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Sunday, March 24, 2024

I was struck by this meme: "If Israelis stop fighting there will be peace. If Palestinians stop fighting there will be no more Palestinians." The first line is certainly true. This latest war has been so devastating that it's hard to imagine any fight left -- at least of the sort that would strike out at Israelis beyond their wall. The other obvious point is that there's no risk in trying. If Hamas does attack again, Israel can always strike back, and that reaction will be better understood than the systematic, genocidal war Israel is waging.

The second is less obvious, depending on what you mean by "stop fighting." Hamas has never had the capability of fighting Israel like Israel fights Gaza. Hamas has no air force, no navy, no submarines, no tanks, no heavy artillery, no anti-aircraft or anti-missile defenses, no drones. Their rockets are small and unguided, and have never produced more than accidental damage. Aside from the Oct. 7 jailbreak, the only way an Israeli gets hurt is by entering Gaza, and even then the ratio of Palestinian-to-Israeli casualties is 50-to-1 or more. That's not much of a fight.

However, the second line could be rewritten in terms that both sides will agree with, if not agree on: "Palestinians will [only] stop fighting when there are no more Palestinians." An army may sensibly surrender to a more imposing power, but this will only happen if one has hope of surviving and eventually recovering from surrender. Germany and Japan surrendered to the US to end WWII, but only because they believed that they would be given a chance to return to running their own lives. (See John Dower's Embracing Defeat for more on how Japan dealt with this. Japan is a better example than Germany, because its government was still intact when it surrendered, whereas Germany's was in tatters after Hitler's suicide.) A number of American Indian tribes surrendered with similar hopes, even though the US had given them little reason for such hope.

But Israel's current demands for ceasefire terms, following the genocidal threats of Israel's leaders, and the genocidal methodology they've practiced in this war, offer little or no hope to any Palestinian that surrender is anything but suicide. Israelis demand absolute servility, but know that they'll never get everyone to submit, that there will always be resistance of some sort, and as such their security will always be at risk. This presents them with an existential dilemma, to which there are only three solutions: equal rights, separation, or annihilation.

They have long refused to consider equal rights. (Lots of reasons we needn't consider here, like racism and demography.) They've considered separation, at least within certain bounds, but it's naturally a formula for war, so they've insisted on being the dominant power, both by building up a huge military advantage and by preventing Palestinians from ever developing their own popular leadership. But the solution they've always craved was annihilation. The problem there has been finding a time when they could get away with it. Oct. 7 was the excuse they were waiting for, dramatic enough that few of their allies grasped immediately how they had goaded Hamas into action.

Even so, Israel has always had a numbers problem. America was able to reduce its native population to levels where they became politically and economically irrelevant, after which annihilation no longer mattered, and some reconciliation was possible. But for Israel, there were always too many Palestinians, too close by, too economically developed and culturally sophisticated. For just these reasons, colonizers eventually gave up on Algeria and South Africa, but only after extraordinary brutality. Israel is the last to believe they're strong enough to beat down any and all resistance. And that's really because they have few if any scruples against killing every last Palestinian.

And don't for a moment think that Palestinians don't understand this. They've lived through it for decades, and while often beaten down, often severely, they've survived to resist again. They'll survive this, too, and will continue to resist, as peacefully as Israel will allow, or as violently as they can muster.

Looking further down my twitter feed:

From Rami Jarrah: Picture of an adult Palestinian male seated on a couch, surrounded 14 children (a couple into their teens). Text: "Nobody in this photo is alive. Israel's right to self defence."

From Kayla Bennett: Chart image. Text: "One of the most horrifying graphics ever." I looked for an article including the chart, and came up with:

• Ron Milo/Lior Greenspoon/Eyal Krieger: [2023-02-27] The weight of responsibility: Biomass of livestock dwarfs that of wild mammals.

• Nick Routley: [2023-04-28] Visualizing the biomass of all the world's mammals: Different graphs, but essentially the same data.

From Ryan Heuser: A link to the website for The New York War Crimes, reporting on propaganda published by The New York Times (motto: "All the Consent That's Fit to Manufacture"). I haven't figured out yet where the illustrations come from.

From Yousef Munayer retweeted Heuser, adding: "A new poll found that even though some 30,000 more Palestinians have been killed than Israelis since October, half of Americans didn't know which side has lost more lives. This has a lot to do with it."

From Etan Nechin retweeted Chris Olley: "[Pennsylvania]'s richest person Jeff Yass is buying Truth Social for $3 Billion so Trump can pay off his $450 Million judgment in return for Trump doing a 180 on his Tiktok and China stance to preserve Yass's $30 Billion-with-a-B stake in Tiktok. We call this oligarchy' when it's elsewhere." Nechin adds: "Notably, Jeff Yass was the main financier of Kohelet Forum, the shadowy organization behind Israel's attempted judicial coup that was championed by the settler far right. These oligarchs care little for democracy, only market interests." The Wikipedia page for Yass is here, which documents all this and more.

From Daniel Denvir: "Truth Social has roughly twice the monthly app users as my niche left-wing intellectual podcast has monthly downloads. The Dig's own healthy but rather modest financial situation suggests to me that this company is not worth nearly $6 billion."

From Paul Krugman: "So, did the ACA bend the cost curve? Call it coincidence, but excess cost growth -- health spending growing faster than GDP -- basically ended when it passed." See chart:

I'm reminded that Switzerland long had the world's second most expensive health care system, with costs increasing in tandem with US costs, until they adopted a universal non-profit insurance scheme. While this was still much more expensive than systems in UK, Germany, and France, it halted the increase, while US costs continue to rise. ACA hasn't worked as well as Switzerland's system -- by design, it isn't universal, and still allows (and sometimes encourages) profit-seeking -- but it was a step in the right direction.

Top story threads:

Israel:

• Mondoweiss:

  • [03-18] Day 164: Israeli army storms al-Shifa again, aid reaches Jabalia for first time in months: "Over a million people in Gaza face 'imminent' famine as UNRWA aid trucks arrive in northern Gaza for the first time in months. Meanwhile, the Israeli army's Chief of Staff says 'a long way to go' until Israel's military objectives are achieved."

  • [03-19] Day 165: Israeli attacks escalate on Rafah, al-Shifa Hospital invasion enters second day: "After a night of heavy bombardment the PA warns Israel's Rafah offensive has begun. Meanwhile, the invasion of al-Shifa hospital continues; all communication with medical staff trapped inside the hospital has been silent since Monday evening."

  • [03-20] Day 166: Israel kills Gaza officials handling food delivery to the north; Canada votes to halt arms sales to Israel: "Hamas slams Israel for 'spreading chaos' after an Israeli airstrike killed two local police officers in charge of securing and delivering food to north Gaza. In the West Bank, Israeli forces and settlers kill two Palestinians."

  • [03-21] Day 167: Israel has killed over 100 aid workers in Gaza in the last week: "Israel has killed over 100 aid workers in Gaza over the past week as its military siege of al-Shifa Hospital continues. Meanwhile, the Netanyahu government continues planning for an invasion of Rafah."

  • [03-22] Day 168: US advances UN Security Counsil ceasefire resolution as al-Shifa Hospital siege enters fifth day: "The siege of al-Shifa Hospital enters its fifth day as the Israeli army threatens to blow up the hospital, while the U.S.'s proposed UNSC resolution uses nebulous language that does not call for an "immediate" ceasefire.

  • [03-23] Day 169: Israel kills 7 aid-seekers in northern Gaza, 4 children in Rafah as siege of al-Shifa Hospital enters sixth day: "Israel continued its airstrikes on Rafah, killing four children, while in northern Gaza Israel turned back food aid for the second time in a week and killed at least 7 Palestinian aid-seekers near the Kuwaiti roundabout."

  • [03-24] Day 170: Israel assaults al-Shifa, Nasser, and al-Amal hospitals in one day: "Israeli forces ordered Palestinians inside al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis to leave 'naked,' while survivors of the al-Shifa Hospital raid witnessed numerous atrocities committed by the Israeli army. In Jerusalem, Israeli settlers stormed al-Aqsa."

• Sabreen Akhter: [03-21] When children are present in a genocide.

• Faress Arafat: [03-23] Gaza's children are enduring overwhelming trauma: "A Palestinian nurse from the al-Shifa Hospital recalls his experience tending to the children wounded and killed in the war."

• Mohamad Bazzi: [03-21] The Gaza famine is human-made. And the US is complicit in this catastrophe.

• Cate Brown: [03-22] Israel announces largest West Bank land seizure since 1993 during Blinken visit.

• Eliza Griswold: [03-21] The children who lost limbs in Gaza: "More than a thousand children who were injured in the war are now amputees. What do their futures hold?"

• Isaac Chotiner: [03-21] The brutal conditions facing Palestinian prisoners: "Since the attacks of October 7th, Israel has held thousands of people from Gaza and the West Bank in detention camps and prisons." Interview with Tal Steiner, whose Public Committee Against Torture in Israel tries to monitor such things.

• Stephanie Guilloud: [03-20] There is nothing we can do about Israel other than everything: "The war on Gaza is being used to advance fascism and white supremacy in the U.S. It is also opening people's eyes to global systems that require genocide to continue. To stand with Palestine is to transform those systems and build a different world."

• Middle East Monitor: [03-13] Satellite images show 35% of Gaza's buildings destroyed.

• Mondoweiss: [03-18] The real reason Israel stormed al-Shifa Hospital yet again: "Israel's latest attack on al-Shifa Hospital and the successful delivery of food aid to northern Gaza are connected. Here's how."

• Yumna Patel: [03-22] Israel's plans to replace its Palestinian labor force could spell disaster for the Palestinian economy.

• Meron Rapoport: [03-20] The Israeli public is dispirited. So why is the right euphoric?

• Jeremy Scahill: "Man-made hell on Earth": A Canadian doctor on his medical mission to Gaza: "Palestinian doctors 'are working on a daily basis on the most horrific, explosive trauma that you've ever seen. They're doing sometimes 14, 15 amputations, mostly on children, per day, and they've been doing it for six months now."

• Amna Shabana: [03-20] 'All of them are gone except me': "My friend Reem Hamadaqa barely survived an attack on her home in Khan Younis that killed her parents and most of her family. What do you tell a friend who has lost nearly everything?"

• Richard Silverstein: [03-23] Amalek directive approves murders of Hamas leaders' families: "Israel targeting Hamas leadership for elimination along with all family members." The "Amalek directive" refers back to an earlier [2023-10-25] post: Israeli security cabinet orders murders of senior Hamas leaders and families: "Ministers tasked IDF and Shin Bet with mass assassinations, invoking a Biblical verse commanding extermination of Amalek."

• Maureen Tkacik: [03-20] What really happened on October 7? "And why, wonders a new Al Jazeera documentary, did the media go to such lengths to concoct gruesome X-rated versions of an attack that was harrowing enough to begin with?" Pull quote: "Hamas had some rockets, but did it really have the weaponry capable of mounting this level of destruction? Western journalists have reported that Hamas was fully responsible." Who did? Well:

  By November, the IDF conceded that it had, actually, deployed Apache helicopters and tanks to the Nova music festival that "may" have killed "some" of the Nova festival concertgoers, in accordance with something called the Hannibal Directive, a doctrine named for a Carthaginian general who poisoned himself rather than be questioned by his Roman captors, whereby the Israeli army is ordered to fire upon its own troops to prevent the enemy from taking those troops hostage. Around noon on October 7, according to Israeli newspapers cited in the documentary, the IDF may have invoked a version of the Hannibal directive, expanded to include Israeli civilians, and in accordance began blindly opening fire with rockets and helicopter gunships on any person or vehicle seen moving across the border with Gaza. In particular, the documentary visits Kibbutz Be'eri, which looks a bit like present-day Gaza in parts, with a munitions expert who demonstrates strong evidence that some of the houses had been hit with IDF tank fire. It was Israeli troops, not Hamas "murderers," according to one resident, who killed 12 longtime residents there.

  Also on the Al Jazeera documentary:

  • Peter Oborne: [03-22] Al Jazeera tells the 7 October story that British media will not.

• Alex de Waal: [03-21] We are about to witness in Gaza the most intense famine since the second world war: "Even when the numbers of people needlessly dying dwindle, the scars of famine will endure."

• Vivian Yee/Iyad Abuheweila/Abu Bakr Bashir/Ameera Harouda: [03-23] Gaza's shadow death toll: Bodies buried beneath the rubble.

Israel vs. world opinion:

• Michael Arria:

  • [03-20] Canadian foreign minister says country will stop arms sales to Israel.

  • [03-21] The Shift: Schumer's speech.

  • [03-22] Ceasefire resolutions are building organizing power throughout the US: "More than 100 ceasefire resolutions have passed throughout the United States. They might seem merely symbolic, but activists say they will have a lasting impact." I can add that according to friends who have been working on this, the effort in Wichita, KS, is just one vote short of passing.

  • [03-23] US cuts UNRWA funding as famine looms for Gaza: This was included in the bill to avoid shutting down the government.

• Ramzy Baroud: [03-22] Cognitive dissonance: Perplexed US foreign policy is prolonging Gaza genocide: "Perplexed" works on two levels here: they can't figure out how to do things, because they're stuck in a lot of dysfunctional ideas (like deterrence, sanctions, their great "indispensable nation" conceit); but they also can't figure out what they want to do, partly because Israel doesn't allow them any sensible options.

• Daniel Boguslaw: Biden decries civilian deaths in Gaza as Pentagon fails with its own safeguards.

• Peter Beinart: [03-22] The great rupture in American Jewish life.

• Jonathan Chait: [03-21] Schumer is a better friend to Israel than Netanyahu's allies: "Israelis have a right to know the dangers of Netanyahu's one-statism."

• Stan and Priti Gulati Cox: [03-19] Blocking the aid trucks, letting the tanks roll.

• Thomas L Friedman: [03-19] What Schumer and Biden got right about Netanyahu: Like them, Friedman's been so securely on the party bus for so long that he feels entitled to weigh on on Israeli politics, if only to pretend that something can be redeemed out of their descent into genocide. Mostly, that means another attempt to rescue the "two-state" mirage.

  As I've noted elsewhere, "two-state" is a card that Israel shows on occasion when it seems convenient, but always withdraws, because they're unwilling to allow anything like an independent state of Palestinians. Or maybe they've just found it unnecessary, as long as no one seriously twists their arms -- Americans have nominally supported "two-state" since 1967, but never required more than a bit of lip-service. They have at various points suggested they'd agree to "two-state": they supported the 1937 and 1947 partition plans, they agreed to UN resolutions in 1967 and 1973 which they never followed up on, they agreed with Egypt in 1979 to "autonomy" (a vague term with no timetable), they agreed to Oslo (with various delays for "confidence building" that never happened, at least to their satisfaction); all the while building more settlements designed to establish "facts on the ground" making it impossible to return land to any Palestinian state.

  Friedman's six points here just show how maleable his mind is to Israeli thinking. For instance, "Hamas's attack was designed to halt Israel from becoming more embedded than ever in the Arab world thanks to the Abraham Accords and the budding normalization process with Saudi Arabia." So, the real reason a thousand Hamas fighters undertook a suicide mission was to spoil Jared Kushner's kickback scam? Gaza had been blockaded and was being choked to near-death, especially since 2005, but Israelis can only imagine their own existence at stake.

  Mention "one-state," with its obvious implication of everyone under that state enjoying equal rights, and Israelis will reject the very idea as a "non-starter" -- as an idea they're unwilling to even entertain, even though every real democracy takes pains to protect minority individual rights from majoritarian abuse.

• Liz Goodwin/Abigail Hauslohner/Yasmeen Abutaleb/Leigh Ann Caldwell: [03-20] Republicans hug Netanyahu tighter as Democratic tensions with Israel war strategy boil: "The Israeli PM criticized Schumer's comments calling for a new election as 'outrageous' in GOP-only meeting." The meeting itself says volumes about those present: how arrogant and careless Netanyahu is about entering into American party politics, and how arrogant and careless Republicans are in usurping Biden's foreign policy prerogatives. But my first reaction was simply, "birds of a feather flock together" -- be they fascists, or merely criminal-minded.

• Michael Hirsh: [03-22] From 'I love you' to 'asshole': How Joe gave up on Bibi.

• Elie Quinlan Houghtaling: In harrowing speech, AOC warns the US is aiding "genocide" in Gaza.

• Gabriela Kaplan: [03-24] 'Not in my name': How a new generation is divesting from Israeli apartheid.

• Fred Kaplan: [03-18] What Trump really means when he says he would end the war in Gaza "quickly". Why write the article when you know the answer is "nothing"? Trump spent his first term in thrall to his advisers and donors/investors, and got nothing to show for it (aside from his son-in-law pocketing $2B for his Abraham Accords scam). Ok, one stroke of genius was scheduling the Afghanistan withdrawal to occur on Biden's watch, as that was the exact point his approval rates sunk under 50%. But that suggests Trump was smart enough to lose 2020 on purpose, so Biden would get blamed for all of the messes Trump left -- Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Gaza are the loudest ones to date, but many more are still simmering -- so he could rise again and claim a second term on his own far more extremist terms. The main foreign policy change to expect from Trump 2.0 is that he will provide a much more credible test of Nixon's "madman theory."

• Tariq Kenney-Shawa: [03-22] Don't be fooled by Antony Blinken's crocodile tears: "The secretary of state is very good at projecting empathy about the horror in Gaza. But his actions speak much louder than his words."

• Amed Khan: Organizing aid to Gaza led me to a harsh truth: Biden is on board for ethnic cleansing: "I helped with airlifts in Afghanistan, aid to the Ukrainian front, and building roads in Rwanda. None of it prepared me for the challenges of Gaza.

• David Klion: Hit dogs holler: What the backlash against Jonathan Glazer says about Israel's defenders.

• Mary Lawlor: [03-21] There is no moral argument that justifies the sale of weapons to Israel: "Israel has shown it will use these arms indiscriminately against Palestinians."

• Branko Marcetic: [03-23] Israel's meddling in US politics is aggressive and unceasing.

• Joseph Massad: [03-20] In the West, Israel never reinitiates violence, it only 'retaliates': Or so says Western media, especially the New York Times.

• Jeff Melnick: [02-27] A 'Black-Jewish alliance' in the US? Israel-Gaza war shows it's more myth than special relationship.

• James North: [03-23] Mainstream media finally reports on Gaza famine but won't admit Israel is deliberately responsible.

• Trita Parsi: [03-22] Why US ceasefire proposal failed at UNSC: "Russia and China vetoed language which did represent a shift for Biden -- but the devil is in the details."

• Mitchell Plitnick: [03-23] Chuck Schumer's speech widens rifts over Israel in Congress: "Democrats are fracturing over support for Israel, because their constituents don't support it. The long-term result might be the end of the bipartisan consensus on Israel."

• Ted Rall: [03-20] Israel: Hermit kingdom: "Why is Israel rapidly sliding into pariah status now?"

• Michael Sappir: The spiraling absurdity of Germany's pro-Israel fanaticism.

• Karim Sariahmed: [03-19] Doctors justify genocide in a prestigious journal: "The Journal of the American Medical Association published four letters rife with racist anti-Palestinian tropes. The prestigious platform created the appearance of intellectualism and expertise, but it's all just racism with a ribbon on it."

• Norman Solomon: [03-24] How Israel hides its atrocities in Gaza: "Apologists for Israel's mass murder in Gaza fall back on 'antisemitism' claims."

• Prem Thakker: US doubles down on defunding UNRWA -- despite flimsy allegations.

• Philip Weiss: [03-24] Weekly Briefing: Zionism will never be viewed the same after the Gaza genocide: "Jeffrey Goldberg used to brag of his Israeli military service but this week was forced to withdraw from a speaking event after students asked how a former IDF prison guard could speak on democracy. Zionism has lost its hallowed perch in U.S. society."

America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire:

• Sam Biddle: Tech official pushing TikTok ban could reap windfall from US-China cold war.

• Connor Echols: [03-21] 'Not defendable': Top enlisted brass blast conditions for soldiers: "The 'quality of life' for military and their families has become a persistent problem, and its feeding into the recruitment crisis."

• Jonathan Freedland: [03-22] In defying Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu is exposing the limits of US power.

• Daniel Larison: [03-22] Hawks pushing for 'axis of evil' reunion tour: "Lumping US adversaries into a single-headed monster is a paranoid delusion used as to fuel militarism."

• Alfred McCoy: [03-12] The American Empire in (ultimate? crisis: "The decline and fall of it all?" Sections, predictably, include: "Creeping disaster in Ukraine"; "Crisis in Gaza"; and "Trouble in the Taiwan Straits."

• Andrew O'Hehir: [03-04] America in 2024: Blind, blundering Colossus on a downward slide: "If the Biden-Trump rerun wasn't embarrassing enough, US support for Israel has alienated the entire world."

• Ishaan Tharoor: Washington Post's "Worldview" columnist. These pieces could be scattered about, but fit together:

  • [03-19] Israel's war on Hamas brings famine to Gaza: "What makes this calamity all the more stunning is that it's entirely the product of human decisions." Catherine Russell says, "we haven't seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world." He also notes that "Israeli officials, chiefly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appear unmoved by the state of affairs." Like it's exactly what they wanted.

  • [03-20] How the war in Ukraine has split the Czechs and Slovaks.

  • [03-22] Mexico rejects Texas's 'draconian' migrant law.

  • [03-25] The US and Israel have a 'major credibility problem': Let's quote some of this, about US Assistant Secretary of State Bill Russo:

    According to NPR, Russo said in his March 13 call that Israel -- and the United States, as Israel's security guarantor and close ally -- face a "major credibility problem" because of the war, the astonishing Palestinian death toll (now more than 32,000 people), the man-made famine gripping ravaged areas of the Gaza Strip, and growing global frustration with Israel's insistence on prolonging the war to fully eradicate militant group Hamas.

    "The Israelis seemed oblivious to the fact that they are facing major, possibly generational damage to their reputation not just in the region but elsewhere in the world," the memo saida. "We are concerned that the Israelis are missing the forest for the trees and are making a major strategic error in writing off their reputation damage."

• Alex Thurston: [03-21] Why the Nigerien junta wants to kick US troops out: "While Washington's policy has been rudderless since last year's coup, an American exit might not be a bad thing." Also:

• Nick Turse: US-trained Niger junta kicks out US troops, drone base.

Election notes: After Super Tuesday, this is turning into a category with not much happening, or at least not much people are bothering to write against. March 19 saw presidential primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio. Biden's been winning the Democratic side by a bit over 80%, which isn't great for an incumbent, but also isn't disastrous. Trump wins as easily, but rarely hits 80% -- also not great considering no one is actively running against him. (In Arizona, the figures were 89.3% Biden, 78.8% Trump; in Florida, 81.2% Trump; in Illinois, 91.5% Biden, 80.6% Trump; in Kansas 83.8% Biden, 75.5% Trump; in Ohio, 87.1% Biden, 79.2% Trump; in Louisiana, 86.1% Biden, 89.8% Trump. Missouri had a caucus, where Trump got 100% of 924 votes.

• Paul Krugman: [03-21] What's the matter with Ohio?

• Nia Prater: [03-22] The Republican Party is too embarrassing for George Santos: So he's going to run as an independent in Nick LaLota's (R-NY) House district. Most people run as independents because they think they are, but the big advantage for Santos is that he can keep his campaign finance scam going all the way to November, instead of getting wiped out in the primary. So pretty much the same reason Bob Menendez is running as an independent to keep his Senate seat in New Jersey.

Trump, and other Republicans: Salon picks up some substantial pieces, but they also do a lot of stuff that basically amounts to Trump trolling. I usually skip past them, but this week they especially spoke to me, so quite a few got crammed in here this week. I can also give you some author indexes, in case you want to dig deeper (just scanning the titles is often a hoot):

• Igor Derysh: managing editor
• Chauncey DeVega: senior politics writer
• Brian Karem
• Amanda Marcotte: senior politics writer, author of Troll Nation: How the Right Became Trump-Worshipping Mosters Set on Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself.
• Kelly McClure: nights & weekends editor
• Dean Obeidallah: broadcaster, mostly interviews
• Heather Digby Parton: columnist
• Norman Solomon: author of War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine
• Kirk Swearingen
• Tatyana Tandanpolie: Trump crime beat reporter
• Lucian K Truscott IV

This week's links on all things Republican (the Trumpier the better, but the real evil lies in the billionaire-funded think tanks):

• Avram Anderson/Shealeigh Voitl: [03-22] Heritage Foundation's blueprint for regression: "Project 2025 targets vulnerable communities, politicizes independent institutions, and quashes dissent."

• Gregg Barak: [03-23] It's time to ignore Trump's trials: Criminal accountability is now a distraction: "Please wake up sleeping America." It's a rather messy argument, but until judgment came, the civil trials seemed like a circus sideshow, but now he's scrambling for money. Barak himself has a book coming out soon, which news will quickly render obsolete: Indicting the 45th President: Boss Trump, the GOP, and What We Can Do About the Threat to American Democracy.

• Jonathan Chait: [03-23] The paramilitary candidate: "Trump has made justice for insurrectionists the center of his campaign."

• Jeremy Childs: [03-24] Eric Trump says lenders he hit for half-billion dollars in father's bond scramble 'were laughing'.

• Nick Corasaniti/Maya King/Alexandra Berzon: [03-18] The GOP flamethrower with a right-wing vision for North Carolina: "Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, has a long history of inflammatory statements. He has also called for weaving conservative religious beliefs into the fabric of government."

• Oliver Darcy: [03-22] NBC hires former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, who has demonized the press and refused to acknowledge Biden was fairly elected. As Norman Ornstein tweeted: "At $300,000. Far more than experts, and honest analysts. What an utter disgrace." Not the only blowback:

  • Drew Harwell: [03-24] Former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel faces sharp criticism after NBC hiring.

  • Jack McCordick: [03-24] Ronna McDaniel won't be appearing on MSNBC: "Intense internal backlash has followed NBC News' hiring of the former RNC chair as political analyst." So "cancel culture" got her? I could see that she might be worth it if she totally turned on Trump, and offered the sort of insider dish that proved it. But she isn't credible until she turns, nor is doing so for big bucks helping much. And if she doesn't turn, NBC is just offering her a golden parachute to continue her work as a Republican propagandist.

  • Philip Bump: [03-25] Ronna McDaniel quickly demonstrates that her view isn't worth the cost.

• Igor Derysh:

  • [03-13] "Make the RNC white again": Minority outreach cut, Trump election lawyer installed in MAGA takeover.

  • [03-19] Trump melts down on Truth Social as lawyers admit he can't get bond.

  • [03-21] Legal analyst flags massive Trump Tower debt as AG Letitia James threatens to seize his properties.

  • [03-22] Cash-strapped Trump diverts donations from RNC to pay mounting legal bills after angry denials.

  • [03-22] Trump cashes in on Truth Social "meme stock" -- but can't use the money to pay $454 million penalty.

• Chauncey DeVega:

  • [03-21] Lost in the malignant normality of the Trumpocene: "Normalizing MAGA abuse only further entraps us."

  • [03-22] Trump's love letters to MAGA: Campaign emails forge a cult bond: "Trump campaign emails have become quite phallic and psychosexual."

• Kevin T Dugan: [03-21] How screwed is Trump? "Unless he can find a way out of paying Tish James, he will go bust on Monday."

• Abdallah Fayyad: [03-19] Trump is suddenly in need of a lot of cash. That's everyone's problem. Why on earth is that? The US judicial system isn't famed for treating convicts with the sort of kid gloves Trump feels he's entitled to. Is this supposed to be some variation on the joke: "if you owe thousands, that's your problem; if you owe millions, that's the bank's problem"? Whatever happened to "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime"? I might grant that the system, in general, is biased against defendants, and tends toward overly harsh judgments. But why should Trump, a guy who seems incapable of remorse, and who has never shown any sympathy for anyone else, be the exception? If anything, he's a flagrant example of what the justice system is designed to protect us against.

• Henry A Giroux: [03-17] Brecht's warning about the serpent's egg: Everyday Fascism: "In a world shaped increasingly by emerging authoritarianism, it has become increasingly difficult to remember what a purposeful and substantive democracy looks like."

• Rae Hodge: [01-29] The Trump White House was hopped up on Air Force "go pills" because of course it was.

• Elie Honig: [03-22] What are the odds Trump goes on trial before the election?

• Brian Karem: [03-21] We have met the enemy and he is us: "Trump is just a symptom. The absurdity is everywhere." Links to:

  • Howie Klein: [03-15] The press is pathologizing the normal in the case of Biden . . . and normalizing the pathological in the case of Trump.

  • Jonathan V Last: [03-15] What if Americans *can't* understand the Trump crazy? "Our brains are hardwired to normalize extraordinary inputs when they become ordinary." [stopped by paywall, but he's also quoted by Klein]

• Ed Kilgore:

  • [03-21] Why would Trump back a 15-week national abortion ban now?

  • [03-21] Republicans abandon their strategic silence on the Israel-Hamas war: "It's pretty clear Republicans and their beloved Bibi are now engaged in a mutual escalation of partisan rhetoric."

  • [03-21] Trump defenders dismiss all his legal problems as 'lawfare'.

  • [03-22] Under threat from Marjorie Taylor Greene, GOP speaker faces fateful choice: She's upset that Mike Johnson allowed the House to pass a bipartisan appropriations bill instead of shutting down the government, and worried that Johnson may let Ukraine aid come up for a vote. On the other hand, Democrats may want the Ukraine bill enough to save Johnson's speakership (which they didn't do for Kevin McCarthy). PS:

    • Igor Derysh: Gaetz opposes MTG motion to oust speaker.

    • Chris Lehman: [03-22] Marjorie Taylor Greene's vacant motion.

    • Jim Newell: Congrats to Marjorie Taylor Greene on a perfectly executed stunt.

• Clare Malone: [03-25] The face of Donald Trump's deceptively savvy media strategy: "The former President and his spokesman, Steven Cheung, like to hurl insults at their political rivals, but behind the scenes the campaign has maintained a cozy relationship with much of the mainstream press." Evidently, he's the one responsible for lines like "[DeSantis] shuffled his feet and gingerly walked across the debate set like a 10 year old girl who had just raided her mom's closet and discovered heels for the first time" and "it's clear to see that Haley's campaign is just one giant grift to either build her name ID for life after politics or to audition for a cable news contributor contract."

• Amanda Marcotte:

  • [03-19] Trump's call for a "bloodbath" was literal -- let's not waste time pretending it was ambiguous.

  • [03-20] White evangelicals embrace raunchy photos -- yet they hate sex as much as ever.

  • [03-22] Trump's criminal cases are his campaign.

• Lisa Mascaro/Mary Clare Jalonick/Jill Colvin: [03-19] Trump is making the Jan. 6 attack a cornerstone of his bid for the White House.

• David Masciotra: [03-16] Ignorance and democracy: Capitalism's long war against higher education: "My alma mater, and dozens of other colleges, are ditching the liberal arts. That's a good way to kill off democracy." Sounds like a pretty broad indictment, but first two words in article are "Donald Trump," and a pull quote cites advanced degree holders Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz. When I see names of some Harvard grads -- KS Attorney General Kris Kobach is one, and as far as I can tell he's never written a law that's been upheld as constitutional -- I'm reminded of the Randy Newman lyric: "Good old boys from LSU, went in dumb, came out dumb too."

  This led me to a couple older articles:

  • [02-03] Remember the rules, liberals: Only the right gets to mock America: "Chase CEO Jamie Dimon offers words of wisdom from Davis: Be nicer to MAGA 'deplorables,' bow down before Trump."

  • [2021-07-11] Could genocide really happen here? Leading scholar says America is on "high alert": Interview with Alexander Laban Hinton, who wrote It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US.

  • [2021-05-09] Now we're supposed to think Reagan, Bush and the Cheneys are cool? They got us here.

• Andrea Mazzarino: [03-21] A dictatorship on day one? If America were a Trumpian autocracy.

• Kelly McClure: [03-22] Trump refers to AG Letitia James as having an "ugly mouth" and "low IQ" in Truth Social rant.

• Harold Meyerson: [03-21] Republicans say it aloud: They want to raise the retirement age: "The vast majority of House GOPniks tell Americans that if they want Social Security, they need top work longer."

• Stephanie Mencimer: [03-25] From laddie mag model to RNC co-chair: Lara Trump, nepo-spouse.

• Dean Obeidallah: [03-22] "He'll never leave": Why Trump's dynasty, built on corruption and violence, won't end with him: Interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.

• Heather Digby Parton:

  • [03-13] Trump's new "Honest Don" nickname can't distract from his obvious decline. Is anyone else calling him that? Has anyone ever heard it and not laughed?

  • [03-16] Follow the money, and you'll find Donald Trump in deep trouble.

  • [03-20] Trump is dangerously desperate for a bailout: "The return of Paul Manafort shows that the Trump campaign is willing to trade security for some funds."

  • [03-22] Martyrs to the MAGA cause: Trump follows Hitler's steps with glorification of Jan. 6: "He may not have actually read that book of Hitler speeches but he didn't need to. Trump's a natural."

• Christian Paz: [03-21] 3 theories for why Donald Trump's popularity is rising: None are very convincing:

  1. Trump is benefiting from economic nostalgia
  2. Trump is recovering from a remarkably low moment
  3. Trump is benefiting from a quieter campaign, muted coverage, and a tuned-out public

  You might as well say it's because many people are forgetful, gullible, ill-tempered and flat-out stupid, because that's what Trump's campaign -- which, by the way, has not been very quiet or muted, no matter how many have tried to tune it out -- caters to. I think this also reflects two problems that Biden has: he represents the status quo, which in the end will probably save him, but for now it's mostly marked by increasing inequality and precarity, even through relatively decent economic stats; also, Biden's still in the phase where he's mostly campaigning for the donors -- and he's raising more money, even before you deduct the fines and legal costs Trump is racking up. That focus will shift with the DNC in August, when they start spending their war chest on actually wooing voters they've thus far taken for granted.

• Sam Russek: The mattress tycoon funding the far right in Texas: Jim McIngvale.

• Greg Sargent: Trump's latest rage-rant reveals a major political weakness.

• Deirdre Shesgreen: [03-18] 'Gross misjudgment': Experts say Trump's decision to disband pandemic team hindered coronavirus response.

• Matt Stieb:

  • [03-22] Trump is about to get $3 billion richer thanks to Truth Social. Or maybe not, given that nobody thinks the company is actually worth anything like its valuation.

  • [03-22] The Republican House majority will soon be down to just one seat. Mike Gallagher (R-WS) has resigned. Like the recently resigned Ken Buck (R-CO), Gallagher broke ranks and voted against impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas.

• Kirk Swearingen: [03-24] Who brought the crime, the drugs and the rape? It was him: "Trump's infamous 2015 speech claimed immigrants were 'bringing crime' and were 'rapists.' Talk about projection."

• Prem Thakker: House Republicans want to ban universal free school lunches.

• Lucian K Truscott IV: [03-19] Trump blows the MAGA whistle -- and his signal is heard loud and clear.

• Andra Watkins:

  [03-19] Decoding Project 2025's Christian nationalist language: "Evangelicalese allows Trump's MAGA supporters to hide their extreme positions in plain sight." Note: She also has a Substack called How Project 2025 Will Ruin YOUR Life. Previously wrote:

  • [03-01] Project 2025 is more than a playbook for Trumpism, it's the Christian Nationalist manifesto: "The right intends to force every American to live their definition of a good life through government edict."

• Li Zhou: [03-20] How the threat of a government shutdown became normalized.

Biden and/or the Democrats:

• Perry Bacon Jr: [03-19] Voters of color are shifting right. Are Democrats doomed?

• Hannah Story Brown: [03-25] Tim Ryan's natural gas advocacy makes a mockery of public service: Ex-Representative (D-OH), ran for Senate and lost, now "leveraging his prior career for a group backed by fossil fuel and petrochemical players." Why do you suppose he couldn't convince voters he'd serve them better than a Republican?

• Gail C Christopher: [03-22] Stop ageism: A call for action: "It's one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice, and it needs to come to an end in society and this presidential campaign." Really, you think this is going to work? Or even help? Believe me, I know it happens, often in cases where it is inappropriate, but unlike many prejudices, there is also something substantive at root here, and finding the right combination of respect and care and understanding in each distinct case is going to take some work, and not just a bumper sticker slogan.

• Ryan Cooper: [03-11] Democrats need a party publication: "The New York Times is not going to get Biden's campaign message before voters." Pull quote: "There is a giant right-wing propaganda apparatus blasting Republican messaging into tens of millions of homes every day, which Democrats do not have." Also: "You could do quite a lot of journalism for a tiny, tiny fraction of what the Democrats are going to spend on the 2024 campaign." I figured the line about the New York Times was some kind of joke, but here's the unfunny part:

  A recent speech from New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger makes clear that he -- perhaps unsurprisingly for a scion of multigenerational inherited wealth -- is proud of his paper's ludicrously anti-Biden slant and virulent transphobia, and will keep doing it. If it's up to him, this campaign will center around Biden's age, while Trump's numerous extreme scandals and outright criminality -- as well as his own advanced age and dissolving brain -- will be carefully downplayed. If I were Biden and the Democrats, who implicitly elevate the Times as their counterpoint to Fox, I'd be looking to change that, and quick.

• James Downie: [03-23] House Republicans just gave Biden the biggest possible gift: "When it comes to Social Security and Medicare, Republicans just can't help themselves." I could have filed this under Republicans, but didn't want this piece to get lost among this week's Trump scuzziness. Trump is a problem, but he's merely cosmetic compared to the deep Republican mindset, which remains set on destroying the institutions that at least minimally protect us from the most predatory practices of capitalism, supposedly in favor of an entrepreneurial utopia. I was pointed to this piece by an Astra Taylor tweet (link just vanished), possibly because the piece itself cites her The Age of Insecurity.

• Robert Kuttner:

  • [03-18] Man of steel: "President Biden's blockage of the proposed purchase of US Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel is unprecedented and magnificently pro-union."

  • [03-22] The promise of Biden's second term: "And the exemplary effects of his green jobs creation programs in his first term."

Legal matters and other crimes:

• Jamelle Bouie: [03-22] The Supreme Court is playing a dangerous game: "The Supreme Court is making a bet, in other words, that it is truly unaccountable." Also, note: "There is no way to look past the fact that five of the six members of the conservative majority on the Roberts court were nominated by presidents who entered office without the winds of a popular majority." The sixth was nominated by a president who lost next time (as did Trump).

• Akela Lacy:

  • Prosecute a cop? You'll face removal from office: "Reform-minded district attorneys like Minnesota's Mary Moriatry are facing backlash for prosecuting police shootings and misconduct."

  • GOP megadonor's PAC fires off first ads in Summer Lee's Democratic primary: This is more about Israel, but it's yet another example of how rich right-wingers use their money to make the world a more miserable place. Who? Well, Jeff Yass, already mentioned elsewhere.

• Dahlia Lithwick/Mark Joseph Stern: The Supreme Court just gave Texas a green light to harass every Latino person in the state.

• Harry Litman: [03-20] Aileen Cannon's handling of Trump's classified records case just went from bad to horrible.

  • Here's why Judge Aileen Cannon's law clerks seem to have suddenly quit.

• Ian Millhiser:

  • [03-18] Bret Kavanaugh rides to the Biden administration's defense in a big First Amendment case: "The Supreme Court's center right appears increasingly frustrated with the judiciary's far right."

  • [03-20] The Supreme Court's confusing new border decision, explained: "It is hard to believe that Justice Amy Coney Barrett actually agrees with her own opinion."

  • [03-21] The Supreme Court's abortion pills case, explained: "The stakes in the Supreme Court's mifepristone case go way beyond abortion."

• Nicole Narea: [03-21] Apple is facing a new antitrust lawsuit that could dethrone the iPhone: Last Apple product I owned was the Apple II. I soon soured not on the product so much as the company's profit-raking business strategy, something they've only honed further during the intervening forty-some years. Sure, that's exactly what big companies do, but only to the extent we let them get away with it. More:

  • John Herrman: [03-22] The government finally comes for Apple.

• Li Zhou: [03-20] How a Mississippi case of police brutality emphasizes the need for more accountability: "Six former police officers tortured two Black men. They're getting sentenced this week." As the article notes, "police misconduct is a systemic problem -- and there needs to be much more accountability." This was an especially egregious case.

Climate and environment:

• Stephen Lezak: [03-22] Scientists just gave humanity an overdue reality check. The world will be better for it. This follows on [03-20] Geologists make it official: we're not in an 'anthropocene' epoch. For geologists, it's a fairly technical question, and given the ways geologists think about time, I'm not surprised that they don't see need for another division. The Holocene only starts with the retreat of the Wisconsin Ice Age -- the fifth major glacial advance of the Pleistocene, itself an arguably premature designation. (The factors that drove ice ages during the period have are presumably still in place -- certainly the continents haven't moved much, nor has the earth orbit changed, or solar output -- but the atmosphere has been altered enough to make renascent glaciation very unlikely.) Humans started leaving their mark on the Earth's surface as the Holocene started some 11,700 years ago, so the whole epoch could have been named the Anthropocene. Perhaps that seemed presumptuous when first named, and maybe even now, but using 1952 as an convenient dividing line is simply arbitrary.

  • Dominique Browning: [03-23] Let's call our present moment on Earth what it is: Obscene.

• Delaney Nolan: The EPA is backing down from environmental justice cases nationwide.

• Cassady Rosenblum: [03-23] Blocking Burning Man and vandalizing Van Gogh: Climate activists are done playing nice: This is indicative of what happens with those in power deny, dissemble, and ultimately fail at problems that have become overwhelmingly obvious. Those in power should see protests -- orderly of course, but also disruptive and destructive -- as symptoms of underlying issues that require their attention.

  But most often, they think they can get away with suppressing protests, which by aggravating the protesters while ignoring the problems only makes future protests more desperate, and dangerous. As noted here, "something desperate and defiant is stirring in the climate movement." Signs of escalating tactics are as easily measured as the increasing ppm of greenhouse gases. The tipping points of catastrophic inflections are harder to guess, but their odds are approaching inevitable, as we have observed stressed humans do many times before, in many comparable situations.

• David Wallace-Wells: [03-20] When we see the climate more clearly, what will we do? There is not a satellite designed to locate methane leeks.

Business/economic matters:

• Dylan Baddour: [03-19] Gulf Coast petrochemical buildout draws billions in tax breaks for polluters.

• Dean Baker:

  • [03-20] Senators push the Increase Inflation Act (A.K.A. "The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act"): Note that this is the sort of thing that qualifies as "bipartisan legislation."

    This is the sort of nonsense that we can expect to see in large quantities if PERA becomes law. It is 180 degrees at odds from what we should be encouraging businesses to do. We want them to develop better ways to do things and produce better products, not more creative ways to game the patent system. PERA will be a great bonanza for patent lawyers, but really bad news for just about everyone else.

  • [03-23] Ross Douthat rants incoherently on Trump's bloodbath.

  • [03-23] AI, budget deficits, and the aging crisis.

• Matthew Cunningham-Cook: [03-21] The PBM-insurer mafia comes for community pharmacies: "UnitedHealth, CVS, and Cigna's PBMs are using their market share and pull in Washington to drive one of the key levers to manage health caree costs -- independent pharmacies -- out of business."

• David Dayen:

  • [03-18] Landmark settlement breaks up the real estate cartel: "The collusive arrangement among real estate agents that led to Americans paying extortionate commissions is likely over."

  • [03-19] Google and Apple discuss an exclusive deal -- again: "The two tech giants are talking about licensing Google's AI technology for the iPhone. This is precisely the kind of deal that landed Google in court over its search engine."

• Sarah Jones: [03-21] The hunger strike to end 24-hours shifts.

Ukraine War:

• Blaise Malley: [03-22] Diplomacy Watch: Middle powers offer unique 'congrats' to Putin: "Leaders in Turkey, India, use post-election phone calls to offer support in future negotiations."

• New York Times: [03-23] Death toll rises to 133 in Moscow concert hall attack: US sources were quick to blame this on ISIS, and to deny Ukrainian involvement (although Zelensky couldn't resist a "told you so").

  PS:

  • Joshua Keating: [03-23] The battle for blame over a deadly terror attack in Moscow.

  • Max Boot: [03-23] Putin fixates on imaginary foes while terrorists attack Moscow. As do American pundits, who never miss an opportunity to spin against Putin.

  • Anatol Lieven: [03-25] Moscow attack proves Russia -- and US -- have lost sight of priorities: "We both have the same enemies but spend most of the time ignoring that fact." He thinks he's talking about ISIS-K, which indeed is plausibly opposed to both regimes with their long and cruel "great game" history in Afghanistan, but the real shared enemy is the arrogance that led them to think they could impose their power on foreign lands, and then fought back against every hint of revolt.

  • Serge Schmemann: [03-23] For Putin, even a terrorist attack is a chance to spread misinformation.

  • Washington Post: [03-23] Abolishing liberty did not bring Russian security.

  • Joshua Yaffa: [03-24] How will Putin respond to the terrorist attack in Moscow?

• Simon Jenkins: [03-22] Putin is a dictator and a tyrant, but other forces also sustain him -- and the west needs to understand them: "Kneejerk criticism of regimes in Russia, China or India may make us feel better, but there's no evidence it is making the world a safer place."

• Joshua Keating: [03-22] Why the Pentagon wants to build thousands of easily replaceable, AI-enabled drones: "Ukraine's drone innovations have changed how the US is planning for a war with China."

• Jack Hunter: [03-20] Lindsey Graham wants to force more Ukrainian men into the draft: "The war-hawking senator said 'we need more people in the line.' But 'we' doesn't mean 'he.'"

• Pjotr Sauer: [03-22] Over 1m Ukrainians without power after major Russian assault on energy system: "Kyiv says the country's largest dam and hydroelectric plant were hit as Moscow unleashed 88 missiles and 63 drones." For more, see their Ukraine war briefing, which also reminds us of the peril facing the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant."

• Ted Snider: [03-20] How many Westerners are fighting in Ukraine? "There may be more foreign boots on the ground -- troops and mercenaries -- than you think."

• Simon Tisdall: [03-16] How will the Ukraine war end? Only when Vladimir Putin is toppled. This extremely stupid piece was written while Russia's election was happening, which we now know gave Putin six more years with 87% of the vote. He raises the usual alarms about "white flags" and "capitulation," castigates Putin as a "messianic mass murderer," and conjures up a new domino theory, assuming that any sign of weakness would only encourage Russia to attack and swallow more territories. Still, there's little reason to believe that Putin could do those things if he wanted to, which is far from certain. The war is stalemated, but neither side can afford to give up, nor is likely to (and clearly, Russia is no more likely to than the US, where Putin's patsy is leading in the polls -- but still 10 months away from becoming president). And despite all his bluster, even Tisdall admits that a "middle way" -- basically a Korea-type ceasefire where "near-term priorities need to shift from attempting to liberate more territory to defending and repairing the more than 80% of the country still under [Ukraine's] control." I'd submit that an even better deal would be possible -- maybe not on territory, but you'd get more security by allowing economic ties to return to normalcy. One should recall that the parts of Ukraine that Russia was able to seize, especially in 2014 but also extras in 2022, were mostly ethnic Russian, and acted as a pro-Russian bloc inside Ukraine. Giving them up makes the rest of Ukraine more pro-western, which is what the US/EU wanted in the first place. I'd call that a win -- and one which Putin wouldn't have to think of as a loss.

• Robert Wright: [03-22] Special cold war freak-out issue: "China and Russia and Cuba -- oh my!" First section is on TikTok, if you're interested, but I want to point you to the second, on how the Wall Street Journal (Yaroslav Trofimov) tries to twist around things that Putin says to suggest negotiating with him is impossible. Further down there's a section on the "Havana Syndrome" freak out, plus his concerns over AI -- which is more the subject of his [03-15] Meta's dangerously carefree AI chief. I'm rather skeptical of his alarm over Open Source in AI -- my position has always been that the real threat is the business model, and Open Source usually tempers that sort of problem (but doesn't preclude it, as Google has amply demonstrated). I'm an admirer but unpaid subscriber, so I haven't listened to his podcasts, but What does Putin want? could be helpful, especially to the aforementioned WSJ reporter.

Around the world:

• Connor Echols: [03-20] US 'prepared to deploy troops to Haiti if necessary. If Biden goes along with this, I dare say it would be political suicide. For Trump, as for most US presidents going back to Thomas Jefferson, Haiti is the quintessential "shithole country." Right-thinking Americans would bristle at the idea of doing anything to help there. Realistic Americans would realize that the US military is not capable of helping, and that its entrance would make matters worse. The left should be pushing back against Biden's warmaking on all fronts. And nobody wants another costly quagmire.

• Sam Knight: [03-25] What have fourteen years of Conservative rule done to Britain? "Living standards have fallen. The country is exhausted by constant drama. But the UK can't move on from the Tories without facing up tot he damage that has occurred."

• Robert Kuttner: [03-13] WTO, RIP: "The annual World Trade Organization meeting came to an ignominious end last week with no 'progress' on major issues. That is a form of progress."

• Emily Tamkin: Slovakia's presidential election is a warning to America: "What to see what the United States would look like under a reelected Trump?"

Other stories:

Laura Bult: [03-21] Why it's so hard for Americans to retire: "There's a reason so many of us don't have enough retirement savings." Video piece, but links to Teresa Ghilarducci's book, Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy. Probably good, but Astra Taylor covers the key point in her The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart.

Stephanie Burt: Lucy Sante and the solitude and solidarity of transitioning: "In her new memoir, I Heard Her Call My Name, Sante dissects her past in order to understand her future."

David Dayen: [01-29] America is not a democracy. Long piece from the print magazine. Seems like I should have noticed it before. Too much to get into just now.

Sarah Jones: The exvangelicals searching for political change. Self-evident neologism is from the book reviewed herein, The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church, by Sarah McCammon. Related here:

• Carlene Bauer: [03-12] She trusted God and science. They both failed her. Review of Devout: A Memoir of Doubt, by Anna Gazmarian, "an author who grew up in the evangelical church recounts her struggle to find spiritual and psychological well-being after a mental health challenge."

Rich Juzwiak: [03-12] A biography of a feminist porn pioneer bares all: "In Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution, the historian Jane Kamensky presents a raw personal -- and cultural -- history." Another review:

• Margaret Talbot: [03-16] How Candida Royalle set out to reinvent porn.

Keren Landman: [03-20] Abortion influences everything: "By inhibiting drug development, economic growth, and military recruitment, as well as driving doctors away from the places they're needed most, bans almost certainly harm you -- yes, you."

• Rachel M Cohen: [03-20] Why abortion in the US is on the rise: "There were more abortions in 2023 than in any year since 2011."

• Jodi Enda: The terrifying global reach of the American anti-abortion movement: "Conservatives have not limited their attack on reproductive rights to the United States. They've been busy imposing their will on other countries, too -- with disastrous consequences for millions of poor women."

• Mary Harris: Homicide is a leading cause of death for pregnant people. Abortion bans are making things worse.

• David D Kirkpatrick: [10-02] The next targets for the group that overturned Roe: "Alliance Defending Freedom has won fifteen Supreme Court cases. Now it wants religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws -- and is going after trans rights."

• Ian Ward: [03-25] The group behind Dobbs does not want to talk about what comes next: Interview with Kristen Waggoner of ADF ("Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative Christian legal fund that led the successful legal campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade."

• Mary Ziegler: [03-24] The endgame in the battle over abortion: "The arc of the fetal personhood movement signals where Republicans may be headed."

Katie Moore: [03-17] When Kansas police kill people, the public often can't see bodycam footage. Here's why.

Marcus J Moore: [03-21] The visions of Alice Coltrane: "In the years after her husband John's death, the harpist discovered a sound all her own, a jazz rooted in acts of spirit and will." I'll say something about this in Music Week. Meanwhile:

• Hank Shteamer: [03-23] The Carnegie Hall Concert.

Rick Perlstein: [03-20] 'Stay strapped or get clapped': "How the media misses the story of companies seeking profit by keeping traumatized veterans armed and enraged."

Andrew Prokop: [03-21] The political battle over Laken Riley's murder, explained: Riley was a 22-year-old student in Georgia who was murdered, allegedly by an "illegal immigrant," an event seized upon by right-wing agitators, like the guy who tweeted: "If only people went to the streets to demand change in the name of Laken Riley, like they did for George Floyd." Article provides more details. While the murders as isolated events were equivalent, the policy considerations are very different, starting with responsibility for enabling the killers, and regarding the more general context.

One not even mentioned here is the effect of the sanctions and isolation policy toward Venezuela -- mostly but not exclusively Trump's work -- and how that has driven many, including Riley's alleged killer, to migrate to the US. Prokop: "But reality is also more complicated than Trump's promises that he'll fix everything by getting tougher once he's president."

Brian Resnick: [03-22] The total solar eclipse is returning to the United States -- better than before: "This will be the last total solar eclipse over the contiguous United States for 21 years." I find myself with zero interest in looking up, much less traveling to do so, but family and friends in Arkansas are lobbying for visitors, and I know some people who are going. April 8 is the date.

Dylan Scott: [03-22] Kate Middleton's cancer diagnosis is part of a frightening global trend: "More and more young people are getting cancer." I have zero interest in her, or in any of "those ridiculous people" (John Oliver's apt turn of phrase), and so I've ignored dozens of pieces on them recently, but there's something more going on here. Every category of cancer they used is more common among ages 14-49 than it was in 1990. My wife swears it's environmental, and while I can think of statistical variations, I'm inclined to agree.

Jeffrey St Clair: [03-22] Roaming Charges: L'état sans merci. "Willie Pye is dead and Georgia is back in the execution business." This introduces a long section on what passes for justice in America. Much more, of course. For more on Pye, see:

• Liliana Segura: After four years without an execution, Georgia prepares to kill Willie Pye.

Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins: [03-20] The problematic past, present, and future of inequality studies: Interview with Branko Milanovic, whose lates book is Visions of Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War.

Dodai Stewart: [03-16] You're not being gaslit, says a new book. (Or are you?) Review of Kate Abramson: On Gaslighting. Demands precision of a phenomenon that is deliberately imprecise ("all kinds of interactions -- lying, guilt-tripping, manipulation"; "a multi-dimensional horror show"). Cites Harry G Frankfurt's On Bullshit (2005) as a "spiritual forebear."

Astra Taylor/Leah Hunt-Hendrix: [03-21] The one idea that could save American democracy: Tied to the authors' new book, Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. Also:

• Amy Fleming: [03-23] 'Organising is the best kind of antidepressant': Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix on solidarity: An interview.

By the way, I just found a link to audio for Astra Taylor: [2023-11-17] The Age of Insecurity: 2023 CBC Massey Lectures, with five hour-long lectures corresponding to the book I just read, and recommend as highly as possible -- I'd go so far as to say that she's the smartest person writing on the left these days. I was pointed to the lectures by a daanis tweet: "I finally listened to @astradisastra Massey Lectures on my way to Boston, just mainlined them one after another straight into my brain, and added her language about precarity and insecurity into my own remarks about surviving together by becoming kin."

Maureen Tkacik: [03-11] 'Return what you stole and be a man with dignity': "Doctors didn't think it was possible to loathe the world's biggest health care profiter any more. Then came the hack that set half their bookkeeping systems on fire." About the ransomware outage at Change Healthcare, which is owned by UnitedHealth ("the nation's fifth-largest company").

Bryan Walsh: [03-22] Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani has been caught up in a gambling controversy. He won't be the last. One of the biggest changes in my lifetime has been the changed attitude toward gambling, which in my mother's day was a degenerative sin indulged by lowlifes, much to the profit of mobsters. Today the mobsters have turned into Republican billionaires -- hard to say whether that's a step up or down ethically -- and their rackets have moved out into the open. For a long time, the shame of the Black Sox kept the lid on sports gambling, but that's been totally blown open in the recent years. I hate it, which doesn't mean I want to try to ban it, but those involved are no better than criminals, and should be reminded of it as often as possible.

• Matt Stieb: [03-21] The Ohtani interpreter gambling scandal is big trouble for MLB.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

March archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 42007 [41974] rated (+33), 28 [27] unrated (+1).

Just a day late, although it feels like longer, and feels like it should have been longer still. I did manage to wrap up a small essay that's been hanging over my head for weeks -- or at least I'm hoping, as a final sign off would be nice. This pushed Speaking of Which back a day, which I didn't mind.

While I've occasionally threatened to kill it, the process of scanning my news sources, plucking out what strikes me as important and/or interesting, and occasionally commenting -- sometimes taking off on a tangent of personal/philosophical interest, sometimes just to heckle -- has been giving me a strange sense of comfort in what are clearly discomforting times.

Besides, this week the writing project I most seriously considered killing was Music Week. As to why, you're free to dig into the notebook, but what you'll find there is rather sketchily one-sided, with very little of what I really think, let alone why. Nor is there more than a hint of how much pain and anger I've felt this week. In my experience, such emotions do no good, although for better or worse -- sure, mostly the latter -- they are a big part of who I am, and how I came to be this way.

You also can simply ignore most of that paragraph, and just accept what I have to say in this one. Music Week changed this week, and may be changed for good, although I rather doubt it. Midweek I stopped reviewing new music, so everything in this week's "New records" section was done by Wednesday last. I don't plan on resuming any time soon, although that's no guarantee I won't have a few next week, and the odds of at least some appearing increase over time. In particular, it's inevitable that at some point I'll return to my promo queue, and when I do play something, I'll probably write it up in my logs, because, well, that's what I do.

Indeed, I started on that this week. After several days of playing my kind of comfort food, I decided I wanted to hear some Art Pepper. But instead of pulling out an old favorite -- of which there are dozens, including any random disc in The Complete Galaxy Recordings -- I remembered a 7-CD box that came out last year, that I thought I could stream. I put it off, mostly due to the length, but I figured I had time now, and was looking to fill it up. Unfortunately, while the title is listed (The Complete Maiden Voyage Recordings, what's actually available is a 4-CD release from 2017, which I couldn't find a label for. But I did find an Unreleased Art volume I hadn't heard, and that got me looking around. And as I did play them, I wound up doing what I always do.

I trust there are no surprises in the "Old music" section this week. Four A/A- records are ones I previously had graded that high in other forms. Getz's Nobody Else but Me is an old standby from one of the primo shelves, and I was surprised I only had it listed at B+, so an upgrade was clearly in order. The Jaki Byard is a bootleg that Allen Lowe raved about. I found it when I was trying to clear up some tabs, and decided I might as well play it, and write it up.

I moved from Getz to Geller by proximity. He's long fascinated me, so seemed worth the dive. Playing him now as I write, so next Music Week will at least have him. His late period seems to produce consistently fine but less than spectacular records.

Indexing February still delayed, as is damn near everything else in my life.

By the way, Kansas's first presidential primary in ages was today. We braved a line of absolutely no one to vote for Marianne Williamson in the Democratic primary. I gave up my Independent status in 2008 to caucus for Obama (against Clinton), and again in 2016 for Sanders (again, against Clinton), both of whom won big in Kansas. Williamson didn't win: current returns (91.9% in) give her 3.4% to Biden's 83.9%, with 10.2% "none of the names shown." Still, anyone who wants to create a Department of Peace gets my vote over Biden's war machine.

Trump is leading Haley 75.3% to 16.1%, with 5.2% for "none of the names shown." Trump had lost the 2016 caucus to Cruz.

PS: Oops! Was thinking about this most of the week, then slipped my mind when I initially posted. Meant to mention that the rated count ticked over another thousand mark this week, now over 42,000.

New records reviewed this week:

Lynne Arriale Trio: Being Human (2023 [2024], Challenge): Pianist, originally from Milwaukee, 17th album going back to 1994, mostly trios, this one with Alon Near (bass) and Lukasz Zyta (drums). B+(**) [cd]

Blue Moods: Swing & Soul (2023 [2024], Posi-Tone): Second album, "celebrating Duke Pearson," for label regulars Diego Rivera (tenor sax), Art Hirahara (piano), Boris Kozlov (bass), and Vinnie Sperrazza (drums), with Jon Davis taking over piano on two tracks. Very upbeat, joyous even. B+(***) [sp]

Gerald Cannon: Live at Dizzy's Club: The Music of Elvin & McCoy (2023 [2024], Woodneck): Bassist, mainstream, several albums under his name since 2000, more side-credits back to 1989, including 75th Birthday Celebration with Elvin Jones, a couple with McCoy Tyner, and most of the stars he lined up for this set of two Jones pieces, five Tyners, and one original: Eddie Henderson (trumpet), Sherman Irby (alto sax), Joe Lovano (tenor sax), Steve Turre (trombone), Dave Kikoski (piano), Lenny White (drums). B+(***) [sp]

The Chick Corea Elektric Band: The Future Is Now (2016-18 [2023], Candid, 2CD): Fusion group, originally formed in 1986, active for a decade after that, with a similar Elektric Band II appearing for a 1993 album, and an outlier album in 2004. This was collected from five concerts, August 2016 to May 2018. Lineup: Corea (piano/keyboards), Frank Gambale (guitar), John Patitucci (bass), Dave Weckl (drums), Erik Marienthal (sax) -- all in the band as of 1987. B+(*) [sp]

Patrick Cornelius: Book of Secrets (2022 [2023], Posi-Tone): Alto saxophonist, from San Antonio, based in New York, ten or so albums since 2006. Also plays soprano, alto flute, and clarinet here (on two tracks with Diego Rivera guesting on tenor sax). Backed by Art Hirahara (piano), Peter Slavov (bass), Vinnie Sperrazza (drums), and Behn Gillece (vibes). B+(**) [sp]

Stephan Crump: Slow Water (2023 [2024], Papillon Sounds): American bassist, debut 1997, many albums since, as well as sidework (especially with Vijay Iyer). [Major failing that he does not yet have a Wikipedia page.] Chamber jazz move, thick with slowly moving strings, occasional flashes of brass. Refers to a recent book by Erica Gies: Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge. B+(***) [cd] [05-03]

Art Hirahara: Echo Canyon (2023, Posi-Tone): Pianist, based in New York, side credits back to 1995, but emerged as a leader in 2011 and, especially with this trio of Boris Kozlov (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums) has become his label's default rhythm section. B+(**) [sp]

Mannequin Pussy: I Got Heaven (2024, Epitaph): Post-punk band from Philadelphia, Missy Dabice the singer, fourth album since 2014, harder than I care for, but do mix it up a bit. B+(**) [sp]

Pissed Jeans: Half Divorced (2024, Sub Pop): Another post-punk band with some critical acclaim. Sixth album since 2005. B+(*) [sp]

Diego Rivera: With Just a Word (2022 [2024], Posi-Tone): Tenor saxophonist, Mexican-American family, born in Ann Arbor, director of jazz studies at Texas (Austin), sixth album as leader since 2013, plus side projects like Blue Moods. Latin-tinged mainstream quintet here with Pete Rodriguez (trumpet), Art Hirahara (piano), Luques Curtis (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Jeremy Rose & the Earshift Orchestra: Discordia (2023 [2024], Earshift Music): Composer, plays soprano sax and bass clarinet, leading a conventional 17-piece big band and drummer Chloe Kim. Theme: "the paradoxes of our information era" and "the dangerous implications of misinformation," exacerbated by AI. B+(***) [cd]

Bill Ryder-Jones: Iechyd Da (2024, Domino): English singer-songwriter, co-founded the Coral, seventh album since going solo in 2011, first one I've checked out, mostly because it's currently [03-12] the top-rated 2024 album at AOTY (88/16 reviews, but mostly from UK sources). He's not much good as a singer, but is touchingly vulnerable, and gets help from lush orchestrations and a kiddie choir, which somehow turns in miracles. Nearest similar example I can think of someone I wound up liking despite hardly liking anything about him is Sufjan Stevens. Ryder-Jones seems even more improbable. A- [sp]

Nadine Shah: Filthy Underneath (2024, EMI North): British singer-songwriter, from Whitburn, lives in Newcastle, father Pakistani, fifth album since 2013. B+(*) [sp]

Sheer Mag: Playing Favorites (2024, Third Man): Postpunk band from Philadelphia, Tina Halladay the singer, third album, after EPs in 2015-16 and albums in 2017 and 2019. B+(**) [sp]

Rafael Toral: Spectral Evolution (2024, Moikai): Portuguese guitarist, mostly works in electronics, quite a few albums since 1994, some (like Space Quartet) more obviously connected to jazz. This is solo, starts with guitar which is soon heavily overlaid. B+(*) [sp]

Hein Westergaard/Katt Hernandez/Raymond Strid: The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn (2022 [2024], Gotta Let It Out): Guitar-violin-drums trio from Sweden. A little sketchy. B+(**) [cd]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

None

Old music:

Jaki Byard: Live in Chicago 1992 (1992, Jazz³+): Pianist (1922-99), started with Charlie Mariano in 1950, later with Maynard Ferguson and Charles Mingus, his own albums from 1960 on. This is solo, from Chicago Jazz Festival, 45:58, doesn't seem to have a proper release so is some kind of bootleg. At one point he manages to blow some sax while playing along. B+(**) [yt]

Herb Geller: European Rebirth: 1962 Paris Sessions (1962 [2022], Fresh Sound): Alto saxophonist (1928-2013), from Los Angeles, recorded some fine albums 1954-58, but after his wife Lorraine died of an asthma attack in 1958, he left the US, played bossa nova in Brazil, then on to Europe, only really getting back into recording around 1984. Fifteen tracks from various Paris sessions, plus two bonus tracks from festivals. B+(***) [sp]

Herb Geller: Plays the Al Cohn Songbook (1994 [1996], Hep): The alto saxophonist plays twelve songs Cohn wrote, plus one original and one standard. With Tom Ranier (piano, tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet), John Leitham (bass), and Paul Kreibich (drums), plus a couple of vocals by Ruth Price. B+(**) [r]

Herb Geller: To Benny & Johnny, With Love From Herb Geller (2001 [2002], Hep): Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges, two of the alto saxophonist's heroes and models as he started his own career -- Charlie Parker is often cited as a third, but at this late date, he seems to be more in the mood for easy swing. With Hod O'Brien (piano), Chuck Berghofer (bass), and Paul Kreibich (drums). B+(**) [r]

Herb Geller: Plays the Arthur Schwartz Songbook (2005, Hep): Fourteen songs plus a medley, all co-credits with lyricists irrelevant here (Howard Dietz, Frank Loesser, Leo Robin, E.Y. Harburg). Alto or soprano sax, backed with piano (John Pearce), bass (Len Skeat), and drums (Bobby Worth). B+(**) [r]

Stan Getz/Charlie Byrd: Jazz Samba (1962, Verve): The first of a series of immensely popular albums that reflected and contributed to what was then called "the bossa nova craze." I know this music from a later 4-CD compilation: The Girl From Ipanema: The Bossa Nova Years (1989, following a 5-LP edition in 1984). Getz was well established, having started as a bebopper, deftly maneuvering through the "West Coast Cool Jazz" scene, and grasping other opportunities -- his 1961 album Focus was the first "sax with strings" album where the strings were every bit as interesting as the sax. He had developed as a fine ballad player -- and would continue to grow up to his final act, 1991's duos with Kenny Barron, People Time. Byrd takes the lead here in laying out the rhythms, which Getz rides so gracefully. Getz followed this with a big band album, a minor misstep, then recruited Luiz Bonfa for Encore, Laurinda Almeida, then João Gilberto for the best album of the series, which made the latter's wife, singer Astrud Gilberto, a star. A- [sp]

Stan Getz With Al Haig: Preservation (1948-51 [1967], Prestige): A compilation of Getz's earliest 78s, all with Haig on piano, his name below the title but set off from the others: Kai Winding, Jimmy Raney, Tommy Potter, Gene Ramey, Roy Haynes, Stan Levey, Blossom Dearie and Jr. Parker. Title, from a song here, reflects the influence of Lester Young, especially the light tone. A dozen songs, three vocals of varying interest -- I'd rather hear more of Getz, but I'm not going to complain about Haig's solos. B+(**) [sp]

Art Pepper & Warne Marsh: Unreleased Art: Volume 9: At Donte's, April 26, 1974 (1974 [2016], Widow's Taste, 3CD): Alto saxophonist, spent most of the years 1954-65 in prison, produced some brilliant albums when he was briefly free, especially the run from Modern Art (1957) to Smack Up (1960), but he has little to show for the period from 1965 until 1975, when he recorded Living Legend, kicking off a staggering series of albums and live performances up to his death, at 56, in 1982. In 2007, his widow, Laurie Pepper, started releasing old tapes, with ten (often multi-CD) volumes through 2018. This is the only one I missed, unusual both in that it's from just before his big comeback, and also that it pairs him with another leader, tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh. They were backed by Mark Levine (piano), John Heard (bass), and Lew Malin (drums). Some terrific playing here, especially toward the end. Harder to get a real handle on Marsh here. Pepper makes the point that they hadn't seen, much less played with, each other in 17 years. B+(***) [r]

Art Pepper: Surf Ride (1952-53 [1957], Savoy): Possibly his first LP, compiled from three dates, two with three tracks, the last with six. Different groups on each, with Russ Freeman, Hampton Hawes, and Claude Williamson the pianists, and Jack Montrose (tenor sax) added on the backstretch. Exceptionally lively, ten originals plus a Lester Young and "The Way You Look Tonight," with Montrose joining the race when he could. Not quite everything Pepper recorded for Savoy, so any compilation -- one I've long recommended is Straight Life: The Savoy Sessions (1984) -- is likely to be redundant. [NB: The 2-CD The Complete Surf Ride, which appeared in Japan in 1987, has four more songs and 25 extra takes, inline, so it's likely to be too redundant.] A- [sp]

Art Pepper Quintet: Live at Donte's 1968 (1968 [2004], Fresh Sound, 2CD): Digging around, I found this rare item from Pepper's missing decade (1965-75), recorded in North Hollywood, with Joe Romano (tenor sax), Frank Strazzeri (piano), Chuck Berghofer (bass), and Nick Ceroli (drums). Only six songs, but four of them top 19:37, and the others 13:35 and 10:07 ("incomplete"). Basically the formula he would use for the rest of his life, at least after losing the extra sax. B+(***) [r]

Art Pepper/Warne Marsh: Art Pepper With Warne Marsh (1956 [1986], Contemporary/OJC): This is where they met previously, both West Coast saxophonists, alto and tenor, Pepper a scrappy be-bopper out of the Stan Kenton band, Marsh a serious protégé of the more idiosyncratic Lennie Tristano (as was Lee Konitz, who often played with Marsh). With Ronnie Ball (piano), Ben Tucker (bass), and Gary Frommer (drums), the CD adding extra takes of three (of seven) pieces. Everyone here has a feather-light touch, so that even "Stompin' at the Savoy" seems to float. [NB: Some of this was released as The Way It Was! in 1972.] A- [r]

Art Pepper: No Limit (1977 [1978], Contemporary): Studio album, quartet with George Cables (piano), Tony Dumas (bass), and Carl Burnett (drums), covers "Ballad of the Sad Young Men," plus three originals: two for his wife, the last a mambo. The latter adds a second horn, a tenor sax, dubbed in by Pepper, and quite wonderful. A- [sp]

Art Pepper: Saturday Night at the Village Vanguard (1977 [1992], Contemporary/OJC): After being blown away with the Thursday and Friday Night sets, I sprang for the whole 9-CD The Complete Village Vanguard Sessions box, and never looked back. But three tracks here were released on vinyl in 1977, and a fourth added (52:00 total) for the 1992 CD. This was his all-star group, with George Cables (piano), George Mraz (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums). Two standards, two original I've heard many times and never tire of. A- [r]

Art Pepper: More for Les: At the Village Vanguard, Volume Four (1977 [1992], Contemporary/OJC): As the box proved, there was a lot more great music after extracting the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Night LPs, so they cobbled a fourth volume together in 1985, and expanded it some for the CD. In the intro, Pepper gushes that he's never before appeared with players of this caliber (George Cables, George Mraz, Elvin Jones), which is not quite true (see Meets the Rhythm Section), but he plays like it is, because they play like they are. Title song is an original. The standards are equally his: I've heard him play them many times, rarely (if ever) better than here. A [sp]

Sonny Redd/Art Pepper: Two Altos (1952-57 [1992], Savoy): Pepper you know. The other alto saxophonist here is Sylvester Kyner Jr. (1932-81), from Detroit, started with Barry Harris, mostly played in hard bop groups, got his debut (sort of) here, recorded five albums 1959-62 (dropping the extra d, so just Sonny Red), only one more after that. This was slapped together from four sessions, different personnel for each (drummer Larry Bunker is on two). No alto duets either: Pepper leads on four tracks, Redd on the other two. Nice enough. Front cover puts Pepper first, but spine has Redd, and he needs the credits more. This came out on LP in 1959 on Regent, as Redd's career was taking off, and Pepper was headed back to the slammer. B+(*) [sp]

Sonny Red: Out of the Blue (1959-60 [1996], Blue Note): Alto saxophonist, formerly Redd, first and only album for Blue Note, originally eight tracks with Wynton Kelly, six from 1959 with Sam Jones and Roy Brooks, plus two from 1960 with Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb, the CD tacking on five more from the latter session. A very solid outing, not least for the bonus tracks. B+(***) [sp]

Limited Sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect, + some chance, ++ likely prospect.

Stephan Crump/Steve Lehman: Kaleidoscope and Collage (2011, Intakt): Bass and alto sax duo, both with previous connections to Vijay Iyer, although none that I see with each other. [1/2 tracks, 16:40/39:02] - [r]

Grade (or other) changes:

Stan Getz: Nobody Else but Me (1964 [1994], Verve): At the time, Getz's samba albums were selling so well they didn't bother releasing this quartet session, which aside from the infusion of Gary Burton's vibes sounds much in line with his early bebop efforts. Mostly standards, starting with a memorable "Summertime," but also including two Burton originals. With Gene Cherico (bass) and Joe Hunt (drums). [was: B+] A- [cd]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Martin Budde: Back Burner (Origin) [03-22]
• Four + Six: Four + Six (Jazz Hang) [03-29]
• Romy Glod/Christian Ramond/Klaus Kugel: No Toxic (Nemu) [01-02]
• Johnny Griffin: Live at Ronnie Scott's (1964, Gearbox)
• Jazz Ensemble of Memphis: Playing in the Yard (Memphis International) [04-05]
• Last Day Quintet: Falling to Earth (Origin) [03-22]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, March 18, 2024

Well, another week, with a few minor variations, but mostly the same old stories:

• Israel is continuing its genocidal war on Gaza, with well over 30,000 direct kills, the destruction of most housing and infrastructure, and the imposition of mass starvation. This war is likely to escalate significantly next week, as Netanyahu has vowed to invade Rafah, which has until now been a relatively safe haven for over one million refugees from northern parts of the Gaza strip. Israel is also orchestrating increased violence in the occupied West Bank and along the Lebanon border, which risks drawing the US into the conflict (as has already happened in the Red Sea).

• The United States remains supportive of and complicit in Israeli genocide, although we're beginning to see signs that the Biden administration is uncomfortable with such extremism. Public opinion favor an immediate cease-fire, which Israel and its fan club have been working frantically to dispel and deny.

• Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine continues to be stalemated, with increasingly desperate and dangerous drone attacks. Putin is up for reelection this weekend, and is expected to win easily, against token opposition that also supports Russia's war, so any hopes for regime change there are very slim. On the other hand, the war is becoming increasingly unpopular in the US, where thus far Biden has been unable to pass his latest arms aid request. The only way out of this destructive and debilitating war is to open negotiations, where the obvious solution is some formalization of the status quo, but thus far Biden and Zelensky have refused to consider the need.

• Biden's has secured the Democratic nomination for a second term, but he remains deeply unpopular, due to gross Republican slanders, his own peculiar personal weaknesses, and legitimate worry over wars he has shown little concern and/or competency at ending.

• Meanwhile, Trump has secured the Republican nomination, but is mostly distracted by the numerous civil and criminal cases he has blundered into. He's lost two civil cases, bringing fines of over $500 million, but he has thus far managed to postpone trial in the four criminal cases, and he had several minor victories on that front last week. Meanwhile, the Republican Party is remaking itself in his image, defending crime and corruption, spreading hate, and aspiring to dictatorship. (At some point, I should go into more depth on how, while the Democrats remain pretty inept at defending democracy, the Republicans have gone way out of their way to impress on us what the destruction of democracy has in store for us.)

Due to various factors I don't want to go into, I got a late start on this, and lost essentially all of Saturday, so I expect the final Sunday wrap-up to be even more haphazard than usual.

Sorry I didn't mention this earlier, but we were saddened to hear of the recent death of Jim Lynch. He was one of the Wichita area's most steadfast peace supporters, and he will be missed.

Except, of course, that I didn't manage to wrap up on Sunday, so this picks up an extra day -- not thoroughly researched, but I am including some Monday pieces.

Initial count: 183 links, 9,145 words.

Top story threads:

Israel:

• Mondoweiss:

  • [03-11] Day 157: As Ramadan begins, Israel obstructs Palestinian entry to al-Aqsa Mosque: "Israel is preparing itself and its prisons for the arrest of thousands of Palestinians, Netanyahu says. Meanwhile, Israel has already begun obstructing access to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, attacking worshipers on the first night of Ramadan."

  • [03-12] Day 158: Israel airstrikes continue to pummel Gaza during the holy month of Ramadan: "Israeli forces bombed Gaza on the first day of Ramadan, killing two fishermen. Israel's fortified highway has reached the Mediterranean coast, effectively splitting Gaza in two. Meanwhile, hundreds of settlers stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound."

  • [03-13] Day 159: Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah: "Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel "will finish the job in Rafah" despite growing international concern over an invasion, including from the U.S. Meanwhile, Israeli forces kill 5 Palestinians in the West Bank in the last 24 hours, including 3 children."

  • [03-14] Day 160: Israel kills 7 Palestinians waiting for aid, attacks UN distribution center: "Israel's Knesset approved a $19.4 billion budget increase to fund the ongoing Israeli genocide, while the Biden administration has indicated that it will greenlight the targeting of 'high-value Hamas targets in and underneath Rafah.'"

  • [03-15] Day 161: Hamas proposes new prisoner exchange deal, Netanyahu's office calls it 'unrealistic': "Thousands of Palestinian worshippers have been denied access to pray at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for Ramadan's first Friday prayers, while Israeli forces have committed another massacre against Palestinian aid-seekers in Gaza City."

  • [03-16] Day 162: Israel kills 36 Palestinians in strike on Gaza home as Netanyahu approves Rafah invasion: "An Israeli strike on a home in Nuseirat refugee camp kills 36 people as massacres continue across Gaza. Meanwhile, Israel approves plans for Rafah ground invasion despite warnings it will be 'catastrophic' for over 1.4 million Palestinians."

  • [03-17] Day 163: Top EU official says Israel failed to prove its accusations against UNRWA: "Netanyahu has vowed to invade Rafah despite the international red line. Meanwhile, the U.S. has sanctioned two illegal settler outposts in the West Bank for the first time."

  • [03-18] Day 164: Israeli army storms al-Shifa again, aid reaches Jabalia for first time in months: "Over a million people in Gaza face 'imminent' famine as UNRWA aid trucks arrive in northern Gaza for the first time in months. Meanwhile, the Israeli army's Chief of Staff says 'a long way to go' until Israel's military objectives are achieved."

• AlJazeera: [03-18] Famine expected in Gaza between now and May: What to know? "A UN-backed report says the entire Gaza population is experiencing a food shortage as Israel is accused of provoking famine."

• Ruwaida Kamal Amer/Ibtisam Mahdi: [03-14] With no safety in Rafah, Palestinians are fleeing back to Gaza's decimated center.

• Hédi Attia: [03-11] Gaza & the legacy of Netanyahu's 'war on terror': "What happened on Oct. 7 represents the collapse of an erroneous doctrine the Israeli leader has consistently promoted throughout his career." One thing I clearly remember from watching TV on Sept. 11, 2001, as the World Trade Center was burning and collapsing, was Netanyahu's shit-eating grin as he was boasting about how good the attacks were for Israel, because now Americans will finally know what terrorism feels like. (Shimon Peres took the same line, perhaps a bit more soberly, as did John Major, who pointed out that Britain has more experience than anyone with "chickens coming home to roost" -- not his words, but most famously from Malcolm X.) Most people reacted to 9/11 and 10/7 with shock and horror. Netanyahu saw them as confirmation of his life's work, and a signal to move on to his Final Solution.

• Samer Badawi: [03-16] 'Armchair humanitarianism': The problem with Gaza's maritime aid corridor.

• Simon Speakman Cordall/Veronica Pedrosa: [03-13] Not just the UNRWA report; Countless accounts of Israeli torture in Gaza.

• Tareq S Hajjaj: [03-13] Palestinians in Gaza face famine during Ramadan.

• Shereen Hindawi-Wyatt: [03-14] What Israeli soldiers' display of Palestinian women's lingerie reveals about the Zionist psyche.

• Najia Houssari: [03-16] Israel accused of 'scorched earth' tactics in southern Lebanon.

• David Kattenburg: [03-11] UN expert: Israel is engineering famine in Gaza: Cites UN Special Rapporteur Michael Fakhri, who says: "We've never seen a civilian population made to go hungry so completely and so quickly." Also: "It's not just denying humanitarian aid. It's not just shooting at civilians trying to get humanitarian aid; It's not just bombarding convoys of humanitarian trucks, even though those humanitarian trucks are coordinating with them. They're destroying the food system." Chris Gunness adds: "This is not a natural disaster. This is a political choice which our governments are taking, and people of conscience all around the world need to tell their governments, tell their elected representatives, that they do not want to be complicit in genocide and starvation."

• Rami G Khouri: [03-18] Watching the watchdogs: Piers, airdrops, and mediagenic spectacles in Gaza.

• Elisha Ben Kimon: [03-11] IDF Gaza Division commander reprimanded for blowing up Gaza university: Brigadier General Barak Hiram.

• Middle East Monitor: [03-18] Israeli settlers vandalise UNRWA's Jerusalem headquarters, threaten staff.

• Mahmoud Mushtaha: [03-16] 'We scream, starve, and die alone': Life in the ruins of Shuja'iya: "Israel's month-long invasion of the Gaza City neighborhood left behind a trail of devastation. Still under siege, its Palestinian residents are risking death to get their hands on a bag of flour."

• Adam Rasgon/Vivian Yee/Gaya Gupta/David Segal: [03-17] 'We're not a banana republic,' Netanyahu says, rejecting criticism from US: Sounds like he's working on his post-political, post-prison career, in stand-up.

• Shira Rubin/Yasmeen Abutaleb: [03-14] Israel faces crisis of its own making as chaos and hunger engulf Gaza.

• Ronen Tal: [03-17] 'Israeli settlers can now do whatever they please. They want to drive off those who live there': "Eella Dunayevsky, an Israeli activist in the West Bank for decades, has lost hope that the conflict can be solved. Her new book details countless incidents of harassment and violence in the South Hebron Hills."

• David Zenlea: [03-09] This Israeli minister wants a full-on religious war. His proposals for Ramadan risked starting one. "Itamar Ben-Gvir has been sidelined for now. But his fulminations still deserve our undivided attention."

Israel vs. Biden: Israelis like to talk about the "multi-front war" they're besieged with, but for all the talk of Iranian proxies, they rarely point out that their main struggle since Oct. 7 has been with world opinion, especially as it became obvious that they had both the intent and means to commit genocide. For a long time, Biden and virtually the entire American political establishment were completely subservient to Israeli dictates, but that seems to be shifting slightly -- maybe those taunts of "Genocide Joe" are registering? -- so much so that Israel can add the US to its array of threats. Not a done deal, but increasingly a subject of discussion.

• Daniel Boguslaw: FBI warns Gaza War will stoke domestic radicalization "for years to come".

• Connor Echols: [03-13] Bombs, guns, treasure: What Israel wants, the US gives.

• Liz Goodwin: [03-14] Schumer calls for 'new election' in Israel in scathing speech on Netanyahu: I'd be among the first to point out that's none of his business, just as it's none of Netanyahu's business to weigh in on American elections -- as he's done both personally and through donors like the Abelsons and lobbying groups like AIPAC. On the other hand, if Schumer wanted to cut off military aid and diplomatic support for genocide, that would clearly be his right. More on Schumer:

  • Jonathan Chait: [03-16] Why Chuck Schumer's Israel speech marks a turning point: "He tried to escape the cycle of violence and hate between one-staters of the left and right." That's a very peculiar turn of phrase -- one designed to depict "two-staters" as innocent peace-seekers who have been pushed aside by extremists, each intent on dominating the other. But the very idea of "two states" was a British colonial construct, designed initially to divide-and-rule (as the British did everywhere they gained power), and when they inevitably failed, to foment civil wars in their wake. (Ireland and India/Pakistan are the other prime examples, although there are many others.) The "two-state solution" isn't some long deferred dream. It is the generator and actual state of the conflict. Sure, it doesn't look like the "two states" of American propaganda -- a fantasy Israelis sometimes give lip-service to but more often subvert -- due to the extreme asymmetry of power between the highly efficient and brutal Israeli state and the emaciated chaos of Palestinian leadership (to which the PA is mere window dressing, as was much earlier the British-appointed "Mufti of Jerusalem"). The only left solution is a state built on equal rights of all who live there.

    Borders may be abitrary, and one could designate one, two, or N states in the region, with various ethnic mixes, but for the left, and for peace and justice, each must offer equal rights to its inhabitants. It is true that some on the left were willing to entertain the two-state prospect, but that was only because we realized that Israel is dead set against equal rights, and saw their security requiring that most Palestinians be excluded. We expected that a Palestinian majority, left to its own devices, would organize a state of equal rights democratically. Meanwhile, an Israel more secure in its Jewish majority might moderate, as indeed Israel had done before the 1967 war, the revival of military rule, the settler movement, the debasement and destruction of the Labor Party, and the extreme right-wing drive of the Netanyahu regimes.

    That the actually-existing Zionist state has become an embarrassment to someone as devoted to Israel as Schumer may indeed be a turning point. But heaping scorn on "left one-staters" while trying to revive the "two-state solution," with its implied "separate but equal" air on top of vast differences in power, is less a step forward than a desperate attempt to salvage the past.

  • EJ Dionne Jr: [03-16] Schumer said out loud what many of Israel's friends are thinking.

  • Murtaza Hussain: Outrage at Chuck Schumer's speech: The pro-Israel right wants to eat its cake too.

  • Fred Kaplan: [03-14] Why Chuck Schumer's break with Netanyahu seems like a turning point in the US relationship with Israel.

  • Halie Soifer: [03-15] Schumer spoke for the majority of American Jews: "Only 31% of American Jewish voters have a favorable view of the Israeli prime minister."

• Caitlin Johnstone: [03-15] If Israel wants to be an 'independent nation,' let it be: "Israel knows it's fully dependent on the US and cannot sustain its nonstop violence without the backing of the US war machine."

• Fred Kaplan: [03-15] There's a cease-fire deal on the table. Hamas is the one rejecting it. Israel doesn't need to negotiate with Hamas for a cease-fire. They can do that by themselves. You say that wouldn't get the hostages back? Someone else -- say whoever wants to run food and supplies into Gaza? -- can deal with that. The hostages are relatively useless just to swap for other hostages. Their real value to Hamas is to the extent they inhibit Israel from the final, absolute destruction of Gaza and everyone stuck there. Admittedly, that hasn't worked out so well, but trading them for time only helps if the international community uses that time to get Israel to give up on their Final Solution. Meanwhile, what Israel likes about negotiating with Hamas is they never have to agree to anything, because the one thing Hamas wants is off the table. And because Israel is very skilled at shifting blame to Hamas. They even have Kaplan fooled. I mean, consider this:

  Netanyahu has rejected these conditions as "delusional." On this point, he is right. A complete withdrawal of troops and a committed end to the war would leave Israel without the means to enforce the release of hostages. It would also allow Hamas to rebuild its military and resume attacking Israel, whether with rocket fire or another attempted incursion.

  But isn't the point of negotiation to get both sides to do what they committed. Why does Israel need a residual force to "enforce the release of hostages"? If Hamas failed to honor its side of the deal, Israel could always attack again. Can't we admit that would be a sufficiently credible Plan B? And how the hell is Hamas going "to rebuild its military and resume attacking Israel"? They never had a real military, and Gaza never had the resources and tech to build serious arms, and what little they did have has been almost completely demolished. I could see Hamas worrying that Israel could use truce time to bulk up so they could hit Gaza even harder, but the opposite isn't even projection; it's just plain ridiculous.

• Joshua Keating: [03-14] How Biden could dial up the pressure on Israel -- if he really wanted to.

• Mitchell Plitnick: [03-15] It isn't Netanyahu who is acting against the will of his people, it's Biden.

• Richard Silverstein:

  • [03-03] Biden in Distress: The Gaza albatross.

  • [03-13] Why US humanitarian aid plan is a sham.

  • [03-18] Gaza in Chains: Netanyahu's "day-after" plan.

• Adam Taylor/Shira Rubin: [03-14] Biden administration imposes first sanctions on West Bank settler outposts.

• Kelley Beaucar Vlahos:

  • [03-13] Mission creep: Will pier become a beachhead for US in Gaza?

  • [03-17] Alarming lack of detail in military's Gaza aid project.

• Philip Weiss: [03-17] Weekly Briefing: Now everyone hates Israel: "The unbelievable onslaught on a captive people in Gaza has at last cracked the conscience of the American Jewish community and sent American Zionists into complete crisis." Picture of Schumer, followed by Jonathan Glazer at the Oscars.

Israel vs. world opinion:

• Michael Arria: [03-14] The Shift: Jonathan Glazer smeared by pro-Israel voices over Oscar speech: The director of the film The Zone of Interest said this during his acceptance speech after winning the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film:

  All our choices we made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say 'look what they did then' -- rather, 'look what we do now.' Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present.

  Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza -- all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?

  Also:

  • Juan Cole: [03-12] QZionism hits peak conspiracy theory with smears of Oscar-winning Jonathan Glazer.

  • PJ Grisar: [03-11] No, Jonathan Glazer did not 'refuse his Jewishness'.

  • Aja Romano: [03-11] No, the director of Zone of Interest did not disavow his Jewish identity at the Oscars: "Everybody is misquoting Jonathan Glazer's speech."

  • Naomi Klein: [03-14] The Zone of Interest is about the danger of ignoring atrocities -- including in Gaza. Starts with the speech, but also a very insightful review of the film, one that got much more out of it than I did at the time. I may have been slow because it offered very little of the drama one normally expects. Mostly just the set, juxtaposed against the other sets, never fully explained (because, I guess, you are expected to know).

• Khalil Barhoum: [03-09] The real reason 'from the river to the sea' has garnered so much condemnation: "The false labeling of Palestinian liberation slogans like 'from the river to the sea' as calls for the elimination of Jews reveals an Israeli anxiety over its dispossession of the Palestinians from their land."

• Daniel Beaumont: [03-15] Smoke and mirrors: How Israeli agitprop lies become fact.

• Jonathan Cook:

  • [03-07] How the 'fight against antisemitism' became a shield for Israel's genocide.

  • [03-15] Torture, executions, babies left to die, sexual abuse . . . These are Israel's crimes.

• Feminist Solidarity Network for Palestine: [03-11] Here's what Pramila Patten's UN report on Oct 7 sexual violence actually said: "The UN report on sexual violence on October 7 has found no evidence of systematic rape by Hamas or any other Palestinian group, despite widespread media reporting to the contrary. But there are deeper problems with the report's credibility."

• Luke Goldstein: [03-14] AIPAC talking points revealed: "Documents show that the powerful lobby is spreading its influence on Capitol Hill by calling for unconditional military aid to Israel and hyping up threats from Iran."

• David Hearst: [03-14] All signs point to a strategic defeat for Israel.

• Kathy Kelly: [03-15] When starvation is a weapon, the harvest is shame.

• Tariq Kenney-Shawa: [03-14] Israel Partisans' use of disinformation.

• Jonathan Ofir: [03-12] Human rights groups sue Denmark for weapons export to Israel.

• Roy Peled: [03-08] Judith Butler is intentionally giving Hamas' terror legitimacy: "In recent comments, the American Jewish gender theorist labeled the Oct. 7 attack as 'armed resistance.'" This is where I entered a cluster of related articles:

  • Mira Fox: [03-05] No, Judith Butler did not say they support Hamas: "The renowned theorist may be radical on gender, but not on Hamas."

  • Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib: [03-04] The left must stop apologizing for Hamas: "Since Oct. 7, the left has been increasingly supportive of Hamas's actions, despite its oppression of Palestinians."

  There's an element of talking past each other here, and especially of assuming X implies Y when it quite possibly doesn't. "Armed resistance" is not in inaccurate description of what Hamas is doing in Gaza. Especially when they're firing back at invading IDF soldiers, one could even say that they're engaged in "self defense" (to borrow a term that Israelis claim as exclusively theirs). The left has some history of celebrating "armed resistance," but that's mostly from times and places where no better option presented itself. But the struggle for equal rights (which is the very definition of what the left is about) has a natural preference for democracy, nudged on by occasional nonviolent civil resistance -- a realization that has been encouraged by occasional success, but also by the insight that some acts of violence are self-damaging and self-defeating.

  Oct. 7 is certainly an example of this. I think it's safe to say that most people who supported equal rights for Palestinians have condemned the Oct. 7 attackers, most often as immoral but also as bad political strategy. Why Hamas chose to launch that particular attack can be explained in various ways -- and please don't jump to the conclusion, which seems to be ordained in the Hasbara Handbook, that explaining = justifying = supporting = celebrating. The most likely is that Hamas felt that no other option was open, perhaps by long observation of other Palestinians pleading and protesting non-violently, only to find Israelis more recalcitrant than ever. Or one might argue that Hamas aren't a left group at all, but like the Zionists are dominating and reducing their enemies, and as such are enamored with violence, like the right-wing fascists of yore. Or you could imagine a conspiracy, where Hamas and Netanyahu have some kind of bizarre symbiotic relationship, where each uses the other as a wedge against their near enemies. (Even without an actual conspiracy, that does describe much of the dynamic.)

  Still, there is another way of looking at "armed resistance," which is that it is the inevitable result of armed occupation, oppression, and repression -- something which Israel is uniquely responsible for. And because it's inevitable, it doesn't matter who is doing it, nor does it do any good to chastise them. The only way to end resistance is to end the occupation that causes it. So while we shouldn't celebrate armed resistance, we also shouldn't flinch from recognizing it as such, because we have to in order to clearly see the force it is resisting.

• Andrew Perez/Nikki McCann Ramirez: [03-14] Israel lobby pushes lie that people are not starving in Gaza.

• Reuters: [03-17] UE's Von Der Leyen says Gaza facing famine, ceasefire needed rapidly.

America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire:

• William Astore: [03-17] Cutting the Pentagon down to size.

• Andy Corbley: [03-18] In Navalny and Guaido, Washington saw u seful pawns, not political paragons.

• Steve Hendrix/Susannah George/Missy Ryan: [03-17] As Gaza war rages, US military footprint expands across Middle East.

• Loveday Morris: [03-14] US-Hungary relationship reaches new low, with public rebukes and snubs.

• Eve Ottenberg: [03-15] The evil of a permanent war economy.

• Kevin Schwartz: [03-12] The enduring problem with proxies: "The US can't always keep its own foreign fighters on point. It's the same with the Houthis, who are flexing agency outside Iranian consent."

Election notes:

• Robert Wright: [03-13] The real problem with the Trump-Biden choice.

Trump, and other Republicans:

• Maggie Astor:

  • [03-11] Trump's Biden mockery upsets people who stutter: 'we've heard this before'.

  • [03-17] Trump doubles down on migrants 'poisoning' the country.

  • [03-18] Trump defends his warning of a 'blood bath for the country'.

• Aaron Blake:

  • [03-16] The magnitude of Pence refusing to endorse Trump.

  • [03-18] 'Bloodbath' aside, Trump's violent rhetoric is unambiguous: "Trump has already warned of 'riots,' 'violence in the streets' and 'death & destruction' if he's wronged. All of that context is vital."

• Jamelle Bouie: [03-16] Kellyanne Conway has some weak advice for her party.

• Chris Cameron: [03-18] Trump says Jews who support Democrats 'hate Israel' and 'their religion'.

• Zak Cheney-Rice: [03-09] The normalization of Trump's alleged crimes: "His legal strategy is both buying him time and erasing the accusations against him." Noted last week, but worth noting again.

• Chas Danner: [03-17] Why did Trump warn of postelection 'bloodbath' if he loses?

• Chauncey DeVega: [03-15] Trump sneakers and the MAGA uniform: Merchandising fascism to the mainstream. This led me to a couple more pieces worth mentioning here:

  • Vanessa Friedman: [02-19] Those $399 gold Trump sneakers are about a lot more than shoes: "What is Trump really selling when he is selling footwear?"

  • Ed Kilgore: [03-17] The GOP's claim that we were better off in 2020 is so weird: "It takes a special kind of amnesia or insensitivity to look back fondly at the year COVID-19 struck and the economy imploded."

  • Chris Lehmann: [03-11] The MAGA aesthetic is beginning to rot: "The stable of imagery associated with the far-right insurgency no longer seems as fresh as it did when Trump first donned his red cap."

• Igor Derysh: [03-13] Departure "blindsides" Boebert and GOP: Ken Buck (R-CO) already decided not to run for reelection in 2024, which may be attributed to not wanting to face primary flak after transgressing against Trump and his cadres -- even though, until recently, Buck had been firmly perched on the far-right wing of the party. But his decision last week to resign his seat and force an interrim election shows his pique with a more obvious target: Boebert, who facing an uphill campaign in her own district, which she just barely won in 2022, decided to switch to Buck's more heavily Republican district for 2024. Close reading suggests it's not quite a knockout blow, but makes her campaign a good deal more awkward.

• Tim Dickinson: [03-14] Trump campaign ads are monetizing pro-Nazi content on Rumble.

• Angelo Fichera: [03-16] Examining Trump's alternate reality pitch: "The war in Ukraine. Hamas's attack on Israel. Inflation. The former president has insisted that none would have occurred if he had remained in office after 2020."

• Jessica M Goldstein: The right-wing war on abortion has nothing to do with babies: "This is a battle over body autonomy." I can't imagine who thinks that's a winning political slogan, or what the rationale is. Same for "bans off our bodies," per the signs in the pic, although that at least suggests that the war on abortion has something in common with rape. The war -- and I think you have to grant that it's being waged like one, with babies (both symbolically and literally) as pawns and hostages, with callous indifference to casualties (or sometimes giddy delight), and with a vast fog of propaganda -- is really just an assault on freedom, and not just on women. Just look at everything else the people waging this war are also working on.

• Rebecca Gordon: [03-14] Trump showed us who he is the first time around: "Trump 2.0 would be even worse."

• Ed Kilgore:

  • [03-12] Anti-abortion activists have Republicans in a vise.

  • [03-14] Republicans have more than a 'brand problem' on abortion.

• Eric Levitz: [03-12] Trump just opened the door to Social Security cuts. Take him seriously.

• Eric Lipton/Maggie Haberman/Jonathan Swan: [03-17] Kushner deal in Serbia follows earlier interest by Trump.

• Alexander Nazaryan: [03-14] Trump's cabinet of horrors: "Team Trump is doing something this time around that it didn't think to do in 2016: It's planning. And wait until you see what those plans include." Author wrote a 2019 book on Trump's first-term cabinet, The Best People: Trump's Cabinet and the Siege on Washington, but looks like he figured he could get an early jump on the sequel.

• Toni Aguilar Rosenthal: [03-15] Ken Paxton, America First Legal, and premonitions of Project 2025: "Texas today is what America will look like if Trump wins. It's not pretty."

• Jim Rutenberg/Steven Lee Myers: [03-17] How Trump's allies are winning the war over disinformation: "Their claims of censorship have successfully stymied the effort to filter election lies online."

• Greg Sargent:

  • Trump's angry rant about Biden's speech showcases MAGA's ugliest scam.

  • Trump is the big loser as the GOP's impeachment farce implodes: "The case against Trump is based on things that actually happened, while the case against Biden is based largely on inventions."

• Matt Stieb: [03-18] Trump says he can't find a $464 million bond. Now what? "Trump's lawyers want some leniency from the appeals court as Attorney General Letitia James gears up to possibly seize assets as early as next week."

  • Catherine Rampell: [03-18] Trump can't find anyone to spot him $464 million. Would you?

• Lucian K Truscott IV: [03-12] The pure emptiness of Katie Britt.

Biden and/or the Democrats:

• Perry Bacon Jr: [03-15] Biden is learning that being progressive is good policy -- and good politics.

• Rachel M Cohen: [03-15] Why abortion politics might not carry Democrats again in 2024. It's not like abortion is the only issue Democrats have to run on. Nor is it an issue you can run away from, so make it work.

• David Dayen: [03-05] The intra-Democratic battles kick off in California: "Millionaire self-funders, dirty-trick tactics, pro-Israel and crypto money everywhere. The ideological sparring within the party takes a back seat to campaign shenanigans."

• Ed Kilgore: [03-15] Trump vs Biden polls: No State of the Union bounce for Joe: It's not like any significant number of people approached the speech with an open mind. The only really important thing he had to do was to convince Democrats that he wasn't a dead man walking, and he did a fairly good job of that.

• Blaise Malley: [03-14] How Biden's 'A-team' squandered its foreign policy opportunity: "A lot has changed since the end of Alex Ward's The Internationalists[: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump]. Not much of it is good for the administration."

• Nicole Narea: [03-13] Biden isn't advertising America's record oil boom: "Biden is not 'waging war' on American energy. He's boosting it."

• Andrew Prokop: [03-12] Robert Hur's report exaggerated Biden's memory issues: "The ex-special counsel testified Tuesday, but a transcript of his interview with the president undercut his claims."

• Jeremy Childs: [03-13] Bernie Sanders to push 32-hour work week bill. In other words:

  • Bernie Sanders: [03-15] The 32-hour work week is not a radical idea.

Legal matters and other crimes:

• Kim Bellware: [03-14] Father of Oxford shooter found guilty of involuntary manslaughter: James Crumbley, whose son killed four students with guns and ammo provided by his parents. The mother, Jennifer Crumbley, was also convicted of involuntary manslaughter in an earlier trial.

• Ben Brasch: [03-14] Police fatally shoot autistic 15-year-old who charged with garden tool, video shows.

• Margaret Carlson: [03-16] Take a load off Fani: "A judge's ridiculous probe of Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis ends with a split decision and another Trump legal delay."

• Ryan Cooper: [03-05] The corrupt Supreme Court bails out Trump once more: Another comment on the Colorado 14th Amendment case.

• Elie Honig: [03-15] The failure of DOJ's special counsel system. And he barely mentions Kenneth Starr, who's still the obvious prime suspect.

• Sarah Jones: [03-15] The Christian right's imaginary nation: Filed here because it starts with the lawsuit to ban mifepristone, but the topic is much broader.

• Ruth Marcus: [03-18] Outlawing abortion is just the start for some conservative judges.

• Ian Millhiser:

  • [03-12] Republicans will no longer get to handpick their judges when they sue Biden: "The federal judiciary's new rules target 'judge shopping.' That's terrible news for Matthew Kacsmaryk and other partisan judges." Also for:

    • Ryan Cooper: [03-15] Judge shopping ended -- by judges themselves: "Feral (and federal) district court judges attempted to seize control of national policy one too many times."

    • Natalie Jonas: [03-15] Mitch McConnell fumes after courts crack down on Republican "judge-shopping".

    • Dahlia Lithwick/Mark Joseph Stern: John Roberts just dropped the hammer on rogue, lawless Trump judges.

  • [03-12] The Supreme Court may let Texas get away with a totally unconstitutional deportation law.

  • [03-15] The Supreme Court's puzzling decision to allow the government to ban drag shows, explained: "This is a serious blow to the First Amendment and a victory for a notoriously anti-LGBTQ judge."

  • [03-18] Brett Kavanaugh rides to the Biden administration's defense in a big First Amendment case: "The Supreme Court's center right appears increasingly frustrated with the judiciary's far right."

• Adam Rawnsley/Asawin Suebsaeng: [03-05] The Supreme Court is tilting 2024 in Trump's favor, one decision at a time.

• Mark Joseph Stern: Even the Supreme Court's conservatives are fed up with the garbage coming out of the 5th circuit.

• Matt Stieb: [03-14] Not only will Bob Menendez refuse to quit, he might run as an independent: Filed here because he's a criminal, and his claim as a Democrat is long gone. But clearly he understand the graft advantages of running for office, and he's no doubt studying Trump on how to use a pending election to snag up the wheels of justice.

Climate and environment:

• Rebecca Burns: [03-12] Against the wind: "Climate science deniers, right-wing think tanks, and fossil fuel shills are plotting to foil the renewable-energy revolution."

• Keren Landman: [03-13] 4 big questions about measles, answered.

• Aaron Regunberg/David Arkush: The case for prosecuting fossil fuel companies for homicide: "They knew what would happen. They kept selling fossil fuels and misleading the public anyway." The title overreaches, probably just to get your attention, as I doubt anyone wants to blur the definition of homicide that much. As a practical matter, the case against gun companies is much more substantial, with many fewer mitigating factors, and look how far that's gotten. But prosecuting them for something? There may well be a case for that.

• Brian Resnick: [03-13] Are we breaking the Atlantic Ocean? "The climate change scenario that could chill parts of the world, explained."

• Dylan Scott: [03-14] The tropical disease that's suddenly everywhere: Dengue fever.

Economic matters:

• Dean Baker: [03-16] Correcting the Washington Post's 11 charts that are supposed to tell us how the economy changed since covid: The piece is:

  • Rachel Lerman/Abha Bhattarai: [03-16] 11 charts that show how covid changed the US economy.

• Oshan Jarow: [03-11] A utopian strand of economic thought is making a surprising comeback: "It was once normal for economists to imagine a world with less work. What happened?" Actual scarcity, and hypothetical post-scarcity. By the way, the section here on the psychology of starvation has immediate relevance to Gaza, reminding us that the effects of starvation don't vanish with your first decent meal.

• Nicole Narea: [03-12] Biden's vs. Trump's economy, in 8 charts: "The gaps between perception of the economy and the reality, explained." The most striking chart to me is the one on credit card debt, which took a big drop during the pandemic, but has more than recovered past the already alarming 2017-2020 rise.

• Leif Weatherby: [03-10] Think capitalism is terrible? This economist says it's already dead. Review of Yanis Varoufakis: Techno Feudalism: What Killed Capitalism.

War in Ukraine, an election in Russia:

• Connor Echols: [03-15] Diplomacy Watch: The pope is (mostly) right about Ukraine: "It does Kyiv no favors to pretend that this war is going well."

• Medea Benjamin/Nicholas JS Davies: [03-13] After Nuland, the chances for peace in Ukraine.

• Giorgio Cafiero: [03-18] If Kyiv fell, would Moldova have been next? I'd caution that "domino theories" are usually false alarms, but the continued existence of a separatist Transnistria, like Abkhazia and South Ossetia (formerly parts of Georgia), as well as similar fragments of Yugoslavia, will remain as potential trouble spots that can blow up into major wars -- like Donbas. I blame the US and Russia both for for failing to try to find workable compromises, and maybe also less interested parties (like Turkey and the EU) that risk being sucked into disasters.

• Robyn Dixon: [03-14] Why does Putin always win? What to know about Russia's pseudo election.

• Marc Martorell Junyent: [03-18] A chat with the devil beats a lifetime in hell: "In a new book, Pierre Hazan gives an insider's account of the importance of peace talks." The book is: Negotiating with the Devil: Inside the World of Armed Conflict Mediation. The book deals with many examples beyond Ukraine.

• Branko Marcetic: [03-15] Does Putin want to end the war? We should test him: "Ukraine war maximalists are portraying diplomacy as futile, pointing to a cherry picked quote from a recent interview with the Russian president."

• Ishaan Tharoor: [03-18] Russia's farce election sums up a grim moment in global democracy.

• Anton Troianovski/Nanna Heitmann: [03-17] With new six-year term, Putin cements hold on Russian leadership. Looks like he won, the term extending to 2030, with 87% of the vote. "Western governments were quick to condemn the election as undemocratic."

Around the world:

• Chu Guofei: [03-15] The global south and the hyper-imperialist global north. Interview with Vijay Prashad.

• Ellen Ioanes: [03-13] Haiti's prime minister is out. Here's how it got so bad. "How gang violence pushed out Ariel Henry -- and what allowed it to fester."

  • Brian Concannon: [03-08] US should let Haiti reclaim its democracy: "Haitians have a history of coming together to resolve crises -- Washington's meddling is just getting in the way."

  • Brian Osgood: [03-14] What is the history of foreign interventions in Haiti? "Questions swirl about whether a multinational task force will help -- or harm."

Boeing:

• Marin Cogan: [03-15] How to think about Boeing's recent safety issues: "Flying is still extremely safe. But Boeing's safety issues are real."

• Maureen Tkacik: [03-09] The strange death of a Boeing whistleblower

• Li Zhou: [03-13] The shocking Boeing 737 Max incident, briefly explained.

TikTok: A bill to force, under threat of being banned, the Chinese owners of TikTok to sell the company has passed the House, with substantial bipartisan support. Despite the many links here, I have no personal interest in the issue, although I do worry about gratuitous China-bashing, and I'm not a big fan of any social media companies or their business models.

• Jonathan Chait: [03-14] Explain to me why China has to control TikTok: "If it's just a great app, why can't somebody else run it?" Explain to me why China can't? That they might tilt the scales on political discourse shouldn't be a problem if political information is freely accessible elsewhere -- unless the point is specifically to suppress anything that might offer a specifically Chinese perspective on the news? And it's not as if companies owned by Americans, Brits, Israelis, or Rupert Murdoch don't tilt their own platforms to further their own national or personal interests. I'm not a fan of foreign capital coming to America and buying up real estate and companies and so forth, but then I'm not often a fan of the Americans who sell out their country, often to take their profits to buy up someone else's, then lobby for foreign policies that put the sanctity of their property ahead of peace and cooperation. I also doubt this would be happening unless there are financiers waiting in the wings to make a killing on the sale, as well as the arms lobbyists, who jump on any opportunity to increase tension with China, Russia, or anyone else who can be sold as some kind of threat.

• David French: [03-17] What Trump's TikTok flip-flop tells America: "On yet another confrontation between American national security and an authoritarian foreign adversary, Biden sides with American interests and Trump aligns with our foe." French somehow imagines that complaint, along with his Reagan conservative cred, will get him invited to parties in DC. But that Trump seems able to get away with such apostasy testifies to how low the credibility of the Blob has sunk.

• Minho Kim: [03-17] Khanna explains opposition to TikTok bill while Senators signal openness: Ro Khanna [D-CA] was one of 50 Democrats ("mostly from the progressive wing") and 15 Republicans who voted against the House bill.

• Ken Klippenstein: [03-16] TikTok threat is purely hypothetical, US intelligence admits.

• Taylor Lorenz: [03-16] The TikTok debate featured many disputed claims. Here are 7 of them.

• Arwa Mahdawi: [03-16] Are progressive politics the real reason why US lawmakers are spooked by Tiktok? "Some users think the app has become a hub for progressive activism."

• Nicole Narea: [03-14] TikTok could avoid a ban with a sale. Finding a buyer won't be easy. "Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is among those lining up to buy TikTok if Congress enacts a law that forces its Chinese owner to sell."

• AW Ohlheiser: [03-14] Banning TikTok would be both ineffective and harmful.

• Nathan J Robinson: [03-14] The plan to ban TikTok is outright xenophobia.

• Michael Tracey: [03-15] The frenzy to ban TikTok is another National Security State scam.

Other stories:

Andrea Long Chu: [03-11] Freedom of sex: The moral case for letting trans kids change their bodies. I'm in no mood to wade into this issue, but note the article, which makes an honest and serious point, and backs it up with considerable evidence and thought. Also note the response:

• Jonathan Chait: [03-16] Freedom of sex: A liberal response. Oh great, another epithet: TARL (trans-agnostic reactionary liberal), which Chait seizes on, probably because he's the very model of a "reactionary liberal" -- a term he's encountered in many other contexts, and not undeservedly (need we mention Iraq again?).

TJ Coles: [03-08] The new atheism at 20: How an intellectual movement exploited rationalism to promote war: The Sam Harris book, The End of Faith, came out in 2004, soon to be grouped with Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell), Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), and Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great). While critical of all religions, they held a particular animus for Islam, at a time when doing so was most useful for promoting the American and Israeli wars on terror. Coles has a whole book on them: The New Atheism Hoax: Exposing the Politics of Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens. Coles is a British psychologist with a lot of recent books attacking media domination by special interests; e.g.:

• President Trump, Inc.: How Big Business and Neoliberalism Empower Populism and the Far-Right (2017)
• Real Fake News: Techniques of Propaganda and Deception-Based Mind Control, From Ancient Babylon to Internet Algorithms (2018)
• Manufacturing Terrorism: When Governments Use Fear to Justify Foreign Wars and Control Society (2019)
• Privatized Planet: Free Trade as a Weapon Against Democracy, Healthcare and the Environment (2019)
• The War on You (2020)
• We'll Tell You What to Think: Wikipedia, Propaganda and the Making of Liberal Consensus (2021)
• Biofascism: The Tech-Pharma Complex and the End of Democracy (2022)
• Militarizing Cancel Culture: How Censorship and Deplatforming Became a Weapon of the US Empire (2023)

Matt Kennard: [03-16] Last days of Julilan Assange in the United States: "The WikiLeaks publisher may soon be on the way to the US to face trial for revealing war crimes. What he would face there is terrifying beyond words."

• Kathleen McClellan/Jesselyn Radack: [03-16] Our government's quiet war on press freedom: "It happened under Trump -- and under Obama: The US is using bad law to crack down on investigative journalism."

Rick Perlstein: [03-13] Social distortion: "On the fourth anniversary of the pandemic, a look at how America pulled apart as the rest of the world pulled together." Reviews Eric Klinenberg: 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year That Changed Everything.

Scott Remer: [03-15] Pessimism of the intellect, pessimism of the will: Title is an obvious play on Gramsci, who even facing death in prison preferred "optimism of the will." But no mention of Gramsci here. The subject is self-proclaimed progressivism, keyed to this quote from Robert LaFollette: "the Progressive Movement is the only political medium in our country today which can provide government in the interests of all classes of the people. We are unalterably opposed to any class government, whether it be the existing dictatorship of the plutocracy or the dictatorship of the proletariat." (Presumably that was from 1924, when the Soviet Union was newly established.) That leads to this:

All this should sound familiar. It describes bien-pensant liberals of the Obama-Clinton-Biden persuasion to a tee: their aestheticization of politics, their fetishization of entrepreneurialism and expertise; their studied avoidance of polarization, partisanship, and partiality; their distaste for class conflict; their elevation of technocracy and science as beacons of reason; their belief in the pretense that politics can be reduced to interest-group bargaining and consensus seeking; their desire to keep the labor movement at a distance; their continued fealty to American exceptionalism even when looking to European models would be exceptionally edifying; and their general attitude of deference towards big business. Neoliberals' demography -- disproportionately white, upper middle class, professional, and college-educated -- also parallels the original Progressives.

I like bien-pensant here, as it's open to translations ranging from "right-thinking" to "lackadaisically blissful," each a facet of the general mental construct. The easiest way to understand politics in America is to recognize that there are two classes: donors and voters. Voters decide who wins, but only after donors decide who can run -- which they can do because it takes lots of money to run, and they're the ones with that kind of money. Republicans have a big advantage in this system: they offer businesses pretty much everything they want, and ask little of them beyond acceding to their singular fetishes (mostly guns and religion).

Democrats have a much tougher problem: voters would flock to them because Republicans cause them harm, but the only Democrats who can run are those backed by donors, who severely limit what Democrats can do for their voters. The Clinton-Obama types tried to square this circle by appealing to more liberal-minded business segments, especially high-growth sectors like tech, finance and entertainment. They were fairly successful at raising money, and they won several elections, but ultimately failed to make much headway with the problems they campaigned on fixing.

At present, both parties have backed themselves into corners where they are bound to fail. With ever-increasing inequality, the donor class is ever more estranged from the voting public. Normally, you would expect that when the pendulum swings too far left or right, it would swing back toward the middle, but the nature of capitalism is such that donors can never be satisfied, so will always push for more and more. But the policies they want only exacerbate the problems that most people feel, sooner or later leading to disastrous breakdowns (for Republicans) or severe dissolution (for Democrats, who while incapable of fixing things are at least more adept at delaying and/or mitigating their disasters).

Nathan J Robinson:

• [03-12] Overwhelmed by feelings of complicity and paralysis: "In a world filled with horrors, where our actions feel useless, it can be hard to muster the energy to press on." This paragraph hit close to home:

  As Americans see tens of thousands of Palestinians die, we know that our own government is responsible, through providing the weapons and blocking UN action to stop the war. But how can we actually affect government policy? Later this year, there will be an election, but the choices in that election will be between the intolerable status quo (Joe Biden) and a likely even more rabidly pro-Israel president (Donald Trump). I don't know how it felt to oppose the Vietnam war in 1967-68, but I suspect it must have felt similarly frustrating, with the Democratic incumbent responsible for the war and any Republican likely to escalate it further.

  I do remember 1967-68, which spans the period from when my next door neighbor came home from Vietnam in a box to the government's first efforts to send me to the same fate. I knew people who went quite literally crazy back then. (Fortunately, I was already crazy then, and the Army decided they'd be better off without me.) So one thing I learned was to be fairly tolerant of people I don't agree with. Nearly everything is out of our control, so the only real task most of us face is just coping with it.

  Also the section on critiquing political books ("I have never felt more ineffectual than at this moment"). Here's a bit:

  Today, our public discourse seems to have gone off the rails entirely, and this sometimes makes me question what my approach should be as a political writer. Look, for example, though the top-selling political commentary books. No.1 at the moment is a book by Abigail Shrier, whose terrible polemic about trans kids I reviewed a while back. This one is about how we're ruining children by coddling them and is a broadside against mainstream psychology. I suspect its claims are just as dubious as those in the last book. Should I bother to go through and refute them? Will anybody care if I do?

  What else do we have in the political commentary section? More stuff about how the left is crazy, from Jesse Watters, Christopher Rufo, Douglas Murray, Coleman Hughes, Alex Jones, Candace Owens, Ted Cruz, etc. Books about how there's a war on Christian America, a war on the West, and a battle to "cancel" the American mind. Most of the bestsellers are right-wing, and the ones that are liberal are mostly just attacks on Trump.

  That list is generated by sales, so it's likely changed a bit since Robinson linked to it. One new add is Alan Dershowitz: War Against the Jews: How to End Hamas Barbarism. Aside from Jonathan Karl's Tired of Winning, the top-rated Trump book is also by Dershowitz, but defending him. The only remotely liberal (never mind left) book is Heather Cox Richardson's Democracy Awakening, where she is astonishingly naïve and blasé about the real effects of Biden's foreign policy.

• [03-08] Why we need "degrowth": Interview with Kohei Saito, author of Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto.

• [03-01] Why factory farming is a moral atrocity: Interview with Lewis Bollard, of Open Philanthrophy's farm animal program.

• [02-26] It's time to break up with capitalism: Interview with Malaika Jabali, author of It's Not You, It's Capitalism: Why It's Time to Break Up and How to Move On, "reviewed here by Matt McManus."

• [02-02] Astra Taylor on what 'security' really means: I'm pretty sure I've linked to this before, but I've nearly finished reading the book -- which, not for the first time, is very good, especially the section on education and curiosity -- so could use a review.

Aja Romano:

• [03-13] The unanswered questions surounding the tragic death of Nex Benedict: "A trans teen is dead. The state he lived in made his life as hard as possible."

• [03-14] Is JK Rowling transphobic? Let's let her speak for herself. I looked for a similar article on her views of Israel -- I was under the impression that she was a very militant supporter of Israel -- but couldn't find a comparable accounting. Curiously, I did find this, which is really just another way of framing her as anti-trans:

  • Mira Fox: [03-13] It wasn't just the goblins -- is JK Rowling doing Holocaust denial now?

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, March 11, 2024

March archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 41974 [41938] rated (+36), 27 [21] unrated (+6).

Another substantial Speaking of Which yesterday, plus some late additions today, bringing it up to 206 links, 9408 words. Otherwise, I have nothing much to show for the week, and I'm feeling as drained and hapless as I can recall, perhaps ever. Lots of tasks and projects piling up, unattended. At least I feel fairly well informed, and like I'm making sense when I drop into whatever topics come my way. Reflexes, and a substantial backlog of references I can still call up.

Meanwhile, I listened to the following bunch of records. I spent a lot more time with the R&B comp, eventually replaying all of it, which was enough for the promotion. Good tip from the redoubtable Clifford Ocheltree, so thanks again. The Hawkwind album tip came from a follower who goes by Cloudland Blue Quartet, who featured it in a #13at13 list. I didn't spend enough time on it -- certainly nothing like I would have had I encountered it at 13 (or 21, which I was when it came out; I certainly didn't have 13 albums at that age, and none to brag about). It seems like I must have heard more from them at the time than I have in the database, but not enough to really register (except as noted).

Three relatively mainstream jazz albums in the A-list this week. I feel a bit bad about not finding less obvious choices, but sometimes it breaks that way. The Potter album isn't actually in the 36 count, but I moved it in to wrap it up here. None scored high enough to be strong top-ten candidates at EOY (11, 13, 14 at the moment, or 6, 8, 9 among jazz), but they are likely to finish high in EOY polls.

Hurray for the Riff Raff is another pick with pretty broad support (86 on 21 reviews at AOTY; making it the year's highest-ranked album so far with that many reviews). It's taken over the number 2 slot in my 2024 list.

As for Old Music, the Gebru album I most recommend is still Éthiopiques 21: Ethiopia Song (1963-70 [2006], Buda Musique), attributed more precisely to Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, but any of the recent Emahoy/Mississippi compilations could do the trick. For solo piano, I usually prefer something upbeat (Earl Hines), fanciful (Art Tatum), and/or abrasive (Cecil Taylor), but all rules seem to have exceptions, and this is definitely one.

PS: [03-19] I have it on good authority that my Laura Jane Grace review, below, is "archaically transphobic." I understand their arguments, and will consider them in the future. But I will let this review stand. I've spent considerable time considering how I might respond, but after one rash attempt, I doubt that further discussion will do anyone any good.

New records reviewed this week:

Albare: Beyond Belief (2023 [2024], AM): Guitarist Albert Dadon, born in Morocco, grew up in Israel and France, moved to Australia in 1983 and made a fortune in business. Albums start in 1992. B+(*) [cd]

Bob Anderson: Live! (2023 [2024], Jazz Hang): Standards crooner, also described as an impressionist, career dates back to 1973, "has performed in more Las Vegas show rooms than just about anyone." Wikipedia has a bio but doesn't list any albums. Discogs has him as "(18)," with two two albums and three singles, none dated. These recordings were "taken from live performances in New York City, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Hollywood, Boston, and the like," also undated. Not a great ballad singer, but on the right song he does a pretty decent Sinatra. B+(*) [cd] [03-29]

Jonas Cambien: Jonas Cambien's Maca Conu (2023 [2024], Clean Feed): Belgian pianist, based in Oslo, leads a quartet with Signe Emmeluth (alto/tenor sax), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), and Andreas Wildhagen (drums), plus guest Guuro Kvåle (trombone) on two tracks. B+(***) [sp]

Ian Carey & Wood Metal Plastic: Strange Arts (2019 [2024], Slow & Steady): Bay Area trumpet player, seventh album, leads a "new chamber jazz septet with strings." B+(**) [cd] [03-22]

Giuseppe Doronzo/Andy Moor/Frank Rosaly: Futuro Ancestrale (2022 [2024], Clean Feed): Baritone saxophonist, from Italy, has a couple previous albums, also credited with Iranian bagpipe here, in a trio with electric guitar -- English, but has long played in the Dutch punk band, the Ex -- and drums (from Chicago). B+(**) [sp]

Fire!: Testament (2022 [2024], Rune Grammofon): Trio of Mats Gustafsson (baritone sax), Johan Berthling (bass), and Andreas Werlin (drums), formed 2009, eighth album, plus another seven as the expanded Fire! Orchestra. B+(***) [sp]

Glitter Wizard: Kiss the Boot (2023, Kitten Robot, EP): Glam rock group from San Francisco, four albums 2011-19, adds this six song, 18:30 EP. Includes a cover of "Sufragette City," not that they need to be so explicit about their niche. B [sp]

Laura Jane Grace: Hole in My Head (2024, Polyvinyl): Originally Thomas Gabel, singer-guitarist leader in punk group Against Me!, third solo album, a short one (11 songs, 25:28). Still sounds male, so you can just bracket the trans angle. Songs open up a bit towards folk, partly to expound on politics, e.g.: "out in the country is where fascists roam." B+(***) [sp]

Dave Harrington/Max Jaffe/Patrick Shiroishi: Speak, Moment (2021 [2024], AKP): Los Angeles-based trio: guitar, drums, sax, with some electronics and extra percussion. B+(**) [sp]

Keyon Harrold: Foreverland (2023 [2024], Concord): Mainstream trumpet player, debut 2009, many credits but only a few albums since. Major effort here, with variable lineups, and a sticker noting special guests Common, Robert Glasper, PJ Morton, and Laura Mvula. B+(**) [sp]

Brittany Howard: What Now (2024, Island): Former Alabama Shakes leader, second solo album, always winds up confusing me, although this one kept my interest piqued longer than most. B+(**) [sp]

Hurray for the Riff Raff: The Past Is Still Alive (2024, Nonesuch): Band but mostly folkie singer-songwriter Alyndra Segarra, from the Bronx via New Orleans, shows no obvious links to either but rather seems totally assimilated into declassé Americana. Ninth studio album. Always seemed like someone I should like more than I did, but this album is the breakthrough, and not just in likability. I'm not good enough at words to recall much of the brilliance I heard, beyond the "Buffalo" lament and the "Ogallala" reference, but they come with great ease. A- [sp]

Idles: Tangk (2024, Partisan): British rock band, from Bristol, fifth album since 2017, formally post-punk, have a lot of critical and popular support. Sounds good, but ended before anything really registered. B+(**) [sp]

Vijay Iyer: Compassion (2022 [2024], ECM): Pianist, from upstate New York, parents Tamil, studied physics before deciding on music, many albums since 1995, has won virtually everything. Trio with Linda May Han Oh (bass) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums). Starts slow, develops into something I never quite grasp -- one is tempted to use "dazzling," but that belongs more to the drummer. B+(***) [sp]

The Last Dinner Party: Prelude to Ecstasy (2024, Island): British rock group, five women, Abigail Morris the lead singer, debut album frequently described as art rock and/or baroque pop. B+(*) [sp]

Little Simz: Drop 7 (2024, Forever Living Originals, EP): British rapper-singer Simbi Ajikawo, first mixtape 2010, four albums and a dozen EPs, including seven Drop titles, this one with seven titles, 14:52. B+(**) [sp]

Mike McGinnis + 9: Outing: Road Trip II (2023 [2024], Sunnyside): Clarinet player, albums since 2001, including his prior Road Trip from 2012. Tentet again, with three saxes, three brass (trumpet/trombone/French horn), Jacob Sacks on piano, bass, and drums. B+(**) [sp]

Emile Parisien/Roberto Negro: Les Métanuits (2023, ACT): French soprano saxophonist, debut was a quintet in 2000, duo with the Italian pianist, one year older but albums only since 2015. "Inspired by György Ligeti's String Quartet No. 1." B+(**) [sp]

Emile Parisien Quartet: Let Them Cook (2024, ACT): French saxophonist (mostly soprano, but doesn't say, and sounds more like alto to me), debut was a quintet in 2000, info on this one is still very sketchy, but more names on cover: Julien Loutelier (drums), Ivan Gélugne (bass), Julien Touéry (piano). B+(***) [sp]

Chris Potter/Brad Mehldau/John Patitucci/Brian Blade: Eagle's Point (2024, Edition): The tenor saxophonist's album, his pieces, but all four surnames on the cover, fellow stars at piano, bass, and drums. Potter also plays soprano sax and bass clarinet. When he gets going, he can be quite astonishing. Mehldau is equally impressive, when he gets his opportunities, as here. A- [sp]

Joel Ross: Nublues (2023 [2024], Blue Note): Vibraphonist, fourth album since 2019, all on Blue Note, which instantly made him some kind of star. No doubt he is, as is his label mate and guest here, Immanuel Wilkins (alto sax). A- [sp]

Scheen Jazzorkester & Cortex: Frameworks: Music by Thomas Johansson (2022 [2024], Clean Feed): Norwegian large group, ninth album since 2013, teamed up with a quartet that's been active since 2011, both long associated with the trumpet player who composed these five pieces. B+(***) [sp]

Patrick Shiroishi: I Was Too Young to Hear Silence (2020 [2023], American Dreams): Japanese-American alto saxophonist, has produced a lot of records since 2014, mostly improv duos and trios, this a solo, starting in a deep listening vein, struggling to build something much more imposing (while maintaining that eery resonance). B+(***) [sp]

The Smile: Wall of Eyes (2024, XL): Band with ex-Radiohead leaders Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, plus Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. Second album. Slow and plainly pretty, not the sort of thing I find appealing. B [sp]

Vera Sola: Peacemarker (2024, Spectraphonic/City Slang): Singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, parents famous actors, from which her alias provides some distance, started as a poet, second album, first was DIY but at least has a co-producer here, Kenneth Pattengale. B+(**) [sp]

John Surman: Words Unspoken (2022 [2024], ECM): British saxophonist (the whole family, but just soprano, baritone, and bass clarinet here), avant-garde into the 1970s but settled into ECM's ambient chill by 1979 and has been secure ever since. With Rob Luft (guitar), Rob Waring (vibes), and Thomas Strønen (drums). This one is exceptionally engaging. A- [sp]

Michael Thomas: The Illusion of Choice (2023 [2024], Criss Cross): Alto saxophonist, based in New York, three previous albums going back to 2011, not to be confused with trumpeter of same name (or any others: he's "(25)" at Discogs). Mainstream quartet with Manuel Valera (piano), Matt Brewer (bass), and Obed Calvaire (drums), playing eight originals plus "It Could Happen to You." B+(***) [sp]

Akiko Tsugura: Beyond Nostalgia (2023 [2024], SteepleChase): Japanese organ player, moved to New York in 2001 ten or more albums since 2004, this one with Joe Magnarelli (trumpet), Jerry Welcon (tenor sax), Byron Landham (drums), and Ed Cherry (guitar). B+(**) [sp]

The Umbrellas: Fairweather Friend (2024, Tough Love): San Francisco-based jangle pop band, second album. B+(*) [sp]

Yard Act: Where's My Utopia? (2024, Island): British group, from Leeds, second album, James Smith's vocals are most often spoken, with bits of skits cut up and scattered. B+(**) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Emahoy Tsegue Maryam Guebru: Souvenirs (1977-85 [2024], Mississippi): Ethiopian pianist (1923-2023), described as a nun, "Emahoy" being a religious honorific. Recorded her first album in 1963, until recently was known mostly for her Éthiopiques 21 compilation of solo piano. This collects eight pieces (36:11), solo piano with vocals as soothing as the music. B+(***) [sp]

Old music:

Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru: Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru (1963-70 [2016], Mississippi): Solo piano from the Ethiopian nun's early albums (although the last three cuts, sourced from a 1996 Best Of, could be later). Seems like simple patterns, but lives up to the hype: "some of the most moving piano music you will ever hear." A- [sp]

Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru: Jerusalem (1972-2012 [2023], Mississippi): More solo piano (with a bit of vocal), three tracks from a 1972 album called The Hymn of Jerusalem: The Jordan River Song, six more from a much later album, by which time she had emigrated to Israel. Some biographical notes: she was of "a wealthy Amhara family," from Gondar, and learned music in a boarding school in Switzerland, from age six. She returned to Ethiopia in 1933, and became a "civil servant and singer to Emperor Haile Selassie." She became a nun when she was 21, and "spent a decade living in a hilltop monastery in Ethiopia." After that, she returned to playing music, and released her first album in 1967, in Germany. She emigrated to Israel in 1984, after Selassie fell, and "settled in an Ethiopian Orthodox convent in Jerusalem." B+(***) [sp]

Gigi W Material: Mesgana Ethiopia (2009 [2010], M.O.D. Technologies): Ethiopian singer Ejigayehu Shibabaw, recorded a couple albums 1997-98, then hooked up with Bill Laswell for a series of albums from Gigi in 2001 to this live album, but nothing since. (They were married for some period, but I haven't found dates.) Material was a band Laswell started in 1979, breaking up in 1985 but Laswell continued using the name for various projects through 1999, reviving it here. B+(**) [sp]

Hawkwind: Doremi Fasol Latido (1972, United Artists): British space-rock band, debut 1970, still extant (Dave Brock is the only original member left, and was probably always the main guy; Nik Turner left in 1976, and Huw Lloyd-Langton left in 1971 but returned for 1979-88), this their third album, with two otherwise notable musicians present: guitarist Lemmy Kilmister (later of Motorhead), and vocalist Robert Calvert (whose 1975 solo Lucky Leif and the Longships, produced by Eno, was a personal favorite, and who I credited most for the one Hawkwind album I did really love, 1977's Quark, Strangeness and Charm). Seems too dated to turn into a major research project at this point, but between the post-Pink Floyd and proto-Motorhead, familiar soundposts abound. B+(***) [sp]

Grade (or other) changes:

The R&B No. 1s of the '50s (1950-59 [2013], Acrobat, 6CD): I still haven't filed this set, which made it a convenient option, especially to start each day. Mostly that's meant disc 6, where the novelties not in Rhino's canonical The R&B Box are exceptionally catchy -- especially the Lloyd Price hits ("Personality," "I Wanna Get Married") that I already loved before I turned ten. But revisiting discs 1-3 clinched the deal. [was: A-] A [cd]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Neal Alger: Old Souls (Calligram) [03-01]
• Sam Anning: Earthen (Earshift Music) [04-05]
• Alex Beltran: Rift (Calligram) [03-01]
• Julieta Eugenio: Stay (self-released) [03-29]
• Julien Knowles: As Many, as One (Biophilia) [04-26]
• Travis Reuter: Quintet Music (self-released) [04-19]
• Claudio Scolari Project: Intermission (Principal) [03-25]
• Dan Weiss: Even Odds (Cygnus) [03-29]
• Hein Westergaard/Katt Hernandez/Raymond Strid: The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn (Gotta Let It Out) [02-25]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Once again, started early in the week, spent most of my time here, didn't get to everything I usually cover. Late Sunday night, figured I should go ahead and kick this out. Monday updates possible.

Initial count: 181 links, 7,582 words. Updated count [03-11]: 207 links, 9,444 words.

Top story threads:

Not sure where to put this, so how about here?

• Jacob Bogage: [03-08] Government shutdown averted as Senate passes $459 billion funding bill: In other words, Republicans once again waited until the last possible moment, then decided not to pull the trigger in their Russian roulette game over the budget. It seems be an unwritten rule that in electing Mike Johnson as Speaker, the extreme-right gets support for everything except shutting down the government.

Israel:

• Mondoweiss:

  • [03-04] Day 150: Israel is 'engineering famine' in Gaza. "Amnesty International says Israel is 'engineering famine' in Gaza. Organization head Agnes Callamard adds, 'all states that cut UNRWA funding, sold weapons and supported Israel bear responsibility too.'"

  • [03-05] Day 151: Israel 'campaigns' to end UNRWA in Gaza Strip: "UNRWA's chief says dismantling the agency is 'short-sighted' and will 'sow the seeds of hatred, resentment, and future conflict.' Israeli forces fire at Palestinians seeking aid and food in Gaza City and detain others in southern Gaza."

  • [03-06] Day 152: Prospect of breakthrough in ceasefire talks remains thin: "Canada will resume funding to UNRWA and pay a pledge of $25m due in April. In Gaza, another Palestinian child dies of thirst and hunger in the north, bringing the number of children to die from malnutrition to 18."

  • [03-07] Day 153: Over 2 dozen Palestinian captives have 'died' in Israeli detention camps: "At least 20 Palestinians have died as a result of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza, health officials say. Meanwhile, new reports from Israeli media say 27 Palestinian captives who were being held in Israeli 'makeshift cages' have died."

  • [03-08] Day 154: Biden's maritime aid corridor to Gaza slammed as 'unrealistic': "Human rights experts say the Biden administration's proposed maritime corridor is a much less effective solution to addressing the dire needs of Gaza's besieged and starving population than a ceasefire and pressuring Israel to open land crossings."

  • [03-09] Day 155: Deadly aid drop and obstacles to a maritime corridor expose farcical humanitarian response to Gaza famine: "At least eighteen children have died in Gaza from malnutrition, while deaths by starvation have risen to 23. Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced that Biden's proposed floating pier would take two months and 1000 US troops to build.

  • [03-10] Day 156: Israel deploys 15,000 troops in West Bank as Ramadan starts: "Ceasefire talks falter as Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson says Israel is using 'deception and evasion.' Israel deploys thousands of troops in the West Bank and Jerusalem ahead of plans to restrict access to Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan."

• Shane Bauer: [02-26] The Israeli settlers attacking their Palestinian neighbors: "With the world's focus on Gaza, settlers have used wartime chaos as cover for violence and dispossession."

• Giorgio Cafiero: [03-05] Why Egypt can't and won't open the floodgates from Gaza.

• Emma Farge: [03-07] Israel destroying Gaza's food system in 'starvation' tactic.

• Noa Galili: [03-10] Strangled by Israel for decades, Gaza's future must begin with free movement.

• Imad Abu Hawash: A new surge of settler outposts is terrorizing Palestinians off their land.

• Ibrahim Husseini: [03-08] Palestinians expect Israeli crackdown on worship at al-Aqsa during Ramadan.

• Ellen Ioanes: [03-07] What the UN report on October 7 sexual violence does -- and doesn't -- say.

• Eyal Lurie-Pardes: Journalism out, hasbara in: How Israeli news joined the Gaza war effort.

• Khalid Mohammed: Desperate to escape Gaza carnage, Palestinians are forced to pay exorbitant fees to enter Egypt.

• Aseel Mousa: [03-08] As Ramadan approaches, Rafah braces for an Israeli ground invasion.

• Jonathan Ofir: [03-06] 'We are the masters of the house': Israeli channels air snuff videos featuring systematic torture of Palestinians.

• Yumna Patel: [03-05] Palestinian PM's resignation nothing more than 'cosmetic shake up,' analysts say.

• Reuters: [03-09] Israeli settlements expand by record amount, UN rights chief says.

• Jeffrey St Clair: [03-02] Gaza Diary: Burning all illusions.

• Times of Israel: [03-08] Five Palestinians killed in Gaza after aid airdrop malfunctions.

• Nick Turse: Who could have predicted the US war in Somalia would fail? The Pentagon.

Israel vs. world opinion: Note that Biden's relief scheme for Gaza, announced in his State of the Union address, has been moved into its own sandbox, farther down, next to other Biden/SOTU pieces.

• Kyle Anzalone: [03-07] South Africa urges ICJ for emergency order as famine looms over Gaza.

• James Bamford: [03-06] Time is running out to stop the carnage in Gaza: "Given the toll from bombing and starvation, Gaza will soon become the world's largest unmarked grave." Actually, time ran out sometime in the first week after Oct. 7, when most Americans -- even many on the left who had become critical of Israeli apartheid -- were too busy competing in their denunciations of Hamas to notice how the Netanyahu government was clearly intent to commit genocide. At this point, the carnage is undeniable -- perhaps the only question is when the majority of the killing will shift (or has shifted) from arms to environmental factors (including starvation), because the latter are relatively hard to count (or are even more likely to be undercounted). Of course, stopping the killing is urgent, no matter how many days we fail.

• Greer Fay Cashman: [03-07] President Herzog faces calls for arrest on upcoming Netherlands visit.

• Jonathan Cook: [03-07] How the 'fight against antisemitism' became a shield for Israel's genocide.

• Richard Falk: [02-25] In Gaza, the west is enabling the most transparent genocide in human history.

• Noah Feldman: [03-05] How Oct. 7 is forcing Jews to reckon with Israel. Excerpt from his new book, To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People.

• Daniel Finn: [03-07] Slaughter in Gaza has discredited Britain's political class.

• Fred Kaplan: [03-06] Four things that will have to happen for the Israel-Hamas war to end: I have a lot of respect for Kaplan as an analyst of such matters, but the minimal solution he's created is impossible. His four things?

  1. The Hamas leadership has to surrender or go into exile. ("Qatar will have to crack down on Hamas, or perhaps provide its military leaders refuge in exchange for their departure from Gaza.")
  2. "Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Sunni powers in the region will have to help rebuild Gaza and foster new, more moderate political leaders."
  3. "Israel will at least have to say that it favors the creation of a Palestinian state and to take at least a small movement in that direction." Why anyone should believe Israel in this isn't explained.
  4. "The United States will have to serve as some sort of guarantor to all of this -- and not only for Israel."

  In other words, every nation in the region has to bend to Israel's stubborn insistence that they have to maintain control over every inch of Gaza, even though they've made it clear they'd prefer for everyone living there to depart or die. In any such scenario, it is inevitable that resistance will resurface to again threaten Israel's security, no matter how many layers of proxies are inserted, and no matter how systematically Israel culls its "militants." Short of a major sea change in Israeli opinion -- which is a prospect impossible to take seriously, at least in the short term -- there is only one real solution possible, which is for Israel to disown Gaza. Israel can continue to maintain its borders, its Iron Walls and Iron Domes, and can threaten massive retaliation if anyone on the Gaza side of the border attacks them. (This can even include nuclear, if that's the kind of people they are.) But Israel no longer gets any say in how the people of Gaza live. From that point, Israel is out of the picture, and Gaza has no reason to risk self-destruction by making symbolic gestures.

  That still leaves Gaza with a big problem -- just not an Israel problem. That is because Israel has rendered Gaza uninhabitable, at least for the two million people still stuck there. Those people need massive aid, and even so many of them probably need to move elsewhere, at least temporarily. Without Israel to fight, Hamas instantly becomes useless. They will release their hostages, and disband. Some may go into exile. The rest may join in rebuilding, ultimately organized under a local democracy, which would have no desire let alone capability to threaten Israel. This is actually very simple, as long as outside powers don't try to corrupt the process by recruiting local cronies (a big problem in the region, with the US, its Sunni allies, Iran, its Shiite friends, Turkey, and possibly others serial offenders).

  Sure, this would leave Israel with a residual Palestinian problem elsewhere: both with its second- and lesser-class citizens and wards, and with its still numerous external refugees. But that problem has not yet turned genocidal (although it's getting close, and is clearly possible as long as Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are part of Israel's ruling coalition). But there is time to work on that, especially once Israel is freed from the burden and horror of genocide in Gaza. There are lots of ideas that could work as solutions, but they all ultimately to accepting that everyone, regardless of where they live, should enjoy equal rights and opportunities. That will be a tough pill for many Israelis to swallow, but is the only one that will ultimately free them from the internecine struggle Israelis and Palestinians have been stuck with for most of a century. There's scant evidence that most Israelis want that kind of security, so people elsewhere will need to continue with BDS-like strategies of persuasion. But failure to make progress will just expose Israelis to revolts like they experienced on Oct. 7, and Palestinians to the immiseration and gloom they've suffered so often over many decades decades.

• Colbert I King: [03-08] The United States cannot afford to be complicit in Gaza's tragedy: True or not, isn't it a bit late to think of this?

• Nicholas Kristof: [03-19] 'People are hoping that Israel nukes us so we get rid of this pain': Texts with a Gazan acquaintance named Esa Alshannat, not Hamas, but after Israeli soldiers left an area, found "dead, rotten and half eaten by wild dogs." Kristof explains: "Roughly 1 percent of Gaza's people today are Hamas fighters. To understand what the other 99 percent are enduring, as the United States supplies weapons for this war and vetoes cease-fire resolutions at the United Nations, think of Alshannat and multiply him by two million."

• Debbie Nathan:

  • [03-03] How Israel quietly crushed early American Jewish dissent on Palestine: Review of Geoffrey Levin: Our Palestine Question: Israel and American Jewish Dissent, 1948-1978, "delves into American Jewish McCarthyism from the 1950s through the late 1970s."

  • Wolf Blitzer cut his teeth doing journalism for AIPAC-linked propaganda outlets.

• Vivian Nereim: [03-10] As Israel's ties to Arab countries fray, a stained lifeline remains: The United Arab Emirates is still on speaking terms with Israel, but doesn't have much to show for their solicitude.

• Ilan Pappé: [02-01] It is dark before the dawn, but Israeli settler colonialism is at an end.

• Mitchell Plitnick: [03-07] Replacing Netanyahu with Gantz won't fix the problem.

• Rebecca Lee Sanchez: [03-06] Gaza's miracle of the manna: Aid and the American God complex.

• Philip Weiss:

  [03-07] Zionism and Jewish identity: "American Zionists are not deluded about Zionism. They know exactly what Israel is, and they are actively supporting blatant supremacy, racism, and apartheid. But that is changing, because Zionism is finally being challenged in the left/liberal press."

  • [03-10] Weekly Briefing: Israeli genocide is 'embarrassing' Biden, at last.

• Brett Wilkins: [03-06] AIPAC's dark money arm unleashes $100 million: "Amid the Netanyahu government's assault on Gaza and intensifying repression in the West Bank, AIPAC is showing zero tolerance for even the mildest criticism of Israel during the 2024 US elections."

America's increasingly desperate and pathetic empire: I started this section to separate out stories on how the US was expanding its operations in the Middle East, ostensibly to deter regional adversaries from attacking Israel while Israel was busy with its genocide in Gaza. At the time, it seemed like Israel was actively trying to promote a broader war, partly to provide a distraction from its own focus (much as WWII served to shield the Holocaust), and partly to give the Americans something else to focus on. Israel tried selling this as a "seven-front war" -- a line that Thomas Friedman readily swallowed, quickly recovering from his initial shock at Israel's overreaction in Gaza -- but with neither Iran nor the US relishing what Israel imagined to be the main event, thus far only the Houthis in Yemen took the bait (where US/UK reprisals aren't much of a change from what the Saudis had been doing, with US help, for years). So this section has gradually been taken over by more general articles on America's imperial posture (with carve outs for the still-raging wars in Israel/Gaza and Ukraine/Russia.

• Ramzy Baroud:

  • [03-04] To defend Israel's actions, the US is destroying the int'l legal system it once constructed: I'm not sure that the US ever supported any sort of international justice system. The post-WWII trials in Japan and Germany were rigged to impose "victor's justice." The UN started as a victors' club, with Germany and Japan excluded, and the Security Council was designed so small states couldn't gang up on the powers. And when Soviet vetoes precluded using the UN as a cold war tool, the US invented various "coalitions of the willing" to rubber-stamp policy. The US never recognized independent initiatives like the ICJ, although the US supports using the ICJ where it's convenient, like against Russia in Ukraine. The only "rules-based order" the US supports is its own, and even there its blind support for Israel arbitrary and capricious -- subject to no rules at all, only the whims of Netanyahu.

  • [03-08] On solidarity and Kushner's shame: How Gaza defeated US strategem, again.

• Mac William Bishop: [02-23] American idiots kill the American century: "After decades of foreign-policy bungling and strategic defeats, the US has never seemed weaker -- and dictators around the world know it."

• Christopher Caldwell: [03-09] This prophetic academic now foresees the West's defeat: On French historian/political essayist Emmanuel Todd, who claims to have been the first to predict the demise of the Soviet Union (see his The Final Fall: An Essay on the Decomposition of the Soviet Sphere, from 1976), has a new book called La Défaite de l'Occident. Caldwell, who has a book called The Age of Entitlement, seems to be an unconventional conservative, so even when he has seeming insights it's hard to trust them. Even harder to get a read on Todd. (The NYTimes' insistence on "Mr." at every turn has never been more annoying.) But their skepticism of Biden et al. on Ukraine/Russia is certainly warranted. By the way, here are some old Caldwell pieces:

  • [2023-02-07] Russia and Ukraine have incentives to negotiate. The US has other plans.

  • [2022-05-31] The war in Ukraine may be impossible to stop. And the US deserves much of the blame.

• Brian Concannon: [03-08] US should let Haiti reclaim its democracy.

• Gregory Elich: [03-08] How Madeleine Albright got the war the US wanted: NATO goes on the warpath, initially in Yugoslavia, then . . . "the opportunity to expand Western domination over other nations."

• Tom Engelhardt: [03-05] A big-time war on terror: Living on the wrong world: "A planetary cease fire is desperately needed."

• Connor Freeman: [03-07] Biden's unpopular wars reap mass death and nuclear brinkmanship.

• Marc Martorell Junyent: [03-07] Tempest in a teapot: British illusions and American hegemony from Iraq to Yemen. Review of Tom Stevenson's book, Someone Else's Empire: British Illusions and American Hegemony.

• Joshua Keating: [03-09] The Houthis have the world's attention -- and they won't give it up: "What do Yemen's suddenly world-famous rebels really want, and what will make them stop?" One lesson here is that deterrence only works if it threatens a radical break from the status quo. The Saudis, with American support, have been bombing the Houthis for more than a decade now, causing great hardship for the Yemeni people, but hardly moving the needle on Houthi political power. So how much worse would it get if they picked a fight with Israel's proxy navy? Moreover, by standing up to Israel and its unwitting allies, they gain street cred and a claim to the moral high ground. For similar reasons, sanctions are more likely to threaten nations that aren't used to them. Once you're under sanctions, which with the US tends to be a life sentence, what difference does a few more make? It's too late for mere threats to change the behavior of Yemen, Iran, North Korea, and/or Russia -- though maybe not to affect powers whose misbehaviors have thus far escaped American sanctions, like Israel and Saudi Arabia. But for the rest, to effect change, you need to do something positive, to give them some motivation and opportunity to change. In many cases, that shouldn't even be hard. Just try to do the right thing. Respect the independence of others. Look for mutual benefits, like in trade. Help them help their own people. And stop defending genocide.

• Nan Levinson: [03-07] The enticements of war (and peace).

• Blaise Malley: [03-06] Opportunity calls as Cold War warriors exit the stage: "Will Mitch McConnell's replacement represent the old or new guard in his party's foreign policy?"

• Paul R Pillar: [03-06] Why Netanyahu is laughing all the way to the bank: "David Petraeus said recently that US leverage on Israel to do the right thing in Gaza is 'overestimated' -- that's just not true."

• Robert Wright: [03-08] The real problem with the Trump-Biden choice: This piece is far-reaching enough I could have slotted it anywhere, but it has the most bearing here: the problem is how much Trump and Biden have in common, especially where it comes to foreign affairs: "America First" may seem like a different approach from Biden's, but the latter is just a slightly more generous and less intemperate variation, as both start from the assumption that America is and must be the leader, and everyone else needs to follow in line. Trump thinks he can demand the other pay tribute; Biden possibly knows better, but his pursuit of arms deals makes me wonder. Wright cites a piece by Adam Tooze I can't afford or find, quoting it only up to the all-important "but" after which the Trump-Biden gap narrows. While I'm sure Tooze has interesting things to say, Wright's efforts to steer foreign policy thinking away from the zero-sum confrontations of the Metternich-to-Kissinger era are the points to consider.

• Fareed Zakaria: [03-08] Amid the horror in Gaza, it's easy to miss that the Middle East has changed.

Election notes: Sixteen states and territories voted for president on Super Tuesday, mostly confirming what we already knew. Biden won everywhere (except American Samoa), even over "uncommitted" (which mostly got a push from those most seriously upset over his support for Israeli genocide). Trump won everywhere -- except in Vermont, narrowly to Nikki Haley, who nonetheless shuttered her campaign (but hasn't yet endorsed Trump). Dean Phillips dropped out of the Democratic race after getting 8% in his home state of Minnesota and 9% in Oklahoma. He endorsed Biden. I'm not very happy with any of the news summaries I've seen, but here are a few to skim through: 538; AP; Ballotpedia; CBS News; CNBC; CNN; Guardian; NBC News; New York Times; Politico; USA Today; Washington Post. One quote I noticed (from CNN) was from a "reluctant Democrat" in Arizona: "It's hard to vote for someone with multiple felony charges; and it's also very hard to vote for someone that is pro-genocide."

• Michael C Bender: [03-06] How Trump's crushing primary triumph masked quiet weaknesses: "Even though he easily defeated Nikki Haley, the primary results suggested that he still has long-term problems with suburban voters, moderates, and independents."

• Aaron Blake: [03-08] The Texas GOP purge and other below-the-radar Super Tuesday nuggets.

• Nate Cohn: [03-07] Where Nikki Haley won and what it means: Inside the Beltway (61%), Home base and Mountain West cities (57%), Vermont (56%), University towns (56%), Resort towns (55%): In other words, the sorts of places that would automatically disqualify one as a Real Republican.

• Antonia Hitchens: [03-06] Watching Super Tuesday returns at Mar-a-Lago.

• Ro Khanna: [03-07] The message from Michigan couldn't be more clear: Actually, these figures (see Nichols below) are hardly enough for a bump in the road to Biden's reelection -- unlike, say, Eugene McCarthy's New Hampshire showing in 1968, where Lyndon Johnson got the message clearly enough to give up his campaign. What they do show is that the near-unanimity of Democratic politicians in support of Israel is not shared by the rank and file.

• Adam Nagourney/Shane Goldmacher: [03-09] The Biden-Trump rerun: A nation craving change gets more of the same: I bypassed this first time around, but maybe we should offer some kind of reward for the week's most inane opinion piece. Wasn't Nagourney a finalist in one of those hack journalists playoffs? (If memory serves -- why the hell can't I just google this? -- he finished runner-up to Karen Tumulty.)

• John Nichols: [03-05] Gaza is on the ballot all over America: "Inspired by Michigan's unexpectedly high 'uncommitted' vote, activists across the country are now mounting campaigns to send Biden a pro-cease-fire message." Uncommitted slate votes thus far (from NYTimes link, above): Minnesota: 18.9%; Michigan: 13.2%; North Carolina: 12.7%; Massachusetts: 9.4%; Colorado: 8.1%; Tennessee: 7.9%; Alabama: 6.0%; Iowa: 3.9%.

• Alexander Sammon:

  • [03-09] Katie Porter said her Senate primary was "rigged." Let's discuss! "Her complaint was kind of MAGA-coded. But it wasn't entirely wrong." Adam Schiff had a huge fundraising advantage over Porter, as Porter did over the worthier still Barbara Lee. This is one of the few pieces I've found that looks into where that money came from (AIPAC chipped in $5 million; a crypto-backed PAC doubled that), and how it was used, explained in more depth in the following:

  • [03-05] Democrats have turned to odd, cynical tactics to beat one another in California's Senate race. Schiff wound up spending a lot of money not trying to win Democrats over from Porter and Lee -- something that might require explaining why he supported the Iraq War (which itself partly explains why he got all that AIPAC money) -- but instead spent millions raising Republican Steve Garvey's profile. In the end, Schiff was so successful he lost first place to Garvey (on one but not both of the contests: one to finish Feinstein's term, one for the six year term that follows), but at least he got past Porter and Lee, turning the open primary into a traditional R-D contest (almost certainly D in California).

• Michael Scherer: [03-08] Inside No Labels decision to plow ahead with choosing presidential candidates: "The group announced on a call with supporters Friday plans to announce a selection process for their third-party presidential ticket on March 14 with a nomination by April." More No Labels:

  • Ed Kilgore: [03-08] No Labels green-lights 2024 bid with no candidates: "The idea of a 'unity ticket' is more popular than a bid with named candidates."

• Li Zhou: [03-06] Jason Palmer, the guy who beat Biden in American Samoa, briefly explained.

Trump, and other Republicans:

• David Atkins: [03-06] The incompetent malfeasance of today's Republican party: "They're mendacious buffoons, but their lack of political acumen makes them no less dangerous than if they knew how to shoot straight." Laugh as you may, but in much of the country, they're still kicking your ass.

• Zack Beauchamp: [03-06] The Republican primary was a joke. It tells us something deadly serious. "Trump's inevitable romp to victory revealed how strong his hold on the GOP is -- and how dangerous he remains to democracy."

• Ryan Bort: [03-08] Republicans tap election denier, Trump's daughter-in-law to run RNC: "The MAGA takeover of the Republican National Committee is complete, and the group appears poised to subsidize Trump's legal fights." Michael Whatley and Lara Trump.

• Zak Cheney-Rice: [03-09] The normalization of Trump's alleged crimes: "His legal strategy is both buying him time and erasing the accusations against him."

• Juan Cole: [03-06] Trump, Like Biden, supports Israeli Campaign against Gaza: "You've got to finish the Problem": Odd turn of phrase, isn't it? (I usually try to standardize case in headlines, but this one was so peculiar, I left it alone.) Most people try to solve problems, but "finish" could have two meanings, one suggesting that it isn't problem enough yet, so needs to be made more complete; the other interpretation, which is more like Trump, is that "Problem" means Palestinians, and "finish" means annihilation (or more vividly, if you know the original German, Vernichtung). I don't quite buy the argument that "Trump's position on Gaza is not any different from that of Joe Biden." Biden may feel powerless to object to Israel, but he's not unaware of the human cost. Trump simply doesn't care. As long as the checks don't bounce, he's good to go. More on Trump's Gaza "problem":

  • Jake Johnson: [03-07] Trump's answer on Gaza shows he's 'even worse' than Biden on Israel.

  • James Risen: On Israel, Trump is even worse than Biden.

  • Connor Echols: [03-04] Would Trump 2.0 be a hawk or a dove? "It's the advisers, stupid."

• Dan Diamond/Alex Horton: [03-07] Navy demoted Ronny Jackson after probe into White House behavior: "Trump's former physician and GOP ally is now a retired captain, not an admiral."

• Jesse Drucker: [03-09] How Trump's Justice Dept. derailed an investigation of a major company: "The industrial giant Caterpillar hired William Barr and other lawyers to defuse a federal criminal investigation of alleged tax dodges."

• Michael Gold: [03-10] Trump vilifies migrants and mocks Biden's stutter in Georgia speech.

• Jessica M Goldstein: The right-wing war on abortion has nothing to do with babies: "Coverage of the recent controversy over IVF has made a perilous omission: This is a battle over body autonomy." Related:

  • Aubrey Hirsch: [03-07] IVF is popular -- and imperiled.

• Alex Isenstadt: [03-11] Ralph Reed's army plans $62 million spending spree backing Trump: "Faith & amp; Freedom plans to spend big registering and turning out evangelicals and handing out 30 million pieces of literature at churches."

• Josh Kovensky: [03-09] Inside a secret society of prominent right-wing Christian men prepping for a 'national divorce'.

• Paul Krugman:

  • [03-04] Trump is running on dystopian fantasies.

  • [03-07] Reminder: Trump's last year in office was a national nightmare.

• Eric Levitz:

  • [03-05] Republicans' voter suppression obsession may end up helping . . . Democrats? "The GOP convinced itself it could only win with a smaller, whiter electorate. The polls show that's just not true."

  • [03-06] Republicans just passed up the chance to win a historic landslide: "If Republicans ever figure out how to nominate a normal human, Democrats could be in trouble." You might think that, but Romney and McCain, who were about as close as Republicans get to normal these days, lost to Obama, and Bush didn't fare much better, leaving office with the lowest approval rating at least since Nixon. Republican policies are moving disasters, many so obviously defective even they don't dare campaign on them. The only option, other than betraying their base(s), is to deflect and dissemble, which they do mostly by generating rage. Even that doesn't always work, but Trump was credibly crazy in 2016, and pulled off a miracle, and when he did, he raised the stakes about what winning meant. As long as he has a chance of winning -- and he does have enough polls to keep that fantasy going -- he's the horse the base wants to bet on, because he's the only one promising to fulfill their fantasies. Until he loses as bad as Landon in 1936, or at least Mondale in 1984, Republicans have little reason to recalculate.

• Daniel Lippman: [03-09] Kellyanne Conway advocating for TikTok on Capitol Hill: Trump failed to "drain the swamp," but his aides are learning to earn there.

• Alexandra Marquez: [03-10] Lindsey Graham: Biden has 'screwed the world up every way you can': I can't help but wonder how many people actually fall for this sort of vague but indiscriminate line, which has become default for most Republicans. Graham spouts more on foreign policy, where it's most clear that he wants to "screw the world up" in ways even Biden hasn't tried.

• Stephanie Mencimer: [03-08] Lara Trump is all about meritocracy: "That's why she got the top job at the RNC."

• Mary Jo Murphy: [03-07] This book about Trump voters goes for the jugular: Another review of Tom Schaller/Paul Waldman: White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy. And another:

  • Nathan J Robinson: [03-04] Are rural white people the problem?

• Nicole Narea: [03-06] Mark Robinson, the North Carolina GOP nominee for governor, is off the rails even by MAGA standards: "North Carolina has seen a politician like Robinson before: Jesse Helms." More:

  • Dan Merica: [03-11] Mark Robinson on ACA: It's an effort to 'enslave everybody'

  • Steve M: [03-06] New York Times sanitizes sewer-mouthed GOP gubernatorial nominee: Mark Robinson. Many links here, including one from 2023 called North Carolina's Lt. Governor is a Facebook brawler whose posts railed against Gays, Blacks, and Jews.

• Anna North: [03-04] Fetal personhood laws, explained: "The anti-abortion legal theory that could jeopardize IVF around the country."

• Charles P Pierce: Many recent short posts, not all of which apply to this slot, but the first couple do, and easier to keep them together, with more respect for their author:

  • [03-11] The Kansas Attorney General doesn't want to replace lead pipes?

  • [03-11] I no longer believe the Republican Party will ever return to normalcy: "The MAGA-backed recall effort directed at Wisconsin's Assembly leader Robin Vos over the 2020 election is just more proof."

  • [03-09] Cheers to Rep. Barbara Lee, and her remarkably principled career: "She's managed to turn her loss in California's 'jungle primary' into a well-deserved victory lap."

  • [03-07] Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton have pulled the wool over the eyes of Texas: "Tuesday's primary results are showing the fruits of their revenge campaigns."

  • [03-05] I, Kyrsten Sinema, am too dedicated to the ideals of politics and government to remain in Congress: "because she was . . . too good at . . . compromise?"

  • [03-05] No Labels? More like no candidate . . . (sorry): "At this point the 'party' is just a vehicle for ratfcking Democrats."

  • [02-29] The US has enabled Netanyahu long enough. Actually, way too long. Like since his failure to implement the Wye River Accords, that long, at least.

• Greg Sargent: Trump's angry rant about Biden's speech showcases MAGA's ugliest scam.

• Charles Sykes: [03-05] Donald Trump, the luckiest politician who ever lived.

• Ishaan Tharoor: [03-08] Trump, Orban and the GOP's deep obsession with foreign demagogues: This column includes an interview with Jacob Heilbrunn, author of America Last: The Right's Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators. The century is just enough time to go back to Mussolini, lionized as the guy who got the trains to run on time.

• Liz Theoharis: [03-10] The great unwinding: "The failing battle for health and healthcare in these all too disunited states." Republicans are responsible for this, and need to own it: "Since March 2023, 16 million Americans have lost healthcare coverage, including four million children, as states redefine eligibility for Medicaid for the first time in three years." This is one of many areas where Democrats were able to expand the safety net to ameliorate the horrors of the Covid-19 pandemic, but as Republicans recovered from the panic, they've killed off these much needed expansions as soon as possible.

• Peter Wehner: [03-10] If there's one thing Trump is right about, it's Republicans: They'll follow him anywhere:

  Mr. Trump is a human blowtorch, prepared to burn down democracy. So is his party. When there's no bottom, there's no bottom.

  The next 34 weeks are among the more consequential in the life of this nation. Mr. Trump was a clear danger in 2016; he's much more of a danger now. The former president is more vengeful, more bitter and more unstable than he was, which is saying something. There would be fewer guardrails and more true believers in a second Trump term. He's already shown he'll overturn an election, support a violent insurrection and even allow his vice president to be hanged. There's nothing he won't do. It's up to the rest of us to keep him from doing it.

Biden's band-aid folly: Unveiled in Biden's State of the Union address, q.v., but for this week, let's give it its own section:

• Alex Horton: [03-08] How the US military will use a floating pier to deliver Gaza aid: "Construction will take up to two months and require 1,000 US troops who will remain off shore, officials say. Once complete, it will enable delivery of 2 million meals daily."

• Jonathan Cook: [03-10] Biden's pier-for-Gaza is hollow gesture.

• Kareem Fahim/Hazem Balousha: [03-08] Biden plan to build Gaza port, deliver aid by sea draws skepticism, ridicule. Sounds like they had a contest to come up with the most expensive, least efficient method possible to trickle life-sustaining aid into Gaza, without in any way inhibiting Israel's systematic slaughter.

• Miriam Berger/Sufian Taha/Heidi Levine/Loveday Morris: [03-05] The improbable US plan for a revitalized Palestinian security force: Because the US did such a great job of training the Afghan security force?

• Noga Tarnopolsky: [03-09] The Biden plan to ditch Netanyahu: "The 'come to Jesus moment' is already here, according to Israeli and US sources." I don't give this report much credit, but it stands to reason that eventually Biden will tire of Netanyahu jerking him around just so he can further embarrass both countries with what is both in intent and effect genocide. I do see ways in which Biden's initial subservience is evolving into some kind of passive-aggressive resistance. Rather than denounce Israel for making reasonable aid possible, Biden has challenged Israel to spell out what they would allow, and agreed even as these schemes are patently ridiculous. It's only a matter of time until Israel starts attacking American aid providers. For another piece:

• Zack Beauchamp: [03-08] Are Biden and the Democrats finally turning on Israel? "Biden's new plan to build a pier on the Gaza coast seems to say yes. The continued military aid to Israel says otherwise."

Biden's State of the Union speech: A section for everything else related, including official and unofficial Republican responses:

• Zack Beauchamp: [03-08] Biden's State of the Union got one big thing right: "The president dodged the 'norms trap' by going straight after Trump on democracy."

• Chas Danner:

  • [03-08] Did Biden's SOTU speech turn around his campaign? (And did Katie Britt's response backfire?)

  • [03-09] Did Katie Britt misrepresent the sex-trafficking story in her SOTU response?

• Tim Dickinson: [03-07] Fired-up Biden takes aim at his 'predecessor' in rousing SOTU.

• Moira Donegan: [03-08] Biden's State of the Union: raucous, strident and insistently optimistic: "His remarks were designed to demonstrate Biden's vitality. They succeeded."

• Susan B Glasser: [03-08] So much for "sleepy Joe": On Biden's rowdy, shouty State of the Union.

• Margaret Hartmann:

  • [03-08] Trump responds to State of the Union with Truth Social crash and Snapchat filters.

  • [03-08] Yes, Trump said 'get over it' after a school shooting.

• Sarah Jones: [03-08] When motherhood is a weapon: "Senator Katie Britt of Alabama knows her place."

• Ed Kilgore:

  • [03-07] Biden's State of the Union address: Right in Trump's face! Just an aside here: one thing I've always hated about SOTU is having to watch the VP and Speaker over the President's shoulders. Harris actually put on a fairly good show this time, which was a relief, as she usually comes out super glum. Johnson, however, was clearly miserable while trying to look invisible, and that didn't help anyone. It's rare to have speakers framed like that, and really unnecessary.

  • [03-08] Katie Britt's America sounds scary, but not as scary as Katie Britt.

• Eric Levitz: [03-07] Biden to nation: Republicans like rich people more than they like you.

• Branko Marcetic:

  • [03-08] Biden's state of the union showcased a president in denial. Note that Marcetic was one of the few to take Biden seriously enough to write a book on him going into the 2020 campaign, and it was critical: Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. Marcetic also wrote:

  • [03-07] Support for "uncommitted" runs deep enough to threaten Biden.

• Tori Otten: One line in Biden's SOTU is about to show up in every GOP attack ad.

• Andrew Prokop: [03-08] The media's coverage of Biden's age needs a rethink.

• Nikki McCann Ramirez/Asawin Suebsaeng: [03-08] 'What the hell am I watching': Republicans torch their own SOTU rebuttal: "Alabama Sen. Katie Britt was panned after delivering the most bizarre State of the Union rebuttal in recent memory."

• Bill Scher: [03-08] The oldest president in history just gave the fiercest state of the union address in history.

Biden and/or the Democrats:

• Perry Bacon Jr: [03-07] Biden is failing at the most important task of his presidency. Bacon's definition: "Biden has failed at the most important task for a Democratic president in the 2020s: eliminating or at least drastically reducing the chances of Trump or someone who shares his radical beliefs being his successor." That may have been the job, but it's really hard to see how he could have done it. When I saw the headline, I filled in my own answer, which is that Biden simply isn't a very good communicator. But Obama was, technically at least, pretty much all you could hope for in a communicator, and who listened to him? Bill Clinton was also pretty good. But both were hobbled by a hostile media that relentlessly amplified Republican countermessaging, and by the muddle created by their own willingness to conform to conservative framing of issues -- is it any wonder that they were more successful at persuading donors than voters? Franklin Roosevelt was the great communicator among all presidents, but we no longer live in a world where nominally Republican farmers (like, say, my grandfather) would tune in to listen to him explain how banking worked, and believe a word he said.

• Jonathan Chait: [03-05] Good riddance, Kyrsten Sinema, plutocratic shill: "She killed her career by blocking bipartisan ideas that threatened the rich." The Democrat-turned-independent from Arizona finally decided not to run for a second term. Presumably she'll reap her rewards as a lobbyist, not that she's likely to have much influence over anyone. More:

  • Chris Lehman: [03-06] Kyrsten Sinema does us all a favor.

  • Jim Newell: A singularly arrogant Senator make a very appropriate exit.

• Timothy Noah: The stealth budget cuts imperiling the Biden antitrust agenda.

• Evan Osnos: [03-04] Joe Biden's last campaign: A long New Yorker profile on Biden, by just about the only writer who managed to get a biography of Biden together before the 2020 election (and just barely).

• Andrew Prokop: [03-08] The media's coverage of Biden's age needs a rethink: "There's been too much focus on trivialities."

• John E Schwarz: [03-01] Democratic presidents have better economic performances than Republican ones: This has been true for so long you'd think everyone would be acknowledging it.

• Astra Taylor/Eleni Schirmer: [03-05] The Biden administration has a chance to deliver student debt relief. It must act.

• Benjamin Wallace-Wells: [03-06] Can Joe Biden fight from behind in a rematch against Donald Trump?

Legal matters and other crimes:

• Elie Honig: [03-08] Biden's looming nightmare pardons: Ever since this "former federal and state prosecutor" started writing for Intelligencer, his pieces have sounded like stealth briefs from the Trump legal team, even if not things they would actually want to own. This one at least assumes things not yet in evidence: that Trump is actually tried and convicted and sentenced to jail time -- the power may be to pardon, but all he's asking for is commutation of prison time, not full pardons. As that's increasingly unlikely before November, the assumption may also be that Biden wins then, so has some breathing room before having to consider the issue, which would leave plenty of time for this discussion, unlike now.

• Josh Kovensky: [03-05] Feds slap 12 new counts on Bob 'Gold Bars' Menendez: Senator (D-NJ).

• Ian Millhiser: [03-10] Do Americans still have a right to privacy? "With courts coming for abortion and IVF, it's hard not to wonder what the Supreme Court will go after next."

Climate, environment, and energy:

• Kate Aronoff: Inside Big Oil's plot to keep their emissiosn confidential.

• Evan Halper: [03-07] Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power: "AI and the boom in clean-tech manufacturing are pushing America's power grid to the brink. Utilities can't keep up." I suspect there's a scam or several in here somewhere, most obviously the push for more "clean nuclear power." Also noted here:

  • Elizabeth Kolbert: [03-09] The obscene energy demands of AI: "How can the world reach net zero if it keeps inventing new ways to consume energy?"

• David Wallace-Wells:

  • [02-22] Just how many people will die from climate change?

  • [03-06] John Kerry: 'I feel deeply frustrated': An interview with Kerry, as he is stepping down from his "post as America's top climate diplomat," having achieved, well, not enough.

Ukraine War:

• Blaise Malley: [03-08] Diplomacy Watch: Chinese diplomat shuttling to Russia, and Ukraine. Turkey is also making efforts to mediate the conflict.

• Francesca Ebel/Robyn Dixon: [02-29] Putin threatens nuclear response to NATO troops if they go to Ukraine.

• Francesca Ebel/Serhiy Morgunov: [03-08] Russia's opposition and Ukraine find it impossible to unite against Putin.

• Mark Episkopos: [03-08] What will more aid to Ukraine accomplish? "There are limits to what Kyiv can do, even with an indefinite flow of Western assistance."

• Valerie Hopkins: [03-01] Thousands turn out for Navalny's funeral in Moscow.

• Daniel Larison: [03-05] Victoria Nuland never shook the mantle of ideological meddler: "Blurting out F-ck the EU' typified her blunt, interventionist style throughout three presidential administrations."

• Emily Rauhala: [03-07] Sweden finally joins NATO in expansion spurred by Putin's Ukraine war.

• Lauren Wolfe: [01-16] Putin's history lessons: Review of Yaroslav Trofimov: Our Enemies Will Vanish: The Russian Invasion and Ukraine's War of Independence, which is somewhat tangential to the subhed argument that Putin's rhetoric about the unity of Russia and Ukraine has laid "the rhetorical groundwork for a forever war."

• Amanda Yen: [03-11] Hungary's Viktor Orban: Trump 'won't give a penny' to Ukraine if elected. One of the stranger recent political dynamics is that as Trump digs in more as the anti-war (and especially, anti-world-war) candidate, Democrats are trying to rally support for Ukraine as necessary to spite Trump here in America. Why they think that's a winning strategy is beyond me. They could argue that unified support for Ukraine would help them negotiate a better deal to end the war, but first they need to be open to negotiating, which so far doesn't seem to be the case. America has a bad history of never negotiating reasonable exits from conflicts. Rather, in Vietnam and Afghanistan, they negotiated deals where they just slipped away, leaving their supposed allies to collapse, or in Korea, where they signed a ceasefire but refused to call it an end to the war. A reasonable deal with Russia is possible, and it could lead to further reasonable deals in the future, in the long run ending a conflict that the US has done as much or more to fuel as Putin has. Trump may pull out, but he won't negotiate a real deal, because he doesn't know how, and he doesn't care. But even the bad deals I've mentioned were better for Americans than the hopeless, pointless wars they escaped from. So even if that's all Trump is promising, many people will see it as better than Biden and the Democrats pouring endless resources into a stalemate.

Around the world:

• Nicholas Ford: [03-07] The IMF's policies are destroying Kenya, again.

• Ellen Ioanes: [03-05] Don't ignore Sudan's horrific conflict: "More than 8 million people have been displaced during the war, and more than 13,000 people have been killed."

Other stories:

Michelle Alexander: [03-08] Only revolutionary love can save us now: "Martin Luther King Jr's 1967 speech condemning the Vietnam War offers a powerful moral compass as we face the challenges of our time."

Indivar Dutta-Gupta/Korian Warren: [03-04] The war on poverty wasn't enough: "While Lyndon B Johnson's effort made some lasting impacts, the United States still has some of the highest rates of nonelderly poverty among wealthy nations." As the article notes, Johnson's programs brought big improvements, but the Vietnam War hurt him politically, and his successors lost interest: e.g., Nixon's appointment of Donald Rumsfeld to run the Office of Economic Opportunity. And while Republicans deserve much of the blame, Democrats like Daniel Moynahan and Bill Clinton were often as bad, sometimes worse.

Henry Farrell: [02-27] Dr. Pangloss's Panopticon: A very thoughtful critique of Noah Smith's "quite negative review of a recent book by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, Power and Progress: Our 1000-Year Struggle Over Technology & Prosperity. There are complex issues at dispute here, many much more interesting than those that dominate this (and all recent) posts. Dr. Pangloss (from Voltaire) stands in for techno-optimism: the idea that unfettered innovation, accelerated as it is through modern venture capitalism, promises to deliver ever-improving worlds. Panopticon (from Jeremy Bentham) is an early form of mass surveillance, a capability that technology has done much to develop recently, with AI promising a breakthrough to the bottleneck problem (the time and people you need to surveil other people).

Luke Goldstein: [02-23] Crunch time for government spying: "Congress has a few weeks left until a key spying provision sunsets. Both reformers and intelligence hawks are plotting their strategies."

Oshan Jarow: [03-08] The world's mental health is in rough shape -- and not getting any better: "Guess where the US ranks?"

Sarah Kaplan: [03-06] Are we living in an 'Age of Humans'? Geologists say no. A recent proposal for delineating a stratigraphic boundary for the Anthropocene, based on "a plume of radioactive plutonium that circled around the world" in 1952, was proposed recently and, at least for now, voted down. More:

• Sigi Samuel: [03-07] Why did geologists reject the "Anthropocene" epoch? It's not rock science. "The battle proves that time is political, any way you cut it."

Alvaro Lopez: [03-08] The making of Frantz Fanon: Review of Adam Shatz's new book, The Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon. Also:

• Erik Linstrum: Frantz Fanon's conflicted vision for decolonization.

Rick Perlstein: [03-06] The spectacle of policing: "'Swatting' innocent people is the latest incarnation of the decades-long gestation of an infrastructure of fear."

Dave Phillipps: [03-06] Profound damage found in Maine gunman's brain, possibly from blasts: "A laboratory found a pattern of cell damage that has been seen in veterans exposed to weapons blasts, and said it probably played a role in symptoms the gunman displayed before the shooting." Robert Card was a grenade instructor in the Army Reserve for eight years. He went on to shoot and kill 18 people and himself. Something not yet factored into the "Costs of War" accounting. Another report:

• Annabelle Timsit/Jennifer Hassan/Joanna Slater: [03-07] Maine shooter who killed 18 had traumatic brain injury, study says.

Jeffrey St Clair: [03-08] Roaming Charges: Too obvious to be real.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

March archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 41938 [41900] rated (+38), 21 [22] unrated (-1).

I'm having a rough time getting anything done, which is my best explanation for wasting most of last week on a still-unfinished Speaking of Which -- posted well after midnight last, with a few further adds flagged today. The most important add is the link to Pankaj Mishra's The Shoah after Gaza (also on YouTube).

I've neglected pretty much everything and everyone else. My apologies to anyone expecting a response from me. As I must have noted already, I gave myself a month to write a quick, very rough draft of my long gestating political book, with the promise that if I couldn't pull it off, I'd shelve the idea once and for all, and spend my waning days reading fiction -- forty years later, I still have a bookmark 300 pages into Gravity's Rainbow, and enough recollection I'm not sure I'll have to retrace -- while slipping in the occasional old movie and dawdling with jigsaw puzzles (ok, I'm already doing the latter). I certainly wouldn't have to plow through any nonfiction that might be construed as research -- e.g., a couple items currently on the proverbial night stand: Franklin Foer's book on Biden, or Judis/Teixeira on the missing Democrats.

That month was supposed to be January, but the Jazz Critics Poll and EOY lists lapped over without me starting, so I decided I'd give it February. I still have no more than a fragment of a letter stashed away in a notebook entry, so the obvious thing to do at this point is admit failure, and be done with it. Aside from easing my mind -- the last six months have been unbearably gloomy for my politics, my prognostications turning markedly dystopian -- ditching politics might be good news for those of you more interested in my writing on music.

Two small projects that I've also neglected are: a thorough review of the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll website, which is missing some unknown quantity of historical material (hopefully Davis has it stashed away), and needs some modernization; I'm also behind on maintenance, not to mention the long-promised redesign, of the Robert Christgau website. It would also make sense to reorganize my own data along those same lines, as even now it's virtually impossible for even me to look up what I've written about any musician.

I also have neglected house projects: the most pressing of which is the imminent collapse of a chunk of ceiling in my wife's study room. I used to be pretty competent at carpentry and home improvement tasks. About all I can claim to have managed in the last month has been replacement of two light bulbs, which took me weeks (in my defense, both involved ladders and unconventional sockets).

Nothing special to say about this week's music. A copy of the year 2023 list has been frozen, but I am still adding occasional records to my tracking file, jazz and non-jazz EOY lists, and EOY aggregate, but mostly just my own belatedly graded items. But I'm not very focused on what I'm listening to, and often get stuck wondering what to play next. I can't say I've reached the point of not caring, but I'm getting there.

My most played record of the last couple weeks is The R&B No. 1s of the '50s, especially the final disc, which has left me with Lloyd Price's "I'm Gonna Get Married" as the ultimate earworm. I should probably bump the whole set up to full A. I played the last three discs while cooking on Saturday, and I'm satisfied with them. Then I started Sunday and Monday with disc 6. As this post lapsed into Tuesday, I was tempted again, but had unfinished Vijay Iyer queued up.

Found this in a Facebook comment: "I'm not sure keeping up with Tom Hull is possible. The very thought makes my synapses cry out, 'no mas, no mas.'" But from my view, they really just keep coming poco a poco. During the long delay from listing out this file to posting it -- mostly spent on the Speaking of Which intro -- I only managed to collect four more reviews for next week: two marginally A- jazz albums (Joel Ross, John Surman), and two more marginally below A- (Vijay Iyer, Emile Parisien).

New records reviewed this week:

Black Art Jazz Collective: Truth to Power (2024, HighNote): Fourth group album, 2016 debut started with six mostly prominent mainstreamers -- Wayne Escoffery (tenor sax), Jeremy Pelt (trumpet), James Burton (trombone), Xavier Davis (piano), and Johnathan Blake (drums) -- up to nine this time: still a sextet, but with Victor Gould, Rashaan Carter, and Mark Whitfield Jr. taking over at piano-bass-drums for four tracks. Rich harmonically, but still not much of interest happening here. B [sp]

The Choir Invisible [Charlotte Greve/Vinnie Sperazza/Chris Tordini]: Town of Two Faces (2022 [2024], Intakt): Brooklyn-based trio of German saxophonist Charlotte Greve, Chris Tordini (bass), and Vinnie Sperazza (drums), the group taking the title of their initial 2020 album. Greve is also credited with voice, but the real vocal here is Fay Victor's outstanding blues, "In Heaven." B+(***) [sp]

Djeli Moussa Condé: Africa Mama (2023, Accords Croises): Kora playing griot from Conakry, Guinea; at least two previous albums, more as Kondé. B+(***) [sp]

Gui Duvignau/Jacob Sacks/Nathan Ellman-Bell: Live in Red Hook (2022 [2024], Sunnyside): Bassist, fourth album since 2016, born in France, moved to Morocco as an infant, then grew up in Brazil, eventually winding up in New York, where he recorded this trio with piano and drums. B+(*) [sp]

Alon Farber Hagiga With Dave Douglas: The Magician: Live in Jerusalem (2023 [2024], Origin): Israeli saxophonist (soprano/alto), group name is Hebrew for "celebration," has used it to frame his quintet and sextet albums since 2005, up to seven here with their guest star, who brought two (of five) songs, and plays some of his hottest trumpet since he left Masada. A group this joyous deserves as better country. B+(***) [cd]

R.A.P. Ferreira & Fumitake Tamura: The First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap (2024, Ruby Yacht): Underground rapper from Chicago, initials for Rory Allen Philip, formerly did business as Milo, based in Nashville; producer has a handful of collaborations since 2014. Music very sketchy here, but finds an interesting groove. Twelve cuts, 32:16. B+(***) [sp]

David Friesen: This Light Has No Darkness (2023 [2024]], Origin): Bassist, one should add composer as that's been key to him leading fifty-some albums since 1975, and that's the focus here, with this 12-part work arranged and orchestrated by Kyle Gordon, using a 33-piece orchestra. Classically lush, way too much for my taste. B [cd]

The Fully Celebrated Orchestra: Sob Story (2023 [2024], Relative Pitch): Group led by alto saxophonist Jim Hobbs, first appeared as a trio in 1996, last heard on the terrific 2009 Drunk on the Blood of the Holy Ones, back here as a quintet, with Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet) and Ian Ayers (guitar) joining Luther Gray (drums) and original member Timo Sharko (bass). B+(**) [sp]

Vanisha Gould and Chris McCarthy: Life's a Gig (2022 [2024], Fresh Sound New Talent): Jazz singer, has a previous self-released duo album but I could see this as her debut, wrote one song plus lyrics to another, but the focus here is on seven standards, most with just McCarthy's piano accompaniment (guest viola on two: the original and "Jolene"). Given the right song, like "What a Little Moonlight Can Do," and she doesn't need more. B+(**) [sp]

Heems & Lapgan: Lafandar (2024, Veena Sounds): Rapper Himanshu Suri, formerly of Das Racist and Swet Shop Boys, third solo album (first since 2015). Lapgan is a producer with a couple recent albums, draws on Indo-Pak heritage, Lollywood dance beats, and transnational hip-hop. Beaucoup guests celebrate, and flaunt, diversity. I should dig up a lyric sheet, but the many word juxtapositions are exciting enough. A [sp]

Katy Kirby: Blue Raspberry (2024, Anti-): Folkie singer-songwriter, grew up in Texas, based in Nashville, second album. B+(**) [sp]

Lapgan: History (2023, Veena Sounds): Hip-hop producer, most likely Punjabi but no info as yet on how far removed (seems to be based in Chicago), breakthrough is with the new Heems album, which instantly validated this title. B+(*) [sp]

Lapgan: Duniya Kya Hai (2021, Veena Sounds): Earlier, beats "almost exclusively with sounds from India and Pakistan." B+(**)

Lapgan: Badmaash (2019, self-released): Digging deeper, I find his name is Gaurav Nagpal (last name reversed for Lapgan), his parents came from India (but where? samples are as likely to come from Kerala as Punjab), he was born in Queens, grew up near Chicago, and worked his way backwards into roots. B+(**) [sp]

Les Amazones d'Afrique: Musow Danse (2024, Real World): African supergroup, three brand-name Malian singers -- Mamani Keïta, Mariam Dumbia, Oumou Sangare -- plus 'French music-industry veteran" Valerie Malot. B+(***) [sp]

James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Transfiguration (2022 [2024], Intakt): Tenor saxophonist, brilliant on his 2014 major label debut, has continued to impress ever since, including landmark concept albums that won the Francis Davis Poll in 2021 and 2023. On the side, he's recorded a series of excellent working group albums for this Swiss label. Quartet with piano (Aruán Ortiz), bass (Brad Jones), and drums (Chad Taylor). A- [sp]

Cecilia Lopez & Ingrid Laubrock: Maromas (2022 [2023], Relative Pitch): Electronics musician, from Argentina, based in New York, more than a dozen releases since 2015, doesn't appear to be related to bassist Brandon Lopez, but they did a 2020 duo called LopezLopez. Duo here with the German saxophonist (soprano/tenor), also New York-based. Sketchy, but interesting. B+(**) [sp]

Corb Lund: El Viejo (2024, New West): Canadian country singer-songwriter, twelfth album since 1995. Has a good sound and good sense, but songs are a bit hit-and-miss (a tip might be that his best album so far was called Songs My Friends Wrote). B+(***) [sp]

Brady Lux: Ain't Gone So Far (2024, 6483357 DK, EP): Country singer-songwriter from Montana, reportedly "a genuine ranch hand cowboy who works his ass off every day, and at night he writes songs and saws a little fiddle when he can find the time." Sounds really western, albeit without horses. Seven songs, 23:05. B+(***) [sp]

Mali Obomsawin/Magdalena Abrego: Greatest Hits (2024, Out of Your Head): Singer-songwriter/bassist from Abenaki First Nation, started in the folk group Lula Wiles, released a jazz-powered solo debut in 2022 I liked a lot (Sweet Tooth), but title here made me wonder. Abrego is a guitarist based in Hudson, NY, with not much before this, but adds appreciable heft to the songs. Eight songs, 32:02. B+(**) [bc]

QOW Trio: The Hold Up (2024, Ubuntu Music): British trio -- Riley Stone-Longeran (tenor sax), Eddie Myer (bass), Spike Wells (drums) -- second album after an eponymous debut in 2020, basically a retro-bop band, name taken from a Dewey Redman song, Wells old enough to have played with Tubby Hayes. No complaints here if the saxophonist sounds a lot like Sonny Rollins. A- [sp]

Zach Rich: Solidarity (2021 [2024], OA2): Trombonist, originally from Wichita, teaches in Colorado, seems to be his first album. Postbop quintet with piano and guitar, bass and drums, plus string quartet, plus extra horns and voice on the second piece ("Broken Mirrors"). B+(*) [cd]

Dex Romweber: Good Thing Goin' (2023, Propeller Sound): Rockabilly/roots guitarist, singer-songwriter, surprised to hear that he died at age 56, leaving this album has his last -- ominously dedicated to his late sister and duo partner, Sara Romweber (1963-2019). A mix of originals and covers, the latter more often amusing (even if inadvertently so). B+(*) [sp]

Ignaz Schick/Oliver Steidle: Ilog3 (2021 [2023], Zarek): Germans, Schick started out as a saxophonist but credits here are "turntables, sampler, pitch shifter/looper," in a duo with the drummer ("percussion, sampler, live-electronics"). Third duo album, starting in 2015. Some splendid noise. B+(***) [bc]

Fie Schouten/Vincent Courtois/Guus Janssen: Vostok: Remote Islands (2023, Relative Pitch): A treat for Worldle devotees, improvised music "inspired by Judith Schalansky's book Atlas of Remote Islands: 50 Islands I Never Set Foot in and Never Will. Schouten plays "bass clarinet, clarinet in A, basset horn"; the others cello and keyboards, with Giuseppe Doronzo joining in on baritone sax (4 of 12 tracks). Eleven are named for islands (only a couple big enough to be Worldle answers), the other for a bird ("Inaccessible Island Rail"). B+(**) [sp]

Håkon Skogstad: 8 Concepts of Tango (2023 [2024], Øra Fonogram): Norwegian pianist, has taken tango as his art form, with previous albums called Visions of Tango and Two Hands to Tango. All original pieces here, played by a classical-sounding group of band (piano, two bandoneons, string quartet plus bass). B+(*) [cd] [03-15]

Sleater-Kinney: Little Rope (2024, Loma Vista): Portland-based rock group, now down to a duo of singer-songwriters Carrie Brownstein and Corrin Tucker, eleventh studio album since 1995. I've long respected their craft while finding one or both of the voices intensely grating. Still, repeated exposure finds me caring less than ever, although this has less than usual for me to complain about. B [sp]

Simon Spiess Quiet Tree: Euphorbia (2022 [2024], Intakt): Swiss tenor saxophonist, debut 2011, eighth album, group includes pianist Marc Méan (who wrote four pieces, same as Spiess), and drummer Jonas Ruther (writer of one piece). This sort of sneaks up on you. B+(**) [sp]

Albert Vila Trio: Reality Is Nuance (2022 [2023], Fresh Sound New Talent): Spanish guitarist, half-dozen albums since 2006, this a trio recorded in Brussels with Doug Weiss (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums). Nice, low-key feel, drummer excels. B+(**) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Roberto Magris: Love Is Passing Thru: Solo/Duo/Trio/Quartet (2005 [2024], JMood): Italian pianist, from Trieste, many albums since 1990, has been rifling through old tapes recently, and has come up with an exceptionally delightful one here. Recorded over two dates. This works out to five solo tracks (including two takes of "Lush Life"), plus two with drums and percussion (Enzo Carpentieri, some Balinese), three more with bass (Danilo Gallo), and finally three with tenor sax (Ettore Martin). A- [cd]

Jack Wood: The Gal That Got Away: The Best of Jack Wood, Featuring Guest Niehaud Fitzgibbon ([2024], Jazz Hang): A classic crooner, "long a favorite in Southern California." No dates given here, but "some of the Wood's finest recordings," with various groups, including Doug MacDonald and John Pisano on guitar, some sweetened by the Salt Lake City Jazz Orchestra. The featured guest is an Australian singer, who takes over for two tracks, and is as adept as her host. I must admit that I still have a soft spot for the style, especially on the songs that it made timeless. B+(***) [cd] [03-29]

Old music:

Gigi: Gigi (2001, Palm Pictures): Ethiopian singer Ejigayehu Shibabaw, third album, got a boost on Chris Blackwell's label, produced by Bill Laswell, with a roster of jazz greats (Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders, Henry Threadgill, Hamid Drake, Amina Claudine Myers) mixed in with Laswell regulars and many Ethiopians. Laswell and Gigi married, following this up with a dub remix, then Zion Roots, credited to Abyssinia Infinite, with Gigi's full name as "featuring." B+(***) [sp]

Gigi: Illuminated Audio (2003, Palm Pictures): Some sort of dub remix of Gigi, omitting most of the vocals, which was the Gigi part of the album. Also cuts out the jazz solos, so you wind up with a lot of Bill Laswell ambient groove -- not much, but pleasant enough. B+(*) [sp]

Gigi: Gold & Wax (2006, Palm Pictures): Her third, and final, album for Chris Blackwell's label, again with Bill Laswell producing. A wide range of musicians -- including Nils Petter Molvaer, Bernie Worrell, Aiyb Dieng, Foday Musa Suso, Ustad Sultan Khan, and Buckethead -- integrate seamlessly with the mesmerizing vocals. A- [sp]

Barney McAll: Precious Energy (2022, Extra Celestial Arts): Australian pianist, close to twenty albums since 1995, seems to have designed this to appeal to his featured guest, alto saxophonist Gary Bartz, although the more critical collaborator may be jazz-soul outfit Haitus Kayote. This starts with a Leon Thomas/Pharoah Sanders homage, and ends with Coltrane, while touching on planets Sun Ra and Stevie Wonder. That was Bartz's golden age, but barely registers here over the zonked out vocals. B [sp]

Pajama Party: Up All Night (1989, Atlantic): Dance-pop vocal trio, released two albums, this debut and another in 1991. B+(**) [sp]

QOW Trio: QOW Trio (2020, Ubuntu Music): English sax-bass-drums trio -- Riley Stone-Lonergan, Eddie Myer, Spike Wells -- title song/group/album name from Dewey Redman, also dok one from Joe Henderson, several standards (three from Cole Porter), and two originals not far removed from their inspirations ("Pound for Prez," "Qowfirmation"). B+(***) [sp]

Stacey Q: Greatest Hits (1982-95 [1995], Thump): Dance-pop artist, Stacey Swain, opens with five resplendent remixes of singles from her 1986 solo debut, then ignores two later albums, going back to her early work in Q -- a "minimal synth/new wave" group with Jon St. James and Ross Wood, and then SSQ (supposedly emphasizing the singer's initials). B+(***) [sp]

SSQ: Playback (1983, Enigma): Stacey S[wain]'s pre-solo group, produced by guitar/synth player (and sometime vocalist) Jon St. James, both previously in the band Q, first and only album until a 2010 return. B+(**) [sp]

SSQ: Jet Town Je T'Aime (2020, Synthicide): A return to form for Stacey Swain and Jon St. James, 37 years after their first (and hitherto only) album. B+(*) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Guillermo Gregorio: Two Trios (ESP-Disk) [2023-12-01]
• Mercer Hassy Orchestra: Duke's Place (Mercer Hassy) [04-15)
• Ellie Lee: Escape (self-released) [05-24]
• Matthew Shipp Trio: New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz (ESP-Disk) [04-05]
• Ronny Smith: Struttin' (Pacific Coast Jazz) [04-19]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, March 3, 2024

I started this early, on Wednesday, maybe even Tuesday, as I couldn't bring myself to work on anything else. There's a rhythm here: I have twenty-some tabs open to my usual sources, and just cycle through them, picking out stories, noting them, sometimes adding a comment, some potentially long. By Friday night, I had so much, I thought of posting early: leaving the date set for Sunday, when I could do a bit of update.

I didn't get the early post done. Sunday, my wife invited some friends over to watch a movie. I volunteered to make dinner, and that (plus the movie) killed the rest of the day. Nothing fancy: I keep all the fixings for pad thai on hand, so I can knock off a pretty decent one-dish meal in little more than an hour. And I had been thinking about making hot and sour soup since noticing a long-neglected package of dried lily buds, so I made that too. First actual cooking I had done in at least a month, so that felt nice and productive.

This, of course, feels totally scattered. I'm unsure of the groupings, and it's hard for me to keep track of the redundancies and contradictions. And once again, I didn't manage to finish my rounds. Perhaps I'll add a bit more after initially posting it late Sunday night. But at the moment, I'm exhausted.

Initial count: 174 links, 8,842 words. Updated count [03-05]: 193 links, 10,883 words.

Top story threads:

Israel:

• Mondoweiss:

  • [02-26] Day 143: Gaza famine is 'man-made,' says UNRWA Chief: "UNRWA says that the famine in northern Gaza can be avoided if more food convoys are allowed in, but Israel continues to hold up over 2000 aid trucks. Meanwhile, Netanyahu reaffirms plans to invade Rafah, where 1.5 million Gazans have sought shelter."

  • [02-27] Day 144: Israel and Hamas contradict Biden claim that Gaza ceasefire is close: "A proposed ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is reported to include a temporary 40-day truce, the release of 40 Israeli captives in return for 400 Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of humanitarian aid and mobile shelters into Gaza."

  • [02-28] Day 145: Hamas warns Israel and US of 'political machinations' amid ceasefire talks: "UN humanitarian officials say that thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are 'just a step away from famine' by May. Russia calls on UNSC members to refrain from endorsing Washington's resolution on Gaza, denouncing it as 'a license to kill' for Israel."

  • [02-29] Day 146: Israeli forces massacre civilians waiting for humanitarian aid: "Israeli tanks and warplanes reportedly targeted civilians waiting for aid, killing at least 77 and wounding hundreds. Meanwhile, international aid groups say airdrops of aid are so "negligible" that they "perpetuate the overall blockade strategy."

  • [03-01] Day 147: No ceasefire in sight despite international condemnation of Israel's 'flour massacre': "US blocks a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for its massacre against Palestinians attempting to receive humanitarian aid in Gaza, saying that the incident "still needs to be investigated."

  • [03-02] Day 148: UN reports at least 14 cases of Israel firing on Palestinians waiting for aid in Gaza: "UN calls for an investigation following Thursday's "flour massacre" where Israel killed at least 115 Palestinians waiting for aid and injured more than 760. The need for aid is becoming even more dire as starvation worsens in northern Gaza."

  • [03-03] Day 149: Palestinian children die of malnutrition as Israel blocks aid into Gaza: "US airdrops of food and aid in Gaza have been described as "performative BS" that "fools no one." Meanwhile, Hamas's delegation has arrived in Cairo for ceasefire talks as Ramadan is due to start next Sunday."

• James Bamford: [02-26] Israel's far right finally gets the war it has always wanted: "Billed as a response to the October 7 Hamas attack, the conflict in Gaza has increasingly become a war to eliminate all Palestinians -- a longtime goal of Israel's homegrown fascists."

• Mariam Barghouti: [02-27] In Jenin, brazen Israeli raids fuel fiercer Palestinian resistance: "Incessant Israeli incursions into Jenin refugee camp since October 7 have killed nearly 100 Palestinians, including many civilians. But as repression surges, the children of the Second Intifada are taking up arms." Which is, of course, a self-perpetuating process, where Palestinians are torn between the urgent need to defend themselves and their inability to muster the arms to do so. So the main effect is, as Israeli leaders seem to wish, to intensify the Israeli drive to genocide.

• Nina Berman: [02-29] Violating intimacies: "Israeli soldiers have photographed themselves posing with the lingerie of Palestinian women they have displaced or killed in Gaza. They join a long line of conquest images, from Abu Ghraib images to the spectacles of Jim Crow-era lynchings." But we've been seeing pictures like this, or more commonly just gratuitous vandalism, for decades now -- from what used to be advertised as "the most moral army in the world."

• Sarah Dadouch: [02-29] As besieged Gaza grows desperate, donors drop aid from the sky.

• Elias Feroz: [02-26] Thirty years after Baruch Goldstein's massacre, his followers are now carrying out a genocide: "His legacy of bloodshed continues in Gaza and the West Bank as his followers are now in power."

• Shatha Hanaysha: [02-28] Israeli forces kill 3 Palestinians, including Tubas Brigade leader in northern West Bank.

• Ellen Ioanes:

  • [02-27] Why the Palestinian Authority's government dissolved: "Its prime minister [Mohammed Shtayyeh] resigned, but it doesn't change much."

  • [02-29] More than 100 Palestinians were killed trying to get aid: "The competing narratives about a deadly aid distribution in Gaza, explained."

• Gideon Levy: [03-03] Gaza's night of death and hunger.

• Niha Masih/Annabelle Timsit: [03-03] US plans more airdrops into Gaza amid hope for Ramadan cease-fire: This has got to be the least cost-effective means of delivering aid humanly possible. That the US cannot trust Israel to safely deliver aid via trucks speaks volumes about how little faith America has in its so-called closest ally.

  Chris Floyd tweeted (?): "OK, why don't you set up a depot on the beach, supply it via the US Navy, and deliver the aid throughout Gaza with military trucks under escort? That would be pulling out all the stops. Otherwise, you're just putting on a PR show with pitiful dribs and drabs." I don't take this as a serious proposal. It's more of a thought experiment. If the US did this, would Israel be deterred from attacking relief distribution? And, to defend its deterrent threat, would US troops be allowed to return Israeli fire?

  The same question applies to airdrops, which thus far Israel has not attempted to shoot down. But the airdrops are so inefficient they'll do little to blunt Israel's starvation weapon. Ships and trucks could make a real as well as a symbolic difference. Still, if Biden had the guts to send the Navy in, why wouldn't he do the right thing and start by insisting on an Israeli ceasefire? The only way relief is going to work is if it won't be attacked by Israel. Until the bombing stops, nothing good, or even decent, can happen.

• Mahmoud Mushtaha: [02-29] These words are penned in hunger from northern Gaza. I have little energy to go on: "From the daily indignity of searching for food to the extreme dangers of doing journalistic work, life in this dark corner of the earth has become impossible."

• Marcy Newman: [03-02] How Israeli universities are an arm of settler colonialism: Review of Maya Wind: Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom.

• Dean Obeidallah: [02-27] "Nothing has compared to what we're seeing": Hala Gorani on the toll of covering Gaza war: Interview with the NBC News journalist and author of But You Don't Look Arab: And Other Tales of Unbelonging.

• Yumna Patel: [02-27] New reports confirm months of Israeli torture, abuse, and sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners.

• Jeremy Scahill/Ryan Grim/Daniel Boguslaw: [02-28] "Between the hammer and the anvil": "The story behind the New York Times October 7 exposé." This was the story by Anat Schwartz that charged Hamas fighters with rape during their short-lived jailbreak. This article was a big deal in the first week of the war, when writers who meant well were so quick to condemn Hamas when they should have been more alert to Israel's initial moves toward genocide. (In particular, I remember a piece by Eric Levitz finding the charges credible because "soldiers of all armies rape" -- an insight he didn't follow up on when Israel started sending their soldiers into Gaza.) For another piece on this:

  • Jeet Heer: [03-01] The Nixonian New York Times stonewalls on a discredited article about Hamas and rape.

• Ishaan Tharoor: [03-01] Gaza's spiraling, unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

• Philip Weiss:

  • [02-25] Weekly Briefing: Biden is 'pristine' on Israel, says megadonor Haim Saban: "We've reached the point where Everything that Joe Biden and his associates are saying about the Gaza war is a lie. Because they must deny a truth that is causing worldwide outrage against Israel." And sooner or later against the United States, and pretty much all of its bipartisan political establishment.

  • [02-28] PBS and NPR leave out key facts in their Israel stories: "Pundits and reporters in the mainstream media have a double standard when it comes to Israel and all but lie about apartheid, Jewish nationalism, and the role of the Israel lobby."

• Oren Ziv:

  • [02-26] 'People say I'm naive, antisemitic, a traitor': Israeli teen jailed for draft refusal: "Conscientious objector Sofia Orr explains why she never wavered in her decision despite the crackdown in Israel against opponents of the war."

  • [03-01] Israeli settlers cross into Gaza, build 'symbolic' outpost: "Dozens of settlers and right-wing activists stormed Erez Crossing, building two wooden structures while soldiers and police stood aside." This is a very disturbing development, but follows Israel's now common police practice of permitting and even encouraging encroachments and mob violence against Palestinians. Still, one would expect that in a war zone, the IDF would insist on imposing discipline on its own troops. In 1948, Ben Gurion deemed this so important that he ordered the IDF to turn on the previously independent right-wing EZL/LEHI militias, forcing them to submit to state control. Netanyahu, on the other hand, seems to see right-wing mobs as helping drive his relentless drive to extremism, which is clearly the point here.

• By the way: Killing of aid seekers part of a 'decades-long pattern' of Israeli violence: Per Human Rights Watch.

Israel vs. world (including American) opinion: This week we lead off with a singular act of self-sacrifice, by an American, an active duty serviceman, Aaron Bushnell, in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington. I feel like I should add an opinion, but I don't really have one. My inclination is to view him as just another casualty of the more general madness, so not a hero or martyr or even a fool, but I'm also not so callous as to look the other way -- especially when so many people do have things to say.

• Britt Munro: [02-29] In our thousands, in our millions: On Aaron Bushnell's final act: "What Aaron Bushnell did was an act of fierce, principled love in a situation of extreme desperation. It unflinchingly declared that even in the heart of the empire the lies of Zionism no longer hold."

• Spencer Ackerman: [02-26] 'This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal': "US Airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire rather than 'be complicit in genocide.' His last words were a challenge we must find the courage to heed."

• Kate Aronoff: Bushnell's self-immolation is a horrifying symptom of our political dysfunction.

• Michael Arria: [02-29] The Shift: "The answer is, you're doing it. Right now." "The image of Aaron Bushnell will stick with many people for the rest of their lives. His act will be remembered along many others who made an ultimate sacrifice against injustice. Just don't expect US politicians or media to remember him that way."

• Emily Davies/Peter Hermann/Dan Lamothe: [02-27] Airman who set self on fire grew up on religious compound, had anarchist past.

• Masha Gessen: [02-28] Aaron Bushnell's act of political despair.

• Keira Havens: [02-27] In his right mind: "The meaning of Aaron Bushnell's sacrifice."

• Caitlin Johnstone: [02-26] Aaron Bushnell burned himself alive to make you turn your eyes to Gaza.

• Lyle Jeremy Rubin: [02-28] Taking Aaron Bushnell at his word (and deed).

• Philip Weiss: [03-03] Weekly Briefing: Aaron Bushnell calls US progressives to their greatest traditions.

Other stories:

• Spencer Ackerman: [03-28] The anti-Palestinian origins of the War on Terror: Interview with Darryl Li, who wrote the report Anti-Palestinian at the core: The origins and growing dangers of US anti-terrorism law.

• Ammiel Alcalay: [02-28] War on Gaza: How the US is buying time for Israel's genocide: "As the US ambassador to the UN recently made clear in a rare moment of honesty, Washington is fully committed to facilitating Israel's destruction of the Palestinians."

• Kyle Anzalone: [03-01] US vetoes UN resolution condemning Israel for flour massacre.

• Muhannad Ayyash: [02-26] Boycotting Israel could stop the genocide: At this point, this is probably just wishful thinking: "the world must ensure Tel Aviv's legal, economic and political isolation." The nice thing about BDS was that it provided a forum for grass-roots organizing against the apartheid regime in Israel: something that individuals could start and grow, and eventually recruit more powerful organizations, while ultimately appealing to the better consciences within Israel itself. That it worked with South Africa was encouraging.

  But it was always going to be a much more difficult reach in Israel -- I could insert a half-dozen reasons here -- and it never came close to gathering the collective moral, let alone financial, force it had with South Africa. Now, about all you can say for it is that it allowed people of good will to express their disapproval without promoting even more violence. I would even agree that it's still worth doing -- Israel deserves to be shamed and shunned for what it's doing, now more than ever. And, as we witness what Israel is doing, many more people, indeed whole nations, may join us.

  But will boycotting stop the genocide now? Maybe if the US and NATO banded together and put some serious teeth in their threats, some Israelis might reconsider. But sanctions usually just push countries deeper into corners, from which they're more likely to strike back than to fold. I'm not about to blame BDS for Israel's rampant right-wing -- their racism dates back further than any outsider noticed -- but they would claim their ascent as the way of fighting back against foreign moralizers. Even if we could count on eventually forcing some kind of reconciliation, the people in power in Israel right now are more likely to double down on genocide. It's not like anyone in the Nazi hierarchy saw the writing on the wall after Stalingrad and decided they should call the Judeocide off, lest they eventually put on trial. They simply sped up the extermination, figuring it would be their enduring contribution to Aryan civilization.

  • Jo-Ann Mort: [02-28] BDS is counter-productive. We need to crack down on Israeli settlements instead: "A future peace depends on drawing a line between Israel proper and the illegal settlements in Palestinian territory." This article is so silly I only linked to it after the Ayyash piece above. It does provide some explanation why BDS failed, but it doesn't come close to offering an alternative. Israel has been continuously blurring and outright erasing the Green Line ever since 1967. (It started with he demolition of the neighborhood next to the Al-Aqsa Mosque's western wall, just days after the 7-day war ended.) There is no way to force Israel to do much of anything, but few things are harder to imagine them acceding to is a return to what from 1950-67 were often decried as "Auschwitz borders."

• Phyllis Bennis:

  • [02-28] The Biden administration joins Israel's war on UNRWA.

  • [03-01] Gazans are starving, don't cut aid now.

• Amena ElAshkar: [02-28] Gaza ceasefire: Talk of an imminent deal is psychological warfare. I haven't bothered linking to numerous articles about an imminent ceasefire deal because, quite frankly, possible deals have never been more than temporarily expedient propaganda, mostly meant to humor the hostage relatives and the Americans. If Israel wanted peace, they could ceasefire unilaterally, and having satisfied themselves that they had inflicted sufficient damage to restore their Iron Wall deterrence, leave the rubble to others to deal with. The hostages would cease to be a bargaining chip, except inasmuch as not freeing them would keep much needed international aid away. So why is Netanyahu negotiating with Hamas? Mostly to squirrel the deal, while he continues implementing his plan to totally depopulate/destroy Gaza.

• Paul Elle: [02-26] The Vatican and the war in Gaza: "A rhetorical dispute the Church and the Israeli government shows the limits -- and the possibilities -- of the Pope's role in times of conflict." On the other hand, if you look at the Pope's recent comments on "gender theory," you'll realize that he has very little to offer humanity, and that a Church that follows him could be very ominous. (For example, see [03-02] Pope says gender theory is 'ugly ideology' that threatens humanity.) Sometimes I'm tempted to take heart in that the Catholic Church is one of the few extant organizations to predate, and therefore remain somewhat free of, capitalism. But in it the spirit of Inquisition runs even deeper.

• Madeline Hall: [02-28] Israeli genocide is a bad investment: For one thing, Norway has divested its holdings of Israeli bonds.

• James North:

  • [02-25] Extraordinary charges of bias emerge against NYTimes reporter Anat Schwartz: "New doubts are emerging about the Ne York Times's coverage of sexual violence in the October 7 attack."

  • [03-03] Here are the latest examples of the astonishing dishonest 'NYTimes' coverage of Israel's war on Gaza.

• Peter Oborne: [02-27] These ruthless, bigoted Tories would have Enoch Powell smiling from his grave: "The recent spate of vile anti-Muslim rhetoric from the Tories shows they have decided that stoking hatred against minorities is their only way to avoid electoral annihilation." Also in UK:

  • Jonathan Cook: [03-01] First it was Corbyn. Now the while British public is being smeared over Gaza.

  • MEE staff: [03-01] George Galloway strikes blow 'for Gaza' in Rochdale by-election. Galloway ran as an independent, after having been expelled by the Labour Party over his opposition to British wars in the Middle East. For some background, see:

  • Imran Mulla: [01-31] 'Labour is 30,000 dead Gazans too late': Muslim campaign aims to disrupt UK politics.

• Charles P Pierce: [02-29] The US has enabled Netanyahu long enough: "Two democracies, hijacked for alibis."

• Vijay Prashad: [02-14] There is no place for the Palestinians of Gaza to go.

• Barnett R Rubin: [03-02] Redemption through genocide: "The ICJ ruled that Israel's Gaza campaign poses a plausible and urgent threat of genocide. Future historians of Jewish messianism may recount how in 2024 "redemption through sin" became "redemption through genocide," with unconditional US support."

• Sarang Shidore/Dan M Ford: [02-29] At the Hague, US more isolated than ever on Israel-Palestine.

• Adam Taylor: [02-29] Democrats grew more divided on Israeli-Palestinian conflict, poll shows. Interesting that the Democratic split has always favored "take neither side," from a peak of 82% down to 74% before Gaza blew up -- the 12% drop since looks to be evenly split. Republicans, on the other hand, never had any sympathy for Palestinians, and became more pro-Israeli since (56% would "take Israel's side," vs. 19% for Democrats).

Philip Weiss: [02-28] PBS and NPR leave out key facts in their Israel stories: "Pundits and reporters in the mainstream media have a double standard when it comes to Israel and all but lie about apartheid, Jewish nationalism, and the role of the Israel lobby."

America's empire of bases and proxy conflicts, increasingly stressed by Israel's multifront war games:

• Juan Cole: [03-03] How Washington's anti-Iranian campaign failed, big time.

• Dave DeCamp: [02-29] US officials expect Israel to launch ground invasion of Lebanon: "Administration officials tell CNN they expect a ground incursion in late spring or early summer." The logic here is pretty ridiculous, and if it's believed in Washington, you have to wonder about them, too. Israel had a lot of fun bombing Lebanon in 2006, but their ground incursion was a pure disaster. There's no possible upside to trying it again. The argument that Netanyahu will, for political expediency, enlarge the war in order to keep it going "after Gaza," overlooks their obvious desire to "finish the job" by doing the same to Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank.

• Sasha Filippova/Kristina Fried/Brian Concannon: [03-01] From coup to chaos: 20 years after the US ousted Haiti's president.

• Jim Lobe: [03-01] Neocon Iraq war architects want a redo in Gaza: "Post-conflict plan would put Western mercenaries and Israel military into the mix, with handpicked countries in charge of a governing 'Trust.'" Pic is of Elliott Abrams, who was the one in charge of US Israel policy under Bush, and who pushed Sharon's unilateral withdrawal of settlements from Gaza, so that Gaza could be blockaded and bombed more effectively. That directly led to Hamas seizing power in Gaza, so one could argue that Abrams already had his "redo in Gaza."

The Michigan primaries: Of minor interest to both party frontrunners, so let's get them out of the way first. Trump won the Republican primary with 68.1% of the votes, vs. 26.6% for Nikki Haley, splitting the delegates 12-4 (39 more delegates will be decided later). Biden won the Democratic primary with 81.1% of the vote, vs. 13.2% for an uncommitted slate, which was promoted by Arab-Americans and others as a protest vote against Biden's support for Israel's genocide in Gaza. Marianne Williamson got 3%, and Dean Phillips 2.7%. Everyone's trying to spin the results as much as possible, but I doubt they mean much.

• Michael Arria: [02-28] More than 100,000 people vote 'uncommitted' in Michigan primary over Biden Gaza policy.

• John Cassidy: [02-28] Michigan's "uncommitted" Democrats send a message to Biden: "The President won the Democratic primary easily, with more than eighty per cent of the vote, but more than a hundred thousand protest voters have made the war in Gaza an issue in his campaign."

• Kyla Guilfoil: [02-28] Marianne Williamson unsuspends her presidential campaign after placing 3rd in Michigan.

• Frank Bruni: [02-29] Nikki Haley is actually winning. That's fantasy, but she is still enjoying being in the news. [PS: And she did finally win something: [03-03] Nikki Haley wins DC primary, her first victory in GOP nominating race: She led Trump 62.8% to 33.3%, or 19-0 in delegates. Still, isn't a total turnout of 2,030 votes a bit light?]

Next up is "Super Tuesday," so here's a bit of preview:

• Kaleigh Rogers: [02-29] 12 Super Tuesday primaries to watch in Texas and North Carolina.

• Geoffrey Skelley: [03-01] 12 Super Tuesday primaries to watch in California and Alabama. The big one here is the California Senate primary, where Adam Schiff is hoping to wind up running against Republican Steve Garvey instead of more progressive Democrat Katie Porter.

• Mitra Jalali/Aisha Chughtai: [03-04] Here's what the Vote Uncommitted campaign is really about: It's happening in Minnesota, too.

Trump, and other Republicans:

• David Brooks: [02-29] The GOP returns to its bad old self: He means the "America First" party of the 1930s: nativist, isolationist, recoiling in dread of the New Deal, and willing to suffer repeated defeats rather than offer anything constructive. He contrasts that to the bullish, globalist part of Eisenhower and Reagan (and the Bushes?), which Trump has totally eclipsed, and is likely to remain in place even when Trump is gone.

• Russ Choma: [03-03] A large percentage of Republican primary voters can't stomach Trump. Nowhere near large enough to prevent him from running away with the nomination, but the question is whether they are numerous (and resolute) enough to sink him against Biden. "The AP report did find, however, that just because those voters said they didn't want to vote for Trump -- ever -- it didn't mean they were Biden voters." Haley is not a tenable candidate because she can't even crack a 50% approval rate within the Party.

• Rachel M Cohen: [03-03] The anti-abortion playbook for restricting birth control: "Contraception, like IVF, poses problems for those claiming personhood begins at conception." Filed under Republicans, because they own the anti-abortion movement now, and are stuck with it.

• Ryan Cooper: [02-29] Mitch McConnell, Senate arsonist.

• Thomas B Edsall: [[01-17] The deification of Donald Trump poses some interesting questions: First exhibit is a video titled "God Made Trump."

• Susan B Glasser: [02-22] The crazy collapse of the House GOP's impeachment case against Biden: "'A Big Russian Intelligence Op' flops on Capitol Hill."

• Karen Greenberg: [02-29] Trump's justice: "Justice delayed is democracy denied." Four sections on Trump, followed by one on Guantánamo.

• Margaret Hartmann:

  • [02-29] Old-man Trump yells at Biden over Melania Late Night joke.

  • [03-01] Trump complains migrants use languages 'nobody speaks'.

  • [03-01] Trump's most unhinged plans for his second term: Updated, a neverending project. To recap: Give the president unchecked power over federal agencies; Restore the president's authority to bypass Congress; Appoint a special prosecutor to 'go after' Biden; Use the Justice Department to get revenge on all of his enemies; Expand presidential immunity; Purge the civil service; Install thousands of loyalists throughout the federal government; Fill his cabinet with people like Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon; Round up, detain, and deport millions of undocumented immigrants; Deploy US troops for 'war' on the southern border; End birthright citizenship; Construct 'freedom cities'; Put flying cars in Americans' driveways.

• Alexander Hinton: [02-26] I went to CPAC as an anthropologist to understand MAGA -- what I saw was "shocking".

• Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling:

  • Trump admits he could be very easily blackmailed, actually.

  • Trump White House was awash in drugs because no one wanted to be there.

• Sarah Jones: [02-29] Republicans can't be trusted to protect IVF.

• Pema Levy: [03-01] How Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" debacle previewed the abortion agenda of today's GOP.

• Chris Lewis: [02-29] Ken Cuccinelli and the persuasive, pervasive politics of cruelty.

• Jason Linkins: A year of Republicans lying about abortion.

• Sarah Longwell: What 17 of Trump's 'best people' said about him: Quotes from his cabinet members and other high officials in his administration.

• Carlos Lozada: [02-29] What I learned when I read 887 pages of plans for Trump's second term. Lozada was last seen bragging about "reading books so you don't have to," and he proves that in spades here. No doubt his outline only scratches the surface, still I'm left wondering less what they want to do than what kind of damaged psychology drives one to imagine wanting to do such things.

• Michael Podhorzer: [02-20] It was never a civil war: "The threat posed by Trump and the MAGA movement, like the Confederate States, is not 'conservative' or even 'extremist' but criminally anti-democratic."

• Tom Schaller/Paul Waldman: [02-28] How to end Republican exploitation of rural America: "The authors of the upcoming book White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy explain how rural voters can build a national political movement and improve their local economies." Inadvertent humor here when the authors explain that rural voters don't need to switch to Democrats so much as they should find "better Republicans." By the way, this also just appeared:

  • Paul Krugman: [02-26] The mystery of white rural rage: Reviews the same book. I think a big part of the problem is that Democrats simply don't try to organize in impoverished rural areas, partly because they don't expect to win in the short term, and largely because they'd rather put their efforts toward upscale suburban districts. One reason is that readily organized constituencies like unions are scarce in rural America. But well before they consider organizing voters, they search for donors, and that's where the suburbs seem like much riper targets. A good example of this was in 2017, when Trump appointments opened up House districts in Kansas and Georgia. Democrats puts tons of money into the latter (where they lost), and virtually nothing into Kansas (where they also lost, but with a terrific candidate managing to carry Wichita, but losing bad in the adjacent rural areas). On some level, most Democrats actually understand that they have much to offer impoverished rural areas, but they do so as outsiders, more focused on their donors and their issues, and unwilling to put the work in to building a representative local party.

  • Nathan J Robinson: [03-04] Are rural white people the problem?: Another review of the Schaller-Waldman book.

• Tatyana Tandanpolie: [02-28] New book details how "incensed" Trump and Melania clashed in the White House.

• Katrina vanden Heuvel: [02-27] If Trump wins, he'll be a vessel for the most regressive figures in US politics.

• Andra Watkins: [03-01] Project 2025 is more than a playbook for Trumpism, it's the Christian Nationalist manifesto: "The right intends to force every American to live their definition of a good life through government edict."

• Li Zhou: [02-29] Trump's immigration policies are his old ones -- but worse: Some section heads: Mass deportations; Raids; Detention camps; Suspending refugee resettlement; Ending Temporary Protected Status programs; Making seeking asylum harder; Ending DACA; Reviving family separation hasn't been ruled out; Attacks on birthright citizenship.

Mitch McConnell, 82, announced he will step down as Republican Leader in the Senate in November. This led to some, uh, appreciation?

• Ryan Cooper: [02-29] Mitch McConnell, Senate arsonist.

• Jack Hunter: [02-29] Sorry AP: Mitch McConnell is no Ronald Reagan: "The paper deploys the usual neoconservative trope that their foreign policies are the same. They are not." Still, I hate it when critics think they're being so clever in claiming that old Republicans were so sensible compared to the new ones. Reagan's "willingness to talk to America's enemies" didn't extend much beyond Russia, and that only after the door had been opened by Gorbachev. He left nothing but disasters all over Latin America and the Middle East through Iran and Afghanistan.

• Ed Kilgore: [02-29] Mitch McConnell's power trip finally comes to an end.

• Ian Millhiser: [02-29] How Mitch McConnell broke Congress.

• John Nichols: [02-29] Good riddance to Mitch McConnell, an enemy of democracy: Sorry to have to break this to you, but he isn't going anywhere. He'll serve out the rest of his six-year term. He's not giving up his leadership post out of a sudden attack of conscience. He's doing it so some other Republican can take over, and possibly do even worse things than he would have done. By holding out until November, he's giving Trump the prerogative of hand-picking his successor -- assuming Trump wins, of course.

• David A Graham: Mitch McConnell surrenders to Trump: That's more like it, but at least he's given himself some time. If Trump wins in November, there'll be no fighting him. And if Trump loses, why should he want to be the one stuck cleaning up the mess?

• Andrew Prokop: [02-28] How Mitch McConnell lost by winning.

• Jane Mayer: [2020-04-12] How Mitch McConnell became Trump's enabler-in-chief: Sometimes an old piece is the best reminder. Had McConnell a bit more foresight and backbone, he could have swung enough Republican votes to convict Trump over Jan. 6, and followed that with a resolution declaring Trump ineligible to run again, according to the 14th Amendment -- such a resolution was discussed at the time, and would undoubtedly be upheld. Sure, it would have been unpopular among Republicans at the time, but popular will has almost never entered into McConnell's political calculus.

Biden and/or the Democrats:

• Zack Beauchamp: [02-27] Biden has been bad for Palestinians. Trump would be worse. "On Israel, the two are not the same." Probably true, but this really isn't much comfort. Biden is effectively an Israeli puppet, with no independent will, or even willingness to caution Netanyahu in public, and as such has had no effect on moderating Israel's vendetta -- and may reasonably be charged with not just supporting but accelerating it. For instance, Biden did not have to send aircraft carriers into the region, threatening Iran and provoking Yemen and Lebanon. Nor did he have to accelerate arms deliveries when a ceasefire was obviously called for. As for Trump, sure, he doesn't even know the meaning of "caution." He is largely responsible for Netanyahu believing that he can get away with anything.

  • Dave DeCamp: [03-03] Poll: Majority of Democrats want a presidential candidate who opposes military aid to Israel: With Marianne Williamson unsuspending her campaign, there actually is one, but will anyone find out?

  • Isaac Chotiner: [02-28] Does the Biden administration want a long-lasting ceasefire in Gaza? Interview with John Kirby, Biden's National Security Council spokesman, explaining that Biden only wants whatever Netanyahu tells him to want. It's like a form of hypnosis, where Hamas is the shiny object that so captures America's gaze that it will support Israel doing anything to it wants as long as it's saying it's meant to eliminate Hamas. Sure, Biden understands that Palestinians are suffering, and he implores Netanyahu to make them suffer less, but he can't question his orders.

    The key to this is that he buys the line that Hamas is a cancer that can be excised from the Palestinian body politic, allowing Israel to regain its security. I hesitate to call that the Israeli line: sure, they developed it with their targeted assassinations (they go back at least as far as Abu Jihad in 1988), but Israelis never claimed one strike would suffice -- they tended to use metaphors like "mowing the grass"). It was only the Americans, with their romantic conceits about their own goodness and the innate innocence of ignorant savages, that turned this systematic slaughter into magical thinking. Israelis don't think like that. They understand that Hamas (or some other form of militant backlash) is the inevitable result of their harsh occupation. And, their consciences hardened by constant struggle (including their carefully cultivated memory of the Holocaust), they're willing to live with that brutality.

    If they can't distinguish Hamas from the mass of people they've emerged from, they see no reason to discipline their killing. They figure if they destroy enough, the problem will subside. Even if it inevitably erupts again, that's later, and they'll remain eternally vigilant. There are no solutions, because they don't want to accept the only possible one, which is peaceful coexistence. But silly Americans, they need to be told stories, and it's amazing what they'll swallow.

  • Mitchell Plitnick: [03-01] Biden memos show Palestine advocacy is working: "Two recent presidential orders show the Biden administration is feeling the heat from months of protests against his support for Israel's genocide in Gaza."

  • Alexander Ward: [03-01] 'We look 100 percent weak': US airdrops in Gaza expose limit to Biden's Israel policy.

  • Fareed Zakaria: [03-01] Biden needs to tell Israel some difficult truths. Only he can do it.

  Erica L Green: [03-03] Kamala Harris calls for an 'immediate cease-fire' in Gaza: Promising title, but fine print reveals it's only the "six-week cease-fire proposal currently on the table," and that she's calling on Hamas, not Israel, the ones who are actually doing all of the firing, and who have already broken off talks on that particular proposal. A cease fire, especially where the war is so one-sided, doesn't need to be negotiated: just do it (perhaps daring the other side to violate it, but the longer it lasts, the better). Sure, prisoner exchanges have to be negotiated, but not cease-fire, which is just common sense.

• Frank Bruni: [03-03] How Democrats can win anywhere and everywhere.

• Michelle Goldberg: [03-01] The Democrat showing Biden how it's done: Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan. This follows on recent columns by Goldberg:

  • [02-23] Biden is in danger of losing Michigan and, with it, the whole election.

  • [02-12] Biden's age is a campaign problem, not a governing one.

  • [02-06] In Poland, I saw what a second Trump term could do to America.

  • [01-19] Trump just keeps doing appalling things, and the ranks of the disengaged are growing.

• Ezra Klein: [02-16] Democrats have a better option than Biden: Starts by heaping considerable praise on Biden and his accomplishments of the last three-plus years, then lowers the boom and insists that he should step aside, not so much because one reasonably doubts that he can do the job for more years, but that he's no longer competent as a candidate. (Never mind that Trump is far from competent, in any sense of the term. He's a Republican, and one of our many double standards, we don't expect competency from Republicans, or for that matter caring, or even much coherence.) He goes into how conventions work, and offers a bunch of plausible candidates. It's a long and thorough piece, and makes the case as credibly as I've seen (albeit much less critically of Biden than I might do myself).

  Klein's columns are styled as "The Ezra Klein Show," which are usually just interviews, but this one is monologue, with multiple references to other conversations. He's had a few other interviews recently with political operatives, a couple adding to his insight into Democratic prospects, plus a couple more I'll include here. (Also see the pieces I listed under Ukraine.)

  • [01-25] 'The strongest Democratic Party that any of us have ever seen': Interview with Simon Rosenberg.

  • [02-01] 'Why haven't the Democrats completely cleaned the Republicans' clock?' Interview with Ruy Teixeira, co-author of Where Have All the Democrats Gone? The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes.

  • [01-16] A Republican pollster on Trump's undimmed appeal: Interview with Kristen Soltis Anderson, arguing that Republicans just want stability, and that's why they love Trump.

  • [2023-10-03] Your guide to the new right: Interview with Stephanie Slade.

• Paul Musgrave: [03-03] An inside look at how Biden's team rebuilt foreign policy after Trump: Review of Alexander Ward: The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore American Foreign Policy After Trump.

• Bill Scher: [02-29] "Nightmare in America": How Biden's ad team should attack Trump: "In 1984, Ronald Reagan's reelection campaign ran a series of ads that evoked how different life felt in America compared to under his opponent's administration four years prior. Today, Joe Biden should do the same." Sure, there's something to be said here, if you can figure out how to say it. But Trump's going to be pushing the opposite spin, in many cases on the same set of facts, all the while pointing out the extraordinary efforts his/your enemies took to hobnob his administration and persecute him since he was pushed out of office. He's just as likely to embrace the Left's notion of him as their worst nightmare. Note that page includes a link to a 2020 article, which also cites Reagan: Nancy LeTourneau: Are you better off than you were four years ago?

• John E Schwarz: [03-01] Democratic presidents have better economic performances than Republican ones.

Legal matters and other crimes:

• Gabriella Ferrigine: [02-28] Lauren Boebert's son arrested on 22 charges -- hours after she attacks "Biden Crime Family": "Boebert's 18-year-old son was charged with vehicle trespass and property theft."

• Aziz Huq: [02-29] Why is Trump getting special treatment from the Supreme Court? "The justices are handling Trump's case far differently than most criminal defendants." Not just the Supreme Court. Has any criminal defendant ever been able to pick their preferred prosecutors and/or judges?

• Jane Mayer: [02-29] The scandal of Clarence Thomas's new clerk: Crystal Clanton.

• Megan Messerly: [02-29] A 'stunning' element of the Alabama IVF ruling. By the way, more IVF fallout:

  • Megan Messerly: [02-29] Alabama legislature votes to restore IVF access.

  • Alice Miranda Ollstein/Robert King: [02-28] Hyde-Smith blocks Senate vote on federal IVF protections.

• Ian Millhiser:

  • [02-26] The Supreme Court appeared lost in a massive case about free speech online: "The justices look likely to reinstate Texas and Florida laws that seize control of much of the internet -- but not for long."

  • [02-28] How Amy Coney Barrett could save us from fully legal automatic weapons.

  • [02-28] The Supreme Court just handed Trump an astonishing victory: They agreed to hear oral arguments in late April on his case that ex-presidents cannot be prosecuted for anything they did as president. The case was decided against Trump by a federal appeals court. In reopening the case, the Supreme Court is adding significant delay to his trial on charges stemming from the January 6 coup attempt.

  • [03-02] The courts were never going to save America from Donald Trump. Most ominous section head here is: "It's not even clear that the Supreme Court is capable of standing up for the rule of law in the face of a sufficiently determined opposition." And this is not just the current right-wing court. Examples, few but he could have listed many, start with Dred Scott (1857).

  • [03-04] The Supreme Court just crushed any hope that Trump could be removed from the ballot: "This is the second major victory the Supreme Court handed Trump in less than one week." No surprise that the Colorado ruling that banned Trump from the primary ballot was overturned -- that could have happened unanimously -- but the right-wing faction went even further to show their fealty to Trump.

• Peter M Shane: [02-27] This will be a big year for the Roberts Court's major questions doctrine.

• Matt Stieb: [02-29] Did the Supreme Court fight over delaying Trump's trial? Interview with Steve Vladeck.

Climate and environment:

• Umair Irfan: [02-29] Texas fires happen in the winter. Just never at this scale before. The Smokehouse Creek Fire "has engulfed more than 1.1 million acres and was 3 percent contained as of Thursday morning." "Encroaching flames forced the Pantex nuclear weapons manufacturing plant in Amarillo to shut down."

• Benji Jones: [02-28] This chart of ocean temperatures should really scare you. The eastern Atlantic, off the coast of Africa -- also in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, which is to say in the areas where hurricanes form and intensify -- is already much warmer than in previous years (at least going back to 1981).

Ukraine War:

• Connor Echols: [03-01] Diplomacy Watch: Russia could be invited to Ukraine-led peace talks. I don't really buy that "Ukraine's shift is a sign of just how dire the situation is becoming for its armed forces," but I do believe that Russia can more/less hold its position indefinitely, that it can continue to exact high (and eventually crippling) costs from Ukraine indefinitely, and that it can survive the sanctions regime (which the US is unlikely to loosen even in an armistice. All of this suggests to me that Zelensky needs to approach some realistic terms for ending the war, then sell them as hard to his "allies" as to Putin, and to the rest of the world.

• Anatol Lieven/George Beebe: [02-28] Europeans' last ditch clutch at Ukrainian victory: "France's Macron raised the idea of Western troops entering the fray, others want to send longer range missiles."

• Olena Melnyhk/Sera Koulabdara: [02-29] Ukraine's vaunted 'bread basket' soil is now toxic: "Two years of war has left roughly one-third of its territory polluted, with dire potential consequences for the world's food supply."

• Will Porter: [02-28] Russia claims first Abrams tank kill in Ukraine.

• Ted Snider: [03-01] How the West provoked an unprovoked war in Ukraine. The ironies in the title at least merit quotes around "unprovoked." The important part of the story is the relatively underreported period from March, 2021 when Biden added $125 million of "defensive lethal weapons" on top of $150 million previously allocated under Trump, up to the eve of the March 2022 invasion, when "Putin called Ukraine 'a knife to the throat of Russia' and worried that 'Ukraine will serve as an advanced bridgehead' for a pre-emptive US strike against Russia." It is unlikely the US would ever launch such a strike, but Ukraine had by then given up on the Minsk accords and was preparing to take back Donbas. Had they succeeded, Crimea would be next, and that (plus excessive confidence in his own military) was enough for Putin to launch his own pre-emptive attack.

• Marcus Stanley: [02-28] Biden officials want Russian frozen assets to fund Ukraine war: "Not only will this prolong the conflict, but rock confidence in the Western-led world economic system."

• Ishaan Tharoor: [02-28] Foreign troops in Ukraine? They're already there.

• Ezra Klein:

  • [03-01] The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have changed. America's policy hasn't. Interview with Richard Haass. [Transcript to be added later.]

• [2022-03-01] Can the West stop Russia by strangling its economy? Transcript of an interview with Adam Tooze, doesn't really answer the title question but does provide a pretty deep survey of Russia's economy at the start of Putin's invasion of Ukraine. One minor note: I think Tooze said "Kremlinologists" where you read "the criminologists of the modern day have five, six, seven, eight different groups now that they see operating around Putin."

  PS: Unrelated to Russia, but for another Klein interview with Tooze, see: [2022-10-07] How the Fed is "shaking the entire system".

Around the world:

• Shaiq Hussain/Rick Noack: [03-03] Lawmakers pick Pakistani's leader, but Khan's shadow looms from prison: Shehbaz Sharif was re-elected, but lacks parliamentary majority support.

• Ishaan Tharoor: [03-03] Iran stages a dismal election as Islamic regime circles the wagons.

Other stories:

Lori Aratani: [03-01] Boeing in talks to reacquire key 737 Max supplier Spirit AeroSystems: Boeing spun the company off in 2005, including the Wichita factory my father and brother worked at for decades.

Marina Bolotnikova/Kenny Torrella: [02-26] 9 charts that show US factory farming is even bigger than you realize: "Factory farms are now so big that we need a new word for them." Related here:

• Current Affairs: [03-01] Why factory farming is a moral atrocity: Interview with Lewis Bollard, of Open Philanthropy.

• Jack McCordick: The academics helping the meat industry avoid climate scrutiny.

Rosa Brooks: [02-20] One hundred years of dictatorship worship: A review of a new book by Jacob Heilbrunn: America Last: The Right's Century-Long Romance With Foreign Dictators [note: cover has it "America First" in large white type, then overprints "Last" in blockier red].

Daniel Denvir: [02-28] The libertarians who dream of a world without democracy: Interview with Quinn Slobodian, who wrote the 2018 book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, and most recently, Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy.

Adam Gopnik: [02-19] Did the year 2020 change us forever? "The COVID-19 pandemic affected us in millions of ways. But it evades the meanings we want it to bear." A review, which I haven't finished (and may never) of the emerging, evolving literature on 2020.

Sean Illing: [03-03] Are we in the middle of an extinction panic? "How doomsday proclamations about AI echo existential anxieties of the past." Interview with Tyler Austin Harper, who wrote about this in the New York Times: The 100-year extinction panic is back, right on schedule. I could write a lot more on this, especially if I referred back to the extinction controversies paleontologists have been debating all along, but suffice it to say:

• Short of the Sun exploding, there is zero chance of humans going extinct in the foreseeable future. People are too numerous, widespread, and flexible for anything to get all of us. (Side note: the effective altruist focus on preventing extinction events is misguided.)
• Human population is, however, precariously balanced on a mix of technological, economic, political, and cultural factors which are increasingly fragile, and as such subject to sabotage and other disruptions (not least because they are often poorly understood). Any major breakdown could be catastrophic on a level that affects millions (though probably not billions) of people.
• Catastrophes produce psychological shocks that can compound the damage. By far the greatest risk here is war, not just for its immediate destruction but because it makes recovery more difficult.
• People are not very good at evaluating these risks, erring often both in exaggeration and denial.

The Times piece led to some others of interest here:

• Thomas Homer-Dixon/Johan Rockström: [2022-11-13] What happens when a cascade of crises collide? Homer-Dixon is a "futurologist" I got interested in long ago, but haven't followed in quite some time. He reminds us how many changes produce positive feedback loops (at least temporarily), further destabilizing. In mathematics, a catastrophe is what happens when a function suddenly breaks or collapses. It's easy to come up with real world examples.

• Jerome Roos: [04-16] We don't know what will happen next.

• Ezra Klein: [2023-10-26] The chief ideologist of the Silicon Valley elite has some strange ideas: Marc Andreessen.

Chris Lehman: [03-01] Border hysteria is a bipartisan delusion: "Yesterday, both President Biden and Donald Trump visited Texas to promise harsher immigration policies."

Abdullah Fayyad: [03-01] America has a good model for how to handle immigration: America.

Andrea Mazzarino: [02-27] War's cost is unfathomable. I mentioned this in an update last week, but it's worth mentioning again. She starts by referring to "The October 7th America has forgotten," which was 2001, when the US first bombed Afghanistan, following the Al-Qaeda attacks of that September 11. In 2010, Mazzarino founded the Cost of War Project, which, as economists are wont to do, started adding up whatever they could of the quantifiable costs of America's Global War on Terror and its spawn. Still, their figures (at least $8 trillion and counting, and with debt compounding) miss much of the real human (and environmental) costs, especially those that are primarily psychic.

For instance, would we have the gun problem that we have had we not been continuously at war for over two decades? Would our politics have turned so desperately war-like? Certainly, there would have been much less pressure to immigrate, given that war is the leading producer of refugees. Without constant jostling for military leverage, might we not have made more progress in dealing with problems like climate change? The list only grows from there.

One constant theme of every Speaking of Which is the need to put aside the pursuit of power over and against others and find mutual grounds that will allow us to work together cooperatively to deal with pressing problems. There are lots of reasons why this is true, starting with the basic fact that we could not exist in such numbers if not for a level of technology that is complex beyond most of our understandings and fragile, especially vulnerable to the people who feel most unjustly treated. Our very lives depend on experts who can be trusted, and their ability to work free of sabotage. You can derive all the politics you need from this insight.

Michelle Orange: [03-01] How the Village Voice met its moment: A review of Tricia Romano's The Freaks Came Out to Write, a new "oral history" (i.e., history presented in interview quotes). I rushed out and bought a copy, and should probably write my own review, even if only because she left me out. More:

• Peter Conrad: [02-27] The Freaks Came Out to Write review -- how the Village Voice changed American journalism.

• Maureen Corrigan: [03-04] The oral history of the 'Village Voice' captures its creativity and rebelliousness.

• Dwight Garner: [02-12] What was The Village Voice? Garner is also interviewed in Gilbert Cruz: [02-23] The rise and fall of the Village Voice.

• Adriane Quinlan: [02-28] Meet the New York 'freaks' who reshaped modern journalism.

• Charles Cross: [02-26] Tricia Romano chats Village Voice ahead of Town Hall event.

• Tricia Romano: [03-02] 'There's some music coming out of the Bronx called rap,' how the Village Voice championed hip-hop and changed criticism: An excerpt.

Rick Perlstein: [02-28] Kissinger revisited: "The former secretary of state is responsible for virtually every American geopolitical disaster of the past half-century."

Deanne Stillman: [02-21] Mothers, sons, and guns: Author wrote a book about Lee Harvey Oswald and his mother, recounted here, in light of high school shooter Ethan Crumbley and his mother, Jennifer Crumbley, who was convicted for her role leading up to the shootings.

David Zipper: [03-01] Driving at ridiculous speeds should be physically impossible: As someone who grew up with a great love of auto racing, I'd argue that driving at ridiculous speeds has always been physically impossible, even as limits have expanded with better technology. Of course, "ridiculous" can mean many different things, but I'd say that's a reason not to try to legislate it. I've long thought that the 55 mph speed limit was the biggest political blunder the Democrats made, at least in my lifetime. (Aside from Vietnam.) Not only did it impose on personal freedom -- in a way that, say, European levels of gasoline taxes wouldn't have done -- but it induced some kind of brain rot in American auto engineering, from which Detroit may never have recovered. (I can't really say. After several bad experiences, I stopped buying their wares.)

Ironically, this political push for mandating "speed limiters" (even more euphemistically, "Intelligent Speed Assistance") on new cars is coming from tech businesses, who see surveillance of driving as a growth area for revenue. This fits in with much broader plans to increase surveillance -- mostly government, but it doesn't end there -- over every aspect of our lives. Supposedly, this will save lives, although the relationship between speeding and auto carnage has never been straightforward, and much more plausible arguments (e.g., on guns) go nowhere. My great fear here is that Democrats will rally to this as a public health and safety measure, inviting a backlash we can ill afford (as with the 55 mph speed limit, which helped elect Reagan).

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, February 26, 2024

February archive (finished).

Music: Current count 41900 [41864] rated (+36), 22 [20] unrated (+2).

Running late this week, but managed to get most things done that had to be done. Still, I'm a frazzled, nervous wreck as I try to wrap up this introduction, so don't expect much.

I didn't get done with Speaking of Which by bedtime Sunday, so (once again) posted what I had, with the promise of a Monday update. But I've made very little progress on that today, so I don't know where that leaves us. I still expect to post this by bedtime Monday evening, even if it's in a similar state of disarray. There is some chance of further updates on Tuesday, but right now I'm growing sick of all of it.

[PS: Updated Tuesday.]

I did wrap up the February Streamnotes file (except for the last Music Week, which I may still manage to add, and the indexing, which I certainly won't get done in time). At least the empty March Streamnotes file is opened.

I also managed to save off my frozen year 2023 list. Subsequent additions to the active one will be flagged in a distinctive color. It looks like I added 91 such post-freeze records to the year 2022 file.

I added a few more lists to the EOY aggregate, most notably the long Aquarium Drunkard list, which pointed me to a few items and suggested many more. I had trouble focusing on things last week, so rated count was down, but A-list exploded from 2 last week to 9 this week (plus two upgrades from revisits -- I've been meaning to return to Bryan and Crowell; also, but not yet, Brandy Clark and Tyler Childers. That helped the Non-Jazz A-list catch up with the Jazz, now 84-83.

New records reviewed this week:

Acceleration Due to Gravity: Jonesville: Music by and for Sam Jones (2023 [2024], Hot Cup, EP): Nonet led by bassist Moppa Elliott, best known for his "bebop terrorist" group Mostly Other People Do the Killing. Similar swagger here, ripping through seven pieces (22:01) by or for the esteemed bebop bassist (1924-81). B+(***) [cd]

Advancing on a Wild Pitch: Disasters, Vol. 2 (2023 [2024], Hot Cup): Bassist Moppa Elliott again, the highly recommended 2022 release of Disasters, Vol. 1 credited to his old band, Mostly Other People Do the Killing. Back to a quintet here, with Sam Kulik (trombone), Charles Evans (baritone sax), Danny Fox (piano), and Christian Coleman (drums). Title reflects on his heritage, with seven songs (36:01) each "named after towns in Pennsylvania that experienced historical disasters." Sounds like unfinished bebop from the 1950s, riffing over barely-controlled swing. [PS: Not clear why I got the PR sheet but no CD, as I did with Jonesville. Release so far seems limited to digital and LP.] A- [bc]

Tanner Adell: Buckle Bunny (2023, Columbia, EP): Debut mixtape, eight songs, 23:59, slotted country but hip-hop to the core, or maybe that should be vice versa? B+(***) [sp]

Eric Alexander: A New Beginning: Alto Saxophone With Strings (2021 [2023], HighNote): Mainstream saxophonist, always played tenor (as far as I recall), usually in conventional quartets (although he's done a lot of work on the side, including the larger One for All group), but tried his hand with strings in 2019, arranged this time by Bill Dobbins. Still, this seems much like his typical quartet outing, with his usual group: David Hazeltine (piano), John Webber (bass), Joe Farnsworth (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Aunty Rayzor: Viral Wreckage (2023, Hakuna Kulala): Bisola Olungbenga, from Nigeria, first album, working with producers Titi Bakorta (from Congo), Ill Gee (Uganda), Scotch Rolex (Japan), DJ Chris Fontedofunk (Brazil), Debmaster (France), Slimcase (Nigeria), and Kabeaushe (Kenya), rapping in Yoruba (and some English) over razor-sharp electrobeats. Last cut (feat. Bakorta) adds a delightful bit of soukous guitar to the mix. B+(***) [sp]

Annie Chen: Guardians (2022-23 [2024], JZ Music): Jazz singer-songwriter, originally from Beijing, based in New York since 2013, third album since 2014, eight pieces, the latter four fashioned as "Guardians Suite." Backed by a sextet, including alto sax/flute/bass clarinet, guitar, drums, violin/viola, bass/meh, and accordion/piano. Way too operatic for me. B [cd]

Daggerboard: Escapement (2022 [2024], Wide Hive): Group led by Gregory Howe (percussion) and Erik Jekabson (trumpet), third album, previous group Throttle Elevator Music, Howe was the label founder in 1996. Cover also notes as "featuring" -- Henry Franklin (bass), Matt Clark (piano), and Mike Clark (drums) -- but eleven more musicians are pictured, including three violins, cello, and perhaps the most famous, Babatunde Lea (congos). B+(**) [cd] [03-08]

DJ Finale: Mille Morceau (2023, Nyege Nyege Tapes): From Kinshasa, Congo, solo debut from a member of Afrofuturist collective Fulu Miziki (Lingala for "music from garbage"), like them on Uganda's premier electroclash label, overruns you with beats that bang on metal, and are even more surprising when they don't. A- [sp]

Drain: Living Proof (2023, Epitaph): Hardcore punk band, second album, ten songs, 25:07. Short, but still a bit longer than the joke lasts. B+(*) [sp]

Emmeluth's Amoeba: Nonsense (2021 [2024], Moserobie): Danish alto saxophonist Signe Emmeluth, third group album, with guitar (Karl Bjorå), drums (Ole Mofjell), and piano (Christian Balvig). Free jazz with a lot of sharp edges and resonant ripples. A- [cd]

Christian Fabian Trio: Hip to the Skip (2022-23 [2024], Spicerack): Funk/fusion grooves, led by electric bassist with Matt King (keys) and Jason Marsalis (drums). B+(*) [cd]

Friends & Neighbors: Circles (2022 [2024], Clean Feed): Scandinavian freebop quintet, sixth album, with André Roligheten (tenor sax), Thomas Johansson (trumpet), Oscar Grönberg (piano), Jon Rune Strøm (bass), and Tollef Østvang (drums), each writing at least one song. B+(***) [sp]

Romulo Fróes and Tiago Rosas: Na Goela (2023, YB Music): Brazilian singer-songwriters, latter also plays guitar, former has ten albums since 2004. B+(**) [sp]

Glass Beach: Plastic Death (2024, Run for Cover): Indie rock band from Seattle, second album. Very complex, in ways I respect the craft for without taking any pleasure in the music, or whatever else they're trying to accomplish. B- [sp]

Gordon Grdina/Christian Lillinger: Duo Work (2023 [2024], Attaboygirl): Duo, guitar/midi-guitar and drums, both on top of their game, with some intriguing dissonance early. B+(***) [cd]

Gordon Grdina's the Marrow: With Fathieh Honari (2023 [2024], Attaboygirl): Grdina plays oud here, along with Mark Helias (bass), Hank Roberts (cello), and Hamin Honari (percussion), son of the Canada-based Persian singer. B+(***) [cd]

Enrique Heredia Trio: Plays Herbie Nichols (2019-22 [2024], Fresh Sound): Spanish drummer, has several previous records, including a 2016 Plays the Music of Bob Zieff, and a previous (but different) trio. This with Pere Soto (guitar) and Xavi Castillo (bass), playing nine pieces by the short-lived Nichols (1919-63, with most of his recordings 1955-57). B+(***) [sp]

Kabeaushé: The Coming of Gaze (2023, Hakuna Kulala): Singer-rapper from Kenya, first album. B+(*) [sp]

Kabeaushé: Hold on to Deer Life, There's a Blcak Boy Behind You! (2023, Monkeytown): Second album, goes psychedelic. B [sp]

Noah Kahan: Stick Season (2022, Mercury/Republic): Singer-songwriter, originally from Vermont, folkie with some pop appeal, third album -- the first of three iterations to date, as newer releases, cashing in on chart success and a Grammy nomination, pile on way beyond these original thirteen songs. I'm impressed, a little, anyways. B+(***) [sp]

Kaze: Unwritten (2023 [2024], Circum/Libra): Quartet of Satoko Fujii (piano), Natsuki Tamura (trumpet), Christian Pruvost (trumpet), and Peter Orins (drums), seventh group album since 2011, first one billed as "completely improvised," which may excuse some temporary regrouping as they explore. B+(***) [cd]

Anni Kiviniemi Trio: Eir (2023 [2024], We Jazz): Finnish pianist, reportedly US-based but recorded this debut album in Oslo with Eero Tikkanen (bass) and Hans Hulbaekmo (drums), all her compositions. B+(***) [sp]

Doug MacDonald: Sextet Session (2023 [2024], DMAC Music): Guitarist, goes back a ways but has been especially prolific since 2014. Mainstream, with a bit of swing, sextet includes trumpet (Aaron Janik), tenor sax (Doub Webb), piano (Josh Nelson, bass, and drums. B+(**) [cd] [03-01]

Eliza McLamb: Going Through It (2024, Royal Mountain): Singer-songwriter, described as "LA-based pop culture icon," which seems to mean she's had a song ("Porn Star Tits") that went viral on TikTok. Intimate songs have some depth. "16" goes: "We pretend that you're trying/ 'I Don't know what to do with you'/ You say it often/ Almost sounds like a good excuse/ For doing nothing." B+(***) [sp]

Chase Rice: I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell (2023, Broken Bow): Country singer-songwriter from Florida, sixth album since 2010, the one on Columbia (2014) a platinum hit, but three later albums on Broken Bow didn't come close. Title from two songs, both against the grain, as is most of the filler, where the down home is spiced with stratospheric guitar. A- [sp]

RVG: Brain Worms (2023, Ivy League/Fire): Initials for Romy Vager Group, for the singer-songwriter-lead guitarist, from Melbourne, Australia. B+(**) [sp]

Sunny Five [Tim Berne/David Torn/Ches Smith/Devin Hoff/Marc Ducret]: Candid (2022 [2024], Intakt): Alto sax, two guitars (Torn and Ducret), drums/electronics and electric bass. This lineup might once have suggested fusion, but I have no clear idea of with what? Maybe Berne et al. just see the hardcore/metal instrumentation as something loud to improv with. B+(***) [sp]

Kali Uchis: Orquídeas (2024, Geffen): Dance-pop singer-songwriter Karly Marina Loaiza, from the Virginia side of DC, father Colombian, returned there while she was in high school, fourth album, second mostly in Spanish. Ends with a piece ("Dame Beso/Muévete") that would jump out even on a Kenyan guitar paradise album. Multiple plays show it's not alone. A- [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Herb Geller: Fire in the West (1957 [2023], Jazz Workshop): Alto saxophonist (1928-2013), inspired by Benny Carter, played in big bands in the early 1950s, led his first session in 1954, released this classic sextet session on Jubilee in 1957, establishing himself as a superb arranger, with Kenny Dorham (trumpet), Harold Land (tenor sax), Lou Levy (piano), Ray Brown (bass), and Lawrence Marable (drums), turning the fire up on "West coast cool jazz." Original title and artwork for an album I know from the 2003 CD That Geller Feller. A- [sp]

Ghetto Brothers: Power-Fuerza (1972 [2024], Vampisoul): South Bronx Puerto Rican group, only album, reissue billed as "one of the best Latin funk albums ever recorded," eventually moves in that direction, but only after a number of efforts at Beatles-like harmonies don't quite hit the mark. B+(*) [sp]

If You Want to Make a Lover: Palm Wine, Akan Blues & Early Guitar Highlife, Pt. 1 (1920s-50s [2023], Death Is Not the End): Twenty-six oldies, dates lack precision but specify "late" both for 20s and 50s, from southern Ghana and environs, influence extending east to Nigeria and west to Liberia. B+(*) [sp]

If You Want to Make a Lover: Palm Wine, Akan Blues & Early Guitar Highlife, Pt. 2 (1920s-50s [2023], Death Is Not the End): Twenty-six more oldies, again nothing but a broad range of dates. B+(**) [sp]

Melba Liston: Melba Liston and Her 'Bones (1958 [2023], Jazz Workshop): Trombonist (1926-99), from Kansas City, started playing in all-female big bands during the war, then broke in with Gerald Wilson, then moved on to Dizzy Gillespie and Quincy Jones, where she became most valued as an arranger. This is the only album she led -- well, aside from her Randy Weston co-credit, Volcano Blues (1993), still the first item showing up when you search her. This combines two sessions, one with Ray Bryant (piano), the other with Kenny Burrell (guitar), bass, drums, and three more trombonists each (Benny Green, Al Grey, and Benny Powell with Burrell; Jimmy Cleveland, Slide Hampton, and Frank Rehak with Bryant). A real delight. A- [yt]

Los Mohanes: La Tumbia (2017 [2023], Moli Del Tro): Colombian duo, Faunes Efe (bass/guitar) and Joseph Muñoz (field recording/sampler), first album, originally self-released, picked up on a Belgian label. Engaging electronica, falls down at the end. B+(*) [sp]

Don Menza & Sam Noto: Steppin': Quartet Live (1980 [2023], Fresh Sound): Tenor saxophonist, from Buffalo (b. 1936), played in big bands with Maynard Ferguson and Louie Bellson, with more than a dozen albums as leader, joined here by the trumpet player, also from Buffalo (b. 1930), who played with Woody Herman, Stan Kenton, Count Basie, and others, headlining a handful of albums. A blistering live gig here from a club in Toronto, with Dave Young (bass) and Terry Clarke (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Old music:

Abyssinia Infinite Featuring Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw: Zion Roots (2003, Network): A one-shot album I only just noticed, looks like a vehicle for the featured Ethiopian singer (she wrote six songs, the other four trad.), engineered by Bill Laswell. Not rasta, but ethio-soul, subtle and beguiling. A- [yt]

Afrorack: The Afrorack (2022, Hakuna Kulala): Electronic music from Uganda, someone named Bamanya, who built "Africa's first DIY modular synthesizer, a huge wall of home-made modules and FX units. Recapitulates many of the sounds of the pioneers of electronic music, then finds layers of rhythm they never dreamed of. A- [sp]

Grade (or other) changes:

Zach Bryan: Zach Bryan (2023, Warner): Country singer-songwriter, though this second label album (after two self-releaseds) topped the rock charts as well as country and folk. Solid, unassuming, workman-like -- attributes that only deeepen with multiple replays. [Was: B+(***)] A- [sp]

Rodney Crowell: The Chicago Sessions (2023, New West): Country singer, emerged as a thoughtful songwriter with his 1978 debut, seems like his albums have only gotten easier over the years. This was recorded in Jeff Tweedy's Chicago studio, and came so easy they didn't even bother thinking up a title for it. Made it easy to underappreciate, too. [was: B+(**)] A- [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Albare: Beyond Belief (AM) [02-12]
• Ian Carey & Wood Metal Plastic: Strange Arts (Slow & Steady) [03-22]
• Stephan Crump: Slow Water (Papillon Sounds) [05-03]
• Remy Le Boeuf's Assembly of Shadows: Heartland Radio (SoundSpore) [03-16]
• David Leon: Bird's Eye (Pyroclastic) [03-08]
• Queen Esther: Things Are Looking Up (EL) [04-09]
• Ron Rieder: Latin Jazz Sessions (self-released) [03-04]
• Jeremy Rose & the Earshift Orchestra: Discordia (Earshift Music) [03-01]
• Jacob Shulman: High Firmament/Ferment Below (Endectomorph Music, 2CD) [03-01]
• Julia Vari Feat. Negroni's Trio: Somos (Alternative Representa) [02-16]
• Fay Victor/Herbie Nichols SUNG: Life Is Funny That Way (Tao Forms, 2CD) [04-05]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Once again, I failed to finish my rounds by end-of-Sunday, so I'm posting what I have, with the expectation that I'll add more on Monday (look for red right-border stripes). One thing I didn't get to but seems likely to be worthwhile adding is No More Mister Nice Blog. That's where I first ran into the Katie Glueck article, and I see relevant posts on many of this week's politics articles. Charles P Pierce also has worthwhile takes on most of this.

Initial count: 154 links, 7,499 words. Updated count: 178 links, 8,813 words.

Top story threads:

Israel: The genocide continues.

Reported casualty figures, as of 2/23, show 1,147 Israelis killed on October 7, plus 576 Israelis killed since. Palestinian deaths -- certainly undercounted -- are 29,514 in Gaza + 380 elsewhere in Israel. Since Oct. 7, Israelis are killing more than 51 Palestinians in Gaza for every soldier lost. No breakdown between soldiers lost in invading Gaza vs. elsewhere, but the latter numbers are probably very small. The kill ratio increases to 65-to-1 using the 38,000 estimate "when accounting for those presumed dead."

• Mondoweiss:

  • [02-19] Day 136: Netanyahu approves Ramadan restrictions on Al-Aqsa Mosque: "Hamas slams Israel over plans to restrict access of Palestinian worshipers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan. Meanwhile, more Palestinians die from preventable causes as Israel besieges hospitals in Gaza."

  • [02-20] Day 137: Israel builds highway cutting Gaza Strip in two: "Several patients evacuated Nasser Hospital while dozens remain trapped under the Israeli siege of Khan Younis. Meanwhile, Palestine called on the ICJ to end the Israeli occupation, and Brazil's Lula likened Israel's Gaza genocide to Nazi Germany."

  • [02-21] Day 138: US vetoes another UN resolution calling for ceasefire in Gaza: "The U.S. vetoed another resolution in the UN Security Council calling for a Gaza ceasefire as the WHO evacuates 32 critical patients from besieged Nasser Hospital, and the World Food Program is forced to suspend distribution amid mounting famine."

  • [02-22] Day 139: As Palestinians in north Gaza starve, Israel attacks MSF building in Rafah: "The situation in Gaza grows worse by the day as Palestinians are starved and Israeli forces turn hospitals into morgues. In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, tensions rise as Ramadan approaches."

  • [02-23] Day 140: UN experts urge countries to stop arming Israel as Netanyahu unveils postwar plan: "Benjamin Netanyahu's postwar plan would see Israel exerting direct control over a demilitarized Gaza Strip while permanently dismantling UNRWA and assigning "local officials" to govern civilian affairs."

  • [02-24] Day 141: Israel attacks civilian shelter in Deir el-Balah as ceasefire talks continue in Paris: "Israeli forces attacked a building in Deir el-Balah where more than 120 people were sheltering, killing at least 24. Medical staff at nearby Al Aqsa Hospital expect many more casualties and are struggling to deal with the influx of wounded civilians."

  • [02-25] Day 142: UN experts call for immediate arms embargo on Israel: "Israel bombs near Egypt's fortified wall with Rafah as talks resume to reach a captive exchange with Hamas. UN experts call for arms embargo against Israel and say states supplying weapons, ammunition or intelligence risk violating international law."

• Yuval Abraham: [02-23] Settlers and army blocking West Bank roads to Palestinians: "Makeshift barriers erected since October 7 have sealed off dozens of Palestinian communities."

• Samer Badawi: [02-19] Laying the groundwork for Gaza's permanent exodus: "With Egypt reportedly preparing for an influx of refugees and UNRWA on the brink of collapse, Israel's second Nakba fantasies could soon become reality."

• Zack Beauchamp: [02-20] How Israel's war went wrong: "The conflict in Gaza has become "an era-defining catastrophe." It's increasingly clear what -- and who -- is to blame."

• Josh Breiner/Bar Peleg: [02-22] Israeli Nova partygoer was misidentified as Hamas terrorist on October 7 and killed by Israeli forces. More examples like this are likely to come out. When Israel reduced its Oct. 7 death count from 1,400 to under 1,200, one wonders how much of that was bad counting, and how much reclassifying?

• Isaac Chotiner: [02-24] "Trying to project the death toll from Israel's military campaign over the next six months." On a report from Johns Hopkins University Center for Humanitarian Health and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I suspect their "worst case scenario" isn't nearly as bad as it could get. But even with a ceasefire today, they're projecting over 15,000 "excess deaths" in the next six months.

• Osama Gaweesh: [02-24] Buffer zone in Sinai: Is Sisi preparing to displace the Palestinians?

• Yousef Khelfa: [02-20] My medical colleagues in Gaza are exhausted, and terrified of what is to come: "When I left Gaza two weeks ago, my colleagues at the European Hospital in Khan Younis were already overwhelmed. Now, they are terrified Israel will invade the hospital and kill patients like they did at nearby Nasser Hospital."

• Ibtisam Mahdi: [02-17] The obliteration of Gaza's multi-civilizational treasures: "Israel's war has brought ruin to thousands of years of rich heritage in Gaza, with Palestinian experts decrying the destruction as a cultural genocide."

• Nicole Narea: [02-23] Netanyahu's postwar "plan" for Gaza is no plan at all: "Netanyahu's plan is wildly disconnected from US priorities -- and reality."

• Jonathan Ofir:

  • [02-21] How Haaretz has aided Israel's genocide in Gaza: "Haaretz is widely considered Israel's leading liberal news source, but it has published and promoted some of the most harmful propaganda in support of Israel's genocide in Gaza."

  • [02-23] Over 2/3 of Jewish Israelis oppose humanitarian aid to Palestinians starving in Gaza.

• Oren Ziv: [02-20] Rugs, cosmetics, motorbikes: Israeli soldiers loot Gaza homes en masse: "Soldiers describe how stealing Palestinian property has become totally routine in the Gaza war, with minimal pushback from commanders."

Israel vs. world opinion:

• Ben Armbruster: [02-22] US intel has 'low confidence' in Israel's UNRWA claims.

• Michael Arria: [02-22] The Shift: US vetoes UN ceasefire resolution again: "Joe Biden has stepped up public criticisms of Israel to save his faltering electoral prospects in Michigan, but there remains an incredible disconnect between these words and his administration's ongoing support for Israel's genocidal attack on Gaza."

• Moustafa Bayoumi: [02-17] As Biden ignores death in Gaza, the 'Dark Brandon' meme is unfunny and too real.

• Miguel A Cruz-Díaz: [02-23] On the shame of living through times of genocide. The article, about "suicidal ideation," is not exactly what I imagined from the title, but I'm not wired to take other people's tragedies personally. (I was tempted to say "for empathy," but I can imagine even if I only rarely feel.) But the title is evocative. I don't advise you feeling shame for what other people -- and not just the perpetrators, but also those making excuses, or just shrugging their shoulders -- are doing, but they definitely should feel ashamed (and if not, should learn).

• Emily Davies/Peter Hermann/Dan Lamothe: [02-27] Airman who set self on fire grew up on religious compound, had anarchist past: Aaron Bushnell, whose protest echoed that of Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc during the Vietnam War.

• Yves Engler: [02-21] The reasons for Canada's 'unwavering' support for Israel: "Canada's remarkable fidelity to an apartheid state committing genocide is driven by imperial geopolitics, settler solidarity, Christian Zionism and the Israel lobby in Canada, and the weaponization of antisemitism."

• Richard Falk: [02-25] In Gaza, the west is enabling the most transparent genocide in human history.

• Jonathan Freedland: [02-23] Hamas and Netanyahu are a curse on their peoples. Yet amid the horror, there is a sliver of hope: The "sliver" seems to be [02-23] Gaza ceasefire talks underway in Paris, but this ignores the core fact of this "war," which is that you don't need to negotiate a ceasefire when only one side is shooting. Just do it. Israel can even declare that if Palestinians do keep shooting rockets at Israel, there will be reprisals (short in time, but severe). That would be understandable. But negotiations just does something Israel claims it doesn't want to do, which is to elevate Hamas as the representative of the people of Gaza.

  The headline suggests that both Netanyahu and Hamas are unfortunate political choices, but Netanyahu was a choice, at least of the limited electorate within Israel, and there's plenty of reason to believe he's doing exactly what those who voted for him want. Hamas was never elected, because Palestinians have never been free to choose their own leaders. The West Bank is, well, complicated, but Gaza should be simple: all Israel has to do is stop attacking and step away. They've more than punished Hamas. They've destroyed most of the region's infrastructure. For at least the next 20 years, the only way people will be able to live in Gaza is through foreign aid, which they will basically have to beg for. If Israel takes itself out of the picture, and lets the UN organize a proper democratic government there, Hamas will release the hostages, and quietly disappear. (Sure, Hamas may still survive in the West Bank, and among exiles, but that shouldn't be Gaza's fault. Hamas has no life except as resistance to Israeli power.)

  The idea that some people who got to power purely through the use of terror -- and that's every bit as true of Netanyahu as of Hamas (and only slightly less for the Saudis and Americans and other parties invovled) -- can settle something in Paris that will bring peace to Gaza is absurd. Freedland writes: "To grasp it, the Palestinians need to be free of Hamas and Israelis free of Netanyahu." Swap those and you start to enter the realm of the possible: Palestinians need to be free of Netanyahu, which for Gaza at least is easy to do. And that would also make Israelis free of Hamas (except, of course, in the areas where they're still determined to rule rough over Palestinians, because such rule always begets resistance -- if not by Hamas, then by the next bunch that bands together to stand up for freedom and against injustice).

• Thomas L Friedman: [02-27] Israel is losing its greatest asset: acceptance: This is one of those "if even Thomas Friedman sees a problem . . ." pieces. Israelis have a handicap here: they're so conditioned to expecting that the whole world hates them, they can't imagine how much worse it can get, or how that might impact them. They figure as long as the US stays in line, no problem. And they figure the US is way too big to worry about its own diminishing acceptance.

• Mehdi Hasan: [02-21] Biden can end the bombing of Gaza right now. Here's how.

• Robert Inkalesh: [02-23] Why the US must enage Hamas politically: I don't agree with this now, but I do believe that I do believe that America's refusal to accept the results of the 2006 Palestinian Authority elections -- I believe Israel, which had always preferred Hamas to the secular-socialist PLO, was only following the American lead -- was largely responsible for pushing Hamas back into violent rebellion, including the desperate attacks of Oct. 7. There is, of course, much room for debate as to how to apportion blame for the continued repression and resistance. Israel's behavior is fully consistent as a white settler colony overseeing a rigidly racist system of control -- call it "Apartheid" if you like, but it differs in some from the disgraced South African system, and often for the worse. It reflects a demented and ultimately self-destructive worldview, but they are pretty clear on what they're doing, and why. As for Americans, they're much harder to explain. Having developed two (or maybe three) such rigidly racist systems, then dismantled them without ever owning up to their crimes, they're amazingly ingenious at lying to themselves and others -- hypocrisy is much too superficial a word -- for the way they so easily rationalize and romanticize Israeli brutality as high moral dudgeon.

• Jake Johnson: [02-22] "I think we should kill 'em all," GOP Rep. Andy Ogles says of Palestinians in Gaza. Makes him exhbit A (but not the only one) in:

  • Branko Marcetic: [02-24] US elected officials keep explicitly supporting genocide.

• Robert Lipsyte: [02-22] I'm heartbroken by the war in Israel.

• Mitchell Plitnick: [02-23] Biden won't let Israel's rejection of a Palestinian state interfere with his delusions.

• Philip Weiss: [02-21] The context for October 7 is apartheid, not the Holocaust: "The Israel lobby is attempting to indoctrinate Americans that the context for the October 7 attack is the Holocaust. This is a misrepresentation. The Palestinians had nothing to do with the Holocaust."

America's expansion of Israel's world war:

• Spencer Ackerman:

  • [02-19] The US and Israel actually did retaliate against Iran: "They just did it through cyberattacks and pipeline bombings."

  • [02-21] American delusions at the International Court of Justice: "The US 'Rules-Based International Order' continues to eat international law alive."

• Samar Al-Bulushi/Ahmed Ibrahim: [02-21] US inks deal to build up to 5 bases in Somalia.

• Giorgio Cafiero: [02-19] Will Egypt suspend the Camp David Accords?

• Dave DeCamp: [02-22] $14 billion US aid package for Israel crafted to prepare for 'multi-front war,' not just Gaza.

• Julia Gledhill: [02-23] The new 'defense industrial strategy' is a boon for the arms makers, not so much for regular Americans.

• Eldar Mamedov: {02-23] The EU's flagging credibility in the Middle East.

• Ishaan Tharoor:

  • [02-21] The world confronts Israel over its occupation of Palestinian lands: "There is a growing global perception that Israel is at odds with the international system and reliant on the United States to shield it from further censure."

  • [02-23] In Ukraine and Gaza, twilight for the 'rules-based order': "Western leaders may see in Ukraine the defense of the 'rules-based order' against Russian brutishness, but in the ongoing calamity in Gaza, it's easy to also see its breakdown."

  • [02-27] Netanyahu's 'day after' plan for Gaza is unviable: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled a blanket rejection of any solutions that empower the Palestinians." Or to allow Palestinians any measure of dignity anywhere near Israel's vaunted Iron Wall. No one anywhere should credit Netanyahu as having any legitimacy to rule over Palestinians. I don't see any way to force his government from power, but he and it should be shamed and shunned with every option, including ICJ charges and sanctions. Sure, other governments treat their minorities with insufficient respect, but no other works so relentlessly to destroy their livelihood, and often their lives.

Trump, and other Republicans: Well, South Carolina is done and dusted -- see [02-24] Trump defeats Haley in South Carolina primary, 60.1% to 39.2% (at the point with 92% counted). Also, if you care, How different groups voted in the South Carolina primary, according to exit polls. Nothing terribly surprising there, except perhaps that Trump had his best age split in 17-29 (66% vs. 63% for 65+). [PS: The final delegate split was 47 Trump, 3 Haley.]

• Liz Anderson: [02-13] The crack-up of the Michigan GOP: "The trouble is, when the working-class WCN [White Christian Nationalists] takes over a party, their lack of and contempt for managerial skills, their conspiratorial mindset, and their inability to assume personal responsibility for their failures leads to organizational failure and financial crisis." Also on the Michigan GOP:

  • Dexter Filkins: [02-19] Matt Gaetz's chaos agenda.

  • Ira Glass/Zoe Chance: [2023-12-22] It wouldn't be make-believe if you'd believe in me: "A major political party in a major swing state bets on a new leader: a total political outsider. How does that work out for them?"

• Zack Beauchamp: [02-24] The South Carolina primary is a joke. It tells us something deadly serious: "Trump's seemingly inevitable romp to victory in Nikki Haley's home state reveals how strong his hold on the GOP is -- and how dangerous he remains to democracy."

• Jackie Calmes: [01-22] I watched a Trump rally so you don't have to. But you need to know what he's saying.

• Igor Derysh: [02-23] Experts trash Trump's "insultingly stupid" filing asking Judge Cannon to dismiss case: "Trump invoked presidential immunity and other arguments that have already been rejected by other courts."

• David Freedlander: [02-22] The Swiftboater coming for Biden: "With co-pilot Susie Wiles, Chris LaCivita has brought discipline to the Trump campaign. Is that enough to win?"

• Margaret Hartmann: [02-21] Trump doubles down on making Navalny's death about him.

• Christopher Hooks: [02-25] The human toll of Greg Abbott's war at the border.

• Ed Kilgore:

  • [02-22] Running for president may be the only way for Trump to pay all his lawyers.

  • [02-25] Haley got crushed by Trump in her home state, but plans to keep losing. Interesting footnote here: "she was able to massively outspend Trump in South Carolina ($15 million to $900 thousand by one estimate)."

• Charisma Madarang: [02-23] Trump claims he's 'being indicted for the black population': "The ex-president additionally said 'the Black people like me' because he has been indicted four times." So, like, they can relate to a guy who has spent $50 million on lawyers to stay out of jail (for months, maybe even a year or two)?

• Ben Protess/Jonah E Bromwich: [02-24] Donald J Trump is racing against time to find a half-billion dollar bond.

• Jennifer Rubin:

  • [02-21] Trump idolizes Putin, the man who killed Navalny and invaded Ukraine. After being horrible for years, Rubin's conversion to anti-Republicanism was more convincing than most, but she's lost her marbles here. Trump doesn't idolize Putin. Trump only worships himself. Maybe he has a bit of grudging admiration for Putin, as a guy who gets away with doing things he can only dream of. Maybe he thinks Putin might be a fun guy to pal around with, like Jeffrey Epstein, but if so he's almost dead certain wrong. (Does Putin really strike you as the kind of guy who'd enjoy Trump's company?) Trump throws these gestures out mostly just to wind up the Russiagate libs, knowing they'll react hysterically, and knowing that when they do, that'll just reinforce the sense of his base that he's a straight shooter, one of the very few people in national politics who's not under the spell of the warmongering Deep State. Meanwhile, Rubin is only winding up her base, giving them talking points that seem archly moral but are instantly recognized by anyone not in the clique as hypocritical at best and quite likely seriously dangerous.

  • [02-25] Dim or disloyal? Republicans again ensnared in possible Russian plot. And here she goes again, although here we should also note how easy it is for Russian agents to play Republicans. After all, if you want to swindle someone, the easiest possible mark is someone who's convinced in his own con.

• Praveena Somasundaram: [02-25] Koch network ends financial support for Nikki Haley's presidential bid: Regular people may get a chance to vote in America, but only for candidates who have been vetted and backed by the very rich. And when that backing falters, the candidates have little choice but to withdraw (er, "suspend"). Having lost what appeared to be her two best chances (Trump-averse New Hampshire and her home state of South Carolina), and now the biggest source of her funding, she has no chance of winning, and little of making much of a showing. Sure, as long as she's nominally in the race she'll continue to trounce Ron DeSantis (who still got 0.4% in South Carolina), and she's still got the fawning PR coming from Jim Geraghty and Kathleen Parker.

• Matt Stieb: [02-22] Was the Biden Crime Family informant a Russian asset?

• Kate Sullivan: [02-18] Trump launches sneaker line a day after judge's order to pay nearly $355 million.

• Tatyana Tandanpolie: [02-23] Bipartisan Wisconsin ethics commission refers Trump PAC for felony prosecution over alleged scheme: "Officials find evidence Trump's Save America committee skirted campaign finance laws to take down disloyal GOPer."

CPAC: The erstwhile conservative (more like fascist) organization held their annual conference last week, headlined by Donald Trump, so we'll offer this as a Republicans overflow section. Before we get serious, probably the best introduction here is: [02-23] Jimmy Kimmel on CPAC: 'A who's who of who won't accept the results of the election'.

• Daniel Dale: [02-24] Fact Check: Trump delivers another lie-filled CPAC speech.

• Ben Goggin: [02-24] Nazis mingle openly at CPAC, spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and finding allies.

• Ellen Ioanes: [02-24] How US conservatives fell for two of Latin America's most controversial leaders: Javier Milei (Argentina) and Nayib Bukele (El Salvador), guest speakers at CPAC. Note that Viktor Orbán (Hungary) appeared in 2022, to reassure Americans that "a Christian politician cannot be racist." I used to think that the only saving grace of nationalists is that they'll never be able to band together because each still hates every other, but someone (Steve Bannon?) seems to have bridged those divides, delivering what seems like a Fraternal Order of Fascists. [PS: Nigel Farage was another speaker; so was Liz Truss.]

• Alex Isenstadt: [02-23] Trump's potential VPs turn on the flattery.

• Ben Jacobs: [02-24] Calling himself a 'political dissident,' Trump pitched regime change at CPAC.

• Gustaf Kilander: [02-25] 'Donald Trump is a juggernaut of justice': The most bizarre things said at CPAC 2024. That quote was from Kash Patel. Perhaps the most bizarre came from Stephen Miller, who declared "there is something really broken in the conservative brain," then proceeded to provide himself as an example.

• Kelly McClure: [02-24] Trump compares migrants to Hannibal Lecter in bizarre CPAC rant.

• Heather Digby Parton: [02-23] CPAC can't quench MAGA's thirst: "They don't want frat house humor and obscure Latin American leaders. They want blood."

Biden and/or the Democrats:

• Perry Bacon Jr: [02-26] Criticizing a president is always okay -- even one running against Trump: If you care about issues, you should say so, even when it's politically inexpedient. Otherwise, you lose your credibility, and any hope for eventual success. You reduce politics to a game, signifying nothing. If that's your view of it, you may already be a Republican -- although they've adopted some truly obnoxious issue stands, they're really just saying whatever they think gives them a slight advantage, because all they're really intererested in is power: seizing it, keeping it, cashing in on it.

• Aaron Boxerman/Jonathan Weisman: [02-24] Biden caught in a political bind over Israel policy: "His steadfast support of the Gaza war effort is angering young people and Arab Americans in an election year. But any change risks alienating Jewish voters." Not really: recent polling has Jewish Americans favoring a ceasefire 50-34%. That's not as high as support for a ceasefire from Americans in general, but not enough to justify the NYT's antisemitic trope of painting "the Jews" as responsible for Biden's colossal blunder.

• Jackie Calmes: [02-14] Biden's polls aren't great. How much is the media's fault?

• Ben Davis: [02-21] Biden visited East Palestine a year after Trump. This doesn't bode well.

• William Hartung: [01-31] Tone deaf? Admin brags about 55% hike in foreign arms sales: "Washington's sanitized view of unleashing $80.9 billion in weapons on the world, especially now, is a bit curious."

• Eric Levitz: [02-23] Biden is weak -- and unstoppable: "It will be hard to convince the president that he isn't the best of his party's bad options."

• Norman Solomon: [02-25] Joe Biden's moral collapse on Gaza could help Donald Trump win. I'm not going to not vote for Biden in November even though I regard him as not just naive and/or negligent but materially complicit in the most crime against humanity in recent decades, but only because I fully realize that Trump would even be worse (as, indeed, his four years as president amply demonstrated). Still, by all means, tank Biden's polls and trash his prospects, at least until he starts to reverse course. And also note that lots of people are not fully apprised of how awful Trump has been on Israel in particular and on world war in general -- indeed, he is campaigning, Wilson-like, on having "kept us out of war" and steering us away from the path to "world war" that Biden is heading (even though, sure one might even repeat Wilson-like, he's done more than anyone to pave that path). If Biden fails to get his war under control, enough people are likely to fall for Trump's line to tip the election. Also linked to by Solomon:

  • Jake Johnson: [02-14] Biden has no plan to punish Israel for Rafah invasion as UN warns of 'slaughter'.

  • Jack Mirkinson: [02-13] Biden is mad at Netanyahu? Spare me. "An infuriating, thuddingly predictable genre of article has emerged: the 'Biden is really upset with Israel behind the scenes' story."

  • Alexander Ward/Matt Berg: [02-13] US won't punish Israel for Rafah op that doesn't protect civilians.

• Robert Wright: [02-23] Biden's tough love deficit: Two years after Ukraine, and 20 weeks after Gaza, turned into massive wars:

  There are lots of differences between those two events and between the wars they've brought, but there's one important commonality: how President Biden has reacted. In both cases he has come to the aid of a friend in need and done so in a way that wasn't ultimately good for the friend. Biden is good at showing love and catastrophically bad at showing tough love.

  With both Ukraine and Israel, the US has massive leverage -- by virtue of being a critical weapons supplier and also in other ways. And in both cases Biden has refused to use the leverage to try to end wars that are now, at best, pointless exercises in carnage creation.

  I'll add that both of these wars were advertised long before they broke out, coming out of long-standing conflicts, and only surprising to the those in Washington who pretended that peace can be secured simply by buying American arms and covering them with clichés about deterrence and sanctions. Most of the fault belongs to presidents before Biden: to Bush and Trump for indulging Israel's most right-wing fantasies (and Obama for not resisting them, reinforcing the idea that American reservations are not things Israelis need to take seriously); to Obama's pivot toward a renascent Cold War (after Clinton and Bush expanded NATO to Russia's doorstep); and to Trump for his half-assed mishandling of Ukraine, Russia, China, and everything else. On the other hand, every president inherits the mistakes of his predecessors. Thanks to Trump, Biden wound up with more than usual, but it was his job to fix them. In some cases he tried, and has even had some success. In others, he failed, sometimes not even trying. But here, he's made bad situations worse, and seems incapable of even understanding why.

Legal matters and other crimes:

• Rachel M Cohen: [02-23] Alabama's IVF warning to the country: "The movement to treat embryos as full-fledged people is taking a victory lap."

• Melissa Gira Grant: Alabama's unhinged embryo ruling shows where the anti-abortion movement is headed: "The Christian right is paving the way for a world without abortion or IVF, but with lots of embryo adoptions."

• Keren Landman: [02-20] Living in an abortion ban state is bad for mental health: "Worsened anxiety and depression is a predictable (and costly) effect of abortion bans."

• Ruth Marcus: [02-24] The case of Clarence Thomas's new clerk taints the entire judiciary.

• Harold Meyerson: [02-22] America's richest men ask the courts to make unions illegal: Lawyers for Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos say "the Court erred in 1937 by letting workers have rights on the job."

• Ian Millhiser:

  • [02-19] The Supreme Court will decide whether to let civilians own automatic weapons: "Garland v. Cargill asks whether gun makers can evade the ban on machine guns with a device called a bump stock."

  • [02-20] The Alabama Supreme Court opinion holding that embryos are children, explained.

  • [02-20] Justice Alito is mad that George W Bush was too woke: "In a dissenting opinion, Alito takes a potshot at Bush's signature racial justice program."

• Toni Aguilar Rosenthal: [02-21] Where is the oversight for Republican State Attorneys General? "Often a stepping stone to higher office, Republican AG offices have played host to a repeated set of scandals in recent years." I don't think "industrial" is the right word, but it does suggest that there are private interests that benefit from, and presumably help perpetuate, bad foreign policy. Review of a book by Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman, Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy.

• Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff: [02-24] Alabama justice who quoted Bible in IVF case often invokes religion.

• Austin Sarat: [02-23] Alito's cries of religious persecution are a chilling preview of Supreme Court in another Trump term.

• Tessa Stuart: [02-22] Journalist Tim Burke indicted for leaking Tucker Carlson clips that embarrassed Fox News. That sounds to me like a public service.

• Li Zhou: [02-20] Wisconsin's new legislative maps are a win for democracy.

Climate and environment:

• Eric Levitz: [02-21] Why you probably shouldn't blow up a pipeline. Reaction to Andreas Malm's book, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, and the subsequent movie. My rejection of such notions is so deep-seated -- I'm still anti-Luddite, even after having developed some appreciation for the intractable problems they faced -- I've never had to wrestle with the issues, nor do I expect that I ever will. But I won't be surprised to see a rising tide of sabotage -- they've already coined the term "ecoterrorism" for this eventuality -- as climate distress worsens, especially if major powers are unwilling to reform and continue to set the standard for dealing with problems through repression and violence. [PS: Note, however, that in Kim Stanley Robinson, in his novel, The Ministry for the Future, expects to see a lot of "ecoterrorism," and sees it as promoting necessary changes.]

Economic matters:

• Dean Baker: [02-21] The sham "The economy is awful" story: Per Baker's tweet: "Too bad they [New York Times] weren't allowed to run these when Donald Trump was in the White House." Next in my Twitter queue was Kevin Erdmann: "It's really crazy how interest rate casual stories get canonized without the slightest interest or curiosity in facts. EVERY story about housing will stipulate that the Fed's rate hikes slowed down sales." The chart shows that sales spiked after the worst of the pandemic in 2020, while interest rates were still low, and declined as interest rates increased, but since 2022 they're basically back to pre-pandemic levels, albeit with higher interest rates.

• Farrah Hassen: [02-23] The rent's still too high! "A new Harvard study found that half of U.S. renter households now spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities. And rent increases continue to outpace their income gains. . . . Last year, homelessness hit an all-time national high of 653,100 people."

Ukraine War:

• Responsible Statecraft: [02-22] The Ukraine War at two years: By the numbers.

• Kyle Anzalone: [02-22] US officials see Ukraine as an active and bountiful military research opportunity.

• Medea Benjamin/Nicolas JS Davies: [02-25] After two grueling years of bloodshed, it's time for peace in Ukraine.

• Aaron Blake: [02-27] Zelensky's increasingly blunt comments about Trump: This isn't a good sign, but Trump has always wanted Zelensky to wade into the American political fray -- on his side, of course, but it's not like he can't play opposition just as well. Zelensky is careful to portay his interests as America's own, but Trump is unflappable in that regard.

• Joe Buccino: [02-22] Ukraine can no longer win. This piece appeared in the Wichita Eagle right after the Doran piece, below. Added here after I wrote the Doran comment, but let's list it first.

• Peter Doran: [02-24] Ukraine can win -- here's how: Author works for Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), one of our leading war tanks, out here to buck up the troops by, well, quoting Winston Churchill and Henry V. He's wrong on many levels, starting with the notion that anyone can win at war these days. Even when he has a point (that Russia's "manpower pool" isn't inexhaustible) he misses it (that it's still much deeper than Ukraine's). He points to the unpopularity of the war in Russia, the suggestion being that Putin will buckle if the West only shows we're firmly resolved to win, but hasn't Putin proven much more effective at stifling dissent than the democratic West has? Aside from greater resolve, he insists the keys to winning are faster deliveries of even more sophisticated weapons systems, and even tighter sanctions. How did the war planners miss that? He insists on "a clear and compelling definition of victory in Ukraine that advances our national interests." Note nothing here about the well-being of the Ukrainian people, who bear the primary costs of continued war. His definition? "The requirements of this victory include the Russian military ceasing to kill Ukrainians, departing Ukrainian territory and not threatening the existence of the country in the future." It should be obvious by now that the only way to achieve any way of this is through a negotiated settlement that leads not just to a ceasefire but to an enduring stable relationship between Russia, Ukraine, and the West. That may require lesser steps -- a ceasefire would be a good start -- but also means giving up impossible definitions of victory.

• Steven Erlanger/David E Sanger: [02-24] Hard lessons make for hard choices 2 years into the war in Ukraine: "Western sanctions haven't worked. Weapons from allies are running low. Pressure may build on Kyiv to seek a settlement, even from a weakened position."

• Ben Freeman: [02-22] The Ukraine lobby two years into war.

• Joshua Keating: [02-22] Are Ukraine's defenses starting to crumble? "What Ukraine's biggest setback in months tells us about the future of the war."

• Serhiy Morgunov/David L Stern: [02-25] Zelensky says 31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since invasion. His first public disclosure since Dec. 2022 ("up to 13,000"). He's also claiming 180,000 Russian troops have been killed. When the New York Times reported this story (31,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed in two years of war, Zelensky says, they also noted that Zelensky's number "differs sharply from that given by U.S. officials, who have said the number is closer to 70,000."

  A leaked Pentagon document had estimated deaths at 15,500-17,000 Ukrainian soldiers, and 35,000-42,500 Russian soldiers. That doesn't count at least 10,000 Ukrainian civilians killed. For more figures, some exaggerated, some minimized, see Wikipedia's Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

• Marc Santora: [02-24] Ukraine's deepening fog of war: "Two years after Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukrainian leaders are seeking a path forward in teh face of ferocious assaults and daunting unknowns."

• Paul Street: [02-22] 500,000 dead and maimed in Ukraine, enough already: It's been a long time since I've seen any figures for war in Ukraine, so this one caught me off guard.

• Marc A Thiessen: [02-22] If Republicans want to help Trump, they should pass Ukraine aid now. I never cite him, mostly because he's pure evil (he got his start as Cheney's torture apologist), but my local paper loves his columns, so I run into him constantly, and occasionally read enough to reconfirm my judgment. But this one is especially twisted, so I offer it as an example of the mind games regular Republicans play to manipulate the deranged Trumpian psyches -- in effect, to keep them reliably evil. The pitch is that Republicans should keep the war going so Trump can fulfill his "I'll have that done in 24 hours" campaign promise once he's elected. Of course, if Trump does win, Thiessen will do his most to sabotage any peace moves, but in the meantime the war goes on and Biden gets the blame.

• Katrina Vanden Heuvel/James Carden: [02-23] 10 years later: Maidan's missing history.

• Walt Zlotow: [02-24] First 2 years of US proxy war against Russia finds both US and Ukraine in downward spiral.

Navalny/Assange:

• The Observer: [02-17] The Observer view on Alexei Navalny's murder: Putin must be shown he can't kill with impunity: "Russia has been exposed as a rogue state that is a menace to the rest of the world." Isn't the Guardian supposed to be the flagship of Britain's left-leaning press? But I cringe any time I see an "Observer view" editorial, perhaps because so many of them are so full of spite yet so futile, combinations of hypocrisy and bluster. After fulminating for twelve paragraphs, they finally explode: "It's time to get real with Russia." So, like, no more patty-cakes? Like 74 years of "cold war" that actually started with US and UK troops fighting the revolution on Russian soil? That went on to using Afghan proxies to snipe at Russians in the 1980s? That after a brief respite when Yeltsin tried to adopt America's prescription of "shock treatment" nearly self-destructed Russia? That was followed by the relentless expansion of NATO combined with economic warfare including crippling sanctions?

  When they wail, "After Navalny, it's time to drop any lingering illusion that Putin's Russia is a normal country, that it may be reasoned with." If Russia is not "a normal country," and I'll grant that it isn't, perhaps that's because no one in the US/UK has tried to reason with it in dacades? Navalny is part of the price of this hostile rivalry, and unless he was some sort of spy, he wasn't even a price the US/UK paid. He was just collateral damage, like thousands of Ukrainians and Russians maimed and killed in Ukraine, the millions displaced, the many more who are denied food and fuel due to sanctions, and the millions of Russian subjects who are denied free political rights because they are living under a state whose security is constantly being attacked by the West.

• Andrew Cockburn: [02-19] Tears for Navalny. Assange? Not so much.

• Ellen Ioanes: [02-20] Where does the fight for a free Russia go now? "Yulia Navalnaya picks up her husband's battle against Putin."

• Fred Kaplan: [02-21] Even if you hate Julian Assange, the US attempt to extradite him should worry you.

• Margaret Sullivan: [02-20] The US justice department must drop spy charges against Julian Assange: 'You don't have to like him or WikiLeaks to recognize the damage these charges create."

• Walt Zlotow: [02-22] Julian Assange is Biden's Navalny.

Other stories:

Mac William Bishop: [02-23] American idiots kill the American century: "After decades of foreign-policy bungling and strategic defeats, the US has never seemed weaker -- and dictators around the world know it." This is a pretty seriously wrong-headed article, its appeal to the liberal publisher based on the MAGA movement, prominent Republicans, Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson for making America weak, the effect simply to "advance Putin's agenda." The key to American influence around he world was always based on nothing more than the perception that we would treat the world fairly and generously -- unlike the old colonial empires of Europe, or the new militarism of the Axis, or the growing Soviet-aligned bloc. Sure, the US was never all that innocent, nor all that charitable, but in the late 1940s seemed to compare favorably to the others. The US squandered its moral standing and good will pretty rapidly, and as the article notes, is losing the last of it with Biden's wholehearted support for Israeli genocide.

Nick Estes: [02-19] America's origin story is a myth: Daniel Denvir interviews Estes, author of Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance.

Katie Glueck: [02-19] Anti-Trump burnout: The resistance says it's exhausted: "Bracing for yet another election against Donald Trump, America's liberals are feeling the fatigue. "We're kind of, like, crises-ed out," one Democrat said." Well, if one Democrat said it, that's exactly the sort of thing you can count on the New York Times to blow up into a page one issue. Genocide in Palestine? Not so much. Reading their own paper, they don't seem to understand that Trump is out of power, and has been for 3.5 years now. Sure, he still talks a lot, but that's all he is. Trying to shut him up, even if we wanted to, not only isn't worth the effort, but would make things even worse. For most of us, there's nothing much we can do except wait until November, then vote against him.

Sarah Jones: [02-22] The right to a private life is under attack: Starts with the Alabama ruling on IVF (see Cohen, Millhiser, and others, above), but of course the Trump-supporting Christian Nationalists want much more than that: they want to run nearly every aspect of your life:

Our private freedoms are linked to public notions of equal citizenship. Conservatives attack the former in order to undermine the latter. It's an unpopular strategy, but as the scholar Matthew Taylor told Politico, "These folks aren't as interested in democracy or working through democratic systems as in the old religious right because their theology is one of Christian warfare." This is total war, and not just on women. Anyone who fails to conform is at risk.

More, especially on the IVF backlash:

• Amanda Marcotte: [02-23] Alabama's targeting of IVF is the Christian right's attempt to control motherhood: "IVF helps women become mothers -- so why does the Christian right hate it so much?"

• Nikki McCann Ramirez: [02-23] The right is cracking down on abortion and IVF. Is 'recreational sex' next?: "Conservative influences have set their sights on birth control amid the GOP's continued to push to curtail reproductive freedoms." We've seen similar stories before, especially from the Heritage Foundation. For example:

  • Ansev Demirhan: [2023-08-17] Anti-abortion groups are coming for birth control -- just as reproductive rights activists warned.

• Tatyana Tandanpolie: [02-23] Tommy Tuberville mocked for "running in circles" in disastrous IVF interview.

• Ed Kilgore: [02-23] Tuberville and Republicans are tripping all over the Alabama IVF decision.

• In Alabama this is a chicken

Taylor Lorenz: [02-24] How Libs of TikTok became a powerful presence in Oklahoma schools: "The owner [Chaya Raichik] of the far-right social media account, who sits on a state advisory panel, has drawn attention since the death of a nonbinary student near Tulsa." I could have filed this under Republicans (above), as that's her mob, but didn't want to bury it under the usual graft and bullshit. Related here:

• Tatyana Tandanpolie: [02-22] Nonbinary teen dies after bathroom fight: Nex Benedict, 16, in Owasso, Oklahoma.

• Kelly McClure: [02-24] Oklahoma senator calls LGBTQ+ people "filth" while commenting on death of Nex Benedict.

Garrison Lovely: [01-22] Can humanity survive AI? Long piece I haven't spent much time with as yet, although the subhed "Capitalism makes it worse" is certainly true. I don't know how good and/or bad AI will be, but it's generating a lot more press than I can follow, including:

• Chas Danner: [02-25] How AI is being used to influence and disrupt the election.

• John Herrman: [02-22] AI companies are getting the culture war they deserve: "Google's new image generator is yet another half-baked AI tool designed to provoke controversy."

• Michael Klare: [02-24] Swarms of AI "killer robots" are the future of war: If that sounds scary, it should. Also available at TomDispatch as Swarming our world, or "'Emergent' AI behavior and human destiny: What happens when killer robots start communicating with each other?"

• Breda O'Brien: [02-25] AI is generating '100 bombing targets a day' for the Israeli army in Gaza: Link moved down here after the "AI" section opened up, but note: the great fear is that AI will take control over warmaking decisions away from people who might have known better, but the most immediate use is here, making decisions for people who don't care whether the targets are reasonable or not. It remains to be seen whether AI can produce genuine value, but that it can generate a gushing torrent of crap is certain.

Kelly McClure: [02-23] Ex-NRA chief funneled millions of dollars into his own pockets, according to a NYC jury: "Wayne LaPierre and other NRA executives were found liable for financial misconduct."

Anna North: [02-23] Mascuzynity: How a nicotine pouch explains the new ethos of young conservative men: "Stimulants, hustle culture, and bodybuilding are shaping young men's drift to the right." Not obvious to me why this has become "a gateway to right-wing politics." Unless, that is, you're broadening the definition of right-wing from servants of hierarchy/oligarchy to plain old, all-around assholes.

Rick Perlstein: [02-21] The neglected history of the state of Israel: "The Revisionist faction of Zionism that ended up triumphing adhered to literal fascist doctrines and traditions." This is, of course, directly relevant to what's happening in the Israel section above. The relationship is not just temperamental and ideological: Netanyahu's father was Jabotinsky's secretary and confidant.

Alissa Quart: [02-21] US media is collapsing. Here's how to save it. She's director of something called Economic Hardship Reporting Project

Aja Romano: [02-18] An attempt to reckon with True Detective: Night Country's bonkers season finale: Noted in the breach, as a remarkably bad review of a season and series where I'm hard pressed to find any points to agree with, either in praise (mostly of seasons one and three, where the flaws are most obvious) or in panning (seasons two and four, where the messes swamp out the positives). But I will say that the "bonkers season finale" was much more satisfying than any I imagined to that point. I at least took the political point, which is that the power of the rich, and the hopelessness of the people they carelessly grind down and toss aside, are never as complete as they imagine.

At the same time, I was also watching A Murder at the End of the World, which was, if anything, even messier (though just a close second for bone-chilling cold), and again mostly acquitted itself with a politically-charged "bonkers finale": the murders were orchestrated by AI, but the context was corporate megalomania, as represented by a billionaire obsessed with control and life-extension. Speaking of which:

• Arwa Mahdawi: [02-25] The latest billionaire trend? Doomsday bunkers with a flammable moat.

Jeffrey St Clair: [02-23] Roaming Charges: Somewhat immature: Title is Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, commander of U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific, describing the "rules of engagement for orbital warfare," which is to say nobody agrees on any rules, or even knows what they are or should be. But who's that going to stop?

Ben Wray: [02-24] It's time to dismantle the US sanctions-industrial complex: "The US has built up an elaborate machinery for waging economic warfare on its rivals with little or no public debate. This sanctions-industrial complex is a disguised form of imperialism and a dangerous source of global instability."

Li Zhou: [02-23] America's first moon landing in 50 years, explained.

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, February 19, 2024

February archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 41864 [41828] rated (+36), 20 [23] unrated (-3).

I posted a long Speaking of Which just before bedtime late Sunday night. I didn't quite get through my usual rounds, so added some more stuff today, which in turn pushed this out late, again. Still unclear how far I'll get Monday night.

Fortunately, I don't have much to say about music this week. The rated count is down, but I hit up several boxes, including the big Mingus one I saw little point in but enjoyed anyway, and yet another iteration of the Massey Hall Quintet/Trio. Also, another big r&b oldies box, again not ideal but quite thoroughly enjoyed.

Very little progress to report on EOY lists, websites, book projects, or anything else. The links, of course, are in the usual place.

New records reviewed this week:

Joe Alterman: Joe Alterman Plays Les McCann: Big Mo & Little Joe: (2023, Joe Alterman Music): Pianist, from Georgia, half-dozen albums since 2009, leads a trio with Kevin Smith (bass) and Justin Chesarek (drums), playing eleven Les McCann compositions, including one written with Alterman in 2021. This came out a few months before McCann (88) died in December. B+(**) [sp]

Carsie Blanton: Body of Work (2023, self-released): Singer-songwriter, originally from Virginia, based in New Jersey, seven albums 2005-21, decided to "undress" 15 songs catalog songs here, releasing them one-per-month digitally, finally compile them on vinyl. So, I gather, it's a bit like the Taylor's Version remakes, but on a much lower budget. B+(**) [sp]

Stix Bones/Bob Beamon: Olimpik Soul (2023 [2024], BONE Entertainment): Billed as a "jazz meets hip-hop EP," the leaders' credits are drums and percussion, respectively (the former aka Franklin Brown), the band adding trumpet, sax, guitar, keybs, bass, and vocalists Abiodun Oyewole and Khadejia Bass. Eight songs, 31:??, some fancy funk, but the mix could be sharper. B+(*) [cd]

Peter Bruun/Søren Kjærgaard/Josas Westergaard: Thēsaurós (2022, ILK): Danish drums-piano-bass trio, playing "an ambitious work" composed by Bruun, in seven parts (83:07). B+(*) [bc]

Mina Cho's Grace Beat Quartet: "Beat Mirage" (2023 [2024], International Gugak Jazz Institute): Korean pianist, based in Boston, fifth album, quartet with Max Ridley (bass), Yeongjin Kim (drums), and Insoo Kim (Korean traditional percussion). B+(**) [cd]

Commodore Trio: Communal - EP (2023 [2024], self-released, EP): Hype sheet credits Joel Tucker (guitar) first but neither cover nor spine mentions him. Joined here by Brandan Keller (tuberg bass) and Justin Clark (drums), for five tracks (20:24) of what they call "improvised art rock." B+(*) [cd]

Dogo Du Togo: Dogo Du Togo (2022, self-released): Massama Dogo, from Lome, in Togo, but now based in DC area. B+(*) [sp]

Jose Gobbo Trio: Current (2023 [2024], self-released): Brazilian guitarist-singer, lyrics here by Deuler Andrade, moved to Iowa in 2011 and on to Illinois, where he teaches. Appears to have some previous albums, but I can't find them in Discogs. With bass (Max Beckman) and drums (Jay Ferguson). Voice barely registers over the rhythm, which is all important. B+(**) [cd]

Mary Halvorson: Cloudward (2023 [2024], Nonesuch): Guitarist, Braxton student at Wesleyan, started with a trio album in 2008, and expanded in various directions, eventually winning a MacArthur genius grant, and topping the 2022 Francis Davis poll with a pair of albums (Amaryllis was the actual winner, but many voters wanted to include the more string-focused Belladonna). This one is a sextet, with trumpet (Adam O'Farrill), trombone (Jacob Garchik), bass (Nick Dunston), drums (Tomas Fujiwara), and vibes (Patricia Brennan), with no vocals and only a bit of violin (guest spot for Laurie Anderson). The state-of-the-art compositions are fashionably tricky, the horns add some weight, the vibes a bit of levity. Many critics seem to be impression, but still seems rather nebulous to me. B+(**) [sp]

Jon Irabagon: Survivalism (2024, Irabbagast): Saxophonist, based in Chicago, best known for "bebop terrorist" group MOPDTK but has a substantial, widely scattered discography on his own. Visited a "munitions bunker in South Dakota" to get the isolated ambiance for this album of solo soprillo sax -- at 33cm (13in), the smallest of all saxophones, pitched a fifth higher than sopranino, a full octave above soprano. Nonetheless, Irabagon spends a fair amount of time here finding more guttural sounds in lower registers, contrast to the high notes, which are never what you'd call flighty. B+(*) [bc]

Jon Irabagon's Outright!: Recharge the Blade (2021 [2024], Irabbagast): Group name refers back to a 2008 album of that name, followed by another (Unhinged) in 2012 -- neither especially successful, as I recall, so I don't really get the thinking behind giving this totally different group an old group name. Leader plays soprano sax here, with Ray Anderson (trombone), Matt Mitchell (piano/keyboards), Chris Lightcap (bass), and Dan Weiss (drums), plus a couple guest spots. B+(***) [bc]

Steven Kamperman: Maison Moderne (2023, Trytone): Dutch clarinetist, half-dozen album since 1999, describes this as "music inspired by the house, life, and passions of Theo van Doesburg," the artist and architect (1883-1931) who in 1917 founded the magazine De Stijl, which advanced abstract art and modernist style, effectively qualifying as a "school." The pieces are supported by piano (Albert van Veenendaal), electric guitar (Paul Jarret), and viola (Oene van Geel). Mostly chamber jazz befitting a museum, but this really sharpens up when Jarret takes the lead and Kamperman introduces some much-needed percussion. A- [cd]

Liquid Mike: Paul Bunyan's Slingshot (2024, self-released): Indie band from Marquette, Michigan, several albums since 2021. They run through 13 crisp songs in 25:31. B+(**) [sp]

Richard Nelson/Makrokosmos Orchestra: Dissolve (2023 [2024], Adhyâropa): Guitarist, member of Aardvark Jazz Orchestra since 1993, released his own Large Ensemble project in 2011, returns here with a 15-piece group. Three complex and lush pieces, 39:22. B+(**) [cd]

Nondi_: Flood City Trax (2023, Planet Mu): Electronics producer Tatiana Triplin, from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, looks to have two previous EPs, another self-released digital album, and some kind of mixtape/remix related to this. B+(*) [sp]

Angel Olsen: Forever Means (2023, Jagjaguwar, EP): American singer-songwriter, six generally well-regarded albums since 2012, released this four song, 16:02 EP. B [sp]

Public Image Ltd.: End of World (2023, PIL Official): Original Sex Pistol John Lydon, 67 when this came out, eleventh group album, eight years after previous. He's managed to keep a consistent sound since 1978, and occasionally to channel some rage against "liars, fakes, cheats and frauds." B+(*) [sp]

Zoe Rahman: Colour of Sound (2023, Manushi): British pianist, father Bengali, eighth album since 2001, brother Idris Rahman plays sax, with several other horn players, bass, and drums. Richly detailed, sometimes to excess. B+(*) [sp]

Andrew Rathbun: The Speed of Time (2022 [2023], SteepleChase): Tenor saxophonist, based in Brooklyn, more than a dozen albums since 1999, quartet with Gary Versace (piano), John Hébert (bass), and Tom Rainey (drums), all original pieces. B+(***) [sp]

Monika Roscher Bigband: Witchy Activities and the Maple Death (2023, Zenna): German guitarist, fourth Bigband album since 2011. Discogs lists genres as: dark jazz, jazz-rock, psychedelic rock. I was thinking prog rock as light opera -- Roscher sings throughout, in English (not that I followed much of it) -- although the big band was built to play jazz, which does a nice job of shading the straightforward beat. B+(**) [sp]

Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band: Vox Humana (2023, Jazzheads): Bronx-born drummer, graduated from Berklee, joined Mongo Santamaria in 1983, headlined a 1993 album with Tito Puente and Paquito D'Rivera, has led Latin jazz big bands at least since 2007, naming a 2012 album Multiverse. Runs through a lengthy songbook, starting with "Caravan," hitting "Let the Good Times Roll" and "I Love You Porgy," and perhaps most successfully, Steely Dan's "Do It Again." B+(***) [sp]

Adam Schroeder/Mark Masters: CT! Adam Schroeder & Mark Masters Celebrate Clark Terry (2023 [2024], Capri): Big band arrangements of thirteen Terry tunes, Schroeder playing baritone sax, Masters not in the band but with a long career as an arranger. You may recall that Terry played trumpet both for Duke Ellington and Count Basie before leading his own bands, offering plenty of hints for how this works -- largely splitting the difference. B+(***) [cd]

Matthew Shipp/Steve Swell: Space Cube Jazz (2021 [2024], RogueArt): Piano and trombone duets, improvised, first time recording together. A bit sparse, though both have plenty to say. B+(***) [cdr]

Rajna Swaminathan: Apertures (2021 [2023], Ropeadope): Indian percussionist, plays mrudangam, also sings (as does co-producer Ganavya), second album, with Utsav Lal (piano) and a raft of famous jazz musicians: Adam O'Farrill (trumpet), Anna Webber (tenor sax), Miles Okazaki (guitar), Stephan Crump (bass). B+(**) [sp]

Tucker Brothers: Live at Chatterbox (2023 [2024], Midwest Crush Music): Brothers Joe (guitar) and Nick (bass), with sax (Sean Imboden) and drums (Carrington Clinton) at a club in Indianapolis. No song credits, but I always recognize "Caravan." Groove band, nice set. B+(*) [cd]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

George Cartwright's GloryLand PonyCat: Black Ants Crawling ([2024], Mahakala Music): Alto/tenor saxophonist, best known for the group Curlew (1980-2003?), based in Minneapolis these days, no recording date given, but it's a live trio date from Clown Lounge, with Adam Linz (bass) and Alden Ikeda (drums) and is released (as have several previous Cartwright albums) in the label's "Reissue Series." B+(**) [bc]

Late Night Count Basie (2023, Primary Wave, EP): The "Count" is in small print, and tends to get overlooked. The songs mostly originate with Basie (well, not "St. Thomas"), and three are credited to his ghost band (Scotty Barnhart, director, with various featured guests), the others to others, as is obvious when Talib Kweli starts rapping over "Didn't You." And "One O'Clock Jump" gets an encore. All in 23:32, but it definitely swings, and jumps. B+(**) [sp]

Charles Mingus: Changes: The Complete 1970s Atlantic Studio Recordings (1973-78 [2023], Rhino, 7CD): I didn't feel much need for this -- and, needless to say, Rhino didn't gift me a copy, so no obligation there -- but looking for something to play while trying to get something else written, this seemed like a pretty nice way to spend 5 hours, 49 minutes. One pass [broken up, with a bit of rechecking, as it turned out], although I've heard most of this before. Starts off with a revitalizing young quartet -- featuring George Adams and Don Pullen, who continued on their own, including a fabulous 1986 album called Breakthrough -- but his health deteriorated fast, and he died of ALS at 56 in 1979. Mostly straight reissues, the breakdown:

• Mingus Moves (1973, Atlantic; [1993], Rhino): Introduces great 1970s quartet with George Adams, Don Pullen, and Dannie Richmond, plus trumpet (Ronald Hampton), marred by a very unfortunate vocal track. [was: B-] B+(**)
• Changes One (1974 [1975], Atlantic): Quintet session (with Jack Walrath on trumpet), produced masterpieces: "Remember Rockefeller at Attica," "Sue's Changes," "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love"; even one vocal, George Adams' gravel "Devil Blues." A
• Changes Two (1974 [1975], Atlantic): Most pointed title: "Free Cell Block F, 'Tis Nazi U.S.A.'; includes a piece by Walrath, a reprise of "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love" with a Jackie Paris vocal; and another tribute, "For Harry Carney." A-
• Three or Four Shades of Blues (1977, Atlantic): Five older pieces, starting with "Better Get Hit in Your Soul" and "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," with a raft of guest soloists. B+(*)
• Cumbia & Jazz Fusion (1976-77 [1978]): Two side-long Latin extravaganzas with typical moves and layers. [was: B-] B+(*)
• Me Myself an Eye (1978, Atlantic): At this point he no longer played, so this was done with a long list of studio musicians: the 30:20 "Three Worlds of Drums," and three older pieces, offering a taste of future legacy bands. B+(***)
• Something Like a Bird (1978 [1980], Atlantic): Leftovers from the big band session, the sprawling, near-classic 31:24 title piece, and an elegiac "Farewell Farewell," issued posthumously. A-

Vinyl box has an 8th LP of outtakes, which are included inline in the CD and digital editions. B+(***) [sp]

Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie/Bud Powell/Charles Mingus/Max Roach: Hot House: The Complete Jazz at Massey Hall Recordings (1953 [2023], Craft, 3CD): Mingus and Roach started their own label, Debut Records, in 1952, so they grabbed these tapes, redubbed the bass parts, and released them on three 10-inch records, two credited to "The Quintet" (with the saxophonist identified as Charlie Chan), the other a hornless Bud Powell Trio set, already hyped as "the greatest jazz concert ever." The Quintet eventually came out on an CD (OJC-44), with the trio as Jazz at Massey Hall, Volume Two (OJC-111), with sound, like most Parker bootlegs, pretty dicey. I've never been much impressed, even after a 2012 remaster answered most of the sound issue. The overdubs, too, were controversial, so when Jazz Factory released their 1-CD Complete Jazz at Massey Hall in 2003, they went back to the original tapes. This edition tries to have it both ways, again combining the original Quintet and Trio sets on one CD, but also providing the overdubs on a 2nd CD. (Vinyl splits the first CD into 2-LP, with the overdubs on a 3rd.) Sound is pretty decent here, but it's still more typical than exemplary. B+(***) [sp]

Sonny Rollins: Go West! The Contemporary Records Albums (1957-58 [2023], Craft, 3CD): The label exists primarily to produce luxury vinyl reissues of famous jazz albums, but they also release their remastered wares on CD and digital, so it's possible to stream them, and they get a lot of notice. This collects albums recorded for' Contemporary: Way Out West (1957) and Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders. The former, a trio with Ray Brown and Shelly Manne leading off with "I'm an Old Cowhand," is one of his best-known records, and has already been given the Craft treatment. The latter, adding extras (piano, guitar, vibes on one track), is less focused, except when Rollins plays, who continues to show uncanny skill for building on standards. The third disc collects the alternate takes, which were initially added to the OJC CDs. It may be the best of the bunch. A- [sp]

Pharoah Sanders: Festival de Jazz de Nice, Nice, France, July 18, 1971 (1971 [2024], Kipepeo Publishing): British label, banner says "A fundraising project to help Kenyans in need," Bandcamp page offers 46 bootlegs from various venues/dates. This is a quintet with the tenor saxophonist, piano (Lonnie Liston Smith), bass (Cecil McBee), drums (Jimmy Hopp), and percussion (Lawrence Killian). I picked this one out from the list, figuring it would be really nice to hear some vintage Sanders. It hit that spot from the start with a no-vocal 21:30 "The Creator Has a Master Plan." B+(***) [bc]

Old music:

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown: Sings Louis Jordan [The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions] (1973 [2019], Black & Blue): Blues singer-guitarist from Louisiana (1924-2005), played drums after WWII, and started recording singles for Peacock in the late 1940s. Album discography doesn't start until just before this one, a Paris session with jazz musicians, including Milt Buckner (organ), Jay McShann (piano), and Arnett Cobb (tenor sax). No new insights into either Brown or Jordan as blues, but the songs are hits, and Cobb is a real plus. B+(**) [sp]

Millie Jackson: On the Soul Country Side (1977-81 [2014], Kent): Hard-belting soul singer, debut 1972, found her concept with 1974's Caught Up, with a focus on cheating songs that suggested country music -- partly acknowledged on her 1981 album Just a Lil' Bit Country. This repeats six songs from that album (omitting four). The other songs include a couple duets with Isaac Hayes. Some songs are country enough for novelties, but most keep a respectful distance. Puzzling, as respect really isn't her thing. B+(***) [sp]

The R&B No. 1s of the '50s (1950-59 [2013], Acrobat, 6CD): Another decade's worth of hits, most justly famous, some as blues but more in the early development of rock and roll, with some novelties and other oddities in the mix. The syrupy strings of "Mona Lisa" is the first song that feels out of place (the first of only two Nat King Cole songs). Another surprise was Elvis Presley showing up, although "Hound Dog" sounds great after "Let the Good Times Roll." That kicked off a period where white artists, and we're not just talking ones who famously sounded black but others like the Everly Brothers, Jimmie Rodgers, Paul Anka, and David Seville --a sudden wave of integration that mirrored my own experience. It wouldn't be hard to edit this down to a solid-A set (probably 4-CD). And it would still be rewarding to stream through the rest. A- [cd]

Grade (or other) changes:

Sonny Rollins: Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders: Barney Kessel/Hampton Hawes/Leroy Vinnegar/Shelly Manne (1958, Contemporary): I thought I should recheck this. [was: B+] B+(***) [r]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Bob Anderson: Live! (Jazz Hang) [03-29]
• Lynne Arriale Trio: Being Human (Challenge) [03-01]
• The R&B No. 1s of the '50s (1950-59, Acrobat, 6CD) [2013]
• Dave Rempis/Pandelis Karayorgis/Jakob Heinemann/Bill Harris: Truss (Aerophonic/Drift) [04-23]
• Håkon Skogstad: 8 Concepts of Tango (Øra Fonogram) [03-15]
• Jack Wood: The Gal That Got Away: The Best of Jack Wood, Featuring Guest Niehaud Fitzgibbon (Jazz Hang) [03-29]

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