Blog Entries [0 - 9]Thursday, April 25, 2024
Book Roundup
I've been doing these
book roundups almost as
long as I've been blogging. I've long held to the idea that the state
of human knowledge is realized in books -- newspapers and magazines,
and the less literary forms that proliferate on the internet may be
ok for "first drafts," but to be taken seriously, one needs to put
it into a more permanent format, secured both by and for time. So my
idea here is to spend a few days looking around to see what's new or
recent (or in some cases just new to me), then write up some notes,
usually from reading blurbs and customer comments, often by looking
at samples, and in very rare cases by actually reading the book.
This process often results in me buying and reading more books, but
in most cases I figure the research itself is sufficient. There is an
element of consumer guidance here, as I hope these lists will help you
decide what to read (and what to skip), to the extent our interests
intersect. Nearly everything below comes from history, philosophy,
and/or social science (including economics), but especially where
politics are involved. Those have been my dominant interests going
back to the mid-1960s, and almost exclusively since 2000, when I
lost my job as a software engineer and found myself with a lot of
free time (mostly thanks to a hard-working and politically astute
wife). Occasionally some other interest will sneak in -- I write
a lot about music but don't read much, at least in book form;
before 2000, I read a lot of popular science (making up ground
for my lack of formal education) and business management (I kept
on top of what my bosses were thinking), but even then I rarely
read fiction, and see no way I can survey it now.
The format of late has been to do short blurbs for a batch of
forty books each post, followed by a list of other things I felt
like noting but not saying much about. I often wound up tacking
"related" lists onto the top-forty, so that section started to
sprawl. Last time
(Sept. 23,
2023) I decided to contain the sprawl, and hopefully expedite
the schedule, by cutting the top section down to 30, promising to
drop down to 20 next time -- the hope there was to get posts out
in a more timely fashion. But since I didn't, I figured I'd shoot
for 30 this time, then upped it to 40, then added in a few more
I figured were done enough to move out of the drafts file (where
a couple hundred more rough drafts and briefly noted remain).
Pictures are books listed below that made it to my
Recent Reading list
(also including books I've ordered but haven't gotten into yet):
- Ned Blackhawk: The Rediscovery of America
- Linda Dittmar: Tracing Homelands
- Leah Hunt-Hendrix/Astra Taylor: Solidarity
- John B Judis/Ruy Teixeira: Where Have All the Democrats Gone?
- Steven Kahn: Illiberal America
- Shaul Magid: The Necessity of Exile
- Tricia Romano: The Freaks Came Out to Write
- Timothy Shenk: Realigners
- Richard Slotkin: A Great Disorder
Here are 40+ more/less recent books of interest in politics,
the social sciences, and history, with occasional side trips,
and supplementary lists to group related titles:
Daron Acemoglu/Simon Johnson: Power and Progress: Our
Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity (2023,
PublicAffairs): Acemoglu is an economist who does big picture studies
of "the historical origins of prosperity, poverty, and the effects
of new technologies on economic growth, employment, and inequality,"
often emphasizing the role of institutions (or their absence or
shortcomings), as in two previous books with James Robinson: Why
Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
(2012), and The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate
of Liberty (2019). Johnson is also an economist, formerly chief
at the IMF, who with James Kwak wrote a bestseller, 13 Bankers
(2010), about the 2008 financial meltdown. I tend to be skeptical of
writers trying to work at this level, but the authors do seem to
understand not just that technology is a powerful driving force, but
that exactly where it takes us is subject to political choice -- if,
that is, we have any choice in the matter. They open with a quote
from Norbert Wiener (1949): "If we combine our machine-potentials
of a factory with the valuation of human beings on which our present
factory system is based, we are in for an industrial revolution of
unmitigated cruelty. We must be willing to deal in facts rather than
in fashionable ideologies if we wish to get through this period
unharmed." I would suggest working on that second sentence a bit
more, as facts are rarely recognized except through a haze of
ideology, and what's fashionable often diverges from what one
really needs.
Elliot Ackerman: The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan
(2022, Penguin): Former Marine, five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan,
worked for CIA, has written several well-regarded novels, returned
for the end and didn't like what he saw. This is much touted as a
powerful work that is critical of all US administrations -- bear in
mind that's not exactly the same thing as critical of the war they
created -- but it strikes me as impossible for someone so deeply
embedded to be able to see much beyond the battle lines.
- Adam Wunische: Unwinnable Wars: Afghanistan and the Future
of American Armed Statebuilding (paperback, 2024, Polity).
Author has a long history as a military and CIA analyst, but also
did some research at Quincy Institute, and admits that "armed
statebuilding is overdetermined for failure."
- Séamus Ó Fianghusa (Fennessy): The Pullout Sellout: The
Betrayal of Afghanistan and America's 9/11 Legacy (paperback,
2021, Im Úr Blasta).
Tim Alberta: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American
Evangelism in an Age of Extremism (2023, Harper): Shows how
American evangelicals have embraced right-wing politics under the
guise of Christian Nationalism, seeing Donald Trump as their savior
and redeemer, through which God might bring the nation back to its
intended state of grace. It's a very heady mix, ominous to anyone
who just wants to get along in an increasingly complex and diverse
society.
Some related books (including some pushback):
- Anthea Butler: White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of
Morality in America (2021, The University of North Carolina
Press).
- Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons: Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive
Christianity (2020, Broadleaf Books).
- Jack Jenkins: American Prophets: The Religious Roots of
Progressive Politics and the Ongoing Fight for the Soul of the
Country (2020; paperback, 2021, Harper One).
- Kristin Kobes Du Mez: Jesus and John Wayne: How White
Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
(2020; paperback, 2021, Liveright).
- Robert P Jones: The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and
the Path to a Shared American Future (2023, Simon &
Schuster).
- Sarah McCammon: The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and
Leaving the White Evangelical Church (2024, St Martin's
Press).
- Elizabeth Neumann: Kingdom of Rage: The Rise of Christian
Extremism and the Path Back to Peace (2024, Worthy Books).
- Bradley Onishi: Preparing for War: The Extremist History of
White Christian Nationalism -- and What Comes Next (2023,
Broadleaf Books).
- Jim Wallis: The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian
Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy
(2024, St Martin's Essentials).
- NT Wright/Michael F Bird: Jesus and the Powers: Christian
Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional
Democracies (paperback, 2024, Zondervan).
Eric Alterman: We Are Not One: A History of America's Fight
Over Israel (2022, Basic Books): "This book is a history of
the debate over Israel in the United States." But has there really
been a debate? I suspect that much in this book will come as news
even to the American Jews and Evangelicals (presumably the subject
of the chapter "Alliance for Armageddon") who most reflexively and
vehemently cheer Israel. The "special relationship" of America for
Israel -- an affection that is welcomed by Israelis but clearly not
reciprocated -- desperately needs to be reexamined in light of the
instant and unblinking rallying of virtually the entire American
political class when Israel set on its course of genocide against
Gaza.
Isaac Arnsdorf: Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement's
Ground War to End Democracy (2024, Little Brown): There is
a large and growing shelf of books lamenting various threats to
democracy (some of which I'll tack on here), but few get specific to
the threat, even though their greatest fears are clearly articulated
at every Trump rally. The problem is not some abstract threat to the
cherished concept of democracy, but a specific political movement
which seeks to seize power, by any means at its disposal, and to
use that power to punish its enemies and to perpetuate itself.
More books on various aspects of this:
- Ari Berman: Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will
of the People -- and the Fight to Resist It (2024, Farrar
Straus and Giroux).
- Joan Donovan/Emily Dreyfuss/Brian Friedberg: Meme Wars: The
Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America
(2022, Bloomsbury): Investigates how the right wing has weaponized
social media, especially in their reduction of political argument to
memes, where meaning is often reduced to tribal identity.
- James Davison Hunter: Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural
Roots of America's Political Crisis (2024, Yale University
Press): Keywords fit here and/or under solidarity, but aims at deeper
study of social mechanics rather than some activist agenda.
- Robert Kagan: Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing
America Apart -- Again (2024, Knopf).
- Steve Levitsky/Daniel Ziblatt: Tyranny of the Minority:
Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point (2023,
Crown). Authors of How Democracies Die (2018).
- Barbara McQuade: Attack From Within: How Disinformation Is
Sabotaging America (2024, Seven Stories Press).
- David Neiwert: Red Pill, Blue Pill: How to Counteract the
Conspiracy Theories That Are Killing Us (2020, Prometheus).
- David Neiwert: The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right's
Assault on American Democracy (2023, Melville House).
- Tom Nichols: Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault From Within on
Modern Democracy (2021, Oxford University Press): Professor
at US Naval War College.
- David Pepper: Saving Democracy: A User's Manual for Every
American (2023, St Helena Press).
- Brynn Tannehill: American Fascism: How the GOP is Subverting
Democracy (2021, Transgress Press).
- Miles Taylor: Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy From
the Next Trump (2023, Atria Books): The "senior Trump
administration official" who published A Warning in 2019.
Most of us worry more about This Trump.
Walter Benjamin: Radio Benjamin (paperback, 2021,
Verso): Famous German literary critic (1892-1940), wrote and presented
radio programs from 1927-33, bringing his insights and curiosity to the
new medium. This gathers the surviving transcripts from his programs
(424 pp).
Lauren Benton: They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial
Violence (2024, Princeton University Press): Blurb suggests
an alternate sub: "A sweeping account of how small wars shaped
global order in the age of empires." "Small wars" is a term Max
Boot popularized to describe conflicts where the US -- and Europe
has many more examples -- attacked some relatively defenseless
enclave, for plunder or punishment or sometimes it would seem
simply for sport (as they sometimes put it: "butcher and bolt").
This offers a brief (304 pp) history of the violence committed
in the name of empire: Chapter 1 is "From Small Wars to Atrocity
in Empires." "Peace" is rarely more than post-facto rationalization,
and more often than not dissolves into resistance and revolt, which
has its own "small war" etymology ("guerilla warfare").
Benton has written a fair amount about empire:
- Lauren A Benton: Invisible Factories: The Informal Economy
and Industrial Development in Spain (1990, SUNY Press).
- Lauren Benton: Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in
World History, 1400-1900 (2002; paperback, 2009, Cambridge
University Press).
- Lauren Benton: A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography
in European Empires, 1400-1900 (paperback, 2009, Cambridge
University Press).
- Lauren Benton/Richard J Ross, eds: Legal Pluralism and
Empires, 1500-1850 (paperback, 2013, NYU Press).
- Lauren Benton/Lisa Ford: Rage for Order: The British Empire
and the Origins of International Law, 1800-1850 (2016; paperback,
2018, Harvard University Press).
- Lauren Benton/Bain Atwood/Adam Clulow, eds: Protection and
Empire: A Global History (2017; paperback, 2018, Cambridge
University Press).
- Lauren Benton/Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, eds: A World at Sea:
Maritime Practices and Global History (2020, University of
Pennsylvania Press).
Vincent Bevins: If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the
Missing Revolution (2023, PublicAffairs): Journalist, has
written for Washington Post and Financial Times [London], covering
South America and Southeast Asia, has a previous book on the mass
murder of leftists in Indonesia (The Jakarrta Method: Washington's
Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our
World). Major insight here is that the 2010s were a decade with
massive protests all around the world -- Arab Spring, Turkey, Ukraine,
Chile, Hong Kong are among the more famous -- that resulted in very
little real change. The reasonable conclusion would be that the
underlying problems are still festering, temporarily held in check
by repressive measures that are likely to fail.
Related:
- Mark Engler/Paul Engler: This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent
Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century (2016; paperback,
2017, Bold Type).
- Nadav Eyal: Revolt: The Worldwide Uprising Against
Globalization (2021, Ecco; paperback, 2022, Picador).
- Jade Saab: A Region in Revolt: Mapping the Recent Uprisings
in North Africa and West Asia (paperback, 2020, Daraja Press).
Rachael Bitecofer: Hit 'Em Where It Hurts: How to Save
Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game (2024,
Crown). Democrats sorely need a hard-hitting political strategy
book, which is what this one promises. Still, the two political
parties are in many respects asymmetrical, and as such require
different positions and therefore tactics. Democrats need to be
able to solve problems and offer tangible returns to voters, where
Republicans seem to be able to thrive on emotional appeals that
only lead to counterproductive policies. Democrats need to be able
to raise money, but cannot afford to be seen as corrupt, and need
to garner massive support from voters who have little or no money
to give. Still, Democrats need to be able to deliver at least some
of the emotional satisfaction people seem to get from Republicans.
One way to do that is to get nastier: to show that Republicans are
crooked and deceitful and generally full of shit. Which really
shouldn't be that hard for the party that believes in science, in
reason, in truth, and in honest public service.
More on the state of the Democrats:
- Joshua Green: The Rebels: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie
Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Struggle for a New
American Politics (2024, Penguin Press). Green previously
reported on the Republicans in Devil's Bargain: Steve Bannon,
Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency (2017).
- Ryan Grim: The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political
Revolution (2023, Henry Holt).
- John B Judis/Ruy Teixeira: Where Have All the Democrats
Gone? The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes (2023,
Henry Holt): The guys who promised you an "emerging Democratic
majority" now promise you . . . more heartbreak.
- Lainey Newman/Theda Skocpol: Rust Belt Union Blues: Why
Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away From the Democratic Party
(2023, Columbia University Press).
- Hunter Walker/Luppe B Juppen: The Truce: Progressives,
Centrists, and the Future of the Democratic Party (2024,
WW Norton).
Ned Blackhawk: The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples
and the Unmaking of US History (2023, Yale University Press):
A prize-winning revision of American history turning on relations
with the continent's native population, from the first Spanish
encounters to the "Cold War Era." This story has most often been
brushed aside in large-scale historical studies, but has a lot to
say about what kind of people we were, and what kind we have become.
Also:
- Kathleen DuVal: Native Nations: A Millennium in North
America (2024, Random House): Big book (752 pp), vast scope.
Andy Borowitz: Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians
Got Dumb and Dumber (2022, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster):
Satirist, for years now has paddled desperately trying to stay ahead of
reality, but succumbs here, writing about "The Three Stages of Ignorance."
Or, as he explains: "Over the past fifty years, what some of our most
prominent politicians didn't know could fill a book. This is that book."
Daniel Boyarin: The No-State Solution: A Jewish Manifesto
(2023, Yale University Press): A professor of Talmudic Studies,
the author tries to reconcile the justice sought by his religion
with the power sought by the Israeli state, and cannot, leading
him to reject the state, and to reexamine the "Jewish question"
that some of his co-religionists tried to solve with Zionism.
Also on Zionism and its discontents:
- Noah Feldman: To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God,
Israel, and the Jewish People (2024, Farrar Straus and
Giroux).
- Geoffrey Levin: Our Palestine Question: Israel and
American Jewish Dissent, 1948-1978 (2023, Yale University
Press).
- Shaul Magid: The Necessity of Exile: Essays From a
Distance (paperback, 2023, Ayin Press).
- Atalia Omer: Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity
With Palestinians (paperback, 2019, University of Chicago
Press).
- Derek J Penslar: Zionism: An Emotional State
(paperback, 2023, Rutgers University Press).
- Rebecca Vilkomerson/Alissa Wise: Solidarity Is the
Political Version of Love: Lessons From Jewish Anti-Zionist
Organizing (paperback, 2024, Haymarket Books).
[09-03]
Steve Coll: The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A.,
and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq (2024, Penguin
Press): He wrote the primary book on America in Afghanistan --
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin
Laden: From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (2004),
which was eventually given a sequel in Directorate 6: The CIA
and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan (2018) --
as well as major side projects on the Bin Ladens and Exxon-Mobil.
This, like Ghost Wars, starts in 1979, and ends in 2003 --
as the Bush invasion of Iraq was as definitive a break as the 9/11
pivot from clandestine mischief to assertion of global power, and
every bit as misguided.
Matthew Desmond: Poverty, by America (2023, Crown):
Asks why, and concludes that people in power like it this way. It's
not an obvious choice, but in a political system where power is largely
determined by money, it shouldn't be surprising to find that money is
largely determined by power. As Desmond notes, "poverty isn't simply
the condition of not having enough money. It's the condition of not
having enough choice." Author previously wrote Evicted: Poverty and
Profit in the American City (2016), specifically about Milwaukee.
A few more books relating to poverty:
- Kevin F Adler/Donald W Burnes: When We Walk By: Forgotten
Humanity, Broken Systems, and the Role We Can Each Play in Ending
Homelessness in America (paperback, 2023, North Atlantic
Books).
- Kathryn J Edin/H Luke Schaefer/Timothy J Nelson: The
Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America
(2023, Mariner Books).
- Joanne Samuel Goldblum/Colleen Shaddox: Broke in America:
Seeing, Understanding, and Ending US Poverty (2021, BenBella
Books).
- Tracie McMillan: The White Bonus: Five Families and the Cash
Value of Racism in America (2024, Henry Holt).
- Mark Robert Rank/Lawrence M Eppard/Heather E Bullock: Poorly
Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty (2021,
Oxford University Press).
Bruce Gilley: In Defense of German Colonialism: And How Its
Critics Empower Nazis, Communists, and the Enemies of the West
(2022, Regnery): It's rather shocking that anyone could come up with
a whole book of rationalizations for Germany's pre-WWI colonial empire,
which is mostly remembered for its genocide of the Herero in what's
now called Namibia. (But I suppose the publisher tells you what you
need to know about the author.)
Also in this vein:
- Bruce Gilley: The Last Imperialist: Sir Alan Burns's Epic
Defense of the British Empire (2021, Regnery).
- Jeff Flynn-Paul: Not Stolen: The Truth About European
Colonialism in the New World (paperback, 2023, Bombardier
Books): Argues that colonialism was a blessing, that all of the
"shameful sins and crimes against humanity" you've read about
never happened, and the true story "is more inspiring than you
ever dared to imagine."
Steven Hahn: Illiberal America: A History (2024,
WW Norton): A thematic review of all of American history, the theme
being the impulses and forces that have always risen to threaten
and often to thwart the liberal ideals Americans have celebrated,
but rarely lived up to. Little distinguishes illiberalism from the
more often self-proclaimed conservatism, except that it expresses
not just a fondness for order but the willingness to enforce it
through violence. As thematic history, I suspect this winds up
fairly closely tracking Richard Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style
in American Politics -- illiberalism by yet another name.
Other books by Hahn:
- Steven Hahn: The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers
and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry (1983; updated
paperback, 2006, Oxford University Press).
- Steven Hahn: A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles
in the Rural South From Slavery to the Great Migration (2003;
paperback, 2005, Belknap Press).
- Steven Hahn: The Political Worlds of Slavery and Freedom
(2009, Harvard University Press).
- Steven Hahn: A Nation Without Borders: The United States and
Its World in an Age of Civil Wars, 1830-1910 (2016, Viking;
paperback, 2017, Penguin Books).
Jonathan Haidt: The Anxious Generation: How the Great
Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
(2024, Penguin Press): Degree in social psychology, teaches "ethical
leadership" in NYU's Stern School of Business, a conservative
intellectual who can't quite be dismissed out of hand, although
I find it pretty likely that much of what looks like "mental
illness" to conservatives is simply stuff they don't understand.
This pairs with:
- Greg Lukianoff/Rikki Schlott: The Canceling of the American
Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All -- but
There is a Solution (2023, Simon & Schuster): Foreword
by Jonathan Haidt, who co-wrote The Coddling of the American Mind:
How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for
Failure. No doubt this ignores the basic paradox, which is that
while conservatives do the most complaining about "cancel culture,"
they're also the ones doing most of the cancelling.
Jacob Heilbrunn: America Last: The Right's Century-Long
Romance With Foreign Dictators (2024, Liveright): Journalist,
has a previous book, They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the
Neocons (2008), actually goes back a bit farther than the rise
of Mussollini (third chapter; first is "Courting Kauiser Wilhelm"),
winds up with Trump (of course), but in a short book he probably
glosses over a lot of obvious subjects (e.g., whole books have been
written about Pinochet and Friedman).
Dara Horn: People Love Dead Jews: Reports From a Haunted
Present (2021; paperback, 2022, WW Norton): A novelist of
some note, writes about the state and legacy of antisemitism in
America (and elsewhere?), recalling Shakespeare's Shylock and Anne
Frank and "the Jewish history of Harbin, China" and, no doubt, much
more. Which is bound to be disturbing on some level, but exactly
how cannot be known except to looking deeper into the details and
nuances. That could be interesting, but hardly seems important
compared to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, on top of the broader
and deeper discrimination against non-Jews in Israel, which is
not only fueled by the same kinds of prejudices that have been
used against Jews for ages, but is also fortified by internalizing
the sort of tales of victimhood Horn engages in.
Also on antisemitism (and Holocaust remembrance, the trump card in
the eternal victimization story):
- David Baddiel: Jews Don't Count (2021, TLS Books):
Short (144 pp), argues antisemitism is overlooked or underappreciated.
- Omer Bartov: Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of
a Town Called Buczacz (2018; paperback, 2019, Simon &
Schuster): In Nazi-occupied Ukraine.
- Omer Bartov: Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine:
First-Person History in Times of Crisis (paperback, 2023,
Bloomsbury).
- Jószef Debreczeni: Cold Crematorium: Reporting From the Land
of Auschwitz (2024, St Martin's Press).
- Susan J Eischeid: Mistress of Life and Death: The Dark
Journey of Maria Mandl, Head Overseer of the Women's Camp at
Auschwitz-Birkenau (2023, Citadel).
- Cary Nelson: Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism,
& the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State (paperback,
2019, Indiana University Press).
- Dan Stone: The Holocaust: An Unfinished History (2024,
Mariner Books).
- Bari Weiss: How to Fight Anti-Semitism (2019; paperback,
2021, Crown).
Leah Hunt-Hendrix/Astra Taylor: Solidarity: The Past, Present,
and Future of a World-Changing Idea (2024, Pantheon): Liberals
and leftists may share common beliefs in principles and rights, but
there is an essential difference: liberals celebrate individuals,
while the left sees groups, acting together, bound by solidarity,
a sense not just that interests are shared but that only collective
action can secure them. Not long ago, Thomas Geoghegan made a big
point on how solidarity was what distinguishes the labor movement
from liberalism in America, and how alien the former seems to the
latter. But when I look around today, I see a lot of emphasis on
solidarity.
More recent books on left activism:
- Chris Benner/Manuel Pastor: Solidarity Economics: Why
Mutuality and Movements Matter (paperback, 2021, Polity).
- Deepak Bhargava/Stephanie Luce: Practical Radicals:
Seven Strategies to Change the World (2023, New Press).
- David Fenton: The Activist's Media Handbook: Lessons From
Fifty Years as a Progressive Agitator (2022, Earth Aware
Editions).
- Kelly Hayes/Mariame Kaba: Let This Radicalize You:
Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care (paperback,
2023, Haymarket Books).
- Tricia Hersey: Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto
(2022, Little Brown Spark).
- Mie Inouye: On Solidarity (paperback, 2023, Boston
Review): Leads a forum, with William J Barber II, Charisse Burden-Stelly,
Jodi Dean, Nathan R DuFord, Alex Gourevitch, Juliet Hooker, Daniel
Martinez HoSang, David Roediger, Sarah Schulman, Astra Taylor, Leah
Hunt-Hendrix, Liz Theoharis, plus articles by others.
- Raina Lipsitz: The Rise of a New Left: How Young Radicals
Are Shaping the Future of American Politics (2022, Verso).
- Staughton Lynd/Mike Konopacki: Solidary Unionism: Rebuilding
the Labor Movement From Below (paperback, 2015, PM Press).
- Daisy Pitkin: On the Line: Two Women's Epic Fight to Build
a Union (2022; paperback, 2023, Algonquin Books).
- Andrea J Ritchie: Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and
Emergent Strategies (paperback, 2023, AK Press).
- Erica Smiley/Sarita Gupta: The Future We Need: Organizing
for a Better Democracy in the Twenty-First Century (paperback,
2022, ILR Press).
- Cenk Uygur: Justice Is Coming: How Progressives Are Going
to Take Over the Country and America Is Going to Love It
(2023, St Martin's Press).
Of course, solidarity is a theme that extends beyond the US, as
many recent books attest:
- Jennifer Lynn Kelly: Invited to Witness: Solidarity Tourism
Across Occupied Palestine (paperback, 2023, Duke University
Press).
- Margaret M Power: Solidarity Across the Americas: The
Puerto Rican Nationalist Party and Anti-Imperialism (paperback,
2023, University of North Carolina Press).
- Rob Skinner: Peace, Decolonization and the Practice of
Solidarity (2023, Bloomsbury Academic).
- Firuzeh Shokooh Valle: In Defense of Solidarity and Pleasure:
Feminist Technopolitics From the Global South (2023, Stanford
University Press).
- Daniel Widener: Third Worlds Within: Multiethnic Movements
and Transnational Solidarity (paperback, 2024, Duke University
Press). Foreword by Vijay Prashad.
Book series: Abolitionist Papers:
- Mariame Kaba: We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist
Organizing and Transforming Justice [Abolitionist Papers, 1]
(paperback, 2021, Haymarket Books).
- Angela Y Davis/Gina Dent/Erica R Meiners/Beth E Richie:
Abolitionism. Feminism. Now. [Abolitionist Papers, 2]
(paperback, 2022, Haymarket Books).
- Robyn Maynard/Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: Rehearsals
for Living [Abolitionist Papers, 3] (paperback, 2022,
Haymarket Books).
- Mizue Aizeki/Matt Mahmoudi/Coline Schupfer, eds: Resisting
Borders and Technologies of Violence [Abolitionist Papers]
(paperback, 2024, Haymarket Books).
Book series: Emergent Strategy (a series of
12 books):
- Adrienne Maree Brown: Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change,
Changing Worlds [Emergent Strategy, 0] (paperback, 2017, AK
Press).
- Adrienne Maree Brown, ed: Pleasure Activism: The Politics
of Feeling Good [Emergent Strategy, 1] (paperback, 2019, AK
Press).
- Adrienne Maree Brown: Holding Change: The Way of Emergent
Strategy Facilitation and Mediation [Emergent Strategy, 4]
(paperback, 2021, AK Press).
Jonathan Karl: Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of
the Grand Old Party (2023, Dutton): Every one of these posts
offers a new crop of Trump books, so the only question is which one
to lead with. Lots of legal baggage down list, with his trials and
tribulations likely to crowd out his more fundamental obnoxiousness
and more pathetic malapropisms. But no other politician has remotely
come close to the amount of press he's garnered, and that's unlikely
to change any time soon. Although I'm inclined to add that this
segment's collection of new Trump books is among the most boring
ever:
- Martin Baron: Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the
Washington Post (2023, Flatiron Books).
- Ken Block: Disproven: My Unbiased Search for Vote Fraud for
the Trump Campaign, the Data That Shows Why He Lost, and How We Can
Improve Our Elections (2024, Forefront Books).
- Clay Cane: The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black
Republicans From the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump
(2024, Sourcebooks).
- Alan Dershowitz: Get Trump: The Threat to Civil Liberties,
Due Process, and Our Constitutional Rule of Law (2023, Hot
Books): Fourth (or sixth?) book the world's most opportunistically
liberal lawyer has written defending Trump.
- Elie Honig: Untouchable: How Powerful People Get Away With
It (2023, Harper): Former prosecutor, now CNN Legal Analyst,
tells us something we already suspected, which is that the rich and
famous enjoy huge advantages in America's so-called justice system.
Granted, some of his famous examples (Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein,
Bill Cosby) did wind up in jail, but only after extraordinary efforts.
But his main example, Donald Trump, is still at large.
- Cassidy Hutchinson: Enough (2023, Simon &
Schuster): Trump White House aide, testified memorably to the
Jan. 6 Select Committee (e.g., about Trump throwing food).
- Michael Isikoff/Daniel Klaidman: Find Me the Votes: A
Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot
to Steal an American Election (2024, Twelve).
- Melissa Murray/Andrew Weissmann: The Trump Indictments:
The Historic Charging Documents With Commentary (paperback,
2024, WW Norton).
- Tim Murtaugh: Swing Hard in Case You Hit It: My Escape
From Addiction and Shot at Redemption on the Trump Campaign
(2024, Bombardier Books).
- Mark Pomerantz: People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account
(2023, Simon & Schuster): New York prosecutor, resigned when
he thought Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was too slow in prosecuting
Trump.
- Ethan Porter/Thomas J Wood: False Alarm: The Truth About
Political Mistruths in the Trump Era (paperback, 2019,
Cambridge University Press): 80 pp.
- Charles Renwick: All the Presidents' Taxes: What We Can Learn
(and Borrow) from the High-Stakes World of Presidential Tax-Paying
(2023, Lioncrest): Short (180 pp), some but not all on Trump.
- Ramin Setoodeh: Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump
and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass (2024,
Harper). TV writer. Previously wrote: Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive
Story of "The View" (2019). [06-18]
- Tristan Snell: Taking Down Trump: 12 Rules for Prosecuting
Donald Trump by Someone Who Did It Successfully (2024, Melville
House): Snell was the New York prosecutor on the Trump University fraud
case, which was ultimately settled for $25 million, before Trump became
president, so he didn't take him down very far.
- Ali Velshi: The Trump Indictments: The 91 Criminal Counts
Against the Former President of the United States (paperback,
2023, Mariner Books): Introduction plus documents.
- Bob Woodward: The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's Twenty
Interviews With President Donald Trump (paperback, 2023,
Simon & Schuster): Documentation for his books Fear
(2018) and Rage (2020).
Nelson Lichtenstein/Judith Stein: A Fabulous Failure: The
Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism
(2023, Princeton University Press): "How the Clinton administration
betrayed its progressive principles and capitulated to the right."
I'm less inclined to grant him any "progressive principles." I think
his plan all along was to show wealthy donors that backing Democrats
would make them more money than the Reagan cronies ever would, and
he delivered a pretty good case for that. But the other part of his
pitch didn't fare so well: he claimed that "reinventing government"
to make it more business-friendly would "trickle down" to lift up
workers and alleviate poverty, so everyone would win (especially
himself). To some extent, he succeeded there too, but it didn't feel
like much of a win -- especially to the workers who got cut off from
union jobs, to the regions that got stripped of their factories and
livelihoods, and to the millions of Americans who saw the federal
safety net shredded by austerity, and who fell ever deeper in debt,
as a new class of "symbolic analysts" were touted as future elites.
Also by the authors:
- Nelson Lichtenstein: Labor's War at Home: The CIO in World
War II (1983; paperback, 2008, Temple University Press).
- Nelson Lichtenstein/Howell John Harris, eds: Industrial
Democracy in America: The Ambiguous Promise (1993; revised,
paperback, 1996, Cambridge University Press).
- Nelson Lichtenstein: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit:
Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor (1995,
Basic Books).
- Nelson Lichtenstein, ed: American Capitalism: Social Thought
and Political Economy in the Twentieth Century (2006, University
of Pennsylvania Press).
- Nelson Lichtenstein: State of the Union: A Century of
American Labor (2002; revised, paperback, 2013, Princeton
University Press).
- Nelson Lichtenstein, ed: Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-First
Century Capitalism (2006, paperback, New Press).
- Nelson Lichtenstein: The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart
Created a Brave New World of Business (2009, Metropolitan
Books; paperback, 2010, Picador).
- Nelson Lichtenstein/Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, eds: The Right
and Labor in America: Politics, Ideology, and Imagination
(2012; paperback, 2016, University of Pennsylvania Press).
- Nelson Lichtenstein: A Contest of Ideas: Capital, Politics
and Labor (paperback, 2013, University of Illinois Press).
- Romain Huret/Nelson Lichtenstein/Jean-Christian Vinel, eds:
Capitalism Contested: The New Deal and Its Legacies (2020,
University of Pennsylvania Press).
- Roy Rosenzweig/Nelson Lichtenstein/Joshua Brown/David Jaffee
[American Social History Project]: Who Built America? Working
People and the Nation's History: Volume Two: 1877 to the Present
(third edition, paperback, 2007, Bedford/St Martin's).
- Judith Stein: The World of Marcus Garvey: Race and
Class in Modern Society (1985; paperback, 1991, Louisiana
State University Press).
- Judith Stein: Running Steel, Running America: Race, Economic
Policy, and the Decline of Liberalism (paperback, 1998,
University of North Carolina Press).
- Judith Stein: Pivotal Decade: How the United States Traded
Factories for Finance in the Seventies (2010; paperback, 2011,
Yale University Press).
Antony Loewenstein: The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel
Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World
(paperback, 2023, Verso). Israel isn't just one of the world's
most authoritarian societies, they've pioneered advanced technology
to surveil and repress the people they don't like, and they've
tested it extensively, so they know what works, and fix what still
needs work. But they're not selfish. They got that entrepreneurial
spirit, so would-be fascists anywhere in the world, whether running
a country or just a local police department, can get in on the act
and buy proven technology to oppress their own people. As Noam Chomsky
explains: "A sad and sordid record of how 'the light unto the nations'
became the purveyor of the means of violence and brutal repression
from Guatemala to Myanmar and wherever else the opportunity arose."
Related books:
- Alon Arvath: The Battle for Your Computer: Israel and the
Growth of the Global Cyber-Security Industry (2023, Wiley).
- Antony Loewenstein: The Blogging Revolution: How the Newest
Media Revolution Is Changing Politics, Business and Culture in India,
China, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Cuba and Saudi Arabia (2008;
paperback, 2015, Jaico Publishing House).
- Antony Loewenstein: My Israel Question (3rd ed,
paperback, 2009, Melbourne University Press).
- Antony Loewenstein/Ahmed Moor, eds: After Zionism: One State
for Israel and Palestine (2012; paperback, 2024, Saqi Books).
- Antony Loewenstein: Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing
out of Catastrophe (paperback, 2017, Verso).
- Antony Loewenstein: Pills, Powder, and Smoke: Inside the
Bloody War on Drugs (paperback, 2019, Scribe).
Rachel Maddow: Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism
(2023, Crown): Popular left-of-center newscaster, but she's been
super annoying ever since she got Putin stuck in her craw during
the 2016 election and never managed to either swallow or spit it
out. But I have to wonder: who actually writes her books? And why
does she put her name on the cover? I mean, I can sort of imagine
her writing Drift in 2012 to show she's really a warmonger
at heart, and then Blowout -- well, she totally cornered
the "blame Russia" niche for three years up to 2019 -- but why
write a book about Spiro Agnew during the 2020 election season?
And now this, about how Nazi sympathizers in 1941 got rejected
and some kind of comeuppance? Title suggests that we can also
stand up to fascists today, but it's not that simple, because
we're not the same us, and they're not the same them. Blurring
those distinctions may sell whatever, and that's clearly the
level she wants to work at, but it hardly solves anything.
Nazis are a perennial theme, so here are more recent books:
- Michael Benson: Gangsters vs. Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters
Battled Nazis in WW2 Era America (2022, Citadel).
- David De Jong: Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of
Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties (2022, Mariner Books).
- Kathryn S Olmsted: The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons
Who Enabled Hitler (2022, Yale University Press): As WWII
approached, these six American and British moguls praised Hitler
and sought to keep their countries neutral and friendly towards
Nazi Germany.
- Susan Ronald: Hitler's Aristocrats: The Secret Power
Players in Britain and America Who Supported the Nazis, 1923-1941
(2023, St Martin's Press).
Branko Milanovic: Visions of Inequality: From the French
Revolution to the End of the Cold War (2023, Belknap Press):
Economist, has written several books on capitalism and inequality,
moves here from the evidence of such to the realm of philosophy,
focusing on what six important economists said about inequality:
François Quesnay, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Vilfredo
Pareto, and Simon Kuznets.
Also on inequality:
- Ann Case/Angus Deaton: Deaths of Despair and the Future
of Capitalism (2020; paperback, 2021, Princeton University
Press).
- Chuck Collins: Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes
the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing
to the Common Good (paperback, 2016, Chelsea Green).
- Chuck Collins: Is Inequality in America Irreversible?
(paperback, 2018, Polity).
- Chuck Collins: The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay
Millions to Hide Trillions (paperback, 2021, Polity).
- Angus Deaton: Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist
Explores the Land of Inequality (2023, Princeton University
Press).
- Oded Galor: The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth
and Inequality (2022, Dutton): Big picture synthesis of all
of human history plus what we know about pre-history, particularly
interested in the growth of wealth and inequality.
- Michelle Jackson: Manifesto for a Dream: Inequality, Constraint,
and Radical Reform (paperback, 2020, Stanford University Press).
- Destin Jenkins: The Bonds of Inequality: Debt and the Making
of the American City (2021, University of Chicago Press).
- Eyal Press: Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll
of Inequality in America (2021, Farrar Straux and Giroux;
paperback, 2022, Picador Press).
Luke Mogelson: The Storm Is Here: An American Crucible
(2022, Penguin): Reporter used to covering the War on Terror decided
the real action was back in the USA in 2020, reporting on the Michigan
militias and their anti-lockdown protests/crimes, police violence both
before and after the George Floyd killing, and so forth up through
January 6.
William L Patterson: We Charge Genocide: The Crime of
Government Against the Negro People (1951; paperback, 2017,
International Publishers): I saw this among the recommendations in
a list of books about Israel, and figured anyone ahead of the curve
deserved a mention. Turns out it's a much older book, a brief that
the author (1891-1980, "a Marxist lawyer, author, and civil rights
activist") presented before the UN in 1951. That's a stretch -- the
American system was still more focused on exploiting labor, as an
extension of slavery, than on killing people, not that they had much
compunction about those they did kill -- but coming early after the
world belatedly decided that genocide is a major crime, Patterson
offered them a real and pressing case to think about.
Heather Cox Richardson: Democracy Awakening: Notes on the
State of America (2023, Viking): Historian, has written
several useful books on the Republican Party and Reconstruction.
Recently, she's become a prolific blogger, attempting to understand
contemporary events in the context of history, and often impressive
as such. But her views are pretty conventionally liberal, and I've
found her recent attempts to valorize Biden's foreign policy really
lame even before they turned so spectacularly embarrassing. (But I
can't say I've noted much by her on that of late.)
Tricia Romano: The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive
History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American
Culture (2024, Public Affairs): Structured as an oral history,
assembled quotes from interviews and other sources, this chronicles
New York's (well, America's) biggest little underground newspaper from
1956 to its demise c. 2012, with skeletal coverage of the business and
editorial masters, and a broad selection of the ever-revolting workers,
who took every opportunity to transcend its economics. Much more could
have been done on the latter. Just in music, there's nothing much on
the brilliant jazz writing of Gary Giddins and Francis Davis (although
Stanley Crouch throws enough punches to get noticed), nothing at all
on the exceptional new music coverage of Tom Johnson and Kyle Gann,
and not a single mention of yours truly (or dozens of others I can
name who were more regular contributors). My own history goes back to
subscribing when I was an 18-year-old dropout in Wichita, gathering
seeds that later transformed my life, even with no clear desire let
along plan to do so. All it took was an openness to say, hey, that
might be interesting.
Nouriel Roubini: Megathreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil
Our Future, and How to Survive Them (2022, Little Brown): Worth
listing: The Mother of All Debt Crises; Private and Public Failures; The
Demographic Time Bomb; The Easy Money Trap and the Boom-Bust Cycle; The
Coming Great Stagflation; Currency Meltdowns and Financial Instability;
The End of Globalization?; The AI Threat; The New Cold War; An
Uninhabitable Planet? Ends with two versions of "Can This Disaster Be
Averted?" Roubini got a lot of credit as one of the first economists
to predict the crash of 2008. There's some real stuff here, but it
also is some kind of hustle.
Timothy W Ryback: Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power
(2024, Knopf): Focuses on the few months lealding up to "January 30,
1933" (chapter 22 title here), when Germany's transferred effective
power to Hitler, who then swiftly moved to seize everything else,
fashion his peculiar version of MAGA ("The Third Reich," he called
it), and drive Germany to war, extermination, and ruin. The broad
outline is familiar by now, the nuances in the details over just
how much of Hitler's program was anticipated and relished by his
benefactors (almost everything, I dare say) and how many of them
regretted their decision (very few, at least until the war turned
against them).
David E Sanger: New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's
Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West (2024,
Crown): Journalist, covers national security for the New York Times,
which evidently requires him to believe that conflicts with nuclear
powers are necessary but also stable and benign, like they think
the Cold War was. This was mostly nonsense, wrapped up in American
myopia and arrogance, also ideological incoherence -- as Russia
and China became more capitalist, the real distinction came down
to them having their own arms markets, independent of the American
cartel. Nothing boosts arms sales like the spectre of enemies, and
falling back on decades of distrust, Russia and China were easy
villains. That Russia took the bait in Ukraine should have alerted
us to the risks of such thinking, but for now the arms industry is
booming.
- David E Sanger: The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and
Fear in the Cyber Age (2018; paperback, 2019, Crown).
- Sanjaya Baru/Rahul Sharma: A New Cold War: Henry
Kissinger and the Rise of China (2021, HarperCollins).
- Michael Doyle: Cold Peace: Avoiding the New Cold War
(2023; paperback, 2024, Liveright): One of the few books in this
section not bought and paid for by the arms cartel. He previously
wrote:
- Michael Doyle: Ways of War and Peace: Realism, Liberalism,
and Socialism (paperback, 1997, WW Norton).
- John Bellamy Foster/John Ross/Deborah Veneziale: Washington's
New Cold War: A Socialist Perspective (paperback, 2022,
Monthly Review Press): Introduction by Vijay Prashad.
- Gordon M Hahn: Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West
and the "New Cold War" (paperback, 2018, McFarland).
- Matthew Kroenig/Dan Negrea: We Win They Lose: Republican
Foreign Policy & the New Cold War (2024, Republic Book
Publishers): Foreword by Mike Pompeo. Declared the New Cold War
has started, and China is the enemy. Kroenig is a long-time hawk,
as you can see from:
- Mark Kroenig: The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy: Why
Strategic Superiority Matters (2018; paperback, 2020, Oxford
University Press).
- Matt Pottinger: The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend
Taiwan (paperback, 2024, Hoover Institution Press). [07-01]
- Sten Rynning: NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine, a History
of the World's Most Powerful Alliance (2024, Yale University
Press): Rather puffy for what's basically a useless symbol -- except
when it is used, it quickly turns into a liability.
- Jim Sciutto: The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China,
and the Next World War (2024, Dutton): CNN "national security"
correspondent, two previous big books along these lines, including
The Madman Theory: Trump Takes on the World.
- Richard Sakwa: Deception: Russiagate and the New Cold
War (paperback, 2023, Lexington Books).
- George S Takach: Cold War 2.0: Artificial Intelligence
in the New Battle Between China, Russia, and America (2024,
Pegasus Books).
- Noam Chomsky: Towards a New Cold War: US Foreign Policy
From Vietnam to Reagan (1982; paperback, 2003, New Press):
Searching for "new cold war" I found this ancient text, from the
period when Reagan's hawks still had an old Cold War to escalate.
The reprint, with a new introduction by John Pilger, clearly marked
their plans for a revival with the Global War on Terror already
going sideways, and reminds us that their blueprints just fed on
old propaganda, easily recycled.
Along the way, I ran into some new books on the old Cold War,
which bear mention here:
- Paul Thomas Chamberlin: The Cold War's Killing Fields:
Rethinking the Long Peace (2018; paperback, 2019, Harper).
- Campbell Craig/Fredrik Logevall: America's Cold War:
The Politics of Insecurity (2009; second edition, paperback,
2020, Belknap Press).
- Jeffrey A Engel: When the World Seemed New: George HW
Bush and the End of the Cold War (2017; paperback, 2018,
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
- Bridget Kendall: The Cold War: A New Oral History
(paperback, 2018, BBC Physical Audio).
- Chris Miller: The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy:
Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR (2016,
University of North Carolina Press).
- Jeff Shesol: Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy,
and the New Battleground of the Cold War (2021; paperback,
2022, WW Norton).
- Natalia Telepneva: Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union
and the Collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961-1975
(paperback, 2022, University of North Carolina Press).
- Odd Arne Westad: The Cold War: A World History
(2017, Basic Books; paperback, 2019, Random House). He previously
wrote:
- Odd Arne Westad: The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions
and the Making of Our Times (2005; paperback, 2011, Cambridge
University Press).
Tom Schaller/Paul Waldman: White Rural Rage: The Threat
to American Democracy (2024, Random House): "A searing
exposé on what drives the average Republican voter in white rural
America and what can be done to combat their rage." One of the more
talked-about political books of late, as it documents and in many
ways reinforces the divide between the Trump mob and their imagined
enemies (urban, liberal, elitist, woke, ever so quick to castigate
you as "deplorable"; even those who don't think of themselves as
enemies are just as likely to offend with pity as loathing).
- Michelle Wilde Anderson: The Fight to Save the Town:
Reimagining Discarded America (2022; paperback, 2023, Avid
Reader Press/Simon & Schuster).
- Steven Conn: The Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America
for What It Is -- and Isn't (2023, University of Chicago
Press).
- Justin Gest: The New Minority: White Working Class Politics
in an Age of Immigration and Inequality (paperback, 2016,
Oxford University Press).
- Nicholas F Jacobs/Daniel M Shea: The Rural Voter: The
Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America (2023,
Columbia University Press). Jacobs previously co-wrote:
- Nicholas F Jacobs/Sidney M Milkis: What Happened to
the Vital Center?: Presidentialism, Populist Revolt, and the
Fracturing of America (paperback, 2022, Oxford University
Press).
- Kathleen Hall Jamieson/Paul Waldman: The Press Effect:
Politicians, Journalists, and the Stories That Shape the Political
World (2002; paperback, 2004, Oxford University Press).
- Jonathan M Metzl: What We've Become: Living and Dying in
a Country of Arms (2024, WW Norton).
- Lainey Newman/Theda Skocpol: Rust Belt Union Blues: Why
Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away From the Democratic Party
(2023, Columbia University Press).
- Paul Waldman: Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies
and Why the Media Didn't Tell You (2004, Sourcebooks).
- Paul Waldman: Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives
Can Learn From Conservative Success (2006, Wiley).
Adi Schwartz/Einat Wilf: The War of Return: How Western
Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to
Peace (paperback, 2020, St Martin's Griffin): Two "liberal
Israelis supportive of a two-state solution" argue that there is no
legal basis for a "right of return" (unlike Israel's Law of Return?),
and that the very suggestion is "one of the largest obstacles to
successful diplomacy and lasting peace in the region." They think
UNRWA should be abolished, because it perpetuates the notion that
the descendants of Palestinian exiles from 1948 are refugees, and
as such are entitled to return to their homeland. This book is
described as "a runaway bestseller in Israel," and as such is a
fair document of the state-of-mind that was prepared to commit
genocide when Oct. 7, 2023 happened.
Other recent books on Israel, from all over the spectrum, including
one somewhat sympathetic to Hamas, and lots that are pure hasbara
(also see the lists under Boyarin, Horn, and Loewenstein):
- Ami Ayalon: Friendly Fire: How Israel Became Its Own
Worst Enemy and the Hope for Its Future (paperback, 2021,
Steerforth Press): Former Shin Bet director, who understands that
"when Israel carries out anti-terrorist operations in a political
context of hopelessness, the Palestinian public will support
violence, because they have nothing to lose." He isn't the only
Israeli to realize that, but he's one of the few who do who sees
it as a problem.
- Sumaya Awad/Brian Bean, eds: Palestine: A Socialist
Introduction (paperback, 2020, Haymarket Books).
- Tareq Baconi: Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification
of Palestinian Resistance (2018; paperback, 2022, Stanford
University Press): Billed as "the first history of the group on its
own terms," but critical, arguing that "the movement's ideology
ultimately threatens the Palestinian struggle and, inadvertently,
its own legitimacy," especially where "its brutality . . . has made
permissible the collective punishment of millions of Palestinian
civilians." I would caution, though, that regardless of what Hamas
does, it is ultimately Israel that decides to punish, up to and now
including genocide.
- Jacques Baud: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood: The Defeat of the
Vanquisher (paperback, 2024, Max Milo Editions): "The way
Israel is fighting the Palestinians is leading to a loss of legitimacy
that seems to be accelerating."
- Jonah Jeremy Bob/Ilan Evyatar: Target Tehran: How Israel
Is Using Sabotage, Cyberwarfare, Assassination -- and Secret Diplomacy --
to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Create a New Middle East (2023,
Simon & Schuster): Israelis, bragging.
- David Brog: Reclaiming Israel's History: Roots, Rights,
and the Struggle for Peace (2017; paperback, 2018, Regnery):
Note blurbs by John Hagee and Glenn Beck.
- Alan Dershowitz: War Against the Jews: How to End Hamas
Barbarism (2023, Hot Books): His usual The Case Against
Israel's Enemies, quickly rebranded post-October 7.
- Asaf Elia-Shalev: Israel's Black Panthers: The Radicals
Who Punctured a Nation's Founding Myth (2024, University of
Calilfornia Press).
- George Gilder: The Israel Test: How Israel's Genius
Enriches and Challenges the World (paperback, 2024,
Encounter Books) [07-30].
- Daniel Gordis: Impossible Takes Longer: 75 Years After
Its Creation, Has Israel Fulfilled Its Founders' Dreams?
(2023, Ecco): Author of many Israel fluff books, also the primary
biography of Menachem Begin.
- Marc Lamont Hill/Mitchell Plitnick: Except for Palestine:
The Limits of Progressive Politics (2021; paperback, 2022,
New Press): Authors "spotlight how one-sided pro-Israel policies
reflect the truth-bending grip of authoritarianism on both Israel
and the United States."
- Adam Race Hochdorf: Israel Has the Right to Exist &
Defend Itself (paperback, 2024, Purple Poppy Publishing):
Short (90 pp) but strident propaganda screed.
- Michael A Horowitz: Hope and Despair: Israel's Future in
the New Middle East (2024, Hurst). [06-01]
- Dan Kovalik: The Case for Palestine: Why It Matters and
Why You Should Care (2024, Hot Books). [05-28]
- Mitri Raheb: Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, the People,
the Bible (paperback, 2023, Orbis Books).
- Dan Senor/Saul Singer: The Genius of Israel: The Surprising
Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World (2023,
Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster).
- Raja Shehadeh: What Does Israel Fear From Palestine?
(paperback, 2024, Other Press). [06-11]
- Avner Shur/Aviram Halevi: Sayeret Matkal: The Greatest
Operations of Israel's Elite Commandos (2023, Skyhorse): No
other nation brags about its illegal foreign ops quite like Israel
does.
- Grant F Smith: How Israel Made AIPAC: The Most Harmful
Foreign Influence Operation in America (paperback, 2022,
Institute for Research).
- Jamie Stern-Weiner, ed: Deluge: Gaza and Isarel From Crisis
to Cataclysm (paperback, 2024, OR Books): First serious book
I'm aware of to reassess Israel after the Gaza genocide started.
- Thomas Suárez: Palestine Hijacked: How Zionism Forged an
Apartheid State From River to Sea (paperback, 2022, Olive
Branch Press).
- Nathan Thrall: A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy
of a Jerusalem Tragedy (2023, Metropolitan Books).
More recent books on older Israel/Palestine history:
- Teresa Aranguren/Sandra Barrillaro: Against Erasure: A
Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba (2024,
Haymarket Books).
- Linda Dittmar: Tracing Homelands: Israel, Palestine, and
the Claims of Belonging (paperback, 2023, Interlink Books):
A memoir, starting in the 1940s, later searching out ruins of
villages destroyed in the Nakba.
- Alan Dowty: Arabs and Jews in Ottoman Palestine: Two Worlds
Collide (paperback, 2021, Indiana University Press).
- Frederic C Hof: Reaching for the Heights: The Inside Story
of a Secret Attempt to Reach a Syrian-Israeli Peace (2022,
USIP Press): US ambassador, mediator of 2009-11 peace talks, which
were scuttled by Obama's turn against Assad in the Arab Spring.
- JMN Jeffries: Palestine: The Reality: The Inside Story of
the Balfour Declaration (paperback, 2016, Olive Branch
Press).
- Uri Kaufman: Eighteen Days in October: The Yom Kippur War
and How It Created the Modern Middle East (2023, St Martin's
Press).
- Oren Kessler: Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots
of the Middle East Conflict (2023, Rowman & Littlefield):
Fairly major history of an oft-overlooked but very pivotal event.
- Jamie Kirkpatrick: The Tales of Bismuth: Dispatches From
Palestine, 1945-1948 (paperback, 2024, independent).
- Peter Shambrook: Policy of Deceit: Britain and Palestine,
1914-1939 (2023, Oneworld Academic).
- Gardner Thompson: Legacy of Empire: Britain, Zionism and
the Creation of Israel (2020; paperback, 2022, Saqi Books):
This is an important part of the story, as Israelis learned the art
and craft of colonialism directly from the British, sometimes in
concert and sometimes in opposition, retaining the legal framework
and much of the mentality of their captors and patrons.
Timothy Shenk: Realigners: Partisan Hacks, Political
Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy
(2022; paperback, 2023, Farrar Straus and Giroux): Portraits of
pivotal political figures from the founding to the present, not
always going with the obvious choices (e.g., he goes with William
Sumner over Abraham Lincoln, and Mark Hanna over William Jennings
Bryan).
Richard Slotkin: A Great Disorder: National Myth and the
Battle for America (2024, Belknap Press): This is a sweeping
history of myth in America, the stories we've invented to explain
and convince ourselves, starting with the frontier and the founding,
and picking up every cliché of the last 240, not neglecting Trump
and MAGA, which gets the better half of Part V ("The Age of Culture
War").
Also by Slotkin:
- Richard Slotkin: Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier
in Twentieth-Century America (paperback, 1998, University of
Oklahoma Press).
- Richard Slotkin/James K Folsom, eds: So Dreadfull a Judgement:
Puritan Responses to King Philip's War 1676-1677 (paperback,
1999, Wesleyan University Press).
- Richard Slotkin: Regeneration Through Violence: The
Mythology of the American Frontier, 1600-1860 (paperback,
2000, University of Oklahoma Press).
- Richard Slotkin: Lost Battalions: The Great War and the
Criris of American Nationalism (paperback, 2006, St Martins
Press).
- Richard Slotkin: The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil
War Became a Revolution (paperback, 2013, Liveright).
- Richard Slotkin: Fatal Environment: The Myth of the Frontier
in the Age of Industrialization, 1800-1890 (paperback, 2017,
University of Oklahoma Press).
Brian Stelter: Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News,
Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy (2023,
Atria/One Signal): Expands on his previous Hoax: Donald Trump,
Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth (2020). Fox
News has long struck me as the single most important cog in the
Republican mind control matrix, combining as it does self-funding,
vast outreach, ideological rigor, and the immediacy and intimacy
of television.
More on Fox:
- Chris Stirewalt: Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine
Divides America and How to Fight Back (2022, Center Street):
Former Fox News political editor, so he's contributed to the rage
he writes about, and no doubt observed much more (and worse); senior
fellow at AEI, which keeps him safely on the right, although he can
try to pose that as balanced.
- Kat Timpf: You Can't Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny,
Nothing Is Sacred, and We're All in This Together (2023,
Broadside Books): Gutfeld! co-host and Fox News contributor.
- Michael Wolff: The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch
Dynasty (2023, Henry Holt): Author of three insider-ish books
on Trump, goes after the big fish this time.
Stuart Stevens: The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways
My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy (2023,
Twelve): "Never Trumper," former Lincoln Project strategist, back
in 2020 wrote It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became
Donald Trump, returns with deeper thinking on what is no longer
just his personal dilemma. He identifies "five autocratic building
blocks": Propagandists; Support of a major party; Financers; Legal
theories to legitimize actions; and Shock Troops.
Rory Stewart: How Not to Be a Politician (2023,
Penguin Press): Wrote a book about hiking in Afghanistan, just
after the Taliban fled. Wrote a book about being a British civil
servant in Iraq, shortly after Bush and Blair invaded. Went back
to England and wrote another book about how none of that worked.
Decided to try his hand at politics, so he ran for a Tory MP seat,
and won. Then he ran for party leader/prime minister, and lost.
So by now, he figures he's failed enough he can write a memoir
about it all. In the UK, he more optimistically called this book
Politics on the Edge. For America, however . . . he opted
to face the music, and 'fess up.
Yaroslav Trofimov: Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian
Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence (2024, Penguin
Press): Wall Street Journal correspondent, born in Kyiv, highly
partisan, but hailed as "the most comprehensive, authoritative
book on the war to date."
Latest batch of books on Ukraine:
- Jacques Baud: The Russian Art of War: How the West Led
Ukraine to Defeat (paperback, 2024, Max Milo Editions).
Swiss military analyst, has a history of disparaging the West, or
maybe just flattering Putin: Putin: Game Master? (2023);
Operation Z (2023); The Navalny Case: Conspiracy to Serve
Foreign Policy (2023).
- Hal Brands, ed: War in Ukraine: Conflict, Strategy, and
the Return of a Fractured World (paperback, 2024, Johns
Hopkins University Press).
- Glenn Diesen: The Ukraine War & the Eurasian World
Order (paperback, 2024, Clarity Press): Appeals to "world
order" obsessives, leaving little concern for Ukrainians.
- Rory Finnin: Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Atrocity
and the Poetics of Solidarity (paperback, 2024, University
of Toronto Press).
- Igort: How War Begins: Dispatches From the Ukrainian
Invasion (2024, Fantagraphics): Graphic journalism.
- Volodymyr Ishchenko: Towards the Abyss: Ukraine From
Maidan to War (paperback, 2024, Verso).
- Michael Kimmage: Collisions: The Origins of the War in
Ukraine and the New Global Instability (2024, Oxford
University Press).
- Fadi Lama: Why the West Can't Win: From Bretton Woods to
a Multipolar World (paperback, 2023, Clarity Press):
Ukraine is one example.
- Christopher A Lawrence: The Battle for Kyiv: The Fight
for Ukraine's Capital (2024, Frontline Books).
- Paul Moorcraft: Putin's Wars and NATO's Flaws: Why Russia
Invaded Ukraine (2024, Pen and Sword Military): Author has
a long list of war books, "from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe."
- Simon Schuster: The Showman: Inside the Invasion That
Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky
(2024, William Morrow).
Yanis Varoufakis: Techno Feudalism: What Killed Capitalism
(paperback, 2024, Melville House): Greek economist, had a brief fling
with fame as finance minister under the radical Syriza government, but
quit rather than accept the austerity measures the EU insisted on. He
argues that something fundamental has changed: "Big tech has replaced
capitalism's twin pillars -- markets and profit -- with its platforms
and rents. With every click and scroll, we labor like serfs to increase
its power."
- Joel Kotkin: The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the
Global Middle Class (2020; paperback, 2023, Encounter Books):
Not much difference between Varoufakis' "techno feudalism" and this
one, especially from the vantage point of the neo-serfs.
Alexander Ward: The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore
American Foreign Policy After Trump (2024, Portfolio): Major
reporting on Joe Biden's foreign policy team, their critique of Trump's
offenses against "democratic allies" and coddling of "authoritarians"
(especially the much despised Vladimir Putin), and how they sought to
return America to its pre-Trump eminence as the leader of the Free
World. Less reporting on how often that backfired, with the book's
cutoff date minimizing the stalemate in Ukraine, and omitting any
mention of the unfolding genocide in Gaza, or Israel's persistent
efforts to embroil America in war with Iran and other irrelevant but
easily maligned enemies. The problem is that Biden remains trapped
in the supposedly benign superpower cult that emerged post-Cold War
under Clinton, Bush, and Obama, and even more committed to the real
dictators of American foreign policy: Israel and the arms cartel --
precisely the graft Trump most indulged, so he's not so different
from Trump after all.
Fareed Zakaria: Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash
From 1600 to the Present (2024, WW Norton): Big-picture
history, with opening chapters on the Netherlands, England, and
France, then shifts focus to industrialization in Britain and the
United States, then his more topical concerns of globalization
and contemporary geopolitics.
Additional books, noted without comments other than for clarity. I
reserve the right to return to some of these later (but probably
won't; many are here because I don't want to think about them
further).
Kali Akuno/Ajamu Nangwaya [Cooperation Jackson]: Jackson
Rising; The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination
in Jackson, Mississippi (paperback, 2017, Daraja Press).
Thomas J Baker: The Fall of the FBI: How a Once Great Agency
Became a Threat to Democracy (2022, Bombardier Books): Actually,
the FBI was always a threat to democracy.
Stephen Breyer: Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism,
Not Textualism (2024, Simon & Schuster): Retired Supreme
Court Justice.
Jennifer Burns: Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative
(2023, Farrar Straus and Giroux).
Liz Cheney: Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning
(2023, Little Brown).
Jared Cohen: Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their
Search for Purpose Beyond the White House (2024, Simon &
Schuster). Previously wrote (suggesting a business plan, which is
supported by his biography):
Jared Cohen: Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed
America (2019; paperback, 2020, Simon & Schuster).
McKay Coppins: Romney: A Reckoning (2023, Scribner).
Jeremy Eichler: Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust,
and the Music of Remembrance (2023, Knopf).
Philip Gefter: Cocktails With George and Martha: Movies,
Marriage, and the Making of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
(2024, Bloomsbury).
Doris Kearns Goodwin: An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal
History of the 1960s (2024, Simon & Schuster).
Phil Gramm/Robert Ekelund/John Early: The Myth of American
Inequality: How Government Biases Policy Debate (2022,
Rowman & Littlefield).
Adam Kinzinger: Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty
in Our Divided Country (2023, The Open Field): Former
Representative (R-IL), voted to impeach Trump, served on House
Jan. 6 Committee.
Erik Larson: The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris,
Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
(2024, Crown).
Michael Lewis: Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New
Tycoon (2023, WW Norton): A profile of FTX founder ("crypto's
Gatsby") Sam Bankman-Fried (since convicted for massive fraud).
Yascha Mounk: The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies
Fall Apart and How They Can Endure (2022, Penguin Press).
Yascha Mounk: The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power
in Our Time (2023, Penguin Press).
Peter Pomerantsev: This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the
War Against Reality (2019, PublicAffairs).
Peter Pomerantsev: How to Win an Information War: The
Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler (2024, PublicAffairs):
On Thomas Sefton Delmer, who worked for Britain during WWII, but
also thinking about the author's favorite subject, Vladimir Putin.
Marilynne Robinson: Reading Genesis (2024, Farrar Straus
and Giroux).
Rick Rubin: The Creative Act: A Way of Being (2023,
Penguin Press): Music producer (Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash).
Patrick Ruffini: Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial
Populist Coaliltion Remaking the GOP (2023, Simon &
Schuster).
Salman Rushdie: Knife: Meditations After an Attempted
Murder (2024, Random House).
Lucy Sante: I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of
Transition (2024, Penguin Press).
Erella Shadmi: The Legacy of Mothers: Matriarchies and the
Gift Economy as Post Capitalist Alternatives (paperback, 2021,
Inanna Publications).
John Sides/Chris Tausanovitch/Lynn Vavreck: The Bitter End:
The 2020 Presidential Campaign and the Challenge to American
Democracy (2022; paperback, 2023, Princeton University Press).
Benn Steil: The World That Wasn't: Henry Wallace and the
Fate of the American Century (2024, Avid Reader/Simon &
Schuster).
Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, ed: Did It Happen Here? Perspectives
on Fascism and America (2024, WW Norton).
Matthew Stewart: An Emancipation of the Mind: Radical
Philosophy, the War Over Slavery, and the Refounding of America
(2024, WW Norton).
Calvin Trillin: The Lede: Dispatches From a Life in the
Press (2024, Random House). Also note:
Calvin Trillin: Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years
of Funny Stuff (2011; paperback, 2012, Random House).
James Traub: True Believer: Hubert Humphrey's Quest for
a More Just America (2024, Basic Books).
Jacob L Wright: Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History
of Scripture and Its Origins (2023, Cambridge University
Press).
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, April 15, 2024
Music Week
April archive
(in progress).
Music: Current count 42126 [42104] rated (+22), 30 [37] unrated (-7).
We have some friends my late sister virtually adopted -- we consider
them virtual family -- who live on a farm in the Arkansas Ozarks, and
they made a big push to get all of their closest family and friends to
congregate there for the eclipse. We didn't give it much consideration,
but my brother and his son and their families drove there from Washington
and back, stopping here in Wichita both ways. (My brother's daughter and
her family also made the trip, but flew in and out of Tulsa, bypassing
us.) The rapid-fire visits took up a big chunk of my time the last two
weeks. We did more cooking on the first leg, but on return I schemed to
get help on a bunch of housework tasks. Both activities cut my normal
output way back, as is evident here.
They finally left on Saturday afternoon. After that, I cobbled together
a bit of
Speaking of Which, which I posted late last night. I should go back
and do some reviewing and editing and such, but I started feeling ill
that night, and that's carried over today, so even this bit of shovelware
has become a chore. Probably nothing serious, but at my age, one does
fret a lot more than in the past.
But also I've lost a good ten hours since Thursday trying to get Cox
to solve an AUP#XSNDR error in SMTP that totally keeps me from sending
email. As best I can figure this out -- which, by the way, is probably
better than anyone at Cox has yet managed -- is that when I send a piece
of email (using Thunderbird connecting to smtp.cox.net), the SPF or DKIM
list of legit IP sender addresses doesn't include the one Cox my one
(assigned to me via DHCP, or substituted in transit?), and some forwarding
server notices the discrepancy and kicks it back (which takes about 20
seconds, so there may be multiple stops for multiple lists before it
fails).
I only have a couple things to say about the records below. The brief
dive into Ken Colyer came about because someone sent me a typo correction
to a Penguin Jazz Guide
file I put together ages ago. When I was glancing through it I noticed
a Colyer album I hadn't heard, so tried to track it down. I've always
liked trad jazz, and that shared fondness was one of the things that
I loved about Penguin Guide.
The Rail Band album is pictured but not reviewed below. Read about it
next week. It comes from Robert Christgau's
Consumer Guide:
April 2024. I've reviewed most of those albums already, including
an A grade for Heems/Lapgan; A- for Cucumbers, Dan Ex Machina, and Kim
Gordon; similar HMs for Four Tet and Messthetics/James Brandon Lewis;
and lesser grades for Buck 65, Adrianne Lenker, Vampire Weekend, and
Waxahatchee. I've played Buck 65 four more times since the CG came out,
and I always react the same: sounds really great for 10-15 minutes, then
my mind wanders until it returns with a "what the fuck?" ending. Still
a B+(***). The other three are probable EOY list frontrunners that I
can't sustain any serious interest in (despite having noted multiple
A-list albums from each). Still, I'm rather impressed that Bob can
still put on his "rock critic establishment" robes and lobby for
critical consensus like he advocated for fifty years ago.
Hope I'll be able to knock out a
Book Roundup this week. Still, feeling pretty lousy at the
moment, pushing this out with no Speaking of Which updates.
New records reviewed this week:
Cyrille Aimée: À Fleur De Peau (2018-23 [2024],
Whirlwind): French jazz singer, based in New York, more than a
dozen albums since 2006. Album recorded "at Jake Sherman's
Apartment and Keyboard Haven in Brooklyn," with the singer
credited with acoustic guitar and baritone ukelele, Sherman
with "various," Abe Rounds "drums & percussion," various
others for a song or two.
B+(**) [sp]
Florian Arbenz: Conversation #10 & #11: ON!
(2023 [2024], Hammer): Swiss drummer, started this series working
remotely, but this appears to be a studio meet, extended over two
days (11 tracks, 69 minutes), with more musicians: Yumi Ito (voice),
Percy Pursglove (trumpet/flugelhorn), Ivo Neame (fender rhodes/synths),
Szymon Mika (guitar), and Jim Hart (vibes, marimba, glockenspiel,
percussion).
B+(**) [sp]
Cïtric Dümmies: Zen and the Arcade of Beating Your Ass
(2023, Feel It): Hardcore-punk band from Minneapolis, fourth album
since 2017, cover art designed to evoke Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade.
B+(*) [sp]
Hilary Gardner: On the Trial With the Lonesome Pines
(2024, Anzic): Standards singer, from Alaska, based in Brooklyn,
one-third of the vocal trio Duchess, has a couple solo albums.
looks to the "trail songs" of "singing cowboys" here, which means
Gene Autry but also Bing Crosby.
B+(*) [sp]
Arve Henriksen/Harmen Fraanje: Touch of Time (2023
[2024], ECM): Norwegian trumpet player, dozens of albums since 2000,
duo here with a Dutch pianist who also debuted in 2000.
B+(*) [sp]
Jazz Ensemble of Memphis: Playing in the Yard
(2023 [2024], Memphis International): Memphis group, assembled by
the label owner as a showcase for young talent, remembering other
jazz musicians from Memphis over the years: the eldest here is
saxophonist Charles Pender II (26), the youngest drummer Kurtis
Gray (17), with with Martin Carodine Jr (17, trumpet), Liam O'Dell
(21, bass), and DeAnte Payne (25, keyboards, vibes, congas,
percussion).
B+(*) [cd]
Benji Kaplan: Untold Stories (2023 [2024],
self-released): Guitarist, born in New York but plays Brazilian
influences, including nylon strings. Solo, nine tracks, 28:42.
B+(*) [cd] [05-01]
Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones: New Monuments (2024,
We Jazz): Brooklyn-based vocalist, third group album, also has duos
(Lea Bertucci, Luke Stewart) and has appeared with Darius Jones,
Mary Halvorson, William Parker, and Robert Ashley. Group here with
Matthew Nelson (soprano sax), Leter St. Louis (cello), Eva Lawitts
(bass), and Jason Nazary (drums/synthesizer).
B+(**) [sp]
João Madeira/Margarida Mestre: Voz Debaixo (2022
[2024], 4DaRecord): From Portugal, bass and voice duo, the former
does its job of setting up and framing the latter, which offers
limited interest.
B+(**) [cd]
Old 97's: American Primitive (2024, ATO): Indie
band founded 1992 in Dallas, thirteenth studio album, alongside
eight solo efforts (2002-22) from leader Rhett Miller -- perhaps
a tad more pop, where the band leans harder on the guitar. I ran
out of patience with this one pretty fast, not that objectively
it's all that bad.
B+(*) [sp]
Jonah Parzen-Johnson: You're Never Really Alone
(2024, We Jazz): Baritone saxophonist, also plays flute, from
Chicago, solo here (as are most of his albums), but with some
electronics mixed in. Eight tracks, 39:39.
B+(**) [sp]
Ernesto Rodrigues/Bruno Parinha/João Madeira: Into the
Wood (2023 [2024], Creative Sources): Portuguese trio:
viola, bass clarinet, bass. Live improv set, the bassist does
an exceptional job of binding the sounds together into an engine
of endless fascination.
A- [cd]
Dave Schumacher & Cubeye: Smoke in the Sky
(2024, Cellar): Baritone saxophonist, leads a very credible Latin
jazz outfit with trumpet, often a second sax, and a rhythm section
with Manuel Valera (piano), Alex "Apolo" Ayala (bass), and two
drummer-percussionists (Mauricio Herrera and Joel Mateo).
B+(***) [cd] [04-19]
Shakira: Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (2024, Sony Latin):
Colombian superstar, twelfth studio album, mostly Spanish.
B+(***) [sp]
Curtis Taylor: Taylor Made (2022 [2024], Curtis
Taylor Music): Trumpet player, bio hints at Cleveland, southern
California, University of Iowa ("currently inspiring students"),
seems to have two previous albums, side credits in big bands.
Mainstream group here, backed by piano-bass-drums, with tenor
sax (Marcus Elliot) on four (of 7) tracks.
B+(**) [sp]
Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us (2024,
Columbia): Major group, first three albums (2006-13) were poll
contenders, not so much for their fourth album (2019), where
singer-songwriter Ezra Koenig carried on after the departure
of Rostam Batmanglij. Seems this one is being recognized as a
return to form, but my reaction is very indifferent, even as
I admire their occasional dazzle.
B+(**) [sp]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
Sonny Rollins: Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European Tour
Recordings (1959 [2024], Resonance, 3CD): Starts with a
set I've heard before as St. Thomas in Stockholm 1959,
which I've long recommended as one of his best live sets, and
rarely drops below that level as he moves on across Europe,
trios with Henry Grimes on bass and various drummers (Pete
La Roca, Kenny Clarke, Joe Harris).
A- [cd] [04-20]
Old music:
Ken Colyer's Jazzmen: Club Session With Colyer
(1956 [2000], Lake): English trumpet/cornet player (1928-88),
played trad jazz and skiffle, sang some. Penguin Guide
picked this particular album (originally in Decca in 1957) as
part of their "core collection," and it certainly is a primo
example of the genre, a sextet of Ian Wheeler (clarinet), Mac
Duncan (trombone), John Bastable (banjo), Ron Ward (bass), and
Colin Bowden (drums), playing "good ol' good 'uns."
A- [r]
Ken Colyer's Jazzmen: Up Jumped the Devil (1957-58
[2001], G.H.B.): Eleven songs, originally on Upbeat in 1958, rags
to open and close, Jelly Roll Morton conspicuous in between, septet
here, adding pianist Ray Foxley to the usual suspects.
B+(**) [r]
Ken Colyer and His Jazzband: Colyer's Pleasure
(1963, Society): Sextet plays more classics, John Bastable (banjo)
and Ron Ward (bass) are carryovers from the 1956 band, Sammy
Remington (clarinet) getting a "featuring" credit on the 1993
CD reissue (Lake, with extra cuts I haven't heard).
B+(***) [r]
Joan Díaz Trio: We Sing Bill Evans (2008, Fresh
Sound New Talent): Spanish piano trio, with Giulia Valle (bass)
and Ramón Angel (drums), "introducing" singer Silvia Perez [Cruz],
who had a previous album or two, with a half-dozen more since.
Songs composed by Evans, with lyrics mostly from others (only
one by Perez).
B+(**) [sp]
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Sam V.H. Reese, ed.: The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins (New York Review Books): paperback book.
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Speaking of Which
My company left Saturday afternoon, so I didn't really get started
on this until then. Sunday I started feeling sick, and ran out of
energy. No idea whether Monday will be better or worse, so I figured
I might as well post this while I can. Maybe I'll circle back later.
Big news stories are pretty much the same as they've been of late,
so you pretty much know where I stand on them.
Not a lot of music this week, but if I'm up to it, I'll try to
post what I have sometime Monday. Another pending problem is that
I'm unable to send email, and Cox doesn't seem to have anyone
competent to work on the problem until Monday.
Notable tweets:
Yousef Munayyer
[04-03]:
Joe Biden knows backing Israel's genocide in Gaza could cost him the
election he says American democracy depends on.
Joe Biden doesn't care.
Imagine hating Palestinians so much as a US president that you'd
throw away American democracy for it.
Steve Hoffman
[04-10]:
[meme]: Christians warn us about the anti-Christ for 2,000 years,
and when he finally shows up, they buy a bible from him.
Rick Perlstein
[04-10]:
I mean, protecting criminal presidents from accountability actually
is perfectly on-brand for an organization devoted to the legacy of
Gerald Ford.
[link:
Famed photographer quits Ford over Liz Cheney snub]
Initial count: 188 links, 6,611 words.
Top story threads:
Israel:
Mondoweiss:
Eman Alhaj Ali: [04-10]
This year, Eid in Gaza is bittersweet.
Ruwaida Kamal Amer:
Michael Arria: [04-11]
The Shift: Are the Dems shifting on Israel? "More Democrats are
beginning to criticize Israel, but it will add up to an actual policy
shift?"
James Bamford: [04-12]
How US intelligence and an American company feed Israel's killing
machine in Gaza. "Now, soldiers and intelligence specialists are
being trained at Camp Moshe Dayan to finish the job -- to bomb, shoot,
or starve to death the descendants of the Palestinians forced into the
squalor of militarily occupied Gaza decades ago."
Ramzy Baroud: [04-12]
Killing humanitarian workers as a strategy: Israel's endgame in
Gaza.
Isaac Chotiner:
Jonathan Cook: [04-09]
Israel's killing of aid workers is no accident. It's part of the plan
to destroy Gaza.
Dave DeCamp:
Keith Gessen: [04-13]
Is this Israel's forever war?: "Foreign-policy analysts whose
careers were shaped by the war on terror see troubling parallels."
The way I'd put it is that Israel has been in a "forever war" since
1948, and they were psychologically prepped for "forever war" much
earlier. They say they always have to fight because of antisemitism,
and there's certainly been lots of that, but their wars since 1948
have just generated more antisemitism, and more war -- even when
you seem to be winning, they just go on, like, forever.
Especially
when you set out to conquer other people, they fight back, and if
you beat them down, they fight back again. Britain went to war in
the 16th century, and was almost continuously at war somewhere or
other until they gave up on their colonies in the 1960s (or the
1990s before they settled the "troubles" in Northern Ireland). The
US was continuously at war from the day Henry Luce proclaimed the
"American Century" until, well, still working on "forever." In
time, Americans walked away from several wars -- most obviously,
Afghanistan and Vietnam, which were never going to surrender their
independence.
Sahar Ghumkhor: [04-08]
For Israel's TikTok serial killers, there is a pleasure in inflicting
racial terror in Gaza.
Faris Giacaman: [04-10]
The Palestine Walid saw, from the little prison to the big
prison.
Eliza Griswold: [03-21]
The children who lost limbs in Gaza: "More than a thousand
children who were injured in the war are now amputees."
Tareq S Hajjaj: [04-11]
'Come out, you animals': how the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital
happened.
Tony Karon/Daniel Levy: [04-11]
After the carnage: "Solutions crafted by outsiders to avoid,
suppress, and restrict Palestinian agency are bound to fail.
Palestinians should decide their own future." How dumb (or
senselessly cruel) do you have to be not to understand this?
Back on Oct. 8, I dusted off my plan for a free Gaza, the only
real requirements being that Israel has no control or presence
and that the people of Gaza be free to select their own leaders
and organize themselves as they see fit. Democratic processes
and individual rights could be conditions for receiving aid,
which Gaza needed sorely even then, but the right to select
their leaders, form of government, etc., is theirs and theirs
alone. Otherwise, they'll never be wholly responsible for their
own actions. If they elect Hamas, I'll pity them, but I shouldn't
be able to stop them. And Israel, having shown nothing but contempt
and inhumanity to Gaza and its people ever since 1948, doesn't
deserve any hearing at all.
Menachem Klein: [04-09]
Netanyahu isn't the only one interested in prolonging the war:
"A broad coalition of political forces, from Israel's far right to
the Zionist left, have different motivations for turning the war
into the new normal."
Ibtisam Mahdi: [04-10]
Against the magnitude of death, our pens feel powerless in Gaza:
"Israel's onslaught made me a refugee, a bereaved sister, and a mother
to starving children. My journalistic endeavors have become almost
impossible."
Nina Martin: [04-13]
How famine and starvation can affect generations to come:
"Research on WWII's Dutch 'Hunger Winter' has terrifying implications
for Gaza's children -- and for their children."
Qassam Muaddi: [04-14]
Unleashed: Israeli settlers rampage through West Bank villages, kill
two people, injure dozens: "Israeli settlers went on a two-day
rampage in the region northeast of Ramallah when a settler teenager
was reported missing on Friday. They burned dozens of houses and
killed two Palestinians, while effectively blockading some ten
villages."
James Ray: [04-12]
The killing of Ismail Haniyeh's children exposes Israel's weakness:
"Israel has always punitively killed the families of leaders and
resistance figures as collective punishment. It is a sign of Israel's
inability to extract a military victory on the ground." Doesn't it
also suggest some "soft" targets for the "eye-for-an-eye" crowd? My
own way of thinking is that identifying a credible opposition leader
like Haniyeh presents an opportunity to negotiate, to find common
grounds and convert an enemy into a partner. Killing his family just
makes any such resolution more difficult. It sends the message that
you can never trust us, because we'll never be satisfied until we
kill you and everything and everyone you hold dear. As long as that's
Israel's position, it's hard to blame Hamas for any form of resistance,
even acts that out of context seem completely abhorrent.
Fayyha Shalash: [04-11]
Israel shuts down a town in the occupied West Bank, cancelling Eid
for Palestinians.
Jeffrey St Clair: [04-13]
Intolerable cruelty: Diary of a genocidal war.
Mosab Abu Toha: [02-24]
My family's daily struggle to find food in Gaza.
Maknoon Wani: [04-09]
Israel's spy-tech industry is a global threat to democracy.
Robin Wright: [03-22]
What it takes to give Palestinians a voice: "A new poll conducted
during war in Gaza and escalating tensions in the West Bank allows
Palestinians to tell the world what they want for their future."
I'm pretty skeptical of this, partly because it's pretty easy to
rig polls to produce certain results, but also because Palestinians
have no real sense of what can be done -- nearly everything one can
imagine is proscribed by Israel -- and also no real accountability
from their leaders.
Israel vs. Iran:
Will Porter:
James Carden: [04-14]
Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to drag the US into war with Iran.
Juan Cole: [04-14]
Netanyahu, empowered by Biden's grant of impunity, baits Iran into
his genocidal Gaza war.
Dave DeCamp: [04-14]
Israel's missile defense against Iran attack estimated to cost over
$1 billion.
Kevin Drum: [04-13]
Iran sues for peace:
Drones? And a few small missiles? All of which Iran knew would be
routinely shot down? This was obviously intended to be a pinprick
attack, just enough to save face but not to do any serious damage.
It couldn't be more obvious if Iran spelled out a message on the moon.
This is similar to Iran's measured response to Trump's assassination
of General Soleimani: one flurry of firepower that was inconsequential,
then Iran announced they were satisfied as long as they didn't have to
respond to further attacks.
Belén Fernández: [04-14]
Sorry, but Iran is not the aggressor here: "Amid the Israeli genocide
in Gaza, Western condemnation of the intercepted Iranian attack on Israel
is sickeningly cynical."
Mel Gurtov: [04-14]
The Israel=Iran confrontation: Episode or war?
Michael Hirsh:
Iran's attack seems like it was designed to fail. So what comes
next?
Murtaza Hussain:
Israel and Israel alone kicked off this escalation -- in a bid to drag
the US into war with Iran.
Patrick Kingsley: [04-14]
Strikes upend Israel's belief about Iran's willingness to fight it
directly: "Israel had grown used to targeting Iranian officials
without head-on retaliation from Iran, an assumption overturned by
Iran's attacks on Saturday." Also in the New York Times, their
idiot-savant columnists offer what they imagine to be helpful
advice while reassuring us of their loyalties:
Daniel Larison: [04-12]
Biden should not follow Netanyahu into war with Iran: "The Israeli
government appears to want to goad Tehran into a military response to
divert attention from the slaughter and famine in Gaza and to trap the
US into joining the fight."
Aaron Maté: [04-14]
Seeking Middle East 'quiet,' Biden fuels regional carnage.
Trita Parsi: [04-14]
Iran launches risky attack on Israel: "Biden could have thwarted it,
but chose to put Netanyahu before US, which is now at risk of getting
dragged into war tonight."
Vijay Prashad: [04-12]
Violating diplomatic missions.: "From Israel's bombing of Iran's
embassy in Damascus to Ecuador's raid on the Mexican in Quito, leaders
feel emboldened by the impunity granted by the Global North."
Barak Ravid: [04-14]
Biden told Bibi US won't support an Israeli counterattack on Iran.
Scrolling down I see earlier posts: "Iran launches retaliatory drone
and missile attack on Israel"; "Iran warns US to stay out of fight
with Israel or face attack on troops"; "Biden returns to the White
House as imminent Iranian attack on Israel is possible."
Ali Rizk: [04-09]
Hezbollah leader ups ante after attack on Iranian consulate.
Israel vs. world opinion:
Nadeine Asbali: [04-12]
Does anyone in the UK really know what 'British values' are?
Perhaps not, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that people in Ireland,
India, Palestine, and dozens of other former colonies have a pretty good
idea of "British values." I even know a few things about them from 1775
America.
Synne Furnes Bjerkestrand/Bayan Abu Ta'ema: [04-13]
Jordanian protesters demand ending normalization with Israel, despite
arrests.
Ellen Cantarow: [04-14]
Dead on arrival: Israel's blowback genocide.
Helena Cobban: [03-18]
It's past time to end the demonization of Hamas.
Marjorie Cohn: [04-14]
Nicaragua takes Germany to the World Court: "Germany is second
only to the US as the largest supplier of weapons to Israel."
Jack Crosbie: [04-09]
l
Inside the pro-Palestine movement bird-dogging Biden everywhere he
goes: "These activists turned Biden's ritzy New York City fundraiser
into a night of protests against Israel's war in Gaza."
Richard Falk: [04-12]
Western powers never believed in a rules-based order.
Saleema Gul: [04-10]
Debate over political response to Gaza genocide marks pivotal moment
for Muslim Americans.
Ali Harb: [03-11]
'Reject AIPAC': US progressives join forces against pro-Israel lobby
group: AIPAC is the dominant American lobby for whichever faction
is currently in power in Israel -- effectively it is a tool of Israeli
foreign policy, as tightly controlled as the diplomatic and espionage
efforts -- and it has built such vast influence over both US parties
that nearly every politician in Washington follows whatever line they'
are given. One way they enforce their power is by recruiting and funding
primary challenges, especially to progressive Democrats who recognize
social injustice even when it's practiced in Israel. So this is, in
jargon Israelis should understand, self-defense, or as those behind
Reject AIPAC put it, "a crucial step in putting voters back at
the center of our democracy."
Katherine Hearst: [04-09]
Naomi Klein enters the mirror world of conspiracy, colonialism and
fascism: On the use of Klein's Doppelganger for understanding
"the current Israeli onslaught on Gaza."
Abir Kopty: [04-13]
Police raid Berlin conference as repression of Palestine activism
escalates in Germany.
Robert Kuttner: [04-08]
If not now, when?: "Has Biden's pressure finally ended Israel's
war on Gaza's civilians? O4r is the US allowing Bibi one more head
fake?"
Blaise Malley: [04-09]
Samantha Power: Aid workers says crisis in Gaza 'unprecedented'.
Branko Marcetic: [04-13]
Biden's attempt to get tough on Netanyahu quietly failed.
Mitchell Plitnick: [04-13]
The liberal Jewish community is beginning to fracture over the Gaza
genocide: "J Street is reportedly losing staff and support as
they prioritize Israeli militarism over Palestinian rights. The
Gaza genocide is revealing the tension between Zionism and liberal
Jewish values, a divide which will only continue to grow more stark."
Dahlia Scheindlin: [03-26]
Inside Israel's disturbing denial of starvation in Gaza.
Rick Sterling: [04-09]
From Six Day Victory to Six Month Failure: "As Israel's international
stature grew after the Six Day War, it is collapsing after the Six Month
Siege and Massacre in Gaza."
Ramsey Telhami: [04-11]
I resigned from World Central Kitchen because it refused to tell the
truth about the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Yanis Varoufakis: [04-13]
The speech that got me banned from Germany. "Judge for yourselves
what kind of society Germany is becoming if its police ban the
sentiments below."
Philip Weiss: [04-08]
Biden has no emotional attachment to Israel, it's about politics.
America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire:
Election notes:
Robert F Kennedy Jr: And suddenly we have a cluster of
stories on the third-party candidate:
Trump, and other Republicans: But first, let's open up
some space to talk about abortion politics:
David W Chen/Michael Wines: [04-10]
How the GOP molded the Arizona court that upheld the abortion
ban: "Arizona's former governor, Doug Ducey, expanded the court
to seven justices. All solid conservatives, they upheld a 160-year-old
abortion ban that presents a political risk to Republicans."
Rachel M Cohen: [04-11]
Florida and Arizona show why abortion attacks are not slowing
down: "The judges aren't done."
Susan B Glasser: [04-11]
Donald Trump did this: "On abortion, Arizona, and the 2024
Presidential election."
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling:
Kari Lake is trying to make people forget her real abortion
stance.
Sarah Jones: [04-11]
Abortion opponents can't be 'pro-family'.
Ed Kilgore: [04-10]
In a first, Arizona Republicans rush to dismantle a total abortion
ban.
Eric Levitz: [04-09]
Arizona's ban spotlights the fraudulence of Trump's "moderation" on
abortion.
Dahlia Lithwick: [04-12]
Arizona's atrocious abortion law is just the latest example of what
Roe didn't protect.
Harold Meyerson: [04-11]
On the origins of Arizona's new old abortion ban. If Dobbs had
been less of a political hatchet job, they would have started by
clearing the field of all pre-Roe bans, and also of the recent
"trigger bills," forcing states to at least think about what they
were doing. Still, even people who anticipated such rude shocks
were taken aback by this case, a law passed 48 years before Arizona
had enough [white] people to qualify as a state, even before the
end of slavery.
Anna North: [04-08]
Trump may sound moderate on abortion. The groups setting his agenda
definitely aren't.
Nikki McCann Ramirez: [04-10]
Fox News' prime-time shows mentioned Arizona's abortion ban exactly
zero times.
Bill Scher: [04-09]
Trump can't run from his biggest accomplishment: Overturning Roe.
Michael Tomasky:
Trump's abortion gambit proves he's bad a politics.
Bob Topper: [04-14]
Roe v. Wade: Reasoned v. the right.
Ali Breland: [04-13]
Kamala Harris isn't letting Trump dodge on abortion.
We can also group several stories on Trump's court date
on Monday in New York:
That hardly exhausts their capacity for senseless cruelty, starting
with their Fearless Führer:
Biden and/or the Democrats:
Jonathan Chait:
David Dayen: [04-10]
TSMC chips deal promotes the logic of Biden's industrial policy.
John Nichols: [04-05]
More than half a million Democratic voters have told Biden: Save
Gaza! "The campaign to use 'uncommitted' primary votes to send
a message to Biden has won two dozen delegates, and it keeps growing."
I'm sorry, but these are not impressive numbers. And it is telling
that you don't actually have a candidate -- one more credible than
the underappreciated Marianne Williamson, that is -- leading the
challenge (as Eugene McCarthy did in 1968). The obvious difference
is that Americans were more directly impacted by war in Vietnam
than they are now in Gaza: even though many of us are immensely
alarmed by Israel's genocide, its impact on our everyday life is
very marginal. Also, Biden is widely seen by Democrats (if rarely
by anyone else) as the safe option to defend against Trump, who
most Democrats do regard as a clear and present danger. The main
reason there is that the all-important donor class seems to be
satisfied with Biden, but would surely throw a fit (as Bloomberg
did in 2020) if anyone like Sanders or Warren made a serious run
for the nomination. Also, perhaps, that back in 1968, few people
really understood how bad throwing the election to a Republican
would turn out to be.
Evan Osnos: [04-06]
Joe Biden and US policy toward Israel.
Matt Stieb: [04-11]
Biden's leverage campaign against Bibi isn't producing dramatic
results.
Legal matters and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Economic matters:
Ukraine War:
Connor Echols: [04-12]
Diplomacy Watch: Ukraine risks losing the war -- and the peace:
"It's now unclear if the US Congress will ever manage to send more
aid to Kyiv."
Dave DeCamp:
John Mueller: [04-09]
Ukraine war ceasefire may require accepting a partition: "Kyiv
wound likely see significant economic and political benefits --
and move closer to the West -- from a cessation of hostilities."
This has become obvious a year ago, but after Ukraine recovered
territory along the northeast and southwest fronts in late 2022,
they held out big hopes for their much-hyped "spring offensive"
of 2023. Nine months later, the "gains" were slightly negative.
Since then, most of the action has been away from the unmovable
front: notably drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and on
Ukrainian power plants. Which is to say, punitive terror attacks,
reminders of the ongoing cost of war that have no bearing on its
conclusion. Before the war, there were two basic options: one was
the Minsk agreements, which would have unified Ukraine but given
Russian minority rights that could have kept western Ukraine from
moving toward economic integration with Europe; the other was to
allow secession following fair referendums, which would almost
certainly have validated the secessionists in Crimea and Donbas
(but probably not elsewhere). In a divided Ukraine, the west
could more easily align with Europe, while the east could keep
its Russian ties. Either of these would have been much preferable
to the war that maximalists on both sides insisted on.
John Quiggin: [04-03]
Navies are obsolete, but no one will admit it: Examples here
start with Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which seems to have provided
little beyond Ukrainian drone target practice, and the US Navy in
the Red Sea, which hasn't been able to thwart Houthi attacks on
Red Sea shipping (Suez Canal traffic is down 70%).
Around the world:
Boeing:
OJ Simpson: Famous football player, broadcaster, convicted
criminal (but famously acquitted on murder charges), dead at 76. I'm
not inclined to care about any of this, but he did elicit another
round of articles:
Other stories:
William J Astore: [04-11]
There is only one spaceship earth: "Freeing the world from the
deadly shadow of genocide and ecocide."
Charlotte Barnett: [04-10]
Declutter, haul, restock, repeat: "The content creators making
a living by cleaning one purs tower, acrylic plastic box, and egg
organizer at a time."
Emmeline Clein: [04-12]
How capitalism disordered our eating: "From Weight Watchers to
Ozempic, big business profits off eating disorders and their
treatments."
Russell Arben Fox: [04-10]
Thinking about Wendell Berry's leftist lament (and more). The Berry
book is The Need to Be Whole: Patriotism and the History of
Prejudice. Also segues into a discussion of Ian Angus: The
War Against the Commons: Dispossession and Resistance in the Making
of Capitalism. The destruction of the commons is a major theme
in Astra Taylor's The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things
Fall Apart, including a critique of the famous "tragedy of the
commons" theory that I was unaware of but long needed. Scrolling
down in Fox's blog, I see a couple pieces I had read in the Wichita
Eagle. (He teaches here in Wichita, and I believe we have mutual
friends, but as far as I know he's not aware of me.)
Robert Kuttner: [04-09]
The political economy of exile: Searching for safe havens from
Trumpism, or escaping from "shithole countries" if you're rich enough.
Michael Ledger-Lomas: [04-14]
The outsize influence of small wars: Review of Laurie Benton's
book, They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence.
These "small wars" were mostly directed by European powers against
their would-be colonies, most fought with a huge technological edge
which complemented their legal scheming, distinguishing them from
the large wars Europeans fought against each other. That's pretty
much the same definition Max Boot used in his book, The Savage
Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power.
Walter G Moss: [04-14]
2024 US anxieties and Hitler 1933: "Here is a friendly reminder
that all it would take for Trump to be elected is a series of mistakes
by the electorate -- many of them not especially earthshaking."
I figured this was a bit far-fetched to include in the section on
Trump, the Republicans, and their more mundane crime interests,
but Hitler-Trump comparisons are a parlor game of some interest for
those who know more than a little about both. Speaking of parlor
games for history buffs, Moss previously wrote:
Yasmin Nair: [03-27]
What really happened at Current Affairs? This looks to be way too
long, pained, deep, and trivial to actually read, but maybe some day.
And having thrown a tantrum or two of my own way back in the days when
I slaved for someone else's parochially leftist journal, it may even
hit close to home. From my vantage point, Nathan J Robinson is a smart,
sensible, and prodigious critic, and Current Affairs is one of my more
reliably insightful sources as I go about my weekly chores. That such
qualities can go hand-in-hand with less admirable traits is, well, not
something I feel secure enough to cast stones over.
John Quiggin: [03-29]
Daniel Kahneman has died.
Ingrid Robeyns: [04-13]
Limitarianism update: Author of the recent book, Limitarianism:
The Case Against Extreme Wealth, with links to reviews, interviews,
etc. Comments suggest that the concept is better than the title.
Luke Savage: [04-13]
The rich: On top of the world and very anxious about it: "The
small handful of ultrawealthy winners are firmly ensconced in their
positions of privilege in power. Yet so many of them seem haunted
by the possibility that maybe they don't deserve it."
Robert Wright: [04-12]
Marc Andreessen's mindless techno-optimism.
Li Zhou: [04-10]
The Vatican's new statement on trans rights undercuts its attempts
at inclusion.
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Music Week
April archive
(in progress).
Music: Current count 42101 [42079] rated (+22), 37 [39] unrated (-2).
Last week was severely disrupted, with several days not spent
anywhere near the computer -- mostly Washington family passing
through town on their way to Arkansas for the eclipse -- so I
figured there was no point playing new music I'd need to take
notes on. So what little I have below was mostly picked up after
they cleared out Saturday, leaving me to cobble together what
turned out to be an exceptionally long
Speaking of Which (217 links, 12552 words). Several links
to music pieces there, including a bunch on Beyoncé.
We did two manage two family major dinners during the week.
The first (plate pictured
here) featured three Ottolenghi recipes (roast chicken with fennel,
mandarins, and ouzo; sweet potatoes with scallions and dates; and a
pearl barley salad) plus old standby recipes for caponata (Sicilian
eggplant and zucchini), horiatiki (Greek chopped salad), and mast va
khiar (Iranian yogurt with cucumbers, scallions, sultanas, walnuts,
and mint), with pineapple upside-down cake for dessert.
Leftovers went into a second dinner which my nephew Mike took charge
of, adding kofta/chicken/swordfish kebabs, pitas, hummus, asparagus,
quick pickles, eggplant slices topped with spiced yogurt, a spinach
salad with dates and almonds, and a mixed bean salad. Another friend
made a carrot cake and white-chocolate cookies. Much more chaos than
I can handle on my own anymore, but I can take some credit for having
the kitchen and pantry organized.
The eclipse was rated at 88% here, so we got the idea, but it
wasn't much compared to what we saw on TV. The dimming was less
than we often get from passing cumulonimbus clouds.
I only heard about the passing of
Clarence "Frogman" Henry after my cutoff, but decided I might
as well squeeze his compilation in here.
Albert "Tootie" Heath also died last week, and my exploration
of his first albums also got promoted.
As noted, I finished Tricia Romano's brilliantly titled book
on the Village Voice, The Freaks Came Out to Write.
My own involvement with the Voice dates back to 1968-69,
when as a high school dropout in Wichita, KS, still in my teens,
I started subscribing, not so much for the politics -- for that
I had I.F. Stone's Weekly, The Minority of One,
and Ramparts -- as for the bohemian culture. I followed
them for most of my life, which in the late 1970s included a
few years living in New York, and thanks to Bob Christgau, they
even published me, both in the
1970s and
much later (most notably
Jazz Consumer Guide. So, while I
was never mentioned in the book, there was a strong sense that
it tracked much of my life: lots of stories I knew, at least
partly (often indirectly), some I didn't, and a few more I could
have added to.
Moving on, I finally got around to Cory Doctorow's
The Internet Con, which I had identified as "in my queue,
waiting for my limited attention" back in my latest
Book Roundup, dated Sept. 23, 2023 -- and way overdue for
a sequel. I see now that I failed to index that post, so more
drudge work to do.
The other still-pending book from that list is Franklin Foer's
The Last Politician, which the death of the political book
project has made unnecessary, especially on top of my mounting
disappointment with "Genocide Joe." At least when we talk about
"lesser evils" in 2024, there won't be any serious debate over
the evil term.
Next week will also be disrupted, as our guests head home from
Arkansas, hopefully passing through here again. Hopefully they will
be a bit less rushed heading back. Where that leaves my weekly posts
I neither know nor much care. They merely mark time while I age
rather gracelessly.
New records reviewed this week:
Neal Alger: Old Souls (2023 [2024], Calligram):
Guitarist, based in Chicago, debut album from 2001, mostly side
credits since, including five albums with Patricia Barber. Here
with Chad McCullough (trumpet), Chris Madsen (tenor sax), Clark
Sommers (bass), and Dana Hall (drums).
B+(**) [cd]
Thomas Anderson: Hello, I'm From the Future (2024,
Out There): Singer-songwriter from Oklahoma, debut 1989, the first
of many finely wrought albums. A dozen new songs here.
A- [sp]
Sam Anning: Earthen (2024, Earshift Music):
Australian bassist, third album, composed nine pieces, leads a
septet most prominently featuring Mat Jodrell (trumpet), with
two saxophones, keyboards, guitar, and drums. Most pieces are
somber-to-haunting, drawing inspiration from aboriginal land.
B+(***) [cd] [04-05]
Alex Beltran: Rift (2022 [2024], Calligram):
Tenor/soprano saxophonist, based in Chicago, looks like his first
album, mostly an energetic mainstream quartet with Stu Mindeman
(piano/wurlitzer), Sam Peters (bass), and Jon Deitemyer (drums),
with guests on two track each: Chad McCullough (trumpet), Lenard
Simpson (alto sax).
B+(***) [cd]
Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter (2024, Parkwood/Columbia):
Mega pop star, "rose to fame" in Destiny's Child, last name then
Knowles, now seems to be Knowles-Carter after the merger with the
now relatively obscure rapper Jay-Z. Eighth solo album since 2003,
first seven debuted at number one, awaiting confirmation on this
one. She's parlayed her music into a business empire, where her
Wikipedia page has as much about "wealth" and "philanthropy" as
music. I thought her early work, both group and solo, was ok at
best, more often not. She got better, but I never found any reason
to think she was more than money talking. Even after I revised my
grade upward and bought a copy, I never played Renaissance
again. My inability to recall any of her songs might be chalked
up to my aging -- I can't recall much Taylor Swift either -- or
maybe just my increasingly broad-but-shallow streaming, where I'm
most likely to pick up on my long-cultivated idiosyncrasies. Aware
of this, I held off writing up my first play, and gave it a closer
listen the morning after. I heard a lot more: nothing I love, but
a wide range of credible bits, enough to suggest that with another
3-5 plays, I could edit this 78:21 sprawl down to a 45-minute high
B+ (but probably not a 35-minute A-). The result would be even less
cowboy than this is: I'm all for genre-fuck, but she gave up that
game with the "Blackbird" cover in the two slot (even with four
certified country guests, including Tanner Adell), then slipped the
album's best song (six writers, but my guess is that Raphael Saadiq
is key) in between "Texas Hold 'Em" and "Jolene." Aside from Saadiq,
other notable contributors include Nile Edwards, Pharrell Williams,
and Shawn Carter, as well as guests Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson,
and Miley Cyrus, and snips from Chuck Berry and Brian Wilson: all
things you can do with money to make more.
B+(**) [sp]
Martin Budde: Back Burner (2023 [2024], Origin):
Guitarist, based in Seattle, seems to be first album but had a
2021 group album as Meridian Odyssey. Recorded in Alaska, eight
originals plus a Joni Mitchell cover, backed by bass (Ben
Feldman) and drums (Xavier Lecouturier). Nice enough.
B+(*) [cd]
Mackenzie Carpenter: Mackenzie Carpenter (2023,
Valory Music, EP): Country singer-songwriter from Georgia, one of
the writers on the Megan Moroney single "I'm Not Pretty," debut
5-song EP (15:57). Annoying when it takes longer to look up a label
and release date than it takes to listen to a record (and that
doesn't even count the 17:27 "Introducing Mackenzie Carpenter"
video on
YouTube).
Offhand, seems about as credible (and about as pretty) as Moroney.
B+(***) [sp]
Chromeo: Adult Contemporary (2024, BMG): Canadian
electropop duo, sixth album since 2004. Dance grooves, hard to resist.
B+(**) [sp]
Hannah Frances: Keeper of the Shepherd (2024,
Ruination): Singer-songwriter, based in Chicago, plays guitar,
released a debut album in 2018.
B+(*) [sp]
Gossip: Real Power (2024, Columbia): Indie band,
formed in Olympia, WA by three Arkansas expats, fronted by plus-sized
singer Beth Ditto, who went on to a solo career, wrote a book, did
some acting, but is back here for their first album since 2012.
B+(**) [sp]
Helado Negro: Phasor (2024, 4AD): Roberto Carlos Lange,
born in Florida, parents from Ecuador, ninth album since 2009. First
approximation is something similar to the slinky Brazilian music of Tom
Zé.
B+(**) [sp]
Last Word Quintet: Falling to Earth (2021-22
[2024], Origin): Group formed when performance poet Marc Kelly
Smith hooked up with "four of Chicago's more active musicians
and songwriters": Al Day (vocals/guitar), Bob Long (piano), Doug
Lofstrom (bass/keyboards), and Brian Gephart (sax), with Sarah
Allen (drums) listed on back cover but not in group pic. Day's
vocals are rather talkie, rather like Mose Allison, so they
blend in with the poetry as opposed to giving you two distinct
voices. For that, you have the sax.
B+(**) [cd]
Molly Lewis: On the Lips (2024, Jagjaguwar):
Musician from Orange County, California, plays ukulele and other
novelty instruments, and whistles, her early albums out for laughs,
this one reminding me more of soft jazz pleasantries.
B+(*) [sp]
Ms. Boogie: The Breakdown (2024, self-released):
Brooklyn-based rapper, drill style, first album.
B+(*) [sp]
Sam Outlaw: Terra Cotta (2024, Black Hills):
Country singer-songwriter, based in Nashville, fourth album since
2015, original name Morgan but adopted his mother's maiden name --
kind of pulls a punch he really never throws.
B+(*) [sp]
Jim Rotondi: Finesse (2021 [2024], Cellar Music):
Trumpet player, originally from Montana, studied at UNT, played in
New York, now based in Graz, Austria. Backed here by the Notes
and Tones Jazz Orchestra, a big band, plus an unnamed Orchestra
with strings and reeds (flute, oboe, bassoon, horn) on six (of 13)
tracks. Jakob Helling arranged and conducted Rotondi's compositions,
with featured soloists Steve Davis, Dick Oatts and Danny Grissett.
B [sp]
Claudio Scolari Project: Intermission (2022 [2024],
Principal): Italian drummer, discography goes back to 2004, seventh
group album (although Discogs only lists two), quartet features a
second drummer, Daniele Cavalca (also keyboards, with Scolari some
"synth programming"), trumpet (Simone Scolari), and electric bass
(Michele Cavalca). Occasionally hits an Miles Davis fusion vibe,
which is excellent, but not really the point, so it tails off into
something more ambient, which is also fine.
A- [cd]
Tyla: Tyla (2024, Epic): Popiano (pop + amapiano)
singer-songwriter from South Africa, last name Seethal, first
album after a worldwide breakout single in 2023 ("Water").
B+(**) [sp]
Bob Vylan: Humble as the Sun (2024, Ghost Theatre):
British grime/punk/hip-hop duo, singer/guitarist Bobby Vylan and
drummer Bobbie Vylan, released a terrific EP in 2018 (We Live
Here), later expanded to album length and followed up with a
2022 album (The Price of Life). Back here with 10 songs,
34:44. Title song suggests they're getting nice, but this picks
up soon enough, and ends strong with the reminder, "I'm Still
Here."
A- [sp]
Dan Weiss: Even Odds (2023 [2024], Cygnus):
Drummer, over 100 side-credits since 1998, a dozen-plus of his
own compositions since 2005, the latter I rarely enjoyed but here
he tries something different: a bare-bones trio with brilliant
improvisers -- Miguel Zenón (alto sax) and Matt Mitchell (piano) --
making the most out of his broken free rhythms.
A- [cd]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
Burnt Sugar/The Arkestkra Chamber: The Reconstru-Ducted
Repatriation Road-Rage ReMiXeS (2020-21 [2024], Avantgroidd):
Jazz/funk group, mostly under the direction of the critic Greg Tate
from 2000 to his recent death. Marque Gilmore tha' Inna-Most remixes
of their 2021 album Angels Over Oakanda.
B+(**) [bc]
Pete Jolly: Seasons (1970 [2024], Future Days):
Pianist (1932-2004), actual surname Ceragioli, born in Connecticut
but considered a West Coast player; played with Chet Baker, Gerry
Mulligan, Art Pepper, Marty Paich, Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne,
many others; 1955 debut title Jolly Jumps In; recorded
this album for Herb Alpert at A&M, with guitar (John Pisano),
bass (Chuck Berghofer), drums, and percussion. A fairly minor
groove album.
B+(*) [sp]
Mixmaster Morris/Jonah Sharp/Haruomi Hosono: Quiet Logic
(1998 [2024], WRWTFWW): The former is Morris Gould. Discogs only
credits him this one album, but also lists DJ Mixes and Compilations
with titles like God Bless the Chilled, Abstract Funk
Theory, and Calm Down My Selector (but not Give Peace
a Dance?). Sharp is younger, from Scotland, also has a rep for
UK chill rooms. Hosono's name wasn't on the original release, but
this was crafted in his studio. Definitely chill, but a lot of
fascinating detail rarely revealed in ambient.
A- [bc]
Old music:
Kuumba-Toudie Heath: Kawaida (1970, O'Be):
Artist per Discogs, but you know him as Albert "Tootie" Heath
(1935-2024), who came out of Philadelphia with his brothers
Percy (1923-2005) and Jimmy (1926-2000) to have major careers
in jazz. He played on numerous classic albums from 1956 on,
but this is the first listing him as leader -- although it
was later reissued under the marquee names of Herbie Hancock
and Don Cherry, with Heath relegated to a second tier of Jimmy
Heath, Buster Williams, James Mtume, and Ed Blackwell, and most
names were Africanized (Mtume was the only one that stuck,
although you may recognize Mwandisi). Mtume (1946-2022, who
was Jimmy Heath's son but grew up with a stepfather's name)
wrote five pieces, the other one credited to "Kuumba." This was
from a heady moment when Black Power, Pan-Africanism, and the
Avant Garde joined forces to make revolution.
A- [yt]
Albert Heath: Kwanza (The First) (1973 [2015],
Elemental Music): Drummer, a rare album as leader, originally on
Muse in 1974, reissued as Oops! on Xanadu in Japan in 1993
with an extraneous piano solo track from 1981. With Jimmy Heath
(tenor/soprano sax, flute), Curtis Fuller (trombone), Kenny Barron
(pianos), Ted Dunbar (guitar), and Percy Heath (bass).
B+(**) [sp]
Clarence "Frogman" Henry: Ain't Got No Home: The Best of
Clarence "Frogman" Henry (1956-64 [1994], MCA): New Orleans
pianist and singer, just passed (1937-2024), title song was a hit
(3 r&b, 20 pop), earned him that frog-in-the-voice nickname
but that wasn't his only trick (cf. "I'm in Love"), had two more
minor hits in 1961 -- "You Always Hurt the One You Love" and "(I
Don't Know Why) But I Do" (better known from Bobby Charles, and
later by Bobby Vinton) -- but settled into a comfortable groove,
which is just fine for filling out an 18-song profile.
A- [sp]
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Noah Haidu: Standards II (Sunnyside) [04-12]
- Chuck Owen & Resurgence: Magic Light (Origin) [04-26]
- Idit Shner & Mhondoro: Ngatibatanei [Let Us Unite!] (OA2) [04-26]
- Geoff Stradling & the StradBand: Nimble Digits (Origin) [04-26]
- Jordan Vanhemert: Deep in the Soil (Origin) [04-26]
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, April 8, 2024
Speaking of Which
I don't have much time to work with this week. Writing this on
Friday, I expect that the links below will be spotty. I also doubt
that I'll have many records in the next Music Week, although that
can run if I have any at all.
My company left Saturday morning, headed to Arkansas
for a better view of the eclipse on Monday, so I finally got a bit
of time to work on this. I collected a few links to get going, then
spent most of Sunday writing my "one point here" introduction, and
adding a few more links. I got a little over half way through my
usual source tabs before I had to call it a day. On Monday, I tried
to pick up where I had left off -- not going back to the tabs I had
hit on Sunday, but picking up the occasional Monday post as I went
along. Wound up with a pretty full post, dated Monday. I marked this
paragraph as an add, because it's a revision to my original intro.
This should go up before I go to bed Monday night. Music Week
will follow later Tuesday. Very little in it from before Saturday,
but I've found a few interesting records while working on this.
But I do want to make one point here, which is something I've been
thinking about for a while now.
I've come to conclude that many of us made a fundamental error
in the immediate aftermath of October 7 in blaming Hamas (or more
generally, Palestinians) for the outbreak of violence. Even those
of us who immediately feared that Israel would strike back with a
massive escalation somehow felt like we had to credit Hamas with
agency and moral responsibility -- if not for the retaliation, at
least for their own acts. But what choice did they have? What else
could they have done?
But there is an alternate view, which is that violent resistance
is an inevitable consequence of systematic marginalization, where
nonviolent remedies are excluded, and order is violently enforced.
How can we expect anyone to suffer oppression without fighting back?
So why don't we recognize blowback as intrinsic to the context, and
therefore effectively the responsibility of the oppressor? I don't
doubt that Israelis were terrified on October 7. They were, after
all, looking at a mirror of their own violence.
It's pretty obvious why Israel's leaders wanted to genocide. The
Zionist movement was born in a world that was racist, nationalist,
and imperialist -- traits that Zionists embraced, hoping to forge
them into a defensive shield, which worked just as well as a cudgel
to impose their will on others. What distinguishes them from Nazis
is that they're less driven to enslave or exterminate enemy races,
but that mostly means they see no use for others. In theory, they'd
be satisfied just to drive the others out -- as they did with the
Nakba -- but in practice their horizons expand as the settlements
grow.
The question isn't: why genocide? That's been baked in from the
beginning. The question is why they didn't do it before, and why
they think they can get away with it now. The "why not" is bound
to be speculative, and I don't want to delve very deep here, but I
can imagine trying to sort it out on two axes, one for the people,
the other for the cutting-edge political leaders. For the people,
the scale runs from respect for one's humanity, and dehumanizing
others. Most Israelis used to take pride in their high morality,
but war and militarism broke that down (with ultra-orthodoxy and
capitalism also taking a toll). As for the leaders, the scale is
based on power: the desire to push the envelope of possibility,
balanced off by the need to maintain good will with allies.
Ben Gurion was a master at both: a guy who took as much as he
could (even overreaching in 1956 and having to retreat), and was
always plotting ahead to take even more (as his followers did in
1967, meeting less resistance from Johnson). Begin pushed even
further, although he too had to retreat from Lebanon under Carter
before he found a more compliant Reagan. Netanyahu is another one
who constantly tested the limits of American allowance, only to
find that Trump and Biden were pushovers, offering no resistance
at all. Genocide only became possible as Palestinians came to be
viewed by most Israelis as subhuman, while Netanyahu found his
power to be unlimited by American sensitivity.
So, while Israel has always been at risk of turning genocidal,
what's really changed is America, turning from the "good neighbor"
FDR promised to Eisenhower's "leader of the free world" to Reagan's
capitalist scam artists to Bush's "global war on terror" to the
Trump-Biden cha-cha. I chalk this up to several things. The drift
to the right made Americans meaner and politicians more cynical and
corrupt. The neocons came to dominate foreign policy, with their cult
for power that could be rapidly and arbitrarily deployed anywhere --
as Israel did in their small region, Bush would around the globe.
The counter-intifada in Israel and the US wars on terror drove both
countries further into the grip of dehumanizing militarism, opening
up an opportunity for Netanyahu to forge a right-wing alliance with
America, while AIPAC held Democrats like Obama and Biden in check.
Trump automatically rubber-stamped anything Netanyahu wanted, and
Biden had no will power to do anything but.
By the time October 7 came around, Americans couldn't so much as
articulate a national interest in peace and social justice. But
there was also one specific thing that kept Americans from seeing
genocide as such: we had totally bought into the idea that Hamas,
as exemplary terrorists, were intrinsically evil, could never be
negotiated with, and therefore all you could do to stop them is to
kill as many as you can. It wasn't a novel idea. America has a sordid
history of assassination plots until the mid-1970s, when the Church
Committee exposed that history and forced reforms. But Israel's own
assassination programs expanded continuously from the 1980s on, and
American neocons envied Israel's prowess. Under Bush, "high value
targets" became currency, and Obama not only followed suit, he upped
the game -- most notably bagging Osama Bin Laden.
There's a Todd Snider line: "In America, we like our bad guys
dead." That's an understatement. Dead has become the only way we
can imagine their stories ending. We long ago gave up on the notion
that enemies can be rehabilitated. In large part, this reflects a
loss of faith in justice, replaced by sheer power, the belief that
we are right because we have the might to force them to tow the
line. That was the attitude that Europe took to the South in the
19th century. That was the attitude Germany and Japan made World
War with.
That attitude was discredited -- Germany and Japan were allowed
to recover as free and peaceful nations; Africa and Asia decolonized;
the capitalist world integrated, first with a stable divide from the
communists, then by further engagement. There were problems. The US
was magnanimous to defeated Germany and Japan, but in turning against
the Soviet Union, and in assuming security responsibility for the
former European colonies, and in maintaining capitalist hegemony
over them, Americans lost their faith in democracy and justice, and
embraced power for its own sake. And when that failed, they turned
vindictive toward Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, and elsewhere.
The Israelis were adept students of power. They learned directly
from the British colonial system, with its divide-and-conquer politics,
and its use of collective punishment. They worked with the British to
defeat the Palestinian revolt of 1937-39, and against the British in
1947-48. They drew lessons from the Nazis. They learned to play games
with the world powers, especially with the US. Trita Parsi's book,
Treacherous Alliance, is a case study of how they played Iran
off for leverage elsewhere, especially with the US. The neocons, with
their Israel envy, were especially easy to play.
So when October 7 happened, all the necessary prejudices and
reflexive operators were aligned. Hamas were the perfect villains:
they had their roots in the Muslim Brotherhood, which qualified
them as Islamists, close enough to the Salafis and Deobandis who
Americans had branded as terrorists even before 9/11; they had
become rivals with the secular PLO within the Occupied Territories,
especially after Israel facilitated Arafat's return under the Oslo
Accords -- a rivalry which led them to become more militant against
Israel, which Israel intensified by assassinating their leaders;
when they finally did decide to run for elections, they won but
the results were disallowed, leading to them seizing power in
Gaza, which Israel then blockaded, "put on a diet," and "mowed
the grass" in a series of punishing sieges and incursions; along
the way, Hamas managed to get a small amount of aid from Iran, so
found themselves branded as an Iranian proxy, like Hezbollah in
Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen -- Israel knew that any hint of
Iranian influence would drive the Americans crazy.
Not only was Hamas the perfect enemy, Israel and the United
States had come to believe that terrorists were irrational and
fanatical, that they could never be negotiated with, and that
the only way to deal with them was by systematically killing off
their cadres and especially their leaders until they were reduced
to utter insignificance. The phrase Israelis used was that their
goal was to make Palestinians realize that they were "an utterly
defeated people." When I first heard that phrase, a picture came
to mind, of the last days of the American Indian campaigns, when
the last Sioux and Apache surrendered to be kept as helpless
dependents on wasteland reservations.
On its founding, Israel kept a British legal system that was
designed to subjugate native populations, to surveil them, and to
arbitrarily arrest and punish anyone they suspected of disloyalty.
They discriminated legally against natives, limiting their economic
prospects, curtailing their freedom, and punishing them harshly,
including collective punishments -- a system which instilled fear
of each against the other, where every disobedient act became an
excuse for harsher and more sweeping mistreatment.
After Hamas took control of Gaza, those punishments were often
delivered by aircraft, wielding 2,000-pound bombs that could flatten
whole buildings. Hamas responded with small, imprecise rockets, of
no military significance but symbolic of defiance, a way of saying
we can still reach beyond your walls. Israel always responded with
more shelling and bombing, a dynamic that repeatedly escalated until
the horror started to turn world opinion against Israel. Having made
their point, Israel could then ease off, until the next opportunity
or provocation sent them on the warpath again.
The October 7 "attack" -- at the time, I characterized it, quite
accurately I still think, as a jail break followed by a brief crime
spree. In short order, Israel killed most of the "attackers," and
resealed the border. The scale, in terms of the numbers of Israelis
killed or captured was much larger than anything Palestinians had
previously managed, and the speed was even more striking, but the
overall effect was mostly symbolic, and the threat of more violence
coming from Gaza dissipated almost immediately. Israel had no real
need to counterattack. They could have easily negotiated a prisoner
swap -- Israel had many times more Palestinians in jail than Hamas
took as hostages, and had almost unlimited power to add to their
numbers. But Israel's leaders didn't want peace. They wanted to
reduce Palestinians to "an utterly defeated people." And since
there was no way to do that other than to kill most of them and
drive the rest into exile -- basically a rerun of the Nakba, only
more intense, because having learned that lesson, Palestinians
would cling even more tenaciously to their homeland.
That's why the immediate reaction of Israel's leaders was to
declare their intent to commit genocide. The problem with that
idea was that since the Holocaust, any degree of genocide had
become universally abhorrent. To proceed, Israel had to keep the
war going, and to keep it going, they had to keep their ideal
enemy alive, long enough to do major devastation, making Gaza
unlivable for anywhere near the 2.3 million people who managed
to live through decades of hardships there, with starvation
playing a major role in decimating the population.
In order to commit genocide, Israel had to supplement its
killing machinery with a major propaganda offensive, because
they remembered that what finally stopped their major wars of
1948-49, 1956, 1967, and 1973, and their periodic assaults on
Lebanon and Gaza, was public opinion, especially in America.
But Netanyahu knew how to push America's buttons. He declared
that the only thing Israel could do to protect itself -- the
one thing Israel had to do in order to keep this mini-Holocaust
from ever happening again -- was to literally kill everyone in
Hamas.
And Americans fell for that line, completely. They believed
that Hamas were intractably evil terrorists, and they knew that
terrorists cannot be appeased or even negotiated with. And they
trusted that Israelis knew what they were doing and how best to
do it, so all they really had to do was to provide support and
diplomatic cover, giving Israel the time and tools to do the job
as best they saw fit. And sure, there would be some collateral
damage, because Hamas uses civilians as human shields -- it never
really occurring to Americans that those super-smart, super-moral
Israelis can't actually tell the difference between Hamas and
civilians even if they wanted to, which most certainly they do
not. And if anything does look bad, Israel can always come up
with a cover story good enough for Americans to believe. After
all, Americans have a lot of practice believing their own atrocity
cover up stories.
The hostage situation turned out to be really useful for keeping
the spectre of Hamas alive. There is no real way for Americans to
evaluate how much armed defense Hamas is still capable of in Gaza --
their capability to attack beyond the walls was depleted instantly
as they shot their wad on October 7 -- so the only reliable "proof
of existence" of Hamas is when their allies show up for meetings
in Qatar and Cairo. And there's no chance of agreement, as the only
terms Israel is offering is give up all the hostages, surrender, and
die. But by showing up, they affirm that Hamas still exists, and by
refusing to surrender, they remind the Americans that the only way
this can end is by killing them all.
And while that charade is going on, Israel continues to kill
indiscriminately, to destroy everything, to starve, to render
Gaza unlivable. And they will continue to do so, until enough of
us recognize their real plan is genocide, and we shame them into
stopping. We are making progress in that direction, as we can
see as Biden starts to waver in his less and less enthusiastic
support, but we still have a long ways to go.
The key to making more progress will be to break down several
of the myths Israel has spun. In particular, we have to abandon
the belief that we can solve all our problems by killing everyone
who disagrees with us. Second, we need to understand that killing
or otherwise harming people only causes further resentment and
resistance. People drunk on power tend to ignore this, but it's
really not a difficult or novel idea: as Rabbi Hillel put it,
"That which is hateful unto you, do not do to your neighbor."
Moreover, we need to understand that negotiated agreement
between responsible parties is much preferable to the diktat
of a single party, no matter how powerful that party is. It's
not clear to me that Israel needs to negotiate an agreement
with Hamas, because it's not clear to me that Hamas is the
real and trusted agent of the people of Palestine or Gaza,
but some group needs to emerge as the responsible party, and
the more solid their footing, the better partner they can be.
Israel, like the British before them, has always insisted on
picking its favored Palestinian representatives, while making them
look foolish, corrupt, and/or ineffective. Arafat may only have
been the latter, but by not allowing him to accomplish anything,
Israel opened up the void that Hamas tried to fill. But Hamas has
only had the power it was able to seize by force, and even then
was severely limited by what Israel would allow, in a perverse
symbiotic relationship that we could spend a lot of time on --
Israel has often found Hamas to be very useful, so their current
view that Hamas has to be exterminated seems more like a line to
be fed to the Americans, who tend to take good vs. evil ever so
literally.
Initial count: 217 links, 12,552 words.
Top story threads:
Israel:
Mondoweiss: Probably the best of the day-by-day reports,
but once again they took the weekend off. Too bad Israel didn't.
[04-01]
Day 178: Israel withdraws from al-Shifa Hospital, leaving evidence
of a massacre in its wake: "Dozens of bodies are still being
recovered from the rubble of a destroyed and burnt al-Shifa Hospital,
following a two-week Israeli raid and siege on the hospital." After
missing over the weekend, this invaluable series returns.
[04-02]
Day 179: Israel kills 7 international aid workers in central Gaza,
passes law banning Al Jazeera: "The World Central Kitchen called
the attack that killed seven of its aid workers 'unforgivable' as
Israeli forces killed 71 people across the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile,
the Israeli government voted to approve a bill banning Al Jazeera."
[04-03]
Day 180: Israel calls killing of WCK workers 'mistake,' UN reports
at least 195 aid workers killed since October 7: "Israeli media
says the World Central Kitchen aid team was intentionally targeted
with three missiles, as an UN expert says the strike shows Israel
aims to force aid organizations out of Gaza."
[04-04]
Day 181: Child deaths in Gaza on the rise, hostage negotiations
'stuck': "WHO chief Ghebreyesus said he was 'appalled' at the
destruction of al-Shifa Hospital. Meanwhile, pressure on Netanyahu
increases domestically to strike a hostage deal with Hamas as the
UN Human Rights Council considers an arms embargo against Israel."
[04-05]
Day 182: Israel says it will 'temporarily' allow aid into Gaza:
"Following international outcry at the targeting of World Central
Kitchen aid workers, Israel said that it would 'temporarily' allow
aid into Gaza. Meanwhile, Israeli forces raided the al-Aqsa Mosque
compound and killed a Palestinian man in Tulkarem."
Al Jazeera:
Yuval Abraham: [04-03]
'Lavender': The AI machine directing Israel's bombing spree in Gaza:
"The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects
for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human
oversight and a permissive policy for casualties."
Linah Alsaafin: [04-03]
Israel's brutality is increasing -- and so is its denialism:
"The atrocities at Al-Shifa Hospital are clear, but Israeli
politicians say not a single civilian was killed. It's just
one of several outlandish claims Israel has made recently."
Eric Alterman: [04-02]
Banning Al Jazeera moves Israel one step closer to dictatorship.
Tareq Baconi: [04-01]
The two-state solution is an unjust, impossible fantasy. This
is accurate as far as it goes:
Repeating the two-state solution mantra has allowed policymakers to
avoid confronting the reality that partition is unattainable in the
case of Israel and Palestine, and illegitimate as an arrangement
originally imposed on Palestinians without their consent in 1947. And
fundamentally, the concept of the two-state solution has evolved to
become a central pillar of sustaining Palestinian subjugation and
Israeli impunity. The idea of two states as a pathway to justice has
in and of itself normalized the daily violence meted out against
Palestinians by Israel's regime of apartheid.
The key thing you need to understand here is that Israel has
never offered the only thing that makes two states possible, which
is complete independence. Given this, we should admit that Israel
has never made an honest two-state offer. Moreover, Israel has
always managed to scuttle third-party two-state solutions, and
that's happened often enough that no one should credit them as
serious possibilities.
Also:
A single state from the river to the sea might appear unrealistic or
fantastical or a recipe for further bloodshed. But it is the only
state that exists in the real world -- not in the fantasies of
policymakers. The question, then, is: How can it be transformed into
one that is just?
Back in 1947, when the UK gave up on its mandate in Palestine,
the logical solution would have been to allow a democratic government
to be formed, with constitutional safeguards to protect minorities.
Whether such a state would be fair and just is a counterfactual we
can only speculate on. The population at the time was divided about
2-to-1 Muslims over Jews, with a small Christian minority. The Jews
wanted to rule, and being outnumbered lobbied for partition, so they
could establish a state and military, for defense and expansion if
the opportunity arose. Muslims and Christians were disorganized --
deliberately by the British, especially while suppressing the 1937-39
revolt -- so it's unclear what they wanted (anything from liberal
social democracy to theocracy was possible, but Jews had reason to
be wary, given that the revolt was largely triggered by opposition
to their immigration, and that nominal leader -- initially appointed
by the British -- Hajj Amin al-Husseini had taken refuge in Nazi
Germany after the revolt failed).
British colonial rule was built on divide-and-conquer politics,
reinforced by savage collective punishment, and that fed into a
fondness for partition strategies, which had already proven to be
disastrous in Ireland and in India. Britain also retained a large
degree of control in the nominally independent Arab monarchies of
Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq, which in theory attacked Israel on its
declaration of independence in 1948, but actually moved to deny
Palestinians sovereignty in their allotted partition (reduced in
size by Israeli military gains, and increased in population by
fleeing refugees).
Even if one doubts that a Palestinian majority in 1947 would
have established a fair and just single state, especially one
that would have allowed for further Jewish immigration from a
still-ravaged Europe, why not pursue such a solution now? The
Israeli position is that such an idea is a "non-starter," as it
would mark the end of the Zionist dream of a safe haven for Jews
from everywhere. The assumption seems to be that if power ever
shifted from Jews to Arabs -- which is neither inevitable nor
impossible given current demographics and trends -- that the
Arabs would treat the Jews as badly as the Jews have treated
the Arabs since 1948. I doubt that would happen, but to allay
such fears, there are ways to design safeguards while still
allowing a vast expansion of personal freedom for Palestinians.
The biggest problem is that Israelis, especially those in the
settler movement, are accustomed to living with state support
for their hatred and violence, and they will resist any change.
Hence, it is imperative to convince Israelis that profound change
is the only way to recover their bearings as respectable people.
That task is at least as difficult as convincing George Wallace's
Alabama to accept civil rights, and as difficult as convincing
Oklahoma to stop stealing Indian lands. Neither of those cases
worked out as well as one hoped, but at least we realized that
continued unfair and unjust treatment would only perpetuate
hostilities that would ultimately hurt everyone.
Ramzy Baroud: [04-08]
Irremediable defeat: On Israel's other unwinnable war: "Historically,
wars unite Israelis. Not anymore."
The problems continue to pile up, and Netanyahu, the master politician
of former times, is now only hanging by the thread of keeping the war
going for as long as possible to defer his mounting crises for as long
as possible.
Yet, an indefinite war is not an option, either. The Israeli economy,
according to recent data by the country's Central Bureau of Statistics,
has shrunk by over 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023. It is
likely to continue its free fall in the coming period.
Moreover, the army is struggling, fighting an unwinnable war without
realistic goals. The only major source for new recruits can be obtained
from ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have been spared the battlefield to study
in yeshivas, instead.
70 percent of all Israelis, including many in Netanyahu's own party,
want the Haredi to join the army. On March 28, the Supreme Court ordered
a suspension of state subsidies allocated to these ultra-Orthodox
communities.
If that is to happen, the crisis will deepen on multiple fronts.
If the Haredi lose their privileges, Netanyahu's government is likely
to collapse; if they maintain them, the other government, the post
Oct-7 war council, is likely to collapse as well.
In 1967, Israel conquered the near world -- larger professional
armies with tanks and aircraft -- in six days. Now, with at least
ten times the firepower, they've spent six months demolishing
housing and hospitals, just to root out a few thousand Hamas
lightly-armed "militants," and have little to show for it but
shame and disgrace.
Nora Berman: [03-29]
'The most moral army in the world' is posing with Palestinian women's
underwear in Gaza.
Connor Echols: [04-02]
US, Israeli attacks on UNRWA push agency toward collapse.
Or Kashti: [03-24]
Oct. 7 Hamas attack is tearing apart Israeli human rights group
B'Tselem:
B'Tselem
is a very important Israeli non-profit which has done vital work
in documenting the atrocities committed by Israelis against
Palestinians since its founding in 1989. They were quick to
call for a ceasefire after Oct. 7, but this was complicated by
internal divisions over how much blame to direct at Hamas, and
whether to echo propaganda points which were used to justify
Israel's genocidal counter-attack. I'm having trouble following
this piece, but noted that the divide led to the resignation
of Eyal Hareuveni, who I know mostly as a jazz critic. This
also led me to:
Joshua Keating:
Takeshi Kumon: [03-20]
Israeli startups hope to export battle-tested AI military tech:
I got this link from a Naomi Klein
tweet, who added: "not mere disaster capitalism -- genocide
capitalism."
Gideon Levy: [04-07]
In six months in Gaza, Israel's worst-ever war achieved nothing but
death and destruction.
Alice Markham-Cantor: [04-02]
'The drones are shooting at anything that moves' in Gaza; "Facing
famine, civilians search desperately for food under the threat of
Israeli bombs."
Jack Mirkinson: [04-04]
The ghoulish ostentatiousness of Israel's latest war crimes: "It's
as if Israel is flaunting its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians."
The past few days of Israel's war on Gaza have been hard to bear.
In quick succession, the world watched Israel withdraw from the
Al-Shifa hospital complex, revealing stomach-churning scenes of
death and destruction; bomb Iran's embassy in Syria, which could
escalate the conflict across the Middle East; and kill seven
humanitarian aid workers with World Central Kitchen (WCK) in what
even some US officials said appeared to be intentional air
strikes. . . .
The assault on Gaza has been horrific from the start. But it is
hard to shake the feeling that the near-total leeway Israel has
been granted by the United States and its allies has gone to its
head. Bulldozing bodies in plain sight. Bombing diplomatic facilities.
Targeting aid workers from the most Washington-friendly relief
organization. There is a ghoulish, ostentatious quality to these
actions. It's as if Israel is showing off, flaunting its ability
to cross every known line of international humanitarian law and
get away with it.
James North:
Rick Perlstein: [02-21]
The neglected history of the state of Israel: "The Revisionist
faction of Zionism that ended up triumphing adhered to literal fascist
doctrines and traditions."
Mitchell Plitnick: [04-05]
Netanyahu's endgame and the Israeli far-right's regional ambitions:
"The events of recent days suggest we may be seeing the Israeli endgame
take shape. Netanyahu's far right government's goals are not limited to
Gaza: it wants to take over all of Palestine and start a war with
Hezbollah and Iran as well." I wouldn't call this an "endgame," as
I doubt that the far-right wants the games to end. They thrive on
violence and hatred, and want to keep it going.
Will Porter: [04-08]
Israel lets AI decide who dies in Gaza.
Vijay Prashad: [04-05]
How Israel weaponizes water: "Even before Israel's most recent
attack on Gaza, 97 percent of the water in the sole coastal aquifer
of Gaza was already unsafe for human consumption."
Dave Reed: [04-05]
Engineering social collapse in Palestine: "Despite its claim that
the goal of the war in Gaza is the elimination of Hamas, Israel's
actions reveal its true intention: the collapse of Palestinian
society."
Mouin Rabbani:
All shook up: Regional dynamics of the Gaza War: This is a
chapter from the first significant book to come out about the
Gaza war since October 7,
Deluge: Gaza and Israel From Crisis to Cataclysm, edited
by Jamie Stern-Weiner (OR Books).
Richard Silverstein:
Norman Solomon: [04-03]
When an escalation in war isn't newsworthy to the New York Times:
"Why is the Times ignoring the latest huge transfer of 2,000-pound
bombs from the US to Israel?"
Jeffrey St Clair: [04-05]
Incident on the Al-Rashid Coastal Road: "In the anodyne language
of military slaughter, it's called a 'triple tap' -- three successive
strikes to make sure you've eliminated your target -- the target in
this case being the occupants of three vehicles of the World Central
Kitchen."
Noga Tarnopolsky: [04-07]
Israelis are hostages of Netanyahu: "With the prime minister still
refusing to resign, every day feels like October 7."
Amanda Taub: [04-02]
Israel bombed an Iranian embassy complex. Is that allowed?
Well, when you ask the New York Times, you're liable to get: "Israel
can likely argue that its actions did not violate international law's
protections for diplomatic missions, experts say."
Ishaan Tharoor:
Peter Wade: [04-07]
José Andrés: Israel is conducting a 'war against humanity itself':
"'The [World Central Kitchen] convoy was deliberately attacked, it was
obvious . . . This was targeted,' the humanitarian chef said of the
killing of seven aid workers in Gaza."
Brett Wilkins:
Robert Wright: [04-05]
How the US media encourages Bibi's dangerous brinksmanship.
Oren Ziv: [04-05]
Israeli teen jailed for refusing draft: 'I'm willing to pay a price
for my principles': Ben Arad.
Israel vs. world opinion:
Mohammad Jehad Ahmad: [04-04]
Zionists have tried to silence me through doxing and intimidation.
"A Palestinian teacher describes being targeted by Zionist groups with
doxing and public harassment. He urges the New York City Chancellor of
Education to take action before it turns violent."
José Andrés: [04-03]
Let people eat.
Michael Arria:
Samer Badawi: [04-02]
Even without a UN veto, Gaza remains hostage to American power:
"The downplaying of the Security Council's ceasefire resolution
shows why the world can no longer look to Washington as the arbiter
of a rules-based order."
Mayar Darawsha: [04-03]
Judge Aharon Barak is repeating Israeli propaganda at the ICJ:
Israel was able to appoint Barak as an "ad-hoc judge" on the ICJ,
but he's "less like a judge and more like a mouthpiece for official
Israeli propaganda."
Lawrence Davidson: [04-04]
Sick cultures: When belief systems turn pathological: Comparative
examples, from the US and Israel.
David French: [04-07]
Israel is making the same mistake America made in Iraq:
Americans may be impressed by this argument, but Israelis won't be:
Think of those words: "renewed insurgency." That means Israel was
doing exactly what we did for much of the Iraq war -- fighting again
over ground we had presumably already seized. And the sad reality of
those terrible battles reminded me of a seemingly counterintuitive
truth: In the fight against terrorists, providing humanitarian aid
isn't just a moral imperative; it's a military necessity.
The terrible civilian toll and looming famine in Gaza are a human
tragedy that should grieve us all; they are also directly relevant
to the outcome of the war. A modern army like Israel's can absolutely
defeat Hamas in a direct confrontation, regardless of whether it
provides aid to civilians. But as we've learned in our own wars
abroad, it cannot preserve its victory unless it meets Gazans' most
basic needs.
Israel has an answer to complaints like this: you don't have to
win hearts & minds if you simply kill everyone. The Americans
never considered that option in Iraq. Bush even fantasized that he
was liberating people, and that they'd respond by thanking him.
Netanyahu doesn't imagine that for a moment. He knows deep in his
bones that Palestinians will never forgive him. He knows they'll
remember him as long as Israelis remember Masada. So what if every
martyr he kills produces another one. That's just more Palestinians
he needs to kill. As long as the net kill ratio is positive, he's
good.
Kelly Garrity: [04-08]
Elizabeth Warren says she believes Israel's war in Gaza will legally
be considered genocide.
Melvin Goodman: [04-05]
Meet the newest apologist for Israel: Rear Admiral John Kirby:
Spokesman for Biden's National Security Council.
Mel Gurtov: [04-06]
US complicity in Israel genocide takes another step.
David Hearst: [04 -07]
For the defenders of Israel's war on Gaza, the game is up:
"Staunch allies calling themselves friends of Israel are beginning
to realise they are also friends of the murderers of western aid
workers, friends of genocide and friends of fascism."
Chris Hedges: [04-02]
A genocide foretold: "The genocide in Gaza is the final stage
of a process begun by Israel decades ago."
Hebh Jamal: [04-07]
Germany is becoming a police state when it comes to Palestine
activism.
Jonathan Ofir: [04-06]
We Israelis are the biggest Holocaust deniers: "The Jewish state
learned that it can commit its own Holocaust in Gaza and deny that
it exists."
Ilan Pappé: [02-01]
It is dark before the dawn, but Israeli settler colonialism is at an
end: A talk given to Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) on
their annual Genocide Memorial Day, by one of the premier historians
of Israel/Palestine. Also from the same issue:
James Ray: [04-07]
No, Senator Schumer, Netanyahu isn't the problem: "The problem
isn't just with Benjamin Netanyahu. It is with Zionist settler
colonialism." But it's been Netanyahu's meal ticket all along, so
he's an obvious symbol.
Alex Skopic: [04-04]
Israel's propaganda machine is filling the internet with misinformation:
"A sophisticated network of websites is spreading pro-Israel posts
and suppressing content that 'harms Israel's image.'"
Bret Stephens: [03-12]
Israel has no choice but to fight on: He's totally in the bag
for Netanyahu, so much so he thinks he can set up a mock argument
and expound on his position as brilliantly as Socrates. You'll be
hard-pressed to find a premise that makes sense, but his deductions
are even more far-fetched. "So what do you suggest the Biden
administration do? Help Israel win the war decisively so that
Israelis and Palestinians can someday win the peace." It's hard
to stop quoting this nonsense. Every line makes my blood boil,
less from disbelief that anyone could be this cruel and stupid
than from amazement that anyone could be so oblivious in their
arrogance.
Enzo Traverso: [04-06]
The Gaza massacre is undermining the culture of democracy.
Kathleen Wallace: [04-05]
The death of plausible deniability: An ethnic cleansing in real time.
Philip Weiss: [04-07]
Weekly Briefing; The sudden urgency of isolating a pariah state.
Many good points here, including his rejection of "three lies the
establishment is now telling about Palestine to justify not isolating
Israel:
- "If Netanyahu were gone Israel would behave differently." This is
"patently false."
- "We have to get back to preserving the path to a two-state solution."
He realizes this will never happen without radical change in Israel,
and counters: "We have to get to human dignity and equal rights, no
matter the political boundaries."
- "The Hamas atrocities of October 7 are unique and a cause for
war." Not so: "they were inevitable as the slave revolts of the
1830s in the U.S. They will happen again so long as Jewish supremacy
is the law for Palestinians."
America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire:
Edward Hunt: [04-08]
An illegal war with Houthis isn't stopping the Red Sea crisis:
"US attacks in Yemen are dangerous and unnecessary. Any real solution
starts in Gaza."
William Leogrande: [04-02]
Watching US Cuba policy in the theater of the absurd.
Christopher Mott: [04-08]
Bibi's push for a long war undermines Israel's best friend -- America.
Vincent Ortiz: [04-06]
US sanctions on Iran are devastating and ineffective. Not the
words I would use, for while partly true they misread the political
dynamics on both sides. US sanctions actually reinforce the most
regressive factions in Iran. If the idea was to weaken them and to
encourage more accommodating factions, sure, they're ineffective.
But if the idea is to promote hostility that would bind neighbors,
like Saudi Arabia and Israel, more closely to the US and its arms
industries, then they're working splendidly. How "devastating"
the sanctions are to ordinary Iranians is less clear. They can
be, especially for small countries that depend on imports (like
Gaza), but large, self-contained economies (like Russia and Iran)
can hobble along indefinitely, while credibly blaming the US (as
opposed to their own incompetence) for shortages.
Trita Parsi: [04-08]
Iran says it won't strike Israel if US gets Gaza ceasefire.
Paul R Pillar: [04-05]
Is Israel's plan to draw the US into a war with Iran?
Nick Turse:
Adam Weinstein/Trita Parsi: [04-04]
Biden's inaction on Gaza puts US troops at risk.
Election notes: There were presidential primaries on April 2,
all won as expected by Biden and Trump:
Connecticut: Trump 77.9%, Biden 84.9%;
New York: Trump 82.1%, Biden 91.5%;
Rhode Island: Trump 84.5%, Biden 82.6%;
Wisconsin: Trump 79.2%, Biden 88.6%; also
Delaware has no vote totals, but gave all delegates to Trump and Biden.
The next primary will be in Pennsylvania on April 23.
Trump, and other Republicans:
Jonathan Allen/Matt Dixon/Garrett Haake: [04-07]
Trump tells billionaires he'll keep their taxes low at $50 million
fundraising gala.
Isaac Arnsdorf: [04-04]
How Steve Bannon guided the MAGA movement's rebound from Jan. 6.
Excerpt from the book,
Finish What We Started: The MAGA Movement's Ground War to End
Democracy.
Another review:
Zack Beauchamp: [04-06]
The right-wing scammers who paved the way for Trump: "A new
book shows how conservative grift started long before branded
bibles and $400 sneakers." Interview with Joe Conason, whose
book (not identified in the article, not out until July 9) is
The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked
American Conservatism. Needless to say, any book that starts
with Joe McCarthy and leads to Donald Trump has a lot of Roy Cohn
in the middle.
Luke Broadwater/Alan Feuer: [04-04]
GOP Congressman's wild claim: RBI entrapped Jan. 6 rioters:
Clay Higgins (R-LA).
Mark A Caputo: [04-02]
Trump won't commit on Florida abortion vote: "Sunshine state voters
will decide whether abortion belongs in the state constitution. But
one Florida Man won't weigh in on the 'A-word.'"
Jonathan Chait: [04-04]
Trump indifferent to Palestinian death, but moved by images of building
damage: "Another deranged interview."
Kyle Chayka: [04-03]
Trump's social-media Potemkin village: "After an IPO last week,
Truth Social is confronting the gaping incongruity between its
valuation and the paltry reality of its product."
Ryan Cooper:
[04-01]
Will voters hear about Donald Trump's deranged health care agenda?
"A second Trump term means tens of millions of people losing insurance
and chaos in hospitals."
[04-04]
The pious one, Donald Trump: "The least likely embodiment of
Christian virtues in American life is practically runnintg as an
evangelical minister." I find it interesting when people who don't
particularly believe in Christianity come around to defend the
decency of the religion's fundamental tenets from the embarrassing
depredations of the loudest Christians:
Indeed, in one of my favorite verses, Jesus says not only do you go
to Hell if you do not care for the hungry or sick, welcome the stranger,
and visit people in prison. He further says that if you do those things
for "the least of these brothers and sisters of mine" you are doing them
to Jesus Himself. It's a profoundly egalitarian sentiment -- not only
does God instruct Christians to help the worst-off in society, He
identifies Himself with the worst-off.
After all, this was Nietzsche's whole problem with Christianity. In
his view, it replaced the aristocratic "master morality" celebrating
power and domination with an egalitarian "slave morality" in which it
is wrong to oppress the weak.
David Corn:
Igor Derysh:
Chauncey DeVega: [04-02]
"Perfectly predictable": Dr John Gartner on why "a malignant
narcissist like Trump" sells Bibles: Gartner says, "It fits
perfectly into both his personality disorder's hypomanic grandiosity
and its paranoid sense of grievance." Gartner is one of several
interviewed for this review of Trump/Republicans' efforts to
politicize Easter.
Maureen Dowd:
Abdallah Fayyad: [04-04]
Trump has set up a perfect avenue for potential corruption: "With
Truth Social going public, big investors could easily buy influence
in a second Trump term."
Susan B Glasser: [04-04]
Donald Trump's amnesia advantage: "The 2024 race comes down to just
how much America has lost its collective mind about its disastrous
former President." I don't quite buy this argument. No doubt, the
people who expected Trump to be awful saw plenty to confirm their
fears. But, at least in the short term, how many of the people who
basically supported Trump were really disappointed? The economy
was increasingly inequal, but pretty solid until the pandemic hit,
and the Democrats bailed him out then, shoring up businesses and
protecting workers. But if you survived Covid -- and those who
didn't aren't in the equation any more -- you came out of it about
as well as you went in. Trump didn't just into new wars, and he
significantly withdrew from Afghanistan (while leaving Biden to
be blamed for the defeat he negotiated). Pollution and climate
are issues with longer-term impact, so unless you were aware at
the time, you're probably unaware still. Unless you pay close
attention, for most people there's little practical difference
regardless of who's president, so it makes sense that lots of
people will base their vote on charisma, style, and affinity --
with Trump, qualities you either love or hate.
Jeet Heer: [04-08]
His billionaire buddies' bribery bails out Trump, again and again:
"The problem isn't that the former president is broke but that he's
for sale."
Brian Karem: [04-04]
Trump's revenge against Julian Assange broke the media: "How
Trump's petty vindictiveness makes the media worse." I don't doubt
that the prosecution of Assange was meant to scare media outlets
away from exposing secrets, or that Trump is vindictive -- Obama
started on Assange, but Mike Pompeo was always his most rabid
inquisitor, and Pompeo's influence grew under Trump -- but the
media broke on several fracture lines, and the one Trump was most
directly responsible for was in capturing media attention for his
outrageous showboating, while decrying as "fake news" anything
that displeased him, and thereby making news out of "fake news."
Robert Kuttner: [04-02]
How Republicans screw workers: "Efforts by Obama and Biden to
enforce labor laws have been systematically undermined by right-wing
courts and legislators. This should be a prime election theme."
Amanda Marcotte:
Kelly McClure:
Dana Milbank: [04-05]
Trump swindles his followers again.
Anna North: [04-08]
Trump may sound moderate on abortion. The groups setting his agenda
definitely aren't.
Heather Digby Parton: [04-05]
Marjorie Taylor Greene is out for Republican blood: "House Speaker
Mike Johnson may have to be saved by Democrats after MTG is done with
him."
Ben Protess/Matthew Haag: [04-04]
New York Attorney General questions Trump's $175 million bond deal:
"Letitia James said in court papers that the California company providing
the guarantee was not qualified to do such deals in New York."
Rebecca Solnit: [04-02]
The Republican party has become a full-fledged anti-sex movement.
Michael Tomasky: [04-01]
The Trump double standard: He's the least persecuted pol in America:
"Anyone else who did all the Things Trump has done, or stands accused
of having done[*], the wheels of justice, legal and political, would
have moved more swiftly." [*] Why this disclaimer? "Innocent until
proven guilty" is a legal principle we should respect, but what he
actually did is a matter of well-established historical record.
There is uncertainty about when and how he will be punished (if at
all), but at least regarding what he's been charged with, the facts
are pretty clear.
Fareed Zakaria: [04-05]
How Trump fills a void in an increasingly secular America.
I've been reading Tricia Romano's oral history of The Village
Voice,
The
Freaks Came Out to Write, and ran into a section on Wayne
Barrett, who started reporting on Trump in the 1970s, and published
the first serious book on Trump in 1992. The discussion there is
worth quoting at some length (pp. 522-524):
TOM ROBBINS: Wayne appreciated the fact that Trump could be
a serious player, given his willingness to play the race card, which
was clear from his debut speech that he was gonna go after illegal
immigrants and Mexicans. As long as you're going to outwardly play
the race card in the Republican primary, you can actually command a
lot. And Wayne understood that. He was surprised as the rest of us the
way that Trump just mowed down the rest of the opposition and that
nobody could stand up to him.
WILLIAM BASTONE: He knew that Trump was appealing to
something that was going to have traction with people and that wasn't
just a passing thing. I said, "Wayne, don't you think people see
through this and they understand that he's really just a con man and a
huckster and a racist?" The stuff goes back, at that point, almost
thirty years with his father and avoiding renting apartments to Black
families in Brooklyn.
And he was like, "No, that's gonna be a plus for him, for the
people that he's going to end up attracting." I was like, "You're
crazy, Wayne. You're crazy."
There was talk that he may have used racially charged or racist
remarks when he was doing The Apprentice. And I said, "So
Wayne, if it ever came out that Trump used those words or used the
N-word?" And Wayne said, "That would be good for him." He was totally
right. And then nine months later, he's talking about shooting people
on Fifth Avenue. Trump understood that "there's really nothing I can
do [wrong] because these people hate the people I hate, and we're all
gonna be together."
TOM ROBBINS: When I was at the Observer, I had a
column in there called Wise Guys. And at that point, Trump was talking
about running for president. This was 1987, that was thirty years
before he actually ran, almost. He was focused on this from the very
beginning. And none of us took him seriously. . . .
As someone who worked with the tabloid press for a long time, the
people who invented Trump were all those tabloid gossip reporters who
dined out from all of his items over the years and who reported them
right up until the time he ran for president. This is one of the great
unrecognized crimes of the press. We in the tabloid press created
Trump; it wasn't Wayne. Wayne was going after him.
JONATHAN Z. LARSEN: This is the media's Frankenstein's
monster. Trump would call, using a fake name, saying, "I'm the PR guy
for Donald Trump. I really shouldn't be telling you this, but he's
about to get divorced, and he's got three women he's looking
at. There's Marla Maples. There's so-and-so." Very often the people
that he was speaking to recognized his voice. They loved it. It was
free copy.
Barrett really did have some incredibly good information on Trump,
how he built Trump Tower. The head of the concrete union was mobbed
up. There was this crazy woman who bought the apartment just
underneath Donald Trump's because she was sleeping with the concrete
guy, and she wanted to install a pool. It's astonishing, the stuff he
got. It's a national treasure now that we have Wayne Barrett's
reporting. As soon as Trump became president, everybody was picking
through all of Wayne's files.
The ellipsis covers a section on Barrett's Trump book, and stopped
before a section on Barrett's horror watching the 2016 returns. By
then Barrett was terminably ill, and he died just before Trump's
inauguration. I remember reading about Trump in the Voice
back in the 1970s, so I was aware of him as a major scumbag, but I
took no special interest in him otherwise. Anything I did notice
simply added to my initial impression.
Biden and/or the Democrats:
Aaron Blake: [04-05]
Gaza increasingly threatens Democrats' Trump-era unity.
Ben Burgis: [04-04]
Democratic voters are furious about US support of Israel.
Rachel M Cohen: [04-01]
You can't afford to buy a house. Biden knows that.
Page S Gardner/Stanley B Greenberg: [03-15]
They don't want Trump OR Biden. Here's how they still can elect
Biden. "Our new survey of these voters shows the president can
still win their support."
Robert Kuttner: [04-04]
Liberals need to be radicals: "The agenda for Biden's next term
must go deeper to restore the American dream." The substance here is
fine, but why resort to clichés? The "American dream" was never more
than a dream. One can argue that we should dream again, and work to
realize those dreams for everyone. Back in the 1960s, the first real
political book I bought was an anthology called
The New
Radicals, edited by Paul Jacobs and Saul Landau, and I immediately
saw the appeal of the word "radical" for those who seek deep roots of
social problems, but nowadays the word is mostly used as a synonym
for "extremist." But perhaps more importantly, I've cooled on the
desirability for deep solutions (revolutions) and come to appreciate
more superficial reforms. I would refashioned the title to say that
"liberals need to be leftists," because the liberal dream of freedom
can only be universalized through solidarity with others, and is of
little value if limited to self-isolating individuals.
Tim Miller: [04-05]
Joe Biden is not a "genocidal maniac": "And it's not just wrong
but reckless and irresponsible to say he is." I agree with the title,
but I disagree with the subhed. Genocide wasn't his idea, nor is it
something he craves maniacally. But he is complicit in genocide, and
not just passively so. He has said things that have encouraged Israel,
and he has done things that have materially supported genocide. He
has shielded them in the UN, with "allies," and in the media. I've
thought a lot about morality lately, and I've come to think that it
(and therefore immorality) can only be considered among people who
have the freedom to decide on their own what to say and do. Many
people are severely limited in their autonomy, but as president of
the United States, Biden does have a lot of leeway, and should be
judged accordingly.
I realize that one might argue that morality is subordinate to
politics -- that sometimes actual political considerations convince
one to do things that normally regard as immoral (like going to war
against Nazi Germany, or nuking Hiroshima) -- but the fundamentals
remain the same: is the politician free to choose? One might argue
that Biden's initial blind support for Israel was purely reflexive --
lessons he had learned over fifty years in AIPAC-dominated Washington,
a reflex shared by nearly every other politician so conditioned --
but even so, as president Biden had access to information and a lot
of leeway to act, and therefore should be held responsible for his
political, as well as moral, decisions.
Miller goes on to upbraid people for saying "Genocide Joe." He
makes fair points, but hey, given the conditions, that's going to
happen. Most of us have very little power to influence someone like
Biden -- compared to big-time donors, colleagues, and pundits, all
of whom are still pretty limited -- so trying to shame him with a
colorful nickname is one of the few things one can try. In a similar
vein, we used to taunt: "Hey, hey, LBJ; how many kids did you kill
today?" And sure, LBJ was more directly responsible for the slaughter
in Vietnam than Biden is in Gaza, but both earned the blame. Biden,
at least, still has a chance to change course. If he fails, he, and
he alone, sealed his fate.
Elena Schneider/Jeff Coltin: [03-29]
Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted Biden's glitzy New York
fundraiser: "The event padded Biden's cash advantage, but laid
bare one of his biggest weaknesses." The Biden campaign's response
seems to be to try to exclude potential protesters:
Lisa Lerer/Reid J Epstein/Katie Glueck: [04-07]
How Gaza protesters are challenging Democratic leaders: "From
President Biden to the mayors of small cities, Democrats have been
trailed by demonstrators who are complicating the party's ability
to campaign in an election year." By the way, better term here
than in the Politico piece: you don't have to be "pro-Palestinian"
to be appalled by genocide. You can even be consciously pro-Israel,
someone who cares so much for Israel that your most fervent desire
is to spare them the shame of the path Netanyahu et al. have set
out on.
Washington Monthly: [04-07]
Trump vs. Biden: Who got more done? The print edition has a
series of "accomplishment index" articles comparing the records
of the two presidents. You can probably guess the results, especially
if you don't count corruption and vandalism, the main drivers of the
Trump administration, as accomplishments:
Paul Glastris:
Introduction: Who got more done?.
Bill Scher:
Legislation.
Jacob Heilbrunn:
Foreign policy: This is by far the most problematic area, because
while Trump did real damage -- especially by wrecking openings Obama
(Kerry?) had negotiated to Iran and Cuba -- Biden overshot what were
supposed to be corrections "strengthening the international liberal
order" but turned into provoking a war with Russia over Ukraine and
not deterring Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Caroline Fredrickson:
Courts.
Garphill Julien:
Trade.
Rob Wolfe:
Regulation.
Brigid Schulte:
Work & family.
Will Norris:
Antitrust?
Marc Novicoff:
Immigration?
- Merrill Goozner:
Health care.
- Suzanne Gordon/Steve Early:
Veterans.
Legal matters and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Economic matters:
Ukraine War:
Around the world:
The bridge:
Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter: I played the album (twice),
and will present my thoughts in the next Music Week. I figured I
was pretty much done with it before I started collecting these,
but thought it might be interesting to note them:
Other stories:
Hannah Goldfield: [04-08]
In the kitchen with the grand dame of Jewish cooking: Gnoshing
with Joan Nathan.
Luke Goldstein: [04-02]
The in-flight magazine for corporate jets: "The Economist has
channeled the concerns of elites for decades. It sees the Biden
administration as a threat."
Stephen Holmes: [04-04]
Radical mismatch: A review of Samuel Moyn: Liberalism Against
Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times.
David Cay Johnston: [04-05]
Antitax nation: Review of Michael J Graetz:
The
Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America,
explaining "how clever marketing duped America into shoveling more
tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations."
Sarah Jones:
Natalie Korach/Ross A Lincoln: [04-05]
Meta blocks Kansas Reflector and MSNBC columnist over op-ed criticizing
Facebook: "The company says Friday afternoon that the blocks, which
falsely labeled the links as spam, were due to 'a security error.'"
A Wichita columnist also wrote on this:
Orlando Mayorquin/Amanda Holpuch: [04-07]
Southwest plane makes emergency landing after Boeing engine cover
falls off. And just when I thought I'd get through a week with
no Boeing stories. Then I noticed I had two more waiting:
Rick Perlstein: [04-03]
Joe Lieberman not only backed Bush's war; he also helped make Bush
president: "A remembrance of this most feckless of Democrats."
Nathan J Robinson: And other recent pieces from his zine,
Current Affairs:
[03-28]
My date with destiny: "Reviewing major issues in the Israel-Palestine
conflict." Starts with an anecdote about a "massive argument -- with
a popular streamer named Destiny," then gets down to business with
extensively documented sections on the following:
- Starvation in Gaza: Is it happening and who is responsible?
- Is there a genocide?
- Is there apartheid in Palestine?
- Zionism, 1948, and the obstacles to peace
I'm getting to this piece very late in my cycle -- well after
writing my introductory screed and several other lengthy comments --
otherwise I'd feature it up top, at least as one of the best
historical background pieces I've seen recently. Along the way,
he mentions the following:
[2023-10-16]
The current Israel-Palestine crisis was entirely avoidable:
Interview with Jerome Slater, author of
Mythologies
Without End: The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,
1917-2020, conducted right after the October 7 revolt.
[04-02]
What Trump understand about war: "Donald Trump's militarism is
even worse than Biden's. But he's keeping relatively quiet on
Israel-Palestine, probably because he knows the public doesn't like
war." This is fundamentally right, but I'm finding a lot of details
to quibble with. [Something to do later.] But the point I'd most
want to stress is that while Trump sounds more militarist -- he
gropes the flag, wanted to stage Moscow-style tank-and-missile
parades, wants to be seen as a tough guy -- his political skill
is to identify "messes," blame them on Democrats, and claim that
nothing like that would dare happen under his watch (because, you
know, he's such a tough guy). And wars are always messes, so they're
easy targets for Trump.
[04-08]
Why we need limits on extreme wealth: Interview with Ingrid
Robeyns, author of
Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth.
[2023-06-14]
We must banish 'bootstraps' mythology from American life:
Interview with Alissa Quart, around the time her book
Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves From the American Dream
came out in hardcover, but note that it's coming out in paperback
on April 9.
Rob Larson: [01-30]
Let's test the 'intelligence' of tech billionaires.
Alberto C Medina: [04-05]
The case for Puerto Rican independence.
Lily Sanchez: [03-20]
Against incrementalism.
Alex Skopic: [03-25]
Ye and the problem of fascist art: "The rapper's embrace of
Nazi ideology is strange and awful, but it can teach us a lot
about how far-right politics spread."
K Wilson: [04-05]
Why the right constantly panics over societal 'decadence':
From Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West through a
number of recent references, including Nick Fuentes and Jordan
Peterson (and Alexander Dugin, who fears a similar decline, but
in his case, caused by the West).
Jeffrey St Clair: [04-04]
The day John Sinclair died: "The poet, musician, writer, pot
liberator, raconteur, Tigers fan, jazzbo, political radical,
producer of MC5, founder of the White Panthers and occasional
CounterPunch, John Sinclair died this week at 82."
Michael Stavola: [04-03]
Wichitan involved in deadly swatting arrested after reportedly doing
donuts in Old Town: This story, where Wichita Police murdered
Andrew Finch, keeps getting sicker. The trigger man not only got off,
he's since been promoted, even after the city agreed to pay $5 million
to the victim's family, while they managed to pin blame on three other
pranksters. There's plenty of blame to go around. Not even mentioned
here is the gun lobby and their Republican stooges who did so much to
create an atmosphere where dozens of trigger-happy cops are dispatched
to deal with an anonymous complaint, totally convinced that everyone
they encounter is at likely to be armed and shoot as they are.
Carl Wilson: [03-25]
Sweeping up kernels from Pop Con 2024. Includes links to key
presentations by
Robert Christgau,
Michaelangelo Matos,
Glenn McDonald,
De Angela L Duff,
Alfred Soto, and
Ned Raggett.
I scribbled this down from a Nathan J Robinson
tweet: "very interesting discussion of how, during World War I,
attrocities attributed to German soldiers were used to whip people
into a frenzy and create an image of a monstrous, inhuman enemy --
atrocities that later turned out to be dubious/exaggerated, well
after the fighting stopped." That was followed by a scan from an
unidentified book:
. . . stated that the Germans had systematically murdered, outraged,
and violated innocent men, women, and children in Belgium. "Murder,
lust, and pillage," the report said, "prevailed over many parts of
Belgium on a scale unparalleled in any war between civilised nations
during the last three centuries." The report gave titillating details
of how German officers and men had publicly raped twenty Belgian girls
in the market place at Liège, how eight German soldiers had bayoneted
a two-year-old child, and how another had sliced off a peasant girl's
breasts in Malilnes. Bryce's signature added considerable weight to
the report, and it was not until after the war that several
unsatisfactory aspects of the Bryce committee's activities
emerged. The committee had not personally interviewed a single
witness. The report was based on 1,200 depositions, mostly from
Belgian refugees, taken by twenty-two barristers in Britain. None of
the witnesses were placed on oath, their names were omitted (to
prevent reprisals against their relatives), and hearsay evidence was
accepted at full value. Most disturbing of all was the fact that,
although the depositions should have been filed at the Home Office,
they had mysteriously disappeared, and no trace of them has been found
to this day. Finally, a Belgian commission of enquiry in 1922, when
passions had cooled, failed markedly to corroborate a single major
allegation in the Bryce report. By then, of course, the report had
served its purpose. Its success in arousing hatred and condemnation of
Germany makes it one of the most successful propaganda pieces of the
war.
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Music Week
April archive
(in progress).
Music: Current count 42079 [42039] rated (+40), 39 [31] unrated (+8).
Speaking
of Which published late Sunday night, with a few additions today.
Lots of serious stuff there -- a claim I hardly feel like making for
this post. However, I resolved quite some time ago to take notes on
what I managed to listen to, and to share them for whoever cares.
I didn't realize until mid-week that last
Music Week
was the last of the month. I've updated the
March Streamnotes file
accordingly. When I went to index it, I found I hadn't goten to
February either.
Nasty, tedious job, but done now. It did solve one nagging issue
of an album I thought I had reviewed but didn't record in the
database.
I week-plus ago, I
tweeted advance notice of an A-list album (Roby Glod's No
ToXiC), figuring I might make a practice of doing that, at
least for cases where the whole album can be sampled on Bandcamp.
But I couldn't do much like that this week, aside from my preferred
slice of the Pauline Anna Strom box,
Plot Zero. I should recheck to be sure, but when I went to
look, several of this week's picks aren't on Bandcamp, and most that
are only have partial tracks available (in some cases, noted in the
reviews, that haven't been released yet).
This post was ready to go Monday evening, but I wanted to go back
and touch up Speaking of Which before posting them both. I didn't get
that done, and was too exhausted by bed time. I never got started on
Tuesday, either, so everything has to go up pretty much as it was.
Unlikely I will get much of anything done later in the week, either,
so next week's posts will be minimal, if they happen at all.
New records reviewed this week:
1010benja: Ten Total (2024, Three Six Zero):
Rapper-singer Benjamin Lyman, based in Kansas City, first album
after an EP, finds a groove and sensibility as original as the
early mixtapes of Weeknd and Frank Ocean.
A- [sp]
Miguel Atwood-Ferguson: Les Jardins Mystiques Vol. 1
(2023, Brainfeeder, 3CD): Los Angeles-based composer, violinist,
has several previous albums (back to 2007), this one a monster
(even without the promised future volume[s]), running 3.5 hours
(also available on 4-LP), no recording dates given but "14 years
in the making . . . with contributions from 50+ friends,"
including a fair number I recognize. Too big and possibly too
luxe for me, but makes for consistently engaging background.
The few critics who mention it at all rate it very highly.
B+(***) [sp]
Jim Baker/Steve Hunt/Jakob Heinemann: Horizon Scanners
(2022 [2024], Clean Feed): Pianist, one of few operating in Chicago's
vibrant avant-jazz scene, couple dozen albums since his 1997 debut,
more side-credits, trio here with drums and bass, Baker also playing
ARP-2600.
B+(**) [sp]
Peter Brötzmann/Paal Nilssen-Love: Chicken Shit Bingo
(2015 [2024], Trost): Posthumous archive dig but not too deep,
a set from Zuiderpershuis in Antwerp, with Brötzmann opting for
relatively soft horns (tarogato, bb clarinet, contra-alto clarinet),
Nilssen-Love with a lot of experience in sax/drums duos.
B+(*) [bc]
Christie Dashiell: Journey in Black (2023, self-released):
Jazz singer-songwriter, first album, seven originals, two covers,
with Marquis Hill (trumpet), Allyn Johnson (keyboards), Shedrick
Mitchell (organ), Romeir Mendez (bass), and Carroll Vaughn Dashiel
III (drums).
B+(**) [sp]
Empress Of: For Your Consideration (2024, Major
Arcana/Giant Music): Pop singer-songwriter Lorely Rodriguez, from
Los Angeles, parents from Honduras, Berklee grad, fourth album
since 2015.
B+(**) [sp]
Julieta Eugenio: Stay (2023 [2024], Cristalyn):
Tenor saxophonist, from Italy, based in New York, 2022 debut album
was one of the year's best. Mostly trio with Matt Dwonszyk (bass)
and Jonathan Barber (drums), adding Leo Genovese (Fender Rhodes)
on two tracks. Doesn't try to blow you away here, but is steady,
assured, and consistently engaging -- not a formula yet, not so
easy to normalize.
A- [cd]
Four Tet: Three (2024, Text): Longtime alias for
English DJ Kieran Hebden, a dozen-plus albums since 1999, plus a
few jazzier items under his own name (with the late drummer, Steve
Reid). Beats up front, then relaxes a bit. As nice as anything
he's done in at least a decade.
B+(***) [sp]
Kim Gordon: The Collective (2024, Matador):
Sonic Youth's better half, second post-divorce solo album. With
beats supposed to be derived from trap (albeit plated with a
surface of industrial klang), frayed vocals that could be called
rap (but are probably too cryptic). Sonically, it's as distinct
as anything her former group rolled out, perhaps more so. Youth?
Not really. I have some doubts, but it does quite an impression.
A- [sp]
Guillermo Gregorio: Two Trios (2018-20 [2023],
ESP-Disk): Clarinet player from Argentina, where he first recorded
in 1963, moved to Vienna, then to Chicago, where he resumed in the
1990s, and finally to New York. First trio here was recorded at
Edgefest in Ann Arbor, with Carrie Biolo (vibes) and Fred Lonberg-Holm
(cello). Second was at Downtown Music Gallery in New York, with Iván
Barenboim (contralto clarinet) and Nicholas Jozwiak (cello).
B+(***) [cd]
Guillermo Gregorio/Damon Smith/Jerome Bryerton: The Cold
Arrow (2022 [2023], Balance Point Acoustics): Clarinets,
bass, and percussion ("Paiste Bronze Series gongs & selected
metal & cymbals, no drums used").
B+(**) [sp]
Mercer Hassy Orchestra: Duke's Place (2022-23 [2024],
Mercer Hassy): Japanese big band, leader "was born as Masahide Hashimoto
in Sapporo, Japan," home base for this exceptionally racous and rather
raunchy Ellington tribute band. He is credited as arranger, also for
drum programming and guitar. Several vocals, lots of excitement. Group
has two previous albums, one in this vein (Sir Duke), the other
more varied (Don't Stop the Carnival). Hassy has a non-Orchestra
album with strings and traditional Japanese instruments, but also Alan
Pasqua and Peter Erskine. This one slops off here and there, but is
too much fun not so share.
A- [cd] [04-15)
Jlin: Akoma (2024, Planet Mu): Electronica producer
Jerrilynn Patton, from Gary, Indiana, fourth (or third) album. Beats,
which is all that matters.
B+(***) [sp]
Julien Knowles: As Many, as One (2023 [2024],
Biophilia): Trumpet player, based in Los Angeles, first album,
a postbop quintet -- alto sax, piano, bass, drums, no one I
recognize, plus strings on three tracks -- as ambitious as
claimed but returns are marginal for 70:27.
B+(*) [cd] [04-26]
Anysia Kym: Truest (2024, 10k, EP): Brooklyn-based
"producer," third album, sings along with her hip-hop beats and
shadings, some guest rap (MIKE), not much press. Nine songs, 22:48.
B+(*) [sp]
Ellie Lee: Escape (2024, self-released): Korean
pianist, original first name Seunghyung, studied at Berklee and in
New Jersey, counts Joanne Brackeen and Bill Charlap among her tutors,
first album, originals (one an arrangement of Benny Golson), shows
remarkable poise, helped considerably by saxophonist Steven Wilson.
With Steve LaSpina (bass) and Jongkuk Kim (drums).
B+(***) [05-24]
Adrianne Lenker: Bright Future (2024, 4AD):
Singer-songwriter, best known as leader of Big Thief, has several
solo albums, two before Big Thief, three since. Very basic, guitar
and voice, harmonies adding resonance, the songs standing on their
own, and faring well.
B+(***) [sp]
Kali Malone: All Life Long (2024, Ideologic Organ):
American composer, from Denver, based in Stockholm, sixth album since
2017, started with electronics plays pipe organ here, with a choir
(Macadem Ensemble) and brass quintet (Anima Brass). Very solemn.
B+(*) [sp]
The Messthetics/James Brandon Lewis: The Messthetics and
James Brandon Lewis (2024, Impulse!): Bassist (Joe Lally)
and drummer (Brandan Canty) from Fugazi, plus jazz guitarist Anthony
Pirog, formed this post-rock power trio for two 2018-19 albums,
return here with the reigning heavyweight tenor sax champ riffing
over heavier-than-usual beats. He's supreme, as usual, but Pirog
doesn't really rise to the occasion -- unlike, the Ex guitarists
in Lean Left, to pick a somewhat comparable example.
B+(***) [sp]
Travis Reuter: Quintet Music (2022 [2024],
self-released): Guitarist, born in Seattle, has a previous album
from 2012, a variety of side credits since, lists his quintet on
the cover as you should recognize the names: Mark Shim (tenor sax),
Peter Schlamb (vibraphone), Harish Raghavan (bass), Tyshawn Sorey
(drums). Slippery, often fractured, rhythm is interesting.
B+(***) [cd] [04-19]
Schoolboy Q: Blue Lips (2024, Interscope): Los Angeles
rapper Matthew Hanley, sixth album since 2011, this after a five-year
break. Sharp beats, ends on a catchy note, but I didn't get much more.
B+(*) [sp]
Altin Sencalar: Discover the Present (2024,
Posi-Tone): Trombonist, first album, nonet has most of the label's
regulars on board, including Diego Rivera, Michael Dease, Art
Hirahara, and Rudy Royston.
B+(*) [sp]
Matthew Shipp Trio: New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz
(2023 [2024], ESP-Disk): Pianist, has been major since c. 1990,
both on his own records and accompanying saxophonists, notably
David S. Ware and Ivo Perelman. Went through an avant-jazztronica
that I was so taken by I wound up writing a
consumer guide to
his work (plus a lot more by William Parker) and a Rolling Stone
guide entry. Since
then, he's refocused on trio and solo albums, exhaustively it can
seem. This is his sixth trio album with Michael Bisio (bass) and
Newman Taylor Baker (drums), following many more with various others
(starting with Parker and Whit Dickey, then Bisio and Dickey). I've
heard pretty much all of them, and still I have no idea what the
"new concepts" are here. This is, however, a superb sample of what
he's been doing for many years now.
A- [cd] [04-05]
Jacob Shulman: High Firmament (2024, Endectomorph
Music): Tenor saxophonist, also plays clarinets, based in Los Angeles,
has a previous album from 2021, and an earlier opera (Role Playing
Game), which at least exists on Bandcamp. Also a second new album,
Ferment Below, which showed up with this one, an advance looking
like a double album, but they are treated as separate digitally, and
I don't see any evidence of them existing otherwise. Both albums have
piano (Hayoung Lyou), bass (Walter Stinson), and drums (Kayvon Gordon).
Fancy postbop, more interesting to read about ("thousands of years of
conjecture and agony have led us to conclude that our world diverges
from Euclidean geometry in unresolvable ways" -- you can't just observe
that?) -- than to listen to.
B [cdr]
Jacob Shulman: Ferment Below (2024, Endectomorph
Music): Annoyed me even more than the first one, until it inexplicably
got better. Maybe I relaxed once I ditched the Pythagoras and realized
that the review, like the record, would eventually end. But then it
turned back into opera.
B [cdr]
Ronny Smith: Struttin' (2024, Pacific Coast Jazz):
Guitarist, "melodic and soulful," writes funky originals, covers
Wes Montgomery, also credited "keys, bass, programming," second
song adds vocals to sound like a Chic outtake (but just that one),
elsewhere there's a nice bit of sax.
B+(*) [cd] [04-19]
Mary Timony: Untame the Tiger (2024, Merge):
Singer-songwriter from DC, been through several indie bands
(Helium, Wild Flag, Ex Hex, Hammered Hulls) as well as several
solo albums (one called Ex Hex before the group).
B [sp]
Erik Truffaz: Clap! (2023, Blue Note): Trumpet
player, born in Switzerland, close to twenty albums since 1997.
B+(*) [sp]
Julia Vari Feat. Negroni's Trio: Somos (2024,
Alternative Representa): Mexican-American standards singer,
couple previous albums (but none on Discogs), backed by Puerto
Rican pianist José Negroni,
who has at least four Trio albums with Josh Allen (bass) and
Nomar Negroni (drums, José's son). Seven songs, 35:19, the
sort of singer and trio I rarely give a second thought to, but
everything here delights me -- the torchy opener in Spanish,
seguing into "Nature Boy," "Song for My Father" with lyrics
in Portuguese, and especially the bits of French in "C'est
si bon," a language I know just well enough to feel the
phrase without having to translate it.
A- [cd]
Fay Victor: Herbie Nichols SUNG: Life Is Funny That Way
(2023 [2024], Tao Forms, 2CD): Jazz singer, born in Brooklyn but moved
around a lot, with Trinidad and Zambia figuring in her childhood, Long
Island for her teens, with Japan and Amsterdam major pivots in her
career. She's probably sick of the Betty Carter comparisons, but after
this album it's Carter who should be honored. I've been a huge fan of
Nichols since I first heard his Blue Note trios in a 1975 2-LP (The
Third World, but still have no idea how she managed to arrange
those compositions into these pieces (adding her lyrics, or often
just scat), except to note that Nichols' legacy has long inspired
other geniuses (Misha Mengelberg, Steve Lacy, and Roswell Rudd leap
to mind). (By the way, I'm only now noticing that the original LPs
were in two volumes as The Prophetic Herbie Nichols, following
on The Amazing Bud Powell, The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson,
etc.; for CDs, look for The Complete Blue Note Recordings,
originally on Mosaic but reissued by Blue Note in 1997, and also look
out for his Bethlehem album, Love, Gloom, Cash, Love. A good
place to start for Nicols projects in Regeneration (1983),
with all three names I dropped above, but they've each done more,
as have many others.) Group here is superb, with Michaël Attias
(alto/baritone sax), Anthony Coleman (piano), Ratzo Harris (bass),
and Tom Rainey (drums). (Like Carter, she really knows how to work
a band.)
A [cd] [04-05]
Waxahatchee: Tigers Blood (2024, Anti-):
Singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, out of Alabama (Bandcamp
puts her in Kansas City), formerly of P.S. Eliot, also of Plains,
sixth Waxahatchee album since 2012, currently 4 on AOTY's "highest
rated albums of 2024" (86/26, more reviews than anyone above; fewer
than two other top-ten albums I don't particularly like). If I'm
being evasive here, it's probably because while the songs sound
good enough, I'm not connecting with them. Pehaps one to revisit
later?
B+(***) [sp]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
Sven-Åke Johansson und Alexander von Schlippenbach: Über
Ursache und Wirkung der Meinungsverschiedenheiten Beim Turmbau zu
Babel (1994 [2024], Trost): Swedish free jazz drummer, has
played in duos with the German pianist at least since 1976, their
relationship going back further in Globe Unity Orchestra. This
was billed as a "Musikdrama in einem Akt," with Shelley Hirsch
joining Johansson (who plays accordion) for vocals, and a small
group that includes piano, drums (Paul Lovens), reeds (Dietmar
Diesner and Wolfgang Fuchs), and cello (Tristan Honsinger). I
can't speak to the libretto, but the music is a riot.
B+(**) [bc]
Microstoria: Init Ding + _Snd (1995-96 [2024],
Thrill Jockey, 2CD): Electronica duo of Markus Popp (Oval) and
Jan St. Werner (Mouse on Mars), recorded six albums 1995-2002,
the first two reissued here. Not exactly ambient, but not much
to distinguish itself either.
B+(*) [sp]
Old music:
Guillermo Gregorio: Faktura (1999-2000 [2002],
Hat Now): Clarinet player from Argentina, then based in Chicago,
fairly minimal pieces, some trio with Carrie Biolo (vibes/marimba)
and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello), other guest spots including Jim
Baker (piano), Jeff Parker (guitar), Kyle Bruckmann (oboe), Jeb
Bishop (trombone), and François Houle (clarinet), with two
"concrete sound" interludes crediting engineer Lou Mallozzi.
B+(**) [sp]
Pauline Anna Strom: Trans-Millenia Consort (1982,
Ether Ship): Electronic music composer (1946-2020), synthesizers
and taped sounds, first album (of seven through 1988, was a "Reiki
master, spiritual counselor, and healer," so her music was part
and parcel of all that. This and two more albums were boxed up
for 2023's Echoes, Spaces, Lines, which is on Bandcamp but
Spotify only has the albums broken out, so we'll take them
one-by-one. Constructs a universe of peace and beauty, with few
distractions.
B+(***) [sp]
Pauline Anna Strom: Plot Zero (1982-83 [1983],
Trans-Millenia Consort): Further developing her sense of keyboard
rhythm, also spacey flights, with one unseemly crescendo detracting
from the soothing bliss.
A- [sp]
Pauline Anna Strom: Spectre (1982-83 [1984],
Trans-Millenia Consort): More of the same, seeming a bit less
wondrous, as tends to happen.
B+(**) [sp]
Pauline Anna Strom: Echoes, Spaces, Lines (1982-83
[2023], RVNG Intl, 4CD): This compiles her first three albums --
see above: Trans-Millenia Consort, Plot Zero, and
Spectre -- and adds two cuts (6:30) at the end, the extra
CD probably due to the reshuffling to also box the same music on
4-LP. I gave the second album a slight edge over the others, but
it's possible that the variations add up to something more than
the parts. (Also that the packaging helps, although I haven't
seen it. Note that the individual album remasters are available
separately, at least on Bandcamp.)
B+(***) [sp/bc]
Julia Vari: Adoro (2015, Alternativa Representa):
Mexican-American, not much on her but reportedly sings in eight
languages and plays piano, even less on this album -- just the
release date, a note that it's her second, and that there is a
4-song EP of the same name, but this has 10 songs, 45:09. Mostly
Spanish (presumably, at least nothing I recognize), some excellent
piano, a bit of nice sax.
B+(**) [sp]
Julia Vari: Lumea: Canciones del Mundo en Jazz
(2013, Alternativa Representa): This does seem to be her first
album. Credits would be helpful, but I can't find any -- other
than to note one standard in English, and at least one Jobim,
but most must be in Spanish. More notes: "multilingual
singer-songwriter and pianist"; "both albums soared to the top
of the jazz-blues charts in Latin America"; "divides her time
between Miami and Mexico City"; "BMI songwriter"; "performs
as a Headliner on luxury cruise lines."
B+(*) [sp]
Julia Vari: Bygone Nights (2018, Alternativa
Representa, EP): Four songs, 12:37, title song an original in
English, followed by two songs in Spanish I can trace back to
others ("Achupé," "Te Veo"), and a Latin twist on old Yiddish,
"Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen."
B+(*) [sp]
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Chet Baker & Jack Sheldon: In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album (1972, Jazz Detective) [04-20]
- John Basile: Heatin' Up (StringTime Jazz) [04-01]
- Nicola Caminiti: Vivid Tales of a Blurry Self-Portrait (self-released) [05-10]
- The Core: Roots (Moserobie) [04-12]
- Arnaud Dolmen/Leonardo Montana; LéNo (Quai Son) [03-29]
- Dave Douglas: Gifts (Greenleaf Music) [04-12]
- Yelena Eckemoff: Romance of the Moon (L&H Production) [05-10]
- Eric Frazier: That Place (EFP Productions) [03-29]
- Jazz at the Ballroom: Flying High: Big Band Canaries Who Soared (Jazz at the Ballroom) [05-03]
- Maria João & Carlos Bica Quartet: Close to You (JACC)
- Yusef Lateef: Atlantis Lullaby: The Concert From Avignon (1972, Elemental Music, 2CD) [04-26]
- Shawn Maxwell: J Town Suite (Cora Street) [05-01]
- Modney: Ascending Primes (Pyroclastic) [05-18]
- Mike Monford: The Cloth I'm Cut From (self-released) [05-04]
- Mute: After You've Gone (Endectomorph Music) * [05-13]
- The Michael O'Neill Sextet: Synergy: With Tony Lindsay (Jazzmo) [04-19]
- Sun Ra: At the Showcase: Live in Chicago 1976-1977 (Jazz Detective, 2CD) [04-20]
- Art Tatum: Jewels in the Treasure Box: The 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club Recordings (Resonance, 3CD) [04-20]
- Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy: The Mighty Warriors (1995, Elemental Music, 2CD): [04-20]
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Sunday, March 31, 2024
Speaking of Which
This is another week where I ran out of time before I ran out of
things I needed to look up. Further updates are possible, although
as I'm writing this, I'm pretty exhausted, so I'm tempted to call
it done.
First thing to add on Monday is: Jonathan Swan: [04-01]
Trump's call for Israel to 'finish up' war alarms some on the right:
Assuming this isn't an April Fool, as Israeli journalist Ariel Kahana
puts it, "Trump effectively bypassed Biden from the left, when he
expressed willingness to stop this war and get back to being the
great country you once were." As Trump put it, "You have to finish
up your war. You have to get it done. We have to get to peace. We
can't have this going on." Kahana continued:
"There's no way to beautify, minimize or cover up that problematic
message."
Trump aides insisted this was a misinterpretation. A campaign
spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said that Mr. Trump "fully supports
Israel's right to defend itself and eliminate the terrorist threat,"
but that Israel's interests would be "best served by completing this
mission as quickly, decisively and humanely as possible so that the
region can return to peace and stability."
Trump wants it both ways: he wants to be seen as tough as possible --
there is no indication that "finish it" couldn't include simply killing
everyone, but he recognizes that free time to do whatever Israel wants
is in limited supply. So is American patience, because it is finally
sinking in that this genocide is bad for America's relationships with
the world, not just for Israel.
The article includes a good deal about and from David M. Friedman,
who was Trump's ambassador to Israel, but could just as well be viewed
as Netanyahu's mole in the Trump administration.
Mr. Friedman has gone much further than Mr. Kushner, who seemed to
be only musing. Mr. Friedman has
developed a proposal for Israel to claim full sovereignty over
the West Bank -- definitively ending the possibility of a two-state
solution. West Bank Palestinians who have been living under Israeli
military occupation since 1967 would not be given Israeli citizenship
under the plan, Mr. Friedman confirmed in the interview.
Of course, Trump wouldn't put it that way -- he'd never admit to
going to the left of any "radical left Democrat," although he has
occasionally scored points by avoiding extreme right Republican
positions (like demolishing Social Security and Medicare). But
peace isn't a position exclusive to the left. The trick for Trump,
following Nixon in 1968, is to convince people that the tough guy
is the best option for "peace with honor." It's hard to see how
Trump can sustain that illusion, especially given that he has zero
comprehension of the problem, and nothing but counterproductive
reflexes. (Nixon didn't deliver either.)
Nathan Robinson
tweeted on this piece, adding:
I have this wild notion that Trump might conceivably run to Biden's
left on Israel-Palestine in the general election, like he did with
Hillary and Iraq.
Elsewhere, Robinson
noted:
Trump has always understood that the American people
don't care for war. That was crucial to his successful campaign against
Hillary in 2016. He's been unusually quiet for a Republican on
Israel-Palestine, probably in the hopes it will be a big disaster
for Biden.
I figured I'd add more to this post, but got bogged down with
Music Week,
then other things, so this will have to do. I doubt I'll get much
done over the next two or three weeks, as we have various company
coming and going. Not that there won't be lots to write about, as
Tuesday's Mondoweiss daily title makes clear: [04-02]
Israel kills 7 international aid workers in central Gaza, passes
law banning Al Jazeera.
Initial count is actually pretty substantial:
183 links, 9,891 words.
Updated count [04-02]: 196 links, 11,509 words.
Top story threads:
Israel:
Mondoweiss:
[03-25]
Day 171: 'Horrific' eyewitness accounts continue to emerge from
Israel's siege on Gaza's hospitals: "Eyewitness accounts
continue to emerge from Gaza's hospitals, including rape, torture,
mass executions, and soldiers crushing Palestinian bodies with
tanks. Hamas says Israel's systematic attack on hospitals is
central to its 'war of extermination.'"
[03-26]
Day 172: Israel continues raids on Gaza hospitals following UNSC
ceasefire resolution: "The UN Security Council finally passed a
resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, with the U.S.
abstaining from a vote. Netanyahu, however, has vowed to continue
the war, with Israeli forces currently attacking two major hospitals
in Gaza."
[03-27]
Day 173: Israel continues attacking Gaza's hospitals, kills 7 people
in Lebanon: "Following the UN Security Council ceasefire resolution,
Israel continued its attacks on Gaza hospitals, killing 76 Palestinians
across the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, in southern Lebanon, Israel killed 7
Lebanese people during cross-border fighting."
[03-28]
Day 174: Israel announces it has killed 200 Palestinians in its siege
of al-Shifa Hospital: "The Israeli army announced it has killed
200 Palestinians in al-Shifa Hospital and its vicinity since its second
raid on the hospital started 11 days ago. Meanwhile, Israeli media says
the military is preparing for the invasion of Rafah."
[03-29]
Day 175: ICJ orders Israel to stop famine in Gaza as Israel continues
to raid hospitals: "The International Court of Justice imposed
new provisional measures in South Africa's case against Israel for
its genocide in Gaza, ordering Israel to ensure the entry of food
and other supplies in order to stop the spreading famine."
[04-01]
Day 178: Israel withdraws from al-Shifa Hospital, leaving evidence
of a massacre in its wake: "Dozens of bodies are still being
recovered from the rubble of a destroyed and burnt al-Shifa Hospital,
following a two-week Israeli raid and siege on the hospital." After
missing over the weekend, this invaluable series returns.
- AlJazeera: For quite some time I've been leading off
with the daily logs published by Mondoweiss, but they didn't appear
on Saturday and Sunday, so let these fill in. You can search for
other possible daily updates, which
Google suggests includes: Palestine Chronicle, Haaretz, IMEMC,
Al Mayadeen, Palestine Chronicle, Times of Israel, Roya News, TASS,
Jerusalem Post, Al-Manar TV Lebanon, UNRWA. Other news organizations
that provide
live updates include: AlJazeera, CNN, Guardian, Washington Post,
New York Times, ABC, I24News, CNBC,
Middle East Monitor.
[03-30]
Day 176: List of key events: "Israeli attacks kill dozens of
Palestinians including 15 people at a sport centre where war-displaced
people were sheltering."
[03-31]
Day 177: List of key events: "Gaza's Media Office says Israel
has committed 'a new massacre' by bombing inside the walls of a
hospital in Deir el-Balah."
Kaamil Ahmed/Damien Gayle/Aseel Mousa: [03-29]
'Ecocide in Gaza': does scale of environmental destruction amount
to a war crime?: "Satellite analysis revealed to the Guardian
shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territory's trees
razed. Alongside mounting air and water pollution, experts say
Israel's onslaught on Gaza's ecosystems has made the area unlivable."
Let's say this loud: This is one of the most significant pieces
of reporting yet on the war. War crime? Sure, but specifically
this is compelling proof of intent, as well as fact, of genocide.
The purpose of ecocide is to kill, perhaps less directly than bombs
but more systematically, more completely. And driving people away?
Sure, Israel will settle for that, especially as they're making it
impossible for people who flee to return.
Before this war, I must admit that I pictured Gaza as this chunk
of desert totally covered by urban sprawl: you know, Manhattan's
population in an area only slightly larger. Ever since the Nakba
swept a couple hundred thousand Palestinians into refugee camps
there, Gaza has had to import food. But any food they struggled to
produce locally helped, especially as the population grew, and as
Israel, as they liked to boast, "put Gaza on a diet." So small
farms helped, and greenhouses even more. Israel has gone way out
of their way to destroy food sources, much as they've destroyed
utilities, hospitals, housing. While the news focuses on the top
line deaths figure -- well over 30,000 but still, I'm sure, quite
seriously undercounted -- Israel has shifted focus to long-term
devastation.
Ammiel Alcalay: [03-26]
Israel's lethal charade hides its real goals in plain sight:
"Forget Israel's stated goals about destroying Hamas. Its real,
undeclared goal has always been to make Gaza uninhabitable and
destroy as many traces of Palestinian life as possible."
Nada Almadhoun: [03-26]
A volunteer doctor in Gaza faces her patients' traumas along with her
own: "I am in my final year in medical school and have seen hundreds
of critical cases as a volunteer doctor during Israel's genocidal assault
on Gaza. The traumas I have seen in my patients are no different from
those I have experienced myself."
Zack Beauchamp: [03-29]
The crisis that could bring down Benjamin Netantyahu, explained:
"Netanyahu has till Sunday evening to present a fix to Israel's
controversial conscription law. If he fails, his government likely
fails with him." Genocide isn't controversial, but this [drafting
yeshiva students] is? Actually, special status for ultra-orthodox
Jews has been a fault line in Israeli politics ever since 1948 --
arguably Ben-Gurion's biggest mistake was bringing them into his
government. But the stakes over conscription has grown over time,
and are especially acute in times of high mobilization, like now.
Sheera Frenkel: [03-27]
Israel deploys expansive facial recognition program in Gaza.
They've been doing this in the West Bank for some time. Israel is
also developing an export business for surveillance technology,
handy for authoritarian regimes everywhere. Some earlier reports
on this:
Tareq S Hajjaj: [03-25]
The story of Yazan Kafarneh, the boy who starved to death in Gaza.
Ghada Hania: [03-30]
'No, dear. I will never leave Gaza.'
Ellen Ioanes/Nicole Narea: [03-25]
Gaza's risk of famine is accelerating faster than anything we've seen
in this century: "Everyone in Gaza is facing crisis levels of
hunger. It's entirely preventable." In case you're wondering where
he ever got such idea, Israel negotiated the exile of PLO members
from Beirut, putting them on ships, most heading to Tunisia. Before
that, British ships transferred large number of Palestinians from
Jaffa to Beirut. So that's one thing the pier could be used for --
if the US can line up anywhere to deposit the refugees.
Chris Hedges: [03-18]
Israel's Trojan Horse: "The 'temporary pier' being built on the
Mediterranean coast of Gaza is not there to alleviate the famine,
but to herd Palestinians onto ships and into permanent exile."
Ameer Makhoul: [03-25]
While eyes are on Rafah, Israel is cementing control of northern
Gaza: "Israel is building infrastructure to carve up Gaza,
prevent the return of displaced Palestinians, and change the
geographical and demographic facts on the ground."
Orly Noy: [03-23]
Hebrew University's faculty of repressive science: "The suspension
of Palestinian professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian empties all meaning
from the university's proclaimed values of pluralism and equality."
Jonathan Ofir: [03-26]
Another Israeli soldier admits to implementing the 'Hannibal Directive'
on October 7: "Captain Bar Zonshein recounts firing tank shells
on vehicles carrying Israeli civilians on October 7. 'I decide that
this is the right decision, that it's better to stop the abduction
and that they not be taken,' he told Israeli media outlets."
Meron Rapoport: [03-29]
Why do Israelis feel so threatened by a ceasefire? "Halting the
Gaza war means recognizing that Israel's military goals were
unrealistic -- and that it cannot escape a political process with
the Palestinians."
Israel vs. world opinion:
Gilbert Achcar: [03-30]
The US administration's hypocrisy and Israel's cockiness.
Michael Arria: [03-28]
The Shift: 'What the hell is the point of the UN or the UN Security
Council?': "On Monday the UN Security Council passed a resolution
calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The U.S. didn't veto it
but don't count on policy changes."
Perry Bacon Jr: [03-26]
These progressives were right about Gaza. Now it could cost them their
seats. That's because AIPAC is pouring millions of dollars into
primaries against them. The ploy has worked often enough that most
Democrats are wary of ever crossing Israel, even though most voters
have long supported a ceasefire.
James Carden/Kelley Beaucar Vlahos: [03-28]
Is it a mystery? Where Trump stands on Israel-Gaza war: "His
past record and 'finish it up' comments today suggest a hard line,
though he leaves just a sliver of ambiguity."
Aida Chavez: [03-27]
Don't believe the hype -- Biden's Israel policy hasn't changed.
Juan Cole:
Julia Conley: [03-27]
State Dept. official quits in protest of Biden's Gaza policy:
"Trying to advocate for human rights just became impossible,"
Annelle Sheline says. More:
Sarah Dadouch: [03-28]
Jordan's government struggles to contain unrest as Gaza protests
grow.
Matt Duss: [03-27]
The obstacle Chuck Schumer left out of his big Israel speech:
AIPAC.
Richard Falk: [02-25]
In Gaza, the west is enabling the most transparent genocide in human
history: Most historical genocides have been well hidden from
public scrutiny, leaving one to wonder whether timely exposure might
have changed their course. While Israel has done much to cloud Gaza
from clear view, ranging from killing journalists and shutting down
Internet in Gaza to flooding the West with propaganda ranging from
ordinary spin to outrageous lies, the broad shape of Israel's attack
and the genocidal intent of its leaders has been clearly reported
(at least for anyone who cared to look). Nonetheless: "Liberal
democracies failed not only by their refusal to make active efforts
to prevent genocide, but more brazenly by openly facilitating
continuation of the genocidal onslaught."
John Hudson: [03-29]
US signs off on more bombs, warplanes for Israel: "Despite a widening
rift with the Israeli government, the Biden administration continues to
authorize the transfer of 2,000-pound bombs and other weapons." So,
"Genocide Joe" it still is.
Caitlin Johnstone: [03-29]
Israel supporters true colors: Discredit, censor, control the
narrative: "That's why Israel supporters push so hard to
de-platform and censor and to get TikTok shut down: all they care
about is controlling the public narrative."
Tariq Kenney-Shawa: [03-14]
Israeli Partisans' use of disinformation.
Branko Marcetic: [03-29]
Biden is undermining the UN to protect Israel's war.
Qassam Muaddi: [03-29]
Security Council ceasefire resolution brings 'little hope' to Gaza as
Israeli genocide rages on.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: [03-25]
The US must stop facilitating mass killing in Gaza.
John Peeler: [03-29]
Gaza: A century's tragedy plays out: "Biden has thus far not chosen
to use the leverage he has as Israel's principal source of arms and
finance. So Netanyahu continues to ignore the US misgivings."
Bryan Pietsch: [03-27]
Most Americans oppose Israel's war in Gaza, poll finds.
Mitchell Plitnick: [03-29]
How Netanyahu will use the UN ceasefire resolution to prolong Gaza's
genocide: "The question for the Biden administration was how to
find a way to make a public statement to give the illusion of real
action to rein Israel in while actually changing nothing on the
ground. This resolution does that."
William I Robinson: [03-23]
Israel has formed a task force to carry out covert campaigns at US
universities: "A major Israeli news site says Israel's foreign
affairs and diaspora affairs ministries are behind the operation."
Kenneth Roth: [03-26]
Israel's attempt to destroy UNRWA is part of its starvation strategy
in Gaza.
Atef Said: [03-31]
Egypt has betrayed Palestinians in their time of greatest need:
"The Egyptian government has expressed rhetorical support for Palestinians
but is complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza."
Abdullah Shihipar/Brandon Marshall/Jacqueline Gold: [03-27]
We study America's biggest public health crisis. This is why we speak
out against the Gaza genocide.
Norman Solomon: [03-28]
Hollywood's backlash to Jonathan Glazer's Oscar speech only proves
his point.
Mary Turfah: [03-31]
Atrocity propaganda vs. the testimony of atrocity: "Since October
7, Zionists have wielded atrocity propaganda to justify genocide, while
Palestinians have shared testimony of the atrocities they have witnessed.
The difference is not just in the truth of these stories, but also their
function."
Philip Weiss:
America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire:
Ben Armbruster: [03-28]
Why no one should take this hawkish think tank seriously: Mark
Dubowitz, CEO of Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD).
Tom Engelhardt:
[03-24]
A slow-motion World War III? "Imperial decline (up close and
personal) in the age of climate change."
[03-31]
Chalmers Johnson, Ending the Empire. Reprints a long and
important essay from 2007, but so long after the author's death,
I'd rather attribute this to the author of the new introduction.
Johnson's essays and books have held up remarkably well over
the years: Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American
Empire (2000; revised 2004); The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism,
Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (2004); and Nemesis:
The Last Days of the American Republic (2007). His essays
made sufficient impact on me that when I collected my Bush-era
blog posts, I titled them
The Last Days of the American
Empire: 2000-2009.
Julia Gledhill/William D Hartung: [03-26]
Spending unlimited: The Pentagon's budget follies come at a
high price. The Pentagon's latest budget is $895 billion,
which doesn't count, well, lots of related and consequent
costs.
Jim Lobe: [03-26]
Pro-Israel org reels in big fish: A former CENTCOM commander:
Frank McKenzie, now officially employed by the "Likud-aligned"
Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA).
Steven Simon: [03-19]
Tom Friedman's strange case for a US military presence in Syria:
"The NYT columnist is still peddling the old 'we're fighting them
there so we don't have to here' chestnut."
Election notes:
Nicole Narea: [03-26]
Should we care about RFK Jr. and his new running mate? "The Kennedy
conspiracy theorist, his VP pick Nicole Shanahan, and their potential
to upend the 2024 presidential election, explained."
Related:
Alex Shephard:
Why Democrats shouldn't worry about RFK Jr.: "Kennedy's choice of
running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is the strongest evidence yet that his
campaign is desperate and unserious."
Nia Prater: [03-28]
What we know about RFK Jr.'s VP candidate, Nicole Shanahan.
Mother a Chinese immigrant, grew up poor, majored in Asian Studies,
then got a law degree and founded a tech company. Married into a
lot of money, divorced four years later, keeping enough to hold
considerable swap over RFK Jr., who didn't exactly earn his way
either. Donated to Pete Buttigieg in 2020, marking her has a
Democrat (but not much of one).
Brittany Gibson: [03-28]
RFK Jr's vice presidential pick calls IVF 'one of the biggest lies
being told about women's health'. After Alabama, this doesn't
strike me as a very savvy introductory political ploy. For more on
how IVF is playing politically:
Madison Fernandez/Ursula Perano/Ally Mutnick: [03-27]
What the IVF fight means for the battle for control of Congress.
Trump, and other Republicans:
Zack Beauchamp: [03-28]
How MAGA broke the media.
Jonathan Chait: [03-30]
Republican billionaires no longer upset about insurrection: "The
absurd rationalizations of Trump's oligarchs."
Chas Danner: [03-30]
Trump is into kidnapped Biden shibari: Refers to "a truck tailgate
meme about kidnapping President Joe Biden, tying him up with rope, and
tossing him in the back of a pickup." Trump seems to approve.
Igor Derysh:
Tim Dickinson: [03-25]
'Bloodbath,' 'vermin,' 'dictator' for a day: A guide to Trump's
fascist rhetoric.
Liza Featherstone:
Donald Trump's crusade against electric vehicles is getting racist.
Francesca Fiorentini: [03-29]
Handmaids of the patriarchy: "Republicans offer a lesson in how
not to win women back to their party."
Shane Goldmacher/Maggie Haberman: [03-26]
Trump isn't reaching out to Haley and her voters. Will it matter?
Link to this article was more explicit, quoting Steve Bannon: "Screw
Nikki Haley -- we don't need her endorsement." But as the article
notes, many Republicans who once grumbled about Trump wound up
"bending the knee."
Sarah Jones: [03-29]
The time Trump wished everyone a 'Happy Good Friday': "Trump
doesn't have to be pious. He doesn't have to understand what holy
days mean to his supposed co-religionists. He just has to infuriate
their enemies -- and he's good at that."
Robert Kuttner: [03-27]
The corrupt trifecta of Yass, Trump, and Netanyahu: "Yass's
payoffs to Trump are part of his efforts to destroy democracy in
the US and Israel, while helping China."
Adam Lashinsky: [03-25]
Trump's new stock deal is just another pig in a poke:
I don't give investment advice. But I assure you that a company
with $3.4 million in revenue and $49 million in losses over the
past nine months is not worth $5 billion. Buy into shares of any
company with those numbers and you are certain to be taken for
a sucker.
That Donald Trump will be the one doing the bamboozling means
that investors in his public media company might as well be making
a political donation to his campaign or contributing to a Trump
legal defense fund instead.
Julianne Malveaux: [03-31]
Those ridiculous retiring Republicans: Four Republican Reps have
resigned this year -- Kevin McCarthy (CA), Bill Johnson (OH), Ken Buck
(CO), and Mike Gallagher (WS) -- unable to cope with a party that eats
its own.
Andrew Marantz: [03-27]
Why we can't stop arguing about whether Trump is a fascist:
Review of a new book on the question, Did It Happen Here?
Perspectives on Fascism and America, edited by Daniel
Steinmetz-Jenkins. Without having read the book, I can probably
rattle off a dozen arguments for and against, but to matter, you
not only have to have some historical background but also an
interest in certain possible political dynamics and outcomes --
which makes it a question those on the left are both inclined
to ask and answer affirmatively: from where we stand, knowing
what we know, Trump and his movement are indeed very fascist,
at least inasmuch as they hate us and wish to see us destroyed,
as have all fascists before them. However, that's mostly useful
just to us, to whom labeling someone a fascist suffices as a
sophisticated and damning critique. Others' mileage may vary,
depending on what other questions they are concerned with, and
how Trump aligns or differs from his fascist forebears. One such
question is does knowing whether Trump is a fascist help you to
oppose him? It probably does within the left, but not so much
with others.
Amanda Marcotte: [03-26]
Trump loves to play the victim -- NY appeals court bailout shows he's
the most coddled person alive: "There appears to be no end of
breaks for a spoiled rich boy who has never done a decent thing in
his 77 years."
Dana Milbank: [03-29]
Trump can't remember much. He hopes you won't be able to, either.
Too bad Trump's opponent doesn't seem to have the recall and articulation
to remind people.
Ruth Murai: [03-30]
Donald Trump stoops to lowest low yet with violent post of Biden:
"Let's call it what it is: stochastic terrorism."
Timothy Noah:
Trump's unbearable temptation to dump his Truth Social stock:
"Would he really screw over MAGA investors to cover his gargantuan
legal debts? Don't bet against it."
Rick Perlstein: [03-27]
The Swamp; or, inside the mind of Donald Trump: "His orations
about migrants are a pastiche of others' golden oldies. Exhibit A:
the lie that migrants are sent from prisons and mental institutions."
Catherine Rampell:
[03-25]
Two myths about Trump's civil fraud trial: So, after a judge
cut down and postponed the full bond requirement that every other
defendant has had to live with, Trump "shall live to grift another
day." The myths?
First, that Trump's white-collar cases are "victimless" and therefore
not worth enforcement. And second, that every lawsuit and charge
against him plays into his persecution narrative, thereby strengthening
him as a presidential candidate.
Both criticisms are off-base, at least in a society that values
rule of law.
[03-29]
The internet was supposed to make humanity smarter. It's failing.
I wasn't sure where to file this, but a quick look at her examples
of internet stupidity led me to the simplest conclusion, which is
under her other article on Trump. But I'm tempted to argue that the
problem is less the internet than who "we" are. I personally haven't
the faintest sense that the internet has made me dumber. I use it to
fact check myself dozens of times each week, which I couldn't have
done before it. This very column is ample evidence of the internet's
ability to make extraordinary amount of information widely available.
I couldn't do what I do without it. Indeed, I couldn't know what I
know. There are problems, of course. The internet is an accelerator
of all kinds of information, right and wrong, good and bad, or just
plain frivolous. It's also a great diffuser, scattering information
so widely that few people have common references. (Unlike when I was
growing up, and everyone knew Edward Murrow, and a few of us even
knew I.F. Stone.) Of course, those properties sound more neutral
than they are. The internet can be viewed as a market, which has
been severely skewed to favor private interests over public ones.
That's something we need to work on.
Eugene Robinson: [03-28]
Trump's Bible grift is going to backfire: I think his reasoning --
"some of them might actually read it" is way off base. I mean, who
actually reads the Bible? I never did. I'm not sure I knew anyone
who did. I remember being shocked when I found out it was included
in the list of the "Great Books" curriculum: the very idea that you
could just sit down or curl up and read it through, like Plato's
Republic and Dante's Inferno. All we ever did was
hunt for quotes -- preferably short ones -- that we could use as
an authority, because that's what everyone used the Bible for.
And even if your quote-hunting goes long and deep, it's not like
you're open to discovery; it's usually just confirmation bias. So
no, I don't think there's any reason to think that people fool
enough to buy a Bible from Trump are going to wise up. The best
I'm hoping for is that they become embarrassed at having fallen
for such an obvious con.
Chauncey DeVega: [03[31]
The "martyrdom" of Donald J Trump: "It's all slapstick comedy:
Posing as a Christ-like figure is so outlandish and absurd."
Amanda Marcotte: [03-28]
Trump Bibles make a mockery of Christianity -- and that's exactly
why MAGA will eat them up.
Michael Tomasky:
Trump's Bible stunt isn't brilliant. It's insanely desperate.
You have this guy who's most attractive brand is that he's so insanely
rich that, walking on air above the dismal swamp, he can't be bought,
yet he can't resist truly petty scams to profit off his name -- not
just the Bibles and the sneakers, but also things that aren't even
things, like NFTs. It's really rather shocking that he has no one who
can recognize when he's about to embarrass himself so, but he's worked
very hard to only keep total flatterers on hand, insulated by shields
that deny any credibility to the outside world. He's really deep in
"Emperor's New Clothes" territory.
Jennifer Rubin:
[03-20]
We ignore Trump's defects at our peril: An obvious point, but
not just the defects -- the whole package is profoundly disturbing.
I included this column for the title, but it's mostly a q&a,
starting with one about the Schumer speech calling for new elections
in Israel, which she answers with a real howler: "The United States
and Israel generally avoid influencing each other's domestic politics,
so this was quite a shock to some." Ever hear of Sheldon Adelson?
Granted, it's mostly Israel interfering with America -- maybe AIPAC
has American figureheads, but they always march to the orders of
whoever's in power in Israel -- but I can think of examples, even
if they're mostly more subtle than Schumer.
[03-24]
Other than Trump, virtually no one was doing better four years ago.
By the way, this is a bullshit metric. It was pushed hard by Reagan
in 1984, knowing that America had been mired in a Fed-induced recession
in 1980, but was then rebounding as interest rates dropped. Carter wasn't
blameless for the recession -- he had, after all, appointed Volcker --
and Reagan did goose the recovery with his budget-busting tax cuts and
military spending, but that's overly simplistic. Same today, although
the depths of the 2020 recession were so severe that Biden couldn't help
but look good in comparison. That, as Rubin notes, some people can't see
that is a problem, potentially a big one if amnesia and delusion lead
to a second Trump term. So yeah, Democrats need to remind us of Trump's
massive failures, and real things accomplished under Biden (even though
many of them, like infrastructure, haven't had much impact yet).
But we
should be aware of two flaws in the argument: one is that it takes a
long time to fully understand the impact of a presidency; the other is
that one's personal effect is often misleading. Personally, I did great
during the Reagan years, but maybe being 30-38 had something to do with
that? But we now know that the most significant political change was
the uncoupling of wages and productivity increases -- something that
was made possible by a major shift of leverage from labor to business --
which more than any other factor (including tax cuts and growing trade
deficits) massively increased inequality. I didn't fully understand
that at the time, but I did detect that something had gone terribly
wrong, when I would quip that America's only growth industry was
fraud. While I could point to a number of examples at the time, it
took longer to realize that Bill Clinton was one of them -- a point
that many Democrats still haven't wised up to. But even today, some
people can't even see the fraud Trump peddles.
Margaret Sullivan:
Sophia Tesfaye: [03-31]
Trump unloads on Republican "cowards and weaklings" in Easter Sunday
meltdown.
Katrina vanden Heuvel: [02-27]
If Trump wins, he'll be a vessel for the most regressive figures
in US politics: "A Trump presidency would usher in dark
consortium dedicated to stripping millions of Americans of our
freedoms."
Amy B Wang/Marianne LeVine: [03-27]
Trump has sold $60 bibles, $399 sneakers and more since leaving
office.
George F Will: [03-29]
These two GOP Senate candidates exemplify today's political squalor:
Kari Lake (AZ) and Bernie Moreno (OH). This is a tough read, and I'm
not sure it's all that rewarding -- e.g., he refers to Moreno's opponent,
Sherrod Brown, as "a progressive reliably wrong -- and indistinguishable
from Trump," as he tries to find the most extremely right-wing vantage
point possible from which to attack Republicans like Trump who aren't
pure enough. But at least from that perspective, Will doesn't imagine
pro-business Democrats to be "radical communists."
For what it's worth, I regard Will as the most despicable of all
the Washington Post columnists -- a group that once included Charles
Krauthammer and still gives space to Marc Thiessen -- his interest
in baseball has always been genuine and occasionally thoughtful.
I'm not up for this at the moment, but if you're so inclined:
You can't get thrown out for thinking, so take a swing at George
Will's baseball quiz. (I might have once, but question 2 offers
as an option a player I've never heard of: Adam Dunn, who it turns
out hit 462 home runs, but clearly isn't the answer. Despite that
bit of ignorance, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten that question
right. I suspect I could figure out most of the combinations, but
most of the rest are too obscure even for me in my prime.)
Amanda Yen: [03-31]
Trump just won't stop attacking hush-money judge's daughter:
"It's the fourth time he's gone after Judge Juan Merchan's daughter
in the past week."
Biden and/or the Democrats:
Eugene Daniels/Alexander Ward/Jonathan Lemire: [03-26]
Harris finds herself, often, a half step further than Biden on
Israel: "The administration says there's no daylight between
her and the president's Israel stances." This suggests that she's
saying what they agreed they need to say, while Biden slips up
and reverts to his customary obeisance.
Igor Derysh: [03-27]
Democrat wins Alabama special election in red district after
campaigning on abortion rights and IVF: Marilyn Lands, who won
Alabama House District 10.
Jonathan Guyer: [03-28]
How Biden boxed himself in on Gaza: "The president draws on 50
years of unflagging support for Israel, and not even a humanitarian
crisis can dislodge him from that viewpoint."
Tom Hastings: [03-31]
How Biden is wrecking everything: A little tongue-in-cheek.
"Contrast that to how Trump saved America."
Toluse Olorunnipa: [03-29]
At glitzy Biden fundraiser, three presidents unite to blast Trump:
And to be blasted by protesters, at an event the "Biden campaign says
brought in more than $26 million."
Andrew Prokop: [03-28]
Is Biden on track for defeat? The debate, explained. I think this
is mostly bullshit. Both sides still have a long time to make what
should be fairly simple cases, and any jockeying along the way isn't
likely to matter much. The ultimate question will be which candidate
do you want to put out to pasture and be done with the most. Biden's
big advantage is that even if he wins, his second term will mostly
be invisible, with not much happening (other than the odd disaster).
On the other hand, if Trump wins, he's going to be in your face every
fucking day -- and figure on disasters being much more frequent and
severe, because Republicans don't believe in prevention, or in fixing
things afterwards.
Legal matters and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Nick Dearden: [03-28]
The global laws that help corporations block climate change.
Jennifer Hassan: [03-30]
Fears of environmental disaster rise as ship sinks after Houthi
attack.
Umair Irfan: [03-29]
Why fossil fuel producers are oddly optimistic in the climate change
era: "Coal, oil, and natural gas producers have found their vision
for a low-carbon world."
Jeff Jones/Eleanor Stein: [03-25]
The single most important thing President Biden can do for the climate
is enforce an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
Kylie Mohr: [03-28]
Yes, even most temperate landscapes in the US can and will burn:
"Wildfire risk is increasing everywhere, especially in the East and
South."
Edgar Sandoval/Colbi Edmonds/Emma Goldberg: [03-31]
Travelers stranded by highway collapse begin to leave Big Sur:
"About 2,000 motorists, mostly tourists, were stuck in the area on
Saturday night after a section of Highway 1 fell into the ocean."
Mitch Smith/Catrin Einhorn: [03-29]
Iowa fertilizer spill kills nearly all fish across 60-mile stretch of
rivers: Pic shows the Nishnabotna, but it flows into the Missouri,
which flows into the Mississippi, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico,
which in turn feeds the Gulf Stream, so, you know, dilution helps, but
this isn't done yet.
Economic matters:
Dean Baker: Sorry for the bits, here and elsewhere,
where sentences tend to tumble down hills as each clause reveals a
premise that you should know but probably don't, hence requiring
another and another. I know that proper form is to start from the
premises and build your way up, but that's a lot of work, often
winding up with many more points than the one you wanted to make.
I do that a lot, but two examples here are especially egregious:
each could be turned into a substantial essay (but who wants to
read, much less write, one of those?).
[03-26]
Relitigating the pandemic: School closings and vaccine sharing.
There's been a constant refrain about how school closings have
irrevocably stunted the intellectual growth of children. Baker
mostly checks their math, rather than taking on the bigger issue
of whether the nose-to-the-grindstone cult that took over policy
control under the guise of "No Child Left Behind" (which, sure,
wasn't all that different from the "rote learning" that dominated
the first century of mass education, and like all test-driven
regimes was all about leaving children behind, at least once
their basic indoctrination has been accomplished -- the whole
point of mass education in the first point [see Michael B Katz:
The Irony of Early School Reform]).
At some point, I should write more about education, including
how hard I find it to reconcile my political belief in universal
free education with my grim view of what we might call our
actually-existing system. For now, I'll just point out that
Astra Taylor's brilliant section on curiosity in her book
The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart.
Fifty-some years ago, I tried to figure out why my own educational
experience had been so disastrous, which led me through books like
those by Katz (op. cit.), Paul Goodman (Compulsory Mis-Education
and the Community of Scholars), Paulo Freire (Pedagogy of the
Oppressed), and Charles Weingarten and Neal Postman's Teaching
as a Subversive Activity.
Baker then goes on to talk about America's peculiar system for
developing vaccines against Covid-19, which was to focus on the
most expensive, most technically sophisticated, and (to a handful
of private investors) most profitable system possible, making it
unlikely that the world could share the benefits. It is some kind
of irony that America ultimately suffered more from the pandemic
than any other "developed" nation -- other aspects of our highly
politicized profit-driven health care system saw to that, but it
was by design that in every segment the poor would suffer worst,
in health, and indeed in education.
[03-27]
There ain't no libertarians, just politicians who want to give all
the money to the rich. Responding to the Wallace-Wells column
on Argentina's new president, Javier Milei -- you may recall that
before he was elected, I predicted he'd quickly become the worst
president anywhere in the world; let's just say he's still on that
trajectory, although he's been slowed down a bit by the gravity of
reality, so he's not yet as bad as he would be if he had more power
(a phenomenon I trust you observed close enough with Donald Trump):
Baker explains:
The piece talked about how Milei calls himself as an anarchist, with
the government just doing basic functions, like defending the country
and running the criminal justice system. Otherwise, Milei would
eliminate any role for government, if he had his choice.
It is humorous to hear politicians make declarations like this.
As a practical matter, almost all of these self-described anarchists
would have a very large role for the government. What they want to do
is to write the rules in ways that sends income upwards and then just
pretend it is the natural order of things.
The "natural order of things" is what conservatives are all about,
as long as they're the ones on top of the totem pole. The more common
word used for Milei is libertarian, which is how people on top like
to think of themselves as being free (they turn conservative when
they look down, and realize that their freedom depends on repressing,
even enslaving, others). Michael Lind was onto something when he said
that libertarianism had actually been tested historically; we tend to
forget that, because the term at the time was feudalism. Charles Koch
is the great American libertarian -- I know more about his fantasy
world than most, because I used to typset books for him during his
Murray Rothbard period -- and no one more exemplifies a feudal lord.
Baker goes on to reiterate his usual shtick starting with patents,
continuing on to a pitch for his book,
Rigged
(free online, and worth the time).
[03-28]
Profits are still rising, why is the Fed worried about wage growth?
[03-29]
Social Security retirement age has already been raised to 67.
[03-31]
Do we need to have a Cold War with China?: Responds to a Paul
Krugman column --
Bidenomics is making China angry. That's okay. -- that I didn't
see much point of including on its own. Much more detail here worth
reading, but here's the end:
The basic point here is that we should care a lot about our relations
with China. That doesn't mean we should structure our economy to make
its leaders happy. We need to implement policies that support the
prosperity and well-being of people in the United States. But we also
need to try to find ways to cooperate with China in areas where it is
mutually beneficial, and we certainly should not be looking for ways
to put a finger in their eye.
Ryan Cooper: [02-07]
Why were inflation hawks wrong? "Economists like Larry Summers
predicted that bringing inflation down would require a large increase
in unemployment. It didn't."
Inequality.org: [03-24]
Total US billionaire wealth is up 88 percent over four years.
David Moscrop: [03-29]
Welcome to a brave new world of price gouging: "Sellers have
always had access to more information than buyers, and 'dynamic
pricing,' which harnesses the power of algorithms and big data,
is supercharging this asymmetry."
Alex Moss/Timi Iwayemi: [03-29]
Senators' latest attempt to enrich Big Pharma must not prevail:
"Patents are meant to encourage actual innovation, not monster
corporate profits." Given how little bearing patents have on actual
innovation, you'd think that argument would have dropped by the
wayside, but the profits are so big those who seek them will say
anything.
Kenny Stancil: [03-27]
Jerome Powell's fingerprints are on the next banking crisis:
"Not only did Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's post-2016
regulatory rollbacks and supervisory blunders contribute significantly
to the 2023 banking crisis, his current opposition to stronger capital
requirements is setting the stage for the next crisis."
Yanis Varoufakis: [03-28]
"Debt is to capitalism what Hell is to Christianity": Interview
by David Broder with the Greek economist, who has a new film series
where he explains "how elites used the financial crisis to terrorize
Europe's populations into submission."
Ukraine War: Further details, blame, and other
ruminations about the Moscow theatre terror attack have been moved to
a following section. Worth noting here that if you're a war architect
in Kyiv or Moscow (or Washington), the terror attack is bound to look
like a second front, even if the two are unconnected. With the war
hopelessly stalemated, both sides are looking for openings away from
the front: Russia has increased drone attacks in Ukrainian cities
far from the front (in one case, infringing on Polish air space);
Ukraine has also sent drones over the Russian border, as well as
picked off targets in Crimea and the Black Sea, and seems to have
some capacity for clandestine operations within Russia. The result
has been a dangerous bluring of respect for "red lines," which
could quickly turn catastrophic (nuclear weapons and power plants
are the obvious threats, but lesser-scale disasters are possible,
and could quickly turn into chain reactions).
The only possible answer has always been to negotiate a truce which
both sides can live with, preferably consistent with the wishes of the
people most directly affected (which in the case of Crimea and most of
Donbas means ethnic Russians who had long opposed Ukraine's drift to
the West). Also, the Biden administration needs to discover where
America's real interests lie, which is in peace and cooperation
with all nations. The idea that the US benefits by degrading and
isolating Russia is extremely short-sighted. (Ditto for China, Iran,
and many others the self-appointed hyper-super-duper-power thinks
it's entitled to bully.)
Connor Echols: [03-29]
Diplomacy Watch: NATO, Russia inch closer to confrontation.
David Ignatius:
[03-29]
Zelensky: 'We are trying to find some way not to retreat'.
Even with the most sympathetic interviewer in the world, he's
starting to sound pathetic. For another example of Ignatius
trying to champion a loser, see:
[03-19]
Liz Cheney still plays to make a difference in the election.
Sorry for the disrespect -- I do have some, for Zelensky and
Cheney (though maybe not for Ignatius), but I couldn't resist
the line. Both have maneuvered themselves into positions that
appear principled but are untenable, with their options limited
on both ends. Zelensky's matters much more. When he was elected,
he had to make a choice, either to try to lead a reduced but
still substantial nation into Europe and peace, or fight to
regain territories that had always opposed the European pivot.
He chose the latter, and failed: the chances of him winning any
substantial amount of territory back are very slim, while the
costs of continuing the war are daunting (even if the US and
Europe can continue to support him, which is becoming less
certain). But if he's willing to cut his losses, the deal to
end the war is distasteful but pretty straightforward. And so
is the entry of the Ukraine that he still controls into Europe.
Of course, doing so will disappoint the war party (especially
Ignatius, and count Cheney in there, too). As for Cheney, I
don't see any options. She has no popular support to maneuver,
and no real moral authority either.
Robert Kagan: [03-28]
Trump's anti-Ukraine view dates to the 1930s. America rejected it
then. Will we now? The dean of neocon warmongers tries to pull
a fast one on you. While there is some similarity between Trump's
MAGA minions and Nazi sympathizers of the late 1930s -- still not
as obvious as the direct line between Fred and Donald Trump -- the
much derided "isolationists" of the pre-WWII period spanned the
whole political spectrum, as they were rooted in the traditional
American distrust of standing armies and foreign entanglements,
along with hardly-isolationist ideas like the Monroe Doctrine and
the Open Door Policy.
Such views weren't rejected: even Roosevelt
respected them until Japan and Germany declared war, forcing the
US to join WWII. As the war turned, some highly-placed Americans
saw the opportunity (or in some cases the necessity) of extending
military and economic power around the globe, especially seeing
as how Europe would no longer be able to dominate Africa and Asia,
especially with communists, who had taken the lead in fighting the
Axis powers, spearheading national liberation movements.
The elites who promoted American hegemony had first to win the
political argument at home. They did this by branding those who
had rejected Wilson's League of Nations as "isolationists," the
implication being that their opposition was responsible for World
War's return, and by stirring up a "red scare," which played the
partition of Europe, the revolution in China, and the Korean War
into a colossal Cold War struggle, while also helping right-wingers
at home demolish the labor movement, and turning American foreign
policy into a perpetual warmaking machine. Kagan, like his father
and his wife, is a major cog in that machine, as should be obvious
here.
Joshua Keating: [03-28]
Therer's a shadow fleet sneaking Russian oil around the world. It's
an ecological disaster waiting to happen. "The world's next big
maritime catastrophe could involve sanctions-dodging rustbuckets."
Not something the Ukraine hawks will ever think to worry about, but
sounds to me like another good reason to settle real soon now.
Blaise Malley: [03-25]
Would House approve 'loaning' rather than giving Ukraine aid?:
"There's a new plan afoot to do just that, even if Kyiv cannot repay
it."
Jeffrey Sachs: [03-25]
Crude rhetoric can lead us to war: "The US, Russia, and China
must engage in serious diplomacy now. Name calling and personal
insults do nothing for the peace effort. They only bring us closer
to war."
Putin and Bush shared a common bond, and a temporary alliance,
in the early 2000s, as both were struck by "terror attacks" from
Islamic groups, blowback to their nations' long historical efforts
to dominate and/or exploit Muslims (which for Russia goes back to
wars against Turks and Mongols, extending to Russia's conquest of
the Caucusus and Central Asia, their Great Game with the UK, later
replaced by the US; for Americans it's mostly been driven by oil
and Israel since WWII, although the legacy of the Crusades still
pops up here and there). In recent years, Russia's "war on terror"
has taken a back seat to its war in Ukraine, but the problem flared
up again when gunmen killed 143 concert-goers at Moscow's Crocus
City Hall.
We shouldn't be surprised that when a historically
imperialist ruler takes a nationalist turn, as Putin did in going
to war to reassert Russian hegemony over Ukraine, that its other
minority subjects should get nervous, defensive, and as is so much
the fashion these days, preëmptively strike out.
The attack was claimed by ISIS-K, and Russia has since
arrested four Tajiks in connection with the crime. One should not
forget that in the 1980s, the US was very keen not only on arming
mujahideen to fight in Afghanistan against Russia but on extending
the Islamist revolt deep into the Soviet Union (Tajikistan).
Francesca Ebel: [03-27]
As death toll in Moscow attack rises to 143, migrants face fury
and raids.
Richard Foltz: [03-26]
Why Russia fears the emergence of Tajik terrorists.
Sarah Harmouch/Amira Jadoon: [03-25]
How Moscow terror attack fits ISIL-K strategy to widen agenda against
perceived enemies.
Ellen Ioanes: [03-28]
ISIS-K, the group linked to Moscow's terror attack, explained.
Ishaan Tharoor: [03-27]
Putin sees Kyiv in Moscow terrorist attack. But ISIS is its own story.
I'm reminded here of something in the afterword to Gilles Kepel's
Jihad: The Trial of Political Islam -- a book that appeared
in English in 2003, but had been written and published in French,
I think before 9/11 -- about how political Islam (including Al-Qaeda)
was in serious decline after 2000, and 9/11 was initially a desperate
ploy for attention and relevance (what American footballers call a
"hail Mary pass").
By the way, the first thing I did after 9/11 -- I was visiting
friends in Brooklyn on that date, and one was actually killed in
WTC, so it hit pretty close to home -- was to go to a bookstore
and scrounge around for something relevant to read that would give
me some historical context. The book that I found that came closest
(but not very close) to satisfying my urge was Barbara Crossette's
The Great Hill Stations of Asia, probably due to my intuition
that the terror attacks were deeply rooted in the imperialist (and
racist) past, but that specific story was too far in the past to be
of much help. The book I really wanted to find was Kepel's, which
told me everything I needed to know. So yeah, I find it plausible
that ISIS-K wanted to kick Russia just to remind them that they
have unfinished business. I don't doubt that Hamas wanted to kick
Israel in the same way -- also reminding Saudi Arabia who they were
about to get in bed with. Terrorists aren't very good at calibrating
those kicks, so sometimes they get more reaction than they really
wanted. But do they really care? Overreaction is often the worst
possible thing an offended power can do, as 9/11 and 10/7 have so
painfully demonstrated.
Around the world:
Caroline Houck: [03-29]
A very bad year for press freedom: Playing up the year-and-counting
detention of Evan Gershkovich in Russia, but there are other examples,
including many journalists killed by Israel not just recently but "over
the last two decades." On Gershkovich, see:
Vijay Prashad: [03-26]
Europe sleepwalks through its own dilemmas: With the episodic rise
of the right in America, where each fitful advance has tattered and in
some cases shredded not just the social welfare state but our entire
sense of democracy, solidarity, cohesion, and commonwealth, lots of
Americans have come to admire Europe, where social democracy for the
most part remains intact. On the other hand, what we see in European
politics, at least for those of us who see anything at all, is often
bewildering and unnerving. Don't these people realize how fortunate
they have been? Yet in many areas, as Prashad notes here, they seem
to be blind and dumb, just following whatever the direction is coming
from Washington and Davos, despite repeated failures.
David Smilde: [03-22]
Candidate registration is becoming a purge of Maduro's opposition.
The bridge:
Boeing:
Other stories:
Joshua Frank: [03-28]
As the rich speed off in their Teslas: Of life and lithium.
Sam Levin: [03-27]
Joe Lieberman, former US senator and vice-presidential nominee, dies
at 82.
More on Lieberman:
Gideon Lewis-Kraus: [03-25]
You say you want a revolution. Do you know what you mean by that?
Reviews two books: Fareed Zakaria: Age of Revolutions: Progress
and Backlash from 1600 to the Present; and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal:
The Age of Revolutions: And the Generations Who Made It, which
is more focused on the years 1760-1825.
Jeffrey St Clair: [03-29]
Roaming Charges: Nowhere men: Remembering Joe Lieberman, then
onto the bridge and other disasters.
Mari Uyehara: [03-25]
The many faces of Viet Thanh Nguyen: "The Vietnamese American
writer's leap to the mainstream comes at a moment that demands his
anti-colonialist perspective."
I've cited this article before, but my wife reminded me of it
yesterday and went on to read me several chunks. The article is by
Pankaj Mishra:
The Shoah after Gaza. It's worth reading in whole, but for now
let me just pull a couple paragraphs out from the middle:
One of the great dangers today is the hardening of the colour line
into a new Maginot Line. For most people outside the West, whose
primordial experience of European civilisation was to be brutally
colonised by its representatives, the Shoah did not appear as an
unprecedented atrocity. Recovering from the ravages of imperialism in
their own countries, most non-Western people were in no position to
appreciate the magnitude of the horror the radical twin of that
imperialism inflicted on Jews in Europe. So when Israel's leaders
compare Hamas to Nazis, and Israeli diplomats wear yellow stars at the
UN, their audience is almost exclusively Western. Most of the world
doesn't carry the burden of Christian European guilt over the Shoah,
and does not regard the creation of Israel as a moral necessity to
absolve the sins of 20th-century Europeans. For more than seven
decades now, the argument among the 'darker peoples' has remained the
same: why should Palestinians be dispossessed and punished for crimes
in which only Europeans were complicit? And they can only recoil with
disgust from the implicit claim that Israel has the right to slaughter
13,000 children not only as a matter of self-defence but because it is
a state born out of the Shoah.
In 2006, Tony Judt was already warning that 'the Holocaust can no
longer be instrumentalised to excuse Israel's behaviour' because a
growing number of people 'simply cannot understand how the horrors of
the last European war can be invoked to license or condone
unacceptable behaviour in another time and place'. Israel's
'long-cultivated persecution mania -- "everyone's out to get us" -- no
longer elicits sympathy', he warned, and prophecies of universal
antisemitism risk 'becoming a self-fulfilling assertion': 'Israel's
reckless behaviour and insistent identification of all criticism with
antisemitism is now the leading source of anti-Jewish sentiment in
Western Europe and much of Asia.' Israel's most devout friends today
are inflaming this situation. As the Israeli journalist and
documentary maker Yuval Abraham put it, the 'appalling misuse' of the
accusation of antisemitism by Germans empties it of meaning and 'thus
endangers Jews all over the world'. Biden keeps making the treacherous
argument that the safety of the Jewish population worldwide depends on
Israel. As the New York Times columnist Ezra Klein put it recently,
'I'm a Jewish person. Do I feel safer? Do I feel like there's less
antisemitism in the world right now because of what is happening
there, or does it seem to me that there's a huge upsurge of
antisemitism, and that even Jews in places that are not Israel are
vulnerable to what happens in Israel?'
One thing I want to add here is that liberal- and left-democrats
often take great pains to make clear that their criticism of Israeli
government policy, and of the people who evidently support those
policies, does not reflect or imply any criticism of Jews in America,
who are not represented by the Israeli government, even if they are
deeply sympathetic to Israel. We are also very quick to point out
that many of those most critical of Israel, both in the US and in
Israel itself, are Jewish, and often do so out of principles that
they believe are deeply rooted in Judaism.
We do this because our fundamental position is that we support
free and equal rights for all people, regardless of whose human
rights are being asserted or denied. But we're particularly sensitive
on this point, because we know that many of our number are Jewish,
so we are extra aware of when their rights have been abused, and of
their solidarity in defending the rights of others.
So we regard as scurrilous this whole propaganda line that accuses
anyone who in any way disagrees with Israeli policy with antisemitism.
We are precisely the least antisemitic people in America. Meanwhile,
the propaganda line seems to be aimed at promoting antisemitism in
several ways: it tells people who don't know better to blame all Jews
for the human rights abuses of Israel; it also reassures people who
really are antisemites that their sins are forgiven if they support
Israel; and it reaffirms the classic Zionist argument that all Jews
must flee the diaspora and resettle in Israel -- the only safe haven
in a world full of antisemitism. (It is no coincidence that many of
Zionism's biggest supporters have been, and in many cases still are,
antisemites. Balfour and Lloyd George were notorious antisemites.
Hitler himself approved the transfer of hundreds of thousands of
German Jews to Palestine.)
While none of this is hard to understand, many people don't and
won't, so it's very likely that some will take their fear and anger
over genocide out on Jews. We will denounce any such acts, as we
have always done. And as we have, and will continue to, heinous acts
by Israel. But we should be aware that what's driving this seemingly
inevitable uptick in "antisemitism" is this false propaganda line,
perpetrated by Israel and its very well heeled support network --
including most mainstream media outlets, and virtually the entire
American political elite. So when people insist you step up and
denounce antisemitism, do so. But don't forget to include the real
driving force behind antisemitism these days: the leaders of Israel.
While I was looking for a quote to wrap up this post, I ran across
a Richard Silverstein
tweet that fits nicely here:
Genocide is an unpardonable sin before God in Judaism, regardless of
who are the victims or the perpetrators. Israel's crimes are not in
my name as a Jew, nor in the name of Judaism as millions of my fellow
Diaspora Jews know it.
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, March 25, 2024
Music Week
March archive
(in progress).
Music: Current count 42039 [42007] rated (+32), 31 [28] unrated (+3).
Speaking of Which ran over again. I posted what I had late
Sunday night (227 links, 9825 words; the former possibly a record,
the latter well above usual but less than 10883 for the week of
March
3. (Updated tally: 259 links, 11559 words, so may very well
be the biggest one ever.)
I got this started early Monday afternoon, but probably won't
post until late, not so much because I expect this to take much
as because I'd rather spend the time cleaning up Speaking of Which.
I'm under no delusions that what I say here will make any difference
to the world, but times like these need witnesses. And that is the
one thing I can still offer.
Not a lot of albums this week -- played a lot of old stuff again --
but I'm fairly pleased with the finds this week, including some jazz
artists not previously on my radar (Espen Berg, Roby Glod, Nicole
McCabe) and a couple old-timers who returned to form with their best
releases in years (Kahil El'Zabar, Charles Lloyd). I'll also note
that results flipped expectations for two much-hyped reissues (Joe
Henderson, Alice Coltrane).
Very little non-jazz this week, especially if you count Queen
Esther as jazz (which you should for her better releases below,
but not for the still-recommended Gild the Black Lily).
Tierra Whack came from Robert Christgau's latest
Consumer
Guide. I should replay the records he liked better than I did --
Yard Act, Les Amazones d'Afrique, the Guy Davis I
reviewed shortly after
it came out in 2021. Most other records I have similar grades for
(the three I mentioned I'm just one or two notches down on), leaving
unheard the Queen compilation and a Thomas Anderson album that isn't
streamable yet. By the way, Christgau skipped over Anderson's recent
odds & sods set, The Debris Field (Lo-Fi Flotsam and Ragged
Recriminations, 2000-2021), which I gave an A- to in my
review.
Unpacking below does not include Monday's haul, which looks to be
substantial. Most promising among the new releases is Dave Douglas
with James Brandon Lewis, but note also a new album with Kevin Sun
as Mute. Plus a lot of vault discoveries: Chet Baker/Jack Sheldon,
Yusef Lateef, Sun Ra, Art Tatum, Mal Waldron/Steve Lacy, in addition
to the Sonny Rollins already uwrapped.
New records reviewed this week:
Espen Berg: Water Fabric (2023, Odin): Norwegian
pianist, dozen or so albums since 2007. Cover shows "featuring":
Hayden Powell (trumpet), Harpreet Bansal (violin), Ellie Mäkelä
(viola), Joakim Munker (cello), Per Oddvar Johansen (drums). I'm
not often a big fan of strings, but here they take themes that
start enchanting and raise them to something magnificent.
A- [sp]
Espen Berg: The Hamar Concert (2022 [2023], NXN):
Solo piano, recorded at Kulturhus in Hamar, Norway.
B+(**) [sp]
Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Open Me, a
Higher Consciousness of Sound and Spirit (2023 [2024],
Spiritmuse): Chicago percussionist and vocalist (perhaps a bit
too much), celebrates fifty years of mostly working within this
ensemble, lately a trio with Corey Wilkes (trumpet) and Alex
Harding (baritone sax), supplemented here by James Sanders
(violin/viola) and Ishmael Ali (cello). A potent mix here,
especially on the funk classic "Compared to What" -- vocal is
perfect there.
A- [sp]
Roby Glod/Christian Ramond/Klaus Kugel: No ToXiC
(2022 [2024], Nemu): German trio -- alto/soprano sax, bass, drums --
reportedly have been playing together twenty years but discography
is thin; Glod and Kugel have an album together from 2013; Glod has
side credits back to 1992. One Connie Crothers piece, the rest joint
improv credits. The sort of free sax tour de force I always love.
A- [cd]
Julian Lage: Speak to Me (2024, Blue Note):
Guitarist, debut 2009 on EmArcy, after stints with Palmetto and
Mack Avenue landed on another major in 2021. This one leans a
bit more rock, produced by Joe Henry, with Levon Henry (sax),
Patrick Warren (keyboards), Joege Roeder (bass), and Dave King
(drums). Except when it doesn't, and I lose all interest. Then,
well, there's some piano that sounds like Kris Davis, and I'm
interested again.
B+(*) [sp]
Remy Le Boeuf's Assembly of Shadows: Heartland Radio
(2023 [2024], SoundSpore): French alto saxophonist, also plays flute,
several albums, this group a big band (third album, group named for
the first) with vocals on two tracks. Some nice passages but generally
too many classical moves for my taste, and I don't think the vocals help.
B [cd]
David Leon: Bird's Eye (2022 [2024], Pyroclastic):
Cuban-American alto saxophonist, based in Brooklyn, has a couple
previous albums, also plays soprano sax, alto flute, and piccolo.
Trio with DoYeon Kim (gayagum, voice) and Lesley Mok (percussion).
Rather sparse and scattered, with some very interesting stretches,
and some that don't do much (or worse, like the voice).
B+(**) [sp]
Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
(2024, Blue Note, 2CD): Tenor saxophonist, released this album on his
86th birthday (any reason Blue Note can't give you recording dates?),
was sort of a crossover star in the late 1960s, solidified his career
when he moved to ECM in 1989, remaining pre-eminent within his move
to Blue Note in 2013. Also plays some alto here, as well as bass and
alto flute. Backed by Jason Moran (piano), Larry Grenadier (bass),
and Brian Blade (drums), a sprawling 15 songs (90:25). Longer than
I'd like as a straight-through stream, but the CD/LP versions would
break that up into manageable chunks, and it would be hard to pick
among them. He's in fine form throughout, and the band (especially
Moran) are superb.
A- [sp]
Nicole McCabe: Live at Jamboree (2023 [2024],
Fresh Sound New Talent): Alto saxophonist, from Los Angeles,
Introducing debut from 2020, second album here. She
recorded this in Barcelona, with Iannis Obiols (impressive on
piano), Logan Kane (bass), and Ramon Prats (drums).
B+(***) [sp]
Moor Mother: The Great Bailout (2024, Anti-):
Camae Ayewa, from Philadelphia, poet first, then musician, spoken
word under this alias initially suggested hip-hop, but several
side projects moved into jazz, most notably the group Irreversible
Entanglements, and she's always had an activist angle. Numerous
guest features here, hard to follow (but seems very Anglo-themed),
music murkily industrial.
B+(*) [sp]
Willie Morris: Conversation Starter (2022 [2023],
Posi-Tone): Tenor saxophonist, from St. Louis, Discogs page adds
a III to his name. First album, quintet with Patrick Cornelius
(alto sax/alto flute), Jon Davis (piano), Adi Meyerson (bass),
and E.J. Strickland (drums), playing eight originals, two covers,
one of those from Joe Henderson.
B+(**) [sp]
Willie Morris: Attentive Listening (2023 [2024],
Posi-Tone): Second album, similar lineup, with Patrick Cornelius
(alto sax/alto flute) and Jon Davis (piano) returning, plus label
regulars Boris Kozlov (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums). Another
solid mainstream record.
B+(*) [sp]
Kjetil Mulelid: Agoja (2022 [2024], Odin):
Norwegian pianist, several albums, also electric piano and synth,
quartet with pedal steel plus bass and drums, but most tracks have
a scatter of guests, including violin, vibes, and/or some famous
horn players. Still stays within atmospheric bounds.
B+(**) [sp]
Queen Esther: Things Are Looking Up (2024, EL):
Bio is evasive beyond raised in Atlanta and "embedded" in Charleston,
Discogs says "vocalist, songwriter, lyricist, producer, musician,
actor, performance artist, TED Speaker and playwright," credits
her with 7 albums (but not yet this one), also six groups (Hoosegow,
JC Hopkins Biggish Band, The 52nd Street Blues Project, The Harlem
Experiment, The Memp0his Blood Jugband Singers, Yallopin' Hounds).
Last I heard was the banjo-fied roots album Gild the Black Lily
(an A-), so I was surprised and taken aback by the jazz diva styling
here, before the fine print revealed a Billie Holiday project, with
the few original songs credited to Lenny Molotov. Replay required,
and worth it. Promised later this year: "the alt-Americana album
Blackbirding."
A- [cd] [04-09]
Queen Esther: Rona (2023, EL): I missed this one,
only a bit more than an EP (8 songs, 29:18), in her country mode,
often with ukulele and/or strings. Mostly originals, but note that
the first cover is "Bohemian Rhapsody" -- Queen, but just one
voice, just a bit of guitar, but long at 6:39.
B+(*) [sp]
Ron Rieder: Latin Jazz Sessions (2023 [2024],
self-released): Composer, seems to be his first album, inside
pic shows him at piano but album credits Alain Mallet (piano),
one of nine musicians listed on cover, including impressive
tenor sax from Mike Tucker, flute from Fernando Brandão, and
lots of rhythm.
B+(***) [cd]
Viktoria Tolstoy: Stealing Moments (2023 [2024],
ACT): Swedish jazz singer, great-great-granddaughter of the famous
Russian writer, dozen-plus albums since 1994, sings in English,
song credits to others but I don't recognize them as standards
(mostly Ida Sand and Anna Alerstedt).
B+(*) [sp]
A Tonic for the Troops: Realm of Opportunities
(2022 [2023], Odin): Norwegian quartet led (at least all songs
composed) by Ellen Brekken (bass), with Magnus Bakken (tenor sax),
Espen Berg (piano), and Magnus Sefniassen Eide (drums), second
group album, Brekken's side credits mostly with Hedvig Mollestad.
B+(**) [sp]
Tierra Whack: World Wide Whack (2024, Interscope):
Rapper from Philadelphia, her own name (after trying Dizzle Dizz),
famous for her 13-songs-in-13-minutes mixtape Whack World
(2018), followed by a trio of EPs in 2021, and now this debut
studio album (15 tracks, 37:47). Same shtick here, short bits
with a tasty hook but scant adornment, moving easily from set
to set, like in her video.
A- [sp]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
Alice Coltrane: The Carnegie Hall Concert (1971
[2024], Impulse!): Pianist and harpist, formerly Alice McLeod,
of Detroit, her mother a choir singer, others in the family had
musical careers, while she had a trio and played with others
(Terry Pollard, Terry Gibbs; possibly her first husband, singer
Kenny Hagood). She married John Coltrane in 1965, joined his
quartet in 1966 (replacing McCoy Tyner), and had three children
with him (most famous is Ravi Coltrane), but he died in 1967.
In 1968, she released her own album, A Monastic Trio,
and followed it with six more, also on Impulse!, through 1973,
continuing on other labels through 1978, a few more later on.
This live concert, part of which was previously released in 2018
as Live at Carnegie Hall, 1971, happened about the same
time as what was perhaps her best known album, Journey in
Satchidananda appeared. Title song leads off here (15:02),
followed by three more pieces, centered on the 28:09 "Africa."
She did much to develop the spiritual side of her husband's
legacy, and if you follow the reviews, you may detect its
center of gravity shifting from him to her: she was, after all,
the one who lived the life. But compared to most recent reissues,
this concert most securely links her back to his music, most
obviously through bassists Jimmy Garrison and Cecil McBee, and
saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp. But her harp is
developing (though it is her piano that brings "Africa" to its
climax), and she adds harmonium (Kumar Kramer) and tamboura (Tulsi
Reynolds), along with two drummers (Ed Blackwell and Clifford
Jarvis). I've listened to most of her albums, but this is the
first one that really moved me.
A- [sp]
Joe Henderson: Power to the People (1969 [2024],
Craft): Tenor saxophonist (1937-2001), his early records for Blue
Note (1963-67) helped define that label's golden age, his move
to Milestone (1968-77) much less storied (although Milestone
Profiles found enough for an A-). Pitchfork calls this "an
essential document of a transitional moment in which everything
in jazz seemed up for grabs." It was a time of intense political
ferment, whence the title, but for jazz musicians, it was more
stress as labels dwindled and died. With names on the cover:
Herbie Hancock (piano/electric), Jack De Johnette (drums), Ron
Carter (bass/electric), Mike Lawrence (trumpet on two tracks).
The band helps, but the only real point is the saxophone, which
wakes you up with a few strong solos, including a monster to end.
B+(***) [sp]
Old music:
Espen Berg Trio: Bølge (2017 [2018], Odin):
Norwegian pianist, albums since 2007, this the second of four
trio albums with Bárður Reinert Poulsen (bass) and Simon Olderskog
Albertsen (drums). Opens with a Sting cover, then on to nine Berg
originals. Strong album, good rhythmic sense.
B+(***) [sp]
Espen Berg Trio: Fjære (2021 [2022], Odin):
Same piano-bass-drums trio, but three more names in fine print
on cover: Mathias Eick (trumpet, 2 tracks), Silje Nørgard (vocal,
1 track, the Paul Simon song, "I'd Do It for Your Love"), Hanna
Paulsberg (tenor sax, 1 track).
B+(**) [sp]
The Herb Geller Quartet: I'll Be Back (1996 [1998],
Hep): Plays alto and sopranino sax here, with Ed Harris (guitar),
Thomas Biller (bass), and Heinrich Köbberling (drums), on four
originals and six standards (including a Jobim).
B+(**) [r]
The Herb Geller Quartet: You're Looking at Me
(1997 [1998], Fresh Sound): Alto and soprano sax, featuring Jan
Lundgren (piano), with Dave Carpenter (bass) and Joe LaBarbera
(drums), on ten standards followed by four tracks Geller wrote
for a musical about Josephine Baker.
B+(***) [r]
Herb Geller and Brian Kellock: Hollywood Portraits
(1999 [2000], Hep): Duets, alto/soprano sax and piano, Kellock is
Scottish, did some very good duets with Tommy Smith shortly after
this one. Geller composed twenty pieces here, each named for a
famous actress, most 1930s through 1950s.
B+(***) [r]
Herb Geller With Don Friedman: At the Movies (2007,
Hep): Alto/soprano sax and piano, also with Martin Wind (bass), Hans
Braber (drums), and Martien Oster (guitar on four tracks, of 13).
Standards, back cover names some but not all of the movies.
B+(**) [r]
Nicole McCabe: Introducing Nicole McCabe (2020,
Minaret): Alto saxophonist, not much biography I can find, but
studied in Portland and at USC, is based in Los Angeles, teaches
there, released this debut with George Colligan (piano, terrific),
Jon Lakey (bass), and Alan Jones (drums), plus Charlie Porter
(trumpet, a plus on three tracks). Very strong performance, with
a nice touch on the rare slow bits.
A- [sp]
Nicole McCabe: Landscapes (2022, Fresh Sound New
Talent): Second album, alto saxophonist continue to impress, this
time with piano-bass-drums I've never heard of, an equally obscure
vocalist adding scat I barely noticed to one track, forgotten by
the next.
B+(***) [sp]
Queen Esther: Talkin' Fishbowl Blues (2004, EL):
First album, although a duo with guitarist Elliott Sharp as Hoosegow
came out in 1996. Produced by Jack Spratt, tagged as "Black Americana,"
with a dark cover of "Stand By Your Man."
B+(**) [sp]
Queen Esther: What Is Love? (2010, EL): Jazz
ensemble this time, piano trio plus four horns (Patience Higgins
on tenor sax, plus trumpet, trombone, and French horn), with JC
Hopkins producing and writing most of the songs. The occasional
standard makes it easier to appreciate the precise nuance the
singer is capable of.
B+(***) [sp]
Queen Esther: The Other Side (2014, EL):
This one, with nine originals, two covers of Paul Pena (q.v.),
one each from Charlie Rich and Bryan & Wilda Creswell,
is filed under country rock. Band is mostly guitar, including
pedal and lap steel, but note that the fiddle player (just
two tracks) is Charles Burnham.
B+(**) [sp]
Limited Sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough
to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect,
+ some chance, ++ likely prospect.
Nicole McCabe: Improvisations (2022, Minaret, EP):
Solo alto sax with pedals, for something of a bagpipe effect. Four
tracks, 20:46.
[1/4 tracks, 5:01/20:46]
- [bc]
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Owen Broder: Hodges: Front and Center, Vol. Two (Outside In Music) [04-12]
- Benji Kaplan: Untold Stories (self-released) [05-01]
- João Madeira/Margarida Mestre: Voz Debaixo (4DaRecord) [02-17]
- Ivo Perelman Quartet: Water Music (RogueArt) * [04-00]
- PNY Quintet: Over the Wall (RogueArt) * [03-00)
- Ernesto Rodrigues/Bruno Parinha/João Madeira: Into the Wood (Creative Sources) [01-09]
- Sonny Rollins: Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European Tour Recordings (Resonance, 3CD) [04-20]
- Dave Schumacher & Cubeye: Smoke in the Sky (Cellar) [04-19]
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Sunday, March 24, 2024
Speaking of Which
I was struck by
this meme: "If Israelis stop fighting there will be peace. If
Palestinians stop fighting there will be no more Palestinians."
The first line is certainly true. This latest war has been so
devastating that it's hard to imagine any fight left -- at least
of the sort that would strike out at Israelis beyond their wall.
The other obvious point is that there's no risk in trying. If
Hamas does attack again, Israel can always strike back, and that
reaction will be better understood than the systematic, genocidal
war Israel is waging.
The second is less obvious, depending on what you mean by
"stop fighting." Hamas has never had the capability of fighting
Israel like Israel fights Gaza. Hamas has no air force, no navy,
no submarines, no tanks, no heavy artillery, no anti-aircraft or
anti-missile defenses, no drones. Their rockets are small and
unguided, and have never produced more than accidental damage.
Aside from the Oct. 7 jailbreak, the only way an Israeli gets
hurt is by entering Gaza, and even then the ratio of Palestinian-to-Israeli
casualties is 50-to-1 or more. That's not much of a fight.
However, the second line could be rewritten in terms that both
sides will agree with, if not agree on: "Palestinians will [only]
stop fighting when there are no more Palestinians." An army may
sensibly surrender to a more imposing power, but this will only
happen if one has hope of surviving and eventually recovering
from surrender. Germany and Japan surrendered to the US to end
WWII, but only because they believed that they would be given
a chance to return to running their own lives. (See John Dower's
Embracing Defeat for more on how Japan dealt with this.
Japan is a better example than Germany, because its government
was still intact when it surrendered, whereas Germany's was in
tatters after Hitler's suicide.) A number of American Indian
tribes surrendered with similar hopes, even though the US had
given them little reason for such hope.
But Israel's current demands for ceasefire terms, following
the genocidal threats of Israel's leaders, and the genocidal
methodology they've practiced in this war, offer little or no
hope to any Palestinian that surrender is anything but suicide.
Israelis demand absolute servility, but know that they'll never
get everyone to submit, that there will always be resistance of
some sort, and as such their security will always be at risk. This
presents them with an existential dilemma, to which there are only
three solutions: equal rights, separation, or annihilation.
They have long refused to consider equal rights. (Lots of
reasons we needn't consider here, like racism and demography.)
They've considered separation, at least within certain bounds,
but it's naturally a formula for war, so they've insisted on
being the dominant power, both by building up a huge military
advantage and by preventing Palestinians from ever developing
their own popular leadership. But the solution they've always
craved was annihilation. The problem there has been finding a
time when they could get away with it. Oct. 7 was the excuse
they were waiting for, dramatic enough that few of their allies
grasped immediately how they had goaded Hamas into action.
Even so, Israel has always had a numbers problem. America
was able to reduce its native population to levels where they
became politically and economically irrelevant, after which
annihilation no longer mattered, and some reconciliation was
possible. But for Israel, there were always too many Palestinians,
too close by, too economically developed and culturally sophisticated.
For just
these reasons, colonizers eventually gave up on Algeria and South
Africa, but only after extraordinary brutality. Israel is the last
to believe they're strong enough to beat down any and all resistance.
And that's really because they have few if any scruples against
killing every last Palestinian.
And don't for a moment think that Palestinians don't understand
this. They've lived through it for decades, and while often beaten
down, often severely, they've survived to resist again. They'll
survive this, too, and will continue to resist, as peacefully as
Israel will allow, or as violently as they can muster.
Looking further down my twitter feed:
From
Rami Jarrah: Picture of an adult Palestinian male seated on
a couch, surrounded 14 children (a couple into their teens). Text:
"Nobody in this photo is alive. Israel's right to self defence."
From
Kayla Bennett: Chart image. Text: "One of the most horrifying
graphics ever." I looked for an article including the chart, and
came up with:
From
Ryan Heuser: A link to the website for
The New York War Crimes,
reporting on propaganda published by The New York Times
(motto: "All the Consent That's Fit to Manufacture"). I haven't
figured out yet where the illustrations come from.
From
Yousef Munayer retweeted Heuser, adding: "A new poll found that
even though some 30,000 more Palestinians have been killed than
Israelis since October, half of Americans didn't know which side
has lost more lives. This has a lot to do with it."
From
Etan Nechin retweeted Chris Olley: "[Pennsylvania]'s
richest person Jeff Yass is buying Truth Social for $3 Billion so
Trump can pay off his $450 Million judgment in return for Trump
doing a 180 on his Tiktok and China stance to preserve Yass's $30
Billion-with-a-B stake in Tiktok. We call this oligarchy' when it's
elsewhere." Nechin adds: "Notably, Jeff Yass was the main financier
of Kohelet Forum, the shadowy organization behind Israel's attempted
judicial coup that was championed by the settler far right. These
oligarchs care little for democracy, only market interests." The
Wikipedia page for Yass is
here, which
documents all this and more.
From
Daniel Denvir: "Truth Social has roughly twice the monthly app
users as my niche left-wing intellectual podcast has monthly downloads.
The Dig's own healthy but rather modest financial situation suggests
to me that this company is not worth nearly $6 billion."
From
Paul Krugman: "So, did the ACA bend the cost curve? Call it
coincidence, but excess cost growth -- health spending growing
faster than GDP -- basically ended when it passed." See chart:
I'm reminded that Switzerland long had the world's second most
expensive health care system, with costs increasing in tandem with
US costs, until they adopted a universal non-profit insurance scheme.
While this was still much more expensive than systems in UK, Germany,
and France, it halted the increase, while US costs continue to rise.
ACA hasn't worked as well as Switzerland's system -- by design, it isn't
universal, and still allows (and sometimes encourages) profit-seeking --
but it was a step in the right direction.
Initial count: 227 links, 9,825 words.
Not really finished when posted late Sunday night, so some Monday
updates have been added. While sections are marked (like this),
minor edits (like the last paragraph above) are not. (Seems like
there should be a finer-grained way to do this, but I haven't
figured one out yet.
Updated count [03-25]: 259 links, 11,559 words.
Several breaking stories on Monday [03-25] are not reported or
reacted to below, but should be significant next week: Here's the
"heads up":
Luisa Loveluck/Karen DeYoung/Missy Ryan/Michael Birnbaum:
[03-25]
Netanyahu cancels delegation after US does not block UN cease-fire
call: The US, for the first time
since Israel attacked Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks, abstained from
and didn't veto a cease-fire resolution, allowing it to pass 14-0.
This is the first concrete step that the Biden administration is
developing a conscience over Israel's genocide. A stronger signal
would have been to vote for the resolution. Stronger still would
be to withhold aid (especially munitions) until the cease-fire has
been implemented (at which point Israel won't need the arms). So
Biden still has a long ways to go, but at least he has found a new
direction. Next step will be to show Netanyahu that his tantrum is
for naught, and that his conceit that he actually runs Washington --
which, by the way, is a big part of his political capital in Israel --
is no longer true.
PS: Yousef Munayyer tweeted after this: "The US abstention at
the UNSC today as well as Netanyahu's reaction to it should be
seen as each leader's attempt to manage domestic audiences. What
matters is Biden signed off on $4billion more in weapons for
Israel to further the genocide. Keep your eye on the ball."
Mark Berman/Jonathan O'Connell/Shayna Jacobs: [03-25]
Trump wins partial stay of fraud judgment, allowed to post $175
million: This postpones foreclosure on Trump properties, for
ten days at least (the time allowed to post the bond).
Shayna Jacobs/Devlin Barrett: [03-25]
NY judge sets firm April 15 trial date in Trump's historic hush
money case.
Top story threads:
Israel:
Mondoweiss:
[03-18]
Day 164: Israeli army storms al-Shifa again, aid reaches Jabalia for
first time in months: "Over a million people in Gaza face 'imminent'
famine as UNRWA aid trucks arrive in northern Gaza for the first time
in months. Meanwhile, the Israeli army's Chief of Staff says 'a long
way to go' until Israel's military objectives are achieved."
[03-19]
Day 165: Israeli attacks escalate on Rafah, al-Shifa Hospital invasion
enters second day: "After a night of heavy bombardment the PA warns
Israel's Rafah offensive has begun. Meanwhile, the invasion of al-Shifa
hospital continues; all communication with medical staff trapped inside
the hospital has been silent since Monday evening."
[03-20]
Day 166: Israel kills Gaza officials handling food delivery to the
north; Canada votes to halt arms sales to Israel: "Hamas slams
Israel for 'spreading chaos' after an Israeli airstrike killed two
local police officers in charge of securing and delivering food to
north Gaza. In the West Bank, Israeli forces and settlers kill two
Palestinians."
[03-21]
Day 167: Israel has killed over 100 aid workers in Gaza in the last
week: "Israel has killed over 100 aid workers in Gaza over the
past week as its military siege of al-Shifa Hospital continues.
Meanwhile, the Netanyahu government continues planning for an
invasion of Rafah."
[03-22]
Day 168: US advances UN Security Counsil ceasefire resolution as
al-Shifa Hospital siege enters fifth day: "The siege of al-Shifa
Hospital enters its fifth day as the Israeli army threatens to blow
up the hospital, while the U.S.'s proposed UNSC resolution uses
nebulous language that does not call for an "immediate" ceasefire.
[03-23]
Day 169: Israel kills 7 aid-seekers in northern Gaza, 4 children in
Rafah as siege of al-Shifa Hospital enters sixth day: "Israel
continued its airstrikes on Rafah, killing four children, while in
northern Gaza Israel turned back food aid for the second time in a
week and killed at least 7 Palestinian aid-seekers near the Kuwaiti
roundabout."
[03-24]
Day 170: Israel assaults al-Shifa, Nasser, and al-Amal hospitals
in one day: "Israeli forces ordered Palestinians inside al-Amal
Hospital in Khan Younis to leave 'naked,' while survivors of the
al-Shifa Hospital raid witnessed numerous atrocities committed by
the Israeli army. In Jerusalem, Israeli settlers stormed al-Aqsa."
Sabreen Akhter: [03-21]
When children are present in a genocide.
Faress Arafat: [03-23]
Gaza's children are enduring overwhelming trauma: "A Palestinian
nurse from the al-Shifa Hospital recalls his experience tending to
the children wounded and killed in the war."
Mohamad Bazzi: [03-21]
The Gaza famine is human-made. And the US is complicit in this
catastrophe.
Cate Brown: [03-22]
Israel announces largest West Bank land seizure since 1993 during
Blinken visit.
Eliza Griswold: [03-21]
The children who lost limbs in Gaza: "More than a thousand children
who were injured in the war are now amputees. What do their futures
hold?"
Isaac Chotiner: [03-21]
The brutal conditions facing Palestinian prisoners: "Since the
attacks of October 7th, Israel has held thousands of people from
Gaza and the West Bank in detention camps and prisons." Interview
with Tal Steiner, whose Public Committee Against Torture in Israel
tries to monitor such things.
Stephanie Guilloud: [03-20]
There is nothing we can do about Israel other than everything:
"The war on Gaza is being used to advance fascism and white supremacy
in the U.S. It is also opening people's eyes to global systems that
require genocide to continue. To stand with Palestine is to transform
those systems and build a different world."
Middle East Monitor: [03-13]
Satellite images show 35% of Gaza's buildings destroyed.
Mondoweiss: [03-18]
The real reason Israel stormed al-Shifa Hospital yet again: "Israel's
latest attack on al-Shifa Hospital and the successful delivery of food
aid to northern Gaza are connected. Here's how."
Yumna Patel: [03-22]
Israel's plans to replace its Palestinian labor force could spell
disaster for the Palestinian economy.
Meron Rapoport: [03-20]
The Israeli public is dispirited. So why is the right euphoric?
Jeremy Scahill:
"Man-made hell on Earth": A Canadian doctor on his medical mission
to Gaza: "Palestinian doctors 'are working on a daily basis on
the most horrific, explosive trauma that you've ever seen. They're
doing sometimes 14, 15 amputations, mostly on children, per day,
and they've been doing it for six months now."
Amna Shabana: [03-20]
'All of them are gone except me': "My friend Reem Hamadaqa barely
survived an attack on her home in Khan Younis that killed her parents
and most of her family. What do you tell a friend who has lost nearly
everything?"
Richard Silverstein: [03-23]
Amalek directive approves murders of Hamas leaders' families:
"Israel targeting Hamas leadership for elimination along with all
family members." The "Amalek directive" refers back to an earlier
[2023-10-25] post:
Israeli security cabinet orders murders of senior Hamas leaders and
families: "Ministers tasked IDF and Shin Bet with mass assassinations,
invoking a Biblical verse commanding extermination of Amalek."
Maureen Tkacik: [03-20]
What really happened on October 7? "And why, wonders a new Al
Jazeera documentary, did the media go to such lengths to concoct
gruesome X-rated versions of an attack that was harrowing enough
to begin with?" Pull quote: "Hamas had some rockets, but did it
really have the weaponry capable of mounting this level of
destruction? Western journalists have reported that Hamas was
fully responsible." Who did? Well:
By November, the IDF conceded that it had, actually, deployed
Apache helicopters and tanks to the Nova music festival that "may"
have killed "some" of the Nova festival concertgoers, in accordance
with something called the Hannibal Directive, a doctrine named for
a Carthaginian general who poisoned himself rather than be questioned
by his Roman captors, whereby the Israeli army is ordered to fire
upon its own troops to prevent the enemy from taking those troops
hostage. Around noon on October 7, according to Israeli newspapers
cited in the documentary, the IDF may have invoked a version of the
Hannibal directive, expanded to include Israeli civilians, and in
accordance began blindly opening fire with rockets and helicopter
gunships on any person or vehicle seen moving across the border
with Gaza. In particular, the documentary visits Kibbutz Be'eri,
which looks a bit like present-day Gaza in parts, with a munitions
expert who demonstrates strong evidence that some of the houses had
been hit with IDF tank fire. It was Israeli troops, not Hamas
"murderers," according to one resident, who killed 12 longtime
residents there.
Also on the Al Jazeera documentary:
Alex de Waal: [03-21]
We are about to witness in Gaza the most intense famine since the second
world war: "Even when the numbers of people needlessly dying dwindle,
the scars of famine will endure."
Vivian Yee/Iyad Abuheweila/Abu Bakr Bashir/Ameera Harouda: [03-23]
Gaza's shadow death toll: Bodies buried beneath the rubble.
Israel vs. world opinion:
Michael Arria:
Ramzy Baroud: [03-22]
Cognitive dissonance: Perplexed US foreign policy is prolonging Gaza
genocide: "Perplexed" works on two levels here: they can't figure
out how to do things, because they're stuck in a lot of dysfunctional
ideas (like deterrence, sanctions, their great "indispensable nation"
conceit); but they also can't figure out what they want to do, partly
because Israel doesn't allow them any sensible options.
Daniel Boguslaw:
Biden decries civilian deaths in Gaza as Pentagon fails with its own
safeguards.
Peter Beinart: [03-22]
The great rupture in American Jewish life.
Jonathan Chait: [03-21]
Schumer is a better friend to Israel than Netanyahu's allies:
"Israelis have a right to know the dangers of Netanyahu's
one-statism."
Stan and Priti Gulati Cox: [03-19]
Blocking the aid trucks, letting the tanks roll.
Thomas L Friedman: [03-19]
What Schumer and Biden got right about Netanyahu: Like them,
Friedman's been so securely on the party bus for so long that he
feels entitled to weigh on on Israeli politics, if only to pretend
that something can be redeemed out of their descent into genocide.
Mostly, that means another attempt to rescue the "two-state" mirage.
As I've noted elsewhere, "two-state" is a card that Israel shows on
occasion when it seems convenient, but always withdraws, because
they're unwilling to allow anything like an independent state of
Palestinians. Or maybe they've just found it unnecessary, as long
as no one seriously twists their arms -- Americans have nominally
supported "two-state" since 1967, but never required more than a
bit of lip-service. They have at various points suggested they'd
agree to "two-state": they supported the 1937 and 1947 partition
plans, they agreed to UN resolutions in 1967 and 1973 which they
never followed up on, they agreed with Egypt in 1979 to "autonomy"
(a vague term with no timetable), they agreed to Oslo (with various
delays for "confidence building" that never happened, at least to
their satisfaction); all the while building more settlements
designed to establish "facts on the ground" making it impossible
to return land to any Palestinian state.
Friedman's six points here just show how maleable his mind is
to Israeli thinking. For instance, "Hamas's attack was designed to
halt Israel from becoming more embedded than ever in the Arab world
thanks to the Abraham Accords and the budding normalization process
with Saudi Arabia." So, the real reason a thousand Hamas fighters
undertook a suicide mission was to spoil Jared Kushner's kickback
scam? Gaza had been blockaded and was being choked to near-death,
especially since 2005, but Israelis can only imagine their own
existence at stake.
Mention "one-state," with its obvious implication of everyone
under that state enjoying equal rights, and Israelis will reject
the very idea as a "non-starter" -- as an idea they're unwilling
to even entertain, even though every real democracy takes pains
to protect minority individual rights from majoritarian abuse.
Liz Goodwin/Abigail Hauslohner/Yasmeen
Abutaleb/Leigh Ann Caldwell: [03-20]
Republicans hug Netanyahu tighter as Democratic tensions with Israel
war strategy boil: "The Israeli PM criticized Schumer's comments
calling for a new election as 'outrageous' in GOP-only meeting." The
meeting itself says volumes about those present: how arrogant and
careless Netanyahu is about entering into American party politics,
and how arrogant and careless Republicans are in usurping Biden's
foreign policy prerogatives. But my first reaction was simply,
"birds of a feather flock together" -- be they fascists, or merely
criminal-minded.
Michael Hirsh: [03-22]
From 'I love you' to 'asshole': How Joe gave up on Bibi.
Elie Quinlan Houghtaling:
In harrowing speech, AOC warns the US is aiding "genocide" in Gaza.
Gabriela Kaplan: [03-24]
'Not in my name': How a new generation is divesting from Israeli
apartheid.
Fred Kaplan: [03-18]
What Trump really means when he says he would end the war in Gaza
"quickly". Why write the article when you know the answer is
"nothing"? Trump spent his first term in thrall to his advisers
and donors/investors, and got nothing to show for it (aside from
his son-in-law pocketing $2B for his Abraham Accords scam). Ok,
one stroke of genius was scheduling the Afghanistan withdrawal to
occur on Biden's watch, as that was the exact point his approval
rates sunk under 50%. But that suggests Trump was smart enough
to lose 2020 on purpose, so Biden would get blamed for all of
the messes Trump left -- Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Gaza are the
loudest ones to date, but many more are still simmering -- so he
could rise again and claim a second term on his own far more
extremist terms. The main foreign policy change to expect from
Trump 2.0 is that he will provide a much more credible test of
Nixon's "madman theory."
Tariq Kenney-Shawa: [03-22]
Don't be fooled by Antony Blinken's crocodile tears: "The
secretary of state is very good at projecting empathy about the
horror in Gaza. But his actions speak much louder than his words."
Amed Khan:
Organizing aid to Gaza led me to a harsh truth: Biden is on board
for ethnic cleansing: "I helped with airlifts in Afghanistan,
aid to the Ukrainian front, and building roads in Rwanda. None of
it prepared me for the challenges of Gaza.
David Klion:
Hit dogs holler: What the backlash against Jonathan Glazer says
about Israel's defenders.
Mary Lawlor: [03-21]
There is no moral argument that justifies the sale of weapons to
Israel: "Israel has shown it will use these arms indiscriminately
against Palestinians."
Branko Marcetic: [03-23]
Israel's meddling in US politics is aggressive and unceasing.
Joseph Massad: [03-20]
In the West, Israel never reinitiates violence, it only 'retaliates':
Or so says Western media, especially the New York Times.
Jeff Melnick: [02-27]
A 'Black-Jewish alliance' in the US? Israel-Gaza war shows it's more
myth than special relationship.
James North: [03-23]
Mainstream media finally reports on Gaza famine but won't admit
Israel is deliberately responsible.
Trita Parsi: [03-22]
Why US ceasefire proposal failed at UNSC: "Russia and China
vetoed language which did represent a shift for Biden -- but the
devil is in the details."
Mitchell Plitnick: [03-23]
Chuck Schumer's speech widens rifts over Israel in Congress:
"Democrats are fracturing over support for Israel, because their
constituents don't support it. The long-term result might be the
end of the bipartisan consensus on Israel."
Ted Rall: [03-20]
Israel: Hermit kingdom: "Why is Israel rapidly sliding into
pariah status now?"
Michael Sappir:
The spiraling absurdity of Germany's pro-Israel fanaticism.
Karim Sariahmed: [03-19]
Doctors justify genocide in a prestigious journal: "The Journal
of the American Medical Association published four letters rife with
racist anti-Palestinian tropes. The prestigious platform created the
appearance of intellectualism and expertise, but it's all just racism
with a ribbon on it."
Norman Solomon: [03-24]
How Israel hides its atrocities in Gaza: "Apologists for Israel's
mass murder in Gaza fall back on 'antisemitism' claims."
Prem Thakker:
US doubles down on defunding UNRWA -- despite flimsy allegations.
Philip Weiss: [03-24]
Weekly Briefing: Zionism will never be viewed the same after the
Gaza genocide: "Jeffrey Goldberg used to brag of his Israeli
military service but this week was forced to withdraw from a
speaking event after students asked how a former IDF prison guard
could speak on democracy. Zionism has lost its hallowed perch in
U.S. society."
America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire:
Sam Biddle:
Tech official pushing TikTok ban could reap windfall from US-China
cold war.
Connor Echols: [03-21]
'Not defendable': Top enlisted brass blast conditions for soldiers:
"The 'quality of life' for military and their families has become a
persistent problem, and its feeding into the recruitment crisis."
Jonathan Freedland: [03-22]
In defying Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu is exposing the limits of US
power.
Daniel Larison: [03-22]
Hawks pushing for 'axis of evil' reunion tour: "Lumping US
adversaries into a single-headed monster is a paranoid delusion
used as to fuel militarism."
Alfred McCoy: [03-12]
The American Empire in (ultimate? crisis: "The decline and fall
of it all?" Sections, predictably, include: "Creeping disaster in
Ukraine"; "Crisis in Gaza"; and "Trouble in the Taiwan Straits."
Andrew O'Hehir: [03-04]
America in 2024: Blind, blundering Colossus on a downward slide:
"If the Biden-Trump rerun wasn't embarrassing enough, US support for
Israel has alienated the entire world."
Ishaan Tharoor: Washington Post's "Worldview" columnist.
These pieces could be scattered about, but fit together:
[03-19]
Israel's war on Hamas brings famine to Gaza: "What makes this
calamity all the more stunning is that it's entirely the product
of human decisions." Catherine Russell says, "we haven't seen that
rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the
world." He also notes that "Israeli officials, chiefly Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appear unmoved by the state of
affairs." Like it's exactly what they wanted.
[03-20]
How the war in Ukraine has split the Czechs and Slovaks.
[03-22]
Mexico rejects Texas's 'draconian' migrant law.
[03-25]
The US and Israel have a 'major credibility problem': Let's
quote some of this, about US Assistant Secretary of State Bill
Russo:
According to NPR, Russo said in his March 13 call that Israel --
and the United States, as Israel's security guarantor and close ally --
face a "major credibility problem" because of the war, the astonishing
Palestinian death toll (now more than 32,000 people),
the man-made famine gripping ravaged areas of the Gaza Strip,
and growing global frustration with Israel's insistence on prolonging
the war to fully eradicate militant group Hamas.
"The Israelis seemed oblivious to the fact that they are facing
major, possibly generational damage to their reputation not just in
the region but elsewhere in the world,"
the memo saida. "We are concerned that the Israelis are missing
the forest for the trees and are making a major strategic error in
writing off their reputation damage."
Alex Thurston: [03-21]
Why the Nigerien junta wants to kick US troops out: "While
Washington's policy has been rudderless since last year's coup,
an American exit might not be a bad thing." Also:
Election notes: After Super Tuesday, this is
turning into a category with not much happening, or at least not much
people are bothering to write against. March 19 saw presidential
primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio. Biden's
been winning the Democratic side by a bit over 80%, which isn't
great for an incumbent, but also isn't disastrous. Trump wins as
easily, but rarely hits 80% -- also not great considering no one
is actively running against him. (In Arizona, the figures were
89.3% Biden, 78.8% Trump; in Florida, 81.2% Trump; in Illinois,
91.5% Biden, 80.6% Trump; in Kansas 83.8% Biden, 75.5% Trump;
in Ohio, 87.1% Biden, 79.2% Trump; in Louisiana, 86.1% Biden,
89.8% Trump. Missouri had a caucus, where Trump got 100% of 924
votes.
Paul Krugman: [03-21]
What's the matter with Ohio?
Nia Prater: [03-22]
The Republican Party is too embarrassing for George Santos:
So he's going to run as an independent in Nick LaLota's (R-NY)
House district. Most people run as independents because they
think they are, but the big advantage for Santos is that he can
keep his campaign finance scam going all the way to November,
instead of getting wiped out in the primary. So pretty much the
same reason Bob Menendez is running as an independent to keep
his Senate seat in New Jersey.
Trump, and other Republicans: Salon picks up some substantial
pieces, but they also do a lot of stuff that basically amounts to Trump
trolling. I usually skip past them, but this week they especially spoke
to me, so quite a few got crammed in here this week. I can also give
you some author indexes, in case you want to dig deeper (just scanning
the titles is often a hoot):
This week's links on all things Republican (the Trumpier the
better, but the real evil lies in the billionaire-funded think tanks):
Avram Anderson/Shealeigh Voitl: [03-22]
Heritage Foundation's blueprint for regression: "Project 2025
targets vulnerable communities, politicizes independent institutions,
and quashes dissent."
Gregg Barak: [03-23]
It's time to ignore Trump's trials: Criminal accountability is now
a distraction: "Please wake up sleeping America." It's a rather
messy argument, but until judgment came, the civil trials seemed
like a circus sideshow, but now he's scrambling for money. Barak
himself has a book coming out soon, which news will quickly render
obsolete:
Indicting the 45th President: Boss Trump, the GOP, and What We Can
Do About the Threat to American Democracy.
Jonathan Chait: [03-23]
The paramilitary candidate: "Trump has made justice for
insurrectionists the center of his campaign."
Jeremy Childs: [03-24]
Eric Trump says lenders he hit for half-billion dollars in father's
bond scramble 'were laughing'.
Nick Corasaniti/Maya King/Alexandra Berzon: [03-18]
The GOP flamethrower with a right-wing vision for North Carolina:
"Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, has a long
history of inflammatory statements. He has also called for weaving
conservative religious beliefs into the fabric of government."
Oliver Darcy: [03-22]
NBC hires former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, who has demonized the
press and refused to acknowledge Biden was fairly elected. As
Norman Ornstein
tweeted: "At $300,000. Far more than experts, and honest analysts.
What an utter disgrace." Not the only blowback:
Igor Derysh:
Chauncey DeVega:
Kevin T Dugan: [03-21]
How screwed is Trump? "Unless he can find a way out of paying
Tish James, he will go bust on Monday."
Abdallah Fayyad: [03-19]
Trump is suddenly in need of a lot of cash. That's everyone's
problem. Why on earth is that? The US judicial system isn't
famed for treating convicts with the sort of kid gloves Trump
feels he's entitled to. Is this supposed to be some variation
on the joke: "if you owe thousands, that's your problem; if you
owe millions, that's the bank's problem"? Whatever happened to
"if you can't do the time, don't do the crime"? I might grant
that the system, in general, is biased against defendants, and
tends toward overly harsh judgments. But why should Trump, a
guy who seems incapable of remorse, and who has never shown any
sympathy for anyone else, be the exception? If anything, he's
a flagrant example of what the justice system is designed to
protect us against.
Henry A Giroux: [03-17]
Brecht's warning about the serpent's egg: Everyday Fascism:
"In a world shaped increasingly by emerging authoritarianism, it
has become increasingly difficult to remember what a purposeful
and substantive democracy looks like."
Rae Hodge: [01-29]
The Trump White House was hopped up on Air Force "go pills" because
of course it was.
Elie Honig: [03-22]
What are the odds Trump goes on trial before the election?
Brian Karem: [03-21]
We have met the enemy and he is us: "Trump is just a symptom. The
absurdity is everywhere." Links to:
Ed Kilgore:
Clare Malone: [03-25]
The face of Donald Trump's deceptively savvy media strategy:
"The former President and his spokesman, Steven Cheung, like to hurl
insults at their political rivals, but behind the scenes the campaign
has maintained a cozy relationship with much of the mainstream press."
Evidently, he's the one responsible for lines like "[DeSantis] shuffled
his feet and gingerly walked across the debate set like a 10 year old
girl who had just raided her mom's closet and discovered heels for the
first time" and "it's clear to see that Haley's campaign is just one
giant grift to either build her name ID for life after politics or to
audition for a cable news contributor contract."
Amanda Marcotte:
Lisa Mascaro/Mary Clare Jalonick/Jill Colvin:
[03-19]
Trump is making the Jan. 6 attack a cornerstone of his bid for the
White House.
David Masciotra: [03-16]
Ignorance and democracy: Capitalism's long war against higher education:
"My alma mater, and dozens of other colleges, are ditching the liberal
arts. That's a good way to kill off democracy." Sounds like a pretty
broad indictment, but first two words in article are "Donald Trump,"
and a pull quote cites advanced degree holders Ron DeSantis and Ted
Cruz. When I see names of some Harvard grads -- KS Attorney General
Kris Kobach is one, and as far as I can tell he's never written a law
that's been upheld as constitutional -- I'm reminded of the Randy
Newman lyric: "Good old boys from LSU, went in dumb, came out dumb
too."
This led me to a couple older articles:
Andrea Mazzarino: [03-21]
A dictatorship on day one? If America were a Trumpian autocracy.
Kelly McClure: [03-22]
Trump refers to AG Letitia James as having an "ugly mouth" and "low IQ"
in Truth Social rant.
Harold Meyerson: [03-21]
Republicans say it aloud: They want to raise the retirement age:
"The vast majority of House GOPniks tell Americans that if they want
Social Security, they need top work longer."
- Stephanie Mencimer: [03-25]
From laddie mag model to RNC co-chair: Lara Trump, nepo-spouse.
Dean Obeidallah: [03-22]
"He'll never leave": Why Trump's dynasty, built on corruption and violence, won't end with him: Interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of
Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.
Heather Digby Parton:
Christian Paz: [03-21]
3 theories for why Donald Trump's popularity is rising: None are
very convincing:
- Trump is benefiting from economic nostalgia
- Trump is recovering from a remarkably low moment
- Trump is benefiting from a quieter campaign, muted coverage, and
a tuned-out public
You might as well say it's because many people are forgetful,
gullible, ill-tempered and flat-out stupid, because that's what
Trump's campaign -- which, by the way, has not been very quiet
or muted, no matter how many have tried to tune it out -- caters
to. I think this also reflects two problems that Biden has: he
represents the status quo, which in the end will probably save
him, but for now it's mostly marked by increasing inequality and
precarity, even through relatively decent economic stats; also,
Biden's still in the phase where he's mostly campaigning for the
donors -- and he's raising more money, even before you deduct the
fines and legal costs Trump is racking up. That focus will shift
with the DNC in August, when they start spending their war chest
on actually wooing voters they've thus far taken for granted.
Sam Russek:
The mattress tycoon funding the far right in Texas: Jim McIngvale.
Greg Sargent:
Trump's latest rage-rant reveals a major political weakness.
- Deirdre Shesgreen: [03-18]
'Gross misjudgment': Experts say Trump's decision to disband pandemic
team hindered coronavirus response.
Matt Stieb:
Kirk Swearingen: [03-24]
Who brought the crime, the drugs and the rape? It was him: "Trump's
infamous 2015 speech claimed immigrants were 'bringing crime' and were
'rapists.' Talk about projection."
Prem Thakker:
House Republicans want to ban universal free school lunches.
Lucian K Truscott IV: [03-19]
Trump blows the MAGA whistle -- and his signal is heard loud and
clear.
Andra Watkins:
[03-19]
Decoding Project 2025's Christian nationalist language:
"Evangelicalese allows Trump's MAGA supporters to hide their extreme
positions in plain sight." Note: She also has a Substack called
How Project 2025 Will Ruin YOUR Life. Previously wrote:
[03-01]
Project 2025 is more than a playbook for Trumpism, it's the Christian
Nationalist manifesto: "The right intends to force every American
to live their definition of a good life through government edict."
Li Zhou: [03-20]
How the threat of a government shutdown became normalized.
Biden and/or the Democrats:
Perry Bacon Jr: [03-19]
Voters of color are shifting right. Are Democrats doomed?
Hannah Story Brown: [03-25]
Tim Ryan's natural gas advocacy makes a mockery of public service:
Ex-Representative (D-OH), ran for Senate and lost, now "leveraging his
prior career for a group backed by fossil fuel and petrochemical players."
Why do you suppose he couldn't convince voters he'd serve them better
than a Republican?
Gail C Christopher: [03-22]
Stop ageism: A call for action: "It's one of the last socially
acceptable forms of prejudice, and it needs to come to an end in
society and this presidential campaign." Really, you think this is
going to work? Or even help? Believe me, I know it happens, often
in cases where it is inappropriate, but unlike many prejudices,
there is also something substantive at root here, and finding the
right combination of respect and care and understanding in each
distinct case is going to take some work, and not just a bumper
sticker slogan.
Ryan Cooper: [03-11]
Democrats need a party publication: "The New York Times is
not going to get Biden's campaign message before voters." Pull
quote: "There is a giant right-wing propaganda apparatus blasting
Republican messaging into tens of millions of homes every day,
which Democrats do not have." Also: "You could do quite a lot of
journalism for a tiny, tiny fraction of what the Democrats are
going to spend on the 2024 campaign." I figured the line about
the New York Times was some kind of joke, but here's the unfunny
part:
A recent speech from New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger makes
clear that he -- perhaps unsurprisingly for a scion of multigenerational
inherited wealth -- is proud of his paper's ludicrously anti-Biden slant
and virulent transphobia, and will keep doing it. If it's up to him,
this campaign will center around Biden's age, while Trump's numerous
extreme scandals and outright criminality -- as well as his own advanced
age and dissolving brain -- will be carefully downplayed. If I were Biden
and the Democrats, who implicitly elevate the Times as their counterpoint
to Fox, I'd be looking to change that, and quick.
James Downie: [03-23]
House Republicans just gave Biden the biggest possible gift: "When
it comes to Social Security and Medicare, Republicans just can't help
themselves." I could have filed this under Republicans, but didn't
want this piece to get lost among this week's Trump scuzziness. Trump
is a problem, but he's merely cosmetic compared to the deep Republican
mindset, which remains set on destroying the institutions that at least
minimally protect us from the most predatory practices of capitalism,
supposedly in favor of an entrepreneurial utopia. I was pointed to
this piece by an Astra Taylor tweet (link just vanished), possibly
because the piece itself cites her The Age of Insecurity.
Robert Kuttner:
[03-18]
Man of steel: "President Biden's blockage of the proposed purchase
of US Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel is unprecedented and magnificently
pro-union."
[03-22]
The promise of Biden's second term: "And the exemplary effects of
his green jobs creation programs in his first term."
Legal matters and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Stephen Lezak: [03-22]
Scientists just gave humanity an overdue reality check. The world
will be better for it. This follows on [03-20]
Geologists make it official: we're not in an 'anthropocene' epoch.
For geologists, it's a fairly technical question, and given the ways
geologists think about time, I'm not surprised that they don't see
need for another division. The Holocene only starts with the retreat
of the Wisconsin Ice Age -- the fifth major glacial advance of the
Pleistocene, itself an arguably premature designation. (The factors
that drove ice ages during the period have are presumably still in
place -- certainly the continents haven't moved much, nor has the
earth orbit changed, or solar output -- but the atmosphere has been
altered enough to make renascent glaciation very unlikely.) Humans
started leaving their mark on the Earth's surface as the
Holocene
started some 11,700 years ago, so the whole epoch could have been
named the Anthropocene. Perhaps that seemed presumptuous when first
named, and maybe even now, but using 1952 as an convenient dividing
line is simply arbitrary.
Delaney Nolan:
The EPA is backing down from environmental justice cases nationwide.
Cassady Rosenblum: [03-23]
Blocking Burning Man and vandalizing Van Gogh: Climate activists are
done playing nice: This is indicative of what happens with those
in power deny, dissemble, and ultimately fail at problems that have
become overwhelmingly obvious. Those in power should see protests --
orderly of course, but also disruptive and destructive -- as symptoms
of underlying issues that require their attention.
But most often,
they think they can get away with suppressing protests, which by
aggravating the protesters while ignoring the problems only makes
future protests more desperate, and dangerous. As noted here,
"something desperate and defiant is stirring in the climate
movement." Signs of escalating tactics are as easily measured
as the increasing ppm of greenhouse gases. The tipping points
of catastrophic inflections are harder to guess, but their odds
are approaching inevitable, as we have observed stressed humans
do many times before, in many comparable situations.
David Wallace-Wells: [03-20]
When we see the climate more clearly, what will we do? There
is not a satellite designed to locate methane leeks.
Business/economic matters:
Ukraine War:
Blaise Malley: [03-22]
Diplomacy Watch: Middle powers offer unique 'congrats' to Putin:
"Leaders in Turkey, India, use post-election phone calls to offer
support in future negotiations."
New York Times: [03-23]
Death toll rises to 133 in Moscow concert hall attack: US
sources were quick to blame this on ISIS, and to deny Ukrainian
involvement (although Zelensky couldn't resist a "told you so").
PS:
Simon Jenkins: [03-22]
Putin is a dictator and a tyrant, but other forces also sustain him --
and the west needs to understand them: "Kneejerk criticism of
regimes in Russia, China or India may make us feel better, but there's
no evidence it is making the world a safer place."
Joshua Keating: [03-22]
Why the Pentagon wants to build thousands of easily replaceable,
AI-enabled drones: "Ukraine's drone innovations have changed
how the US is planning for a war with China."
Jack Hunter: [03-20]
Lindsey Graham wants to force more Ukrainian men into the draft:
"The war-hawking senator said 'we need more people in the line.' But
'we' doesn't mean 'he.'"
Pjotr Sauer: [03-22]
Over 1m Ukrainians without power after major Russian assault on
energy system: "Kyiv says the country's largest dam and hydroelectric
plant were hit as Moscow unleashed 88 missiles and 63 drones." For more,
see their
Ukraine war briefing, which also reminds us of the peril facing
the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant."
Ted Snider: [03-20]
How many Westerners are fighting in Ukraine? "There may be more
foreign boots on the ground -- troops and mercenaries -- than you
think."
Simon Tisdall: [03-16]
How will the Ukraine war end? Only when Vladimir Putin is toppled.
This extremely stupid piece was written while Russia's election was
happening, which we now know gave Putin six more years with 87% of the
vote. He raises the usual alarms about "white flags" and "capitulation,"
castigates Putin as a "messianic mass murderer," and conjures up a new
domino theory, assuming that any sign of weakness would only encourage
Russia to attack and swallow more territories. Still, there's little
reason to believe that Putin could do those things if he wanted to,
which is far from certain. The war is stalemated, but neither side can
afford to give up, nor is likely to (and clearly, Russia is no more
likely to than the US, where Putin's patsy is leading in the polls --
but still 10 months away from becoming president). And despite all
his bluster, even Tisdall admits that a "middle way" -- basically a
Korea-type ceasefire where "near-term priorities need to shift from
attempting to liberate more territory to defending and repairing
the more than 80% of the country still under [Ukraine's] control."
I'd submit that an even better deal would be possible -- maybe not
on territory, but you'd get more security by allowing economic ties
to return to normalcy. One should recall that the parts of Ukraine
that Russia was able to seize, especially in 2014 but also extras
in 2022, were mostly ethnic Russian, and acted as a pro-Russian
bloc inside Ukraine. Giving them up makes the rest of Ukraine more
pro-western, which is what the US/EU wanted in the first place. I'd
call that a win -- and one which Putin wouldn't have to think of as
a loss.
Robert Wright: [03-22]
Special cold war freak-out issue: "China and Russia and Cuba --
oh my!" First section is on TikTok, if you're interested, but I want
to point you to the second, on how the Wall Street Journal (Yaroslav
Trofimov) tries to twist around things that Putin says to suggest
negotiating with him is impossible. Further down there's a section on
the "Havana Syndrome" freak out, plus his concerns over AI -- which
is more the subject of his [03-15]
Meta's dangerously carefree AI chief. I'm rather skeptical of his
alarm over Open Source in AI -- my position has always been that the
real threat is the business model, and Open Source usually tempers
that sort of problem (but doesn't preclude it, as Google has amply
demonstrated). I'm an admirer but unpaid subscriber, so I haven't
listened to his podcasts, but
What does Putin want? could be helpful, especially to the
aforementioned WSJ reporter.
Around the world:
Connor Echols: [03-20]
US 'prepared to deploy troops to Haiti if necessary. If Biden
goes along with this, I dare say it would be political suicide. For
Trump, as for most US presidents going back to Thomas Jefferson,
Haiti is the quintessential "shithole country." Right-thinking
Americans would bristle at the idea of doing anything to help
there. Realistic Americans would realize that the US military is
not capable of helping, and that its entrance would make matters
worse. The left should be pushing back against Biden's warmaking
on all fronts. And nobody wants another costly quagmire.
Sam Knight: [03-25]
What have fourteen years of Conservative rule done to Britain?
"Living standards have fallen. The country is exhausted by constant
drama. But the UK can't move on from the Tories without facing up
tot he damage that has occurred."
Robert Kuttner: [03-13]
WTO, RIP: "The annual World Trade Organization meeting came
to an ignominious end last week with no 'progress' on major issues.
That is a form of progress."
Emily Tamkin:
Slovakia's presidential election is a warning to America:
"What to see what the United States would look like under a reelected
Trump?"
Other stories:
Laura Bult: [03-21]
Why it's so hard for Americans to retire: "There's a reason so
many of us don't have enough retirement savings." Video piece, but
links to Teresa Ghilarducci's book,
Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy.
Probably good, but Astra Taylor covers the key point in her
The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart.
Stephanie Burt:
Lucy Sante and the solitude and solidarity of transitioning:
"In her new memoir, I Heard Her Call My Name, Sante dissects
her past in order to understand her future."
David Dayen: [01-29]
America is not a democracy. Long piece from the print magazine.
Seems like I should have noticed it before. Too much to get into
just now.
Sarah Jones:
The exvangelicals searching for political change. Self-evident
neologism is from the book reviewed herein, The Exvangelicals:
Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church, by
Sarah McCammon. Related here:
Carlene Bauer: [03-12]
She trusted God and science. They both failed her. Review of
Devout: A Memoir of Doubt, by Anna Gazmarian, "an author
who grew up in the evangelical church recounts her struggle to
find spiritual and psychological well-being after a mental health
challenge."
Rich Juzwiak: [03-12]
A biography of a feminist porn pioneer bares all: "In Candida
Royalle and the Sexual Revolution, the historian Jane Kamensky
presents a raw personal -- and cultural -- history." Another review:
Keren Landman: [03-20]
Abortion influences everything: "By inhibiting drug development,
economic growth, and military recruitment, as well as driving doctors
away from the places they're needed most, bans almost certainly harm
you -- yes, you."
Katie Moore: [03-17]
When Kansas police kill people, the public often can't see bodycam
footage. Here's why.
Marcus J Moore: [03-21]
The visions of Alice Coltrane: "In the years after her husband
John's death, the harpist discovered a sound all her own, a jazz
rooted in acts of spirit and will." I'll say something about this
in Music Week. Meanwhile:
Rick Perlstein: [03-20]
'Stay strapped or get clapped': "How the media misses the story
of companies seeking profit by keeping traumatized veterans armed
and enraged."
Andrew Prokop: [03-21]
The political battle over Laken Riley's murder, explained:
Riley was a 22-year-old student in Georgia who was murdered,
allegedly by an "illegal immigrant," an event seized upon by
right-wing agitators, like the guy who tweeted: "If only people
went to the streets to demand change in the name of Laken Riley,
like they did for George Floyd." Article provides more details.
While the murders as isolated events were equivalent, the policy
considerations are very different, starting with responsibility
for enabling the killers, and regarding the more general context.
One not even mentioned here is the effect of the sanctions and
isolation policy toward Venezuela -- mostly but not exclusively
Trump's work -- and how that has driven many, including Riley's
alleged killer, to migrate to the US. Prokop: "But reality is
also more complicated than Trump's promises that he'll fix
everything by getting tougher once he's president."
Brian Resnick: [03-22]
The total solar eclipse is returning to the United States --
better than before: "This will be the last total solar eclipse
over the contiguous United States for 21 years." I find myself
with zero interest in looking up, much less traveling to do so,
but family and friends in Arkansas are lobbying for visitors,
and I know some people who are going. April 8 is the date.
Dylan Scott: [03-22]
Kate Middleton's cancer diagnosis is part of a frightening global
trend: "More and more young people are getting cancer." I have
zero interest in her, or in any of "those ridiculous people" (John
Oliver's apt turn of phrase), and so I've ignored dozens of pieces
on them recently, but there's something more going on here. Every
category of cancer they used is more common among ages 14-49 than
it was in 1990. My wife swears it's environmental, and while I can
think of statistical variations, I'm inclined to agree.
Jeffrey St Clair: [03-22]
Roaming Charges: L'état sans merci. "Willie Pye is dead and
Georgia is back in the execution business." This introduces a
long section on what passes for justice in America. Much more,
of course. For more on Pye, see:
Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins: [03-20]
The problematic past, present, and future of inequality studies:
Interview with Branko Milanovic, whose lates book is Visions of
Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War.
Dodai Stewart: [03-16]
You're not being gaslit, says a new book. (Or are you?) Review
of Kate Abramson: On Gaslighting. Demands precision of a
phenomenon that is deliberately imprecise ("all kinds of interactions --
lying, guilt-tripping, manipulation"; "a multi-dimensional horror
show"). Cites Harry G Frankfurt's On Bullshit (2005) as a
"spiritual forebear."
Astra Taylor/Leah Hunt-Hendrix: [03-21]
The one idea that could save American democracy: Tied to the
authors' new book,
Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing
Idea. Also:
By the way, I just found a link to audio for
Astra Taylor: [2023-11-17]
The Age of Insecurity: 2023 CBC Massey Lectures, with five
hour-long lectures corresponding to the book I just read, and
recommend as highly as possible -- I'd go so far as to say that
she's the smartest person writing on the left these days. I was
pointed to the lectures by a daanis
tweet: "I finally listened to
@astradisastra
Massey Lectures on my way to Boston, just mainlined them one
after another straight into my brain, and added her language
about precarity and insecurity into my own remarks about
surviving together by becoming kin."
Maureen Tkacik: [03-11]
'Return what you stole and be a man with dignity': "Doctors
didn't think it was possible to loathe the world's biggest health
care profiter any more. Then came the hack that set half their
bookkeeping systems on fire." About the ransomware outage at
Change Healthcare, which is owned by UnitedHealth ("the nation's
fifth-largest company").
Bryan Walsh: [03-22]
Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani has been caught up in a gambling
controversy. He won't be the last. One of the biggest changes in
my lifetime has been the changed attitude toward gambling, which
in my mother's day was a degenerative sin indulged by lowlifes,
much to the profit of mobsters. Today the mobsters have turned
into Republican billionaires -- hard to say whether that's a step
up or down ethically -- and their rackets have moved out into the
open. For a long time, the shame of the Black Sox kept the lid on
sports gambling, but that's been totally blown open in the recent
years. I hate it, which doesn't mean I want to try to ban it, but
those involved are no better than criminals, and should be reminded
of it as often as possible.
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