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Saturday, October 10, 2026
Loose Tabs
On [10-06] I bypassed working on tabs.php to open this
scratch Loose Tabs file, which will eventually be renumbered to
post.
This is an occasional collection of newsworthy links and comments,
much less systematic than what I attempted in my late
Speaking of Which posts. The name comes from my extensive
use of browser tabs. When I get around to cleaning up, I often find
tabs opened to old articles I might want to comment on and/or refer
back to. So
these posts are mostly
housecleaning, but may also serve as a very limited but persistent
record of what 20+ years ago I started calling "the end of the American
empire" and nowadays feels more like "the end of civilization." With
no strict schecule, I've tended to flush these notes out toward the
end of each month.
My previous one appeared ? days ago, on
September 30.
By the way, I've been trying to write some more in-depth pieces on
major issues (and/or personal peccadillos), using Substack as an email
agent. I call this series
Notes on Everyday Life. I used to have a pinned list of pieces
here, but as they've grown, I've moved them into
separate index.
I also have a
Notes feed there. While I've done very little with it so far,
it occurs to me that I might be able to use it to publish Loose
Tabs items and Music Week reviews as I write them, instead of
having to wait for a long compilation post.
Table of Contents:
New Stories
Most stories fit into well-established categories, organized below as
Major Threads. Some sources I lean on so
regularly they have their own
Regular Columnists section. I also have an
End Matter section for dealing with regular
occurrences like books, obituaries, and tweets. Stories that don't
fit into any regular category appear under
Miscellaneous Stories. However, occasionally
a short-term story blows up to where it needs extra attention, in
which case I included it here. Finally, there is
End Matter, which includes regular notes on
books and music, obituaries, and a few tweets that caught my eye.
Examples from last time:
The Republican National ("Trumpalooza") Convention;
The 25th Anniversary of 9/11.
NAZA:
Rachell Corbett [10-03]:
NAZA is selling out theaters. Can it influence The Hague?
"Whether the film can advance the case for genocide may be more
complicated than convincing viewers." It shouldn't take a few
interviews to tip the genocide case, as there is plenty evidence
of intent from Israel's leaders, and of execution from the rubble.
What the film adds is coherent detail of those actually doing the
killing on the ground.
At a sold-out screening at IFC Center, the audience sat silent until
the last credit rolled on NAZA, the documentary in which two
dozen Israeli military personnel admit to committing war crimes and
genocide in Gaza. Throughout, no one dared touch their popcorn; the
only sounds were sharp exhales during the most grotesque confessions
— the former IDF soldiers and intelligence officers who
recounted how bombing Palestinians was "insanely fun," how dogs ate
the corpses and snipers gunned down starving Gazans as they ran to
food at aid sites. One drew stick figures falling forward on their
faces to show how the momentum caused their bodies to land. . . .
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to change Israel's laws
in order to revoke Abraham and Szor's citizenship, while a mural went
up on an Israeli street with crosshairs next to their faces. . . .
The film also makes a case for those bigger accusations by focusing
on the system that enabled the interviewees to carry out their
crimes. "The danger of what Yuval did is that he went after the IDF,
not the government, and that hurts Israel more
substantially. Governments come and go, but the IDF is what Israel's
entire national identity revolves around," says Muhammad Shehada, a
Gazan political analyst and friend of Abraham.
Sebastian Ben Daniel (John Brown) [10-02]:
Why NAZA terrifies Israel's liberal elite: "The film shatters
'respectable' Israelis' illusion of moral superiority: The most prestigious
soldiers are the primary culprits of genocide." Omer Bartov [10-09]:
How do human beings explain taking part in genocide? NAZA provides a
chilling look: "It is easier to blame brutes and sadists for
extreme violence. But as we see in the documentary, modern genocides
are fueled by people who are uncomfortably recognizable."
Israel's Elections: Scheduled for October 27.
October 7, 2023 + Three Years: While the date in 2023 is
indelibly etched in memory as a fateful turning point in history,
Richard Silverstein [10-02]:
10/7: Netanyahu's final solution to the Palestinian question. Mohammed R Mhawish [10-07]:
This is not an anniversary: "Does remembering the date of October 7
make it easier to name?" Steve Bloomfield [10-10]:
In three years, Israel's war on Gaza hasn't just changed the Middle East,
it's changed the world: "A whirlpool of violence has engulfed
everywhere from Lebanon to Yemen. Meanwhile, the west has destroyed
any political authority it once had." "West" seems to be a term of
art for a British writer who can't quite exempt his nation from the
crimes of the US. The US still has considerable political power,
but what's been lost is any pretense of moral authority, because
Trump (and before him Biden) lacked any scruples about the genocide
Israel has waged.
But there is something else, more insidious, that has changed. The
rule of international law, tenuous as it was, has been openly replaced
by military might. In 2022, western leaders — building a
coalition rightly opposed to Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of
Ukraine — made moral appeals based on the violation of
international law. In Gaza, they encouraged and supported Israel, even
when it was clear that the rules were being broken. That hypocrisy has
not gone unnoticed, not just in the global south but among many
millions of citizens in the west.
The Nobel Peace Prize:
Major Threads
War on Iran:
Israel:The focus here is on Israel's wars, especially against
their own people, and on internal Israeli politics. A second section
will address Israel's relations with the world, especially the US.
Israel-American-World Relations: This section deals with
Israel's relations with the world, especially the US, both at the
state level and regarding public opinion.
Ukraine, Other Hot Spots, and World Politics: A catch-all,
where the focus is away from, but not unaffected by, Trump's wars.
Trump's War Department: I set this section up to deal with Trump's
threats of war. We're obviously beyond that now, so see the section on
Iran for more on that.
Trump vs. Law and/or Law vs. America: From ICE to the Supreme
Court and the assault on democracy.
Trump's Administration: Trump can't remake America in his own
image (i.e., destroy the country, culture, and civilization) just by
himself. He needs help, and having largely purged the government of
civil servants and replaced them with his own minions, this is what
they are doing — whether he's paying attention or not, and that
it's mostly not is no excuse: he sets the tone, then distracts the
media with his own insanity.
Donald Trump: The cult (or should I say sinkhole?) of personality.
While most of the bad things he has done and is doing are the work of
his administration, and many of their bad ideas are deeply ingrained
in the Republican Party, he hogs the spotlight, giving them a uniquely
pungent odor.
Ross Rosenfeld [09-30]:
Trump personifies the basic laws of human stupidity: "How a 50-year-old
treatise by an Italian economic historian makes sense of our utterly
senseless moment." Introducing Carlo Cipolla and his 1976 book,
The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. The "third law" seems to be
the crux of the matter: "A stupid person is a person who causes losses
to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no
gain and even possibly incuring losses." While much of what Trump does
fits this description, at the same time no president (and possibly no
politician) has more frequently strived to profit from his office. Margaret Hartmann:
Frank Rich [10-07]:
The Collaborators: "The cronies of Trump's second term are
more brazen than the old ones. They're also heading for a harsher
comeuppance."
By most non-Nazi measures, the Trump administration is off the
charts. Its Department of Justice, which pursues the president's
personal vendettas in lieu of protecting anyone's human, civil, and
voting rights, has enabled a kleptocracy that might make Suharto and
Marcos look like shoplifters. The wholesale corruption and theft have
exponentially increased not only the net worth of the president and
his family but that of the large cast of cronies and grifters who have
been cut in on the rackets rife in every corner of our
government. Just a shortlist of the likely roster of criminal
operations would include 24/7 insider stock trading; quid pro
quo-driven real-estate deals in the Middle East, Europe, and even
Yosemite National Park; no-bid government contracts handed out to
favored vendors for federal boondoggles; crypto grabs engineered by
Trump's sons with the sons of his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff;
prediction-market investments benefiting Donald Trump Jr.; the direct
and indirect purchase of presidential pardons; and the curbing of
antitrust and IRS enforcement for well-connected fat cats. It will
take an army of sleuths just to track down the untold taxpayer dollars
expended during the extravagant joyride of the ousted Bonnie and Clyde
of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski.
Electoral Politics: Pieces on US elections (recent and future)
and, more generally, inter-party politicking. Party-specific pieces in
following sections.
Other Republicans:
Democrats:
Economists and the Economy:
Technology (Including AI):
Climate and Environment:
Media:
Regular Columnists
Sometimes an interesting columnist writes often enough on a range
of topics that it makes sense to collect their work in one place,
rather than scatter it about (especially if they cover a range of
topics).
Jeffrey St Clair:
[10-02]:
Roaming Charges: "Lots of Very Good Wars!". Of course, there are
no such wars, and anyone who even for a moment thinks differently
needs their head examined. For instance, Barack Obama squandered
whatever credibility he got for opposing Bush's Iraq War by calling
Afghanistan "the right war" and escalating it. St Clair cites a
tweet with this Obama quote: "What people are starved for at the
moment is the ability to tell a moral and ethical story about how
we live together in this moment." St Clair misses the point when
he snarks: "who remains gullible enough to take moral advice from
the Deporter-in-Chief, who droned American citizens and their
kids?" One of Obama's great failings was his tendency to think
all he had to do was to tell a good story, helping people feel
good about themselves, regardless of what their government was
actually doing in the world (which under Obama was near exactly
the same as it was under Bush). In doing so, he extended the
political savvy of Reagan (building on Nixon and extending to
Clinton) in flattering Americans into accept a fantasy world
they had no control over, and that was no longer accountable to
them. By the time Obama was done, many Americans were so starved
for honesty that they were willing to try Trump's candor instead
— possibly because by they they had lost any moral compass.
(Susan Nieman does a good job of explaining why in Call It
Evil.)
Miscellaneous Pieces
The following articles are more/less in order published, although
some authors may have collected pieces, and some entries may have
related articles underneath.
End Matter
Books: Multiple reviews are grouped under book.
Music:
Other media:
Obituaries: I had been using the New York Times, but
they're giving me aggravation these days, so I'll switch over to
Wikipedia
August),
which is probably better anyway. Roughly speaking, since my last
report on
August 1:
Dennis Hastert, 84, US House (R-IL 1987-2007), House Speaker
(1999-2007), resigned due to a sexual abuse scandal (students
from when Hastert was a high school wrestling coach), was later
convicted of bank fraud, but only served a few months in prison;
as Speaker, his "majority of the majority" rule helped the
Republican right gain veto power over anything their often
slim majorities could do. [10-03]:
Some other names I recognize:
Current count:
60 links, 3288 words (4536 total)
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