Blog Entries [0 - 9]Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Music Week
November archive
(in progress).
Music: Current count 43153 [43118] rated (+35), 26 [36] unrated (-10).
After last Tuesday's election, I took a couple days out, basically
hiding from the news, as anyone would do when faced with traumatic
stress. I had written a full-throated
endorsement of Harris, which was driven far less by what I saw
as her virtues than with my understanding of the full horror that
four more years of Trump as president would bring. Perhaps now I
should edit that to say "will," as Trump won, Harris lost, and
ultimately we'll be the ones paying for this very bad decision.
By the time I was ready to look at the news, I had decided that
the week's
Speaking of Which would be my last. My reasoning is in the
wrap-up section, so no need to reiterate it here. But the
decision helped free me to navigate the morass of punditry (and
sometimes news). The result is the longest such column ever,
weighing in at 265 links, 26798 words, even before I added a
few scattered items today.
I can't swear that I'll never write political commentary again.
I'm likely to respond to
questions. In general, I tend to
be better at responding to requests than at making my own plans.
(Indeed, my entire career as a rock and jazz critic only happened
because Robert Christgau asked me to write something for him. And
when I decided, with my wife's blessing, to try to return to
writing around 2001, I had little interest in focusing on music,
but Christgau again came through with the requests I wound up
spending so much time on. If someone asks me, especially if they
have a reputable outlet with the promise of an audience, competent
editing, and possible collaboration, I'd give any such offer some
consideration. But I've concluded that spending so much time and
effort self-publishing huge pieces that get virtually no feedback
is no way to live.
This also means that I'm unlikely to renew the domain for the
underutilized
Notes on Everyday Life. I published the Harris endorsement
there in hopes of getting a few comments. All I got was one
disagreement (from my wife), and a couple pieces of spam.
More importantly, the long considered, often mentioned big
political book is now officially dead. I briefly had the idea
of rummaging through the campaign
Speaking of Which posts and trying to compile a What I
Learned from the 2024 Election book, but that's pretty
dead, too. It's not so much that I've lost interest in the
key issues of political philosophy, but my idea that we need
to find a modus vivendi to work within the Democratic Party
has been pretty severely shaken. It's not so much that I've
changed my mind there, but I'd rather write about ideas that
could actually make a difference, as opposed to pandering to
people who seem unserious about either winning or solving any
problems.
I'm unlikely to sort out my future writing focus until end
of year/early 2025. That's because my immediate shift will be
to the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll. We usually send out
ballot invites mid-November, which is this week. Although I
was thinking about this a couple months ago, I've had very
little time to do anything through today (or maybe tomorrow,
when the contractor returns to fix up some problems in our
bedroom/closet project). I need to set up the website, and
kick off a letter -- at least a notice that formal invites
will be sent in another week or so. That means dealing with
the usual email problems, not that they're really solvable
(i.e., workarounds rather than fixes).
I'm thinking about setting up a discussion list for people
who want to help out with the poll. If you want to help, let
me know, and we'll see what's possible. One thing that always
needs help is vetting possible new voters. Again, any ideas,
let me know.
The Arts Fuse will publish
the results, again. I'm thinking I'll go with a mid-December
deadline, publishing on or shortly after January 1.
I may write more on music in the coming period, or maybe not.
One thing I will do is work on the end-of-year files for
jazz (which I've
been maintaining since the mid-year poll) and non-jazz (doesn't
exist yet, but will before long). Also, the
tracking file (currently
1919 records listed, 952 that I have heard or at least have
in my queue), and the two
files for tracking metacritic grades and EOY list mentions:
(new music and
(old/reissued music.
EOY lists start appearing about now -- UK pubs tend to get the
jump here, we already have lists from
Uncut,
Mojo, and
Decibel. The latter have only rarely been updated since mid-year,
so need a lot of work.
I'll let this week's music speak for themselves. Good new albums
by Steve Coleman and Rebecca Kilgore led me to look up some of their
old albums. Two Kilgore albums I wanted to check out but couldn't
find were the eponymous 1998 one on Jump (a Penguin Guide 4-star),
and a Marilyn Monroe tribute from 2012.
My two recent books read on Israel are good and short. Ta-Nehisi
Coates (The Message) took a while to get interesting, but
paid off in the end. Ilan Pappe's A Very Short History of the
Israel-Palestine Conflict seemed like stuff I already knew, but
I did pick up some finer points, and appreciate the organization.
I had Gideon Levy's The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe
on deck, but picked up Marshall Berman's All That Is Solid Melts
Into Air for some emergency reading material, and was immediately
struck by several things. I wanted to drop a big quote (also one from
Coates) into Speaking of Which, but didn't manage. I stopped reading
critical the in the mid-1970s (when I got a job, left college, and
got into rock criticism), but I did pick up a copy of Berman's 1983
book (my cover is different from the one pictured left, but this is
the best I could do). I'm not sure if I'll stick with it, but it
seems like an important book.
Note that at least three important musicians died in recent days:
Roy Haynes, Lou Donaldson, and Ella Jenkins. See
Speaking of Which for obituary notices.
I've mostly ignored new stories on likely Trump appointments, but
most since I wrote the
second intro -- where I raised the possibility that Trump might
pull some of his campaign punches to maintain popularity -- have been
truly abhorent, especially
Marco Rubio for Secretary of State,
Kristi Noem for Secretary of DHS (meaning immigration) and
(seems to be more of a rumor)
Ken Paxton for Attorney General. The odds that the Trump
administration will be even worse than expected seem to be growing.
New records reviewed this week:
Ashtyn Barbaree: Sent Through the Ceiling (2024,
Artists 3 60): Country singer-songwriter, from Arkansas, has a
2018 EP and and a 2022 debut album which I checked a couple months
ago, when I got this promo, and found "nice enough." This second
album is nicer still, with some solid songwriting, good voice,
and serious fiddle.
B+(***) [cd]
Big Bambi: Compositions for Bass Guitar & Bassoon,
Vol. I (2022 [2024], Greene Avenue Music): Duo of Maribel
Alonso (bassoon) and Jochem van Dijk (bass guitar/electronics),
as advertised, interesting as far as it goes.
B+(**) [cd]
Steve Coleman and Five Elements: PolyTropos/Of Many
Turns (2024, Pi, 2CD): Alto saxophonist, started back
in the mid-1980s developing a strain of funk-fusion, especially
in his M-Base Collective. I should probably revisit those albums,
which I wasn't much into (excepting 1993's The Tao of Mad
Phat/Fringe Zones). But his later postbop, from 2013's
Functional Arrhythmias on, has been very engaging,
especially this live double, with sets from Paris and Voiron.
The group is a quartet, with Jonathan Finlayson interweaving
on trumpet, backed by Rich Brown on bass, and Sean Rickman on
drums.
A- [cd]
Caleb Wheeler Curtis: The True Story of Bears and the
Invention of the Battery (2024, Imani, 2CD): Leader
is mostly a saxophonist (tenor, sopranino, stritch), but also
plays trumpet. Title is from the first disc, with the second
titled Raise Four: Monk the Minimalist. Both are trios
with bass and drums -- Sean Conly and Michael Sarin up front,
Eric Revis and Justin Faulkner on the bonus. Both impress.
A- [cd]
Andy Haas: For the Time, Being (2023 [2024],
Resonant Music): Saxophonist, originally from Toronto, where
he started in the new wave Martha and the Muffins, based in
New York, also worked in groups God Is My Co-Pilot and Radio
I-Ching. Mixed bag of experimental releases under his own name,
but I much liked 2023's Accidentals (lead credit Don
Fiorino). This one is solo, his credits: "saxophone, strap-on
tremolo, mm w/hazaral, vinyl LP manipulation" -- so mostly
sounds like electronics, or scattered sound effects.
B+(*) [cd]
Laird Jackson: Life (2024, self-released):
Jazz singer-songwriter, has previous albums from 1994 and
2002, most songs here originals co-written by Jeff Haynes
(percussion, bass on one track, vocals on two). This is an
ambitious work, a bit slow and ponderous for my attention
span, but the "Wild Is the Wind" cover is striking, and
there may well be more to it.
B+(*) [cd]
Ariel Kalma/Jeremiah Chiu/Marta Sofia Honer: The Closest
Thing to Silence (2022-23 [2024], International Anthem):
French ambient composer, many albums since 1975, collaborators
here did a 2022 album I liked, Recordings From the Åland
Islands. Notes on wrapper: "Ephemeral, eylsian electro-acoustic
collusion birthing a realized humanized multi-generational
poly-technological expression." Another of those Hassel-like
"fourth world" vibes.
B+(**) [sp]
Pandelis Karayorgis/George Kokkinaris: Out From Athens
(2023 [2024], Driff): Piano and bass duets (one solo each), the
former born in Athens but long-based in Boston, with many albums
since 1989.
B+(**) [bc]
Rebecca Kilgore: A Little Taste: A Tribute to Dave
Frishberg (2023 [2024], Cherry Pie Music): Standards
singer, b. 1949, one of her first albums (1994) had her only
backed by Frishberg on piano, a formula they repeated several
times since. Discogs says she "retired from performing in
2024 after being diagnosed with dementia with Lewy Bodies,"
so this looks like it could be her last. In between, she
mostly recorded with retro swing and trad jazz artists,
especially for Arbors, where she always seemed right at home.
I should check out what I've missed. She gets more backing
here, including some strings, and limits herself to 11 songs
(38:22), but she sounds fine, and the late pianist's songs
are as witty as ever, even without his sly drawl.
B+(***) [cd]
Lady Gaga: Harlequin (2024, Interscope): Tie-in
to the Todd Phillips movie, Joker: Folie à Deux, which she
co-stars in (as Harleen "Lee" Quinzel) and wrote the soundtrack
for. I don't know how much of this features in the film: one of
two originals is "The Joker," but the rest are standards (some
with added Stefani Germanotta credits), which suggests continuity
from her Tony Bennett duet albums. They are splashy, but not
especially interesting.
B+(*) [sp]
Brian Lynch: 7X7BY7 (2021 [2024], Holistic MusicWorks):
Trumpet player, started mainstream but moved quickly into Latin jazz,
especially once he joined Eddie Palmieri. Septet here is a good
example of that, with Craig Handy (tenor sax), Alex Wintz (guitar),
Luis Perdomo (piano), bass, drums, and percussion.
B+(***) [cd]
Lyrics Born: Goodbye, Sticky Rice (2024, Mobile
Home): Rapper Tom Shimura, originally from Tokyo but grew up in
Salt Lake City and Berkeley, started as half of Latyrx, has a
superb string of albums going, with an exuberant beat and extra
vocals that appeal to me the same way Parliament did in the 1970s.
He's billed this as his "final album." At 52, he may feel he's
"cooked," but even if this feels offhanded, he's still got a lot
going on.
A- [sp]
JD McPherson: Nite Owls (2024, New West):
Singer-songwriter, guitarist from Oklahoma, country roots, favors
rockabilly, fifth album since 2012, includes a Duane Eddy nod.
B+(**) [sp]
Willie Nelson: Last Leaf on the Tree (2024, Legacy):
Ninety now, second album this year, 76th "solo studio album" (per
Wikipedia), son Micah Nelson produced and co-wrote the one new
original (a cover of an older Nelson song is a hidden track).
Title from one of two Tom Waits covers. Production is spare and
laid back, which suits him fine (not that all the songs hold up).
B+(**) [sp]
Outer Spaceways Incorporated: Kronos Quartet & Friends
Meet Sun Ra (2024, Red Hot +): Discogs files under Kronos
Quartet, but they don't seem to play on all of the tracks, while
numerous "friends" come and go. The label has been producing
various artists specials going back to their initial 1990 AIDS
benefit (Red Hot + Blue), including a couple tied to the
music of Sun Ra. Some interesting stuff here, including Laurie
Anderson and Jlin, but it can get pretty scattered.
B+(**) [sp]
Cene Resnik/Samo Salamon/Samuel Ber: The Thinkers
(2023 [2024], Samo): Tenor sax/guitar/drums trio, the
former from the group Siddharta (1999-2007), like Salomon from
Slovenia.
B+(***) [bc]
Kevin Sun: Quartets (2022-23 [2024], Endectomorph
Music, 2CD): Tenor saxophonist, debut a Trio in 2018, has
chops plus a deep understanding of sax lore. Two sets here, both
with bassist Walter Stinson, one with Dana Saul (piano) and Matt
Honor (drums), the other with Christian Li (piano) and Kayvon
Gordon (drums). He's impressive here, but stretched a bit thin.
B+(***) [cd]
Western Jazz Collective: The Music of Andrew Rathbun
(2021 [2024], Origin): Rathbun is a tenor/soprano saxophonist who's
been kicking around since his 2000 debut, and he's part of this septet
(plus guest), the "Western" hailing from Western Michigan University
(Kalamazoo, MI).
B+(**) [cd]
Tucker Zimmerman: Dance of Love (2024, 4AD):
Singer-songwriter, b. 1941 in Sonoma County, California, debut
album Ten Songs in 1969, more through 1983, with a couple
revivals since. I'd never heard of him, but evidently David Bowie
was a fan, as is Adrienne Lenker, whose Big Thief backs him here,
with perfectly unobtrusive music he can talk or sing over, with
Lenker and Marie Claire backing.
A- [sp]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
Black Artist Group: For Peace and Liberty: In Paris,
Dec 1972 (1972 [2024], WeWantSounds): Avant-jazz group
from St. Louis, 1968-72, aka BAG, just one live album before
this tape surfaced. Quintet with three members who later became
well-known: Oliver Lake (alto sax), Baikida Carroll (trumpet),
Joseph Bowie (trombone), Ron LeFlore (trumpet), Charles Shaw
(percussion).
B+(***) [sp]
Old music:
Steve Coleman Group: Motherland Pulse (1985, JMT):
Alto saxophonist, originally from Chicago, moved to New York in
1978, worked in big bands (Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Sam Rivers) and
joined Dave Holland's Quintet, with this his first album as leader,
an adventurous slab of postbop maneuvers. With Geri Allen (piano),
Lonnie Plaxico (bass), and Marvin Smith (drums), plus Graham Haynes
(trumpet) on two tracks, and a Cassandra Wilson vocal (possibly the
album's high point).
B+(***) [yt]
Steve Coleman and Five Elements: The Sonic Language of
Myth: Believing, Learning, Knowing (1999, RCA Victor):
"Five Elements" has been Coleman's most common group name since
1986, with 23 albums to date, but the lineups have varied -- it
would be nice to have one of those Wikipedia-style timelines to
plot it all out. Aside from the alto sax, the core group here is
Anthony Tidd (electric bass), Sean Rickman (drums), and Miguel
"Anga" Diaz (percussion), although only Coleman plays on all
tracks, and many others join in on various tracks, including
tenor sax (Ravi Coltrane and Craig Handy), trumpet (Ralph
Alessi and Shane Endsley), piano (Vijay Iyer and Jason Moran),
strings, and vocals.
B+(***) [yt]
Steve Coleman and Five Elements: Drop Kick (1992,
RCA/Novus): Mostly riffing over funk beats, mostly from Reggie
Washington (electric bass) and Marvin "Smitty" Smith (drums),
some with James Weidman (piano/keyboards) and/or Michael Wimberly
(percussion), and an alternate bass/drums combo on three. Guest
spots include Lance Bryant (tenor sax), Grgeg Osby (alto sax),
Don Byron (clarinet/bass clarinet), and Cassandra Wilson (vocals).
B+(*) [sp]
Steve Coleman and the Mystic Rhythm Society: Myths, Modes
and Means (1995, Groovetown/RCA/BMG France): The first of
three CDs with the same cover logo:
"Recorded Live at the Hot Brass, 24-29 March, 1995." With Ralph
Alessi (trumpet) for a second horn, two name keyboard players
(Vijay Iyer and Andy Milne), funk rhythm and a few exotic
instruments (like Miya Masaoka's koto) and dancers.
B+(**) [sp]
Steve Coleman and Metrics: The Way of the Cipher
(1995, Groovetown/RCA/BMG France): Same cover sticker: "Recorded
Live at the Hot Brass, 24-29 March, 1995." Band is pretty much
the same (just Andy Milne on keyboards), but this time features
rappers (Black Indian, Kokayi, Sub Zero).
B+(**) [sp]
Steve Coleman: Invisible Paths: First Scattering
(2007, Tzadik): Alto saxophonist, solo album, pretty long at 71
minutes (16 pieces).
B+(*) [sp]
Rebecca Kilgore and Dave Frishberg: Not a Care in the
World (1995, Arbors): Standards singer, her second album
with the pianist backing, this one adding Dan Faehnle on guitar
for 10 (of 17) tracks (none by Frishberg, but you get "South
American Way" and a Jobim), ending with a delightful version of
"The Glow-Worm."
B+(**) [sp]
Rebecca Kilgore & Dave Frishberg: The Starlit Hour
(1997 [2001], Arbors): Just voice and piano, some applause, I'm not
seeing song credits but they're pretty standard.
B+(***) [r]
Rebecca Kilgore: Moments Like This (1998-99 [2001],
HeavyWood Music): Standards singer, backed by Randy Porter (piano),
Scott Steed (bass), and Neil Masson (drums).
B+(**) [sp]
Rebecca Kilgore and the Bobby Gordon Trio: Make Someone
Happy: A Further Remembrance of Maxine Sullivan, Volume Two
(2004 [2005], Audiophile): Follows her 2001 album, Harlem
Butterfly: A Remembrance of Maxine Sullivan, also recorded
with Gordon (clarinet), Chris Dawson (piano), and Hal Smith
(drums). Sullivan (1911-87) was a delightful singer, but I've
only sampled her lightly, and have no sense of her repertoire,
and tend to focus on the standards everybody's done. Kilgore
does a superb job with them, and I really enjoy the clarinet.
A- [sp]
Rebecca Kilgore: Rebecca Kilgore's Lovefest at the
Pizzarelli Party (2010, Arbors): With guitarist Bucky
Pizzarelli, his sone John (guitar) and Martin (bass), and some
others: Larry Fuller (piano), Aaron Weinstein (violin), Harry
Allen (tenor sax), and Tony Tedesco (drums).
B+(**) [r]
Rebecca Kilgore: With Hal Smith's Rhythmakers
(2015, Audiophile): Smith is a trad jazz drummer, from Arkansas,
side credits from 1972 with many notable bands, leader of his
own since 1984, with at least two previous albums featuring
singer Kilgore.
B+(*) [r]
Rebecca Kilgore With Hal Smith's Rhythmakers: Sings the
Music of Fats Waller (2016, Audiophile): The drummer's
group is well suited for a Waller program, with Chris Dawson
(piano) and Clint Baker (banjo) for rhythm, and all the right
horns: clarinet (Bobby Gordon), cornet (Marc Caparone), trombone
(Alan Adams), and alto sax (John Otto).
B+(***) [sp]
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Michaël Attias: Quartet Music Vol. I: LuMiSong (Out of Your Head) [03-01]
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, November 11, 2024
Speaking of Which
Draft file opened 2024-11-06 2:00 PM.
Finally posted 2024-11-11 10:00 PM.
Added a couple small bits on 2024-11-12.
Sections:
Trump won.
I don't know why. I cannot fathom why anyone, much less
an outright majority of voting Americans, could stand him, or could
in any way identify with him, let alone entrust him with great power.
It is not inconceivable to me that this result was rigged, with every
voting machine in the country shaving several points in his favor --
and that all the election denial hoopla of 2020 was just misdirection,
while they worked on perfecting the software.
Or, I suppose, it's possible that a thin majority of the American
people have become so soul-deadened, demented, and/or deranged that they
wish nothing more than to inflict this guy on the rest of us. In which
case, the obvious answer is "to dissolve the people and elect another."
The phrase comes from a
Bertolt Brecht poem, a bit of Communist Party humor, not really
applicable here, but it does convey the disconnect when you realize
that the people you got are not the ones you imagined or hoped for.
We need better politicians, but we also need to become better people,
not least to stop them from the temptation to gaslight us.
Personally, I was delighted when Kamala Harris ran away with the
Democratic nomination. I didn't think of her in terms of categories
or attributes, and was always annoyed when people brought up "first
woman," etc., like some kind of milestone. She just seemed like a
generic American -- at least in the America I know, which includes
many years of living in Kansas, as well as some in New York, New
Jersey, and Massachusetts. I knew that she wasn't a leftist, that
she was a shrewd and calculating politician, and that she circulated
easily among friends in high places. But she seemed personable and
relatable, flexible, nimble, like someone who could recognize problems
and try to do things to fix them. She seemed much better to me than
her predecessors (going back at least to 1992).
Besides, I'm old enough that I'm no longer enamored of utopia, nor
patient for the long struggle, so I wasn't inclined to criticize.
Surely, I figured, she must know what she's doing? And if not, if
she blew it, we could unload on her then. But why give Trump any
comfort from division. He was such a clear and present evil -- a
word I normally abjure, but why beat around the bush here? -- that
nothing could budge my vote from Harris. And now, like Hillary
Clinton, and unlike -- no matter how little regard you have for
him, Joe Biden -- she has committed the unpardonable sin of losing
to Trump.
Still, as I'm writing this intro, I don't feel like tearing into
her campaign or other shortcomings. As I collect links, I'm sure I
will nitpick here and there. But it's still hard for me to see why
she lost, or what else she could have done about it. That wasn't the
case with Hillary Clinton: her faults, both personal and political,
were obvious from the start, and the sanctimonious scapegoating for
her loss only heightened her flaws. I could reconcile myself with
the theory that Americans had candidates they disliked, but could
only vote one of them off the island, and they chose her, because
they knew her better. Surely, this year those same voters would
dispatch Trump? Even as his polls held up, I expected a last gasp
break toward sanity.
That it didn't happen suggests a much deeper problem, which
brings us back to the voters. Or should, if I could figure it
out. The one thing I'm pretty sure of is that America has been
in some kind of moral decline since approximately when I was
born -- in 1950, the week before Chinese volunteers entered
the Korean War and reversed the American advance, forcing a
stalemate, which American sore losers still refuse to accept.
Sure, Americans committed many sins before I was born, but
we could aim for better, and teach our children to make a
better world. The Hays Office made sure that the good guys
wore white hats, and triumphed in the end. I certainly grew
up believing in all that, seriously enough that when events
proved otherwise, I protected my ideals by turning against
the actual America. But what I never lost was the notion
that in the end, it will all turn out well.
We may not be at the end yet, but Trump sure seems like a
serious turn for the worse. He's four years older than I am,
but came from a completely different class and culture, and
at each step along the way he had different reactions and made
different choices, always breaking bad, which sometimes meant
embracing deteriorating social morality, and often accelerating
it. Oddly enough, he's the one who poses as a pious patriot.
Stranger still, lots of people believe him, perhaps because he
allows them to indulge their own vile impulses.
As far as I can tell, there are two types of Trump voter. On
the one hand, there are people who actually like him, who get
off on his arrogance and nastiness, and who like to see other
people hurt. (I've previously noted two types of Christians:
those who hope to help their fellows, and those who are more
focused on consigning those they disapprove of to hell. Trump
is practically a messiah for the latter group.) The second type
are party-liners, who will always vote Republican, no matter
how much they may disapprove of the candidate. The two groups
overlap, but each group extends the other, nudging a minority
up toward 50%.
Elite Republicans may not love Trump, but they'll do anything
to win -- their whole graft depends on it -- so they go along,
figuring they can control the damage (as well as profit from it).
This is much like the conservatives in Weimar Germany figuring
they can control Hitler -- meanwhile, Trump resembles Hitler at
least in his political pitch (his ability to rouse the passions
of people for whom economic conservatism has little appeal). Such
fascism analogies resonate for some people, especially on the left,
who know the history, but are meaningless to those who don't --
most Trump voters, although he seems to have some staff who revel
in it, as they keep sending dog whistles, not least to provoke
charges that never seem to work.
There is a certain genius to Trump/Republican politics, in how
they've manage to flip attacks into accolades: charges that would
discredit any normal candidate only seem to make Trump stronger,
and that rubs off on the rest of the Republicans. The key element
here has been the extraordinary success of partisan broadcasting,
keyed to fear, flattery, and rage: the net effect has been to sow
distrust and deny credibility to anything Democrats say or do,
while championing Republicans as defenders of true America. The
result is a tribe that has come to reject facts, reason, and/or
any hint of moral purpose: all are rejected as tools of the devil.
Trump adds very little of substance to this toxic infosystem,
but he does offer some kind of charisma or style, and disinhibition
(which passes for candor if you buy it, or cluelessness if you don't),
and serves as a lightning rod for attacks that only confirm the
bond between him and his fans. This can be very confusing for all
who are immune to or wary of his charms: his appeal makes no sense
to us, and meaningful response is nearly impossible. On the other
hand, they counter with the same logic and even more fervor, making
even less sense to us. The double standards are mind-boggling. For
example, one might try making a case that Trump has been unfairly
targeted by prosecutors, but how do you square that with his threats
to do much more of the same, and the "lock her up" chants?
But it's not just that Trump Republicans are easily deluded and
controlled by their media. That feat is built on top of much deeper
social trends that go back at least to the 1940s, with the founding
of the military-industrial complex and the extension of American
hegemony to serve global capitalism, with its attendant red scares,
both foreign and domestic. Americans had an idealized picture of
themselves coming out of WWII, which made the world Trump and I
grew up in. But the task of protecting capital turned into nasty
business, and we started to divide into one camp that relished the
fight, and another appalled by it. We started seeing films where
bad guys were recruited to do dirty work for supposedly good guys,
who turned bad themselves. Before long, American presidents were
ordering assassinations, kidnapping, and torture. Trump started
out with his Nazi-symp father, his apprenticeship under Roy Cohn,
and his mobster connections. He fit right in. He only had to wait
until America became rotten enough to embrace him. Bush's Global
War on Terror made that possible.
Well, the other part of the equation is the rise of the super
rich, made possible by the ideological attack on the notion of
public interest, and by the assertion of "greed is good," and the
general belief that "might makes right" (i.e., anything you can
get away with is fine). The richer the supers got, the more they
leveraged their wealth through lobbies, PR firms, donations, and
media to turn government to do their bidding, further increasing
their wealth. They usually rented their spokesmen, but Trump,
having personified great wealth on TV, gave them a new angle: he
could have it both ways, claiming their authority while pretending
to be free of their influence.
I'm not sure how much of the election any of this explains,
although it may help explain why Democratic attack ads don't seem
to be drawing any blood. As with Republican attack ads, they may
do nothing more than confirm one's own virtues (or vices if that's
your thing). But it does make one wonder if raising money isn't
overrated.
We could, of course, look into the many ways Democrats have
contributed to their downfall. The losers are always quick with
thoughts, so a fair number of them will show up in links below.
I may have more to say on this below, but for here I'll pass,
except to point out a couple of fundamental dynamics:
There is a deep divide and conflict within Democratic ranks,
between corporate/neoliberal and populist/democratic tendencies;
they both share a fear of the right but are deeply distrustful of
each other. That produces acrimony, as you'll see below.
Democrats are subject to higher expectations than Republicans.
Democrats are expected not just to win elections, but to address
issues successfully, and are held accountable for any failures.
Republicans only have to win, and there are few strictures on
how low they can go to win. When they do win, they can readily
screw up, but are rarely held accountable.
Democrats are also held to higher ethical and moral
standards. Republicans may even embrace their own's misbehavior,
while excoriating Democrats for the same faults. (Thus, for
instance, Hillary Clinton is horribly corrupt, but Donald Trump
is just a rogueish businessman.)
Democrats believe in public service, in representing all
people, and as such they credit Republicans with legitimacy where
Republicans deny any to Democrats, and seek to cripple them wherever
possible. Republicans see politics as a zero-sum game.
The net effect is that Democrats campaign at a severe handicap.
Republicans can lie, cheat, and steal, but Democrats can't -- and
in many cases don't even know how. Democrats want to be liked, even
by Republicans (and especially by the rich), so they are careful
not to offend. (Even so, a casual reference to "garbage" gets blown
up sky high, while Republican references to "vermin" get laughed
away.) Republicans can exaggerate for effect, while Democrats pull
their punches, and that muddies their messages. Democrats cede
critical ground in arguments, seemingly legitimizing Republican
stands, which only become more extreme. The media love loud and
brusque, so they lap it up, amplify it, spread it everywhere,
dispensing with reason and nuance, and especially reality (the
most boring subject of all).
Then there are structural factors. America is divided into
states, districts, precincts, all of which can be gerrymandered,
as Republicans were quick to turn to their advantage. The Senate
is grossly undemocratic, and the filibuster there has made it
impossible for Democrats to pass meaningful reforms, even on
the rare occasions when they seem to have majority power. The
Republicans have packed the courts, which they're increasingly
using to restrict executive power by Democrats, and to increase
it by Republicans. Many judges are protected from any oversight
by lifetime appointments. Many reforms, as well as redress by
impeachment, require supermajorities, which Republicans use to
lock themselves in power, even if they lose popular support.
(Orban's system in Hungary has made extensive use of this, and
is widely cited by Republicans as a model for America -- although
in may have originated here, much like Nazi, South African, and
Israeli race laws drew on American precedents.)
But the biggest structural problem of all is money. Republicans
worship it -- even poor ones are defined by their deference or
indifference to great wealth -- and the rich thank them for their
service. The single most certain prediction for a second Trump
term is yet another round of tax cuts for the rich. Next up is
another round of regulatory loopholes, give-aways, and subsidies
to needy (or just greedy) businesses. Lobbyists took Washington
in the 1980s, and have only grown ever since. Republicans run
"revolving door" administrations where lobbyists are as likely
to work for the government as against it. The net effect is that
government is as likely to work against the public interest as
for it.
Republicans love this, because it reinforces their message
that government is inefficient, wasteful, and useless, and should
be shrunk (and ultimately "drowned in the bathtub"), except they
never actually do that, at least as long as they can use it to
feed their political machine.[*] While this is mostly done with
money, Republicans are also looking forward to using their power
in other ways: in turning the civil service into a patronage system
for political operatives; in aligning information services with
their political messaging; and in using coercive powers to suppress
heresy and dissent, to punish their enemies, and to empower (or at
least pardon) their allies.
When Democrats talk so piously and nebulously about the "death
of democracy," this is what they are actually referring to. Only
it's not a future threat, something that might be avoided if only
enough people would vote for a Harris, a Biden, a Clinton, an
Obama. It's been happening for a long time -- I used to see 1980
(Reagan) as the turning point, but now that I see it less in policy
terms than as a mental disorder, I see much more originality and
continuity in Nixon (which has the advantage of making Johnson's
Vietnam the breaking point -- it certainly was what turned my own
life upside down -- instead of the nascently-Reaganesque Carter).
Maybe with Trump redux, Democrats will finally realize that they
have to fight back, and stop trying to pass themselves off as
some kind of prophylactic, a thin barrier to limit the contagion.
Which brings us back to money. As I said, Republicans worship
it. But so do Democrats: maybe not all of them, but virtually all
of the kind that run for higher office, because the system is
rigged so that only those with access to money can run serious
campaigns. (Bernie Sanders is the exception here, and he did
come up with a novel system of small donor support, but when
he came to be viewed as a threat, big donors dumped tons of
money -- Michael Bloomberg more than $500M; compare that to
the $28M he spent this year for Harris against Trump -- to
quash his campaign.) Harris is no exception here. She raised
more money than any Democrat -- or Republican for that matter --
ever. And she lost. So maybe money isn't the answer?
I'm not going to try to tell you what Democrats should do
instead, but maybe they should start by waking up and looking
at the real world we're living in, a world that they are at
least in some substantial part responsible for creating. And
that means they need to re-examine their worship of money.
There's much more that can be said about this, but I've droned
on long enough. I should leave it here.
[*] That machine, by the way, is a thing of wonder, which I
don't think has ever been fully dissected, although there is a
lot of literature on various aspects of it. If Machiavelli were
here, he would write a letter offering advice on how an aspiring
young Republican could rise to a position of great power and
influence. (As Gramsci noted, real princes didn't need such
guidance. The point of the book was to expose their machinations
to those with no such experiences.) This would not only lay out
the topography of institutions, but the networking, the lexicon
of coded language, the spin, and ultimately the psychology of
why anyone would want to be a Republican in the first place --
something I still find incredibly alien even though I often take
great pains to try to understand others in their own terms.
As of Saturday afternoon, I have 144 links, 15438 words.
I was planning on not posting until Monday, so I have time to
make another round or two, but I have enough feedback on the
election to offer a few bits of speculation about the future.
I put little stock in them, given how poorly my predictions
have held up. But I can hedge a bit by offering a couple of
alternatives.
On several occasions, notably 1992 for the Republicans,
and 2016 for the Democrats, incumbent parties seem to have
felt permanently entitled to the presidency, and took their
defeats bitterly, lashing out blindly. The level of vitriol
Republicans directed at Bill Clinton after 1992 was almost
unprecedented in the never-very-polite lore of American
politics, and set a pattern that they repeated after 2008
and 2020 (arguably the most over-the-top, but by then their
character was expected, and the sore loser took personal
charge of the rage).
While Democrats didn't behave that atrociously after 2016,
when pretty much everyone expected Hillary Clinton to easily
defeat Donald Trump, her followers reacted with dismay and
a massive round of accusations and scapegoating -- especially
directed at Russia, although there were many other factors at
work, including how distasteful and provocative Trump was, and
that Clinton supporters still had a chip on their shoulders
over the strong Bernie Sanders challenge to what organization
Democrats expected to be a cakewalk.
Democrats' opinion of Trump has only sunk lower with four
years in power and four years plotting his comeback. But so
far, reaction has been mild, other than the inevitable shock
and sadness. Trump's margin has been sufficient that it's
hard to doubt his win. And while Harris seemed promising at
the Convention, that may have largely been relief that Biden
was out, the assumption that his administration had a good
story that was simply poorly communicated, and the pretty
conviction belief that Trump was such damaged goods that
most Americans would be glad to be rid of him. But it was
never really love for Harris, who's proved to be an easy
(and rarely defended) target for post-mortems. This also
suggests that we misread Trump -- that our loathing of him
isn't shared by enough Americans to beat him -- so maybe
this isn't a good time to go ballistic on him (as we did
in 2016).
Trump's margin opens one new possibility that we haven't
considered, which is that if he governed competently, he
could actually consolidate his power and become regarded
as a significant American president. Admittedly, we have
no reason to expect this. His first term was a disaster of
unfathomable dimensions. He's spent most of the four years
since scrambling to stay out of jail. And his campaign theme
has been redemption and revenge. If he attempts to put into
practice even a significant share of what he campaigned on,
evaluations of his legacy should sink as far below the scale
of American presidents as Caligula and Ivan the Terrible.
But will he? I wouldn't bet against it, but it's just
possible that having won, as ugly as that whole campaign has
been, he'll change course. I don't mean to suggest that he
won't be as bad as his voters want him to be on signature
issues like immigration. But now that he's president, why
should he adopt austerity budgets and demolish services,
just to prove that government doesn't work. If he does that,
he'll be blamed, and if he doesn't, he'll reap the credit.
Plus the whole Fox machine is behind him, so who's going to
complain? Certainly not the Democrats, who are always ready
to help a Republican president do a good deed. (Remember when
they foolishly thought "No Child Left Behind" would better
fund education?) He's promised a better ACA. Why not rebrand
it like he did with NAFTA, adding a couple tweaks that most
Democrats can get behind, and magically turning it into the
Republican program it always was? He'd be a hero, whereas
had he done any of Paul Ryan's plans, he'd be a goat.
The big difference between Trump now and then isn't just
that he has some experience to learn from, but that this
time he gets to pick his own staff. In 2016, he left that
mostly to Pence and Priebus, who saddled him with a bunch
of assholes even he couldn't stand, including the so-called
"adults in the room." This could, as most of us feared, be
for the worse, but Trump was always hemmed in by regular
Republicans, ranging from the Koch-controlled Ryan to the
Blob-heads in the national security racket. One big reason
he won the 2016 primaries was that he disagreed with hardcore
economic orthodoxy. But as a neophyte Republican, he got stuck
with a bunch of crooked, deranged incompetents, and their rot
killed his whole administration. Granted, he wasn't smart
enough to figure it out in real time, and he may still not
be, but the new crew were competent enough to run a winning
campaign this time. We shouldn't exclude the possibility that
they're competent enough to manage him, or to let him manage,
some level of competency. For which he'll handle the PR, as
that's his thing, and it will probably be more hideous than
the actual administration, which above all else has to keep
business booming and profits soaring.
One area where he has a mandate and some real power to act
is foreign policy, where Biden has been utterly disastrous.
It's well past time to settle the Ukraine War, which needs a
bit more art and tact than he's shown so far, but is doable
without looking like too much of a surrender to Putin (but if
the Democrats scream treason, that'll probably make it more
popular). The obvious deal there is status quo on the ground,
and dial back sanctions as stability and security is ensured.
The US actually needs a cooperative relationship with Russia,
and that means undoing the sanctions. He needs to do that
without looking like a Russian stooge, but Putin seems to be
more sensitive to how Trump looks than Trump himself.
Israel is a different matter. He'll give Israel whatever
they want, with no complaints or pretense of humanitarian
concern. At some point, he'll broker a deal with Egypt, the
Saudis, Syria (via Putin), and maybe even Iran, to send the
rest of the Palestinians Israel hasn't killed already into
permanent exile. Maybe he'll get Israel to concede Lebanon,
and that will be the end of it. It's a horrible solution,
but in some ways it'll be a blessing. The Democrats were
just going to drag it out. [*]
I could go around the world, but in foreign policy, there
is virtually nothing he can do (other than start a war, e.g.
with China) that wouldn't be an improvement over Biden. In
general, he'll depress trade and immigration, and disengage
in the internal affairs of other countries. He could easily
negotiate peace deals with North Korea, Iran, even Cuba and
Venezuela. He doesn't care about human rights in those places.
(Biden didn't either, but the pretense was killing.) BRICS
will continue to grow, Europe will go its own way, and the
American people will be just fine. (Maybe fewer cheap goods
and less cheap labor, but nowhere near the scare levels that
liberal economists like to predict.) If Democrats complain
about this, they'll only dig themselves deeper graves. The
era of American global hegemony is ending. Protracting it
will only make a bad thing worse.
By the way, Vance is a creep, but he's much smarter, and
much savvier both on foreign and domestic policy than Pence
ever was. Plus, as the heir-apparent, he has incentives not
to turn the administration into the dumpster fire that Pence
left with. I could go on and on, but you should get the idea
by now. Having shown he can win, legitimately (as these things
go), Trump has little reason to destroy democracy. He could
even build on the majority he already has. He faces two dangers:
one is his own bad instincts; the other is the idiot nihilism
of much of the Republican Party. But he owns that party now,
and the rank-and-file are basically followers, controlled by
the propaganda machine, and the apparatchiki are just hired
hands: they do what they're told.
Again, I have very little confidence that Trump will do any
of this -- even on Israel, where he will continue to do whatever
Netanyahu wants, but Netanyahu is used to and even seems to like
it being a forever war, so he may not press that hard.
So it's really just up to him. As for the Democrats, all they
can do is react. It's hopeless for me to try to advise, as none
of them are ready to listen. They first have to figure out who
they are, who they want to represent, and what they want. But
this game of conning both the donors and the voters is wearing
awfully thin.
[*] I could add some caveats and nuance here, but the key point
is that this is what the dominant political coalition of Israel
actually wants, and that Trump, both by temperament and in light
of his donor support network, is unlikely to offer any resistance
to anything Israel demands -- even more so than Biden-Harris, who
as Democrats felt the need to express humanitarian concerns and
their commitment to democracy. Trump has no such concerns, and
may even see the mass expulsion of Palestinians as an exemplary
model for his own mass expulsion of "illegal immigrants." But
any number of things could limit this "ethnic cleansing." I'll
leave this to your imagination, assuming you have enough to see
that public opinion all around the world will increasingly shift
as Israel approaches genocide's "final solution" -- even in the
US, which should be of some concern to Trump, although his first
instinct will be to fight and suppress it. He will see it as an
opportunity to break pro-Israel donors away from the Democratic
Party, solidifying his support, but freeing Democrats from having
to toady for Israel, as Harris did and paid for. But ultimately
opinion could turn against Trump/Israel here. The tide could
even turn in Israel as the costs of war and isolation mount. And
a massive influx of Palestinian exiles will be welcome nowhere:
the US and EU go without saying, but public opinion makes this
a tough sell in the Arab autocracies, which could blow up under
the strain -- and which have their own major financial pipeline
to Trump (e.g., Kushner's billion dollar slush fund).
I think
the most likely scenario is that Gaza is totally crushed and
depopulated, but that Israel is pressured to dial back its
apartheid and ethnic cleansing measures in the occupied areas
(including parts of pre-1967 Israel, where Palestinians are
20% of the population, and have barely-nominal citizenship)
to pre-October 2023 levels. But a wide range of scenarios are
possible. While Trump's election strengthens Netanyahu, they
are fighting a perilous uphill battle (against a world which
has been inexorably decolonising ever since 1945), where they
may well wind up just retreating into their fortress-castles.
[**]
[**] MAGA is clearly such a retreat, on many fronts (e.g.,
they want to return to a world where stern fathers can spank
naughty daughters). Most of their beliefs should be resisted,
but their retreat from neoliberal/neoconservative foreign
policy is overdue. The world has changed since WWII, when
America extended its hegemony over the "free world" and set
up its quasi-holy war against the enemies of capital. Most
of the capital that American armed and propaganda forces so
fiercely defend isn't even American any more, and what is isn't
of much value to most actual Americans. (A precise accounting
of that capital may depend on how you account for Elon Musk,
who I'd argue is case proof that not all immigration is good).
Moreover, America's defense of that capital has lost much of
its effectiveness, as American soldiers have given up the fight
(why risk ruining their lives for oil moguls?), as corruption
has made the war machine prohibitively expensive, and as the
world itself has become increasingly unconquerable. (Phrase
comes from Jonathan Schell's 2003 book, The Unconquerable
World.)
Neoliberals will accuse Trump et al. of "isolationism,"
because that's the slur they deployed against a previous
generation of (mostly) Republicans, who were wary of their
schemes for one world market, dominated by American capital,
and regimented by American arms. Although the US rarely had
much of a standing army before 1939, Americans were widely
engaged in the world, mostly through trade, not insignificantly
through missionary work, but only rarely through imperialist
adventures (1898 counts, as does the subsequent "gunboat
diplomacy"). This willingness to engage the world on fairly
equitable terms, including the resistance to European imperialism
announced in the Monroe Doctrine, the pursuit of Open Door Policy
to break up imperial monopolies, and the "arsenal of democracy"
which defeated the final campaigns of Germany and Japan: all this
earned Americans considerable good will around the world, which
America's post-WWII abuse of power has only turned into a "legacy
of ashes" (to borrow the title of Tim Weiner's history of the
CIA). While the "isolationist" taunt will impress subscribers of
Foreign Policy, it's a spent term, a piece of liberal cant
that will produce more backlash than agreement.
While the "defense Democrats" have been ascendant against Trump
and for Biden, I can only hope they will be seen as bankrupt now,
and that Democrats will revert to something more like Roosevelt's
Good Neighbor Policy (a kinder, gentler redressing of Gunboat
Diplomacy, not that it changed things much), and a renewed
interest in the UN, which the neocons sought so hard to trash.
Also, I do not expect Trump to be consistent here: even if his
tendency is to withdraw, institutional support for militarism
and world dominance remains strong, at least as much in the
Republican Party as in the Democratic, and it's easy to play
on his ego as "the leader of the free world," especially when
all he has to do is to follow friendly bribes.
I woke up Monday morning with the thought that I could finally add
a third intro here, where I talk about what Democrats should do now
that they've been driven from national power. I always planned on a
final chapter to my political book where I would offer what I saw as
practical political advice to save the world. (Well, in some versions
of that book, I tacked on an extra section, which would describe the
dystopia that would ensue if Democrats fail and allow Republicans to
do all they've wanted. That much, at least, I'll spare you spoilers
for.) So I have given this subject a fair amount of thought, and if
I had the time (and were still so inclined) I could write about this
at considerable length. However, with Monday slipping away from me,
and no desire whatsoever to face this file on Tuesday, I'll try to
keep this very brief: some reflections and scattered tidbits, but no
structure, and no cheerleading. I'm not trying to sell my advice.
I'm just throwing it out there.
Monday evening, I find I haven't written this section, and no
longer have time. I think I did make many of the points I've been
thinking about under various articles, so I'll leave it to you
to ferret them out. Anything involving money, credibility, and
trust is likely to be relevant. The biggest problem Democrats
have is that lots of people don't trust them -- on lots of things,
including avoiding war. They have to figure out how to fix that.
And funny thing, beating the Republicans at fundraising and at
advertising and celebrity endorsements and "ground game" isn't
doing the trick.
Why so many of those people trust Republicans instead is way
beyond me, but there is considerable evidence that they do. There
is also ample evidence that trust in Republicans is foolish and
sometimes plain stupid, but until Democrats get their house in
order, distrust in them takes precedence. One saving grace may be that
most Americans really hate corruption, and they don't much care
for incompetence either. Republicans are up to their necks in
both. Now if you can just show them, you should be able to score
points. But it's hard to do when you're corrupt and incompetent
as well.
One thought I'm pretty sure I didn't get to yet concerns "woke."
I think of it as something like satori, a state of mind that if
you're lucky, you find yourself in through no discernible effort
of your own. It's good to be woke, but only you can know that.
What it is not is a license for an inquisition, which is how
most of the anti-woke have been trained to view it. And it's
not that they disapprove of inquisitions in general. It's just
that they prefer their own.
Top story threads:
Election notes: Some general pieces here,
then more specific ones on Trump (why he won, and how horrible that
is) and Harris (why she lost, and who cares) following, then sections
on the Senate (flipped R), House (undecided, but probably still R),
and other issues below.
Washington Post:
2024 turnout is near the 2020 record. See how each state compares.
I've seen references to a drop in voter turnout in 2024, especially
relative to 2020, but this data shows a pretty close match, with 9
states posting new highs (44 year window). Trump won those states
5-4, with all of his wins in battleground states. Of 5 states with
turnout under 55%, 4 were among Trump's biggest margin states (WV,
AR, MS, OK), while the lowest one anywhere was Hawaii.
Zack Beauchamp:
[11-06]
Donald Trump has won -- and American democracy is now in grave danger:
"Trump's second term poses an existential threat to the republic. But
there's still good reason for hope."
[11-06]
The global trend that pushed Donald Trump to victory: "Incumbents
everywhere are doing poorly. America just proved it's not exceptional."
I still have, and haven't read, his book, so I know that this is his
turf, and he likely has something interesting to say about the rest
of the world -- something I, like most people, don't know a hell of
a lot about -- but I don't see how this could possibly work: it just
seems like another correlation pretending to be a cause. No need to
deal with this now, but I will note one line: "Three different exit
polls found that at least 70 percent of Americans were dissatisfied
with the country's current direction, and they took it out on the
current ruling party." Links in that line to the following:
William Bruno: [10-23]
Why foreign policy is the biggest issue this November: "From
Gaza to Ukraine, this election will have world-spanning consequences.
Now more than ever, we need to push for an anti-war, anti-imperial
foreign policy." This came out before the election, so its tactical
advice, like "hold Harris accountable," is moot, but the core issues
are certainly important.
Thomas Frank: [11-09]
The elites had it coming. Of course, he's mostly talking about
Democrats, although fellow traveler Dick Cheney gets as many nods
as Barack Obama.
Liberals had nine years to decipher Mr. Trump's appeal -- and they
failed. The Democrats are a party of college graduates, as the whole
world understands by now, of Ph.D.s and genius-grant winners and the
best consultants money can buy. Mr. Trump is a con man straight out
of Mark Twain; he will say anything, promise anything, do nothing.
But his movement baffled the party of education and innovation.
Their most brilliant minds couldn't figure him out.
Michelle Goldberg: [11-06]
This is who we are now.
Trump's first election felt like a fluke, a sick accident enabled
by Democratic complacency. But this year, the forces of liberal
pluralism and basic civic decency poured everything they could
into the fight, and they lost not just the Electoral College but
also quite likely the popular vote. The American electorate,
knowing exactly who Trump is, chose him. This is, it turns out,
who we are.
So I expect the next few months to be a period of mourning
rather than defiance. . . . But eventually, mourning either
starts to fade or curdles into depression and despair. When and
if it does, whatever resistance emerges to the new MAGA will
differ from what came before. Gone will be the hope of vindicating
the country from Trumpism, of rendering him an aberration. What's
left is the more modest work of trying to ameliorate the suffering
his government is going to visit on us. . . .
Ultimately, Trump's one redeeming feature is his incompetence.
If history is any guide, many of those he brings into government
will come to despise him. He will not give people the economic
relief they're craving. . . . We saw, with Covid, how Trump handled
a major crisis, and there is not the slightest reason to believe he
will perform any better in handling another. I have little doubt
that many of those who voted for him will come to regret it. He
could even end up discrediting bombastic right-wing nationalism
the way George W. Bush -- whose re-election also broke my heart --
discredited neoconservatism.
The question, if and when that happens, is how much of our system
will still be standing, and whether Trump's opponents have built an
alternative that can restore to people a sense of dignity and optimism.
That will be the work of the next four years -- saving what we can
and trying to imagine a tolerable future.
One nit here is that no matter how discredited she thought
neoconservatism was when Bush-Cheney departed, it still rules
the roost, as Biden showed us with his disastrous cultivation
of wars, and Harris underscored by welcoming Dick Cheney to
her campaign. Even as some especially notorious individuals
were put to pasture, the institutions supporting them remain
unchecked and unexamined. I'm also less certain of Trump's
incompetence. Much will depend on whether he hires competent
people who can keep his trust without blundering. Sure, he
did a very bad job of that during his first term.
Tyler Austin Harper: [11-06]
What we just went through wasn't an election. It was a hostage
situation. This seems about right:
Heading into Tuesday's vote, a large majority of voters said that
the country was on the wrong track and that they were disappointed
with the candidates on offer. A plurality of voters said that
regardless of who was elected, the next president would make things
worse. Nearly 80 percent said the presidential campaigns did not
make them proud of America.
The blame for this grievous state of affairs lies with the
Democratic and Republican Parties, both of which played a game of
chicken with the electorate, relying on apocalyptic threats about
the end of democracy to convince people that they had no choice
but to vote as instructed. Both candidates offered up policies
that were unpopular even among their supporters, serving a banquet
for their donor classes while doling out junk food to their bases.
For one candidate, that contemptuous strategy succeeded. But it
fails the American people.
For all his populist posturing, Mr. Trump put forward tax breaks
that favor the wealthy, championed tariffs that would almost certainly
raise grocery prices, bad-mouthed overtime pay, praised firing striking
workers and largely stayed mum while his allies discussed destroying
the Affordable Care Act. He insisted abortion be left up to the states
even though most Americans, including many Republicans, think it should
be legal everywhere, and pledged to oppose any new gun restrictions
even though an overwhelming majority of Americans say they should be
stricter.
And what were Trump acolytes to be given in return for greenlighting
this unpopular agenda? Elon Musk promised a period of economic pain.
Tucker Carlson said Mr. Trump would bend the country over his knee and
give it a "spanking." Why would any sign on? Because it was either that,
they were told, or nuclear war under Ms. Harris. Some choice. . . .
What we just went through was not an election; it was a hostage
situation. Our major parties represent the interests of streaming
magnates, the arms industry, oil barons, Bitcoin ghouls and Big
Tobacco, often without even pretending to heed the needs of voters.
A political system like that is fundamentally broken.
I skipped over the corresponding list of indictments against
Biden and Harris, which struck me as (relatively speaking) small
potatoes, but most show that the inordinate influence of money
isn't limited to Republicans. The first paragraph cites two
pieces on the threat to "end democracy":
Doug Henwood: [11-08]
It was always about inflation: "Simply put, Donald Trump owes
his reelection to inflation and to the fact that the Biden administration
did little to address the problem in a way that helped working-class
families."
I often say that the Democrats' political problem is that they're a
party of capital that has to pretend otherwise for electoral purposes.
This time they hardly even pretended. Kamala Harris preferred
campaigning with the inexplicably famous mogul Mark Cuban and the
ghoulish Liz Cheney to Shawn Fain, who led the United Auto Workers
to the greatest strike victory in decades. Those associations
telegraphed both her policy instincts and her demographic
targeting: Silicon Valley and upscale suburbs.
Like Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, the strategy failed, only
worse. At least Clinton won the popular vote by almost three million.
Harris even lost among suburban white women, a principal target of
this twice-failed strategy.
Ed Kilgore:
[11-06]
Americans wanted change and that meant Trump. There is something
to this, but also several loads of bullshit:
The simplest explanation, though, may be the most compelling: This
was a classic "change" election in which the "out" party had an
advantage that the governing party could not overcome. Yes, the
outcome was in doubt because Democrats managed to replace a very
unpopular incumbent with an interesting if untested successor, and
also because the GOP chose a rival whose constant demonstration of
his own unpopular traits threatened to take over the whole contest.
In the end Trump normalized his crude and erratic character by
endless repetition; reduced scrutiny of his lawless misconduct by
denouncing critics and prosecutors alike as politically motivated;
and convinced an awful lot of unhappy voters that he hated the same
people and institutions they did.
Nobody for a moment doubted that Trump would bring change. And
indeed, his signature Make America Great Again slogan and message
came to have a double meaning. Yes, for some it meant (as it did
in 2016) a return to the allegedly all-American culture of the 20th
century, with its traditional hierarchies; moral certainties and
(for some) white male leadership. But for others MAGA meant very
specifically referred to the perceived peace and prosperity of the
pre-pandemic economy and society presided over, however turbulently,
Trump. When Republicans gleefully asked swing voters if they were
better off before Joe Biden became president, a veritable coalition
of voters with recent and long-standing grievances over conditions
in the country had as simple an answer as they did when Ronald
Reagan used it to depose Jimmy Carter more than a half-century ago.
The "better off" question is close to meaningless, as most
people can't really tell, but as we've seen, are inclined to
accept whatever their political orientation dictates. Unlike, say,
the pandemic of 2020, or the financial meltdown of 2008, or the
deflationary recession of 1980, or the great one of 1929-32 (is
that what MAGA means?), there is little objective reason driving
voters to change. Granted, there may be unease driven by slower,
almost tectonic forces (like climate change), but few people think
them through, and those who do tend to prefer orderly change over
the kind of disruption Trump promises.
[11-09]
Democrats lost because of their bad policies, not their bad
attitude. I beg to differ, but both could have been better.
[11-12]
Kamala Harris came much closer to winning than you think.
The argument here is that the shift to Trump was less in the highly
contested swing states than anywhere else (Harris topped Biden only
in Colorado).
David Sirota: [11-07]
Election 2024: How billionaires torpedoed democracy: "Both parties'
2024 campaigns claimed to be about 'saving democracy.' Yet both parties
ended up bought and paid for by billionaires."
Jeffrey St Clair:
[11-06]
Chronicle of a defeat foretold: "What does history repeat itself
after it does farce?" He's very harsh on Harris here. One thing I
find curious is an uncredited chart, which if I'm reading it right
says that 24% of respondents think Democracy in the US is secure,
vs. 74% threatened. Harris leads secure 59% to 39%, but trails in
the larger threatened group, 46% to 53%. But isn't securing democracy
supposed to be her issue? As an issue, it's nebulous enough that
Trump was able to deflect it by claiming that Democrats were the
real threat to democracy (after all, they're the ones rigging the
polling and the voting!). Democrats could bring up fascism, but
the response is simply, you're the real fascists, and who
else really knows any better?
This is an aside, but fits here as well as anywhere. I haven't
found an article making this point so far, but could Kelly's fascism
comments have been a plant? (Like one of Roger Stone's dirty tricks?)
If Trump's operatives know that being charged with fascism will only
solidify their support -- not because their supporters identify with
fascism, but because they see it as stereotypically leftist infantile
name-calling (unlike "libtard," which they know is just a joke). But
mainstream Democrats generally shy away from such a loaded term, so
how do you get someone like Harris to use it? You give her permission,
by allowing her to quote someone like Kelly. This whole notion of
"permission" is sick and pernicious. There's a quote somewhere about
how the Cheney endorsements of Harris give Republicans permission
to vote against Trump: it becomes something real Republicans can do
without surrendering their identify. Harris may have had some doubt
about "fascism," but she couldn't resist the Cheney honey trap, as
she saw it as a way to steal some significant slice of Republican
votes, putting her over the top. I have no reason to believe that
Kelly and the Cheneys were plants, other than that they precisely
had that effect. That they did, of course, was Harris's gaffe (and
yeah, I'm following
Kinsley rules here, otherwise I would have said "blunder").
[11-08]
The crack-up. Title from F Scott Fitzgerald. Selected bits:
This "white wave" electorate didn't reject progressive ideas;
they rejected the candidate who failed to advocate them for fear of
alienating Big Tech execs and Wall Street financiers. Voters in both
Alaska and Missouri approve increasing the minimum wage to $15.
Voters approved paid sick leave in Alaska, Missouri and Nebraska.
Voters in Oregon approved a measure protecting marijuana workers'
right to unionize. Alaska voters banned anti-union captive audience
meetings. Arizona voters rejected a measure that lowered the minimum
wage for tipped workers. Massachusetts approved the right of rideshare
workers to organize for collective bargaining. New Orleans voters
approved a Workers Bill of Rights. Voters in Arizona, Colorado,
Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York approved measures
granting a state constitutional right to abortion.
Harris lost the popular vote by five million votes. Jill
Stein only garnered 642,000 votes, just 25,000 more than RFK, Jr.,
who'd long since withdrawn. In no state did Stein get enough votes
to cost Harris the state. Good luck blaming the Greens (which says
much about the politically emaciated condition of the Greens). Even
in Wisconsin (where Harris lost by only 31,000 votes), Stein, who
captured only 12,666 votes, didn't fare well enough to be blamed
(or credited) for costing Harris the state. In Pennsylvania, Harris
lost by 165,000 votes. Stein collected only 33,591 votes. In Michigan,
where Stein had her best showing in a battleground state, winning
44,648 votes (0.8%), Harris lost to Trump by 82,000 votes.
Murtaza Hussain: "Suppressing the Bernie movement in 2016
effectively destroyed the Democratic Party. That was a turning
point year GOP also had an insurgency with Trump but they ultimately
worked with him to some new kind of synthesis. The Democrats never
got past their decrepit ancien regime."
Some of you may remember that it was the Obama brain trust,
irritated at Trump's role in promoting the birther conspiracy, who
worked feverishly in 2011 to make Trump the face of the post-Tea
Party GOP. Obama's former campaign manager and policy guru, David
Plouffe later explained the thinking: "Let's lean into Trump here.
That'll be good for us." That worked out about as well for the
Democratic base as the bank bailouts.
By the way, St Clair also wrote
The wolf at the door, which is a fund drive piece, but also a
history of a publication that's still bristling with anger 30 years
after inception. There's not just a lot to be angry about today,
but much more coming down the pike. Be sure of that.
Freddy Brewster: [11-05]
Leonard Leo's dark money web is sowing election day chaos.
Israel/Palestine considerations:
Raja Abdulhaq: {11-07]
Instead of looking inwards, white liberals are blaming Arab Americans
for Trump's victory. My impression is that there is less deflection
and scapegoating now than in 2016, when Hillary Clinton and her fans
felt more entitled, were less inclined to admit their own errors, or
to credit that Trump had tapped into something they had missed. But
anti-genocide voters made the point of being conspicuous, setting
themselves up for just this kind of reaction.
Sami Al-Arian: [11-08]
Trump did not win this election. Harris was defeated by a Gaza-inspired
boycott. I think the author is taking too much credit for something
that no one should be proud of. That the boycott existed at all is a
blight on Harris's campaign. She could have done a few simple things
to neutralize it, like listening to them, and explaining how much worse
a Trump win would be for Palestinians. Showing concretely how Trump
would be worse could have worked on virtually every issue, but she
very rarely did it, opting instead for generic slanders (like "fascist")
that were easily deflected.
Hamed Aleaziz: [11-06]
For many Arab Americans in Dearborn, Trump made the case for their
votes. Unofficial results for the city showed Trump 42%, Harris 36%,
Jill Stein 18%.
Michael Arria:
Samer Badawi: [11-07]
After Trump's victory, Palestinians cannot afford to wait until the
next US election: "Palestinians and their allies must build on
down-ballot wins, while recognizing the limitations of electoral
politics in the face of Israel's genocidal campaign."
Peter Beinart: [11-07]
Democrats ignored Gaza and brought down their party.
Nada Elia: [11-07]
We warned you that Gaza would define the US elections.
Axel Foley: [11-06]
Karma for Kamala: Ignoring Gaza has lost Harris the US election.
Joe Gill: [11-08]
How liberals react to Kamala Harris' defeat -- blame the voters:
"American voters tired of Biden's endless wars and backing for genocide,
but their supporters refuse to reflect on the reasons for this defeat."
Shamai Leibowitz: [11-08]
Harris lost because her party represented war mongering, q.e.d.
Jacob Magid: [11-01]
On campaign trail for Harris in Michigan, Bill Clinton defends Israel's
war in Gaza: "Recalling efforts to broker peace during his own
presidency, Clinton urges voters in crucial swing state to think
'what you would do it if was your family' killed on October 7."
So he went to one of the cloest swing states, the one with the
highest share of Arab-American voters in the nation, and this was
his pitch? The likelihood of anyone there having relation suddenly
killed was about 100 times greater by Israel since October 7 than
by Hamas on that day. But at least his speech got reported on . . .
in Israel. What can matter more than that?
Ziyad Motala: [11-06]
The US at a crossroads after Trump's return.
Mitchell Plitnick: [11-09]
The role of the Gaza genocide in Kamala Harris's loss: "The cause
of Kamala Harris' disastrous failure in the 2024 presidential election
will forever be debated, but there are good reasons to believe the
Israeli genocide in Gaza played a significant role." This misses what
I've always suspected of being the most important one, which is that
Gaza is the sort of bad news that makes people, especially ones who
don't really know much about the subject, recoil against incumbents.
Arno Rosenfeld: [11-06]
Gaza didn't cost Harris the election. But her approach pointed to a
broader problem: "Pro-Palestinian organizers say the problem was
her focus on courting moderates, including Republicans, rather than
motivating the party's left flank."
Richard Silverstein: [11-11]
Harris and Gaza: why she lost.
Harris had an opportunity to set out a more independent policy.
Instead she doubled down. In every speech which addressed these
issues, she emphasized her unshakable support for Israel. She
offered little for the Palestinians being slaughtered there,
aside from bromides about being heartbroken at the suffering.
She claimed she was "doing everything possible" to end the war
and free the Israeli hostages. While she refused to do anything
concrete.
Matt Sledge: [11-06]
In Dearborn, Rashida Tlaib did nearly twice as well as Kamala
Harris.
Megan K Stack: [11-05]
I voted for Harris, but Gaza's horrors weigh on my conscience.
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos: [11-06]
Did Israel hurt the Harris vote in Michigan? "Foreign policy was
low on voters minds, but in these critical counties, Harris was
underperforming."
International reaction:
Ellen Ioanes: [11-07]
From Bibi to Putin, here's how the world leaders reacted to Trump's
win. Aside from Netanyahu, they've mostly kept silent (Putin
included).
Isabel Kershner: [11-06]
In Trump, Netanyahu sees a more favorable US president.
Only a few hours had passed since Donald J. Trump was elected president,
when Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, announced that
he had already spoken to the U.S. president-elect, noting he was "among
the first" to call him.
It was further evidence of the enthusiasm Mr. Netanyahu's right-wing
government feels -- it had already been celebrating Mr. Trump's victory
since breakfast local time on Wednesday as if it had just won the
American election itself.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's ultranationalist minister of national
security, posted a festive "Yesssss" on social media, along with
emojis of a flexed biceps muscle and the Israeli and American flags,
even before the last polls had closed in Alaska.
H Scott Prosterman: [11-08]
Netanyahu, delirious at Trump's return, dumps his Defense Minister
to pursue complete occupation of Gaza.
Trump:
Peter Baker: [11-06]
'Trump's America': Comeback victory signals a different kind of
country: "In the end, Donald J. Trump is not the historical
aberration some thought he was, but instead a transformational
force reshaping the modern United States in his own image."
This piece came out immediately after the election was called,
showing once again that no one beats the New York Times when it
comes to sucking up to those in power.
Walden Bello: [11-07]
How did I "predict" that Trump, despite his repulsive persona and
politics, would prevail? "Democratic Party leadership has been
discredited and there's room for new progressive leaders to take
the helm."
Jamelle Bouie: [11-09]
What do Trump voters know about the future he has planned for them?
Not much, partly because they don't believe what he says, and they
believe even less what Democrats say he says. At some point in this
post I should quote something Jeffrey St Clair
wrote recently: [10-25]
More than half of Trump's supporters don't believe he'll
actually do many of the things he claims he'll do (mass deportations,
siccing the military on domestic protesters and political rivals),
while more than half of Harris's supporters hope she'll implement
many of the policies (end the genocide/single-payer) she claims she
won't. And that pretty much sums up this election.
What we should add to St Clair's observation is that the Trump
understanding was much more credible than the Harris take. Trump
lies all the time, sometimes just to provoke a reaction. Harris,
well, doesn't have Trump's track record, but she's a politician,
and how far do you trust politicians, especially to do the right
thing?
John Cassidy: [11-11]
Donald Trump's victory and the politics of inflation: "Joe
Biden's strong record on jobs and Kamala Harris's vow to reduce
the cost of living couldn't prevent the Democrats from succumbing
to a global anti-incumbency wave." One thing that bothers me in
virtually every article this week that even mentions inflation
is that no one seems to have a clear understanding of what it
is, of how it works, of what is bad (and in some cases good)
about it, of what can and should be done about it. I can't do
it justice here, but I do want to stress one point: it creates
both winners and losers. Good government policy would try to
limit the winners (perhaps by taxing off their windfall) and
to compensate the losers (the "cola" in Social Security is one
example of this). The press seem to buy the notion that it is
an always bad, which mostly means that they are carrying water
for the side that wants less inflation (e.g., for bankers, which
is largely why the Fed is so hawkish against inflation). I
wouldn't say that there was no real inflation coming out of
the pandemic: I suspect that some inflation was inevitable,
but the winners and losers (and therefore who felt the pain,
and who needed help) were largely determined by pricing power,
which has been tilted against workers and consumers for some
time, but became more acute when inflation was added to the
mix. Policies limiting monopolies and price gouging would have
helped, but Biden and Harris got little credit for them, even
from supposedly liberal economists. Trump offered nothing but
an outlet for rage. Why anyone thought that might be any kind
of solution is way beyond me, but according to polls, many
people did. They were deceived. Whether they ever learn from
such mistakes remains to be seen.
Jelani Cobb: [11-07]
2016 and 2024: "We will be a fundamentally different country
by the end of the next Administration. Indeed, we already are.
Ed Coper: [11-08]
White noise: why hatred of Donald Trump fuels his success as much
as his supporters' love: "A network of organised disinformation
sows doubt, kills policy reform and keep us ad adds as we debate
Trump-mania." Some misdirection in his first paragraph:
Historians will long scratch their heads that a Republican candidate
who -- despite an inability to string a coherent sentence together,
being grossly underqualified and rife with extramarital affairs --
would go on to not only win election but become one of the most
popular presidents in US history.
Turns out the subject here was Warren Harding, elected president
in a 1920 landslide. How it advances an understanding of Trump isn't
clear, but even stranger stories ensue.
David Corn:
[11-04]
Trump and his voters: they like the lying: "He's a con man whose
deceptions and hypocrisies are easy to detect. The question won't fade:
How does he get away with it?" "Trump is demonstrating that he does
not play by the rules of the establishment that these people perceive
(for an assortment of reasons) as the enemy."
[11-06]
America meets its judgment day: "Trump's victory signals a
national embrace of the politics of hate and a possible fascist
future."
Ben Davis: [11-09]
None of the conventional explanations for Trump's victory stand up
to scrutiny: "This election has blown a hole in the worldviews
of both leftists and centrists. The pandemic may be a more important
factor." This piece covers a lot of ground, quite sensibly. The
section on Covid is really about something else:
I propose a different explanation than inflation qua inflation:
the Covid welfare state and its collapse. The massive, almost
overnight expansion of the social safety net and its rapid,
almost overnight rollback are materially one of the biggest
policy changes in American history. For a brief period, and
for the first time in history, Americans had a robust safety
net: strong protections for workers and tenants, extremely
generous unemployment benefits, rent control and direct cash
transfers from the American government.
Despite the trauma and death of Covid and the isolation of
lockdowns, from late 2020 to early 2021, Americans briefly
experienced the freedom of social democracy. They had enough
liquid money to plan long term and make spending decisions for
their own pleasure rather than just to survive. They had the
labor protections to look for the jobs they wanted rather than
feel stuck in the jobs they had. At the end of Trump's term, the
American standard of living and the amount of economic security
and freedom Americans had was higher than when it started, and,
with the loss of this expanded welfare state, it was worse when
Biden left office, despite his real policy wins for workers and
unions. This is why voters view Trump as a better shepherd of
the economy.
I've often thought that the Democrats took way too little credit
for the first big pandemic relief bill, which Pelosi and Schumer
largely wrote and pushed through, while Trump had to acquiesce
because he was mostly worried about the falling stock market.
The sunsetting made it palatable to Republicans, and made sense
given that it was relief for an emergency. Democrats figured
they could run on extending key parts of it, but did they? Not
really. Worse than that, Trump claimed credit for the immediate
effects, then blamed inflation on the act's largesse. Democrats
were, once again, screwed coming and going, mostly for not
following McConnell's formula of just letting the country go
to hell, just so voters would blame the incumbent president.
David Dayen: [11-08]
The triumphant return of corruption: "A look at the biggest stock
gainers since Trump's election shows that paying tribute to the next
president will have its benefits." He identifies several especially
large gains, from outfits like MoneyLion (up 61%, "investors believe,
correctly, that consumer protection, which made a comeback in the
past four years, will be destroyed again"), CoreCivic (up 72%, a
"private prison" company), GEO Group (up 61%, another "private prison"
contractor), and Coinbase (up 41%, "the crypto exchange"). "We can
get ready for four years of pay-to-play deals, corporate back-scratching,
and a public unprotected from scam artists."
John Harris: [11-10]
From Trump's victory, a simple, inescapable message: many people
despise the left: "The tumult of social media and rightwing
propaganda has successfully cast progressives as one judgmental,
'woke' mass." I don't doubt his point, but the examples mostly
make me think that most of the people who "hate the left" have
little if any idea what or whom the left is. That suggests some
kind of communication problem, which makes most sense in the US,
where we don't have our own party, and are often stuck under the
dead carcass of a Democratic Party, whose leaders hate us as much
as the right thinks it does. But there must be more to the story
than that: some deep, dark psychological factors that are never
really acknowledged and near impossible to dislodge There must
be a literature researching this. We certainly have research on
why people become fascists, which overlaps significantly with
hating the left. On the other hand, my own study of history has
shown that everything decent and valuable that has ever happened
in America has its origin in the left. Why can't anyone else see
that?
David Hearst: [11-07]
Trump has a choice: Obliterate Palestine or end the war:
Most likely he won't even think of it as a choice, but simply
following the directions of his donors. The question is whether
he can see the many downsides of doing so. He has several odd
talents, but clear thinking and foresight aren't among them.
Conventional wisdom has it that Trump 2.0 will be a disaster for
Palestinians, because Trump 1.0 all but buried the Palestinian
national cause.
And it is indeed true that under Donald Trump's first term as
president, the US was wholly guided by the Zionist religious right --
the real voice in his ear, either as donors or policymakers.
Under Trump and his son-in-law adviser, Jared Kushner, Washington
became a policy playground for the settler movement, with which the
former US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, was unashamedly
aligned.
Consequently, in his first term, Trump upended decades of policy
by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the US
embassy there; he disenfranchised the Palestinian Authority by closing
down the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington;
he allowed Israel to annex the Golan Heights; he pulled out of the
nuclear accords with Iran; and he assassinated Qassem Soleimani, the
most powerful Iranian general and diplomat in the region.
Even more damaging for the Palestinian struggle for freedom was
Trump's sponsorship of the Abraham Accords.
This was -- and still is -- a serious attempt to pour concrete
over the grave of the Palestinian cause, constructing in its place
a superhighway of trade and contracts from the Gulf that would make
Israel not just a regional superpower, but a vital portal to the
wealth of the Gulf.
This led directly to the Hamas revolt, and the Israeli reprisal,
not just collect punishment but a systematic plan to render Gaza
uninhabitable, so credit him there, too. As I noted in my intro,
I expect he will simply cheer Netanyahu on to "finish the job."
I don't think he has any idea what that entails, how it will look,
and how it will reflect back on America, and on him personally.
Nor do I think he cares. He's one of those guys who strictly lives
in the present, trusting his instincts will never fail him.
There is much more to this piece, including a concluding section
on "Hope for the future," where he notes: "It may be that as Biden
departs, we have seen the party's last Zionist leader. That in itself
is of immense significance for Israel."
Murtaza Hussain: [11-06]
Trump is eyeing Iran hawk Brian Hook as first foreign policy
pick.
Lauren Markoe: [11-07]
Who is Howard Lutnick? Trump transition team leader is a billionaire
supporter of Jewish causes and Israel.
Michael Mechanic: [11-07]
Why did Trump really win? It's simple, actually. "When the economy
thrives while half of America struggles, something has got to give."
Lorrie Moore: [11-07]
A fourth-rate entertainer, a third-rate businessman, and a two-time
president: "The 2024 election, like the one in 2016, had the
same nutty and vapid Donald Trump, the same retrograde gender
politics, and the same result."
He is a third-rate businessman and fourth-rate entertainer, a husband
to fashion models, a wannabe standup comedian who cannot land a punch
line but floats language out into the air, hoping it will cohere, then
flare, though it usually wanders into vapor and fog. As with much
current standup, it can get raunchy and crass, but the MAGA people
accept this lack of dignity. I was struck with puzzled admiration at
his forty minutes of quiet swaying to "Ave Maria." It was like
performance art. He also did a skit at McDonald's and one in a
garbage truck. He will do most anything to avoid talking about
actual governing, which he does not know that much about. He perhaps
understands that most voters don't want to discuss that and want to
just leave it to their elected officials. We are a country that is
about money and entertainment. Trump was running as the embodiment
of these. One PBS commentator used a Hollywood metaphor to explain
him: Trump is a franchise blockbuster, familiar and splashy; Harris
is an independent art-house film with subtitles.
Elie Mystal: [11-07]
There's no denying it anymore: Trump is not a fluke -- he's America:
"The United States chose Donald Trump in all his ugliness and cruelty,
and the country will get what it deserves." This is certainly one
viewpoint. Still, I have to ask, how many people didn't understand
the choice this clearly? And for those who did not, why not?
We had a chance to stand united against fascism, authoritarianism,
racism, and bigotry, but we did not. We had a chance to create a
better world for not just ourselves but our sisters and brothers
in at least some of the communities most vulnerable to unchecked
white rule, but we did not. We had a chance to pass down a better,
safer, and cleaner world to our children, but we did not. Instead,
we chose Trump, JD Vance, and a few white South African billionaires
who know a thing or two about instituting apartheid. . . .
Everyone who hates Trump is asking how America can be "saved"
from him, again. Nobody is asking the more relevant question: Is
America worth saving? Like I said, Trump is the sum of our failures.
A country that allows its environment to be ravaged, its children
to be shot, its wealth to be hoarded, its workers to be exploited,
its poor to starve, its cops to murder, and its minorities to be
hunted doesn't really deserve to be "saved." It deserves to fail.
Trump is not our "retribution." He is our reckoning.
Rick Perlstein: [11-05]
Garbagegate, with a twist: "The media's penchant to balance the
two parties and control the narrative didn't quite work when it came
to a Trump insult comic's comments about Puerto Rico."
Kelefa Sanneh: [11-07]
How Donald Trump, the leader of white grievance, gained among
Hispanic voters.
Timothy Snyder: [11-08]
What does it mean that Donald Trump is a fascist? "Trump takes
the tools of dictators and adapts them for the Internet. We should
expect him to try to cling to power until death, and create a cult
of January 6th martyrs." This is an article that we must admit,
he's competent to write, but hardly anyone else is competent to
read. I bookmarked it because it's an issue I take some perverse
interest in. I haven't read it yet, because I doubt that I'll
learn much -- e.g., I already knew the Marinetti story, and
that's pretty obscure -- and the rest will probably just be
annoying.
Rebecca Solnit:
Elizabeth Spiers: [11-06]
Trump offered men something that Democrats never could.
b>Asawin Suebsaeng/Tim Dickinson: [10-03]
'American death squads': inside Trump's push to make police more
violent: "Trump's recent call for a 'violent day' of policing
is part of his plan to push cops to be as brutal as possible and
shield them from accountability." Pre-election piece I should have
noticed earlier (or should have been better reported).
Michael Tomasky: [11-08]
Why does no one understand the real reason Trump won? "It wasn't
the economy. It wasn't inflation, or anything else. It was how people
perceive those things, which points to one overpowering answer."
The answer is the right-wing media. Today, the right-wing media --
Fox News (and the entire News Corp.), Newsmax, One America News
Network, the Sinclair network of radio and TV stations and newspapers,
iHeart Media (formerly Clear Channel), the Bott Radio Network
(Christian radio), Elon Musk's X, the huge podcasts like Joe Rogan's,
and much more -- sets the news agenda in this country. And they fed
their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information that made
it possible for Trump to win.
Let me say that again, in case it got lost: Today, the right-wing
media sets the news agenda in this country. Not The New York Times.
Not The Washington Post (which bent over backwards to exert no
influence when Jeff Bezos pulled the paper's Harris endorsement).
Not CBS, NBC, and ABC. The agenda is set by all the outlets I listed
in the above paragraph. Even the mighty New York Times follows in its
wake, aping the tone they set disturbingly often. . . .
I think a lot of people who don't watch Fox or listen to Sinclair
radio don't understand this crucial chicken-and-egg point. They assume
that Trump says something, and the right-wing media amplify it. That
happens sometimes. But more often, it's the other way around. These
memes start in the media sphere, then they become part of the Trump
agenda.
I haven't even gotten to the economy, about which there is so much
to say. Yes -- inflation is real. But the Biden economy has been great
in many ways. The U.S. economy, wrote The Economist in mid-October,
is "the envy of the world." But in the right-wing media, the horror
stories were relentless. And mainstream economic reporting too often
followed that lead. Allow me to make the world's easiest prediction:
After 12:00 noon next January 20, it won't take Fox News and Fox
Business even a full hour to start locating every positive economic
indicator they can find and start touting those. Within weeks, the
"roaring Trump economy" will be conventional wisdom. (Eventually, as
some of the fruits from the long tail of Bidenomics start growing on
the vine, Trump may become the beneficiary of some real-world facts
as well, taking credit for that which he opposed and regularly
denounced.)
Back to the campaign. I asked Gertz what I call my "Ulan Bator
question." If someone moved to America from Ulan Bator, Mongolia in
the summer and watched only Fox News, what would that person learn
about Kamala Harris? "You would know that she is a very stupid person,"
Gertz said. "You'd know that she orchestrated a coup against Joe Biden.
That she's a crazed extremist. And that she very much does not care
about you."
Same Ulan Bator question about Trump? That he's been "the target
of a vicious witch-hunt for years and years," that he is under constant
assault; and most importantly, that he is "doing it all for you."
To much of America, by the way, this is not understood as one side's
view of things. It's simply "the news." This is what people -- white
people, chiefly -- watch in about two-thirds of the country. I trust
that you've seen in your travels, as I have in mine, that in red or
even some purple parts of the country, when you walk into a hotel
lobby or a hospital waiting room or even a bar, where the TVs ought
to be offering us some peace and just showing ESPN, at least one
television is tuned to Fox. That's reach, and that's power. And then
people get in their cars to drive home and listen to an iHeart,
right-wing talk radio station. And then they get home and watch
their local news and it's owned by Sinclair, and it, too, has a
clear right-wing slant. And then they pick up their local paper,
if it still exists, and the oped page features Cal Thomas and Ben
Shapiro.
Liberals, rich and otherwise, live in a bubble where they never
see this stuff.
Also, this ends with another key point/example:
The Democratic brand is garbage in wide swaths of the country, and
this is the reason. Consider this point. In Missouri on Tuesday,
voters passed a pro-abortion rights initiative, and another that
raised the minimum wage and mandated paid leave. These are all
Democratic positions. But as far as electing someone to high office,
the Man-Boy Love Party could probably come closer than the Democrats.
Trump beat Harris there by 18 points, and Senator Josh Hawley beat
Lucas Kunce, who ran a good race and pasted Hawley in their debate,
by 14 points.
The reason? The right-wing media. And it's only growing and growing.
And I haven't even gotten to social media and Tik Tok and the other
platforms from which far more people are getting their news these days.
The right is way ahead on those fronts too. Liberals must wake up and
understand this and do something about it before it's too late, which
it almost is.
Katrina vanden Heuvel: [11-07]
Americans are desperate for change. Electing Trump was a misguided
message: "The causes of Donald Trump's victory will be endlessly
debated, but misdirected discontent is clearly a major factor."
Julio Ricardo Varela: [11-08]
Trump broke a record with Latino voters. History can tell us why.
"Trump exploited an 'us versus them' mentality that has long existed
among Latinos living in the US and those outside this country."
Also, some more speculative pieces on what a second Trump term
might do (some issue-specific, some more general). Most of these
assume Trump will try to do what he campaigned on, but I suggested
an alternative scenario in the second section of the intro (but
even it doesn't argue against most of the forebodings here):
Matt Bruenig: [11-07]
What does Trump's win mean for the NLRB? "Donald Trump will
probably sack National Labor Relations Board general counsel
Jennifer Abruzzo, who has been friendly to unions, on day one
of his presidency."
Jonathan Chait: [11-08]
Trump can prosecute anybody he wants, transition leader says:
"Department of Justice is now Department of Trump Justice."
Rachel M Cohen: [11-06]
Trump won. So what does that mean for abortion? "It will be
easier to restrict reproductive rights in the president-elect's
second term."
Tim Dickinson:
'You can't despair. Because that's what they want.' "Experts tell
Rolling Stone what resisting authoritarianism in America will
look like in Trump's second term." And if you have a subscription,
you can find out what they have to say.
Abdallah Fayyad: [11-06]
This one chart foreshadows Trump's immigration crackdown:
"Investors in private prisons think they've hit the jackpot with a
second Trump presidency."
Jonathan Freedland: [11-08]
Think you know how bad Trump unleashed will be? Look at the evidence:
it will be even worse. I can think of many risks, but I'd hardly
put "the end of Nato" second (or anywhere) on my list. It's not going
to happen, because NATO is really just an arms sales cartel, and
Trump loves a good racket. His threats to withdraw from NATO were
just meant to shake down more tribute. He won't back out, not least
because that would only incentivize Europe to build up their own
arms cartel.
Andrea González-Ramirez: [11-08]
What to know about Susie Wiles, Trump's next Chief of Staff.
Karen J Greenberg: [11-07]
It's not just about the president: "It's about the presidency."
Indeed, the first Trump presidency vastly accelerated the claims of
expanded presidential power. Jack Goldsmith and Bob Bauer . . .
in their 2020 book, After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency,
they contended that "Donald Trump operated the presidency in ways that
reveal its vulnerability to dangerous excesses of authority and
dangerous weaknesses in accountability."
And as they make all too clear, the stakes were (and remain) high.
"The often-feckless Trump," they wrote, "also revealed deeper fissures
in the structure of the presidency that, we worry, a future president
might choose to exploit in a fashion similar to Trump -- but much more
skillfully, and to even greater effect." . . .
A second Trump presidency will undoubtedly take unilateral
presidential powers to a new level. . . . New York Times reporters
Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage, and Maggie Haberman
reported that Trump "and his associates" plan to "increase the
president's authority over every part of the federal government that
now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of
independence from political interference by the White House."
Ken Klippenstein: [11-12]
Read the leaked Rubio dossier: "Trump camp details 'lightweight'
Marco Rubio's liabilities." I restrained myself from noting
reports that Rubio is in line to become Secretary of State, but
couldn't resist reporting this.
Paul Krugman: [11-11]
Why Trump's deportations will drive up your grocery bill:
Seriously, a week after the election, and this is the best he can
do? Alternate title: "Did you know that the pennies you saved on
groceries were paid for by exploiting undocumented immigrant labor?"
At least he paid off the "tarrifs will drive inflation" story he's
already done a dozen times.
Avery Lotz: [11-10]
Trump rules out Haley, Pompeo admin posts: No surprise with
Haley, who still has a lot of sucking up to do. Pompeo, however,
was always so good at it. The mark against him, beyond his very
brief presidential campaign, could be policy. He is remembered as
one of Trump's stealthiest hawks, and was especially influential
in sabotaging Trump's North Korea diplomacy. Suppose Trump
remembers that?
Rachel Maddow: [11-10]
Dead last: "Authoritarian rule always entails corruption. With
Donald Trump in office, watch your wallet." More than you, or I at
least, need to read right now about Huey Long, Spiro Agnew, and
anti-corruption hero Viktor Navalny (who is inconveniently dead).
This sounds like an AI distillation of her recent books, which
sound like they were written by someone else.
Branko Marcetic:
[11-02]
Trump is planning a third red scare: "Donald Trump and his allies
aren't making a secret of it: if they win, they're going to launch a
campaign of repression to destroy the pro-Palestinian movement and
the organized left."
[11-08]
Trump is planning a presidency of, by, and for the rich: "Now
that the 'pro-worker' GOP led by Donald Trump holds the reins of
government, what does it plan to do? A program of handouts for big
business and austerity for the rest of us."
Dylan Matthews: [11-06]
Trump proposed big Medicaid and food stamp cuts. Can he pass them?
"What Trump's return means for America's poor people."
Jane Mayer: [11-08]
Donald Trump's Supreme Court majority could easily rule through
2045: "Democrats failed to make the Court itself a major campaign
issue, but what comes after the Dobbs decision could very well be
worse, and more far-reaching."
Julianne McShane: [11-06]
After win, Trump fans admit "Project 2025 is the agenda".
George Monbiot: [11-07]
Trump has pledged to wage war on planet Earth -- and it will take
a progressive revolution to stop him.
David Remnick: [11-09]
It can happen here: "Everyone who realizes with proper alarm
that Trump's reëlection is a deeply dangerous moment in American
life must think hard about where we are."
Tony Romm: [11-11]
Trump eyes pro-crypto candidates for key federal financial
agencies: "The incoming administration has explored new personnel
and policy that can deliver on Trump's campaign promise to turn the
United States into the 'crypto capital of the planet.'" Something
else that Trump is going to do that is going to be really horrible,
although in this case not without an element of farce.
Jennifer Rubin: [11-11]
Trump can keep campaign promises or be popular. Not both. This
is pretty much what I said in my second intro. The problem here is
that Republicans don't see the need to be popular, or even want to.
They want to rule. They want to be feared. And they think that they
can extort and/or terrorize enough people to vote for them that,
with their other dirty tricks, they can stay in power, and do all
the sick and demented things they've been dreaming of. Remember
the 2000 election? Lots of pundits thought that Bush, with his
"compassionate conservatism" spiel, and coming off a relatively
moderate record as governor of Texas, would show some modesty --
he had, after all, lost the popular vote, and only won when the
Supreme Court prevented a recount in Florida -- and tack to the
center. But as soon as Bush was inaugurated, Cheney took over
and declared that Republicans had come to power with a purpose,
and they were going to do everything they wanted, just the way
they wanted it. Getting re-elected wasn't his department. He was
there to break things, and that's exactly what he did. (Then,
somehow, Rove managed to wangle Bush a second term anyway, despite
the fact that nearly everything he had done in his first was
massively unpopular.)
Matt Sledge: [11-07]
Crypto sweep puts Congress on notice: vote with us or we'll come
after you with millions: "In all likelihood, crypto deregulation
is coming."
Peter Wade: [11-10]
Trump tells GOP to bypass Senate confirmation process, block Biden
judicial appointments: "Despite an incoming Republican majority,
Trump wants new party leadership to agree to recess appointments."
That way he can appoint people even Republicans could object to.
(Obviously, RFK Jr. jumps to mind.) Here's another report:
Joel Warner: [11-07]
What can we expect from a second Trump presidency? "From unleashing
more dark money in politics to expanding fossil fuel production and
assaulting reproductive rights, here's some of what we can expect from
a second Donald Trump administration.
PS: Trying to wind up on Monday, I'm starting to see a
number of early appointments (e.g.,
Trump picks Rep. Elise Stefanik as ambassador to the United Nations),
which are beyond the scope of this post and section, as well as damn
near impossible for me to keep up with. I will say that they do show
that he's actually thought about transition and administration this
time (unlike in 2016), he has a plan, and is executing it quickly.
This certainly argues against the notion that he might not govern
as viciously as he campaigned. I should also note that the Wade
story above shows that he intends to dominate Congress (or bypass
them wherever possible), rather than have to negotiate with anyone
(even mainstream Republicans). He is basically confirming the fears
of all those who predicted that Trump would turn the presidency
into a dictatorship.
Harris:
Kat Abughazaleh: [11-08]
Democrats need to clean house before they screw up again: "It
wasn't just the people running Kamala Harris's campaign who failed.
The leadership of the entire party is at fault."
Josh Barro: [11-09]
This is all Biden's fault. He starts with Biden picking Harris
as his VP in 2020.
Chris Bohner: [11-02]
Kamala Harris is not doing well with union voters.
Jonathan Chait: [11-06]
Why America rejected the Biden-Harris administration: "It's not
that people love Trump. Democrats simply failed." As usual, Chait
swims in his own tide:
The seeds of Harris's failure were planted eight years ago, when the
Democratic Party responded to Trump's 2016 victory not by moving
toward the center, as defeated parties often do, but by moving away
from it. This decision was fueled by a series of reality-distorting
blinders on the Democrats' decision-making elite.
So, after Hillary Clinton failed, they should have moved further
to the right? How was that even possible? No mention of what the
Democrats did in 2018, after moving so far into left-wing peril.
(They won both houses of Congress.) But Chait then claims Biden
in 2020, who "won because he abstained from that rush to the left,
keeping him closer to where the party's voters had remained" --
maybe he should recheck his old columns complaining about Biden
getting hoodwinked trying to appease Sanders voters?
Aida Chavez: [11-07[
Harris ran to Trump's right on immigration -- and gained absolutely
nothing for it: "Harris could have focused on how US foreign
policy pushes immigrants to leave their homes. Instead, she ran on
border security."
Maureen Dowd: [11-09]
Democrats and the case of mistaken identity politics: Inevitable
that someone would bring this up. Who are these "normal people"? And
when does one ever get a chance to really talk with them? Yet
somehow, they always show up to second guess you.
Liza Featherstone:
Malcolm Ferguson: [11-08]
Democrats say Kamala Harris ignored their dire warnings on Liz
Cheney.
Daniel Finn: [11-07]
Corporate donors guided Kamala Harris to defeat: E.g., Mark
Cuban.
Oliver Hall: [11-09]
I spent hours trying to persuade US voters to choose Harris not Trump.
I know why she lost.
You should know what I didn't hear during the hours speaking to US
voters. I can only think of one occasion when someone mentioned
stricter taxes on billionaires or any similar policies. The atrocities
being committed by Israel in Gaza only came up six times in more than
1,000 calls. The idea that Harris was not leftwing enough seems false:
the majority of the country just voted for the complete opposite.
After all those conversations, I think the main reason that Harris
and Walz lost this campaign is simple: Trump. Ultimately, he was simply
too much of a pull again. Despite the gaffes, despite his views on women,
despite his distaste for democracy and despite an insurrection, voters
just didn't care.
For reasons that I'm sure will be studied for decades, when he speaks,
people listen. When he speaks, people believe him. After all those calls,
I can be shocked at this result, but hardly surprised.
Benjamin Hart: [11-09]
Why Kamala Harris's campaign was doomed from the start:
Interview with Amy Walter, publisher/editor of Cook Political
Report.
Bob Hennellyk: [11-11]
Progressives aren't the problem in the Democratic coalition:
"Ignoring low-wage and low-wealth voters cost Kamala Harris big."
Sarah Jones: [11-06]
Kamala Harris squandered her opportunity to win.
Donald Trump had bet on a sense of aggrieved masculinity as the
return path to power, and while there's much we don't know about
who turned out to vote and why, his strategy did not alienate
white women in the numbers Harris needed to win. Misogyny and
racism should receive due attention in postmortems to come, but
they can't explain Tuesday on their own. The story is more
complicated, and dire. Though she spoke of freedom, of forward
motion, of change, voters did not trust her to deliver. Some
will blame the left for this, but Harris tried centrism as did
Biden and Clinton before her, and that didn't work, either.
Leftists do not control the Democratic Party and never have;
only consider the party's intransigence on Gaza. If the Democratic
brand is poison now, blame its grifter consultants, who never fail
out of politics no matter how many pivotal races they lose. Blame
Harris, too, whose message was simply too anemic to overcome decades
of Democratic failure.
Tim Jonze: [11-06]
'George Clooney - who cares?' Did celebrity endorsements actually
harm Kamala Harris?
Eric Levitz: [11-08]
The debate over what Democrats do now hinges on one question:
"There are two ways of interpreting Harris's loss." Actually, there
are lots of ways to interpret the loss. The question isn't which one
is right. (Even if you could do that, what good would it do you? A
book? A posh job in academia, or at some think tank?) The only real
question is: what, given the new reality, do you do about it? And
no single Democrat is going to answer that. As Will Rogers explained
back in the 1930s: "I am not a member of any organized political
party. I am a Democrat." Today's Democrats aren't more organized
or ideologically coherent than they were in Rogers' day. Ever since
the Civil War, the Republicans have been the core party -- calling
themselves the G.O.P. was brilliant, shape-shifting PR -- and the
Democrats were whatever fell off the margins: tariff-adverse traders
and bankers, big city immigrant machines, neo-Confederates, rural
populists, any stray Catholics or Jews. Under FDR, they picked up
labor support, and briefly became the majority, but Republicans
never lost their conceit that they are the one true American party,
and as they became more conservative, they evened up the balance by
welcoming white racists (while Democrats attracted blacks and other
estranged minorities, while losing their older ethnic groups to the
Republican melting pot).
After losing Congress in 1994 and 2010, Democratic presidents
could consolidate their control over what was left of the Party,
and respond to the losses in a coherent manner -- which guided
both Clinton and Obama to second terms, but offered damn little
help for other Democrats (either politicians or the party base).
But this loss, like the McCain loss in 2008, leaves the Party with
no leadership. Harris has liquidated her political capital, as
have her predecessors (Biden, Obama, the Clintons), who were all
very much (in retrospect, much too much) of her campaign.
Which basically sets up a free-for-all to see who can rise
up and lead a revived Democratic Party. Sure, some pundits and
consultants are going to advise accommodation to the right winds,
but who among the rank-and-file really wants to compromise on
abortion bans, book burning, or genocide arming? At some point,
you have to decide that enough is enough, that the right and
the rich already have much more than they deserve, and that we
have to fight back. And as that happens, new leaders will rise
from the ranks. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is once again setting
an example of a politician who intends to defend us -- from Trump,
of course, but also from the defeatists in our own ranks.
After the utter disaster of the Bush-Cheney regime in 2008,
the Republican grandees were left aimless and speechless. Then
the Tea Party broke out, and moved the Party radically to the
right. The Tea Party didn't take over the Party, but the Party
revived, largely on their energy, and bounced back remarkably
fast. This will be harder for Democrats, because everything is
harder for Democrats, but it won't be for lack of issues and
critical analysis. And if the money powers get in the way, we
need to learn to live without them, and show them to be the
villains they actually are.
Jill Lepore: [11-10]
Democrats tried to counter Donald Trump's viciousness toward
women with condescension: "The Harris campaign felt the
need to remind women voters that they can vote for whomever
they want. Women understood this. The campaign failed to."
Damon Linker: [11-07]
Kamala Harris failed to read the room.
Milan Loewer: [11-05]
If Harris loses today, this is why: "To win working-class voters --
and possibly today's election -- Democrats need to attack economic
elites. But the Kamala Harris campaign hasn't consistently offered
an anti-elite counter to Donald Trump's right-wing populism." On
the other hand, Republicans are very adept at channeling rage
against elite Democrats. Why can't Democrats turn the tables on
the some of the most entitled, selfish, greedy people in America?
Martin Longman: [11-07]
I'm not sure the race was ever winnable. A big chunk of this is
based on a pre-election piece:
Nate Cohn: [11-02]
Why are Democrats having such a hard time beating Trump? "The
national political environment just isn't as conducive to a Harris
victory as many might imagine." I don't really buy the argument for
a global tide toward conservatism, and there's much else I'd nitpick
in his left-and-right momentum survey, but he's certainly right that
Harris leaned against progressive policies that just four years ago
Biden leaned into, and that undermined both the Democrats' credibility
and the message that Trump and the Republicans are nihilist lunatics
with no plans that could actually solve anything.
Branko Marcetic: [11-06]
Democratic Party elites brought us this disaster. I'm tempted
to quote lots of this rant, but can't quite hone in on any single
section. I also rather doubt that the Trump vote is being driven
by economic hardship -- not least because Trump's offering nothing
to help, whereas Harris actually is. The problem there seems to be
that mass of people who believe Trump on everything and Harris (or
any other Democrats) on nothing.
As a general rule, politicians campaign for donors early on, and
make amends to donors after the election, but during the closing
stretch, they focus on trying to appeal to voters. That's the point
when, for Democrats at least, their messaging leans left, toward
things that might actually help people. Voters have good reason to
be skeptical, and I can think of cases where it didn't work well,
but at least the politician is showing them some respect. I can't
say as I was paying a lot of attention, but I didn't notice Harris
doing that this campaign. Rather, they were raising money like crazy,
and she doesn't seem to have taken the necessary step of changing
that money into votes. I think that goes back to credibility, which
has been in short supply since Clinton started triangulating. Even
if it seemed to be working, as with Clinton and Obama, you look
back years later, and see what the donors got out of the process,
but can't remember what you got.
Clinton like to quote Harry Truman as saying, "if you want to
live like a Republican, you have to vote Democratic." Problem
there is that when folk start living like Republicans, they start
voting Republican, so you lose them -- especially the snots who
will kick the ladder out so no one else can follow them (which,
by the way, seems to be part of the problem why Democrats are
losing Latino voters). Meanwhile, the people who didn't make it
up start blaming you, and some of them vote Republican (or just
don't vote) just to spite you, so it's lose-lose.
Nicholas Nehamas/Andrew Duehren: [11-09]
Harris had a Wall Street-approved economic pitch. It fell flat.
"The vice president vacillated on how to talk about the economy,
and ended up adopting marginal pro-business tweaks that both
corporate and progressive allies agreed made for a muddled message."
I wonder if her late start didn't have something to do with this.
She wound up spending way too much time talking to donors, and not
enough to voters. She adopted much of what the former told her,
and little from the latter. Most campaigns shift from one focus
to the other (then the donors get a second shot after the votes
are counted), but she was relentlessly, obsessively fundraising
up to the very end. That worked to raise a lot of funds, but
they never managed to turn those funds into votes -- possibly
because the interests aren't the same. Or maybe she had enough
time and help to figure things out, but just liked the donors
more. And wanted more to impress them, perhaps because that's
where her personal future lies (now more than ever).
Lydia Polgreen/Tressie McMillan Cottom: [11-07]
Democrats had a theory of the election. They were wrong.
Transcript of a conversation between two of their non-right opinion
columnists:
Polgreen: On Tuesday we found out that the nation really,
really wanted a change. Not only did Donald Trump take the presidency,
but Republicans took the Senate and made gains in blue states like my
home state of New York and big gains in New York City, too. . . .
McMillan Cottom: I don't live in New York full time, I live
in the South. I spent a lot of time with working-class people, people
living in the mountains and rural parts of the country. And I also saw
a sort of acceptance and integration of Donald Trump's vision of an
America where no one has to give up anything to win. And it appeals
a lot to Hispanic voters, to working-class voters, especially
working-class men. It appealed a lot to people in rural parts of
the state of all races. That concerned me and concerned me the
entire campaign.
Polgreen: I think I was a bit more optimistic, in part
because, to me, this election really turned on this question of
who has a stake in the system as it currently exists and who feels
that they could benefit from just blowing it all up. . . .
I think I felt hopeful that here we had a generic Democrat who
had these plain vanilla policies that were not that exciting. They
tried to address around the edges some of the issues that people
needed from government.
I thought maybe that could work. Maybe there's just enough chaos,
just enough of a sense that this is too dangerous. That gamble was
just wrong, and ultimately you were right.
McMillan Cottom: Again, I take no pleasure in that because
if I am right, I am right because I thought -- and now have evidence --
that the anger that Americans feel cannot be directed toward the truth.
More interesting things in here, including:
Polgreen: The other thing is that we are living in this
zero-sum moment where people think giving something to someone else
means taking something away from me.
There was that moment where JD Vance was talking about how if
immigrants made countries rich, then Springfield, Ohio, would be
the richest city in the world, and the United States would be the
richest country in the world. Well, news flash, the United States
is the richest country in the world. . . .
McMillan Cottom: One of the things that JD Vance is
actually very good at that Donald Trump is not good at, is he
figured out how to take something that is a problem about
relative differences and make it feel like an absolute loss.
The point here isn't that Vance is really clever, but that he
finds a way to get back to his basic campaign proposition. He's
not unique -- I've seen Bernie Sanders do this many times, but
the secret here is not dogged repetition, but having a point to
get back to. Continuing:
McMillan Cottom:
But that relative loss, despite the fact that objectively, they
are still doing OK, is enough when turned into anxiety and fear
and aggression, which Donald Trump is very good at doing, feels
like an emotional catharsis. And then JD Vance comes behind and
says, "Not only are you losing, but yes, your loss is coming
because someone else is gaining."
What we do not have on the other side, to your point, is either
a center or center-left and, I'd even argue, a Democratic center-right
story that captures that emotion in the same kind of way.
Also:
Polgreen: Yeah. And I think that the idea that the Democratic
Party has to work within a set of defined rules of the existing order
is just a brain disease.
I had initially skipped over all the New York Times pundits, until
I was pointed here by:
Steve M.: [11-07]
Voters think every party is the leopards eating people's faces
party:
What this suggests to me is that millions of voters didn't think
they were voting on a choice between chaos and stability. They
think both parties destabilize the country. So they chose Trump's
promise of a form of destabilization they found appealing over the
status quo, which they see as an unappealing destabilization.
In the famous
meme, a supporter of the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party
says, "I never thought leopards would eat MY face." Donald Trump
won because millions of voters think Democratic policies lead
leopards to eat their faces, and Trump's policies will make leopards
eat the faces of people they don't like.
In particular, young men of all ethnicities think liberal culture
has created a pro-queer gynocracy that's eating the faces of straight
males. They want leopards to eat the faces of people they think are
benefiting in this culture. . . .
A majority of Hispanic men
appear to have voted for Trump despite the fact that some will be
caught up in his crackdown on undocumented immigrants. These Trump
voters believe that only the undocumented will have their faces eaten,
and they're fine with that. (Harris campaigned on a border crackdown,
so she didn't talk much about how heavy-handed Trump's immigration
policies are likely to be.)
Trump chose popular victims of the leopards -- women, trans people,
immigrants, criminals. Democrats could have chosen the rich, but
bashing the rich reportedly scares some moderates. It sets off alarm
bells in the "liberal" commentariat and reduces the big-money
contributions that are necessary for Democrats to run one of our
country's staggeringly expensive presidential campaigns.
A day earlier, M. also wrote:
[11-06]
Trump is a toxically masculine Andy Kaufman, and other unorganized
thoughts: "A few thoughts on one of the worst days in American
history." Section heads (some with a bit of quote):
- Eeyore: I was right to be pessimistic, and it's clear
that I should have remained pessimistic even after Kamala Harris
entered the race.
- Democrats and Republicans agree that Democrats are bad
[longer quote to follow]
- Maybe ground game is meaningless
- But didn't voters think Trump is crazy?
- Which brings me to Biden: But the race might have been
different for her or Biden if Biden had been able to persuade
voters that he cared and was working hard to make their lives
better [but he couldn't, and she wouldn't].
- And also, America is massively sexist: I don't think
I'll live to see a female president. There are too many trad
Christians and too many whiny boy-men -- and they just elected
the biggest whiny boy-man of them all.
The point about Democrats cited a comment from
Frank Wilhoit that is worth quoting here:
People vote their emotional compulsions, which, by definition, are
purely destructive; that is why all voting is negative-partisan.
Trump will get one vote: his own. The votes that are recorded as
his will be votes against, not Kamala Harris, but the Democratic
Party and its constituencies. Comparably, Harris will get no votes at
all; the votes that are recorded as hers will be votes against,
not Trump, but the Republican Party and its constituencies.
History is on the side of the Republicans here, because they
understand what is going on; that is why they focus exclusively
upon degrading the Democratic brand. We do not understand. . . . We
should have spent every moment of the past forty-five years screaming
total rejection of the "conservative" pseudophilosophy, and nothing
else. . . .
It is too late now; one cannot suddenly "discover" a problem that
has been in being for decades and try to whip up any urgency around it.
Patrick Healy/David French: [11-06]
It's time to admit America has changed: Two more conservative
New York Times pundits discuss the election.
Norman Solomon: [11-07]
Democrats ignored every warning and the results are catastrophic:
"Now that a fascistic party has won the presidency along with the
Senate and apparently the House as well, the stakes for people and
planet are truly beyond comprehension."
Andrew Prokop:
[11-06]
One striking pattern hidden in the election results: "Were voters
rejecting Democrats -- or just the Biden-Harris administration?" Or,
I have to ask, just Harris? I haven't entertained the possibility,
at least in print, that they simply don't trust a person with any/all
of her attributes, which most obviously include: woman, color, from
California, both parents immigrants. None of that bothers me, nor
does it bother most people, and nearly all of the people who think
of such things were going to vote Trump anyway, but if you can't
win the kind of landslide you deserve on issues alone, maybe think
about that. As for the pattern:
But when you zoom in on the details of that result, there's a striking
pattern: Democratic Senate candidates are outperforming Harris. Or,
put another way, Republican Senate candidates are doing worse than
Trump.
[11-06]
Why Kamala Harris lost: "Trump won because Harris inherited a
tough situation from Joe Biden -- and ultimately could not overcome
it." I'll nominate this piece for a bracket elimination tournament
to find the most intellectually lazy explanation for the loss. He
offers three reasons: a global trend ("in the years since the pandemic,
incumbent parties have been struggling in wealthy democracies across
the world"); "Biden's unpopularity" (which Harris "had to figure out
what to do about that"); and "Harris's own record," by which he means
Harris's 2019 presidential campaign, when she "embraced progressive
policy positions that Democrats now view as politically toxic."
As I've said, I don't know what the answer is, but it's got to be
something more than that. As for the "tough situation" Biden left
Harris in, his only detail was that Israel-Gaza had "divided
Democrats' coalition." (I'd submit that it didn't divide the
coalition that actually identified as Democrats, but it turned
off a lot of other voters that Harris needed.)
[11-11]
The debate over why Harris lost is in full swing. Here's a guide.
"Was she a weak candidate? Was it Joe Biden's fault? Did Trump have
unexpected strength? Or was it a global trend?" This appeared too
late for me to explore, but I have one suggestion: instead of looking
for things that might have moved the needle a point or two, start
from the assumption that Trump (and most Republicans) were be any
objective criteria so bad they should have lost by at least 10,
possibly 20 points, and see if you can identify any problems at
that scale? I'd start with money and media structure, and then
consider the difficulties of establishing trust against those
odds. Harris wasn't a weak candidate so much as one not strong
enough to overcome those bigger obstacles. Same for Biden, who
had some additional weaknesses that Harris only partly made up
for. We can go on down the list, but we keep coming back to what
happened to the world to make Trump seem credible, while Harris
was ultimately judged by many to be some kind of phony.
Nathan J Robinson: [11-06]
Once again, the Democratic leadership has failed us all:
"In 2016, we warned that Hillary Clinton's campaign was not resonating
with Americans. In 2024, we warned about Kamala Harris, and we were
ignored again. Now, the worst has happened. So, what do we do? A
leftist analysis can help us chart a path forward."
Since we're here, let's file some "I told you so" links cited in
the article:
Andrew Duehren/Lauren Hirsch: [10-14]
How Wall St. is subtly shaping the Harris economic agenda: "The
vice president has repeatedly incorporated suggestions from business
executives into her economic agenda."
Dan Friedman: [09-13]
Harris' embrace of Dick Cheney was just one way she courted national
security hawks: "On Gaza, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, the VP signaled
she won't ditch DC's interventionists."
Yasmin Nair: [08-23]
Kamala Harris will lose.
Nathan J Robinson:
[10-23]
Is Kamala blowing it? "Her campaign began with huge fanfare.
Now she's slipping in the polls and making seemingly obvious
mistakes. What's going on?"
[08-21]
Politics should not be parasocial: "We are electing a head of
state who will wield immense power and control a massive nuclear
arsenal. 'Policy' is not peripheral or dispensable, it's the only
thing that really matters."
[04-02]
What Trump understands 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."
[2022-07-02]
The ACA marketplace is a scam covered with a veneer of "choice":
"Purchasing health insurance on the marketplace is so confusing that
it is impossible for consumers to make rational choices."
Ken Silverstein: [11-07]
While Harris torched at least $2 billion during humiliating defeat
to Trump, former top staffers and advisors for the Veep, Biden,
Obama, Hillary Clinton, Sanders, and Warren got rich: "Ten
political consulting firms with close ties to the Democratic
establishment raked in more than $100 million from Harris's
campaign coffers."
Alex Skopic/Nathan J Robinson: [08-06]
It's a bad idea for Harris to abandon progressive policies:
"In recent days the Vice President has quickly ditched some of
her boldest initiatives, needlessly making herself look unprincipled."
Bret Stephens: [11-06]
A party of prigs and pontificators suffers a humiliating defeat:
I can't stand Stephens, who even spoils his conversations with Gail
Collins -- their latest,
The Trump era never really ended, has a title that could develop
into interesting analysis, but doesn't. This piece, too, is mostly
crap, but he gives you a good taste of how the Republican mindset
caricatures Democrats. (Do you suppose his Harris endorsement was
another plant? He doesn't seem to have the faculties to have based
it on reason -- well, as he explains later in the piece, his first
reason for voting for Harris was Ukraine, followed by trade policy.
The only time Republicans ever go bipartisan is when they suspect
an opportunity to make Democrats look bad to their voters.)
Here's a sample:
The dismissiveness with which liberals treated these concerns was
part of something else: dismissiveness toward the moral objections
many Americans have to various progressive causes. [bogus examples
follow, starting with trans athletics]
The Democratic Party at its best stands for fairness and freedom.
But the politics of today's left is heavy on social engineering
according to group identity. It also, increasingly, stands for the
forcible imposition of bizarre cultural norms on hundreds of millions
of Americans who want to live and let live but don't like being told
how to speak or what to think. Too many liberals forgot this, which
explains how a figure like Trump, with his boisterous and transgressive
disdain for liberal pieties, could be re-elected to the presidency.
Last, liberals thought that the best way to stop Trump was to treat
him not as a normal, if obnoxious, political figure with bad policy
ideas but as a mortal threat to democracy itself. [more bogus examples]
And it made liberals seem hyperbolic, if not hysterical, particularly
since the country had already survived one Trump presidency more or
less intact.
Today, the Democrats have become the party of priggishness,
pontification and pomposity. It may make them feel righteous, but
how's that ever going to be a winning electoral look?
This is massively unfair, but it's the bread and butter of
right-wing media, so Democrats have to get better at handling
it. That doesn't mean inching closer to Republicans, not least
because that never works, but better framing is possible, and
trust-building is essential. I don't see that working with a
hack like Stephens, but most people are more open-minded than
him (or minded, for that matter).
Bhaskar Sunkara: [11-08]
The Democrats lost because they ran a weak and out of touch
campaign: "The party, increasingly divorced from workers,
leaned too much on an activist base instead of a voting base."
Michael Tomasky: [11-06]
Latino men were the big defectors -- but they weren't the only ones:
"Here's how Harris failed to replicate Biden's 2020 victory over Trump."
Bernie Sanders: Sanders
endorsed and campaigned for Harris. After the election he
posted this:
It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has
abandoned working class people would find that the working class has
abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is
Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership
defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change.
And they're right.
Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well, 60% of
Americans live paycheck to paycheck and we have more income and wealth
inequality than ever before. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for
weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now
than they were 50 years ago.
I don't have the links handy, but right after Sanders
made his statement about Democrats abandoning the working class, I saw
a bunch of flak on Twitter charging Sanders with hypocrisy because
during the campaign he praised Biden's record for labor (most pro-labor
president since . . . ?). Pretty low bar, but during a campaign you
take what you can get. Afterwards, you go back to what you want, which
is a candidate who is more effective for working people. Sanders wants
that. His detractors don't seem to.
Other articles that focused on Sanders:
Resisting and coping:
I've generally put
the "what comes next" pieces under Trump (second section), but the
corresponding "what do we do now" pieces are likely to have nothing
to do with Harris (not that the idea doesn't crop up in the various
pieces critical of the Harris campaign). I wasn't really expecting
to do this section, but found one piece, and thought there may be
more (e.g., I moved the Ganz piece in from elsewhere).
John Ganz: [11-06]
I hope I'm wrong: "About Trump and other things." Many
worthy thoughts in this post:
There's a political lesson there, too, though, that applies to the
present moment: having a clear vision of things, even if it is
unpleasant or dark, beats no vision or an unclear one. Trump's
campaigns had a clear mythos: a story about what America is and
was and where it is going. No Democratic candidate that's run
against him has been able to articulate an opposing vision. This
is not particular to this or that candidate, although all of them
had individual weaknesses. We can litigate that forever. But it's
really a problem of American liberalism: liberalism is unsure of
itself and ameliorative, it's not a bold vision of the future as
it once was in its heyday under LBJ or FDR. Trumpism may be reactionary,
but liberalism too, has become too backward-looking -- look at my
references in the previous sentence. It longs for an old age of
consensus instead of gamely going to war to win a new one. American
liberalism has also become a land of smug statisticians and wonks
who want to test every proposition and shrink from striking out in
a new direction, from testing rhetorical appeals in the public arena
rather than the statistical survey. Trump and his campaigns were
willing to venture boldly and that's part of what appealed to people.
He said, "Follow me and make history," a dubious claim made by others
before him, but it excites people.
He also admits that his command of the history of fascism may
not have helped:
Antifascism is a century-old tradition now and the critics of who see
in it a longing to recreate an old order are on to something. It's a
politics of memory and meaning that are fading from this world. But
it at least has a certain imaginative dimension, it's an ethos: its
mythical core contains a struggle between good and evil. Unfortunately,
it doesn't resonate at this moment. For voters for whom "democracy"
was an issue Harris was the obvious choice, but that wasn't enough
people. It's perhaps too idealistic, too abstract and airy, and not
focused enough on practical issues, although for me it's a social
democratic impulse, uniting the struggle for democracy and people's
day-to-day needs. In any case, it's not a story that the American
people get anymore.
He also points out that "resistance" has its legacy rooted in the
struggle against fascism, which may not be the best model right now.
In particular, Trump's popular margin has given him a clear path to
power, unlike Hitler and Mussolini, who used their demagoguery to
gain a power base, but in the end resorted to force to seize power.
Natasha Lennard: [11-06]
The answer to Trump's victory is radical action: "As ever, don't
expect the Democratic Party to save us. Now is the time for grassroots
action."
Timothy Shenk: [11-08]
It's time to resist the resistance: "Resistance" in the sense of
reflexive opposition that focuses on Trump personally:
The origins of Resistance politics go back over a decade, even before
Mr. Trump entered politics. In 2011, with Mr. Trump making headlines
as the leading spokesman for birtherism, Barack Obama's team seized
the opportunity to cast him as the face of the entire Republican
opposition. Years later, David Plouffe, an Obama campaign manager
turned presidential adviser, explained the strategy. "Let's really
lean into Trump here," Mr. Plouffe remembered thinking. "That'll be
good for us."
And it was, for a while -- so good that when Mr. Plouffe joined
Kamala Harris's campaign over the summer, it still seemed like the
basis for a winning coalition. . . .
But there was a price to be paid. No matter how progressive the
rhetoric, Resistance politics inevitably feels conservative. It's
reactionary in a literal sense: The other side decides the terms
of debate, and it usually ends with finding yet another norm under
assault, a new outrage to be tutted over or another institution that
needs protecting.
Robert Wright: [11-08]
How to fight Trump mindfully. This is good, but that he's actually
quoting himself from seven years ago is a bit inauspicious:
The premise of the Mindful Resistance Project is that understanding
and addressing the root causes of Trumpism is important -- so
important that we shouldn't let Trump's antics and outrages get in
the way of this mission. To put a finer point on it: 1) We need to
respond to each day's news about Trump wisely -- with moral clarity
and forceful conviction but with awareness of the way overreactions
to his provocations can play into his hands. 2) Meanwhile, we need
to get a deeper understanding of the forces that led so many people
to vote for Trump. These forces include globalization, demographic
change, the loss of jobs through automation, and a political
polarization that is grounded partly in the tribalizing tendencies
of social media. This polarization is also grounded in what you might
call the psychology of tribalism, in cognitive biases that afflict
us all -- so fostering an understanding of how our minds work will
be among the goals of this project.
Senate:
Nia Prater: [10-07]
Where does control of the US Senate stand? As of Thursday,
Republicans defeated Democratic incumbents in Ohio and Montana,
and picked up the seat in West Virginia (not reported here), with
races in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada still undecided (with
Pennsylvania looking like another Republican gain).
House of Representatives:
I thought I'd
have more in this section, including specific races, but I never
even got around to looking at the numbers.
Other election matters:
Gerry Condon: [11-10]
November 11 was originally Armistice Day, a peace holiday:
I didn't realize the holiday until I got a bunch of email this
morning offering special deals to veterans -- reminding me that
my "service," which mostly consisted of trying to get and keep
us out of bullshit wars, is still very much unappreciated.
Condon's a member of Veterans for Peace, so he deserves
thanks on both counts.
Ed Kilgore: [11-07]
The pro-choice ballot winning streak ends: "Voters in Florida,
Nebraska, and South Dakota rejected constitutional amendments
protecting abortion rights." In Florida, the amendment got 57% of
the vote, but 60% was required to pass.
On the other hand, abortion-rights initiatives won in seven states,
including four carried by Trump. Margins of victory in these red
states ranged from 4 percent in Missouri to 16 percent in Montana,
22 percent in Arizona, and 28 percent in Nevada.
Three blue states predictably passed sweeping abortion-rights
measures by comfortable margins. In Colorado (62 percent "yes") and
Maryland (74 percent "yes"), state constitutional amendments were
approved providing for unconditional abortion rights. In New York,
abortion rights were advanced via a much broader "equal-rights
amendment" that won 62 percent (despite earlier fears it was in
trouble).
Charles P Pierce:
Jordan Smith:
Missouri voters overturn abortion ban in decisive win for reproductive
rights.
Jessica Washington: [11-06]
Voters overwhelmingly chose to protect abortion -- even when they
didn't choose Harris: "In every state it was on the ballot,
reproductive care was more popular than Kamala Harris."
Other Republicans:
Griffin Eckstein: [11-09]
Jones calls for "Nuremberg Two" against Democrats following Trump
win: "The conspiracy theorist and radio host said the Trump DOJ
had a mandate from God to prosecute Dems." The subhed is no surprise,
but the invocation of "Nuremberg" shows a mind-boggling level of
ignorance (specifically, about Nazi Germany) and contempt for truth,
and indeed for everyone. Of course, that's hardly news with this
guy.
Adam Clark Estes: [11-07]
We're all living inside Elon Musk's misinformation machine now:
"As Musk gains even more power, X gains more influence."
More on Musk and Big Tech:
John Herrman: [11-08]
Big Tech's loyalty era: "Elon Musk's big bet paid off. Tech
leaders are adjusting -- and warming -- to a new reality."
Timothy Noah: [11-08]
Dump Twitter: "If you stick with Elon Musk, you're complicit."
Whatever you call it, the social media site was Musk's primary tool
to elect Trump. In Bloomberg's Tech Daily newsletter for November 7,
Kurt Wagner writes that Musk "turned his feed into a Trump-inspired
billboard for his more than 200 million followers," that it "became
a major source of anti-immigrant conspiracy theories," that Musk
"re-shared posts from the former president's supporters, not all
of them accurate," and that Musk turned X into "a much more powerful
version of Truth Social."
Still, hard for me to see how shutting down my account, with
3000 posts, 650 followers, and 49 following, is going to make a
dent in Musk's bottom line, much less his brain.
John Feffer: [10-30]
The cruelty of crowds: "The far right has weaponized the
Internet."
Casey Wetherbee: [11-03]
The GOP playbook for sabotaging environmental regulations.
Other Democrats:
Kate Aronoff:
Ryan Cooper: [11-07]
Time for Democrats to abandon the mainstream media: "The 'liberal
media' was in the tank for Trump. Democrats should take their subscription
dollars elsewhere."
Nicole Narea: [11-07]
Why Democrats couldn't sell a strong economy, in 3 charts: "Top-line
indicators pointed to cooling inflation and a strong economy. What did
Democrats miss?" Section heads:
- There was a real inflation backlash (even though chart shows
that "overall wage growth has outpaced inflation")
- The job market is tougher (chart shows: "more people are
facing long-term unemployment")
- Americans have less money and are taking on more debt
(chart: "Americans are saving less after the pandemic"; doesn't
look like much less, after a big spike during the pandemic, but
credit card debt and delinquency rates are up)
By the way, here's more on the credit card thing:
Steve M: [11-08]
The election explained, in two charts. I probably missed the
significance of this because I don't have any credit card debt,
and had no idea the interest rates were this high (21.9%, up
from a little over 14% just a year ago?). Part of the problem
has to do with Biden reappointing Trump's Fed Chair pick, but
the larger part is that we got rid of the anti-usury laws that
used to provide a cap on this kind of loansharking. Harris could
have came out with an anti-usury platform, and when questioned
about it, told folk to look it up in the Bible. That, plus
writing off most student debt -- which only exists due to
political malfeasance, and which while Biden attempted some
remedies, Harris hardly ever talked about -- would have had
much broader and more tangible appeal than the silly notion
of exempting tip income (a Trump idea that Harris adopted
and helped legitimize -- every time you create a haven for
untaxable income, you undermine our ability to tax the rich.
How hard would it have been to point out that if we taxed
rich folk at levels they had to pay before they paid off
politicians for their tax cuts, people who depend on tips
to make up for subminimal wages, as well as everyone else
who is underpaid in America, could be taxed less, and get
better benefits in the bargain?
By the way, M. points out (and I can relate, not least
by being a bit older):
Ordinary people were already struggling more than their parents,
then inflation struck in 2021. It hurt incumbent parties all over
the world.
Yes, it has receded in America. Yes, we now have the
strongest economy in the world.
But the two charts at the top of this post show how the economy
looks to people who were already struggling to pay their bills
every month when inflation hit. In all likelihood, they pulled
out credit cards to buy necessities, and now they can't pay those
credit cards off.
My wife and I can afford to pay our credit card bills in full
every month, but I don't look down on people who can't. If your
family is bigger than ours, if you're younger (we're in our sixties),
if you've ever had a stretch of unemployment or big medical bills,
you have it harder than we did. If you went to college or grad
school in the past twenty years, you'd be shocked at how small
our student loan burden was in the 1970s.
By economists' criteria, this is a booming economy. It's pretty
sweet for people who can afford it. But I completely understand
that it doesn't look so sweet if you're living paycheck to paycheck.
I tried to run a one-person business for a while in my twenties
and early thirties and got myself in debt. It sucks. It sucks to pay
a partial bill and see no decrease in the debt because the interest
keeps compounding and compounding. I managed to get out of that debt
and never looked back, but when you're in the thick of it, it's
miserable.
If you've never been in that situation, count your blessings. If
you think everyone who gets into debt is a bad person, well, I guess
I was a bad person.
Wiley Nickel: [11-11]
What should Democrats do now? Form a shadow cabinet. "The venerable
British institution of the opposition would serve America well today."
I've loved this idea ever since I first found out about it. It's more
natural in a parliamentary democracy than it would be in America, but
it could be done here, and it would give Democrats some leadership
visibility in each specific area of government. Nickel is proposing
drawing the cabinet from Congress members, which would make it a lot
like the committee minority members. I think it would be better for
the DNC to organize and raise money for a shadow government, mostly
of technical experts (which could include some notables, like Pete
Buttigieg in Transportation, or Robert Reich in Labor, or former
members of Congress), selected by the Democratic caucus in Congress,
possibly adding Democratic governors, maybe even party chairs in the
underrepresented-but-still-important red states.
Osita Nwanevu: [11-08]
The long Obama era is over: "The democrats must learn to speak
to voters who don't believe in the politics of old and aren't
interested in returning to it." I never thought of there being
any "Obama era," probably because he made so little effort at
delineating it from the "Clinton era," which he jumped the line
on to little if any practical effect. The more customary term
for them both, on through Biden and Harris, is "neoliberalism,"
except that one already lost its cachet before Biden.
The long Obama era is over. The familiar homilies -- about how there
are no red states or blue states and Americans share a set of common
values and working institutions novelly and externally threatened by
agents of chaos like Trump -- never described political reality. They
now no longer work reliably even as political messaging. The hunt
should be on for alternatives.
The word "homilies" is striking here. Obama specialized in them,
as if he had to constantly remind us that he was utterly conventional,
someone who could be counted on to always say the correct thing. I
remember my surprise at one point when Trump made fun of Obama for
always ending his speeches with "God bless America." It's the most
anodyne statement ever for an American politician, and yet it gives
these yokels, who claim to put God and America above all else, an
excuse to laugh at him.
Paul Waldman: [11-10]
Voters punished Biden for problems he didn't cause and effectively
addressed: But for some reason couldn't talk coherently about,
some of which can be attributed to age, some to his usual awkwardness,
but also also to the problem that Democrats have to speak both to
donors and to voters, two groups that want to hear different things,
a task that even the most eloquent of Democrats have trouble pulling
off. Alternate title, which I clicked on before arriving here, is
"Trump is about to take credit for Biden's accomplishments."
Stephen Wertheim: [11-11]
The Cheney-loving Democratic party needs a reckoning about war:
"Election outcomes have multiple causes, of course. Yet foreign
polilcy was one of the reasons Americans gave Trump the largest
Republican victory in decades."
Matthew Yglesias: [11-12]
A Common Sense Democrat manifesto: This seemed monumental enough to
sneak in the day after. I was pointed here by Jonathan Chait, who
tweeted: "I think (or at least hope) this will be an important
reference document going forward." (Nathan Robinson heckled back:
"shouldn't you probably shut up for a while," with a link to Chait's
October 8 article:
The race is close because Harris is running a brilliant campaign:
"Stop complaining; the centrism is working.") Chait probably likes
it because Yglesias's neoliberalism is showing, and because it's
written in ways that signal anti-left bias. But the "principles"
aren't so bad:
Different people have different views and different priorities, and
principles need to be loose enough to accommodate some differences.
But I also don't want these to be total platitudes; I want some
people to read them and think, "Fuck this, I don't agree." Over the
next few weeks, I'll share posts elaborating on each one individually,
but in the meantime, these are the principles I'd like to see the
Democratic party embrace:
Economic self-interest for the working class includes both
robust economic growth and a robust social safety net.
The government should prioritize maintaining functional
public systems and spaces over tolerating anti-social behavior.
Climate change -- and pollution more broadly -- is a reality
to manage, not a hard limit to obey.
We should, in fact, judge people by the content of their
character rather than by the color of their skin, rejecting
discrimination and racial profiling without embracing views that
elevate anyone's identity groups over their individuality.
Race is a social construct, but biological sex is not. Policy
must acknowledge that reality and uphold people's basic
freedom to live as they choose.
Academic and nonprofit work does not occupy a unique position
of virtue relative to private business or any other jobs.
Politeness is a virtue, but obsessive language policing
alienates most people and degrades the quality of thinking.
Public services and institutions like schools deserve adequate
funding, and they must prioritize the interests of their users, not
their workforce or abstract ideological projects.
All people have equal moral worth, but democratic self-government
requires the American government to prioritize the interests of American
citizens.
Before getting to his list, Yglesias explains (and here I'll add
my comments in brackets):
Being a Democrat should mean caring more than Republicans about the
lives of poor people, about equal rights and non-discrimination,
about restraining big business in matters related to pollution and
fraudulent practices, and about protecting social insurance for the
elderly and disabled. [I'd add everyone else to "poor people," but
you could just say 99% if villains are politically useful. Proper,
not means-tested, social insurance becomes more valuable as you go
up the income scale.]
These are important progressive ideas, and because they are
important progressive ideas, I think that anyone who identifies as
a leftist or a progressive should vote for Democrats. [So why try so
hard to drive us away? The charge that leftists are all-or-nothing
is easily disproven.]
But that doesn't mean that Democrats' agenda should be driven by
those on the far left [or the right, or corporate neoliberalism, or
identity groups, or any faction; it should be driven by problems and
practical solutions]. A big-tent Democratic coalition needs leftists.
But left-wing candidates are rarely winning tough elections, and too
often, they're not improving governance of the solidly blue places
where they're elected. [Leftists face many obstacles from entrenched
forces, including donor-seeking Democrats, but even so, is this really
a valid generalization?] . . .
Most elected Democrats are not, themselves, actually that far left,
and when faced with acute electoral peril, they swiftly ditch ideas
like defund the police or openness to unlimited asylum claims [which
are effectively caricaturs of leftist ideas, propagated to militate
against the left]. But what they haven't generally done is publicly
disavow the kind of simplistic disparate impact analysis that leads
to conclusions like policing is bad. Similarly, the Democrats are not
a degrowth party. [Degrowth is an idea that deserves consideration,
but isn't a left political position.] When good GDP numbers come in,
Joe Biden and his team celebrate them -- they believe in taking credit
for strong growth. But even without being a degrowth party, Democrats
are heavily influenced by the views of major environmentalist
organizations that do have a degrowth ideology at their core.
Critics on the right charge that Democrats are in the grips of
radical ideology, but the truth is more boring: Many elected officials
are just not particularly rigorous thinkers (think of how much
backbench Republicans have shifted on various policies since Trump
took over). Most only really understand a few issues and do a lot
of going along to get along. . . .
Winning elections is important, because if you don't win, you
can't govern. [But if you win on the basis of bad ideas that don't
work, your governing will have accomplished nothing, and you'll
lose again -- at least until the other party reminds people of
their own incompetence.]
The Republican Party is basically just a racket: they lie, cheat,
and steal, whatever it takes to ascend to power, so they can lie,
cheat, and steal some more. Democrats have to run against Republicans,
but they are also expected to tell the truth, to work earnestly for
the public good, and to deliver tangible results. Democrats need the
left, not just as reliable votes against Republicans, but because
the left has useful ideas to solve or at least ameliorate problems
that bedevil us. This repeated cycle of "centrist" or "neoliberal" --
Chait prefers the former term, while Yglesias is one of the few who
actually embraces the latter -- blaming the left for many failures
of the high-roller Democrats they favor needs to stop. Democrats
need to figure out how to sell viable solutions to the people,
and to deliver them once they are elected. Since most of those
solutions come from the left, they need to stop demonizing the
left, and start treating us as respectable and honorable.
PS: Chait just wrote
A farewell to New York, so with his new gig at The Atlantic,
I guess I won't have him to kick around any more. One more reason not
to subscribe.
Israel: This has been my top section
ever since Oct. 7, 2023, only pushed down due to the election.
America's Israel (and Israel's America):
Israel vs. world opinion:
Ukraine and Russia:
Elsewhere in the world and/or/in spite of America's empire:
Lukas Scholle: [11-09]
Germany's coalition collapsed, but recession is here to stay:
"German chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed his finance minister,
Christian Lindner, pitching the country toward elections. Economic
woes will be at the center of the campaign -- yet proposals for a
break with austerity are are conspicuously absent."
Supreme Court, legal matters, and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Other stories:
Kyle Chayka: [10-30]
The banality of online recommendation culture: "A recent surge
of human-curated guidance is both a reaction against and an extension
of the tyranny of algorithmic recommendations." I didn't have time
to write about this piece last week, and don't have time now, but
being a guy who both writes and consumers self-styled "consumer
guides," this is obviously up my alley. Also as a software engineer,
I might note that I was thinking about algorithmic approaches to
sharing preference information before many of the better known
systems for aggregating such data became available -- none of
which, needless to say, I find particularly useful.
Obituaries
Lou Donaldson:
Roy Haynes:
Ella Jenkins:
Books
Osamah F Khalil: A World of Enemies: America's Wars at Home and
Abroad From Kennedy to Biden:
Current Affairs: [11-08]
How America imagines a 'world of enemies': "Osamah Khalil on
how, both domestically and abroad, American elites have conjured
existential nemeses who must be dealt with through never-ending
militarization."
Jonathan Kozol: An End to Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls
of Apartheid Education in America:
Patrick Ruffini: Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial
Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP:
Ezra Klein: [11-09]
The book that predicted the 2024 election: I noticed this book
in one of my
roundups, but didn't
believe it enough to even comment. Interview with Ruffini, in
light of the election, where there appears to have been a black
and (larger) hispanic shift toward Trump, at least among males.
The implication here is that shift swung the election. I'm not
sure of the numbers, nor how that works, but I do think that
racism has changed significantly over my lifetime, including
a shift in who gets respect and who doesn't. I always recall
the book title, How the Irish Became White, as showing
that racism is more about power than pigmentation. As we've
seen many times, starting perhaps with Clarence Thomas's Supreme
Court confirmation, even the most racist Republicans will vote
for a black person with the right credentials. I recall Lyndsey
Graham saying just that. On the other hand, it's hard to tell
any difference between how Republicans regard black Democrats
vs. how they used to regard all blacks.
Chatter
Joshua Frank: [10-24]
I wrote a book on how John Kerry blew the 2004 election by catering
to the right, ignoring the antiwar vote, and outhawking Bush. Twenty
years later, Kamala Harris is following the same losing playbook.
Aaron Maté: [10-27]
If I were the Harris campaign I'd be playing this clip of Trump
refusing to support a minimum wage hike on loop. Instead they're
palling around with the Cheneys and yelling "fascist" at every
turn.
David Sirota: [10-29]
This is so far beyond parody that you could convince me it's a bit.
[Response to Hillary Clinton: New Yorkers: Donald Trump may
have Madison Square Garden, but we have Carnegie Hall.]
David Klion: [10-31]
I'm confused why the Harris campaign thinks it's a good idea to send
Bill Clinton to Michigan days before the election to lecture Arab and
Muslim voters on the ancient Jewish claim to "Judea and Samaria."
Matt Duss: [10-31]
It's ridiculous for Trump to claim to be the anti-war candidate and
it's also ridiculous that that lane has been left wide open for him.
Eric Levitz: [11-96]
Interesting how much rightwing propaganda outperforms leftwing
propaganda across formats. It's not just that Fox beats MSNBC and
the right dominates radio: As Dave Rubin, Tim Pool, and Rogan
illustrate, podcasters tend to discover they can maximize their
audience by moving right.
The Onion: Breaking News: The Onion on the verge of collapse
after not being able to make up stuff that is more idiotic than
the current reality in our political lives in these United States!
Rick Perlstein: [11-12]
Don't quit Twitter. Ignoring fascist spaces is bad. Silence impliles
assent, shuts down witness of the lies they're devising & the
plans they're hatching. Don't initiate threads; the algo will just
bury them. Tell the truth in threads, like leafletting an occupied
French village.
Jeet Heer: [11-12]
[Comment in response to Wally Nowinski, who offered a chart I can't
read, and said: "Old white folks moved toward Kamala. Every other
group moved towards Trump."]
This is exactly the result you would get if you ran a pro-system,
pro-status quo, hug-the-Cheneys campaign: improvement from those
most invested in the system, alienating everyone else.
[Actually, I find this interesting, perhaps because I belong to
the "old white folks" demographic. Could it be that we weren't
tuned into social media, so missed a lot of the lies, while we
relied on more conventional news sources? Or maybe his point is
to lambast us, while blaming the groups with the largest shifts
to Trump (topped by black men) on the Harris campaign?]
As best I recall, I've been pretty consistent in
believing that
Biden, and later Harris, would defeat Trump, but I saw one scenario
as particularly ominous: if the wars in Ukraine and Israel drag on
through election day (as they have now done), I predicted that many
voters would desperately search for an alternative, which could tip
the election to Trump. I relaxed my prediction a bit when Harris
replaced Biden, figuring she would be seen as less culpable, but she
was in Biden's administration, was involved in much of its disastrous
foreign policy, and made little if any effort to distance herself
from its failures. Worse still, she started campaigning with hawks
like Liz Cheney.
I figured I should go back and find the quotes. I've found several
bits I wrote on a possible Trump win, so I'll include them here.
The main one was from July 24 (actually quoting a July 18 letter),
but we'll keep them in order, starting with this one (I'm adding
bold in a couple spots):
June 22, 2024:
I find it impossible to
believe that most Americans, when they are finally faced with the
cold moment of decision, will endorse the increasingly transparent
psychopathology of Donald Trump. Sure, the American people have
been seduced by right-wing fantasy before, but Reagan and the
Bushes tried to disguise their aims by spinning sunny yarns of
a kinder, gentler conservatism.
Even Nixon, who still outranks Trump as a vindictive, cynical
bastard, claimed to be preserving some plausible, old-fashioned
normality. All Trump promises is "taking back" the nation and
"making America great again": empty rhetoric lent gravity (if
not plausibility) by his unbridled malice toward most Americans.
Sure, he got away with it in 2016, partly because many people
gave him the benefit of doubt but also because the Clinton spell
wore off, leaving "crooked Hillary" exposed as a shill for the
money-grubbing metro elites. But given Trump's media exposure,
both as president and after, the 2024 election should mostly be
a referendum on Trump. I still can't see most Americans voting
for him.
That doesn't mean Trump cannot win, but in order to do so, two
things have to happen: he has to make the election be all about
Biden, and Biden has to come up seriously short. One can ponder
a lot of possible issues that Biden might be faulted for, and
come up with lots of reasons why they might but probably won't
matter. (For example, the US may experience a record bad hurricane
season, but will voters blame Biden for that and see Trump
as better?) But we needn't speculate, because Biden already has
his albatross issue: genocide in Gaza. I'm not going to relitigate
his failures here, but in terms of my "optimistic view," I will
simply state that if Biden loses -- and such an outcome should be
viewed not as a Trump win but as a Biden loss -- it will be well
deserved, as no president so involved in senseless war, let alone
genocide, deserves another term.
So it looks like the net effect of my optimism is to turn what
may look like a lose-lose presidential proposition into a win-win.
We are currently faced with two perilous prospects: on the one
hand, Biden's penchant for sinking into foreign wars, which he
tries to compensate for by being occasionally helpful or often
just less miserable on various domestic policies; on the other,
Republicans so universally horrible we scarcely need to list out
the comparisons. Given that choice, one might fervently hope for
Biden to win, not because we owe him any blanket support, but
because post-election opposition to Biden can be more focused
on a few key issues, whereas with Trump we're back to square
one on almost everything.
But if Biden loses, his loss will further discredit the centrist
style that has dominated the Democratic Party at least since Carter.
There are many problems with that style, most deriving from the need
to serve donors in order to attract them, which lends them an air of
corruption, destroying their credibility. Sure, Republicans are
corrupt too, even more so, but their corruption is consistent with
their values -- dog-eat-dog individualism, accepting gross inequality,
using government to discipline rather than ameliorate the losers --
so it comes off as honest, maybe even courageous. But Democrats are
supposed to believe in public service, government for the people,
and that's hard to square with their individual pursuit of power
in the service of wealth.
So, sure, a Trump win would be a disaster, but it would free the
Democrats from having to defend their compromised, half-assed status
quo, and it would give them a chance to pose a genuine alternative,
and a really credible one at that. I'd like to think that Democrats
could get their act together, and build that credible alternative
on top of Biden's half-hearted accomplishments. It would be nice
to not have to start with the sort of wreckage Trump left in 2021,
or Bush left in 2009, or that other Bush left in 1993 (and one can
only shudder at the thought of what Trump might leave us in 2029).
But people rarely make major changes based on reasoned analysis.
It usually takes a great shock to force that kind of change --
like what the Great Depression did to a nation previously in love
with Herbert Hoover, or like utter defeat did to Germany and Japan
in WWII.
If there was any chance that a Trump win in 2024 would result
in a stable and prosperous America, even if only for the 51% or
so it would take for Republicans to continue winning elections,
we might have something to be truly fearful of. But nothing they
want to do works. The only thing they know how to do is to worsen
problems, which are largely driven by forces beyond their control --
business, culture, climate, war, migration -- and all their lying,
cheating, and outright repression only rub salt into the wounds.
When people see how bad Republican rule really is, their support
will wither rapidly.
The question is what Democrats have to do to pick up the support
of disaffected Trumpers. One theory is to embrace the bigotry they
showed in embracing Trump. A better one would be promise the grit,
integrity, independence, and vision that Trump promised by couldn't
deliver on, partly because he's a crook and con man who never cared,
but largely because he surrounded himself by Republicans who had
their own corrupt and/or deranged agendas.
July 18, 2024:
For what little it's worth, here's my nutshell take on Biden:
If he can't get control of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza by
early October, he's going to lose, no matter what else happens.
For people who don't understand them, they're bad vibes, so why
not blame the guy who was in position to do something about them.
That may be unfair, but that's what uninformed voters do. And if
you do understand them (which I think I do), Biden doesn't look
so good either. He sees Ukraine as a test of resolve, and Israel
as a test of loyalty, and those views are not just wrong, they
kick in his most primitive instincts.
Otherwise, the election will go to whichever side is most
effective at making the election into a referendum on the other
side. That should be easy when the other side is Trump, but it
gets real hard when most media cycles focus on your age and/or
decrepitude. That story is locked in, and isn't going away. When
your "good news" is "Biden reads from teleprompter and doesn't
fumble," you've lost.
Even if Trump's negatives are so overwhelming that even Biden,
incapacitated as he is, beats him (and surely it wouldn't be by enough
to shut Trump up), do we really want four more years of this?
September 1, 2024:
Nia Prater: [08-27]
RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard are joining the Trump transition team:
I noted this story last week, dismissing it with "sounds like something,
but probably isn't." Here I should note that while it probably isn't,
it could actually be something. Kennedy and Gabbard have a lot of traits
that discredit them as presidential candidates, but the one thing they
do have is pretty consistent antiwar track records, which they are not
just committed to, but are eager to use against Biden and Harris, who
are not exactly invulnerable to such charges. Moreover, they can say
that they left the Democratic Party because they opposed how hawkish
the Party had become -- so hawkish that even Trump would be a safer
and more sensible foreign policy option. It remains to be seen how
credible they'll be, because, well, on most other issues they're nuts,
but on this one, they could be more credible than Trump himself to
people with real concerns. I've said all along that if Biden doesn't
get his wars under control, he will lose in November. The switch to
Harris gives Democrats a partial reprieve, but the one thing she is
most seriously vulnerable on is the suspicion that Democrats are
going to continue saddling us with senseless and hopeless foreign
wars. Kennedy and Gabbard could be effective at driving that point
home -- sure, not to rank-and-file Democrats, who are generally
much more dovish than their leaders, and who are even more wary of
Republicans on that count, but to the "undecideds," who know little,
even of what little they know.
September 9, 2024:
Robert Wright: [09-26]
Is Trump a peacenik? No, but if you're worried that Biden
(now Harris) is a bit too fond of war, he says a vote for him
will save you from WWIII. And given that American politicians
of both parties have long and ignominious histories of lying
about wanting peace while blundering into war, and given how
little reliable information there is about either, there may
be enough gullible but concerned people to tilt the election.
Wright reviews some of the contradictions here, and there are
much more that could be considered.
I've been worried about just this prospect all along, and
I remain worried. I don't have time to explain all the nuances,
but very briefly, Biden has done a very bad job of managing US
foreign affairs, failing to make any progress dealing with a
number of very manageable hostilities (North Korea, Venezuela,
Iran, many others) while letting two crises (Ukraine, Gaza)
drag into prolonged wars that he seemingly has no interest in
ever resolving (at least he doesn't seem to be putting in any
effort). The only good thing you can say about his handling of
Afghanistan is that he dodged the worst possible option, which
was to stick around and keep losing. And while he's made money
for the arms and oil industries, both have made the world a
much more dangerous place. And then there's China -- do we
really need to go there?
One might reasonably think that anyone could have done a
better job than Biden has done, but we actually know one person
who had every same opportunity, and made them all worse: Donald
Trump, the president before Biden. Is there any reason to think
that Trump might do better with a second chance? The plus side
is that he may be more wary this time of relying on the "deep
state" advisers who steered him so badly. (Biden, too, was
plagued by their advice, but he seemed to be more in tune with
it -- the only changes Biden made in US foreign policy were to
reverse Trump's occasional unorthodox lapses, especially what he
viewed as softness on Russia.)
On the other hand, Trump brings
a unique set of disturbing personal characteristics to the job:
he cares more about perception than reality; he wants to be seen
as very tough, but he's really just a whiney bitch; he's majorly
ignorant, and incoherent on top of that; he's impetuous (but he
can usually be talked down, because he rarely has any reasons
for what he wants to do); he's vain and narcissistic; he has
no empathy with people he meets, so has no idea how to relate
with them (e.g., to negotiate any kind of agreement); he has
no sympathy for other people, so he has no cares for anything
wrong that could happen; he has a weird fascination with using
nuclear weapons, so that's one of the things he often has to
be talked down from; I know I already said that he's ignorant
and implied that he's clueless, but he's also pretty stupid
about how most things in the modern world actually work. He
does, however, have a keen interest in graft, and a passing
admiration for other right-wing demagogues, if only because
he admires their art and sees them as his peers. About the
only thing I can see as a positive is that he doesn't seem
to feel any personal need for war to prove his masculinity --
for that he's satisfied abusing women.
I'm sure there are more, but these at least make the point.
After Harris took over, I hoped that she might be held less
responsible, and other factors would give her a chance. I also
resisted all the hectoring from the left, figuring that's just
what we normally do, even if it's not helpful at the moment.
Besides, I knew that I couldn't really do anything about it:
that the forces in motion were way too powerful for whatever
I think to make any difference at all. So I just went with it.
But now I'm left with all these doubts: about my own judgment
and understanding, about other people, about the whole notion of
sides. I'm getting old, and tired, and frustrated. And while it's
premature to say that we have no future, I can't see any viable
path for me to continue working like this.
Therefore, this is my last Speaking of Which post.
Probably ever, at least not for quite some well. I have a
Jazz Poll to
run, and that's going to be enough of a time sink to last me
to January. I'll keep posting
Music Week,
probably as long as I'm able, possibly with a new burst of
energy but more likely with diminishing returns. The political
book I've contemplated for twenty-some years now is definitely
dead. Much of it would have been practical advice on how Left
Democrats might more effectively frame issues. Clearly, I'm in
no position to do that.
I may consider writing up more "blue sky" policy ideas. I've
always been very fond of Paul Goodman's Utopian Essays and
Practical Proposals, which gives me the perfect subtitle.
But each chunk of that would take considerable work to research
and whip into shape, and I have little confidence of doing that.
The more serious writing project would be to return (or restart)
the memoir. I don't know that will be of any interest, but it's
a subject I know, have thought about, and often find myself
slipping into, and it could be a springboard for anything else
I wanted to slip in.
The other obvious project would be to go back and review the
several million words I've written (most collected
here, from the founding of the
notebook and/or
blog up to some point in 2022) and
see what can be packaged into something useful. A couple people
have looked at this, and thrown their hands up in the air. When
I look, I see lots of things that still strike me as worthwhile,
but I, too, have little idea what to do with them. My ideal
solution would be to find an editor willing to work on spec,
but I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that.
If anyone is interested in nattering on about this life
decision, you can contact me through the little-used
question form.
Original count: 265 links, 26798 words (31647 total)
Current count:
287 links, 29172 words (34483 total)
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Music Week
November archive
(in progress).
Music: Current count 43118 [43099] rated (+19), 36 [41] unrated (-5).
We got to the polls later than I expected, so I had some time
early today to fiddle with, and I used it to add more links to
yesterday's
Speaking of Which (up to 159, from 135). Vox emailed me a
couple election anxiety/guide articles, so I figured it wouldn't
hurt to cite them. I sometimes imagine going back through the
blog for notes to write a journal-type book, so it's nice to
have a fairly competent record, even if much of it is of passing
interest. My latest concept for such a book would be subtitled
What I Learned During the 2024 Election. Most of what I've
learned is how irrational people can be in weighing matters of
politics. Main downside to developing that idea is that most of
my notes are from people who are well-informed and exceptionally
rational. Explaining the 40-60% of Americans who are supposed to
be voting for Trump today is going to take more research, and
it's not likely to be pretty.
I'm a bit surprised that the rated count this week is only 19,
but we're a couple days short of a week, and in a bit of a down
cycle. I am finally nearing the end of my bedroom/closet project.
I did some more caulking today, around the trim (which already
has one coat, but in various places needs another). I'll sand
and paint tomorrow. It'll probably take another day to touch up
spots where I colored outside the lines. I'm a pretty lousy
painter, so that happens more often than it should. That leaves
the problem with the ceiling (masking tape pulled down strips
and splotches of paint), but I'm going to kick that back to the
guy who plastered and painted the ceiling in the first place,
and it shouldn't take him long.
I got all the paneling up in the closet, including new boards for
the ceiling. I put the lights back up this afternoon. Next thing
there is to cut some trim boards and screw them in place. The boards
are prepped, and most of that should go pretty quickly. I don't have
a plan for finishing it yet, but we don't have to do that part before
moving back into the bedroom (actually, more of an office, but it
has a futon, which works for a spare bed). What we will still need
to do is cleaning, sorting, and reorganizing, but that's an ongoing
process everywhere.
My next big project should be the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll.
I'll try to set up the website next week, and get invites out the
week after. Biggest uncertainty there is communications, as my email
list last year (and mid-year) proved pretty unreliable. That probably
means paying for a commercial list provider, as it's almost impossible
to avoid spam blacklisting on your own -- presumably, that is doable
if that's your business, otherwise you wouldn't have a business. We
also need to vet new critics. I'm thinking of setting up an advisory
board to help on things like that, as well as to sanity-check my own
thinking and coding. If you're interested in helping, or just know
of a critic we should be polling, please get in touch.
As for my own writing, the next two months should be a good time
to re-evaluate what, if anything, I still might try to work on.
I've resisted checking the news all evening, which should hold
out until I get this (and the Speaking of Which) updates up, around
11 PM CDT.
New records reviewed this week:
T.K. Blue: Planet Bluu (2022 [2024], Jaja):
Saxophonist, mostly alto, b. 1953 in New York as Eugene Rhynie,
parents Jamaican and Trinidadian, recorded several albums as
Talib Kibwe (1987-96), side credits including Randy Weston and
Sam Rivers, made his debut as T.K. Blue in 1999. Very spirited
mainstream group here.
B+(**) [cd]
John Cale: POPtical Illusion (2024, Domino):
Originally from Wales, made his mark in New York as a co-founder
of the Velvet Underground, playing electric violin on first two
albums. Now 82, with his 18th studio album, not counting various
collaborations (including notable ones with Terry Riley, Lou
Reed, and Brian Eno) and many soundtracks. This reminds me much
of his early 1970s albums, his baroque phase, not that he hasn't
picked up a few tricks since then.
B+(***) [sp]
Avishai Cohen: Ashes to Gold (2023 [2024], ECM):
Israeli trumpet player (not the bassist), albums since 2002.
Quartet with piano (Yonathan Avishai), bass (Barak Mori), and
drums (Ziv Ravitz). This is quite nice.
B+(**) [sp]
The Cure: Songs of a Lost World (2024, Fiction):
English art rock band, principally Robert Smith, debut 1979, one
of those 1980s bands other people seemed to like but I never
developed any attachment to. Hit their commercial peak with
Wish in 1992 (UK: 1, US: 2), dropped back to a record
every four years after that, until 2008, then a 16-year gap
until this one, which I was surprised to find well reviewed
(91/29 at AOTY). I recall very little of that, but there are
impressive patches here, and some not so.
B+(*) [sp]
The Dare: What's Wrong With New York? (2024,
Republic): New rave singer-songwriter Harrison Smith, from Los
Angeles, previously known as Turtlenecked, had a 2022 single
that got him noticed by Charli XCX, giving him a bit role on
Brat. First album (as The Dare, anyway), 10 songs,
27:24, makes an impression.
B+(*) [sp]
Joe Fahey: Andrea's Exile (2024, Rough Fish):
Folkie singer-songwriter, another nice album.
B+(**) [sp]
Nubya Garcia: Odyssey (2024, Concord Jazz):
British tenor saxophonist, parents from Guyana and Trinidad,
debut EP in 2017, various lineups here, including vocal
features for Esperanza Spalding and Georgia Anne Muldrow
plus her own spoken word. I'm not wild about that turn, but
I'm more bothered by the soundtrack texturing.
B [sp]
Rich Halley 4: Dusk and Dawn (2023 [2024],
Pine Eagle): Tenor saxophonist, from Portland, has run up a string
of superb albums ever since I first noticed him in 2005, about the
time when he retired from his day job (as I recall, but he's 77
now, and had a couple earlier albums I still haven't heard). His
last two albums were elevated by pianist Matthew Shipp. Here he's
back with his old quartet: Michael Vlatkovich (trombone), Clyde
Reed (bass), and Carson Halley (drums, his son). Little if any
drop here, the trombone a definite plus.
A- [cd]
Jazzmeia Horn: Messages (2024, Empress Legacy):
Jazz singer, from Dallas, fourth album since 2017, impressive
range, some scat, I'm unclear on credits.
B+(**) [sp]
Randy Ingram: Aries Dance (2024, Sounderscore):
Pianist, originally from Alaska, studied at USC and NEC, has
a half-dozen albums since 2009, this a nice mainstream trio
with Drew Gress (bass) and Billy Hart (drums), playing six
originals and three standards.
B+(**) [cd]
Ryan Keberle & Catharsis: Music Is Connection
(2023-24 [2024], Alternate Side): Trombone player, albums since
2006, adopted the group name in 2012, has increasingly used vocals,
sings some himself but mostly Camila Meza here (also on guitar).
With Jorge Roeder (bass) and Eric Doob (drums), plus a spot for
saxophonist Scott Robinson. I like the trombone more than the
vocals, but the latter grew on me.
B+(***) [cd]
Jason Keiser: Kind of Kenny (2024, OA2): Guitarist
(acoustic, steel string & nylon string), from San Francisco,
second album, also features John Stowell (electric guitar &
baritone fretless guitar), with a tribute to Kenny Wheeler, with
Erik Jekabson (trumpet/flugelhorn), Michael Zilber (tenor/soprano
sax), and Danielle Wertz (vocals).
B+(**) [cd]
Laura Marling: Patterns in Repeat (2024,
Chrysalis/Partisan): English singer-songwriter, seventh studio
album since 2008, a quiet affair of voice and acoustic guitar,
against a background of dubbed-in strings.
B+(**) [sp]
Thollem McDonas: Infinite-Sum Game (2023 [2024],
ESP-Disk): Pianist, originally from Bay Area, many albums since 2004,
often just goes as Thollem. Solo set, recorded in Dublin, pretty
engaging as these things go.
B+(***) [cd]
Nacka Forum: Peaceful Piano (2024, Moserobie):
Swedish quartet, founded 1999, not sure whether they qualify as
"all-stars," but all players you should know on their own: Goran
Kajfes (trumpet), Jonas Kullhammar (reeds), Johan Berthling (bass),
Kresten Osgood (drums), with a couple guest spots for Lars-Göran
Ulander (alto sax, "known from the legendary '60s recordings").
No piano. None needed.
A- [cd]
NLE Choppa: Slut Szn (2024, Warner, EP):
Memphis rapper Bryson Potts, first singles/mixtape 2018, two
albums, this is 8-song, 21:56 set is counted as his eighth
mixtape. Very jumpy, but runs down fast.
B+(*) [sp]
Pony Boy All-Star Big Band: This Is Now: Live at
Boxley's (2024, Pony Boy): Seattle-based big band, led
by drummer/arranger Greg Williamson, also exists as a 7-piece
"mini big band." Seems to be their first album, the group taking
its name from an independent jazz label that has several dozen
other albums, but few names I'm familiar with. My promo came
with a bonus CD (two tracks, 15:58, from an earlier date).
B+(**) [cd]
Brandon Seabrook: Object of Unknown Function
(2023 [2024], Pyroclastic): Plays banjo and guitar, solo here,
supplemented by electronics/tapes. I'm impressed, but without
much pleasure.
B+(*) [cd]
Luke Winslow-King: Flash-a-Magic (2024, Bloodshot):
Singer-songwriter, originally from Michigan, at least eight albums
since 2008.
B+(*) [sp]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
Terry Gibbs Dream Band: Vol. 7: The Lost Tapes, 1959
(1959 [2024], Whaling City Sound): Vibraphonist, still ticking at
100 -- his first album was Good Vibes in 1951, his "last"
the quite good 92 Years Young from 2017, or perhaps 2022's
The Terry Gibbs Songbook, credited to Terry Gibbs Legacy
Band, which he played some on, and he's still listed as producer
here. He led a big band in 1959, with Mel Lewis on drums, Bill
Holman on tenor sax (and arranging), and other cool jazz notables,
with Marty Paich, Med Flory, Manny Albam, and Al Cohn among the
arrangers. They produced four albums through 1961, starting with
Launching a New Band, and since 1986's Dream Band
various of their concert tapes have been released, through 2006's
superb Vol. 6. This latecomer is one of the best, ferocious
swing and crackling power extended over 71 minutes.
A- [cd]
Old music:
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Lemadi Trio: Canonical Discourse (A New Wave of Jazz Axis) [10-15]
- Tonus: Analog Deviation (A New Wave of Jazz Axis) [10-15]
- Transition Unit: Fade Value (A New Wave of Jazz Axis) [10-15]
- Martina Verhoeven Quintet: Indicator Light (Live at Paradox 2023) (A New Wave of Jazz Axis) [10-15]
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Speaking of Which
Draft file opened 2024-11-01 5:10 PM.
Trying to wrap this up Monday afternoon, but I keep sinking into
deep comments, like the
Müller entry below, to which I could easily
add another 3-5 paragraphs. Now I need to take a long break and do
some housework, so I'm not optimistic that I'll be able to add much
before posting late this evening. We're among the seeming minority
who failed to advance vote, so will trek to the polls tomorrow and
do our bit. As I've noted throughout (and even more emphatically in my
Top 10 Reasons to Vote for Harris vs. Trump), I'm voting for
Harris. While Kansas is considered a surefire Trump state -- the
silver lining here is that we're exposed to relatively little
campaigning -- around my neighborhood the Harris signs outnumber
the Trump signs about 10-0 (seriously, I haven't seen a single
one, although I've heard of Harris signs being stolen). Not much
down ballot activity either, although if I find any more Democrats,
I'll vote for them (minimally, our state legislators, who are
actually pretty good).
In the end, it got late and I gave up. Perhaps I'll add some more
tidbits tomorrow, but my more modest plans are to go vote, stop at
a restaurant we like after voting, and finish the bedroom trim paint.
Presumably there'll be a Music Week before the day's done, but not
really a lot to report there.
Soon as I got up Tuesday, I found myself adding a couple "chatter"
items, so I guess I'm doing updates on Election Day. In which case,
I might as well break my rule and include a sample of the extremely
topical items that will become obsolete as soon as they start counting
ballots. I'll keep them segregated here:
Top story threads:
Israel:
Mondoweiss:
Ramzy Baroud: [10-31]
Israel's extremists plan for the day after the genocide: "Gaza is ours,
forever."
Dave DeCamp: [11-05]
Netanyahu fires Defense Minister Gallant: His co-defendant on
genocide charges, they've evidently had a falling out with Gallant
"calling
for Israel to make 'painful concessions' to reach a hostage deal
with Hamas."
Jason Ditz: [11-04]
Israel imposed evacuation in much of East Lebanon, but many attacks
outside those zones.
Anis Germani: [11-04]
Is Israel using depleted uranium to bomb Lebanon? "Israel's use
of 80 bunker-buster bombs to assassinate Hasan Nasrallah has raised
concerns that it is using depleted uranium in its bombardment of
Lebanon. We need an impartial investigation given Israel's track
record of using prohibited weapons."
Tareq S Hajjaj:
Qassam Muaddi:
[11-01]
Israel is hitting a wall in Lebanon. What is its endgame?
"Israel's military campaign in souther Lebanon is failing. As
Israel runs out of options, the US is scrambling for a way out
of the Lebanese quagmire -- including by reviving hopes for a
Gaza ceasefire." I don't trust anyone's reporting on ground
operations in Lebanon, but "quagmire" implies that Israel is
stuck, which I doubt. My impression is that Israel's bombing
and ground operations in Lebanon are wanton and capricious --
things that they mostly do for the hell of it, perhaps to degrade
Hezbollah, or simply to show the Lebanese people the peril they
blame on Hezbollah, but nothing they can't retreat and regroup
from if the going gets a bit sticky. One report cited here:
Amos Harel: [Israel's defense chiefs say fighting
in Gaza and Lebanon has run its course. Does Netanyahu agree?
The implication here is that Israel's defense leaders are finding
it increasingly difficult to justify further operations on defense
grounds. That they are continuing is a purely political directive,
coming from Netanyahu, for purely political ends.
[11-04]
Fake document scandal reveals Israeli efforts to undermine ceasefire
talks: "A scandal over fabricated documents allegedly leaked
by an aid to Benjamin Netanyahu has revealed Israel's efforts to
sabotage Gaza ceasefire negotiations."
Jonathan Ofir: [11-02]
Israeli justice minister calls for 20-year prison sentence for
citizens promoting sanctions against the state: "Israeli
Justice Minister Yariv Levin is demanding a 20-year prison
sentence for citizens who call for sanctions against Israeli
leaders and military personnel."
Fayha Shalash/Mera Aladam: [11-04]
Armed Israeli settlers torch Palestinian homes, cars and olive
trees across West Bank.
America's Israel (and Israel's America):
Michael Arria:
Connor Echols: [10-29]
Nation building is back! "Israel is breaking the Middle East,
and the US is lining up to rebuild it." Well, talking about it,
with lots of strings, including Israel calling all the shots.
Echols used to be a staff writer for Responsible Statecraft,
but seems to have landed in Robert Wright's
Nnzero Substack.
Robert E Hunter: [10-31]
Israel using US election to take free hand against Gaza, Lebanon:
"But even as a lame duck, will Biden do the right thing? Likely
not."
Anatol Lieven/Ted Snider: [10-23]
Biden's 'leadership' is blowing the lid off two wars: "The
president promised to contain Gaza and Ukraine but both conflicts
have been a slow burn to something much bigger."
Justin Logan: [10-15]
No, Iran isn't America's 'greatest adversary': "VP Harris might
have been trying to score points, but her comments are absurd."
Paul R Pillar: [10-21]
41yrs ago: 220 Marines involved in Israel's war on Lebanon killed:
If the US hadn't got ensnared in Tel Aviv's affairs, the bombing
would never have happened."
Mitchell Plitnick: [11-02]
Israel's limited Iran attack reflects a dangerous regional agenda:
"Even though Israel's much-anticipated strike on Iran was smaller
than expected, the threat of a potential global war may actually
be growing."
Dave Reed:
Israel vs. world opinion:
Juan Cole: [11-02]
As UN warns entire population of Gaza is at risk of death, Bill
Clinton says he's not keeping score.
Here's a report on Clinton's campaign for Harris:
Nada Elia: [11-01]
On vote shaming, and lesser evils: "I will not be shamed into
voting for a candidate who supports the genocide of the Palestinian
people, and no one who supports progressive issues should be either."
Hers is a vote against Harris -- not sure in favor of who or what --
and I think we have to respect her conviction, even if one disagrees
with her conclusion. We need people opposed to genocide more than we
need voters for Harris, not that the two need be exclusive. Elections
never just test one red line, so they require us to look beyond simple
moral judgments and make a messy political one. Agreed that Harris
fails on this red line -- as does her principal (and only practical)
opponent, arguably even worse[*] -- but there are other issues at play,
some where Harris is significantly preferable to Trump, none where
the opposite is the case. I don't have any qualms or doubts about
voting for Harris vs. Trump. But I respect people who do.
[*] Harris, like Biden (with greater weight of responsibility),
is a de facto supporter of Israel committing genocide, but she
does not endorse the concept, and remains in denial as to what
is happening (unaccountably and, if you insist, inexcusably, as
there is little room for debating the facts). Trump, on the other
hand, appears to have explicitly endorsed genocide (e.g., in his
comments like "finish the job!"). Both the racism that separates
out groups for collective punishment -- of which genocide is an
extreme degree -- and the penchant for violent punishment are
usually right-wing traits, which makes them much more likely for
Trump than for Harris. And Trump's right-wing political orientation
is more likely to encourage and sustain genocide in the future, as
it derives from his character and core political beliefs.
Some other pieces on the genocide voting conundrum (probably
more scattered about, since I added this grouping rather late):
Chris Hedges: [10-31]
Israel's war on journalism.
There are some 4,000 foreign reporters accredited in Israel to cover
the war. They stay in luxury hotels. They go on dog and pony shows
orchestrated by the Israeli military. They can, on rare occasions,
be escorted by Israeli soldiers on lightning visits to Gaza, where
they are shown alleged weapons caches or tunnels the military says
are used by Hamas.
They dutifully attend daily press conferences. They are given
off-the-record briefings by senior Israeli officials who feed them
information that often turns out to be untrue. They are Israel's
unwitting and sometimes witting propagandists, stenographers for
the architects of apartheid and genocide, hotel room warriors.
Bertolt Brecht acidly called them the spokesmen of the spokesmen.
And how many foreign reporters are there in Gaza? None.
The Palestinian reporters in Gaza who fill the void often pay
with their lives. They are targeted, along with their families,
for assassination.
At least 134 journalists and media workers in Gaza, the West
Bank and Lebanon, have been killed and 69 have been imprisoned,
according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, marking the
deadliest period for journalists since the organization began
collecting data in 1992.
Jonathan Ofir: [10-30]
New UN Special Rapporteur report warns Israel's genocide in Gaza
could be expanding to the West Bank: "A new report by Francesca
Albanese."
Wamona Wadi: [11-03]
CNN finally covered the Gaza genocide -- from the point of view of
Israeli troops with PTSD: Don't laugh. That's a real thing, a
form of casualty that's rarely calculated, or for that matter even
anticipated, by war planners. It should be counted as reason enough
not to start wars that can possibly be avoided, which is pretty much
all of them. Perhaps it pales in comparison to the other forms of
trauma unleashed by war, but it should be recognized and treated
the only way possible, with peace.
Videos: I have very little patience
for watching videos on computer, but the one with Suárez came
highly recommended, and the title shows us something we need to
be talking about now. When I got there, I found much more, so
I noted a few more promising titles (not all vetted, but most
likely to be very informative).
Election notes: First of all, I'm deliberately
not reporting on polling, which right or wrong will be obsolete in a
couple days, and saves me from looking at most of this week's new
reporting. Two more notes this week: this section has sprawled this
week, as I've wound up putting many pieces that cover both candidates,
or otherwise turn on the election results, here; also, I'm struck by
how little I'm finding about down-ballot races (even though a lot of
money is being spent there). I'm sure I could find some surveys, as
well as case stories, but Trump-Harris has so totally overshadowed
them that I'd have to dig. And even though for most of my life, I've
done just that, I feel little compulsion to do so right now.
Thomas B Edsall: [10-30]
Let me ask a question we never had to ask before: A survey of
"a wide range of scholars and political strategists," asking not
who will win, but who will blamed by the losers.
Saleema Gul: [10-31]
A community divided: With Gaza on their minds, Muslim and Arab Americans
weigh their options ahead of election day: Such as they are, which
isn't much.
John Herrman:
Democrats are massively outspending the GOP on social media:
"It's not even close -- $182 million to just $45 million, according
to one new estimate." As I recall, Republicans were way ahead on
social media in 2016 (with or without Russian contributions), and
that was seen as a big factor. (But also, as I recall, Facebook's
algorithms amplified Trump's hateful lies, while Democratic memes
were deemed too boring to bother with.)
Ben Kamisar: [11-03]
Nearly $1 billion has been spent on political ads over the last
week. Most of this money, staggering amounts, is being spent
on down-ballot races, including state referenda.
Howard Lisnoff: [11-01]
We're in some deep shit: Now that's a clickbait title, as you
have to click to get to anything specific, of which many subjects
are possibilities. Turns out it's mostly about Jill Stein: not what
you'd call an endorsement -- his own view is summed up in the Emma
Goldman quote, "if voting changed anything they'd make it illegal" --
but using anti-Stein hysteria as a prism for exposing the vacuousness
of the Democrats, as if Trump wasn't in the race at all (his name only
appears once, in a quote about 2016). Links herein:
Matt Flegenheimer: [10-23]
Jill Stein won't stop. No matter who asks. "People in Stein's
life have implored her to abandon her bid for president, lest she
throw the election to Donald Trump. She's on the ballot in almost
every critical state." This piece is, naturally, totally about
how she might siphon votes from Harris allowing Trump to win,
with nothing about her actual positions, or how they contrast
with those of Harris and Trump. Even Israel only gets a single
offhand mention:
Her bid can feel precision-engineered to damage Ms. Harris with
key subgroups: young voters appalled by the United States' support
for Israel; former supporters of Bernie Sanders's presidential
campaigns who feel abandoned by Democrats; Arab American and
Muslim voters, especially in Michigan, where fury at Ms. Harris
and President Biden has been conspicuous for months.
The Sanders comment seems like a totally gratuitous dig --
he is
on record as solidly for Harris even considering Israel, and
few of his supporters are likely to disagree. The other two points
are the same, and have been widely debated elsewhere (including
several links in this post), but the key thing there is that while
Stein may benefit from their disaffection, she is not the cause of
it. The cause is American support for genocide, which includes
Biden and Harris, but also Trump, Kennedy, and nearly everyone in
Congress.
Glenn Greenwald:
Kamala's worst answers yet? A 38:31 video with no transcript,
something I have zero interest in watching, although the comments
are suitably bizarre (most amusing: "Consequences of an arrogant
oligarchy and descending empire").
Dan Mangan: [11-02]
Shock poll shows Harris leading Trump in Iowa. An exception to
my "no polls stories" policy. My wife mentioned this poll to me, as
a possible reason to vote for Harris in Kansas where she had been
planning on a write-in.
Parker Molloy: [11-04]
We already know one big loser in this election: the mainstream
media: "When your most loyal supporters start questioning
your integrity, that's not just a red flag -- it's a siren blaring
in the newsroom."
Clara Ence Morse/Luis Melgar/Maeve Reston: [10-28]
Meet the megmadonors pumping over $2.5 billion into the election:
The breakdown of the top 50 is $1.6B Republican, $752M Democratic,
with $214M "supportive of both parties" (mostly crypto and realtor
groups). The top Democratic booster is Michael Bloomberg, but his
$47.4M this time is a drop in the bucket compared to the money he
spent in 2020 to derail Bernie Sanders.
Nicole Narea: [11-01]
2024 election violence is already happening: "How much worse
could it get if Trump loses?" I'm more worried about: how much
worse could it get if Trump wins? It's not just frustration that
drives violence. There's also the feeling that you can get away
with it -- one example of which is the idea that Trump will pardon
you, as he's already promised to the January 6 hoodlums. Nor should
we be too sanguine in thinking that frustration violence can only
come from the right. While rights are much more inclined to violence,
anyone can get frustrated and feel desperate, and the right has
offered us many examples of that turning violent.
Margaret Simons: [11-02]
Can democracy work without journalism? With the US election upon
us, we may be about to find out: "Most serious news organisations
are not serving the politically disengaged, yet it's these voters
who will decide the next president." Seems like a good question,
but much depends on what you mean by journalism. Although I have
many complaints about quality, quantity doesn't seem to be much
of a problem -- except, as compared to the quantity of PR, which
is over the top, and bleeding into everything else. As for "soon
find out," I doubt that. While honest journalism should have
decided this election several months ago, the commonplace that
we're now facing a "toss up" suggests that an awful lot of folks
have been very poorly informed. Either that, or they don't give
a fuck -- (not about their votes, but about what consequences they
may bring -- which is a proposition that is hard to dismiss. There
are many things that I wish reporters would research better, but
Donald Trump isn't one of them.
Jeffrey St Clair: [11-01]
Notes on a phony campaign: strange days.
Margaret Sullivan: [11-04]
The candidates' closing campaign messages could not be more different:
Well, aside from automatic support for America's global war machine,
extending even to genocide in Israel, and the unexamined conviction
that "the business of America is business," and that government's
job is to promote that business everywhere. But sure, there are
differences enough to decide a vote on: "There is hateful rhetoric
and threats of retribution from one side, and messages of inclusion
and good will from the other." But haven't we seen this "bad cop,
good cop" schtick before? Or "speak softly, but carry a big stick"?
These are the sort of differences that generate a lot of heat, but
very little light.
Zoe Williams: [10-31]
An excess of billionaires is destabilising politics -- just as academics
predicted: "Politicians have always courted the wealthy, but Elon
Musk and co represent a new kind of donor, and an unprecedented danger
to democracy."
Endorsements:
Trump:
The New Republic: [10-21]
The 100 worst things Trump has done since descending that escalator:
"Some were just embarrassing. Many were horrific. All of them should
disqualify him from another four years in the White House." I ran this
last week, but under the circumstances let's run it again. If I had
the time, I'm pretty sure I'd be able to write up 20+ more, many of
which would land in the top 20. For instance, Israel only merits 2
mentions, at 76 and 71, and the latter was more about him attacking
George Soros: no mention of moving the embassy to Jerusalem, or many
other favors that contributed to the Oct. 7 revolt and genocide.
Ditching the Iran deal came in at 8, but no mention of
assassinating Iranian general Qasem Soleimani (I hope I don't
need to explain why). There is only one
casual reference to Afghanistan (22. Escalates the drone war), none
that he protracted the war four years, knowing that Biden would be
blamed for his surrender deal to the Taliban. He gets chided for his
being "pen pals with Kim Jong Un," but not for failing to turn his
diplomacy into an actual deal. Not all of these items belong in a
Trivial Pursuit game, but most would be overshadowed by real policy
disasters if reporters could look beyond their Twitter feeds.
Zack Beauchamp: [11-02]
It's not alarmist: A second Trump term really is an extinction-level
threat to democracy: "Why a second Trump term is a mortal threat
to democracy -- though perhaps not the way you think." Having written
a recent book --
The Reactionary Spirit: How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition
Swept the World (I bought a copy, but haven't gotten into it
yet -- on this broad theme, he predictably offers us a rehash with a
minor update. It's nice to see him dialing back the alarmism, enough
to see the real longer-term erosion:
If the first Trump term was akin to the random destruction of a toddler,
a second would be more like the deliberate demolition of a saboteur.
With the benefit of four years of governing experience and four more
years of planning, Trump and his team have concluded that the problem
with their first game of Jenga was that they simply did not remove
enough of democracy's blocks.
I do not think that, over the course of four more years, Trump could
use these plans to successfully build a fascist state that would jail
critics and install himself in power indefinitely. This is in part
because of the size and complexity of the American state, and in part
because that's not really the kind of authoritarianism that works in
democracies nowadays.
But over the course of those years, he could yank out so many of
American democracy's basic building blocks that the system really
could be pushed to the brink of collapse. . . .
A second Trump term risks replacing Rawls's virtuous cycle with
a vicious one. As Trump degrades government, following the Orbánist
playbook with at least some success, much of the public would
justifiably lose their already-battered faith in the American
system of government. And whether it could long survive such a
disaster is anyone's guess.
While "toddler" is certainly apt, eight years later he hasn't
changed that aspect much, and in many ways he's even regressed.
His narcissistic petulance is ever more pronounced, which may be
why many people dismiss the threat of a second term as hysteria.
No matter how naughty he wants to be, even as president he can't
do all that much damage on his own. He looks like, and sounds
like, the same deranged blowhard he's always been, but one thing
is very different this time: he and his activist cult have found
each other. As president, he will empower them from day one, and
they'll not only do things he can only dream of, but they will
feed him new fantasies, carefully tailored to flatter him and
his noxious notions of greatness, because they know, as we all
should realize by now, that job one is stoking his ego.
No doubt much of what they try will blow up before it causes
real harm -- nobody thinks that, even with a Republican Senate,
Big Pharma is going to let RFK Jr. destroy their vaccination cash
cow -- and much of what does get promulgated and/or enacted will
surely blow back, driving his initially record-low approval rates
into the ground. But he knows better than to let GOP regulars
construct "guard rails" with responsible "adults in the room."
The loyalty of everyone he might hire now can be gauged by their
track record -- both what they've said in the past, and how low
they can bow and scrape now (Vance is an example of the latter,
of how to redeem yourself in Trump's eyes, although I'd surmise
that Trump's still pretty wary of him).
PS: Here's a video of Beauchamp talking about his book:
The realignment: The rise of reactionary politics.
Aaron Blake: [11-01]
Trump's latest violent fantasy: "Trump keeps painting pictures
of violence against his foes despite allegations of fascism. And
Republicans keep shrugging."
Sidney Blumenthal: [11-02]
Donald Trump's freakshow continues unabated: "Trump insists on
posing as the salient question of the election: are you crazier
today than you were four years ago?"
Kevin T Dugan: [11-01]
Wall Street's big bet on a Trump win: "Gold, bitcoin, prisons, and
oil are all thought to be the big moneymakers for the financial class
if Trump wins another term." More compelling reasons to sink Trump.
Michelle Goldberg: [11-01]
What I truly expect if an unconstrained Trump retakes power.
Steven Greenhouse: [10-30]
Trump wants you to believe that the US economy is doing terribly. It's
untrue: "Despite his claims to the contrary, unemployment is low,
inflation is way down, and job growth is remarkably strong." But unless
you're rich, can you really tell? And if you're rich, the choice comes
down to: if you merely want to get richer, you'd probably be better
off with the Democrats (who have consistently produced significantly
higher growth rates, ever since the Roaring '20s crashed and burned),
but if you really want to feel the power that comes with riches, you
can go with one of your own, and risk the embarrassment. And funny
thing is, once you've decided which side you're on, your view of the
economy will self-confirm. From any given vantage point, you can look
up or down. That's a big part of the reason why these stories, while
true enough, have virtually no impact (except among the neoliberal
shills that write them).
Arun Gupta: [11-01]
Triumph of the swill: A night at the Garden with Trump and MAGA.
About as good a blow-by-blow account as I've seen so far. Ends on
this note:
Eight years wiser and with four years to plan, Trump, Miller, and
the rest of MAGA are telling us they plan to occupy America. They
are itching to use the military to terrify, subjugate, and ethnically
cleanse. The only liberation will be for their violent desires and
that of their Herrenvolk who went wild at mentions of mass deportations.
They loved the idea.
Also by Gupta:
[10-29]
Night of the Fash: "At Madison Square Garden with Trump and his
lineup of third-rate grifters and bigots." An earlier, shorter
draft.
[11-04]
Kamala says she'll "end the war in Gaza": "For opponents of
Israel's genocide, sticking to principles gets results. But for
Harris, her flip-flop is a sign of desperation." I don't really
believe her -- it's going to take more than a sound bite to stand
up to the Israel lobby -- but I would welcome the sentiment, and
not just make fun of her. It may be desperate, but it's also a
tiny bit of timely hope, much more plausible than the magic Trump
imagines.
Margaret Hartmann: [11-01]
Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein: Everything we've learned: "Michael
Wolff claims he has Epstein tapes about Trump, and saw compromising
Trump photos."
Antonia Hitchens:
[11-03]
Trump's final days on the campaign trail: "Under assault from all
sides, in the last weeks of his campaign, the former President speaks
often of enemies from within, including those trying to take his life."
[10-19]
Inside the Republican National Committee's poll-watching army:
"The RNC says it has recruited tens of thousands of volunteers to
observe the voting process at precincts across the country. Their
accounts of alleged fraud could, as one Trump campaign official
put it, "establish the battlefield" for after November 5th."
Chris Hooks: [11-02]
The brainless ideas guiding Trump's foreign policy: "Conservatives
recently gathered in Washington to explain how they would rule the
world in a second Trump term. The result was incoherent, occasionally
frightening, and often very dumb." My first reaction was that one
could just as easily write "The brainless ideas guiding Democrats'
foreign policy," but then I saw that the author is referring to a
specific conference, the Richard Nixon Foundation's "Grand Strategy
Summit."
Marina Hyde: [11-01]
Trump may become president again -- but he's already a useful idiot
to the mega rich: "They make nice with him when it suits, ridicule
him when he's not listening. Their lives are money and gossip -- with
him they get both."
Ben Jacobs: [11-04]
The evolving phenomenon of the Trump rally: "Rarely boring,
always changing, and essential to his appeal."
Hannah Knowles/Marianne LeVine/Isaac Arnsdorf: [11-01]
Trump embraces violent rhetoric, suggests Liz Cheney should have
guns 'trained on her face': "The GOP nominee often describes
graphic and gruesome scenes of crimes and violence, real and
imagined."
Eric Levitz: [11-01]
Elon Musk assures voters that Trump's victory would deliver "temporary
hardship"; "And he's half right." Meaning the hardship, but not
necessarily "temporarily":
Now, as the race enters the homestretch, Musk is trying to clinch
Trump's victory with a bracing closing argument: If our side wins,
you will experience severe economic pain.
If elected, Trump has vowed to put Musk in charge of a "government
efficiency commission," which would identify supposedly wasteful
programs that should be eliminated or slashed. During a telephone
town hall last Friday, Musk said his commission's work would
"necessarily involve some temporary hardship."
Days later, Musk suggested that this budget cutting -- combined
with Trump's mass deportation plan -- would cause a market-crashing
economic "storm." . . .
This is one of the more truthful arguments that Musk has made
for Trump's election, which is to say, only half of it is false.
If Trump delivers on his stated plans, Americans will indeed suffer
material hardship. But such deprivation would neither be necessary
for -- nor conducive to -- achieving a healthier or more sustainable
economy.
After discussing tariffs and mass deportation, Levitz offer a
section on "gutting air safety, meat inspections, and food stamps
will not make the economy healthier." He then offers us a silver
lining:
Trump's supporters might reasonably argue that none of this should
trouble us, since he rarely fulfills his campaign promises and will
surely back away from his economically ruinous agenda once in office.
But "don't worry, our candidate is a huge liar" does not strike me
as a much better message than "prepare for temporary hardship."
Nicholas Liu: [10-31]
Trump nearly slips attempting to enter a garbage truck for a campaign
stunt.
Carlos Lozada: [10-31]
Donald and Melania Trump were made for each other: Basically
a review of her book, Melania. The title could just as
well read "deserve each other," but that suggests a measure of
equality that has never been remotely true.
Melania's relationship with Donald is among the book's haziest features.
She depicts her initial attraction to him in superficial terms: She was
"captivated by his charm," was "drawn to his magnetic energy" and
appreciated his "polished business look." He was not "flashy or dramatic,"
she writes, but "down-to-earth." And though we know how he speaks about
women in private, Melania writes that "in private, he revealed himself
as a gentleman, displaying tenderness and thoughtfulness." The one
example she offers of his thoughtfulness is a bit unnerving: "Donald
to this day calls my personal doctor to check on my health, to ensure
that I am OK and that they are taking perfect care of me."
Clarence Lusane: [10-31]
The black case against Donald Trump: "Hold Trump accountable for
a lifetime of anti-black racism."
Branko Marcetic: [10-31]
'Anti-war' Trump trying to outflank Harris at critical moment:
"It may be a cynical strategy, but he seems to have read the room
while she has chosen a more confused, if not hawkish, path." This
has long been my greatest worry in the election.
Amanda Marcotte:
Peter McLaren: [11-03]
Donald Trump versus a microphone: a head bobbing performance.
Jan-Werner Müller: [11-04]
What if Trump's campaign is cover for a slow-motion coup?
"Even if Trump can't really mobilize large numbers of people to
the streets, just prolonging a sense of chaos might be enough."
Why are people so pre-occupied with imagining present and future
threats that have already happened? I'm sorry to have to break
the news to you, especially given that you think the election
tomorrow is going to be so momentous, but the "slow motion coup"
has already happened. Trump, while easily the worst imaginable
outcome, is just the farce that follows tragedy. The polarization
isn't driven by issues, but by personality types. A lot of people
will vote for Trump not because they agree with him, but because
in a rigged system, he's the entertainment option. He will make
the other people suffer -- his very presence drives the rest of
us crazy -- and Trump voters get off on that. And a lot of people
will vote against him, because they don't want to suffer, or in
some rare cases, they simply don't like seeing other people suffer.
Harris, actually much more than Biden or Obama or either Clinton,
is a very appealing candidate for those people (I can say us here),
but is still can be trusted not to try to undo the coup, to restore
any measure of real democracy, let alone "power to the people."
Here's a way to look at it: skipping past 1776-1860, there have
been two eras in American history, each beginning in revolution,
but which fizzled in its limited success, allowing reaction to set
in, extending the power of the rich to a breaking point. The first
was the Civil War and Reconstruction, which gave way to rampant
corruption, the Gilded Age and Jim Crow, ultimately collapsing
in the Great Depression. The second was the New Deal, which came
up with the idea of countervailing powers and a mixed economy with
a large public sector, mitigating the injustices of laissez-faire
while channeling the energy of capitalism into building a widely
shared Affluent Society.
But, unlike the Marxist model of proletarian revolution, the
New Deal left the upper crust intact, and during WWII they learned
how to use government for their own means. The reaction started to
gain traction after Republicans won Congress in 1946, and teamed
with racist Democrats to pass Taft-Hartley and other measures,
which eventually undermined union power, giving businesses a freer
hand to run things. Then came the Red Scare and the Cold War, which
Democrats joined as readily as Republicans, not realizing it would
demolish their popular base. Dozens of similar milestones followed,
each designed to concentrate wealth and power, which both parties
increasingly catered to, seeing no alternative, and comforted with
the perks of joining the new plutocracy.
One key milestone was the end of the "fairness doctrine" in the
1980s, which surrendered the notion that there is a public interest
as opposed to various private interests, and incentivized moguls to
buy up media companies and turn them into propaganda networks (most
egregiously at Fox, but really everywhere). Another was the end of
limits on campaign finance, which has finally reduced electoral
politics to an intramural sport of billionaires. (Someone should
issue a set of billionaire trading cards, like baseball cards,
with stats and stories on the back. I googled, and didn't find
any evidence of someone doing this.) Aside from Bernie Sanders,
no one runs for president (or much else) without first lining up
a billionaire (or at least a near-wannabe). They have about as
much control over who gets taken seriously and can appear on a
ballot as the Ayatollah does in Iran.
The main thing that distinguishes this system from a coup is
that it's unclear who's ultimately in charge, or even if someone
is. Still, that could be a feature, especially as it allows for
an infinite series of scapegoats when things go wrong -- as, you
may have noticed, they inevitably do.
Nicholas Nehamas/Erica L Green: [10-31]
Trump says he'll protect women, 'like it or not,' evoking his
history of misogyny.
Jonathan O'Connell/Leigh Ann Caldwell/Lisa Rein: [11-02]
Conservative group's 'watch list' targets federal employees for
firing.
Andrew Prokop: [09-26]
The Architect: Stephen Miller's dark agenda for a second Trump
term: "Miller has spent years plotting mass deportation. If
Trump wins, he'll put his plans into action." I think the most
important thing to understand about Miller isn't how malevolent
he is, but that he's the archetype, the exemplar for all future
Trump staff. He clearly has his own deep-seated agenda, but
what he's really excelled at is binding it to Trump, mostly
through utterly shameless flattery.
Aaron Regunberg: [11-01]
Why is the Anti-Defamation League running cover for Trump?
"Yes, it's fair to compare Trump's Madison Square Guarden spectacle
to the Nazi rally of 1939."
Aja Romano/Anna North: [11-05]
The new Jeffrey Epstein tapes and his friendship with Trump,
explained.
Dylan Scott: [10-30]
The existential campaign issue no one is discussing: "What happens
if another pandemic strikes -- and Trump is the president." Mentions
bird flu (H5N1) as a real possibility, but given Trump's worldview
and personal quirks, one could rephrase this as: what happens if any
unexpected problem strikes? I'm not one inclined to look to presidents
for leadership or understanding, but the least we should expect is the
third option in "lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way." Trump
is almost singularly incapable of any of those three options. Moreover,
where most people manage to learn things from experience, Trump jumps
to the wrong conclusions. Case in point: when Trump got Covid-19 in
2016, he could have learned from the experience how severe the illness
is, and how devastating it could be for others; instead, he recovered,
through treatment that wasn't generally available, and came out of it
feeling invincible, holding superspreader events and ridiculing masks.
I've long believed that a big part of his polling bounce was due to
people foolishly mistaking his idiocy for bravura.
Marc Steiner: [10-30]
The failures of liberals and the left have helped Trump's rise:
"Feckless Democrats and a disorganized Left have fed fuel to the MAGA
movement's fire." Interview with Bill Fletcher Jr. and Rick Perlstein.
Kirk Swearingen: [11-02]
Donald Trump was never qualified to be president -- or anything
else: "After a lifetime of lying, failure and incompetence,
this conman stands at the gates of power once again."
Michael Tomasky: [11-04]
Donald Trump has lost his sh*t: "There is no 'context' for
performing fellatio on a microphone. He's gone batty. The only
remaining question is whether enough voters recognize it."
Vance, and other Republicans:
Robert F Kennedy Jr.:
John Ball: [11-03]
My strange year tracking JD Vance, MAGA's future.
Charles Bethea:
Dan Dinello: [11-01]
The super-rich have a long history of backing fascism and buying the
White House: it's happening again: Mostly on Elon Musk, this
time, although the history goes back to Henry Ford.
David Friedlander: [11-03]
Elon Musk's Pennsylvania playbook: "It's secretive and chaotic --
but Trump campaign officials are thrilled."
Sarah Jones: [11-04]
The real class war against normal people.
Andrew Marantz: [11-01]
The Tucker Carlson road show: "After his Fox show was cancelled,
Carlson spent a year in the wilderness, honing his vision of what
the future of Trumpism might look like. This fall, he took his act
on tour."
Rachel Monroe: [10-30]
The conservative strategy to ban abortion nationwide.
Timothy Noah:
How Republicans get away with fleecing their own voters: "Democrats
are highly responsive to voter sentiment. Republicans are not, yet they
win reelection anyway." This could have been an interesting article,
especially if someone figured out why Republicans seem to be so willing
to vote against their own interests, or even if it was just about their
eagerness to suck up Trump merch. But are the Democrats actually better,
at least in terms of attentiveness? They campaign on donor-approved,
poll-tested issues, but rarely entertain anything else, even if it
actually has a lot of popular support.
Harris:
Eric Levitz: [10-22]
If Harris loses, expect Democrats to move right: "Even though
Harris is running as a moderate, progressives are likely to get
blamed for her defeat." I haven't read this, as it's locked up as
a "special feature for Vox Members," but the headline is almost
certainly wrong, and the subhed is very disputable -- I've already
seen hundreds of pieces arguing that if Harris fails, it will be
because she moved too far to the right, and in doing so risked
discredit of principles that actually resonate more with voters.
(And if she wins, it will be because she didn't cut corners like
that on abortion, but stuck to a strong message.) No doubt, if
she loses, the Democrats and "centrist" who never miss a chance
to slam the left will do so again -- you can already see this in
the Edsall piece, op. cit. -- but how credible will they be this
time? (After, e.g., trying to blame first Sanders then Putin for
Hillary Clinton's embarrassing failure in 2016.)
If Harris loses, she will be pilloried for every fault from
every angle, which may be unfair, but is really just a sign of
the times, a rough measure of the stakes. But if Trump wins,
the debate about who to blame is going to become academic real
fast. Republicans are not going to see a divided nation they'd
like to heal with conciliatory gestures. They're going to plunge
the knife deeper, and twist it. And as they show us what the
right really means, they will drive lots of people to the left,
to the people who first grasp what was going wrong, and who
first organized to defend against the right. And the more Trump
and his goons fuck up (and they will fuck up, constantly and
cluelessly), the more people will see the left as prescient and
principled. The left has a coherent analysis of what's gone wrong,
and what can and should be done about it. They've been held back
by the centrists -- the faction that imagines they can win by
appealing to the better natures of the rich while mollifying the
masses with paltry reforms and panic over the right -- but loss
by Harris, following Clinton's loss, will leave them even more
discredited.
As long-term politics, one might even argue that a Trump win
would be the best possible outcome for the left. No one (at least,
no one I know of) on the left is actually arguing that, largely
because we are sensitive enough to acute pain we wish to avoid even
the early throes of fascist dictatorship, and possibly because we
don't relish natural selection winnowing our leadership down to
future Lenins and Stalins. But when you see Republicans as odious as
Bret Stephens and
George Will endorsing Harris, you have to suspect that they
suspect that what I'm saying is true.
Stephen Prager/Alex Skopic: [11-01]
Every Kamala Harris policy, rated. This is a seriously important
piece, the kind of things issues-oriented voters should be crying out
for. But the platforms exists mostly to show that Harris is a serious
issues-oriented candidate, and to give her things to point to when
she pitches various specific groups. Anything that she wants will be
further compromised when the donor/lobbyists and their hired help
(aka Congress, but also most likely her Cabinet and their minions)
get their hands on the actual proposals. Given that the practical
voting choice is just between Harris and Trump, that seems like a
lot of extra work -- especially the parts, like everything having
to do with foreign policy, that will only make you more upset.
Nathan J Robinson introduced this piece with an extended
tweet, making the obvious contrasts to Trump ("a nightmare on
another level"). I might as well
unroll his post here:
The differences between a Trump and Harris presidency: An unprecedented
deportation program with armed ICE agents breaking down doors and tearing
families from their homes in unfathomable numbers, total right-wing
capture of the court system, ending every environmental protection.
Workplace safety rules will be decimated (remember, the right doesn't
believe you should have water breaks in the heat), Israel will be given
a full green light to "resettle" Gaza, all federal efforts against
climate change will cease, international treaties will be ripped up . . .
There will be a war on what remains of abortion rights (if you believe
the right won't try to ban it federally you're the world's biggest sucker),
protests will be ruthlessly cracked down on (with the military probably,
as Tom Cotton advocated), journalists might be prosecuted . . .
Organized labor's progress will be massively set back, with Trump
letting policy be dictated by billionaire psychopaths like Elon Musk
who think workers are serfs. JD Vance endorsed a plan for a massive
war on teachers' unions. Public health will be overseen by RFK
antivaxxers . . .
If you think things cannot be worse, I would encourage you to expand
your imagination. Trump is surrounded by foaming-at-the-mouth
authoritarians who believe they are in a war for the soul of
civilization and want to annihilate the left. I am terrified and
you should be too.
Walz, Biden, and other Democrats:
Ana Marie Cox: [11-01]
Tim Walz has broken Tucker Carlson's brain: "The former Fox News
host is so flummoxed by Kamala Harris's running mate that he's
resorting to immature, homophobic schoolyard taunts."
Ralph Nader: [11-04]
The Democratic Party still can adopt winning agendas. Obviously,
the "there is still time" arguments are finally moot for 2024, not
that the principles are wrong. This makes me wonder what would have
happened had Nader run as a Democrat in 2000, instead of on a third
party. Sure, Gore would have won most of the primaries, but he could
have gotten a sizable chunk of votes, possibly nudged Gore left of
Lieberman and Clinton, and if Gore still lost, set himself up for
an open run in 2004.
Supreme Court, legal matters, and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Business, labor, and Economists:
Ukraine and Russia:
Aaron Sobczak: [10-31]
Diplomacy Watch: Russia makes substantial gains in Ukraine's east:
"Kyiv is faced with troop shortages, while North Korean soldiers
are sent to assist Moscow."
Constant Méheut/Josh Holder: [10-31]
Russia's swift march forward in U kraine's east: In maps
and charts. Not a huge amount of territory, but since May the
only significant gains have been by Russia.
Julian E Barnes/Eric Schmitt/Helene Cooper/Kim Barker: [11-01]
As Russia advances, US fears Ukraine has entered a grim phase:
"Weapons supplies are no longer Ukraine's main disadvantage, American
military officials say." Surprising pessimism, coming from the American
Pravda.
Eugene Doyle: [11-01]
The Ukraine War is lost. Three options remain.
Julie Hollar: [10-15]
Media consistently in favor of crossing Putin's red lines:
"Outlets refuse to take the Kremlin's warnings seriously."
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos: [10-30]
Nuland & Maddow back at the red string conspiracy board:
"The former State Department official tells MSNBC that Trump, Elon,
and Putin are "all on the same team." I really hate this argument.
I don't like Putin any more than you do, but the US needs to come
up with some way to live and work with Russia, and personal and
political vilification just gets in the way. Even if the intent
here is simply to slam Trump, which in itself if a worthy job,
what's implicit is a hardening of the conflict with Putin, and
that only makes already difficult matters worse.
Elsewhere in the world and/or/in spite of America's empire:
Other stories:
Victoria Chamberlin: [11-02]
How Americans came to hate each other: "And how we can make it
stop." Interview between Noel King and Lilliana Mason, author of
Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity (2018), and
Radical American Partisanship (2022, with Nathan P Kalmoe).
She seems to have a fair amount of data, but not much depth. There
is very little hint here that the polarization is asymmetrical.
While both sides see the other as treats to their well-being, the
nature of those threats are wildly different, as are the remedies
(not that the promise of is in any way delivered).
Ezra Klein: [11-01]
Are we on the cusp of a new political order? Interview with
Gary Gerstle, author of
The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World
in the Free Market Era. I've noted him as a "big picture"
historian, but I've never read him. But he makes a fair amount of
sense in talking about neoliberalism here, even though I resist
rooting it my beloved New Left. But I can see his point that a
focus on individual freedom and a critique of the institutions of
the liberal power elite could have served the reactionaries, not
least by pushing some liberals (notably Charles Peters) to refashion
themselves, which proved useful for Democratic politicians from
Jimmy Carter on. This sort of dovetails with my argument that the
New Left was a massive socio-cultural success, winning major mind
share on all of its major fronts (against war and racism, for women
and the environment) without ever seizing power, which was deeply
distrusted. That failure, in part because working class solidarity
was discarded as Old Left thinking, allowed the reactionaries to
bounce back, aided by neoliberals, who helped them consolidate
economic power.
Gerstle offers this quote from Jimmy Carter's 1978 state of the
union address:
Government cannot solve our problems. It can't set our goals. It
cannot define our vision. Government cannot eliminate poverty or
provide a bountiful economy or reduce inflation or save our cities
or cure illiteracy or provide energy. And government cannot mandate
goodness.
One thing I'm struck by here is that four of these sentences
immediately strike us as plausible, given how little trust we still
have in government -- a trust which, one should stress, was broken
by the Vietnam War. However, the other sentence is plainly false,
and Carter seems to be trying to pull a fast one on us, disguising
a pretty radical curtailment of functions that government is the
only remedy for: eliminating poverty (spreading wealth and power),
providing a bountiful economy (organizing fair markets and making
sure workers are paid enough to be consumers), reducing inflation,
saving cities, curing illiteracy (schools), providing energy (TVA,
for example; more privatization here, not the best of solutions,
but kept in check by regulation -- until it wasn't, at which point
you got Enron, which blew up).
But once you realize you're being conned, go back and re-read
the paragraph again, and ask why? It's obvious that government can
solve problems, because it does so all the time. The question is
why doesn't it solve more problems? And the answer is often that
it's being hijacked by special interests, who pervert it for their
own greed (or maybe just pride). Setting goals, defining vision,
and mandating goodness are less tangible, which moves them out of
the normal functioning of government. But such sentences only make
sense if you assume that government is an independent entity, with
its own peculiar interests, and not simply an instrument of popular
will. If government works for you, why can't it promote your goals,
vision, and goodness? Maybe mandates (like the "war on drugs") are
a step too far, because democracies should not only reflect the will
of the majority but also must respect and tolerate the freedom of
others.
Elizabeth Kolbert: [2017-02-19]
Why facts don't change our minds: An old piece, seemingly
relevant again."
Obituaries
Books
Ta-Nehisi Coates:
The Message: I'm finally reading this book, so linking it
here was the easiest way to pick up the cover image. It took a
while to get good, but the major section on Israel/Palestine is
solid and forceful.
Music (and other arts?)
Chatter
Dean Baker: [11-03]
quick, we need a major national political reporter to tell us Donald
Trump is not suffering from dementia, otherwise people might get the
wrong idea. [on post quoting Trump ("we always have huge crowds and
never any empty seats") while panning camera on many empty seats.]
Jane Coaston: [11-04]
Every white nationalist is convinced that almost every other person
is also a white nationalist and that's a level of confidence in the
popularity of one's views I do not understand.
Rick Perlstein comments:
I have a riff about that in my next book. I call it "epistemological
narcissism": right-wingers can't imagine anyone could think differently
than themselves. They, of coruse, only being different in having the
courage to tell the truth . . .
Iris Demento: [11-05]
Happy crippling anxiety day [followed by bullet list from 1972:
- "Nixon Now" - Richard M. Nixon, 1972 (also, "Nixon Now, More
than Ever" and "President Nixon. Now more than ever")
- "Come home, America" - George McGovern, 1972
- "Acid, Amnesty, and Abortion for All" - 1972 anti-Democratic
Party slogan, from a statement made to reporter Bob Novak by Missouri
Senator Thomas F. Eagleton (as related in Novak's 2007 memoir, Prince
of Darkness)
- "Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You" - Popular anti-Nixon slogan,
1972
- "They can't lick our Dick" - Popular campaign slogan for Nixon
supporters
Remembering 1972, I contributed a comment:
1972 was the first time I voted. I hated Nixon much more than I hate
Trump today. (Not the word I would choose today; maybe I retired it
after Nixon?) I voted for McGovern, and for Bill Roy, who ran a
remarkable campaign against the hideous Bob Dole, and for Jim Juhnke
against our dull Republican Rep. Garner Shriver. Those three were
among the most decent and thoughtful people who ever ran for public
office in these parts. I voted for whatever Republican ran against the
horrible Vern Miller and his sidekick Johnny Darr. In a couple cases,
I couldn't stand either D or R, so wasted my vote with the
Prohibitionist (a minor party, but still extant in KS). Not a single
person I voted for won. I was so despondent, I didn't vote again until
1996, when I couldn't resist the opportunity to vote against Dole
again. (I was in MA at the time.) I've voted regularly since
then. After moving back to KS in 1999, I got another opportunity to
vote for whatever Republican ran against Vern Miller, and we beat him
this time (although for the most part, my winning pct. remains pretty
low).
- Paul Krugman: [no link, but cited in a post called
Trump could make contagion great again]
I expect terrible things if Trump wins. Until recently, however,
"explosive growth in infectious diseases" wasn't on my Bingo card
[link to article on RFK Jr. saying "Trump promised him 'control'
of HHS and USDA]
Local tags (these can be linked to directly):
music.
Original count: 135 links, 9115 words
Current count:
160 links, 10343 words (13232 total)
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Music Week
October archive
(final).
Music: Current count 43099 [43065] rated (+34), 41 [46] unrated (-5).
This post has been pushed back two or three days this week,
mostly for reasons explained in yesterday's
Speaking of Which (somewhat augmented today), which in
turn was delayed by my Tuesday posting of my
Top 10 Reasons to Vote for Harris vs. Trump (also posted at
Notes on Everyday Life, which is currently open for comments --
although beware that all but mine are held for moderation, and I
don't seem to be getting notification of pending comments, so I
have to think to look for them).
I sent early links out to a dozen old friends, off the top of
my head, to which I only got one reply (plus one comment, at the
site, both feeling that I was overly generous to Harris, one
insisting on voting for Stein, neither sowing any doubts in my
mind). Maybe it's all too blindingly obvious, or just too tired,
to elicit interest? At this point, what more do you need to know
than this Seth Meyers
A Closer Look?
As noted, I took a chunk of time out last week for my
birthday dinner. More details on it in the
notebook. I'll probably
do a second round next week: the leftovers are pretty much gone --
I reheated the rice tonight, to go with red cooked pork cubes, but
that's about all that's left. The dinner came out of the two Burmese
cookbooks in the "Recent Reading" log, but I've yet to really crack'
open Cradle of Flavor -- maybe next year (or maybe sooner)
I'll finally see what I can do with Indonesian/Malaysian.
I have nothing much to say about this week's music. I did want
to get to the NoBusiness batch, which got me looking for unheard
Arthur Blythe albums, which led to some more finds on YouTube.
I don't recall what got me looking at the Soul Jazz back catalog,
but the label was a favorite back when I was writing
Recycled Goods, so I'm inclined to check out anything I find.
I also got some good tips from the latest
Riotriot.
Plan now is to open a new Speaking of Which draft file tomorrow,
and post whatever I can before election day, so Monday, November 4,
with Music Week on Tuesday. That'll make for a short week, which
will be even more limited by a combination of burnout and feeling
helpless. I may just focus more on the bedroom/closet project. I
had a setback yesterday when I peeled my masking tape off the
ceiling and found it ripped off large patches of paint. I'm not
even sure how to fix that, but it's pretty much guaranteed to be
painful.
I opened up a draft file for November Streamnotes, but didn't
do the indexing for October. I may be farther behind than that.
I got my first 2025 release promos, so had to open up files for
them. Again, I cut a few corners. Unlikely I will play any 2025
releases until after New Year's Day. Still a lot of 2024 to catch
up on.
Also need to start focusing on Jazz Critics Poll. Voting for
that should start mid-November. Most pressing things are to get
the website prepped, and to line up a new mailing list vendor --
my own DIY efforts have proven to be inadequate, but I can see
several reasons to pay for something if it would work flexibly
enough.
New records reviewed this week:
Amyl and the Sniffers: Cartoon Darkness (2024,
B2B/Virgin): Australian pub/punk rock band, third album since 2019,
Amy Taylor the singer-songwriter. I'm not deciphering (or perhaps
I mean remembering?) many words, but after multiple plays this is
sounding great -- even the unnecessary change of pace.
A- [sp]
Jason Anick/Jason Yeager: Sanctuary (2023 [2024],
Sunnyside): Violin and piano, couple albums each since 2011, with
Yeager on Annick's 2013 album. Nice postbop group with two trumpets
(Jason Palmer and Billy Buss), tenor sax (Edmar Colón), cello, bass,
and drums.
B+(***) [cd]
The Attic & Eve Risser: La Grande Crue (2023
[2024], NoBusiness): Portuguese tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado's
trio (Gonçalo Almeida on bass and Onno Govaert on drums), with
several superb albums so far, joined here by the French pianist,
for another one.
A- [cd]
David Bailis: Tree of Life (2024, Create or Destroy):
Guitarist, side credits back to 2007 but this seems to be his first
album under his own name, a short one (27:34), four originals and
one cover, with Chris Speed (tenor sax), Eric Lane (piano/synth
bass), and Jason Nazary (drums), nicely done.
B+(**) [cd]
Dharma Down: Owl Dreams (2023 [2024], Dharma
Down): Quartet from Portland, ME, quartet of Duncan Hardy (alto
sax/qanun -- an Assyrian string instrument, for a bit of Middle
Eastern spice), Mike Effenberger (piano), Scott Kiefner (bass),
John Meltam (drums).
B+(*) [cd]
Etran De L'Aïr: 100% Saharan Guitar (2024, Sahel
Sounds): "The longest running wedding band in Agadez, capital of
Tuareg guitar," promises more of the same, and delivers, as usual,
on what I count to be their third album, but who knows how far
back they go?
B+(***) [sp]
Joel Futterman: Innervoice (2024, NoBusiness):
Free jazz pianist, born (1946) in Chicago, affiliated with AACM
before moving to Virginia in 1972, has many records since then.
This one is solo, more measured than most, but very engaging.
B+(***) [cd]
Hinds: Viva Hinds (2024, Lucky Number): Spanish
indie pop band, started as a duo of Carlotta Cosials and Ana
Garcia Perrotte as Deers, expanded to a quartet for their 2016-20
albums, back to a duo (with touring support) now. Includes a
couple songs in Spanish, which surprise me as high points.
A- [sp]
Shawneci Icecold/Vernon Reid/Matthew Garrison & Grant
Calvin Weston: Future Prime (2024, Underground45):
Pianist, synths here, has straddled hip-hop and avant-jazz since
2021, splits the difference here with a fusion (guitar/bass/drums)
quartet. Five songs (32:51), starting with "A Night in Tunisia"
and "Zawinul" before blasting off into space.
B+(***) [cd]
J.U.S X Squadda B: 3rd Shift (2024, Bruiser Brigade):
Detroit rapper, two previous albums since 2021, with an Oakland-based
producer, nothing else by him on Discogs.
B+(***) [sp]
Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets: Indoor Safari
(2024, Yep Roc): Singer-songwriter, started way back in pub rock,
invented power pop, faded after 1979 but never went away, with
Party of One (1990) his only later album to hit A- in my
book. Faint echoes here, but I can hear some.
B+(*) [sp]
Michael McNeill: Barcode Poetry (2022 [2024],
Infrasonic Press): Pianist, from Buffalo, impressed me totally
out of the blue with his 2012 debut (Passageways), returns
here with a real chamber jazz quartet, with Susan Alcorn (pedal
steel guitar), Dave Ballou (trumpet), and Shelly Purdy (vibes,
percussion). Sounded a bit weepy at first, and I do have trouble
focusing when the going gets slow, but I found myself checking
and rechecking, and the music gradually won me over.
B+(***) [cd]
Yuka Mito: How Deep Is the Ocean (2024, Nana
Notes): Standards singer, originally from Japan, now based in
New York, has a previous album, backed here by piano, bass,
and drums, offers seven very obvious songs (29:46), including
two Jobims, two from Bacharach-David, a Porter, a Berlin, and
"How High the Moon." All nicely, if unremarkably, done.
B [cd]
Mavis Pan: Rising (2023 [2024], self-released):
Pianist, sings some (just one song here), born in Taiwan, moved
to New Jersey when she was 17, first album 2010, has a Master of
Music degree, but also a M.A. from Westminster Theological Seminary.
Original compositions, co-produced by Ted Nash, who plays tenor
sax, flute, and clarinet. Also with Greg Burke (alto/soprano sax,
alto flute, clarinet), bass, and drums.
B+(*) [cd]
William Parker/Hugo Costa/Philipp Ernsting: Pulsar
(2023 [2024], NoBusiness): Recorded in Amstmerdam, an all-improv
set of bass, alto sax, and drums, with Costa getting the lead in
the credits short, but Parker on the cover, presumably because
you've heard of him. Parker seems to pick up a couple records like
this every time he wanders off to Europe. My favorite is one called
And William Danced, with Anders Gahnold, but they're all
pretty good. Costa has several albums, including a duo and a group
called Albatre with Ernsting. This is pretty inspired avant-thrash.
A- [cd]
Pest Control: Year of the Pest (2024, Quality
Control HQ, EP): Dan Weiss pegged them as "my ideal metal band,"
which I took as both warning and challenge, but figured I could
handle 4 songs, 10:27, of anything. I wound up giving them a
second spin. Note that Bandcamp page doesn't tag this as metal:
their proferred terms include "uk thrash," "hardcore punk," and
(first on the list) "nwobhc" (whatever that stands for; at least
I can guess "ukhc").
B+(***) [sp]
Tyshawn Sorey Trio: The Suspectible Now (2024, Pi):
Drummer-led trio with Aaron Diehl (piano) and Harish Raghavan (bass),
"following on the heels of his masterful release Continuing,
which was voted #4 release of 2023 by the Francis Davis Poll of over
150 jazz critics." Most likely another top-five contender, although
I'd be hard-pressed to distinguish it from the Vijay Iyer trio that
won the mid-year poll, and remains the early favorite. Sorey's
arrangements of four long pieces written by others, not really
standards but interesting source material.
B+(***) [cd]
Ben Waltzer: The Point (2023 [2024], Calligram):
Pianist, debut was a trio from 1996, only a couple records since,
plus a few scattered side credits. Quartet here where Geof Bradfield
(tenor sax/bass clarinet) and Clark Sommers (bass) also contribute
originals, plus Dana Hall (drums), and a closing, rather delicate
cover of "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing."
B+(**) [cd]
Immanuel Wilkins: Blues Blood (2024, Blue Note):
Alto saxophonist, third album since 2020, all on Blue Note, first
two overcame my initial caution, a couple side appearances also
blew me away. Sax is also impressive here, but toned down a bit,
making way for several guest vocals, which I could do without.
Wilkins has polled very well since winning our debut award, and
I expect this will also -- I've already seen one review touting
it as the record of the year, but I'll pass.
B+(**) [sp]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
Arthur Blythe Quartet: Live From Studio Rivbea: July 6,
1976 (1976 [2024], NoBusiness): Alto saxophonist (1940-2017),
from Los Angeles, recorded two masterpieces for Columbia in 1978,
In the Tradition and Lenox Avenue Breakdown, after
after a couple minor label releases in 1977. This live set, the
second volume in the label's "Studio Rivbea" series, is just a
bit earlier, a quartet with Juni Booth (bass), Steve Reid (drums),
and Muhammad Abdullah (conga).
B+(***) [cd]
Electro Throwdown: Sci-Fi Inter-Planetary Electro Attack
on Planet Earth 1982-89 (1982-89 [2024], Soul Jazz): No
hits here, the only artist name I recall is Jonzun Crew, but the
echoes of "Planet Rock" and "Trans-Europe Express" (both mentioned
in the notes) are easy to pick up, and pretty satisfying in and
of themselves.
B+(**) [r]
In the Beginning There Was Rhythm (1978-84 [2024,
Soul Jazz): Reissue of the label's founding compilation from 2001,
this captures the evolutionary moment when British punks embraced
hard dance beats. Great idea for a compilation, and it starts off
promisingly, but runs a little thin, just about when yoy start to
wonder where New Order is.
B+(***) [sp]
Old music:
George Adams-Don Pullen Quartet: Jazzbühne Berlin '88
(1988 [1991], Repertoire): Leaders play tenor sax and piano, came
together under Charles Mingus circa Changes, and produced
some outstanding albums over the next decade, with Cameron Brown
(bass) in place of Mingus, and Lewis Nash (drums) replacing Dannie
Richmond here. Three long pieces, originals (with a nod to Monk).
Pullen is an absolutely unique pianist, who shines early on. Adams
is hardly the only real powerhouse saxophonist, but when he hits
his stride, he's undeniable.
A- [yt]
Ray Anderson: Harrisburg Half Life (1980 [1981],
Moers Music): Trombonist, early album recorded in Germany, with
Allan Jaffe (guitar), Mark Dresser (bass), and Gerry Hemingway
(drums). Good start toward the later (from 1989 on) BassDrumBone
trios, where Mark Helias replaced Dresser.
B+(***) [yt]
Black Arthur Blythe: Bush Baby (1977 [1978],
Adelphi): The alto saxophonist's first studio album -- two
earlier live sets appeared on India Navigation, one before
and the other after this release -- a trio with Bob Stewart
on tuba and Ahkmed Abdullah on congas.
B+(***) [yt]
Boombox 3: Early Independent Hip Hop, Electro and Disco
Rap 1979-83 (1979-83 [2018], Soul Jazz, 2CD): Third volume
in a series that started in 2016, the previous volumes rated A-
and B+(***) here, with a couple later releases breaking from the
naming convention. More obscure, but sounding very typical of
the early Sugarhill-dominated period.
B+(***) [r]
Deutsche Elektronische Musik: Experimental German Rock and
Electronic Musik 1972-83 (1972-83 [2010], Soul Jazz): Starts
with Can, and hits many major groups (but no Kraftwerk). Still, not
much really grabs me. Three more volumes were added later, including
3, which I previously graded B+(*).
B+(*) [r]
Deutsche Elektronische Musik 2: Experimental German Rock and
Electronic Musik 1971-83 (1971-83 [2013], Soul Jazz): Digital
has 14 tracks, which is more than the 2-LP's 12 but way less than the
2-CD's 27 (or the later 25-track 4-LP release).
B+(*) [r]
Lloyd McNeill: Elegia (1979 [2019], Soul Jazz):
Perhaps better known as a painter (1935-2021), played flute and
recorded several albums 1968-79, one more in 1997, this the
fifth reissued by the label.
B+(*) [r]
Punk 45: I'm a Mess! D-I-Y or Die! Art, Trash & Neon:
Punk 45s in the UK 1977-78 (1977-78 [2022], Soul Jazz):
Extending what was previously a six-CD series -- all good, the
Cleveland volume (Extermination Nights in the Sixth City an
A-), more obscurities: I don't recall ever hearing of these groups,
much less their singles (16 on the digital, other formats vary).
B+(**) [r]
Space Funk 2: Afro Futurist Electro Funk in Space 1976-84
(1976-84 [2023], Soul Jazz): More crate digging, following their
previous (2019) volume, leaning into early hip-hop (choice cut:
"Smurf Trek," by Chapter Three).
B+(**) [r]
Wiener Art Orchester: Tango From Obango (1979
[1980], Art): Group founded 1977 by Mathias Rüegg, aka Vienna Art
Ochestra, ran through 2010 wtih a couple vocal albums as Vienna Art
Choir. They were especially notable for their eclectic borrowings
from classical music, as well as from Americans like Gershwin,
Ellington, Mingus, and Dolphy. Cover notes: "This music is dedicated
to the people and the Sea of Obango," but I'm not finding any other
references to that location. But the opening tango is delightful,
and after that it's anyone's guess.
B+(***) [yt]
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Big Bambi: Compositions for Bass Guitar & Bassoon, Vol. I (ESP-Disk) [09-27]
- Steve Coleman and Five Elements: PolyTropos/Of Many Turns (Pi) [10-25]
- Day Dream: Duke & Strays Live: Works by Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn (Corner Store Jazz, 2CD) [11-08]
- David Friesen: A Light Shining Through (Origin) [11-22]
- Al Jarreau: Wow! Live at the Childe Harold (1976, Resonance) [12-06]
- Thollem McDonas: Infinite-Sum Game (ESP-Disk) [10-18]
- Reut Regev's R*Time: It's Now: R*Time Plays Doug Hammond (ESP-Disk) [11-15]
- Steve Smith and Vital Information: New Perspective (Drum Legacy) [02-07]
- Dave Stryker: Stryker With Strings Goes to the Movies (Strikezone) [01-10]
- Friso van Wijck: Friso van Wijck's Candy Container (TryTone) [11-01]
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Speaking of Which
File opened 2024-10-24 01:36 AM.
I've been trying to collect my thoughts and write my up
Top 10 Reasons to Vote for Harris vs. Trump. I posted an early
draft -- just the top 10 list -- on Monday afternoon at
Notes on Everyday Life, then blanked out and didn't get to the
second part ("Top 5 Reasons Electing Harris Won't Solve Our Problems")
until Tuesday afternoon (and well into evening). I updated the NOEL
draft that evening, and finally posted the file in the blog. That
pushes this file out until Wednesday, and Music Week until Thursday
(which still fits in October).
As of Tuesday evening, this week's collection is very hit-and-miss
(100 links, 6023 words), typed up during odd breaks as I juggled my
life between working on my birthday dinner, writing the endorsement,
and struggling with my big remodeling project.
The endorsement could
do with some editing, although my initial distribution of the link
has thus far generated almost no comment (one long-time friend wrote
back to disagree, having decided -- "even in a battleground state" --
to vote for Jill Stein). A year ago I still imagined writing a book
that might have some small influence on the election. In some ways,
this piece is my way of penance for my failure, but the more I got
into it, the more I thought I had some worthwhile points to make.
But now it's feeling like a complete waste of time.
The
birthday dinner did feel like I accomplished something. The Burmese
curries were each spectacular in their own way, the coconut rice nice
enough, the ginger salad and vegetable sides also interesting, and the
cake (not Burmese, but spice-and-oats) was an old favorite. I should
follow it up with a second round of Burmese recipes before too long,
especially now that I've secured the tea leaf salad ingredients.
Slow but tangible progress on the bedroom/closet remodel. Walls are
painted now, leaving trim next. Paneling is up in closet, where I still
have the ceiling and quite a bit of trim. [Wednesday morning now:] I've
been meaning to go out back and polyurethane the trim boards, so I can
cut them as needed, first to shore up the ceiling. But it's raining,
so I'll give that pass for another day, and probably just work on this
straggling post. Laura's report of morning news is full of gaffes by
Biden and Hillary Clinton, who seem intent on redeeming the dead weight
of their own cluelessness by imposing it on Harris. With "friends"
like these, who needs . . . Dick Cheney?
Posting late Wednesday night, my usual rounds still incomplete.
I'll decide tomorrow whether I'll add anything here, or simply
move on to next week (which really has to post before election
results start coming in). For now, I'm exhausted, and finding
this whole process very frustrating.
Top story threads:
Israel:
Mondoweiss:
Ruwaida Kamal Amer/Ibtisam Mahdi: [10-24]
For Gaza's schoolchildren, another year of destruction, loss, and
uncertainty.
Tareq S Hajjaj: [10-25]
Survivors of north Gaza invasion report Israeli 'extermination'
campaign: "Survivors of the ongoing Israeli extermination campaign
in north Gaza describe how the Israeli army is separating mothers from
children before forcing them south, executing civilians in ditches,
and directly targeting hospitals and medical staff."
Shatha Hanaysha: [10-25]
'Our freedom is close': why these young Palestinian men choose armed
resistance: "I met resistance fighters from the Tulkarem Brigade
for an interview in the alleyways of Tulkarem refugee camp in the
occupied West Bank. They talked about why they fight against Israel,
and what their dreams are for the future." This is disturbing. I find
it impossible to feel solidarity or even sympathy with people who
would fight back against Israel, even if purely out of self-defense.
But it is understandable, and has long been predicted, every time
Israel has renewed its war on Gaza (going back at least to 1951):
virtually all people, when oppressed, will fight back. That they
should do so, why and why, is mostly a function of the people who
are driving them to such desperate measures. We'd see less of this
if only we were clear on who is responsible for setting the conditions
that make such rebellion seem like the only recourse, especially if
we made it clear that we'll hold those who control an area as the
sole ones responsible for the rebellions they provoke. Sure, I can
think of some cases where control was nebulous and/or revolts were
fueled by external forces, but that is not the case with Israel in
Gaza. Israel is solely responsible for this genocide. And if armed
resistance only accelerates it, that is solely because Israel wants
it that way.
Gideon Levy: [10-25]
Beatings, humiliation and torture: The IDF's night of terror at a
Palestinian refugee camp: "Israeli soldiers abused people during
a raid on a remote refugee camp in the territories. During their
violent rampage, the troops detained 30 inhabitants, of whom 27
were released the next day."
Mohammed R Mhawish/Ola Al Asi/Ibrahim Mohammad: [10-23]
Inside the siege of northern Gaza, where 'death waits around every
corner': "Limbs scattered on the streets, shelters set ablaze,
hundreds trapped inside hospitals: Palestinians detail the apocalyptic
scenes of Israel's latest campaign."
Qassam Muaddi:
Jonathan Ofir: [10-28]
Israeli journalists join the live-streamed genocide: "A mainstream
Israeli journalist recently blew up a house in Lebanon as part of a
news report while embedded with the military. The broadcast shows how
mainstream genocidal activity has become in Israeli society."
Meron Rapoport:
Christiaan Triebert/Riley Mellen/Alexander
Cardia: [10-30]
Israel Demolished Hundreds of Buildings in Southern Lebanon, Videos
and Satellite Images Show: "At least 1,085 buildings have been
destroyed or badly damaged since Israel's invasion targeting the
Hezbollah militia, including many in controlled demolitions, a New
York Times analysis shows." Same tactics, reflecting the same
threats and intentions Israel is using on Gaza, except that you
can't even pretend to be responding to an attack like Oct. 7.
Hezbollah is being targeted simply because it exists, and Lebanon
is being targeted because Israelis make no distinction between
the "militants" they "defend" against and any other person who
lives in their vicinity. The numbers in Lebanon may not amount
to genocide yet, but that's the model that Israel is following.
Oren Ziv: [10-22]
'Copy-paste the West Bank to Gaza': Hundreds join Gaza resettlement
event: "In a closed military zone near Gaza, Israeli settlers,
ministers, and MKs called to ethnically cleanse and annex the Strip --
an idea that is growing mainstream."
America's Israel (and Israel's America):
Yaniv Cogan/Jeremy Scahill: [10-21]
The Israeli-American businessman pitching a $200 million plan to deploy
mercenaries to Gaza: "Moti Kahana says he's talking to the Israeli
government about creating a pilot program for 'gated communities'
controlled by private US security forces." By the way, the authors
also (separately) wrote:
Yaniv Cogan: [10-06]
Blinken approved policy to bomb aid trucks, Israeli cabinet members
suggest.
Jeremy Scahill/Murtaza Hussain/Sharif Abdel Kouddous: [09-18]
Israel's new campaign of "terrorism warfare" across Lebanon.
Ryan Grim/Murtaza Hussain: [10-29]
Project 2025 creators have a plan to 'dismantle' pro-Palestine
movement: "If Donald Trump wins next week, the Heritage Foundation
has prepared a roadmap for him to crush dissent."
The plan, dubbed "Project Esther," casts pro-Palestinian activists
in the U.S. as members of a global conspiracy aligned with designated
terrorist organizations. As part of a so-called "Hamas Support Network,"
these protesters receive "indispensable support of a vast network of
activists and funders with a much more ambitious, insidious goal --
the destruction of capitalism and democracy," Project Esther's authors
allege.
This conspiratorial framing is part of a legal strategy to suppress
speech favorable to Palestinians or critical of the U.S.-Israel
relationship, by employing counterterrorism laws to suppress what
would otherwise be protected speech . . .
To achieve its goals, Project Esther proposes the use of
counterterrorism and hate speech laws, as well as immigration
measures, including the deportation of students and other
individuals in the United States on foreign visas for taking part
in pro-Palestinian activities. It also advocates deploying the
Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law placing disclosure obligations
on parties representing foreign interests, against organizations that
the report's authors imply are funded and directed from abroad.
In addition, the document also suggests using the Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, to help construct
prosecutions against individuals and organizations in the movement.
The RICO act was originally created to fight organized crime in the
U.S., and particularly mafia groups.
It occurs to me that the same laws and tactics could be used to
counter Israeli political influence -- that that anyone would try
that -- and that the audit trail would be much more interesting.
Adrian Filut: [10-24]
From Iron Dome to F-15s: US provides 70% of Israel's war costs.
Tariq Kenney-Shawa: [10-29]
Why the Democrats were Israel's perfect partners in genocide:
"By masking support for Israel with hollow humanitarian gestures
and empathy for Palestinians have diluted pressure to end the war."
Akela Lacy: [10-24]
How does AIPAC shape Washington? We tracked every dollar. "The
Intercept followed AIPAC's money trail to reveal how its political
spending impacts the balance of power in Congress."
Mitchell Plitnick: [10-25]
US efforts to entice Israel into minimizing its attack on Iran are
only raising the chances for regional war: "The Biden administration
is showering Israel with military aid and support to persuade it not
to hit Iran's energy sector, but this will only increase Israeli
impunity and push the region closer to war."
Azadeh Shahshahahani/Sofía Verónica Montez: [02-26]
Complicity in genocide -- the case against the Biden administration:
"Israel's mass bombardment of civilians in Gaza is being facilitated,
aided and abetted by the United States government." Older article
I just noticed, but figured I'd note anyway. Reminds me that the
only proper response to the "genocide" charge is to stop doing it.
That at least enables the argument that you never meant the complete
annihilation of everyone, because you stopped and left some (most?)
target people still alive. Needless to say, the argument becomes less
persuasive over time, where you've repeatedly missed opportunities
to say this is enough, "we've made our point."
Richard Silverstein:
Ishaan Tharoor:
[10-25]
Is Israel carrying out de facto ethnic cleansing? "A pro-settlement
Israeli group and some Israeli lawmakers gathered a couple miles from
northern Gaza's blasted neighborhoods to rally around settling Gaza."
[10-28]
The world beyond the election: Middle East in turmoil: "Whoever
takes office in January will face a region being reshaped by an
emboldened Israel and the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia."
[10-30]
The world beyond the election: So much for democracy vs. autocracy.
The Biden framing was mostly horseshit, mostly because America has
never cared whether other countries practiced democracy, not least
because we don't do a good job of it ourselves, and are certainly
willing to throw it out the window if the polls look unfavorable.
But also I suppose it was a subtle dig at Trump, who's always been
Team Autocracy. That the ardor seems to have faded is less a change
of view than acknowledgment that it hasn't worked so well. Then
there is this line: "Biden once framed the successful defense of
Ukraine as a rejection of a world 'where might makes right.'" But
what is the US "defense" of Ukraine but an exercise in might making
right? And if that case isn't clear cut enough for you, what else
can you make of Israel?
Israel vs. world opinion:
Ahmed Alqarout: [10-29]
How Israel is trying to beat the 'axis of resistance' by dominating
the regional supply chain: "Israel has been able to insulate
itself from the effects of the economic blockade imposed by the
'Axis of Resistance' through supply chain warfare in the Middle East
and the broader region."
Michael Arria:
[10-29]
'Thousands of people will die': Gaza doctors describe impact of
Israel barring medical NGOs: "Israel has barred at least six
international medical NGOs that had been providing crucial support
to Gaza's decimated healthcare sector. Doctors in the banned groups
say the move could result in thousands of additional deaths."
[10-22]
The Shift: Poll shows Trump with slight edge among Arab American
voters: The poll was from
Arab News/YouGov. The split was 45% for Trump, 43% for Harris, and 4% for
Jill Stein. Of chose, 29% chose Gaza as their biggest issue. Both
candidates got 38% when asked "who would be better for the Middle
East," but respondents thought Trump was more likely "to successfully
resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict" (39% to 33%). A recent poll from
Arab American Institute produced similar results. For more on
recent Arab-American polling:
Many people are critics of Harris for not taking a strong stand
against Israel's genocide, but Arria relays a case where Israel's
supporters are attacking Harris for not being supportive enough:
It seems pretty clear that Harris was referring to the humanitarian
crisis in Gaza and not the student's reference to genocide, but this
didn't stop pro-Israel voices from attacking the Vice President.
"A very dangerous precedent,"
tweeted former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael
Oren. "I was disturbed to view the video in which Vice President
Kamala Harris appears to confirm the charge that Israel is committing
genocide in Gaza. This is the first time that the White House has been
linked to a libel which threatens Israel's legitimacy and security.
I call on the U.S. administration to issue an immediate and complete
denial."
Just goes to show that Israel's front-line hasbara warriors
realize that their arguments cannot withstand the admission of any
doubt or ambiguity.
[10-24]
The Shift: More campus crackdowns, DOJ lawyers call for Israel
investigation: "Since the fall semester began last month we
have seen schools implement a new round of repressive measures
to crack down on Palestine activism."
[10-29]
The Shift: Trump seeks to capitalize on voter frustration with
Harris over Gaza: "The Trump campaign is clearly taking steps
to capitalize on voters' frustration over Gaza. While Kamala Harris
was getting booed by protesters in Michigan, Trump was also in the
state making a play to Arab and Muslim voters."
[10-18]
Samidoun's coordinator speaks out on the US and Canada's targeting
of the group: Interview with Mohammed Khatib, European coordinator
for the "Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network" group, accused of
raising funds for the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine).
Ramzy Baroud: [10-25]
Israel's biblical wars of 'self defense': the myth of the 'seven
war fronts'.
Sam Biddle: [10-21]
Meta's Israel policy chief tried to suppress pro-Palestinian Instagram
posts: "Jordana Cutler, Meta's policy chief for Israel and the
Jewish Diaspora, repeatedly flagged for censorship posts by Students
for Justice in Palestine."
Shane Burley: [10-01]
US Jewish institutions are purging their staffs of anti-Zionists:
"A months-long investigation found even the smallest hints of dissent
are often met with unemployment."
Sharaiz Chaudhry: [10-26]
Generating consent for genocide: The BBC's complicity in Israel's
crimes in Palestine and Lebanon: "The BBC is deceiving the
British public and using its position to manufacture consent for
Israel's genocidal assault in Palestine and Lebanon."
Roy Eidelson: [10-23]
The American Psychological Association is abandoning its commitment
to human rights by refusing to speak out on Palestine: "The
American Psychological Association claims to 'prioritize human
rights advocacy,' but if its leaders want to truly honor that
commitment they must recognize and address the genocide of
Palestinians in Gaza today."
Melvin Goodman: [10-28]
The latest absurdities from the columnists of the New York Times:
On Thomas L Friedman and Bret Stephens.
Binoy Kampmark: [10-28]
Crippling UNRWA: The Knesset's collective punishment of Palestinians.
Ben Lorber: [09-05]
The right is increasingly exploiting the horror of genocide:
"Right-wing operatives are channeling the genocide in Gaza into
mainstream antisemitism." This was bound to happen, although it's
been slow to emerge, as most right-wing antisemites are actually
big fans of Israel, and they're not especially sensitive to human
rights abuses of any sort. [PS: On closer examination, I may have
jumped to the wrong conclusion: that right-wingers were feigning
horror at genocide to whip up antisemitic sentiments. Turns out
this is mostly about a group called NatCon, where antisemitism
claims the mantle of "Judeo-Christian nationalism" and supports
genocide to the hilt.]
Joseph Willits: [10-16]
How Starmer's Labour government has enabled Israel's genocide.
Election notes:
Charlotte Alter: [10-25]
Some Democrats believe this might be an abortion election after
all.
Aaron Blake: [10-28]
Can independent Dan Osborn win in Nebraska? And would it matter?
"A new poll adds evidence that we could see a historic result in the
Senate race, but it probably won't affect the chamber's majority."
Julia Conley: [10-29]
'This is just the traceable money': $2 billion pumped into 2024
election by billionaire families.
Bob Dreyfuss: [10-29]
Pennsylvania's undecideds: "The 2024 election will likely turn on
the Democrats' ground game."
John Feffer: [10-23]
Billionaires vs democracy: "The rich are trying to buy elections
all over the world and consign democracy to the trash bin of history."
Sarah Jones: [10-29]
How did this become a gender-gap election: "Trump vs. Harris brings
America's gendered political preferences into sharper focus."
Tony Karon: [10-23]
Voting in a time of genocide.
Celinda Lake/Amanda Iovino: [10-30]
A Democratic and a Republican pollster agree: This is the fault line
that decides the election: Teases you with the "gender gap," the
chart showing Trump +8 with men, Harris +9 with women (gap of 17
points), then offers you the 29-point gap by education, which shows
Trump +10 for non-college, Harris +19 for college. Of course, both
factors compound with a 43-point gap between non-college men (Trump +16)
and college women (Harris +27), but non-college women still prefer
Trump (+4) while college men go with Harris (+7).
Nicole Narea: [10-27]
What if Jill Stein or RFK Jr. decides the election? That you
could even ask such a question shows that you understand nothing
about third-party candidates, or at least their voters. Anyone
who thinks that there is meaningful difference between the two
major party candidates will vote for one or the other. Those who
don't may register that opinion by voting for someone else, or
they may just skip the whole process -- third-party voters are
preferable, because at least they're showing respect for the
process, just not for the two parties and their candidates.
Stein and Kennedy decided to throw their names into the hat,
but that's about it. Perhaps they made that decision hoping
to spoil the election -- that's certainly the only message
popular media has any interest in examining. But the voters'
decisions are purely negative. Neither party has the right to
claim third-party votes as rightfully theirs, because those
votes were clear rejections of both parties.
I've made what I felt was a
pretty strong case that the two-party split really matters
this year, and that one should vote for Harris vs. Trump. But
the first commenter I got back disagreed and reiterated his
decision to vote for Stein. I respect that.
John Quiggin: [10-28]
The end of US democracy: a flowchart: Go to the article for
the chart, but each node has an assigned probability, which of
course is just a wild guess, but this allows the possibility of
adding them up:
If the US were remotely normal, every entry on the left-hand edge
ought to be equal to 1. Harris should be a sure winner, Trump shouldn't
find any supporters for a coup, the MAGA Republicans in Congress should
be unelectable and the moderate program proposed by Harris should be
successful enough that Trumpism would be defeated forever.
But that's not the case. There are two end points in which US
democracy survives, with a total probability (excessively precise)
of 0.46, and one where it ends, with a probability of 0.54. By
replacing my probabilities at the decision nodes with your own,
you can come up with your own numbers. Or you may feel that I've
missed crucial pathways. . . .
Note: Any Thälmann-style comments (such as "After Trump, us"
or "Dems are social fascists anyway") will be blocked and deleted.
The key here is "remotely normal, so that's the part you still
have to puzzle out, and that's where the real problems and solutions
lie.
Catherine Rampell/Youyou Zhou: [10-22]
Voters prefer Harris's agenda to Trump's -- they just don't realize
it. Take our quiz." I hate these pieces, not least because they
deliberately try to screw you over with misleading questions, but
since I'm citing it, I figure I might as well score myself. The
verdict was: "you supported 1 of Trump's policies and 4 of Harris's
policies." The one "Trump proposal" I supported was: "Funding free
online classes with money taken from private university endowments
through taxes, fines, and lawsuits." I can see why Harris wouldn't
have proposed that. I'm not wild about the funding mechanism, but
private university endowments are a huge tax shelter that doesn't
offer much public interest value, so I could see taxing them down.
On the other hand, "free online classes" is a no-brainer. I think
that continuing adult education is drastically underserved in
America, and online classes would be a particularly cost-effective
way of helping out. (I also favor free in-person classes, and I
would fund it all from general funds, but I wasn't asked that.)
The only thing that distinguishes this as a "Trump proposal" is
that it's a bit harebrained. It's also a proposal that Trump will
never lift a finger to implement, nor could he pass through his
caucus.
Eugene Robinson:
The double standard for Harris and Trump has reached a breaking
point: "One candidate can rant about gibberish while the other
has to be perfect."
Shaghayegh Chris Rostampour: [10-14]
Why aren't Harris and Trump talking about nuclear weapons?
"The threat is real and at times the call is coming from inside
our own house." This doesn't really belong under "election,"
because, as noted, it's not something being contested, or even
given much thought.
David Sirota:
How the 2024 election is normalizing corruption.
David Wallace-Wells: [10-30]
The election looks li ke an intramural squabble between billionaires:
That, of course, is what you get when you reduce politics to a game
of raising unlimited money.
Endorsements:
Wajahat Ali: [10-29]
Yes, I think Democrats are complicit in genocide. But Trump would be
far worse: "There is simply no moral argument for allowing the
former president to win in the name of opposing genocide."
Donald Trump will be genocidal and a fascist. On Gaza, Trump
promised he would
let Israel "finish the job." That means fulfilling
his mega-donor Miriam Adelson's wish of annexing the West Bank
and standing pat as Israel
moves to occupy northern Gaza on the graveyard of Palestinians.
There's a reason why Israel's extremist national security minister,
Itamar Ben-Gvir, wants Trump to win and
says he will be better for Israel. . . .
With Harris and Democrats, there is an opening for Americans to
organize, push, and pressure her administration to halt Israel's
genocide and pursue progressive healthcare and economic policies.
Democratic allies include Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
labor organizations and communities of color who remain committed
to social justice, equity and peace. With the Republicans and Trump,
no such allies exist. There's simply a fascist and a white Christian
nationalist regime in waiting.
Matt Bai: [10-30]
George W Bush is running out of time: "He should take this
chance to get right with history, because history will certainly
be hard on him." I've long suspected that Bush had a streak of
plain human decency that he managed to suppress during his eight
years as president. He ended that streak in disgrace, which come
to think of it, is also how he started it, with many even worse
moments along the way. But at least he hasn't compounded that
disgrace, as most other ex-presidents have done. His withdrawal
and silence is really all the recognition we need (or can hope
for) that he is at least somewhat cognizant of his failures.
Doing anything else at this point would only compromise his
last shred of dignity.
By the way, it's easy enough to see Dick Cheney's endorsement
as nothing more than a favor to his daughter, who might still
hope to continue her political career -- not as a candidate but
in some other capacity -- by endearing herself to Harris. While
Cheney is the most certifiably evil character in recent American
politics, he's always had a soft spot for the women in his life.
Ben Burgis: [10-25]
There's no pride in a Dick Cheney endorsement.
Jackie Calmes: [10-20]
Top 10 reasons not to vote for Donald Trump: Plus: "Finally, the
bonus, a positive reason to vote Harris. She's not only among the
most experienced applicants for the job ever, but also: She's not
Trump."
The Guardian: [10-25]
The Guardian view on the US election and foreign policy: the world
can't afford Trump again.
William Lewis: [10-25]
On political endorsement: The Washington Post, presumably as
directed by billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, declined to endorse any
presidential candidate this year, breaking with a practice that
they've followed since 1976, even after it's been reported that
they had a Harris endorsement ready to go. The publisher tries to
explain this decision here. I'm not terribly bothered by this,
probably because I deeply distrust the big money media anyway,
especially their pretensions of independence. The Post, like the
New York Times, goes out of their way to "balance" their proper
news reporting -- never free from their own deep seated biases --
with right-wing "opinion" writers. However, many readers recognize
Trump as not just a political opportunist but as such a perversely
malign presence that they think he merits more rigorous scrutiny:
that every mention that does not put his statements in historical
context runs the risk of sanitizing and legitimizing ideas that
most people upon reflection should find truly appalling. So this
particular non-endorsement has elicited an interesting set of
reactions, starting with economic sanctions:
J Michael Luttig: [10-29]
My fellow Republicans, it's time to say enough with Trump.
Also cites his
previous endorsement from August.
Phil Mattingly: [10-23]
23 Nobel Prize-winning economists call Harris' economic plan 'vastly
superior' to Trump's.
The New Yorker:
Harris for President: "The Vice-President has displayed the basic
values and political skills that would enable her to help end, once
and for all, a poisonous era defined by Donald Trump."
Hamilton Nolan: [09-20]
The weird and stupid Teamsters non-endorsement fiasco: "Refusing
to endorse a presidential candidate will do nothing to stop Trump
and the GOP's war on workers."
The Observer: [10-26]
Americans who believe in democracy have no choice but to vote for
Harris
Edith Olmsted: [10-25]
"Extreme danger": Harris earns a stunning endorsement over Trump:
"Kamala Harris has earned an eleventh-hour show of support from
Palestinian,Arab, and Muslim community leaders." I cite their
statement down in the "chatter" section.
Rick Perlstein: [10-23]
Science is political: "For only the second time in its 179-year
history, Scientific American has endorsed a candidate for
president: Kamala Harris.
April Rubin:
Bernie Sanders: [10-30]
How can I vote for Kamala Harris if she supports Israel's war? Here's
my answer: "Trump says Netanyahu is doing a good job and Biden is
holding him back. Even on this issue, Trump is worse."
Catherine Shoard: [10-30]
Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Kamala Harris: 'I will always be an
American before I am a Republican': "The former Republican governor
said that he was backing the Democrat because a Trump victory would
mean 'four more years of bullshit.'"
Bret Stephens: [10-29]
A conservative case against Trump: This one gives me no comfort.
He's in the running for worst right-wing pundit in America, and
much of his rationale centers on his understanding that Trump is
less reliable than Harris when it comes to supporting war and
genocide: among other things, he worries that "allow Putin to
succeed in Ukraine, and Israel's threats from Russia's allies
in Iran, Syria and Yemen will multiply."
Wikipedia: I ran this last week, but the lists keep
growing:
Trump:
Trump's Madison Square Garden spectacle:
Zack Beauchamp: [10-31]
Inside Trump's ominous plan to turn civil rights law against vulnerable
Americans. Late-breaking but important article.
Jasper Craven:
Trump's cronies threw the VA into chaos. Millions of veterans' lives
are on the line again.
David French: [10-27]
Four lessons from nine years of being 'Never Trump': His
section heads:
- Community is more powerful than ideology.
- We don't know our true values until they're tested.
- Hatred is the prime motivating force in our politics.
- Finally, trust is tribal.
Susan B Glasser: [10-18]
How Republican billionaires learned to love Trump again: "The
former President has been fighting to win back his wealthiest donors,
while actively courting new ones -- what do they expect to get in
return?"
Trump's effort to win back wealthy donors received its biggest boost
on the evening of May 30th, when he was convicted in Manhattan on
thirty-four criminal counts related to his efforts to conceal
hush-money payments to the former adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.
After the verdict, Trump walked out to the cameras in the courthouse
and denounced the case brought against him as "rigged" and a "disgrace."
Then he departed in a motorcade of black Suburbans. He was headed
uptown for an exclusive fund-raising dinner, at the Fifth Avenue
apartment of the Florida sugar magnate José (Pepe) Fanjul. . . .
Trump was seated at the head table, between Fanjul -- a major
Republican donor going back to the early nineties -- and Stephen
Schwarzman, the C.E.O. of Blackstone, the world's largest private-equity
fund, who had endorsed Trump the previous Friday. Securing the support
of Schwarzman was a coup for the Trump campaign. . . .
Trump was fund-raising off his conviction with small-dollar donors
as well; his campaign, which portrayed him as the victim of a
politicized justice system, brought in nearly $53 million in the
twenty-four hours after the verdict. Several megadonors who had
held back from endorsing Trump announced that they were now
supporting him, including Miriam Adelson, the widow of the late
casino mogul Sheldon Adelson; the Silicon Valley investor David
Sacks, who said that the case against Trump was a sign of America
turning into a "Banana Republic"; and the venture capitalist Shaun
Maguire, who, less than an hour after the verdict, posted on X that
he was donating $300,000 to Trump, calling the prosecution a
"radicalizing experience." A day later, Timothy Mellon, the
banking-family scion, wrote a $50-million check to the Make
America Great Again super PAC.
Many more names and dollar amounts follow.
Margaret Hartmann: [10-29]
Melania Trump plays normal political wife for one week only:
"From appearing at Donald Trump's racist MSG rally to insisting
he's 'not Hitler' on Fox News, Melania is now conspicuously
present."
Doug Henwood: [10-30]
Trumponomics: "What kind of economic policy could we expect
from a second Trump term?" A fairly obvious assignment for one of
our more available left-wing economists, but he comes up with
surprisingly little here, beyond income tax cuts and tariffs --
much-advertised themes that are unlikely to amount to very much.
I suspect this is mostly because, despite the obvious importance
of the economy, there isn't much of a partisan divide on how to
run it. Trump would be harder on workers (especially on unions),
and softer on polluters and all manner of frauds, but those are
just relative shifts of focus. He would also shift public spending
away from things that might be useful, like infrastructure, to
"defense," including his "beautiful wall."
Michael Isikoff: [10-28]
Trump campaign worker blows whistle on 'grift' and bugging plot:
"A bombshell email claims millions were funneled from campaign to
'overcharging' firms -- and some went to a top Kamala Harris donor."
Robert Kuttner: [10-30]
Why so much hate? "Trump has tapped into an undercurrent of crude
hatred and encouraged his supporters to express it. Where does all
this hate come from?"
Steven Levitsky/Daniel Ziblatt: []
There are four anti-Trump pathways we failed to take. There is a
fifth. Authors of two books that have many liberal fans --
How Democracies Die (2018), and Tyranny of the Minority:
Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point (2023) --
but never struck me as worth investigating, partly because their
interest in democracy seems more concerned with formal elegance
than with making government serve the people. The fifth path,
when various legal schemes fail, is "societal mobilization" --
isn't that what we used to call "revolution"? The authors have
written several "guest essays" over the years, including:
Nick Licata: [10-29]
Trump's playbook to win regardless of election night results.
Nicholas Liu: [10-30]
RFK Jr. claims Trump promised him "control" of CDC and federal health
care agencies.
Amanda Marcotte:
Nicole Narea: [10-29]
Would Trump's mass deportation plan actually work? "Here's what
history tells us." Related here:
The New Republic: [10-21]
The 100 worst things Trump has done since descending that escalator:
"Some were just embarrassing. Many were horrific. All of them should
disqualify him from another four years in the White House."
Timothy Noah:
Paige Oamek: [10-15]
Trump's campaign manager has raked in an insane amount of money:
"How in the world did Chris LaCivita make this much money from a
campaign?"
Rick Perlstein: [10-30]
What will you do? "Life-changing choices we may be forced to make
if Donald Trump wins."
Molly Redden/Andy Kroll/Nick Surgey: [10-29]
Inside a key MAGA leader's plans for a new Trump agenda: "Key
Trump adviser says a Trump administration will seek to make civil
servants miserable in their jobs." Spotlight here on Russell Vought,
"former acting director of the Office of Management and Budget."
Also on Vought:
James Risen:
[10-25]
Mainstream media was afraid to compare Trump to Hitler. Now the press
has no excuse. "Statements by John Kelly, Trump's former chief of
staff, have made it nearly impossible for the media to avoid Hitler
comparisons." Kelly's comments did pop up among the late show comics,
but I wouldn't expect much more.
[10-22]
Americans need a closing argument against Trump: "Too many Americans
seem to be ignoring the risks that another Trump presidency would pose
to the US. This is a warning to them." Included here because the author
casually mentions: "Trump is a fascist who wants to overthrow the United
States' democratic system of government." That's under the first section
here, which is just one of several:
- Threat to democracy
- Imprison political opponents
- Eliminate reproductive rights
- Concentration camps and mass deportations for immigrants
- Create a theocracy
- Increase censorship and destroy the media
- A puppet for Putin
- Dictator for life
Actually, I don't see many of these things happening, even if
Republicans take Congress, and the last two are total canards.
No one aspires to be a puppet, but aside from that, the rest are
at least things Trump might think of and wish for. What separates
Trump from the classic fascists has less to do with thought and
desire than with checks and balances that make it hard for any
president to get much of anything done. Still, a bad president
can do a lot of damage, and any would-be fascist is certain to
be a very bad president. As Trump has already proven, so we
really shouldn't have to relitigate this.
[10-03]
The reason Netanyahu and Putin both want a Trump victory:
"Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu both want Donald Trump to
win so they can prolong and intensify their brutal wars."
Asawin Suebsaeng/Tim Dickinson:
'American death squads': Inside Trump's push to make police more
violent.
Sean Wilentz:
Trump's plot against America: "A leading historian looks back
at Philip Roth's novel and how it perfectly predicts the rise of
Trump and his willing collaborators."
No More Mr. Nice Blog:
[10-28]
It's world-historical fascism, but it's also ordinary white-guy
bigotry.
Did yesterday's rally seem like the work of an organized, dangerous
fascist party? Yes -- but the rally's rhetoric also seemed like
ordinary casual conversation among bigoted white men when they
think no one can hear them. Remember the cops who beat Rodney King
in 1991 and sent messages to one another describing Black citizens
involved in a domestic dispute as being "right out of 'Gorillas in
the Mist'"? Remember the police official responsible for investigating
workplace harassment in New York City being fired in 2021 after it
was revealed that he'd written racist posts in a police discussion
group called the Rant? . . .
This is how bigoted men talk. Among cops, it reinforces a sense
of grievance that often leads to brutality. It'll do the same thing
among Trumpers if they win -- and, to a lesser extent, if they lose.
This is a rising fascist movement, but it's built on ordinary
hatreds that aren't new and that predate Trump's political career.
[10-24]
Fascism and other matters.
[20-21]
Donald Trump, relatable fuckup?
I think young men find Trump's campaign-trail lapses relatable.
It's not just that they might really believe Haitians in America are
eating people's pets, or might enjoy Trump's smutty anecdotes. I think
they also might notice that Trump is being accused of campaign
incompetence or dementia -- and that endears him more to
them.
After all, many of them were diagnosed with ADHD because they
couldn't sit still in school or stop disrupting class. They might
not like Trump's taste in music, but they can relate to someone who
shows up and just doesn't feel like doing the work.
They appreciate the way Trump suggests that he not only can solve
all the world's problems, but can do it quickly and easily -- he
conveys a sense that he can succeed at many things without doing
any hard work. That's what they want to do!Why are young men attending college at lower rates than young
women? Aren't they attending the same schools as their sisters?
Being good in school has always been seen as weird and unmanly by
most Americans, and I think that mindset is having a greater and
greater impact on young men's choices. Boys with good grades are
seen as weird losers and not very masculine -- they're like girls,
who are allowed to be good in school. It's much cooler to be an
amusing fuckup.
When we express horror at Trump's latest baffling act on the
campaign trail, I think we sound, to these young men, like annoyingly
responsible scolds. Obviously, they like Trump's offensive humor
because they like offending people, but they also relate to Trump's
refusal to restrain his speech because trying to avoid giving offense
to people is hard work. It's almost like schoolwork, and the
same people are good at it, for the same reasons -- because they're
grade-grubbing goody-goodies who seem to like spoiling everyone
else's fun.
[10-29]
No, Trump is still not "a spent and exhausted force": Disputes
the Jamelle Bouie piece I cited above.
[10-30]
A war at home is still a war, guys:
This is a reminder of one reason Donald Trump is winning over some
young men, apart from the bro-ishness and misogyny of his campaign:
Trump and his surrogates have young men convinced that a vote for
Harris is a vote for war. Trump regularly says that a Harris
presidency will lead to World War III, while he'll instantly,
magically, and single-handedly end all the major wars taking place
right now and prevent future wars by means of a slogan, "Peace
Through Strength." Harris, regrettably, has welcomed the support
not only of Liz Cheney (who has stood up for the rule of law in
recent years) but also of her father, whom nobody admires these
days and who was unquestionably a warmonger.
Seth Meyers: [10-31]
A Closer Look: Trump's embarrassing garbage stunt might be his
most surreal photo op ever.
Vance, and other Republicans:
Harris:
James Carville: [10-23]
Three reasons I'm certain Kamala Harris will win: Spoken like
the hack-consultant he's always been:
- Trump is a repeat electoral loser. This time will be no different.
- Money matters, and Harris has it in droves.
- It's just a feeling.
His feeling?
For the past decade, Trump has infected American life with a
malignant political sickness, one that would have wiped out many
other global democracies. On Jan. 6, 2021, our democracy itself
nearly succumbed to it. But Trump has stated clearly that this
will be the last time he runs for president. That is exactly why
we should be exhilarated by what comes next: Trump is a loser;
he is going to lose again. And it is highly likely that there
will be no other who can carry the MAGA mantle in his wake --
certainly not his running mate.
Lydie Lake: [10-30]
Harris's final push before election day: "Kamala Harris delivered
her closing argument in a charged pre-election rally near the White
House."
Colleen Long/Darlene Superville/Nadia Lathan: [10-25]
Beyoncé and Kamala Harris team up for Houston rally. One big
thing they talked about was abortion, including how in Texas "the
infant death rate has increased, more babies have died of birth
defects and maternal mortality has risen.
Chris Megerian/Colleen Long/Steve Karnowski: [10-17]
Following death of Hamas leader, Harris says it's 'time for the
day after to begin' in Gaza. If by "day after" you mean the
day after the killing ends, that's been overdue since Oct. 8,
2023 (and really many years before), but the statement would
seem to reject the idea that the war has to go on until there
are no Palestiniains left to kill, which seems to be Netanyahu's
agenda.
Christian Paz: [10-24]
How "Trump is a fascist" became Kamala's closing argument:
"Brat summer is over; 'Trump is a fascist' fall is in." I chased this
piece down after Nathan J Robinson
tweeted:
One of the main mistakes Hillary Clinton made was making her central
message "Trump is bad" without offering a positive case for why she
would be a good president. The error is being repeated.
A quick search reveals more complaints about this as a strategy,
along with much consternation that Harris is blowing the campaign,
possibly letting Trump win. I get that the "Trump is a fascist" jab
is suddenly fashionable thanks to the Kelly quote, although it's
been commonplace for years among people who know much about the
history of fascism, and are willing to define it broadly enough
that a 78-year-old American might qualify. I'd say that Trump is
a bit more complicated and peculiar than simply being a generic
fascist, although sure, if you formulated a generic F-scale, he
would pass as a fascist, and it wouldn't be a close call. But I
have two worries here: one is that most Americans don't know or
care much about fascism -- other than that it's a generic slur,
which judging from his use of the word (e.g., to slam "radical
leftists") seems to be his understanding; the other is that there
are lots of other adjectives and epithets that get more surely
and much quicker to the point of why Trump is bad: even fancy
words like sociopath, narcissist, oligarch, and misanthrope work
better; as well as more common ones like racist, sexist, elitist,
demagogue; you could point out that he's both a blowhard and a
buffoon; or you could settle for something a bit more colorful,
like "flaming asshole." Or rather than just using labels/names,
you could expand on how he talks and acts, about his scams and
delusions -- sorry if I haven't mentioned lies before, but they
come in so many flavors and variations you could do a whole
taxonomy, like the
list of fallacies (many of which he exemplifies -- at least
the ones that don't demand much logic).
As for Robinson's complaint, I think that's typical of left
intellectuals, who've spent all their lives trying to win people
over on issues. Politicians have to be more practical, especially
because they have to win majorities, while all activists can hope
for are incremental gains. Harris has a lot of planks in her
platform, and if you're seriously interested in policy, there's
a lot to talk about there (and not all good, even if, like most
leftists, you're willing to settle for small increments). But to
win an election, she needs to focus on the elements that can get
her majority support.
And the one key thing that should put her over the top is that
he's Donald Trump, and she isn't: that the only chance we voters
have of getting rid of Trump is to vote for her. To do this, she
needs to focus relentlessly on his negatives. She doesn't need to
toot her own horn much, as every negative she exposes him for is
an implicit contrast: to say "Trump is a fascist" implies that "I
am not." That may not be saying much, but it's something, and it
should be enough. And Robinson, at least, should know better. I
find it hard -- I mean, he's just co-authored
a book with Noam Chomsky -- seriously expects any Democrat to
offer "a positive case for why she would be a good president."
All any voter can do is pick one item from a limited, pre-arranged
menu. Sometimes you do get a chance to vote for someone you really
like or at least respect, but quite often the best you can do is
to vote against the candidate you most despise.
That choice seems awfully clear to me this year. Unfortunately,
it appears that many people are still confused and/or misguided.
At this point, I don't see any value in second-guessing the Harris
campaign. I have no reason to think they don't want to win this as
badly as I want them to win. They have lots of money, lots of
research, and lots of organization. They think they're doing the
right things, and I hope and pray they're right. It's endgame now,
so let them run their last plays. And if they do lose, that will
be the time to be merciless in your criticism. (That'll be about
the only fun you'll have in the next four years. By the way, if
you want a head start, check out
this book.)
[08-08]
"Trump is weird" will only get Kamala Harris so far: This is an
older article by Paz, kicking off the "voters want to hear from Harris
about Harris, not Trump or Biden" mantra.
Brian Bennett: [10-25]
Why Harris' closing argument is focused more on Trump than her.
Sidney Blumenthal: [10-28]
We are witnessing the making of a fascist president in real time.
Anand Giridharadas: [10-23]
Real men reject fascism: "A note on Harris's closing argument."
Susan B Glasser: [10-24]
Donald Trump and the F-word: "Kamala Harris embraces the 'fascist'
label for the ex-President, without any certainty that it will disquality
him."
Dylan Matthews: [10-23]
Is Trump a fascist? 8 experts weigh in. "Call him a kleptocrat,
an oligarch, a xenophobe, a racist, even an authoritarian. But he
doesn't quite fit the definition of a fascist." Had the head writer
read the article, they would have seen that it all depends on the
definition, and here 8 "experts" are all over the map, although they
all pretty much agree that Trump is an awful person and a dangerous
politician who is up to no good. Unless you're writing a comparative
historical analysis of right-wing political movements, that should
be understanding enough to vote against him.
Jan-Werner Müller: [10-29]
No, Trump is not a fascist. But that doesn't make him any less
dangerous.
Robert Reich: [10-21]
Trump's closing argument: full-throated fascism.
Alex Shephard: [10-25]
This is what's missing from the fascism argument against Trump:
"Yes, of course he's a threat to American democracy. But voters need
to know how it affects them."
Michael Tomasky: [10-25]
The best reason for calling Donald Trump a fascist? Easy: He is.
"The famous 'closing argument' should be multipronged. But the f-word
must be prominent in the mix."
Jonathan Weisman: [10-17]
Harris and Democrats lose their reluctance to call Trump a fascist:
"Since Gen. Mark Milley was quoted as saying Donald Trump is 'fascist
to the core,' a term avoided by top members of the Democratic Party is
suddenly everywhere." For me, the word "fascist" packs a lot of info in
a small package. For others, that info may be undecipherable, in which
case the charge rings hollow, or perhaps just scatalogical. But obviously
you don't get to be a general without studying a bit into WWII, which
is where Milley and Kelly are coming from.
Marc A Thiessen: [10-24]
Harris's closing argument is dishonest, desperate and hypocritical:
"Trump isn't a fascist, and he didn't say he would use the military
against his political opponents." But still not nearly as "dishonest,
desperate and hypocritical" as this (or pretty much any) Thiessen
column. Here's just one example:
Jennifer Rubin: [10-27]
To understand the US economic success is to love Harris's plan:
"Kamala Harris's economic proposals would build on the remarkable US
comeback since the pandemic."
Walz, Biden, and other Democrats:
Aaron Blake: [10-30]
Did Biden call Trump supporters 'garbage'? It comes down to an
apostrophe. "Republicans have long strained for a new Hillary
Clinton-"deplorables" moment, but Biden's defense is entirely
plausible." It mostly comes down to "who gives a fuck." I'm not
in favor of epithets applied to broad swathes of people, but
anyone offended by this is awfully thin-skinned.
Joseph Bullington: [08-19]
Republicans will weaponize rural suffering as long as Democrats
ignore it: "JD Vance is a poser, but he's telling a dangerously
compelling story about rural America that Democrats are doing
nothing to defuse."
Adam Johnson: [07-12]
The best counter to Project 2025 is a Progressive Project 2025:
"If President Biden -- or any Democratic replacement -- wants to get
back in the race, they need a positive moral vision to run on, not
just dire warnings." Obviously, the subhed is dated, and even if
true (which it probably isn't), it's too late to affect the 2024
election. I'm not opposed to articulating "a positive moral vision" --
after Gaza, I'd even welcome a negative one, like "not that" -- but
naming it "2025" implies you're seeking to power to implement big
changes almost immediately, and that is neither realistic nor a
very conducive vibe.
Nicholas Lemann: [10-28]
Bidenomics is starting to transform America. Why has no one
noticed?
Branko Marcetic: [10-23]
The US isn't moving right -- the Democrats are.
Li Zhou: [10-26]
Michelle Obama made the case for abortion rights in a way Joe Biden
never could: "In a searing speech, Obama laid out exactly what's
at stake."
Supreme Court, legal matters, and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Business, labor, and Economists:
Dean Baker:
Paul Krugman:
Ukraine and Russia:
Elsewhere in the world and/or/in spite of America's empire:
Other stories:
Ross Rosenfeld: [10-30]
How America's craven plutocrats busted the myth of the business
hero: "The members of the billionaire executive class have billed
themselves as great men of history beyond scrutiny and reproach. his
is the year that shattered that illusion." Sorry to break this, but
that illusion has been pretty thoroughly debunked at least since Ida
B. Wells. And while I appreciate the occasional Harris supporter in
their ranks, she isn't really that much of a reach: arguably she'll
do better by them than their culturally simpatico golf cheat buddy.
Jeffrey St Clair: [10-25]
Roaming Charges: Antic dispositions: Some tidbits:
More than half of Trump's supporters don't believe he'll
actually do many of the things he claims he'll do (mass deportations,
siccing the military on domestic protesters and political rivals),
while more than half of Harris's supporters hope she'll implement
many of the policies (end the genocide/single-payer) she claims she
won't. And that pretty much sums up this election.
Barnett R. Rubin, former US diplomat: "Why do people keep saying
that US politics is polarized? Look at the big picture. Genocide
enjoys broad bipartisan support."
Fox News' Brian Kilmeade defended Trump's statement that
he wants the "kind of generals that Hitler had." Kilmeade: "I can
absolutely see him go, it'd be great to have German generals that
actually do what we ask them to do, maybe not fully being cognizant
of the third rail of German generals who were Nazis or whatever."
Kilmeade and Trump may not be "cognizant" of the fact that several
"German generals" (von Stauffenberg, Friedrich Olbricht, and Ludwig
Beck) tried to blow Hitler to bits and Germany's most famous General,
Rommel, was forced to kill himself after being implicated in the
plot.
Hours after the Washington Post announced its decision not
to endorse [Kamala Harris, directed by Post owner Jeff Bezos], the
Associated Press reported that Donald Trump met with executives
from Blue Origin, the space company owned by Bezos that has a $3.4
billion NASA contract to build a spacecraft to take astronauts to
the moon and back.
Eugene Debs: "I'd rather vote for something I want and don't
get it, than vote for something I don't want and get it."
Trump: "I worked a shift at McDonalds yesterday." A McDonalds
shift is eight hours, not 18 minutes . . . Dukakis in a tank looked
less ridiculous.
Sounds familiar . . . [followed by a tweet which reads: "In
1938, Benito Mussolini closed off a wheat field & did a photo
shoot showing him harvesting hay in order to portray himself as a
common working man. He was surrounded by workers who had been
vetted as loyal to the party." Includes a picture of the shirtless
Fascist with cap and aviator goggles.]
Since 2001, forest fires have shifted north and grown more
intense. According to a new study in Science, global CO2 emissions
from forest fires have increased by 60% in the last two decades.
Christian nationalist pastor
Joel Webbon called for the public execution of women who falsely
claim to have been sexually assaulted: "MeToo would end real fast . . .
All you have to do is publicly execute a few women who have lied."
Montana Senate candidate
Tim Sheehy, on why he wants to abolish the Dept. of Education:
"We formed that department so little Black girls could go to school
down South, and we could have integrated schooling. We don't need
that anymore."
Edward Luce, associate editor of the Financial Times: "Hard to
overstate what a sinister figure Elon Musk is. Never seen one oligarch
in a Western democracy intervene on anything like this scale with
unending Goebbels-grade lies." Musk is the most obnoxious kid in
middle school who is running the campaign of the school bully for
student council without even being asked because even the school
bully doesn't want to be around him . . .
Obituaries
Barbara Dane: She started as a folksinger,
and I heartily recommend her Anthology of American Folk Songs
(1959), better than her memorably titled 1973 album, I Hate the
Capitalist System, but she also recorded albums with Earl 'Fatha'
Hines, Lightnin' Hopkins, and the Chambers Brothers, and I liked
her 2016 jazz album Throw It Away enough for an A-.
Fethullah Gulen:
Phil Lesh:
Lewis Sorley:
Lewis Sorley, 90, who said the US won (but then lost) in Vietnam,
dies: [10-30] Military historian. I've always hated the very idea of his
book, A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of
America's Last Years in Vietnam, where he claimed that America
could have and should have won the war in Vietnam, but was sabotaged
by the peace movement, a fickle media, and weak-willed politicians.
In Sorley's worldview, the war should have gone on forever.
Also:
-
Claire Daly, master of the baritone saxophone, dies at 66.
-
Teri Garr, comic actress in offbeat roles, is dead at 79.
-
Gary Indiana, acerbic cultural critic and novelist, dies at 74.
-
Rudy May, a stingy master of the curveball, dies at 80.
-
Fernando Valenzuela, pitcher whose screwballs eluded batters, dies
at 63.
Books
Music (and other arts?)
Rick Lopez: [10-24]
Update.01 to The Sam Rivers Sessionography: A Work in Progress:
Fulfilling his subtitle, with a very substantial addition, on top of
a "magnificent" and "gorgeous" (to quote my own blurb) 764-page book
that already seemed definitive. By the way, those words were written
in advance of this "press release" quoted on page 3:
Michael Hull's Fifth Column Films has begun work on a feature-length
documentary about Sam Rivers through the lens of The Sam Rivers
Sessionography, a book by Rick Lopez. Rivers was a musical genius
who spent his life obsessed with creating intricate compositions that
pushed music to places no one else could conceive of. It's only fitting
that his biographer has invented an entirely new way to understand the
life of an artist through a minutely detailed portrait that could only
flower from the uniquely focused mind of Lopez. Rivers was a massive
talent who has been mostly forgotten by the American jazz scene and is
rarely included in the conversation about great masters of the art.
Lopez's book and this film aim to correct that oversight, and make the
case that Sam Rivers should take his place in the pantheon of the 20th
century.
Full disclosure: Michael Hull is my nephew. He started in Jason
Bailey's Wichita-based film crew (e.g.,
My Day in the
Barrel), produced a film
Smokers
no one has heard of, wrote a novel that hasn't been published and,
most relevant here, made the superb documentary
Betrayal at Attica. I've admired Lopez since I first
discovered him twenty-some years ago, so the idea of introducing
him and Mike was blindingly obvious. (I was also the person who
introduced Mike and Liz Fink, although the gestation period on
that project took much longer.) We have some money invested in
this project, which you can take as a caveat if you wish, but I
regard more as a vote of confidence. Still some ways to go, but
here's a preliminary
trailer and more information.
John McWhorter: [10-24]
It sounded like dancing, drinking and sex. It blew people's minds.
I only noticed this piece on "the long, syncopated journey from Scott
Joplin to Beyoncé" because Allen Lowe
complained about it: "his views of ragime are just bizarre and
beneath even the most minimal amount of knowledge, full of stereotypes
and really thirdhand historiography"; Phil Dyess-Nugent added: "Having
made his name writing about some things he seemed to understand, John
McWhorter has since demonstrated his cluelessness on a vast array of
subjects." That's my general impression of the few columns I've read,
especially since his ridiculous Woke Racism book. This I'm
less sure about, maybe because I don't know or chare that much about
ragtime (or, I might as well admit, Beyoncé), so I'm mostly just noting
a lot of name-dropping and connect-the-dots that favors obvious over
interesting.
Riotriot: [10-30]
Takes by the ocean: Zambian nightlife and spongian jawbox.
Chatter
Peter Daou [10-27]
QUESTION: Who is worse for Palestinians, Trump or Harris?
ANSWER: Harris is worse for Palestinians.
WHY?
- Harris and Biden are already culpable for a year-long genocide.
- Like Trump, Harris vows to keep giving Israel unconditional support.
- Therefore, Trump can never match Harris's death toll.
- Rewarding Harris's war crimes with a vote emboldens Netanyahu and
opens the floodgates for future tyrants.
- If Trump wins and Democrats suddenly decide massacring children
is wrong, Trump will face much greater resistance to letting Israel
commit atrocities.
Bottom line: Voting third party is the only moral choice, but if
liberals insist on comparing Trump to Harris, Harris is worse for
Palestinians.
I found this immediately after posting my
preliminary draft on who to vote for president and why, so I've
already explained why I disagree with Daou's conclusion so strongly.
But perhaps I should stress one very important point, which is that
voting is not a moral choice; it is a political choice. I'm not going
to write a disquisition on the difference, but will insist that it is
a category error to vote based on morality. As for Daou's five points:
- True, but the order is wrong, like saying "Speer and Hitler
are already culpable," where the clearest charge against Speer
(and Harris) is not breaking with their leader. By the way, Biden
is more like Speer than to Hitler -- in playing follow-the-leader,
but also given their critical position in the arms pipeline.
- Not false, but Harris (unlike Trump and Graham) has never said
"finish the job," and she's not unaware of the human toll Israel's
"self-defense" is taking, so I'd say that continued "unconditional
support" is slightly less likely from her. Admittedly, that's a
thin reed she has often taken pains to cover up.
- No way of predicting, but no reason to underestimate Trump's
capacity for getting people killed. His general contempt for most
of the world suggests quite the opposite.
- Clearly, massively false. Netanyahu's preference for Trump is
widely known, not only through his own words and acts but through
mutual donors like Myriam Adelson.
- Hard to know where to begin with this variation on "if the
fascists win, the revolution will hasten." Ever hear of "moral
hazard"? Sure, some Democrats may learn to blame the genocide on
Trump -- as some Democrats came to blame Nixon for Vietnam -- but
most will simply be shocked and search for scapegoats to blame,
especially "pro-Palestinians" like Daou.
Daou's conclusion that "Harris is worse for Palestinians" is
horribly wrong, even if "Harris is no good for Palestinians" may
well be true. But I wouldn't be much swayed if one could argue
that one candidate would be good or better, because I've never
looked at this conflict through that prism. I never quite bought
the argument that "Palestinians have dug their own graves," but
I did have sympathies for Israel at one point, which may be why
I still wish to emphasize that genocide is bad (and I mean really
bad) for Israel (and for America, which is implicated not just
due to recent arms support but via longstanding cultural and
political mores), and that in itself is reason enough to oppose
it. (And sure, it's even worse for the killed than the killers,
and that's another reason to oppose it, but it doesn't have to
be the only one.)
Some more comments on Daou's tweet:
Nathan J Robinson: Peter, this doesn't make sense. It
could absolutely get worse under Trump. Any pressure to provide
any aid whatsoever to Gaza will disappear. Greater pressure may
be brought on Egypt to let Israel fully ethnically cleanse Gaza.
Don't assume this is as bad as it can get.
Andrew Revkin: I sense @RudyGiuliani would disagree
with you, @peterdaou, on who's worse for Palestinians. Here's
how he explained the Trump plan at the #MSGRally tonight in
his own words.
Films For Action: When we think of Trump in power
again, we recall that even a genocide can get much worse. Trump
just said that Netanyahu must "go further" in Gaza while
criticizing Biden for "trying to hold him back." The full
statement is highly worth reading: [link to
Arizona Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Progressive Democrats
Statement on Presidential Election].
Shadowblade: Who moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem?
Jonathan Blank Films: [Link to
'Trump would be the worst': Palestinians react to US presidential
race.]
Nathan J Robinson: [12-27] [comment attached to a clip of Tucker
Carlson's MSG rally rant]
The level of uncontrolled rage is terrifying, but I think if Trump
is elected you will see it get far worse. The amount of overt racism
will increase, the view of Democrats, leftists, migrants being scum
in need of elimination. JD Vance has made clear that Pinochet is the
model.
Mehdi Hasan: [10-30] Donald Trump is going around telling Michigan
Muslims he'll end the war, be the peace president, and how pro-Muslim
(!) he is.
Meanwhile, Dems sent Bill Clinton to lecture Michigan Muslims on
how it's all Hamas's fault that Israel is massacring kids and killing
civilians holding white flags.
Whether or not they end up losing Michigan, at this point the Dems
deserve to lose Michigan. Sheesh.
Aaron Rupar: [10-31] Trump on Liz Cheney: "Let's put her with
a rifle standing there with 9 barrels shooting at her. Let's see
how she feels about it. You know, when the cuns are trained on her
face."
Local tags (these can be linked to directly):
music.
Original count: 228 links, 11718 words (15894 total)
Current count:
253 links, 12905 words (17532 total)
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Speaking of Which: Top 10 Reasons to Vote for Harris vs. Trump
Note: This piece is also cross-posted at
Notes on Everyday Life. I originally posted it there first, in
hopes of generating some preliminary discussion. If keeping them in
sync proves difficult, this one should probably be authoritative.
Two questions need to be addressed before we get down to detailed
arguments. The first is why vote at all? I'd say first, because it
is your right as a citizen, but must be secured by your exercise of
it. People in America may have a very limited say in how the country
is organized and run, but you do have the vote, and using it shows
your willingness to engage in the responsibility for setting the
nation's direction.
The second question is whether you should limit your vote choice
to the two major political parties, or consider voting for a third
party should you prefer that candidate's platform? History shows us
that America gravitated into a two-party system almost immediately
after the Constitution was ratified, and quickly returned to a two
party system on the two instances where one major party disbanded
(replacing the Federalists with the Whigs, and replacing the Whigs
with the Republicans). No subsequent third party has been able to
sustain significant followings, with third-party votes often
dropping to under 5% in recent elections.
So from a practical standpoint, third parties are ineffective
and unpromising.One might nonetheless consider voting for a third
party candidate if: neither major party nominated a candidate you
can stand, and there is no significant difference between the two
candidates that can direct your choice. I can understand if you
feel that both Trump and Harris should be shunned for their rote
support of Israeli genocide, although I suspect that even there
the nature of their positions differs enough to favor a vote for
Harris.
One other possible consideration is whether one party offers a
better chance for future improvement, based on the composition of
the party, how open-minded its members are, and how democratic its
processes are. The current two-party system is quite possibly the
most polarized ever, which has led most people to select one party
or the other. Moreover, both major parties have primaries that are
open to all members, and as such are amenable to reform. If, like
me, you are primarily concerned with "left" issues of peace and
equal rights, you may have noticed that most of the people most
likely to agree with you are currently Democrats. If your goal is
to build a majority around your ideals, you need to establish a
bond of solidarity with the Democrats, which often means voting
for a candidate you don't totally agree with. You are, after all,
hoping that other Democrats, even ones that disagree with you,
will vote for your candidate should that person win a primary.
The last third party candidate I voted for was Ralph Nader in
2000. I don't feel bad about that vote, especially as I'm convinced
that the Gore-Lieberman ticket would have been as gung-ho starting
the "war on terror" after 9/11 as Bush-Cheney was. But I did learn
one lesson from that election, which is that even in Kansas, where
the Gore campaign was practically non-existent, 90% of the anti-Bush
votes cast went to the Democrat. Since then, I vowed to work within
the Democratic Party, such as it as, as best I could. (I did lapse
once since, to vote against a particular Democrat I've hated what
seems like all of my life, but there I went with the Republican, as
I really wanted that Democrat to lose.)
Having narrowed the choice down to Harris vs. Trump, arguments
that one candidate is better and/or one candidate is worse are
equally valid. This being American politics, "one candidate is
worse" arguments predominate. Lest you imagine there might be any
suspense here, Harris is the better option, while Trump is much
the worse.
And while the future is impossible to predict, the margins
overwhelm any imaginable uncertainty. Trump is especially known,
as we've actually experienced him as President. This doesn't
mean a second term will be just like his first: it could easily
be worse, for reasons we'll get into. Harris is harder to read.
Although she has much relevant experience, presidency offers
powers and temptations that she's never faced before, as well
as situations she's never had to deal with. This raises doubts,
which I will deal with in a separate list, following the "top
ten."
So, here are my top ten reasons to vote for Harris vs. Trump:
Donald Trump is a truly odious human being.
That's a personal, not a political judgment: sure, virtually all
of his political views stink, but most of the people who share
his political views have personal traits one can relate to,
respect, even appreciate. As far as I can tell -- and while
I only know what's been reported, I've been exposed to a lot
of that -- he has none. He seems totally miserable. If he's
ever laughed, it's been at someone else's expense. He lacks
even the slightest pretense of caring for anyone, even for
his wives or children (the prenups should have been a clue).
He's not unique in this regard, but most similar people are
easily ignored. The only way to free ourselves from Trump's
ever-present unpleasantness is to vote him off (like in the
"reality TV" shows he's a creature of).
Harris, on the other hand, can listen, and respond appropriately.
She has a generous and infectious laugh. And while I've never seen
her cry, she is at least cognizant of situations that call for a
show of concern and empathy. I don't particularly like the idea of
president as "handholder-in-chief," but it's better to have someone
who can feign that than someone who utterly cannot.
Such personal failings drive most people to
despair, which at least could be pitied, but Trump's inherited
wealth has provided him with an armor of callousness, which has
long elicited the warm glow of supplicants and sycophants. From
this, he has constructed his own mental universe where he is
adored and exalted. This has produced extraordinary hubris --
another of his distasteful traits -- but more importantly, his
narcissism has left him singularly unprepared to deal with reality
when it so rudely intrudes on his fantasy life (as happens all too
often when you're President).
I should note here that the collective embarrassment we so often
felt when witnessing Trump's failed attempts at addressing events
has dulled somewhat since he left office (need I remind you of
Hurricane Maria? -- just one of dozens of examples, ranging from
his staring into the eclipse to the pandemic). The only things that
have affected him that way since have been his indictments, but even
there he's been sheltered like no one else ever. There is no reason
to think that Harris wouldn't respond to events at least as well as
a normal politician, which is to say, by showing palpable concern
and deliberation. Trump's disconnect from reality is unprecedented.
(Good place to mention his election denialism.)
There is some debate as to whether Trump's wealth
is real, but even as it seems, that should be reason enough to disqualify
him. Only a few Presidents have come from the ranks of the rich, and
those who did -- like Washington, Kennedy, and the Roosevelts -- took
pains to distance themselves from their business interests. Back in
2016, Trump suggested he would give up his business ties, insisting
that his wealth made him more independent of corrupt influences, but
after he won, he backtracked completely, and ran an administration
that was outrageously corrupt -- especially at the top, where his
son-in-law's diplomacy netted him a billion-dollar private equity
fund, but his administration hired lobbyists to peddle influence
everywhere. One might argue that Trump's business was so large that
he couldn't possibly disentangle himself, but that's just part of
the reason why people like him shouldn't be allowed in politics.
Their inability to relate to ordinary Americans is another.
Aside from his abuse of executive power to staff
government with corporate agents, pack with courts with right-wing
cronies, and pardon numerous criminals in his circle, his record
for delivering on his 2016 campaign promises is remarkably thin: he
lost interest in things that might have been popular (like building
infrastructure, or "draining the swamp"). He also lucked out, when
a couple Republican defections saved the ACA, and then when Democrats
took Congress back in 2018. The only positive bill he signed was the
pandemic relief act, which he wanted desperately to save a flagging
stock market, but had to accept a mostly Democratic bill that helped
pretty much everyone.
Also, the full impact of many policies can take years before it
is felt. The repeal of Taft-Hartley in 1947 took decades before it
started to do serious damage to unions and workers (although it had
the immediate impact of ending a campaign to unionize in the South,
which would have been a big advance for civil rights). Deregulation
of savings & loans in the 1980s and larger banks in the 1990s
took most of a decade before triggering recessions. Much of what
Trump did during his term didn't blow up until after the 2020
election, including his killing of the Iran nuclear deal, his
agreement to give Afghanistan to the Taliban, and his Supreme
Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Harris's ability to deliver on campaign promises will, as Biden's
has, depend much on the balance of power in Congress, but at least
Democrats have a track record of trying to pass laws to help most
Americans, and not just those favored by Republicans with their tax
and benefit cuts. Harris will be further hampered by the Republican
packing of the courts, but that's one reason why it matters not just
that Democrats win elections, but win big.
On the other hand, if Trump were more dedicated
in pursuit of the policy positions he espouses, or if he's just given
more power by a Republican Congress, he could (and probably would)
do much more harm in a second term, way beyond the still not fully
accounted for harm of his first. For starters, he has a much more
developed idea of what he wants to do -- not because he understands
policy any better, but because he has more specific goals in areas
that especially interest him -- and will hire more loyal operatives,
eager to carry out his wishes. This will be easier, because he's
already bent the party to his will, especially promoting its most
crazed cadres, while he himself has become further radicalized.
Moreover, he now has a long list of enemies to punish, while his
minions will be free to pursue their own grafts and obsessions.
We've already seen how he's turned the presidency into a cult of
personality. Give him more power -- not just in Congress but the
Supreme Court is ready to enshrine the "unitary executive theory" --
and he will only grow more monstrous.
Donald Trump is a shit stain on the face of America.
They say that wealth is power, and that power corrupts, absolute
power absolutely. America emerged from WWII with half of the world's
wealth, with troops spread to Europe and East Asia, and corporations
everywhere. America has been "breaking bad" ever since, starting in
the 1940s rigging elections in Italy, fighting communists in Greece
and Korea, overthrowing democratic governments in Guatemala and Iran,
replacing them with corporate-friendly autocrats. Still, even Reagan
expected good guys in white hats to win out, so he pretended to be
one, while the Bushes hid their conservatism behind fake compassion.
Trump is the first US president to give up all pretense. His fans
may mistake his contempt for candor, but the result is a much more
brutal world. He demands tribute from allies, lest they fall into
the ranks of enemies, who are expected to cower when faced with
overwhelming American might, and face escalating threats when they
refuse to fall in line. His is a recipe for neverending war, as
we've already seen with Russia and Iran, with Korea and China
waiting for the next break.
Nor are we only talking about foreign policy. The conservative
solution to domestic matters is also to rely on force, starting
with mass incarceration, eroding/stripping rights, smashing unions,
purging the civil service, quelling demonstrations, stifling free
speech, book bans, censoring the press, turning education into
indoctrination, rigging elections, even going so far as to incite
mobs and promise them immunity. While these impulses have long
been endemic to Republicans, Trump is unique in he wants you to
see and smell the feces, and that seems to be the basis for his
popularity among his hardcore constituency. This, with its embrace
of sheer power and rampant criminality, is what's so reminiscent
of the fascist movements of the 1930s.
Still, as bad as Trump is personally, the real
danger is that his election will bring a tidal wave of Republicans
into power all throughout the federal and local governments they
have pledged to debilitate and reduce, as Grover Norquist put it,
"to the size where I can drown it in the bathtub." (The less often
discussed ancillary idea is to hack off functions done by government
and give them away to the private sector. This almost never works.
When attempted, it almost always makes the functions more expensive
and/or less useful.) This is just one of
many deranged and dysfunctional ideas prevalent in the Republican
Party. Like most of their ideas, it's appealing as rhetoric, but
unworkable in practice. Republicans have repeatedly tried to reduce
government spending by cutting taxes on their donor class, but have
found little to actually cut -- even when they had the power to
write budgets -- so all they've produced is greater deficits, and
an inflated oligarchy.
They've had more luck at poisoning benefits, trying to make
government appear to be worthless. The idea is to convince voters
that voting is hopeless, because government will only take from
them, and never give back. The idea that the purpose of government
is to "provide for the general welfare" (that's in the Preamble to
the US Constitution) is inimical to them. The idea of "government
of, by, and for the people" (that's in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address)
is alien to those who hate most American people. Republicans created
a death spiral of democracy, which they hope will leave them in
permanent power, not to serve the public, but to prevent people
from using government for their own improvement.
Trump has added his own authoritarian quirks to the Republican
agenda, but the big risk to democracy has always come from money,
which Republicans have made sure selects candidates and drives
elections. Trump is less a cause of oligarchy than evidence of
how far it has progressed.
Two important concepts in economics are externality
(public costs that are not factored into product costs, such as
pollution) and opportunity costs (other things that we could spend
money on if we weren't preoccupied with given expenses). Republicans,
driven exclusively by their desire to help the rich get richer in the
here and now, and blind to the future, have no interest in these
concepts. Democrats are subject to the same donor pressures, but at
least recognize that such side effects are real and important. This
is because they try to recognize and balance everyone's welfare, and
not just that of their donors and voters.
Climate change is a good example of both: it is largely caused by
the waste products of fossil fuels, and can only be remedied by major
investment sooner rather than later. But people only see what gasoline
costs when they fill up, while the climate change they're contributing
to only manifests later, and mostly to other people. This gives them
little reason to spend now to avert future costs, so they don't.
Even as climate change has become a very tangible problem, Trump and
the Republicans have wrapped themselves ever deeper into a cocoon of
denial and ignorance, which ensures that as long as they're in power
we will never invest what we need to in sustainable infrastructure.
While a second Trump term could do a lot of immediate damage, its
long-term cost will largely be opportunity costs, as we belatedly
realize we didn't invest what we should have when it would have been
more effective.
It's impossible to overstate how completely Donald
Trump has taken over and perverted our culture, what philosophers
call our noosphere -- the mental universe, our ability to reason.
This may seem paradoxical given that few people on Earth are as
disengaged from and contemptuous of reason as Donald Trump, but
that may well be the source of his power. He has effectively given
his followers permission to disengage from other people, to eschew
reason and argument and indulge their own prejudices and fantasies,
because that's what he does, and he's so fabulously successful.
Moreover, it has the added benefit of driving crazy all those who
still worry about real problems (both their own and those of other
people), which they expect to deal with through science and reason.
(Such people often project their own mania back onto the Trumpers,
and reckon them to be saddled with problems, when they actually
seem to be quite blissfully serene in their obliviousness and/or
ignorance.)
Political scientists have a concept known as the Overton window,
which describes "the range of policies politically acceptable to
the mainstream population at a given time." Ideas outside the window
are dismissed as radical or even unthinkable, making it very hard to
get any sort of coverage, as the media limits itself to more widely
acceptable ideas. Events may push some ideas into the mainstream,
while discarding others. For instance, there was a time when eugenics
was all the rage, but no more. Climate change has become increasingly
mainstream, although there are still political interests out to kill
any such discussion. A big part of politics is fighting over what we
can and cannot talk about. What Trump has done has been to expand
the Overton window to the far right, legitimizing clusters of issues
that were previously regarded as baseless (like QAnon, antivax claims,
election denial). Perhaps the most disturbing of all has been Trump's
own criminal enterprises. These subjects, which at best distract from
real problems and often create more, would only grow under a second
Trump term.
I have no doubt that the bad policies advanced by Trump will blow
up and wind up discredited, but at a great waste of effort to stop
them, and a huge opportunity cost as we ignore constructive ideas
from the left. Even where Harris does not have good programs, which
certainly includes her continued fealty to Bush-Obama-Trump-Biden
(and Cheney?) foreign policy, her election would provide a much
healthier window for debate than what we'd be stuck with under
Trump.
It's time to turn the page on Trump and the era of
Fox Republicanism. Cloture on Trump is easy to imagine, as he's way
past his prime, increasingly doddering at 78, unlikely to ever run
again. Vote him out, and that's one problem America will never have
to deal with again. Not only would it give us a chance to heal, to
move on, to deal with our self-protracted problems, but it could be
the kindest result for Trump and even for his Party. Trump could cut
his plea deals and escape most of the legal jeopardy he's landed in.
The Party could finally recalculate, trying to find a way to compete
in the real world instead of trying to scam the rhetorical madness
that Fox created to profit from fear and rage. Moreover, by cutting
their losses, they'd escape much of the blame for the disasters their
preferred policies would inevitably lead to. Progress is inexorable,
so those who would resist it only have two choices: bend or break.
The Republicans' forty-year (1980-2020) era has done much damage to
the social and economic fabric of the nation. Some things have broken,
and many more are creaking. We might survive four more years of Trump,
but time is running out. And when things do break under Trump, beware
that no one will be more ill-prepared and incompetent at dealing with
them.
On the other hand, Harris, like most Democrats (even the nominally
left-wing of the party), doesn't represent visionary change, but she
is perceptive, analytical, and pragmatic, which suggests that she will
adapt to changing circumstances, and endeavor to make the best out of
them. She will be sorely tested by the influence of wealthy lobbyists,
by the superficial and sensationalist press, by the still powerful
remains of Republican power -- which while incapable of governing
competently let alone responsibly, is still a formidable machine for
amplifying grievances -- and by new challenges we haven't even been
able to think of yet (so mired are we in the ruins of bad Republican
politics, from Nixon and Reagan through the Bushes to their ultimate
self-parody in Trump, tempered ever so slightly by interim Democrats
who never got beyond patchwork repairs).
Of course, one can think of many more reasons, especially if you
tried to work from policies outward. I may do a separate document
where I read through Trump's "Agenda 47" and comment line-by-line.
Presumably there's a comparable Harris document somewhere, which
could also be scrutinized. From them, I might be able to come up
with a scorecard, but there's no chance of a different result. As
it is, I've concentrated less on issues and more on personalities
and political dynamics: Trump is at best muddled on issues, but
his shortcomings as noted are extremely clear.
Harris, as I noted, is harder to read, especially because for
tactical campaign purposes she has adopted a set of views that aim
to win over not just undecided/centrist voters but any Republicans
that Trump hasn't totally stripped of their decency yet. She's had
some success at that, although it remains to be seen how many actual
votes follow her celebrity endorsements. At this point, I don't see
any point in second-guessing her campaign strategy. Presumably she
has researched the electorate and knows much better than I do just
how to pitch them. If she loses, we'll have a field day dissecting
her mistakes -- which, for all the reasons mentioned above and many
more, may be the only fun we can have in the next four years.
But for now, let's assume she wins, and she runs her administration
along lines it is reasonable to expect. In that case, the left will
still have work to do and things to protest. So here are my:
Top 5 Reasons Electing Harris Won't Solve Our Problems
I ran across this synopsis recently: "There are converging
political, economic, and ecological crises, and yet our politics
is dominated by either business as usual or nostalgia for a
mythical past." Harris represents the party of "business as
usual," where "change" is acknowledged as inevitable, but is
guarded so as not to upset the status quo -- which may include
reforms to make it more tolerable, as not doing so would risk
more disruptive change.
While it didn't occur to me in listing the "top ten reasons"
above, one more strong reason is that Trump's "nostalgia for a
mythical past" -- the once-great America he aims to restore and
protect -- is not just incoherent but impossible, so much so that
his efforts to force the world back into his ideal alignment are
more likely to break it than to fix anything. Reducing America
to his chosen few would breed chaos and resentment, and collapse
the economy, destroying the wealth he meant to protect. Moreover,
his instinct to use force would only compound the damage.
It is ironic that while most of us on the left have grown wary
of revolution, many on the right, perhaps due to their embrace of
violence, have been seduced by the notion that might makes right.
If conservatism means wishing to keep things as they are, it is
the Democrats who are the true conservatives, while Republicans
have turned into flaming radicals, with Trump emerging as their
leader given his flamboyance and utter disregard for conventional
political thinking. As with the fascist movements of the 1930s,
many people are enthralled by this radicalism. Why such movements
have always failed, sometimes spectacularly, has yet to sink in --
although the connection does at long last seem to be entering the
mainstream media.
Democrats are still uncomfortable being the party of the status
quo. Many are nostalgic for the days when Republicans filled that
role, providing foils against which they could propose their modest
reforms -- which they've long needed to attract struggling voters.
The problem that Harris faces in 2024 is that the Trumpian romance
of reactionary revolution has become so attractive -- the backdrop
is the unprecedented extension of inequality over the last fifty
years, which has left most people feeling left behind -- and so
terrifying that she's fallen into the trap of defending the status
quo, making her seem insensitive to the real problems that we look
to candidates to help solve. Trump at least has answers to all the
problems -- wrong ones, but many people don't understand the details,
they're just attraction to his show of conviction, while they note
that Harris seems wary of pushing even the weak reforms popular in
her party.
She's banking on the status quo to save America from Trump and
the Republicans. If she wins her bet, she will win the election.
But then she'll have to face the more difficult task of governing,
where her limits could be her undoing. These five questions loom
large on the post-election agenda:
Perhaps most immediately, US foreign policy needs
a total rethink. US foreign policy took a radical turn shortly after
WWII, renouncing the "isolationist" past and assuming a militarily
as well as an economically interventionist stance. This was partly
a matter of filling the vacuum left by the war's global destruction,
and partly ambition. Beyond the battlefields, Europe's colonial
empires had become untenable, opening the door for businesses as
the hidden powers behind local rulers. As the alternatives were
communist-leaning national liberation movement, this soon turned
into the Cold War -- which was great news for the arms industry,
which along with oil and finance became a pillar of American
foreign policy. When the cold war receded, neocons came up with
more rationales for more conflicts, to keep their graft going.
Efforts at building international institutions (like the UN)
increasingly gave way to unilateral dictates: America First,
before Trump, who basically thinks of foreign policy as some
kind of protection racket, latched onto the term. There hadn't
been significant partisan differences in foreign policy since
the advent of the Cold War: all the Democrats who followed
Republican hawks (Reagan, the Bushes, even Trump in his own
peculiar way) did was to normalize their aggressiveness. Thus
Biden reaffirmed his support for Ukraine and Israel, as well as
his opposition to Russia, China, and the usual suspects in the
Middle East, which has (so far) blown up into two catastrophic
wars, while at the same time the US has made sure that world
organizations (like the UN) are powerless to intervene.
Harris seems to be fully on board with this: not only does
she support the current wars, she has gone out of her way to
ostracize so-called autocrats -- not the ones counted as allies
because they buy American arms but the others, the ones who make
their own (or buy from each other). This conventional thinking,
based on the notion that force projection (and sanctions) can
and will dictate terms for resolving conflicts, has a very poor
track record: it polarizes and militarizes conflicts, stokes
resentments, stimulates asymmetric responses (like terrorism),
while driving its targets into each others' clutches. Meanwhile,
the reputation the US once had for fairness is in tatters.
A new foreign policy needs first of all to prioritize peace,
cooperation, and equitable economic development. It should also,
where possible, favor social justice (albeit not through force,
which is more likely to make matters worse).
Restricting immigration is the one issue where
neo-fascist politicians seem to be gaining significant popular
support, in Europe as well as the US. Harris has chosen to lean
into the issue rather than oppose the Republicans, as had Biden
and Obama before her, not that any of their harsh enforcement
efforts have gotten any cooperation or compromise from Republicans,
who would rather milk this as a grievance issue than treat it as
a practical issue. Part of the problem here is that while many
voters will support Republicans just to vent rage, other voters
expect results from Democrats, and no matter what results they
hoped for, few are satisfied. The issue is complex and messy,
and Congress is unable or unwilling to pass any legislation to
help clear the mess. Which makes this an issue that will haunt
Harris indefinitely, no matter what she tries to do.
Personally, this is an issue I care little about either way.
What concerns me more is that the system be seen as fair and
just, that it is neither exploitative of immigrants nor that
it hurts the domestic labor market. I could see arguments for
limiting or for expanding immigration numbers. I do think that
the current backlog of non-documented immigrants needs to be
cleared up, which could involve clearing the path toward
naturalization and/or paying them to leave, but it needs to be
done in an orderly and humane manner, with clear rules and due
process. I've generally opposed "guest worker" programs (like
the one Bush tried to push through), but could see issuing green
cards as a stopgap measure. Harris will find it difficult to
navigate through this maze, but what would help is having some
clear principles about how citizenship should work -- as opposed
to just responding to Republican demagoguery.
I should also note that the biggest determinant of immigration
is foreign policy. Most people emigrate because they are dislodged
by war or ecological and/or economic distress, and those are things
that American foreign policy as presently practiced exacerbates.
Policies that resolve (or better still, prevent) conflicts, that
limit climate change, and/or that extend economic opportunities
would significantly reduce the pressures driving emigration.
Democrats under Biden made the first serious
legislative effort at addressing climate change ever, but the
structure of American politics makes it much easier to promote
the development of new technologies and products than it is to
do things like changing habits of fossil fuel use. Democrats
are so wedded to the idea of economic growth as the panacea
for all problems that they can't conceive of better lives lived
differently. How one can ever get to zero emissions isn't on
any agenda. Meanwhile, Republicans keep digging themselves ever
deeper into their tunnel of ignorance, so they have nothing to
offer but obstruction.
While prevention seems to be too much to ask of any Democratic
politician, they do still have a big advantage on disaster care.
Reagan's joke -- "The nine most terrifying words in the English
language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'" --
is easily disproven every hurricane season, yet remains as sacred
dogma. Given that climate change has already happened, and is
playing out in cycles of increasingly uninsurable "natural"
disasters, it becomes imperative to elect a government that
cares about such problems, and regards it as its duty to help
people out. Harris will be tested on this, repeatedly.
Meanwhile, if you want to try out nine really terrifying
words, try these: "I'm a Republican, and Donald Trump is my
President."
There is one political issue that close to 90%
of all Americans could agree on, but it has no leadership and
little support in either major party, and that is the thoroughly
corrupt influence of money on politics. The situation has always
been bad, but got much worse in 2010 when the Supreme Court ruled
in favor of unlimited corporate spending in Citizens United v. FEC.
Obama spoke out against the ruling, but did nothing to overturn it.
Rather, he easily outraised his opponents in 2008 and 2012, winning
twice. Biden and Harris have also raised much more money than Trump,
so while Republicans are the most steadfast supporters of campaign
graft, top Democrats also benefit from the system -- especially
against their real competition, which is other Democrats, who
might be tempted to campaign on issues that appeal to voters, as
opposed to having to spend all their time catering to the whims
of rich donors. The 2024 presidential election is by far the most
ridiculously expensive in history, which also makes it the most
tainted by special interests and their peculiar obsessions (like
Israel, which has kept both candidates from expressing any concern
about ongoing genocide). Breaking this mold is a golden opportunity
for some aspiring politician. Harris can't do it while she's still
campaigning, but it's not only wasteful, it diminishes trust in
everyone involved, and as such discredits the whole system.
The worst offenders, of course, are the billionaires,
many of whom -- starting with Elon Musk, the kind of immigrant that
even Trump can love -- has been especially conspicuous this year.
They are the beneficiaries of a wide range of laws and breaks that
allow a tiny number of individuals to accumulate obscene amounts
of wealth. And they use that wealth to steer government away from
any notion of public interest, to do their own bidding, and to
indulge their own fantasies. This extraordinary inequality -- far
beyond the historic highs of the Gilded Age and the Roaring '20s
(both, you may recall, ill-fated bubbles) -- is the single biggest
problem facing the world today. It may seem hypothetical, but it
lies beneath so many other problems, starting with the dysfunction
of government and politics, which is largely influenced by the
distortions of wealth. It extends worldwide, with inequality of
nations mirroring the inequality of individuals.
The problem with inequality isn't that some people have a bit
more than others. It's that such wide variations corrupt and
pervert justice. It's often hard to say just what justice is,
but it's much easier to identify injustice when you see it. In
highly stratified societies, such as ours, you see injustice
everywhere. It eats at our ability to trust institutions and
people. It diminishes our expectation of fair treatment and
opportunity. It raises questions about cooperation and even
generosity. It makes us paranoid. And once lost, trust and
security is all that much harder to restore.
There is no simple answer here. It needs to be dealt with
piecemeal, one step at a time, each and every day. It helps
to reduce gross inequality (which can be done by taxation).
It helps to reduce sources of inequality (which can be done
by regulation of business, by limiting rents, by promoting
countervailing powers, like unions). It also helps to reduce
the impact of inequality (which can be done by raising basic
support levels, by removing prices from services, by ending
means testing, by providing universal insurance, and when no
better solution is possible, by rationing). I don't expect
any politician, especially one who has proven successful in
the current system of extraordinary inequality, to go far
along these lines, but most people are at least aware of the
problem, and many proposals for small improvements are in
common discourse. Even if Harris doesn't rise to the occasion,
we should work to make sure her successors do.
While I think that Harris comes up short on all five of these
really important points, they in no way argue for Donald Trump,
even as a "lesser evil." He personifies modern inequality, Back
in 2016, he tried arguing that his wealth would allow him to run
a truly independent campaign, but that was just another lie. No
one in recent memory has been more obvious about selling favors
for financing. He is a climate change denier, and has shown
nothing but contempt for the victims of natural disasters. His
signature issue is his hatred of immigrants (excepting, presumably,
two wives and his sugar daddy, Elon Musk), where he puts even more
emphasis on performative cruelty than on effectiveness.
His take on foreign policy is slightly more . . . well, "nuanced"
isn't exactly right, more like "befuddled." It's hard to make a
credible case that he's anti-war when he puts such emphasis on what
a tough guy he is, on how no opponent would dare challenge him.
He has shown remarkably poor judgment in defense staffing, which
is only likely to get worse now that two of his former generals
have called him a fascist. He has no dealmaking skills, nor would
he hire someone who could negotiate (any such person would be
dismissed as a wuss). His "America First" schemes are designed
to strain alliances, and are more likely to break than not. He
delayed his deal to get out of Afghanistan so Biden would get
the blame. His handling of Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Iran-Saudi
Arabia directly contributed to the outbreak of war and genocide.
As I said, foreign policy needs a complete rethink. He's already
failed on several counts, starting with the need to think.
Current count:
1 links, 6232 words (6414 total)
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Music Week
October archive
(in progress).
Music: Current count 43065 [43039] rated (+26), 46 [41] unrated (+5).
Published another abbreviated
Speaking of Which yesterday. Came to 212 links, 12063 words,
but I added some more stuff this morning, and may add even more
before this is posted. My computer time (listening and writing)
was limited last week, mostly by a home repair project that drags
on and on, with little hope of winding up soon. Well, maybe a
little hope: the collapsed ceiling is repaired, old wallpaper
removed, walls patched up, the bedroom walls primed, half of the
closet paneling put up, and we just got back from buying finish
paint. If I can muster the time, the paint and paneling should
be doable in 2-3 days, but I haven't been able to get many good
working shifts in, and I've repeatedly been snagged by Murphy's
law.
Plus, I have another project this week, which is being pushed
ahead by a deadline, plus the thought that it might be a lot more
fun to do. That's my annual birthday dinner, scheduled for Friday,
with at present nothing more than a concept: my first ever stab
at making Burmese cuisine. I've often picked out exotic locales
for past birthday dinners, and in my peak years managed to make
twenty-some dishes.
But I've never picked one I had so little experience with and
knew so little about. My experience is one take-out meal in New
York at least 12 years ago. The reason I can date it is because
I bought a Burmese cookbook shortly after, but it didn't have the
dish that most delighted me from the restaurant, and nothing else
really caught my eye, so I've never cooked anything from it. The
concept came from seeing that cookbook on the shelf, and thinking
maybe I should finally do something with it.
I may have made a dish or two from broader area cookbooks --
Charmaine Solomon's The Complete Asian Cookbook introduced me
to all hot spots from India through Indonesia and China to Japan --
and I've gone deep on Indian (although not necessarily Bengali),
Thai, and Chinese, which border old Burma (now Myanmar), so I expect
to be working within those parameters. But as of Tuesday afternoon,
I still don't have a menu, much less any shopping or prep done. My
only move so far has been to buy a second Burmese cookbook, plus
one that's more generically southeast Asian. (I haven't generally
been listing cookbooks in my "recent reading" roll, but added my
old Burma: Rivers of Flavor last week, so I figured I might
as well spotlight the new books as well.) Generic southeast
Asian may well be what I wind up with -- especially given that the
local grocers are mostly Vietnamese, plus a couple Indian.
I'm torn between working on the room and on the menu next, but
either option seems more enticing that diddling further on this
post. Should be enough here for any decent week.
New records reviewed this week:
Nick Adema: Urban Chaos (2023 [2024], ZenneZ):
Trombonist from Canada, based in Amsterdam, has a previous 2022
album as Adema Manouikas Octet but effectively his debut, mostly
a quartet with piano/electric bass/drums, but includes a patch
of string quartet, some guest guitar and horns, most prominently
Noah Preminger (tenor sax) on 7 (of 12) tracks, and one vocal --
a surplus of ideas, held together with some fine trombone.
B+(***) [cd]
JD Allen: The Dark, the Light, the Grey and the Colorful
(2024, Savant): Tenor saxophonist, many impressive albums since 1998,
mostly trios with bass (here Gregg August and/or Ian Kenselaar) and
drums (Nic Cacioppo). Seems rather restrained.
B+(**) [sp]
Andy Baker: From Here, From There (2018 [2024],
Calligram): Trombonist, originally from London but based in Chicago,
has side credits going back to National Youth Jazz Orchestra in
1996 but this seems to be his first album as leader. With Russ
Johnson (trumpet), Clark Sommers (bass), and Dana Hall (drums).
B+(**) [cd]
Basic: This Is Basic (2024, No Quarter): Trio
of Chris Forsyth (guitar), Nick Millevoi (baritone guitar &
drum machine), and Mikel Patrick Avery (percussion &
electronics). Forsyth has albums going back to 1998, seems to
be more rooted in rock than in jazz (where I have a previous
album filed), cites Manzanera, Fripp, and Frith in his notes,
as well as Robert Quine, who's 1984 duo album with Fred Maher
is taken as the name of this group. No vocals, all jagged
rhythms too insistent to decay into drone.
B+(***) [sp]
Big Freedia With the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra: Live
at the Orpheum Theater (2023 [2024], Queen Diva): New Orleans
rapper Freddie Ross Jr., influenced by drag queens, released a single
in 1999 and a mixtape in 2003, counts two studio albums, gets full
orchestra backing for this live party.
B+(***) [sp]
Anne Burnell & Mark Burnell: This Could Be the Start of
Something Big (2024, Spectrum Music): Both sing, Mark plays
piano, some originals mixed in with the standards, backed by bass
and drums, plus sax (Pat Mallinger) on six tracks, guitar (Fareed
Haque) on five (four others).
B [cd]
Chris Corsano/Joe Baiza/Mike Watt: Corsano Baiza Watt Trio
(2023 [2024], Yucca Alta): Drums, guitar, bass, only the group name
on the cover. Discogs credits the drummer with 81 albums since 2002,
mostly shared headlines, plus at least as many side-credits (going
back to 1996). The others came out of rock groups: Baiza from Saccharine
Trust, Watt (much more famously) from Minutemen.
B+(*) [bc]
Doug Ferony With His Swingin Big Band: Alright Okay You
Win (2024, Ferony Enterprizes Music): Singer, handful of
albums going back to 1994, leads a big band (as advertised) through
fourteen standards, all done better in the past, most by Frank
Sinatra.
B [cd]
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten/(Exit) Knarr: Breezy (2024,
Sonic Transmissions): Norwegian bassist, very active since 1994 --
Discogs credits him on 260 albums, second album with this group,
which includes trumpet, two saxophonists, piano, and drums, with
spots of guitar or synth.
B+(**) [sp]
Floating Points: Cascade (2024, Ninja Tune):
British electronica producer Sam Shepherd, fifth album since
2015, threw everyone a curve last time when he mixed in Pharoah
Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra. I'd say this is a
return to form, but it's much better than that: a relentless
stream of dance beats that keeps you moving through thick and
thin.
A- [sp]
Darius Jones: Legend of e'Boi (The Hypervigilant Eye)
(2024, AUM Fidelity): Alto saxophonist, burst onto the scene with
a 2009 album called Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing),
to which this is at least nominally a "Chapter VII" (of a planned
nine). This is a trio, with Chris Lightcap (bass) and Gerald Cleaver
(drums), bristling with energy, but paced with well-measured spots
of reflective calm.
A- [cd]
Doug MacDonald and the Coachella Valley Trio: Live at the
Rancho Mirage Library (2024, DMAC Music): Jazz guitarist,
many albums, finds a nice groove in a set backed by bass and drums,
with special guest Big Black on djembe.
B+(**) [cd]
Mark Masters Ensemble: Sui Generis (2023 [2024],
Capri): Big band arranger, has a regular stream of albums since
1984, dubs this "a jazz concerto for chamber orchestra," featuring
trumpet player Tim Hagans.
B+(**) [cd]
Gurf Morlix: In Love at Zero Degrees (2024,
Rootball): Alt-country singer-songwriter, originally from Buffalo,
moved to Texas in 1975, best known for his associations with Blaze
Foley and Lucinda Williams, and maybe as a producer, but has a
steady series of own albums since 2000. This one is toned down,
but steady and solid.
B+(**) [sp]
Eric Person: Rhythm Edge (2024, Distinction):
Saxophonist (soprano, alto, tenor, flute), ten or so albums
since 1993, notable side credits with Ronald Shannon Jackson,
Chico Hamilton and Dave Holland, and a fling with World Saxophone
Quartet. He's joined here by Ingrid Jensen (trumpet), Robin Eubanks
(trombone), and a fusion-oriented rhythm section that includes
organ, piano/keyboards, guitar, bass, and drums, and offers no
edge that I can discern, although when uncluttered he remains
a very respectable saxophonist.
B [cd]
Jason Robinson: Ancestral Numbers II (2023 [2024],
Playscape): Might as well recycle my review of the previous album,
released back in May: Saxophonist (tenor/soprano here, also alto
flute), albums since 1998, composed everything here, thinking about
his ancestors. Quintet with Michael Dessen (trombone), Joshua White
(piano), Drew Gress (bass), and Ches Smith (drums). Interesting
throughout, and this time connected even quicker.
A- [cd]
Snotty Nose Rez Kids: Red Future (2024, Savage Mob):
First Nations rappers from Canada, sixth album since 2017.
B+(***) [sp]
Moses Sumney: Sophcore (2024, Tuntum, EP): Born in
California, "grew up on a goat farm in Accra [Ghana]," moved to Los
Angeles after high school, has two albums, several EPs -- this one
six songs, 20:37.
B+(*) [sp]
Ohad Talmor/Chris Tordini/Eric McPherson: Back to the Land
(2023 [2024], Intakt, 2CD): French tenor saxophonist, mostly associated
with Lee Konitz, also plays bass clarinet and some electronics here,
second credit tier line plays bass and drums, but there are seven more
names in smaller print, most pretty notable ones at that, and then at
the bottom of the cover you see "Ornette Coleman" -- the new pieces
are mostly variations on old Coleman pieces, with some mention of
Dewey Redman.
B+(***) [sp]
Fred Thomas: Window in the Rhythm (2024, Polyvinyl):
Indie rock singer-songwriter from Michigan, started in 1994 math
rock band Chore, then joined His Name Is Alive, before his solo
debut in 2002, with a dozen more up to this one. Sometimes hits
an interesting vibe, but I can't quite peg it, or maybe just can't
be bothered.
B+(*) [sp]
Tropical Fuck Storm: Tropical Fuck Storm's Inflatable
Graveyard (2024, Three Lobed): Australian art-punk band,
formed by two members of the Drones (Gareth Liddiard and Fiona
Kitschin), two others, with three studio albums since 2018, back
here with a live double. Seems a bit much.
B+(*) [sp]
Jack Wood & Nichaud Fitzgibbon: Movie Magic: Great Songs
From the Movies (2024, Jazz Hang): Wood was billed as "a
classic crooner," based in southern California, released a "best of"
(with no recording dates) early in the year which proved surprisingly
engaging, and featured the Australian Fitzgibbon as a guest. She's
definitely his better half, which helps on this collection of classic
movie schmaltz, backed tastefully by a long list of musician credits,
from a half-dozen studios, also undated.
B+(**) [cd]
Jamie xx: In Waves (2024, Young): British electropop
producer James Smith, name from his group (The xx) with Oliver Sim
and Romy Madley (three albums 2009-17), second solo album after a
2015 side-project. Dance beats illuminate the world.
A- [sp]
Dann Zinn: Two Roads (2024, Ridgeway): Tenor
saxophonist, based in Bay Area, sixth album, postbop quintet with
Rachel Z (piano), Jeff Denson (bass), Omar Hakim (drums), and
Brian Rice (percussion).
B+(**) [cd]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
William Basinski: September 23rd (1982 [2024],
Temporary Residence): Classically-trained electronic composer,
many albums since 2001 but reaches back into his early archives
for this 40:11 ambient-meets-drone piece.
B+(*) [bc]
Old music:
Adema Manoukas Octet: New Roots (2021 [2022],
self-released): Canadian group, met at University of Toronto,
led by composer/arrangers Nick Adema (trombone) and Alex
Manoukas (baritone sax), with trumpet, two more saxophones,
and unidentified rhythm.
B+(***) [bc]
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Swinging Gospel Queen 1939-1947
(1937-47 [1998], Blues Collection): Gospel singer (1915-73), at
least due to her subject matter, but she strums a mean guitar,
and with half the voice and no backup singers she could pass for
a folksinger, and a rocking one at that. I was surprised to find
no graded albums in my database (despite seven albums, including
a 4-CD Properbox, on the "shopping" list) -- "Up Above My Head I
Hear Music in the Air" is one of my most persistent earworms --
so when I noticed a new Acrobat collection (The Singles
Collection As & Bs 1939-1950), I was first tempted to buy
it, then considered the Christgau-recommended The Absolutely
Essential 3CD Collection, but came to my senses and checked
out what I could stream. This one may be out of print, but comes
from their generally reliable "Historic Recordings" series, with
twenty songs, including my earworm and many more contenders (like
"Everybody's Gonna Have a Wonderful Time Up Here"). Also named on
the cover: Lucky Millinder, Sammy Price, Marie Knight.
A- [sp]
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Live in 1960 (1960 [1991],
ORG Music): A solo set, so just her voice and guitar with the voice
worked extra hard, a dozen songs, mostly standards but not necessarily
hers ("Precious Lord," "Down by the Riverside," "Peace in the Valley").
B+(**) [sp]
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Sister on Tour (1961, Verve):
Another live set, from New York, with a hard-swinging band, identified
only as "arranged and conducted by Teacho Wiltshire."
B+(***) [sp]
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- The Attic & Eve Risser: La Grande Crue (NoBusiness) [10-04]
- Arthur Blythe Quartet: Live From Studio Rivbea: July 6, 1976 (NoBusiness) [10-04]
- Bill Evans: In Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (1970, Elemental Music, 2CD) [11-29]
- Joe Fonda Quartet: Eyes on the Horizon (Long Song) [11-15]
- Joel Futterman: Innervoice (NoBusiness) [10-04]
- Andrew Hill: A Beautiful Day Revisited (2002, Palmetto, 2CD) [11-01]
- B.B. King: In France: Live at the 1977 Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival (Deep Digs/Elemental Music) [11-29]
- Michael McNeill: Barcode Poetry (Infrasonic Press) [10-01]
- William Parker/Hugo Costa/Philipp Emsting: Pulsar (NoBusiness) [10-04]
- Emily Remler: Cookin' at the Queens (1984-88, Resonance, 2CD) [11-29]
- Sara Serpa: Encounters & Collisions (Biophilia) [11-15]
- Spinifex: Undrilling the Hole (TryTone) [11-22]
- Sun Ra: Lights on a Satellite: Live at the Left Bank (1978, Resonance, 2CD) [11-29]
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Monday, October 21, 2024
Speaking of Which
File initially opened 2024-10-16 01:00 PM.
Late Monday night, I'm posting this, without any real sense of
where I'm at, how much I've looked at, and how much more I should
have considered. I have no introduction, and at this point can't
even be troubled to think up excuses. (Perhaps I'll write something
about that in tomorrow's Music Week -- assuming there is one: my
problem there isn't lack of records but no time, given other demands
and priorities.) One thing I am confident of is that there is a lot
of material below. Maybe I'll add more on Tuesday, but don't count
on it.
Got up Tuesday morning and before I could eat breakfast, let
alone open next week's file, I added several entries below, including
a Zachary Carter piece I had open in a tab but didn't get back to in
time.
Top story threads:
Israel's year of infamy: Given the hasty
nature of last week's
Speaking of Which, it was inevitable that I'd need another
week (or more) for one-year anniversary pieces.
Spencer Ackerman: [10-03]
The year after October 7th was shaped by the 23 years after September
11th: "9/11 gave Israel and the US a template to follow -- one
that turned grief into rage into dehumanization into mass death.
What have we learned from the so-called 'war on terror'?" That it
feels better to make the same mistakes over and over again rather
than learn from them? Worth noting that the US response to 9/11
was modeled on Israel's by-then-long war against the Palestinians
(recently escalated in the Sharon's counter-intifada, effectively
a reconquista against Palestinian Authority, which saved Hamas
for future destruction).
Haidar Eid: 10-13]
A vision for freedom is more important than ever: "We must focus
on the present as conditions in Gaza worsen daily, but a clear strategy
and political vision are crucial to inspire people around the world
as to what is possible."
Dave Reed: [10-13]
Weekly Briefing: Looking back at a year of Israeli genocide.
Jeffrey St Clair: [10-18]
Israel unbound: October in Gaza, one year later.
A retaliatory military operation that many wizened pundits predicted
would last no more than a month or so has now thundered on in
ever-escalating episodes of violence and mass destruction for a year
with no sign of relenting. What began as a war of vengeance has become
a war of annihilation, not just of Hamas, but of Palestinian life and
culture in Gaza and beyond.
While few took them seriously at the time, Israeli leaders spelled
out in explicit terms the savage goals of their war and the
unrestrained means they were going to use to prosecute it. This was
going to be a campaign of collective punishment where every
conceivable target -- school, hospital, mosque -- would be fair game.
Here was Israel unbound. The old rules of war and international law
were not only going to be ignored; they would be ridiculed and mocked
by the Israeli leadership, which, in the days after the October 7
attacks, announced their intention to immiserate, starve, and displace
more than 2 million Palestinians and kill anyone who stood in their
way -- man, woman or child.
For the last 17 years, the people of Gaza have been living a
marginal existence, laboring under the cruel constrictions of a
crushing Israeli embargo, where the daily allotments of food allowed
into the Strip were measured out down to the calorie. Now, the
blockade was about to become total. On October 9, Israeli Defense
Minister Yoav Gallant warned: "I have ordered a complete siege on the
Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, food, or fuel; everything is
closed." He wasn't kidding.
This goes on for 14 more paragraphs, all deserving your attention,
before he descends into his usual plethora of bullet points -- dozens
of them, his attention never straying to the more pedestrian atrocities
he often (and compared to most others exceptionally) reports on. He
ends with this:
The war of revenge has become a war of dispossession, conquest and
annexation, where war crime feeds on war crime. Not even the lives
of the Israeli hostages will stand in the way; they will become
Israeli martyrs in the cause of cleansing Gaza of Palestinians. . . .
It's equally apparent that nothing Israel does, including killing
American grandmothers, college students, and aid workers, will trigger
the US government, whether it's under the control of Biden, Harris, or
Trump, to intervene to stop them or even pull the plug on the arms
shipments that make this genocidal war possible.
Followed by a list of sources:
Oren Yiftachel: [10-15]
Is this Israel's first apartheid war? "Far from lacking a political
strategy, Israel is fighting to reinforce the supremacist project it
has built for decades between the river and the sea." The author thinks
so, while acknowledging the long history of war that preceded this
year's war:
While its eight previous wars attempted to create new geographical
and political orders or were limited to specific regions, the current
one seeks to reinforce the supremacist political project Israel has
built throughout the entire land, and which the October 7 assault
fundamentally challenged. Accordingly, there is also a steadfast
refusal to explore any path to reconciliation or even a ceasefire
with the Palestinians.
Israel's supremacist order, which was once termed "creeping" and
more recently "deepening apartheid," has long historical roots. It
has been concealed in recent decades by the so-called
peace process, promises of a
"temporary
occupation," and claims that Israel has "no partner" to negotiate
with. But the reality of the
apartheid project has become increasingly conspicuous in recent
years, especially under Netanyahu's leadership.
Today, Israel makes no effort to hide its supremacist aims. The
Jewish Nation-State Law of 2018 declared that "the right to
exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is
unique to the Jewish people," and that "the state views the
development of Jewish settlement as a national value." Taking
this a step further, the current Israeli government's manifesto
(known as its
"guiding
principles") proudly stated in 2022 that "the Jewish people
have an exclusive and inalienable right to all areas of the Land
of Israel" -- which, in the Hebrew lexicon, includes Gaza and the
West Bank -- and promises to "promote and develop settlement in
all parts of the Land of Israel."
My reservation here is that the "apartheid program" goes way
back, at least to 1948 when Israelis declared independence and
set up a separate judicial system for Palestinians in areas they
controlled, retaining it even after Palestinians became nominal
citizens of Israel. In effect, Israeli apartheid goes back to
the "Hebrew labor" concept adopted by Ben-Gurion's Histadrut
in the 1930s. (By the way, South Africa's
Apartheid laws were only formalized in 1950, although, as
with Israel, the roots of racist discrimination ran much deeper.
The ideas behind South Africa's legal thinking drew heavily on
America's Jim Crow laws, which were also notable sources for
Nazi Germany's race laws.) So what's new since October 7 isn't
apartheid, but the nature of the war, which has crossed over the
line from harsh enforcement to genocide: the purpose of which is
not just to punish Hamas for the insolence of rebellion, but to
purge Israel of all Palestinians:
Under the fog of this onslaught on Gaza, the colonial takeover of
the West Bank
has also accelerated over the past year. Israel has introduced
new measures of administrative annexation;
settler violence has further intensified with the backing of the
army;
dozens of new outposts have been established, contributing to the
expulsion of Palestinian communities; Palestinian cities have been
subjected to suffocating economic closures; and the Israeli army's violent
repression of armed resistance has reached levels not seen since the
Second Intifada -- especially in the refugee camps of Jenin, Nablus, and
Tulkarem. The previously tenuous distinction between Areas A, B, and C
has been completely erased: the Israeli army operates freely throughout
the entire territory.
At the same time, Israel has deepened the oppression of Palestinians
inside the Green Line and their status as
second-class citizens. It has intensified its severe restrictions
on their political activity through
increased surveillance,
arrests,
dismissals,
suspensions, and
harassment. Arab leaders are labeled "terror supporters," and the
authorities are carrying out an unprecedented wave of house demolitions --
especially in the Negev/Naqab, where the number of demolitions in 2023
(which
reached a record of 3,283) was higher than the number for Jews
across the entire state. At the same time, the police
all but gave up on tackling the serious problem of organized
crime in Arab communities. Hence, we can see a common strategy
across all the territories Israel controls to repress Palestinians
and cement Jewish supremacy.
Near the end of the article, the author points to
A Land for All: Two States One Homeland as an alternative,
and cites various pieces on
confederation. I'm not wild about these approaches, but
I'd welcome any changes that would reduce the drive of people
on both sides to kill one another.
Israel:
Mondoweiss:
Dave DeCamp:
[10-16]
Netanyahu approves set of targets to hit inside Iran: "Israel
is expected to attack before the November 5 US presidential election."
[10-16]
Israeli soldiers say ethnic cleansing plan in North Gaza is
underway: "A reserve soldier told Haaretz that anyone who
remains in the north after a deadline 'will be considered an enemy
and will be killed.'"
[10-17]
Israel says Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar has been killed.
More on Sinwar
David Dayen: [10-17]
In Israel, the war is also the goal: "Yahya Sinwar's death is
unlikely to change the situation in Gaza." This has long been
evident, but it's nice to see new people noticing:
That Netanyahu's personal and political goals vastly outweigh whatever
could resemble military goals in this war in Gaza by now has become a
cliché. Netanyahu wants to stay out of prison, and ending the war is
likely to place him there. So new missions and operations and objectives
sprout up for no reason.
Suddenly Bibi's party has mused about re-settling northern Gaza for
the first time in nearly 20 years, while transparently using
a policy of mass starvation as a way to implement it. . . .
The war has long passed any moment where Israel has any interest
in declaring victory, in the fight against terror or in the fight
for the security of its people. Even bringing up the fact of continued
Israeli hostages inside Gaza seems irrelevant at this point. The war
is actually the goal itself, a continuation of punishment to fulfill
the needs of the prime minister and his far-right political aims. The
annals of blowback indicate pretty clearly that incessant bombing of
hospitals and refugee camps will create many Yahya Sinwars, more than
who can be killed. That is not something that particularly burdens the
Israeli government. Another pretext would serve their continuing
interests.
Griffin Eckstein: [10-17]
Harris sees "opportunity to end" to Israel-Gaza war in Hamas leader
Sinwar's killing: Nice spin, especially after
Biden's me-too statement, but naive and/or disingenuous. Surely
she knows that the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan didn't end with
regime change or the later deaths of Saddam Hussein, Mullah Omar,
or Osama Bin Laden. Sure, those deaths seemed like good ideas at
the time, but by the time they happened many more people had been
killed, and more people rose from nowhere to fight back, and then
they too had to be killed, because once you -- by which I mean the
kind of people who lead countries and start wars -- start killing,
there's always more to do. Still, Harris deserves a nod for even
imagining that some other path is possible. Whether she deserves
it depends on whether she can follow through and act upon her
insight. Unfortunately, to do so would mean she has to develop
enough backbone to defy and put pressure on Netanyahu, which thus
far she hasn't risked.
James Mackenzie/Nidal Al-Mughrabi/Samia Nakhoul: [10-17]
Hamas leader Sinwar killed by Israeli troops in Gaza, Netanyahu says
war will go on. Because the point never was Sinwar or Hamas or
the October 7 revolt.
Qassam Muaddi: [10-17]
Israel says it killed Yahya Sinwar as he was fighting the Israeli
army: "The Israeli army said on Thursday that Hamas chief Yahya
Sinwar had been killed in combat during an armed confrontation with
an Israeli army patrol in Rafah."
Abdaljawad Omar: [10-21]
It was only their machines: on Yahya Sinwar's last stand:
"Yahya Sinwar's last stand laid bare Israel's weakness, exposing the
truth about its post-heroic army that only survives from a distance
and remains shielded by armor, unwilling to face its enemies head-on."
Bernie Sanders: [10-18]
Sinwar is dead; we must end our complicity in this cruel and illegal
war. Note that this is not a syllogism: the conclusion was true
even when Sinwar was still alive.
Steven Simon: [10-17]
The demise of Yahya Sinwar and his 'big project': "The Hamas
leader overestimated Israel's fractures and underestimated Netanyahu's
willingness to destroy Gaza." I'm not convinced that either of these
assertions are true. I tend to see his "big project" as an act of
desperation, aimed to expose Israel's brutality, as well as imposing
some measure of cost for an oppression that had become routinized
and uninteresting for most people not directly affected. It seems
highly unlikely that he underestimated Netanyahu's monstrosity,
although he might not unreasonably have expected that others, like
the US, would have sought to moderate Israel's response. But even
as events unfolded, Israel has done an immense amount of damage to
its international reputation, as has America. While it's fair to
say that Sinwar made a bad bet for the Palestinian people, the
final costs to Israel are still accumulating, and will continue
to do so as long as Netanyahu keeps killing.
Ishaan Tharoor: [10-20]
What will Yahya Sinwar's death mean for Gaza? Not peace.
Which kind of begs a question too obvious for mainstream media,
which is why kill him if doing so doesn't bring you closer to
peace?
Jamal Kanj: [10-18]
The Israeli General's Plan in Gaza: Genocide by starvation.
Edo Konrad: [10-16]
The 'pact of silence' between Israelis and their media: "Israel's
long-subservient media has spent the past year imbuing the public
with a sense of righteousness over the Gaza war. Reversing this
indoctrination, says media observer Oren Persico, could take
decades." I've long been critical of US mainstream media sources
for their uncritical echoing of Israeli hasbara, but Israel --
where major media, 20-30 years ago, seemed to be far more open to
critically discussing the occupation than American outlets were --
has become far more cloistered. Consider this:
What Israeli journalists do not understand is that when the government
passes its
"Al Jazeera Law," it is ultimately about something much larger
than merely targeting the channel. The current law is about banning
news outlets that "endanger national security," but they also want
to give the Israeli communications minister the right to prevent any
foreign news network from operating in Israel that could "harm the
national morale." What the Israeli public doesn't understand is that
next in line is BBC Arabic, Sky News Arabic, and CNN. After that,
they're going to come for Haaretz, Channel 12, and Channel 13.
We are heading toward an autocratic, Orbán-esque regime and
everything that comes with that -- in the courts, in academia, and
in the media. Of course it is possible. It sounded unrealistic 10
years ago, then it sounded more realistic five years ago when
Netanyahu's media-related legal scandals blew up. Then it became
even more reasonable with the judicial overhaul, and even more so
today. We're not there yet, but we are certainly on the way.
Qassam Muaddi:
[10-15]
What is the 'Generals' Plan'? Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing of
northern Gaza, explained: "The ethnic cleansing of northern
Gaza as part of the so-called 'Generals' Plan' isn't new, but the
only thing standing in its way is the will of 200,000 Palestinians
to stay in the north and refuse displacement."
[10-17]
Bombings, killer drones, and starvation: eyewitnesses describe Israel's
extermination campaign in northern Gaza: "Testimonies from the
brutal siege on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza describe
massive air and ground assaults, including killer quadcopter drones,
that are destroying infrastructure and causing catastrophic
humanitarian conditions."
[10-21]
Israel commits largest massacre yet in northern Gaza: "The siege
of north Gaza and Jabalia refugee camp enters its third week as Israel
has cut off aid to some 200,000 people. On Saturday, Israeli forces
bombed Beit Lahia, killing at least 80 Palestinians, in one of the
largest massacres in months."
Lebanon:
Dave DeCamp: [10-20]
Israel starts bombing banks in Lebanon: "The Israeli military is
targeting branches of al-Quard al-Hassan, which Israel accuses of
financing Hezbollah."
Qassam Muaddi: [10-21]
Israel presents its conditions for Lebanon ceasefire as Hezbollah
intensifies operations: "Israel's conditions for a ceasefire
in Lebanon include allowing Israel to operate inside Lebanese
territory against Hezbollah and freedom of movement for Israel's
air force in Lebanon's airspace."
Adam Shatz: [10-11]
After Nasrallah. Long piece, lot of background on Nasrallah and
Hizbullah.
It's hard to see what strategy, if any, lies behind Israel's reckless
escalation of its war. But the line between tactics and strategy may
not mean much in the case of Israel, a state that has been at war
since its creation. The identity of the enemy changes -- the Arab
armies, Nasser, the PLO, Iraq, Iran, Hizbullah, Hamas -- but the war
never ends. Israel's leaders claim this war is existential, a matter
of Jewish survival, and there is a grain of truth in this claim,
because the state is incapable of imagining Israeli Jewish existence
except on the basis of domination over another people. Escalation,
therefore, may be precisely what Israel seeks, or is prepared to
risk, since it views war as its duty and destiny. Randolph Bourne
once said that 'war is the health of the state,' and Netanyahu and
Gallant would certainly agree.
Lylla Younes:
Israel escalates attacks on Lebanese first responders -- potentially
a war crime.
America's Israel (and Israel's America):
Aida Chávez:
After Israel killed Hamas leader, DC pushes to hand Palestine to
Saudi Arabia: "Bent on a 'mega-deal' security pact with Saudi
Arabia, Congress and the Biden administration see their chance."
Matt Duss: [10-17]
Yahya Sinwar's death can end this war: But it won't, because only
Netanyahu can end the war, and he doesn't want to, because there are
still Palestinians to dispossess and dispose of, and because Biden
isn't going to make it hard on him to continue. But sure, if one did
want to end the war, checking Sinwar off your "to do" list offers a
nice opportunity. On the other hand, negotiating a ceasefire with a
credible leader like Sinwar would have been even better. This piece
was cited by::
Ellen Ioanes: [10-19]
There's no ceasefire in sight for Israel's Gaza war. Why not?
Any author, like this one, that doesn't squarely answers "Israel"
has simply not been paying attention.
Anatol Lieven: [10-10]
Blinken's sad attempt to whitewash Biden's record: "By not
acting with political and moral courage, this administration has
actually failed abysmally on numerous counts."
Alan MacLeod: [10-17]
Revealed: The Israeli spies writing America's news.
Steve McMaster/Khody Akhavi: [10-15]
Netanyahu: Thank you America for your service: "One year after Gaza
invasion, US complicity is everywhere in the smoldering ruins."
Trita Parsi:
Mitchell Plitnick: [10-18]
No, the US is not 'putting pressure' in Israel to end its war:
"A letter from the Biden administration to Israel this week
threatening to possibly withhold weapons raised hopes among some,
but the delivery of a missile defense system and deployment of U.S.
soldiers sent the real message."
Aaron Sobczak: [10-14]
Biden sends US troops to Israel weeks ahead of election: "Recent
polling suggests there is no American support for this."
Alex de Waal: [10-20]
Israel, a behind-the-scenes powerbroker in Sudan: "Of the many
foreign powers influencing this bloody conflict, Tel Aviv could
help claw it back -- if it wanted to.
Sarah Leah Whitson: [09-27]
Shared zones of interest: "Harris and Trump's foreign-policy
aims in the Middle East proceed from the same incentive structures
and presuppositions about US supremacy." This is an important point,
which could be developed further.
There are two principal reasons for this. First, Harris and Trump's
worldviews are grounded in an article of faith that has undergirded
America's post-World War II foreign policy: maintaining U.S. hegemony
and supremacy. There is full agreement, as Kamala Harris recently
declared at the Democratic convention and reiterated in her debate
with former President Trump, that the U.S. must have the "most lethal"
military in the world, and that we must maintain our military bases
and personnel globally. While Trump may have a more openly mercenary
approach, demanding that the beneficiaries of U.S. protection in Europe
and Asia pay more for it, he is a unilateralist, not an isolationist.
At bottom, neither candidate is revisiting the presuppositions of U.S.
primacy.
Second, both Harris and Trump are subject to the overwhelming
incentive structure that rewards administrations for spending more
on the military and selling more weapons abroad than any other country
in the world. The sell-side defense industry has fully infiltrated the
U.S. government, with campaign donations and a revolving escalator to
keep Republicans and Democrats fully committed to promoting their
interests. The buy-side foreign regimes have gotten in on the pay-to-play,
ensuring handsome rewards to U.S. officials who ensure weapons sales
continue. And all sides play the reverse leverage card: If the U.S.
doesn't sell weapons, China and Russia (or even the U.K. and France)
will. There is no countervailing economic pressure, and little political
pressure, to force either Harris or Trump to consider the domestic and
global harms of this spending and selling.
In the Middle East, the incentive structure is at its most powerful,
combining the influence of the defense industry and the seemingly
bottomless disposable wealth of the Gulf States. And there are two
additional factors -- the unparalleled influence and control of the
pro-Israel lobby, which rewards government officials who comply with
its demands and eliminates those who don't; and Arab control over the
oil and gas spigots that determines the prices Americans pay for fuel.
As a result, continued flows of money, weapons, and petroleum will
ensue, regardless of who wins in November.
Whitson is executive director of Democracy for the Arab World
Now, after previously directing Human Rights Watch's Middle East
and North African Division from 2004 to 2020. Here are some older
articles:
Israel vs. world opinion: Although my
title is more generic, the keyword in my source file is "genocide,"
because that's what this is about, no matter how you try to style
or deny it.
Election notes:
Rachel M Cohen: [10-15]
Nebraska is the only state with two abortion measures on the ballot.
Confusion is the point. "The state's 12-week ban has already
upended care. Anti-abortion leaders want to go further."
Gabriel Debenedetti: Has a series of articles called
"The Inside Game":
[10-14]
David Plouffe on Harris vs. Trump: 'Too close for comfort':
"The veteran strategist on the state of play for his boss, Kamala
Harris, and what he thinks of the 'bed-wetters.'" He doesn't seem
to have much to say about anything, which may be what passes as
tradecraft in his world of high-stakes political consulting. It
does seem like an incredible amount of money is being spent on a
very thin slice of the electorate -- Plouffe is pretty explicit
on how he's only concerned with the narrow battleground states.
[09-15]
The WhatsApp Campaign: "Kamala Harris's team is looking for
hard-to-find voters just about everywhere, including one platform
favored by Latinos."
[10-02]
How Tim Walz saved himself: "At first, he looked overmatched by
JD Vance. Then came abortion, health care, and, above all, January 6."
[09-21]
How Kamala Harris knocks out Trump: "Mark Robinson's Nazi-and-porn
scandal ignites an all-out push to win North Carolina."
Errol Louis: [10-17]
Hey Democrats, don't panic -- here's why.
John Morling: [10-21]
It is not too late for the Uncommitted Movement to hold Democrats
accountable for genocide: "The Uncommitted Movement voluntarily
gave up its leverage but it is not too late to hold Kamala Harris
accountable for supporting the Israeli genocide in Gaza." Yes, it
is too late. The presidential election is about many things, but
one thing it is not about is Israeli genocide. To insist that it
is overlooks both that Trump has if anything been more supportive
of genocide, and that while he was president, he did things that
directly connect to the Oct. 7 Hamas revolt, and to Netanyahu's
sense that he could use that revolt as a pretext for genocide.[*]
On the other hand, punishing Harris suggest that none of the real
differences between her and Trump matter to you. Most Democrats
will not only disagree, they will blame you for any losses.
[*] Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, abandoning a major
tenet of international law. Trump ended the Iran nuclear deal. And
Trump's invention of the Abraham Accords was widely considered as
a major factor in Hamas's desperate attack.
Andrew Prokop: [10-21]
The big election shift that explains the 2024 election: "Progressives
felt they were gaining. Now they're on the defensive." A new installment
in a
Vox series the point of which seems to be to tell leftists to go
fuck themselves. As with the Levitz piece (also
hereabouts), this article is half false
and half bullshit. The false part starts with the "gaining" -- the
success of the Sanders campaigns had less to do with ideological
gains (although he made some, and continues to do so) than with his
presentation of a non-corrupt alternative to a very corrupt system),
and the adoption of some progressive thinking by Biden had more to
do with the proven failures of much neoliberal thinking under Obama
and Clinton -- and continues with the "defensive": Sanders' decision
not to challenge Biden and (later) Harris was largely a concession
to age, as well as a gesture of party unity against Trump and the
increasingly deranged Republicans, but also a sense that Harris
would be at least as willing to work toward progressive ends as
Biden had been. That Harris, having secured the nomination with no
real opposition from progressives or any other faction or interest
group, should deliberately tack toward political orthodoxy may be
disappointing to a few of us -- and in the especially urgent matters,
like Israel's wars and genocide, we still feel the need to speak
out[*] -- but the "assignment" (to use Chait's wretched phrase) is
to win the election, and that involves reaching and convincing a
majority of voters, way more than just self-conscious progressives,
in an environment and culture that are severely warped by moneyed
interests and mass media doublespeak. I'm inclined to trust that
what she's saying is based on sound research and shrewd analysis
with that one goal in mind. She's the politician, and I'm just a
critic. If she loses, I'll take what little joy I can in dissecting
her many failings, but if she wins, I can only be thankful for her
political skills, at least for a few days, until her statements
move from vote-grubbing to policy-making, in which case we critics
will have a lot of expertise to offer.
As for the left, I'm more bullish than ever. Capitalism creates
a lot of benefits, but it is also a prodigious generator of crises
and chronic maladies, and it fuels political ideologies that seek
to concentrate power but only compound and exacerbate them. Anyone
who wants to understand and solve (or at least ameliorate) thsee
systemic problems needs to look to the left, because that's where
the answers are. Granted, the left's first-generation solutions --
proletarian revolution and communism -- were a bit extreme, but over
many years, we've refined them into more modest reforms, which can
preserve capitalism's advances while making them safer, sustainable,
and ultimately much more satisfying. Post-Obama Democrats haven't
moved left but at least have opened up to the possibility that the
left has realistic proposals, and have adopted some after realizing
that politics isn't just about winning elections, it's also about
delivering tangible benefits to your voters. (Obama and Clinton no
doubt delivered tangible benefits to their donors, but neglect of
their base is a big part of the reason Trump was able to con his
way into his disastrous 2016 win.)
No problems are going to be solved on November 5. What will be
decided is who (which team) gets stuck with the problems we already
have. Republicans will not only not solve any of those problems,
they -- both judging from their track record and from their fantasy
documents like
Project 2025 (or Trump's somewhat more sanitized
Agenda47 -- they will make them much worse for most people,
and will try to lock down control so they can retain power even as
popular opinion turns against them. Democrats will be hard-pressed
to solve them too, especially if they revert to the failed neoliberal
ideologies of the Clinton-Obama years. But when decent folk do look
for meaningful change, the left will be there, with understanding
and care and clear thinking and practical proposals. Left isn't an
ideology. It's simply a direction, as we move away from hierarchy
and oppression toward liberation and equality. It only goes away
when we get there.
[*] It's not like Communists did themselves any favors when in 1939,
when after Stalin negotiated his "pact" with Hitler, they stuck to the
party line and dropped their guard against Nazi Germany. Ben-Gurion
did much better with his 1939 slogan: "We shall fight in the war
against Hitler as if there were no White Paper, but we shall fight
the White Paper as if there were no war." He ultimately succeeded
on both counts.
David Weigel: [10-15]
No matter who wins, the US is moving to the right: Prokop
cites this piece, which argues that the rightward shift of 1980-2005
had been countered by a leftward drift from 2005-20, but since 2000
the tide has shifted back to the right. His evidence is superficial,
mostly polling on language that correlates weakly with left/right.
Biden may have talked more left in 2020 because he literally stole
the nomination from Sanders, and desperately needed to shore up
left support (which he managed to do). Harris got the nomination
handed to her on a platter, with virtually no dissent from the
left, so she's been free to wheel and deal on the right, for
whatever short-term margin it might bring. But nobody on either
side thinks she's more conservative or orthodox than Biden. That's
why Republicans are in such a panic, so unmoored from reality.
Tony Romm/Eric Lau/Adriana Navarro/Kevin Schaul: [10-18]
Crypto cash is flooding the 2024 election. Here's who's benefiting.
Matt Sledge:
Endorsements:
Wikipedia:
Stephen Rohde: [10-07]
Why the Uncommitted and Undecided should vote for Kamala Harris:
"In sharp contrast to the lawless dictatorship Trump promises in his
second term, I urge Undecided voters to examine how Harris would
preserve democracy and continue to strengthen the United States."
He also explains that "since Uncommitted voters care about the
humanity and self-determination of the Palestinian people, Harris
is their best choice."
Trump:
Mariana Alfaro: [10-20]
Musk promises a daily $1 million lottery in questionable pro-Trump
effort: "Legal experts raised concerns about the legality of
the move because it ties a monetary reward to voter registration
status, which is prohibited under federal law."
Zack Beauchamp:
[10-16]
Critiquing Trump's economics -- from the right: "What one of the
right's greatest thinkers would make of Trumponomics." On Friedrich
Hayek, who saw himself as a classical liberal, and who saw everyone
else even slightly to his left as marching on "the road to serfdom."
But nothing here convinces me he would have a problem with Trump --
he was, like most of his cohort, a big Pinochet fan -- let alone that
his opinion (having been wrong on nearly everything else) should matter
to me.
p10-18]
The increasingly bizarre -- and ominous -- home stretch of Trump's
2024 campaign: "The past week of erratic behavior shows how he
manages to be silly and scary at the same time."
Jamelle Bouie:
Philip Bump: [10-18]
Trump's age finally catches up with him: "The man who would (once
again) be the oldest president in history has reportedly scaled back
his campaign due to fatigue. So who would run his White House?"
Zachary D Carter: [10-16]
The original angry populist: "Tom Watson was a heroic scion of the
Boston Tea Party -- and the fevered progenitor of Donald Trump's violent
fantasies." Link title was: "They say there's never been a man like
Donald Trump in American politics. But there was -- and we should
learn from him." If you're familiar with Watson, who started out as a
Populist firebrand and wound up as a racist demagogue, it's probably
thanks to C Vann Woodward, if not his 1938 biography,
Tom Watson: Agrarian Rebel, then (as in my case) his 1955 book,
The Strange Career of Jim Crow. But this, of course, is mostly
about Trump.
Something important happened at the end of Trump's presidency and the
beginning of Joe Biden's. Nobody wants to talk about it -- not even
conservatives bring up masks and school closures anymore, and much of
the discourse surrounding inflation studiously avoids reference to the
massive economic disruption of COVID-19. But one of the most important
cultural artifacts of the period is the sudden spread of vaccine
skepticism to the cultural mainstream. The anti-vaxxer delusion that
vaccines cause autism has lingered at the fringes of the autism
community in no small part because it provides narrative meaning to a
difficult and random experience. There is tremendous joy in the life
of a special needs parent, but there is also a great deal of fear and
pain. Fear, because you do not know how the world will respond to your
child, and pain, because you must watch your child struggle for no
fault of their own. For many, it is more comforting to believe that
their child's hardships are not a random act of fate but a product of
deliberate malfeasance. The idea that bad things happen for bad
reasons is more palatable than the belief that they happen for no
reason at all.
It is not only anti-vaxxers who seek such comfort. Americans on
both the left and the right avert their eyes from the story of Tom
Watson not only because the story is ugly and violent but because we
insist on being able to control our own destiny. From Huck Finn to
Indiana Jones, American mythology tends to write its heroes as
variations on the story of David and Goliath -- tales of underdogs who
secure unlikely triumphs against an overbearing order. Even when that
order is part of America itself, individual heroism soothes the
audience with the promise that the world's wrongs can be righted with
enough derring-do. Horatio Alger's novels of children born into
poverty could be read as an indictment of the Gilded Age social order,
but the romance of these stories always lies in a boy taking fate by
the horns. Watson disturbs us not only because he turns to evil but
because an extraordinary leader's earnest, Herculean attempt to right
the world's wrongs comes up short. To win, he assents to the dominion
of dark forces beyond his control.
Chas Danner: [10-15]
Trump turned his town hall into a dance party after fans got sick.
This was much ridiculed by late night comics, so I've seen much of
Trump and Kristi Noem on stage, but very little of the crowd, which
is usually the definition of a "dance party." How did the crowd react
after his bumbling responses to five setup questions? It's hard to
imagine them thrilling to multiple versions of "Ava Maria," but it's
also hard to imagine them showing up for the information. I wonder
if Trump rallies aren't like "be-ins" in the 1960s, where crowds
assemble to associate with similar people and complain about the
others. Trump defines who shows up, but after that, does it really
matter what he says or does? This was a test case, but if you start
thinking everything Trump does or says is stupid, your confirmation
bias kicked in instantly, without raising the obvious next question,
why do crowds flock to such inanity? Or are they as stupid as Trump?
Chauncey DeVega:
[10-08]
Trump's violent fantasies: Experts warn of "a terror that blinds
us to what's coming next". "As much as Donald Trump crows about
the need for 'law and order,' he is very much the embodiment of
lawlessness and disorder."
[10-17]
"Femiphobia" motivates MAGA males: Psychologist Stephen Ducat on
the gendererd tribalism of Trumpism.
[10-18]
"Thirst for the spectacle of Trump's cruelty": Exploring MAGA's
unbreakable bond. Some time ago, I noted that there are two
basic types of Christians in America: those whose understanding
of their religion is to love their neighbors and seek to help them,
and those who hate their neighbors, and see religion as a way to
punish them for eternity -- it's no wonder that the latter group
have come to define Christian Republicans.
DaVega includes a long quote from Peter McLaren, then adds:
McLaren notes "Trump is speaking to an audience that since 2016
has come to share Trump's worldview, his political intuition, his
apprehension of the world, what the Germans call Weltanschauung
and has created a visceral, almost savage bond with the aspiring
dictator."
As the next step in Trump's dictator and authoritarian-fascist
plans, he is now embracing scientific racism and eugenics by telling
his followers that nonwhite migrants, refugees and "illegal aliens"
have bad genes, i.e. "a murder gene." Last Monday, Trump told
right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt that, "You know now, a murderer --
I believe this -- it's in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes
in our country right now." Take Trump's obsessions with good genes
and bad genes and couple them with his remarks about "purifying the
blood" of the nation by removing the human poison and other human
vermin. Historically, both in American society and other parts of
the world, people with the "bad genes" that Trump is so obsessed
with have been removed from normal society through imprisonment and
other means. Such targeted populations have also been subjected to
eliminationist violence and forced sterilization.
Sometimes I wonder if Trump's team doesn't just plant this obvious
Nazi shit to provoke recognition and reaction. They know that it
just sails past their own people, while it turns their opponents
into whiny hysterics droning on about stuff no one else understands.
Griffin Eckstein: [10-11]
"Fascist to the core": Former Trump official Milley warns against
"dangerous" second term: "Trump appointee Mark Milley called
the ex-prez the 'most dangerous person ever.'"
Dan Froomkin: [10-20]
If Trump wins, blame the New York Times: "America's paper of
record refuses to sound the alarm about the threat Trump poses to
democracy." Sure, the Times endorsed Harris -- see [09-30]
The only patriotic choice for president -- but in such jingoistic
terms you have to wonder. Their opinion columnists are, as always,
artfully divided, but in day-to-day reporting, they do seem awfully
dedicated to keeping the race competitive (presumably the ticket to
selling more papers) and keeping their options open (as is so often
the way of such self-conscious, power-sucking elites). I've never
understood how many people actually take "the paper of record" all
that seriously. At least I've never been one.
Hadas Gold/Liam Reilly: [10-16]
Fox News did not disclose its all-women town hall with Trump was
packed with his supporters.
Annie Gowen: [10-20]
Trump repeats 'enemy from within' comment, targeting Pelosi and
Schiff: And there I was, thinking he meant me.
Evan Halper/Josh Dawsey: [10-18]
Trump has vowed to guy climate rules. Oil lobbyists have a plan
ready. "As companies fall short on methane emission reductions,
a top grade group has crafted a road map for dismantling key Biden
administration rules."
Margaret Hartmann:
Greg Jaffe: [10-20]
The CIA analyst who triggered Trump's first impeachment asks: Was it
worth it? Long piece, and at this point probably not worth your
time.
Sarah Jones: [10-15]
Donald Trump is deteriorating: "And as he does, the extremists
around him move closer to power."
Though braggadocio is a familiar Trump quality, much like his reluctance
to stick to his prepared remarks, he is arguably getting weirder -- and
more disturbing -- over time. Trump's speeches are so outlandish, so
false, that they often pass without much comment, as the New York
Times
reported earlier this month in a story about his age. Yet a change
is noticeable. "He rambles, he repeats himself, he roams from thought
to thought -- some of them hard to understand, some of them unfinished,
some of them factually fantastical," the Times noted, adding
that his speeches have become much longer on average, and contain
more negative words and examples of profanity than they previously
did.
Hassan Ali Kanu: [10-16]
Conservatives use Trump assassination to target women in anti-diversity
war: "It's a move to enshrine values into law, but it's not beyond
the realm of possibility." What? "The claim is one of reverse discrimination:
that the historically and presently male-dominated Secret Service
discriminates against men." Say whaaat?
Nicholas Liu:
Carlos Lozada: [10-13]
When Trump rants, this is what I hear: The author came to the
US when he was three, so technically he's an immigrant, a person
Trump makes rather gross generalizations about.
Amanda Marcotte:
Harold Meyerson: [10-10]
Trump's Made-in-China Bibles: "The imperative of Trump's price-gouging
(selling $3 Bibles for $59.99) meets the Holy Word."
Connor O'Keeffe: [10-16]
Beware of war hawks in "America First" clothing.
Heather Digby Parton:
[10-11]
Donald Trump's campaign stops give away the game: "California and
New York are not battleground states so why is the campaign spending
time there in the final weeks?" I don't see an answer here, but I also
don't like the idea that one should only campaign in "battleground"
states. (Not that I mind that both sides take Kansas for granted: this
has been a remarkably quiet election here in Wichita, with only two
political signs out as I walk the dog around the block -- both, fwiw,
Harris/Walz.)
[10-16]
The MAGA "weave": Donald Trump picks up steam as he dissembles on
stage: "Listen to the laughter when Trump insults the Wall St.
Journal at a meeting of an Economic Club in any major city. . . .
That's not about their wallets. Their wallets are fine. That's about
their ids."
[10-18]
Donald Trump's town hall with Latino voters shows his campaign is
clueless: "The Trump campaign is simultaneously courting Latino
voters and pushing the Great Replacement theory."
Russell Payne:
Sabrina Rodriguez/Isaac Arnsdorf: [10-01]
Trump mixes up words, swerves among subjects in off-topic speech:
"The Republican nominee appeared tired and complained about his
heightened campaign schedule."
Marin Scotten:
Vance, and other Republicans:
Harris:
Ryan Cooper:
Black men deserve better pandering from the Harris campaign:
"Crypto and weed are not how to advertise her ideas for this group."
Chas Danner: [10-17]
Who won Kamala Harris's Fox News interview with Bret Baier?
What does "winning" even mean here? The more salient question is
who survived with their reputation intact? This is really just a
catalog of reactions, the final of which was "both sides got what
they wanted." Which is to say, if you missed it, you didn't miss
much.
David Dayen/Luke Goldstein:
Google's guardians donate to the Harris campaign: "Multiple
Harris donors at an upcoming fundraiser are representing Google
in its case against the Justice Department over monopolizing
digital advertising." I have to ask, is digital advertising
something we even want to exist? Competition makes most goods
more plentiful, more innovative, and more affordable, but if
the "good" in question is essentially bad, maybe that shouldn't
be the goal. I'm not saying we should protect Google's monopoly.
A better solution would be to deflate its profitability. For
instance, and this is just off the top of my head, you could
levy a substantial tax on digital advertising, collect most of
it from Google, and then redistribute much of the income to
support websites that won't have to depend on advertising.
Elie Honig: [11-18]
Kamala Harris has finally embraced being a cop: "The label hurt
her in 2019. Today she wears it like a badge." Reminds me a bit of
when Kerry embraced being a Vietnam War soldier. He didn't get very
far with that.
Robert Kuttner: [10-09]
Notes for Harris: "It's good that Kamala Harris is doing more
one-on-one interviews, because she's getting a lot better at it.
Still, she occasionally misses an opportunity." E.g., "Harris could
point out that the administration has made a difference by challenging
collusion and price-gouging, in everything from prescription drugs
to food wholesalers."
Nicole Narea: [10-18]
How tough would a President Kamala Harris be on immigrants?
Christian Paz: [10-16]
Kamala Harris and the problem with ceding the argument: "The
vice president had a chance to defend immigrants on Fox News. She
passed."
Matthew Stevenson: [10-18]
Harris: Speed dating Howard Stern: I was surprised last week
to find the "shock jock and satellite-radio wit" endorsing Harris
last week, probably because I have zero interest or curiosity in
him, and may know even less.
Walz, Biden, and other Democrats:
Avishay Artsy/Sean Rameswaram: [10-21]
Why Wisconsin Democrats are campaigning in places where they can't
win: "To win statewide, the party wants to "lose by less" in
rural areas." That's good advice everywhere. Especially as Democrats
actually have a better proposition for rural voters than Republicans
have.
Ed Kilgore: [10-19]
Four good reasons Democrats are terrified about the 2024 election:
I wasn't sure where to fire this, but the reasons turn out to mostly
reside in Democrats' heads. Nothing here suggests that Democrats are
more likely to lose. It's just that if they lose, the consequences
will be far worse than whatever setbacks Republicans might suffer in
another Trump loss:
- Democrats remember 2016 and 2020
- Democrats fear Trump 2.0 more than Republicans fear Harris
- Only one party is threatening to challenge the election results
- If Harris wins, she'll oversee a divided government; if Trump
wins, he'll have a shot at total power
Eric Levitz: [10-17]
The Democrats' pro-union strategy has been a bust: "Despite
Joe Biden's historically pro-union policies, the Democrats' share
of the union vote is falling." First question is: is this true?
(Actually, either "this": the falling vote share, or the "pro-union"
policies.) Second question is would be anti-union (like Republicans)
win or lose votes? Most of the people who are locked into Republican
positions (e.g., guns, abortion) are so distrustful of Democrats no
amount of pandering can move them, but giving up positions that are
popular among Democrats can lose face and faith, and that can hurt
you more than you can possibly gain, even if there is no meaningful
alternative. Third point is who cares? If standing up for unions is
the right thing to do, why equivocate with polling? We live in a
country where the rich have exorbitant power, where unions are one
of the few possible countervailing options. Extreme inequality is
corroding everything, from democracy to the fabric of everyday life.
More/stronger unions won't fix that, but they'll help, and that's
good in itself, as well as something that resonates with other
promising strategies. Fourth, if you're just polling union members,
you're missing out on workers who would like to join a union if
only they could. Are your "pro-union" policies losing them? Or
are they offering hope, and a practical path to a better life?
On some level, Democrats and Republicans are fated to be polarized
opposites, each defined by the other and stuck in its identity. A
couple more pieces on labor and politics this year:
Erik Loomis: [09-26]
Preserving public lands: "Deb Haaland has been a remarkable
secretary of the interior. But the future is about funding in
Congress."
Supreme Court, legal matters, and other crimes:
Climate and environment:
Alex Abad-Santos: [10-11]
For some evacuation defiers, Hurricane Milton is a social media
goldmine: "They didn't listen to Hurricane Milton evacuation
orders. Then they posted through it." This reminds me of the hype
that "shock and awe" would win the war against Iraq, because all
it would take is one awesome demonstration of force to get Iraqis
to drop their arms and surrender. Problem was: the people who were
truly shocked were dead, and the rest survived not just the bombs
but the hype, making them think they were invincible.
Matthew Cappucci/Kelsey Baker: [10-19]
Hurricane Oscar forms in Caribbean, surprising storm watchers:
"Oscar probably won't be around long. After making a run at Cuba,
it will begin turning north into Monday and weakening into Tuesday."
Benji Jones: [10-17]
We need $700 billion to save nature: "Just a tiny fraction of the
global GDP could help stave off ecological collapse."
Robert Kuttner: [10-15]
How hurricanes are a profit center for insurers: "To compensate
for exaggerated expectations of claims, they jack up rates and hollow
our coverage, giving themselves more profit than before." As long
as the market will bear it, and up to the point when they really do
go bankrupt. This is, of course, the kind of profiteering business
schools teach their students to be shameless about.
Business, labor, and Economists:
Dean Baker: Quite a bit to catch up with here, as
he always has good points to make. In trying to figure out how
far I needed to go back, I ran across this tweet I had noted:
"Part of the job of a progressive government is to shift the
public narrative towards the idea that the state can improve
people's lives." I'll add that the point here is not to convince
you that government is good or benign, but that it belongs to
you and everyone else, and can be used to serve your interests,
as far as they align with most other people (or, as the US
Constitution put it, to "promote the general welfare, and secure
the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity"). While
progressives initially do this by advancing reasoned argument,
they also need to put it into practice whenever possible, and
actually do things to "promote the general welfare and secure
the blessings of liberty." You hear much about "democracy" these
days, but knows this: democracy makes good government possible,
but only works if/when people realize they have the power to
direct it. Also, make sure to check out Baker's free book,
Rigged.
[09-16]
Now that we all agree that 10 percent tariffs on imports are bad,
how about 1000 percent tariffs on prescription drugs?
[09-17]
The Washington Post is concerned about the budget deficit, again.
[09-22]
Why is it silly to think it's the media's job to inform the public?
[09-23]
My six favorite untruths about the Biden-Harris economy.
These are the subheds:
- The New York Times picks an atypical worker to tell a story
about a divided economy.
- It's hard for recent college grads to find jobs even when
their unemployment rate is near a twenty-year low.
- The two-full time job measure of economic hardship
- The retirement crisis
- The collapsing saving rate
- Young people will never be able to afford a home
He adds:
Those are my six favorites, but I could come up with endless more
pieces, like the CNN story on the family that drank massive amounts
of milk who suffered horribly when milk prices rose, or the New York
Times piece on a guy who used an incredible amount of gas and was
being bankrupted by the record gas prices following the economy's
reopening.
There are also the stories that the media chose to ignore, like
the record pace of new business starts, the people getting big pay
increases in low-paying jobs, the record level of job satisfaction,
the enormous savings in commuting costs and travel time for the
additional 19 million people working from home (almost one eight
of the workforce).
The media decided that they wanted to tell a bad economy story,
and they were not going to let reality get in the way.
[09-26]
The economy after the GDP revisions: "Basically, they tell us
a story of an economy that has performed substantially better since
the pandemic than we had previously believed."
The highlights are:
- An economy that grew substantially more rapidly than previously
believed and far faster than other wealthy countries
- Substantially more rapid productivity growth, suggesting more
rapid gains in wages and living standards and a smaller burden of
the national debt;
- Higher income growth than previously reported, with both more
wages and more profits;
- A higher saving rate, meaning that the stories about people
having to spend down their savings were nonsense.
There were also a couple of not-so-good items:
- A higher profit share that is still near a post-pandemic peak;
- A lower implicit corporate tax rate, although still well above
the 2019 level.
[10-05]
Automation is called "productivity growth". As he points out,
productivity growth was long regarded as a universal good thing,
until the 1980s, when businesses found they could keep all of the
profits, instead of sharing with workers.
Anyhow, this is a big topic (see Rigged, it's free), but the
idea that productivity growth would ever be the enemy is a bizarre
one. Automation and other technologies with labor displacing potential
are hardly new and there is zero reason for workers as a group to fear
them, even though they may put specific jobs at risk.
The key issue is to structure the market to ensure that the benefits
are broadly shared. We never have to worry about running out of jobs.
We can always have people work shorter hours or just have the government
send out checks to increase demand. It is unfortunate that many have
sought to cultivate this phony fear.
[10-08]
Tariffs and government-granted patent monopolies: bad and "good"
forms of protectionism. Baker rarely misses an opportunity to
bash patent monopolies -- an important issue that few others pay
much attention to.
[10-09]
Should Kamala Harris be celebrating the labor market? A sober
evaluation of a recent column by Peter Coy: [10-07]
Kamala Harris should think twice about touting this economy.
I will say that by any historical standard the labor market is doing
pretty damn good. It could be better, but a low unemployment rate and
rapidly rising real wages is a better story than any incumbent
administration could tell since -- 2000, oh well.
I would put more stress here on "it could be better" than on the
seemingly self-satisfied "pretty damn good." I'd also stress the
options: that Republicans and business lobbyists have obstructed
reforms that would help more (and in some cases virtually all) people,
and that the key to better results is electing more Democrats -- who
may still be too generous to the rich, but at least consider everyone
else.
[10-14]
CNN tells Harris not to talk about the economy. CNN is not
the only "neutral news outlet" to have persistently trashed the
economic success of the Biden-Harris administration, but they
have been particularly egregious. It's almost as if they have
their own agenda.
The goal for Democrats in pushing their many economic successes
(rapid job creation, extraordinarily low unemployment, real wage
growth, especially at the lower end of the wage distribution, a
record boom in factory construction) is to convince a small
percentage of the electorate that this is a record to build on.
By contrast, Donald Trump seems to push out a new whacked out
proposal every day, with the only constants being a massive tax
on imports and deporting a large portion of the workforce in
agriculture and construction.
Given the track record of the Biden-Harris administration
compared with the craziness being pushed by Donald Trump, it is
understandable that backers of Donald Trump would not want Harris
to talk about the economy. But why would a neutral news outlet
hold that view?
Emma Curchin: [10-17]
34 million seniors in Medicare advantage plans face rude awakening:
"Insurers are dropping plans and slashing benefits" -- you know, like
all private insurance companies everywhere.
Sarah Jones: [Fall 2024]
In the shadow of King Coal: "While the coal industry is in terminal
decline, it still shapes the culture of central Appalachia."
Paul Krugman: [10-17]
How Trump's radical tariff plan could wreck our economy.
Robert Kuttner: [10-18]
Redeeming the Nobel in economics: "This year's prize went to three
institutionalist critics of neoliberalism. The award is overdue."
Daren Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A Robinson. The latter two
were co-authors with Acemoglu of books like Why Nations Fail: The
Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012), and Power and
Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity
(2023). Johnson was also co-author, with James Kwak, of one of the
first notable books to come out of the 2008 financial meltdown: 13
Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown
(2010).
Bethany McLean: [10-17]
Senate report: How private equity 'gutted' dozens of US hospitals:
Thanks to modern tricks of financial engineering, investors can prosper
even when the underlying business is failing."
Ukraine and Russia:
Elsewhere in the world and/or/in spite of America's empire:
Philip Balboni: [10-14]
Why US foreign policy today is a form of 'isolationism': "Those
throwing around the epithet are the ones driving us to be more alone
in the world."
Van Jackson: I just ran across him today, but he has
several books I should have noticed by now, and a Substack newsletter
that I'll cite below. He describes himself as "a one-time 'defense
intellectual' and a longtime creature of the national security state,"
but also "on the left," albeit only in a "vague cosmopolitanism and
an antiwar sensibility, yet reflexively in support of the going
concerns of the Democratic Partly, including (paradoxically) military
primacy."
Other stories:
Joshua Frank: [10-18]
Pissing everyone off for 30 damn years: A memoir of writing for
Counterpunch since 1998, tied on the publication's 30th anniversary
to their annual funding campaign.
Whizy Kim: [10-16]
Is every car dealer trying to rip me off? "Why buying a car is
the worst kind of shopping." Cited here because after 18 years I'm
in the market for a new car, and because I've been for 2-3 years
without ever managing to put the time and effort into it. I've only
bought one used and four new cars in my life, and the new car I
spent the least time shopping for was by far the worst -- the
others were pretty good deals on pretty good cars. But I've seen
a lot of crap like this, and it pays to beware.
Obituaries
Books
Music (and other arts?)
Chatter
Meme quote from Michelle Wolf: "You know in High School if you
didn't believe in Science or History, it was just called failing."
I got this from a Facebook
thread, with several interesting comments, including this one from
Clifford Ocheltree:
I shall only point to an earlier remark, the failure of our educational
system to teach critical thinking. To be skeptical in the absence of
that learned skill is pure ignorance. I would add that perception plays
a critical role in how an uneducated populace becomes 'skeptical,'
'credulous' and 'easily duped.' We are, we have become, the product of
a failed educational system. One in which the vast majority of the
population cannot read directions on a bottle of aspirin or name the
three branches of the Federal Government. These failures allow both
parties to play fast and loose with history and science knowing full
well the audience isn't likely to 'get it.'
Ocheltree also addressed history: "History is the interpretation
of fact by 'experts' who bring their own bias." Someone else picked
this up, noting "I can't help laugh at the notion of your feigning
disdain for history" then asking "why do you lap up so many history
books?" Ocheltree replied:
Fact and history are not the same thing. Most 'experts' (historians)
have a bias and view 'facts' through that lens. Nearly 50 years ago
I read an excellent book by Frances Fitzgerald, "America Revised:
History Schoolbooks in the Twentieth Century" (1979). A discussion
and analysis of how history teaching and texts had changed over the
years. At times the result of new information coming to light and
at others the outgrowth of changing social standards or political
leanings. Some 20 years ago I discovered some 'facts' while researching.
Trial testimony with supporting documentation (original records) in
a Virginia court house basement. At a conference I had some time to
speak with the author of the leading text(s) being used on the topic
by any number of colleges. I shared my findings, privately, as they
disproved a good chunk of his work. His response in short? Nobody
will give a shit that I was wrong, my text is the accepted standard
and will always be paramount because it makes my point.
I would add, history and record reviews are much the same. The
author collects 'facts,' the critic listens. Each applies his/her
own bias. The idea that anyone would accept an authors' work(s) as
'unbiased' strikes me as a failure of our education system. Steven
Pinker's recent work has focused on the utter lack of training
students in the basics of critical thinking. I 'lap up' history
books with a jaundiced eye. I love the topic but learned many
years ago, just because a book has been issued isn't 'proof' that
it is accurate.
Hardin Smith, who started this thread, added:
Who said fact and history are the same thing? I sure didn't. But
that doesn't mean it's not worth studying and it doesn't mean that
it doesn't behoove people to have a working knowledge of it. And
certainly you'd agree that there are certain things that we can
all agree on, or at least on the general outlines. Here's a question:
if so much of what you read is biased, whose work are you using to
make that judgment? Is there a higher unbiased source you go to?
And, are there certain historical events that we can all agree to?
The Holocaust, the Moon Landing, Trump's loss in '20? Or is everything
in your world subjective opinion? Also, history is not like record
reviews, sorry. Record reviews are totally based on opinion, but
though there may be bias, history at least concerns itself with
actual facts. It's a subjective interpretation of actual facts.
There's never completely removing bias in anything produced by
humans, but I'd submit to you that some are more biased than others.
Some are relatively free of bias. None of it means that history
isn't worth knowing.
It's tempting to go all philosophical here, and argue that it's
all biased, all subjective, at best assertions that are subject to
independent verification -- same for record reviews, although the
odds of being rejected by other subjectives there are much elevated
compared to science, which has a longer history of refinement and
consensus building (not that similar processes don't apply to record
reviewing). Still, not much disagreement here. Smith seems to find
it important to maintain a conceptual division between opinion and
fact, between subjective and objective, which I find untenable and
not even necessary (although it's easy to fall into when arguing
with idiots -- which is why Wolf's joke is so cutting).
This leads us back to the importance of critical thinking,
which is ultimately a process of understanding one's own biases --
starting, of course, with exposing the biases of others. (Much
like crazy people developed psychoanalysis to understand, and
ultimately to master, their own neuroses.)
Ali Abunimah: [10-21]
In April, under pressure from "Israel," @amazon banned the sale of
The Thorn and the Carnation, the novel by Palestinian resistance
leader Yahya Sinwar.
You can still buy copies of Hitler's Mein Kampf from Amazon,
in multiple languages.
[Link to:
Amazon pulls book by Hamas leader Sinwar.
By the way, you can also still buy copies of Herzl's
The Jewish State, in many editions, as well as his utopian novel,
Altneuland (The Old New-Land) -- you know, the one about how
happy Arabs will be once Jews are running the state.]
Local tags (these can be linked to directly):
music.
Original count: 212 links, 12063 words (15688 total)
Current count:
224 links, 13319 words (17265 total)
Ask a question, or send a comment.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Music Week
October archive
(in progress).
Music: Current count 43039 [43015] rated (+24), 41 [42] unrated (-1).
Company departed, and left me feeling exhausted. I've been making
very slow progress on the upstairs bedroom/closet project, but have
very little to show for it, other than a gargantuan mess. I have a
lot of sanding to do -- hopefully tomorrow will be good enough,
after which I move on to primer and (still undecided) paint. The
paneling for the closet is cut, and so far seems to fit. After an
initial misstep -- one of way too many to count -- I think I bought
the right glue today, and also some screws (which are more likely
to work than the prescribed process of nailing around the edges).
I can imagine someone who knows what they're doing wrapping this
up in two days (plus breaks to let paint dry), but it's probably
going to take me another week. And the soreness just adds to the
frustration.
Somehow, in my spare time I knocked out a rather substantial
Speaking of Which yesterday. I added a couple small bits
today, as I don't have a file open for next week, and without
searching found a few items worth noting (e.g., an obituary
for rapper Ka, whose recent records are noted below, and a
record review by Allen Lowe).
More records this week than last. Probably more next week than
this, although it's hard to imagine ever getting back to normal.
New records reviewed this week:
Jessica Ackerley: All of the Colours Are Singing
(2022 [2024], AKP): Canadian guitarist, based in New York, has
several previous albums since 2019, this one backed with bass
and drums, plus viola/violin (Concetta Abatte) on four (of seven)
tracks).
B+(*) [sp]
Adekunle Gold: Tequila Ever After (2023, Def Jam):
Nigerian Afrobeats singer-songwriter, Adekunle Kosoko, went through
a Silver phase before he turned Gold. Has an interesting beat I
can't quite match up elsewhere.
B+(**) [sp]
Bad Moves: Wearing Out the Refrain (2024, Don Giovanni):
DC-based power pop quartet, third album after a 2016 EP, doesn't seem
like much as first, but grows on you, especially with earworms like
"I can't get the part where you fucked up out of my head."
B+(***) [sp]
John Chin/Jeong Lim Yang/Jon Gruk Kim: Journey of Han
(2024, Jinsy Music): Piano/bass/drums trio, some electric keyboards,
six originals by Chin, one each by the others, plus a few standards.
B+(*) [cd]
Guy Davis: The Legend of Sugarbelly (2024, M.C.):
Blues singer-songwriter, son of actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis,
first album 1978, has been remarkably consistent since his third
album in 1993.
B+(***) [sp]
The Kris Davis Trio: Run the Gauntlet (2024,
Pyroclastic): Pianist, from Canada, a major figure since 2004,
with Robert Hurst (bass) and Johnathan Blake (drums). This is
very good, rewards patient listening, but never quite grabs me.
B+(***) [cd]
Wendy Eisenberg: Viewfinder (2022-23 [2024],
American Dreams): Jazz guitarist, more than a dozen albums since
2017, singer-songwriter here, the songs focusing on seeing,
occasioned by eye surgery. But the shift to instrumentals,
chopped and skewed, gets more interesting.
B+(**) [sp]
Frode Gjerstad Trio: Unknown Purposes (2023 [2024],
Circulasione Totale): Norwegian saxophonist, started in Detail in
the early 1980s, many albums since 1996, Discogs lists 22 just for
his Trio, here with Jon Rune Strøm (bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love
(drums).
B+(***) [bc]
Frode Gjerstad/Margaux Oswald/Ivar Myrset Asheim: Another
Step (2024, Circulasione Totale): Relatively short live set
(2 pieces, 30:41), the leader on alto sax and clarinet, backed with
piano and drums.
B+(*) [bc]
Joel and the Neverending Sextet: Marbled (2023
[2024], Motvind): Norwegian cellist Joel Ring, second group album,
with Karl Hjalmar Nyberg on tenor sax/clarinet, backed with piano,
tuba, bass, and two drummers.
B+(***) [sp]
Ka: The Thief Next to Jesus (2024, Iron Works):
Rapper Kaseem Ryan, just got news of his death at 52 and recalled
that he had a recent album that I had trouble finding.
B+(**) [sp]
Omer Leshem: Play Space (2024, Ubuntu Music):
Tenor saxophonist, from Israel, based in New York, third album
since 2017, Bandcamp shows two releases (2008, 2016) from what
seems to be a different Omer Leshem (plays guitar, in Israel),
Discogs is no help here (one co-credit with Naama Gheber for an
arrangement that could go either way). Original pieces, backed
with guitar, piano, bass, and drums, nicely done postbop.
B+(**) [cd]
Terence McManus: Music for Chamber Trio (2024,
Rowhouse Music): Guitarist, albums start around 2010 with several
duos, including ones with Ellery Eskelin (tenor sax) and Gerry
Hemingway (drums), who return to fill out this trio. "Chamber"
seems to mean soft and slow, which over 71 minutes can add up
to plodding, but it's always nice to hear Eskelin.
B+(***) [cd]
Kate Pierson: Radios & Rainbows (2024, Lazy
Meadow Music): B-52s singer-songwriter from 1976 on, released a
solo album in 2015, and now this second one. The herky-jerk one
seems to have been Fred Schneider, but occasionally you get a
whiff of that here. Notable lyric: "If you give your heart to
science, I will give you mine."
B+(**) [sp]
Dafnis Prieto Sí o Sï Quartet: 3 Sides of the Coin
(2024, Dafnison Music): Cuban drummer, moved to New York in 1999,
debut album in 2004 was widely acclaimed, won a MacArthur in 2011,
never any doubt about his chops but I've been slow to warm to his
records, at least until this utter delight, with Ricky Rodriguez
on electric bass, and star turns by Martin Bejerano on piano and
Peter Apfelbaum on soprano sax, tenor sax, and flute.
A- [cd]
Dave Rempis/Jason Adasiewicz/Joshua Abrams/Tyler Damon:
Propulsion (2023 [2024], Aerophonic): Saxophonist
(alto, tenor, baritone) from Chicago, first appeared replacing
Mars Williams in Vandermark 5 and immediately established
himself as one of the world's greats. He's been releasing 3-5
new albums per year, some a bit rough for my taste, but most
are so brilliant even that can be an advantage. Not much to
differentiate his many releases, but key value added here
comes from the vibraphonist.
A- [cd]
Dred Scott/Moses Patrou/Tom Beckham/Matt Pavolka: Cali
Mambo (2023 [2024], Ropeadope): Piano, vibes, bass,
percussion. One original, the rest standards, with "Manteca"
especially fine as a closer.
B+(**) [cd]
M Slago/Homeboy Sandman: And We Are Here (2024,
Fly 7 Music): Hip-hop producer Chris Jones, originally from
Nashville but based in Dallas, has a previous (2021) solo album,
Sandman is presumably the rapper ("feat." on all tracks, but
joined on a couple, one with Aesop Rock).
B+(***) [sp]
Walter Smith III: Three of Us Are From Houston and Reuben
Is Not (2024, Blue Note): Tenor saxophonist, from Houston,
debut 2006 -- with bassist Reuben Rogers, who returns here (he's
from the Virgin Islands), along with two other Houston natives who
have made names for themselves: Jason Moran (piano) and Eric Harland
(drums). Exemplary postbop, nicely balanced, ever-shifting, sketchy
but pointed.
A- [sp]
Sulida: Utos (2023 [2024], Clean Feed): Norwegian
trio of Marthe Lea (tenor sax/flute), Jon Rune Strøm (bass), and
Dag Erik Knedal Andersen (drums), first group album (but all three
have albums under their own names), all songs joint credits. Very
solid effort.
B+(***) [sp]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
Kampire Presents: A Dancefloor in Ndola ([2024],
Strut): "Up-and-coming" DJ Kampire spins fourteen East African
grooves, some dating back to the 1970s, others "present day,"
details hard to come by, although influences include Congo and
Zambia -- home to Ndola, where the Kenya-born DJ grew up before
landing in Uganda, where his parents started.
A- [sp]
Miami Sound: Rare Funk & Soul From Miami, Florida
1967-1974 (1967-74 [2023], Soul Jazz): Pretty rare, with
George and Gwen McRae the most recognizable names, but funk, for
sure. [Rhapsody version is truncated from 17 to 9 tracks.]
B+(**) [r]
Miami Sound: More Funk and Soul From Miami, Florida
1967-1974 (1967-75 [2024], Soul Jazz): More adds up
to 20 songs, a few more artists I'm familiar with (Betty
Wright, Latimore).
B+(**) [r]
Old music:
Ka: Languish Arts (2022, Iron Works): One of a
pair of short albums released same day, at least digitally (vinyl
and CD came out in 2023). Ten songs, 28:23.
B+(**) [sp]
Ka: Woeful Studied (2022, Iron Works): Same day
release, ten more songs (26:27), not sure this is any better but
his calm narration over modest squiggles of sound may be growing
on me.
B+(***) [sp]
Don Walser: Rolling Stone From Texas (1994, Watermelon):
Country/western swing singer-songwriter (1934-2006), best known for
his yodeling, started a group called the Panhandle Playboys in 1950,
later led the Texas Plainsmen, but spent most of his adult years as
a mechanic and auditor in the National Guard, before "retiring" in
1994 and recording this career-defining album. Wikipedia notes that
"his extraordinary vocal abilities earned him the nickname 'the
Pavarotti of the Plains," which definitely overlooks Roy Orbison --
a comparison that occurred to me as soon as the opening sea of yodel
parted, although it took a couple of covers -- "Shotgun Boogie" and
"That's Why I'm Walking" -- to clarify into something uniquely his
own. Per John Morthland: "perhaps the last of God's great pure
country singers."
A- [sp]
Don Walser: Texas Top Hand (1996, Watermelon):
Second album, opens with a yodel on the title song, drifts
through various covers from "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" to "Weary
Blues From Waiting" to "Divorce Me C.O.D." to "Danny Boy."
B+(**) [sp]
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Caleb Wheeler Curtis: The True Story of Bears and the Invention of the Battery (Imani, 2CD) [11-01]
- Andy Haas: For the Time, Being (Resonant Music) []
- Shawneci Icecold/Vernon Reid/Matthew Garrison & Grant Calvin Weston: Future Prime (Underground45) [09-01]
- Laird Jackson: Life (self-released) []
- Pony Boy All-Star Big Band: This Is Now: Live at Boxley's (Pony Boy) [08-09]
Ask a question, or send a comment.
-- next
|