Music Week

Expanded blog post, November archive (finished).

Music: Current count 32388 [32371] rated (+17), 221 [221] unrated (+0).

Took ill late last week, spending a couple days doing nothing more ambitious than watching the remains of television series Laura had already given up on (The Durrells in Corfu, which I enjoyed very much, and Press, which barely kept me going). I'll add that we recently finished the latest seasons of Orange Is the New Black and Succession, which among other things remind us that class persists in quantum orbits so isolated that it's hard for most of us to imagine life like that.

No Weekend Roundup yesterday. I have a few links saved up for next time I manage to write one. Not much Music Week here either. The one thing I am trying to keep up with is tabulating ballots for this year's NPR Jazz Critics Poll. That pointed me to several records this week, no doubt more next week. (Playing Johnathan Blake's Trion at the moment, and it's sounding like a pretty solid A-.) Spent a lot of time early in the week just trying to round up the various pieces of Allen Lowe's box set, and wound up guessing a bit.

I still haven't finalized my ballot yet, but you can see a very rough draft here.

New records reviewed this week:

• Ilia Belorukov & Vasco Trilla: Laniakea (2017 [2019], Astral Spirits): [bc]: B-
• Leonard Cohen: Thanks for the Dance (2016 [2019], Columbia/Legacy): [r]: A-
• The Last Poets: Transcending Toxic Times (2019, Ropeadope, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• Quiana Lynell: A Little Love (2019, Concord Jazz): [r]: B
• Aurora Nealand/Steve Marquette/Anton Hatwich/Paul Thibodeaux: Kobra Quartet (2018 [2019], Astral Spirits): [bc]: B+(*)
• Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Bobby Kapp: Ineffable Joy (2018 [2019], ESP-Disk): [r]: B+(***)
• Charlie Porter: Immigration Nation (2019, OA2): [cd]: B+(*)
• Wallace Roney: Blue Dawn-Blue Nights (2019, HighNote): [r]: B+(***)
• Toh-Kichi: Baikamo (2019, Libra): [cd]: B+(***)
• Torbjörn Zetterberg & the Great Question: Live (2017 [2019], Corbett vs. Dempsey): [bc]: A-

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Georg Graewe/Ernest Reijseger/Gerry Hemingway: Kammern I-V (2009 [2019], Auricle): [cd]: B+(***)
• Allen Lowe: Jews & Roots/Radical Jewish Acculturation: An Avant Garde of Our Own: Disconnected Works 1980-2018 (1980-2018 [2019], Constant Sorrow/ESP-Disk, 8CD): [r/bc]: B+(***)
• Dudu Pukwana/Han Bennink/Misha Mengelberg: Yi Yole (1978 [2019], Corbett vs. Dempsey): [bc]: B+(**)
• David S. Ware New Quartet: Théâtre Garonne, 2008 (2008 [2019], AUM Fidelity): [r]: A-
• Mary Lou Williams: Mary Lou Williams (1962-63 [2019], Smithsonian Folkways): [r]: B+(*)

Old music:

Georg Graewe/Ernest Reijseger/Gerry Hemingway: Continuum (2005 [2006], Winter & Winter): [r]: B+(*)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Jeffrey Lewis & the Voltage: Bad Wiring (2019, Don Giovanni): [r]: [was: B+(***)] A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Carol Albert: Stronger Now (Cahara) [01-30]
• Frank Colón: Latin Lounge (Technoprimal Music) [01-01]
• Elena Gilliam/Michael Le Van: Then Another Turns (Blujazz)
• Danny Lerman: Ice Cat (Blujazz)

Link Cache

I'm skipping Weekend Roundup this week, but thought I'd cache some links for next week.

• A few links on the Democratic presidential debate:

  • Vox staff: 4 winners and 3 losers from the November Democratic debate: Winners: Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Stacey Abrams. Losers: Joe Biden, asylum seekers, health care.

• Martin Belam: Republican committee bought Trump Jr book Triggered in bulk: "Reports claim title hit No 1 in bestseller list thanks in part to $94,800 advance purchase."

• Jonathan Chait: Devin Nunes sues over another news story, won't even deny it's true.

• Zak Cheney-Rice: In the 2010s, white America was finally shows itself: Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates on "Obama's decade," reparations, and Kaepernick.

• Umair Irfan: UN: The world has backed itself into a treacherous corner on climate change.

• Ed Kilgore:

  • Christian right leaders suggest Trump critics are possessed by demons.

  • Perry says Trump is the 'Chosen One'.

• Markos Kounalakis: King Trump: "The impeachment inquiry is testing us: Do we live in a nation of laws or a nation of men?" Funny thing, I was just thinking of contrasts between Trump and Washington, and it occurred to me that we've gone full circle from the revolutionary who overthrew George III to his the King's closest kin in American history.

• Eric Levitz: Trump and Xi are bending the moral arc of history toward barbarism.

• Ian Millhiser: Brett Kavanaugh's latest opinion should terrify Democrats.

• Anna North: New Trump administration rules on sexual assault could keep survivors silent.

• Andrew Prokop:

  • Rudy Giuliani tried to score big bucks in Ukraine as scandal unfolded.

  • The latest news about SDNY's investigation into Rudy Giuliani, explained.

  • The new details about Trump blocking aid to Ukraine, explained.

• Nathan Robinson: Progressives, trust your gut: Elizabeth Warren is not one of us. I'll note this, but add that nothing here particularly bothers me, except perhaps his "Sanders is far from a perfect candidate" aside. Warren took a different path than most leftists did, but she's wound up far more committed to our basic principles than is the norm for Democrats, let alone for Americans overall. No president is going to be able to do much more than Congress and the courts allow, so I'd be happy with anyone who would lead in the right direction, and not make many blunders along the way. Even some of the "moderates" might qualify (although Obama's mix didn't help much). I'll also note that while Warren isn't as grounded a leftist as Sanders, she may have a political advantage as more rooted in America's progressive/liberal tradition.

• Katie Shepherd: An ad smeared a Kansas Democrat for sexual harassment. The main charge actually described a Republican. By the way Brandon Whipple has since won his election to become Mayor of Wichita. It's nominally a non-partisan election, but Republicans worked hard to make it partisan.

• Emily Stewart:

  • Tom Steyer's impeachment group is missing its big moment because he's running for president.

  • Trump's made-up war on Thanksgiving, explained.

• Alex Ward:

  • "A terrible idea": Experts blast Trump's plan to label Mexican drug cartels "terrorists": "It would increase fears of a US military intervention in Mexico."

  • The controversy over Navy Secretary Richard Spencer's ouster, explained.

  • Sondland's testimony shows Mike Pompeo was far more central on Ukraine than we knew.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • America needs to hear -- under oath -- from Pompeo, Perry, Pence, and Bolton.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, November archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 32371 [32345] rated (+26), 221 [221] unrated (+0).

I've been dreading this date for more than a month now. I should be feeling relief that the worst-case scenario has been avoided, but I'm still feeling pretty shaken and tattered. Thought I'd celebrate by rustling up a fairly simple dinner on Tuesday -- a big pot of paella plus something for dessert -- for a small group, figuring that's the one thing I can still depend on my competency for. But at the moment I'm feeling overwhelmed by pressing work -- including lots of things I've been putting off.

Indeed, I had quite a bit I wanted to write about here, but will have to cut very short. One thing that will seem obvious from the list below is that Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide: November 2019 came out on Wednesday. As the column currently depends on paid subscribers, I've held back the grade schematic from previous news rolls, but I will note a few things here: three pick hits are albums I previously graded A- (Raphael Saadiq: Jimmy Lee; Rachid Taha: Je Suis Africain; Jamila Woods: Legacy! Legacy!). Three more I came up short on, but revised my grades below: Kim Gordon: No Home Record; Sonic Youth: Battery Park; and That Dog: Old LP. I don't often change my grades after a Christgau review -- the only other time it's happened this year was The Coathangers: The Devil You Know.

My initial assessments of the first two were pretty close to the mark, but at the time I didn't feel like giving them the extra play they needed, and took that as a sign. That left one new record I hadn't gotten to (Ed Sheeran's -- well, more if you count the HMs, where I struck out), and two old ones where I was familiar with the music from other packages: I have two Spaniels CDs on Collectables which match the 2-CD Jasmine compilation closely, and I've heard all of the music on the 8-CD Bud Powell bargain box -- my previous grades (I have the two Trio albums on Roost combined on a single Roulette CD):

1. Bud Powell Trio (1951) -- in The Bud Powell Trio Plays (1947-53, Roulette) [A-]
2. The Amazing Bud Powell (1951) -- (1949-51, Blue Note) [A]
3. The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 2 (1953) -- (1951-53, Blue Note) [A-]
4. Bud Powell Trio Volume 2 (1953) -- in The Bud Powell Trio Plays (1947-53, Roulette) [A-]
5. The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 3: Bud! (1957) -- (1957, Blue Note) [B+]
6. The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 4: Time Waits (1958) -- (1958, Blue Note) [A-]
7. Blues in the Closet (1958) -- (1956, Verve) [B+(**)]
8. The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 5: The Scene Changes (1959) -- (1958, Blue Note) [A-]

I should note that my 2019 ratings and music tracking files have continued to grow (927 new releases rated so far, 3167 records listed). I've also done a very preliminary sort of my top-rated jazz and non-jazz records, showing 67 A/A- jazz records vs. 54 non-jazz. Last year at this time the split was 46-46, which I noted at the time was unusually balanced. Not easy to dig up stats on previous years, but I suspect 2016 was more typical, with a 61-41 jazz/non-jazz split. In most years, the numbers eventually even out, but I typically hold off on non-jazz records until I see them show up in EOY lists. One thing I should emphasize here is that the current lists are a first pass, and I expect the rank order to shift a lot in the near future. The other thing is that I will keep adding to (and otherwise reshuffling) those two files well into 2020 (as I've done in years past).

I should also note that my metacritic list is still growing. I started this file with mid-year lists, then added points based on grades (mostly as reported by AOTY and Metacritic). I don't have any actual EOY lists factored in (the first usually show up just before Thanksgiving, so . . . next week), but have added new records as they come out. First place has tottered between Sharon Van Etten and Billie Eilish all years, with Van Etten recently back on top. If I had time, I'd speculate on where I see the EOY lists going, based on this research (factoring in certain data artifacts), but will have to skip that for now.

Final point I wanted to make is that Francis Davis is running his 14th Annual Jazz Critics Poll, and once again I'll try to help out. I also don't have time to speculate on likely standings there -- indeed, I've given the subject very little thought, and doubt my metacritic file sheds much light on it at this point. One thing I do want to pass along from the invite letter is this:

One last request. I need your help to expand the poll's voter base. If you can recommend any writers, bloggers, broadcasters, or podcasters you believe are qualified but believe I've overlooked, please let me know as soon as possible.

I'd be happy to forward any critic nominations.

New records reviewed this week:

• Lolly Allen: Coming Home (2016 [2019], OA2): [cd]: B+(*)
• Jon Batiste: Anatomy of Angels: Live at the Village Vanguard (2018 [2019], Verve): [r]: B+(*)
• Jon Batiste: Chronology of a Dream: Live at the Village Vanguard (2018 [2019], Verve): [r]: B+(*)
• Gerald Cleaver & Violet Hour: Live at Firehouse 12 (2019, Sunnyside): [r]: B+(**)
• The DIVA Jazz Orchestra: DIVA + the Boys (2017 [2019], MCG Jazz): [cd]: B+(*)
• DJ Shadow: Our Pathetic Age (2019, Mass Appeal, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• FKA Twigs: Magdalene (2019, Young Turks): [r]: B
• Gauche: A People's History of Gauche (2016-18 [2019], Merge): [r]: B+(***)
• Charles Gayle/Giovanni Barcella/Manolo Cabras: The Alto Sessions (2017 [2019], El Negocito): [bc]: B+(**)
• Ben Goldberg: Good Day for Cloud Fishing (2017 [2019], Pyroclastic): [r]: B
• Laura Jurd: Stepping Back, Jumping In (2019, Edition): [r]: B
• Kneebody: Chapters (2018-19 [2019], Edition): [r]: B+(*)
• Kodian Trio: III (2019, Trost): [r]: B+(***)
• Konstrukt + Ken Vandermark: Kozmik Bazaar (2018 [2019], Karlrecords): [r]: B+(**)
• Liquid Quintet [Agustí Fernández/Artur Majewski/Albert Cirera/Rafal Mazur/Ramon Prats]: Flux (2017 [2019], Fundacja Sluchaj): [bc]: B+(**)
• Made to Break: F4 Fake (2017 [2019], Trost): [r]: A-
• Rachel Musson/Pat Thomas/Mark Sanders: Shifa: Live at Cafe Oto (2019, 577): [r]: B+(**)
• Bob Ravenscroft & Inner Journeys: Phantasmagoria (2019, OA2): [cd]: B+(*)
• Bria Skonberg: Nothing Never Happens (2019, self-released): [r]: B+(***)
• SLD Trio: El Contorno Del Espacio (2018 [2019], Fundacja Sluchaj): [bc]: B+(**)
• Tierney Sutton Band: ScreenPlay (2019, BFM Jazz): [r]: B+(***)
• Pat Thomas and Kwashibu Area Band: Obiaa! (2019, Strut): [r]: B+(**)
• Threnody [Johan Berthling/Martin Küchen/Steve Noble]: A Paradigm of Suspicion (2018 [2019], Trost): [r]: B+(***)
• Jonah Tolchin: Fires for the Cold (2019, Yep Roc): [r]: B+(*)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Future: Monster (2014 [2019], Freebandz): [r]: B+(***)
• ICP Orchestra: ICP Orchestra in Albuquerque: The Outpost Performance Space, March 17th, 2003 (2003 [2019], ICP): [bc]: B+(**)

Old music:

• Charles Gayle/Giovani Barcella/Manolo Cabras: Live in Belgium (2015 [2017], El Negocito): [bc]: B+(***)

Grade (or other) changes:

• Kim Gordon: No Home Record (2019, Matador): [r]: [was: B+(***)] A-
• Sonic Youth: Battery Park, NYC, July 4th 2008 (2008 [2019], Matador): [r]: [was: B+(***)] A-
• That Dog: Old LP (2019, UMe): [r]: [was: B+(**)]: A-

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Georg Graewe/Ernest Reijseger/Gerry Hemingway: Kammern I-V (2009, Auricle)
• Isabelle Olivier/Rez Abbasi: OASIS (Enja/Yellowbird) [12-06]
• Sonar With David Torn: Tranceportation (Volume 1) (RareNoise): cdr [11-29]

Weekend Roundup

Once again, no time for introduction.

Some scattered links this week:

• Zeeshan Aleem: Trump just issued multiple war crime pardons. Experts think it's a bad idea.

• Andrew Bacevich: Trump isn't really trying to end America's wars.

• David Bromwich: The medium is the mistake: Review of James Poniewozik: Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America, and Matt Taibbi: Hate Inc.: Why Today's Media Makes Us Despise One Another. I got a lot out of the former book, and think it gets raked unfairly here -- not that I won't give Bromwich a couple of his points (The Beverly Hillbillies, Playboy). I've seen some parts of Taibbi's book, but didn't read them closely, and don't have a clear picture of the whole. Taibbi's first book on campaigning, Spanking the Donkey, was very sharp, not just on the candidates but on the press covering them (that's where he wrote up his Wimblehack brackets). Since then he's developed his own idiosyncratic version of "fair and balanced" centrism, which sometimes wears my patience thin. By the way, Bromwich has a recent book I hadn't noticed, but should take a look at: American Breakdown: The Trump Years and How They Befell Us. I'm also intrigued by parts of his earlier Moral Imagination: Essays. Just to pick one almost random quote from the latter's preface:

  We ought to describe as "terrorist" any act of deliberate violence that compasses the deaths of innocent persons in order to achieve a political end. State terror, such as Britain practiced in Kenya, Russia in Chechnya and the U.S. in Iraq -- state terror, as exemplified by our own state among others -- differs morally in no way from the terror of the people we are in the habit of calling terrorists. Moral imagination affirms the kinship in evil of these two sorts of violence.

• Laura Bult/Liz Scheltens: America's wilderness is for sale.

• Jonathan Chait:

  • Impeachment and the Stone verdict show Trump is surrounded by criminals.

  • Ben Shapiro: Trump is too dumb to commit an impeachable offense: "But smart enough to be president for a second term"?

  • House Republicans lash out because they can't defend Trump's conduct: E.g., "Devin Nunes's crazy rant."

  • Trump tells crowd Ivanka has created 14 million new jobs: "Over 200 percent of all new jobs under Trump have been personally created by Ivanka. Impressive."

• Isaac Chotiner: How a Trump administration proposal could worsen public health: "Now, the Trump administration has proposed a new measure that would limit the research that the Environmental Protection Agency can use when regulating public health." Interview with Douglas Dockery.

• Jason Del Rey: The Seattle politician Amazon tried to oust has declared victory: Kshama Sawant.

• Masha Gessen:

  • What "corruption" means in the impeachment hearings.

  • The two irreconcilable realities of the impeachment hearings.

• David Graeber: Against economics: Review of Robert Skidelsky: Money and Government: The Past and Future of Economics. Skidelsky is best known as Keynes' biographer, and wrote what was for all intents and purposes Keynes' reply to the 2008 collapse (Keynes: The Return of the Master), but seems to venture further here -- which Graeber, an anarchist-anthropologist whose most famous book was called Debt, applauds. Lots of interesting points here, including a discussion of money which echoes some points Art Protin's tried to convince me of last week. Of course, the following nugget helped convince me they're on solid ground:

  Surely there's nothing wrong with creating simplified models. Arguably, this is how any science of human affairs has to proceed. But an empirical science then goes on to test those models against what people actually do, and adjust them accordingly. This is precisely what economists did not do. Instead, they discovered that, if one encased those models in mathematical formulae completely impenetrable to the noninitiate, it would be possible to create a universe in which those premises could never be refuted. . . .

  The problem, as Skidelsky emphasizes, is that if your initial assumptions are absurd, multiplying them a thousandfold will hardly make them less so. Or, as he puts it, rather less gently, "lunatic premises lead to mad conclusions." . . .

  Economic theory as it exists increasingly resembles a shed full of broken tools. This is not to say there are no useful insights here, but fundamentally the existing discipline is designed to solve another century's problems. The problem of how to determine the optimal distribution of work and resources to create high levels of economic growth is simply not the same problem we are now facing: i.e., how to deal with increasing technological productivity, decreasing real demand for labor, and the effective management of care work, without also destroying the Earth. This demands a different science.

• Michael M Grynbaum: Blloomberg's teamcalls his crude remarks on women 'wrong'.

• Jeet Heer: The foreign policy establishment is hijacking impeachment. Trump has done hundreds of things that I would be happy to impeach him for, but to be real, impeachment needs a broad consensus, and the FPE has expanded that from roughly half of the Democrats in the House to all of them. So that puts them first in line to level charges, even if they pick a few that I wouldn't prioritize.

• Sean Illing:

  • The post-truth prophets: "Postmodernism predicted our post-truth hellscape. Everyone still hates it." Not his usual interview, although it's likely he's done interviews in this vein. I stopped paying attention to social theory around 1975, so I missed Lyotard's 1979 book where he coined the term postmodernism -- I did read precursors like Baudrillard, Foucault, and Lacan, but can't say as I ever got much out of them. The term meant nothing to me for a long time, before I came up with my own definition, using it to describe a world that had lost all sense of direction -- the one thing modernism promised -- and therefore let any damn thing go. I saw this most clearly in architecture, eventually in other arts, but it always remained something of a grab bag. What it might possibly mean for politics is especially hard to pin down, maybe because none of the rival claimants for a modernist politics ever got close to their intrinsic limits.

  • Did Trump just commit witness tampering? I asked 7 legal experts. "Probably not, but here's why it likely doesn't matter anyway."

  • Why we need a more forgiving legal system: Interview with Martha Minow, author of When Should Law Forgive?

• Alex Isenstadt: Louisiana delivers Trump a black eye: "The president lost two of three gubernatorial elections in conservative Southern states, raising questions about his standing heading into 2020." Louisiana just re-elected Democrat John Bel Edwards to a second term as governor.

• Molly Jong-Fast: Why Trump attacked Marie Yovanovitch: "He can't help but go after women, even when doing so hurts his cause."

• Ed Kilgore:

  • Warren proposes two-step plan to implement Medicare for All. I see this as a fair and reasoned bow to the inevitable, not that I have any problem with Sanders sticking with his full-blown plan: how to get there matters, but not as much as knowing where you want to go. I could imagine even more steps along the way. M4A faces two major challenges: one is the money that is currently paid to private insurance companies over to the public program (most of that money is controlled by employers, who would like to keep it themselves); the other is getting the providers integrated into the M4A network, preferably on terms that allow M4A to better manage costs without reducing service. Warren's "head tax" is one way of dealing with the former (not an ideal solution, but should work as a bridge gap). Few people talk about the latter, probably because Medicare already has a large service network, but even there Advantage plans limit the network, and similar limits are common with private insurance plans. On the other hand, M4A would be more efficient (which is to say affordable) if providers dealt exclusively with it. I think this opens up three ideas that I've never seen really discussed. The first key is realizing that for well into the future private insurers will still be able to sell supplemental insurance plans. I'm on Medicare, but I still buy a "Medigap" private health insurance policy, which picks up virtually all of the deductibles and miscellaneous charges Medicare sticks you with. Sanders wants to eliminate all of those charges, but anything short of his plan will leave the insurance companies a viable market. Most practical implementations of M4A will leave a role for supplemental insurance. Doesn't this imply that M4A won't totally end the need for private insurance, but will simply shift it from primary to supplemental coverage? This opens up another way to incrementally shift to M4A: start by insuring everyone for certain conditions, and expand that list as you build up a general tax base to support it (part of the tax could be on private insurance premiums, which could be cost-neutral for the insurance companies). Some obvious candidates for the initial list: ER trauma, vaccinations, pre-natal care and deliveries. Another idea would be to start investing more funds into non-profit provider networks (which could be built around existing public providers, like the VA). Under M4A Medicaid wouldn't be needed as a second-class insurer, but could be repurposed to build affordable and accessible clinics, which would compete effectively with for-profit providers, and thereby help manage costs.

  • Bevin concedes after Republicans decline to help him steal the election.

  • Deval Patrick is officially running for President. Two-term governor of Massachusetts, a black politician who's open for business, so much so that after politics he went to work for Mitt Romney's vulture capital firm, Bain Capital. I recall that Thomas Frank, in Listen, Liberal: Or What Ever Happened to the Part of the People, looked past the Clintons to single Patrick out, along with Andrew Cuomo and Rahm Emmanuel, as prominent Democrats always eager to sell out to business interests. Patrick's hat in the ring tells us that certain donors are spooked by Warren and Sanders, are convinced Biden will collapse, realize that none of the Senators (Booker, Harris, Klobuchar) have attracted enough interest, and doubt Buttigieg can expand beyond his niche. Those donors have been pushing several names recently, including Bloomberg (who has even more negatives), but Patrick is the first to nibble. The problem is that unless you're looking for financial favors, it's hard to see any reason for anyone to pick Patrick over anyone else in the middle of the Democratic Party road. Also on Patrick: Matt Taibbi: Deval Patrick's candidacy is another chapter in the Democrats' 2020 clown car disaster.

  • Nikki Haley's skillful and opportunistic MAGA balancing act: "Once again, Nikki Haley has figured out how to keep herself in the news as a potential Trump-Pence successor while declaring her Trumpist loyalties."

  • Is Buttigieg's presidential bid buoyed by male privilege? Amy Klobuchar seems to think so. I don't doubt that lots of people have lots of prejudices governing their preferences, but such a claim isn't going to change anything. Among moderate ("no we can't") candidates, maybe Buttigieg and Biden have advantages other than sex -- one's an old establishment figure, the other is a complete outsider not tainted by past failures. Besides, didn't Hillary break the "glass ceiling" for wimpy moderates (at least in the Democratic primaries)? You could just as well argue that Cory Booker hasn't taken off due to white privilege, but Obama didn't seem to have that problem.

• German Lopez:

  • Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita, California: what we know: "At least one person was killed and five others, including the gunman, were injured."

  • Support for marijuana legalization is at an all-time high in a new poll.

• Alec MacGillis: The case against Boeing. Specifically, regarding the 737 MAX. One can make lots of other cases against Boeing, perhaps not all "proving that the company put profit over safety," but profit is never far from management's thinking.

• Ian Millhiser: 3 ways the Supreme Court could decide DACA's fate.

• Andrew Prokop:

  • Roger Stone was just found guilty on all counts. Also on Stone: Jeffrey Toobin: Roger Stone's crimes.

  • /Alex Ward: 4 main takeaways from Marie Yovanovitch's impeachment hearing.

  • 4 takeaways from the first impeachment hearing.

• Emily Raboteau: Lessons in survival: Review of two books: Elizabeth Rush: Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, and Gilbert M Gaul: The Geography of Risk: Epic Storms, Rising Seas, and the Cost of America's Coasts.

  Both make the controversial case for managed retreat as our best defense, given the scale of the problem. This approach calls for withdrawing rather than rebuilding after disasters, and would include government buyout programs to finance the resettlement of homeowners from vulnerable areas.

• Robert Reich: Warren doesn't just frighten billionaires -- she scares the whole establishment.

• David Roberts: With impeachment, America's epistemic crisis as arrived: "Can the right-wing machine hold the base in an alternate reality long enough to get through the next election?"

  They [the right] are working with a few key tools and advantages. The first is a strong tendency, especially among low-information, relatively disengaged voters (and political reporters), to view consensus as a signal of legitimacy. It's an easy and appealing heuristic: If something is a good idea, it would have at least a few people from both sides supporting it. That's why "bipartisan" has been such a magic word in US politics this century, even as the reality of bipartisanship has faded.

  Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell was very canny in recognizing this tendency and working it it ruthlessly to his advantage. He realized before Obama ever set foot in office that if he could keep Republicans unified in opposition, refusing any cooperation on anything, he could make Obama appear "polarizing." His great insight, as ruthlessly effective as it was morally bankrupt, was that he could unilaterally deny Obama the ability to be a uniter, a leader, or a deal maker. Through nothing but sheer obstinance, he could make politics into an endless, frustrating, fruitless shitshow, diminishing both parties in voters' eyes.

  This is what Republicans need more than anything on impeachment: for the general public to see it as just another round of partisan squabbling, another illustration of how "Washington" is broken. They need to prevent any hint of bipartisan consensus from emerging.

  Roberts refers to several previous articles, worth collecting here, starting with his own:

  • Donald Trump and the rise of tribal epistemology. [2017-05-19]

  • America is facing an epistemic crisis: "What if Mueller proves his case and it doesn't matter?" [2017-11-02]

  • Why is this happening? "Chris Hayes speaks with journalist David Roberts about how the erosion of trust and manipulation of information has impacted the conservative movement."

  • Alex Pareene: The long, lucrative right-wing grift is blowing up in the world's face.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • How a bad-faith attack on Schiff made its way from Twitter to Trump's lips.

  • Coverage of the first impeachment hearing illustrates how the media is falling short.

  • Trump prepared for impeachment hearings with an epic Fox News binge. You know, I'm not a big impeachment fan, but I do find it gratifying how much he squirms. It seems to me he would be much better off just shrugging it off -- maybe even pointing out that it's little different than the impeachment show the Republicans ran on Clinton in 1998, and implying that it's unlikely to be any more successful.

• Dominic Rushe: Boo-hoo billionaires: why America's super-wealthy are afraid for 2020.

• Dylan Scott: Trump's big veterans health care plan has hit a snag. The "big plan" is to privatize health care services for veterans who don't live close enough to heavily used VA facilities. Once again, the privateers have overestimated the competency of the private sector, and underestimated its rapacity.

• Emily Stewart: "ok billionaire": Elizabeth Warren is leaning into her billionaire battle.

• Matt Stieb:

  • Michael Bloomberg apologizes for stop-and-frisk: 'I was wrong'. And this is supposed to restore our faith in his judgment?

  • Trump's hospital visit is still a mystery.

  • Trump does Erdogan's post-invasion PR for him in joint press conference.

• Jim Tankersley/Peter Eavis/Ben Casselman: How FedEx cut its tax bill to $0: "The company, like much of corporate America, has not made good on its promised investment surge from President Trump's 2017 tax cuts."

• Peter Wade: 'You're done': Conservative radio host fired mid-show for criticizing Trump.

• Alex Ward: The one big policy change 2020 Democrats want to make for veterans, explained.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • One advantage of Elizabeth Warren's employer health fee plan: It polls well.

  • The difference between good and bad state polls, explained.

  • The case for taking Trump's black outreach seriously.

Daily Log

Robert Christgau published his November 2019 Consumer Guide today. One of the records reviewed there was Bud Powell: Eight Classic Albums (Real Gone -4CD). The eight albums are:

1. Bud Powell Trio (1951) -- in The Bud Powell Trio Plays (1947-53, Roulette) [A-]
2. The Amazing Bud Powell (1951) -- (1949-51, Blue Note) [A]
3. The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 2 (1953) -- (1951-53, Blue Note) [A-]
4. Bud Powell Trio Volume 2 (1953) -- in The Bud Powell Trio Plays (1947-53, Roulette) [A-]
5. The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 3: Bud! (1957) -- (1957, Blue Note) [B+]
6. The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 4: Time Waits (1958) -- (1958, Blue Note) [A-]
7. Blues in the Closet (1958) -- (1956, Verve) [B+(**)]
8. The Amazing Bud Powell Volume 5: The Scene Changes (1959) -- (1958, Blue Note) [A-]

Music Week

Expanded blog post, November archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 32345 [32307] rated (+38), 221 [220] unrated (+1).

Pressure continues to build on my psych crisis. Hoped for a break today, but may have underestimated the holiday. Maybe tomorrow? I've been in a rut for nearly a month, getting damn little done. Still, might as well knock this out. Don't actually have much to say about it, anyway.

Next week will either be much better . . . or worse.

New records reviewed this week:

• Ben Allison/Steve Cardenas/Ted Nash: Quiet Revolution (2018, Sonic Camera): [r]: B+(***)
• Byron Asher: Byron Asher's Skrontch Music (2018 [2019], Sinking City): [r]: B+(**)
• The Bad Plus: Activate Infinity (2019, Edition): [r]: B+(**)
• Kenny Barron & Mulgrew Miller: The Art of Piano Duo: Live (2005-11 [2019], Sunnyside): [r]: A-
• Harold Danko/Kirk Knuffke: Play Date (2018 [2019], SteepleChase): [r]: B+(***)
• David Friesen Circle 3 Trio: Interaction (2018 [2019], Origin, 2CD): [cd]: B+(***) [11-15]
• Andy Fusco: Vortex (2017 [2019], SteepleChase): [r]: B+(**)
• Mary Halvorson & John Dieterich: A Tangle of Stars (2018 [2019], New Amsterdam): [r]: B+(**)
• Kevin Hays/Mark Turner/Marc Miralta: Where Are You (2018 [2019], Fresh Sound New Talent): [r]: B+(***)
• Zlatko Kaucic Quintet: Morning Patches (2018 [2019], Fundacja Sluchaj): [bc]: B+(*)
• Michael Kiwanuka: Kiwanuka (2019, Polydor): [r]: B+(*)
• Kronos Quartet: Terry Riley: Sun Rings (2019, Nonesuch): [r]: B
• Travis Laplante: Human (2018 [2019], New Amsterdam): [r]: B
• Jeffrey Lewis & the Voltage: Bad Wiring (2019, Don Giovanni): [r]: B+(***)
• Joe Morris & Evan Parker: The Village (2014 [2019], Fundacja Sluchaj): [bc]: B+(**)
• Ted Nash/Steve Cardenas/Ben Allison: Somewhere Else: West Side Story Songs (2019, Plastic Sax): [r]: B+(**)
• One O'Clock Lab Band: Lab 2019 (2019, North Texas Jazz): [cd]: B+(*) [11-22]
• Evan Parker/Lotte Anker/Torben Snekkestad: Inferences (2016 [2019], Fundacja Sluchaj): [bc]: B+(*)
• Marta Sánchez Quintet: El Rayo De Luz (2019, Fresh Sound New Talent): [cd]: A-
• Sirkis/Bialas IQ: Our New Earth (2018 [2019], Moonjune, 2CD): [cd]: B+(**)
• That Dog: Old LP (2019, UMe): [r]: B+(**)
• Jeremy Udden: Three in Paris (2018 [2019], Sunnyside): [r]: B+(***)
• Michael Zilber: East West: Music for Big Bands (2018 [2019], Origin, 2CD): [cd]: B+(*) [11-15]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• Bulawayo Blue Yodel (1950s [2019], Olvido): [bc]: B+(**)
• Lloyd McNeill: Treasures (1970 [2019], Soul Jazz): [r]: B+(**)
• Lee Moses: How Much Longer Must I Wait? Singles & Rarities 1965-1972 (1965-72 [2019], Light in the Attic): [bc]: B+(**)
• Phil Ranelin: Collected 2003-2019 (2003-19 [2019], Wide Hive, 2CD): [r]: A-
• Tribe: Hometown: Detroit Sessions 1990-2014 (1990-2014 [2019], Art Yard/Strut): [r]: B+(***)

Old music:

• Ben Allison: The Stars Look Very Different Today (2013, Sonic Camera): [r]: B+(*)
• Ben Allison: Layers of the City (2017, Sonic Camera): [r]: B+(**)
• Harold Danko: After the Rain (1994 [1995], SteepleChase): [r]: B+(**)
• Harold Danko Quartet: Tidal Breeze (1995-96 [1997], SteepleChase): [r]: B+(***)
• Lloyd McNeill and Marshall Hawkins: Tanner Suite (1969 [2015], Universal Sound): [r]: B+(*)
• Lee Moses: Time and Place (1971, Maple): [r]: B+(***)
• Phil Ranelin: A Close Encounter of the Very Best Kind (1996, Lifeforce): [r]: B+(***)
• Phil Ranelin: Living a New Day (2005, Wide hive): [r]: B+(**)
• Phil Ranelin & Tribe Renaissance: Reminiscence: Live! (2009, Wide Hive): [r]: B+(***)
• Phil Ranelin: Portrait in Blue (2015, Wide Hive): [r]: B+(***)
• Pamela Samiha Wise: A New Message From the Tribe (2017, Tribe): [r]: B+(**)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Lolly Allen: Coming Home (OA2) [11-15]
• The Diva Jazz Orchestra: Diva + the Boys (MCG Jazz)
• Rozina Pátkai: Taladim (Tom-Tom)
• Charlie Porter: Immigration Nation (OA2) [11-15]
• Bob Ravenscroft & Inner Journeys: Phantasmagoria (OA2) [11-15]
• Toh-Kichi: Baikamo (Libra)

Weekend Roundup

Another "going through the motions" week, so no introduction. I noted a friend of a friend commenting that people don't realize how much time it's going to take after the 2020 election to undo the damage Trump has inflicted (and is continuing to, no doubt with a special flurry after he gets beat, including a bunch of pre-emptive pardons). This person was citing the difficulties Laura Kelly has faced since becoming governor of Kansas, but it's a general rule. For me, the best election news last week was the defeat of Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell, who spent his term making shady deals with real estate developers. One of those was to wreck McLean Boulevard, which used to hug the river from 13th North to Pawnee (23rd South), but now will have its downtown passage moved so realtors can offer exclusive river views. Unlikely that would ever have passed a public vote, but it's also unlikely that the new mayor will be able to undo the blight. Of course, a big part of Kelly's problem is that the state legislature is still controlled by Republicans. The bigger the Democratic wave in 2020, but more a new president will be able to do. But still, the task list is daunting, and growing every day.

Some scattered links this week:

• Sasha Abramsky: Trump throws more red meat to nativists, polluters, and evangelicals.

• Meher Ahmad: Austerity blues: "After sixty years of IMF intervention, Pakistan has little to show for it." Also: "The IMF bailout of today is far from what Keynes had envisioned for his lender of last resort: it does less to lift economies than break them in to be fit for Western interaction -- or exploitation."

• Robert P Alvarez: Republicans, not Russians, threaten our elections: "When turnout climbs, Republicans lose. No wonder they're closing polling places and purging voters all over the country."

• Jillian Ambrose: Fracking halted in England in major government U-turn.

• Andrew Bacevich: The Berlin Wall fell and the US learned the wrong lessons. It got us Donald Trump.

• Zack Beauchamp: What the right fears about Warren's wealth tax.

• Phyllis Bennis: Trump has stolen the anti-war mantle. Here's how to get it back.

• Michael Birnbaum: While Washington is checked out, Macron is pushing to lead the Western world. Here's a cluster of articles on NATO, reflecting the decline of American influence and interest. Others:

  • Ted Galen Carpenter: What's really undermining NATO? Europe's yearning for neutrality.

  • Jacob Heilbrunn: Emmanuel Macron is right: NATO is over: Starts with Lord Ismay's explanation that the purpose of NATO was to "keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." One might make a sensible argument that none of those things matter much these days, therefore neither does NATO. On the other hand, this veers off into insanity:

    The moment has arrived for France and Germany to adopt more than baby steps to make Europe great again. This would require them to establish a Franco-German condominium to assert their interests, including the joint development of new nuclear weapons to deter Russia and China. It would also allow Europe to win an independent footing from an increasingly hostile United States.

    Need I remind you that Europe's previous claim to greatness was built on the rape and pillage of the rest of the world, starting with the looting and extermination of the Americas and the enslavement of Africans. I'm always struck by the fact that British rule reduced India's share of world GDP from 20% to 5%. The post-colonial period hasn't been much more generous, as political control was sub-contracted to locals committed to preserving capitalism's property rights.

• Jonathan Blitzer: The Trump administration's plot to end DACA faces a Supreme Court test.

• Jonathan Chait:

  • New GOP Ukraine defense: Trump was just a patsy for Sondland.

  • Pretending Trump wants to stop corruption is the GOP's most insulting lie yet.

• David Daley: Secret gerrymandering files can now be made public, court rules.

• Julia Davis: Thanks to Rand Paul, Russian media are naming the alleged whistleblower. Two caveats here: one is that Davis doesn't repeat the unmasking; the other is that she seems to have cultivated a niche in painting Trump as Putin's puppet. E.g., see: Trump's Syria fiasco is part of Putin's to-do list. She filed that one under the tag "Donald J. Subservient."

• Jason Del Rey: Amazon tried to buy a new Seattle City Council. It doesn't look like it worked.

• Barbara Ehrenreich: The humanoid stain: "Art lessons from our cave-dwelling ancestors."

• Ben Ehrenreich: California is burning -- nationalize PG&E.

• Benjamin Y Fong/Christie Offenbacher: Medicare for All is a strategy.

• Constance Grady: 75 books from university presses that will help you understand the world.

• Mehdi Hasan: Bernie Sanders says denying aid because of Hamas is "part of an effort to dehumanize Palestinians".

• Adam Hochschild: When America tried to deport its radicals: Emma Goldman, for instance, a hundred years ago..

• Sean Illing:

  • Bullshit jobs: why they exist and why you might have one: Interview with David Graeber, author of Bullshit Jobs: A Theory.

  • How TV paved America's road to Trump: Interview with James Poniewozik, author of Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America. I'm currently reading this book, and it's helping to connect a lot of dots.

  • The rot at the heart of American democracy: Interview with Daniel Ziblatt, co-author with Steve Levitsky of How Democracies Die.

• Daniel Immerwahr: The center does not hold: Review of Jill Lepore's books: These Truths: A History of the United States, and This America: The Case for the Nation.

• Umair Irfan: Virginia Democrats campaigned on their Green New Deal and fighting climate change. And won.

• Sarah Jones:

  • Kentucky voters rejected austerity. You know, in some ways Matt Bevin's win four years ago was a bigger surprise than his loss this week. All the things that made him "the most unpopular governor of any state" were well known then, but Republicans cracked the whip and delivered him a comfortable margin. Harder to do that a second time, although party discipline still made the race extremely close.

  • A Chilean activist explains the protests: 'people in the streets are experiencing an awakening'.

  • How can Democrats win back rural America? Related: Annie Gowen: 'I'm gonna lose everything': "A farm family struggles after rising debt pushes a husband to suicide."

  • Sad billionaire cries because he feels so misunderstood: "Why is everyone being so mean to Leon Cooperman?"

• Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein: The tears of the taxed: "Ignore the rich: tax opposition has never been about liberty."

• Fred Kaplan: Loyalty vs Democracy: "The impeachment transcripts say Republicans have to choose between Trump and America's political future." No prizes for hed writing here, as Republicans haven't trusted democracy for some time now, and most would be happy if Trump were the future. Moreover, while I'm not going to argue that Democrats shouldn't impeach Trump, the fate of democracy in America depends much more on the outcome of the 2020 elections and the build up of a political movement that is strong enough to overcome Republican obstruction -- something the currently constituted Congress is not able to do.

• Nicole Karlis: Thanks to Trump, STD rates hit a record high: "Trump's pro-life policies and attacks on reproductive health care are having repercussions beyond the GOP's intent."

  Titled "Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report," the report noted that in 2018, there were more than 2.4 million syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia infections combined -- an increase of more than 100,000 from the previous year.

  There was also a 71 percent increase in syphilis cases since 2014, along with a 22 percent increase from 2017 in the number of newborn deaths related to congenital syphilis.

• Ed Kilgore:

  • Bloomberg to follow the not-so-successful Giuliani strategy in the primaries. The former New York City major, after months of first flirting with running for president then publicly deciding not to, filed last week to appear on the ballot in Alabama, just beating the deadline there. Presumably he's just keeping his options open, as opposed to making a strategic bet that there's serious interest in him down there. Still, he got a ton of publicity, even if the bottom line is that he has no chance, even if he floods the primaries with money. That's basically because he's a DINO: maybe his support for gun control makes him a non-starter in the Republican Party, but he doesn't offer any reason for rank-and-file Democrats to give him a moment's thought. His commitment to finance-based oligarchy is as deeply seated as his membership in same. The media may slot him as a "moderate," but his reaction to Occupy Wall Street was as rabid as Bull Connor's to civil rights marches. Hmm, maybe that explains Alabama? But doesn't he know that Connor's ilk are all Republicans now? More links on Bloomberg here:

    • David Byler: Hey, Michael Bloomberg, no one wants you to run for president.

    • John Cassidy: A Bloomberg presidential campaign would likely be a costly folly.

    • Jason Del Rey: Jeff Bezos asked Mike Bloomberg months ago if he's consider running for president.

    • Eric Levitz: Michael Bloomberg's ego is an agent of socialist change.

    • Nathaniel Rakish: How seriously should we take Michael Bloomberg's potential 2020 run? There's a good chart here which illustrates Bloomberg's problem succinctly. Y-axis is "net favorability rating" and x-axis is "share of Democrats with an opinion." Nearly everyone is very close to the trendline -- Buttigieg a bit above, Gabbard a bit below, the only ones with more space from the line than their avatar size are Biden (above), and Bloomberg way down and right (i.e., more people had an opinion of him than of Harris, but his favorability came in between Terry McAuliffe and Sherrod Brown). This was "early 2019" -- my guess is that since then Biden has returned to the trend line, the Harris-Booker-O'Rourke cluster has faded some, and Bloomberg has sunk even further.

    • Matthew Rosza: Bernie Sanders to Michael Bloomberg: "You ain't going to buy this election".

    • Matthew Yglesias: A Michael Bloomberg presidential run is unlikely to help moderate Democrats' cause.

  • Three years later, Trump has lost the element of surprise: "Memories of the shock of Election Night 2016 could become a strategic asset for Democrats, who sure won't get over-confident in 2020."

  • House Dems want to give America impeachment for Christmas.

• Jen Kirby:

  • Trump reportedly wanted Bill Barr to give a press conference about his Ukraine call.

  • Iraq's protests, explained.

• Sharon Lerner: Top US toxicologist was barred from saying PFAS cause disease in humans. She's saying it now.

• Nancy LeTourneau: Trump hires a con artist to provide outreach to white evangelicals: Paula White.

• Eric Levitz:

  • Leftism isn't very appealing to nonvoters. But Bernie Sanders is.

  • The GOP's opposition to impeachment is (terrifyingly) principled: "To many conservatives, Democrats (and/or popular democracy) are a greater threat to America than [XXX]." The actual quote said "Vladimir Putin," but you can fill that in with lots of things -- the author picks on Putin because lots of liberals instinctively regard him as an actual threat, even if the only concrete example they can give was the support Russian hackers gave to electing Trump. The fact is that conservatives have never trusted democracy, and have regularly done everything in their power to game it in their favor.

• Martin Longman:

  • I wish Joe Biden would stop saying Republicans can reform.

  • Why the left can't walk away from its farmer-labor roots.

• Alan Macleod: Multi-millionaire Nancy Pelosi warns "fellow leftists": Medicare for All is a very bad idea. She's also knocking the wealth tax.

• Amanda Marcotte:

  • Sorry, pundits: The problem isn't "polarization" -- Republicans have lost their damn minds.

  • Now Mike Bloomberg wants to run:Why are these whiny billionaires up in our faces?

• Dylan Matthews:

  • The Trump Foundation was a sham. We have no idea how many other foundations are, too.

  • Why the left should worry more about AI. Refers to Kelsey Piper: The case for taking AI seriously as a threat to humanity. Also: Sigal Samuel: Some AI just shouldn't exist. Also, an interview with Virginia Eubanks, author of Automating Inequality (2018).

• Katie Mettler: Nobody is buying Mark Halperin's book. The disgraced journalist's publisher lambastes 'cancel culture.' First week's sales of How to Beat Trump: America's Top Political Strategists on What It Will Take totaled 502. Halperin gained some fame when he co-wrote (with John Heilemann) a big book on the 2008 election (Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, but he's now viewed as the very definition of a hack political journalist -- qualities you can get for free any time you turn in a cable news panel. "Disgraced" refers to his "#MeToo" reputation, which can't have helped him, but he was a sinking ship anyway.

• Ian Millhiser:

  • The controversy over "ethnonationalism" and a Trump judicial nominee, explained: On Steven Menashi, nominated to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

  • A border guard shot and killed a Mexican boy. The Supreme Court will decide if he gets off scot-free.

• Ellen Nakashima/Greg Bensinger: Former Twitter employees charged with spying for Saudi Arabia by digging into the accounts of kingdom critics.

• Nicole Narea: State Department officials warned Trump not to revoke protections for immigrants.

• Ella Nilsen: Jeff Sessions announces a Senate run -- by telling voters he's still loyal to Trump. Also:

  • Ed Kilgore: Will Trump crush Jeff Sessions' Senate comeback?

  • Matt Stieb: Jeff Sessions announces Alabama Senate bid by sucking up to Trump.

• Hamilton Nolan: Why did Amazon spend $1.5m in Seattle's local elections?

• Anna North:

  • She had a stillborn baby. Now she's being charged with murder.

  • E Jean Carroll says Trump sexually assaulted her. Now she's suing him.

• Andrew Prokop:

  • Steve Bannon just testified for the government at Roger Stone's trial.

  • Fiona Hill's testimony gives her account of a disturbing White House meeting on Ukraine.

  • Prosecutor: Roger Stone lied because "the truth looked bad for Donald Trump".

  • Gordon Sondland's revised testimony is still very difficult to believe.

  • "I couldn't imagine all of the things that have happened": What Marie Yovanovitch told impeachment investigators.

• Nathaniel Rakich: What Virginia, Mississippi and Kentucky can tell us about 2020.

• Hope Reese: The Cambridge Analytica whistleblower on how American voters are "primed to be exploited".

• Jennifer Rubin: How a former senator and defense secretary explains Republican spinelessness: "I think it's either fear or complicity." He's being too generous. Strikes me more as Führerprinzip. Having accepted Trump as their leader, they now have no option but to follow.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Lindsey Graham keeps moving the goalposts to downplay Trump's Ukraine dealings.

  • Trump's responses to the impeachment inquiry are becoming increasingly incoherent.

• Louis Sahagun: Trump team has a plan for national parks: Amazon, food trucks and no senior discounts.

• Tim Shorrock: South Koreans are pleading for a breakthrough in the US-North Korea talks.

• Amy Davidson Sorkin: Trump's frantic fight for immunity: "As public impeachment hearings begin, Trump's Presidency is still defined by his belief that he cannot be held to account."

• Keith A Spencer: There is hard data that shows that a centrist Democrat would be a losing candidate. This is largely based on a paper by Thomas Piketty, based on French and British data as well as American, which is only one of many reasons why the conclusions might not apply. More intuitively, I'd say that centrist Democrats face two major risks: one is that they spend so much time and effort discounting leftist proposals they're lose the ability to convince voters to trust them; the other is that their "centrism" is largely defined by their willingness to favor business, which makes them appear corrupt. Leftists face other obstacles, but they do have an edge in authenticity and integrity, which given Trump may be important.

• Emily Stewart: We get it, rich guys are not into Elizabeth Warren: "From Bill Gates to Jamie Dimon to Leon Cooperman, billionaires have lots of thoughts and feelings about Elizabeth Warren."

• Jennifer Szalai: In A Warning, anonymous author makes case against re-election: New book attempts to expand on last year's op-ed attributed to an anonymous but "senior Trump administration official." The idea then was to reassure us that sane conservatives are working stealthily to limit the damage of Trump's petulant insanity, but a year later the author is more pessimistic, admitting that "just a wet Band-Aid that wouldn't hold together a gaping wound." Related:

  • Charles P Pierce: The Anonymous White House bookwriter can anonymously bite me: "I am not interested in someone's heartfelt account of their near-collision with actual integrity."

• Res Thebault: Visit to Arlington Cemetery reminded Donald Trump Jr of all his family's 'sacrifices,' he writes. He has a new book with his name on the cover, under the ridiculous title Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us.

• Jake Thomas: Migrant children are being given to an adoption agency linked to Betsy DeVos. Probably over the top to accuse DeVos of human trafficking, but the anti-abortion movement has a long association with adoption agencies, and the latter seem to be happy to take children wherever they can find them.

• Yeganeh Torbati: How Mike Pence's office meddled in foreign aid to reroute money to favored Christian groups.

• Alex Ward:

  • White House official says Trump made a quid pro quo "demand" of Ukraine's president: Alexander Vindman.

  • Trump: We should keep Syria's oil. The Pentagon: Nope.

  • Why Democrats think the benefits of open impeachment hearings outweigh the costs.

  • Why James Mattis couldn't contain Trump: Interview with Guy Snodgrass, author of Holding the Line: Inside Trump's Pentagon With Secretary Mattis.

• Matthew Yglesias:

  • Republicans' smear campaign against Joe Biden is devastating to his theory of politics.

  • Health care is on the ballot in state elections.

  • The Sanders-Warren dispute about how to pay for Medicare-for-all, explained.

  • The debate over whether the very rich pay lower taxes than you, explained.

Music Week

Expanded blog post, November archive (in progress).

Music: current count 32307 [32276] rated (+31), 220 [224] unrated (-4).

Not as physically miserable on waking up this morning as last, but more deeply troubled. Figured I'd get even by doing a long groan and rant here, but 9-10 hours later, when I finally got started, all I wanted was the day to be over with. So I'll spare you the details on two major personal crises, other than to note that one I made some headway on today, and the other I sensibly put off until tomorrow. That leaves two or three technical problems that are easier to talk about. The one that bothers me most is the new computer.

To recap, I order a bunch of parts to build a new computer:

• AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 8-Core 3.2GHz CPU
• ASRock X570 Steel Legend Motherboard
• G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 64GB (4x16GB) DDR4 3000 SDRAM
• XFX Radeon RX 570 RS 8Gb Graphics Card
• Intel 660p Series M.2 1TB Solid State Drive (SSD)
• Lite-On DVD Burner SATA
• Corsair RM Series 750W Full Modular Power Supply
• Fractal Design Focus G Mid Tower ATX Computer Case
• AmazonBasics DisplayPort 6 Foot Cable
• Logitech M705 Cordless Mouse
• Samsung 32-Inch UJ59 UHD 3840x2160 Monitor

I'm reusing a Logitech K740 Mechanical Keyboard, plus (for now) a pretty cheap set of speakers -- gear originally attached to an old (and pathetically slow) machine that will be retired (or maybe used as a print server, as it's the last machine standing with a parallel port for my HP Laser Printer). Originally I misread the motherboard specs and thought I could make do with onboard video, but turned out that was dependent on a different CPU, so I had to add the video card. When I did install the card, the machine came up nicely, and I loaded Xubuntu 18.04 LTS easily enough.

Main problem I ran into then was that the default fonts were awful small on the high-resolution monitor, so I've had to find the various places where they are defined and tweak them up. The new machine is as powerful as I expected. However, I ran into a problem: the machine freezes after some period of inactivity. I've spent 3-4 days chasing after this problem, and still don't have a handle on it.

The obvious suspect is the power save and screen lock functions of the window manager. I've scaled them back (and eliminated light-locker all together). That eliminated the blank screen, but the system would leave either just wallpaper or the full workspace window when it freezes (in which state neither mouse nor keyboard wakes it up). I wondered whether parts of the window manager crashed, in which case it should be possible to ssh in from another machine -- but active ssh sessions are disconnected when the machine freezes. I've poured through syslogs, but have yet to find anything enlightening (obviously have more of that to do). The box felt a bit warm to me, so I wondered about thermal. Inserting an instant read thermometer through the back grill registers 93F, which doesn't strike me as unusually hot. Also, the timing always follows inactivity -- I played music for about 5 hours last night, then it shut down a few minutes after the music stopped.

Good news, I suppose, is that reset wakes it up, and reboot is pretty quick. Still, the most vexing problem I've run across in 6-8 computer builds -- rather dispiriting given my age and psychic frailty. Also, I shot way pass my original budget, so I'm extra reluctant to swap in extra new hardware. Plus this has come at a time when I'm also having to deal with repair/replace questions on dishwasher and car. One bit of good news is that I seem to have managed to repair the dishwasher leak.

[PS: I have ascertained that the freeze is a kernel panic, more specifically a watchdog timer detecting a soft lockup during a system call (timeout is 20 seconds). This indicates a bug in a kernel module, although I suppose it could be caused by a hardware fault. I need to better understand the context to figure out how to fix the problem or work around it. It would be helpful to get a call trace, which would map the source back to an application program.]

Not much to say about this week's music. Swapping out the old computer before getting the new one working forced me to spend more time working off the promo queue than streaming. As for the "old music," I picked up a friendly download of Carmen McRae's Live at the Dug -- one of the few records recommended in Will Friedland's The Great Jazz and Pop Vocal Albums I hadn't heard), and thought I'd check out a few more promising albums without taking a deep dive.

In recent weeks I've been the best-reviewed new albums plus identifying other new ones of exceptional interest. Not much to report on that front this week: top-rated this week was Michael Kiwanuka: Kiwanuka (12), followed by Miranda Lambert: Wildcard (7), and Sudan Archives: Athena (4). The other new release that looks most promising is: Jeffrey Lewis & the Voltage: Bad Wiring.

Among records I previously reviewed, the best to finally appear last week were: Roger Kellaway: The Many Open Minds of Roger Kellaway [A-]; and Roberto Magris: Sun Stone [***].

New records reviewed this week:

• Areni Agbabian: Bloom (2016 [2019], ECM): [r]: B
• The Carter Family: Across Generations (2019, Reviver Legacy): [r]: B
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Ghosteen (2019, Ghosteen/Bad Seeds): [r]: B
• Clipping.: There Existed an Addiction to Blood (2019, Sub Pop): [r]: B+(*)
• Dave Douglas: Engage (2018 [2019], Greenleaf Music): [cd]: A- [11-08]
• Nick Dunston: Atlantic Extraction (2019, Out of Your Head): [cd]: B+(**)
• Lorenzo Feliciati/Michele Rabbia: Antikythera (2019, RareNoise): [cdr]: B+(**)
• Floating Points: Crush (2019, Ninja Tune): [r]: B+(**)
• Calabria Foti: Prelude to a Kiss (2019, Moco): [cd]: B
• Hal Galper Trio: The Zone: Live at the Yardbird Suite (2016 [2019], Origin): [cd]: A- [11-15]
• Francesco Guerri: Su Mimmi Non Si Spara! (2019, RareNoise): [cdr]: B+(**)
• Jerome Jennings: Solidarity (2019, Iola): [cd]: B+(***) [11-09]
• Per Texas Johansson: Stråk På Himlen Och Stora Hus (2019, Moserobie): [cd]: B+(***)
• Lakou Mizik: HaitiaNola (2019, Cumbancha): [r]: B+(*)
• Miranda Lambert: Wildcard (2019, RCA Nashville): [r]: A-
• João Lencastre's Communion 3: Song(s) of Hope (2019, Clean Feed): [bc]: B+(**)
• Chris Lightcap: SuperBigmouth (2019, Pyroclastic): [r]: B
• Lil Tjay: True 2 Myself (2019, Columbia): [r]: B+(*)
• Fredrik Ljungkvist Trio: Atlantis (2019, Moserobie): [cd]: B+(***)
• Maurice Louca: Elephantine (2019, Northern Spy): [r]: B+(*)
• Nellie McKay: Bagatelles (2019, Palmetto, EP): [r]: B+(*)
• MIKE: Tears of Joy (2019, 10k): [bc]: B+(**)
• Mute: Mute (2018 [2019], Fresh Sound New Talent): [cd]: A- [12-13]
• The Niro Featuring Gary Lucas: The Complete Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas Songbook (2019, Esordisco): [cd]: B [11-08]
• Northern Ranger: Eastern Stranger (2019, self-released, EP): [cdr]: B+(**)
• Nicholas Payton: Relaxin' With Nick (2019, Smoke Sessions, 2CD): [r]: B+(**)
• Roberta Piket: Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz (2019, Thirteenth Note): [cd]: B+(**) [12-06]
• Polo G: Die a Legend (2019, Columbia): [r]: B+(**)
• Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Colorado (2019, Reprise): [r]: B+(***)

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

• James Brown: Live at Home With His Bad Self (1969 [2019], Polydor): [r]: A-
• Johnny Griffin & Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis: Ow! Live at the Penthouse (1962 [2019], Reel to Reel): [cd]: A-

Old music:

• Carmen McRae: Torchy (1955, Decca): [r]: B+(**)
• Carmen McRae: Sings Lover Man and Other Billie Holiday Classics (1961 [1962,1997], Columbia/Legacy): [r]: B+(***)
• Carmen McRae: As Time Goes By: Carmen McRae Alone Live at the Dug (1973 [1974], Victor): [r]: B+(***)

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• David Friesen Circle 3 Trio: Interaction (Origin, 2CD) [11-15]
• Hal Galper Trio: The Zone: Live at the Yardbird Suite (Origin) [11-15]
• Roberta Piket: Domestic Harmony: Piket Plays Mintz (Thirteenth Note) [12-06]
• Marta Sánchez Quintet: El Rayo De Luz (Fresh Sound New Talent) [11-22]
• Jim Snidero: Project-K (Savant) [01-24-2020]
• Sirkis/Ballas IQ: Our New Earth (Moonjune)
• Michael Zilber: East West: Music for Big Bands (Origin, 2CD) [11-15]

Daily Log

Got a "summons for jury service" from the 18th Judicial District Court, Sedgwick County, Kansas. Filling the form out online, and on paper.

"The clerk may be contacted by telephone at (316) 660-9101, by fax at (316) 941-5355, by email at jury@dc18.org, or via the Kansas Relay Center at 1-800-766-3777."

Weekend Roundup

Late getting into this, and beset by more problems than I can cope with these days, so no introduction. Nothing fundamentally different. Just lots more of the same old shit.

Some scattered links this week:

• Spencer Ackerman:

  • Baghdadi is dead. The War on Terror will create another.

  • Trump says US troops have quit Syria. It's not true. Published Oct. 11, before the above (and other things) happened.

• Jared Bernstein: Medicare-for-all won't happen anytime soon, but Democrats should keep talking about it. I've been wondering why we don't see more practical half-measures advanced about health-care, as the debate between Medicare for All and its opponents has basically devolved into a debate over whether we can or cannot solve the most basic problem in the world's most expensive (and relative to cost most inefficient and in many ways dysfunctional) health care system. There were several such proposals early on, such as adding a "public option" to ACA and/or allowing various constituencies to buy into Medicare. But now that the race has boiled down to Sanders and Warren vs. Biden and Buttigieg, the debate is between those who understand the problem and are willing to present bold solutions vs. those who deny that significant change is possible, who don't even seem to understand the problem, and in any case won't put any serious effort into changing anything. Which is say, health care has become a proxy for the deeper division among Democrats: the rift between the "radicals," who believe that government should serve the people, and the "moderates," who believe that government should serve the donors, preferably without most other people getting hurt too bad (at least compared to Republican standards).

• Christopher Bertram: Contempt for human life: Starts with case in UK where the bodies of 39 Chinese nationals were found dead in a parked lorry container.

• Charles Bethea: After ICE came to Morton, Mississippi: "About one in ten of the city's residents was jailed or fired after raids at local chicken plants."

• Alexia Fernández Campbell:

  • The 11-day teachers strike in Chicago paid off: "It got more than $30 million extra spending for public schools."

  • Puerto Rico's new push for statehood, explained.

• Jonathan Chait:

  • GOP leader has one chart showing why Republicans hate democracy. Kevin McCarthy's tweet shows a county map of 2016 voting results, so it heavily favors more rural, less populated counties. Head is: 63 million Americans put President Trump in office/ 231 Democrats are trying to reverse the results." Top line ignores the fact that Hillary Clinton got almost 3 million more votes than Trump, plus third party candidates got another 2 million votes, so Trump's total share was only 46.09% of the total. Second part ignores that impeachment would not make Clinton or any other Democrat president (isn't that what "reverse" means?). It would merely remove one spectacularly corrupt aand vile office holder, in accordance with the US Constitution.

  • Trump: The Soviet witch coup has found me innocent: Steve Scalise's poster decrying "37 days of Soviet-style impeachment proceedings" shows how little he knows about the Soviet Union -- also the US Constitution. Also how little grasp he has of irony.

  • If Trump is impeached or defeated, conservatives will call it a 'coup'.

  • The White House's Godfather fantasy.

    Stone's case underlines a principle that's long been clear: It is impossible to understand the Trump administration's cast of characters, their lingo, and their governing ethos without a working knowledge of La Cosa Nostra and its Hollywood lore. If the Kennedy administration created Camelot, the Trump presidency has built a kind of cultural gangster state.

• Chas Danner: Trump has been booed at another major sporting event: Well, only if you call "an Ultimate Fighting Championship event at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night" a "major sporting event."

• Lisa Friedman: EPA to roll back rules to control toxic ash from coal plants.

• Dan Gearino: Coal giant Murray Energy files for bankruptcy despite Trump's support.

• Masha Gessen: How Trump's supporters distort Alexander Vindman's very American origin story.

• Shirin Ghaffary:

  • Edward Snowden says Facebook is just as untrustworthy as the NSA.

  • /Rani Molla: Google says it won't use your Fitbit data to target you with ads. But what else will it do?

• Tara Golshan:

  • In Iowa, only 5 percent of Biden supporters are younger than 45. That compares to Warren (62%), Sanders (55%), and Buttigieg (30%); Biden also trails: Yang (12%), Harris (8%), and Don't Know/Refused (6%). Under "no big surprise," Yang has the highest M-F ratio (7%-1%), followed by Gabbard (3%-1%) and Klobuchar (7%-3%), skipping those with 0% F (Delaney 2% M, O'Rourke and Messam 1% M). Harris is the only candidate with a major F-M skew: 5%-1%. More surprising, Yang also has the highest ratio of High School or Less to Bach/Postgrad Degree, 10%-2% -- again, skipping 0% denominators for Delaney (4%) and Messam (2%); Biden is 35%-26%, and Sanders is 25%-24%. Most candidates do better with college graduates, like Booker 0%-5%, Harris 2%-7%, Klobuchar 4%-13%, and Buttigieg 9%-40%, but by far the most extreme is Warren 3%-59%. Those with electability concerns should be especially concerned about Biden's age skew. Most polls show young people breaking strongly for Democrats, but they're also the age group least likely to vote, and it stands to reason that many fewer will vote if the Democrats nominate Biden, especially compared to Sanders or Warren.

  • Kentucky's Republican governor is facing a tough race -- and he wants Trump to save him.

• Jeff Hauser/Eleanor Eagan: The impeachable offense that Democrats should stop ignoring: "A constitutional violation worthy of an impeachment probe has been sitting under Democrats' noses since Trump took office -- his efforts to undermine Obamacare."

• Fred Kaplan: The defeat of General Mattis: Review of Guy M Snodgrass: Holding the Line: Inside Trump's Pentagon with Secretary Mattis, and Mattis' own memoir (with Bing West): Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead.

• Ed Kilgore:

  • Off-year election preview: Is it all about partisanship?

  • Donald Trump Jr thinks his rust belt boarding school made him the salt of the earth.

  • Republicans going all-out red scare in off-year elections.

• Catherine Kim: Trump stumps for himself during a Mississippi rally for a tight governor's race.

• Jen Kirby: The future of Brexit will be decided in December 12 elections.

• Ezra Klein: Elizabeth Warren's plan to pay for Medicare-for-all, explained. Let's group some more pieces on Warren's Medicare-for-all plan:

  • Josh Barro: Three takeaways from Elizabeth Warren's plan to pay for single payer.

  • John Cassidy: Elizabeth Warren doubles down on Medicare for All.

  • Paul Krugman: Did Warren pass the Medicare test? I think so.

  • Eric Levitz: Elizabeth Warren's Medicare for All plan is a smart storytelling device.

• Michael Kruse: The 5 people who could have stopped Trump: "Gambling regulators once contemplated yanking Trump's casino licenses. Why they didn't holds a lesson for lawmakers today."

• Eric Levitz:

  • The week in impeachment: Ukrainegate becomes a sitcom?

  • Two more signs Trump's 'great' economy is failing workers.

• Marie Lodi: Tasteless 'Build the Wall' decor seen at White House kids' Halloween party.

• Mike Lofgren: 'Republicans have become a cult run by crooks': "Former GOP congressional staffer explains why the party 'has become a creepy mashup of grade B totalitarianism' and 'Freudian manias.'"

• Martin Longman: Hope for humanity as Trump's base begins to leave him.

• Denise Lu/Christopher Flavelle: Rising seas will erase more cities by 2050, new research shows.

• Ian Millhiser: The most important part of the Democrats' impeachment resolution.

  The most significant provision in the resolution exempts the Intelligence Committee's impeachment hearings from a rule that ordinarily limits questioning of witnesses to five minutes per committee member. Though the resolution leaves the five-minute rule in place for most members, it allows Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff to extend his own question time to as much as 45 minutes, so long as he gives equal time to Republican ranking committee member Devin Nunes.

  These are important changes because they will allow Schiff and the team of lawyers working for him to focus their time on the impeachment hearings and to spend significant amounts of time asking probing questions during those hearings. The new rules help ensure that the hearing will not be a disjointed process, constantly jumping from one questioner to the next, without giving anyone time to build a coherent narrative.

• Nicole Narea:

  • A new study shows that even the poorest immigrants lift themselves up within a generation.

  • /Alex Ward: Trump quietly cut legal immigration by up to 65%.

• Olivia Nuzzi: Inside MAGA Country's hottest club: The Trump-Pence 2020 Halloween Eve witch-hunt party.

• Peter Osnos: Editing Donald Trump: "What I saw as the editor of The Art of the Deal, the book that made the future President millions of dollars and turned him into a national figure."

• Thomas Pepinsky: Why the impeachment fight is even scarier than you think: "Political scientists have studied what our democracy is going through. It usually doesn't end well."

• Andrew Prokop:

  • The House of Representatives' big impeachment vote, explained.

  • Alexander Vindman is the latest impeachment inquiry witness to give damaging testimony for Trump.

• John Quiggin: Arrogance destroyed the World Trade Organisation. What replaces it will be even worse.

• David Roberts: The radical reform necessary to prepare California's power system for the 21st century.

• Theodore Schleifer: Silicon Valley billionaires keep getting richer no matter how much money they give away.

• Nathan Robinson: Goodbye, Beto O'Rourke. What a sad end to a pointless campaign. Also:

  • David Siders: Inside Beto O'Rourke's collapse.

  • Geoffrey Skelley: Why Beto O'Rourke's campaign failed.

• Aaron Rupar:

  • Trump claims the impeachment inquiry will "backfire." Polling indicates he's wrong.

  • The latest Fox News impeachment poll contains remarkably grim news for President Trump.

  • Trump allies are now accusing an impeachment witness -- and Purple Heart recipient -- of disloyalty: Of course they are. But I am getting tired of constantly hearing about his Purple Heart, as if that signifies anything about his character.

• Emmanuel Saez/Gabriel Zucman: Make no mistake: Medicare for All would cut taxes for most Americans.

• Michael D Shear, et al.: How Trump reshaped the presidency in over 11,000 tweets.

• Jack Shenker: This wave of global protest is being led by the children of the financial crash.

• Katie Shepherd: An ad smeared a Kansas Democrat for sexual harassment. The main charge actually described a Republican. Wichita's nominally non-partisan mayoral race makes the national news.

• Alan Singer: Historian explains what binds Trump's extremely rich and economically struggling supporters together:

  What I struggle with understanding is how Trump, who is so self-evidently incompetent, morally repulsive, and biased in favor of the rich, holds onto his support among the white working-class and religious voters who attend his rallies and cheer hysterically for their hero. . . . What binds Trump's extremely rich and economically struggling supporters together are their cynical beliefs about the motives of others. They think everyone else is out to steal what is rightfully theirs.

• Matt Stieb:

  • Trump reportedly obsessed with impeachment coverage: 'We're getting killed'.

  • Trump announces he will move permanent residence to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency. Not unprecedented, given that Nixon moved his home base from California to New York after he resigned. Also, something of a major concession: yes, there will be an America after Trump. For more, see:

    • David Cay Johnston: Trump flees to his bankruptcy-proof home in Florida as New York prosecutors close in.

• Matt Taibbi: Baghdadi story reveals divided -- and broken -- news media.

• Alex Ward: The White House's top Ukraine official confirms there was a quid pro quo: "Tim Morrison tried not to make the president look bad. He failed."

• Matthew Yglesias: Health care is on the ballot in state elections starting next week.

• Li Zhou: The double standard at play in Katie Hill's resignation: Compared to, e.g., Duncan Hunter (R-CA). Also on Hill:

  • Heather Caygle: Katie Hill delivers fiery farewell speech on 'double standard' facing women in power.

  • Brian Feldman: MacArthur Genius Danielle Citron on deepfakes and the Representative Katie Hill scandal.

  • Anna North: What the Katie Hill story means for young women in public life.

Etc.

Picked up the following link during my search, before realizing that it was old:

• David Remnick: Obama reckons with a Trump presidency [2016-11-18].

Oct 2019