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First, a couple more links I missed last night:
Max Boot: The Trump Doctrine Was Written by CNN: I'm always surprised to link to something by Boot, whose ill effect on US foreign policy is probably second only to Henry Kissinger, but his critique of Trump is pretty spot on. Needless to add, I don't support his fantasy about a "Free Syrian Army" -- predicated as it is on the assumption that only we know what's best for Syria, and we're willing to let the killing continue for decades to achieve that.
Isaac Chotiner: Elites Are Giddy Over Trump's Airstrike in Syria, and That's Terrifying
Kevin Gosztola: How do media outlets know source of chemical attack was Syrian government? (they don't; they simply believe as much), and Democrats, Neoconservatives unite in support of strikes in Syria as Trump launches attack.
Justin Raimondo: Trump's Base Revolts Against Syria Strike: The author is an anti-war libertarian, a long-time supporter of Ron Paul who's jumped through hoops the last year to argue that Trump would be a much more peaceful pick than Hillary Clinton. I rarely bother with him, but as I noted yesterday, much early opposition to Trump's tantrum came from the alt-right base, which Raimondo keeps tabs on.
Lauren Wolfe: There Are No Real 'Safe Zones' and There Never Have Been: Evidently the term, popularized recently by Tillerson, dates back to Bosnia, where it was used to describe Srebrenica -- before the massacre -- the event that gave us another choice euphemism, "ethnic cleansing."
Matthew Yglesias: Trump's Syria strike is part of a broader pivot toward the Gulf states' worldview: Interesting thesis, one that aligns with Trump's increased support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen as well as the turnabout on Syria.
Micah Zenko: Trump's Humanitarian Intervention in Syria Is Just Getting Started: Subtitle: "But the president might be the last to know it." The author, a CFR hack, doesn't know what his title says, but he does know that what Trump did won't do the job, or even get close. One thing that Zenko stresses is how little time occurred between the alleged gas attack and the punitive response -- too short to be sure what happened, let alone what the escalation might lead to.
I should also note that there will be a special election here in Kansas to pick the successor to Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Koch), who has moved on to become Trump's CIA Director. The favored Republican is Ron Estes, who combines the worst aspects of Pompeo and predecessor Todd Tiahrt (R-Boeing) with a markedly lower IQ -- I wouldn't want to pick on someone just because he looks stupid, but all evidence suggests Estes is the real deal. Republicans have plowed a lot of money into this race, but all they've come up with are smears that attack Democrat James Thompson for supporting "late-term abortion" ("he's too extreme for Kansas") and split screens with Nancy Pelosi. Republicans have held the seat since 1994, usually with big margins, and their base has grown as the district has spread out from Wichita. The Nation finally took note of Thompson: see John Nichols: A Berniecrat Takes on Trump and the Koch Brothers in Kansas. I will add that Thompson hasn't tried to make this a referendum on Trump nor does his advertising cite Bernie Sanders. I think he missed an opportunity there, but he has a strong personal story, and his ads have a lot of guns, so we'll see how that plays out.
There are also special elections to fill House vacancies in Georgia and Montana. See: Charlie May: A blue wave begins? Republicans may be in trouble in Kansas, Montana and Georgia elections.
Music: Current count 28009 [27981] rated (+28), 404 [400] unrated (+4).
Round number notice, as I passed 28,000 records rated. At 30/week it takes 8-9 months to accumulate a thousand, so unless I slow down I'll probably hit 29,000 around the end of the year, and 30,000 close to Labor Day 2018. Big assumption. I've certainly slowed down going through the new jazz queue, mostly because this week's four A-listed records on Intakt and Cuneiform got four or more plays each. On the other hand, the records I downloaded or checked out on Napster got much less attention -- usually a single play, which is what kept the week from being a major wipeout.
The old music by Herbie Hancock, Freddy Hubbard, and Pete La Roca was suggested as I was slogging through the database adding entries to the jazz guides (currently 590 + 299 pages, so +5 and +13 over the week -- damn slow progress).
For Hancock and Hubbard, I stopped after the Blue Notes ran out (well, I included one Hubbard MPS, which had gotten some Critics Poll reissue votes last year). Both artists declined afterwards, and I figured I had heard enough for now. La Roca had two widely spaced Blue Notes and one outlier, and I wound up most impressed by the latter (John Gilmore is the secret ingredient, as he so often was).Other recent jazz albums were suggested by the Downbeat Critics Poll album ballot (Cameron Graves, Heads of State, Derrick Hodge, Kneebody, Julian Lage, One for All, Bria Skonberg, Nate Smith -- Trio 3 and JLCO were also on the ballot but unrated in my queue). Can't say as I had missed much, but now I can say I didn't. I took the time to compile my usual notes. The invite from Downbeat's editor claimed that some critics can fill out the 20-page ballot in 25 minutes, but it took me over six hours, and that only because I skimmed through the backstretch, most often repeating last year's picks rather than taking the extra time to rethink everything. Horrible experience.
The non-jazz records were suggested by Robert Chrisgau's latest: obviously, I like the New Pornographers and Shins considerably less, but was pleasantly surprised by Conor Oberst's neo-Dylanisms. I had previously given Old 97's' Graveyard Whistling a B+(***). Still need to check out that Craig Finn record.
New records rated this week:
Old music rated this week:
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week: