Orchestra: Actions (2018 [2020], Rune Grammofon): [r]: B+(**)
• Elliot Galvin: Live in Paris at Fondation Louis Vuitton (2018 [2020], Edition): [r]: B+(*)
• Naama Gheber: Dearly Beloved (2019 [2020], Cellar Music): [cd]: B+(**) [04-10]
• The Good Ones: Rwanda, You Should Be Loved (2019, Anti-): [r]: B+(*)
• Alex Goodman: Impressions in Blue and Red (2019 [2020], Outside In Music, 2CD): [cd]: B+(***)
• The Haden Triplets: The Family Songbook (2020, Trimeter): [r]: B+(**)
• Paul Heaton/Jacqui Abbott: Manchester Calling (2020, Virgin EMI): [r]: B+(**)
• Lisa Hilton: Chalkboard Destiny (2019, Ruby Slippers): [r]: B+(**)
• Idle Hands: Solid Moments (2019 [2020], Posi-Tone): [r]: B+(*)
• Irreversible Entanglements: Who Sent You? (2019 [2020], International Anthem): [bc]: A-
• Nils Landgren & Jan Lundgren: Kristallen (2018 [2020], ACT Music): [r]: B+(**)
• Thomas Marriott: Trumpet Ship (2016 [2020], Origin): [cd]: B+(*)
• Wojtek Mazolewski Quintet: When Angels Fall (2019, WMQ/Agora Muzyka): [r]: A-
• Roscoe Mitchell With Ostravska Banda: Performing Distant Radio Transmission Also Nonaah Trio, Cutouts for Woodwind Quintet and 8.8.88 (2019 [2020], Wide Hive): [cd]: B+(*) [03-27]
• Shunzo Ohno: Runner (2019 [2020], Pulsebeats): [cd]: B [04-03]
• Charles Pillow Ensemble: Chamber Jazz (2019 [2020], Summit): [r]: B
• Jure Pukl: Broken Circles (2019 [2020], Whirlwind): [r]: B+(**)
• Tim Shaghoian: Gentle Beacons (2019 [2020], Origin): [cd]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• 16-17: Phantom Limb (1995-2018 [2020], Trost): [r]: B
• Duke Ellington: Uppsala 1971 (1971 [2019], Storyville): [r]: B+(**)
• Hank Jones: In Copenhagen: Live at Jazzhus Slukefter 1983 (1983 [2018], Storyville): [bc]: B+(***)
• Ben Webster: Ben Webster's First Concert in Denmark (1965 [2019], Storyville): [bc]: A-

Old music:

• Jeb Bishop: 98 Duets (1998, Wobbly Rail): [cd]: B+(*)
• Jeb Bishop Trio: 2009 (2009, Better Animal): [r]: B+(***)
• Jeb Bishop: Three Valentines & Goodbye (2016 [2017], 1980): [bc]: B
• Dexter Gordon: Atlanta Georgia May 5, 1981 (1981 [2003], Storyville): [bc]: B+(***)
• Archie Shepp/Don Cherry/J.C. Moses/John Tchicai/Don Moore: Archie Shepp & the New York Contemporary Five (1963 [2004], Storyville): [bc]: A-
• Archie Shepp/Lars Gullin Quintet: The House I Live In (1963 [1980], SteepleChase): [r]: B+(***)
• Ben Webster: At Montmartre 1965-1966 (1965-66 [2003], Storyville): [bc]: B+(**)
• Ben Webster: In Norway (1970 [2013], Storyville): [bc]: B+(**)
• Ben Webster: Live at Stampen Stockholm 1969-1973 (1969-73 [2004], Storyville): [bc]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Vito Dieterle: Anemone (Ride Symbol)
• Vito Dieterle/Joel Forrester: Status Sphere (Ride Symbol)
• Amina Figarova: Persistence (AmFi)
• Grégoire Maret/Romain Collin/Bill Frisell: Americana (ACT Music) [04-24]
• Vanderlei Pereira and Blindfold Test: Vision for Rhythm (Jazzheads) [05-22]

Weekend Roundup

I usually start gathering links with Matthew Yglesias's page at Vox. For a while I was putting his links up front -- back when he was writing a regular "most important stories of the week" feature -- but later I moved him back into alphabetical order. This week he wrote quite a bit, and I commented there with a few things I might have saved for an introduction, so decided to list him first.

One subject I didn't get to is business bailouts. Probably premature for that anyhow, although the option to postpone debt and rent payments, bankruptcy and foreclosure, is something that will be needed soon. Also, bridging loans, with various restrictions -- just enough to keep dormant businesses viable when/if the time comes to re-open them. I should also note that while I'm skeptical/hostile to short-term stimulus proposals, I do think it would be a good idea to start moving on longer-term efforts, like Green New Deal. One big problem with the 2009 stimulus package was the failure to include any infrastructure projects that weren't "shovel ready." (Reed Hundt's book, A Crisis Wasted: Barack Obama's Defining Decisions makes this point.) We need a lot of infrastructure work going forward, and that needs to be factored into any recovery plan.

There's going to be an attempt to stampede Congress to pass all sorts of business bailouts, because that's the way the whole system is designed to work. You and I are lucky if we have representatives who even remotely care about us (given where I live, I'm especially unlucky in that regard), but business interests have scads of lobbyists looking for profit angles, and lots of politicians already in their pockets.

As this plays out, we would do well to recall what happened in 2008-09: we heard a deafening cry for help from the big banks, which unquestioningly had to be bailed out to keep the economy from collapsing. They indeed got what they wanted -- a $700 billion slush fund and much more through the Fed's back door -- and survived, quickly returning to profitability, even as the rest of the economy continued collapsing. And once the banks were safe, only the most marginal efforts were made to help anyone else. (The auto industry bailout was a comparatively paltry effort, saddled with stringent requirements the banks never had to face.)

I was sympathetic to the bank bailouts at the time, but dismayed by the failure to protect more of the economy, especially the workers who wound up bearing the brunt of the recession. Only later on did I see an alternative approach that should have been obvious: let the businesses fail, but protect the workers and other people at the bottom. Business would bounce back, and the change of ownership would ultimately be a healthy thing. That sort of turnover may be even more beneficial this time: when/if the economy recovers, it is almost certain to be changed significantly from the one before the crash, reflecting changed views of what matters and how we want to live. We may, for instance, find that we still need airlines, but not as many. The cruise ship industry is probably finished, and would that be such a bad thing? A much larger potential collapse is in fossil fuels: even before the crash, demand for coal was falling, as were oil prices, and both will fall further as recession lowers demand. Given how they contribute to climate change, I don't see any reason to encourage their rebound. (In fact, this would be a good time for a stiff carbon tax.) On the other hand, we may decide that we need to have health care systems for all, including some excess capacity even before the next crisis. The list, no doubt, goes on and on.

While it's easy to jot down what you'd like to see happen, it's much harder to even guess about how this crisis will play out in the minds and attitudes of people around the world. Will we learn and adapt, or flail about, trying to force the new world into our old minds? I can't help but wonder whether the panic over Covid-19 hasn't been preconditioned by the (mostly denied) fear of global warming. A large political segment seemed determined to ignore or even denounce the science of climate change, only to find themselves desperate for scientific direction when faced with the pandemic: there is something immediate and personal about the latter that climate change never triggered. (I'm reminded of the adage about there being no atheists in foxholes. It seems there are no science-deniers in emergency rooms.) The 2008 financial collapse, like previous recessions, could be written off to bad business practices and even to periodic cycles, but this one is a direct assault on one's worldview. No one can predict where that kind of psychic shock may lead.

Meanwhile, I've been plodding through Adam Gopnik's A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism. I picked it up in the library, thought it might be interesting to read an unapologetic defense of liberalism. I grew up believing in what Louis Hartz called "the liberal tradition in America," only to find that self-proclaimed liberals in the 1960s had turned into pretty unsavory characters -- especially in their rabid anti-communism, most immediately evident in their support for near-genocidal war against the Vietnamese. At the time, there wasn't much of a conservative threat (Barry Goldwater won the Republican nomination in 1964 but lost in a landslide), so I came to view "cold war" liberalism as the main enemy of fairness, decency, and justice in American politics. I read books like Kenneth Minogue's The Liberal Mind and Robert Paul Wolff's The Poverty of Liberalism (but no longer remember the specific critiques), and I delved further into Marxist critiques (not really of liberalism, but of its handmaiden, capitalism), and came to identify with the New Left (which was openly contemptuous of the Sino-Soviet orbit of Communist regimes, but more focused on our own world, especially of America's world-straddling hegemony).

But I stopped reading Marxist analyses after I left college, and while my practical political impulses never changed much, I've found myself growing sympathetic to liberal reformers over time, notably of Keynes in economics. Ever since I was a teenager, I've had a soft spot for utopian imagination, and I've often returned to that over the years, at least as teleology. But I lost whatever desire I might have had for revolution, and as I've aged have become increasingly willing to settle for liberal reformism, even in tiny. So I thought I might be open to Gopnik's formulation. Unfortunately, all he has to offer is a weird mixture of dashed hopes and anti-left vitriol. Regardless of whatever ideals liberals think they hold dear, their main function in politics today (and basically over the last 50-100 years) seems to be to castigate anyone who still believes that the liberty secured by a few in the great bourgeois revolutions of the past should be extended to everyone (i.e., the left).

I probably should have read David Sessions' review, The emptiness of Adam Gopnik's liberalism, before I wasted my time. Especially:

We might not have expected much more from Gopnik, but A Thousand Small Sanities' aimless joyride of free-associated clichés and its stubborn refusal to look at reality may indicate more broadly how little the American establishment has learned since the turn of the century. The climate crisis, more than anything, has highlighted the inadequacy of the liberal orthodoxy's self-congratulatory moderation and celebration of glacial incrementalism. It poses, in stark terms, the need for dramatic action and the inescapability of confronting the powerful interests behind the deadly carbon economy. The rapid degradation of the planet has made radicalism rational and incrementalism a kind of civilizational death drive. In this context, Gopnik's blissful ignorance reads not as comical but as deeply sinister.

The Democratic Party split in 1968 over the Vietnam War, with many of the hawks winding up as neoconservatives (a mostly Republican clan which still exerts powerful influence over today's Democratic hawks, especially the Clintons). Democrats are further split between middle class professionals and the working class base, with most successful Democrats (including Obama and the Clintons) gaining among the former while thanklessly banking the dwindling votes of the latter. In 2016 and 2020, those splits became clearer, with the left (dovish, mostly working class) rallying behind Bernie Sanders and the "moderates" (or merely cautious liberals, including hawks and/or professionals) ultimately flocking to Joe Biden.

Gopnik is an atavism in this split world, railing against a left that no longer exists in favor of an idealized center that is unable to accomplish anything (not least because their anti-left instinct keeps it from building a broad base, and because they are always willing to sell their reforms short). The key chapter in Gopnik's book is "Why the Left Hates Liberalism," but it should really be called "Why Liberals Hate the Left," where you could just as easily substitute "Masses" or "People" for "Left." But then it's hard to explain that without giving the impression that liberals are simply self-satisfied snobs -- dilettantes who imagine liking the idea of more people enjoying their comforts, but who hardly ever lift a finger to help them.

Some scattered links this week:

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • The unprecedented tsunami of unemployment insurance claims, explained. The numbers are indeed staggering, and it's impossible to see how a system which is mostly funded at the state level can cope with them. We need to realize that unemployment insurance is the first line of defense against recession, and focus efforts there -- long before we consider handing cash out to people who still have jobs, who probably won't use it (at least until the pandemic starts to abate) to restart the economy. Under the section "How to change unemployment insurance":

    That means making the program much more generous so as to come close to fully covering lost earnings, relaxing eligibility requirements so that people don't need to be actively hunting for a new job, and also expanding the purview of the program to cover people who are having their hours cut rather than people who are being laid off. This last change is particularly important. All throughout the food service sector, employers are currently trying to grapple with conversion to take-out only and reduced demand, which combine to greatly reduce their need for workers.

  • Senate Republicans' cash assistance plan is far too limited. I'm not opposed to "direct cash assistance" programs in general, but this doesn't strike me as the time to think about such things. You can think of recessions as having two phases: crash and recovery (of course, it you don't do anything, there's also likely to be a trough in the middle where the two phases cancel each other out). You need a different focus in each. During the crash phase, you want to slow down the crash and you want to protect people from as many of the bad things that occur in a crash as possible. This is the work of stabilizers, like unemployment insurance (which is nicely targeted to the immediate problem), and of regulatory limits. An obvious example of the latter is to halt foreclosures, utility disconnects, etc. Some of these things kick in automatically, which is part of the reason the 2008 collapse, which was initially as sharp as the one in 1929, didn't fall nearly as far. (Another reason is that government was a much larger segment of the economy, and it didn't panic like the private sector did.) Once the crash is stabilized, you shift focus to recovery, and that's where stimulus spending pays dividends. Of course, these rules were worked out to deal with financial recessions (like 2008 and 1929). What we're experiencing now is very different. We're seeing a similar collapse in demand, but it's not because people lack money but lots of people are suddenly afraid of going out and spending their money. In normal times, if you give people more money, they'll spend it, but not now, at least not until the fear lessens significantly. Given the pandemic, recession is as much a solution as it is a problem, so maybe we should focus more on fighting the pandemic and reducing the recession's collateral damage than on jumping ahead to recession recovery initiatives.

    Of course, if Republicans are willing to propose direct cash measures, it's hard for people on the left not to join in, and argue for programs that are fairer and more generous -- as Yglesias does here, and Mike Konczal (see The stimulus plan that we need now) and others do elsewhere. Yglesias points out that the Republican plan offers "little help for those who need it most," that "backward-looking data doesn't predict present needs," and "parents really need help" -- all good points. As for "it's a good time to go big," I'd say that even if we "go big" -- which I'd agree is the only way out -- we still have to be smart about picking our shots. They say "never let a serious crisis go to waste," but that doesn't mean you can use the occasion to throw in every wish you might have.

  • America's mass transit agencies need a bailout, too. Actually, they deserve increase public funding at all times, shifting revenues away from fares. They perform an immense public service, something that we all should want (even people who continue to prefer cars).

  • Joe Biden wins the Florida Democratic primary.

  • /Ezra Klein: The coronavirus election: "Weeds" podcast.

  • Joe Biden's effort to heal the breach with Elizabeth Warren on bankruptcy, explained: "A flip-flop with a long and dramatic backstory." I'll just add that although Warren's plan would be a big improvement, I can think of some other things that should be factored into bankruptcy proceedings. In particular, I'd like to see some way to restructure bankrupt companies so that they can survive as employee-owned.

  • Democrats' choice is clearer than ever: Fight Trump or fight for revolution. The headline oversimplifies the author's point, which isn't really that Biden is the only option to "fight Trump" -- indeed, many of us don't regard him as the most promising candidate to run against Trump. Rather, the question is whether the problems we face are superficial (e.g, Trump) or systemic.

    Biden believes America is experiencing a crisis -- a pandemic, but more broadly Donald Trump's presidency -- that requires a new and different leader. Sanders believes that the basic long-standing structure of America's politics and economic system is a crisis.

    Biden argued that Democrats need to unite and beat Trump in order "to restore this country's soul." Sanders said we need to talk more about "the power structure in America," namely, "the billionaires who contribute money to political campaigns" thus allowing them to "control the legislative agenda."

• Kate Aronoff: The Democrats screwed up: "Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders have been outflanked by opponents embracing big spending ideas to address the coronavirus recession." I'm not so sure they screwed up. When Democrats propose big spending they always get hammered, not least from the deficit scolds in their own party. On the other hand, hardly anyone complains when the Republicans want to spend, so why not let them pick a number, and show how it can be more effectively spent, to the greater good? Of course, you can also note that the number isn't really big enough. The only way to really screw up is to let the deficit scolds lead the attack. If Democrats become the party of forced austerity, they'll be finished. In fact, Obama did great harm to the party in his limited embrace of austerity after 2009.

• Zack Beauchamp: The deep ideological roots of Trump's botched coronavirus response: "How the GOP's decades-long war on expertise sabotaged America's fight against the pandemic."

• Riley Beggin: Intelligence reports warned about a pandemic in January. Trump reportedly ignored them.

• Max Boot: This wouldn't have happened if Hillary Clinton had won: Clickbait: only reason I clicked was to see who'd be so stupid to write this, and I wasn't disappointed. This, in turn, led me to a link for Josh Rogin: Don't blame 'China' for the coronavirus -- blame the Chinese Communist Party. Pick a more politically correct way to express your bigotry and stupidity.

• David Edward Burke: How conservatives have rigged our politics: Review of Caroline Fredrickson: The Democracy Fix: How to Win the Fight for Fair Rules, Fair Courts, and Fair Elections.

• John Cassidy: The coronavirus calls for wartime economic thinking: The only real precedent for this is WWII, but lots of things are different. For one thing, WWII demanded more production, whereas Covid-19 only requires minor reallocations of resources, producing more medical supplies and (hopefully) treatments. It turns out that some of this is already being done with the Defense Production Act. WWII also enforced rationing, but it's hard to see how that would work now, or even whether it would be supported. But clearly Covid-19 calls for a different kind of economic thinking.

• Joe Davidson: The Peace Corps isn't just bringing home 7,300 volunteers because of the coronavirus. It's firing them.

• Sean Illing:

  • The most important lesson of the 1918 influenza pandemic: Tell the damn truth: Interview with John M Barry, author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (2004).

  • This pandemic will expose who we are as a country: "We're bumping up against the limits of excessive American individualism and market society." Interview with Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist who wrote We need social solidarity, not just social distancing.

• Sarah Jones: There's no such thing as unskilled labor.

• Zolan Kanno-Youngs/Annie Karni: Under the virus's cloak, Trump pursues long-sought policies.

• Matthew Karnitschnig: The incompetence pandemic.

• Ed Kilgore: Bloomberg bails on anti-Trump super-PAC.

• Jen Kirby:

  • California goes on lockdown: Friday's coronavirus news.

  • "Each city is a ghost city": Life in Italy under full coronavirus lockdown.

• Sharon Lerner: Big Pharma prepares to profit from the coronavirus.

• Eric Levitz: The GOP's relief bill is too right-wing for the right's own good.

• German Lopez: Trump's latest coronavirus press briefing was a disastrous failure in leadership.

• David J Lynch/Heather Long: US economy deteriorating faster than anticipated as 80 million Americans are forced to stay at home: "Already, it is clear that the initial economic decline will be sharper and more painful than during the 2008 financial crisis."

• Ian Millhiser:

  • Can Trump cancel the November election? "No."

  • The fight over stock buybacks and corporate coronavirus bailouts, briefly explained.

  • The Dow Jones falls to where it was when Trump took office: "More than three years of solid market returns evaporated in a few weeks, due to coronavirus."

• Terry Nguyen: Airlines are asking the US government for a $50 billion bailout. Should they get it?

• Ella Nilsen:

  • Senators allegedly dumping stocks as the market tanks is why some people think senators shouldn't own stock.

  • March 17 primaries: Live results. Biden swept last Tuesday's three primaries (Ohio's was postponed), winning in: Arizona (44.02% to 31.98% for Sanders, with others still getting votes: Bloomberg 9.86%, Warren 6.58%, Buttigieg 4.68%, Klobuchar 1.26%, Gabbard 0.52%); Florida (61.83% to Sanders 22.83%, Bloomberg 8.49%, Buttigieg 2.30%, Warren 1.91%, Klobuchar 1.00%, Gabbard 0.51%); and Illinois (59.03% to Sanders 36.02%, Bloomberg 1.52%, Warren 1.41%, Buttigieg 0.58%, Gabbard 0.58%, Yang 0.24%).

• James North: Saudi Arabia is now a murderous, one-man dictatorship, with US elite complicity, superb new book reveals: Review of Ben Hubbard: MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed Bin Salman.

• Gabby Orr/Lara Seligman: Trump team's new mission: Defend the 'wartime president'. I suppose you could point out that no incumbent president has ever lost an election in the middle of a war, but one should add that Truman and Johnson opted out, their parties going on to lose. I've said before that this campaign is going to be pretty disgusting. Here's an example of how disgusting:

  Even former Vice President Joe Biden, who is close to securing his spot as Trump's Democratic challenger in the 2020 election, described the coronavirus outbreak in warlike terms. Speaking to supporters from his Delaware home after a series of primary victories Tuesday, Biden said, "Tackling this pandemic is a national emergency akin to fighting a war."

  "This is a moment where we need our leaders to lead, but it is also a moment where the choices and decisions we make as individuals, and collectively as a people, will make a big difference in the severity of the outbreak," Biden said.

  An outside adviser to the Trump campaign said the president's 2020 team is hoping to capitalize on Trump's new messaging strategy by launching a series of digital ads as soon as next week that highlight the president's efforts to battle the "invisible enemy" -- a phrase Trump has recently used to describe the respiratory syndrome, which can be deadly. A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

  "I wouldn't mind seeing the Trump campaign expend some resources to communicate to his supporters that this is important," Fratto said. "And if he has to use wartime language to do it, it's in all of our interests to let him."

• Steven Pearlstein: Here's why giving every American $1,200 is a really bad idea: "Let's give the money to the millions of laid-off workers -- and in large enough amounts to make a difference."

• Rick Perlstein: Prophets of instability: "How finance broke the modern corporation." Review of Nicholas Lemann: Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream.

• Kelsey Piper: I live in the first US city ordered to "shelter in place." Here's what it's like. "The Bay Area has shut down. Can it buy us the time we need?"

• Daniel Politi: Ohio orders halt to "nonessential" abortions in preview of battle that could go national.

• Gareth Porter: Pompeo and Netanyahu paved a path to war with Iran, and they're pushing Trump again. Related:

  • Jessica Corbett: As coronavirus death toll continues to rise in Iran, global calls mount for US to lift 'immoral' sanctions.

  • Tyler Cullis: The immoral cruelty of the Trump administration's refusal to grant Iran sanctions relief amid its COVID-19 crisis.

  • Murtaza Hussain: Amid coronavirus chaos, US and Iran edge closer to war.

  • Barbara Slavin: Trump administration piles on sanctions as the rest of the world helps Iran conront COVID-19.

• Brian Resnick: The 9 most important unanswered questions about Covid-19.

• Nathan J Robinson: Notes on a nightmare #1: The virus and us, and Notes on a nightmare #2: Suffering and politics: "Why this is so terrifying and how the existing political response is failing us." These link to several broad economic proposals:

  • Matt Bruenig: Some economic responses to the coronavirus recession.

  • Doug Henwood: A few ambitious points on fighting the crisis.

• Betsy Woodruff Swan: DOJ seeks new emergency powers amid coronavirus pandemic: "One of the requests to Congress would allow the department to petition a judge to indefinitely detain someone during an emergency."

• Jia Tolentino: Barbara Ehrenreich is not an optimist, but she has hope for the future: Interview with the author, who has a new book out, Had I Known: Collected Essays. Worth noting that one of her most prescient books was Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class (1990). On the other hand, she spoke too soon in naming her collection of 1980s columns The Worst Years of Our Lives.

• Libby Watson: The left is bigger than Bernie Sanders.

• Li Zhou: Congress just passed a bill that will guarantee free coronavirus testing for all Americans: "It also expands paid sick days and paid leave for a subset of workers." Those are good things, but creating an extra special fund for things that should be universally covered already adds complexity and nuisance to a system that is already full of it. For instance, I have Medicare, but every time I use it I have to answer questions about things like black lung because they have their own special funding. And this extra complexity makes it easier to leave out people who should be covered.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, March archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 32935 [32897] rated (+38), 216 [223] unrated (-7).

Nothing much to say here. We're in a self-imposed lockdown, perhaps related to pandemic fears but with overtones of disappointment and maybe disgust at the world around us. Being "retired," and not uncomfortable, that's a luxury we can afford.

One technical matter I should note is that I've decided to add to the 2020 tracking file and associated lists records released in 2019 that I never noted in the 2019 tracking file. This mostly affects the 2020 metacritic file, which I've been building up to reflect favorable reviews as compiled by various sources -- the first big chunk came from December 2019 releases that Dave Sumner mentioned in his The Best Jazz on Bandcamp: January 2020.

I've always allowed for previous-year records to appear in current lists, especially for items that I received promos of after January 1, or sometimes for records that I simply had no cognizance of until after the calendar rolled over. The first example like that this year was François Carrier's Wide, released in Dec. 2019. I decided a fair test for this would be whether the record appeared in my music tracking list, since that incorporated everything that showed up in any tracked EOY list for 2019 (5170 records in the tracking file; 4912 in the EOY aggregate files). Since I only decided on this course last week, there may be a few records caught in the lurch.

Most of the carryover records were released in late 2019, but technically I'm allowing any unlisted 2019 records to appear in the 2020 lists. That includes the Schlippenbach-Narvesen Duo record below, which I certainly knew existed (but couldn't previously find) but somehow escaped my 2019 lists. (Also Duke Ellington's Uppsala 1971, which we'll deal with next week.) On the other hand, Muriel Grossmann's Reverence, out Dec. 15, 2019, had appeared on a couple of minor 2019 lists, so remains there, despite my "discovery" of it among Sumner's picks. So it's all a bit arbitrary, but is at least a system. (Occurs to me that I could go back into the 2019 list and pull out release dates after Thanksgiving -- Francis Davis's Jazz Critics Poll cutoff -- and include them in both lists. Need to think on that, but that might be the right thing to do.)

Under old music, I did take a flyer on some one Swamp Dogg records, since nearly all of them appear to have cropped up on Napster and/or the artist's Bandcamp. I didn't exactly get done, though I did get a bit exhausted. I'm still a big fan of his 1996 compilation, Best of 25 Years: F*** the Bomb, Stop the Drugs, as well as his 1970 debut, Total Destruction to Your Mind (which, if I recall correctly, didn't even figure in the comp).

Looked for but didn't find the Vol. 1 to go with the Hank Jones vault issue. Was pleased to find a Bandcamp page for an earlier Schlippenbach-Nardesen Duo release, but it only had two "bonus" tracks on it, not enough for a review. They did sound pretty good.

New records reviewed this week:

• Steve Beresford & John Butcher: Old Paradise Airs (2019 [2020], Iluso): [bc]: B+(*)
• Raoul Björkenheim: Solar Winds (2019 [2020], Long Song): [r]: B+(***)
• Cornershop: England Is a Garden (2020, Ample Play): [r]: A-
• Day Dream: Originals (2019 [2020], Corner Store Jazz): [cd]: B+(**) [03-27]
• John DiMartino: Passion Flower: The Music of Billy Strayhorn (2019 [2020], Sunnyside): [cd]: B+(**) [04-10]
• Liberty Ellman: Last Desert (2019 [2020], Pi): [cd]: B+(***) [03-27]
• Fat Tony & Taydex: Wake Up (2020, Carpark, EP): [r]: B+(***)
• Harrison²: Trout in Swimwear (2019 [2020], self-released): [cdr]: B+(***)
• Kirk Knuffke: Brightness: Live in Amsterdam (2020, Royal Potato Family): [r]: B+(*)
• Urs Leimgruber/Andreas Willers/Alvin Curran/Fabrizio Spera: Rome-ing (2018 [2019], Leo): [r]: B+(**)
• Hayoung Lyou: Metamorphosis (2019 [2020], Endectomorph Music): [cd]: B+(***) [04-17]
• Megan Thee Stallion: Suga (2020, 300 Entertainment, EP): [r]: A-
• Stephen Riley: Oleo (2018 [2019], SteepleChase): [r]: B+(***)
• Caroline Rose: Superstar (2020, New West): [r]: B
• Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble: The New Immigrant Experience: Music Inspired by Conversations With Dreamers (2019 [2020], Tapestry, 2CD): [cd]: B+(*)
• Carl Saunders: Jazz Trumpet (2019 [2020], Summit): [cd]: B+(***)
• Schapiro 17: New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60 (2019 [2020], Summit, 2CD): [cd]: B+(***) [04-03]
• Schlippenbach/Narvesen Duo: Liminal Field (2018 [2019], Not Two): [bc]: A-
• Paul Shaw Quintet: Moment of Clarity (2019 [2020], Summit): [cd]: B+(***) [03-27]
• Shopping: All or Nothing (2020, FatCat): [r]: A-
• Jay Som: Anak Ko (2019, Polyvinyl): [r]: B+(**)
• Moses Sumney: Grae: Part 1 (2020, Jagjaguwar): [r]: B
• Swamp Dogg: Sorry You Couldn't Make It (2020, Joyful Noise): [r]: B+(**)
• Torres: Silver Tongue (2020, Merge): [r]: B+(*)
• Oded Tzur: Here Be Dragons (2019 [2020], ECM): [r]: B+(**)
• The United States Air Force Band Airmen of Note: Air Power! (2019 [2020], self-released): [cd]: B-
• U.S. Girls: Heavy Light (2020, 4AD): [r]: B-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Hank Jones Trio: Live at Jazzhus Slukefter Vol. 2 (1983 [2020], Storyville): [r]: B+(***)
• Arthur Russell: Iowa Dream (1974-85 [2019], Audika): [r]: B+(*)

Old music:

• Marc Benham: Fats Food: Autour De Fats Waller (2016, Frémeaux & Associés): [r]: B+(*)
• Martin Creed: Thoughts Lined Up (2016, Telephone): [r]: B+(***)
• Swamp Dogg: 13 Prime Weiners, Everything on It: The Best of Swamp Dogg (1970-76 [1982], War Bride): [r]: A-
• Swamp Dogg: You Ain't Never Too Old to Boogie (1976 [2013], Essential Music Group): [r]: B+(**)
• Swamp Dogg: Don't Give Up o Me: The Lost Country Album (1976 [2013], Essential Music Group): [r]: B+(*)
• Swamp Dogg: Finally Caught Up With Myself (1977 [2013], Essential Music Group): [r]: B+(*)
• Swamp Dogg: An Opportunity . . . Not a Bargain!!! (1977 [2013], Essential Music Group): [r]: B+(***)
• Swamp Dogg: Swamp Dogg (1982 [2013], Essential Music Group): [r]: B
• Swamp Dogg: Resurrection (2007 [2013], Essential Music Group): [r]: B

Grade (or other) changes:

• Gerald Beckett: Mood (2019 [2020], Pear Orchard): [cd]: erroneously listed label as Summit: B

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Naama Gheber: Dearly Beloved (Cellar Music) [04-10]
• Thomas Marriott: Trumpet Ship (Origin) [03-20]
• Tim Shaghoian: Gentle Beacons (Origin) [03-20]

Weekend Roundup

News this week was totally dominated by the coronavirus pandemic. A good overview is Dylan Matthews: 9 charts that explain the coronavirus pandemic. (For more, see: A coronavirus reading guide for the perplexed, the anxious, and the obsessive.) This has produced a lot of political and economic turmoil, most obviously (or at least best reported) in the United States. The Trump administration, which has worked so hard over the last three years at proving how incompetent, corrupt, and politically blinded government can be, has come off as insensitive, uncaring, and bumbling -- especially the president and his inner tier of henchmen. The one concern they do seem to have is how the disease effects the economy -- especially as the economy has long seemed to be the silver lining in their own political fortunes. The most obvious effects have been the cancellation of nearly all public gatherings (including the NCAA "March Madness" tournaments and the NBA season) and major (mostly but not all self-imposed) reductions in travel. That, in itself, is a big chunk taken out of the economy, with ripple effects to follow. I expect this will extend to a psychology averse to spending, which will persist for months or years.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden has continued to mop up Democratic primaries, winning Mississippi, Missouri, Michigan, Idaho, and probably even Washington last week. (Bernie Sanders did win in North Dakota.) More states will vote soon, but unless Biden stumbles catastrophically there is no chance Sanders can catch up. There is a debate between Sanders and Biden tonight. It should clearly favor Sanders, but I doubt it will have any effect. We seem to be primed for disaster, and willing to settle for just barely less.

Some scattered links this week:

• Sasha Abramsky: Our worst crisis since 2008 . . . and we have an idiot at the helm: When this piece appeared in my mailbox, I tweeted:

  Sasha Abramsky's title is pretty obvious, but how quickly one forgets that we had "an idiot at the helm" in 2008 as well, and that worse than idiocy, all Bush/Trump proposals bail out the rich while hurting everyone else.

  The difference, of course, is that Bush was accustomed to being a "front man," and therefore to deferring to others. When the 2008 crisis hit, he didn't have a clue what to do, so he simply got out of the way, leaving the administration's response to Hank Paulson (his Secretary of Treasury, and more importantly a former CEO of Goldman Sachs). Of course, Bush didn't get out of the way after 9/11. He led the charge into war, first with Afghanistan and then with Iraq. Of course, he surrounded himself with people inclined to rush to war, just as he surrounded himself with big bankers. Trump is no different in that regard, but finds it much harder to get out of the way.

• Kamiar Alaei/Arash Alaei: How Iran completely and utterly botched its response to the coronavirus. Object lesson here on "what happens when you make health policy subservient to politics," a statement which succinctly describes Trump's own instincts and those of his most devoted followers.

• Fred Barbash: 'Assault on democracy': A sitting federal judge takes on John Roberts, Trump and Republicans: Lynn S Adelman.

• Phyllis Bennis: The US-Taliban deal won't bring real peace, but it could reduce the bloodshed. Related: Daniel R DePetris: Could Donald Trump get tricked into staying in Afghanistan?

• Cheryl Bernard: Landing at Dulles Airport, I encountered a case study in how to spread a pandemic.

• Jamelle Bouie: This is not the moment for progressives to despair: "Disappointed supporters of Bernie Sanders can actually get a lot of what they want through the medium of Joe Biden." As I've been saying for some time now, the answers are on the left. If Biden wants to be effective, he's going to have to move left to adopt them. In some ways, this is like Roosevelt in 1932. He wasn't a leftist. He was at best a pragmatist who was willing to try anything that might work. His major achievements in the first 100 days, and in the months that followed, were scattered all over the map, but the ones that worked were on the left, and that's where he increasingly looked for them. He backed his way into the most progressive presidency in American history. In some ways that was only possible because he wasn't pigeonholed as a leftist.

• Jedediah Britton-Purdy: The only treatment for coronavirus is solidarity. Related: Eric Klinenberg: We need social solidarity, not just social distancing.

• Katelyn Burns: Trump's 7 worst statements on the coronavirus outbreak.

• Beth Cameron: I ran the White House pandemic office. Trump closed it.

• John Cassidy: What would a proper coronavirus stimulus plan look like? Some good ideas here, also some not-so-good ones. I personally doubt that drops of cash would help much: reduced demand has more to do with distancing and prudence brought on by fear of mortality than with a shortfall of money, even among those most in need of it. Pumping money faster won't change that, although it would help if/when the fear abates. Much more useful now is patching the floor in the safety net. I've been saying for some time that short of a really nice Medicare-for-All system, we could start by providing bare-bones universal coverage starting with a few obvious needs, and coronavirus testing and treatment just leaped to the top of that list. You could then expand that list gradually -- child care and accidents are obvious needs -- and expect private health insurance, relieved of those expenses, to start to wither away, turning eventually into supplemental policies like many Medicare recipients still buy. It also seems like a good idea to just accept that there's going to be more unemployment as long as the pandemic is raging, and focus on making that less painful for those who lose their jobs.

• Steve Coll: Trump's discordant display of nativism in a pandemic.

• Mike Davis: Who gets forgotten in a pandemic: "The only certainty is that rich countries and rich classes will focus on saving themselves to the exclusion of international solidarity and medical aid." Davis has thought about this longer than most: fifteen years ago he wrote a book, The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu.

• David Dayen: Trump first proposed a payroll tax cut six months ago: "And here's why it doesn't make sense as an economic response to the coronavirus."

• Daniel W Drezner: The unique incompetence of Donald Trump in a crisis.

• Jesse Drucker/Jessica Silver-Greenberg: Trump administration is relaxing oversight of nursing homes.

• Joelle Gamble: A survival guide for the coronavirus economy.

• Masha Gessen: How the coronavirus pandemic fuels Trump's autocratic instincts. Well, crisis always brings instincts to the fore. I know a guy who after 9/11 argued that we should allow more guns on planes. I think that the pandemic shows that we are more dependent on science than ever, that social trust is extremely important, that private interest is usually suspect, and that we need a trustworthy government all the time -- not just in times of crisis. But Trump? Of course, he thinks we need more Trump. By the way, this New Yorker cover sums him up aptly.

• John Judis: Biden in 2020 vs. Clinton in 2016 (vs. Sanders) in Michigan.

• Idrees Kahloon: Thomas Piketti goes global. Review of his new book, Capital and Ideology.

• Catherine Kim: The Trump administration plans to kick 700,000 off food stamps during a pandemic. That's what "work requirements" mean as recession lays workers off. That's exactly what sane poeple don't want. For an update, see Zeeshan Aleem: Citing coronavirus concerns, a federal judge blocks the Trump administration's food stamp cuts. The House's coronavirus bill would also help here.

• Ezra Klein: Coronavirus will also cause a loneliness epidemic: "We need to take both social distancing and the 'social recession' it will cause seriously."

• Sharon Lerner: Big Pharma prepares to profit from the coronavirus.

• Eric Levitz: The GOP's ideological sickness is going to get people killed.

• German Lopez:

  • The Trump administration's botched coronavirus response, explained.

  • "I don't take responsibility at all": Trump continues downplaying coronavirus threat: "Even as he declares a national emergency, Trump continues to downplay the risk of the coronavirus."

• Andrew Marantz: The man behind Trump's Facebook juggernaut: Brad Parscale.

• Dylan Matthews: The Fed's $1.5 trillion loan injection, explained.

• Nolan D McCaskill: America shuts down: "From the Capitol to California, officials are taking aggressive new measures to limit social interactions."

• Harold Meyerson: Bernie winning battle of ideas, Biden winning nomination.

• Ian Millhiser:

  • Trump judge lays out an aggressive plan to protect Trump from congressional oversight: "Judge Neomi Rao's opinions read like she's acting as Trump's personal protector."

  • Trump tells a nation terrified of coronavirus that none of this is his fault.

• Max Moran: Trump's failing coronavirus response is standard issue Republicanism in 2020.

• Ella Nilsen: Democrats have finally struck a deal with the White House on a coronavirus package. Sensible stuff, a far cry from Trump's own wishes: free coronavirus testing, emergency paid sick days, emergency paid leave, expanded unemployment insurance, expanded food security. The bill was passed by the House, but note: Anya van Wagtendonk: The House coronavirus bill's paid leave provision would leave out millions of workers. Also: Li Zhou: The Senate won't consider urgent coronavirus legislation until next week.

• Jonathan Ofir: Netanyahu says 'all humanity is in same boats' fighting virus -- except Palestinians.

• Alex Pareene:

  • The dismantled state takes on a pandemic: "Conservatives won their war on Big Government. Their prize is a pandemic."

  • The Democrats' cult of pragmatism: "Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and other moderates claim they Get Things Done -- but not because they actually do get things done." Not to quibble overly, but my impression is that they do get things done -- just the wrong things. Pareene offers an illuminating example: when Andrew Cuomo won his third term, finally securing a large Democratic majority, the New York legislature passed 935 bills, only to have Cuomo veto 169 of them.

• Nomi Prins: Trump wouldn't save you from this pandemic even if he could: "This administration has always prioritized Wall Street over working Americans. Its response to the coronavirus will be more of the same." [Same piece at TomDispatch.]

• David Roberts: 4 astonishing signs of coal's declining economic viability. Note, however, that Japan is trying to buck the trend. Umair Irfan: Why the world's third-largest economy is still betting on coal. In a word: Fukushima.

• Cass R Sunstein: The right way for presidents to address 'fear itself': "The Great Depression was worse than coronavirus. Yet FDR found a way to warn and reassure all Americans, all at once." No American president ever has handled a crisis as adroitly as Roosevelt dealt with the bank runs in his first month in office. I suspect we're too divided and distrustful to give anyone the same chance these days, but Trump has none of the qualities that made FDR a viable leader. Still, I doubt it's possible to dispel fear from this particular crisis.

• Matt Taibbi: Bernie's last chance: "Heading into a one-on-one debate with Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders should not go gentle into that good night." At this point, I doubt that Sanders is going to try to attack or embarrass Biden, but I do expect he'll stick to his issues, especially to point out that the coronavirus pandemic is yet another reason we need Medicare-for-All, as well as a competent, dilligent, and concerned leader in the White House. If Biden fails to present himself as such, Bernie's (and our) loss will be all the more a shame.

• Anya van Wagtendonk: The White House reportedly tried to poach a German company working on a coronavirus vaccine: "Trump reportedly wanted the vaccine to be "only for the United States." Actually, I've been wondering what happens if a Chinese company finds and patents the first vaccine. Americans may start to question the sanctity of patent law (which is actually the main issue in most modern "trade" deals).

• Alex Ward:

  • The US retaliatory strikes on an Iran-backed militia in Iraq, briefly explained.

  • The Saudi Arabia-Russia oil war, explained. One surprise for me is the chart showing that the United States has extended its lead as the world's leading crude oil producer, to 18% of the world total, vs. 12% for Saudi Arabia and 11% for Russia. I knew that the US had been the top producer before its decline following the 1969 "peak oil" moment, and had languished in 2nd or 3rd ever since -- passed first by Saudi Arabia, then by Russia. I knew that with Obama's support for fracking, the US had rebounded recently, and moved into first place, but didn't realize by this much. As the article points out, fracking is expensive, so Saudi and Russian oil are cheaper to produce. When prices decline, they remain profitable, while more expensive resources (especially Canada's vast shale oil deposits) can become prohibitively expensive. Surprised also that Venezuela has dropped off the list. Also that China and Brazil are up there: both are net importers who've never been noted as major producers (although Brazil has long been interested in biofuels, which seems to have been factored in; come to think of it, that may explain why the US share seems so excessive, although I've never thought that biofuel was that big a deal). Related: Juan Cole: "A toothpick in a tsunami": US big oil faces bankruptcy as prices plunge 30% on Saudi expansion. Also: Scott L Montgomery: The oil shock of 2020 appears to be here -- and the pain could be wide and deep. Still, a bit odd to describe falling oil prices as a "shock."

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • The causes of the likely looming recession are different, but the cure is the same.

  • Coronavirus is the Trump catastrophe we've been terrified of.

  • The upside of a falling stock market.

  • Elizabeth Warren did better with college-educated white men than with working class women.

  • Coronavirus's threat to the global economy -- and what to do about it.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, March archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 32897 [32856] rated (+41), 223 [244] unrated (-21).

Close to a year ago, an old friend approached me about creating a game that hopefully would help torpedo Joe Biden's presidential run, mostly by exposing and publicizing many of the dastardly deeds he has been party to. My friend offered to put some money up, and I got him in contact with a game designer and offered to help on tech questions, but I wasn't very enthusiastic about the project. Not sure what exactly my feelings were: on the one hand, I figured Biden would fall apart as a viable candidate without any push from me; on the other hand, I had a vague sense of wanting to stay aloof from the fray, so while I was pretty certain that Sanders was my favorite, I've tried not to judge any of the other candidates harshly, figuring the best thing was to let the campaign play out. That other hand seems to be playing out now, and I'm finding it rather depressing.

Michigan votes tomorrow. In 2016 Clinton was heavily favored there, but Sanders pulled out an upset victory, which helped keep his campaign credible through the rest of the primaries. Sanders had taken over the polling lead there in early February, and has steadily built up his share ever since (from 23.8% to 31.6%), but in the last few days Biden has opened up a huge lead, currently polling 54.8% (from a low of 17.0% on Feb. 24, just 14 days ago). And that's just the average: one poll has him leading 65% to 24%.

Nationwide polling, which had Sanders in first place from Feb. 11 (22.0% to 21.6% for Biden, 13.5% for Warren, 12.7% for Bloomberg, 9.0% for Buttigieg, 3.7% for Klobuchar) through March 3 (29.0% to 18.1%) has now flipped all the way to 51.6% for Biden to 33.5% for Sanders. That's pushed FiveThirtyEight's Democratic Primary odds for Biden up to 99 in 100, effectively declaring Biden the inevitable winner. But isn't this all very peculiar? It's remarkable that Sanders increased his polling share while he was on top, and has continued to increase them even as Biden shot past him. Biden hasn't gained any ground from Sanders. He's merely swept up everyone else.

Still, you have to wonder, how much do people really know (or for that matter care) about Biden? As Vice President, he rarely (if ever) had an opportunity to voice his own opinion on anything. His Senate career is public record, but little publicized and mostly forgotten. His plagiarism scandal is ancient history. And while Republicans are going to make hay out of his family's efforts to make money off his career, his fellow Democrats did little to air the issue. Indeed, in the last two weeks the only Democrats who had to face much criticism were Sanders and Bloomberg. When he did face some scrutiny, back in Iowa and New Hampshire, he took a beating.

I doubt my friend's game would have shifted public opinion, but you have to wonder about how uninformed his new supporters are, and whether knowing more would have made any difference. It feels like they were stampeded by their fear of Trump into making a decision they're likely to regret. I'm feeling the regret now, big time. For more personal reasons, I've been pretty bummed out for a while now, which has only gotten worse considering this wave. I started working on yesterday's Weekend Roundup post on Thursday, and it was a hard, cruel slog. All year I've been viewing this election through my "four eras" model, where the Reagan-to-Trump era is held to be ending, replaced by a dramatically new era. A defining characteristic of political eras is that opposition parties tend to think like the dominant ones. Clinton and Obama were remarkable politicians, but they inevitably danced to the Republicans' tune. I didn't require that the new era be ushered in by a leader as different as Sanders, but I did think that the one candidate least able to make the transition was Biden, as he was the most thoroughly ingrained with Reagan-era thinking. Biden's nomination means that my big idea has turned from hopeful to tragic. Here we had this tremendous opportunity to turn things around, and squandered it by nominating the one candidate least able to make the break -- even assuming he beats Trump to get the chance.

If Biden continues to win like this, I'm tempted so say I'm done with politics. I'll vote for Biden against Trump in November, and I'll vote for local Democrats (unless Vern Miller runs again, which is pretty unlikely). But I don't see what else I have to offer. I may go back to the drawing board and write some long-term (which is to say utopian) political essays. But political analysis for the foreseeable future is going to turn on questions of mass delusion -- not just last week's Biden surge, but similarly irrational turns like the one that elected Trump in 2016. (Hint: in both cases, the surge occurs at the same time the candidate is largely hidden, the decisive negative focus pointed elsewhere, and the media unclear on how it's being played.)

Quite a few records this week, with close to half of them coming from my promo queue, which I cut in half. Such attention was overdue, but I was also having trouble figuring out which records to look up on Napster and Bandcamp, so in some ways this was just easier. Not as many finds this week as last, but three A- records is a pretty average week.

Was delighted to get some promos from the Polish label Fundacja Sluchaj, then disappointed that they turned out to be rather marginal. I also received a copy of Georg Graewe/Ernst Reijseger/Gerry Hemingway: Concertgebouw Brugge 2014, which I had previously graded B+(**) based on their Bandcamp stream. I reviewed 15 of their records in 2019 -- the only A- was Agustí Fernandez: One Night at the Joan Miró Foundation, with Awatair: Awatair Plays Coltrane, Brad Barrett: Cowboy Transfiguration, and François Carrier: Nirguna at B+(***). A- records from previous years: Barry Guy: Barry Guy @ 70 (2018), and Evan Parker/RGG: Live @ Alchemia (2017).

Shouldn't be so hard to identify new records worth streaming now that I have my 2020 metacritic file up and running. I'm tracking all but the metal grade lists (80+) on AOTY and Metacritic (but looking less often at the latter, as it takes more work). I'm also factoring in a few other review sources (including All About Jazz, Downbeat, and Free Jazz Collective) and lists (like Phil Overeem's latest), and I've started to look at Bandcamp's guides. The latter got me to thinking about 2019 releases that only got noticed after January 1. In recent years I've been very hard-assed about filing them in their calendar years, but if I do that I lose track of them. Besides, EOY lists (including Jazz Critics Poll) are almost always slightly out of sync with the calendar. I finally decided the rule should be: any late 2019 record that didn't get any points in the 2019 EOY Aggregate will be counted as new in the 2020 list. Of course, that means I have to go back to a few reviews that I initially skipped, so things are a bit inconsistent at the moment.

New records reviewed this week:

• Bad Bunny: YHLQMDLG (2020, Rimas): [r]: B+(**)
• Gerald Beckett: Mood (2019 [2020], Summit): [cd]: B
• Boogat: El Gato Y Los Rumberos (2020, Ray-On, EP): [r]: B
• Benjamin Boone With the Ghana Jazz Collective: Joy (2019 [2020], Origin): [cd]: B [03-20]
• Caribou: Suddenly (2020, Merge): [r]: B+(**)
• François Carrier/Tomek Gadecki/Marcik Bozek/Michel Lambert: Wide (2018 [2019], FMR): [cd]: B+(***)
• Brandy Clark: Your Life Is a Record (2020, Warner): [r]: A-
• Jeremy Cunningham: The Weather Up There (2020, Northern Spy): [r]: B+(**)
• Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats: Unlocked (2020, PH/Loma Vista, EP): [r]: B+(**)
• Davido: A Good Time (2019, RCA): [r]: B+(***)
• Sarah Elgeti Quartet With Friends: Dawn Comes Quietly (2019 [2020], Gateway Music): [cd]: B
• Vincent Glanzmann/Gerry Hemingway: Composition O (2017 [2020], Fundacja Sluchaj): [cd]: B+(***)
• Joyce Grant: Surrounded by Blue (2019 [2020], Craftedair/Blujazz): [r]: B
• Wolfgang Haffner: Kind of Tango (2019 [2020], ACT Music): [r]: B
• JC Hopkins Biggish Band: New York Moment (2019 [2020], Twee-Jazz): [cd]: B+(**) [04-05]
• Christopher Icasiano: Provinces (2018 [2020], Origin): [cd]: B
• Charles Lloyd: 8: Kindred Spirits (Live From the Lobero) (2018 [2020],Blue Note): [r]: B+(**)
• Paul Lytton/Nate Wooley: Known/Unknown (2018 [2020], Fundacja Sluchaj): [cd]: B+(*)
• Denise Mangiardi: Brown Book (2019 [2020], Alice's Loft Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Joe McPhee/John Edwards/Klaus Kugel: A Night in Alchemia (2018 [2020], Not Two): [r]: A-
• Pat Metheny: From This Place (2020, Nonesuch): [r]: B+(*)
• Nutria: Meeting in Progress (2019 [2020], Ears & Eyes): [cd]: B+(***)
• Agnes Obel: Myopia (2019 [2020], Blue Note): [r]: B+(**)
• Kassa Overall: I Think I'm Good (2020, Brownswood): [r]: B+(*)
• Keith Oxman: Two Cigarettes in the Dark (2018 [2020], Capri): [cd]: B+(***) [03-20]
• Jonah Parzen-Johnson: Imagine Growing Up (2020, We Jazz): [r]: B+(**)
• Gloria Reuben & Marty Ashby: For All We Know (2018 [2020], MCG Jazz): [cd]: B+(**)
• Reverso [Frank Woeste/Vincent Courtois/Ryan Keberle]: The Melodic Line (2019 [2020], Out Note): [cd]: B+(*)
• Suzanna Ross: Is Bewitched* . . . *Not Bothered, Not Bewildered (2019 [2020], self-released): [cd]: B [03-20]
• Chanda Rule + Sweet Emma Band: Hold On (2018 [2020], Blujazz/PAO): [cd]: B+(**)
• The Secret Sisters: Saturn Return (2020, New West): [r]: B+(*)
• Sestetto Internazionale: Live in Munich 2019 (2019 [2020], Fundacja Sluchaj): [cd]: B+(***)
• Sløtface: Sorry for the Late Reply (2020, Propeller): [r]: B+(***)
• Curt Sydnor: Deep End Shallow (2019 [2020], Out of Your Head): [cdr]: B- [03-20]
• The Third Mind: The Third Mind (2020, Yep Roc): [r]: A-
• Waclaw Zimpel: Massive Oscillations (2020, Ongehoord): [r]: B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Brent Jensen: The Sound of a Dry Martini: Remembering Paul Desmond (2002 [2020], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)
• New Stories: Speakin' Out (1999 [2020], Origin): [cd]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Daniel Bingert: Berit in Space (Moserobie) [03-13]
• Roscoe Mitchell With Ostravska Banda: Performing Distant Radio Transmission Also Nonaah Trio, Cutouts for Woodwind Quintet and 8.8.88 (Wide Hive) [03-27]

Weekend Roundup

The Democratic presidential primary took a dramatic turn over the last ten days. The relevant event sequence:

1. Joe Biden became the immediate favorite when he announced his run for president. His polls held relatively solid well into last fall, when he started to lose ground in the intensely contested bellwether states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
2. About the same time, Bernie Sanders caught up and passed Elizabeth Warren in the polls, becoming the main challenger to Biden, and more generally to the Democratic Party establishment.
3. As Biden began to fail, billionaires Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg entered the race, as did Deval Patrick. The latter had no traction, but Steyer spent $100 million to make a splash in Nevada and South Carolina, and Bloomberg $500 million on Super Tuesday states. All that advertising money didn't help them much as candidates (Steyer finished 5th in Nevada and 3rd in South Carolina; Bloomberg's sole Super Tuesday win was in American Samoa, where Tulsi Gabbard finished second), but they defined issues that ultimately helped Biden.
4. Sanders won the popular vote in Iowa, increased his margin in New Hampshire, and won a very solid margin in Nevada. Meanwhile, Biden had faltered badly in Iowa (4th place in first-round voting, 14.9%) and in New Hampshire (5th place, 8.4%). Sanders pulled ahead of Biden in national polls for the first time, and was widely considered to be the front-runner in the race.
5. With the "threat" of Sanders firmly established, and Bloomberg pretty severely hobbled in his first debate performance, panic ensued among mainstream Democrats. They lashed out frantically at Sanders, but cooler heads realized that Biden was their most viable alternative, and they organized a raft of endorsements and money to inject into his struggling campaign. He had always polled better in South Carolina than any other "early state" -- and his most effective "moderate" opponents (Buttigieg, Klobuchar) had never had any organization or appeal there, so it's not like they had any other options.
6. Following an endorsement by Rep. Jim Clyburn, Biden bounced back with a very strong showing in South Carolina -- not as high as he had polled for most of 2019, but stronger than most of us expected.
7. Biden's South Carolina win became a signal for Democratic Party regulars to unite behind him, against Sanders (and Warren, who helped split the progressive vote). Steyer, Steyer, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar ended their campaigns, the latter two endorsing Biden.
8. Biden won big on Super Tuesday, winning 10 states (Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia) vs. 4 for Sanders (California, Colorado, Utah, Vermont). See breakdown below.
9. After Super Tuesday, Bloomberg withdrew and endorsed Biden. He also promised to keep his campaign organizations active, redirected at supporting Biden, so in effect he's running a huge pro-Biden PAC. [PS: This opens him to charges like: Fox's Ingraham Angle labels Michael Bloomberg a "puppet master".]
10. Warren also withdrew, without making an endorsement. She has, however, spent most of the week bad-mouthing Sanders supporters for their alleged misbehavior toward her campaign.

I imagine someone will eventually emerge claiming to be the genius behind Biden's transformation, but it's possible there's no conspiracy here. It's not that I can't identify actors or linkages -- you can be pretty certain that when David Brooks wrote his "never Bernie" column or when James Carville crawled out from under his rock to declare that nominating Bernie would be insanity that there were people (and money) behind the scenes pushing them forward. To my mind, the most suspicious sign was Harry Reid's endorsement of Biden only after the Nevada caucus, where he might have had an effect similar to Jim Clyburn's in South Carolina. Sanders' big Nevada win both drove his enemies together and set up expectations that made Biden's South Carolina win look even more impressive.

One lesson from this is that Sanders' appeal is limited, mostly to people who understand his key issues -- a trait he shares with Warren, although until now, one could imagine him not being so limited by it. Also, that he is not immune from media attacks, which have accelerated to new heights recently, and that seems to have scared many people into looking for a safer choice. Why Biden should be that choice isn't very clear, other than that he's the only one unlikely to get shafted by the people who've run the Democratic Party into the ground since the 1970s. Even people who substantively agree with Sanders, and who respect and admire him, have non unreasonable fears that the money people behind the party will do anything to undermine him (a faction that Bloomberg gave an explicit face to), even if that results in Trump winning a second term.

There are a lot of Democrats who only have one real concern in 2020: who can beat Trump? Biden has never seemed like a very solid answer to that question, but if you can't have someone progressive, at least he seems less limited than Bloomberg, Buttigieg, or Klobuchar. He has a long record of going along with whatever the party wanted -- be it wars, free trade deals, favors to the big banks -- without ever picking up the scent of ideology. He represents continuity with the Clintons and Obama, but wasn't necessarily culpable for their failures. He can still feign an emotional attachment to the working class, even though in the end he always winds up siding with the moneyed interests. He comes off as a cipher you can project your hopes onto. He is, for instance, the favorite candidate both of blacks and of culturally conservative whites (the kind most likely to be racists). The South has a lot of both, and that's where he cleaned up on Super Tuesday.

The weak link in Biden's campaign is Biden himself. He's 77, looks fit for that age, but it's easy to find clips where his mind wanders and his mouth goes elsewhere. He failed miserably in the first two contests this year, where voters have a year or more to check the candidates out up close. On the other hand, he won several states on Super Tuesday where he never appeared, and didn't have much if any campaign presence. He has a long record with a lot of dubious votes and speeches, and he'll get a lot of flack over that record. It is far from certain that he can withstand the intense scrutiny that a presidential campaign will entail. Sanders is unlikely to go beyond Biden's political record, but expect the Republicans to be ruthless not just at picking apart Biden's weaknesses but on inventing things from whole cloth. His mental agility, such as it is, will be tested severely.

Sanders will continue to contest the nomination. As Yglesias points out (see below), next month's primaries present some rough challenges for Sanders, and he is playing catch up now, in a process which is biased (if not necessarily rigged) against him. He has gained one big thing from Super Tuesday: he now has a single opponent to define himself against. He needs to do three things viz. Biden: he needs to emphasize the moderation of his views and ingratiate himself with the main current of the Democratic Party (which, issue-wise, is now well to the left of Biden's record, although it's important to make those positions less threatening and more intuitively reasonable); he needs to expose Biden's dangerous incompetency, and the risks the Party is taking in entrusting him with the nomination; and he needs to convince voters that he can be much more effective than Biden at standing up to Trump.

That may be a tall order, but I for one am already convinced on all three counts. The challenge will be in making those points resonate with less informed voters, and in effectively dodging the flak that the media will hurl at him, based on prejudices that are already ingrained.

When I started thinking about what to say this week, I came up with three possible scenarios for Elizabeth Warren. She's since taken one of those off the table, so I won't belabor it, but simply note that had she stayed in the race, she would have needed to do two things. The most obvious one is to attack Biden's personal competency (while respecting, if not necessarily agreeing with, "moderate" positions). The other is that she would need to catapult herself to the front of Bernie's movement, usurping his positions but arguing that she would be more effective at implementing them. The hope would be that after the near-death experience of Super Tuesday, Bernie's supporters may be more open to her taking charge, especially if she proves herself the more effective opponent to Biden. She could even wind up making Bernie her VP. Of course, this would have been difficult to pull off, and she wouldn't have much time, especially for the period when she is dividing the progressive vote. But she was pretty effective at knocking Bloomberg off his chariot, and she could go after Biden more directly than 78-year-old Bernie.

Her other choices were to quite the race (as she's done) and pitch herself to be VP either under Bernie or Biden. She could conceivably be very effective in that role. The problem with going with Bernie is that it's an uphill fight. The question with the latter is whether Biden thinks he needs her that much (after all, many Biden backers hate her as much as they fear and loathe Sanders). The plus side is that it would end the primary process almost immediately, limiting the risk that Bernie might expose Biden's ineptitude. Besides, VPs are historically insignificant (but given Biden's age and problems and Warren's vigor, she could take advantage of the role).

Note that Bernie Sanders says he will drop out if Biden gets plurality coming into Dem convention. He's argued that Biden should do much the same thing if Sanders is leading going into the convention, but with his reserve of unelected second-round delegates, Biden hasn't agreed. This anticipates a graceful exit if his campaign can't rebound in the couple months remaining. I can't blame Bernie if Democrats prefer to go with Biden and his long record of indifference and failure. Greg Magarian commented in Facebook on the article:

Bernie Sanders promises to make the nomination of Joe Biden painless if the moderate is leading come July. He says Elizabeth Warren deserves time and space to decide her own path forward. He won't run on a unity ticket with Biden because two old white guys is at least one too many.

If you've been swallowing, or parroting, the tired narrative that Sanders is nothing but a crazy, misogynistic ideologue who constantly trashes the party and only cares about himself, I respectfully suggest that you listen to what the man says -- all of it, not just the pieces that fit your ingrained narrative. He's an exceptionally decent politician, with plenty of flaws, who's in this to help people.

Elsewhere in my Facebook feed are a bunch of diatribes against Sanders, some complaining about his "arrogance" (for running in the first place?), many more explicitly aimed at his supporters, accusing us of all sorts of vile behavior. I try not to take this personally, but after repeated slanders it's hard not to feel some solidarity with the victims. Sure, maybe some people say some things that are ill-advised. I'll even admit that I can say some disrespectful and even hurtful things about politicians I seriously disagree with, but I usually try to focus on issues and rarely project my critiques onto ordinary people who merely happen to favor someone I don't. The most famous recent case of a campaign generalizing about its opponent's followers was Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables," and that proved to be bad politics as well as a gross generalization. She was, of course, talking about Trump supporters, who by definition are at least willing to tolerate one of the most hateful, corrupt, and dishonest campaigns in US history, but even so, calling people names just turns them off and estranges them further. I'm sick and tired of being called names by partisans of Democratic candidates who themselves have little to offer and not enough self-consciousness to recognize their own past failures.

Of course, in addition to the name-calling every now and then you have to fend off some plain old faulty logic. For example:

If money is everything in politics, why is Biden, who has recently spent so little compared to other candidates, doing so well? Well, you can say it's all those "elites" and secret oligarchs, but I don't buy it (no pun intended).

Start with a faulty premise (money isn't everything in politics) and pile on other misleading and spurious claims. Biden started with name recognition, credibility, and long-standing political links -- things that even with incredible amounts of spending Bloomberg and Steyer were unable to buy in such a short time, things that even more legitimate politicians like Klobuchar and Buttigieg were unable to compete with. So when the election pivoted to becoming a race to stop Sanders, the choice who benefited most was the obvious one, Biden. On the other hand, do you really think that Biden, who can barely put together two coherent sentences in a row, was brilliant enough to pull this off? You don't have to be very conspiracy-oriented to suspect that there are "elites" and oligarchs lurking in the background, pulling on the various strings that orchestrated this turnaround. After all, we live in a world where these sorts of things happen all the time. And that doesn't necessarily mean they have Biden in their pocket, but he is the beneficiary of their machinations, and if he does get elected, he will very likely wind up paying for their favors.

The Super Tuesday breakdown by state (delegates in parens, vote if 5% or more):

• Alabama: Biden 63.3% (44), Sanders 16.5% (8), Bloomberg 11.7%, Warren 5.7%.
• Arkansas: Biden 40.5% (17), Sanders 22.4% (9), Bloomberg 16.7% (5), Warren 10.0%.
• California: Sanders 33.7% (186), Biden 26.4% (148), Bloomberg (13.6% (15), Warren 12.7% (5), Buttigieg (5.6%).
• Colorado: Sanders 36.1% (20), Biden 23.6% (10), Bloomberg 20.5% (9), Warren 17.3% (1).
• Maine: Biden 34.1% (11), Sanders 32.9% (9), Warren 15.7% (4), Bloomberg 12.0%.
• Massachusetts: Biden 33.6% (37), Sanders 26.7% (29), Warren 21.4% (25), Bloomberg 11.8%.
• Minnesota: Biden 38.6% (38), Sanders 29.9% (27), Warren 15.4% (10), Bloomberg 8.3%, Klobuchar 5.6%.
• North Carolina: Biden 43.0% (67), Sanders 24.1% (37), Bloomberg 13.0% (4), Warren 10.5% (2).
• Oklahoma: Biden 38.7% (21), Sanders 25.4% (13), Bloomberg 13.9% (2), Warren 13.4% (1).
• Tennessee: Biden 41.7% (33), Sanders 25.0% (19), Bloomberg 15.5% (10), Warren 10.4% (1).
• Texas: Biden 34.5% (111), Sanders 30.0% (102), Bloomberg 14.4% (10), Warren 11.4% (5).
• Utah: Sanders 34.6% (12), Biden 17.4% (2), Bloomberg 16.7% (2), Warren 15.5%, Buttigieg 9.8%.
• Vermont: Sanders 50.8% (11), Biden 22.0% (5), Warren 12.6%, Bloomberg 9.4%.
• Virginia: Biden 53.2% (66), Sanders 23.1% (31), Warren 10.7% (2), Bloomberg 9.8%.

Some scattered links this week:

• James Arkin/Marianne Levine: Biden, Bullock boost Dems' Senate hopes. Bullock didn't have much to offer as a presidential candidate, but in states like Montana we'll take whatever we can get, and that state could do much worse. One might make a case that Sanders would be an asset to down-ballot races if he could dramatically boost turnout, but that isn't clearly established. On the other hand, I don't doubt that him heading the ticket would be a lightning rod for Democrats trying to run in red-ish districts, and don't have any real answer for that (other than that, in the longer term, Sanders' programs will do much more to solve serious problems, especially in red-ish districts).

• Dan Balz: Sanders faces a challenging 30 days in his quest to defeat Biden.

• Zack Beauchamp:

  • Elizabeth Warren's exit interview is a warning for the dirtbag left. I'm really getting tired of being called names by politicians trying to distance themselves from the left. Isn't "dirtbag" just a nastier, more direct way of saying "deplorable"? And what exactly is it that makes us on the left so deplorable? Wanting health care, education, affordable housing and food secured as a right? Wanting clean air and water, and a stable environment? Wanting an end to war and violence? Wanting an end to racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination? Wanting the political process to be free of distortions caused by privileging money? Of course, it's possible that some of the people who habitually attack leftists think they want some of those things, too, but what chance do they have of succeeding when they spend so much effort attacking people they should be allying with? [PS: The term "dirtbag left" seems to be a self-description from the podcast Chapo Trap House, something I've never heard and know next to nothing about. They did an interview with Sanders, which Beauchamp and/or Warren seem to think is enough to implicate them in every bit of crude humor they allegedly indulge in.]

  • Netanyahu wins big in Israel's elections -- but not enough to secure full control. One section here is called "The big policy stakes of the Israeli election," but it's hard for me to find any. The one sticking point of contention is whether Netanyahu should be protected from going to jail for his corruption.

• Kim Bellware: Matt Gaetz made light of coronavirus by wearing a gas mask. Now one of his constituents has died.

• David Dayen: Mike Bloomberg's belly flop was a great moment for democracy.

  As a Super Tuesday state resident, I ask you to trust me on this: you could not escape Bloomberg's presence on air, online, and in your mailbox. He spent more to win the presidential election than any general election candidate in American history, and he reached that lofty perch nine months before Election Day. That doesn't even include what he spent to buy political support, from candidates he previously showered with campaign contributions and mayors whose initiatives he funded through his philanthropy.

• Thomas B Edsall:

  • Why is it so hard for democracy to deal with inequality? He cites Thomas Piketty's new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, on how center-left parties have shifted their focus and membership to educated professionals, and as such have lost focus on the working class and inequality. Paul Krugman has a less useful review of Piketti: Thomas Piketty turns Marx on his head.

  • Does anyone have a clue about how to fight back against Trump's racism? "Moderates and progressives have a lot to lose by ignoring each other on this crucial question."

  • The audacity of hate: "Trump has a knack for turning anger and fear into political power. And for turning the volume up to 11."

• Adam Eichen: We're the closest we've ever been to campaign finance reform: Talk about understatements: "But the fight is far from over." The thing that I remember is that after the 2008 election, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency yet didn't lift a finger to limit the role of private money and the influence of big donors. Maybe that was because Obama significantly outraised McCain? And that he recognized that as the incumbent president, he'd be able to do that again in 2012?

• David A Farenthold/Joshua Partlow/Jonathan O'Connell/Carol D Leonnig: Newly obtained documents show $157,000 in additional payments by the Secret Service to Trump properties.

• Josh Gerstein: Judge slams Barr, orders review of Mueller report deletions.

• Ryan Grim: Elizabeth Warren should endorse Bernie Sanders -- not for him, but for herself and her mission: "Warren stayed out of the 2016 Democratic primary, and it hurt her badly."

• John F Harris: 2020 becomes the dementia campaign: "Biden and Trump partisans trade charges of senility in an era of aging candidates."

• Kerry Howley: The enthralling brutality of Elizabeth Warren: "What it felt like watching her go in for the kill." Part of what makes her so attractive as a vice-presidential nominee.

• Sean Illing:

  • "The party needed an intervention and the voters staged it": Interview with James Carville, who just crawled out of his obscurity to lead the scaremongering against Bernie Sanders.

  • What we get wrong about misogyny: Interview with Kate Manne, author of Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny.

• Fred Kaplan: The US-Taliban agreement is not a peace deal: "It's not even a cease-fire."

• Kate Kelly: Wall Street, encouraged by Biden's wins, breaks out its checkbooks: "Fearful of the more progressive candidates, some finance executives had sidelined themselves from the elections until Mr. Biden surged."

• Catherine Kim:

  • Sen. Kamala Harris joins the growing list of lawmakers endorsing Joe Biden. Article includes a list of lesser figures who also endorsed Biden (about half with "former" in their titles). Also mentions one person who recently endorsed Bernie Sanders: Jesse Jackson. Also note: with Warren out of the way, The Nation finally endorsed Sanders.

  • Trump announces Mark Meadows as his new chief of staff: Replacing Mick Mulvaney, who is being promoted to "United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland." I didn't realize that was even a thing, and would have resisted the temptation to appoint someone named Mick to it (but, obviously, Trump didn't).

• Ezra Klein: Sanders can't lead the Democrats if his campaign treats them like the enemy. That seems like a fair point, but then consider the subhed: "What Bernie needs to learn from Biden." Biden is the favorite of the professional party elite because he's perfectly in tune with their cater to business interests while only occasionally giving lip service to the party's rank-and-file voters. Those same elites see Sanders not just as an outsider but as the leader of a revolt against their rule.

• Natasha Korecki: Biden's 'Bernie brothers' remark lights up social media.

• Natasha Lennard: Trump is a disaster for abortion rights -- but Joe Biden can't be trusted to fight for choice. E.g., see Lisa Lerer: When Joe Biden voted to let states overturn Roe v. Wade.

• Eric Levitz: Bernie's revolution failed. But his movement can still win.

• German Lopez:

  • Joe Biden's new plan to end the opioid epidemic is the most ambitious in the field.

  • Mike Bloomberg spent $500 million to win nothing but American Samoa. Living in Kansas, and using the DVR or streaming services for most of what I do watch, I got through the period without watching any Bloomberg commercials, so I can't say for sure, but Bloomberg got into the race because Biden was faltering, only to find that hardly anyone liked him. If Bloomberg's ads broadly supported "moderate" candidates, they likely helped Biden as much or more than they garnered votes for Bloomberg -- who may be just as happy to have salvaged Biden's flagging candidacy as he would have been had he wound up being the "moderate" standard bearer. Had he won the nomination, I'm convinced that Bloomberg would be a total disaster against Trump. Still, it's a testimony to Sanders that Bloomberg feared and hated him enough to spend $500 million just to run interference for Biden.

• Mark Mazzetti/Adam Goldman: Erik Prince recruits ex-spies to help infiltrate liberal groups.

• Laura McGann: Chris Matthews's misogyny shaped political journalism for a generation. Matthews "retired" last week, after a string of faux pas -- most notoriously his comparison of Sanders' win in Nevada to the Nazi invasion of France (an analogy that would have been more apt or at least more amusing had he saved it for Biden's Super Tuesday avalanche). My only lament is that I figure it's likely that he'll unretire to Fox, where his being a lout and an asshole will be deemed an asset, and left unchecked.

• Ella Nilsen:

  • Why early polls for Super Tuesday missed Biden's sweep. Something like 30 percent of voters decided who to vote for in the last few days, and 47 percent of them picked Biden, over 18 percent for Sanders (who led Biden 33% to 29% among voters who had decided earlier).

  • /Li Zhou: Why women are feeling so defeated after Elizabeth Warren's loss.

• Ashley Parker/Yasmeen Abutaleb/Lena H Sun: Squandered time: How the Trump administration lost control of the coronavirus crisis.

• Cameron Peters: The next Democratic debate will feature a much smaller stage: Just Sanders and Biden.

• Andrew Prokop: The delegate math for Biden and Sanders after Super Tuesday, explained. After Super Tuesday, Biden is ahead 184-106. That margin is quite a bit less than Hillary Clinton's lead over Sanders at this time in 2016 (but California voted much later back then).

• Robert Reich: Five ways William Barr is turning America into a dictatorship.

• Nathan J Robinson: Democrats, you really do not want to nominate Joe Biden. Also wrote Time to fight harder than we've ever fought before, and What the stakes are.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Trump: "We'll be cutting" entitlement programs. White House: He didn't realy mean that. But you can tell he wants to cut programs, because he's using the word "entitlement." Even "safety net" implies somewhat optional, although taking it away would hurt the people who most need it. I'd rather think of those programs as basic rights. Cutting them takes rights away from people.

  • Trump used his Fox News town hall to again mislead Americans about coronavirus.

  • Facebook's top news stories are like a window into an alternate dimension: "It's Super Tuesday and the coronavirus is spreading, but Facebook is talking about Hillary Clinton's emails."

  • Pence and Azar's coronavirus media tour revealed that their main concern is protecting Trump.

• Dylan Scott:

  • Polls show Biden and Sanders are probably going to split Warren's voters.

  • Why support for Medicare-for-all didn't translate into a bigger Super Tuesday for Bernie Sanders: Exit polls show strong support for Medicare-for-all, yet Biden got 25% of the votes from those who favored it over Biden's opposing plan. Jedediah Briton-Purdy tweeted:

    Among other things, the share of voters saying they support Bernie's program but voting for more conservative candidates is a measure of the distance between our success in naming a better world and our failure to foster political faith in its nearby possibility.

    Or the trashing of political faith by Democrats who have run to the left then settled into near-nothing reforms, inaction, and/or worse once elected.

• Nate Silver: After Super Tuesday, Joe Biden is a clear favorite to win the nomination: latest odds have Biden 8 in 9, no majority 1 in 12, Sander 1 in 50. But Micah Cohen hedges a bit: Confidence interval: Sanders still hasa shot.

• Jeff Spross:

  • Could Democrats win the battle against Trump but lose the war against Trumpism?

    The Republicans, determined to maintain a plutocracy-friendly policy regime when it comes to taxes, regulation, and public investment (not to mention voting rights and access to democracy) have had no choice but to pitch reactionary white chauvinism to white voters in a bid to stay viable. Trump's triumph in their 2016 primary simply transformed the subtext into text. Democrats, hobbled by the interests of the donor class that Hillary Clinton and now Biden represent, have limped along by promising to be somewhat less poisonous compared to the alternative. . . .

    The platforms of Elizabeth Warren and especially Sanders -- taxes to smash America's concentrations of wealth, a national job guarantee, Medicare-for-all, an end to the student debt crisis, a Green New Deal, a resuscitated labor movement -- demonstrate an ambition and urgency that at least come close to matching the severity of the challenge. Should Democrats best Trump, they will have two years (four, if they're lucky) to pass such changes.

    If, however, Democrats don't meaningfully address these problems -- dying jobs and dying communities and dying hope for the future -- it will only further empower and embolden Republican arguments pitting working Americans against each other, that government isn't the answer, and that immigrants and minorities are to blame, while leaving voters wondering what the point of the Democratic Party is. That's one way we end up with an even more extreme version of Trump next time around.

  • Jack Welch's legacy looks very different than it did 20 years ago. Related: Stephen Meyer: Jack Welch is dead. Neoliberalism lives on.

• Paul Starr: How fear of Bernie Sanders has driven the great consolidation in the Democratic race: "Voters didn't suddenly discover a passion for Biden."

• Emily Stewart: Mike Bloomberg is proof that you can't buy a presidency. On the other hand, Donald Trump is proof that you can, if you can overcome the insularity of your class and locale -- something the much richer Bloomberg couldn't do).

• Matt Taibbi: To rebound and win, Bernie Sanders needs to leave his comfort zone: "Current and former staffers say Sanders has run a great campaign -- except when it comes to taking on Democrats like Joe Biden by name. Can he fix that?" I doubt he can, and I doubt he wants to, not only because he is an exceptionally decent person but because he realizes that backlash against exposing Biden's faults will hurt his campaign against Trump, and won't help his long-term goal of winning through ideas.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • The political map ahead is bad for Bernie Sanders. Still, much depends on Michigan, where Bernie won an upset in 2016. On the other hand, Biden's peculiar appeal to both blacks and white racists seems tailor made for a state that has previously voted for George Wallace and Jesse Jackson. Four years ago Bernie barely lost Illinois and Missouri, but both have lots of similar white voters who voted against Clinton but could go for Biden. Then there is Florida, where Bernie is presumably toast because he didn't regurgitate the usual anti-Cuban jingoism.

  • An expert explains how America got stuck playing catch-up on coronavirus.

  • Bernieworld's reaction to Super Tuesday's defeat, explained.

  • Why Elizabeth Warren is losing even as white professionals love her. Written before Super Tuesday, this struck me as a sober assessment of her dwindling chances. It's been clear to me for a long time that the thing that most limited her was her inability to broaden her base beyond highly-educated elite liberals.

• Li Zhou: The Alabama Republican Senate runoff is bad news for Jeff Sessions: He came in second with 31.65%, trailing Tommy Tuberville, setting up a runoff. Roy Moore came in fourth this time, with 7.15%.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, March archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 32823 [32856] rated (+33), 244 [245] unrated (-1).

[PS: Made some changes below, fixing a bad typo, and noting that Buttigieg (as well as Klobuchar) has endorsed Biden. Beto O'Rourke has also endorsed Biden.]

Might as well sweep up some loose ends missed from yesterday's Weekend Roundup, starting with Amy Klobuchar drops out of the 2020 presidential race. I didn't expect this until after Super Tuesday, where she still had a chance to win her home state, Minnesota. Instead, she's headed to Dallas to endorse Joe Biden. She may figure this "bold move" puts her in good stead to become Biden's VP pick, but I doubt there's a deal: the nomination is still pretty far off, so Biden needs to reserve his options, and she's really not that important.

When I started writing about Dylan Matthews' If anti-Bernie Democrats were serious, they'd unite around Joe Biden right now, it was still just a piece of armchair quarterbacking. I figured all the candidates had already sunk so many resources into Super Tuesday -- just three days after South Carolina, and tomorrow as I write -- that the sensible thing for all to do would be to let that play out. That Steyer, who had focused hard on South Carolina, saw his third-place finish as the end there wasn't a big surprise, but Buttigieg and Klobuchar never had a prayer in South Carolina, and could easily have waved away their inevitable failures there. (Buttigieg finished a respectable fourth there, with 8.25%, ahead of Warren's 7.06%. Admittedly, Klobuchar's 6th place 3.15% was a pretty poor showing.)

The main, and perhaps the only, reason candidates drop out of the presidential race is the money dries up. Steyer had his own money, so we can fairly assume he made his own decision. But Buttigieg and Klobuchar were dependent on donors, and big donors at that, so they were finished as soon as their donors' calculations drifted elsewhere. Indeed, both coupled their withdrawals with endorsements of Biden -- even though Buttigieg's donors seemed closer to Bloomberg, who having sunk a lot of money into Super Tuesday is still in the race. Still, part of the calculation here is recognition that Bloomberg has failed to establish himself as anywhere near as effective a candidate as Biden -- a pretty low bar. Assuming the polls are correct that Biden beats Bloomberg everywhere, you'll hear a lot next week about how Bloomberg split the "moderate" vote, putting pressure on him to drop out soon. After all, Bloomberg got into the race for fear that Biden would stumble. He was right that Biden did, but himself proved to be even more hapless.

In some circles, you'll also hear complaints about Warren splitting the progressive vote. (E.g., Sarah Jones: The most progressive thing Warren can do is leave the race.) It's certainly the case that if she can't win Massachusetts (and/or her native state of Oklahoma) it's hard to imagine where else she could win. While in theory she could still be a compromise pick at a deadlocked convention, I doubt that having lost everywhere is going to persuade delegates whose prime concern is nominating a candidate who can beat Trump. Still, I have to respect that she's not caving in on the eve of the big election -- even if all that shows is that her donors aren't as fickle as the ones who decided that Biden's 49% in South Carolina -- a state he's polled over 60% in most of last year -- makes him a juggernaut. And, frankly, her spirited evisceration of Bloomberg earns respect, even from those of us who prefer Sanders. Bloomberg may be trying to buy votes from the "moderate lane" but he's really just a "Never Trump" Republican, and his nomination would be the end of the Democratic Party as a source of hope for the vast majority of Americans.

We'll know more in a couple days. By the end of the week, the race may be down to just Sanders and Biden, to be decided over the next few months in large battleground states from New York to Illinois. Those split only slightly in favor of Clinton in 2016, with Clinton winning in party strongholds (like NYC and Chicago) and Sanders everywhere else. Sanders is better organized this year. Clinton and Biden have various tradeoffs, which don't necessarily favor one or the other.

I didn't write much about coronavirus yesterday, but we should stress one key point: while many health issues are non-contagious, and therefore even systemic failure only has piecemeal effects, this sort of contagious pandemic affects not just the individuals who get sick, but also the public that interacts with them. Therefore, this puts exceptional emphasis on public health. The US, where illness is most often seen as little more than an opportunity for business to exploit, is especially ill-prepared for this -- and would be even if the people who in charge of the public response weren't ridiculously incompetent, especially at the Trump-Pence level. (Nonetheless, I did feel it was premature to point out pieces like this one: Ryu Spaeth: The coronavirus is Trump's worst nightmare.

The virus has exposed another pretty major systemic weakness, starting with the stock market crash last week. For more on this, see Charlie Warzel: Coronavirus will test our new way of life. As Warzel explains, the search for extreme economic efficiency has left most businesses with fragile supply lines, so local disruptions quickly hit other locations, or even become global shortages.

I expected to find more pieces on the prevalence of "irritable mental gestures" at this year's CPAC, but most must have already vanished in the blogroll scrolls. Here's one I missed, touching on themes I did notice: Osita Nwanevu: At CPAC, the socialists are coming to get you.

Back to music, an exceptional number of A- records this week, all (but one) in the "new music" domain. Three came from my queue (Kenny Barron, Al Gold, TorbjÖrn Zetterberg). One was a leftover from December 2019 that only showed up in Dave Sumner's January edition of The best jazz on Bandcamp. There is quite a bit of back catalog by Muriel Grossmann, so I should probably search further, but it's also possible that Llorenç Barceló's organ is what made the difference this time. Guitarist Ross Hammond was known to me, but looks like he has a bunch of records I've also missed.

Of the others, the late rapper Mac Miller's swansong is the biggest surprise, and the only record here that's been widely praised. (Well, further down the list there's Grimes, and further still Destroyer, 070 Shake, J Hus, and Beatrice Dillon.) The Evan Parker/Paul Lytton duo is the third straight A- from Intakt -- but the Tim Berne Snakeoil, despite the return of Marc Ducret from his best-ever period, didn't quite make it four straight. I suppose I should have resisted Waco Brothers' retreads, but couldn't. Stuck in my brain ever since: "$ Bill the Cowboy." [PS: Only after my initial draft did I figure out that these are reissues instead of remakes.]

I did an update to Robert Christgau's website last week, then didn't get around to making a public announcement (beyond the one on the website itself), or even my promised update to the "tech" mailing list. Added to the website are all the pieces from And It Don't Stop subscription newsletter. We had always planned on adding them sooner or later, but it proved difficult to nail down just when (even after I went ahead and did it). As subscribers know, some content there is restricted to those who pay for it ($5 per month), and some is free. I believe you can subscribe to just get the free stuff, but haven't tested that. The restricted material is primarily the new Consumer Guides, as they demand by far the most work to research and write, so it was felt that they should be withheld for a fairly long period, so subscribers get a sense of exclusivity for their money. The number they came up with is eight months, so I locked that in to the Consumer Guide columns. It was also (eventually) decided to embargo the free material for one month, but that happened after my update, so what got through is already unlocked. In the future, I'll apply the one-month lock on free articles, but not on Xgau Sez, because it's easiest (for now) just to plug it into the pre-existing unlocked framework.

A couple more technical details. I added an And It Don't Stop menu selection under "Writings," which leads you to a directory where most of the free articles reside (exceptions are Xgau Sez, 2019 Dean's List, and Consumer Guides (currently stubs, which will unlock when the time comes). I added a feature to the directory index code to pick up descriptions (copied from the article subheds) and add them to the listing, which should make it easier to identify articles. It also adds a HMTL "meta description" declaration, which may help Google (and others) with their indexing. The same format could be used for adding "meta keywords" declarations, but I'm not doing that yet. The changed code is commonly used throughout the site, so one could go back through the thousand-plus articles and use it to add descriptions and/or keywords -- a daunting but not impossible task. (One reason I did it here was that Christgau had already written text that I could use for the purpose.)

I've also added And It Don't Stop entries to the Bibliography, which gives you a serial index by date. Long ago I had planned to eventually replace these flat files with database queries, which would be more flexible for searching by date, publication, maybe even subject or keywords. Never did that, and didn't even bother imposing the five-year chunk rule to what used to be "2010-2014" (but now is "2010-" and continuing to grow). We would be better off if we did all of the indexing from the database, but I keep dragging my feet on the project, so it remains conceptual.

I haven't added the new consumer guide entries to the database yet. It appears as though they, too, have to be timelocked, so anything I did now wouldn't be visible to you for another 4-5 months. The obvious way to do this is to modify the SQL code to pull out the "ent_date" table entry, then write some PHP code to drop the review and grade on entries less than eight months old. I'd have to track down all of the places where this code exists (probably 10-20), standardize the tables, and pass them through a filter to enforce the timelock. Not hard, but I haven't yet finished converting all of the database code to work with PHP 7, so that needs to be done at the same time.

One thing I'd like to do at the same time is to grab a list of newsletter subscribers and use it to validate users, so subscribers can see the latest reviews on the website as well as via And It Don't Stop. Substack doesn't seem to have any useful API for this, so I'd have to hack something less dynamic. Not impossible, but a fair bit of learning curve (e.g., it would require use of cookies, something I've avoided so far).

It bothers me that I've made so little progress on this project. The last few weeks have been especially depressing, extending several months of lethargy. I keep thinking that once I finish the weekly posts, I'll get to doing some real work. Will see what happens tomorrow.

New records reviewed this week:

• 070 Shake: Modus Vivendi (2020, GOOD Music/Def Jam): [r]: B+(*)
• Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band: Just Like Moby Dick (2020, Paradise of Bachelors): [r]: B+(***)
• Kenny Barron/Dave Holland Trio Featuring Johnathan Blake: Without Deception (2019 [2020], Dare2): [cd]: A- [03-06]
• Antoine Berjeaut: Moving Cities (2017 [2019], I See Colors): [bc]; B+(**)
• Tim Berne's Snakeoil: The Fantastic Mrs. 10 (2019 [2020], Intakt): [r]: B+(***)
• Calle Loiza Jazz Project: There Will Never Be Another You (2019 [2020], self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
• Chicago Farmer: Flyover Country (2020, Chicago Farmer): [r]: A-
• Destroyer: Have We Met (2020, Merge): [r]: B+(*)
• Beatrice Dillon: Workaround (2017-19 [2020], Pan): [r]: B+(**)
• Yelena Eckemoff: Nocturnal Animals (2018 [2020], L&H Production, 2CD): [cd]: B+(**)
• Nick Finzer: Cast of Characters (2019 [2020], Outside In Music): [cd]: B+(*)
• Al Gold: Al Gold's Paradise (2020, self-released): [cd]: A- [03-06]
• Grimes: Miss Anthropocene (2020, 4AD): [r]: B+(***)
• Muriel Grossmann: Reverence (2019, RR Gems): [r]: A-
• Ross Hammond/Oliver Lake/Mike Pride: Our Place on the Wheel (2020, Prescott): [r]: A-
• The Heliocentrics: Infinity of Now (2020, Madlib Invazion): [r]: B+(***)
• J Hus: Big Conspiracy (2020, Black Butter): [r]: B+(**)
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis: The Music of Wayne Shorter (2015 [2020], Blue Engine, 2CD): [r]: B-
• Dawda Jobarteh: I Met Her by the River (2018, Stern's Africa): [r]: B
• Mike McGinniss/Elias Bailey/Vinnie Sperrazza: Time Is Thicker (2020, Open Stream Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Mac Miller: Circles (2018 [2020], Warner): [r]: A-
• John Moreland: LP5 (2020, Old Omens): [r]: B+(**)
• Tami Neilson: Chicka Boom! (2020, Outside): [r]: B+(**)
• Never Weather: Blissonance (2019 [2020], Ridgeway): [cd]: B+(*)
• Evan Parker/Paul Lytton: Collective Calls (Revisited) (Jubilee) (2019 [2020], Intakt): [r]: A-
• Dan Rosenboom: Absurd in the Anthropocene (2020, Gearbox): [r]: B+(**)
• Torbjörn Zetterberg & Den Stora Fragan: Are You Happy (2019 [2020], Moserobie): [cd]: A-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Terry Allen + Panhandle Mystery Band: Pedal Steal + Four Corners (1985-93 [2019], Paradise of Bachelors, 3CD): [r]: B+(*)
• Mogadisco: Dancing Mogadishu, Somalia 1972-1991 (1972-91 [2019], Analog Africa): [r]: B+(***)
• The John Tchicai Quartet: Live at the Stone (2007 [2020], Minus Zero): [bc]: B+(*)
• Waco Brothers: Resist! (1995-2005 [2020], Bloodshot): [r]: A-

Old music:

• Evan Parker/Agustí Fernández: The Voice Is One (2009 [2012], Not Two): [r]: B+(***)
• Evan Parker & Joe McPhee: What/If/They Both Could Fly (2012 [2013], Rune Grammofon): [r]: B+(***)
• Waco Brothers: Waco Express: Live and Kickin' at Schuba's Tavern, Chicago (2008, Bloodshot): [r]: B+(***)
• Waco Brothers & Paul Burch: The Great Chicago Fire (2012, Bloodshot): [r]: B+(*)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• François Carrier/Tomek Gadecki/Marcik Bozek/Michel Lambert: Wide (FMR)
• Day Dream: Originals (Corner Store Jazz) [03-27]
• Alex Goodman: Impressions in Blue and Red (Outside In Music, 2CD) [03-13]
• Hayoung Lyou: Metamorphosis (Endectomorph Music) [04-17]
• Shunzo Ohno: Runner (Pulsebeats) [04-03]
• Carl Saunders: Jazz Trumpet (Summit)

Weekend Roundup

Joe Biden gets his first primary win in South Carolina, winning by a larger margin than polls had indicated. With 99.91% reporting, Biden had 48.45%, Bernie Sanders 19.91%, Tom Steyer 11.34%, Pete Buttigieg 8.24%, Elizabeth Warren 7.06%, Amy Klobuchar 3.15%, and Tuli Gabbard 1.28%. He will have three days to enjoy the win before Super Tuesday next week.

Before the election, Nate Silver posited three possible Super Tuesday projections estimates based on how well Biden does in South Carolina. According to the "Biden wins big" scenario, Biden is expected to win Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Arkansas next week, with Klobuchar favored in Minnesota, and Sanders ahead in California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Utah, Maine, and Vermont. Bloomberg will be on the ballot then, but Silver doesn't expect him to win any states. His best bets seem to be in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Virginia (with 28-25% share of delegates). That would leave Sanders with 39% of committed delegates, Biden 29%, Bloomberg 13%, Warren 10%, Buttigieg 6%, Klobuchar 3%. Sanders best upset prospects are in Virginia, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Texas (where he's led several polls; see NBC News polls: Sanders has the edge in Texas, is tied with Biden in North Carolina).

Following his big win in Nevada, a bunch of Bernie Sanders pieces, including a lot of hysteria from Democratic Party elites and "Never Trumpers," and a little more on the race:

• Zack Beauchamp:

  • Pete Buttigieg drops out of the presidential race. Given how little time there is between South Carolina's primary and "Super Tuesday," and how much of an outlier South Carolina is compared to other Democratic primaries, I'm surprised that anyone would fold up their campaign between the two, but we now have two candidates (Steyer and Buttigieg) doing just that. Given that Steyer was self-funded, you can be pretty sure that his decision was his own. It makes some sense: in the rich egomaniac lane, he was certain to get crowded out by the even richer Michael Bloomberg, so at least he's exiting on a plateau. Buttigieg, however, came into the race as one of the poorest and least promising of candidates, and he's actually had a pretty remarkable run. He may have never had the money or oganization to run a national campaign, and his prospects weren't great, but he would certainly do better on Super Tuesday than he did in South Carolina, so why not give it a few more days? I have no doubt that the answer was that his donors pulled the plug, hoping to move his votes to Biden or Bloomberg in a frantic effort to stop Sanders. I never shared " the level of contempt directed toward Buttigieg from Sanders supporters," but I do think he hurt himself and his future credibility by going so far out of his way to badmouth Sanders. I think he could have tried to bridge the gap between business and its many victims, in a way which would help reduce the social toll while still growing a healthy economy. He could, in short, have made himself seem concerned and committed, as well as cautious and pragmatic, but he didn't. Rather, he let himself be a spokesperson for a bunch of rich assholes who discarded him as soon as he became inconvenient. As Molly Ivans put it, "lie down with dogs, get up with fleas." [PS: I finally got around to reading Masha Gessen: The queer opposition to Pete Buttigieg, explained, and found I couldn't care less. Her conclusion, that "he is profoundly, essentially conservative," explains why his gayness turned out to be so boring.]

  • What David Brooks gets wrong about Bernie Sanders: "The New York Times columnist is a perfect exemplar of the baseless centrist freakout about Sanders's supposed authoritarianism." Brooks' column is titled No, not Sanders, not ever, where the guy who got rich voicing conservative attacks on liberals declares "I'll cast my lot with democratic liberalism," which for him means anyone but Sanders. Beauchamp answers by quoting a Jedediah Britton-Purdy tweet:

    The Sanders campaign is an effort to make real the principles of personal dignity, autonomy, free association, plurality, & self-development that liberalism prizes. To say the opposite sells criminally short both liberalism and Sanders.

• Jamelle Bouie: The case for Bernie Sanders: "Despite his age, he promises a true break from the past." Part of a series, with: Michelle Goldberg on Elizabeth Warren; Ross Douthat on Joe Biden; Frank Bruni on Pete Buttigieg; David Leonhardt on Amy Klobuchar; and David Brooks shilling for Mike Bloomberg. Bouie also wrote: The Trumpian liberalism of Michael Bloomberg: "He may be running as the anti-Trump, but when it comes to the politics of racial control, there is a resemblance."

• Zak Cheney-Rice: Fear powered Joe Biden's South Carolina victory.

  Rather, it suggests another calculation at work. There's a yawning chasm between black people's recognition that we deserve better from the political order and our belief that elected officials will deliver it. More likely than not, Biden didn't win South Carolina because he built the best case for himself. He won because black people have seen what it looks like when he fails them. Saturday was not a glowing endorsement of his candidacy. If anything, it was a concession to a politics of fear.

• Thomas L Friedman: Dems, you can defeat Trump in a landslide: The idiot-savant of the New York Times argues for a "national unity" ticket, combining Sanders and Bloomberg, with cabinet-level positions for everyone from Mitt Romney (Commerce Secretary) and William McRaven (Defense Secretary) to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (UN Ambassador). Once again, Friedman shows off his boundless faith in the benevolence of the rich and famous. I wonder if he realizes that the track record for pairing antagonists on the presidential ticket has a pretty checkered record: especially Lincoln-Johnson and Harrison-Tyler, where death elevated unpopular vice-presidents who were politically opposite to their mandate, but I can think of other Friedmanesque dream tickets that could have gone as badly (e.g., Jefferson-Burr, Jackson-Calhoun).

• Masha Gessen: What Bernie Sanders should have said about socialism and totalitarianism in Cuba: Actually, I don't have any problem with what Sanders said, except that I might have been more impolitic in pointing out that Castro started with one of the most corrupt and savagely inequal nations in Latin America -- a state can can be traced to its last-in-the-hemisphere abolition of slavery and to colonialism by American economic interests -- and struggled heroically to fashion one of the most egalitarian ones, despite constant hostility from the US, including the imposition of crippling blockades and sanctions. I'd also point out that America's hostility had nothing to do with concern for the civil or human rights of the Cuban people, and everything to do with spite engendered by Castro's expropriation of American business property and the threat international companies felt from the existence of the revolutionary government. I'd also point out that anti-communism in America has always been dictated by business interests, and has been especially effective at undermining unions and the left inside as well as beyond US borders. It also bugs me when emigres from the Soviet bloc have so completely internalized cold war propaganda that they continue to use it reflexively to promote militarist, anti-left, and anti-democratic political agendas.

• Sarah Jones: Who's afraid of Bernie Sanders?

  To deny Sanders victory if he conjures up a plurality rather than a clear majority is to make Sanders's evaluation of the party its epitaph. Democrats would confirm to the public that the party isn't working for anyone who isn't well-educated and well-off -- and that they don't really want to change. They would damage not only their credibility but the lives of the nation's poor, for whom another Trump term would be catastrophic.

• Akela Lacy: Bloomberg has hired the vice chairs of the Texas and California Democratic parties.

• Branko Marcetic: Joe Biden has a long history of giving Republicans what they want: "For Republicans, Joe Biden has long been the ideal negotiating partner -- because he's so willing to cave in on most anything Republicans want." A excerpt from the author's forthcoming book, Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden.

• Dylan Matthews: If anti-Bernie Democrats were serious, they'd unite around Joe Biden right now. This is basically a taunt, but ego aside (and sure, that's a big aside) Bloomberg got into the race because he doubted Biden's up to the task. Biden's first win doesn't prove otherwise, but his comeback does seem to reflect a belated recognition that the other "center lane" candidates no longer look promising -- as Jonathan Chait argues: Joe Biden now the only Democrat who can stop Bernie Sanders. Also: Heading into Super Tuesday, Biden gets big funding boost, although "big" here is still way short of what Sanders is raising, let alone how much Bloomberg is spending. [PS: Buttigieg dropping out looks like his donors pulled the rug out from under him to move votes to Biden. By the way, the ducks are lining up: Wasserman Schultz endorses Joe Biden for president.]

• Media Matters:

  • At CPAC, Glenn Beck says Bernie Sanders "revolution" will lead to "another Holocaust".

  • CNN's Michael Smerconish: "Can either coronavirus or Bernie Sanders be stopped?"

  • Matt Gertz: The Fox-Trump feedback loop is channeling Trump's coronavirus attacks on journalists, Democrats.

  • John Whitehouse: After likening Bernie Sanders to a Nazi, Fox host demands that debate moderators follow his lead: Mark R Levin.

• Ella Nilsen: Bernie Sanders posts a record $46.5 million February fundraising haul.

• Alex Pareene: The selling of the Democratic primary. [PS: Pareene tweet: "my no-irony take is that Biden would've won in 2016 but he's incoherent now and it would be deeply irresponsible to nominate him."]

• Steve Phillips: Bernie Sanders can beat Trump. Here's the math.

• Charles P Pierce: The biggest challenge for the Sanders campaign is its own premature triumphalism. Sample bloviage:

  Bernie Sanders has surrounded himself with people so utterly pure in their own opinion of themselves that they object to compromises that they themselves made. . . . Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat. He is an independent who quadrennially cosplays as a Democrat because he wants to run for president. For this, he should be eternally grateful that a) nobody makes the point that at least Ralph Nader had the stones to be an independent and run as an independent; and b) that he is running now and not back in the days when there really was a Democratic establishment that would have been able to crush him like a bug. . . . It turns out that many of the Bernie stans can be more insufferable in victory than they were in defeat. I say this in all love and Christian fellowship: Bernie Sanders and his more fervent followers and the many sanctimonious ratfckers who run his campaign can fck right off.

  It's hard to tell where the various smear campaigns against Sanders supporters start and end (if indeed they have any limits at all). I'm not involved in the campaign, and I doubt I know anyone who is, but it's hard not to feel personally insulted by such blanket slanders. Makes me feel like one of Hillary Clinton's deplorables, which I guess we were even before she took aim at Trump's minions.

  Admittedly, I'm less bothered when Pierce applies his vocabulary to something like What a day it's been for the paranoid little terrarium that is the modern conservative mind, or Trump's coronavirus press conference was the apotheosis of 40 years of Republican philosophy.

• Leonard Pitts: Sanders' most rabid fans on the left no improvement over Trump's on the right. Pitts is nationally syndicated, and the Wichita Eagle runs his weekly column as its sole token liberal alternative to Cal Thomas, Marc Thiessen, and a host of other reactionary cranks. This is the most disappointing column I've ever read from him, as he casts even wider shade on Sanders' supporters than Pierce did (while also reminding us that Sanders is not a real Democrat). A self-appointed moderate, Pitts likes to assume that left and right are symmetrical, so he asserts that "Sanders could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters" -- Trump has actually made that boast about his supporters, many of whom are into guns and violence. But more basically, you don't get to the left without developing the critical and moral faculties to question the use and abuse of power and wealth, and that makes it impossible to blindly follow anyone -- for examples of Das Führerprinzip, look to the right.

• Andrew Prokop: Tom Steyer drops out of the presidential race: "It turns out Democratic voters were not seeking their own billionaire to save them from Trump." One might argue that they were waiting for a richer, more obnoxious billionaire. The jury's still out on Bloomberg, but Steyer's campaign casts doubts on how easily one rich guy can buy a primary.

• Robert Reich: Bernie Sanders' plans may be expensive but inaction would cost much more.

• David Roberts: America's crisis of trust and the one candidate who gets it. He identifies a core problem: "how to break out of the doom loop and get on a trajectory of better governance and rising trust." His one candidate is Warren, "on the right track, substantively," but "on the wrong track, politically."

• Alex Shephard: Bernie Sanders is winning his war on cable news. My primal fear is that the so-called liberal media, much more than the hapless DNC, is going to go all-out to sabotage Sanders' candidacy. For example:

  There's little love for Bernie Sanders on the television news circuit. After his landslide win in Saturday's Nevada caucuses, MSNBC host Chris Matthews compared the victory to Nazi Germany's successful invasion of France in 1940. Also on MSNBC, James Carville, who ran Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, deemed it a big win for Vladimir Putin. On CBS, former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel fretted that Democrats were making a suicidal choice in going for Sanders. Donna Brazile, the former Democratic National Committee chair turned Fox News contributor, and Joe Lockhart, the former Clinton administration press secretary and current CNN contributor, were irked by a Sanders tweet that read: "I've got news for the Republican establishment. I've got news for the Democratic establishment. They can't stop us." . . . Trump has a cable news channel in his pocket -- Sanders does not. His campaign has responded by building a media infrastructure that could withstand attacks from mainstream networks. So far, it's worked wonders.

• Andrew Sullivan: Is Bernie the American version of Jeremy Corbyn? Gulp.

• Paul Waldman: Why Bernie Sanders drives so many people out of their minds.

For whatever it's worth, my take on the presidential election is that as long as it remains a referendum on Trump and his Republican cohort, any at-all-reasonable Democratic candidate (which includes Sanders and Biden but maybe not Bloomberg) will beat Trump. He is, after all, very unpopular, both as a person and even more so for his issues and policies. The only way Trump wins is if he can make the campaign be about his opponent (as he did in 2016), and find in that opponent flaws that he can exploit to make "persuadable" swing-votes fear that opponent more than they are disgusted with him. This will be harder for him to do this time around, because he has his own track record to defend, and unless you're very rich and/or very bigoted, he hasn't done much for you.

On the other hand, all Democratic candidates have tics and flaws that a savvy campaigner can exploit. We can debate endlessly on which "flaws" are most vulnerable and which are most easily defensible. My own theory is that "red baiting," which we've seen a huge burst of this past week (and not just at CPAC or on Fox, where the approach is so feverish it's likely to be extended against Bloomberg), is a spent force, but one Republicans won't be able to resist. On the other hand, Sanders is relatively secure against the charges of corruption and warmongering that were so effective against Hillary Clinton, and could easily be recycled against Biden.

On the other hand, I do have some sympathy for "down ballot" candidates for Congress who worry that having a ticket led by a candidate with such sharply defined views as Sanders has will hurt their chances in swing districts. At some point, Sanders needs to pivot to acknowledge and affirm the diversity of opinions within the Democratic Party. A model here might be Ronald Reagan's "11th commandment" (never speak ill of a fellow Republican). That didn't stop Reagan from orchestrating a conservative takeover of the party, but it make it possible for the few surviving liberals in the party to continue, and it made it possible for Republicans to win seats that hard-line conservatives couldn't.

A Sanders nomination would be the most radical shift in the Democratic Party since 1896, when populist William Jennings Bryan got the nod to succeed arch-conservative Grover Cleveland. Bryan lost that election badly, and lost two of the next three, partly as a result of Democratic Party sabotage, partly because Theodore Roosevelt outflanked him with a more modern progressivism. My generation is more likely to recall George McGovern's epic loss in 1972, also occasioned by deep splits within the Party bosses, but McGovern and 1968 nominee Hubert Humphrey had very similar backgrounds and programs -- their big divide was over the Vietnam War. Nixon did a very effective job of getting McGovern portrayed as a far-out radical, while covering up his own negatives (at least until after the election -- he wound up resigning in disgrace).

Trump will certainly try to do the same to Sanders (or for that matter to any other Democrat), and Republicans have been remarkably successful at manipulating media and motivating their voters, so one has to much to worry about. Indeed, I've been fretting a lot this past week, and will continue to do so until the election is over.

Some scattered links this week:

• Emily Bazelon: How will Trump's Supreme Court remake America?

• Zack Beauchamp: The war on Israeli democracy: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attacked the foundations of democracy. If he wins his 2020 reelection bid, things could get a lot worse." Ignoring the more basic fact that if you're Palestinian, things are already a lot worse.

• Thomas Crowley: The Trump-Modi lovefest is sickening.

• Chas Danner: Watch Trump fondle an American flag at CPAC: Making Americana porn great again.

• Daniel R DePetris: RIP, Libya. For more background, see Ted Galen Carpenter: How Barack Obama's good 'intentions' destroyed Libya.

• James K Galbraith: The past and future of antitrust. Review of Matt Stoller's book, Goliath: The 100-Year War between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Evidently Stoller regards the replacement of Wright Patman by Henry Reuss in 1975 as chairman of the House banking committee as a turning point against antitrust enforcement. I remember both: I never thought much of Patman's progressive reputation, but I had a lot of respect for Reuss, especially as one of the first half-dozen Representatives to oppose the Vietnam War. Turns out Galbraith worked for Reuss.

• Jessica Goodheart: Under Trump, income growth slows across US, including in key battleground states.

• Sean Illing: The case that America's in decline: Interview with conservative pundit Ross Douthat, who has a new book called The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success.

• Umair Irfan: Can you really negate your carbon emissions? Carbon offsets, explained.

• Paul Krugman: When a pandemic meets a personality cult: "The Trump team confirms all of our worst fears."

• Ian Millhiser:

  • The Supreme Court will decide if Trump can fire the head of the CFPB. The implications are enormous.

  • The Supreme Court just held that a border guard who shot a child will face no consequences.

  • The fight over whether religion is a license to discriminate is back before the Supreme Court. If anyone should recuse themselves in Trump cases, it is Clarence Thomas, whose wife runs a pro-Trump PAC. For more on this, see Jonathan Swan: Exclusive: Trump's "Deep State" hit list.

• Anna North:

  • What Mike Pence's public health record says about his ability to lead on coronavirus: "Nothing good."

  • What the Harvey Weinstein trial won't change for survivors.

• Paul Rosenberg: How Christian nationalism drives American politics: Interview with Andrew Whitehead, author of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. Also mentions Katherine Stewart's book (out next week), The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. Not sure what either book has to add to Chris Hedges' 2007 book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, other than the plentiful examples offered by Trump and Pence.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Trump's Friday night effort to weaponize coronavirus against his enemies has already aged poorly.

  • Trump lashes out at Fox News for new poll showing him losing to all the Democratic candidates: "The president didn't appreciate the reality check."

  • Trump blames Monday and Tuesday's stock market slide on Dem debate that happened Tuesday night.

  • Trump is facing a coronavirus threat. Let's look back at how he talked about Ebola. "None of it is reassuring."

  • Trump's demand for Ginsburg and Sotomayor to recuse themselves, briefly explained,

• Dylan Scott: America's bad paid sick leave policy could make the coronavirus outbreak worse.

• James B Stewart/Jesse Drucker: Milken had key allies in pardon bid: Trump's inner circle: "Rudolph Giuliani and Sheldon Adelson were among those who asked President Trump to pardon a symbol of 1980s greed."

• Katherine Stewart: The real meaning of 'religious liberty': A license to discriminate.

• Margaret Sullivan: Trump is pushing a dangerous, false spin on coronavirus -- and the media is helping him spread it.

• Matt Taibbi: Russia isn't dividing us -- our leaders are.

• Danna Takriti: Hosni Mubarak's death and despotic rule, briefly explained.

• Alex Ward: Trump announces the US and Taliban will soon sign a peace deal. A couple days later: Riley Beggin: The US and Taliban sign agreement meant to end America's longest war. "The US has agreed to pull all of its troops from Afghanistan within 14 months" -- i.e., after Trump's presidential term ends, dependent on the Taliban negotiating a further deal with the Afghan government.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • This week's stock market meltdown, explained.

  • An expert's case for nuclear power. I'm fairly open-minded on nuclear power, so the novel technology presented here isn't an automatic non-starter for me. Still, I don't see how my two major concerns are to be dealt with here: non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and safe disposal of nuclear waste.

  • Trump needs to worry about the stock market less, and pandemic preparedness more.

  • This viral chart doesn't explain much about middle-class living standards.

  • Trump's flailing incompetence makes coronavirus even scarier.

    That's typical of Trump's approach to governance -- he sees the entire executive branch as essentially his personal staff, whose only obligation is to advance his personal interests. . . . More broadly, Trump has a well-deserved reputation for dishonesty and has acted over the years to clean house of any officials (James Mattis, Dan Coats, etc.) who develop a reputation for contradicting him. It's almost impossible to know how this administration could convey accurate and credible information to Americans in a crisis even if it wanted to.

  • These are the popular ideas progressives can win with.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, February archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 32823 [32778] rated (+45), 245 [242] unrated (+3).

Moving into 2020, starting with my most mechanical tasks. The usual ones are the Year 2020 file, with rated records plus my physical CD queues, and Music Tracking 2020, with additional records I've heard of. The latter is longer than in previous years at this time, because I've created a Metacritic Aggregate file. The latter will eventually morph into an EOY Aggregate, much like 2019.

Last year I started adding in points for 80+ reviews as collated by AOTY. I've made a couple of adjustments this year: the grades are marked by '*' (instead of '+'), and I've added A:i/j to most lines, where i = the average critic score, and j = the number of reviews. While this information is useful in itself, it also helps me locate new reviews/grade changes. AOTY tracks 50+ publications, although several don't have any entries thus far this year. I've included all except for several metal magazines (Metal Hammer, Metal Injection, Metal Sucks), basically because the odds of finding anything of interest to me there are approximately nil. (Nonetheless, 18 metal albums have crept into the list, as many other publications cover at least some metal. I haven't ventured beyond AOTY yet, other than to add my grades and those of Robert Christgau (counted as before: A = 5, A- = 4, down to * = 1).

I had done something like this several years ago, but stopped as it got to be too much work, but resumed last year. Using AOTY helped simplify the work, compared to looking at each publication myself. But given that AOTY has a fairly narrow rock bias, I also factored in a few other sources, especially for jazz (Downbeat, All About Jazz, Free Jazz Collective). I expect I'll get around to doing that sooner or later. Even as it stands, I have a fairly coherent view of what's new in 2020. A few of those records appear in the list below, and I'll check out more in coming weeks. I'm not fully committed to keeping this up, but mechanical tasks like this have been my default fallback lately.

Still, the two best new releases this week didn't clearly emerge from AOTY lists. Rather, they appeared in Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide (subscriber only). By the way, I have all of the free content from And It Don't Stop ready to post on Christgau's website, but have been hung up by indecision about whether we should force people to go to the subscription newsletter to find the pieces. We've decided that the Consumer Guides will be impounded for eight months, and that's demotivated me from adding the reviews to the CG database. I'd like to come up with some kind of scheme where subscribers get a cookie which would allow them to see embargoed entries in the database, but that will require some new code, and I don't have a scheme yet to validate the subscriber list.

Maybe I'll do some work on this and other website projects this week. Finally opening some time up.

This is the last Monday of February, so time to wrap up the Streamnotes: February 2020 archive. Review count is short compared to most months (106), because I extended January, and last Monday falls relatively early this month. More significant statistic is that I only got to 31 new releases (27 of new music), only 2 of which hit A-. That could be one of the lowest totals ever. On the other hand, a lot of old jazz this month, especially from Duke Ellington. I spread out from there, starting with artists who covered Ellington (and Billy Strayhorn) songs, band alumni (like Cat Anderson and Paul Gonsalves), and followed related links (like Fresh Sound reissues). Now that my rush to hear as many 2019 releases as possible is over, it's nice to spread out a bit.

Following up from yesterday's Weekend Roudup, 100% reporting (see Vox's tallies) hasn't changed much. Amy Klobuchar clung onto her 5th place in both raw votes totals, but slipped to 6th in the top-line County Convention Delegates totals. Next stop is the South Carolina primary this Saturday (February 29). Biden has led all year -- 46.4% to 12.0% for Sanders back on May 29 -- but the race tightened a couple weeks ago (25.0% to 18.4%), with the most recent polls showing Biden winning by 1%, 4%, or 15%. The bigger contest will be on March 3 ("Super Tuesday") in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. Bloomberg will be on the ballot then, and has been heavily advertising in those states.

Here's an article that argues back against the electability assertions of "moderate" Democrats: Ibram X Kendi: When will moderates learn their lesson?

New records reviewed this week:

• Carla Bley/Andy Sheppard/Steve Swallow: Life Goes On (2019 [2020], ECM): [r]: B+(***)
• Moses Boyd: Dark Matter (2020, Exodus): [r]: B+(**)
• Frank Colón: Latin Lounge (2019 [2020], Technoprimal Music): [cd]: B+(**)
• Drive-By Truckers: The Unraveling (2020, ATO): [r]: A-
• John Ellis and Andy Bragen: The Ice Siren (2016 [2020], Parade Light): [cd]: B [03-20]
• Eminem: Music to Be Murdered By (2020, Shady/Aftermath/Interscope/Goliath): [r]: A-
• Georgia: Seeking Thrills (2020, Domino): [r]: B+(***)
• Gilfema: Three (2019 [2020], Sounderscore): [cd]: B+(*) [04-03]
• Holy Fuck: Deleter (2020, Last Gang): [r]: B+(***)
• Kesha: High Road (2020, Kemosabe): [r]: B+(*)
• Les Amazones D'Afrique: Amazones Power (2020, RealWorld): [r]: B+(**)
• Valery Ponomarev Big Band: Live! Our Father Who Art Blakey: The Centennial (2019 [2020], Summit): [cd]: B
• RJ & the Assignment: Hybrid Harmony (2019 [2020], self-released): [cd]: B
• Gil Scott-Heron: We're New Again: A Reimagining by Makaya McCraven (2010-19 [2020], XL): [r]: B+(**)
• Mark Segger Sextet: Lift Off (2019 [2020], 18th Note): [cd]: B+(***)
• Sergi Sirvent Octopussy Cats: Flax-Golden Tales (2017 [2019], Fresh Sound New Talent): [r]: B+(**)
• Dave Soldier: Zajal (2019 [2020], Mulatta): [cd]: B+(*)
• Tame Impala: The Slow Rush (2020, Interscope): [r]: B+(*)
• The Westerlies: Wherein Lies the Good (2018 [2020], Westerlies): [cd]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Rashied Ali Quintet: First Time Out: Live at Slugs 1967 (1967 [2020], Survival): [r]: B+(*)
• Duke Ellington: The Washingtonians (1924-26 [2019], Squatty Roo): [r]: B
• Bryan Ferry: Live at the Royal Albert Hall 1974 (1974 [2020], BMG): [r]: B+(**)
• John Vanore: Primary Colors (1984-85 [2020], Acoustical Concepts): [cd]: B+(**)

Old music:

• Cat Anderson and His Orchestra: Cat's in the Alley (1958-59 [2011], Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(***)
• Cat Anderson: Cat Speaks [The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions] (1977 [2003], Black & Blue): [r]: B+(***)
• Cat Anderson: Plays WC Handy [The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions] (1978 [1997], Black & Blue): [r]: A-
• Benny Bailey: In Sweden: 1957-1959 Sessions (1957-59 [2011], Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(**)
• Benny Bailey: Grand Slam (1978 [1998], Storyville): [r]: B+(***)
• Josephine Baker: Breezin' Along [Art Deco Series] (1926-27 [1995], Columbia/Legacy): [r]: B+(***)
• Chris Barber's Jazz & Blues Band: Echoes of Ellington (1976 [2008], Timeless, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• Arne Domnérus: Dompan! (2000 [2001], Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington: Historically Speaking: The Duke (1956, Bethlehem): [r]: B+(*)
• Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington Presents . . . (1956, Bethlehem): [r]: B+(**)
• Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington's Concert of Sacred Music (1965 [1966], RCA): [r]: B+(*)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1950 (1950 [2001], Classics): [r]: B+(**)
• Paul Gonsalves/Harry Carney/Mitchell "Booty" Wood: Stanley Dance Presents the Music of the Great Ellingtonians (1960-61 [2008], Fresh Sound, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• Al Haig/Jamil Nasser Combo: Expressly Ellington (1978 [1979], Spotlite): [r]: B+(***)
• Coleman Hawkins and His All-Stars: The Complete Jazztone Recordings 1954 (1954 [2010], Fresh Sound): [r]: A-
• Earl Hines/Jonah Jones/Buddy Tate/Cozy Cole: Back on the Street (1972, Chiaroscuro): [r]: A-
• Jonah Jones: 1936-1945 (1936-45 [1997], Classics): [r]: B+(**)
• Jonah Jones: Confessin' [The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions] (1978 [1999], Black & Blue): [r]: B+(***)
• Don Redman and His Orchestra Featuring Coleman Hawkins: At the Swing Cats Ball (1957 [2005], Fresh Sound): [r]: B+(*)
• The World's Greatest Jazz Band of Yank Lawson & Bob Haggart: Plays Duke Ellington (1973 [1999], Jazzology): [r]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• John DiMartino: Passion Flower: The Music of Billy Strayhorn (Sunnyside) [04-10]
• Liberty Ellman: Last Desert (Pi) [03-27]
• Vincent Glanzmann/Gerry Hemingway: Composition O (Fundacja Sluchaj)
• Georg Graewe/Ernst Reijseger/Gerry Hemingway: Concertgebouw Brugge 2014 (Fundacja Sluchaj)
• Paul Lytton/Nate Wooley: Known/Unknown (Fundacja Sluchaj)
• Denise Mangiardi: Brown Book (Alice's Loft Music)
• Nutria: Meeting in Progress (Ears & Eyes)
• Keith Oxman: Two Cigarettes in the Dark (Capri) [03-20]
• Suzanna Ross: Is Bewitched* . . . *Not Bothered, Not Bewildered (self-released) [03-20]
• Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble: The New Immigrant Experience: Music Inspired by Conversations With Dreamers (Tapestry) [03-20]
• Schapiro 17: New Shoes: Kind of Blue at 60 (Summit, 2CD) [04-03]
• Sestetto Internazionale: Live in Munich 2019 (Fundacja Sluchaj)
• Curt Sydnor: Deep End Shallow (Out of Your Head) [03-20]

Weekend Roundup

Mike Bloomberg had his coming out party at the Nevada Democratic debate, and the response was harsh -- e.g. (including a few extra Bloomberg links):

• 3 winners and 4 losers from the Nevada Democratic debate.

• The 7 most dramatic, eye-popping moments from the Democratic debate in Las Vegas.

• 'A bland, clueless billionaire with feet of clay': Comments on the debate from 14 observers, including: "Bloomberg was totally unready"; "Bloomberg failed miserably"; a reference to "the emperor has no clothes"; but some of these pundits were also pretty clueless (e.g., "the winer may have been Tom Steyer, for missing a particularly hostile debate marked by personal attacks").

• Gabriel Benedetti: How beating up Bloomberg has reinvigorated the Democratic field.

• Benjamin Dixon: Michael Bloomberg's campaign is an insult to democracy.

• Matt Flegenheimer/Alexander Burns/Jeremy W Peters: How Bloomberg bungled a debate that he had been prepared for.

• Joshua Frank: Bloomberg is a climate change con man.

• Sheera Frenkel/Davey Alba: Digital edits, a paid army, Bloomberg is 'destroying norms' on social media. Social media has norms?

• Ed Kilgore: Bloomberg walks onto the stage and into a buzzsaw.

• Eric Levitz: Love wanting to die? Then check out Bloomberg's anti-Trump billboards. At first I suspected a spoof; I mean, is this really the work of a human brain? One billboard message: "DONALD TRUMP EATS BURNT STEAK." Smaller print: "Mike Bloomberg likes his medium rare." I'm partial to medium rare myself, but I can't imagine that working as a litmus test -- not least because I come from a family (of farmers) where no one wants to see red oozing out of their meat. Nor does this one do anything for me: "DONALD TRUMP CHEATS AT GOLF. Mike Bloomberg doesn't." I don't have enough experience with golf to even have an opinion on that, but I don't think Bloomberg wouldn't cheat if all it took was money.

• German Lopez: Mike Bloomberg's stop-and-frisk problem, explained.

• Harold Meyerson: Why Bloomberg can't beat Trump: "It's hard to imagine a Democrat less able to win working-class votes."

• Anna North: "I'd like to do that piece of meat": The sexism allegations against Bloomberg, explained.

• Alex Pareene: Michael Bloomberg's polite authoritarianism.

• Monica Potts: Bloomberg: The 'Democrat' who treated minorities as inherently criminal.

• Rebecca R Ruiz: The Bloomberg campaign is a waterfall of cash.

• Michael Sainato: Michael Bloomberg's troubling record on unions and workers.

• Nate Silver: The debate exposed Bloomberg's downside -- but it was there all along, and visible to anyone who cared to look, not that anyone close to Bloomberg might dare point that out.

• Emily Stewart: Elizabeth Warren's evisceration of Mike Bloomberg should make Donald Trump nervous.

• Matt Taibbi: The Bloomberg myth exploded on live TV.

  Bloomberg stood in mute fury as his $400 million campaign investment went up in smoke. His contempt for democracy and sense of entitlement surpass even Donald Trump, who at least likes crowds -- Bloomberg's joyless imperiousness makes Trump seem like Robin Williams.

  That Bloomberg has been touted as a potential Democratic Party savior across the top ranks of politics and media is an extraordinary indictment of that group of people.

  Some endorsements were straight cash transactions, in which politicians who owe their careers to Bloomberg's largess repaid him with whatever compliments they could muster. How much does a man who radiates impatience with the idea of having to pretend to equal status with anyone have to spend to get someone to say something nice?

  California Congressman Harley Rouda called him a "legendary businessman": Bloomie gave her more than $4 million. New Jersey's Mikie Sherrill got more than $2 million from Bloomberg's Independence USA Super PAC, and in return the Navy vet said Bloomberg embodies "the integrity we need."

  Georgia's Lucy McBath, a member of the congressional black caucus, got $4 million from Bloomberg PACs, and she endorsed him just as an audio clip was coming out of the ex-mayor talking about putting black men up "against the wall" in stop-and-frisk. News accounts of the endorsement frequently left out the financial ties.

  That's fine. If you give a politician $2 million or $4 million, it must be expected that he or she will say you approximate a human being.

  But how does New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman excuse writing "Paging Michael Bloomberg"? (Well, Bloomberg philanthropies donated to Planet Word, "the museum my wife is building," says Friedman, so there's that.) How about Jonathan Chait at New York, who wrote, "Winning the election is starting to look hard. How about buying it instead?" Or John Ellis in The Washington Post, who declared Bloomberg the "dream candidate"?

  These pundits clung to a triumvirate of delusions: Bloomberg "gets things done," he's more electable than a Bernie Sanders or an Elizabeth Warren because he can spend unlimited amounts, and he has the "toughness" to take on Trump.

  Far from showing "toughness," Bloomberg on Wednesday wilted under attacks from his five Democratic opponents.

• Alex Ward: Mike Bloomberg tweeted a doctored debate video. Is it political spin or disinformation?

• Matthew Yglesias: Mike Bloomberg is a disaster: "He's bad at politic and running scared from his own record."

• Li Zhou: Watch: Elizabeth Warren grills Mike Bloomberg over allegations of sexism and nondisclosure agreements.

The Nevada caucuses were held on Saturday. Results came in much faster than in Iowa, but 24 hours later we still only have 87.47% reporting (see Nevada Democratic caucuses: Live results. As with Iowa, there are three sets of results. The first-round votes are: Sanders 34.27%, Biden 17.86%, Buttigieg 15.18%, Warren 12.76%, Klobuchar 9.25%, Steyer 9.12%. Bloomberg wasn't on the ballot, and no write-in votes have been reported, so he's currently 123 votes behind Michael Bennet, and 12 behind John K Delaney. As in Iowa, there's also a "realigned vote", as most "unviable" candidates lose votes to "viable" ones (Bennet drops to 12 votes, but somehow Delaney got a boost to 16): The top six held place, but Sanders gained the most, to 40.73%, vs. Biden 19.69% and Buttigieg 17.14%. But the most commonly reported results were "County Convention Delegates: Sanders 47.08%, Biden 20.94%, Buttigieg 13.63%, Warren 9.71%, Steyer 4.65%, Klobuchar 3.89%. (This week's best humor article: Klobuchar congratulates herself for 'exceeding expectations' as early Nevada results show her in distant 5th.)

Unlike Iowa, it was clear early on who the winner was. Dylan Scott came up with 3 winners and 2 losers from the Nevada caucuses, but the only candidate on the list was Sanders (winner), and two of the other items were clearly Sanders wins (winner: Medicare-for-all; loser: Culinary Union Local 226). Sanders' win was so complete that Vox republished Matthew Yglesias: Mainstream Democrats shouldn't fear Bernie Sanders. Also on Nevada (and Sanders):

• Sarah Frostenson: Bernie Sanders is the front-runner

• Ryan Lizza: Sanders eviscerates conventional wisdom about why he can't win.

• David Roth: Bernie Sanders is no Donald Trump.

• Greg Sargent: Don't look now, but Bernie Sanders's coalition is expanding.

• Peter Wade: Blowback hits MSNBC after Chris Matthews compares Sanders' win to Nazis conquering France.

The last few days have produced an avalanche of Sanders articles -- hysterical attacks on him, defenses (including some meant to reassure mainstream Democrats, like Yglesias above, and Paul Krugman here -- although not without lamenting that Sanders may have no use for "center-left" wonks like Krugman), promotions, and good old fashioned horse race handicapping, but little I cared to get into.

Some scattered links this week:

• Justin Baragona/Asawin Suebsaeng: Trump grants clemency to another round of crooks he saw on Fox News. Rod Blagojevich gets the most press, but Bernard Kerik and Michael Milken are nearly as famous (and, if anything, more extravagant criminals).

• Julian E Barnes/Adam Goldman/Nicholas Fandos: Richard Grenell begins overhauling intelligence office, prompting fears of partisanship. Following up:

  • Isaac Arnsdorf: Trump's new spy chief used to work for a foreign politician the US accused of corruption. Who says Trump doesn't vet his appointees?

  • Matt Gertz: The Foxification of the intelligence community follows the DOJ script.

  • Josh Kovensky: Grenell brings in ex-Nunes loyalist and starts digging into raw intel on Russia. Previously wrote: Why Richard Grenell is such a 'dangerous' pick for acting DNI.

• Jonathan Blitzer: How Stephen Miller manipulates Donald Trump to further his immigration obsession.

• Sarah Chayes: This is how kleptocracies work: "Trump's pardons were shocking to some, but to me they were eerily familiar -- straight out of the kleptocratic playbook I've studied in a dozen other countries."

• Igor Derysh: Multiple studies show Medicare for All would be cheaper than public option pushed by moderates.

• Marc Edelman: How capitalism underdeveloped rural America.

• Tom Engelhardt: The war in questions: "After 18-plus years of our forever wars, where are all the questions?" I'll quote his questions, but they probably need more context (see the article, not that it fully works):

  1. When the Bush administration launched that invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in 2001 and followed it up with an invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, did we, in some curious fashion, really invade and occupy ourselves?
  2. Has there ever been a truly great power in history, still at or near the height of its militarily prowess, that couldn't win a war?
  3. How and why did the "hearts and minds" factor move from the nationalist left in the twentieth century to the Islamist right in the twenty-first?
  4. When it comes to preparations for war, why can't we ever stop?
  5. How can Washington's war system and the military-industrial complex across the country continue to turn failure in war into success and endless dollars at home?
  6. Why doesn't the reality of those wars of ours ever really seem to sink in here?

• John Ganz: Finding Neverland: "The American right's doomed quest to rid itself of Trumpism."

  The fact of the matter, then as now, is that ideas on the right are not so much irreconcilable as they are irrelevant. More than principle, the presence of threat and an enemy is the most important driver of right-wing energy, and since the end of the Cold War, the hunt for enemies has become ever more desperate. That's especially been the case from the moment since the wars on terrorism and Iraq failed to coalesce the movement -- let alone the country -- into any viable political coalition for any sustained interval beyond the moment they launched.

  You may recall how often we were lectured in the 1980-90s that all the good new ideas were coming from the right, but at this point Lionel Trilling's admonition has never been more accurate that all that's left of conservative thought are "irritable mental gestures."

• Anand Giridharadas: The billionaire election: "Does the world belong to them or to us?" Quote from Alexander Theodoridis, when asked "if any scholarship could shed light on Mr Bloomberg's method of campaigning," answered: "Most of the work on buying votes is about the developing world, which perhaps the US is joining."

• Michael Isikoff: Rohrabacher confirms he offered Trump pardon to Assange for proof Russia didn't hack DNC email.

• Fred Kaplan:

  • The senseless danger of the military's new "low-yield" nuclear warhead.

  • Trump's $740.5 billion military budget is wildly irresponsible and misleading.

• Ed Kilgore: Yes, Trump's job-approval ratings are finally rising. Well, up to 43.3% according to FiveThirtyEight, from 41.8% on Jan. 10, a low of 39.5% on Jan. 23, 2019, a record low of 36.5% on Dec. 15, 2017 (or 36.6% on Aug. 7, 2017). That's still well below his 52.2% disapproval rate. His approval rate never came close to 50%, and was above the disapproval rate only for about his first week after inauguration (crossover was Feb. 2, 2017, at 44.8% each). Of course, any change in his favor is disturbing, as it makes you doubt the sanity of your fellow citizens.

• Michael Klare: A military perspective on climate change could bridge the gap between believers and doubters. I doubt it, but it is true that the Pentagon has been uniquely free to consider the issue, and they're likely to buy into anything that could result in larger budgets, so their interest could disturb the convictions of some doubters. Klare has a new book, All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon's Perspective on Climate Change.

• James Russell Kretschmer: I was sexually abused as a Boy Scout. Thousands like me deserve a reckoning. Well, I was just abused (if there was anything sexual to it, I was too naive to recognize it). I can't even imagine what a proper reckoning might entail. But I have for many years referred to "a proto-fascist organization of my youth."

• David Kroll: The shadow cabinet: How a group of powerful business leaders drove Trump's agenda.

• Paul Krugman:

  • Warren, Bloomberg and what really matters: "Dems should be talking about fiancializatio and fraud."

  • Have zombies eaten Bloomberg's and Buttigieg's brains? Krugman has a new book of old essays to flak, called Arguing With Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future. As you may know by now, "zombie ideas" are ideas which have been repeatedly proven to be false and bankrupt, but which keep getting resurrected by people whose interests they seem to support. John Quiggin either invented or popularized the idea with his 2010 book, Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us.

• Anita Kumar: Trump seeks deal on foreign workers that could anger base: Looks like "guest workers" are back on the Republican agenda.

• Robert Kuttner: Green New Deal: The urgent realism of radical change.

• Branko Marcetic: The making of Joe Biden's conservative Democratic politics: An excerpt from the author's "forthcoming" book, Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. Seems likely to me that the publisher missed the window on this one.

• Ian Millhiser: Justice Sotomayor warns the Supreme Court is doing special favors for the Trump administration.

• Nicole Narea: Trump's expanded travel ban just went into effect for 6 new countries.

• Danielle Ofri: Why are nonprofit hospitals so highly profitable?

• Cameron Peters: The reports about Russian meddling in the 2020 election, and Trump's response, explained.

• Andrew Prokop: Roger Stone was just sentenced to 40 months in prison.

• Joe Ragazzo: There's no resurgence in American manufacturing. It's a myth.

• Corey Robin: The tyranny of the minority, from the Iowa Caucus to Electoral College.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Trump is making a mockery of Bill Barr: "Barr asked Trump to stop tweeting about DOJ cases. Trump responded by posting a bunch of tweets about DOJ cases." Not that Barr hasn't been making a mockery of his office, his department, and the law, in acting as "Trump's personal fixer."

  • Trump's Colorado rally featured an extended meltdown over 30 seconds of critical Fox News coverage: "It was one of his pettiest displays yet."

  • "Lock her up!" In Phoenix, the signature Trump rally chant was especially ironic. Final section: "The rest of the stuff was normal stuff from a deeply abnormal president."

  • Trump's latest pardons show how quickly he's normalizing corruption: "They're aimed at the very sorts of obstruction of justice and financial crimes he's been implicated in."

• Austin Sarat: Why Trump's post-impeachment actions are about vengeance, not retribution.

• Theodore Schleifer: She's Pete Buttigieg's top fundraiser. He's the founder of Nest. And they're Silicon Valley's new power couple. Swati Mylavarapu and Matt Rogers. What kind of person says this? "I would love to see the billionaires of Silicon Valley spend at least as much on giving back as they do on their yachts." Probably the kind that thinks hiring Buttigieg to defend and promote neoliberalism is "giving back."

• Avi Shlaim: Palestine and the West: A century of betrayal.

• Danny Sjursen: Why no retired generals oppose America's forever wars.

• Keith A Spencer: Why does the "BernieBro" myth persist? Because pundits don't understand how the internet works.

• Emily Stewart:

  • Mike Bloomberg and his billions are what Democrats need to beat Trump: Part of Vox's series where their various writers try to make the "best case" for each of the Democratic candidates. The case for Bloomberg is he has a lot of money, and that could be helpful -- although I'm unsure how helpful in an election where a major issue will be the overwhelming corruption of money. Less impressive is "Bloomberg has a strong record from City Hall." An even bigger stretch is "Bloomberg has spent years lifting up the Democratic Party and building an apparatus around him." No mention is made of his numerous contributions to Republicans. (Vox "does not endorse candidates," but note that founders Matthew Yglesias and Ezra Klein started the series off by claiming Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, leaving Joe Biden to Laura McGann, Pete Buttigieg to Dylan Matthews, and Amy Klobuchar to Kay Steiger.)

  • America's monopoly problem, explained by your internet bill. "In 2017, the average monthly cost of broadband in America was $66.17; in France, it was $38.10, and in South Korea, $29.90."

• Andrew Sullivan: Trump's presidency isn't a dark comedy -- it's an absurd tragedy. Headline reminds me of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi, but even that play is more generous than Trump deserves.

• David Wallace-Wells: Jeff Bezos's $10 billion climate pledge is actually tiny: "Judged by the standards of the climate crisis, the sum is, practically speaking, almost nothing." And that's even before you discount the amount of graft it's likely to attract.

• Alex Ward: What the mass shooting in Germany tells us about its far-right extremism problem.

• Robin Wright: The one war that the human species can't lose: The "battle" to keep Antarctica frozen solid.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • How the good economy is benefiting workers with disabilities.

    It's deficits as far as the eye can see, and it's been paired with a low interest rate policy from the Fed that Trump has very much encouraged that has helped people get jobs without sparking inflation.

    This formula of bigger deficits plus a supportive Fed is exactly what progressives spent the years from 2011 to 2016 calling for. Trump delivered a version of it (although a progressive administration would obviously have used the money for different things) and it's basically working. As a result, the long-term unemployed, the disabled, the discouraged, and even some early retirees are hopping back into the labor force with no need to cut anyone off from benefits.

  • The mutually beneficial war between Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg, explained.

• Kenji Yoshino: A Supreme Court for the rich: A review of Adam Cohen's book, Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court's Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, February archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 32778 [32759] rated (+19), 242 [241] unrated (+1).

Late again, but short as weeks go, given that last week's Music Week didn't appear until Thursday, February 13. My excuse then was that I was in the middle of a series on Duke Ellington's Chronological Classics (up to 1940, anyway). I decided not to bother with the 1940-1953 releases, figuring they're redundant to in-print albums on RCA and Columbia (and maybe Capitol?), but I've continued to trawl through Napster's offerings, using "ellington" as my titles search. That netted a few albums by other doing Ellington songs -- including titles by Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Zoot Sims, and Sarah Vaughan, below. I haven't hit the end of that list yet, so I'll keep plugging, and see what else catched my fancy. I briefly considered doing more individual albums from The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books, which I bought long ago and gave an A- to without subdividing, but I haven't followed up on that. (If I recall correctly, the best volume is the Harold Arlen, possibly followed by Irving Berlin or Cole Porter; the weakest may well be the Ellington, which is surprising given how much I like the later Ella and Duke at the Côte D'Azur -- a 2-CD sampler from a larger box I haven't heard, but which I believe is on Napster.)

All this old music digging has kept me off from new music, with only a few of my queue offerings this week. Robert Christgau sent his Consumer Guide out to subscribers last week, and included two new 2020 releases among his picks (Eminem and Drive-By Truckers) among his late-breaking 2019 picks (catching up with his Dean's List). Normally I'd jump on them, but this hasn't been a normal week.

Christgau followed that up with another list, Ten Movies I Love. I can't argue, not least because I've only seen four of those movies, and don't even recall hearing of most of the rest. [PS: Make that five: I've seen, but forgot the title of, Make Way for Tomorrow] I doubt I could even construct such a list, but I'd hate to leave out:

• Babette's Feast -- Gabriel Axel (1988)
• Before Sunrise -- Richard Linklater (1995)
• Hairspray -- John Waters (1988)
• High Hopes -- Mike Leigh (1989)
• Johnny Dangerously -- Amy Heckerling (1984)
• Made in Heaven -- Alan Rudolph (1987)
• Moonstruck -- Norman Jewison (1987)
• The Mosquito Coast -- Peter Weir (1986)
• O Brother, Where Art Thou? -- Ethan & Joel Cohen (2000)
• Ordinary People -- Robert Redford (1980)
• The Purple Rose of Cairo -- Woody Allen (1985)
• The Remains of the Day -- James Ivory (1993)
• Stars and Bars -- Pat O'Connor (1988)
• Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown -- Pedro Almodovar (1988)

First of all, I'm surprised to find these so concentrated in time: 1985-1995 accounts for all but two, one from 1980, the other 2000. The obvious explanation is that I watched a lot more movies then than any time before or since. I hardly ever watched movies before, aside from minor binges, but started renting tapes after my first wife died, and watched even more when I dated and moved in with Laura. My movie watching has tailed off in recent years, but not as dramatically as the omission of post-2000 movies in the list above suggests. Perhaps I was just more impressionable in that first decade. I did a quick search through the notebook, and found a lot of good movies, but the only ones that tempted me to add to the list were: Almost Famous (Cameron Crowe, 2000); The Barbarian Invasions (Denys Arcand, 2003); De-Lovely (Irwin Winkler, 2004); Letters From Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood, 2006); The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2007); The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009, in Swedish); and Boyhood (2014).

A second point is that these are mostly small movies. (Three were nominated for Oscars, and one won.) A glance through the Oscar list and other lists at { IMDB, TimeOut, MSN } suggest some better-known epics that I like (in many cases a lot), in chronological order (while generally avoiding repeating directors from above):

Contributing to this week's delay, I cooked a rather fancy dinner Monday night. I made a couple stabs at Hungarian cuisine last fall, and had a few more recipes I wanted to try. My cookbook was Silvena Johan Lauta's The Food & Cooking of Hungary, but it didn't offer any promising vegetable side dishes, so I slipped a Greek fave into the menu:

• Rabbit Goulash Stew
• Venison Meatballs
• Hungarian Dumplings
• Green Bean Ragout
• Transylvanian Stuffed Mushrooms
• Somloi Trifle

Not sure I got the first three quite right. The meatballs were quite delicious, but could have used more sauce. I had a lot of trouble cutting up the rabbit, which made everything come out late. The one piece I had was a little tough and dry, but others disagreed. The mushrooms (stuffed with ricotta, bacon, and herbs) perhaps should have been cooked longer. Still, all came out pretty tasty.

The dessert wasn't in the cookbook, but showed up repeatedly when I was attempting to survey Hungarian recipes online -- along with a fancy multi-layer cake called a dobos torte. I wound up consulting several web recipes, mostly following this one, but taking a few liberties along the way (e.g., after my caramelized syrup burned, I went with a much safer non-caramel recipe; I missed the liquor store, so substituted amaretto for rum; I substuted apricot for strawberry jam, as all other recipes specified [PS: what I actually used was Bonne Maman Mango-Peach Preserves, made in France; picked up accidentally when I was reaching for the apricot]). The dessert is a pretty complicated affair: first make three sponge cakes (one plain, one with walnuts, a third with cocoa); make a light syrup with liquor (in my case, amaretto), and brush it over the cakes; make a "gruel" out of milk, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla (more like a pudding -- other recipes use a pastry cream); build a stack of the three cakes, each one topped with a shmear of jam, raisins (soaked in syrup), walnuts, and "gruel"; sprinkle cocoa on top and chill for 12 hours. Make a chocolate sauce, with liquor (amaretto again). Whip cream. To serve, scoop out chunks of cake, top with chocolate, then with whipped cream. Before I was done, I doubted I'd ever do it again, but it turned out to be remarkably delicious.

A few links I had meant to include in Sunday's Weekend Roundup, but somehow didn't get to:

• Kos: Sanders wins New Hampshire by being the least-weak of a suddenly weak field. This was a "hot take" after New Hampshire, but since then I'm less persuaded of Bernie Sanders' "weakness." Sanders now seems to be ahead in Nevada, possibly ahead in South Carolina, indeed close to leading pretty much everywhere (FiveThirtyEight still likes Biden in Alabama). I've also seen polls that show his favorability ratings are high enough to give him a reasonable expectation of gaining vote share as other candidates drop out (much as Trump did in 2016, though Bernie's are higher than Trump's were, at least up to the 2016 convention, maybe even the election). Also, this article makes some really dumb points, such as:

  No white male has ever gotten 63 million votes in a presidential election. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both hit 65 million. When our nominees look like our base, we perform better.

  That doesn't prove anything, least of all its "looks like" conclusion. (Sure, it would disprove the opposite assertion, that you have to run a white male in order to win, but that's not the point here.) I remember when Clinton promised a cabinet that "looks like America," but all they looked like to me was a bunch of well-heeled lawyers. He throws out other meaningless facts, like Bloomberg was "major of a city that is larger than 38 states" [each of; the 9 least populous states + DC have more people combined than NYC], and he invents a ridiculous euphemism for dollars, as in "he spent another 3.5 million electability units on advertising in black newspapers."

• Joel Kotkin: You think Trump's a danger to democracy? Get a load of Bloomberg. Side note more relevant to the Kos article above: to win his third term as mayor of New York, Bloomberg spent $174 per vote; to match that running for president, he'll have to pony up $12 billion.

• Alexander Rubinstein/Max Blumenthal: Woke wonk Elizabeth Warren's foreign policy team is stacked with pro-war swamp creatures.

I should also note that a Guardian article I linked to about Bill Gates buying a £500 million superyacht has been pulled, due to "a fundamental error in facts reported." Evidently, Gates hasn't bought any such boat.

New records reviewed this week:

• The Coachella Valley Trio: Mid Century Modern (2019 [2020], DMAC): [cd]: B+(*)
• Lara Driscoll: Woven Dreams (2019 [2020], Firm Roots Music): [cd]: B+(***) [03-06]
• Kuzu [Dave Rempis/Tashi Dorji/Tyler Damon]: Purple Dark Opal (2019 [2020], Aerophonic): [cd]: B+(***)
• Purna Loka Ensemble: Metaraga (2018-19 [2020], Origin): [cd]: B+(**)

Old music:

• Duke Ellington: The Best of Early Ellington (1926-31 [1996], Decca): [r]: A+
• Duke Ellington: The Centennial Collection (1927-41 [2004], Bluebird): [r]: B+(**)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Great Paris Concert (1963 [1973], Atlantic, 2CD): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington's My People (1963 [1964], Contact): [r]: B+(**)
• Duke Ellington/Ella Fitzgerald/Oscar Peterson: The Greatest Jazz Concert in the World (1967 [1990], Pablo, 3CD): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington: In Sweden 1973 (1973 [1999], Caprice): [r]: B+(**)
• Ella Fitzgerald: Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (1956-57 [1991], Verve, 3CD): [r]: B+(**)
• Ella Fitzgerald: The Very Best of the Duke Ellington Song Book (1956-57 [2007], Verve): [r]: B+(***)
• Ella Fitzgerald: Ella at Duke's Place (1965 [1966], Verve): [r]: B+(**)
• Nina Simone: Nina Simone Sings Duke Ellington (1961 [1962], Colpix): [r]: B+(*)
• Zoot Sims: Passion Flower: Zoot Sims Plays Duke Ellington (1979-80 [1997], Pablo/OJC): [r]: B+(**)
• Sarah Vaughan: How Long Has This Been Going On? (1978, Pablo): [r]: B+(***)
• Sarah Vaughan: Duke Ellington: Song Book One (1979 [1980], Pablo): [r]: B+(***)
• Sarah Vaughan: Duke Ellington: Song Book Two (1979 [1980], Pablo): [r]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Joyce Grant: Surrounded by Blue (Craftedair/Blujazz)
• JC Hopkins Biggish Band: New York Moment (Twee-Jazz) [04-05]
• Chanda Rule + Sweet Emma Band: Hold On (Blujazz/PAO)
• Paul Shaw Quintet: Moment of Clarity (Summit) [03-27]

Weekend Roundup

New Hampshire finally voted last week. Bernie Sanders won, although not by the margin I had hoped for -- 25.58% to 24.27% for Pete Buttigieg, 19.69% for Klobuchar, with significant drops for Elizabeth Warren (9.19%) and Joe Biden (8.34%). Sanders did, however, get more young voters than everyone else combined. As I note in the German Lopez note below, the Buttigieg/Klobuchar bubble seems to have less to do with anything attractive about their platforms than with the irrational fears of many Democrats (including some older ones who are philosophically aligned left, but grew up in a world where red-baiting was always effective) that Sanders would wind up losing to Trump. How they figure Buttigieg or Klobuchar might fare better is something I don't care to speculate on. Neither has the familiarity or national organization they'll need in coming weeks, and their repeated (misinformed and disingenuous) attacks on Medicare for All in recent months, while effective for raising donations and establishing themselves as niche candidates, makes them improbable (as well as damn unsatisfactory) party unifiers.

Biden is still better positioned to recover in later primaries, but did himself much harm in Iowa and New Hampshire. In particular, he lost favor with the "anybody but Trump (except Sanders)" party faction, and his support among Afro-Americans was never any deeper than a cautious wager. Biden has slipped behind Sanders in national polls, lost his big lead in Nevada, and may even lose his "firewall" state of South Carolina (see FiveThirtyEight, which also forecasts Sanders to lead in most "Super Tuesday" contests, including: California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Colorado, and Tennessee -- in fact, the only state Biden is still favored in is Alabama). FiveThirtyEight still projects Biden to finish second, but they already have Michael Bloomberg in a close third, with Buttigieg a distant fourth, Warren with vanishingly slim chances in fifth, and Klobuchar even further behind. That assumes they all keep running, which almost certainly won't happen.

[PS: Closing this now to get it up and out of the way. I've been running into frustrating dead ends seems like everywhere.]

Some scattered links this week:

• Eric Alterman: The modern GOP is built on lies. A few tired examples here, going back to Nixon, but nothing that even pretends to argue, "in some ways Trump is more truthful than previous Republican presidents." I might concede that Trump's lies are more self-revealing than those of his predecessors, and add that the biggest lie of all was Reagan's "morning in America" slogan, which encouraged Americans to deny reality and live in their own heads. Do that long enough and you eventually get to a guy like Trump, who can't tell the difference, let alone care.

• Michael Arria: Amy Klobuchar says she would work on increasing support for Israel if elected president. Related: Stephen Zunes: Klobuchar has pushed extreme right-wing policy on Israel/Palestine.

• Monifa Bandele: Take it from an activist who was there: Stop and frisk cost New Yorkers their lives.

• Ross Barkan: Michael Bloomberg isn't a smug technocratic centrist. He's something far worse.

• Alexander Burns/Nicholas Kulish: Bloomberg's billions: How the candidate built an empire of influence. As David Sirota tweeted:

  In investment terms, this story makes clear Bloomberg spent years buying large blocs of shares of the Beltway Democratic apparatus, and now he's trying to buy the primary to complete a hostile takeover.

• Jonathan Chait:

  • Obama auto standards may survive because Trump staff can't do math: "Malevolence tempered by incompetence."

  • Barr wants to hide Trump's authoritarian plans, but Trump keeps confessing: "A president uninterested in theory never stops asserting his 'absolute right' to destroy democracy."

  • Trump: If Romney was truly religious, he'd have convicted me on both counts. Sounds like Trump has a pretty bizarre notion of religion, but also reminds us that Romney's stand on principle was wobbly at the knees.

  • The GOP elite couldn't stop Trump in 2016. But maybe Democrats can stop Bernie. Yeah, but how hard did the "GOP elite" really try? Trump is an embarrassment, but he never really challenges orthodoxy, and he delivers votes for an agenda that is deeply unpopular. (When he does slip up, he apologizes quickly. Sure, his racist outbursts are the exception, suggesting that's something "GOP elites" have no serious problems with). By the way, who are these "GOP elites," and how do they enforce party discipline? Looks to me like a loosely connected circle of like-minded but mostly independent billionaire donors, kept in sync by propaganda networks like Fox News. The donors signaled their acceptance of Trump when they pulled the rug out from under Cruz and Kasich, when they were still likely to win a few primaries. Thanks to the Clintons and Obama, Democrat elites are more organized to control the party, and they are ideologically disposed to beat down any leftist deviations, as a big part of their pitch to donors over the last 30-40 years was that they could control the masses while making the world more profitable for the oligarchs. And unlike GOP elites view of Trump, they really do see left-populism as a threat, to their worldview as well as their all-important patronage. So Chait won't be able to lament their lack of effort, although he still may be disappointed at how ineffective they may be. Biden, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar don't have half a vision between them, and their resolve to do nothing but accommodate business interests is less inspiring than ever. Chait regrets that the do-nothings don't have a charismatic candidate in 2020 like Obama in 2008, but why should he think that would do the trick? (It's not clear now that Obama had much vision either, but at least he let people imagine he did.) Obama showed us how little progress mere competent moderation delivers -- not enough to lift Hillary over Trump, who was able to campaign on "what do you have to lose?"

  • Joe Biden's campaign was a disaster for liberalism and the Democratic Party: If "liberalism and the Democratic Party" couldn't find a more articulate candidate than Biden, maybe the disaster was already there, just something not just Biden couldn't fix. After Hillary lost to Trump, it should have been obvious that the Clinton-Obama-Biden formula had run its course. Chait blames Biden for denying promising candidates the money they needed to run competitive races, but wasn't his weakness clear a year ago?

  • Trump fires Defense official for refusing the break the law on his behalf: Elaine McCusker.

  • Here's what I do like about Bernie Sanders.

• David Dayen: The lessons of the Culinary Union health care fight. Turns out the reason the Las Vegas union is so anti-Sanders is that they own and run their own health care provider system, which gives them a conflict of interest between their own business interest and the class of workers they represent. One reason unions are in such sad shape these days is that too many of them started thinking of themselves as separate from the broader working class. By the way, Pete Buttigieg tried to latch onto this one particular (but in next week's Nevada caucuses, strategic) union as support for his attacks on Medicare for All, not realizing (or caring) it's a minority position among unions. See Jason Lemon: Union president accuses Pete Buttigieg of 'perpetuating this gross myth' about union health care: 'This is offensive'.

• Benjamin Dixon: Michael Bloomberg's campaign is an insult to democracy.

• Lee Fang:

  • TV executives celebrate unprecedented flood of Bloomberg campaign spending.

  • Foreign-funded dark-money groups lobby IRS to repeal remaining reporting requirements.

• Christopher Flavelle: Global financial giants swear off funding an especially dirty fuel: Alberta oil sands.

• Melvin Goodman: The real John Bolton. By the way, Jeffrey St. Clair: Roaming charges: The steal of the century, has an amusing screen shot of Lou Dobbs backed by a framed photo of Bolton captioned: "A TOOL FOR THE LEFT." It's true that Bolton's always been a tool, but you only have to be marginally smarter than Dobbs to realize he's never been one of ours.

• Ryan Grim:

  • Mike Bloomberg is hiring so many operatives, local and state campaigns are starving for help.

  • /Akela Lacy: AIPAC is helping fund anti-Bernie Sanders super PAC ads in Nevada.

• Umair Irfan: Antarctica broke two temperature records in a week. Related: Juan Cole: It is 65° F in Antarctica and if the Thwaites Glacier plops in, expect 4 ft of sea level rise.

• Sarah Jones: Michael Bloomberg defended fingerpriting food-stamp recipients in 2018 interview.

• Fred Kaplan:

  • Trump's $740.5 billion military budget is wildly irresponsible and misleading.

  • Nearly everything Trump's State of the Union said about foreign policy was wrong.

• Ed Kilgore:

  • De Blasio to endorse, campaign with, Sanders: That won't sway many voters, but it does make him point man on Bloomberg.

  • Why there is no Democratic 'never Bernie' movement: Well, what do you call the Bloomberg candidacy? Even back in 2016 Bloomberg was calculating how his running could undermine Bernie. The only reason he's not talking about it now is he realizes that doing so would utterly discredit his campaign.

• Michael Kranish:

  • Mike Bloomberg for years has battled women's allegations of profane, sexist comments.

  • How the relationship between Trump and Bloomberg went into a tailspin.

• Maris Kreizman: $2 million book deals about the Trump administration are anything but brave: "John Bolton's latest tell-all book deal is part of a worrying trend within publishing."

• Nicholas Kristof: The hidden depression Trump isn't helping.

• John le Carré: On Brexit: 'It's breaking my heart'. Also colors his remembrance of Olof Palme, the assassinated Swedish statesman whose name adorns a prize le Carré was just awarded.

• Joshua Leifer: A tense relationship: "The vexed history of Zionism and the left." A review of Susie Linfield's book, The Lion's Den: Zionism and the Left From Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky.

• Will Leitch: Pete Rose's plea to be unbanned from baseball is right out of the Trump playbook. Well, with Trump in his corner, maybe this isn't the best time to even partially rehabilitate Rose. Trump seems to feel that the right politics excuses (or at least merits forgiveness for) all manner of wrongdoing, while those with wrong politics should be harassed and jailed. As such, he's managed to lump Rose in with the likes of Joe Arpaio and Eddie Gallagher (the Navy SEAL charged with war crimes). Nonetheless, I will say, as I've always said, that being banned from ever working for (or owning a stake in) any MLB organization is one thing, and being ineligible to have your pre-ban achievements evaluated by the Base Ball Hall of Fame is (or should be) another (and the fact that they aren't is really the fault of the BBHOF). I always thought Rose was slightly overrated as a ballplayer, but I was more bothered by the adoring sports writers who bought into his Charlie Hustle act. When you look at his numbers in context, he wasn't anyway near the second coming of Ty Cobb, but he was comparable to long time Hall of Famers like Sam Crawford, Zack Wheat, Paul Waner, and Paul Molitor (who Baseball References regards as Rose's most similar batter, followed by Robin Yount, Waner, and George Brett; they also list Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb at 2 and 3, and Cap Anson at 7, but clearly aren't making necessary adjustments for cross-historical context; more telling is the "most similar by ages" chart, which only matches Rose with three HOFers, for a single year each, from ages 22-37: Molitor, Rod Carew, and Freddie Lindstrom; on the other hand, he has multi-year matches with Buddy Lewis and Johnny Damon; everyone from 38-45 is in the HOF, but few lesser players last that long; even so, 38-41 is Molitor, 42 Waner, 43-44 Rickey Henderson, and 45 Anson). One irony since Rose was banned is that the steroid scandal has kept far greater stars like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens out of the HOF (Bonds' most similar matches are Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Babe Ruth; Clemens' top ten matches are all in the HOF, and that doesn't include what would have been my first guess, Lefty Grove). Another irony is that if you gave in and considered Rose, you'd probably also have to consider another banned gambler whose career (until he got banned) resembled Cobb's even more: Shoeless Joe Jackson. On the other hand, if you do insist on imposing a morals clause on HOF membership, why not kick a few folks out? Cap Anson was singularly responsible for driving black players out of MLB in the late 1880s, and a long list of executives continued the color ban until 1947 -- first among equals there was Kenesaw Mountain Landis (the commissioner who banned Jackson and set the precedent for Rose, although he later whitewashed similar charges against Cobb and Speaker).

• Nicholas Lemann: Can journalism be saved? A review of many books, one of the few posts at this site without a paywall lock.

• Mary Kay Linge/Jon Levine: Bloomberg reportedly considering Hillary Clinton as his running mate: One thing I've noticed this week is that I find Bloomberg so despicable I'm willing to give credence to any story, no matter how dubious the source, that makes him appear even more evil (or stupid or vain or conceited or vile).

• German Lopez:

  • Bernie Sanders lost among New Hampshire voters focused most on beating Trump. I saw this poll referred to first in FiveThirtyEight's New Hampshire live blog (since deleted?), and it goes a long way to explaining the results.

    But among the 34 percent of New Hampshire voters who prioritized a candidate who agrees with them on major issues, Sanders led with 39 percent support, with Buttigieg and Klobuchar lagging far behind at 21 and 12 percent respectively. (The top issues, according to the same poll: health care, climate change, and income inequality.) . . .

    While voters may name concrete priorities when asked by pollsters, voters in reality balance a whole host of variables, from electability to policy positions to personal likability, when picking a nominee. But given that so much of Democratic voters' attention is going to beating Trump -- and has been for some time -- this conflict between electability and policy positions will likely be a major one for the rest of the primary season.

    For Sanders, now the frontrunner, it also seems to be a notable weakness. It's not just that he lost among voters who prioritize beating Trump. Democrats in general seem to view him as less electable, at least according to the New Hampshire exit polls: Asked who stands the best chance against Trump, 27 percent of voters said Buttigieg, 21 percent said Klobuchar, and 19 percent said Sanders.

    This sounds like a lot of Democrats are so chickenshit they're willing to pick inferior candidates if they think they might fare better against Trump. The reasoning, I suppose, is that any Democrat would be better than Trump, which runs the risk of sliding into the notion that the Democrat most similar to Trump would capture the widest slice of in-between voters.

  • Virginia is poised to decriminalize marijuana.

• Annie Lowrey: The Berniephobes are wrong: "Wall Street fears the rise of the Vermont senator. The rest of America has less to worry about."

• Ann E Marimow: Trump takes on Judge Amy Berman Jackson ahead of Roger Stone's sentencing.

• Ian Millhiser:

  • How Justice Scalia paved the way for Trump's assault on the rule of law: "Three words: 'the unitary executive'."

  • America's democracy is failing. Here's why. "Four ways America's system of government is rigged against democracy (and Democrats)."

• Nicole Narea: Trump is sending armed tactical forces to arrest immigrants in sanctuary cities.

• Osita Nwanevu: End the GOP: "In order to save our democracy, we must not merely defeat the Republican Party."

• Alex Pareene: Michael Bloomberg's polite authoritarianism.

• Andrew Prokop:

  • Andrew McCabe, Michael Flynn, and the latest Justice Department drama, explained.

  • The fiasco at Bill Barr's Justice Department, explained.

• Joe Ragazzo: There's no resurgence in American manufacturing. It's a myth.

• Nathan J Robinson: A Republican plutocrat tries to buy the Democratic nomination: "No Democrat should consider Michael Bloomberg as a candidate."

• Aaron Rupar:

  • "This is a president declaring himself above the law": A former ethics chief on Trump's dangerous new era: Interview with Walter Shaub, who says, "What I didn't expect is how badly the system would fail to stop him."

  • Trump: The economy is the best in history. Also Trump: We need to cut raises for federal workers.

  • Trump's New Hampshire rally showed how he's already sowing discord about the 2020 election.

• Charlie Savage/Adam Goldman/Julian E Barnes: Justice Department is investigating CIA resistance to sharing Russia secrets.

• Dylan Scott:

  • Why Medicare-for-all works for Bernie Sanders -- and nobody else.

  • Why Utah is sending workers to Mexico to buy Medicine: "The state's plan to send patients to Mexico to buy cheap drugs is an indictment of US health care."

• Rebecca Smithers: Bill Gates orders £500m hydrogen-powered superyacht. [PS: This article was subsequently removed. Evidently Gates did not buy this yacht.] Related: Rupert Neate: Superyachts and private jets: spending of corrupt super-rich revealed [2019-10-23].

Alanna Vagianos: Michael Bloomberg quietly rejoined clubs that largely exclude women, minorities

• Joyce White Vance: If Trump is allowed to turn the Justice Department into a political weapon, no one is safe.

• Peter Wade: Bloomberg said ending a racist housing practice caused financial crisis.

• Kimberly Wehle: A conservative judge draws a line in the sand with the Trump administration.

• Savannah Wooten: Trump's proposed budget is fuel for American militarism.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • 7 things to know about the private equity industry. A "Weeds" podcast with Emily Stewart, but the "seven main takeaways" are printed. I might try to reduce this to one: PE firms buy up supposedly underperforming firms with borrowed money, rob them, then dispose of the remains either by reselling them or by letting the bankruptcy courts settle with the creditors.

  • Mike Bloomberg is trying to remind voters that Trump inherited his money.

  • Mainstream Democrats shouldn't fear Bernie Sanders: "He'd be a strong nominee and a solid president." Under a section called "Stop freaking out":

    Some of his big ideas are not so hot on the merits, but it's not worth worrying about them because the political revolution is so unrealistic. And on a couple of issues where the next president will probably have a fair amount of latitude, Sanders breaks from the pack in good ways. He's perhaps not an ideal electability choice, but his track record on winning elections is solid and his early polling is pretty good. There's no particular reason to think he'd be weaker than the other three top contenders, and at least some reason to think he'd be stronger.

  • Amy Klobuchar is the thinking moderate Democrat's electability candidate.

  • Elizabeth Warren's once-promising, now-imperiled campaign, explained.

• Li Zhou: The Senate just voted to check Trump's ability to take military action against Iran. Have you noticed that when a president wants the authorization to use military force, it only takes a bare majority, but when Congress wants to limit a president's warmaking, it takes two-thirds to override a presidential veto?

Daily Log

Erin McCandlis wrote this on Facebook about her late grandmother:

Oh Grandma, I'm gonna miss you every day! Thank you for being such an incredible role model for all of us. Thank you for loving me, showing me how to care for others, shocking me with revelations when I thought I was going to shock you, all the delicious food (especially the biscuits and chocolate sauce breakfasts), all the laughs, all the long talks, for letting me vent when I needed to and for always being there for anyone in the family. You were our rock and we will be lost without you. Love you always!
Chloe Faye McCandlis
12/6/25-2/12/20

I chipped in this comment:

Very sad, not least because it closes so many opportunities to discover things about our shared past. Loved the "shocked me" line, as I've been there too. Well, not exactly shocked, because I've long known her as the sharpest lady ever to escape the back woods of Arkansas.

In other Facebook trivia, Bradley Sroka was trawling for "your favorite music moments in movies?" I replied:

Not sure this is my favorite, but given what I've been listening to, it popped into mind. There's a very surreal sequence in "Anatomy of a Murder" where Jimmy Stewart is driving a top-down convertible in a warm and sunny Michigan UP, then gets out and walks into a bar, where he finds Duke Ellington & Orchestra in full swing.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, February archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 32759 [32712] rated (+47), 241 [230] unrated (+11).

Shortly after closing my last Music Week, I looked at the featured jazz records on Napster and noticed two volumes from Duke Ellington's Private Collection series. These appeared on Saja in 10 CDs from 1987-89, and I had picked up a few when I found them used. I figured I should play the ones I had missed, and that got me looking at Napster's Ellingtons. I had probably heard more records by Ellington than any other artist, but that still left a fair number unheard -- especially among the 44 Chronological Classics volumes. As most of the latter were available, I started working my way through the list, especially the stretch from 1931-39, which Ellington's American labels have failed to keep in print. That took me past my usual Monday deadline. I decided then to hold back until I hit 1940, because I planned on writing a general introduction to the series followed by notes and grades on each individual volume (as I had with Private Collection.

Chronlogical Classics goes on to 1953, but I figured they were less critical. That's not a judgment on the music, but because nearly all of them were in print and graded elsewhere: see, especially, the magnificent Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band, which covers 1940-42, The Indispensible Duke Ellington and the Small Groups (1940-46), and the slightly lesser Black, Brown and Beige (1944-1946). I picked up a few more titles along the way, plus a couple of records by others which showed up in the Ellington title search.

There are more I haven't gotten to. The big live chunks left are the Carnegie Hall Concerts from 1943-48 and The Treasury Shows from 1945-46 (25 volumes). There is also a fair amount of live Ellington floating around, especially from the 1960s -- Pablo picked up some of those, but we're still seeing occasional concerts pop up on European labels. I won't venture to say how much of this anyone actually needs, but aside from some redundancy, the A and A+ records listed above are really choice records. Nothing (other than the Armstrong-Ellington Summit, which matches a previous A graded package) in this week's many finds matches them, although the 1928-30 Chronological Classics overlap with some of my previous picks (especially the 3-CD Early Ellington on Decca), 1938 Vol. 3 has some of the small group recording from The Great Ellington Units, and Up in Duke's Workshop sounds like a first draft of Latin American Suite. On the other hand, I ran through the Chronological Classics very fast (almost always just one play), and aside from the usual caveats about surface noise and sequencing they all sounded pretty great to me.

Quite a bit of unpacking this week-plus, which came as a surprise to me after a few lean weeks. I've let the 2020 releases pile up while working on 2019, and barely touched them this week. But the Ellington orgy did break me out of the rut of searching around for 2019 stragglers. Also went the whole week without touching the 2019 EOY Aggregate. So I guess I'm moving on. Still expect to pick up a few more Ellington titles next week (playing The Great Paris Concert right now, and it's sounding pretty great, indeed). My new year resolution is to take 2020 easier. So far that's mostly involved starting each day off with a piece of classic old jazz. I had, in fact, been playing Early Ellington in the week before this kicked off, along with Ben Webster's Cottontail, an ASV best-of named for his 1935 hit with Ellington.

A final personal note: I just heard today that my cousin Chloe McCandlis died, at 94. She and her husband Paul moved from Arkansas to Snohomish, WA before I was born, so I probably only saw her a half-dozen times over the years. I don't remember the family's first trip to Washington, but we returned for the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, which was the high point of my life well past that point. I visited again, on my own, in 1984, and it totally changed my view of my family -- for one thing, despite the distance, she probably knew my mother better than any of my closer relatives (or maybe she was just more open about it). I saw her a couple years ago. Despite numerous physical ailments, she was in a very expansive mood, with lots of stories about long ago. She no doubt knew many more, and I could kick myself for not making more of an effort to keep close. That memory is lost now. The inspiration remains.

New records reviewed this week:

• Carol Albert: Stronger Now (2019 [2020], Cahara): [cd]: B-
• Lila Ammons: Genealogy (2019 [2020], self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
• Ellen Edwards: A New York Session (Stonefire Music, EP): [cd]: B- [02-22]
• Delfeayo Marsalis Uptown Jazz Orchestra: Jazz Party (Troubadour Jass): [cd]: B+(**)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Ronnie Lane: Just for a Moment: The Best of Ronnie Lane (1973-97 [2019], UMC): [r]: B+(***)

Old music:

• Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington: The Great Summit: The Master Takes (1961 [2000], Roulette): [r]: A
• Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn: Great Times! Piano Duets (1950 [1989], Riverside/OJC): [r]: B+(*)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: A Drum Is a Woman (1956 [1957], Columbia): [r]: B-
• Duke Ellington: At the Alhambra: Recorded in Paris, 1958 (1958 [2002], Pablo): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Featuring Paul Gonsalves (1962 [1991], Fantasy/OJC): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington: The Duke: The Essential Collection 1927-1962 (1927-62 [2000], Columbia/Legacy, 3CD): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington: In the Uncommon Market (1963 [1986], Pablo): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington: Soul Call (1966 [1999], Verve): [r]: B+(**)
• Duke Ellington/Boston Pops/Arthur Fiedler: The Duke at Tanglewood (1966, RCA Victor Red Seal): [r]: B+(**)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: The Popular Duke Ellington (1966 [1967], RCA Victor): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington: Solos, Duets and Trios (1932-67 [1990], RCA Bluebird): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Berlin '65/Paris '67 (1965-67 [1997], Pablo): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington: 1969 All-Star White House Tribute to Duke Ellington (1969 [2002], Blue Note): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington: Duke Ellington's 70th Birthday Concert (1969 [1995], Blue Note, 2CD): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington & His Orchestra: Up in Duke's Workshop (1969-72 [1990], Pablo/OJC): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington: The Duke's Big 4 (1973 [1974], Pablo): [r]: B+(**)
• Duke Ellington: The Private Collection, Volume Two: Dance Concerts, California, 1958 (1958 [1987], Saja): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington: The Private Collection, Volume Six: Dance Dates, California, 1958 (1958 [1989], Saja): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington: The Private Collection, Volume Seven: Studio Sessions 1957 & 1962 (1956-72 [1990], Saja): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington: The Private Collection, Volume Eight: Studio Sessions 1957, 1965, 1966, 1967, San Francisco/Chicago/New York (1957-67 [1990], SAJA): [r]: B+(**)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1927-1928 (1927-1928 [1990], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1928 (1928 [1990], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1928-1929 (1928-29 [1990], Classics): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1929 (1929 [1991], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1929-1930 (1929-30 [1991], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1930 (1930 [1991], Classics): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1930, Volume 2 (1930 [1991], Classics): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1930-1931 (1930-31 [1991], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1931-1932 (1931-32 [1991], Classics): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1932-1933 (1932-33 1992], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1933 (1933 [1992], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1933-35 (1933-35 [1992], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1936-37 (1936-37 [1992], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1938 (1938 [1993], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1938 Vol. 2 (1938 [1993], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1938 Vol. 3 (1938 [1993], Classics): [r]: A-
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1939 (1939 [1994], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: 1939-1940 (1938 [1994], Classics): [r]: B+(***)
• Vienna Art Orchestra: Duke Ellington's Sound of Love, Vol. 2: Live at Porgy & Bess, Vienna (2003, EmArcy): [r]: A-
• Ben Webster: Plays Duke Ellington (1967-71 [2002], Storyville): [r]: A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Kenny Barron/Dave Holland Trio Featuring Johnathan Blake: Without Deception (Dare2) [03-06]
• Gerald Beckett: Mood (Summit)
• Benjamin Boone With the Ghana Jazz Collective: Joy (Origin) [03-20]
• Calle Loiza Jazz Project: There Will Never Be Another You (self-released)
• The Coachella Valley Trio: Mid Century Modern (DMAC)
• Sarah Elgeti Quartet With Friends: Dawn Comes Quietly (Gateway Music) [02-21]
• Nick Finzer: Cast of Characters (Outside In Music) [02-28]
• Al Gold: Al Gold's Paradise (self-released) [03-06]
• Christopher Icasiano: Provinces (Origin) [02-21]
• Brent Jensen: The Sound of a Dry Martini: Remembering Paul Desmond (2002, Origin) [02-21]
• Mike McGinniss/Elias Bailey/Vinnie Sperrazza: Time Is Thicker (Open Stream Music)
• New Stories: Speakin' Out (2019 [2020], Origin) [02-21]
• Gloria Reuben & Marty Ashby: For All We Know (MCG Jazz) [02-14]
• Reverso [Frank Woeste/Vincent Courtois/Ryan Keberle]: The Melodic Line (Out Note) [02-14]
• RJ & the Assignment: Hybrid Harmony (self-released)
• The United States Air Force Band Airmen of Note: Air Power! (self-released)
• Torbjörn Zetterberg & Den Stora Fragan: Are You Happy (Moserobie)

Weekend Roundup

Skipped a week because I was working on music stuff, so this week's links go back further than usual, but much of the previous week was absorbed in speculation about Iowa and Trump's impeachment trial, which became obsolete the moment the votes were counted (or are finally counted; see Riley Beggin: Final Iowa caucuses results expected just before New Hampshire begins voting). Trump was, of course, not convicted, the vote 48-52, with Mitt Romney the only Senator to break party ranks. This, and his own holier-than-thou explanation, occasioned pieces heaping undeserved praise or wrath on Romney, none of which mentioned the most obvious point: Trump's following among Republicans is significantly weaker in Utah than in any other state, probably because Utah is uniquely insulated from the fears he preys upon.

The Iowa caucuses were a huge embarrassment for the Democratic Party's professional elites, who came up with novel ways to avoid reporting unpleasant news (that Sanders won the popular vote), and reminded us that Republicans aren't the only party willing to use tricks (in this case "State Delegate Equivalents") to steal an election (allowing Buttigieg to claim a Trumpian victory, although even there, with still incomplete results, the margin is a razor thin 564-562; Sanders led the first-found popular vote 24.75% to 21.29%, followed by Warren 18.44%, Biden 14.95%, Klobuchar 12.73%, Yang 5.00%, Steyer 1.75%, Gabbard 0.19%, Bloomberg 0.12%, Bennet 0.09%, Patrick 0.03%, Delaney 0.01% [10 votes]). Lots of articles this week dredging up old standy complaints about Iowa's premier spot in presidential campaigns, including generic complaints about caucuses, and even more about Iowa.

New Hampshire will vote on Tuesday. Recent polling: Anya van Wagtendonk: Sanders leads in New Hampshire, but half of voters remain uncommitted -- subhed amends that to 30%. Buttigieg seems to be in 2nd place now (21%, behind 28% for Sanders), followed by Biden (11%), Warren (9%), Gabbard (6%), Klobuchar (5%), Yang and Steyer (3%), with Bloomberg (not on ballot) at 2%. The Democrats had another debate last week, resulting in the usual winners-and-losers pieces, none of which caught my eye below. (If you really want one, try Vox, which had Klobuchar a winner and Biden a loser.)

Meanwhile, Trump gave his State of the Union address, on the even of his "acquittal." It read (link below) more like his campaign stump speech, at least the one he'd give if he didn't wander off script, and Republicans in the audience tried to turn the event into a campaign rally, even at one point chanting "four more years" (but at least I haven't seen any reports of "lock her up"), and the fact that half of the audience were Democrats kept the chemistry down (and added a few boos and a couple of walkouts). Of course, the content got lost in the dramatics, especially Trump's refusal to shake Nancy Pelosi's hand on entering, and her ripping up his speech afterwards. It all led pundits and partisans to offer sermons on civility, but Trump had been absolutely vicious toward Pelosi ever since she got behind impeachment. But what the exchange reminded me most of was a story about Casey Stengel, where he artfully dodged an interview after a loss by making obscene gestures the media couldn't broadcast. By ripping up Trump's speech, Pelosi signaled there was nothing but lies and contempt there, more succinctly than any of the official party responders could possibly do.

Some Republican flaks claim that last week was one of Trump's best ever, and they can point to a trivial uptick in Trump's approval rating (43.8% at 538). It's clear now that the Senate's non-trial didn't move anyone, but while it was tedious and overwrought as it happened, it will be remembered differently. Democrats will remember it as a valiant attempt to do something about a president has repeatedly abused his office and violated his oath to support the Constitution and the laws of the land, which was thwarted not by facts or reason but by cynical partisan solidarity, making clear that the Republican members of Congress are fully complicit in Trump's crimes. That's something they can campaign on this fall.

Trump celebrated his "acquittal" with a series of extremely boorish public appearances (some noted below). I've gotten to where it's hard for Trump to shock me, but his is the most disgusting performance I've ever seen by a public figure. I've long maintained that Trump himself isn't nearly as dangerous or despicable as the orthodox Republicans he surrounds himself with, but I may have to revise my view. I've long believed that the swing vote in the 2020 election will turn on those Americans who don't particularly object to Trump's policies but decide that his personal behavior is too embarrassing to tolerate further. This week has provided plenty for them to think about.

The only issue below I tried to group links under was the Kushner "deal of the century," partly because they separate out easily enough. Trump issues, Democrat issues, they're all over the place.

Some scattered links this week:

• Zeeshan Aleem: Trump's State of the Union suggests he's worried about Bernie Sanders.

• Robert P Baird: The prosecution of President Donald Trump.

• Natylie Baldwin: Obama Russia adviser on cold war liberals: Interview with James Carden, who previously (2019-12-30) wrote Meet the cold war liberals, where he suggests FDR's Good Neighbor Policy as a way out of America's cold war rut.

• Zack Beauchamp:

  • Trump's impeachment acquittal shows how democracy could really die: "The Senate's sham trial revealed a philosophical flaw in American liberal democracy." The problem with this argument is that "could" implies a possible future event, whereas what the trial shows is that for one major political party democracy is already dead -- at least it's not something they have to pretend to respect.

  • The Democratic primary has a legitimacy problem: "The Iowa results debacle has undermined faith in the entire primary process."

  • Lamar Alexander and the power of right-wing political correctness.

• Peter Beinart: Impeachment hurt somebody. It wasn't Trump. "In the end, the president succeeded in doing precisely what he wanted in the first place: tarring a leading Democratic rival."

• Julia Belluz: 9 questions about the coronavirus outbreak, answered.

• Katelyn Burns: Democratic candidates aren't happy about new debate rules that seem to benefit Bloomberg. No "seem" about it. Donors aren't necessarily a good metric, but dropping it opens the door to billionaire egotists like Bloomberg to scam polls through massive ad buys, and reaffirms the DNC's commitment to oligarchy. The DNC may have had an impossible and thankless job in managing the debates, but once again they've come out looking hapless and more than a little corrupt.

• Jonathan Chait:

  • Now Trump is charging Nancy Pelosi with fake crimes, too.

  • If you think it looks bad for mainstream Democrats now, just wait. I realize they're not happy with any of their candidates, but could that possibly have something to do with: Their positions? Their track record of promising progressive reform and delivering nothing? Bad as it seems, I can't imagine any scenario looking worse for them this year than having their perfect candidate, Hillary Clinton, lose to Trump in 2016.

  • Impeachment exposed President Trump's authoritarian ambitions.

  • Trump baffled why African-Americans don't want to vote for him: "Maybe giving Rush Limbaugh another medal will fix it."

  • Trump speech cites sole triumph: Rebranding Obama's economy as his own.

  • Trump attacks John Bolton as desperate loser who nearly destroyed the planet. A rare occasion of Trump speaking truth, although Bolton was so stuck in his obsessions for so long you have to wonder about Trump's command of the vetting process.

  • Running Bernie Sanders against Trump would be an act of insanity. Wait! Isn't the stock definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result? Running the only person in America who ever lost a general election to Trump a second time would be insane. Wouldn't it be saner to nominate a very different candidate? Sanders may not be perfectly tailored, but he has some real strengths that are hard to find in other candidates, notably principles and integrity. In a Trump vs. Sanders election, Trump has already made it clear that he's going to practice nonstop red-baiting: an old song that for most non-Republicans has worn thin enough to be easily dismissed. Against anyone else, Trump is going to harp on the supposed corruption and perfidy of the Democrats -- points that still disturb most Americans, and are likely to hurt even where grossly unfair.

• Joan Coaston: The Iowa Republican caucuses you didn't know where happening, explained. I have a pretty low opinion of Republicans these days, but I'm still a bit surprised that no serious candidate emerged to register an anti-Trump protest vote in the Republican primaries. There are still a few "never Trump" pundits flopping around, and there are some obvious names who seem to be biding their time, figuring a Trump debacle in 2020 will give them a springboard for redeeming the party in 2024 (Kasich, Ryan, Romney, with Rubio trying to have it both ways). But viability in the Republican Party almost exclusively depends on the blessing of billionaire donors -- Newt Gingrich explained his loss to Romney: "he had five billionaires, and I only had one" -- and clearly none of them came up with a favorable cost/benefit analysis. That left Bill Weld and Joe Walsh as the only candidates to solicit votes in Iowa, and all they could do was 1.54% and 1.31% respectively. Hard to know whether the media consciously ignored them to leave Trump a clear path, or just didn't notice in the first place. Even this article omitted Trump's actual vote, although you can figure out it was close to 97%. [PS: Walsh has since dropped out. See Benjamin Hart: Joe Walsh will not be the next President of the United States.

• Sean Collins: Trump's Super Bowl interview was 8 minutes of pettiness and empty braggadocio.

• McKay Coppins: The billion-dollar disinformation campaign to reelect the president. Including quite a bit about Trump's internet czar, Brad Parscale -- now campaign manager, which tells you something about how and where the campaign will be fought.

• Neta C Crawford: The Iraq War has cost the US nearly $2 trillion . . . and counting, on track to exceeding the estimate in the 2008 book by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict.

• Chas Danner:

  • Trump awards Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh at State of the Union: I know a lot of assholes and worse have been given this award, but it usually happens in a White House ceremony, and I find it unbearably crass for Trump to presume he can do it in Congress, let alone during the SOTU address. Possibly the most disgusting thing he's done in one of his worst weeks to date. Coincidentally, I was just listening to the music from the event in 1969 when Nixon gave this same award to Duke Ellington. I doubt I'll ever despise a politician more completely than Nixon, but I've always had to give him credit for honoring Ellington.

  • Trump avoids handshake with Pelosi at State of the Union, and Nancy Pelosi rips up Trump's State of the Union speech: More pettiness on a bad night for both.

  • Watch Trump act bored and ignored during the singing of the national anthem.

• David Dayen:

  • Welcome to the bullshit economy: Hey, sucker, wanna buy a disruptive app?

  • Building the people's banks: "Establishing financial institutions and regulations that work for middle- and low-income Americans is possible."

• Ryan Devereaux: Trump is blowing up a National Monument in Arizona to make way for the border wall: Organ Pipe Cactus NM.

• Eliza Relman/Lauren Frias: Trump supporters intentionally swarmed the Iowa caucus phone lines to delay the results: News reports that the Iowa caucus wasn't hacked were wrong. What this story shows is that Nixon's tricksters are back in force (even with Roger Stone locked up).

• Matt Ford: The empire strikes back: "With impeachment behind him, Trump is already steering his cruel reign in a darker direction." Starts by quoting Bill Clinton after his impeachment acquittal, saying "I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on Congress and on the American people." Trump, by contrast, makes Clinton look like the epitome of class and grace:

  It's hard to imagine how President Donald Trump could have done things more differently in his own address on Thursday. Speaking to a motley crowd of White House aides, Cabinet officials, and congressional allies, the president bounced between gratitude for his most ardent supporters and anger toward his perceived enemies. "It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops," he seethed, referring to years of investigations into his misconduct. Now that Trump will no longer face consequences for his actions, the president and his allies are eager to inflict them upon everyone else.

• Adam Gopnik: Thirteen (well, ten) ways of looking at impeachment and acquittal: Actually, they all strike me as bullshit:

  1. Impeachment was, despite it all, essential.
  2. Yes, but Trump won, and the consequences are terrifying.
  3. Actually, Trump won, but it's trivial.
  4. And you know what? Actually, Trump lost.
  5. Adam Schiff's eloquence will always be remembered.
  6. And so will Romney's courage.
  7. There was a truly shocking collapse of conscience.
  8. It's over, and Trump will win.
  9. It's not over, and Trump will lose.
  10. History has its eyes on you.
  11. History is happening.

  The most plausible is 3 -- not so much that Trump won as that his win was trivial. Trump's big win was that he didn't get charged with corruption, which is his calling card, or with lying, which he does nearly every time he opens his mouth. This didn't happen because it would have involved more work, and it's not something Democrats are squeaky clean on. Plus, many Democrats still think Russia is the silver bullet, and those Democrats were the ones that unified the party on impeachment. Unfortunately, they also unified Republicans in defense, ensuring defeat. Which brings me back to what I think of as a fundamental principle: never prosecute someone you have no chance of convicting. Granted, it's tempting with someone you really want to make squirm, and it did have the effect of making Trump (and ultimately the Republican Senate) look bad. Still, it's not something you want to make a habit of.

• Courtney Hagle/John Kerr: After his acquittal, Fox goes all in on the sycophantic praise of Donald Trump. Related: Rob Savillo: Fox & Friends reported on Pelosi ripping up her copy of the State of the Union 55 times more than actual lies from Trump's speech.

• Rebecca Heilweil:

  • It's not just Iowa: Election tech is messy.

  • Why we don't know as much as we should about police surveillance technology.

• Sean Illing:

  • "Flood the zone with shit": How misinformation overwhelmed our democracy.

    For most of recent history, the goal of propaganda was to reinforce a consistent narrative. But zone-flooding takes a different approach: It seeks to disorient audiences with an avalanche of competing stories.

    And it produces a certain nihilism in which people are so skeptical about the possibility of finding the truth that they give up the search. The fact that 60 percent of Americans say they encounter conflicting reports about the same event is an example of what I mean. In the face of such confusion, it's not surprising that less than half the country trusts what they read in the press.

  • "We're losing our damn minds": James Carville unloads on the Democratic Party: Interview with the crusty Clinton strategist, mostly a rant against the "democratic wing of the Democratic Party," but I'm reading his complaints about the farthest reaches in their platform as a gripe about how "moderate" Democrats haven't been able to articulate practical intermediate steps and show how they'd really be positive steps. I doubt that's really fair, but the media would rather see Democrats fight than find fertile common ground, so what gets broadcast are the "Republican talking points" the centrists seem to embrace. So I don't disagree with his pull quote: "The fate of the world depends on the Democratic Party getting its shit together and winning in November."

• Umair Irfan: Tree planting is Trump's politically safe new climate plan.

• Jake Johnson: 'No better distillation of Washington': Democrats and GOP join Trump in standing ovation for failed Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaidó.

• Sarah Jones:

  • Man who owns news outlet guilty of plagiarism: Michael Bloomberg. By the way, this isn't something that bothers me about Bloomberg, but since everything else does, I decided to mention it. More disturbing: Alex Henderson: Michael Bloomberg is "paying influencers" to make his 2020 campaign "seem cool".

  • Trump didn't "lift people off welfare." He cut them off.

  • South Carolina Democrats sure sound open to Medicare for All: "A new poll shows high levels of support for government-run health care."

• Ed Kilgore: How much did Iowa slow Joe's roll? By the way, I counted 33 Kilgore posts since last Roundup, and this is the only one I thought worth mentioning. A lot of them have very short shelf lives; e.g., before this one, there was: In Iowa, a collision of campaigns before the caucuses; Two campaigns on the brink in Iowa (Warren and Buttigieg); How do the Iowa caucuses work?; In Iowa on caucus night: the view from the ground; The mourning after in Iowa.

• Catherine Kim:

  • Trump's criminal justice record is more complicated than he claims.

  • John Delaney's been running for president since 2017 -- and it's finally come to an end. When the first batch of Iowa voting numbers came in, I was amused to find that Delaney's first-round vote totals were exactly 0. Latest figures I've seen had him up to 10, but you still need a lot of digits to turn that into a percentage. So, yeah, he's toast, and should hang it up. The article spends a lot of time on his "simple" health care plan, and it's not bad -- or wouldn't be if he had only framed it as a first step toward the sort of comprehensive universal coverage plan Sanders has proposed. But he didn't campaign like that. Rather, he spent all his time attacking the left, winding up with no solutions and no hope. Makes you wonder why he bothered to run in the first place.

• Jen Kirby:

  • Alexander Vindman, a key impeachment witness, is dismissed from the White House.

  • Read Trump's bananas, post-impeachment victory lap speech.

  • Trump vilified socialism in his State of the Union, using Venezuela as his foil.

  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is officially going to trial on corruption charges.

• Bonnie Kristian: Why Trump can't believe his opponents' prayers. So this is what happened when Trump took his victory tour to the National Prayer Breakfast in DC. I'm sympathetic to people who regard Trump as a piss-poor specimen of a Christian, but empirically speaking, I've noticed that Christians (at least the hard-scrabble Protestants I grew up with and have known since childhood) easily divide into two camps: one that loves their neighbors and sincerely tries to help them through their troubles, and another who only invoke God to smite down their neighbors and consign them to hell. In his introductory remarks, Arthur Brooks made a pitch to the former. Then Trump came on, and replied: "Arthur, I don't know if I agree with you, and I don't know if Arthur's gonna like what I've got to say." They he started laying into his enemies (especially the ones who say, "I pray for you").

• Paul Krugman:

  • How zombies at the GOP's soul: "Everyone with principles has left the party."

  • Does it matter who the Democrats choose? "It matters hugely whether a Democrat wins, it matters much less which Democrat wins."

• Robert Kuttner: Was impeachment a mistake? He says no, but his analysis suggests we won't know until the Senate is decided in November.

• Nina Lakhani: Hundreds of Salvadorans deported by US were killed or abused, report reveals. Related: William Wheeler: How the US helped create El Salvador's bloody gang war.

• Eric Levitz:

  • The insane criminal president held a party today.

  • Donald Trump is winning the 2020 Democratic primary: "The Democratic Party turned the Iowa caucuses into an infomercial for its incompetence and internal divisions." Alt-title, on the page: "This is how he wins."

• Dara Lind: "Women to one side, men to the other": How the Border Patrol's new powers and old carelessness separated a family.

• Erik Loomis: What are you going to do when Bernie wins the nomination? The question, of course, is only raised due to the extreme vitriol of anti-Bernie hysteria among the elite tier of self-proclaimed "moderate Democrats." The fact is that those who can't "Deal. With. It." will be worse than "as bad as any Nader voter" (he's trying to hit them where they hurt). Refusing to support the Democratic nominee if it's Bernie is an admission that you never cared about progress or justice in the first place -- that the repeated failures of recent Democratic regimes were nothing more than bad faith (as opposed to conflicted interests, fear, stupidity, and ineptness). For examples of vitriol, see the comments. "I think Bernie is an increasingly bitter old man who does not play well with others" is relatively mild and laughable. Even more deranged:

  I didn't vote for the fascist and I'm not voting for the Communist either. Bernie has spent his entire existence undermining Democrats and will not be rewarded for getting Trump installed. We can vote down ballot for actual Democrats. There will be no forgiveness for what the deranged old coot and his bros have done to the working class. Not to mention, his voting record is fairly despicable. He's no different than Trump. F him and his ratferking teabagging psychos as well.

  In what universe is a person with so much fear and loathing not already a Trump disciple?

• German Lopez: Democrats have good plans to tackle the opioid epidemic. They should talk about them.

• Amanda Marcotte: Voting to acquit this noxious criminal is the point of no return for the Republican Party. I think Republicans crossed that point long ago, but it's hard to pin down one point. One might be the "Hastert rule," by which the far right could veto any moderate deals the House Republican leadership might entertain, and McConnell's 2009 decision to use the filibuster to block all bills by Democrats. On the other hand, Republican solidarity dates back at least to the fight against Clinton's health care reform, and further back to the defense of the Clarence Thomas nomination to the Supreme Court (who, you may recall, was a pretty noxious pick). [Also see note on Marcotte below.]

• Daniel Markovits: How McKinsey destroyed the middle class: "Technocratic management, no matter how brilliant, cannot unwind structural inequalities." Buttigieg worked for McKinsey, although to be fair, he was but a small cog in their vast machinery.

• David Masciotra:

  • America's fatal flaw: The founders assumed our leaders would have some basic decency. I'm not sure that's true: otherwise, why would they have concocted such an elaborate system of checks and balances to make impossible any real concentration of power? And why would they take care to proscribe titles, emoluments, bribes, and other high crimes? On the other hand, decency is a pretty low bar, one that Trump uniquely seems to have no claim to. More importantly, the founders didn't anticipate political parties, and they didn't expect the president to have anywhere near the broad powers of modern presidents. Perhaps they were naive in authorizing as much power as they did, expecting George Washington to wield that power responsibly, setting an example others might emulate. The only thing Trump and Washington have in common is exceptional wealth, but Washington also had a long record of public service, and took great pains to avoid any suspicion of corruption. Trump, well, could hardly be more opposite.

  • Trump's real base isn't the famous "white working class" -- it's the billionaire class.

• Laura McGann:

  • One of America's most prominent racists just received the Presidential Medal of Freedom: Rush Limbaugh.

  • Joe Biden is the only candidate with a real shot at getting things done: One of Vox's series of "best case" arguments for each of the candidates (following Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, followed by Pete Buttigieg). Much of the headline claim is based on the assumption that "Biden has the best shot at carrying the Senate," which in turn is based on the idea that capturing seats depends more on swaying the center than on motivating the left. Unclear to me that Biden can do either, not least because he doesn't seem to really want (or feel the need for) much change.

• Casey Michel: How the US became the center of global kleptocracy. "For the world's warlords, criminals, and autocrats, there's no gift finer than an anonymous American shell company."

• Ian Millhiser:

  • The Senate's decision to acquit Trump is even less democratic than you think: "The 48 senators who voted to remove Trump represent 53 percent of the nation."

  • Mitt Romney just did something that literally no senator has ever done before: "Before this day, no senator has ever voted to remove a president of the same party from office." Points out that all nine Democrats in the Senate voted to acquit Andrew Johnson (Johnson was not technically a Democrat when he was elected vice-president in 1864, but by impeachment time the few Democrats left in Congress allied with him against the "Radical Republicans"). I was thinking there had been some breaks against Clinton (Joe Lieberman?), but a check shows not. On the other hand, 4 Republicans voted not guilty on the obstruction of justice charge (John Chafee, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter), and 5 more on the perjury article (Slade Gorton, Richard Shelby, Ted Stevens, Fred Thompson, John Warner). The votes to convict Clinton failed 50-50 and 45-55. Still, not enough of a sample to make Romney's apostasy stand out. One can argue that the case against Trump fared better relative to party standing than the strongest charge against Clinton did (+1 vs. -4), and Romney's vote helped there. On the other hand, the raw vote (48-52) fell short of the previous 50-50.

  • The biggest lie in Trump's State of the Union speech: "Trump wants people who depend on Obamacare to relax. They do so at great peril."

  • What Trump has done to the courts, explained.

• Rani Molla: Why your free software is never free: "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product." He has a point, but it's not about free software, a category which includes the operating system I'm using (Linux), the software distribution (Xubuntu), the editor I'm typing into (GNU emacs), the web server I'm distributing my writing over (Apache), or the browser I used to view it (Firefox), or the hundreds of other programs that fill role and do tasks in my digital universe. I paid $0 for all of them, and expect to pay $0 every time I update them. And while I rarely do so, I can in nearly every case download the source code to these programs, fix bugs, add features, and redistribute my changes to the world, who will also pay $0 for my contributions. (The few exceptions usually have to do with proprietary hardware or restricted file formats for media and "digital rights" policing. While these also cost me $0, they aren't free software, because I can't download, modify, and redistribute the source code. Sometimes such programs are referred to as freeware, but most such programs are distributed free in hopes of getting tip income and/or as demos for pricier product upgrades.) What Molla's talking about is something else: proprietary software that you don't have to pay directly for, but which collect data on you that the that the vendor can monetize, often at you expense. Google has a whole suite of tools like that, while Facebook offers a one-size-fits-all virtual world meant to monopolize all your time and run your life. Before 2000, when it ate my job at SCO, free software seemed like the next big thing, promising a future where software was freed from ulterior motives of corporate control. (Having worked in the software business for 20 years, I happened to know a lot about how that worked.) Since then, these new business models of capture, control, and manipulation have taken root, to the point where someone like Molla can pretend no other world was ever possible. But really free software is still being developed, and is available if you know where to look, and what to do (although, frankly, it's a lot easier to use now than it was when I got started).

• Sara Morrison: The Iowa caucus smartphone app disaster, explained.

• Nicole Narea:

  • The Trump administration is freezing New Yorkers' access to Global Entry.

  • /Catherine Kim: Read the full text of Trump's State of the Union speech.

• Ari Natter: Trump withholding $823 million for clean energy, Democrats say.

• Ella Nilsen: The Iowa caucuses have a big accessibility problem. And therefore, turnout is low, and possibly skewed. For instance, in 2016, turnout was just 15.7%, vs. 52% for the New Hampshire primary. [PS: From a tweet, Iowa Democratic turnout this year was up 5,146 from 2016 (up 3.0%), but way down from 2008 (63,436 votes, 26.5%).

• Anna North: Pelosi's State of the Union response: Rip up Trump's speech.

• Osita Nwanevu:

  • History will remember Democrats' timidity, too. The main thing I fault the impeachment effort for is the failure to bring additional charges, specifically on charges Republicans might find it even more embarrassing to vote against: Trump's self-dealing corruption; his many abuses of executive powers to keep his administration from enforcing the law (e.g., on the environment) or for overstepping the law (e.g., on refugees), and those policy links to corruption; his refusal to respect Congressional resolutions limiting his war powers (again, no doubt linked to corruption).

  • Trump has never looked more comfortable as a demagogue: "The president's State of the Union previewed his reelection themes: Socialism and health care and socialism and xenophobia and socialism."

• Alex Pareene: Democrats embrace the grift: "The decidedly Trumpian nonprofit behind the Iowa app debacle."

• Jake Pearson/Anand Tumurtogoo: Donald Trump Jr went to Mongolia, got special treatment from the government and killed an endangered sheep.

• Brianne Pfannenstiel: Iowa caucus 2020: Inside the Iowa Democratic Party's 'boiler room,' where 'hell' preceded the results catastrophe.

• Andrew Prokop: Iowa Democratic caucuses: Live results: Like all similar pages, their ambitions foiled by the Iowa Democratic Party, but as of Feb. 7, 4:38 am, they claimed to have 99.5% reporting, with Pete Buttigieg 2 State Delegate Equivalents ahead of Bernie Sanders, and Sanders leading Buttigieg in the Round 1 popular vote 24.75% to 21.29%, followed by Elizabeth Warren (18.44%), Joe Biden (14.95%), Amy Klobuchar (12.73%), Andrew Yang (5.00%), and Tom Steyer (1.75%). In the second round, where "non-viable candidates" (everyone from Biden down, with Yang hit hardest) faded and "lesser evilism" kicked into consideration, Buttigieg and Warren gained some ground, but still trailed Sanders. I also looked at similar pages from The Washington Post and The New York Times, which have some additional analysis, but make it harder to find raw vote numbers. For another weird wrinkle, see Nathaniel Rakich: Satellite caucuses give a surprise boost to Sanders in Iowa.

• Frank Rich: Iowa is just the latest chapter in a rolling Democratic calamity.

• David Roberts:

  • With impeachment, America's epistemic crisis has arrived: Originally published in November 2019, updated here.

  • New conservative climate plans are neither conservative nor climate plans: "They are mainly designed to protect fossil fuels." I don't see any point in today's right-wingers aren't true conservatives, given that the only consistent aim of "conservatives" has been to defend and increase the privileges and power of those already rich and powerful. Of course, prominent among "conservatives" are those heavily invested in fossil fuels, but you can chalk that up to self-interest, and their fellow travelers to [upper] class consciousness. And sure, they've most often tried to advance their efforts through fraud and corruption. It's not as if an appeal to reason would help them.

• Nathan J Robinson:

  • The failure of Democratic opposition: "The Democratic party establishment have shown they are incapable of taking on Trump. They are assuring his reelection." I get the point about Democrats not putting together a story credible enough to convince low information/interest voters to counter Trump's. But a big part of that is that the media isn't listening to the narratives that various candidates have crafted, let alone presenting them cogently enough to get the attention of said low information/interest voters. But Democrats are facing a bigger problem: Trump and Republicans haven't created a big enough, immediate enough crisis to jar those voters out of their complacent everyday lives. On the other hand, it's not as if he's actually convinced anyone who didn't vote for him in 2016 to support him now.

  • Donald Trump will run to the left. Well, depends on what you mean by "left." Robinson's example: "Do not be surprised when Trump runs as the candidate of criminal justice reform." That's still a far cry from real left issues, like promoting unions, or soaking the rich. Moreover, much will depend on who he winds up running against: it'll be much easier to outflank Buttigieg on the left than Sanders. Indeed, with Sanders it's clear that Trump will run so hard against Sanders' "socialism" he won't have any credibility to move to the left on anything.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Threats, misogyny, hypocrisy -- Trump's bonkers post-impeachment speech had a little bit of everything.

  • Trump strikes a bitterly vindictive tone during National Prayer Breakfast speech.

  • Trump immediately refuted the Republican idea he was chastened by impeachment.

  • Trump's post-Iowa caucuses messaging is a bad omen for Democrats in 2020.

  • Pam Bondi's been a punchline during the impeachment trial. But her role speaks to something important. "The shamelessness is the point."

  • Wilbur Ross sees the coronavirus outbreak as a moneymaking opportunity for the US.

• Bhaskar Sunkara: The DNC can't steal the election from Bernie Sanders despite the Iowa chaos.

• Theodore Schleifer: A new social network makes an old bet: That we want to hear from rich people. The startup is called Column, and it's basically an effort to monetize free speech by dividing the world between those who can afford to be speakers, and the rest, who can only follow. Still, I expect they'll be tracking the latter's data, and selling what they learn off to whoever is willing to pay for it (just like all the other "social networks").

• Dylan Scott:

  • Trump undercut his message to black voters with celebrations of racism and white history.

  • Trump called on Congress to pass a drug prices bill. Democrats reminded him they already did.

• Nate Silver:

  • The calendar isn't helping Biden, but his Iowa performance points to bigger problems.

  • Our post-Iowa primary forecast is up, and Biden's chances are down. Quite a bit, with his "chances of winning a majority of pledged delegates being halved -- from 43 percent before Iowa to 21 percent now." Sanders got a bump, from 31% to 37%, although odds for "nobody" rose even more, from 17% to 27%.

• Emily Stewart:

  • The latest Iowa caucuses drama, from an app meltdown to a possible recanvass, explained: "Well, the Iowa caucuses are turning out to be a real shitshow."

  • Acronym, the dark money group behind the Iowa caucuses app meltdown, explained.

  • Why Nancy Pelosi ripping up some papers has set the internet on fire.

• Matt Stieb:

  • Trump proposes massive cuts to safety net once again.

  • Trump world's backlash toward Mitt Romney has begun, and it will never end.

• Matt Taibbi:

  • Yesterday's gone: Iowa was Waterloo for Democrats.

  • 10 things that went wrong in Iowa.

• Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor:

  • Democrats gave Obama a free pass. That could hurt us on election day. "We refuse to talk about how his failure to deliver major changes may have fed voter disaffection in 2016." For what it's worth, I've been pretty critical of Obama, both before and after he was elected, even though I voted for him in the 2008 caucus, and twice in November. He promised change and, after blowing the Congressional majority he was initially elected with, delivered nothing more than a slow recovery from the deep recession he inherited, with all the profits going to the top 1% -- a legacy so underwhelming Hillary Clinton blew her pitch for a "third Obama term" who promised little more than to vent the voters' frustration. Clearly, he wasn't nearly as bad as his predecessor or his successor, but his legacy is very thin compared to his promise, and twelve (or should I say twenty?) years of lost opportunity calls for much bolder leadership -- not candidates who would like to be his clones, but aren't even that.

  • Don't think Sanders can win? You don't understand his campaign.

• Anya van Wagtendonk: What is up with that tan line photo of Trump?

• Alex Ward:

  • Trump just fired Gordon Sondland as EU ambassador: The post-acquittal purge continues.

  • 6 top 2020 Democrats vow to reverse Trump's new landmine policy.

  • Trump's Israel-Palestine peace plan: Read the full text of his so-called "deal of the century." Some key elements of the plan, as noted here:

    • The Vision provides for a demilitarized Palestinian state living peacefully alongside Israel, with Israel retaining security responsibility west of the Jordan River.
    • Over time, the Palestinians will work with United States and Israel to assume more security responsibility as Israel reduces its security footprint.
    • Neither Palestinians nor Israelis will be uprooted from their homes.
    • Israel has agreed to a four-year land freeze to secure the possibility of a two-state solution.
    • Jerusalem will stay united and remain the capital of Israel, while the capital of the State of Palestine will be Al-Quds and include areas of East Jerusalem.
    • Palestinian refugees will be given a choice to live within the future State of Palestine, integrate into the countries where they currently live, or resettle in a third country.

    I've spent a lot of time thinking about viable peace plans, so I've considered many of these ideas, but I haven't read this thing closely. For now, I'll just collect various links here:

    • As'ad AbuKhalil: Trump 'solves' the Arab-Israeli conflict.

    • Hanna Alshaikh: Palestinians don't need Jared Kushner to civilize them. They need rights.

    • Ramzy Baroud: Kushner as a colonial administrator: Let's talk about the 'Israeli Model'.

    • Jonathan Cook:

      • Duh, Jared! So who built the PA as a 'police state'?

      • Trump's Deal of the Century won't bring peace . . . that was the plan.

    • Belen Fernandez: On Jared Kushner's 25 books of undiluted Zionist propaganda. Kushner explained his expertise by having read "25 books on it," so when I saw this article, I was hoping for a list. (I've read, well, at least that many, so I can appreciate how one might consider oneself an expert after that.) Still, not finding one here, but Middle East Eye has offered its own list: Jared Kushner, here are 25 more books you should read about Palestine, Israel relations. Turns out I haven't read any of these 25 either, although I have read other books by Ilan Pappé and Raja Shehadeh. I'm afraid my own reading has been strongly oriented to the Israeli side. A comment added another book I wasn't aware of: Nur Masalha: Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought 1882-1948 (1992). Transfer was supposedly a British idea, introduced in the 1937 Peel Report, but was readily embraced by Ben-Gurion at that time, as the concept was not foreign to Zionist thinking. Mary Dockser Marcus discusses and dates it in her Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

    • Robert Fisk: Kushner's "ultimate deal" would strip Palestinians of their human dignity.

    • Marc Owen Jones: The colonial mindset behind his so-called 'peace plan'.

    • Rashid Khalidi: The erasure of Palestinians from Trump's Mideast "peace plan" has a hundred-year history.

    • Daniel Levy: Don't call it a peace plan: "Ten ways Trump has launched a relentless assault on the very idea of Israeli-Palestinian peace."

    • Saree Makdisi: What's new about Trump's Mideast 'peace' plan? Only the blunt crudity of its racism.

    • Nizar Mohamad: The 'Deal of the Century,' an architecture of exclusion.

    • Jo-Ann Mort: The Trump-Netanyahu plan to force Arab population transfer.

    • Emile Nakhleh: Trump's 'peace plan' is the death knell of the two-state paradigm.

    • James North:

      • 'NY Times' covers up annexation plan scheme to 'denationalize' 350,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel.

      • The 'NY Times' should stop calling the Netanyahu/Trump proposal a 'peace plan,' without quotation marks.

      • Jared Kushner taunts Palestinians because he wants them to reject his 'peace plan'.

    • Yunna Patel: Understanding the Trump 'Deal of the Century': what it does, and doesn't say.

    • Stephen Robinson: Kushner warns Palestinian leaders not to make him read a 26th book about this crap.

    • Richard Silverstein:

      • Israel: Never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

      • Muted praise, silence and dismissal: How US Jewish groups divided over Trump's Middle East plan.

    • James Zogby: Trump and Balfour compared.

    • Netanyahu: 'Israeli right turns against Deal of the Century'.

  I haven't really tried to digest this yet, but do want to emphasize several points that are essential for any such deal:

  1. Israel must effectively be barred from any administrative or direct security role in any territories given to the Palestinians. Independent has to mean independent.
  2. Any Palestinians still resident in Israel after withdrawal from Palestinian territories must have full citizenship and equal rights in Israel.
  3. There needs to be an internationally administered tribunal to assess claims of violence between the two states, with the power of exacting monetary damages for acts committed by either government, or by citizens of either state.
  4. There needs to be an international bank to fund reconstruction and development projects, with the power to audit projects in case of corruption. US aid to Israel should be routed through this bank (but can be earmarked for Israel). Damage claims can be assessed against bank funds.

  I don't much care what borders are decided. The division could be as small as Gaza only, or could include parts of the West Bank (provided connectivity without checkpoints) as Kushner's plan proposes (although I don't see any reason why a Palestinian enclave in the West Bank should not extend to the Jordan River). A number of ancillary issues need to be decided on a fair and generous basis: water, air space, sanitation, prisoners, etc. I would advise Palestine to have a bare minimum of armed forces, which may require guarantees against Israeli attack or invasion beyond 3 above. I would also advise Israel to reduce its armed forces, but don't see either limit as required. One might require international supervision of free elections in the Palestinian state, at least for the reconstruction period. Such supervision would not be able to limit or exclude candidates or parties. Given these basic guidelines, Kushner's plan appears to be unviable. Even given the unreasonable biases of the plan, it's likely that many Israelis will reject it, as they prefer no limits on their power to seize land and repress the Palestinian people.

• Philip Weiss: Lis Harris wanted to understand how Israel had gone this way: Interview, the author of In Jerusalem: Three Generations of an Israeli Family and a Palestinian Family.

• Edward Wong: Americans demand a rethinking of the 'Forever War'.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • Bernie Sanders showed us he's a very skilled politician.

  • The Democratic establishment is doing a really bad job of stopping Bernie Sanders.

  • 3 winners and 3 losers from the impeachment and acquittal of Donald Trump. Maybe, but it's hard to tell or care given how little public opinion budged on the issue. Note that Trump himself wasn't on either list.

  • Gretchen Whitmer's smart, boring speech highlighted Democrats' biggest 2020 dilemma.

  • The real state of the union.

  • Bernie Sanders leads Donald Trump in polls, even when you remind people he's a socialist. The real news here is that Sanders loses when you tell voters he's a Democrat, but gains them back when you tell them he's a socialist. That basically means that the Democratic brand is more tarnished than the socialist brand. That should be sobering to those Democrats who keep complaining that Bernie isn't a real Democrat. It's almost as if they'd rather lose.

  • The case against the case against Joe Rogan.

• Li Zhou:

  • A brief guide to the State of the Union guests. They're all there to make one point or another.

  • "He is not who you are": Adam Schiff makes last-ditch plea to Senate Republicans. I'm not sure whether this pitch is more stupid or pathetic. Even if some Republicans think of themselves as possessing noble moral standards, they're not likely to feel any need to impress Schiff with them. But most, like Trump, see impeachment as a cynical political ploy. (Indeed, many were around when they did the same thing to Bill Clinton.) But deep down, Congressional Republicans aren't that different from Trump. They get their news from the same partisan wells, they share most of the same prejudices, and their loathing for Democrats knows few if any bounds.

PS: I've never been much impressed by Amanda Marcotte, but her visceral rejection of Trump seems to be leading her to deeper truths. She has a recent book, Troll Nation: How the Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set on Ratf*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself, which is about as pointed a title as the subject deserves. From the blurb:

Trump was the inevitable result of American conservatism's degradation into an ideology of blind resentment. For years now, the purpose of right wing media, particularly Fox News, has not been to argue for traditional conservative ideals, such as small government or even family values, so much as to stoke bitterness and paranoia in its audience. . . . Conservative pundits, politicians, and activists have abandoned any hope of winning the argument through reasoned discourse, and instead have adopted a series of bad faith claims, conspiracy theories, and culture war hysterics. Decades of these antics created a conservative voting base that was ready to elect a mindless bully like Donald Trump.

I also want to quote an Amazon comment on the book by a Joseph Caferro, which gives us a peek into the Trump troll mindset:

Why [really] do Trump and his followers troll? And the answer is not hatred.

It's a tactic to destabilize the tenuous parasitic leftist coalitions that are built on a dizzying array of incompatible grievances against imagined enemy institutions. These enemies of leftists include most of the most stable, successful institutions that make civilization possible: religion, capitalism, meritocratic education and commerce, strong national defense, controlled borders, and solvent government spending. The incessant attacks on these institutions by the left are largely encouraged by the DC establishment and most state and local governments, and the result has been failure of safety, solvency, competence, and sanity. Leftism causes parasitic failure across the board. To defend leftist policies on merit is impossible, so the left decided the primary tactic for persuasion should be defamation, intimidation, and even criminal extortion, persecution, and assault. So the right has had enough, and has decided, symbolized by and led by Trump, to assail the leftist establishment with criticism, skepticism, insults, and challenges to their authority and power at all levels. Like in any street fight, you can't win if you aren't willing to use the tactics your enemy is willing to use. So the right trolls, because the left smears. As long as the left smears and commits crimes to further their agenda, the right will troll and be willing to stop those crimes with equal or greater force. That is why the right trolls. Not because of your imagined telepathic detection of deep seated Nazi hatred, but because your leadership are a bunch of parasitic communist thugs who aspire to totalitarian tyrannical rule, and deserve trolling.

I quote this because it's a lot more coherent than what you usually get from this quarter, but still, there's a lot wrong here, starting with a gross misapprehension of what the left is concerned with, and more fundamentally with failure to understand that the bedrock of "stable, successful institutions" is a widely shared sense of justice. It's true that our notions of justice used to be rooted in religion, but that splintered long ago. Some of us gave up the religion we were born into precisely because it no longer seemed to satisfy our sense of justice, and because we found it manipulated by charlatans for special interests. Caferro's list of "successful institutions" turns out to be less coherent than he imagines. Meritocracy sounds good, but more often than not is just a ruse for rationalizing inequality. The last three are arbitrarily grafted into the others: the rationale behind a strong police state is to protect its rulers from the effects of its misrule. "Leftism causes parasitic failure across the board" is a crude way of restating Hayek's Road to Serfdom thesis, which could be used to explain the economic failures of the Soviet Union, but Hayek and his followers have always expected the same doom to befall western social democracy, which has never happened. Where Caferro's argument goes off the rails is his bit about how "the left are largely encouraged by the DC establishment and most state and local governments" and his later reference to "the leftist establishment" -- there is no such thing, as should be clear from the shit fit old guard Democrats are having over the prospect of Sanders winning the Democratic Party nomination.

Then there's the question of tactics. Caferro argues that Trump supporters have to troll because that's the way leftists fight them, but that's neither supported by fact nor by logic. The left offers much more substantial arguments than the name-calling Caferro hates, but it's worth noting that the name-calling would hurt less if it didn't smack of truth. Trump is a racist, a sexist, a liar, a crook, and an all-around asshole. One can document those assertions with hundreds or possibly thousands of pages of examples, but sometimes the shorthand is all you need. Whether he's also a fascist depends on some extra historical knowledge that may not be widely agreed on, but most leftists define fascists as people who want to kill them, so that's a relevant (if not universal) framework.

But just because your opponent fights one way doesn't mean you have to fight the same. Strong occupying armies are most often countered not by equivalent armies but by guerrilla warfare. One might argue that they are morally equivalent, in that both seek to kill the other, and that is often the downfall of the guerrillas. So the other major example is non-violent resistance, such as the movements led by Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King in the US. I'd submit that Trump trolls have chosen their tactics not because the left has but because they're more suited to taste, needs, and morals (which approve of lies and distortions to sway people, and violence to suppress them, all in support of an authoritarian social and economic order which benefits people they identify with).

Mar 2001