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Friday, July 3, 2026

July archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46219 [46191] rated (+28), 16 [14] unrated (+2).

My advance was published on Notes on Everyday Life Music Week (7:1) (archived here). You can get it delivered to your inbox by subscribing.

As I noted there, most of my time continues to get sucked up in running the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Mid-Year Poll. Deadline is July 5. I've set myself the goal of publishing a week after counting to write up and publish the results. I hope to keep it fairly simple, and let the data speak for itself. Otherwise I'll just find fault with everything, and wind up in a horrible state. I've already worried much too much about how many ballots we can get. (The past two mid-year polls produced 90 and 113, vs. 159 and 177 from the previous year-end polls. Last year we were down to 168, so a slight decline from 113 is probable. With 90 ballots counted so far, it's hard to tell whether we're on track or not.)

One positive note is that I've sent out more invites than ever before. On the other hand, I have a longer list of people I'm aware of but don't have email addresses for. And there are many more unknowns who are most likely qualified enough. It's a big job to figure this out, and I never seem to have the time or energy to do it. The negative note is that a lot of regular voters have bowed out, mostly figuring they haven't listened to enough as yet. I've tried to stress that this is a cooperative project, improved by small incremental efforts by everyone. Still, it's a tough sell.

In case you're interested, the ballots are already available online, as well as lists of all albums that have received votes. The totals will appear when we publish the poll results at ArtsFuse, in mid-July.

However, other things have chew up large chunks of my time this week (hence, the much lower rated count). My brother-in-law, Mark Shepherd (73) died last week, and the funeral was on July 1. Mark has long been part of a community here that restores classic cars, and they effectively staged a show in the mortuary's parking lot, then a parade from there to the cemetery. Our niece and nephew from Washington drove down for the funeral, so I tried to entertain them, including a comfort food dinner. So scratch one day cooking, and two more visiting, during which I didn't listen to anything I had to write about. Guests are gone now, but things are only slowly getting back to normal. Although "normal" seems an odd word to use for anything these days.

Some quick notes on records below:

• I almost never get promos aside from jazz, but De Vitry was a rare country album, and an excellent one. (Asher Brinson's Midnight Hurricane was another). However, I accidentally reviewed it several weeks in advance of release date. In the past, I tried holding back advance reviews, but it got to be too cumbersome, and nobody much seemed to care. But I held this review back from the advance because it's not yet available.
• I revisited the Messthetics album because it has since gotten so much support that I questioned my negative reaction. Although I've bumped it up a bit, I'm not really doubting myself. I'm a bit clearer now, especially that the Fugazi rhythm section isn't the problem; it's just the guitarist.
• I used to like Emperor X a lot, so I jumped at seeing a new album, then quickly found I really wasn't in the mood (possibly for anything rock). Since then I've seen numerous raves from critics I generally like (e.g., Dan Weiss ranks it 7 on his The 40 Best Albums of 2026 So Far; much on this list I should check out when I'm done with the jazz poll). A better-than-average candidate for an upgrade, although I wouldn't bet on it.
• Sad Daddy is being promoted by a publicist whose junk mail always gets spam-trapped. I dug this message out for no good reason, then figured why not give the sound of Eureka Springs a try? Only later did I discover that Melissa Carper is part of the group: she has several good records, with Borned in Ya (2024) my pick hit.

My only plans for 4th of July is that some friends are coming over for leftovers. Plus whatever the poll reveals. I imagine we'll hear nonstop fireworks tomorrow evening. I've been hearing them on occasion most of today, but it seems to me that the volume is down considerably this year. Not sure whether folks are simply not in the mood to celebrate, or if incomes have become so precarious few people are willing to literally blow up their savings.

New records reviewed this week:

Julian Argüelles: Echo Fields (2026, Escapade): English saxophonist (tenor/soprano), albums since 1991, trio with Larry Grenadier (bass) and Jorge Rossy (drums). B+(**) [bc]

Barcelona Art Orchestra & Miguel Zenón: Expressions: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (2025 [2026], Miel Music): Barcelona-based group, has at least one previous album, led by Néstor Giménez (piano), Lluc Casares (tenor sax), Joan Vidal (drums), and Lluis Vidal (piano), each composing a section here, featuring the alto saxophonist. B+(*) [sp]

Patricia Brennan/Sylvie Courvoisier: Talamanti (2024 [2026], Antlia): Mallets player, from Mexico, based in New York, won our debut poll in 2018, finished 1st and 2nd overall with her last two albums, in a duo here with the Swiss pianist. Piano-vibes duos are rather common, partly due to similar tones, but also because the vibes focus the piano as a percussion instrument. You get a taste of that early here, but then the piano meanders into its own less-but-still-interesting space. B+(***) [sp]

Ron Carter & Yotam Silberstein: Duets (2026, Jojo): Bass and guitar duo: the 89-year-old bassist almost certainly holds some kind of record for most albums appeared on; while he's still best known for his 1960s work with Miles Davis, one could probably construct a whole CG from his duo work, and delight in doing so. (Pick hit would be Chemistry, his 2016 duo with Houston Person.) The guitarist has appeared regularly since 2008, with a soft tone and delicacy that I find pleasant but rarely give a second thought. But this brief set (2 originals, 7 standards, 34:02) raises pleasant to pleasure. A- [cd]

Maya De Vitry: All My Faith (2026, Mad Maker Studios): Folkie singer-songwriter based in Nashville, four previous albums since 2019. Sound reminded me first of Joy of Cooking, then Joni Mitchell (but warmer). That may be enough for now. I'll take the faith on faith. A- [cd] [07-24]

Duchess: A Marvelous Party (2025 [2026], Anzic): Vocal trio, fourth album (including one live) since 2015, all three with notable solo careers: Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner, Melissa Stylianou. Favors older songs with harmonies reminiscent of the Andrews Sisters, and swinging arrangements by Oded Lev-Ari. B+(**) [sp]

Emperor X: Unified Field (2026, Bar/None): Singer-songwriter Chad Metheny, albums since 1998, first one I really noticed was Western Teleport (2011). Several strong song on the way out. B+(**) [sp]

Nick Fraser: Areas (2026, Elastic): Canadian drummer, close to 100 credits since his 1997 debut album, has several albums with Tony Malaby (tenor sax) and Kris Davis (piano), who return here, along with John Kameel Farah (electronics). B+(*) [bc]

Hannah Gill: I Like the Sunrise (2026, Turtle Bay): Standards singer, several albums since 2023, backed by guitar-bass-drums, with Ricky Alexander (sax). B+(**) [bc]

Devin Gray/Andrea Parkins/Frank Gratkowski: Hz of Gold (2021 [2026], Rataplan): Drummer, fair number of albums and side-credits since 2006, in an improv trio with electronics/accordion/wurlitzer and saxes/flutes/clarinets. B+(*) [sp]

Alden Hellmuth: Tether (2026, Leiter): Alto saxophonist from Connecticut ("she grew up surrounded by the legacy of the great saxophonist Jackie McLean"), based in New York, second album, seems to be a quartet with two basses (Logan Kane and Miller Wrenn) and drums (Justin Brown), but also "additional instrumentation" (trumpet, piano, voice, guitar, sound design, lots of effects). B+(***) [sp]

The Joymakers: A Texas-Sized Band (2026, Turtle Bay): Austin-based ten-piece trad jazz outfit, named for a 1920s Texas band of the same name, led by arranger Colin Hancock, who also plays cornet, alto & baritone sax, mellophone, kazoo, and is one of several singers. B+(**) [sp]

Goran Kajfeš Subtropic Arkestra: & Avin Omar (2026, We Jazz, EP): Swedish trumpet player, leading a group that includes two saxophonists (one is Jonas Kullhammar), keyboards, guitar, bass, and drums, featuring the Kurdish-Swedish vocalist, leads off with a trad Kurdish piece ("Suleymanieh") that is pretty captivating. Three songs (23:38), the first of three planned EPs with vocalists. B+(***) [bc]

La La Lars: Lilla Lars (2026, Gothborgen, EP): Swedish drummer Lars Skoglund, has four albums as La La Lars since 2017, many side credits since 1998, trio here with Carl Bagge (piano) and Johan Berthling (bass), four songs (18:00). B+(*) [sp]

James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Omni (2025 [2026], Intakt): Tenor saxophonist, possibly the best and certainly the most accomplished of any near his age (42), has won two of our jazz polls, often splitting his vote among multiple projects. Sixth quartet album on this Swiss label, with Aruán Ortiz (piano), Brad Jones (bass), and Chad Taylor (drums). Still keeps you on edge. A- [sp]

Virginia MacDonald: In Search Of . . . (2024 [2026], Cellar): Canadian clarinetist, first album (although Discogs gives her a share of a Canadian Jazz Collective album), side credits especially with Michael Dease and Caity Gyorgy. Backed by piano (Geoffrey Keezer), bass, and drums, with voice on two tracks. B+(***) [cd]

Nduduzo Makhathini: The Myth We Choose (2026, Blue Note): South African pianist, various local labels from 2009, picked up by Blue Note in 2020, fourth album there. He has some credentials as a "traditional sangoma header," which may be context I cannot begin to fathom. Sounds sedated to me, with many vocals I can make no sense of. But the piano has grown on me a bit. B+(*) [sp]

Michael Marcus Quartet: Next Stop Down (2024 [2026], ESP-Disk'): Reeds player, albums since 1991 including the Cosmosamatics (with Sonny Simmons), plays tarogato, soprano and tenor sax here, with "featuring" credits for Rod Williams (piano), Ricky Rodriguez (bass), and Allan Mednard (drums). B+(***) [cd]

Tal Mashiach: Who's Around? (2026, Anzic): Guitarist-bassist, has a previous album as well as appearance in Anat Cohen's Quartetinho. Original pieces, musicians come and go, with only the drummer on most cuts. First impression is rather scattered. Unclear whether multiple plays might elevate that to eclectic. B [cd]

Chris Potter: Alive With Ghosts Today (2025 [2026], Edition): Tenor saxophonist, got an early start in 1994, impressive soloist, albums can be uneven. Original pieces here, inspired by John Brown's 1859 uprising, played by a septet featuring Bill Frisell (guitar), with clarinet, trombone, violin, bass, and drums. B+(*) [sp]

Sad Daddy: Ozark Shine (2026, Catfish Music/Free Dirt): Arkansas group, Bandcamp page says Eureka Springs, fifth album since 2010, multiple singers, four songwriters: Brian Martin (guitar), Melissa Carper (bass), Joe Sundell (banjo), and Rebecca Patek (fiddle) — Carper also has a solo career with several notable albums. B+(**) [sp]

Harry Skoler: Echoes (2026, Red Brick Hill): Clarinetist, debut 1995, not many albums since, this one a quartet featuring Bill Frisell (guitar), with bass (Dezron Douglas) and drums (Johnathan Blake). B+(**) [sp]

SML: Spontaneous Music Live (2025 [2026], International Anthem): Los Angeles-based jazz quintet, third album, two pieces (23:46 + 24:34), selected and mixed from a three-night stand (credit Bryce Gonzales, who mixed Jeff Parker's live EVA IVtet albums). Close-knit group, most also known for their solo efforts: Anna Butterss, Jeremiah Chiu, Josh Johnson, Booker Stardrum, Gregory Uhlmann. Groove is somewhat minimalist, but the differences matter. A- [sp]

Matthew Stevens: Matthew Stevens (2026, Candid): Canadian jazz guitarist, half-dozen albums since 2015, varying cast beyond bass and drums, with Josh Johnson (alto sax) on most tracks, including two vocals, and some Joel Ross vibes. Originals, with a Sonny Sharrock cover. B+(*) [sp]

Soojin Suh: Prism of Existence (2026, Endectomorph Music): Korean drummer, has several previous albums, this a trio with piano (Jaehun Kang) and bass (Hoo Kim), recorded over four sessions (but dates not given). B+(**) [sp]

Martin Wind: Stars (2025 [2026], Newvelle): German bassist, close to 30 albums since 1993, the title may well refer to the talent he lined up here: Kenny Barron (piano), Anat Cohen (clarinet), Matt Wilson (drums). A mix of originals and standards, with "The Stars Fell Down on Alabama" especially delectable. A- [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Either/Orchestra & Ethiopian Guests: Nalbandian L'Ethiopien/The Ethiopian [Éthiopiques 32] (2011 [2025], Buda Musique): Large band from Boston, founded by saxophonist Russ Gershon, released albums 1986-2010, website touts their "40th anniversary season," but this live tape, following up their 2004 Live in Addis [Éthiopiques 20], seems to be the only new release. B+(***) [sp]

Evan Parker/Paul Rogers/Louis Moholo: Tebugo (1992 [2025], Jazz in Britain): Live tape from the Vortex in London, tenor and soprano sax, bass, and drums. Takes a while to warm up, but delivers in the end. B+(***) [bc]

Old music:

None.

Grade (or other) changes:

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis: Deface the Currency (2026, Impulse!): Guitar-bass-drums trio had a couple albums (2018-19) before they joined up with the powerhouse tenor saxophonist. I filed the early albums under rock as the bassist (Joe Lally) and drummer (Brendan Canty) came from Fugazi, although guitarist Anthony Pirog had a fringe-jazz resume (two albums with Henry Kaiser, one a conduction of Terry Riley, a couple more I've heard but don't particularly recall). Time to move them into the jazz file, but I'm not all that pleased. The saxophonist makes a strong effort, but the guitarist rarely if ever matches him, nor is he very complementary. It's not quite accurate to say that the rhythm section rocks: they move freely, but their energy mostly expresses itself in speed and volume, which can come off as clunky. My disappointment was such that I probably overreacted at first. [was: B] B+(**) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Colin Heshmat: Elastic Groove (HMC) [07-23]
• Andrew Kim: Lineage (Origin) [07-24]
• Bob Nell & Michael Bisio Trios: We Are Here (Origin) [07-24]
• Rebecca Rafla: Fundamentally Unfinished (Rebecca Raffla Music) [06-22]
• Armand Sangalang: Waypoints (Calligram) [08-07]
• Claudio Scolari Project: Lines of Now (Principal) [04-24]
• Clark Sommers: WaBaSH (Calligram) [08-07]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Saturday, June 27, 2026

June archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46191 [46138] rated (+53), 14 [9] unrated (+5).

I posted a preview of this Music Week to Notes on Everyday Life as Music Week (6:4) (also archived here). For this I selected nine reviews from below: 7 new releases (5 jazz) and 2 reissues. Actually, I made a couple of edits there but not here: I combined the two Immanuel Wilkins volumes below into a summary of the three-volume series (it isn't a set yet, but probably will be); I also added some of the Jan Klare (1000) old music album as a footnote to the KIND review. My hope is to make the Substack versions easier to read and deal with than full Music Week posts like this one, which contain (sometimes many) more albums, many with cryptic reviews. You can think of this (and the monthly Streamnotes as the reference copy, and the Substack posts as (slightly) more polished columns.

Until this week, I've prepared the advance posts before running my cutoff (the point when I calculate how many records I've rated, and move the index from a scratch file to the notebook, marking the boundary between one week and the next). This week I did the cutoff first, on Wednesday evening. In the past, I was running so late I wanted to skip the extra cutoff work. This time, I was bogged down with other writing I wanted to post via Substack before I could get to Music Week. But with 50+ reviews piled up, I figured I should go ahead with the cutoff, and get to the post(s) whenever. This one was mostly written on Friday, but still needed work, so has slipped into Saturday. One thing having the cutoff done did was to make it easier to decide what to pick out. It also saved me from being tempted to slip in later finds (which, with a big June 26 release day, already include new albums by James Brandon Lewis and SML).

I did manage to get two non-music pieces out on Substack this week:

• After Iran: "A funny thing happened on the way to the apocalypse": where I talked about the "memorandum of understanding" between Trump and Iran, which I saw as a surprisingly solid framework for actual peace, which benefit all sides. (Sure, Israel doesn't think so, but that's because peace worries them more than war.) However, whether the potential of the framework will be realized will depend mostly on whether Trump actually wants peace bad enough to force Israel out of Lebanon. There are reasons to be skeptical: Trump's desire for peace is easily contradicted by his belief in and appetite for force; and Trump so far has been a pushover for Netanyahu, not least because they share some of the same financial backers, but also because his staff is chock full of people who if not simply on Israel's payroll have fully bought into the myths Israel has spread.

• Arafat and Abbas on Violence: "Reflections from Tomorrow Is Yesterday," the recent book by Hussein Agha and Rob Malley. I mention several other recent books I have read on Israel (plus one old one), but my main point was to quote a section on Palestinian leaders, which I found remarkably insightful. Agha was part of the Fatah negotiating team during and after the Oslo process. Malley had a corresponding role while working for Clinton and Obama, and independently while Bush and Trump were in office. Both developed keen insights into the flaws of both sides. While many books have been written about failed negotiations, real insight into the Palestinian leaders and their worldviews has been hard to find. (One reason I like Richard Ben Cramer's 2004 book is that he makes a genuine effort to understand "why there is no Palestinian state.") I'm likely to write one or two more posts based on points made in the Agha-Malley book.

While I'm fairly happy with the reception given my Music Week posts on Substack, these two pieces, which I think make important points you're unlikely to encounter elsewhere, got virtually no reaction. A big part of the reason I went to Substack was that I wanted to get some statistical feedback on readership. One thing I've learned is that the music posts are getting about 70% views, vs. 50% for the non-music posts. I'm reminded of the Preston Sturges (or was it Woody Allen?) movie where he tries to tackle the world's major problems, and all people have to say is "get funny again."

While these posts have taken considerable time, much more has been sucked up in running the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Mid-Year Poll. With 8 days left to the July 5 deadline, I have 59 ballots counted, with a couple dozen more commitments to make the deadline, a similar number of declines — for reasons which range from no time or no interest, with a few stories of long illnesses (and I'm aware of one death: Mark Holston). I've tried to encourage some to send in whatever they can if they find as much as a stray thought, but I've let most of them go. I may do some more voter prospecting — I'm often surprised by the amount of quality of jazz writing when I find time to go searching — and I welcome further suggestions, but the response so far is generating a huge amount of album tips (366 so far, 153 not previously in my tracking files), with I'm sure much more to come.

As I explained last week, the ballots are already available online), as well as lists of all albums that have received votes. The totals will only appear when we publish the poll results at ArtsFuse, in mid-July. My ballot, filled out when voting opened, is here. I've refrained from updating it, even as a couple of new albums have come very close, although I'm inclined to add James Brandon Lewis & Lutosławski Quartet: These Are Soulful Days to the 5th Rara Avis slot. (See below: I'm counting it as a reissue, although most voters see it as a new album.)

I was surprised to hear that Mark Shepherd died last week. He grew up just around the corner from us, was in my brother's classes, so I've known him, and his family, going on 70 years. His sister married my brother, so he's been family for most of that time. Like his father, he worked at Boeing until he dropped, and like his father, he had better things to do with the rest of his life. For Art, it was fishing. For Mark, restoring classic cars. He's part of the reason Wichita has more of them than anywhere (except Havana).

One more note: I seem to be off X/Twitter now. Last time I looked at it, they declared "Happening now." They offered to let me "Continue with phone," "Continue with Google," "Continue with Apple," or "Email or username." When I tried the latter, they rejected my password, and didn't offer me any way to reset or recover. I've only been using it to announce blog posts, which I also do on Bluesky (where I post more, but not a lot more). Its usefulness has really come into doubt recently, although I could say the same about Bluesky (although Bluesky tries harder to illustrate links). A recent stats sheet from Substack showed I got 4 views from Bluesky and 8 from Twitter. If you want to get notified, best to subscribe to Notes on Everyday Life and/or use the RSS feed. [PS: X allowed a reset option today, so I'm back in. Not that I really want to be.]

New records reviewed this week:

Ben Allison/Steve Cardenas/Ted Nash: Triological (2026, Sunnyside): Bass, guitar, and tenor sax/clarinet trio, stylized on cover as "Allison, Cardenas & Nash," all three long-established and familiar (with at least four previous albums together), song credits split 4-3-3. Model referred to is Jimmy Giuffre's drummer-less trio, but with guitar instead of piano. I'm not sure I ever got the model, but such distinctions are pretty subtle. B+(**) [sp]

Thommy Andersson: Shimmering Blue (2026, SteepleChase): Swedish bassist, Discogs credits him with 14 releases since 2004, 98 total performance credits (many with Pierre Dørge). Drummerless trio with high and low brass: Kirk Knuffke (cornet and soprano trombone) and José Davila (trombone, tuba, euphonium, helicon, bass flute, didgeridoo). Nicely done, worth focusing on the bass. B+(***) [sp]

Ballister + Luke Stewart: Clocking the Wheel (2025 [2026], Aerophonic): Trio of Dave Rempis (4 saxophones), Fred Longerg-Holm (cello), and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), 7th album since 2019, adds the bassist for this go around. Two pieces, 72:46, exactly the sort of hard hitting free jazz one expects by now. A- [cd] [07-10]

Sam Barsh/Mark Guiliana/Keyon Harold: Straight08 (2026, La Reserve): Keyboardist, from Chicago, based in Los Angeles, has a previous album from 2008, but 40+ side-credits, mostly jazz but the big names are in or near hip-hop (Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Macy Gray, Doja Cat, Logic, Anderson .Paak). With drums and trumpet, the latter often quite striking. B+(**) [sp]

Luciano Biondini/Michel Godard/Lucas Niggli: Fables of Time (2025 [2026], Intakt): Italian accordion player, many albums since 2000, including a previous (2011) trio with Godard (tuba, serpent, E-bass) and Niggli (drums). B+(*) [sp]

Nat Birchall Quartet: Path of Enlightenment (2025 [2026], Ancient Archive of Sound): British tenor saxophonist, first album 1999, bears the "spiritual jazz" label because few if any have worked longer or harder to sound like John Coltrane, but also to expand on his legacy. To that end, he's kept the classic quartet format, with piano (Adam Fairhall), bass (Michael Bardon), and drums (Paul Hession). B+(***) [bc]

Nat Birchall: Liberated Sounds (2025, Na Bi): Aside from Coltrane, his great influence was from the Jamaican saxophonists of the ska and rocksteady periods. He gets them right, too. B+(***) [bc]

Adam Brodsky: American Epitaph (2026, Permanent): Antifolk singer-songwriter, released four albums 1995-2002, came back from wherever he went to "throw sand in the gears of the fascist regime." Advises "don't break bread with your fascist former friends." ("Their brains are broken from the poison they're fed.") Like many of us, his ideals were set early, only to find a nation that has forsaken them. ("We were once the good guys but no more.") I'm more tolerant of, and probably more sympathetic to, lapses of political judgment that he is, but he's on the right side. A- [sp]

Betty Bryant: Nothin' Better to Do (2026, Bry-Mar Music): Jazz singer, plays piano, originally from Kansas City, where Jay McShann was a mentor, moved to Los Angeles in 1955, played clubs but didn't record much — Discogs lists an album in 1987, two in 1999 — until she started releasing her own albums in 2013. Her Lotta Livin' (in 2023, at 93) was terrific, and this (at 96) is also quite satisfying. Three songs by her and/or producer Robert Lyle (soprano/tenor sax, flute). Some guest spots, good for trumpet, not so good for strings. B+(***) [sp]

Chrome Hill & Dōjō: Free Rangers (2024 [2026], Clean Feed): Norwegian free jazz group, sixth album since 2008, down to three here — Asbjørn Lerheim (bass guitar, electric guitar), Roger Arntzen (double bass), and Atle Nymo (tenor sax, clarinet, bass clarinet), joined by a Japanese duo: Michiyo Yagi (electric 21-string koto) and Tamaya Honda (drums), with most also credited with electronics. B+(***) [bc]

Emmet Cohen: Universal Truth (2025 [2026], Mack Avenue): Pianist, close to a dozen albums since 2011, many designed to showcase old-timers (including 5 volumes of his Masters Legacy Series). Trio here with Joe Farnsworth (drums) and Yasushi Nakamura (bass), the latter spelled on three cuts by Ron Carter, with ample guest spots for Jeremy Pelt (trumpet), George Coleman (tenor sax), and Tivon Pennicott (tenor sax). B+(***) [sp]

Andrés Coll Cosmic Trio: Ride to Heaven (2026, XJAZZ Music): Mallets player from Ibiza, mostly marimba here, with Mateusz Smoczynski (violin) and Ramón López (drums/tabla). B+(**) [sp]

ContraPunctus [Mike McGinnis/Carmen Staaf/Gui Duvignau/Hamir Atwal]: ContraPunctus (2025 [2026]. Adhyâropa): Surnames on the cover, but group name is more than implied. Respectively: clarinet/bass clarinet/soprano sax, piano/fender rhodes, bass, drums. B+(***) [sp]

Lao Dan Chicago Quartet: Klotski (2024 [2026], Trost): Saxophonist from China (Dandong, near the border with North Korea), majored in bamboo flute, was featured in the Shenyang Conservatory of Music's youth orchestra, toured the US in 2018, has many albums since then, some trad Chinese, and some free jazz. He plays tenor sax, chinese flute, and suona here, with piano (Mabel Kwan) and a Chicago rhythm section of Joshua Abrams (bass) and Michael Zerang (drums). B+(***) [bc]

Jesse Davis Quartet: Reflections (2025 [2026], Cellar): Alto saxophonist, from New Orleans, was a student of Ellis Marsalis, early albums (1991-2000) on Concord, regular side credits since then but not a lot of albums under his own name. Quartet with Spike Wilner (piano), John Webber (bass), and (cover says "featuring") Lewis Nash (drums). Mainstream, but exceptionally vibrant, which could very well be the superb drummer hard at work, but you mostly hear it in the horn. A- [sp]

Thomas Dollbaum: Birds of Paradise (2023 [2026], Dear Life): Singer-songwriter from New Orleans with a rep as a poet, second album, a roots-rock affair aided sonically by MJ Lenderman, but Dollbaum probably needed no help with the story lines and words. I'm not much good at following such intricacies, but I hear echoes of John Prine and Neil Young, and that's pretty satisfying. A- [sp]

Neale Eckstein: Build Our Dreams (2026, self-released): Folkie singer-songwriter from Massachusetts, has been "chasing music his entire life" while working as a dentist, but set up his own studio, has recorded others, and has at least two albums of his own. B+(*) [sp]

Marty Ehrlich: Cartographies of Flight: Lines Set Afloat Towards Hope (2024 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Alto saxophonist, plays a lot of clarinet and some flute, grew up in St. Louis, where he started working with Julius Hemphill and Oliver Lake, moved to New York in 1978, albums from 1984. Sextet with Ron Horton (trumpet), Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon), Erik Friedlander (cello), Matt Pavolka (bass), and Satoshi Takeishi (drums), with poetry read by Erica Hunt. B+(***) [bc]

Fire-Toolz: Lavender Networks (2026, Warp): Electronica producer Angel Marcloid, based in Chicago, Discogs lists a dozen albums since 2016, some big gestures with quasi industrial klang and the occasional odd glitch. B+(*) [sp]

Vinny Golia Quintet: Angular Momentum (2025 [2026], Nine Winds): Plays all saxophones and clarinets, turns 80 this year. Quintet with Kris Tiner (trumpet), Cathlene Pineda (piano), Miller Wrenn (bass), and Clint Dodson (drums, vibes, waterphone). B+(***) [bc]

Golomb: The Beat Goes On (2025, No Quarter): Indie rock band from Colombus, Ohio, 3rd album per Discogs, more on Bandcamp, but looks like a label advance (2nd was a cassette, 1st barely had artwork), although they're still pretty lo-fi. B [sp]

Joy Harjo: Insomnia & Seven Steps to Grace (2026, Smithsonian Folkways): Singer-songwriter (b. 1951), from Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma, has over a dozen volumes of poetry, a play, several non-fiction volumes, eighth album since 1997 (including one as Poetic Justice). Some jazz touches, including a coda of "Goodbye Pork Pit Hat." B+(***) [sp]

Alexander Hawkins: No Nation but Imagination (2025 [2026], Intakt): English pianist, prolific since 2006, mostly free but fairly eclectic, opens with a synth solo, then the quintet kicks in, light tones and frothy rhythm: Rhodri Davies (harp), Nicole Mitchell (flute), Hamid Drake (drums), and Matthew Wright (turntables/live sampling). B+(**) [sp]

Jon Irabagon: Raw Dog (2025 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): Always excited to find a new album by the MOPDTK saxophonist. Less excited to find out that it's solo, even more that it's bass saxophone, covering two compositions each from Anthony Braxton and Julius Hemphill. But it probably helps that the big horn handles slow, and is impervious to screeching (unlike, say, Braxton's For Alto, which some regard as a masterpiece but I couldn't stand). The results are neither "mind-blowing [nor] ear juddering," but the explorations of "Hemphill's deep blues feel and Braxton's erector set structures" are interesting. B+(**) [bc]

KIND: Count (2025, Umland): Group led by German alto saxophonist Jan Klare, dozen-plus albums since 1998, also plays bassoon, all original compositions, group a sextet with clarinet (Shabnam Parvaresh), trombone (Shannon Barnett), cello (Emily Wittbrodt), bass (David Helm), and percussion (Bruna Cabral). Superb postbop, as the ever-shifting harmonics revolve eccentrically around an ever-changing rhythmic drive. A- [bc]

March to August: Highway 75 (2026, Crisp): Husband-and-wife country duo from Fayetteville, Derrick (who sings) and Jodi Mears. Mostly drinking songs, especially if you count the not-drinking songs. B+(**) [sp]

Simon Moullier: Ceiba (2025 [2026], Simon Moullier Music): Vibraphonist, based in New York, sixth album, a quartet with Lex Korten (piano), Rick Rosato (bass), and JK Kim (drums), with guest percussion (Keita Ogawa) on two tracks. Original pieces. Sails right along. B+(***) [cd]

New England Jazz Collaborative: Tributaries (2025 [2026], ACP): An "artist-run nonprofit collective," ACP stands for Amherst College Press, which matches up featured composers with musicians for various programs. This first album features compositions from Jeremy Cohen, Matan Rubinstein, Darryl Harper, and Sam Spear, performed by a big band conducted by Ken Schaphorst, with some extra guitar from Eric Hofbauer, on their quite nice Latin turn. B+(**) [cd] [07-16]

Pascal Niggenkemper Ensemble Tuvalu: D'Une Rive à L'Autre (2024 [2026], Subran Musiques Aventureuses): German-French bassist, living in Brooklyn, 20 albums since 2008. This piece is inspired by the Pacific archipelago of Tuvalu, a land especially endangered by climate change. "The stage plot consists of sixteen sounding curtains which surround the audience, 8 musicians and a poet circling nine sounding islands at the very center which symbolise the South Sea archipel Tuvalu." The group splits into two quartets, of cornet/trumpet, clarinet, accordion, bass/cello, with voice parts all around, in however many languages they can muster. B+(**) [bc]

Nite Bjuti: Minwi (2023 [2026], Intakt): Trio of Candace Hoyes (vocals), Mimi Jones (bass, vocals), and Val Jeanty (drums, electronics), lyrics credited to Hoyes. Seems to be Hoyes' first album. Art song, deeply ensconced in dark atmospherics. B+(**) [sp]

Outer Worlds Jazz Ensemble: The Kármán Line (2026, ATA): Leeds group, principally Chip Wickham (flutes) and Neil Innes (bass), with piano, bass, harp, drums/balafon, and percussion, plus some extra orchestra. Title refers to the hypothetical boundary between atmosphere and outer space. Some nice grooves at that distance. B+(***) [sp]

Mariam Rezaei/Sakina Abdou/Kobe Van Cauwenberghe: 1984 [I IX VIII IV]: The Forward Process (2025 [2026], Dropa Disc): Turntables, saxophones, guitars: I filed it under the latter, as he is principal composer. Most sources give group name as 1984, but cover offers four Roman numerals, in a 2x2 matrix, with the artist names above and the album title below, both in small print. B+(**) [bc]

Jeff Rupert Quartet: Sea Spell (2022 [2026], Rupe Media): Tenor saxophonist, mainstream, several albums back to 2009, including one as The Jazz Professors and another with Veronica Swift. Quartet with Richard Drexler (piano), Ben Kramer (bass), and Marty Morell (drums). Quite enjoyable easy listening. B+(**) [cd] [06-29]

Olaf Rupp: Berlin Eiskeller (2025-26 [2026], Scatter Archive): German guitarist, many albums since 1998, mostly in free jazz contexts, although he's largely escaped my attention. This one is solo. B+(**) [bc]

Serengeti: Symphony of Psalms (2026, CC King): Chicago rapper David Cohn, many albums since 2006, cover says "produced by Greg Saunier." B+(*) [sp]

Skerik: Skerik 061725 (2026, Loosegroove): Seattle-based saxophonist Eric Walton, has worked in many groups since the 1990s, including Garage A Trois, Critters Buggin, the Dead Kenny G's, and his Syncopated Taint Septet. This one is full-on ambient, like Eno's first ambient albums. Seems like a waste of a good saxophone to me, but on its own terms, this is nicely done. B+(**) [sp]

Colin Stetson/Greg Fox/Trevor Dunn: Nethering (2018 [2026], Envision): Saxophonist, plays a wide range of instruments but is best known for his bass saxophone, which he's employed in various projects, rock and classical as well as jazz. Improv here with drums and bass. B+(**) [sp]

Pat Thomas & XT: Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary) (2022 [2026], We Jazz): British avant-pianist, also electronics, along with the duo (XT) of Paul Abbott ("real and imaginary drums") and Seymour Wright ("actual and potential sax"; you may know him from [Ahmed]). The duo has 7 other albums, one with Thomas (a rendition of Cecil Taylor's Akisakila). Three long (36:02, 43:24, 50:05) live sets on the 2-CD, plus two more digital tracks (20:31 + 16:43). Way too much, but pretty awesome when they all his peak intensity. B+(**)

Udeigwe: Four Lemmas (2026, LU Factors): First name Lawrence, from Nigeria, moved to US in 2000, got a Ph.D. and is a professor of mathematics, also sings, several albums since 2007. B+(*) [sp]

Joe Webb: Neath Beat (2025 [2026], Edition): Pianist, grew up in Wales, based in London, Discogs seems to have this album filed under the wrong Joe Webb (should be 5). Has a couple previous albums, including a Mercury nomination for Hamstrings & Hurricanes (2025). Trio with Will Sach (bass) and Sam Jesson (drums). Beat matters. B+(**) [sp]

Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 2 (2025 [2026], Blue Note): Alto saxophonist, debut 2020 on a major label made him an instant star, big enough that his label decided to split up his live stand into three digital albums, rolling them out in monthly intervals. With Micah Thomas (piano), Ryoma Takenaga (bass), and Kweku Sumbry (drums), five tracks, 57:27. B+(**) [sp]

Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 3 (2025 [2026], Blue Note): Four more songs, 61 minutes. This one seems a bit more consistently upbeat, which is where their strengths lie. But the distinctions are marginal, and patience is wearing thin. Needless to say, they could have edited the three volumes down to a more compelling hour, but the cost-benefit analysis seems to have favored more product. B+(**) [sp]

Zen Zadravec: New Paradigm (2026, Marmite): Pianist, from Canada, has several albums, gets a big band feel from a smaller (but revolving) group here. B+(*) [cd] [06-26]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Johannes Bauer/Michael Griener/Olaf Rupp: Aufsturz (2007 [2026], Scatter Archive): German trombonist (1954-2016), younger brother of Conrad Bauer, an improv bash with drums and guitar. B+(***) [bc]

Pierre Favre Trio: Bird Food (1968 [2026], Songs): French drummer, b. 1937, first albums 1964-65 were jazzed-up classical music, much notable work followed, especially his duos with Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer. This recently unearthed tape appears to have been their first collaboration, a trio with George Mraz on bass, playing Ornette Coleman's title piece plus three by Schweizer (total: 29:56). B+(**) [sp]

James Brandon Lewis & Lutosławski Quartet: These Are Soulful Days (2021 [2026], TAO Forms): Tenor saxophonist, makes his entry into the sax-with-strings forum with a well-known Polish string quartet (dozen-plus albums since 2012, including jazz meets with Uri Caine and Kris Davis). This was originally released as a bonus CD with Lewis's poll-winning 2023 album, For Mahalia, With Love, so counts as a reissue here. A- [sp]

Tom Raworth & Peter Brötzmann: No Hard Feelings: For Steve Lacy (2005 [2026], Corbett vs. Dempsey): British poet (1938-2017), only album in Discogs is a 1969 reading, plus this rara avis, where "John Corbett schemed to make a duo record" from a 2000 reading with accompaniment by Steve Lacy. However, Lacy died in 2004 before delivering, so Brötzmann filled in a year later, playing tarogato, clarinet, and alto sax, short fragments plus some longer solos. Includes bits of music box, credited to Raworth. To some extent, a simple shuffle of two separate things, but each helps with the other's limits. B+(***) [bc]

Dick Spottswood & Tompkins Square Present . . . 1925 Songs: Blues, Country, Jazz & More (1925 [2026], Tompkins Square): Genre distinctions that meant far less then than now — black and white were the concepts back then, distinctions that have since become blurred, as Allen Lowe showed in his American Pop (his 1998 release of a book with 9 CDs ranging from 1893-1946). This is comparable, sticking close to the crossroads of the genres, and avoiding big hits (like "Sweet Georgia Brown" and the Bessie Smith version of "St. Louis Blues"; I don't keep many song dates in my mind, but one I do recall from 1925 is "Cake Walking Babies From Home"). B+(***) [sp]

Louis Stewart: Joyce Notes (1982 [2026], Livia): Irish guitarist (1944-2016), recorded extensively from 1975 on, but I've only noticed him since this reissue series began. A six part suite composed for James Joyce's centenary, with narration and readings from Ulysses by Eamon Morrissey, and a fairly large group with two saxophones, flute, piano, bass, drums, and extra percussion. The music is delightful, and the words add a powerful dimension. A- [bc]

Sun Ra: Hidden Fire (1988 [2025], Strut): Live album, originally released as two volumes ("in tiny quantities with minimal packaging and cryptic artwork"), combined here (6 songs, 77 minutes). Group has some extra violins (Billy Bang for one), and vocals (Art Jenkins?), and spends much time way out on the fringe. B+(**) [sp]

Old music:

Jan Klare/Wilbert de Joode/Michael Vatcher/Bart Maris [1000]: Played (2008 [2009], Leo): Discogs regards "1000" as a group name, although they also credit the artist names, at the top of the cover, and they list several other albums by the same group (5 total, 2007-22). Alto sax, bass, drums, trumpet. B+(***) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• David Ambrosio/Donny McCaslin/Ingrid Jensen/Bruce Barth/Victor Lewis: Civil Disobedience: Blue Note in the Progressive Sixties (Blue Frog) [05-16]
• Ran Blake & Dominique Eade: Roots & Byways (Sunnyside) [07-03]
• Ron Carter & Yotam Silberstein: Duets (Jojo) [06-06]
• Liz Cracchiolo: Just a Girl I'm a Woman (Pacific Coast Jazz) [09-18]
• Kelly Green: Eat Your Greens! (Green Soul) [08-28]
• Virginia MacDonald: In Search Of . . . (Cellar) [05-29]
• Tal Mashiach: Who's Around? (Anzic) [06-26]
• Simon Moullier: Ceiba (Simon Moullier Music) [04-24]
• Tom Ricci: Happening in Buenos Aires: Live at Borges 1975 (self-released) [06-20]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Friday, June 19, 2026

June archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46138 [46097] rated (+41), 9 [8] unrated (+1).

This week's advance copy went out to Notes on Everyday Life subscriber list Wednesday evening: Music Week (6:3) (also here). To get these delivered straight to your mail box, please subscribe.

I posted a very large Loose Tabs back on Saturday, June 14 (369 links, 26521 words). I've added a couple more items to the file, which are only appearing with this update. I haven't had time for any extensive revisions, let alone for starting work on next time around. More importantly, I haven't followed through on my intention to pull some excerpts out from the file, and rewrite them for posting on Notes on Everyday Life. I have a lot more to say, especially on the Iran/Lebanon war, but I'm having trouble keeping up, and wind up doing a lot of thrashing.

The main thing I want to say about Trump's "deal" is that the details, which seem mostly to be about money, don't really matter. The only things that really do matter are whether Trump is sincere about abandoning the war path, and is in sufficient control of his administration to stop Israel from sabotaging the deal. That he has been hurt politically by his decision to start bombing is way beyond doubt. That resuming the bombing would only hurt him more is also pretty obvious, although there are many consultants in Netanyahu's pocket who are arguing otherwise. Thus far the really worst case scenarios, which involve major destruction and possible upheaval in the Persian Gulf states, haven't really happened.

Of course, it will be really hard for Trump to control Israel. It will take discipline and clarity he has never yet demonstrated. For starters, Israel has developed a lot of deep-seated influence in Washington, including on his staff and in his cabinet — the very people he is powerless without. But also, Netanyahu is extremely persistent, as two-faced and under-handed as anyone in politics gets. He's shown, time and again, that he's willing to bend, but won't break, and will snap back first opportunity he gets.

It's also quite possible the Democrats will play this so badly he feels the need to resume the war to reassert his "tough guy" self-conception. It's easy enough to come up with a list of points showing that his deal is more generous to Iran than Obama's JCPOA deal was. But I'm more inclined to argue that both of those deals weren't generous enough. Instead of trying to hamstring Iran with technicalities (and "snap back" sanctions), merely to appease Israel's much publicized but insincere fears, Obama should have sought to normalize relations with Iran: ending the sanctions, assuring Iran that neither Israel nor the Gulf States would attack it, and seeking Iran's cooperation in resolving disputes around the region (e.g., Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, even Hamas — although Iran's influence with them was almost purely propaganda spin by Israel). By not even trying to end the conflict, Obama paved the way for Trump to withdraw from JCPOA and start his own disastrous war. Of course, the blame for that war lies squarely with Trump, but that's no excuse for Obama's failures, both viz. Iran and in failing to do anything meaningful about Israel's increasing marginalization and dehumanization of the Palestinians.

Sure, Obama's blind spot viz. Israel isn't much different from Biden's or Trump's. All three, like most American politicians, are totally in thrall to Israel's propaganda line — or at least were, until it started to become clear what kind of world Israel is building. The good and bad news here is that Israel doesn't need war with Iran to do what they really want to do, which is to drive the Palestinians away from their land claims. As I've noted many times, Israeli demonization of Iran has mostly served to manipulate the Americans (who still harbor grudges from 1979). Trump, on the other hand, doesn't need to see Iran as a threat, and he doesn't need to believe in "two-state" delusions. He's quite happy to support Israel's ethnic cleansing as long as it feeds into his graft. (Bribes are always much simpler/cleaner than ideology.) That may mean that Israel has to give up on their dreams of occupying and annexing Lebanon, but that's something Israel can save for later. (It was on Ben-Gurion's wish list from 1948, but you rarely heard much about it until 1982; after 2000, it faded again, until being revived last year following the "cease-fire" in Gaza. Give Israel a moment's peace, and they go looking for the next war.)

PS: I wrote the previous paragraphs yesterday. I have some further thoughts this morning, but I'll save them for a future Substack post, when I feel a bit less under the gun. As I explained in my April 5 The Big Questions post, the problem has always been one of Trump finding an off-ramp that was palatable to him politically. This one isn't ideal, but nothing with Trump is, or can be, because, well, he's stupid, and egomaniacal, and that's far from being his worst quality. So forget "do the right thing" as a guideline. That isn't even a concept with him. What he wants is to claim victory, and to avoid further punishment (politically, of course, but also anything that might diminish his graft). His victory claim is that he has stopped Iran from ever getting a nuclear bomb, and that the Strait of Hormuz will be open and toll-free. His concessions are to drop the sanctions (which are bad for business, and only serve to make Iran more anti-American), to promise not to bomb Iran again (which he can deliver on, because it was always a stupid thing to do), and to restrain Israel (from doing the same, which it could only do with American support, and from Lebanon, which will be a sticking point for Netanyahu and his coalition).

Israelis will scream bloody murder over having their wars curtailed, but that's a price they can well afford to pay — much as they did every time they removed their settlers from some untenable outpost (v. Sinai in 1979, Gaza in 2005). But what really matters to them is their "ethnic cleansing" in the occupied territories, and Trump has alrealdy proven to be their most reliable, and least squeamish, ally ever. Besides which, Netanyahu knows Israel can't afford to sustain those wars on their own, so Trump holds if not all the cards, the (pun inevitable) trump ones. Besides, while Ben-Gvir can exalt Israeli sovereignty and rail against American bullying, much of Netanyahu's political capital is based on the perception that he's a master manipulator of American politicians. So for him picking a fight with Trump is a lose-lose proposition. He has his own skin to save in elections that are fast approaching. Having failed to keep the Americans in the war, perhaps his best tactic is to claim his share of Trump's victory.

The other thing to bear in mind about the "deal" is that aside from the "nuclear issue," most of what matters is the money flowing from the Gulf states into Iran. Trump cannot politically afford to rebuild Iran, but the Gulf states cannot afford not to. Iran could collect tribute in tolls, but major development investment, free from American sanctions, has the same effect, looks better, and builds long-term ties.

The main reason I haven't had time to write up these thoughts, or much else on my mind, is the work it's taking to get the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Mid-Year 2026 Poll going. I sent the first round of ballots out last week. Voting so far is alarmingly light (19 ballots counted; less than a dozen more acks, many actually nacks). My worst fear is that the mail isn't getting delivered, and people who would vote aren't hearing about it, but there is very little I can do about that (beyond sending nag letters out, something I'm uncomfortable with, and likely to meet the same fate). I understand that most of the mid-year drop off is due to timing, uncertainty, doubt, and simply not having enough time to think about things this trivial. I've tried to emphasize that one shouldn't fret over getting this right: just take a couple minutes and jot down the titles of a few albums that you'd like your friends and readers to hear about. We'll table them up, and present them in a way that helps everyone get a better grasp on the year (so far) in recorded jazz.

So far, we're averaging about 9 new albums per ballot (the maximum, if a voter provides a full list of 10 new jazz albums and 5 rara avis, is 15). I'm already up to my ears in tips of records that I hadn't heard before, and most turn out to be very good. This is a bit part of the reason I have so many A- and B+(***) records this week (12 each). I'm still suppressing the totals on the website, but I've made it possible to see the ballots as they come in, as well as lists of all of the albums that have received votes. One thing I'm hoping for is that people will post links to their online ballots — my own ballot is here — and that this will stimulate some interest in the poll.

I should send out a second round of invitations soon, and maybe some reminders. I'm always worried about invitations and reminders getting caught up in spam traps, especially as there's virtually nothing I can do about it. It would help to stir up some chatter wherever potential voters hang out, but aside from mentioning it here and on my X/Bluesky feeds, I don't have many ideas. Last few years I worried about the poll falling apart under my stewartship. I did manage to push the vote total up in 2024, only to see it drop in 2025 (while DownBeat claimed their biggest poll ever, including dozens of names I had invited but didn't hear from; why anyone would slog through their 50 questions, which always takes me 6-8 hours, yet can't find time to write down a list of two of favorite albums, is beyond me — surely it's not just the T-shirt?).

Still, I find album lists much more interesting than trying to sort out a pecking order for pianists (too many great ones) or flautists (too few?). For me at least, albums are the units we search out. Everything else is just name-dropping. But I'm trying not to worry about turnout. Even if we only hit what I currently imagine as a minimal response (50-60 ballots), we are certain to generate lots of interesting information (at least for the few of us who try to follow such things). At 19, we already have.

One thing I haven't had time to do this year is to look at the other mid-year ("so far") polls that have been published (e.g.: Guardian; Hip-Hop Golden Age; NME; Rolling Stone; Saving Country Music; Shatter the Standards; Stereogum; Treble). For one thing, I'm not tracking them this year. (Whether I do an EOY aggregate remains to be seen, but I haven't started one, and it's a big piece of busy work I don't have time or energy to tackle.)

While most of the jazz albums below come from poll tips (although some, like Champian Fulton, caught my gaze while looking for something else), much of the non-jazz comes from Robert Christgau's June Consumer Guide. I was surprised to find only one album I had previously heard (Pony, which I had forgotten, so seemed like zero; more will appear next week).

New records reviewed this week:

Ambrose Akinmusire/Mary Halvorson: Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings (2025 [2026], Nonesuch): Two of the biggest names in jazz, the trumpet player with five top-five poll finishes so far, the guitarist with two outright wins, in a duo here after landing after landing on the same major label. Minor details prove their talents, in an intimate, low-key encounter that discourages hype. B+(***) [sp]

Lakecia Benjamin: We Dream (2026, Artwork): Alto saxophonist, half-dozen albums since 2012, has toured with r&b bands, has crossed over enough to get some Grammy attention, but sounds pretty solidly rooted in Coltrane here, with a side of hip-hop. B+(**) [sp]

Circular Arcs: Conventicle (2020 [2025], Castor & Pollux Music): Trio of Esteban Flores (guitar), John Rieder (bass), and Nathan Hubbard (drums); Hubbard has a substantial discography going back to 2002, but the others are relatively new. Fairly heavy noise-fusion, impressive as far as it goes. B+(***) [bc]

Cola: Cost of Living Adjustment (2026, Fire Talk): Post-punk guitar-bass-drums trio from Montreal, Tim Darcy the singer-songwriter, third album since 2022. Some fairly strong guitar. B+(*) [sp]

Corima: Hunab Ku (2026, Soleil Zeuhl): Los Angeles band "playing rock-fusion in the Zeuhl vein" — a term I had to look up, one originally applied to the French prog rock band Magma (which I recall from the 1970s; realizing that French wouldn't work for rock, and unwilling to switch to English, they invented a new lanaugage to sing in, Kobaïan); fourth album. Only one I recognize is saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, but others play violin, keys, bass, and drums/tabla/harmonium. Most are credited with vocals, but they're not very intrusive. B+(*) [bc]

Florence Dore: Hold the Spark (2026, Propeller): Singer-songwriter from Nashville, teaches American/Comparative Lit in North Carolina, recorded an album in 2001, another two decades later, and now a third. Christgau describes her as "writerly," then makes his point in quotes. I wouldn't have noticed, but approve in theory, and look forward to accidentally stumbling on similar evidence. But sounds pretty solid as is. A- [sp]

Dave Douglas: Transcend (2025 [2026], Greenleaf Music): Postbop trumpet player, emerged as a more adventurous rival to Wynton Marsalis in the 1990s, tremendous chops, has always recruited top young musicians for his groups, hasn't always pleased me with his compositions. Another quintet, with James Brandon Lewis on tenor sax, and an unconventional rhythm section: Rafiq Bhatia (guitar), Tomeka Reid (cello), and Ian Chang (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Olof Dreijer: Loud Bloom (2026, Dh2): Electronic music producer from Sweden, formerly half of the Knife (5 albums, 2001-13) with slbing Karin Dreijer. Second solo studio album. Deep synths, heavy beats, some vocal fluff. I find it very appealing, although at volume it may disturb the neighbors. A- [sp]

Champian Fulton: House Party (2025 [2026], Turtle Bay): Retro-standards singer, started with David Berger's big band in 2007, plays her own piano, with her "longtime trio" of Hide Tanaka (bass) and Fukushi Tainaka (drums), also saxophonists Klas Lindquist (alto) and Cory Weeds (tenor). She is superb, but the real treat here is the 10:58 sax joust on "Billie's Bounce," which for a moment had me wondering whether I was playing "The Chase." A- [sp]

Goal Weight [Maggie Cox & Jennifer Gersten]: Keep Telling Yourself That (2025 [2026], Relative Pitch): New York City duo, bass and violin. B+(***) [sp]

Phillip Golub: Partisan Ship (2025 [2026], Berthold): Pianist, from LA but based in NYC, several albums since 2020, plays various synths here (Flexichord, Behringer Neutron, Arturia Digital), with spots for Yuma Uesaka (clarinets, tenor sax, blass clariflute), Anna Webber (flute, tenor sax), David Leon (alto sax), Layale Chaker (violin), Elias Stemeseder (more synths), some bass and drums (or drum machine). B+(**) [bc]

Gregory Hutchinson: Kind of Now: The Pulse of Miles Davis (2026, Warner Music Arts): One of many projects revisiting Davis on his centennary, led by the drummer, with Ambrose Akinmusire (trumpet) in the key role, accompanied by Ron Blake (tenor sax/bass clarinet), two guitarists (Emmanuel Michael and Jakob Bro), piano (Gerald Clayton), and bass (Joe Sanders), playing three originals and ten pieces from the songbook (4 by Davis, 4 by Wayne Shorter, one each for Tony Williams and Charlie Parker, with a Victor Feldman assist). B+(**) [sp]

Ernesto Jodos/Rocio Giménez López: Una Casa Con Dos Pianos (2026, Blue Art): Two pianists from Argentina. Jodos has over a dozen albums since 1997. López a shorter discography, since 2017. Nice. B+(**) [sp]

K.A.A.N.: Kaancepts (2025, D-Ace Beats): Rapper Brandon Perry, from Maryland, based in Los Angeles, acronym stands for Knowledge Above All Nonsense, Wikipedia lists 27 albums, 3 mixtapes, 13 EPs, and 61 singles since 2014, but Discogs only has 8 albums plus 13 other releases, and neither has this one, which evaded attention in part by dropping on December 25. I've heard one album, Subtle Meditation (an A- from 2018). Could be that this is a compilation tied into a video, but that too is unclear. What is obvious is that few have ever rapped faster, so he generates his own frenzied rhythm, leaving producer D-Ace Beats (who sometimes gets co-credit, but landed on my source as the label name) to steady the ship. A- [sp]

Lime Garden: Maybe Not Tonight (2026, So Young): British "wonk pop" band, second album, Chloe Howard the singer, plays guitar (as does Leila Deeley, with Tippi Morgan on bass and Annabel Whittle on drums). First songs are very catchy, and while they're not all that striking, they never let up. A- [sp]

Joe Lovano: Paramount Quartet (2025 [2026], ECM): Tenor saxophonist from Cleveland, emerged in the late 1980s working with Paul Motian and Bill Frisell in the 1980s, then John Scofield; dominated the 1990s with Blue Note albums like From the Soul. He has been steadily productive since then, but the albums have been hit and miss. New quartet here with Julian Lage (guitar), Asante Santi Debriano (bass), and Will Calhoun (drums). B+(***) [sp]

Ashley McBryde: Wild (2026, Warner Nashville): Country singer-songwriter, sixth album since 2018, only has writing credits on 6 (of 11) songs, with the most striking song Randall Clay's "Rattlesnake Preacher." But McBryde owns it, establishing her rustic deep south roots, a firm foundation to rock out on. A- [sp]

Aja Monet: The Color of Rain (2026, Drink Sum Wtr): Poet, performer, activist, from New York, based in Los Angeles, second album after four books. Promises "all rhythm and no algorithm." But she lays on some serious politics: "From Palisades to Palestine/ An actress compares the LA oceanfront to Gaza/ Never mentions the Rafah border/ The cutoff of two thousand aid trucks / Neglects to mention body bags, rubble, or the Israeli snipers aimed at children," and "nothing like disaster to shock a heart into beating" and "HEPA can't filter this coruption/ Maybe, maybe socialism is on its way." A- [sp]

Jason Moran/BlankFor.ms/Marcus Gilmore: Shards (2024 [2026], Red Hook): Pianist, from Houston, early albums on Blue Note (1999-2006) established him as a major figure. (After two more Blue Notes, his self-released albums since 2016 have gotten little publicity, although 2023's From the Dancehall to the Battlefield was something of an exception; I haven't heard his new Plays Ellington.) Second album with this trio, Tyler Gilmore on electronics, and (presumably not related) Marcus Gilmore on drums. I can't say the electronics made much of an impression, but the piano did. B+(***) [sp]

The New Pornographers: The Former Site Of (2026, Merge): Canadian indie rock band, 10th studio album since 2000, leader is Carl Newman, although other singer Neko Case is probably better known given her solo career (as A.C. Newman has three solo albums 2004-12; Dan Bejar, aka Destroyer, was a third singer-songwriter until recently). I liked Case before I heard them, but she's never been the point, and after a few disappointments, I decided they don't have any. Still, this is pleasant and occasionally catchy. B+(**) [sp]

Miles Okazaki: Boomtown (2025 [2026] Pi): Guitarist, a dozen-plus albums since 2006, including a "Complete Compositions of Thelonious Monk." Large group here with three saxophonists (Caroline Davis, Anna Webber, Jon Irabagon), two trombonists (Jacob Garchik and Kalia Vandever), piano (Matt Mitchell), drums (Dan Weiss), and two bassists (Chris Tordini and Hannah Marks). Most impressive at full strength. A- [cd] [06-26]

Ivo Perelman/Wadada Leo Smith: Duologues 5 (2026, Ibeji): Tenor sax and trumpet duo. Two masters, though not a lot of contrast or momentum. B+(***) [sp]

The Phoenix Trio: Tomorrow Is Today (2025 [2026], Giant Step Arts): Mark Turner (tenor sax), Joe Martin (bass), and Marcus Gilmore (drums), order from back cover, with front cover going Gilmore-Martin-Turner. Martin wrote 4 (of 6) songs, with one each for the others. Turner was part of the 1990s mainstream resurgence, which coincided with the revival of major labels like Blue Note and Verve, and to my mind at least was led by a dozen or more major tenor saxophonists. He's had ups and downs since then, but seems ideally situated with these younger players. A- [cd] [06-19]

Ragini Trio: 3 (2026, W.E.R.F.): Sax trio from Belgium, with Nathan Daems (tenor sax/effects), Marco Bordoscia (double bass/bass guitar), and Lander Gyselinck (drums). Fine print says the group name comes from "years of deep exploration into long-form ragas, South Indian Carnatic traditions, konnakkol, and Western jazz." And here I thought I was just a sucker for a well-formed, full-throated saxophone trio. A- [bc]

David Sanchez: Tambó (2025 [2026], Ropeadope): Tenor saxophonist, from Puerto Rico, made a big impression in the 1990s (peaking in 1998 with Obsesión), first album since 2019, half soaring over Latin percussion like the good olde days, half slacks off a bit to show his ballad skills. B+(***) [sp]

Omar Sosa/Joo Kraus/Diego Pinera: Vibe Factor (2026, Music Hub): Cuban pianist, left in the 1990s for Ecuador, eventually wound up in Spain. Many albums since 1996. Strangely very little info available on this album, but Kraus (from Germany) plays trumpet, and Pinera (from Uruguay) drums. Apt title. B+(**) [sp]

This Is Lorelei: Holo Boy (2025, Double Double Whammy): Singer-songwriter Nate Amos, who defers to vocalist Rachel Brown in their band Water From Your Eyes, serves up a second album solo (short at 26:53 but with 10 songs), which dropped shortly before his "Super Deluxe" expansion of the first one. B+(***) [sp]

Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band: Treasury Volume 3 (2026, Turtle Bay): Ragtime pianist, b. 1944, mentored by Eubie Blake 1969-83, but also studied with Roland Hanna, Dick Wellstood, and Jaki Byard; called his first band The Fungus Five Plus Two ("our music grows on you"), but best known for Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators (1969-81), and now for his Gotham City Band (since 1984). Old songs, recently recorded (I've been assured). The first two volumes are treasures indeed. This is, if anything, even more delightful. A- [sp]

Work Money Death: A Portal to Here (2026, ATA): British jazz group, name from tenor saxophonist Tony Burkill's 2017 debut album, fourth album under the group name, only Sam Hobbs (drums) remains from the orginal group, which now has Johnny Richards (piano), Neil Innes (bass), and Sam Bell (percussion), plus extras here and there. "Aim to produce longform, improvised pieces inspired by the work of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane." A fairly surefire formula (cf. Nate Birchall), which they deliver on. A- [bc]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Muriel Grossmann: Quartet (2008 [2026], Modernistas): Alto saxophonist, from Austria, one of her first albums, recorded in Ibiza, where she lives. With Radomir Milojkovic (guitar), David Marroquin (bass), and Marko Jelača. B+(***) [bc]

Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra: Vol. 1: Concert À Prades-Le-Lez (1974 [2026], Souffle Continu): Jazz group led by French pianist François Tusques (b. 1938), followed up his 1971 album Intercommunal Music by organizing this group, which in various guises recorded a half-dozen albums up to 1983. This one has two saxophonists (Jo Maka and Michel Marre), trombone (Adolphe Winkler), and percussion (Guem). Draws on sources "from New Orleans to Brittany to North Africa," and perhaps points south. B+(***) [bc]

Intercommunal Free Dance Music Orchestra: Vol. 2: Concert À Prades-Le-Lez (1974 [2026], Souffle Continu): Continues for another four tracks, 38:44. B+(**) [bc]

Charlie Mariano/Sal Nistico: Barcelona Meeting (1989 [2026], Fresh Sound): Two saxophonists, alto and tenor, only together on three tracks, the rest quartet tracks, three led by Mariano, five by Nistico, all backed by Frank Strazzeri (piano), Isla Eckinger (bass), and Peer Wyboris (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Red Norvo: The Secret Session (1942 [2026], Dot Time): Mallets player (1908-99), started recording in 1933, filling up eight volumes in the Classics Chronological Series through 1951. This session, where he plays xylophone, was recorded in secret in late 1942, in defiance of the recording ban, just before the war would break up his band. Best known musicians here are Shorty Rogers (trumpet), Eddie Bert (trombone), and Aaron Sachs (clarinet/alto sax), backed by piano, bass, and drums. B+(**) [bc]

John Prine: Live at Old Town School of Folk (2010 [2026], Oh Boy): The new album I was looking for when I found his 1975 Other End set(s). Opens with "Spanish Pipedream," and the wear and tear on his voice — throat cancer did that, and could have done worse — is obvious. "The Oldest Baby in the World" suffers even worse, as the band that often picks him up lays back. The patter can be hard to pick up, although I recognized the "happy enchilada song" bit. B+(**) [bc]

John Taylor With Stan Sulzmann: Quintessence (1987 [2026], Jazz in Britain): English pianist (1942-2015), a major figure in British jazz, who worked with John Surman, Kenny Wheeler, and (in Azymuth) with Norma Winstone. Sulzmann (b. 1948) plays soprano sax here, backed by Rundfunkorchester Hannover des NDR. B+(*) [bc]

The Visitors [Earl & Carl Grubbs]: Motherland (1975 [2026], Craft): Saxophonist brothers, Earl Grubbs (d. 1989, tenor/soprano) and Carl Grubbs (1944-2024, alto), recorded four albums 1972-76; Carl had a few later albums on his own, plus work with Julius Hemphill and Odean Pope. Album cover lists their names right after the group name. Credit varied over time, with first album just The Visitors; the second (like this one) with names after group, the third with Earl & Carl Grubbs (The Visitors). With Jo Bonner (piano), John Lee (bass), and Victor Lewis (drums). Straddles free jazz and soul jazz. B+(**) [sp]

Old music:

Tony Burkill: Work Money Death (2017, ATA): British tenor saxophonist, first album, only one under his own name, but he has four more as Work Money Death. Quartet with Gerald Cooper (piano), Sam Hobbs (drums), and Pete Williams (percussion). He's got that Coltrane-Sanders thing going, which is pretty hard to screw up. B+(***) [sp]

Florence Dore: Perfect City (2001 [2002], Slewfoot): First album, didn't get to her second until 2022, but she wrote a couple books in the meantime — Novel Sounds: Southern Fiction in the Age of Rock and Roll, and The Ink in the Grooves: Conversations on Literature and Rock 'n' Roll. B+(**) [sp]

Florence Dore: Highways & Rocketships (2022, Propeller Sound): Second album, after a long break. Could be that the pandemic jolted her out of academia, or maybe marrying drummer Will Rigby (although the band credits are missing from Discogs, and merely hinted at on Bandcamp). B+(**) [sp]

John Prine: Live at the Other End Dec. 1975 (1975 [2021], Rhino/Atlantic): I vaguely recall email from the late singer-songwriter's label that they've come up with a new old live album, but I can't find the mail, or any evidence of it. But I did find this item, which has two hour-long sets from the very end of his Atlantic years: four 1971-75 albums, all strongly recommended. So few songs here I don't know and love. Presentation is singing over solo guitar, with Steve Goodman joining in for two songs, and intermittent patter. Probably unnecessary at the time, but works perfectly right now. A- [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week (incomplete):

• Michael Marcus Quartet: Next Stop Down (ESP-Disk') [06-26]
• New England Jazz Collaborative: Tributaries (ACP) [07-16]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Unfortunately, I've dawdled much too long on this post, which puts me into a position where for better or worse I simply have to dump it out now. Sorry for the hit-and-miss nature of what follows. I've been preoccupied with music matters, including the Mid-Year 2026 Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll, which is almost certain to swallow up all of my remaining time and energy through roughly July 15. (Voting deadline is July 5. Then I have to write some sort of essay on the state of the art.)

It is possible that I will add bits and pieces to this after initial posting. Otherwise, I'll store away items for next time, whenever that may be. I'd like to carve out more short pieces to go into Notes on Everyday Life. Below you'll find an index of some political pieces I've written there. The three Iran War pieces and the two on Israel/Gaza are still relevant to understanding the chaos that has so cluttered up the news there. I projected a fourth Iran War piece, but we're presently stalemated in a war that is basically between Trump's id and ego, things that Iran seems powerless to affect. (Israel is another story.) A rational analyst would point out that Iran should be willing to forego its "nuclear program" (or "ambitions" or whatever you're calling it) in exchange for real, credible security, and complete freedom from sanctions. Also that they should be willing to end military aid to Hezbollah and other "proxies" in exchange for real, credible security for them. Also that they should be entitled to considerable reconstruction aid, which could be provided by accepting fairly modest tolls through the Strait of Hormuz. Also that the US and Iran should normalize relations, allow trade, investment, etc. And that Iran should be willing to normalize relations when Israel when/if Israel reaches a peaceful settlement of Palestinian grievances. Is that too much to ask? All I'm asking for is normalcy, which has been broken partly by Iran's anti-Americanism from 1979 (which, frankly, was hard earned), but mostly by America's post-1979 grudge, stoked by Israel's cynical opportunism.

I could blow that last paragraph up into an essay, but that's the gist of it, and pretty much everything else is ephemeral. Sure, Americans will complain about Iran's missiles and drones, but they're only a threat if underlying relations remain hostile. That's actually true of the nuclear program as well, but Israel and America are so used to using nuclear weapons for extortion they can easily forget that most people just see them as some kind of deterrent: one that works by recognition, not by use. Meanwhile, their undoubted ability to close the Strait of Hormuz is a pretty effective deterrent on its own, making the potential of nuclear weapons issue moot. Meanwhile, the US and Israel have effective nuclear deterrents of their own, so why should they worry?

The problem, as I've tried to explain before, is that Netanyahu regards peace as a political disaster — he's maintained his longest term ever by repeatedly escalating, a promise that is bound to collapse when Israelis see how little his wars have gained them — and perhaps worse, given that he's still dodging criminal charges. Trump faces similar perils in ending the war with only the flimsiest claims to victory, but his war is already so unpopular that he may be doomed anyway. On the other hand, his fixed term has 32 more months to run, so he may indeed simply not care.

There are, of course, many more stories below, plus much I simply haven't gotten to. Political primary season is heating up. Trump has been pretty successful so far in disciplining his own party, as well as in motivating support for Democrats. The net effect will be hard to ascertain until we start seeing them compete against each other.

This is an occasional collection of newsworthy links and comments, much less systematic than what I attempted in my late Speaking of Which posts. The new name comes from my extensive use of browser tabs. When I get around to cleaning up, I often find tabs opened to old articles I might want to comment on and/or refer back to. So these posts are mostly housecleaning, but may also serve as a very limited but persistent record of what 20+ years ago I started calling "the end of the American empire" and nowadays feels more like "the end of civilization." I collect these bits in a draft file, and flush them out when periodically (12 times from April-December 2025). My previous one appeared 33 days ago, on May 12. This one was initially posted on June 14. Any subsequent adds will be marked with change bars.

By the way, I've been trying to write some more in-depth pieces on major issues (and/or personal peccadillos), using Substack as an email agent. I call this series Notes on Everyday Life. Here's a list of recent ones, plus a couple of oldies I've pinned because they still seem relevant here, in LIFO order:

• [05-29]: But Reality Is Unscripted: Disturbing thoughts on Trump.

• [05-05]: The Real Road to Serfdom: Tim Wu explains how monopoly power leads to fascism.

• [05-02]: Lookback: Iraq 2003: Why does the Iran war story sound familiar? (with allowances for tragedy repeating as farce)?

• [04-27]: Explaining Inflation: AI treats us like 5-year-olds. They leave out a few things.

• [04-05]: Iran War: The Big Question: How does it end? Or does it end at all?

• [04-03]: Iran War: The Three Questions: Why is this happening?

• [03-13]: Days of Infamy: "Franklin Roosevelt knew how to sell a war." Donald Trump doesn't. He only knows how to start one.

• [2025-10-21]: Making Peace in Gaza and Beyond: "Looking beyond the Trump points toward a peace we can all live with."

• [2025-10-17]: Gaza War Peace Plan: "Twenty Trump points, for better or worse."

• [2025-08-10]: Four Stories: My first post, which sets out the basic ideas behind my effort, and takes its title from a very wrong-headed Vox piece that offered some teachable moments. One sample quote I buried in parentheses:

  There is no problem that Trump is the solution to. But his slogan, "Trump will fix it," suggests that some people thought we had problems he could fix. I think Trump's slogan was very effective, especially as Harris made little or no effort to show how very ridiculous the boast was.

I also have a Notes feed there. While I've done very little with it so far, it occurs to me that I might be able to use it to publish Loose Tabs items and Music Week reviews as I write them, instead of having to wait for a long compilation post.

Table of Contents:

• David Warsh and the Fed
• AI Goes to Trial
• Trump and Putin Go to China
• The Hantavirus Outbreak
• SpaceX IPO
• The Trump Slush Fund
• The World Cup
• War on Iran
• Israel
• Israel-American-World Relations
• Ukraine, Other Hot Spots, and World Politics
• Trump's War Machine
• Trump Fights the Law
• Trump's Administration
• Donald Trump's Tremendous Content
• Politicking
• Republicans
• Democrats
• The Economy (and Economists)
• Technology (Including AI)
• Dean Baker
• Tom Carson
• Jeffrey St Clair
• TomDispatch
• Washington University
• Vox
• Biden
• Books
• Obituaries
• Tweets

Special bonus: Lyrics for Carsie Blanton's Everything Is Great!:

Everything is great
Everything is fine
Everything is getting better all of the time
Everybody knows that president's insane
Nobody wants to talk about what people do if their president's insane

It's the hottest summer in the history of man
For some reason yesterday we bombed Iran
Everybody knows we're starting world war three
But nobody wants to talk about what you should do if your government is starting WWIII

Everything is great
Everything is fine
Everything is getting better all of the time
Everybody knows that Luigi was right
But nobody wants to talk about what you should do when everybody knows that Luigi was right

They're shooting people lining up for bags of flour
You don't need the permission if you've got the power
Everybody knows that we're living in a death cult
Nobody wants to talk about what you should do if you're living in a death cult

That would be great
That would be fine
Light a little fire and drink a bottle of wine
Everybody needs a friend sometimes
We can sit around and talk about what we should do if the presidents insane and starting WWIII and we're living in a death cult and everybody knows that Luigi was right

And we can talk all night

New Stories

Sometimes stuff happens, and it dominates the news/opinion cycle for a few days or possibly several weeks. We might as well lead with it, because it's where attention is most concentrated. But eventually these stories will fold into the broader, more persistent themes of the following sections, or vanish altogether.

Last time: Cuba; Jerome Powell, David Warsh and the Fed; White House Correspondents' Dinner; Gerrymandering around voting rights; Spirit Airlines bites the dust.

David Warsh and the Fed: Trump's appointment to replace Jerome Powell has been confirmed, so he's now in charge. Powell remains on the board for now. Trump had tried to have Powell prosecuted to move him out before his term ended, and Powell's decision to hang on may relate to that. Otherwise, this basically confirms the pattern, where Republican presidents nominate new chairmen who are more reliable political food soldiers, while Democrats renominate Republicans to keep from spooking the financial markets, and those Republicans proceed to hold the economy hostage, so the Democrats wind up looking bad. Granted, some left-leaning economists wound up saying good things about renominating Powell and Bernanke, and also granted that some of the front-running Democrats (like Summers or Volcker) could have been worse.

• Bess Levin [05-14]: Kevin Warsh now gets to prove he isn't Donald Trump's 'sock puppet': "How does the incoming Fed chair's background signal his approach to inflation, interest rates, and dealing with you know who?" As for who is Warsh?

  The incoming Fed chief is a former investment banker who served on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors from January 2006 to March 2011, when he resigned in protest over the decision to buy $600 billion in Treasury securities as part of a goal of lowering long-term interest rates (more on that later!). Known during his time in Washington as the "Federal Reserve's chief liaison to Wall Street," Warsh later became a partner at billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller's family office and was named a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a visiting scholar at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Speaking of billionaires: Warsh is the son-in-law of billionaire Trump donor and Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., heir Ronald Lauder, through his marriage to Jane Lauder. The soon-to-be Fed chair himself is worth over $100 million, making him the richest Fed chief in the history of the central bank. (In comparison, Powell is worth a paltry $19.5 million.)

• Mike Konczal [05-15]: The weirdness of Jay Powell's legacy: "I think [Jay Powell] did a good job. I think he'll be remembered well" but "his legacy will be a bit weird in the short term."

• Matt Peterson [06-02]: Fed Chair Warsh makes first hires at central bank, including 'Project 2025' author: Paul Winfree, whose "contribution to the 'Project 2025' policy book set out potential reforms that go beyond Warsh's calls for 'regime change' at the Fed."

AI Goes to trial: Elon Musk (xAI) is suing Sam Altman (OpenAI) over who can be trusted with running the world through AI.

• Michael Calderone [05-15]: The OpenAI jury has to decide: Do you trust Elon Musk or Sam Altman? "That's the billion-dollar question as two tech collaborators turned rivals eye trillion-dollar IPOs.

• Sara Herschander [05-15]: The 5 most unhinged revelations from Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI. To quote the heads:

  1. OpenAI's board members questioned Sam Altman's honesty
  2. Greg Brockman kept a diary — and he probably wishes he hadn't
  3. Surprise, surprise: Elon Musk is difficult to collaborate with
  4. Microsoft cozied up to OpenAI to avoid being left behind in the AI race
  5. Everyone wants to rule the world (of artificial general intelligence): "Almost everyone who testified at trial pointed fingers at a different boogeyman whose motives were too impure and whose character was too corruptible, to be trusted with control of what all agreed would be an extremely consequential technology."

• Ronan Farrow/Andrew Marantz [04-06]: New interviews and closely guarded documents shed light on the persistent doubts about the head of OpenAI: Sam Altman.

Trump and Putin Go to China: On May 13-15, Trump flew to Beijing for a state visit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The visit had been planned for April, but was postponed due to the Iran War.

• Lyle J Goldstein [04-22]: War has significiantly altered major Trump meeting with Xi: "Rather than a clash, these titans are likely tempered by the Middle East war. The question, who now has the better advantage?"

• Anatol Lieven [05-13]: Picking up on the vibes in Beijing before major Trump-Xi visit: "Insights from my trip two weeks ago: Beijing doesn't want to indulge Trump's actions in Iran, nor lead international condemnation or an 'Axis of Upheaval.'"

• Joshua Keating [05-13]: Trump's China policy is nearly the exact opposite of what everyone expected: "As Trump heads to China, attention and resources are being shifted from Asia to yet another war in the Middle East." I think "from unconventional hawk to unexpected dove" is wrong on both counts. "Hawk" and "dove" are tactical ploys for him, not ideologies. I think you should look at Trump on two levels, and understand that he's not coherent enough to consistently link them. One is rhetoric: what he says is mostly independent of what he does, but it is highly variable according to who he's talking to. In America, for domestic political consumption, he's very hawkish about China, but when he's face to face with Xi, he's very dovish, deferential even. But action is something different. Trump, like any bully, understands that actions are situational as well: there are some people you can beat up, and some you can't. Often, he overestimates his power, and errs on the side of aggression, as he has done with Iran. But what can he actually do to China? He knows that simply talking a tough game will not work. He doesn't have the firepower to cower China, and he doesn't have the logistics to take the fight to them. He doesn't even have any good opportunities for skirmishes. If he tried to send the Navy into the South China Sea to secure some artificial islands, he's probably get routed. If he could provoke China into attacking Taiwan, he might be able to defend it, but nobody wants to test that. And if he tried to turn China into an active enemy, there's a lot more they could do to him than he could do to them. If China really hated us, they could arm Iran, like the US did Afghanistan and Ukraine. China could extend Iran a "nuclear umbrella," like the US offers to South Korea and Japan (and maybe Taiwan?). Trump thought he could act unilaterally on tariffs, but even there he's mostly had to back down. You could say he doesn't have the guts, but really he just doesn't have the cards.

• Kate Lamb [05-14]: What is the Thucydides Trap and why did Xi Jinping mention it in his meeting with Donald Trump: I've heard the term, but couldn't give you a definition off the top of my head, partly because I've had very little interest in Greek and Roman precedents (I've been known to quip that every bad idea in western thought can be traced back to some fool Greek), partly because the "experts" who dwell on such things tend to be assholes (e.g., Victor Davis Hanson, Robert D Kaplan; by the way, there's a 2017 book by Graham Allison, Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?, so it's easy to see how Xi might think that Americans recognize the term). Here's a definition: "A staple of foreign policy commentary, including by Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon, the Thucydides Trap refers to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the result is often war."

• David Smith [05-14]: Trump delights in his deference to Xi, his strongman fantasy made flesh: There are those who might regard Trump's showering of Xi and China with flattery as demeaning for the frequently dubbed "most powerful person on earth" — or would, if a Democrat came even remotely close to such a display — but Trump seems to get a bye, perhaps in deference to his reputed mastery of multi-dimensional chess, or maybe just because we know him to be an inveterate liar? But I figure it's just a quirk: as someone who expects and thrives on flattery, Trump may figure it works on others, and it costs him little. It also conveys the feeling that nothing serious is at stake, and it's all meant to be quickly forgotten. Xi certainly understood that part, loading the brief two-day schedule — they must have spent as much time in the air as on the ground — with nothing more than pomp and circumstance. My only takeaway is the menu:

  The dinner was also notable for a menu that felt like fusion cuisine to appease Trump's unadventurous palate: lobster in tomato soup, crispy beef ribs, Beijing roast duck, stewed seasonal vegetables, slow-cooked salmon in mustard sauce, pan-fried pork bun and trumpet shell-shaped pastry, tiramisu and fruits and ice-cream.

• Chas Danner [05-15]: Did Trump's China trip accomplish anything at all? "Here's what did and didn't happen, as far as anyone can tell." Not much, least of all for public consumption.

• Amy Hawkins [05-15]: What was actually achieved at Trump and Xi's 'stalemate summit' in Beijing?

• Michael D Swaine:

  • [05-15]: Trump leaves China with little of substance after summit: "The president's meeting with Xi Jinping resulted in more fanfare than concrete policy change."

  • [05-17]: On China, Trump wants to be Mr. Nice Guy now: "The American president has shifted radically from his first administration but it is conditional, and can a 'G2' style relationship actually work?"

• Robert Wright [05-15]: Trump's accidental triumph in Beijing. After taking some shots at "dean of Blob scribes" David Sanger, Wright takes Trump's modest posture in Beijing as good news (admitting, "I've always been a sucker for peaceful coexistence"):

  Imagine, for example, that the Iran War had gone according to plan: Trump oversees a Venezuela-esque display of military mastery, installs a puppet regime, starts exercising remote control over Iran's oil spigot, and waltzes into Beijing as king of the world. In that scenario, this summit might have had a different tenor, with Trump demanding more and demanding it loudly, creating the kind of friction he's so good at creating. And it's especially easy to imagine that kind of summit if — to add a second power-of-contingency thought experiment — some adviser had last year persuaded him to go easy on the tariffs and other forms of economic warfare, in which case Beijing wouldn't have been pushed to the point of chastening Trump by playing its rare-earth minerals card.

  But those are just thought experiments. In the real world, Trump came to Beijing a humbled man (OK, OK, a closer-to-humbled-than-usual man). What's more — and what makes me so emphasize the magnitude of this moment — the things that humbled him have implications that go well beyond US-China relations. True, his Middle Eastern demonstration of the limits of American military power has, on the one hand, implications for Taiwan (a fact that has no doubt crossed Xi's mind). But it also has implications — tectonic implications — for the Middle East itself. As the Beijing summit started, there were reports that Saudi Arabia has proposed a non-aggression pact between Iran and its Arab neighbors. That's the kind of thing you propose when you realize that your guardian superpower can't keep you safe — and it could turn out to be the kind of thing that foreshadows the eventual withdrawal of that superpower from the region.

• The White House [05-17]: Fact Sheet: President Donald J Trump Secures Historic Deals with China, Delivering for American Workers, Farmers, and Industry: Not a place I've ever done looking for information, as this is just the official Trump administration spin. (So I was taken aback when I saw the pop-up asking or email addresses under the head "Welcome to the Golden Age!" So that's what this is?)

• Pjotr Sauer/Amy Hawkins [05-20]: Same but different: how Xi and China welcomed Trump and Putin. "The choreography of the two welcomes appeared deliberately mirrored, designed to showcase Beijing's ability to host leaders from Washington and Moscow with equal grandeur."

• Jake Werner [05-26]: An alternative view of what's next after the Trump-Xi summit: "Hawkish rhetoric from the national security establishment isn't grappling with the complex challenges posed by China's rise."

The Hantavirus Outbreak: For background, see MV Hondius hantavirus outbreak. The outbreak was confirmed on a Dutch cruise ship, which departed from southern Argentina on April 1 to visit Antarctica and several islands in the South Atlantic. The first passenger began showing symptoms on April 6, and died on April 11.

• Dylan Scott [05-12]: Hantavirus will test if the world learned anything from Covid: "The hantavirus outbreak is still small. But it's a huge test for a battered public health sector."

• Bryan Walsh [05-13]: We're asking the wrong questions about the hantavirus outbreak: "The problem with hantavirus coverage isn't the alarmism."

• Nia Prater [05-15]: A COVID-conspiracist erection expert is leading our hantavirus response: "Admiral and urologist Brian Christine platformed far-right conspiracies about COVID and the 2020 election on his podcast."

SpaceX IPO: The IPO happened on June 11, when SpaceX offered some stock (555.6 million shares), which it sold, raising $75 billion. As that implies the rest of the stock is worth as much per share, this gives the company a valuation of $1.77 trillion. As Elon Musk owns most of the reserved stock, that makes him, in theory at least, the world's first trillionaire.

• Bess Levin [05-21]: SpaceX warns humans may suffer 'same fate as dinosaurs' in eye-popping IPO pitch: Elon Musk's space company filed to go public, which means they have to explain some things, like why "according to the filing, the company thinks it could pull in $28.5 trillion — yes, you read that right — in the future." Most of that ($26.5 trillion) is supposed to come from AI. (The "real GDP" of the US economy is currently $24.2 trillion.)

• John Herrman [05-23]: The SpaceX IPO reveals what really happened to Twitter.

  As visible as X is in the outside world, though, and as integral as it is to Musk's public image, in SpaceX's 150-plus pages of corporate prospectus, it hardly shows up. And when it does, things don't look great.

  The numbers that are shared tell a story of decline, losses, and liability. Advertising revenue fell by nearly $600 million in 2023, bounced back a bit in 2024, and kept slipping again in 2025. As for the subscription business, the company has reached "approximately 6.3 million active paid subscribers" to X and around 1.9 million to versions of Grok (some X subscriptions come with expanded access to Grok). The company recorded a onetime, $3.75 billion impairment "primarily related . . . to the Twitter brand following its rebranding to X." The prospectus describes hundreds of millions of dollars of settlements stemming from Musk's massive, early, and chaotic cuts at the firm after he took over; looking forward, it suggests Musk's other businesses, including the profitable Starlink, face political risks from their connection with X, citing the company's 2024 free-speech battle with the Brazilian government.

  Then there are the numbers we don't get, ones a company might be inclined to share if they told a particularly good story.

• Eleanor Davis-Diver [06-10]: Elon Musk is about to make saving for retirement even harder: "The upcoming SpaceX IPO will make investing in index funds for retirement worse, while Musk and friends rake in millions."

• Freddy Brewster [06-12]: The SEC is radically loosening trading rules for SpaceX: "For the occasion, the SEC exempted Wall Street brokers from consumer protection rules — potentially jeopardizing the assets of investors, including 401(k)s and pensions, if markets are volatile."

• Bess Levin:

  • [06-10]: Elizabeth Warren warns Elon Musk's SpaceX IPO may screw retirees, must be delayed.

  • [06-12]: Elon Musk isn't the only one getting absurdly rich off the SpaceX IPO: "From Donald Trump Jr. to 2 Chainz, a guide to those raking it in today as the rocket-maker goes public."

• Elizabeth Spiers [06-12]: What Elon Musk's trillion-dollar payday is costing the rest of us: "The tech mogul will leverage the initial public offering of SpaceX into more sociopathic wealth-hoarding."

• Paul Krugman [06-12]: Elon Musk, human Ponzi scheme: "With Wall Street's help, you're about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX."

• Brad Badertscher [06-13]: SpaceX IPO: Why insiders like Elon Musk are much likelier to cash in big than public buyers. Updated article, originally published on April 2.

• Dean Baker [06-15]: The AI bubble monitor: Few things seem more intuitively obvious than that the SpaceX IPO is a massive fraud based on an incredible economic delusion, but just in case, Baker works through the numbers for you. One surprise for me is how consistently Tesla stock has been overvalued. Another question I have, is: if Musk expects the federal government to go bankrupt, who does he expect to buy SpaceX's inflated products?

The Trump Slush Fund: Trump's Department of [In]Justice, headed by his former personal attorney, signed off on a "settlement" to his $10 billion lawsuit over an independent contractor leaking Trump's tax returns while Trump was still president, agreeing to set up a $1.77 billion slush fund that Trump could use to "compensate victims of Biden's weaponized prosecutions" (e.g., of January 6 rioters), which also includes a promise to never again audit Trump, his family, or any of his businesses. This jumps to the head of a very long list of the most corrupt things anyone in the US government has ever done (mostly over other Trump examples). There's a fairly long quote under the Honig article below, detailing what Trump tried to do, in no uncertain terms.

• Nia Prater:

  • [05-22]: Trump's weaponization slush fund is 'completely insane': Interview with former New Jersey attorney general Matt Platkin on "the legality of the controversial fund created by President Trump's IRS settlement." Platkin is representing 93 members of Congress in challenging this. At least one more lawsuit has been filed to block the "settlement." The legal grounds for doing this ("blatant self-dealing makes this matter a collusive suit") appear to be very shaky, which makes me doubt that they'll get away with it, but strange things are happening every day. One note here is that they "settled" just days before having to file briefs before a court that could very well have thrown the entire suit out. So there is an element of panic in how quickly this happened. But that it happened at all shows that Todd Blanche was mostly concerned with appeasing Trump, and that Trump was careless as to the optics of such blatant corruption.

  • [05-22]: Everyone trying to cash in on Trump's slush fund: Some names: Michael Cohen, George Santos, Mark and Patricia McCloskey ("the gun toters"), Enrique Tarrio ("seditionist Proud Boy"), Mike Lindell, Michael Caputo; and more generally, "members of the January 6 mob."

• Kyle Cheney/Hassan Ali Kanu/Josh Gerstein [05-29]: Judge pauses Trump administration's 'anti-weaponization' fund: "The temporary order halts any payments from the controversial fund."

• Elle Honig [06-01]: How a federal judge is blowing up Trump's slush fund: District Court Judge Kathleen Williams "is clearly furious — at getting played by the two Trump parties and at the slush fund itself." This is worth quoting at some length:

  The judge noted that the lawsuit involved the same party (Trump) on both sides and raised concerns about whether the case might be "collusive." Gee, Your Honor, you think? What tipped you off — Trump's public declaration upon filing the complaint, "I'm supposed to work out a settlement with myself"? . . .

  That dismissal cleared the way for the settlement, and mayhem ensued. Days later, the public learned that the bizarre deal included creation of a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" slush fund to be administered by five cronies chosen by Trump's sycophantic acting attorney general, Todd Blanche (plus a bonus free pass for Trump, his family, and his companies on any tax shenanigans they'd committed up to 2026). The designated taxpayer money would pay off violent January 6 rioters and pretty much anyone else deemed by Trump's DoJ to be a victim of an unfair political prosecution. The fund would remain operative, conveniently enough, until December 15, 2028, just as the Trump administration will be packing its bags. (Quick math: If we assume roughly 2,000 claimants — 1,600 January 6 defendants plus other assorted miscreants seeking to feed at the trough — the average payout from the fund would amount to . . . $888,000.)

  Pretty much everyone promptly and appropriately lost their minds at the sheer grift of it all. Even Senate Republicans turned on the boss and Blanche. For reference, this is largely the same group of politicians who voted not to convict Trump after January 6. They can conjure some way to justify almost anything — but not this. . . .

  But then, a breakthrough: A group of 35 former federal judges came up with an end run. The ex-jurists filed an amicus (friend of the court) motion gently informing Judge Williams that she might have screwed up by agreeing to dismiss the case to facilitate the settlement and laying out a legal roadmap to double back and reopen it. The judges weren't seeking to file or join a case as parties, so standing was no impediment; they merely offered friendly professional advice to a former colleague. The ex-judges explained to Judge Williams that, under somewhat obscure rules of law and procedure, if she finds she has been deceived by the parties and that the settlement was actually a "product of collusion," she can reopen the case and shut down the whole slush-fund mess borne of the settlement.

• Ed Kilgore [06-01]: Trump abandons toxic 'anti-weaponization' slush fund.

• Chas Danner [06-04]: Trump's anti-weaponization slush fund may yet live.

• Nia Prater [06-12]: Trump will have to defy court order to pay January 6 rioters: Evidently, even after back-pedaling, he still thinks he can get away with it.

The World Cup:

• Alex Shepherd

  • [06-10]: Can the 2026 World Cup be rescued from Trump and Infantino? "The tournament, which starts on Thursday, has already been defined by greed and xenophobia. But there's still something beautiful worth celebrating." Also wrote the following earlier article:

  • [2025-11-19]: The 2026 World Cup is Trump's authoritarian debutante ball: "Russia and Qatar used the World Cup to soften their autocratic image on the global stage. Trump is using it to double down."

• Mark Hertsgaard [06-11]: The hottest World Cup in history has arrived: "Science blames the scorching hot temperatures on global warming, but will sports reporters make the climate connection?"

• Flynn Coleman [06-11]: The autocrat's game: "For nearly as long as the World Cup has existed, autocrats have tried to exploit it. Trump is no exception." Benito Mussolini got there first.

• Frances Nguyen [06-11]: The world descends on an inhospitable World Cup: "As players and fans arrive in an unfriendly United States for the quadrennial soccer spectacle, civil society organizations are mounting an effort to keep visitors safe."

• Adam Elder [06-14]: The hater's guide to the 2026 World Cup: "Price gouging, sweltering heat, and a healthy dose of Trump. What's not to love?" This is a pretty long, really overwhelming list, from "The whole war thing" and "(Un)welcome to America" all the way down to "The grift never ends," with occasional sniping at the soundtrack.

Major Threads

War on Iran: Just as I'm scrambling to try to post this compilation of over a month's news, I'm seeing headlines on the New York Times [06-14]:

• US and Iran reach cease-fire agreement
• Fate of Iran's nuclear program is unresolved: "The accord would halt fighting in the area for 60 days and open the Strait of Hormuz while leaving the thorniest nuclear issues for later."
• Trump says Strait of Hormuz will be 'permanently toll free' under agreement: "In a call to The Times, President Trump also praised Russia and China's leaders and described Israel's prime minister as 'a very difficult guy.'"
• In Israel, broad discontent even before deal's details are known
• Oil prices tumble after Trump announces Iran deal

Now, back to our previous notes:

• Sudarasan Raghavan [05-12]: The art of the ceasefire: "How President Trump's approach to the war in Iran is turning endless conflict, interrupted by fleeting pauses, into the status quo." The title was foreordained, but also ridiculous, as with Trump there is no art, just poorly considered impulses.

  Historically, negotiating a ceasefire to end an international conflict of this magnitude would have involved months, even years, of talks led by skilled negotiators with large teams of experts, the help of credible mediators such as the United Nations, and armies of diplomats shuttling between the different sides to build trust. Peace proposals are usually negotiated behind closed doors; threats are seldom made publicly. With the Trump Administration, none of this appears to be happening. Ceasefires are not treated as avenues to solve political contradictions and pave the way to a lasting settlement, Bhamidipati said. Instead, they have been reduced to tools of conflict meant to speedily manage escalation, contain risk, limit spillover, and restore short-term stability — a version of kicking the can down the road. Ceasefires don't end wars; they only interrupt them. And, the longer they continue without a real political resolution, the higher the risks of even greater violence in the future.

  Historically, this almost never happens. Ceasefires have two uses: one is to limit the damage while a resolution is negotiated, which can happen if both parties seek peace, or are willing to settle for the status quo (as happened in Korea); the other is as a tactical pause in aggression (Israel agreed to two ceasefires during 1948-50, time when they used to rearm so they could launch new offensives). Trump has found himself in the position where he can't politically afford to make peace, but also can't afford to keep bombing at the levels so far, so a ceasefire is useful for him. It's also agreeable to Iran, which never wanted this war in the first place. Perhaps there is some art to Israel's bad faith ceasefires — there have been hundreds since 1950, nearly all violated by Israel on the slightest pretext (or none at all).

• Muhammad Saad [05-13]: Why Gulf data centers became deliberate targets in Iran War: "Not only did the US make the placement and investment in these tech warehouses a 'loyalty test,' they then made the dual use for Washington's military."

• Trita Parsi:

  • [05-16]: China's position on the Hormuz Strait: What 'open' really means: "Beijing is not going to put itself in a position where it loses access to Iranian oil, nor will it support a UN call for force."

  • [05-18]: Trump appears poised to restart the Iran war: "Tehran believes fresh attacks will come over the next two days. Feeling emboldened, leaders there are ready with new targets for retaliation." This is quickly becoming old news, as Trump has already canceled a wave of attacks planned for Tuesday, May 19, citing concerns of the Gulf States, and "improved negotiations."

  • [05-22]: Are we on the verge of a US-Iran deal? A blip of optimism, as China and regional nations have been active in mediating, and some Chinese ships have been passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

  • [05-23]: Warmongers in meltdown as Trump heralds Iran deal: [Same title also appeared on blog here.]

  • [05-26]: Iran to Israel: You hit Lebanon, and we'll hit the UAE. Trump's schizophrenia is making it very difficult for Iran to gauge when (if ever) he's being serious, but the real test is whether he can commit for (and discipline) Israel.

    For Tehran, tying Israel to the ceasefire is ultimately a test of America's willingness — and ability — to restrain its closest regional ally. If President Donald Trump either cannot or will not do so, then the value of any agreement with Washington comes sharply into question. A ceasefire that leaves Israel free to reignite hostilities at will — while the United States remains unable to prevent itself from being dragged back into conflict — offers little assurance of stability. Under such circumstances, the utility of a deal with Washington diminishes dramatically.

  • [06-01]: Why Trump may actually have told Netanyahu "everybody hates you!"

  • [06-03]: Iran moved to change the US-Iran equation yesterday: The US "disabled" a Botswana-flagged tanker. Rather than respond minimally, Iran countered with attacks against US targets in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, and UAE.

  • [06-13]: So they tried to deport me . . . "The Free Press reported that the State Department was preparing to deport me. But it appears the hit piece was designed to trigger a deportation." Of course, the people who planted this story are out to get Parsi not just because he opposes Trump and Netanyahu's war, but because he's one of the most knowledgeable people in America talking about the war.

  • [06-14]: With one strike, Netanyahu tries to kill two peace deals: "Netanyahu knew exactly what he was doing when he defied Trump's red line and struck Beirut this morning."

• Mark Mazzetti/Julian E Barnes/Farnaz Fassihi/Ronen Bergman [05-19]: Early War Goal Was to Install Hard-Line Former President as Iran's Leader: "An Israeli strike designed to free Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from house arrest in Tehran, US officials said, was part of an effort to bring about regime change and put him in power." After spending the entirety of his term propagandizing that he was the incarnation of anti-US and anti-Israel evil.

• Isaac Chotiner [05-25]: Why any plausible Iran deal is a humiliation for Trump: "Even as the US claims to be nearing an agreement to end the conflict, Tehran's ability to close the Strait of Hormuz and hold the global economy hostage has reinforced the power of regime hard-liners." Interview with Danny Citrinowicz, who is very explicit about the political peril Trump and Netanyahu have brought upon themselves, with their inability to budge Iran.

• Miranda Jeyaretnam [05-26]: : Trump threatens to 'blow up' Oman over Strait of Hormuz. Oman has been "a strategic partner of the US for more than 50 years," but has tried to mediate the conflict with Iran, and has been offered a stake in Iranian tolls through the Strait of Hormuz (which at its narrowest is wholly within territorial waters of Iran and Oman, allowing some legal basis for a toll regime).

• Elfadil Ibrahim [06-04]: Oman walks a tightrope amid Trump's threats to 'blow them up': "Leaders in Muscat are struggling to balance their role as a mediator with Washington's 'us-vs-them' approach.

• Luc Cohen [06-01]: 'We are in a war,' alleged Iran-backed militant exclaims in US court: Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, an Iraqi who was captured and extradited from Turkey, charged with supporting Kata'ib Hezbollah, which the US has defined as a terrorist group.

  U.S. prosecutors say Kata'ib Hezbollah is directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

  They said Al-Saadi helped plan approximately 18 attacks in Europe in recent months, not all of which occurred, and in March and April plotted attacks in the United States, including against a New York synagogue.

  While Al-Saadi's individual role in all this isn't at all clear, pretty much everyone expected that when Trump & Netanyahu started their war with Iran, that individuals and groups sympathetic with Iran would strike back asymmetrically, with acts of terror, mostly against vulnerable symbolic targets. Such people are routinely reported in our press as directed by Iran, which serves two purposes: to deflect blame from those responsible for starting the war, and to reinforce our understanding of Iran as intractable enemies, willing to strike out at us in the most unprincipled of ways. Israel has long made a point of blaming Iran for all manner of resistance, as if Israel's own acts didn't generate resistance on their own. Since the war started (or should I say escalated?) reports of terrorist incidents have picked up, but Al-Saadi's is the first face to be associated with such resistance. I first heard about this on Fox News, where they were making a big deal about his arraignment. But it's less of a victory than evidence that the costs of war are mounting.

• Blaise Malley [06-03]: Finally: House votes to end Trump's war with Iran: "Four Republicans join all Democrats to pass War Power Act resolution aimed at pulling US military from hostilities."

• Tanya Goudsouzian/Ibrahim Al-Marashi [06-04]: Trump's art of the deal meets Iran's long memory of foreign exploitation: "Washington may view these talks as a standard business transaction, but history has taught Tehran that a compromise with the West is a trap."

• Juan Cole [06-11]: If Trump deliberately hit reservoir in Iran, it was a war crime & endangers the whole Gulf.

Israel: Israel's Knesset voted to dissolve early, setting up new elections for October 27, 2026. After the instability of four elections between 2018-22, the current government was sworn in on December 29, 2022. The maximum time for a government after election is four years, so elections were previously scheduled to happen in November. By dissolving, Netanyahu has managed to move the election up before the US "midterm" elections in November. If Democrats win Congress in November, that might weaken the spell Netanyahu seems to have over Trump, and as such to encourage Israelis to elect a more flexible government leader. On the other hand, Netanyahu has managed to cling to power a long time after he started the mass destruction of Gaza, the increased plundering of the West Bank, and peripheral wars, especially in Lebanon and against Iran, with what is clearly the most extreme racist and chauvinist right-wing government in Israel's long history of such.

• Jonathan Ofir:

  • [04-30]: United in Apartheid: What the Bennett-Lapid unity ticket tells us about the future of Zionism in Israel's pariah era: "Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid's joint effort to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu aims to appeal to those upset by Israel's growing pariah status, but their campaign merely puts a 'liberal' veneer on the same Israeli apartheid."

  • [05-23]: Itamar Ben-Gvir is suddenly the villain of Israeli politics for one reason: he revealed Israel's true face to the world: "Itamar Ben-Gvir has been attacked across Israeli politics for a cruel video showing him mocking flotilla activists as they were being abused by officers. His offense was not his fascist celebration, but rather showing the true face of Israel."

• Tareq S Hajjaj:

  • [05-08]: Rodent infestation caused by Israel's destruction of Gaza is now creating a public health catastrophe: "More than 70,000 infections have been recorded in Gaza this year, as rats bite children as they sleep and skin diseases kill those prevented from receiving treatment abroad. Health officials say a plague outbreak is no longer a remote possibility."

  • [05-19]: How Israel is using militias and concrete blocks to seize what remains of Gaza: "Israeli forces have pushed past the 'Yellow Line' that divides the Gaza Strip in half and now control 65% of the territory. Residents call the new border Gaza's 'apartheid wall.'"

  • [05-29]: Despite the ceasefire, Israel resumes bombing entire residential blocks in Gaza, displacing dozens of families: "The Israeli army is targeting Gaza's remaining residential blocks that were left standing after the ceasefire, leaving even more Palestinians homeless. 'Fear has become a permanent guest in our homes,' one resident told Mondoweiss."

• Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man [05-18]: The dangerous allure of a post-Netanyahu Israel: "Naftali Bennett and his emergent opposition in the upcoming election are just as hardline on security but they want you to think otherwise." A subhed here explains that "Netanyahu is not the problem," but Netanyahu is very much one problem, and that may be the only one Israelis can attempt to solve in the next election. I agree that the driving forces behind genocide in Gaza and pogroms in the West Bank have been Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who have become Netanyahu's essential coalition partners, and who have encouraged him to embrace a extreme religious (not just Kookist but Kahanist) vision of Israel's destiny. As I've said before, Netanyahu's one consistent political instinct is to never allow anyone to pass him on the right. Sure, that may be impossible viz. Ben Gvir, but Netanyahu's wars against Iran and Lebanon are very much matters of his own choosing, supported by his right-wing allies mostly because they provide cover for further "ethnic cleansing" in the West Bank. So while Bennett is unlikely to break with Israel's blob (the professional security state, which Moshe Dayan built in 1967 and every Israeli politician since has had no option but to serve), a break with the holy rollers is more feasible. While it won't solve the fundamental inequity of Israel's ethnocracy, it could take a bit of its sanctimonious arrogance off.

• Shatha Hammad [05-21]: Israel has a master plan to relocate thousands of Palestinian Bedouins to a giant ghetto: "The 'Shami neighborhood project' will ethnically cleanse the Bedouin population of Jerusalem's eastern wilderness as part of Israel's plan to take total control over the strategic 'Greater Jerusalem' corridor, which would split the West Bank in two."

• Qassam Muaddi:

  • [05-21]: Israel is reviving a 58-year-old government order to seize vital Palestinian properties in Jerusalem: "Residents say the move is an effort to remove Palestinians and to complete the Judaization of Jerusalem."

  • [05-22]: Israel moves to annex Palestinian historical sites in the West Bank: "The Israeli Knesset is considering a bill that would place Palestinian historical sites in the West Bank under direct Israeli civil law, stripping them of their protected status under international law. Experts say it's annexation in all but name."

  • [05-27]: The Israeli Knesset just voted to dissolve itself, but this won't end the Gaza genocide: "Even if Netanyahu and his right-wing allies are ousted from government, Israel's genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and the wars against Lebanon and Iran enjoy broad support across the Israeli political spectrum."

  • [05-30]: Europe's new strategy to hide the rot in Israeli society is to scapegoat Itamar Ben-Gvir: Who, by the way, welcomes their hate.

• Sari Bashi [05-21]: Israel's death penalty drive enters next stage with Oct. 7 military tribunal: "Lawmakers voted 93-0 to create a special court to try accused Palestinian perpetrators, designed to subvert due process and lead to mass executions." Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians, some deliberately, many more as collateral damage, and lately more or less indiscriminately, but since 1948 they have only executed one prisoner, Adolf Eichmann in 1962 (although others have died in custody). That is about to change with a new law and a special court ("designed to subordinate due process to speed and punishment") for Palestinians only.

  Judges will have broad discretion to alter standard procedural and evidentiary rules that normally apply in Israeli courts, including those allowing defendants to access and challenge investigative materials. Most hearings are to be conducted by video conference, without defendants physically present, and some may occur without even bothering to connect defendants remotely. The law also appears to permit collective or mass trials, where judges have discretion to hold proceedings behind closed doors or broadcast them on a dedicated website.

• William I Robinson/M Gürsan Şenalp [05-24]: Pax Silica, the Gaza genocide, and the crisis of global capitalism: "Gaza was the first AI war of the 21st century, and if Global Trumpism succeeds, it will become a testing ground for its vision to dominate the future: Pax Silica, or the merger of the high-tech military-surveillance complex and transnational finance." I have to admit that I thought Pax Silica was a joke, until I saw the picture with the banner and flags. However, "Board of Genocide" is not an official title. That's Trump's more Orwellian "Board of Peace." But both seem to be part of a broader scheme which forces countries that want to do business with the US to also cozy up to Israel.

• Shatha Yaish [05-27]: In first since Oslo, Israel seizing land for army base inside West Bank City: "The seizure order, near Jenin refugee camp, is the latest move aimed at expanding military and settler presence in the north of the occupied territories."

• Juan Cole [05-29]: Netanyahu seeks 70% of Gaza in Israel's own Generalplan Ost.

• Jared Hillel [06-02]: Why the plan to disarm Hamas is destined to fail: "The US and the Board of Peace are ignoring the lessons of past, successful peace settlement efforts." This compares Trump's Board of Peace with other settlements where third-party arbiters at least tried to be neutral:

  In Gaza, obliging both parties to uphold the ceasefire is where the Board of Peace has shown itself to be most biased.

  According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the ceasefire began. Humanitarian groups say the delivery of aid, which is entirely controlled by Israel, has also been insufficient, leaving the population malnourished and exposed to a growing rodent infestation. Hamas has also been accused of ceasefire violations, having killed four Israeli soldiers.

  The Board of Peace has not treated these violations equally.

  I still maintain that Hamas could have been disbanded and effectively disarmed a month or two after Oct. 7, 2023, if only Israel had turned Gaza over to a UN-directed administration to implement independent self-rule in the territory. I wrote most extensively about this in my pieces about the Trump "Peace Plan" here and here, but the same ideas were expressed in my late 2023 blog posts, and the essential element of Israel quitting Gaza has been a persistent theme for many years. Israel has never wanted to run Gaza, and has repeatedly proven itself incapable of doing so peacefully. It hasn't done so for several reasons, some of which can be attributed to Palestinian leaders who have insisted that all Palestinians should wait for a common "national" solution. (Israelis care a great deal more about the West Bank, and are adamant about refusing return of the refugees from 1947-49. There should be room for negotiation there.[1])

• Saliha Bayrak [06-05]: Israel tortured these activists. Now they're speaking out. "Multiple Gaza flotilla activists describe severe violence and psychological torment while in Israeli detention."

• Hudda Mattar [06-10]: Israel is abducting ordinary Syrians and seizing their land in Quneitra: "In the Syrian governorate of Quneitra, Israel is seizing land, attacking and abducting residents, mauling them with army dogs, and spraying chemical agents over farmland. The Syrian government remains silent."

• Alaa Serhal [06-14]: Civil records for hundreds of thousands of Lebanese could be wiped out by Israel's total war: "With whole towns leveled by Israel, a quarter million Lebanese people may have lost the proof of who they are and what they own."

[1] I've sketched out ways to do this before, and could well again, but in my experience, anything less than a full right of return gets rejected by "pro-Palestinians" (who can point to international law for support, as well as more general principles), while Israelis are not just as adamant but also have the power to enforce their views. I don't disagree with the pro-Palestinian view here, but I am much more bothered by the persistence of Israel as a racist and militarist state, constantly at war with its neighbors and its own people (and not just Palestinians, who they don't consider people at all; and I might also note, increasingly at war with diaspora Jews, who they may claim to represent but are increasingly an embarrassment, and perhaps even a liability, to).

Israel-American-World Relations: I used to try to separate out Israel-related pieces into several bins. The Iran war has its own news section. The Israel section above pertains to security operations in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, and Lebanon, as well as internal Israeli political affairs. This one deals with America's relationship to Israel, and possibly with the world's.

• Rawan Abhari [04-04]: Stop asking if Israel has a right to exist: It's rhetorical trap, asking you to grant an innocuous premise, which is then taken to justify murder and mayhem by a state that only represents one "chosen" group of people. I would say that no state has a right to exist, but we should accept all states that are constituted by the consent of the governed. I'd also stipulate that all people have a right to equal citizenship in the state that governs them. Israel might arguably have met the first criteria from 1951, when those Palestinians who were not driven into exile were granted nominal political rights, to 1967, when Israel extended its land but denied political rights to the people of the newly occupied territories. After that, Israel ceased to be a legitimate state. Even in the 1951-67 period, the case is shaky.

  • Ben Burgis [05-15]: Israel doesn't have a "right to exist" — but Israelis and Palestinians do.

• Michael Arria: Also see his piece on the Democratic Party autopsy.

  • [05-07]: The Shift: Taboo no longer — House Dems want White House to acknowledge Israel's nukes: "Over two dozen House Democrats have sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling on the Trump administration to break its silence on Israel's unclear weapons."

  • [05-12]: 60 Minutes offers no pushback to Netanyahu's barrage of lies as Israeli leader attempts to bolster support for failing Iran war: "Since self-described 'Zionist fanatic' Bari Weiss took over CBS News, critical coverage of Israel has vanished. It's no surprise, then, that Benjamin Netanyahu was given a prime-time slot on 60 Minutes to make the case for the disastrous war on Iran."

  • [05-14]: The Shift: Abe Foxman lived to see the liberal consensus on Israel collapse: "Abe Foxman died at 86. As the Anti-Defamation League's national director, he helped build the Progressive Except Palestine liberal consensus and lived just long enough to see it collapse amid the Gaza genocide."

  • [05-21]: The Shift: Primary season is showing that being pro-Israel is not only bad policy but also bad politics: "AIPAC says that being pro-Israel is good politics. But if that is true, why do they have to spend so much money on elections?"

  • [05-28]: Are neocons turning on the Iran War? "Prominent neoconservatives are criticizing Trump's war on Iran, but do these critiques amount to a foreign policy shift?" Robert Kagan seems to be the main case in point.

  • [05-28]: The Shift: Josh Shapiro says pro-Israel advocates are having their 'voices silenced' by AIPAC critics: "In an interview with Politico, Pennsylvania Governor and presidential hopeful Josh Shapiro suggested that some AIPAC criticism is antisemitic."

• Nicholas Kristof [05-11]: The silence that meets the rape of Palestinians: This is a pretty major report, although it is far from the first allegation of sexual abuse in Israel's prisons. I'm also bothered by the repeated references to "the horrific abuse inflicted on Israeli women on Oct. 7," as if both-sidesing this mitigates it somehow. (Not an excuse, but Oct. 7 was one day of anarchy, whereas Israel's prisons are long-term arenas of control and power.)

• Robin Andersen [06-01]: Balancing act at the NYT: Nicholas Kristof wrote about Israel's sexual torture of prisoners, the next day Isabel Kershner penned more unverified rape allegations against Hamas.

• Mitchell Plitnick:

  • [05-17]: As support for Israel declines in the US, the 'Special Relationship 2.0' is starting to take shape: "Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies in Congress have begun calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel, but this won't end the 'special relationship' between the two countries. In fact, recent signs suggest it may only deepen US military ties to Israel." I think they're just spitballing here, trying to figure out ways to interlock the militaries of the US and Israel in ways that look like we're giving Israel less, but which allow Israel to take even greater funds, and to exercise even greater levels of control and coordination with the US.

  • [05-23]: With signs of a possible Iran deal within reach, pressure is mounting on Trump to return to war: "Political and economic realities are pushing Donald Trump to pursue a deal with Iran, but he will need to resist mounting pressure, including from Israel, to return to all-out war."

  • [05-31]: Will Trump sideline Israel in order to make a deal with Iran? "Donald Trump reportedly has a deal on the table to suspend fighting and begin negotiations to end the Iran war and the resulting global economic crisis. But Israel and Iran hawks see it as a disaster and are working to undermine it. Who will win out?" Given that Netanyahu will sabotage any deal Trump might make, the only way Trump will ever get any sort of face-saving deal is by throttling Israel. That he needs a deal to save what little's left of his political carcass should be obvious even to him by now. But he's so vain and stupid he keeps falling for the temptation to hit them one more time, as if that will soften up Iran, and not simply look like a weak-minded, untrustworthy foe. Netanyahu's political life quite literally depends on keeping the war going. But who in Trump's circle sees this and has any idea how to handle it?

  • Josh Ruebner [05-29]: The time for a US arms embargo on Israel is now: "The US is starting talks on a new military aid deal for Israel as support for the country hits an all-time low. Israel's supporters are feeling the pressure and pushing for cosmetic changes, but don't fall for it. We need a full arms embargo now."

  • [06-12]: The time has come for Trump to choose between US and Israeli interests in the Iran war: "The US can end the Iran war, but only if it restrains Israel. Will Donald Trump muster the political will to end this disastrous war of choice?" For me the notion that the interests of the people of the US and Israel are even under consideration is ridiculous. What passes for interests here are the vanities and foibles of two politicians who have gone way out on a limb to start this war, with no chance to back down gracefully. Netanyahu has no interest in a solution, so he's always going to be an obstacle. That means that if/when Trump wants a deal, he's going to have to force it onto Netanyahu. That he has the power to do so seems likely. That he has the will and/or the skill seems pretty unlikely. But if the key for Iran is credible security, the only way Trump makes a deal is if he faces down and boxes up Netanyahu. So Plitnick is right, but there is little reason to be hopeful.

• Yakov Hirsch [05-21]: How Jeffrey Goldberg weaponized Jewish trauma to pave the way for war with Iran: "Over the past two decades, no one has done more to shape US discourse on Israel than Jeffrey Goldberg. By relying on tropes of eternal Jewish victimhood, Goldberg declared Iran an existential threat to Jews and helped pave the way for war." There's a lot of detail here. Whether Goldberg is really exceptional in his service for Israel's propaganda line, or just so well positioned in American journalism he makes an obvious target (Thomas Friedman is another, and I'd hate to have to study enough to rate them, but Bret Stephens is probably more dogmatically vicious than either) is hard to say. I do find interesting that there is a whole section here on "Goldberg's campaign against Ha'aretz." Ha'aretz is one of the few papers in Israel that is willing to critically examine Israel's right-wing politics and psychology, and this can lead to doubts about the eternal rectitude of Israel's leadership — doubts which in any other country we would celebrate as proof of the viability of its democracy. Most liberals in America would point to Ha'aretz as an example of Israel's virtues. Only someone who's a slave to the official line would fret so.

  Hirsch cites a couple of his own articles:

  • [2018-02-13]: Hasbara culture and the curse of Bibi-ism: "How Prime Minister Netanyahu turns all political opinions about his leadership into a referendum on nothing less than the Manichean struggle between good and evil."

  • [2021-11-22]: Yair Rosenberg moves to Atlantic to be the Israel expert who ignores all the news from Israel: "Yair Rosenberg has routinely described Palestinian leaders as terrorists and antisemites and characterized Palestinian resistance to occupation as stemming from ancient historical hatred of Jews. He is now ensconced at the Atlantic spreading his misunderstanding of the world into American opinion, for years to come."

  • [2022-11-28]: The Americans most culpable for Netanyahu's 'Jewish' revolution are silent as Israel implodes: "The last thing Netanyahu's longtime enablers in the US want to do is call attention to the madness going on in Israel. The most 'pro-Israel' journalists in America would prefer Israel implode than have an embarrassing public debate about what's happening in the Jewish state."

  • [03-04]: The war to erase October 7: What The Atlantic leaves out about Netanyahu and the US-Israeli assault on Iran: "The Atlantic's Yair Rosenberg recasts Benjamin Netanyahu as a tragic figure forced to take radical action after October 7, ignoring his long history of fomenting war and exploiting Jewish trauma to further himself and his Zionist ideology."

• Alex Schultz [05-21]: The man who explains Israel to John Fetterman: "How a little-known writer became one of the senator's closest friends." David Safier.

• Moti Rieber [05-22]: And now for your fleeting moment of outrage: "For a few days, let's pretend that what Ben-Gvir did was somehow unique." Nope. "In fact, Ben-Gvir is the unrestrained id of Israeli — the walking talking personification [of] what the country has become."

• Alice Speri [05-26]: Storied New York food co-op votes to boycott Israeli products after contentious campaign: The Park Slope Food Coop.

• Ahmed Alqarout [05-28]: Trump wants the Palestinians to pay for the US occupation of Gaza: "Trump's Board of Peace is in financial crisis and wants to use funds taken from the Palestinian Authority to pay for Gaza's reconstruction. Palestinians would pay twice over: money stolen from the West Bank would be used to cement Gaza's occupation." In February, with announced $17B in pledges. So far only $1B has been delivered to the fund (no info on what they've actually spent rebuilding Gaza, but it's certainly less than Israel has bombed since then). But the shakedown continues. This never was anything but a criminal enterprise.

• Michael Leonardi [05-29]: From Jabotinsky's Iron Wall to Gaza's graves: Zionism's Fascist alliances then and now.

• David Masciotra [05-31]: Antisemitism — left, right, and growing: He concedes that "criticism of Israel and its conduct is fair game," while insisting that "conspiratorial delusions about Zionism are not." Yet somehow he manages to condemn everyone doing the former for the latter transgression. He especially takes offense at Hasan Piker (a name I've run across before, but who means nothing to me), and pulls quotes out of context from various Democratic politicians (like Ro Khanna, Brandon Johnson, and Graham Platner), trying to twist them into ominous spectres. As for the right, few specifics, just the occasional name drop (Hitler, of course, and Tucker Carlson — nine out of ten anti-semites love Israel, but one bad apple and you never hear the end of it). But the right doesn't worry him, despite the commanding power of Trump and Netanyahu, who are doing a bang-up job of making sure that millions of people who had no previous thoughts on the matter see Israelis and Americans as monsters.

  What does worry him is that "over 70 percent of Democrats believe the 'genocide' myth." It's a myth because Israel hasn't killed everyone yet (far from it, "if Israel imposed genocidal policies on Gaza even before the war, as many anti-Israel critics claim, the population of the Gaza Strip would not have grown 450 percent since 1967"). (Nice sleight of "many" there. I can't think of anyone who made such an argument before it became obvious in 2023, although there has long been much to criticize about Israel's treatment of Gaza, especially since 2006, when Israel removed its settlements, making it easier to inflict collective punishments like sonic booms — a practice they gave up on because, unlike shellings and "diets" it couldn't be contained within the prison walls they erected.)

  I grew up with no sense whatsoever of Jews until I started reading about the Holocaust and The Murderers Among Us in the 1960s. I later became aware that many people I admired on the left were Jewish. As an American, I regarded anti-semitism as an example of racism, a belief structure I rejected as soon as I became aware of it. The right readily embraced anti-semitism, racism, sexism, other forms of bigotry, because they started from a belief that some people are better than others, and that formed a natural hierarchy of society. The left, on the other hand, rejected hierarchy and inequality, so we naturally opposed the whole panoply of prejudices. While some individuals who moved to the left may have picked up some bad habits, the idea that those habits could come from the left struck me as nonsense. Still does.

  Aside from the sophistry and deliberate confusion, there are several things that really bother me about this and similar pieces: the assumption that anti-semitism is somehow different from, and more important than, any other form of discrimination; the notion that any trope associated with anti-semitism proves the whole case; the idea that bad thoughts by powerless people are equivalent to bad acts by people with the power; the belief that victimhood gives one (but not just anyone) license to victimize others. Those points are so obviously false I don't see any need to refute them. I'm just gobsmacked that anyone should have so little self-consciousness, or so much arrogance, to propagate them. Worse still, I don't see why they would.

  For instance, let's say I set forth the argument that in the aftermath of the Hamas revolt of Oct. 7, 2023, Israel embarked on a program that was tantamount to genocide. I lay out my evidence, as I've done elsewhere. So what do you, as a lover of Israel, do? You can try to gaslight me: make me doubt the evidence and/or the logic that moves from evidence to analysis, or you could concede facts and try to convince me that what I took to be genocide is actually justified. The latter strategy runs the risk that I may conclude that it's just you who justifies genocide, which makes you (in my mind, at least) complicit. If I had the power to do anything about it, I might even wish to use that power to stop you. More likely I would just argue back, but I don't have the power to fire people, or to expel students, as has happened on numerous occasions to people protesting Israeli genocide. If as an Israel lover, you had that power, you might well jump straight to that stage, skipping the denials, the faulty logic, and/or the gaslighting. Of course, there is a further risk to using that power, which is that it makes you look you're part of a conspiracy out to harm us. While I trust my fellow leftists to sort fact from fiction here, I wouldn't be surprised to find other people return your hate and contempt in kind. That's just what people on the right like to call "human nature."

  Or you might consider the alternative, which is to use whatever influence your love of Israel has gained you to get Israel to change its policies and stop killing people, stop taking captives, stop torturing them, stop denying them food and the necessities of life, stop discriminating against them, and start treating others with the respect and dignity you yourselves desire. If you succeed, you might wind up with an Israel that actually deserves your love, and one that the rest of us might learn to respect. If not, you have a decision to make, which is whether you're willing to identify with murderers, or break with Israel. It's really way too late to simply pretend that none of this is happening.

  The last question raised by the title is whether anti-semitism is "growing"? If you buy the argument that opposition to anything Israel does (like genocide) is anti-semitism, then sure, growing. But that's simply because most decent people have always opposed the atrocities and terrors that Israelis are committing: the growth is in the number of people becoming aware of what's happpening, and who is responsible for it. And when those people are told that opposition to Israel is anti-semitism, some will laugh, many will just focus on the real culprits, but some folks will buy the pitch, and say "why not?" This is something to deplore, but the solution is not to censor the news and stifle dissent. The solution is two-fold: stop the slaughter and wreckage, which the political powers in Israel and the US are responsible for, and are quite competent to do if they decide they should; and move politically to the left, where all people meant to be equal, and free to live their lives in peace and security.

  Since Piker came up:

  • Team Zeteo/Simone Zimmerman [06-11]: Hasan Piker refuses to soften the truth: 'I don't care about Zionists' feelings': "the much-discussed, much-maligned Twitch streamer responds to accusations of antisemitism and argues that the Democratic Party fears its own base." One of many interviews Zimmerman has hosted recently with critics of Israel, including Hannah Einbinder, Molly Crabapple, Tareq Baconi, and Yuli Novak (Executive Director of B'Tselem, who says "Israeli society has become completely genocidal"). Zimmerman was a founder of IfNotNow, a director of B'Tselem USA, and was featured in the documentary Israelism. Unfortunately, the episodes are paywalled (although I was able to watch the one with Piker).

• Illy Pe'ery [06-04]: Israel's curriculum for 'influencing public consciousness': "A leaked Defense Ministry tender lays out the army's training program for manipulating public opinion in Israel and abroad."

• Craig Mokhiber [06-11]: The US and Israeli campaign to liquidate the ICC is working. Countries of conscience must intervene. "The recent suspension of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan over allegations of sexual misconduct, despite a lack of evidence, shows the US, Israel, and their Western allies will stop at nothing to torpedo any effort to hold Israel accountable for genocide."

• Current Affairs [06-11]: "I won't be inclusive of child killers": Norman Finkelstein on Israel's "genocidal society": Interview with the long-time Israel critic. I've read several of his books, including two specifically on Gaza, and found him to be a rigorous historian, as well as a sharp political critic. One book from 2005 (updated 2008) that seems especially prescient today is Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. Even while meticulously documenting Israel's many assaults on Gaza, I doubt he had ever raised the "genocide" word before 2023. But then something snapped. Israelis used to talk about "crying and shooting," as if they had no choice, but now:

  You know what's new about the new Israel? They don't cry anymore. No, it's an interesting phenomenon. They've dropped the crying routine. Now they do it with relish, and they do it with glee, and they post it on social media. That's something new. I don't want to say — it's hard. Look, you're a bright young man. It's hard to say morally which is worse. Or to just do it gleefully and happily. But as a factual matter, it's something new. The Nazis didn't carry on like that. They did not. "We're supposed to see to this terrible burden that was imposed on us by history." The Israelis are in a class all their own. It has to be stressed.

  The problem is not a genocidal regime; that's not correct. The problem is not a genocidal state; that's not correct. The problem is a genocidal society. And that's a real problem.

  This makes me wonder to what extent the genocide was driven by and/or was throttled by Israel's elites — not so much the politicians like Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir, whose success depends on their ability to gauge the pulse of the public, as the careerists in the IDF, Shin Bet, etc., who actually implement, and have some leeway to direct, whatever the political strategy is. At this point we know quite a bit about the internal dynamics of the Nazi genocide, which were much more complex than the simplistic views that either Hitler alone or the entire German population were responsible (the latter claim comes from Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust). But we know very little about such dynamics in Israel. What we do have is lots of inflammatory statements from Israeli politicians and citizens expressing a desire for genocide, and clear evidence that the bombing and razing of Gaza has been extensive and systematic, although one might quibble that the focus has been less on the sheer numbers of killed (which was more clearly the Nazi metric, although even they made allowances for extracting slave labor) than on the general immiseration of the people, including much psychological trauma. From a legal standpoint, I have no doubt that adds up to genocide. But there is more going on here that we don't fully understand. Still, the uncertainty is far less than might give us doubts about the culpability of Israel's leaders, and the general popular consent of the majority of Israel's citizens.

Ukraine, Other Hot Spots, and World Politics:

• Anatol Lieven

  [05-26]: The US suggests it might dump talks as Russia escalates war: "Rubio's ominous comments about the future of negotiations, coupled with Moscow urging US and European diplomats to leave Kyiv, spell darkness ahead."

  • [06-03]: Stalemate or escalation in Ukraine: "With the war in Ukraine grinding into stalemate, the danger is no longer breakthrough but escalation beyond anyone's control."

• Gillen Tener Martin [05-26]: The French rejection: "Why Emmanuel Macron can't convince his voters to rearm." Granted, Trump cannot be trusted to protect Europe from its "enemies" — while Putin has been groomed to play the role, more voters seem worried about the refugees being churned up by the wars in the Middle East and the climate-fueled eco-disasters coming from points south and/or east, a threat that NATO has done more to promote than to stop. Key paragraph here:

  European nations' best hope for security without the United States is to bolster their militaries individually and forge a credible deterrent bloc collectively. To make that happen, leaders must build national consensus on defense spending; and despite his innumerable speeches on the subject, Macron has failed to convince his own voters. Among the most prominent of the 30 potential candidates clamoring to succeed him, some are skeptical not only of remilitarization but also of the EU and NATO.

  We should realize by now that deterrence only works against states that have no desire to attack in the first place, and that to the extent that it has any effect at all, it is to provoke attacks that are supposedly "defensive." US wars against Iraq and Iran were framed as necessary to stop those countries from developing nuclear weapons, even though the US already had a very credible deterrence against any aggressive use of those weapons. (For that matter, so did Israel, which may have initially developed nuclear weapons for deterrence, but now uses them for intimidation and "nuclear blackmail." Iran's "threat" wasn't that they would attack, but that by developing their own deterrence, Israel would be inhibited from attacking them.)

  I don't wish to excuse Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but that war should be seen as a local border issue to Russia, not as a plot to threaten let alone to conquer Europe. It is a war that can and should be resolved diplomatically, and that solution should be a first step toward a much broader disarmament in Europe. Russians should understand that the arms race of the 1950s was ultimately what bankrupted the Soviet system, and also that it was started deliberately by the US because Americans knew their economy could sustain such expenses much longer than the Soviets could. (Early on, rearmament also stimulated the American economy, and it helped produce some advances in science and technology. Europe would get some similar benefits if it were to increase defense spending from 2.0% to 3.5% of GDP, as this article recommends. But they, like America, would find most of the money to have been wasted, at a time when there are much better things they could invest in.)

• Connor Echols [06-02]: Touting battlefield successes, Ukraine leans into peace talks: "President Zelensky and his entourage now say securing a deal within six months is 'realistic.'"

• Andrés Arauz [06-12]: Bolivia's streets have erupted. Here's why. "Ordinary people are rising up against neoliberal orthodoxy." Wasn't Bolivia part of Latin America's big shift to the right over the last couple years? Looks like it's paying the price.

Trump's War Machine: I set this section up to deal with Trump's threats of war. We're obviously beyond that now, so see the section on Iran for more on that.

• Timothy Snyder [05-09]: On superpower suicide: "The United States has just spent billions of dollars to lose a war that enriches its oligarchs, impoverishes the citizenry, sabotages its alliances, and strengthens its enemies. As justification for the self-destructive mindlessness, the White House gestures towards Jesus and genocide." Interesting how you can start with a premise that is utterly wrong, and still make points that seem sensible.

• Stavroula Pabst

  • [05-13]: CBO: Golden Dome to cost $1.2 trillion: "The new estimate dwarfs Trump's initial assessment and would be close to the entirely of today's defense budget." That's the price "to build, deploy and operate over 20 years," assuming it works, or at least doesn't fail so badly they can't pretend othewise.

  • [06-01]: Congress wants proof Trump-class battleship isn't a dud.

  • [06-03]: Dems: $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget a 'blank check' for war:

• AFP/Reuters [05-15] US seeks indictment of former Cuban leader Raul Castro: "The potential charges relate to Cuba's 1996 downing of humanitarian planes, US media outlets report." So, setting up another kidnapping exploit?

• Nick Turse:

  • [05-15]: Internal Pentagon report reveals Hegseth is willfully putting civilians in danger: "A damning Department of War report finds that the Pentagon didn't fully implement any required civilian harm mitigation measures."

  • [05-19]: Ebola outbreak rages after Trump gutted global health safeguards: "The outbreaks of Ebola and hantavirus in the past two weeks show why international threats need an international response."

  • [05-21]: Trump's killing spree in Somalia is just one assault in his global war-making: "No American president has ever attacked Somalis with the persistence and at the rate of President Donald Trump."

  • [05-27]: Trump's "Donroe Doctrine" supercharges violence in the Americas: "The Trump administration's aggression in the Americas has resulted in cartels fragmented and embracing new strategies."

  • [05-27]: Trump's war on ISIS is failing, no matter how Gorka spins it: "Despite rising terror attacks in Somalia, Trump counterterror czar Sebastian Gorka is taking a victory lap."

  • [06-10]: Top Pentagon official admits boat strike may have killed victims of human trafficking: "If this boat was running drugs, why was it loaded with so many people?"

  • [06-11]: A point-by-point breakdown of Trump's failed Iran war objectives: "None of Trump's stated goals in his war with Iran have been achieved."

• Katherine Thompson [05-18]: Can we please talk about WHY we are in a missile shortage? "Lawmakers on Capitol Hill who are being cajoled into spending billions more on the military budget need to read this first."

• Heather Digby Parton [05-21]: Trump's anti-war claims blow up in his face after Iran fiasco: "Opposition to the president's war with Iran among Gen Z MAGA members could help create positive political change."

• Nia Prater [05-22]: Tulsi Gabbard resigns as Trump's intelligence chief. So far, this is being cast as voluntary (unlike the departures of three previous cabinet women; her husband's health was cited as the reason). But Gabbard's 2024 endorsement of Trump and subsequent appointment was widely seen as buttressing his anti-war credibility, which is now in tatters (something she's been conspicuously quiet about).

• Ken Klippenstein [05-26]: The real reason Tulsi Gabbard resigned: "These stories all have one thing in common: they cast Gabbard as a martyr. But that isn't what happened. If you look at what Gabbard actually did, the picture is less flattering."

• Al Jazeera [05-30]: Congress advances US-Israeli military integration plan: "A provision in the 2017 draft US defense bill could bind the two countries' weapons industries closer than ever." When Netanyahu talks about weaning Israel from US military aid, this is what he's pushing: an integration which will give Israel increasing influence over US military expenses, with less public overview.

  • Ben Freeman [05-29]: Congress quietly moves to integrate US and Israeli militaries: "In the first step towards shifting aid further into the shadows, the House's 2027 NDAA would all but fuse the two countries' armed forces together."

  • David Montgomery [06-01]: Trump is weaponizing long-standing restrictions on freedom to travel to Cuba.

  • Blaise Malley [06-02]: Trump taps loyalist with no intel experience to replace Tulsi Gabbard: "Bill Pulte will take over as acting director of national intelligence following Tulsi Gabbard's resignation." Pulte is currently head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, a role he will continue in, which seems ok given that the DNI is a bullshit job with no real function (per its original design, as Gabbard and others have repeatedly shown). Pulte does have a pretty remarkable record as a Trump hack, including "criminal referrals that alleged mortgage fraud by several of Trump's political enemies, including Letitia James and Adam Schiff."

  • Joe Kent [06-03]: US-Israel integration is far from 'America First': "We cannot outsource components of our national security to nations that do not share our interests and that is exactly that this proposed scheme would do." Kent was director of Trump's National Counterterrorism Center before he resigned over the Iran War.

  • Kelley Beaucar Vlahos [06-04]: Pro-Israel voices win out, kill bill to stop US-Israel military integration: "Rep. Khanna took the 'America First' approach against Section 224, but he was out-numbered by those who played down its dangers and implications."

  • Michael Arria [06-11]: Congress is pushing to integrate the Israeli and US militaries on behalf of Netanyahu: "US lawmakers are joining Benjamin Netanyahu in pushing for closer integration of the Israeli and US militaries. Critics warn this will give Israel dangerous leverage over US foreign and defense policy."

• Nathan J Robinson [06-09]: The US is terrorizing Cuba to make rich men richer: "There's barely any pretense that Trump cares about Cuban democracy. This is is about privatizing Cuba's public assets and getting them into the hands of Trump's cronies." There is a story here about a Canadian mining company, Sheritt:

  Sheritt has been operating in Cuba for over 30 years, but the Trump administration's new threats to sanction any foreign business that operates in Cuba resulted in Sherritt announcing it was pulling out of Cuba entirely. But the company swiftly reversed course, announcing it would remain in Cuba. Sherritt had reached an agreement to sell a 55 percent share of its company at a discounted rate to Gillon Capital LLC, a financial office for the Washburne family, one of whose members, Ray Washburne, was appointed by Trump in his first term to head the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. In other words: companies that do business in Cuba have to shut down, unless they are sold for bargain basement prices to Trump cronies. The goal of handing public assets to private companies is in no way disguised. Politico reports that Cuba has been under pressure to "make serious economic reforms" such as "privatizing many state assets" and "allowing more foreign investment."

Trump Fights the Law:

• Ian Millhiser:

  • [05-12]: Virginia Democrats' irresponsible new plan to save their gerrymander: "Democrats just handed the Supreme Court's Republicans a loaded weapon."

  • [05-14]: Mifepristone survives another Supreme Court scare — for now: "Only Thomas and Alito publicly dissented."

  • [05-19]: The Supreme Court just handed down two surprisingly timid Voting Rights Act decisions.

  • [05-19]: Packing the Supreme Court is no longer a fringe idea. I like to describe the current Supreme Court as "packed." That's been part of the Republican playbook for decades.

  • [05-26]: A new Supreme Court opinion is terrible news for federal workers: "Justice Barrett wants Trump to be able to fire everyone in the federal government."

  • [06-03]: The Supreme Court's new decision tilting the midterms towards Republicans, explained: "The Court's new gerrymandering decision is tough to explain, unless you think the justices are GOP partisans."

  • [06-04]: Trump's attorney general pick has exactly one qualification: "Todd Blanche passed his loyalty test to Trump."

  • [06-10]: The next victim of the Supreme Court's voting rights decision will be workers: "The Trump administration wants to extend Justice Sam Alito's approach to race to everything."

  • [06-12]: The Supreme Court invented a special legal rule solely to screw Planned Parenthood: "A new SCOTUS decision raises new doubts about whether a decision against a major abortion provider had any basis in law."

• Peter Balonon-Rosen/Sean Rameswaram [05-14]: Why the anti-abortion movement is disappointed in Trump: "Trump helped overturn Roe. Anti-abortion advocates still aren't happy." Like all fascists, they're insatiable. But it's also likely that they didn't realize that their assault on our rights would turn out to be so unpopular. Interview with Philip Wegmann.

• Michelle Goodwin [05-15]: What the dissents in the mifepristone case tell us about what's to come: "Justice Alito called the Supreme Court's order 'unreasoned' and 'remarkable,' while feigning ignorance over the decades of research pointing to mifepristone's safety."

• Matt Sledge/Sam Biddle [05-21]: ICE recruitment tweets are so racist that cops feared they could incite neo-nazi violence: "A newly uncovered police bulletin warns that white supremacists may interpret ICE social media content as a call to violence."

• Dan Mangan [06-04]: Ex-Trump advisor John Bolton agrees to plead guilty to retaining classified information, MS NOW reports: File under "when bad things happen to bad people for consorting with other bad people and turning on them for not being bad enough." I'm almost always sympathetic to people who run afoul of the classified information laws, but I'll trust Bolton to fend for himself.

• Elie Mystal [06-12]: The Trump administration is addicted to violence.

• Matt Ford [06-13]: The Supreme Court hands a surprising death-penalty defeat to Alabama: "A shadow docket reveals that for some justices, there are limits to how cruel an execution can be. And for others, there are none."

Trump's Administration: Trump can't remake America in his own image (i.e., destroy the country, culture, and civilization) just by himself. He needs help, and having largely purged the government of civil servants and replaced them with his own minions, this is what they are doing (whether he's paying attention or not):

• Dominic-Madori Davis [2025-12-03]: Company backed by Donald Trump Jr.'s firm nabs $620M government contract. Sorry I'm a bit late in reporting this one.

• The FDA approves vaping:

  • Nia Prater: [05-13]: Trump's vape fallout is growing: FDA Commissioner Marty Makary wound up resigning, as did HHS spokesman Rich Danker.

  • Cameron Peters [05-12]: Flavored vapes doomed Trump's FDA head: "Why Marty Makary is out at the FDA, briefly explained."

• Mark Olalde [05-08]: Trump exempted some of the nation's biggest polluters from air quality rules. All it took was an email.

• Spencer Woodman [05-15]: Trump administration curbs state oversight of crypto industry: "The shift offers companies immunity from certain regulations — and, critics say, weakens protections for scam victims."

• Julianne McShane [05-19]: Abortion providers saw waves of threats in 2025 as Trump pardoned their detractors: "The National Abortion Federation catalogued death threats and harassment targeting its members — and cast blame on the Trump administration."

• Zach Beauchamp [05-21]: There's more to Trump's corruption than stealing money: "It's transforming the US government at a cellular level." I suspect it's not just affecting government but everywhere: government is merely the most obvious, because we've long had a civil service system that was at least nominally dedicated to the public good, as opposed to the Trump system of graft and tribute. Business, on the other hand, has always pursued private profit, but in a Trump-dominated world there are fewer inhibitions against rank profiteering. Moreover (and this is not a Trump innovation, although he's certainly made it worse) businesses are finding that their best profit opportunities are not in satisfying market demand but in exploiting government.

• Holly Baxter [05-28]: There were some bizarre and telling interactions at Trump's Cabinet meeting: "The president declared that he doesn't care about the midterms, mused about blowing up Oman — and had some uncomfortable things to say about Pete Hegseth."

• Chas Danner [06-02]: 11 job requirements Bill Pulte met to be Trump's new DNI. Well, let's see:

  • ✅ No intelligence or national security experience of any kind
  • ✅ Willingness to weaponize the government against political enemies
  • ✅ Unafraid to totally fail at weaponizing the government
  • ✅ Someone Scott Bessent wants to beat the crap out of
  • ✅ Zero qualms about fighting dirty in family feuds
  • ✅ Knows where to find AI-generated Trump Jesus pics
  • ✅ Passionate about bad policy ideas
  • ✅ Abundant signs of sycophantic loyalty and devotion
  • ✅ Already knows where things are on Air Force One
  • ✅ Proficiency using personal X account for confusing other government announcements
  • ✅ Rubio-like ability to multitask

  While that may have satisfied Trump, what Pulte didn't have was support to get confirmed, so [06-11] Trump picks new intelligence chief after revolt over Pulte. Trump's new pick is Jay Clayton, who is currently US Attorney in Manhattan. Clayton seems to have picked up considerable Democratic support, "if only to push Pulte out of the acting role."

• Madiba K Dennie:

  • [06-12]: The Trump White House is tackling America's most urgent crisis: upwardly mobile black people: "Finally, this administration has identified a form of 'disparate impact' it finds objectionable." Author previously wrote:

  • [05-18]: Trump DOJ: Yale's Medical School has way too many black students. They've also "reached the identical conclusion about UCLA School of Medicine.

• Kinnia Cheuk [06-12]: Algae resurfaces in reflecting pool after multimillion-dollar fixes.

So all that blue paint, and Trump's pool is greener than ever.

Donald Trump's Tremendous Content:

• Margaret Hartmann:

  • [05-13]: Natalie Harp is (sort of) to blame for Trump's worst posts: "White House officials are 'frustrated' that she feeds Trump offensive Truth Social concent, like the racist Obama post and Jesus picture." Interesting factoid here: Trump (or whoever) has posted more than a dozen tweets overnight 44 times so far.

  • [05-15]: Rush Hour 4 movie: All about Donald Trump's passion project: "The president personally pressed Paramount to revive the buddy-cop comedy franchise and even took Brett Ratner to China to scout locations."

  • [05-15]: No one loves this 22-foot gold statue as much as Trump does: "People at Trump's Doral golf course better assume a more worshipful attitude, lest he move this thing to his DC sculpture garden."

  • [05-19]: Trump says ballroom is his 'gift' while demanding $1 billion: "The ballroom is somehow both a generous present from Trump to American taxpayers and a necessary security project we must pay for."

  • [05-20]: Trump mobile phone beats expectations by actually existing: "Don Jr. and Eric's gold Trump phone is nine months overdue and the American flag logo only has 11 stripes. But hey, it turns on!"

  • [05-21]: Trump gives absurd reason for skipping Don Jr.'s wedding. Looks like fake news, deliberately planted as misdirection (to be charitable) or provocation, as news broke that Don Jr. and Bettina Anderson were married in Palm Beach on May 22.

  • [05-28]: Don Jr. & Bettina Anderson's wedding: The biggest snubs & surprises: "Savage Melania gossip? Ivanka beach photos? Les Misérables? Here's what you (and President Trump) missed from Don Jr. and Bettina's Bahamas wedding."

  • [05-29]: Who is Bettina Anderson? Don Jr.'s socialite wife, explained: "What happened at her Bahamas wedding? Did she vote Biden? Here's a guide to the president's newest daughter-in-law." Or: "Socialite? Does that count as a profession?"

  • [05-29]: Donald J Trump and John F Kennedy Memorial Center Dead at 5 months: "Trump's stupid vanity project died on Friday when a federal judge ordered that his name be removed from the living memorial to JFK."

  • [06-01]: Trump adds 'drone port' to White House Ballroom/Villain Lair: "In new renderings, the ballroom looks like a henchmen-filled compound James Brown must infiltrate to thwart Trump's evil plan."

  • [06-01]: Trump thinks dementia test proved his 'extreme intelligence': "Trump announced the results of his health exam at Walter Reed, revealing that he somehow aced an IQ test without even taking one."

  • [06-02]: Pentagon bans fat troops from White House UFC: "Service members who want tickets to the cage match on the South Lawn must meet the required waist-to-height ratio." I'm reminded of this old cartoon image where an Army Medical Examiner exclaims, "At last a perfect soldier."

  • [06-05]: Poor Ivanka can't build $1.4 billion island resort in peace: "Thousands of Albanians have taken to the streets in protest as construction begins on Ivanka and Jared's Mediterranean luxury resort."

  • [06-08]: Everyone's out to ruin Trump's White House UFC birthday bash: "If a last-minute lawsuit doesn't stop the UFC Freedom 250 fights, the weather might."

  • [06-09]: Trump gets booed at Knicks game yet insists 'NYC loves' him: "He appeared to be sleeping during the game, so maybe he thought the repeated booing was just a bad dream."

  • [06-11]: Did Kim Guilfoyle plot revenge with a chewing-gum tycoon? "If you believe the latest gossip, Don Jr. and Bettina Anderson's relationship survived a very silly scheme concocted by their exes."

  • [06-12]: UFC White House: Trump's birthday brawl, explained: Latest update of her ongoing chronicle of this nonsense. Includes a link to:

    • Mike Stunson [05-27]: Why are people comparing White House lawn to 'Idiocracy' movie? One thing I find interesting here is the picture of Trump holding up an artist rendering of what the cage stage would look like:

      

      In the drawing, the canopy is mostly out of frame, with only the back two arch legs visible. The actual photo squeezes the White House into a diminished frame, reducing it to nearly nothing. The rendering looks like a popular crowd scene, although the cage itself is still somewhat anomalous. The photo looks like a giant insect is about to devour the a much diminished White House.

• Christian Paz [05-14]: A year of Trump is backfiring on the religious right: "Americans don't really want 'Christian nationalism.'" Many poll charts here, but I don't find them very enlightening. Most people have vague and contradictory ideas about the role of Christianity in public life. It makes a difference between asking whether politicians should look to Christian values for their personal behavior and whether politicians should use the state to force other people to follow their religious beliefs.

• Chris Lehman [05-15]: The hypocrisy of Trump's 9-hour prayer festival: "The claim that the founders meant America to be a Christian nation isn't just bad history — it's a declaration of war by the religious right."

• Sasha Abramsky [05-15]: Trump is rooting around in the public trough: "Trump's second term is unabashedly a project of self-enrichment and oligarchic rule."

• Molly Jong-Fast/Michael Tomasky [05-21]: Donald Trump is finally cracking up for real: "His recent tirades confirmed what more than half of America now believes: The president is mentally unfit. How will we survive two and a half more years of this? And what's he got in store for us?" This reminds me that David Ogilvy used to say, "Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won't think you're going gaga." Or at least they won't be sure. It's really hard to tell with Trump, because different people have very different expectations about him, and apply very different criteria to what they see and hear. The four sections here:

  1. Age ("We Barely Talk About It")
  2. Dementia (Disinhibition and Digression)
  3. Arrogance (Too Much and Never Enough)
  4. Stupidity (Every Accusation Is a Confession)

  I don't have time to unpack this, but I'd say the arrogance is congenital, and the stupidity is a side-effect of never having to learn anything. That he thinks he's smart is farcical. But then he's usually been able to make farcical work for him. Most people try to debate like boxers, guarding your vulnerabilities, looking for the knock out punch. Trump debates like a wrestler. He's all over you, relentless, constantly breaking rules, until he wears you down. That's a different skill, one that people with any sort of intellectual discipline find maddening. Does that make him mad? I'd say so, but that's probably because I don't see any way that a person could function as president without analytical skills. He has a knack for giving you instinctive political takes, but he isn't capable of analyzing and solving problems. He's pure reaction. Add age to this, and certain things happen, pretty much to everyone. You slow down. You drop a word here and there. You doze off. How long you can function depends on what you're doing. Athletes lose their edge by age 40. Most people slow down in their 50s, and start forgetting things in their 60s. Even if you still seem competent at 80, it's a grind. But neither Biden nor Trump were ever very sharp, but they had different weaknesses, which were more glaring in Biden, because they were more normal in politicians, and because we were less inclined to excuse them as eccentricities. Trump's decline may seem less obvious, but he never was even remotely competent to be president. If you were aware of that, everything he says and does seems damning. If not, well, I don't know what to say.

• Jonah Raskin [05-28]: Ivy Meeropol's cinematic celebration of E Jean Carroll. Meeropol has a previous documentary on former Trump mentor Roy Cohn, titled Bully, Coward, Victim. Carroll sued Trump for rape, and won $83.3 million in damages. He's having his [In]Justice Department investigate her now.

• Chas Danner [05-29]: Trump's Great American State Fair is running out of acts: "When a colleague first shared the announced headliners for this summer's Great American State Fair concert series on the National Mall, my first thought was, Is that a joke? It wasn't, but now it sort of is."

• Ryan Cooper [06-09]: Two simple steps toward de-MAGAfication: "A big reason why Trump II is so much worse than the first time is that the world's richest man bought Twitter and turned it into a fascist cesspit." I don't mean to dispute the "fascist cesspit" description, although my own limited but continuing use of X isn't that bad (for one thing, I use the "following" thread, and an ad blocker). Nor do I doubt that Musk has reaped a big windfall from his 2024 gamble on Trump. But the real difference between Trump I and II is that first time he was a fluke outsider saddled with a Republican establishment that didn't know what to do with him, not least because they found him unreliable, erratic, and embarrassing (although they still managed to get their tax breaks, deregulation, and military build up, so they weren't unhappy). Second time, they had a chance to plot, to come up with a plan ("Project 2025" was the best known, but just one of many schemes) on how to use him and the whole power of the presidency, a more politicized administration, and a largely rigged court system. Trump is still the weak link in this regime, unreliable, incoherent, sometimes just weird, and his personal projects are ridiculous diversions, but he mostly does what he's told, and even though he's sunk deep in the polls, he's probably doing better than any other front man could. (Obviously, the art of the shill has declined from Reagan through the Bushes, but Trump still makes the coarseness of the UFC end of the pop culture work for him. Fascists have to find their base wherever they can.

• Kelli Wessinger/Noel King [06-10]: Will Trump ruin America's birthday? "Inside Trump's big plans to celebrate himself — and maybe America, too." Spoiler alert: he already has. Interview with Ben Smith.

• Michael Calderone [06-10]: Pressuring The Wall Street Journal and other ways Team Trump went into Epstein damage control: This is mostly derived from a new book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, specifically this excerpt:

  • Maggie Haberman/Jonathan Swan [06-10]: Inside the White House freakout over the Epstein files: "The president's top advisers gathered in a series of Situation Room meetings as they struggled to contain a scandal engulfing Donald Trump himself."

• Michael Tomasky [06-12]: The not-so-secret impulse behind Trump's vulgar, garish birthday party: "In the real world, a weak and insecure Donald Trump is being humiliated by Iran. Ah, but Sunday night, he'll be a manly man among manly men."

  It's sickening. Oh — and it's also, as we've come to expect with Trump, deeply corrupt. First of all, the cost of constructing the arena is around $60 million. Supposedly UFC is picking up that check, but with Trump, who really knows? We taxpayers will undoubtedly be on the hook for something. Meanwhile, the chief sponsor — surprise, surprise! — is Crypto.com. There are in addition figurines of some of the featured fighters. There's apparel — garish T-shirts running $40. Over at TrumpStore.com, somewhat to my surprise, I didn't see any merch specifically tied to the event, but you have to believe that Trump's short-fingered hand is dipping into some till or another here. A lawsuit filed by the group the Public Integrity Project to block the event from taking place (it's pending as I write) states that UFC set up a for-profit entity to manage this event, which is selling seating packages that cost up to $1.5 million — and that Trump previously bought $50,000 worth of stock in TKO, UFC's owner.

• Donna Ferguson/Adam Gabbatt [06-13]: Workers remove Trump's name from Kennedy Center after court rulings: "In the dead of night, behind a screen, the president's name was purged from the facade of the Washington building."

  Cooper's program of "De-MAGAfication" still needs some work. Even if X is as bad as he says, I don't buy this: "I conclude that for the next president, the first, most straightforward, and arguably most important task is to destroy X." I'm slightly more sympathetic to "the next president could also target Musk himself." As Eddie Murphy's character in Trading Places put it, "it occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people." One can have some fun with that, without (as Cooper does) comparing Musk to Pol Pot. Musk's wealth is exceptional, but as with all billionaires it's based on some poor political decisions and attitudes given power in the 1980s. It's going to take more than a wealth tax to reverse that, but lots of approaches are possible. What one needs first is the political support to change things.

  Cooper's second step is to add more seat to the Supreme Court. No doubt the Court, as presently constituted, is a problem, and that would be one way to work around it. But again the first step is to build up the sort of majority support that even this Court will have to listen to. FDR's "court-packing" scheme failed not because he couldn't raise political support for New Deal policies, but because after its initial tantrums the Court recognized that it shouldn't stay in the way of blocking democracy. (As some wag put it, this was "the switch in time that saved nine.") Perhaps this bunch of Federalist Society grooms will stand their ground, in which case expansion becomes an option of last resort. Or maybe a couple of them recognize when they're beat, while new justices arrive and shift the balance. Still, we need to focus on more than just a couple malefactors, like Musk and Roberts. I am increasingly of the view that the way to do this is not so much "De-MAGAfication" as in trying to capture the MAGA base, not by pandering to their prejudices, but by showing them who their real enemies are. The MAGA crowd has one thing going for them that conventional pro-business Democrats have struggled with: they really hate those globalist elites. (Minor point, but I'd change the "G" to Good, as Bill Moyers tried to talk LBJ into calling his programs The Good Society.

Politicking: New section, covering elections, gerrymandering, and other bipartisan mischief, with party-specific pieces to follow.

• Ed Kilgore: Also see his piece on the Democratic Party autopsy.

  • [05-12]: The Supreme Court chose to upend the midterms: "The Callais decision should have been timed to be implemented next year. Apparently, the Court couldn't wait to blow up the Voting Rights Act."

  • [05-13]: What Republicans got out of their gerrymandering blitz. Louisiana and Alabama have eliminated one black-majority House district each, with Tennessee soon to follow. Mississippi, South Carolina, and Georgia may hold off until 2028. "Including the recent Florida GOP gerrymander and the Virginia Supreme Court decision overturning a voter-approved Democratic gerrymander, that means Republicans will roll into the midterms with 12 US House seats in their sights, all of which Democrats thought they would control as recently as two weeks ago."

  • [05-15]: When extreme polarization outlasts Trump, we know who to blame: "Samuel Alito's poisonous Callais opinion is moving the center stage in both parties' future plans."

  • [05-15]: Why the midterms battleground keeps shrinking: "The 2026 races will effectively end with the primaries in much of the country." That's because most districts are designed not to be competitive.

  • [05-20]: Trump gets revenge on Massie, but primary may haunt GOP: "The president took down several Republican foes in last night's primaries. But there was also good news for Democrats in November."

  • [05-20]: Trump's self-absorption spells midterms disaster for the GOP: "Forget policy goals or even boosting his party. The president wants his ballroom, his vengeance slush fund, and lots of payback."

  • [05-21]: Senate GOP turns on Trump, freezes ICE bill. Trump was hoping to push the bill through by June 1. Senate Majority Leader John Thune pulled the plug on that happening.

  • [05-23]: Trump is becoming the un-populist: "From the ballroom to Iran to blatant self-dealing, he's ignoring the will of the people — to his party's peril." Or to his party's delight, if you ask them. If the ultimate goal of Republicans is "own the libs," just look at all the ways he's winding them up. On the other hand, the most compact charge one can make against a complete scumbag (or any political foe) is that he lies, cheats, and steals. That he's a habitual liar has long been obvious, but the cheating (like his attempts to rig congressional seats and interfere with voting) and the stealing (like his $1.77 billion self-dealt slush fund) have grown too blatant to ignore.

  • [05-30]: Democrats suddenly have a real shot at flipping the Senate: "When the midterms cycle started, the Senate looked secure for the GOP. But after many lucky breaks for Democrats, it's now a toss-up."

  • [05-31]: Why Democrats shouldn't write off the South: "Post-Callais, Republicans are racing to lock in their power over the region. Democrats have a moral and political obligation to fight back."

  • [06-10]: Hegseth's faith purge creates a holy mess: "The Defense secretary drastically culled the Pentagon's list of recognized religions, triggering a backlash from Mormons and other faith groups." I don't care enough to go through the lists, but will note three venerable protestant churches that appear to have been dropped: Disciples of Christ (which most of my family attended), United Church of Christ (I have a very good friend who is a retired minister), and Unitarian Universalist (which my late sister belonged to). All three are major exceptions to the generalization that Hegseth seems to subscribe to: that to be a real Christian, you must also be a fascist.

• David Dayen [06-11]: The threat of big insurance: "The industry is hugely lucreative, with endless sums of cash to influence lawmakers. A new report tracks 25 years of health insurance industry donations."

Other Republicans:

• Christian Paz [05-11]: Marco Rubio is dreaming of a kinder, gentler MAGA: "Trump is floating Rubio as a potential successor. His vision sounds very different than JD Vance."

• Ross Barkan [05-14]: Why Ben Shapiro's media empire is collapsing: "Not long ago, he was the king of conservative media. A lot has changed in 2026."

• David Smith [05-16]: Can a Republican defy Donald Trump and survive? Kentucky voters will decide: "Congressman Thomas Massie, chastized by the US president as a 'lowlife', will soon face the ballot box — setting up a crucial test of Trump's political strength."

• John Herrman [05-26]: Republicans are lost in the AI wilderness: "The Trump administration went all in on AI. Then the public started hating it." The Republicans' default stance seems to be that any angle to get rich is fine with them, even if it's fraudulent and/or predatory. On the other hand, aren't they as conservatives supposed to want to slow change down? Or at least to dispell some of the uncertainty about what AI will do, who it will do it to, and how it will make a very small number of people absurdly rich? Democrats aren't very sure what to do either. Especially the ones who feel like they should care about how AI impacts ordinary people.

Democrats:

• On That 2024 Autopsy Report:

  • Ed Kilgore [05-21]: Autopsy report shows Democrats really are in disarray: So, "DNC chairman Ken Martin has released an extremely unfinished draft of the 'autopsy' report, and those who wanted this to happen are going to be very disappointed — or perhaps even horrified."

  • Noah Hurowitz [05-21]: DNC autopsy of 2024 loss doesn't mention Gaza or Israel at all: "As the DNC blamed the author for the report's shortcomings, a source who participated in the research said the author seemed to grasp that Gaza 'clearly' hurt Harris." One thing I want to stress here is that people don't have to understand the war, or feel like they "have a dog in the fight," or even care, to blame Biden and Harris for letting it go on so long.

  • Michael Arria [05-22]: It's the genocide, stupid: "The DNC finally released its long-awaited autopsy of Kamala Harris's failed presidential campaign, and it doesn't mention Gaza. The Democratic leadership's refusal to acknowledge the party's shift on Israel could spell another defeat in 2028." While I believe that most Americans do not support Israel's genocide in Gaza[*], and further believe that most of the Americans who continue to defend Israel is its wars since 2023 would change their mind if they had a better grasp of the facts, I've long believed that what cost Harris the election was not that crimes and great harm were inflicted on Palestinians, but that Biden and Harris had failed to end the two major wars, in Ukraine and in Gaza and around Israel, and worse still that they failed to show any concern that those wars should be ended. Sure, one may assert that Biden did not start those wars[**], and that he had kept American troops out of the wars, so that the human costs of those wars didn't fall on American citizens, but his massive supply of armaments for those wars kept the wars going, and made tidy profits for the US arms industries.

    The reasons why Americans hated these wars wasn't sympathy for the victims. Or that they had any scruples about contributing to the massacre of foreigners, especially those they had been assured were bad hombres who hated America. No, the reason was that the wars were messy and stupid, inconvenient and expensive, and that exposed the politicians responsible as reckless and incompetent. Biden certainly looked the part, and the more Harris said nothing meaningful the more she did too.[***] (While Trump, in 2024, reaped the benefits with his anti-war posse of RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, he's likely to find the shoe on the other foot this year.)

    [*] Whether it's still fair to call it that during the current quasi-ceasefire could be debated, but in intent and in effect from October 2023 until that time it was as clear cut a case of genocide as any since WWII. It is still a war crime of stupendous proportions, with myriad offenses against fundamental human rights. The main reason for referring to Israel's operations in Gaza as genocide is that there is a clear definition of genocide in international law, and that law specifies remedies to bring the perpetrators to justice. To some extent, this has been recognized by international courts, and indictments have been issued, but that has still not stopped the offenders in Israel. As the law notes, the speed or completeness of the genocide does not affect the finding, which is first based on intent (clearly stated by Netanyahu and members of his government, especially Smotrich and Ben-Gvir) and tangible acts to implement that intent (which the IDF has done on a massive scale). On the other hand, I want to stress that there are many ways states and their armed forces (and for that matter, especially in the West Bank, their civilian populations) can violate human rights, and these are no less objectionable if they don't quite add up to the legal definition of genocide.

    [**] I could also argue that both wars were the result of gross negligence on the part of Biden, although I would also insist that Biden's mistakes were built on top of comparable mistakes by his predecessors, going back as far as Clinton's bungling of the Oslo Accords and his expansion of NATO to threaten Russia, but Trump's failures to mediate a solution to Ukraine (which blew up in 2014, under Obama's watch) and to do anything to settle the Palestinians (it was his "Abraham Accords" that conceded to Israel the right to do whatever they wanted in Gaza and the West Bank) led directly to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the desperate Hamas revolt in Gaza.

    [***] As I recall, every time Harris was asked about Gaza, the first thing out of her mouth was that "Israel has the right to defend itself." What Israel called "defense" was indiscriminate slaughter combined with the systematic destruction of all of the infrastructure in Gaza necessary to sustain human life. "Self-defense" was Israel's license to kill, and everyone understood that. So no matter how much she lamented the death and destruction after her initial concession, and promised to work "night and day" for a cease-fire, we (and Israel's supporters, including Netanyahu) knew she would do nothing meaningful about it. At the time, I suggested that all she had to do was to move the self-defense sentence to the end, after she had expressed a bit of humanity and/or reason, and she would have come off sounding much better, even if the bottom line was the same. But she didn't dare do even that much, which left her supporters high and dry, and most others either irate or confused. Then, of course, she sent her most Zionist spokespeople to Michigan, to further piss off the decisive Arab vote. I wonder if that's in the autopsy? (Arria remembers: Liz Cheney and Rep. Ritchie Torres.)

• Zack Beauchamp [05-13]: Are far-right politics just the new normal? "Liberals are preparing for a longer war with right-wing populists than they once expected." Reporting from something touted as "a recent conference for the international left, featuring people like former President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney," where speakers are still lamenting that the wonders of the Biden economy weren't appreciated by the unkempt masses. How can anyone still confuse these "liberal elites" with "the left"? Rather than just accepting the "populist right" as a permanent fixture, shouldn't we try to figure out how to redirect their anger against more appropriate targets (like the superrich)? While they have many ill-considered views, their basic sense that something is profoundly wrong, and someone in power must be held responsible for it, is something one can work with and build on. Makes a lot more sense than trying to tell people that their problems are just in their heads.

• Errol Louis [05-13]: AOC's plan to win the midterms: "To prevail in November, House Democrats need to do more than oppose Trump." Focus on substantive issues, and don't let the media get you sidetracked with speculation about personal ambitions.

• Bill Scher:

  • [05-22]: The Democratic Party is divided (but not how you think): "New polling shows not so much ideological division among Democrats but a lack of consensus about where the party should go." I think he means about who can be trusted to lead the party. He opens with photos of Rahm Emmanuel and Graham Platner. While Scher, perhaps the ultimate DNC Centrist pundit, loathes Platner, his case for Emmanuel stresses how "populist" Clinton's former chief wonk is trying to appear. While I have my own reservations about Platner (his case for ending the federal gasoline tax is plain wrong), unlike Emmanuel, he doesn't reek of board room/country club effeteness and corruption.

  • [05-27]: Janet Mills should unsuspend her US Senate campaign: The former Maine governor gave up after falling hopelessly behind in the polls, but as Scher points out, she's still on the ballot, so the small number of diehard Graham Platner haters (like Scher) still have all the options they need. And the points they want Mills to score against Platner will continue to be made by Republicans. Most of the time Scher is arguing for pragmatic choices, so why not here? Why waste her time and money trying to help Collins to another term?

    PS: Much more about Platner, both before and after the primary, where Platner won the Democratic nomination with 72% of the vote. I don't have time to organize a whole section, but here are a few links:

    • Perry Bacon [06-10]: Graham Platner is testing a new strategy to defeat Susan Collins: Interview with Billy Kobin (no transcript).

    • Dustin Guastella [06-13]: The attacks on Graham Platner didn't just fail — they may have backfired: "Graham Platner's primary victory in Maine says more about the unpopularity of the Democratic party elite than any race to date." I had similar thoughts before the election, when I commented on Tom Carson's admission that he would "vote for Collins in a heartbeat" against Platner:

      Maybe this is my redneck coming out, but the more slime I see from well-meaning liberals against Platner, the less I believe, and the less I care. Granted, that's a common reaction from Trump voters, but their problem was less their knee-jerk reaction against Harris-Biden-Clinton-Obama than their ridiculous blind spot around Trump. Democrats need candidates who can puncture that blind spot much more than they need goodies who suck up to the rich thinking they can turn their money into votes.

  • [05-29]: If you called for Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales to be expelled, then you should impeach Donald Trump: First, I never called for their expulsion, nor would I have. I'm still upset about the House's "exclusion" of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. as the elected representative of Harlem in New York City in 1969 (which, by the way, was later ruled unconstitutional). Maybe there should be a recall process, as some states enacted during the Progressive Era, which would give voters a chance to second-guess their choices, but the House itself should have no such powers. As for comparing the misdeeds of Trump vs. those of Swalwell and/or Gonzales, they precisely match, although Trump's exceeds the others by even more than their net worths. The problem with impeachment isn't the crimes, but the jurors. The only way Trump can be removed from office is if his own Party decides to cut his losses and do the thing (either impeachment or through the 25th amendment, which would have to be initiated by Trump's toady cabinet, and then ratified by Congress with the same 2/3 supermajority needed for Senate conviction, which makes it virtually impossible without Trump's consent). This isn't a very good system, but it is our system, and changing it would be even more difficult than using it. Republican Party unity is such that there is zero chance of impeaching Trump now, so it's a moot issue. If Democrats win the House in November, they could "impeach" Trump by minority vote, but they would have to win over at least one-third of the Senate Republicans to convict. It certainly isn't clear whether the two times Trump was "impeached" during/after his first term in any way hurt him in the 2020 or 2024 elections. While he is very unpopular now, Republicans still balked at convicting him after he instigated the January 6, 2021 siege of Congress. Democrats have no reason to think they can construct a case to convince them. Indeed, it seems like a waste of time to bother with a remedy that is certain to fail. So let's just stipulate that impeachment (or a cabinet-forced resignation) is an option for Republicans. When sufficient numbers of them decide to make it happen, they can expect Democrats to help them rid themselves of this pestilence, but until they do, the only thing Democrats can do is to make sure that people realize that it is Republicans who are keeping Trump's reign of (t)error operating. They should all pay the price next time the people get a chance to vote.

• Harold Meyerson [06-08]: Encircling the royalists: "Democrats finally show up to the class war."

• Greg Sargent [06-11]: Why is Trump tanking in MAGA country? These Dems found a good answer. "Some new research on working-class voters make it clear. They're furious at Trump — and they want a message from Democrats that pledges specific action." It's about time for Democrats to try to win over districts where plenty of people are upset at how things are being run. Cites this piece:

  • Shane Goldbacher [06-09]: A Democratic Super PAC makes a $50 million bet in Republican strongholds.

The Economy (and Economists):

• Emmanuel Saez/Gabriel Zucman [05-26]: The case for California's billionaire wealth tax. The opening chart, of "the surging fortunes of California's ultrarich," which in constant dollars for the top 0.0002% of Californians, has risen from $22 billion in 1982 to $1.6 trillion in May 2026.

Technology (Including AI):

• Eric Levitz

  • [05-21]: The hidden way dictatorships are shaping what AI tells you: "Authoritarian states may have accidentally brainwashed ChatGPT." And casually calling China and Russia "authoritarian" while exempting the US and Israel is what? AI only knows what it's been trained to know, and it only "thinks" in ways that are consistent with fidelity to its training materials. That could make it useful for propagating an establishment worldview, as much in the US as in China, as the rulers of each have no doubt already recognized. The difference may be the degree of control they exercise: in the US, that's usually been weak but certainly not neutral (e.g., consider how willingly major media went along with the Cold War and the War on Terror, where very distorted views of the world became ubiquitous and for the most part unquestioned).

  • [06-12]: Trump's strange flirtation with AI socialism, explained: "Uncle Sam and OpenAI may go in business together." Uh, whatever this is, it isn't socialism.

• Ryan Cooper [06-10]: Tracking the flood of AI political spending: Not unlike the $245M the crypto industry spent in 2024, with Trump getting in on both ends, profiting mightily from his own crypto scams.

• Jelinda Montes [06-12]: AI data centers are taking over. These Americans are fighting back: "Energy and water intensive AI projects are draining communities. The revolt is just getting started." I must admit a considerable degree of ignorance and/or skepticism about opposing AI data centers as a political agenda item. (I recently heard Astra Taylor on this, and know that Bernie Sanders is concerned. I'll add some more links below, but I really haven't thought this through.) I've long found it interesting why so many people intuitively fear some things and not others. Or perhaps, for complex issues like climate change and AI, they latch onto some aspects but not others. I don't quite get what they fear about AI, but what I fear is capitalism: specifically, that AI might make it so efficient its essential rotten core will become manifest, unfettered by practicality and ethics.

  • Nathan E Sanders/Bruce Schneier [03-24]: As the US midterms approach, AI is going to emerge as a key issue concerning voters: Pull quote here is: "The energy and environmental costs associated with datacenters are just one of many costly harms that tech companies are trying to foist on the public." That seems to be one many people can grasp, unlike AI itself, which is unsettling in more elusive ways.

  • Astra Taylor/Saul Levin [05-08]: The fight against AI datacenters isn't just about tech — it's about democracy.

• Kate Aronoff [06-12]: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wants us to think he's building a god: "He acts like he has special knowledge about how best to regulate his company. But he's a CEO like any CEO, and he wants what all CEOs want: to write his own rules."

Regular Columnists

Sometimes an interesting columnist writes often enough that it makes sense to collect their work in one place, rather than scatter it about.

Dean Baker: All his pieces are worth reading. But I didn't collect them regularly, as I have in the past, so I thought of skipping this section. But a couple stood out:

• [05-20]: Reforming bankruptcy laws: Getting tough on private equity deadbeats: How private equity firms work should be well known by now. Josh Kosman laid out the basics in his 2010 book The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Is Destroying Jobs and Killing the American Economy, just before Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign gave us a case in point. Bankruptcy laws are important here, as that's where most of the companies bought by PE firms end up. Baker has some good ideas here, but I have one I like better: I feel that bankruptcy law should attempt to preserve businesses and jobs by giving them a fresh start, free of the encumbrances PE firms saddle them with. I would turn those companies over to their employees, and inject enough financing to get them up and running again. And sure, this means screwing the creditors. And if that makes banks less likely to finance perilous PE deals, so much the better.

• [06-05]: Friday morning book review: Cancelling Billionaires: The Urgent Case for a Wealth Tax: The book, by two Canadians, is Linda McQuaig/Neil Brooks: Cancelling Billionaires Before They Cancel Us. (McQuaig, by the way, also has a 2019 book called The Sport & Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich Are Stealing Canada's Public Wealth.) I have mixed feelings about wealth taxes. For one thing, assessments are hard to pin down (e.g., the city thinks my house is worth 2.5 times what I paid for it; when we sold my late father-in-law's house, it went for less than a third of its assessment; if Elon Musk had to sell all of his stock, it would certainly go for much less than its current valuation). Worst case, you have to liquidate your property just to pay taxes on it. Much better to tax transactions, where the money is there. On the other hand, there are cases where wealth taxes do make sense, especially for estates (where the marginal rates can be quite high, because not dying isn't an option; you can, as we do, exempt a sizable chunk before taxes, and liquidate the rest, so you get an honest assessment of its value). I also think that foundations should be forced to liquidate some share of their equity each year, so they don't just become permanent tax shelters. But at present, in the US at least, I wouldn't mind a wealth tax on the super-rich. It's just that, like Baker, I'm more bothered by how they managed to get so rich in the first place:

  I prefer nailing the rich before they get their money, both because it is much more efficient than trying to pry it back after the fact, but also because it takes away the rich's shield, where they try to hide behind the free market. A government that funds research upfront and puts it all in the public domain is no less free market than a government that grants patent and copyright monopolies. Similarly, a government that taxes financial transactions, like every other item, is no less free market than one that makes a special exemption for the financial industry. And the market doesn't tell us how to structure bankruptcy laws.

• [06-08]: Trump mistake #27,462: Chasing away immigrants doesn't help native born workers: I doubt he's actually counting, but as a guestimate this isn't obviously high or low. But the number is a distraction. I don't really buy the old saw that "few people born in this country want to work on farms picking lettuce or tomatoes or in meat-processing plants." Sure, they don't want to work lousy jobs for poor wages, but I doubt that immigrants want that either. They may be more willing to settle because they have few better options. What American workers need is more rights and leverage. Reducing competition from immigrants might give them a bit more leverage, but that doesn't translate quickly to rights. On the other hand, giving both native and immigrant workers more rights does. Maybe this results in some jobs becoming unaffordable, but if they really mattered, someone would find a way to make them attractive enough for workers.

• [06-09]: Just say no to Bernie Sanders' AI sovereign wealth fund. I'm not sure whether Baker is being critical of sovereign wealth funds in general — they mostly exist in countries that have nationalized mineral wealth (mostly oil), allowing them to direct those revenues to other business ventures — but one focused on the AI bubble is certainly a bad idea. And not just because like all bubbles, this one will break. And not just because such a fund not only lose a lot of money, but will inevitably waste even more trying to save itself. But also because we're confusing the AI business with AI technology. Business develops technology not because it's good for people but to make money off of them. This predatory relationship may be tolerable if limited, but nothing about this generation of AI moguls suggests that they're into it for short of unlimited power and wealth.

• [06-12]: The real abundance agenda: weakening patent and copyright monopolies: Sure, he's written this piece many times before, and will do so many times again. It's such an obvious and essential point that it's hard to understand why more people aren't doing the same. I keep meaning to write it up myself. I'd go so far as to say that there is no justification whatsoever for granting patents. Moreover, you could eliminate the entire system today, and innovation, development, and industry would carry on without a hitch. (Sure, it would be bad for patent lawyers, and possibly speculators, but we'd save so much money elsewhere we could easily retrain them to do useful work, or just pay them a generous amount not to bother us further.) The situation with copyrights is a bit messier, because we don't have a good alternative scheme to fund writers and other artists, but the present copyright system doesn't work very well either (yet lots of people still create things, for little reward). These systems are really just another form of tax farming. That's a horrible system, as all historical instances show. Baker is responding to this piece:

  • Dylan Gyauch-Lewis [06-12]: New documents detail nine-figure, Silicon Valley-funded abundance movement: I should probably dig my way more carefully through this, but the gist is fairly obvious: that the Klein-Thompson focus on Abundance works for rich Democratic donors much like the supply-side economics jargon did for Reagan Republicans: it offers a way for government to make rich people even richer, while claiming they're doing something for all of us. But this has been standard policy for Democrats at least back to Clinton: pursue reforms, but only ones that have substantial donor/business buy in. As such, they never tackle things like patent rents that make health care unaffordable. They're happy to invest money in "green energy" businesses, but not conservation.

Tom Carson:

• [05-12]: Triomphe the insult comic's Arc de Trumpe. After being assured by "sandbox-loving Trumpies, that we're the lucky owners of the most powerful, most lethal, most all-around bitchenest military on the planet and/or in world history," he points out that "this coming August will mark the 81st anniversary of the last time we won a war." (Then misses the opportunity to quibble over whatever the hell we actually "won" in that war.)

  Maybe I'm a born Eeyore, but the Trump administration's Epsteiniran gamahuche strikes me as a poor candidate to liven up America's moldy victory laps with a new lap dance. And that, my friends, is why we need a Trumpian Arch of Triumph in Arlington, Va., to grandly fuck up the view from the Lincoln Memorial to the Lee-Custis mansion on the other bank of the Potomac. . . .

  One unpleasant truth that can't be avoided is that his plans for a gloriously Trumpified nation's capital resemble Albert Speer's designs at Hitler's behest for a gigantic, pastless new postwar Berlin to be known as Germania. Another, more reassuring truth is that Germania never got past the stage of being a big 3-D scale model that the addled Fuhrer spent increasing hours canoodling with as the war went phhht. . . .

  Yet in both cases, what porn connoisseurs call the money shot — destruction on a vast scale — will already have been accomplished. Berlin's hash got settled by American and British bombers and Red Army artillery and tanks in 1945; whatever happens next, the White House's East Wing is rubble for good. Don't bet against the same being true soon of the Kennedy Center, a building, concept, and Camelot talisman Trump hates so much that sticking his name on it provided only inadequate and temporary respite. You know, like a dog pissing on sumac to mark its own territory.

• [05-18]: Trump and what army? "As Memorial Day looms, let's take stock of how POTUS values America's military." Having "grown up partly around military people in Berlin during the Cold War," etc., he has a soft spot for the military I've never shared, but I can count dozens of relatives and a few friends who have done their bit, some at great personal sacrifice, some merely gloating over the personal perks of the closest thing America has to socialism, I can suspend my own disdain for the military to allow those so inclined to show them some respect. Especially when that respect runs counter to Trump:

  Two particular features of Trump's reign that fascinate me. One is his hostility to American history. Guy's really got a grudge against it, wonder why. The other is his administration's truly extraordinary disdain for the United States military. You can't say it exceeds any prior administration's disdain only because no prior administration has gone anywhere near the lunacy of expressing disdain at all. . . .

  Trump's loathing of being seen with maimed combat veterans — they didn't make him look good, he complained, underlining who the only important guy in the visual was — makes George W. Bush like he missed his calling as a battlefield surgeon. His craving for a tank-crunchy military parade in D.C. disregarded how many — sadly, not all — of the U.S.A.'s wars have been fought against everything such images represent. His hatred of Black and female generals and trans enlisted troops spits in the face of the one government entity that, for all its sins, has been in the forefront of literally embodying social equality.

  There isn't space enough here to list all of Trump's military-bashing insults and smears, and keep in mind I'm writing this online. So let POTUS's ability to discern a competent and laudable Defense Secretary in Pete Hegseth, who believes war is a continuation of date rape by other means — a line I've used before, but screw it, it's an evergreen — stand for the rest.

Jeffrey St Clair:

• [05-15]: Roaming Charges: Go down, Moses.

  + $109 billion: the amount Americans spent on lottery tickets in 2025, more than they shelled out on movies, concerts, books, and sporting events combined. It's the Crap Shoot Stage of Capitalism.[1]

  [1] I knew a guy whose email signature was something like: "Lottery, n. a tax on stupidity." I thought it was more like a tax on futile hope. They see it as the only chance they might get to make enough money to make a difference, and all it costs is something they'd probably lose anyway. Sure, the odds are awful. But so is the rest of their lot in life.

• [05-22]: Roaming Charges: Peanuts from heaven.

• [05-28]: A short history of the Iran War, so far. This is how it started:

  Trump began his war on Iran during talks to prevent it. He said it gave him the element of surprise. His missile strikes killed much of the Iranian leadership, including some of the Iranians his team thought might govern the country after the bombing ended. One of his missiles hit a girls' school, another hit the compound of Mahmood Ahmadinejad, one of the candidates Trump's people had in mind to run Iran after they killed Ayatollah Ali Khameni, the Iranian religious leader who, austere as he was, preferred negotiation over confrontation.

  Trump brushed off talk from some of his advisers that Iran would likely respond by shutting the Strait of Hormuz and attacking other Gulf States that had aided the US, either explicitly or covertly. His aides were right. He and Hegseth were wrong. Then Israel killed Iran's top negotiators. Suddenly, there was no one left to talk to. Trump claimed that the Iranian military was completely destroyed. Iran responded by downing US fighter jets, drones and surveillance planes. It struck US military bases, ships and a CIA station house.

  Trump claimed Iran had no leaders and its government was in a state of collapse. But the new regime quickly coalesced around Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, and took a more radical, uncompromising stance. Trump said the Kurds would invade Iran and arm Iranian dissidents. But the Kurds, burned one too many times by the US, declined. And after US and Israeli missiles hit neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, power plants and oil refineries, the Iranian resistance turned against the US.

  The Strait of Hormuz was shut down. The price of oil shot up and Trump's poll numbers sank. The global economy was sent into crisis. Trump asked the European nations he had refused to warn about his plans to go to war against Iran for help. They refused. Spain, Italy, France, Austria, and Switzerland went further. They either blocked or restricted the use of their airspace, landing rights or shared military bases for airstrikes on Iran.

  It gets worse from there, including:

  Unable to extort former US allies to bail him out or bomb the Iranians into submission, Trump began to manipulate the market, announcing fake cease-fire deals one week, threatening to make Iran glow the next. The market spasmed up and down and people with inside knowledge, including Trump, who made over 3000 trades, cashed in.

  Trump may not understand the first thing about war, but he knows how to run a graft. I'm not convinced that "Iran is now in a position to dictate the terms of any deal," but they're certainly in a position to reject any deal they find disagreeable, which means that Trump has to do something he's incapable of, negotiating.

• [05-29]: Roaming Charges: Hail the unconquering hero! Title a twist on the Preston Sturges film. Starts with a reprise of his "Brief History," then moves on, finding Cory Booker even more hawkish than Trump.

  + Sam Altman: "We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter." This is why they don't care if (and in fact don't want) your kids to learn to read or write. They want to sell basic intelligence and the less you know, the more they can charge you for telling you something you should have learned in middle school.

  + Artificial intelligence is causing a net U.S. loss of 16,000 jobs per month, according to an analysis by Goldman Sachs.

  + The Trump administration is now targeting people who oppose AI and massive water hogging and power-hungry data centers under a new threat category dubbed "anti-tech violent extremism," many of whom, by all indications, are MAGA — along with the Pope, of course.

  + White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka says that the Trump administration is going to label American Leftists "terrorists" right alongside drug cartels. Will there be drone strikes? "We're gonna label terrorists as terrorists, whether it's cartels, whether it's jihadis, or whether it's sadly the le — the Americans who are left wing, who are radical, and because they subscribe to some anarchic, anti-fascist, or radically pro-transgender ideology."

  + Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei, dropping an inconvenient truth about the social and economic consequences of AI: "The signature of AI is that it's going to take us to a world where we have very high GDP growth, and potentially also very high unemployment and inequality."

• [06-12]: Roaming Charges: Data my eyes:

  + Dante himself couldn't have found a better spot in Hell to deposit James Dolan, maybe the worst owner in all of professional sports (and that's really saying something), than to lock him in a box next to a farting, snoring, grunting Donald Trump as 24,000 Knicks fans jeer and boo them both, while watching his team lose to the young San Antonio Spurs, over and over again, night after night for all eternity . . .

  Trump: "Look at the basketball ratings. They're down to very, very low numbers. People are angry about it. They don't realize. They have enough politics with guys like me. They don't need more as they're driving down, going up for the shot. They don't need it. There was a nastiness about the NBA the way it was done, too, so I think the NBA's in trouble. I think it's in big trouble, bigger trouble than they understand, and frankly, ice hockey, which is doing very well, they didn't do that. They respected the mores. They respected what they're supposed to be doing."

  + As for who is really watching what . . .
  Stanley Cup NHL Finals (2026) viewership: 5.05 million (Game 3)
  NBA Finals (2026) viewership: 28.7 million (Game 4)

  + 39: the number of times Trump has said a deal is imminent to end the Iran war. Does President False Alarm continue to move the market?

  + This week, Israeli troops conducting raids in Hebron shot a seven-month-old, Sam Fahd Abu Haikal, in the head while he was held in his mother's arms. . . . Israel has killed more Palestinian children in the last 3 years than Palestinians have killed Israelis of any kind over the last 80 years.

  + 97: Number of J6 rioters pardoned by Trump who have committed new crimes since J6. Recidivism is the hallmark of a true Trumper.

  + Trump on Graham Platner (or is he engaging in a rare episode of self-reflection?): "This guy's got a rap sheet, I've never seen anything like it. He's a low-level thug, and he's running to be senator . . . He's worse than any human being that's ever run for office, probably." [Worse than Trump? Worse than Aaron Burr? There must be some others on that level that are slipping my mind.]

  His "Booked Up" includes a link to Cory Doctorow, The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It's Too Late.

TomDispatch: Tom Engelhardt's newsletter has come to an end, with the world still badly in need of it. Reports are that Nick Turse, a former intern as memory serves, and recently The Intercept's top war reporter, will take over. No evidence of that yet.

• William D Hartung [05-28]: Donald (disaster) Trump: "And the fight for a humane future."

• Rebecca Gordon [05-31]: Endings and beginnings: "About that arc of the moral universe, sometimes it's more like a meandering sine wave."

• Tom Engelhardt

  • [06-04]: A personal TomDispatch farewell (of sorts): The site's editor, after 24 years, is retiring. I've followed the site regularly almost since its inception. (As best I recall, my tip was just one step removed from Jonathan Schell, an early writer there.) I tried to get him interested in my writing a couple times, to no avail. The dissolution of the American empire has been both his and my great theme of the last 25 years, so I both appreciate all he has done, and think I could add a little bit more. One thing I probably would not do is always cycle back around to climate change. I don't doubt that it's happening, or that its effect will be huge, but I'd rather focus on other things, while treating it more as something that can be adapted to, although the opportunity costs of not working on it are huge.

  • [06-08]: War, what's it good for? "Absolutely nothing." He's moved on to a Substack.

  • [06-11]: Reading the Times: "(And not just the paper)."

  • [06-12]: 2025 wildfires were the costliest ever: why isn't that news?. Seems to be an alternate title to "Reading the Times."

Miscellaneous Pieces

The following articles are more/less in order published, although some authors have collected pieces, and some entries have related articles underneath.

[Washington University] Rebecca Dudley/Gloria Fall [05-06]: WashU's financial mismanagement is jeopardizing our education: Authors are PhD students at my almost alma mater. (I had a couple summer school courses that would have met my BA hours total, but some strange things happened, and I got shot down by an incomplete on a course that I wasn't allowed to finish. It's a weird story I should write up some time, including why I didn't much care about the degree I missed out on. But that was 1973. The bit I find most shocking here is the current $71,310 tuition. As I recall, it was about $6000 then, which I could only handle with scholarship and loans, which even then meant that most of my classmates were rich kids.) Another item here is their use of some software called Workday, which WashU "has spent over $265 million on." That in turn has led to "massive layoffs." Also re Washington University:

• John K Wilson [06-09]: Academic authoritarianisn in a new attack on humanities scholars: "There is virtually no evidence offered in the report for its sweeping conclusions about the entirety of the humanities." I'll just add that the destruction at Washington University started back in the 1970s when I was a student there, and the administration decided to gut and dismantle what had been one of the nation's most eminent sociology departments.

[Vox] Sara Fischer [05-20]: Vox Media sells podcast biz, some publishing brands to James Murdoch's Lupa Systems: This includes the Vox and New York Magazine websites, which I often cite. Some other brands will remain independent, but none I recognize (maybe The Verge). Vox Media co-founder/CEO Jim Bankoff will join Lupa. James is one of Rupert Murdoch's sons, which raises some sort of alarm.

[Biden] Ben Terris [06-13]: Building back the Bidens: "The urgent, embarrassing, and occasionally convincing campaign to salvage their legacy." Sure, I could have filed this under "Democrats," but they've moved on, and so should we. Two things permanently destroyed his presidency. One was his indifference to ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Sure, that may largely be blamed on Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, who most likely will never work in Washington again, but he was president, he could have done something, and he only made bad situations worse. The other, perhaps even more unforgivable, was losing to Trump, even disguised as Kamala Harris. There's a story here about Biden trying to scrape up change to build his presidential library in Wilmington, and how poorly he's doing compared to Obama's foundation, with its "behemoth center in Chicago, known as 'the Obamalisk.'" I seriously doubt that the legacies of Obama and Clinton are going to wind up looking much better than Biden's term, but at least they went out as "winners" (unfairly, I'd say, given that both lost their Congressional majorities after two years, and never recovered, leaving them six years to legislate nothing of note for their constituents, while helping their donors get rich, a favor amply returned through their foundations).

• Nia Prater [05-28]: 5 revelations from Jill Biden's upcoming memoir: Four have to do with cognitive decline and the debate, so you can guess them. The fifth is "she says she left notes warning Biden about dealing with Netanyahu":

  According to the outlet, she left a note reading, "Net has to stop," referring to the world leader after an Israeli air strike killed seven aid workers. On other occasions, she left a message ahead of a planned conversation the president had with Netanyahu, telling her husband, "Be strong. Don't let BN use your goodness."

Books:

• The Guardian [05-12]: The 100 greatest novels of all time: Click bait, which often for music and sometimes for movies I used as checklists, but I read so little fiction this will likely prove useless. Fwiw, I've read one (The Master and Margarita), started several others, have heard of (can tell you the authors of) most of them, and have seen a couple dozen in the form of movies or television series. One thing I have in common with my wife is that we both started then abandoned Anna Karenina, back in our teens, after a couple hundred pages. She's gone on to read the majority of the list. One novel I did read and liked so much I'm pretty sure it would hold up in this company is Thomas Pynchon's V. But I gave up on Gravity's Rainbow after 350 pages, and haven't attempted any of his later books.

• Michael Eby [05-14]: Is antitrust enough?: "Tim Wu's Age of Extraction lays out an antitrust strategy for fighting platform capitalism. But does the challenge posed by Big Tech require a new playbook?" I've read Wu's book, and there is much more to his solution than just antitrust. Still, some business models are problems in themselves, a problem that making them more competitive and less extortionate doesn't help much.

Obituaries: I had been using the New York Times, but they're giving me aggravation these days, so I'll switch over to Wikipedia (May, also June), which is probably better anyway. Roughly speaking, since my last report on May 12:

• [05-13]: Clarence Carter (90): American singer-songwriter ("Slip Away," "Patches," "Strokin'")

• [05-18]: Sally Head (79): British trelevision producer (Cracker, Prime Suspect, Jeeves and Wooster).

• [05-19]: Barney Frank (86): Member of Congress (D-MA, 1981-2013).

• [05-20]: Ron Escheté (77): American jazz guitarist.

• [05-21]: Kyle Busch (41): NASCAR driver.

• [05-25]: Sonny Rollins (95): Saxophone colossus.

• [06-03]: James Blood Ulmer (86): American jazz guitarist and singer.

• [06-04]: Robert Coles (97): American child psychiatrist and author of many books, most famously his Children of Crisis series.

• [06-04]: Marjane Satrapi (56): Iranian-French graphic novelist.

  • Phillip Maciak [06-08]: The singular power of Persepolis: "Marjane Satrapi's inimitable art encompassed revolution and war, education and ideology, repression and rebellion."

• [06-06]: Bob Packwood (93): US Senator (R-OR), 1969-95. New York Times obituary is subtitled Senator forced to quit in sex scandal. I remember him more for taking an antiwar stand on Vietnam.

• [06-06]: Lee Raymond (87), American oil executive, the guy who put Exxon and Mobil back together again. He's the main character in Steve Coll's Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power (2012).

• [06-07]: Gordon S. Wood (92): American historian, author of: The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787 (1969); The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992); Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic 1789-1815 (2010); and other important books.

  • David Waldstreicher [06-11]: How Gordon S. Wood shaped the idea of America: "The acclaimed historian, who died at the age of 92 this week, spent decades at the center of a debate about the founding of the United States." I've read quite a bit by Wood. I thought his first book was the definitive history of the writing of the constitution, while his later books were my principal sources for the founding generation and, with Empire of Liberty, the early years of the republic.

• [06-11]: David Hockney (88): English painter.

• [06-12]: Gene Shalit (100): American journalist, media critic and television personality.

Tweets: I've usually used this section for highlighting clever responses and/or interesting ideas.

• David Everall [04-30]: Forwarded a post from Chalkie Davies, noting that "Lester Bangs died on this day 44 years ago," and including an obituary written by Robert Christgau (also available here).

• Steven Hendricks [04-27]:

  Communication Con Job

  As a former corporate communications and government affairs executive, I've been watching Donald Trump answer questions with the media for more than 10 years now. The confidence, the certainty, and the way he controls media interviews. It's no wonder some people "think" that he's a skillful communicator.

  Every single time that Donald Trump is asked a question — any question — he runs the same exact seven 'deceitful' steps — the same exact order—without exception.

  This is not one's personality, not confidence nor is it charisma either. This is a deliberate repeatable "control the lie" formula — and here is the formula.

  1. KILL THE QUESTION (First thing every time — make the question itself the problem.) —"That's a stupid question." / "Fake news."
  2. KILL WHO ASKED IT (Destroy the source so the question has nowhere to stand.) —"Your ratings are terrible. Nobody watches your network."
  3. INSERT HIMSELF (Every topic. Every time. Without fail. It always lands here.) —"Nobody has ever done what I've done."
  4. SCALE IT TO THE BIGGEST CLAIM POSSIBLE (Not good. Not great. The greatest—ever— In history. Every single time.) — "More than any administration — by far." / "Nobody has ever had crowds like I've had in history, for any country."
  5. UNNAMED PEOPLE AGREE (Faceless. Countless. Unverifiable. Always there.) — "Smart people are saying it. Great people. A lot of people."
  6. VAGUE THREAT (Something bad will happen. Never specified. Always implied.) — "All hell will break out." / "They know it. Believe me."
  7. LOOP BACK TO HIMSELF (Different words. Same destination. Formula complete.) — "It's been an amazing period of time. Page after page of accomplishments."

  The question was never answered — the formula was just executed. Go back and watch any news clip, any interview, any topic, any reporter. Count the steps — they're all there.

  And this is the part that nobody wants to believe . . . A "control the lie" formula runs the same seven steps whether the topic is war, Epstein Files, or egg prices. Which means the response was never built for the question; it was built for you—the listener; to feel certain; to stop you from noticing that nothing was actually answered.

  And it worked — for years it has worked. It's why he lies with such confidence, with such arrogance, with such certainty — he's controlling the moment — and he's doing it without people noticing.

  Pull any news clip video, any interview transcript, any public statement and count the steps yourself. This isn't about politics. This is about controlling what you were never supposed to notice — and Donald Trump is a master it!

  MAGA Trumpublicans eat it up and they fall for Trump's "communication con job" — every single time! Unfortunately, so does a lot of other people!

• Tom Carson: Picture of a guy who looks like Lindsey Graham in a "69 47" T-shirt."

• Astra Taylor: She seems to have a new book coming out, combining forces with Naomi Klein, called "End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World." Book is scheduled for September release. Quote from Naomi Klein:

  Trapped in Bad Fiction

  Must the future be this corny? Are we really doomed to live inside the half-remembered childhood fantasies of overgrown teenage boys? To be cast as bit characters in a misunderstood book that Elon Musk or Peter Thiel may or may not have finished reading? Is it even possible to write about those hackneyed futures without becoming a cliché yourself?

  Over the past year, as Astra Taylor and I have immersed ourselves in what we call End Times Fascism, I have returned to these questions often. Whether it's Musk's dreams of space colonization, Sam Altman's prediction of an imminent machine-human merger, or Pete Hegseth's Armageddon complex, it often feels as if we are trapped inside very bad science fiction.

  Our book comes out in September and now that we are through the copyedit (and the fact check, and the legal review . . . ) I finally have a little space to engage in real time conversations about how apocalyptic stories about the end times are shaping the news cycle, from everyone accusing everyone else of being the Antichrist, to Donald Trump's obsessive drive to build a gilded ballroom over a fortressed bunker (which I think of as a sort of drydock Titanic).

  I love this new direction because it speaks directly to that uncanny feeling, shared by so many of us, of being caught in somebody else's kitschy version of the future — one we have all been warned against countless times. The cold blues recall several classic Isaac Asimov jackets, and the retro rocket ship brings the same scifi era to mind.

  Jim Stoddart, who designed the cover for Allen Lane, explains that the rocket's exodus "illustrates the most extreme metaphor of the super-rich believing they can escape the rest of humanity — whether fleeing to islands on the other side of the globe or rocketing off to Mars — while exacerbating devastation behind them." And, of course, the Earth on the cover is imperiled, "being metaphorically shrouded with poison intentions by the privileged few." But Stoddart points out, all is not lost: "the planet has not yet been entirely overwhelmed — and there lies the hope for the future."

  Astra and I firmly believe that to be the case, which is why we wrote the book and immersed ourselves in that poison since Trump re-entered the White House. A huge part of the reason why a dystopic future can feel inevitable is precisely because versions of that violent story have been told and retold so many times, riffing off the same template that appears in the Book of Revelation, which casts armageddon as a necessary stage on the way to a frictionless, lifeless heavenly utopia. Unfortunately, we have far less practice imagining versions of the future in which we come together to fight for all that is irreplaceable in the blessedly imperfect, friction-filled living world.

  And yet we are surrounded by examples of people doing just that, from parched communities coming together to resist AI data centres to the historic summit happening right now in Santa Marta, Colombia, where 60 governments have convened to chart a path away from fossil fuels, refusing to let the breakdown of climate negotiations at the United Nations be the last word in the fight against climate breakdown. With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran showing us all — yet again! — the enormous perils of fossil fuel dependence, the summit comes at a critical moment.

Current count: 371 links, 26617 words (32677 total)

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Wednesday, June 10, 2026

June archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46097 [46048] rated (+49), 11 [20] unrated (-9).

A lot of stuff to cover this week. My preview, Music Week (6:2) came out on Tuesday, with 7 reviews, 4 of them A-, 6 new and 1 old music. It's also available on the website here. All of the Substack posts are there. After three weeks, I'm beginning to like this system. Among other things, it breaks the week's work up a bit, and moves it off Monday.

I did the cutoff on Wednesday, so picked up a couple more albums below, but I did it before I took a serious look at Robert Christgau's June Consumer Guide. I was surprised not to recognize any of the albums there. Hard to remember when that last happened. Turns out I had heard but forgotten Pony [B+(**)]. Also forgotten was a 2018 K.A.A.N. album (Subtle Meditation) which I had given an A- to. I was vaguely aware of new albums by Ashley McBryde and The New Pornographers, and I had logged EOY Aggregate points for This Is Lorelei (while only listening to the "deluxe edition" reissue of their debut). More on those records next week.

While the cutoff was on Wednesday, I didn't want to post this until I was in a better position to write about the Mid-Year Jazz Critics Poll. I had pretty much decided to do it in mid-May, but wasn't moved to commit until Bill Marx raised the question. It's a fairly straightforward proposition for me:

1. Clone my previous poll website, and make a few edits to move from 2025 to 2026 Mid-Year (or 2025 Mid-Year to 2026 Mid-Year).
2. Send invites out to my mailing list(s).
3. Collect and count ballots, updating the website.
4. Once everything is counted, write an essay, where most of the substance is in the totals tables.

Each of those is a fairly substantial piece of work, but it's work I've done many times before. I expected it to wipe out June and early July, but I've been procrastinating on my memoir, while drowning in things to critique politically/philosophically. But at least there is some demand for and interest in what I have to say about music, and that keeps drawing me back. I don't really want to do another EOY poll, but the stakes are much lower for the Mid-Year; it's clearly something I can do, and it's unlikely to get done otherwise. (Maybe someone else wants the EOY?)

I spent 5-6 days working on the website: more than was needed, but I did a pretty careful job of documenting each step, and then I did a pretty thorough rewrite of the Notes for Voters. It's unlikely anyone will read these pieces, but as an engineer, I use them to think through the various issues that will almost certainly crop up.

I finally updated the website last night, and announced the plan to my jpadmin mail list. I still had a couple of programming changes I wanted to do, and I got to them today:

1. I wanted to be able to offer a permanent URL for individual critic's ballots. The old system was stable enough after voting was closed, but could break when new ballots were added.
2. The reason the first point mattered is that I wanted to be able to give voters a URL they could later look up, recheck, and possibly link to so other could see, even before the end of voting. To do this, I also needed to exempt ballot viewing from my pre-publication lock code.

This turned out to be about as easy as I had expected: one new file, which mostly reused old code, and a half-dozen line edits. The totals tables are still locked up. It would have been easier to just unlock everything, but I didn't see much value in opening up the totals tables, and it could have been confusing if people saw someone only temporarily in the lead (as California's primary shows). But I think opening up the ballots will allow voters to check and publicize their own ballots, and will help voters find albums before it is too late. I'm also hopeful this will draw some more attention to the poll, which is usually a big deal for a few days after publication, then fades from attention.

The second stage has usually been my big problem area. I have a mailing list for voters (jazzpoll), which is easy to send to, but in the past has had delivery problems. It should be better now, but it's hard to be sure. So in the past, I've often had to send an extra round of invites out on a different (sending them out one-by-one using my personal account), which takes a huge amount of work. I'm hoping to avoid that this time. But the bigger problem is identifying everyone we should be sending invites to. I've never had time to do this properly, and probably won't this time either. Best I can do is to ask for recommendations, as I do in the invite and elsewhere.

Counting the ballots should be easier this year, as I've dropped the special categories that have added a lot of extra work and confusion to previous polls. Still, early on it can take as much as an hour per ballot, as I have to identify and verify each new album. In this, it helps that I keep a jazz tracking file (currently listing 311 jazz albums, but I expect it to more than double before the poll closes).

I hope to keep the essay simple and straightforward, with a top-50 table for new jazz albums, a top-25 (or so) for rara avis (reissue/historical), a list of voters, and a few side comments. Nothing I need to worry about before the time comes.

As for other matters, Loose Tabs is still pending. No chance I can really catch up with events, so the best thing is probably to just publish whatever I have this weekend, then start again. Any posts to Notes on Everyday Life are likely to be opportunistic. (I'm pleased to note an uptick in subscribers this week — a dividend from working on the poll.)

As for this week's albums, Phil Overeem's May list has been a primary source.

New records reviewed this week:

Marisa Anderson: The Anthology of UnAmerican Folk Music (2026, Thrill Jockey): American primitive guitarist, based in Portland, 11th album since 2006, including duos with Jim White, Torji Dashi, and William Tyler. Also plays pedal steel, accordion, and electric piano here, with guest violin/viola on two cuts. B+(**) [sp]

Chuck Bergeron: Bass & Face: Duets With Ten Premier Vocalists ([2026], Summit): Bassist, from New Orleans, Discogs credits him with three albums since 1995, 44 more side credits, including big bands and singers. The ten vocalists here are: Janis Siegel, Pete McGuinness, Roseanna Vitro, Kevin Mahogany, Sheila Jordan, George Rabbai, Lisanne Lyons, Deborah Silver, Kate Reid, and Nicole Yarling. Only recording date I can find is 2005 for Mahogany (d. 2017), but that is probably the only non-recent track. (Jordan died in 2025, but was 95 when her track was cut, so 2023-24.) A few cuts have extra guest musicians: Charles Pillow (sax), Phil Strange (piano), John Riley (drums). Some nice pieces here. B+(**) [cd]

Boards of Canada: Inferno (2026, Music 70/Warp): Scottish electronic duo (brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin), lived in Canada 1979-80, recorded first EP in 1995 and album in 1998 (their best known, Music Has a Right to Children). This is only their fifth, a long break after 2013 and 2005. B+(**) [sp]

Bop Alloy: Masters of the Artistry (2026, Bop Alloy): Hip-hop duo of Substantial (Virginia-based MC from Maryland) and Marcus D (producer/pianist from Seattle), third album since 2010, easy underground flow. Choice cut: "Last Song I'll Ever Write." A- [sp]

Alan Braufman: Anthem for Peace (2025 [2026], The Control Group/Valley of Search): Alto saxophonist, plays some flute, joined the New York avant scene in the early 1970s, his only real album appearing in 1975, then a long hiatus before 2019, when he started dusting off old tapes and recording new ones. Quartet here with Patricia Brennan (vibes), Luke Stewart (bass), and Chad Taylor (drums), with Ken Filiano and Michael Wimberly on one track. B+(**) [sp]

Columbia Icefield: A Silence Opens (2024-25 [2026], Out of Your Head): Trumpet player Nate Wooley, prolific since his 2005 debut, group named for his 2019 quartet album with Mary Halvorson (guitar), Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar), and Ryan Sawyer (drums). Second group album since then, with Ava Mendoza in Halvorson's place. Alcorn is credited on four tracks (the long ones, separated by five short bits, mostly Wooley but one assembles a choir), but the liner notes offer a hint that she may have finished her bits in spirit only. B+(**) [cd]

Michael Dease Big Band: Return Trajectory (2025 [2026], Origin): Trombonist, from Georgia, studied at Juilliard, teaches at Michigan State (where's he's been influenced by Gregg Hill, recording several albums of his compositions), debut 2007, has considerable big band experience going back to Illinois Jacquet in 2002. Six songs here: two originals, two by Hill (listed as executive producer), one from J.J. Johnson, and a delightful "Cherokee," all in 33:26. B+(**) [cd] [06-19]

Armen Donelian: Inquiry (2020-24 [2026], Sunnyside): Pianist, 15th album since 1981, started with solo piano then built it up over several years, adding Dominique Eade (voice), Ed Neumeister (trombone), Jay Anderson (bass), and Dennis Mackrel (drums). Originals plus "Somewhere," "Blue in Green," and something from Beethoven. My appreciation of art song remains pretty limited. B+(*) [cd]

Eddy Current Suppression Ring: In Light of Recent Events (2025 [2026], Suppression): Australian indie rock outfit, first album 2006, some earlier singles were collected into the superb So Many Things (2003-04 [2011]). B+(***) [bc]

Entropic Hop: The Quest for the Normal Is the Death of the Self (2025 [2026], ESP-Disk'): Group of Aron Namenwirth (guitar, voice, electronics), Ayumi Ishito (sax, electronics), and Kevin Shea (drums, voice, electronics), with special guest Sonic (voice, guiro), recorded in Brooklyn. Shea I recall from MOPDTK and Talibam!, and I've heard several of Ishito's albums on 577. Namenwirth has a couple albums I haven't heard [PS: below], but his guitar is key here, the foundation of their "post-human soundscape." Song titles start with "ChatGPT Grafted My Identity" and end with "Justice is no more than just ice," with scattered words, pondering much existential anguish along the way (a long one, 16 tracks, 76:47). B+(***) [cd]

Joel Futterman/William Parker: Transcendent Universe (2025 [2026], Burning Ambulance): Piano and bass duo, although I was thrown at first with a piercing sound that reminded me of saxophone (no such credit, but Futterman has played sax in the past). But as similar sounds evolved, I figured they must have been emanating from Parker's bass. But after a few minutes, this settles into what you might expect: a rhythmically adventurous pianist and a relentlessly inventive bassist. A- [bc]

Golems of the Red Planet: Surf Masada: The Compositions of John Zorn (2026, Heyday Again): Quartet from Akron — Harvey Gold (guitar/keyboards), Bob Ethington (drums/percussion), Mark Allender (bass/voices), and Matt Reese (cello); cover sticker identifies them as "members of Tin Huey, Pointless Orchestra, and Trial of Lucy" — play John Zorn compositions, with a bit of surf guitar overhang. B+(***) [bc]

Brad Goode Quintet: Live Your Dream: Live at the North Street Cabaret (2025 [2026], Origin): Trumpet player, from Chicago, 1988 debut was titled Shock of the New, has an interesting career I've never quite figured out, roughly filed under post-bop. Strong live set, with a rhythm section of Adrean Farrugia (piano), Jay Anderson (bass), and Adam Nussbaum (drums), plus a "featuring" role for tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts, who often sounds terrific. B+(***) [cd] [06-19]

Andy Haas: Messianic Time (2026, Resonant Music): Canadian saxophonist, based in New York, I first noticed him in a new wave rock band called Martha & the Muffins (1980), and later in the jazz trio Radio I-Ching. A new trio here with Brenda Rey (bass) and James Paul Nadien (drums), with effects, harmonica, and voice. This is fairly rough listening, demanding attention, as if trying to wake, or just remember, the dead (in this case, his late drummers Dee Pop and Michael Evans). [PS: Bandcamp version has 2 tracks not on CD (total 4 tracks, 50:01); CD had four tracks not on Bandcamp (6 tracks, 60:40). Title cut, curiously enough, is only on Bandcamp.] B+(**) [cd]

Jon Hamar: Música Callada (2025 [2026], Origin Classical): Bassist, has several jazz albums since 2007, a couple dozen side credits (especially with Jeff Hamilton). Duo with pianist Adrienne Fontenot, opening with a rendition of Frederic Mompou's 9-part title piece (15:36), followed by six shorter pieces (two originals, one by Hamilton, one by Ned Rorem, two by David P. Jones). B+(*) [cd] [06-19]

Aldous Harding: Train on the Island (2026, 4AD): Singer-songwriter from New Zealand, originally Hannah Topp, Harding was stepfather's name, plays piano and guitar, fifth album since 2014, John Parrish produced and mostly plays percussion, with H. Hawkline on guitar and keyboards. B+(**) [sp]

Wendell Harrison & Tribe: Tribute to Pharoah Sanders: Live at the Concert of Colors Detroit 2025 (2025 [2026], Org Music): Tenor saxophonist from Detroit, a founder of Tribe with Phil Ranelin in the early 1970s, which exemplified what I think of as the fusion of avant-jazz and black power to construct a community activist fusion music. Sanders and Archie Shepp were senior figures in that movement, as they already had international reputations. (AEC was another; Bayard Lancaster in Philadelphia, and Horace Tapscott in Los Angeles, were to follow.) No credits here, but a large group with vocals, doing several Sanders "hits." B+(***) [sp]

David Hillyard & the Rocksteady 7: Home for Dinner (2026, Org Music): Ska saxophonist based in New York, known for his work the the Slackers as well as this band, which has eight albums since 1999. Featuring percussionist Larry McDonald, with fairly prominent vibes. A mix of originals, standards, three Roland Alphonso tunes, with outliers from Kurt Weill and Jorge Ben. Two guest vocals. Pleasant enough, but Alphonso and Tommy McCook have nothing to fear. B [bc]

Ital Tek: Mind Abandon (2026, Planet Mu): British electronica producer Alan Myson, ninth album since 2008. B+(**) [bc]

JPEGMafia: Experimental Rap (2026, Peggy/AWAL): Rapper Barrington Hendricks, sixth studio album since 2016, more mixtapes 2009-15 (most as Devon Hendryx), 25 songs in 52:07, intense fast ones with jerky beats and post-metallic clang. I suppose I should be more impressed, but I'm not enjoying this much. B+(*) [sp]

Whitney Johnson/Lia Kohl/Macie Stewart: Body Sound (2025 [2026], International Anthem): String trio (viola, cello, violin), with voice and tape effects. The tone suggests drone, although the improvisation is typically more complex. B+(**) [bc]

Carolyn Lee Jones: Eklektika (2026, Catn'round Sound): Standards singer, sixth album (per notes; only one, a Christmas album from 2021, in Discogs). Cover also notes: "Jazz Retro Pop Bossa Nova," which I initially took to be a subtitle, but dropped that idea on finding this lacks even what I've come to call "the obligatory Jobim." Bio notes "she burst on to the jazz scene in 2008," and cites "her own groups": Fresh Vintage Jazz Ensemble, The Satin Dolls Band, and In Full Swing. Long list of redundant credits suggests this came from multiple sessions, which aren't dated. Some vintage standards, nicely done. [PS: She has one previous album in my database, The Performer from 2013, which I also liked.] B+(***) [cd]

KJADE: The Sound That Trees Make (2024, self-released): Rapper-singer Kendall Jade, based in Phoenix, first album, ten fractured pieces (22:11), teases for more. B+(**) [bc]

KJADE: On Everything I Love (2026, self-released): Second album, twelve pieces this time (20:52), not counting the 4:24 remix. B+(**) [bc]

Ava Mendoza: Alive Alone, Alive Together (2026, Burning Ambulance): Guitarist, based in Brooklyn, can play heavy rock as well as avant-jazz, sings/shouts some, could make it as the next Kim Gordon, but holds her own on four solo tracks here, and gets some help from Hamid Drake (drums) on four more. B+(***) [bc]

Mod Lang: Borrowed Time (2026, Just Add Water): Detroit power pop group, quartet with retro-sixties harmonies, hooks, and drums, but doesn't trigger any nostalgia for me, even for later bands in this vein like the Raspberries or the Pooh Sticks, let alone Big Star (a name-drop, but also a signature guitar quote). B+(**) [bc]

Namasenda: Limbo (2026, Year0001): Swedish-born dance-pop singer-songwriter Naomi Namasenda, parents from Uganda, first album after a mixtape and a remix album. B+(***) [bc]

Willie Nelson: Dream Chaser (2026, Legacy): Still cranking out new albums at 93, this his 79th studio effort, 10 songs in 30:50, 6 co-writes, most with producer Buddy Cannon, one with Bob Dylan. He still sounds terrific. B+(***) [sp]

Shane Parish: Autechre Guitar (2025 [2026], Palilalia): Guitarist, based in Athens GA, has recorded a good deal since 2015, including with Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet. The idea here is to play songs from the British electronica duo Autechre (15 studio albums 1993-2020) on solo acoustic guitar. I've heard three Autechre albums, which are neither for me, but I suspect I would find the electronics have more appeal than the guitar does. B [sp]

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet: Happy Today (2025 [2026], International Anthem/Nonesuch): Guitarist, born in Connecticut, studied at Berklee, moved to Chicago in 1991 where he established himself (in post-rock groups Tortoise and Isotope 217, as well as jazz groups like Chicago Underground and many other collaborations), before moving to Los Angeles in 2013. There this quartet took its name from "a Monday night residency from 2016-2023 at ETA Highland Park." With Josh Johnson (alto sax), Anna Butterss (bass), and Jay Bellerose (drums). Two 20+ minute pieces, as basic patterns iterate, mutate, and develop. A- [bc]

Ben Patterson: Stretch (2025 [2026], Origin): Trombonist, former Airmen of Note music director, fifth album since 2020, postbop with some groove and swing, backed by Shawn Purcell (guitar), Harry Appelman (keyboards), bass, and drums, with chops aplenty. B+(**) [cd] [06-19]

Kemuel Roig: Both Sides Now (2026, Life in Music): Cuban pianist, studied in Miami, side credits since 2015 with Arturo Sandoval, Ed Calle, Brian Lynch, and Aymee Nuviola. First album, a solo, mostly standards with a bonus second take of Jimmy Rowles' "The Peacocks." Not splashy, but very nicely done. B+(***) [cd]

Skullcap: Snakes of Albuquerque (2023 [2025], Cuneiform): "It might be easy to think of Skullcap as Janel & Anthony plus one": Leppin (cello) and Pirog (guitar), who have a previous record as such, plus Mike Kuhl (drums). B+(**) [dl]

The Sleeveens: National Anthem (2026, Goner): Rock band formed in 2022 in Nashville by Stefan Murphy (from Ireland, originally Stef + the Sleeveens). Second album. Seems pretty conventional to me, but give them credit for keeping the energy level up. B+(*) [bc]

Tyshawn Sorey: Members . . . Don't (2025 [2026], Pi, 2CD): Drummer, MacArthur genius, arranged four pieces by Stanley Cowell plus three more (Jymie Merritt, Gary Bartz, Max Roach/trad.), for a quintet that expands them masterfully to an average over 13 minutes, with Adam O'Farrill (trumpet), Mark Shim (tenor sax), Lex Korten (piano), and Tyrone Allen II (bass), with vocalist Fay Victor nailing the finale. A- [cd]

Gary Versace Trio: Three Track Mind (2024 [2026], Sunnyside): Pianist, has a large number of appearances since 1997, many on organ or accordion. Trio here with François Moutin (bass) and Rudy Royston (drums). This is quite nice. B+(**) [bc]

Victor Vieira-Branco's Bark Culture: The Giant Is Awkward (2025 [2026], Temperphantom): From Philadelphia, second group album, first claimed by the vibraphonist, who composed 4 (of 5) pieces, the other one by pianist Sam Yulsman, an addition here to John Moran (bass) and Joey Sullivan (drums). B+(**) [bc]

Weird Nightmare: Hoopla (2026, Sub Pop): Indie power pop band from Toronto led by Alex Edkins, formerly of Metz, which released five studio albums 2012-24 (overlapping the Weird Nightmare debut in 2022). First album blurb said, "if you're looking for a raw, sugary blast of distorted pop, look no further." That remains true, but how about a hits or two? B+(*) [sp]

White Denim: Wd13 (2026, Bella Union): Indie band from Austin, got some notice early on (2008-09), but they've kept at it, releasing another album most years since, the titles counted since 12 (most sources give this as 13, but I prefer to believe the cover). Slips and slides, with a bluesy feel that can escalate into funk (as in "adelicment"). "In the USA we are simple and free." Well, not so simple. B+(**) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Kaiso Power: Sound Revolution in Trinidad 1970-1980 (1970-80 [2026], Soundway): Some rare crate digging. B+(*) [bc]

Les Rallizes Dénudés: Disque 4: '76 Studio Et Live (1976 [2026], Temporal Drift): Japanese experimental rock group, formed in 1967 but didn't release anything until 1991, when they dropped three albums (including some old music: '67-'69 Studio Et Live and '77 Live). The overall sound, especially the guitar, was influenced by Velvet Underground, nicely stretched out to emphasize the atmospherics. A- [bc]

Old music:

Bop Alloy: Substantial and Marcus D Are Bop Alloy (2010, Elevation): Debut album, rapper Stan Robinson and producer Marcus Marino. Underground, nice flow to start. B+(**) [sp]

Bop Alloy: Another Day in the Life Of . . . (2014, Bop Alloy): Second proper album, aside from instrumental versions and remixes. B+(**) [sp]

Namasenda: Unlimited Ammo (2021, PC Music): Swedish dance-pop singer-songwriter, parents from Uganda, studied in US, signed to A.G. Cook's British EDM label for this first mixtape. B+(**) [sp]

Aron Namenwirth/Eric Plaks/Sean Conly/Jon Panikkar: Hurricane (2018 [2019], Culture of Waste): Brooklyn-based guitarist, first album, with piano, bass, and drums. Keeps you sharp. B+(***) [bc]

Aron Namenwirth/Zach Swanson/Joe Hertenstein: Gettin' Hot (2019 [2020], Culture of Waste): Guitar, bass, drums trio, recorded live (3 tracks, 30:00). [bc]

Weird Nightmare: Weird Nightmare (2022, Sub Pop): First album from Alex Edkins' Metz sugary distorted pop spin off. Plus is that the first song has minor hit potential. But the rest of the album is more determined in its Copper Blue hype. B+(*) [bc]

White Denim: Workout Holiday (2008, Full Time Hobby): Austin group, their new Wd13 testifies to aging gracefully, but reminded me that I had missed this first album, hard to find at the time (released in Europe after re-recording an EP with the same title plus some extras, then reissued for their American debut under a different title). The guitar/noise brinksmanship reminds me of a similar group from the time, No Age, whose title Weirdo Rippers would fit this as well. [Bandcamp page is for "(Deluxe Edition)" but its 5 extra tracks are listed but not available. This "first album" was released in EU, while there is a "first US album" called Exposion, which I hear is more or less the same or different — a distinction I find not cost-effective.] B+(***) [bc]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Mike Clark: Kuon Ganjo (Time Without Beginning) (Wide Hive) [08-07]
• Satoko Fujii: Satoko Fujii's Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra (2014, Libra, 2CD) [07-10]
• Hein Westgaard & Matt Maneri: Chamber (Gotta Let It Out) [2024-06-27]

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Thursday, June 4, 2026

June archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 46048 [46001] rated (+47), 20 [32] unrated (-12).

I think I'm going to give up on the regular Monday schedule for Music Week. It may still happen sometimes, but I haven't hit the mark very often of late, and I'm changing up my publication policy. Last week, I didn't publish Music Week until Friday, but I posted a Music Week in Advance on Wednesday in my Notes on Everyday Life (Substack) newsletter, with eight of the week's 40 reviews. I was slowed down by scheduling conflicts, and by extra end-of-month overhead, but I've also been feeling bad about not delivering much content through the newsletter.

Over the last week or two, I've written over 16k words toward the next Loose Tabs, but they've been locked up in a draft file, which while technically public (as often as I update the website, which isn't very often) aren't very accessible, let alone effective. I've thought about writing some sort of "executive summary" and sending it out to the newsletter after publishing Loose Tabs, but have trouble finding the time to do that. A better idea might be to pull out some of the more important or urgent comments, and send them out right away, then use the occasional Loose Tabs blog posts just as reference. A big part of the reason I write them in the first place is that they give me a record when looking back.

I haven't done anything like that with Loose Tabs yet, but I have decided to start (or continue) releasing Music Week in two steps: a first draft with a short list of reviews, selected for importance or just because I think they're relatively readable, will go out to Notes on Everyday Life subscribers. Then a day or two later I'll follow that up with a full Music Week post. For the former, I'm aiming at 6-8 reviews — this week's, dubbed Music Week (6:1) has 9 reviews, so that isn't set in stone. I've been doing 4 album cover pics, but could have less, or maybe more? That's all I've tried so far. While I tend to select my top picks, that too is no guarantee. This week I skipped two A- albums, in favor of five lesser grades. (I was less happy with the Kenny Barron review, and I didn't finish Charles Downs until after I posted.)

The latter, of course, will have everything. Thus far, it's had a slightly later cutoff date, allowing a couple extra albums to get logged. I at least take an extra pass at editing the NOEL reviews, while the regular Music Week reviews rarely get a second look, much less an extra listen. A big part of the reason I do Music Week the way I do it is that I'm offering full disclosure. I may not write meaningfully about everything I listen to, but I do keep a record, which provides the context from which my reviews develop.

So my plan going forward is to continue collecting my reviews in the monthly archive, with an index in my scratch file. Then once a week (no particular day), I'll pick out 6-8 reviews (or more or less, depending on the week's haul), and send that out to Notes on Everyday Life. The advantages are that subscribers will get the week's highlights delivered directly to their inbox, with some extra attention paid to the editing, and little or no extra fuss. I hope you'll subscribe. (There is no "paid tier," but the subscriptions make me feel like I'm writing for people, and not just for the search/AI bots.) You can, of course, like and/or comment, as well as forward the mail to anyone you think might be interested. I don't particularly like the world Substack is making, but it is nice to get some thoughtful commentary in my inbox, a distinct relief from the avalanches of PR/spam I receive every day.

Then, a day or two later, I'll post Music Week on the blog, which will include the full week's haul of reviews (usually 30-40), with my slugline of how many albums I've rated over 50+ years (currently 46,048), a longer introduction, possibly including some personal notes, maybe some news. I always announce blog and Substack posts on X and Bluesky. I'm more likely to use Bluesky for other posts. I don't do many, but sometimes feature a piece of music that has stuck in my ear. lot of that. I also have a Substack Notes account, again little used at present (but if it doesn't try to strangle me at 280 characters, it might be a better way than Bluesky to forward links as I collect Loose Tabs).

I also have Facebook set up so you can follow me without going through the protocol of becoming friends. My original intent there was to follow a few relatives who were difficult to track otherwise, then added old personal friends when I could (way too many of whom have since died). I've kept this circle pretty narrow since then, but I've allowed a few correspondents along the way. However, I now have twice as many followers as friends, so I may start making more use of Facebook for my writing. Otherwise, I mostly use it to post dinner pics and notes, like this little one I made tonight. I also have an RSS: it's compiled by hand, but at least covers the blog posts.

One piece of news is that I do expect to run a mid-year jazz critics poll this year. More details next week, starting with letters to my admin list, then to voters and publicists. I'll update news here until it's done (I'm thinking July 4 as voting deadline, so perhaps a week after.) The first big job is always to update the invite list, and it's one I never find enough time to do properly. It starts with asking everyone I can think of to nominate new (or at least non-voting) writers, so let's start with whoever's reading this: send me any suggestions using the Q&A form or email.

Aside from the weekly music posts, I'll try to send out 1-3 additional pieces during the week, mostly addressing specific topics (some gleaned from Loose Tabs comments, some reflecting reading, some from ongoing memoir work). I'll try to make them varied and interesting.

One thing I'm unlikely to do this year is another EOY Aggregate, but I'm still adding a few things to the 2025 edition. I'm planning on doing a "Not the Dean's List" Substack post, where I talk about the aggregate and tracking, and offer a few overlooked albums from 2025. I doubt if I'm ever going to follow another year that closely, so it's nice to see the year wrapped up with some authority.

New records reviewed this week:

Sheldon Agwu: Kintsugi (2025, Sanctum): London-based producer/guitarist, slotted as ambient, first album. B+(*) [bc]

Wayne Alpern: Varieties & Extravaganzas (2026, Henri Elkan Music): Composer, based in New York City, thirteenth album (only five on Discogs), mostly draws on classical composers and techniques (also cites Morton Feldman and Steve Reich), hype sheet includes extensive technical notes, both over my head and beyond my interest. The music is played by Times Square Brass Quintet (two trumpets, picarello horn, trombone, and tuba). B [cd]

David Ambrosio/Donny McCaslin/Ingrid Jensen/Bruce Barth/Victor Lewis: Civil Disobedience: Blue Note in the Progressive Sixties (2026, Blue Frog): I moved the bassist to the front of the credits list (his name is bottom-center on the cover), as he seems to be the driving force here, amid more famous musicians on tenor sax, trumpet, piano, and drums. While Blue Note was the preeminent label of the early 1960s, after 1965 it quickly went to pot, shedding key artists while simply shelving others, dodging the more stridently political atmosphere as commerce drifted toward fusion and funk. The idea here is to authentically remake compositions from the shelved period, which means restoring them to the golden age of hard bop. No doubt the musicians have the chops for that task. As for the politics, it's a sign of the times that mainstream music of sixty years ago is once again challenging and undermining the fascist culture cops. B+(**) [sp]

Richard Baratta: Another Kind of Bird (2026, Savant): Drummer, has several albums of film music, dives into Charlie Parker tunes here, with Bill O'Connell (piano) arranging, Vincent Herring (alto sax), Paul Bollenback (guitar), Michael Goetz (bass), Paul Rossman (percussion), and guest spots for saxophonists Eric Alexander, Eric Burton, and Craig Handy. B+(*) [sp]

Big K.R.I.T.: Dedicated to Cadalee Biarritz Vol. 1 (2025, Multi Alumni/ONErpm): Rapper Justin Scott, from Mississippi, acronym for King Remembered in Time, broke out in 2005, peaked with Cadillactica in 2014, first album since 2022, reviving his glitzy Caddy dreams. The album appeared to little notice in December (17 tracks, 31:41), followed up by a more recent "Deluxe Edition" (25 songs, 48:07). The former pops on every track, but I rechecked it by listening to the latter, and remain convinced. A- [sp]

Bomba Estéreo/Rawayana: Astropical (2025, Sony Music Latin): Two groups, from Colombia and Venezuela respectively, each with more than a decade's worth of albums, meet up. B+(***) [sp]

Sofia Borges/Rieko Okuda/Peter Van Huffel: Lagrangian Points (2024 [2026], 4DaRecord): Drums, keyboards, alto/baritone sax, all with minors in electronics, recorded live in Berlin. Title refers to "positions in space where the gravitational forces of two large masses and the centrifugal force balance out." In this context, that suggests precise balance in improv interactions, and they've done that. B+(***) [dl]

Bobby Bradford/Mark Dresser/Hafez Modirzadeh: Sonic House Reunion (2026, NoBusiness): Cornet player, started in 1970 in a group with John Carter (1929-91), has worked steady and lasted a long time, appearing here at 92, in a trio with bass and tenor saxophone. B+(**) [cd]

Anthony Caceres: Let's Take a Trip (2026, Jig in G): Bassist, also sings, various family members were musicians, including a grandfather who played violin in big bands in the 1930s. Studied in San Antonio and at UNT, based in Houston, brother Dave Caceres (alto sax/vocals) has an album I've heard, he has at least one previous album. Joined here by Tamir Hendelman (piano), Jostein Gulbrandsen (guitar), and Joe Farnsworth (drums), playing three originals and six standards. B+(*) [cd]

Daniel Carter/Steve Hirsh: Convocation (2023 [2026], Mahakala Music): Improv duo, Carter plays saxophones, flute, trumpet, and piano, while Hirsh drums. He's impressed with sax and trumpet for a long time, but his piano will turn a few heads. B+(***) [bc]

Confucius MC/Bastien Keb: Songs for Lost Travellers (2025, Native Rebel): South London rapper William Carabine-Glean, third album; Seb Jones seems to be the producer, has a half-dozen albums, leans more toward folk and jazz here, so this is effectively a soft song set, atmosphere sans beats. B+(**) [sp]

Conway the Machine: You Can't Kill God With Bullets (2025, Drumwork/Roc Nation): Buffalo rapper Demond Price, working hard since 2015, Discogs credits him with 32 albums. "Real shit," runs long, sounds serious. B+(***) [sp]

Charles Downs Quartet: Inner (2024 [2026], ESP-Disk'): Drummer, this is billed as his "first album as sole leader, recorded shortly after he turned 81," which means if we keep the "Debut" slot in the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll, I'm going to wind up rejecting a bunch of votes for him (as I did last year with Marshall Allen; why is it that in a category expressly designed to recognize young players the temptation to vote for someone old but marginalized is so great?). Granted, Downs isn't anywhere near as famous as Allen, and not just because he's spent most of his career recording as Rashid Bakr, only recently returning to his given name. Quartet with Hery Paz (sax), Jamie Saft (piano), and Joe Morris (bass). Took several plays to win me over, with precision and grace pursuing what can never be taken for granted. A- [cd]

Feeble Little Horse: Bitknot (2026, Saddle Creek): Indie rock band from Pittsburgh, third album, singer-bassist Lydia Slocum, two guitarists with some shoegaze fuzz. B+(**) [sp]

Chad Fowler & Matt Lavelle Quartet: Whirlpool (2022 [2026], Mahakala Music): Fowler plays strich and alto flute; Lavelle pocket trumpet, alto clarinet, and e-flat piccolo clarinet. Both are switches from their usual instruments, tending to soften the tone, not that it always works that way. They are backed by Ken Filiano (bass) and Bobby Kapp (drums), listed as "featuring" on the cover. B+(***) [bc]

Greg Freeman: Burnover (2025, Transgressive): Singer-songwriter based in Vermont, second album, sometimes deemed alt-country, sometimes slacker rock — the latter seems the better fit. B [sp]

George: Looking for Consonance (2024 [2026], Out of Your Head): Drummer John Hollenbeck formed this group as a pandemic project, recorded an initial album in 2022, took it out touring in 2024, and came up with this second album. With Sarah Rossy and Chiquita Magic on voice and synthesizer (or vice versa), and Anna Webber on tenor sax/flute. Quirky as expected. Vocals not really my cup of tea, but something that has long fascinated Hollenbeck. B+(***) [cd]

Rafael Greco: Versos Bajo Mi Sombra/Verses Under My Shadow (2025 [2026], Blue Canoe): Venezuelan, website identifies him as a saxophonist, but he plays nearly everything else here, notably keyboards, and sings. This strikes me as having a Brazilian feel, but it often strays from stereotype. B+(**) [cd]

Gyrofield: Suspension of Belief (2025, Kapsela, EP): Chinese DJ/producer Kiana Li, from Hong Kong, more recently based in Bristol and Utrecht, three albums since 2020, several dozen EPs and singles since 2017. Four pieces, each satisfying, 23:32. B+(***) [sp]

Gyrofield: Your Fight (2026, Field Research, EP): Three songs, 16:24, the compression focuses the beats and airs even tighter. B+(***) [sp]

Anna von Hausswolff: Iconoclasts (2025, Year0001): Swedish singer-songwriter, sixth album since 2010, gothic art pop or darkwave; likes organ, strings and heavy percussion; tends toward high melodrama; employs Otis Sandsjö on sax/clarinet; has guest vocal spots for Iggy Pop and Ethel Cain. Too much for me, and not just because it runs long (72:49). B [sp]

Homeboy Sandman: Turns Out I Can Sell a Few More of These (2025, Dirty Looks, EP): Brooklyn rapper Angel Del Villar II, six tracks, 16 minutes, counting a 1:17 intro that is mere advertisement. Several title variations on his 2022 album, I Can't Sell These, with this one no longer on his Bandcamp page, but still resident (but poorly indexed) on Spotify. B+(**) [sp]

Larkin Poe: Bloom (2025, Tricki-Woo): Blues-rock band from Georgia, based in Nashville, led by sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell (formerly of the Lovell Sisters, 2005-09), eighth studio album since 2014. B+(*) [sp]

Janel Leppin: Slowly Melting (2026, Cuneiform): Cellist, several albums since 2011, including her Volcanic Ash Ensemble. This one is solo, where she also dubs in guitar, bass, synth, and piano. B+(*) [dl]

Janel Leppin's Ensemble Volcanic Ash: Pluto in Aquarius (2026, Cuneiform): Third group album led by cellist (also plays synthesizer), with Brian Settles (tenor sax), Anthony Pirog (guitar), Luke Stewart (bass), and Larry Ferguson (drums). Develops some rock velocity toward the end. B+(**) [dl]

Lip Critic: Theft World (2026, Partisan): Band from Brooklyn, two drummers, samplers for metallic clang and industrial noise (or "Dada-esque nonsense"), spoken vocals. Reminded me of Sleaford Mods, but, you know, American, and less political (or class-conscious), or less pointed about it. B+(***) [sp]

Nas & DJ Premier: Light-Years (2025, Mass Appeal): Rapper Nasir Jones founded this label in 2014, with Run the Jewels their first release. In 2025, they came up with a series of seven Legend Has It . . . albums, bringing back "iconic" hip-hop acts from 20+ years ago: Slick Rick, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, Big L, De La Soul. It's been a noble endeavor, the kind of thing that's possible when artists seize the means of production. Now we see that it's also let Nas dust off some old tracks he worked on with producer Christopher Martin back in 2006. It's not clear how much of this is old or new, but it sounds vintage, for sure. B+(***) [sp]

John Pachnos: John Pachnos (2026, Avgonyma Music): Bassist, composer, seems to be his first album, also plays bouzouki on one track, with Carter Vames (sax/flute), Frankie Midnight (piano/keyboards), Caleb Heinze (guitar), and Justin Vedovelli (drums). Various looks, including groove to start, and organ funk to close. B+(**) [cd]

Ivo Perelman: Trifecta (2022-24 [2026], Mahakala Music, 3CD): Avant-saxophonist from Brazil, moved to the US in the early 1980s, after a normal start in 1989, he went on a tear around 1996, and has kept it up, typically releasing 8-12 albums per year, sometimes in clusters, like this series of tenor sax and guitar duets, one disc each with Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, and Joe Morris. The Ribot session ends especially strong, but all the guitarists pick out interesting terrain, which the saxophonist navigates masterfully. A- [bc]

Ivo Perelman/Damon Smith: Duologue: Core of Existence (2026, Squid Note): Tenor sax and bass duo, Bandcamp page lists title as Duologue 6, a series that only barely hints at the number of duos he's recorded — more than a dozen with Matthew Shipp (including seven volumes of The Art of Perelman-Shipp, his 12-CD Reed Rapture in Brooklyn box, his Trifecta of guitarists, plus numerous one-shot encounters. I've heard many (109 albums rated). He's always good, often great (I've A-listed 41 of those albums). I fear I've fallen behind of late, having lost track of many download links, and possibly just being overwhelmed. This strikes me as typical, but the bass is worth focusing on, as his own excellence is beyond doubt. B+(***) [bc]

Rival Consoles: Landscape From Memory (2025, Erased Tapes): London-based electronica producer Ryan Lee West, ten or so albums since 2009. Some heavy bass. B+(**) [sp]

Yvonne Rogers: The Button Jar (2025 [2026], Pyroclastic): Pianist, grew up "in rural Maine without the distraction of even a television," now based in Brooklyn, solo, second album. B+(**) [cd]

Thom Rotella: Right Time Left (2025, HighNote): Guitarist, b. 1951 in Niagara Falls, more than a dozen albums since 1987, extensive pop and soul side credits, has featured spots here for Ernie Watts (tenor sax), Jeremy Pelt (trumpet), and Antonio Adolfo (piano), backed by "select L.A. session players" (including organ). B+(*) [sp]

Scott Sadlon: Songs From Thin Air (2022 [2026], Buddha Boy): Drummer, although google is more likely to introduce you to a dentist in Scottsdale, AZ. One and the same. First album, with Rachel Eckroth (keyboards) and Tim Lefebvre (bass). Describes his approach as "a punk rock mentality," which isn't imediately obvious, but his fusion has a few sharp edges, and some funk. B+(***) [cd]

Salin: Rammana (2025, Salin): Drummer/producer from Thailand, Salin Cheewapansri, based in Montreal, second album, titled after a Thai drum with references from Madagascar to New Guinea. Local instruments mix with funk bass, strings, and quite some blast of brass. B+(*) [sp]

Schapiro 17: Best Laid Plans (2025 [2026], Summit): Big band, leader listed as conductor, composer, arranger. Discogs shows some producer credits for Schapiro in the 1990s (mostly Verve compilations), with three big band albums since 2020. He knows what he's doing, but my interest is fading. B+(*) [cd]

KP Skywalka: I Tried to Tell You (2025, Beat the Odds): DC rapper, first album, topped Pitchfork's obscurantist 2025 hip-hop list (21/32 albums new to my EOY aggregate), note: "embellishing DMV drill with retro R&B, Southern-style storytelling, and striking moments of vulnerability." B+(*) [sp]

Watchhouse: Rituals (2025, Tiptoe Tiger Music): Country/folk duo from North Carolina, Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz, originally dba Mandolin Orange (2010), changed their name in 2019. B [sp]

Weakened Friends: Feels Like Hell (2025, Don Giovanni): Indie trio from Portland, Maine, third album, Sonia Sturino (vocals/guitar) and Annie Hoffman (bass/vocals) write the songs, Adam Hand drums. Up and down, in and out of punk, could be major but hard for me to be sure. B+(***) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Kenny Barron/Ray Drummond/Ben Riley: So Many Lovely Things: Live in Brecon (1995 [2026], Elemental Music, 2CD): Piano-bass-drums trio, already well established then but legends now. I'm not much of a piano trio fan, especially when there's not a lot of rhythm/swing, so often this sort of thing slips past me as pleasant background. But when I do focus, I find it remarkable. Nice package, too. A- [06-12]

Marion Brown: Live in Europe 1968 & 1972 (1968-72 [2026], NoBusiness): Alto saxophonist (1931-2010), produced several major avant-garde albums in the late 1960s. These sets — the first a quartet with Gunter Hampel (vibes), Barre Phillips (bass), and Steve McCall (drums); the second a duo with McCall — are interesting but relatively minor. B+(**) [cd]

Daniel Carter/Sabir Mateen/William Parker/Lou Grassi: Keeping It in Context (1996 [2026], NoBusiness): Two saxophonists (alto/tenor/flute, one also on trumpet, the other on clarinet), backed by superb bass, and drums: a jam session spun off from Parker's 1990s Improviser's Collective. When the going gets rough, I used to complain that chaotic free jazz must have been more fun to play than to listen to. Now I hear more method in what formerly felt ramshackle. Or perhaps I'm just touched by nostalgia? A fine document of lost times. A- [cd]

Sunny Murray/Sabu Toyozumi: Sun's Blessings (1999 [2026], NoBusiness): Two free jazz drummers, Murray (1936-2017) most famous as the guy who drove John Coltrane off the deep end, Toyozumi a bit younger (b. 1943) and still active, some notable encounters with western avants over the years (Peter Brötzmann, Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Paul Rutherford, Wadada Leo Smith). Whether you need to listen to just drums for 61:27 is up to you, but these guys are masters, and the inspired rumble retained my interest throughout. A- [cd]

Toshiyuki Sekine Trio: Strode Road (1978 [2025], Craftman): Japanese piano trio, with Takashi Narita (bass) and Takashi Kurosaki (drums), doesn't have a lot of releases, original release here described as "very rare. Lively performances, especially a delightful "Love for Sale." B+(***) [yt]

Old music:

George: Shorts (2022 [2023], Out of Your Head, EP): Four track (16:01) postscript to their first album, with Aurora Nealand in the vocalist slot — but as she also plays alto/soprano sax and keyboards, there is much less focus here on vocals than in the 2026 album (with Sarah Rossy). That's ok by me, but the short tracks tend to slip on by. B+(*) [bc]

Lip Critic: Hex Dealer (2024, Partisan): First album from a Brooklyn group attempting some kind of electropunk hybrid with rap vocals and speed drums. Seems like a good idea, but sometimes gets out of hand. B+(**) [sp]

Yvonne Rogers: Seeds (2022 [2023], Relative Pitch): American pianist, originally from Maine, recorded this debut album in Switzerland, with Emmanuelle Bonnet (vocals), Nadav Erlich (bass), and Iago Fernández (drums). I'm usually leery about vocals here, but they're not bad, and the piano is quite nice. B+(**) [bc]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• New England Jazz Collaborative: Tributaries (ACP) [07-16]
• The Phoenix Trio: Tomorrow Is Today (Giant Step Arts) [06-19]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Friday, May 29, 2026

May archive (finished).

Music: Current count 46001 [45961] rated (+40), 32 [12] unrated (+20).

I normally try to do Music Week on Mondays, but this week I ran into a scheduling crunch, so I put it off. I had baked a couple of cakes for a friend's birthday party on Sunday, then had another cooking project for Tuesday. While normally I could have squeezed a fairly minimal post in, the last one of the month requires some extra work to wrap up a monthly archive and set up a new scratch file. I decided I didn't have the time. However, it occurred to me that I could pick out 6-8 reviews I had written, and send them out to my Notes on Everyday Life subscribers, giving them a sneak peek at the still-unfinished blog post, and making sure that I had at least a second Substack post for May. I titled this Music Week in Advance, and knocked out a perfunctory introduction, not to the music but to my rationalization for sending the post.

As I explained there, this may or may not become a regular practice. As I see it, Substack offers several advantages of regular blog posts:

• It formalizes a relationship with my readers: I know that they exist; they get everything I send out straight into their mailbox, so they should at least be aware of it when posted.
• It provides some statistics and feedback the blog doesn't support: I get counts of views, likes, restacks, and comments.
• I don't have to coordinate a post with a website update, which usually involves extra work, especially if I'm in the middle of multiple projects. (I do keep an archive of all of my NOEL posts on the website, but I don't have to keep it in sync when I post to Substack.)

On the other hand, Substack has some size limits, and excessive linking can be a problem with email. And anything that spans multiple pages is better handled on the website. I also have more graphics and formatting flexibility on the website than with Substack (but there may be more options on Substack than I'm aware of — for instance, there seems to be a recipe widget I've never used, and I do have recipes I can share).

While I am disappointed that the subscription list seems stuck on a low plateau, I am delighted that many of my closest personal and virtual friends were quick to sign up, and that should be sufficient motivation to keep going. My real problem at this point is deciding what to write when, and finding the time to get reasonably polished pieces together. The Music Week preview at least had the virtue of being easy to pull together from my draft files, and only going with eight reviews allowed me to leave out the poorly written and haphazardly constructed notes that plump this post up to 40 "reviews."

Perhaps the way to do this is to focus on smaller, tightly focused mailings, while using the website (including the blog) as just a pile of reference materials, where I can indulge my neuroses for comprehensiveness without inflicting them on the necessarily limited attention spans of most people? It's easy enough to see how to do this with Music Week, but the morass of Loose Tabs is going to take some more thinking. Or maybe just some prompting from readers, as I generally welcome questions and suggestions.

PS: I took my advice here and sent another NOEL post out tonight, as But Reality Is Unscripted. I woke up today thinking about a TV show we had seen last night (Silent Witness, S-29, E-7, the first half of "Grace of God") and a Substack post from Tom Carson (Chicken Little's Revenge), giving me another opportunity to try to figure out not just what's wrong with Trump, but why he seems so untouchable. I started by writing a couple paragraphs in my notebook, then decided to run with it a bit.

Tuesday's dinner project was a partial reprise of a previous dinner I had made from Pyet DeSpain's Native American cookbook, Rooted in Fire. I had checked that book out from the library, figuring it offered dishes I not only had never made before, but hadn't even sampled in restaurants. (I've been to a couple restaurants in Arizona that served fry bread tacos, but that's about it.) I bought more stuff than I could use (notably a bison arm roast), and I didn't have time to put some of the salads together (which I lacked proper ingredients for anyway). And two guests backed out due to a medical emergency, so I had lots of reasons to give it another round.

Here's a plate pic and notes on what I made Tuesday: bison braised in a chile pepper ("Colorado") sauce, grilled corn, roasted sweet potatoes, steamed fish in corn husks (trout and branzino), charred pineapple salsa, and three salads with jicama (one with tomatillos, one with pickled blueberries, and one with pecans and cotijo in a prickly pear dressing). I doubt any of this qualifies as authentic, as my impression is that DeSpain is inventing a new fusion cuisine with traditional elements, but the lime and cilantro work wonderfully, along with sweeteners like honey and maple syrup, and juniper berries. Also, I took the liberty of substituting butter for sunflower oil on the corn and fish.

For dessert, we had leftovers from Sunday's cakes (there's a picture in the comments): one is three-layer dark chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and covered in ganache; the other is a four-layer cannoli cake, filled and frosted with sweetened ricotta and mascarpone, and dotted with dark chocolate chips. We still had quite a bit of leftovers, but other friends came over Wednesday and helped out with that. Almost done now. I doubt I'll be cooking much in the near future.

I didn't listen to any new music on Monday-Tuesday, and not much on Wednesday, so the extra days didn't add a lot of records. Sonny Rollins died, so I thought I'd look through my database and see if there was anything old I hadn't heard. The only two albums I had in the shopping list but unheard were out-of-print compilations from his RCA years (1962-64), but I had all of the albums from then, plus the complete box and a 2-CD selection, so nothing new there. I found two more items (below), but they are mostly redundant to other albums I've heard. I also gave Nucleus (1975) another spin, and bumped it up a bit from an unseemly B-. I didn't revisit A Night at the Village Vanguard, which also rated B- at first, but subsequent reissues finally hit B+(***), which is probably where my next pass will land. So I wound up with 84 albums rated, with 3 A+ (Saxophone Colossus, Plays G-Man, and Silver City), 10 A (+2 A under other names: Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie), and 33 A-. (The breakout is in this month's ACN.) I thought about pulling together a page with all of the Rollins reviews, but after rooting around a bit, I saw that would take more work than I could budget right now, and the result wouldn't really be worth it. A lot of the older records had grades but no reviews. And as usual when you're collecting bits from all over, there is likely to be a lot of redundancy, so whatever I scraped together would then need a fair amount of editing. Still might be a good project, but not right now.

I did find one good quote, actually in a Coleman Hawkins review: "If you tried to simplify jazz sax to a model as simple as a tree, the trunk would be Coleman Hawkins, with Sonny Rollins standing on his shoulders. Everyone else is just a branch." The "standing on the shoulders of giants" line refers to something Isaac Newton said ("if I had seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants"). I also have a quote from Rollins, one of my favorites ever, which adorns Affinity's Coleman Hawkins box, The Complete Recordings 1929-1941:

This about my master and idol. I should like to be sad now at his passing, but alas this thing is impossible for instead I find myself happy. Forever happy and grateful that he came.

That could just as well be said of Rollins.

Some further listening here came after Robert Christgau's May Consumer Guide. Aside from Taj Mahal, I haven't rechecked much that I had previously listened to, including the Messthetics album, which I graded B. But the Blanton album is terrific, and The Red Album Vol. 2 is worth exploring. I previously had The Red Album Vol. 1 at B+(***).

I neglected my demo queue last week, while a lot of mail poured in, so the unrated count has soared. I had been up to and maybe past the release dates, so figured there was no rush. I need to do a resort now. I posted a picture on April 30 of my work area, lamenting that I had lost a couple demo CDs. The same picture wouldn't look much different today, but the desk on the right is pretty close to clear now, and the CDs stacked sideways in the bookshelf behind it have been moved to the basement (revealing another row of CDs filed vertically). The desk on the left side is still a mess, but the computer there is rarely used. Still, lot more work to do. But I did find the missing demo CDs. Curiously, that picture got more likes and more comments than anything I've posted on Facebook, like ever.

Below there is an unusual number of 2025 releases for this late in 2026 (a quick count says 21). That's because for some reason I've started adding more lists to the 2025 EOY Aggregate. Part of that is because I've always included Robert Christgau's Dean's List, which appeared belatedly on May 7 — and I might add, somewhat peculiarly (see Xgau Sez). I also added the top half of the Jason Gross list (which is usually good for a few rare finds). But also, I've added a bunch of individual jazz critic lists (I had all the albums from the totals, but I hadn't gotten around to individual ballots, so jazz albums fell well short of their usual representation in the EOY Aggregate. But I've also added a few more odds and ends, and may continue to do so for another week or two, just for the hell of it. I haven't even looked at the compiled changes yet, so I have few comments here (although it looks like Mary Halvorson is up about 30 points, moving into a tie with Lady Gaga). Total number of albums is now up to 3683 (which is actually a bit more than the 2024 aggregate, although I've compiled far fewer lists).

I'm also working on a new Loose Tabs (quite a bit there, but still rather spotty), and a Books post (just started, but it's been a whole year, so it may turn into multiples), with a few more ideas for possible Substack pieces. Would much appreciate more subscribers for the latter. Not sure when the next Music Week will come out, but I'm already +19 on next week. I crossed 46,000 albums rated this week.

New records reviewed this week:

Carsie Blanton & the Burning Hell: Everything Is Great! (2026, self-released): Political. Sure, "nobody wants to talk about it" is as ironical as "everything is great!" (what with starting world war three and all — "third time's the charm?"). But what can we do about it? After a disclaimer, political violence may not be the exclusive fantasy of the right. Sample quotes: "going to turn the one to the zero percent"; "fascists are best when they're under the ground"; "hoist the guillotine"; "them billionaires aren't worth a hill of beans"; "the American dream is a pyramid scheme"; "let the fire into our hearts." Sure, these suggestions are not exactly reasonable, but I have news for her: the day of "your car has a six-disc changer" is already gone. Then there's: "It took a lot of love to end the war to end all wars." A [sp]

Carsie Blanton: The Red Album Vol. 2 (2026, self-released, EP): Eight-song, 19:54 sequel to 2024's six-song, 13:25 Vol. 1, which spawned the two-sided single "Ugly Nasty Commie Bitch"/"The Democrats" (will shoot you in the back). Contempt for Elon Musk, and sympathy for Luigi Mangione. A sign of the times. A- [sp]

Sarah Elizabeth Charles: Dawn (2024-25 [2025], Stretch/Ropeadope): Singer-songwriter, mostly in jazz, based in New York, teaches, has at least six albums since 2004, this one played by Maya Keren (keyboards), Linda May Han Oh (bass), Savannath Harris (drums), with strings (Stkye Steele and Marika Hughes, plus Jarrett Cherner arrangements on four tracks). B+(**) [sp]

Delivery: Force Majeure (2025, Heavenly): Garage rock and/or post-punk band from Australia, second album. Catchy until they start to wear thin. Sonically, they remind me of a group called the Rezillos, although I recall them as funnier. B+(**) [sp]

E-Dancer: E-Dancer (2025, One House): Techno producer, originally an alias for Kevin Saunderson, now Danitiez Saunderson (middle son of Kevin and Ann Saunderson), family from Detroit but Danitiez now based in Chicago, with singles under his own name starting 2013. I'm not familiar with the father, but this is pretty classic Detroit techno. B+(***) [sp]

Wendy Eisenberg: Wendy Eisenberg (2026, Joyful Noise): Singer-songwriter from Boston, but first established herself as a jazz guitarist, Wikipedia (which has a page on this album but not on the artist) dubs this "folk rock" and "country pop." High AOTY ratings (85/6), but the songs aren't hitting for me, and I don't care for the changes. B [sp]

Ella Eyre: Everything, in Time (2025, Play It Again Sam): British singer-songwriter Ella McMahon, second album, has some soul influence (father Jamaican, mother Maltese). Voice is distinctive, and she's got some songs. B+(**) [sp]

Kim Jung Jae: Shamanism (2023 [2025], Relative Pitch): Tenor saxophonist, from Korea, based in Berlin, has several previous albums on a Portuguese label as Jung-Jae Kim. Quartet with a second saxophonist (Sunjae Lee, alto/soprano) and two drummers (Junyoung Song and Sunki Kim). Hews close to the edge between irritable and exciting. B+(**) [sp]

The Klezmatics: We Were Made for These Times (2025 [2026], Asphalt Tango): Klezmer group from New York City, principally Lorin Sklamberg (vocals/accordion), they consider this release their 40th anniversary (first album appeared in 1989; this is only their second album since 2011). B+(**) [sp]

Chris Lake: Chemistry (2025, Black Book): English DJ/electronica producer, started 2002 making bootleg remixes, has lots of singles, three EPs from 2006, but this is only his second studio album (first in 2009). B+(***) [sp]

Timo Lassy Trio: Live in Helsinki (2023 [2025], We Jazz): Finnish tenor saxophonist, a dozen or so albums since 2007, this a trio with Ville Herrala (bass) and Jaska Lukkarinen (drums). B+(***) [bc]

The Gareth Lockrane Big Band: Box of Tricks (2025, Whirlwind): British flute player, everything from piccolo to bass flute, second album for his conventional big band (plus guitar, percussion, chromatic harmonica, and flute), his compositions. B+(*) [sp]

Los Cenzontles/Taj Mahal/David Hidalgo/Gary Haleamau/Sonny Lim: Adios Ke Aloha: Waves of the Same Sea (2026, Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center): Mexican-American group, based in San Pablo, California, name is Nahuatl for mockingbirds, discography goes back to 1995, this particular project reminds us of "1832 when Mexican vaqueros brought cattle wrangling, and the guitar, to Hawai'i." Mahal and Hidalgo offer signature bits, while Haleamau and Lim authenticize the Hawaiian effects. B+(*) [sp]

Taj Mahal & the Phantom Blues Band: Time (2026, Resonatin'/Thirty Tigers): Hard to read the Discogs scan, but for now that's all the credit info I have. Looks like he's cruising through his roots catalog, with a band that is jazzy and not just because it's loaded with horns. A- [sp]

MC Yallah & Debmaster: Gaudencia (2025, Hakuna Kulala): Rapper from Kenya/Uganda Yallah Guadencia Mbidde, third album, second of those with Berlin-baased French producer Julien Deblois. Too fast to follow, and too rough to get comfy with. B+(*) [sp]

Nicole McCabe: Color Theory (2026, Birdwatcher): Alto saxophonist, several albums since her impressive Introducing in 2020, this with Yvonne Rogers (piano/synth), Kanoa Mondenhall (bass), Eliza Salem (drums), plus spots for Adam O'Farrill (trumpet on 4 tracks), Christie Dashiell (vocals on 1), and more. Original pieces, some postbop, some farther out. B+(***) [sp]

Nandipha808: Who Made Who (2026, Stena Academy): South African amapiano album, 9 songs running 56:22. Some sources also credit this album to CAAZA, with Givem Tyler Litch, Nation Deep, Shoes Meister, and possibly others appearing on song credits. Minimalist beats, with occasional sonic fillips, some vocal, some reminiscent of Kraftwerk. I've seen it suggested that this is nice to nap to, hypnotic even, but I find myself hanging on details, and in many ways prefer it to last year's more highly touted (but also recommended) No Vocal Album. A- [sp]

Camila Nebbia/James Banner/Max Andrzejewski: Presencia (2024 [2025], Ears & Eyes): Tenor saxophonist from Argentina, albums since 2015, six in 2025, this one with bass and drums, recorded in Berlin. B+(***) [bc]

Neurosis: An Undying Love for a Burning World (2026, Neurot): Atmospheric sludge metal group, from Oakland, released 13 studio albums 1987-2016, went on hiatus, back here a decade later, absent long-time front man Scott Kelly. Normally I wouldn't bother — it's not like I've heard any of their previous albums — but this is AOTY's top-rated album of 2026 (89/8; note that 5 of the top 7 albums there are metal, which seems suspicious, like metal critics mostly move in a tight pack; there are enough to impact the standings, but non-fans rarely bother). Power riffs and deep-growled vocals (saying what? I have no idea), pretty much par for the course, if you ask me. B [sp]

The New Gypsies: The New Gypsies Featuring Vic Juris (2017 [2026], SteepleChase): Only album by a Reinhardt-inspired group led by Tony Miceli (vibes), with Chico Huff (bass guitar) and Dan Monaghan (drums), long shelved, reported due to poor sound, but revived by Nils Winther. The guest guitarist (1953-2019) fills the obvious hole. B+(*) [sp]

Genesis Owusu: Redstar Wu & the Worldwide Scourge (2026, Ourness): Australian rapper, born Kofi Owusu-Ansah in Ghana, moved to Australia when he was 2, third album. B+(***) [sp]

Jeremy Pelt: Our Community Will Not Be Erased (2025 [2026], HighNote): Trumpet player, close to 30 albums since 2002, mostly quartet with piano (Orrin Evans), bass (Buster Williams), and drums (Lenny White), plus extra keyboards on three tracks. B+(**) [sp]

John Pizzarelli: Dear Mr. Bennett (2026, Green Hill Music): Guitarist, like his father, and standards singer, many albums since his 1983 debut, I'm Hip (Please Don't Tell My Father), including many tributes, especially to Nat King Cole. Bennett's just a prism into everyone else's songbook, which is fine, especially as I like Pizzarelli's "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" more than the original. Backed with piano (Isaiah J. Thompson) and bass (Mike Karn), also listed as co-producers. B+(***) [sp]

The Rumjacks: Dead Anthems (2025, Four Four Music): Australian punk band, from Sydney, half-dozen albums since 2010. Emphasis on anthems here, Gives them a Pogues vibe, without those explicit merits. B+(*) [sp]

Dabin Ryu: Trio! (2025, Endectomorph Music): Pianist, from South Korea, studied at Berklee, based in New York, second album, trio with Joe Martin (bass) and Johnathan Blake (drums). B+(**) [sp]

SFJazz Collective: Collective Imagery (2025, SFJazz): Group assembled periodically by SFJAZZ, a San Francisco-based non-profit which presents an annual Jazz Festival, initially to play composer repertoire (first few, starting in 2004, were Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter), although they've also been known to tour. Eight pieces, composed by members, two by Edward Simon (piano), one each by Chris Potter (reeds), David Sanchez (tenor sax), Michael Rodriguez (trumpet), Warren Wolf (vibes), Matthew Brewer (bass), and Kendrick Scott (drums). Wolf's piece has a spoken word vocal by Cava Menzies, about the FBI and the Black Panthers. B+(***) [sp]

Dayna Stephens: Monk'D (2022 [2025], Contagious Music): Normally a tenor saxophonist, has a dozen-plus albums as leader since 2007, a lot of side credits, usually makes a strong impression, plays bass here for this "stripped down, deeply personal tribute to Thelonious Monk," although "stripped down" is the same quartet Monk favored, here with Stephen Riley (tenor sax), Ethan Iverson (piano), and Eric McPherson (drums). Riley is an especially good fit. B+(***) [sp]

Earl Sweatshirt/MIKE/Surf Gang: Pompeii//Utility (2026, 10k): Rappers from Los Angeles and New York, respectively, each gets a disc (former, aka Thebe Kgositsile, gets 18 tracks, 35:06; latter, Michael Bonema, does 15 tracks, 29:28), both produced by the New York-based Surf Gang collective. B+(**) [sp]

Talk Show: Miss America (2023 [2025], We Jazz): Duo of Steph Richards (trumpet) and Qasim Naqvi (drums/electronics). B+(**) [bc]

Isaiah J. Thompson: The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry (2024 [2025], Mack Avenue): Mainstream jazz pianist, won a bunch of prizes early on, half-dozen albums since 2018, just 27 when he recorded this "8-song autobiographical statement exploring faith, musicianship, race and humanity," produced by Cyrus Chestnut, with more gospel (or maybe just more vocals) than I'd prefer. B+(**) [sp]

Sammy Virji: Same Day Cleaning (2025, Capitol): English DJ/producer, started releasing singles in 2017, second album. First vocal wrongfooted me, as they vary widely thereafter, and the beats get better. B+(**) [sp]

Marta Warelis/Ada Rave: Peel/Mondo (2024 [2025], Relative Pitch): Piano and soprano sax duo. Both do good work, but results are marginal. B+(*) [bc]

Marta Warelis: Still Life With Lemons (2024 [2026], Relative Pitch): Polish pianist, based in Amsterdam since 2014, recordings since 2019 include work with Dave Douglas. Sextet here includes Ben LaMar Gay (trumpet/electronics), Ab Baars (clarinet/tenor sax), Karen Ng (clarinet/alto sax), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass), and Frank Rosaly (drums). B+(**) [bc]

Ben Williams: Between Church & State (2025, Safe Space): Bassist, originally from DC, studied at Michigan State and Juilliard, won a Monk Prize which got him a debut album in 2011, several albums and many side credits since then. B+(**) [sp]

Anthony Wilson Nonet: House of the Singing Blossoms (2025, Sam First): Guitarist, son of bandleader Gerald Wilson, well established on his own with albums since 1997, and many side credits. Group with trumpet/french horn and trombone (CJ Camerieri and Alan Ferber), three saxophones (Nicole McCabe, Bob Reynolds, Henry Solomon), and piano-bass-drums (Gerald Clayton, Anna Butterss, Mark Ferber). B+(**) [sp]

Winona Fighter: My Apologies to the Chief (2025, Rise): Pop-punk trio from Nashville, first album after singles back to 2022: singer-songwriter Coco Kinnon (Chloe Kinnon, also plays drums), Dan Fuson (guitar), and Austin Luther (bassist, co-writer and producer). B+(***) [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Daunik Lazro/Joëlle Léandre/Paul Lovens: For Baritone Sax, Double Bass & Drumset (2013 [2026], Relative Pitch): French saxophonist, plays baritone here but primary instrument is probably alto, many albums since 1980, several previous encounters with the bassist and drummer. This is one improv piece, titled "Temps du Corps" for the venue in Paris. B+(**) [sp]

Vardis: 100 M.P.H. '79 Revisited (1978-80 [2026], High Roller): British hard rock band, formed 1973 as Quo Vardis, shortened their name in 1977, frontman Steve Zodiac, early singles included covers of Chuck Berry and Status Quo, first album was live, reissued and supplemented with extra tracks here. As such, at least here they have more in common with pre-punk metal bands (I'm thinking Blue Öyster Cult, but also Rick Derringer) than with post-punk (post-hardcore) developments — which I've rarely listened to, beyond Hüsker Dü and Motörhead (and, grudgingly I insist, Deafheaven). B+(***) [sp]

Old music:

Gary Burton: New Vibe Man in Town (1962, RCA): Vibraphonist, first album, not yet 20 years old (b. 1943), trio with Gene Cherico (bass) and Joe Morello (drums). Nimble rhythm, standards, a pleasant surprise. B+(**) [sp]

Gary Burton/Sonny Rollins/Clark Terry: 3 in Jazz (1963, RCA): Label sampler, three separate groups, each gets about 5-6 minutes a side, in credit order. The vibraphonist, who debuted on RCA in 1962 and recorded there through 1966, assists Jack Sheldon (trumpet), along with bass, and drums. Rollins landed on RCA after his 1960-62 break, and recorded major works from 1962-64. He has a quartet with Don Cherry (cornet), Henry Grimes (bass) and Billy Higgins (drums). Terry appears with a swinging rhythm section of Jones (piano), Milt Hinton (bass), and Osie Johnson (drums), plus Willie Rodriguez (bongos/congas) for two tracks. As far as I know, this is the only thing Terry recorded for RCA, so maybe they were just trying to salvage a short session? No real insights here, but the music is enjoyable. B [sp]

Evan Parker/Derek Bailey/Han Bennink: The Topography of the Lungs (1970 [2023], Otoroku): Sax-guitar-percussion trio, Penguin Guide filed this under the guitarist, but label is pretty consistent in its ordering, and Discogs now lists this as the first album under Parker's name. This might have seemed abstract and scratchy at the time, but looking back could hardly have been the work of anyone else. A- [bc]

Sonny Rollins: Sonny Boy (1956 [1961], Prestige): The preeminent tenor saxophonist of the late 1950s (1930-2026), a few years younger than Dexter Gordon (1923-90) and John Coltrane (1926-67), but already towering above them by decade-end, his signature title Saxophone Colussus seeming, if anything, too modest. After his death, I wondered what I had missed: my database script showed 82 albums rated (45 A- or above, where "above" included 3 A+ and 12 A; 10 albums and 5 compilations), with only two RCA from 1962-63 listed but unrated[*] — the music I've heard on The Complete RCA Victor Recordings, as I've previously heard the music on this, the first unlisted album I've found, as included in The Complete Prestige Recordings. For that matter, three tracks here were previously heard on Rollins' last proper album for Prestige, Tour De Force, and a fourth (the title tune) appeared on its OJC CD reissue, leaving just one extra track (an outtake from Rollins Plays for Bird). Prestige, grubbing for product, as they were wont to do, issued this in 1961, and it's been kicking around ever since, including an OJC reissue in 1989. So redundant/unnecessary, sure, but on first hearing it's pretty awesome. A- [sp]

[*] My albums database was largely built in the early 2000s, at a time when I was buying lots of CDs, so while one purpose was to track what I had, another was to build up shopping lists. As such, I scoured through many record guides (including all of the Penguin Guide editions), and jotted down everything that seemed promising. While I've continued to add everything I've since listened to, I've less and less regularly added to the "shopping" lists, so I regard them as dated, unreliable, and/or inconsistent. (One common problem is that they include editions or compilations that have since been superseded by alternatives.) On the other hand, since I've been streaming, I've used them as guides for deep dives. For instance, I reviewed 20 Sonny Rollins albums in May, 2020, including many of the Milestone albums I had missed. The list of A/A+ Rollins albums is in the ACN below. I've included two albums filed under other artists (Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk) that list Rollins in the artist credit. The two still unheard Rollins database albums are On the Outside and All the Things You Are: both are compilations from the RCA period (1962-64), released in 1990, and long out of print. The music should all be in the 6-CD box, The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (rated A-).

Sonny Rollins: Brass/Trio (1958 [1962], Verve): Originally released as Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass in 1958 by MetroJazz, the first side combines the brass of a big band with a single tenor saxophonist (with Nate Adderley's cornet for one of the trumpets, and Don Butterfield's tuba for bass trombone), and a rhythm section of Dick Katz (piano), René Thomas (guitar), Henry Grimes (bass), and Roy Haynes (drums), with Ernie Wilkins arranging and conducting. Verve later (1999) reissued this under its original title, but in 1962 (and later on CDs in Europe and Japan) they opted for this more accurate title. After all, the big brass is done after four songs, and the second side is a trio set, with Grimes and Charles Wright (drums), recorded the day before. Nothing particularly wrong with either half, but he doesn't quite rise above the brass, and his "Body & Soul" isn't the obvious breakthrough the precedents demand. B+(***) [sp]

Grade (or other) changes:

Black Nile: Indigo Garden (2026, Hen House Studios): Los Angeles jazz fusion group, principally Aaron Shaw (sax) and Lawrence Shaw (bass), with keys (Luca Mendoza) and drums (Myles Martin), seems to be their fourth album since 2019 (but none on Discogs). More conventional than my initial take, which may just mean the sax is growing on me. [was: B+(**)]: B+(***) [sp]

Taj Mahal & Keb' Mo': Room on the Porch (2025, Concord Jazz): The former has been warming up blues and roots songs since 1967, has written plenty of his own but has a genius for covers that rivals and has probably caught up with Ray Charles. The latter got a lot of hype in the 1990s when he tried to fill those shoes but failed. They finally got together, hyped as two "blues giants," in 2017 for a nondescript album, but this one is better, perhaps because it's loose enough to just let that genius seep to the surface. I discounted that looseness at first, but I'm getting to where I treasure it. [was: B+(***)] A- [sp]

Sonny Rollins: Nucleus (1975, Milestone): Possibly the first Sonny Rollins album I heard — Christgau wrote a rave review, although I also picked up More From the Vanguard around then — and I hated this album at the time. (For that matter, I've never been a fan of 1957's A Night at the Village Vanguard, which I have graded five packages of, although I've warmed a bit on it, giving the 2024 Complete Masters a high B+.) I can still hear why I disliked this so, with fusion-minded rhythm section (George Duke, Chuck Rainey, Blackbyrd McKnight, David Amaro, Mtume; Bob Cranshaw also plays electric bass, but his presence on a Rollins album is usually perfunctory), and Bennie Maupin flitting about. Still, it's not that bad, nothing that Rollins can't cut straight through, or simply blow up. [was: B-] B+(*) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Bobby Bradford/Mark Dresser/Hafez Modirzadeh: Sonic House Reunion (NoBusiness) [05-01]
• Marion Brown: Live in Europe 1968 & 1972 (NoBusiness) [05-01]
• Anthony Caceres: Let's Take a Trip (Jig in G) [02-27]
• Daniel Carter/Sabir Mateen/William Parker/Lou Grassi: Keeping It in Context (1996, NoBusiness) [05-01]
• Columbia Icefield: A Silence Opens (Out of Your Head) [05-29]
• Michael Dease Big Band: Return Trajectory (Origin) [06-19]
• George: Looking for Consonance (Out of Your Head) [05-08]
• Brad Goode Quintet: Live Your Dream (Origin) [06-19]
• Rafael Greco: Versos Bajo Mi Sombra/Verses Under My Shadow (Blue Canoe) [04-17]
• Andy Haas: Messianic Time (Resonant Music) [05-14]
• Jon Hamar: Música Callada (Origin Classical) [06-19]
• Carolyn Lee Jones: Eklektika: Jazz Retro Pop Bossa Nova (Catn'round Sound) [06-08]
• Sunny Murray/Sabu Toyozumi: Sun's Blessings (1999, NoBusiness) [05-01]
• Miles Okazaki: Boomtown (Pi) [06-26]
• Ben Patterson: Stretch (Origin) [06-19]
• Kemuel Roig: Both Sides Now (Life in Music) [05-15]
• Jeff Rupert Quartet: Sea Spell (Rupe Media) [06-29]
• Scott Sadlon: Songs From Thin Air (Buddha Boy) [01-28]
• Schapiro 17: Best Laid Plans (Summit) [05-08]
• Tyshawn Sorey: Members . . . Don't (Pi) [05-29]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Monday, May 18, 2026

May archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 45961 [45922] rated (+39), 12 [18] unrated (-6).

Good news is I'm back on a Monday Music Week schedule. Bad news is my brain is mush, and I have virtually nothing to say.

I suppose I could reiterate a couple things from last week:

1. I completed my ballot for DownBeat's Critics Poll, and wrote up my notes. I thought I might write some more about that, but I haven't.

2. I've been working on putting Robert Christgau's Deans List: 2025 up on his website, split into two chunks: essay and list. I have finished with these latter files, but I haven't updated the website yet. I thought I might write some more about this, but I haven't.

3. I was also thinking about writing some sort of exec summary of my recent Loose Tabs file, but all I have so far is this lousy stub file.

4. I have collected a few notes for some future Loose Tabs file. Even when my brain is mush, inertia still functions.

5. There was probably something else I was thinking of, but I can't recall, other than that I'm unlikely to remember it either.

One thing I can note is that we have a substantial storm headed into Wichita soon. And I just had a premonition when the electricity clicked off. Back right now, so may be I'll just post this.

New records reviewed this week:

Steven Bernstein/Scotty Hard: ResoNation Trio/Ultra Resonance (2025 [2026], Royal Potato Family): Two LPs on one CD, the first a trio of Bernstein (trumpets), Scott Colley (bass), and Nasheet Waits (drums); the second where the same music was reprocessed by the producer ("all instruments replayed, rearranged, and redeployed by Scotty Hard"), with Jeremy Gustin credited for extra percussion. Both are interesting on their own, but a bit underwhelming run together. B+(***) [cd] [06-05]

Jane Ira Bloom/Brian Shankar Adler: Once Like a Spark (2025, Adhyâropa): Soprano saxophonist, steady stream of albums since 1980. Adler plays "a hybrid drum set that includes North Indian tabla, Argentine bombo legüero and an array of found objects. Seems like a perfect match. B+(***) [sp]

Dawn Clement: Dear Ms. Dearie (2025 [2026], Origin): Pianist, sings often, obviously the point on a tribute to Blossom Dearie (1924-2009, dropped her first name, also a pianist of some note, wrote four songs here). With Steve Kovalcheck (guitar), John Clayton (bass), and Jeff Hamilton (drums). B+(**) [cd] [05-22]

Braxton Cook: Not Everyone Can Go (2025, Nettwerk): American saxophonist, several albums since 2015, sings some, also plays guitar and keyboards. B+(*) [sp]

Chick Corea: Forever Yours: The Farewell Performance (2020 [2025], Candid): Pianist (1941-2021), debut 1966, early on played fusion with Gary Burton and Miles Davis, and continued with his popular Return to Forever and later with his Elektrik Band, but did much more, including the avant-garde Circle group (with Anthony Braxton), and a lot of conventional solo and trio work, which serves as a reminder that no matter what you think of his choices — and I've panned a lot of his records — he was unquestionably an extraordinary pianist. This collects two solo concerts from three months before his death. This offers a good summary, including a set of his "Children's Songs" and reflections on Monk and Powell (and Evans and Ellington and Mozart). B+(**) [sp]

George Cotsirilos: In the Wee Hours (2017-25 [2026], OA2): Guitarist, half-dozen albums since 2003, mostly trio or quartet. This one is solo, two originals and various standards (two from Ellington), recorded on nylon string acoustic guitars. B+(*) [cd] [05-22]

Sylvie Courvoisier Trio: Éclats - Live in Europe (2025 [2026], Intakt): Swiss pianist, debut 1997, mostly plays duos, this just her fourth Trio per Discogs. With Drew Gress (bass) and Kenny Wollesen (drums), picked from four sets in Germany and France. B+(***) [sp]

Theo Croker/Sullivan Croker: Play (2023 [2025], ACT Music): Trumpet and piano duo, young American players, one piece composed by Croker, the rest improvised. B [sp]

Amalie Dahl's Dafnie Extended: Live at Moldejazz (2025 [2026], Sonic Transmissions): Danish saxophonist, based in Oslo, group Dafnie comes from a 2022 quintet album with trumpet, trombone, bass, and drums, "extended" here to 12 pieces, adding baritone sax and flute, but mostly filling the middle with piano, accordion, and synths, and doubling down on bass and drums. B+(*) [bc]

Daoud: Ok (2025, ACT Music): French trumpet player, Discogs lists him as a hip-hop producer, last name Anthony, and shows one previous album. Lots of synths and percussion. B+(*) [sp]

Django Festival Allstars: Evolution (2026, Motéma): Group originally organized for the Django Reinhardt NY Festival in 2002, have released a couple previous albums, back for a 25th anniversary reunion, led by Dorado Schmitt (guitar), with Ludovic Beier (accordion), and Pierre Blanchard (violin), with a drumless rhythm section of Antonio Licusati (bass) and Francko Mehrstein (rhythm guitar). B+(*) [sp]

Gabriel Espinosa: The Brazilian Project (2022-25 [2026], Origin): Mexican bassist, not listed as playing here but is the composer, with arrangements by Rafael Rocha (trombone) and Bruno Santos (flugelhorn). Recorded in Rio de Janeiro, "enhanced by the Tallinn Studio Orchestra." B+(*) [cd] [05-22]

Christine Fawson: It Could Happen to You (2025 [2026], self-released): Standards singer, also plays trumpet. Has at least two previous albums, as well as a credit in Diva Jazz Orchestra. Great songs, done well. B+(***) [cd] [06-01]

Michael Formanek: New Digs (2025 [2026], Intakt): Bassist, own albums started appearing in 1990, as well as many groups and side-credits. One of his most successful groups has been Thumbscrew, a trio with Mary Halvorson (guitar) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums). They're the core here, augmented by John O'Gallagher (alto sax), Chet Doxas (tenor sax/clarinet), João Almeida (trumpet), and Alexander Hawkins (organ). This starts to get real interesting seven cuts in, which has sent me back to the beginning several times. B+(***) [sp]

David Friedman & Tony Miceli: Glow (2019 [2026], SteepleChase): Two vibraphonists, as was Samuels (1948-2019). Friedman's discography goes back to 1975, Miceli's nearly as far but picks up around 2005. Duets, a mix of standards and originals, including one song credited to Samuels and Friedman, another to Samuels alone. B [sp]

Gordon Grdina: Martian Kitties (2025, 577): Canadian guitarist, also plays oud, prolific, duo here with the drummer also on electronics. B+(**) [sp]

Gordon Grdina/Russ Lossing: Turnpike (2026, Attaboygirl): Oud and piano duets. The oud has a distinctive sound that dominates here. B+(**) [sp]

Gordon Grdina's Nomad Trio: Ash (2026, Attaboygirl): Third group album since 2020, with Matt Mitchell (piano) and Jim Black (drums). B+(**) [bc]

Sven-Åke Johansson With Pierre Borel/Seymour Wright/Joel Grip: Two Days at Café Oto (2025, Otoroku): Swedish drummer (1943-2025), recorded this April 8-9, shortly before his death on June 15. First album was 1972, Discogs credits him directly with 88 albums, 168 performance credits. Five pieces, one short and four in the 23:05-31.45 range. Grip (bass) and Johansson play on all five, Wright (alto sax) on four, Borel (alto sax) also on four (so three tracks have both). B+(***) [bc]

Aubrey Johnson: The Lively Air (2025 [2026], Greenleaf Music): Jazz singer, from Wisconsin, niece of Lyle Mays, studied in Boston, based in New York, fourth album since 2020, Mays' bandmate Steve Rodby produces (both were in Pat Metheny Group). Group includes Tomoko Omura (violin), Alex LoRe (woodwinds), Chris McCarthy (keyboards), bass, and drums. I should note that sometimes I'm blown away by the amount of technical skill, and even the breadth of creativity, even in albums I don't especially like. One cut I do love is her Joni Mitchell cover ("Help Me"). B+(**) [sp]

Audrey Johnson/Helen Sung/Dave Douglas: Lives of the Saints: Portraits in Song With Words by David Hadju (2025, Sunnyside): Voice, keyboards, and trumpet, also credited for the music along with Renee Rosnes. Hajdu has been music critic at The New Republic and The Nation, and has seven books, starting with a biography of Billy Strayhorn in 1996. His texts honor ten women: Ada Lovelace, Angelina Napoitano, Lena Hornse, Bessie Hall, Sophie Scholl, Hyapatia, Hedy Lamarr, Vivian Maier, Leonore Carrington, and his sister Barbara Ann Hajdu. The band I associate mostly with Douglas: Chet Doxas (clarinet/tenor sax), Marika Hughes (cello), Simón Willson (bass), Rudy Royston (drums), Samuel Torres (percussion). B+(*) [sp]

David Lord: Way Over the Rainbow (2025, Cloud Ear): Guitarist, from Wichita, four previous album since 2018 all volumes of Forest Standards. Mostly trio with bass (Dale Black) and drums (Charles Rumback), with guest spots for Jeff Parker (guitar on three tracks) and Sam Hake (vibes one). B+(*) [sp]

Andrew Moorhead: Mirage (2025 [2026], OA2): Pianist ("and mathematician"), has a previous album from 2023, this a trio with François Moutin (bass) and Ari Hoenig (drums). Original pieces, presented as "a suite of etudes," often rhythmic drills with considerable thought and appeal. B+(***) [cd] [05-22]

Azuka Moweta and His Anioma Brothers Band of Africa: Kenechukwu (2026, Palenque): Nigerian singer and bandleader, from Asaba in the Delta State. Sounds like near classic highlife. A- [sp]

Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra: Ellington Masterworks (2024 [2026], MCG Jazz): Charlie Young is conductor and artistic direction, for "a live program of rare Duke Ellington compositions from 1940-68" — the only titles I recognize are "Jack the Bear" and "Ad Lib on Nippon," and few of the musicians ring a bell, but the Ellingtonia is unmistakable. B+(***) [cd] [06-12]

Vaiano's Paisanos: Vaiano's Paisanos (2026, Jalopy): Rachel Meirs (violin) and Van Burchfield (guitar), who have a previous duo album, expanded their Louisville-based folk ensemble here, to play a set of tunes from the NYC melting pot of the 1920s and 1930s, some from Europe, others from the Caribbean. B+(***) [sp]

Vaiano's Paisanos: Vaiano's Paisanos Presents Rachel Meirs & Van Burchfield (2025, Jalopy): Violin and guitar duo, their group name already conceived without the extra players of their eponymous group album. Same basic idea, a bit more minimal. B+(**) [bc]

Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble: Groove in the Face of Adversity (2025, Mack Avenue): Don Fagenson, took the name Don Was when founding the Detroit duo Was (Not Was), which released four albums 1981-90 (a fifth appeared in 2008; David Weiss performed as David Was). By then, Was had developed a reputation for producing records, winning six Grammys, and working around the industry, including as president of Blue Note Records. Band here includes saxophonist Dave McMurray and vocalist Steffanie Christi'an. Includes a cover of Curtis Mayfield's "This Is My Country." Nothing else that obvious, but if these aren't all funk covers, they're pretty classic. (Documentation sucks. Seems to be live.) B+(***) [sp]

Rich Willey: Laid Back Vol. 1 (2025 [2026], Boptism): Trumpet player, early credits go back to 1993 (with Mel Tormé, on trombone), has more recently released albums as Rich Willey's Boptimism Big Band and his Boptimism Funk Band. Splits the difference here, with a featuring credit for John Swana (EVI) and arrangements by Wally Minko. B+(*) [cd] [05-30]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Ray Charles: No One Does It Like . . . Ray Charles! (1962-65 [2025], Tangerine): A restored "lost album" from the mid-1960s, or alternatively a collection of "mid-1960s singles, B-sides, and non-LP tracks." I count six non-album singles here ("Hide Nor Hair," "No One," "Don't Set Me Free," "My Baby Don't Dig Me," "My Heart Cries for You," "Without Love"). None were really big hits, but several will be familiar from his comps, and they keynote a pretty consistent album, with touches of, yes, genius. A- [sp]

Duke Ellington: Copenhagen 1964 (1964 [2026], Storyville): After a few bars of "Take the 'A' Train," opens with a medley of early tunes, followed by a 14:52 "Harlem Suite," and new material from the then-unrelesed Far East Suite. Lots of good stuff, especially "Kinda Dukish," an intro for the piano player that explodes into "Rockin' in Rhythm." A- [bc]

Bill Evans: Portraits at the Penthouse: Live in Seattle (1966 [2025], Resonance): One of many recently unearthed live shots of the pianist and his trio, here with Eddie Gomez (bass) and Joe Hunt (drums). B+(**) [sp]

Benny Golson: Gone With Golson (1959 [2025], Craft): Tenor saxophonist (1929-2024), fifth album since 1957, three original compositions plus two standards, quintet with trombone (Curtis Fuller), piano (Ray Bryant), bass, and drums. B+(***) [sp]

Morphine: Bootleg Detroit [Deluxe Edition] (1994 [2025], Rykodisc/Rhino): Rock band formed 1989 in Massachusetts, principally Mark Standman (2-string bass) and Dana Coley (sax, mostly baritone, sometimes two at once), with one or two sets of drums. Five studio albums 1992-2000, the latter released after Standman died and the group disbanded. At that time, Rykodisc also released this live tape (2000), expanded here from 40 to 65 minutes. I like the sound. Not so sure about the songs. B+(**) [sp]

Lester Young: Lester Leaps In: Live at Birdland 1951-1952 (1951-52 [2025], Liberation Hall): Eight previously unreleased tracks from four "Jumpin with Symphony Sid" radio shots, with various piano, bass, and drums, plus some trumpet (Jesse Drakes). B+(***) [bc]

Old music:

Azuka Moweta and His Anioma Brothers Band: Ekobe Global (2025, Palenque): Nigerian singer and bandleader from Asaba, on the delta of the Niger River, second (of three so far) albums on this Colombian label (ignoring singles and remixes). Ekobe refers to a style with traditional Igbo instruments, and global is where they're headed. Hard to choose between the albums without spending a lot more time. B+(***) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Ballister + Luke Stewart: Clocking the Wheel (Aerophonic) [07-10]
• Maya De Vitry: All My Faith (Mad Maker Studios) [07-24]
• Charles Downs Quartet: Inner (ESP-Disk') [05-15]
• Entropic Hop: The Quest for the Normal Is the Death of the Self (ESP-Disk') [05-15]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Thursday, May 14, 2026

May archive (in progress).

Music: Current count 45922 [45881] rated (+41), 18 [14] unrated (+4).

I blew through Monday working on Loose Tabs. By the time I was done, I had accumulated 331 links, with 23,402 words. It covers 28 days, so I continue to be almost monthly. I think it's getting better organized and edited, but it's still pretty scattered. I wish I had an AI genie that could read this and generate a plan to outline 6-8 more purposeful Substack essays. I don't even care that much about recycling the words, as that part comes easy enough. It's formulating the plan and sitting down to tackle it that's the hard work.

While I was wrapping it up, I had the idea that my next Substack post would be some sort of "executive summary" of this Loose Tabs. I opened a draft file for that purpose, but didn't put anything into it (yet). I do think that my digressions on gerrymandering and bankruptcy are worth elaborating on as standalone essays. That could still happen, but I still have plenty more fish to fry.

After posting Loose Tabs on Tuesday, I figured this Music Week would be next. I did the cutoff early Wednesday, the extra two days pushing the rated count up from an anemic under 30 to a robust over 40. Then, before I got into writing an introduction, I decided that I should knock out my DownBeat Critics Poll Ballot. I always get a laugh when I read the invite, which admits "this is a LONG ballot" then adds it "will probably take a little less than an hour to complete." The ballot has 51 questions, and each one asks you to allocate 10 points (usually 5-3-2) among a list of nominees that runs from 30-80 individual names (sometimes more for albums: this year's "Album of the Year" listed 158 titles). It took me 8 hours yesterday, plus six hours today, to get it all filled out. Of course, part of the problem was that I took notes. Still, I did very little writing along the way. Most of what I did was copy the nominee lists, then sort them into two tiers, then pick three votes from the upper tier. I wrote in votes very rarely:

1. Reut Regev under Rising Star Trombone (3rd after Kalia Vandever and Natalie Cressman. I only recognized two other nominees, with no firm opinion on either, but had written Regev's name in before.
2. Dave Liebman, 3rd for Soprano Saxophone (dropped from ballot, and also dropped from Tenor Saxophone, where I would probably have listed him 15-25; I like his tenor more than I like his soprano, but the competition is much stronger; Liebman does still appear on the Flute list, but I can't remember hearing him play flute).
3. Rising Star Baritone Saxophone: after Charles Evans and Jonah Parzen-Johnson, I didn't recognize anyone on the nominee list, but I had recently enjoyed Leigh Pilzer's album, so I wrote her name in at 3rd.
4. I wrote Maria Muldaur in at 1st in Blues Artist or Group. I've been doing that for some years now (this year ahead of Robert Finley and Taj Mahal).
5. Blues Album: I had only hears two of the 34 nominated albums: Buddy Guy at B+(***), and Eric Bibb at B+(**). I gave Guy my 3rd place vote, behind Muldaur's One Hour Mama (a full A) and Finley's Hallelujah (an A-). I also had Mavis Staples' Sad and Beautiful World at A-, tagged as "B" in my 2025 tracking file but I decided it was less narrowly blues (it was actually nominated under "Beyond"), and Guy's lower-rated album would suffice.

One could save time by not taking notes, but then you would also not have reminders from the previous year. I often wind up voting for the same people this year as last year, trusting my previous judgment over having to rethink everything again. But to get down to one hour, you'd have to answer each and every question in just over one minute. I'm a slow reader, so I can't even read every line in the list in that time, let alone mull it over. Of course, you could save time by skipping questions, or by not using all of your votes. That's allowed, and they don't make the ballots public, so who will know? Or care?

I started writing notes on the DownBeat polls in 2003, way before I got invited to vote, and wrote about them every year through 2009 (see index), so those pieces are all after-the-fact commentary. It's always interested me what other people are thinking, perhaps as a sanity check on my own thought (which is often quite different). I skipped 2010, which was in the late, declining days of Jazz Consumer Guide, although that may have just been a coincidence. I resumed in 2011, when I was invited to vote, so all the subsequent notes are structured differently. Even so, I wrote more commentary back then than I have in recent years, as the whole process has seemed more and more like a lot of work for little value.

Still, it might be interesting to take a couple days and write an essay about what I've learned about jazz and polling over the last 23 years. That's on my mental list of things to think about writing. Another possible item is a comment/response to Robert Christgau's belated Dean's List: 2025, where his list of "the 61 best albums of last year (or so)" came up well short of his actual review log (Joe Yanosik figures 23 albums short) and rather skewed (6 of his top ten albums were originally graded A-, while one full A album wound up at 51, with others at 49, 43, 42, 39, 29, 28, and 27). It's possible that part of the reason is my own fault, in that I'm way behind updating the Consumer Guide database on Christgau's website. I started to work on correcting that before I got sidelined with Loose Tabs and so forth, and got caught up to September. I'll get back to work on that soon. Once I have the database up to date, I'll have a better idea what's going on, and then I can write something up.

I'll save speculation on details here, but note that my first thought was simply to write up a feature on the albums in my The Best Non-Jazz Albums of 2025 that Christgau didn't review, for whatever reason. I do make a point of listening to everything I can find that he's reviewed, so I can offer second opinions within the limits of my taste and analysis, and I try to place that within the context of everything else I listen to. He listens as broadly as I do, but only writes about things he has something substantial to say about, so it's never clear what he knows about what he hasn't written about. I don't want to get into an argument about methodology, but as someone with historically similar tastes, I think his readers might find my takes on albums he hasn't written about to be of some use. That's all.

Some of what I've listened to below comes from working on the Dean's List and his CG database. I reexamined four of his top six albums, but only bumped the grade of one up. I already had the other six of his top ten at A-, which was good enough for me. Only two of the next ten I have at less than A-: Jeff Evans Porkestra and Dingonek Street Band; same for two more from 21-30: Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta and Marshall Allen; the differences of opinion swell to four in 31-40, three in 41-50, seven in 51-61, including the bottom 5. Overall, 65.5% of his Dean's List albums rated A- or higher for me. On the other hand, where he came up with 84 albums (counting Yanosik's +23, I have 107 (counting 2 late 2024 finds): 54 of which he has yet to review, or maybe even to hear (half are by artists he's never reviewed); the other 11 are albums he reviewed with lower grades than I came up with.

I should note that while I've been writing quite a bit recently, I'm also thinking more about doing some website work. I'll write this up when I get serious, but main thing I could use help on is to come up with some sort of design template that I can use for the Christgau website, and eventually for mine and possibly some other projects I have in mind. My problem is settling on a visual model. I can figure out how to implement whatever design appeals, but getting to the design has been an obstacle.

In this vein, I'm also thinking about running another mid-year Jazz Critics Poll. It will just be up to 10 new albums and up to 5 reissue/vault jobs. I'm less certain about running an end-of-year poll. One key consideration may be how easy I can make it. The last few years have been a lot of work, leaving me drained and frazzled afterwards.

New records reviewed this week:

أحمد [Ahmed]: Play Monk (2025 [2026], Otoroku): British quartet of Pat Thomas (piano), Joel Grip (bass), Antonin Gerbal (drums) and Seymour Wright (alto sax), formed in 2017 as a tribute to Ahmed Abdul-Malik, seventh album, really came into their own with the 5-CD live box Giant Beauty (2024). Just six tunes, five running over 20 minutes, an extrapolation which can leave their models deeply buried. But they continue to impress, mightily. A- [sp]

J. Cole: The Fall-Off (2026, Cole World/Dreamville/Interscope): Rapper Jermaine Cole, opened with a mixtape in 2009, seventh studio album since 2011, all charted at number one, billed as his final album (he's 41), supporting a world tour with 73 dates running from July to December. I've followed the studio albums, impressed by his flow and beats, put off the N-word intensity, but I paused when I saw the size (24 tracks, 101:17) of this effort. Turns out it wasn't much effort. B+(**) [sp]

Mikaela Davis: Graceland Way (2026, Kill Rock Stars): Singer-songwriter from Rochester, third album since 2012. Cover shows her in western wear including a white hat, instructing us to "file under canyon country," and title makes a connection to Elvis Presley and Memphis, but neither is very clear in the grooves. Her main instrument is reportedly harp. B+(*) [sp]

Alabaster DePlume: Dear Children of Our Children, I Knew: Epilogue (2026, International Anthem): British saxophonist, spoken word poet, actual name Angus Fairbairn, half-dozen albums since 2015, counts this as an EP (5 songs, 26:02), styled as an epilogue to his 2025 album A Blade Because a Blade Is Whole, and a bookend to his 2024 EP Cremisan: Prologue to a Blade. Also plays synths, sampler, and guitars, backed by bass (Shahzad Ismaily) and drums (Tcheser Holmes). B+(**) [sp]

Friko: Something Worth Waiting For (2026, ATO): Indie rock band from Chicago, principally Niko Kapetan (vocals, guitar) and Bailey Minzenberger (drums), second album after a couple of EPs. Has the sound, not that I much care. B [sp]

The Ghost Wolves: Consumer Waste (2024, Saustex): Austin Texas garage/punk band, principally Carley Wolf (guitar, vocals) and Jonny Wolf (drums, synth, vocals), seventh album since 2011, 12 songs in 26:16. B+(**) [sp]

Hang on the Box: Spiritual War (2025, Beijing Modern Sky Cultural Development): All-female Chinese punk rock band, formed 1998, debut album 2001, Wikipedia lists seven albums through 2017, Discogs has four of them plus a 2020 live cassette and a 1998-2008 2-CD compilation. I was clued to this by a stray reader comment, but I haven't found anything about the album, other than that it is on streaming. Some punk edges, but mostly post, with new wavish vamps, and an interesting ballad/ambient break. B+(**) [sp]

Jasper Høiby's 3 Elements: Conversations of Hope (2026, Edition): Danish bassist, based in London, third album with this trio with Xavi Torres (piano) and Naima Acuña (drums). B+(**) [bc]

Peter Holsapple: The Face of 68 (2025, Label 51): Singer-songwriter, started in a 1970 band with Mitch Easter and Chris Stamey, founded the dB's with Stamey, and has several duo albums with Stamey (starting with Mavericks in 1991). Only has a couple albums under his own name, with this one produced by Don Dixon. Not much interesting here, until "That Kind of Guy" reveals his Rolling Stones collection. B [sp]

David Janeway Trio: Live at Blue LLama (2024 [2026], SteepleChase): Pianist, debut album 1986, but not much more until 2021, when he landed on SteepleChase. Third album there, trio with Robert Hurst (bass) and Billy Hart (drums), playing two originals and a bunch of standards. B+(*) [cd]

Ingrid Jensen: Landings (2025 [2026], Newvelle): Trumpet player from Canada, debut 1995, seems like her recent efforts have been lost in collaborations (including Artemis) and exotica, but this one focuses on her trumpet, backed by Gary Versace (organ), Marvin Sewell (guitar), and Jon Wikan (drums). B+(***) [dl]

Kneecap: Fenian (2026, Heavenly): Hardcore hip-hop group from Belfast, "political" is an understatement, as they've been banned from touring in countries like Hungary, and one member was charged under UK's "Terrorism Act" for "expressing support" for a banned group. Title refers to reuniting divided Ireland. One song features Palestinian rapper Fawzi; another Kae Tempest. I'm not following the words very closely, but the beats and sounds hit the mark. A- [sp]

Loveseat: Our Way (2025, Reckless Pedestrian): Married duo from Effingham, Illinois, Bill and JJ Passalacqua, only album, they tend to trade verses, Bill often opening up with his best John Prine impersonation, playing 12-string acoustic guitar. She finishes them off with aplomb. Ends with a Tex-Mex dance number, a real bonus. A- [sp]

Brian Lynch: Torch Bearers (2024-25 [2026], Holistic MusicWorks): Trumpet player, started in a group with Charles McPherson (1980-81), moved on to Horace Silver, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Art Blakey, and especially Eddie Palmieri, with his own string of albums starting in 1986. He's reunited with McPherson (alto sax) here, along with Boris Kozlov (bass), various pianist and drummers, and singer Samara Joy (2 tracks). Has an old bebop feel, especially with McPherson. B+(***) [sp]

Doug MacDonald: Tribute to South Central (2026, Dmac Music): Jazz guitarist, first record 1982, second a decade later, gradually picked up the place and has become quite prolific of late. Five originals, covers from Ellington, Jobim, and Wes Montgomery, comes with trumpet (Wayne Cobham), keyboards (Richard Turner Jr.), bass, and drums/percussion. B+(**) [cd] [06-01]

Jennifer Madsen: Girl Talk (2026, SingBaby Productions): Jazz singer, Discogs lists one previous album from 1983, website suggests she has more since then. Has a large band (12 instrumentalists listed, plus 7 guest artists), with pianist Brent Edstrom arranging. Standards, the title song preceded by "Besame Mucho" and followed by "You Turn Me On Baby." Good singer, good band, more or less according to the songs. B+(**) [cd] [06-26]

Media Puzzle: New Racehorse (2026, Impressed): Australian post-punk (or egg punk?) group, first album (if you credit 12 songs, 23:19), group named for a race horse (winner of the 2002 Melbourne Cup), led by Tom Peter (vocals, guitar, bass, synth, sax, percussion), includes other singers and bits of trumpet and violin. B+(*) [sp]

Melanie C: Sweat (2026, Red Girl/Virgin): Former Spice Girls singer Melanie Chisholm (Sporty Spice, or Mel C), ninth solo studio since 1999. Pretty good. B+(***) [sp]

Michaela Anne: These Are the Days (2026, Georgia June): Country singer-songwriter, surname Neller, sixth album since 2011. B+(**) [sp]

Kacey Musgraves: Middle of Nowhere (2026, Lost Highway): Country singer-songwriter, seventh studio album since her breakthrough hit in 2013. B+(***) [sp]

Octo Octa: Sigils for Survival (2026, T4T LUV NRG): American house producer Maya Bouldry-Morrison, several albums since 2011, beats steady here with minor frills. B+(***) [sp]

Sergio Pereira: Colors of Time (2025 [2026], Sergio Pereira Music): Brazilian guitarist, sings some, moved to New York in the 1980s, fifth album, recorded in Spain, Norway, and the USA, with a large but seamless cast. B+(***) [cd] [05-15]

Leigh Pilzer: Keep Holding On (2025 [2026], Strange Woman): Baritone saxophonist, DC native, teaches at University of Maryland, seems to be her first album, original compositions, trio with Paul Bratcher (organ) and Greg Holloway (drums), starts with a "hard bop tribute" and keeps swinging. B+(***) [cd] [06-19]

Jefferson Ross: Low Country Wedding (2026, self-released): Folkie singer-songwriter, moved to Georgia after years in Nashville, Discogs lists four previous albums (since 2008), and I should check them out. (Spotify has nine.) I didn't like his voice at first, but "Livin' in a Red State Blues" got my attention — my main complaint there is that I'm not fast enough to quote it (and the internet isn't hip enough to recount the lyrics), so I'll quote the closer instead: "I won't dwell on the liars and the haters, and all the despicable things they do; I just thank God for peaches and tomatoes." A- [sp]

Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band: Arsenio and Beyond: Live at the Bronx Music Hall (2026, Jazzheads): Drummer, from the South Bronx, started with Mongo Santamaria in 1983, recorded an album in 1993, and many more since 2000, adopted Multiverse in 2012, has several big band tributes to prominent Afro-Cuban figures, including Arsenio Rodriguez here. A mind-boggling tsunami of vocals, horns, and percussion. B+(*) [cd]

Christopher Sánchez: Latin Jazz Meets Opera (2026, Zoho): Dominican "baritone singer," you know he's serious when the range is specified, based in New York, seems to be his first album. Nothing I've received this year looked less appealing, but he hid the Bizet and Mozart arias behind a tango, and followed them with a deliciously torchy "Unforgettable." The Latin rhythms grease the skids, and I'm duly impressed by the voice, even though I normally put little weight on pure skill. Appeals to me as grand camp. Your mileage may vary. B+(***) [cd]

Joe Syrian Motor City Jazz Octet: A Blue Time (2023-25 [2026], Circle 9): Drummer, third group album since 2015, personnel varies over sessions, but Adam Birnbaum (piano) and Doug Beavers (trombone) are constants, and help with arrangements (which also draw on outsiders, like John Fedchock and Rich DeRosa). All standards, including a Jobim and a Lennon-McCartney, with feature spots for Paul Bollenback (guitar) and Lucy Yeghiazaryan (vocals). B+(**) [cd]

Adia Vanheerentals: Taking Place (2025, Relative Pitch): Belgian soprano saxophonist, solo here, limited appeal. B [sp]

XG: The Core (2026, Xgalx): X-pop vocal group, identified as Japanese but based in South Korea and mostly rap and sing in English, first album after two EPs, 10 songs, 29:46. I'm not going to think about the lyrics beyond "if you don't like it, fuck you." As snappy as anything I've heard this year. Follows the most infectious song with a ballad, which works nearly as well. A- [sp]

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:

Fight the Fire: Digital Reggae, Conscious Roots and Dub in Nigeria 1986-91 (1986-91 [2026], Soundway): Reggae has had a niche role in West Africa since the mid-1970s, with Alpha Blondy perhaps the best known exponent. No names I recognize here, but these 14 pieces are remarkably steady. B+(***) [bc]

The Oscar Peterson Trio: At Baker's Keyboard Lounge: The Complete Recordings (1960 [2026], Verve): With Ray Brown (bass) and Ed Thigpen (drums), five full sets, in the order performed, from a single Friday in a two-week engagement, recorded for a live album that never got released. At best, this is what you expect from jazz piano c. 1960, fast and sparkling. B+(***) [sp]

This Is Lorelei: Box for Buddy, Box for Star [Super Deluxe] (2022 [2026], Double Double Whammy): Nate Amos, the tunesmith behind singer Rachel Brown in Water From Your Eyes, released this solo album in 2024, followed by a "Deluxe" edition (+3 songs) in 2025, and now this "Super Deluxe" (+10 songs, all covers by others). Variety is nice, but doesn't make a lot of difference. B+(**) [sp]

Mike Westbrook Orchestra: The Cortège: Live at the BBC (1980 [2025], Cadillac): One of the British composer's major works, with a later studio recording released in 1982 and reissued by Enja in 1993. The piece was commissioned in 1979, and recorded here in the BBC studios in London on Oct. 25, 1980, with a 17-piece orchestra, counting vocalists Kate Westbrook (who also played tenor horn and piccolo) and Phil Minton (who also played trumpet). I didn't care for the studio album — often the vocals are a personal peeve in albums like this, but while dramatized I don't particularly mind them here. The band, of course, is often terrific. B+(**) [bc]

Old music:

Barbara Carr: The Best of Barbara Carr (1997-2001 [2003], Ecko): Blues/soul singer from St. Louis (1941-2026), released some singles on Chess (1966-72), but didn't get to albums until 1989, with this compilation from five albums the core of her output. By the 1990s, neo-soul was floating off in the pop ether, while vintage soul singers were being revived on blues labels. This starts risqué, with "Bone Me Like You Own Me" and "If You Can't Cut the Mustard" ("don't go sniffin' around the jar"), then slips in a disco joint, before coming up with titles like "If the Lord Keeps the Thought of You out of My Head, I'll Keep Your Booty out of My Bed." B+(***) [sp]

Justin Golden: Golden Country: Volume 1 (2024, Vocal Rest): Richmond-based singer-songwriter, plays guitar, claims roots in the Mississippi Delta and Chicago, nothing on Discogs but Bandcamp has a 2022 album, folowed by this set of 8 songs (25:16). Tags for blues and folk, mostly covers, some old-timey twang to the picking. B+(**) [bc]

Justin Golden: Golden Country: Volume 2 (2024, Vocal Rest): Eight more songs (25:51), starting with "Sitting on Top of the World" and "Sixteen Tons," including a "St. James Infirmary" and a "Diving Duck Blues." B+(**) [bc]

Hang on the Box: Yellow Banana (2001, JingWen/Scream): Chinese punk rock band, four women, first album, Scream seems to be the name of a club in Beijing. Most titles in English, like "No Sexy," "For Some Stupid Cunts at 'BBS,'" "Kill Your Belly," "and "Ass Hole, I'm Not Your Baby." Another scene I know nothing about, but they're clearly plugged into a familiar world. B+(**) [sp]

Jefferson Ross: Azalea (2008, Deep Fried Discs): First album. Songwriting solid, including one about "Stillwater Oklahoma," one about "The Prophet Elijah," and one mentioning peaches and tomatoes." He's right about "Lucky Now & Then." B+(***) [sp]

Jefferson Ross: Hymns to the Here and Now (2011, Deep Fried Discs): Second album. Starts with the assertion, "there's no such thing as ordinary people." Title track is the odd one out, a cappella where most of this veers between bluegrass and Western swing. The more it swings, the better. B+(***) [sp]

Jefferson Ross: Isle of Hope (2013, Deep Fried Discs): Third album, runs 16 songs (53:48), recorded by Thomm Jutz. Seems like both the songwriting and the music have gotten subtler, which may well pan out in the end, but is less obvious at first blush. Or maybe this is just "easy listening"? B+(**) [sp]

Jefferson Ross: Dogwood Cats (2015, Deep Fried Discs): Fourth album, thirteen more songs (52:22). B+(*) [sp]

The Mike Westbrook Concert Band: Celebration (1967, Deram): British pianist (1936-2026), started with this debut album, leading a 12-piece group, where young saxophonists Mike Osborne and John Surman were soon to become famous. This is regarded as a classic of the British avant-garde. It could be. B+(***) [yt]

Grade (or other) changes:

S.G. Goodman: Planting by the Signs (2025, Slough Water/Thirty Tigers): Folk singer-songwriter, from Kentucky, third album. Surprised to find this soft, unassuming album ranked 5th on the 2025 Dean's List. Sounds plausible at first, slips a bit, two duets don't exactly help, but the 8:59 closer ("Heaven Song") is transcendent. [was: B+(**)] A- [sp]

Rechecked with no grade change:

Body Type: Expired Candy (2023, Poison City): Australian rock group, number 4 on 2025 Dean's List, half the songs hold together beyond reproach, so I'm not surprised that someone could latch onto them, but multiple plays leave me not quite caring. B+(***) [sp]

Margaret Glaspy: The Golden Heart Protector (2025, ATO, EP): Idiosyncratic Dean's List top pick, hard for me to figure why let alone concur. Seven songs (25:23), all covers and most duets, the more familiar the more touching. B+(***) [sp]

Rhett Miller: A Lifetime of Riding by Night (2025, ATO): Eighth solo album, many more in Old '97s, as noted before "easy to listen to, and not without merit." A couple of songs touched me, but not enough to upgrade. B+(**) [sp]

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:

• Wayne Alpern: Varieties & Extravaganzas (Henri Elkan Music) [04-17]
• Kenny Barron/Ray Drummond/Ben Riley: So Many Lovely Things: Live in Brecon (1995, Elemental Music) [06-12]
• Chuck Bergeron: Bass & Face: Duets With Ten Premier Vocalists (Summit) [06-05]
• Steven Bernstein: ResoNation Trio (Royal Potato Family) [06-05]
• Adam De Lucia: The Man Who Would Be King (self-released) [08-07]
• Armen Donelian: Inquiry (Sunnyside) [06-05]
• Christine Fawson: It Could Happen to You (self-released) [06-01]
• Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra: Ellington Masterworks (MCG Jazz) [06-12]
• Rich Willey: Laid Back Vol. 1 (Boptism) [05-30]
• Zen Zadravec: New Paradigm (Marmite) [06-26]

Ask a question, or send a comment.

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

I'm posting this on May 12, after initially hoping for May 10. The delay will push Music Week out a couple days. Elapsed time since my previous one is 28 days, so I'm still close to monthly, but not on any formal schedule. Still, these are falling into a monthly pattern, even when (as this time) I think I should be kicking something out after 2-3 months. Slowing down in old age is my initial excuse, but one could also say being overwhelmed by events. And even with massive paywalling, I'm still finding many more reports and opinion pieces than I can handle. I'm less and less worried about the world going to hell due to ignorance. But more due to stupidity, for lack of a better word to describe the tendency to view issues and problems through one's own narrowly biased focus, with an inability to even imagine looking at them from some other perspective.

Needless to say, this state of the world has found its ideal in Donald Trump, who is not only a victim of this stupidity, but also a tireless spreader. One can only hope that, as disasters mount, this triggers some massive reflex reaction to undo everything he has done. Still, I worry that some aspiring Democrat is going to look at the polling, and decide that the sure path to power is to campaign on lower gasoline prices.[1] Because the problem here is not just the platform plank, but the whole thinking around it.

One could easily solve the supply problem by ending Trump-Biden wars, unblocking the Persian Gulf, and putting Russian and Venezuelan oil back on the market. But what about also working on the demand side? For instance: by pitching more solar and wind as ways to free up cheaper gasoline. Same for electric cars. Mass transit would also help out, as it allows people to move around efficiently without the congestion and pollution of cars. Do all that and gas will get so cheap you should start increasing taxes to discourage people from wasting it. I'd argue that taxes should gradually increase over time, as setting the expectation of future expenses will help move people away from fossil fuels, without clobbering them right now. A car is typically a 5-15 year investment. You don't want to obsolete current cars immediately.

But most importantly, explain to people that Trump is not only costing them at the pump, his whole worldview is making their lives more precarious, and more miserable.

[1] Looks like this Democrat is Graham Platner, the Maine Senatorial candidate much celebrated recently by left-leaning Democrats for driving centrist Janet Mills. Platner wants to end the federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel (18.4 and 24.4 cents per gallon, respectively, earmarked for funding roads and bridges; there are also state taxes, which in many cases are higher than the federal tax). This tax hasn't been raised since 1993. It is much less than it should be, for lots of good reasons (and not just inflation).

This is an occasional collection of newsworthy links and comments, much less systematic than what I attempted in my late Speaking of Which posts. The new name comes from my extensive use of browser tabs. When I get around to cleaning up, I often find tabs opened to old articles I might want to comment on and/or refer back to. So these posts are mostly housecleaning, but may also serve as a very limited but persistent record of what 20+ years ago I started calling "the end of the American empire" and nowadays feels more like "the end of civilization." I collect these bits in a draft file, and flush them out when periodically (12 times from April-December 2025). My previous one appeared 28 days ago, on April 15.

By the way, I've been trying to write some more in-depth pieces on major issues (and/or personal peccadillos), using Substack as an email agent. I call this series Notes on Everyday Life. Here's a list of recent ones, plus a couple of older ones I've pinned because they still seem relevant here, in LIFO order:

• [05-05]: The Real Road to Serfdom: Tim Wu explains how monopoly power leads to fascism.

• [05-02]: Lookback: Iraq 2003: Why does the Iran war story sound familiar? (with allowances for tragedy repeating as farce)?

• [04-27]: Explaining Inflation: AI treats us like 5-year-olds. They leave out a few things.

• [04-05]: Iran War: The Big Question: How does it end? Or does it end at all?

• [04-03]: Iran War: The Three Questions: Why is this happening?

• [03-13]: Days of Infamy: "Franklin Roosevelt knew how to sell a war." Donald Trump doesn't. He only knows how to start one.

• [2025-10-21]: Making Peace in Gaza and Beyond: "Looking beyond the Trump points toward a peace we can all live with."

• [2025-10-17]: Gaza War Peace Plan: "Twenty Trump points, for better or worse."

• [2025-08-10]: Four Stories: My first post, which sets out the basic ideas behind my effort, and takes its title from a very wrong-headed Vox piece that offered some teachable moments. One sample quote I buried in parentheses:

  There is no problem that Trump is the solution to. But his slogan, "Trump will fix it," suggests that some people thought we had problems he could fix. I think Trump's slogan was very effective, especially as Harris made little or no effort to show how very ridiculous the boast was.

I also have a Notes feed there. While I've done very little with it so far, it occurs to me that I might be able to use it to publish Loose Tabs items and Music Week reviews as I write them, instead of having to wait for a long compilation post.

Table of Contents:

• Cuba
• Jerome Powell, David Warsh, and the Fed
• White House Correspondents Dinner
• Gerrymandering Around Voting Rights
• A Cure for Gerrymandering: Representative Democracy
• Spirit Airlines Bites the Dust
• How to Save Bankrupt Companies: Like Spirit Airlines
• War on Iran
• Israel
• Israel-America-World Relations
• The Crutch of Anti-Semitism: Gary Blumenthal
• Ukraine, Other Hot Spots, and World Politics
• Trump's Wars
• Trump vs. Law
• Trump's Administration
• Donald Trump and His Cult
• Other Republicans
• Democrats
• The Economy (and Economists)
• Technology (Including AI)
• Dean Baker
• Current Affairs/Nathan J Robinson
• Jeffrey St Clair
• Books
• Obituaries

New Stories

Sometimes stuff happens, and it dominates the news/opinion cycle for a few days or possibly several weeks. We might as well lead with it, because it's where attention is most concentrated. But eventually these stories will fold into the broader, more persistent themes of the following section.

Last time: Cuba, No Kings, Viktor Orbán, Fascism.

Cuba: While I don't doubt that Trump would like to "do Cuba next," aside from reinforcing the world's view of America as a cruel and petty bully, I doubt the military has (or can come up with) a viable attack plan. So his threats mostly are diversions, meant to distract from the war in Iran, while reinforcing Trump's madman cred (which, and this reveals something, he values as part of his "art of the deal."

• Peter Kornbluh [04-20]: 65 yrs after the first one, Trump's 'Bay of Pigs' may take many forms: "'There were sobering lessons,' JFK said after the failed invasion of Cuba in 1961. There is still time for the current president to learn them." Kennedy does seem to have learned some lessons from the Bay of Pigs fiasco, but not the important one of resigning to live with an independent Cuba. Whether Trump is capable of learning any lessons at all, ever, is doubtful. I will say that I'm skeptical that the specific litany of mistakes made in 1961 are likely to be repeated now (both Cuba and the US are very different now). On the other hand, the idea of invading another country just because you think you are entitled to run it (for whatever reason) is as bad as ever. Nor is there any reason to think that, given the chance, the US would allow Cuba to choose their own democracy. The election processes the US set up in Afghanistan and Iraq were shams, and the one in America isn't much better.

• Lee Schlenker [04-23]: Despite Trump's threats, a US-Cuba deal is taking shape: "Talks in Havana are starting to deliver results even as Washington prepares for the possibility of war."

• William Leogrande [04-26]: In Cuba a deadlock is more likely than a deal: "Trump wants something that the government in Havana is just not willing to give."

• Blaise Malley [04-28]: Senate kills effort to stop Trump war against Cuba: "By 51-47 vote, Senate blocks debate due to 'US troops not being engaged in hostilities,' despite ongoing blockade."

• Joshua Keating [05-01]: Trump says Cuba is "next." What does that mean? "But it's not clear what the plan is." Or what the goal is, other than another feather for Trump's cap. Regime change in Venezuela "worked" because the next up was willing to play along. It didn't work in Iran when the next-in-line leaders refused to play along. In neither case did the long-suffering people revolt, but Trump isn't exactly a grass roots democracy kind of guy, so that's not something he really cares about. Cuba is more like Iran than Venezuela. There is reason to believe that lots of Venezuelans really were unhappy with the Maduro government, even if they were unable to do anything about it. That simplified what was basically a cosmetic change. How unpopular the Cuban government is may be hard to gauge. The reporting here is very myopic, with one quotable Cuban dissenter packed in with an armada of the usual anti-Cuban propaganda (there's a whole section called "In Marco we trust?").

Jerome Powell, David Warsh, and the Fed: Trump originally nominated Powell for Chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2017 (term starting in 2018), figuring he would be more reluctant to raise interest rates than the other candidates he was offered (John Taylor and Kevin Warsh). Biden, following the precedent of Clinton and Obama, gave the Republican-appointed Fed Chair a second term — a big political mistake, considering how much power the Fed Chair has over the economy that Democratic presidents will be blamed for. Powell ultimately disappointed Trump, so much so that Trump ordered the DOJ to investigate Powell in an attempt to turn him out of office early. That effort has failed so far, but Powell's term ends on May 15, and he's appointed Warsh to replace Powell. The Senate has yet to confirm Warsh, who for now has to walk a fine line between professing loyalty to Trump and vowing to maintain the independence of the Fed.

• Claudia Sahm [04-20]: Fed Chair Apprentice: Written in advance of Warsh's Senate confirmation hearing, with sections on Fed independence, Warsh's understanding of inflation, and financial market deregulation (which Warsh favors).

  Warsh accuses the Fed of being stuck in the past: "the tyranny of the status quo." But he is the one resurrecting Milton Friedman's monetarism of the 1970s and Alan Greenspan's productivity studies of the 1990s. Neither fits the current moment well, and they don't even fit together.

• Mike Konczal [04-27]: Cherry-picking the wrong inflation measures with Kevin Warsh: "Kevin Warsh's favorite inflation metrics ar exactly the ones that failed us during the inflation wave."

• Dean Baker [04-28]: Jerome Powell ends his career as Fed Chair: Baker offers a generally favorable review of Powell's two terms as Fed Chair, including why Baker favored giving him that second term. I felt then, and now, that Biden had missed an opportunity to appoint someone better, as had Obama and Clinton before him.

White House Correspondents' Dinner: Where a supposedly fun evening was interrupted by a gunman, who was apprehended. Everyone else went home early.

• Margaret Sullivan [04-23]: Why are White House journalists partying with Trump? "The White House correspondents' dinner has always been a questionable affair. It's even more worrying under an anti-press administration." That's a good question, one I've had since I've heard there even was a White House Correspondents Association, let alone their gala dinner. I've always assumed that the default stance for journalists viz. their subjects is critical and, when necessary, adversarial. I don't doubt that schmoozing with your subjects can yield insights and lead to stories that one otherwise might have missed, but I also have doubts that journalists who get too close to their subjects can still do their jobs. My own experience is mostly in the low-stakes field of music journalism, where I have always thought of myself as a critic, and almost always avoided personal contact (or limited it to publicists, who work for their clients, but have usually shown me courteous respect; after all, not every bridge is worth burning). I recall Bill James writing a piece on the advantages of his outsider status, as opposed to nearly all sportswriters. But covering politics is relatively high-stakes, and we depend on journalists to get the real stories, and not just to parrot what the PR flacks want them to say. The WHCD has always struck me as not just corrupt, but proud of it. I'd go so far as saying that I take offense to the very idea of there even being a White House Correspondents Association. Isn't there a need for all political journalists to be able to trace their stories all the way to the White House? Why should there be a club of insiders controlling access? Except, of course, that their dependence on access makes them so much easier to control.

  Of course, Sullivan also goes into some specific concerns about this particular president.

• Benjy Sarlin [04-26]: What we know about the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The suspect arrested was Cole Thomas Allen, who released "a manifesto" before the attack, condemning Trump's wars and policies. Trump and his minions are apoplectic that anyone would contemplate doing unto them what they've so carelessly enjoyed doing to others.

• Francine Prose [04-28]: Shrugging at calamity: America is reacting in strange ways to our chaotic times: "The reaction to the Washington DC shooting shows that Americans are swinging between outrage, exhaustion and numbness."

• Elena Moore [05-11]: New poll finds a majority of Americans unsure if attempts on Trump's life were real. "One in four respondents believed the attempted attack . . . was staged. The same was true for Butler. [24%] I don't have an opinion on the WHCD event, but the Butler event during the 2024 campaign reminds me strongly of an Agatha Christie story where the killer cuts her ear to make it look like she was the intended victim (the ear bleeds dramatically, without actually posing much risk; the story appears to be A Murder Is Announced). My main reason for not believing that's the event was staged is that it seems like it would be very difficult to keep the plot under wraps, but it likely had significant impact on the election — it certainly help Trump sell a ton of merch.

Gerrymandering Around Voting Rights: I originally filed this along with the other Supreme Court cases, but the case itself was caused by an attempt in Louisiana to sink a Democratic House district, and the same idea has been floated elsewhere, and as Republican prospects grow worse, their desperation has only increased.

• Ian Millhiser [04-29]: The Voting Rights Act is all but dead. Prepare for maximum gerrymandering. "The Republican justices just abolished 40 years worth of law protecting against rigged maps." This seems to be a big deal, both symbolically as an attack on the Voting Rights Act, and because Republicans have advanced various plans to extend gerrymandering in the South to an even greater extent. However, there is little difference between racial and partisan gerrymandering in the South. The earlier attempts to carve out black-majority districts effectively favored Republicans in the rest of the (white-majority) districts.

• Elie Mystal:

  • [04-29]: The Supreme Court has completed its quest to kill the Voting Rights Act: "In its 6-3 decision, the court gutted the legislation that ended apartheid in this country — and once again gave white people the ability to suppress Black political power."

  • [05-02]: Republicans can't contain their glee over the death of the VRA.

• Michael Tomasky [05-01]: John Roberts is either dumb or racially obtuse. And he's not dumb. "After the Supreme Court struck down school integration, guess what happened in the schools? The same thing that's about to happen with congressional districts."

• Ed Kilgore [05-04]: GOP racing to eradicate majority-black districts in South.

• John Nichols [05-07]: The GOP's "Jim Crow gerrymander" rips up Memphis and America's civil rights legacy.

• Natasha Lennard [05-08]: Tennessee GOP moves to decimate black voting power after Supreme Court's blessing of Jim Crow: They want to eliminate the state's only black majority congressional district, by splitting Memphis up into three mostly rural districts.

A Cure for Gerrymandering: Representative Democracy: By the way, I have figured out a pretty good solution to gerrymandering, which I call Representative Democracy. With this, every candidate running for Congress that receives more than a low threshold (for sake of argument, let's say 10%) is elected to Congress, able to cast the same number of votes the candidate received. You can still have primaries for candidates who belong to political parties. Jungle primaries and ranked-choice voting could help to fairly narrow down the number of candidates. But the key things are that: winner-take-all districts are gone (nearly all districts will have multiple representatives, which means that nearly everyone in each district will have elected a representative to Congress); precise apportioning of districts is not necessary (but there can be guidelines). This means that every state, including every major city, will have at least one representative in each party. Also, by getting rid of winner-take-all, the value of winning a close race will go way down, which should also drain a lot of money from campaigns — which, of course, could be made cheaper still by limiting fundraising and expenses, and providing basic funding for all candidates, which would in turn make elections much less corrupt than they are now (and would allow people to run who have no chance under the current system). This could be a boon for third parties and/or independent candidates, or not, depending on how you deal with primaries, funding, and voters who don't vote for any elected candidates. (I have some ideas there. For instance, unaligned voters could assign their votes to at-large candidates through petitions, or in the most extreme case could represent themselves.)

I've written this idea up roughly a half-dozen or more times. I should give it a proper essay, but it seems bigger than any outlet I can offer. I have dozens of ideas like this: worth presenting, but someone else needs to pick them up and run with them. I've often thought about compiling them into a book borrowing Paul Goodman's title: Utopian Essays & Practical Proposals. (The utopian end would include ideas for escaping from capitalism. Representative democracy is more on the practical end, although as far as I am aware it's never been discussed. The technology to add up the votes is pretty trivial these days. By the way, there's no need for all voters to show up in person to vote, or for the hall to seat all of them.)

To kick things off, I've thought about a Wikiplans website, which I could seed with my rough sketches, and hope others would flesh them out. I need to figure out how to set up Mediawiki anyway.

Spirit Airlines Bites the Dust: And the industry contracts, competition is reduced, and prices will rise.

• CK Smith [05-02]: Spirit Airlines collapses after bailout efforts fail.

• Caitlin Dewey [05-05]: Every airline is Spirit Airlines now.

  And if there's anything positive to be said about Spirit, it's that the company's bottom-barrel fares have forced other airlines to lower their prices. One 2017 study found that fares were roughly a fifth cheaper in markets where Spirit or another low-cost airline had a presence. The airline industry even has a name for this: "the Spirit effect." . . .

  With Spirit out of the game, which airline will inherit the ignominious title of most-hated airline in America? Among large carriers, the title passes to American Eagle, a network of regional flights operated by American Airlines, according to YouGov. If you're looking at all US airlines, then Allegiant — a low-cost carrier that mostly services vacation destinations — was already less popular than Spirit was.

  Don't underestimate the airline industry's ability to give you new reasons to hate it, though. Some analysts predict that Spirit's closure will push other airlines' fares up: CBS found average fares rose roughly $60, or 23 percent, when Spirit exited a route.

• Dan Primack [05-04]: Spirit Airlines blame game is going strong. One argument is that Biden should be blamed for blocking a merger between JetBlue and Spirit. "It is impossible to know if a JetBlue-Spirit merger would have saved Spirit in the long term, or saddled the combined carrier with so much debt that it too would be liquidating as jet fuel prices climb."

• Alex Kirshner [05-05]: Who killed Spirit Airlines? "The abrupt collapse of the ultra-low-cost carrier ignited a big, misleading blame game in Washington." Interview with Jan Brueckner.

• Dave Schilling [05-09]: Air travel was already miserable. Now we get to pay more for it!: "Spirit Airlines helped turn flying into a fee-based nightmare. Now it's gone, and fuel prices are soaring."

• John Cassidy [05-11]: Why Spirit Airlines failed while European budget carriers thrive: "Loved for its cheap seats and derided for its extremely low-frills flights, the American company was arguably a victim of its own success."

How to Save Bankrupt Companies: By the way, another idea I have is to revamp the bankruptcy laws, to reduce the power of creditors, and allow companies to survive and reorganize under employee ownership. At present, the previous owners' equity is generally wiped out, but creditors can force liquidation to recover what they are owed. Each reorganization would have to be negotiated separately, but I expect that most debt will be written down, the employee shares will be held within the company with an initial $0 value, and any capital needed will be provided as long-term, low-interest loans secured with equity.

By the way, another way to promote employee ownership would be to allow stock distribution to employees to bypass estate taxes (which should be raised high enough to make that seem like a good deal). In general, I believe that most companies should be employee-owned, as this facilitates labor and management working in harmony, and tends to keep companies more responsible to their communities and nation. I'd also add a couple public interest board seats, devoted to customers, clients, and/or the community. This could also be applied to non-profits. (Much more could be said about them.)

Major Threads

War on Iran: Trump's war is in a muddled state, as he flip-flops between apocalyptic rhetoric and caution, while allowing no concession that might actually lead to a negotiated solution. Meanwhile, Iran's leaders — who despite all aspersions of religious fanaticism appear to be the relatively sane ones in this conflict — seem confident that time is on their side. The quality of reporting makes it impossible to know.

• Michael Arria [04-14]: Understanding the Iran war in the context of US imperialism: Interview with Afshin Matin-Asgari, author of Axis of Empire: A History of Iran-US Relations, which came out in January 2026. His analysis of the war is pretty much same as mine, but he provides some info on early US-Iranian encounters I wasn't familiar with: 19th century Presbyterian missionaries had a similar role there as they did in Lebanon and Egypt; the US was shut out of the oil industry by the UK, but wound up stationing 30,000 troops in Iran during WWII to facilitate supply of the USSR. Then there was the 1953 coup and the 1979 revolution(s): he sees a second one which kicked off with the US embassy occupation, which Khomeini exploited to concentrate clerical power over the many other anti-Shah factions. I've been making a similar point, as my reading of events is that the anti-Americanism of 1979 was instrumental for Khomenei, and could easily have been shelved as early as 1981 (when the hostages were released to a new American president, Reagan), but have since festered due to America's propensity to hold grudges.

• Jared Sacks [04-15]: How Zionism's anti-Jewish logic led Israel to bomb an Iranian synagogue: "Israel bombed Tehran's Rafi-Nia synagogue in the middle of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The attack revealed, to a shocking degree, Zionism's willingness to treat Jewish life as disposable in the service of its ideological project."

• Mitchell Plitnick:

  • [04-17]: Trump may want out of the Iran war, but the first round of negotiations showed the challenges ahead: "It's clear the Trump administration recognizes the Iran war has been a catastrophe. But while the US may want a way out, the first round of negotiations with Iran showed that finding an exit may be difficult."

  • [04-23]: What to expect next in the fragile ceasefires in Iran and Lebanon: "As the US and Iran face off in the Strait of Hormuz, Israel will do everything it can to reignite the war with Iran and resume its offensive in Lebanon."

  • [05-01]: Why the United Arab Emirates is leaving OPEC and what it means for the future of the Middle East.

  • [05-08]: Trump knows he lost the Iran war, and is now desperate to find a way out: "Recent US moves indicate that Donald Trump has finally recognized the disastrous mistake he made by listening to Benjamin Netanyahu and launching the war on Iran. Now he is looking to cut a deal, but Israel won't make it easy."

• Maryam Jamshidi [04-17]: Only one side has clearly broken the law in the Strait of Hormuz: "And it isn't Iran." On closer examination, it turns out that Iran actually has an international law legal case for regulating commerce through their own territorial waters (as does Oman).

• Lauren Aratani [04-18]: Traders placed over $1bn in perfectly timed bets on the Iran war. What is going on? Pretty obviously, someone is making money on inside information. Quite a lot of money. Whether Trump is personally getting his vig isn't clear, but that's something reasonable people will investigate sooner or later.

• Ian Proud [04-28]: Iran and Russia are gaming the United States, and winning: "Is Trump running out of time to end the war before the American economy catches up?"

• Kate Aronoff [05-01]: Trump's Iran war is smashing his fossil fuel dreams: "The president wanted to ensure American hegemony and global energy dominance. Instead, he might be torpedoing both." This may be the "silver lining" in the war. Of course, there were better ways to move away from fossil fuels, but when you elect the wrong people, inadvertent disasters may be the best you can hope for. I'm tempted to write a piece on the ten worst things Trump has done, plus five more bad things he's done that may eventually turn out for the better. Of course, there are hundreds of options to choose from, and rebounding is a tricky concept.

• Trita Parsi: Author of three important books on Iran, Israel, and the United States (e.g., Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States, from 2007). He's been all over media of late, and his early warnings of how Iran would respond to the attack have been spot on.

  • [05-02]: Trump's Iran blockade snatches defeat from the jaws of victory: "Washington's search for a 'silver bullet' to defeat Tehran has made it all but impossible to secure a deal."

  • [05-02]: Trump's war has destroyed the illusion of US military supremacy.

  • [05-03]: A few observations on Iran's latest proposal to Trump.

  • w/Brandon Carr [05-06]: 'Christmas bombings' worked in Vietnam but won't drag Iran to the table: "The military and diplomatic situation in the Persian Gulf bears virtually no similarity to that in 1972." "Worked" is a funny word to use in this context.

  • [05-08]: Iran war marks the end of American primacy as we know it: "For states that had opted to depend on US protection, this should be a wake-up call." While obviously true, this piece is sorely lacking in specifics, possibly because primacy was never anywhere near what it was cracked up to be. It always depended on consent of the weaker powers, perhaps because they didn't feel like testing their weakness, while it was easy and not too expensive to humor the American egos. I suppose you could say that the US moved to protect Berlin in 1948 and South Korea in 1950, but since then the US has achieved little, mostly beating up on small and poor countries, and having little to show for their efforts. But while the US is increasingly frustrated by minor gestures (like disallowing use of bases and air space for launching wars), that consent has yet to crack let alone break in a big way. While the US military gets little respect, the American market (and US support for global capital) is still a big enough deal to tread carefully. The Persian Gulf states could shut the Iran war down almost instantly, but they need the West (and especially the US) to launder their oil profits. A break by Europe could be an even bigger deal. Ironically, while Trump's madman act is breaking up the old world order, it makes other nations reluctant to be explicit.

• NBC News [05-06]: Trump's abrupt U-turn on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz came after backlash from allies: "Saudi Arabia, a key Gulf ally, suspended the US military's ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation, sources say."

• Stavroula Pabst [05-06]: Five shameless moments of Iran war opportunism & grifting: "War brings out the best — and worst — in Americans, especially in industril Capitol Hill and Wall Street."

  1. Lockheed Martin CEO: wartime Trump Pentagon a "golden opportunity"
  2. Trump sons roll in the drone industry dough
  3. Defense-contractor funded think tanker: Iran war is a bargain!
  4. Literally gambling on war
  5. Political influence blitz

• Ishaan Tharoor [05-06]: How the Iran war is shifting power toward China: "As the US's credibility and military capacity are tested abroad, China has gained leverage by staying out of the fight and learning from it."

• Chas Danner [05-06]: Trump still thinks his confusion can crush Iran.

  It has been more than nine weeks since President Trump started his war with Iran, and somehow he's still keeping everyone guessing — about whether he has any idea what he's doing. Less than two days after launching his latest strategy for the very unpopular war, "Project Freedom," he's already pausing the operation.

• Juan Cole:

  • [05-09]: How the Iran war is changing the Middle East: Interview with Tafheem Kiani. Most interesting thing here is the dynamic between Muhammad bin Zayed (head of Abu Dhabi and president of UAE) and the much better known Muhammad bin Salman (Saudi crown prince). I think the war will ultimately turn on those two countries, and possibly on the fates of those two monarchs. Both are in way over their heads, with an enemy in Iran that could do they a great deal of damage, and allies in Trump and Netanyahu who could hardly care less about them, but ultimately depend on them to sustain their war. Of course, what makes prediction impossible is that both (or really, all four) are wack jobs — we're used to Iran's leaders being depicted as fanatics, but compared to their adversaries, they are paragons of reason and sanity.

  • [05-10]: Iran threatens to kidnap data cables as well as oil; Trump warns of nukes: His nukes, not theirs.

  • [05-08]: China grows 5% — but fears a Trump-caused Hormuz shock.

    Still, China has some cushions with regard to petroleum. It produces about a quarter of the oil it uses. It can increase imports from Russia. It has six months of oil reserves, and anyway 53% of new car purchases are electric, a percentage that is likely to rise substantially this year.

• Dave DeCamp [05-11]: UAE has secretly launched attacks against Iran: "The attacks included the bombing of Iran's Lavan Island after the ceasefire was announced."

• Peiman Salehi [06-08]: Former IRGC commander: Lebanon is Iran's 'non-negotiable red line' in any deal with the US: "Mohsen Rezaei, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader and former IRGC Commander, says Tehran will not separate Lebanon from any deal with Washington, including a nuclear deal, as Iran seeks to redefine the terms of negotiations with the US." And Lebanon will not be solved without Israel withdrawing and agreeing to no further attacks.

Israel: After Israel reluctantly agreed to Trump's ceasefire plan in Gaza, Netanyahu escalated his search for other targets, not just because his perpetual war machine always needs live bait, but by ensnaring Trump into his Iran adventure, and opening the Lebanon front much like 1982, he's avoiding scrutiny in Gaza and the West Bank, where something akin to genocide proceeds apace (given the goal of eliminating or substantially marginalizing the political and/or economic viability of a group of people, does it matter how fast you actually kill people?). This section deals with military and political matters within Israel. A second section follows, dealing with the propaganda front.

• Tareq S Hajjaj:

  • [03-19]: Food shortages return to Gaza as Israel tightens aid restrictions under the cover of its war on Iran: "Israel's tightened restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza since the US-Israeli war on Iran have led to shortages of basic necessities and an astronomical rise in prices, raising fears of a return to famine."

  • [04-13]: Israel's restriction of aid into Gaza leads to critical shortages in bread, baby formula, and water: "Israel's continued restriction of aid into Gaza has cut bread production by half as hospitals run out of baby formula and water supplies run low. Doctors warn that surging malnutrition cases among children may irreversibly harm an entire generation."

  • [04-20]: Israel is (still) killing aid workers in Gaza: "Officials say Israel's attacks on humanitarian aid workers aim to block essential aid from reaching Palestinians, as Israel continues to impose a blockade on Gaza seven months into the so-called 'ceasefire.'"

  • [05-01]: Inside Hamas's fight against the armed militias that Israel is using to sow chaos in Gaza: "Hamas security leaders tell Mondoweiss that the fight against Israeli-armed militias in Gaza is only one part of the broader effort to counter Israel's campaign to sow chaos in the Strip." I'm surprised to find any sort of Hamas organization has survived. This suggests that Israel was never serious about ending Hamas and/or that the Palestinians' need for organization has repeatedly resurrected Hamas. If you had a real ceasefire, with real organized aid on the ground, and a real effort at standing up democratic self-rule, it would be easy to disband Hamas, servicing what seemed to be one of Israel's fundamental demands. But Israel has always preferred Hamas to democracy and legitimate political representation in Gaza. Israeli-armed gangs in Gaza are further proof that Israel's intentions are evil.

• Qassam Muaddi:

  • [03-31]: Global condemnation as Israeli ministers celebrate death penalty law targeting Palestinian prisoners: "Human rights groups condemned a new Israeli law targeting Palestinian prisoners with the death penalty as a possible war crime and 'deeply discriminatory.' Meanwhile, Israeli ministers celebrated the law's passage with champagne on the Knesset floor." In some ways this merely legitimizes current Israeli practice: regardless of Israel's long-time ban on capital punishment, Israel has deliberately targeted hundreds (possibly thousands) of Palestinians for assassination, both abroad and on their own territory, and they have become increasingly careless regarding collateral damage. They've also only rarely prosecuted Israelis (uniformed or not) who have of their own volition killed Palestinians. On the other hand, this law just adds to the evidence that genocide is Israeli policy. Also on this law:

    • Abdaljawad Omar [04-02]: 'This rope is for Arabs only': Israel's new death penalty law for Palestinians recycles a colonial playbook: "The passing of the recent Israeli death penalty law aimed at Palestinians formalizes what Israel and colonial powers have always done: creating new laws to legalize colonial violence."

    • Iqbal Mohamed [04-25]: New death penalty law should force Starmer government to reevaluate UK policy toward Israel: "British Member of Parliament Iqbal Mohamed asks if genocide, starvation, and the introduction of a death penalty for Palestinians alone are not red lines for this Labour government, then what is? The UK government must reevaluate its Israel policy now."

  • [04-04]: Israel is implementing its Gaza strategy in Lebanon: turning 'buffer zones' into permanent borders: "Israel has stated it does not plan to leave Lebanon even if the current 'war' ends. If the Gaza model is any guide, Israel appears to be moving toward expanding its border into Lebanon."

  • [04-08]: As US and Iran agree to a temporary ceasefire, Israel launches 'massacre' in Lebanon, threatening entire deal: "Hours after Iran and the US reached a two-week ceasefire agreement, Israel launched a massive bombing campaign across Lebanon, killing hundreds of people and threatening to derail the US-Iranian ceasefire before it even begins." That certainly was the point, and to make sure that Iran understands that Trump doesn't speak for them and can't be trusted to make a deal. Sure, Trump wasn't happy about being showed up like that, but Netanyahu, who's always played a long game even better than his short game, won't show you his scars, because he hasn't suffered any.

  • [04-16]: No permit, no work, no future: inside the lives of West Bank workers crushed by Israel's labor ban: "After Israel revoked the work permits of over 200,000 Palestinian laborers following October 7, West Bank families are burning through savings, skipping meals, and losing hope for any kind of future."

  • [04-18]: Israel's long history of stoking sectarian tensions in Lebanon, and what it means for the ceasefire: "Netanyahu may have been 'coerced' by Trump into a ceasefire with Lebanon, but this won't stop Israel from following a well-worn playbook: exploit sectarian divisions to weaken or disarm resistance while entrenching Israeli expansionism."

  • [04-19]: Israel is racing to expand West Bank settlements before new political realities end its era of impunity: "Israel is approving the construction of new West Bank settlements at an unprecedented rate because it known its window of impunity is closing — especially if Iran emerges intact from the war and the Republicans lose the US midterms."

  • [04-24]: Israel is threatening to resume the genocide in Gaza. This time, the world isn't paying attention. "While the world is focused on Iran, Israel is signaling plans to restart the genocide in Gaza."

  • [04-25]: Palestinians are holding local elections, but hardly anyone is running. Here's why that matters. "Municipal elections were the last democratic outlet Palestinians had. This year, barely anyone is running, as two years of genocide and Israeli crackdown have hollowed out Palestinian political life." Genocide may still be a "work in progress," as Israelis test the limits of what they can get away with, but the "politicide" that Baruch Kimmerling wrote about way back in 2003 — the elimination of any prospects for Palestinians to engage politically with Israel — appears to be well nigh complete. One of the great tragedies of Israel-Palestine is that Palestinians have never been able to democratically select their own leaders (going back to the British appointment of the "Mufti of Jerusalem"; the small contingent of Palestinian MKs have been systematically marginalized; the only "free" vote they had was the ratification of Arafat based on the Oslo Accords, which were concocted disingenuously, and which Arafat accepted in a desperate attempt to salvage his credibility; the election of Hamas was rejected by Israel and the US, and Hamas had to fight off a coup, showing them that violence was their only option).

  • [04-29]: The Palestinian farmers whose livelihoods have been destroyed by Israeli settlers: "Israeli settler violence since October 2023 has systematically rendered farmland inaccessible across the West Bank. The state-backed policy is destroying harvests, driving up the price of produce, and dismantling an entire way of life."

  • [05-08]: New $270 million Israeli-only roads project in the West Bank is Netanyahu's latest bid to impose de facto annexation: "After failing to dismantle Hamas, destroy Hezbollah, topple the Iranian government, or redraw the Middle East, Netanyahu and his allies have only one thing left to show for their time in power: the de facto annexation of the West Bank."

• James North [04-11]: Israel is attacking Lebanon to sabotage the Iran ceasefire, but the media is hiding its true motivation: "Israel moved quickly to sabotage the Iran ceasefire with air attacks on Lebanon, but the mainstream media refuses to report this as an attempt to torpedo the fragile talks."

• Abdaljawad Omar [04-22]: Israelis are being recruited as spies for Iran in what security experts call an espionage 'epidemic': "Israel has long used the same playbook to recruit informants from enemy societies. Iran is now using it to recruit spies in Israel by exploiting new cracks in Israeli society." I have no idea how prevalent this is, but it is indicative of the social and moral corrosion of being at war. How long Iran has been recruiting spies and how extensive their network is isn't clear, but Israel likes to brag about Mossad's exploits (some have been turned into movies), and they seem to have built up a fairly large network in Iran, which they are currently at risk of burning up. (Reports are that Iran has arrested and/or killed hundreds of Israeli spies.) Not much information, but several stories crop up:

  • AlJazeera [2025-06-23]: How extensive are Israel's intelligence operations inside Iran? "Israeli and international media all speak of an intelligence operation years in the making."

  • Yossi Melman/Dan Raviv [ProPublica] [2025-08-07]: Israel secrety recruited Iranian dissidents to attack their country from within.

  • Robert Tait [03-13]: Ex-CIA analyst David McCloskey on the Mossad's intelligence inside Iran: "The podcast host and author of The Persian reflects on why Israel's precision in Iran caught him off guard."

• Zack Beauchamp [04-23]: Netanyahu may finally be in trouble: "The Israeli leader faces an uphill battle in this year's elections." Tell me something new. I'm not hearing it here. Sure, most Israelis by now should be sick and tired of Netanyahu, and a great many do chafe under the tyranny of his religious/settler party allies, but they are trapped, without a viable left alternative — at least until the left can break out of its trap of reflexively supporting ethnocracy and militarism. America would be in a similar pickle if Democrats insisted on not courting or working with black or other minority voters, and only regarded majority support among whites as legitimate. Netanyahu can still lose: he's screwed up so often and so flagrantly that it only takes a modicum of sanity and/or decency to turn against him.

• Alaa Serhal [05-04]: As in Gaza, Israel is targeting rescue workers in South Lebanon, killing more than 100 since March: "Lebanese rescue workers now wait 15 minutes after each strike before responding, the only way, they say, to stay alive long enough to reach the wounded amid Israel's implementation of its Gaza "double-tap" policy in Lebanon."

• Dave DeCamp [05-07]: Israeli attack in Gaza kills son of Hamas's lead negotiator: Azzam al-Hayya, son of Khalil al-Hayya. "Israel has previously tried to kill the older al-Hayya at least three times, and in those three attempts, he lost three other sons." One of those attempts was in Doha, where al-Hayya was representing Hamas in ceasefire negotiations. Since "the so-called ceasefire deal was signed, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed at least 846 Palestinians and wounder 2,418."

• Jason Ditz [05-07]: Syrians report growing agricultural damage from Israeli operations in Quneitra.

• Meron Rapoport:

  • [05-07]: Israel's war on the West Bank comes for Palestinian greenhouses: "In Jayyous and neighboring villages, Palestinian farmers have been served dozens of new demolition orders intended to push them off their land."

  • [05-08]: Something is shifting in Israel's peace camp: "At the 'People's Peace Summit' in Tel Aviv, Israel's embattled left showed signs of abandoning old formulas and embracing a politics of resistance."

    • Samah Watad [05-08]: The Israeli left is speaking only to itself: "Another peace conference at a time of genocide and ethnic cleansing exposes this shrinking movement's inability to influence our reality."

  • [03-31]: Less Jesus, more Genghis Khan: How Netanyahu sees Israel's place in the world: "The prime minister's historical analogies betray an appetite for eternal war and barbaric aggression — a worldview now reflected in Israel's regional policy."

  • [03-05]: Israel's last war alongside an imperial power backfired. This one could, too: "For the first time since 1956, Israel is fighting with a Western hegemon for regime change in a war whose political repercussions are far from certain."

• Martin Di Caro [05-07]: Israel's permanent security' quest is a policy with sinister implications: "The goal of eliminating any potential or future threats, real or imaginary, will all but inevitably dehumanize and create new enemies." Cites a book by Dirk Moses, The Problems of Genocide (2021), for "a new analytical term [Permanent Security, which looks a lot like genocide] to explain why states perpetrate civilian destruction while claiming adherence to international legal norms in the name of self-defense." As for creating new enemies, one clear case was the organization of Hezbollah after Israel attacked Lebanon in 1982, ostensibly to dislodge PLO camps. Related here:

  • Meron Rapoport/Ameer Fakhoury [04-24]: The beginning of the end of Israel's 'permanent security' doctrine: "Israel's relentless pursuit of 'total victory' has entangled it in an unwinnable war with Iran, eroding legitimacy abroad and deepening moral decay within." In a state of permanent war, "security" is at best a mirage.

• Shatna Hanaysha [05-11]: From Shireen Abu Akleh to Amal Khalil, the killer is the same: "Four years ago today, Shireen Abu Akleh was assassinated by an Israeli soldier. Since then, Israel has killed more than 275 journalists in Gaza and Lebanon. The world that let Shireen's killer walk free made all of this possible."

Israel-America-World Relations: I used to try to separate out Israel-related pieces into several bins. The Iran war has its own news section. The Israel section above pertains to security operations in Gaza, Israel/Palestine, and Lebanon, as well as internal Israeli political affairs. This one deals with America's relationship to Israel, and possibly with the world's.

• Philip Weiss:

  • [04-15]: The Israel lobby is fracturing as young Jews abandon Zionism: "A revolution is underway within the Jewish community as youth abandon Zionism following the Gaza genocide. While the community scrambles to respond, the Israel lobby is being fractured in the process."

  • [04-29]: The mainstream media is finally beginning to echo Americans' outrage at Israeli slaughter: "Over the past two years, Israel has lost the support of the American public and is now losing one of its last bulwarks in the political arena — prominent voices in the mainstream media."

  • [01-15]: J Street is the new AIPAC in the Democratic Party: "AIPAC is suddenly unwelcome among Democrats, but there's a new sheriff in town to enforce the pro-Israel orthodoxy. J Street aims to make liberals 'love Israel again,' but most Democrats are looking to distance themselves due to the Gaza genocide." Older piece I think I missed. I haven't followed Jeremy Ben-Ami or his organization, but they used to be a more decent (but still passionately Zionist) alternative to party-line advocates like AIPAC, so I think it's less likely that they've become "the right-wing Jewish establishment here" than that some of said establishment have moved in search of a less toxic organizational identity. This refers to a piece by Ben-Ami [2025-12-07]: How can I get my kids to love Israel? He's asking the wrong question. It should be: how can we get Israel to be worthy of our kids' love? (I would have preferred "respect" here.) Otherwise, you're just attacking your own kids, while ignoring the problem. Not that I'm sure anyone can (or should) try to change some other country. But the only hope I still have for Israelis to change is by realizing that their blind support in America is lost. Maybe that will trigger some self-examination. (After Shamir's obstinate refusal to even talk about peace alienated the first Bush admin, Israel's voters replaced him with the more flexible and diplomatic Rabin. I suspect that much of Netanyahu's appeal in Israel is due to his reputation as a Trump/Biden whisperer.) Related here:

    • Connor Echols [04-28]: This Democratic insider wants to rewrite the party's Israel playbook: "No one knows better where Biden and Harris went wrong than Ilan Goldenberg. Now, he's using his perch at J Street to end the 'blank check.'"

• Michael Arria:

  • [04-16]: In historic Senate vote, over 75% of Democrats vote to block arms sales to Israel: "In a historic vote, 75% of Senate Democrats backed an effort to block weapons to Israel. The resolutions failed, but the vote was the latest sign of Democrats' growing consensus against aid to Israel, as support for the country hits an all-time low." I suspect that most of them still want to help Israel, but have come to the conclusion that sending Israel more arms right now is just pouring gasoline on a fire, which is bound in the end to hurt Israel as much as anyone else.

  • [04-16]: Senate Democrats' vote to reject weapons for Israel reveals an out-of-touch party leadership: "Senate Democrats supported two measures to block weapons shipments to Israel in record fashion, but they were not joined by party leadership, who suddenly appear very out of touch with the party's base."

  • [04-23]: Unpacking the liberal Zionist sleight of hand on military aid to Israel: "While it may appear that pro-Israel politicians and organizations are finally embracing calls to end military aid to Israel, a closer look reveals they are simply trying to maintain the status quo."

  • [04-24]: How the corporate media helped fuel Israel's genocide in Gaza: "Mondoweiss speaks with media critic Adam Johnson about his new book detailing how cable shows, newspapers, and online news sites helped build support for the mass killing of Palestinians." Johnson's book is How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza. Johnson is also interviewed here:

    • Current Affairs [04-24]: How the media sold a genocide. Long interview with Adam Johnson, with a lot of detail. Here's Johnson on The Atlantic:

      Well, they really are one of the most high-leverage, along with The New York Times, of what I call soft genocide denial for the tote bag set. Their interventions were consistent. They were genocidal. They were racist. They promoted the beheaded babies trope and never retracted it. They published Eliot Cohen's "these people are barbaric" kind of outright racist screeds. They published Hillary Clinton with her "Hamas must go" headline. They didn't have any pro-ceasefire arguments at all. They constantly scolded and demagogued against a ceasefire. They did genocide denial with respect to body counts. Graeme Wood's interventions were really disgusting — his infamous "it's permissible to kill children legally" line. Pretty much every intervention they had was genocidal, and to the extent to which they allowed some hand-wringing, there was no real call to action. No mention of child deaths in any meaningful, rigorous way. No mention of the dozens of journalists who were killed by Israel. No mention of Hind Rajab. Just an obsession with fake college antisemitism. Dozens of articles about Claudine Gay alone, again, without mentioning any other major moral crisis in the context of Gaza.

      Just bottom-rung Zionist propaganda by a former IDF prison guard. But it's all done in this kind of highbrow trappings. It has the aesthetic of serious reportage and the aesthetic of intellectual and academic seriousness. But again, if you read a lot of what I call the "move along, nothing to see here" genre, they would have these multiple rebuttals to claims about genocidal statements by Israelis. They're very unrigorous. I'm sure you've come across this because you're obviously very rigorous when you do this. But they'll sort of say, "Israel didn't mean to be genocidal when they said that." And you're like, "Well, why?" And they don't even say; they just kind of move on. Because it has the trappings and the aesthetics of rigor and think tanks and academic kind of credibility, but it's really just third-rate, sloppy, racist, dehumanizing arguments meant for upwardly mobile liberals who could have maybe been swayed towards the anti-genocide camp.

  • [04-30]: Biden official says Israel committed genocide in Gaza, but the US must keep supporting it: Wendy Sherman, former US Deputy Secretary of State.

• Aaron Gell [04-21]: What went wrong in Israel? A genocide scholar examines 'what Zionism became': Omer Bartov, who has a new book on this, Israel: What Went Wrong?.

• Alison Glick [04-26]: Latest polling paints dire picture for Israel in US politics: "Israel's plummeting popularity has been driven by the Gaza genocide and Iran war, but it has been building for decades. We are now finally seeing the political results." Picture shows a Pew poll of Democrats, showing that net favorability of Israel has dropped from -26 to -74 among liberals, +3 to -55 among "not liberal" Democrats (self-described moderates as well as conservatives).

• Eric Cheyfitz:

  • [05-02]: Understanding the shared ideology behind settler colonialism in Native America and Palestine: "Both the United States and Israel were founded and exist on land taken during ongoing genocides. Settler colonialism drives these genocides, and both nations share an ideology that justifies the theft and rationalizes the killing." The question of whether (or how) the repopulating of America from 1500-1900 fits into the legal concept of genocide is rather academic, not that you can't find interesting insights from the exercise. My own interest in viewing Israel through the prism of settler colonialism has focused on the demographic tipping point: colonialism has only been successful if the immigrants outnumber the natives, usually by a large margin (US, Australia, Argentina); otherwise they have failed (South Africa, Vietnam, Algeria, Malaysia). There is a secondary factor having to do with the degree of segregation, which was extreme for English colonies, much more muddled for Spanish. Israel has always been marginal (the 1950-67 period, where Jewish Israelis held a 70% majority, had started to stabilize, but the conquests of the 1967 war brought a return of British-style colonial rule). Ethically, of course, settler colonialism has been a disaster, as with every attempt of one group to overpower another. Nor is the disaster limited to the victims, as such power eventually corrodes the humanity of the oppressors as well.

  • [03-31]: Zionism and the Iran War.

• Amra Lee [05-09]: Israel's atrocities in Lebanon are normalizing war crimes. UN Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher says: "1,000 dead humanitarians in three years — when did that become normal?"

The Crutch of Anti-Semitism: By the way, I originally wrote this up to follow the author's article on Roger Marshall (R-KS), below, but it fits better here, along with a couple counterpoint articles that I had been sitting on. But I didn't feel like slotting it chronologically above, either.

• Gary Blumenthal [04-27]: When did anti-semitism become acceptable again? "Will there ever be peace, mutual respect and an end to reciprocal hate?" Blumenthal calls his newsletter Heartland Cynic, but he can't see past one of the hoariest myths of our age: that any criticism of Israel is an attack on all Jews, a revival of two millenia of anti-semitism. Sure, he might take exception to my summary, as he is critical of "the Trump-Netanyahu war of choice," and he opens with photos of both Israeli Jews and Palestinians in mourning. But he insists that "more than half of American Jews say they've experienced anti-Semitism in just the past year" (something I've neither seen nor heard any evidence of, but most of the Jews I know are critical of Israel). He goes on to claim, "People of my faith have heard this crap, throughout recorded history, that Israelis and Jews are aggressors, oppressors, and outsiders." Just because some statements are crap doesn't mean they all are. Let's skip over all of recorded history, and just focus on the last 50-100 years.

  Before 1947, there were Jews, self-consciously divided between the Yishuv and the Diaspora. Before 1880, there were Jews in Palestine, but no Zionists. Diaspora Jews may have been outsiders, but there is no record of them as aggressors or oppressors. But Israelis are a different story. Every war from 1946 on was aggression by Israelis, and every time they gained power over Palestinians, they oppressed them. Some of the early wars (1947 and 1973 are the best cases) could be characterized as defensive, but in 1947 they seized territory beyond what the UN partition plan had offered them, and they drove some 700,000 Palestinians into permanent exile, while subjecting all of the remaining Palestinians to military rule and second-class status. Israel has continued such discrimination and oppression to the present, and since 2023 have flaunted their power more harshly than ever.

  I have considerable sympathy for people (many Jews, but also others) who originally developed such an emotional attachment for Israel back in the days when the holocaust revelations were fresh and the anti-colonial movement threatened (as happened in Algeria in 1962). But the world changed since then: anti-semitism faded in the west, in favor of tolerance, diversity, and human rights. White Afrikaners in South Africa gave up apartheid power, without being displaced. Since the 1990s, most Palestinian leaders based their aspirations on universal rights. But Israel has failed to meet them. Instead, Israel has doubled down on colonial control, drawing from British law and violence, while adding their own innovations.

  But few Americans seem to fully appreciate how extreme Israel had become, even well before November 2023. Since then, you really have to bury your head in the sand not to notice the depths of Israeli malevolence. You also have to completely ignore that Palestinians have long offered peace deals for coexistence, and that Israel could have peace on very favorable terms, but has chosen war and oppression instead. I shouldn't have to explain Jews in America and Europe shouldn't be blamed for what Israel does. But by not holding Israelis responsible for their crimes against humanity (most simply refused to acknowledge them), and not trying to use whatever influence they have to get Israel to change, their neglect can be seen as support, opening themselves up to blame — especially as Israel's supporters, more than anyone else, are the ones insisting that criticism of Israel is plain old antisemitism. It's almost like they want for Jews in the diaspora to pay for failing to heed the call to immigrate to Israel.

• Moti Rieber [04-08]: Israel breaks people's brains: Post by a Kansas rabbi who when I first encounted him was as gung-ho on Israel as Blumenthal has ever been. I'm not sure where Blumenthal lives, but that he is commenting on Kansas politics suggests he may be a neighbor.

• MJ Rosenberg [03-03]: Jewish organizations are setting Jews up for antisemitic attacks: "With the help of Brett Stephens, Bari Weiss, and other Dershowitz successors." Let me quote some of this:

  Because once you sell the country on the idea that Jews and Israel are interchangeable, once you insist "we are one" — you don't just stain every Jew with Israel's crimes. You also paint a target on our backs. And then, when the backlash grows, these same organizations act shocked, pass the hat, and use the fear to recruit and fundraise. Oh how they fundraise!

  I think they like seeing antisemitism spike — not because they want Jews harmed, but because panic is their business model. Fear is their fuel. And the grotesque irony is that they help manufacture the very conditions they later monetize. . . .

  So let me be clear, keep us out of it. We are not "one" with you. We are not "one" with Israel. You don't get to launder state violence through my identity, and you don't get to draft my family into your propaganda let alone turn American Jews into human shields for Israel's war crimes.

  You are not the solution to antisemitism. You are the problem.

Ukraine, Other Hot Spots, and World Politics:

• Wenjing Wang [03-26]: On energy, China can sit this crisis out. "'Green energy' here isn't a slogan or abstract aspiration. It's economical and geopolitical survival."

• Harrison Stetler [04-20]: The honeymoon is over between Trump and Europe's Far Right: "Viewing an alliance with Trumpist America as a liability." JD Vance stumping for Orbán didn't save him. Elsewhere, reports are skeptical. But it's never made much sense to me that rabid nationalists should band together, because their nations are by definition not just separate but in conflict with each other. I suppose that could change if they wanted to get serious about their flagship issue: blocking immigration. The only real way reduce migration is to join with other countries to counter the driving forces: war, economic dislocation, and climate change. But the idea of international (or any other kind of) cooperation is inimical to the right, while their instincts of chauvinism and repression are fundamental.

• Elfadil Ibrahim [04-25]: UAE's dollar swap threats show how brittle these US alliances can be: "The Emirates don't need the money but they are laying down a market: if we take fire because of Washington, we want something in return."

• Karthik Sankaran [04-28]: UAE leaves OPEC: what it means for the US, oil markets & Saudi: "The Iran war is certainly exposing a lot of long festering wounds, with this rupture certainly stunning Wall Street today." Chart here suggests that UAE can afford to sell oil much cheaper than Saudi Arabia can (breakeven at $49/barrel vs. $90; that has less to do with production costs, which do vary between oil producers, than with other government expenses funded by oil).

  [PS: Yanis Varoufakis commented: "So what that the UAE is leaving when it cannot send a single barrel of oil through the Hormuz Strait!"

• Pavel Devyatkin [04-10]: Japan's new long-range missiles put US-China on collision course: "Ahead of the Trump-Xi summit, Tokyo is making moves that could stoke tensions between the two powers." Japan's constitutional embrace of pacifism should have been a model for the world, but the US started pushing for Japan to rearm in the 1950s, and now the war lobbyists seem to have a breakthrough. There's even a note her that Japan's Prime Minister "Takaichi also signaled a willingness to abandon Japan's 1967 pledge not to produce, possess or host nuclear weapons." Takaichi also "said that a Chinese blockade of Taiwan could lead to a Japanese military intervention."

• Umud Shokri [05-09]: Can China use its huge economy to break US sanctions? In 2021, China issued something called "Rules on Counteracting Unjustified Extraterritorial Application of Foreign Legislation and Other Measures" ("China's Blocking Rules"):

  The order bars the recognition, enforcement, or compliance inside China with U.S. sanctions imposed on five Chinese refineries accused of buying Iranian crude: Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery, Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group, Hebei Xinhai Chemical Group, Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical, and Shandong Shengxing Chemical.

  This was not just another diplomatic complaint from Beijing about U.S. "long-arm jurisdiction." It was the first formal use of China's Blocking Rules and marked a sharper legal response to Washington's secondary sanctions. By invoking the measure, Beijing signaled that it is prepared to defend its energy trade with Iran not only through rhetoric, but through domestic law, court remedies, and regulatory pressure. . . .

  In the long run, China's legal shield against U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil may be remembered less as a single dispute over five refineries and more as an early sign of a multipolar sanctions order, one in which economic coercion is increasingly met by legal counter-coercion. The age of sanctions was already messy. Now it is becoming institutionalized on both sides, because apparently global governance needed more paperwork and fewer exits.

  While South Africa showed that widespread adoption of sanctions can sometimes persuade a government to change course and redress internal injustices, the US sanctions regime has more often been used simply for power projection, and often just for spite (which has usually been the case viz. Iran). Two things Americans don't seem to understand here are: sanctions can only have widespread support to advance political goals rooted in common morality — such as opposition to South African apartheid, or to Russia's war against Ukraine; and that sanctions need to be reversible once the underlying problem is resolved. The attraction of sanctions is that they're one way to express one's feeling and to do something potentially effective without resorting to armed violence — which attacks sovereignty, hardens resolve to resist, can escalate, and produces collateral damage, effectively abandoning one's claim to moral high ground. Of course, the targets of sanctions may regard them as "acts of war," but their credibility is something for others to judge. Also, one should be sensitive to the likelihood that the burden of sanctions will largely fall on people not responsible for the offense. There are ways around this, like allowing "humanitarian" relief supplies to get through, but they are rarely good ones.

  I should note here that the one case where sanctions were most clearly justified has been Israel. Indeed, had the BDS movement been more successful, it's likely that the 2023 Gaza revolt and Israel's genocidal response, including spreading war to Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran, could have been avoided. But the world's sanctioner-in-chief, the US, actively sided with Israel in resisting BDS, and as such bears substantial responsibility for Israel's atrocities. I'll also note that sanctions against Russia preceded the Ukraine invasion, with two major effects: they led Putin to view the US as an aggressive foe, and they pushed Russia to figure out ways to work around them, making them less effective. Promiscuous use of sanctions can cause more problems than they solve. By the way, one of those problems is that ineffective sanctions, especially combined with diplomatic sloth, ultimately weaken America's standing in the world. (Cuba and North Korea have resisted US sanctions for 65-75 years, making the US look cruel, vindictive, and ineffective.)

  China is the one country that seems to be able to face down American sanctions directly. Tariffs are a prime example: Trump has tried to use them to express American power and to punish other nations he dislikes, and with China he has mostly had to back down — not least because China is proving they too can play this sanctions game. But while other countries, even Russia and Iran, may chafe when faced with American bullying, China has the wherewithal to create a viable alternative to America's global power. China has opened doors with trade, and with relatively generous direct foreign investment. They are willing to work with everyone, and show no interest in the internal politics of other countries (except perhaps Taiwan, which for them remains a sore point). And they're using the UN, while building alternative organizations to America's increasingly politicized ones. As a strategy, it reminds me of what the US did viz. European imperialism: the Open Door strategy meant to undermine colonial exploitation, the Good Neighbor Policy. The US generated enormous good will around the world up to 1945, after which they squandered it on rabid anti-communism, but even as they sought global hegemony, they at least allowed more autonomy than the UK and their ilk did. As Trump drives the US into his peculiar combo of autarky and global terror, China will increasingly be seen as a way out. Of course, that will depend on them not being as stupid as the American order (not just Trump but Biden and Obama and Bush and Clinton) has been.

  • Robert Wright [05-08]: China bites back: Some more details here, including a story about a China-subsidized Singapore-based AI company, Manus, that Meta tried to buy, but China vetoed.

• Ziyad Motala [05-09]: Fatal friendships: Gulf monarchies and the price of American patronage: "For decades, Gulf rulers mistook access to America for influence, but now, with the Iran war, they finally see they are viewed as disposable on the front lines of the US empire."

• Evan Robins [05-11]: The UK's far right is on the march — thanks to Keir Starmer: "How the Labour Party's catastrophic prime minister paved the way for fascists to dominate British politics."

  • Marcus Barnett [05-12]: Reeling from the UK election and the collapse of Labour: "Labour leadership's free fall is also tied to its lack of respect for the base it relies on to function."

• Dan Sabbagh [05-11]: Why is Putin now talking about the war in Ukraine 'coming to an end'? "Drone strikes, mounting casualties and a distracted US president means a slow-motion victory is in doubt." It sounds like the stalemate has only gotten staler.

Trump's Wars: And the Department Thereof, and its associated graft and malice. I set this section up to deal with Trump's threats, but we're obviously beyond that now, so see the sections on Iran and Cuba for more on on those specific fronts.

• Sam Biddle [04-20]: These Middle Eastern news sites are actually US government propaganda operations: "Al-Fassel and Pishtaz News publish pro-US coverage about the war on Iran and the Trump administration's plan to redevelop Gaza."

• Nia Prater [04-23]: Secretary of Navy shows up at White House to confirm firing: John Phelan.

• Nick Turse:

  • [04-22]: Pentagon erases wounded US troops from Iran War casualty list: "Definition of a cover-up."

  • [04-23]: Trump has already spent at least $4.7 billion attacking Latin America: "It's not cheap to attack Venezuela and capture its president or conduct dozens of strikes on civilian boats."

  • [04-29]: Hegseth brags of a deadlier war machine as US unleashes "devastating civilian harm globally". "This is unprecedented in terms of the sheer number of theaters where harm to civilians has been reported within such a short space of time."

  • [05-04]: Trump's killing spree isn't stopping the flow of drugs into the US.

  • [05-05]: Hegseth clings to phony ceasefire to help Trump evade war powers pressure.

  • [05-12]: Hegseth asks for more money as Iran war costs skyrocket: "War Secretary Pete Hegseth was on Capitol Hill Tuesday to defend the Pentagon's $1.5 trillion budget request."

• Roger Harris [04-24]: After the US bombing, a Venezuelan community under siege speaks: We all know about Trump's kidnapping of Maduro and wife, but I hadn't heard about this: "The US killed over 100 people in the early morning hours of January 3, 2026, including reportedly some civilians in the neighboring Ciudad Tiuna social housing complex."

• Nate Krieger [05-01]: The Department of Holy War: "What Pete Hegseth's fascination with the Crusades can tell us about the war in Iran."

• Mark Thompson [05-04]: The Bunker: US quest for superweapons runs into reality. Note that the "Trump-class battleship" has been dubbed "NAVY" (for Nutso Armed Vanity Yacht). Also includes an update on antimissile defense (previously featured in [2025-11-07]: Golden Dome, mission impossible.

• Jennifer Kavanagh [05-06]: Trump's right to take troops out of Germany. Now see where they go. "US force posture needed a strategic trim, but some lawmakers want these soldiers to go closer to Russia. They should come home."

Trump vs. Law: The latest from the Courts, and sundry other matters involving the so-called Department of Justice, although the Supreme Court decision on gerrymandering has been moved elsewhere, along with its political fallout.

• Ian Millhiser:

  • [04-14]: The Supreme Court could legalize moonshine, and ruin everything else: "McNutt v. DOJ could allow the justices to seize tremendous power over the US economy." Personally, I would favor ending the federal prohibition on home distilling, but not at the cost of legalizing child labor, which seems somehow entangled here.

  • [04-22]: The Supreme Court will decide if migrants can be sent back to war zones: "When can the Trump administration strip legal protections from migrants who risk death in their home countries?"

  • [04-22]: The wide-ranging fallout from the Supreme Court's new terrorism decision, explained: "The Court's Republican majority fractured in a case that could impact everyone from immigrants to consumers."

  • [04-27]: The Supreme Court seems a bit nervous about letting the police track you with your phone: "The justices were concerned that the Trump administration is asking for too much in a major police surveillance case."

  • [04-29]: What the Supreme Court still has left to decide this term: "Democracy and Donald Trump dominate the Court's remaining docket."

  • [05-04]: The Supreme Court gets thrown back into the abortion wars: "Why haven't the Republican justices banned mifepristone already?"

  • [05-06]: The Supreme Court broke democracy by saying the quiet part out loud: "SCOTUS has lost its sense of when to shut up." The Court is becoming a good example of the maxim that "absolute power corrupts absolutely." They not only have the power, they want to advertise it.

    There's no gentle way to put this. The Roberts Court needs to learn that sometimes, it's best to shut up.

    The silent threat of Supreme Court intervention — even without the intervention itself — was enough to check bad actors who wanted to behave badly. By explicitly stating that these actors can do whatever they want without consequence, the justices have unleashed anarchy on campaign spending and electoral maps, and they've transformed the Department of Justice into a tool for tyrants.

    It was perfectly possible to write an opinion in Citizens United that reached the same result, without triggering an avalanche of election spending. The Court could have decided Rucho the same way it decided Davis and Vieth, upholding a gerrymander while leaving the door open to a future decision that went the other way. And it certainly didn't need to give Trump explicit permission to target his political opponents, even in an opinion that held that Trump is above the law.

  • [05-07]: Is Trump's Justice Department trying to discredit itself? "The DOJ used to avoid spectacles like the Louise Lucas raid."

  • [05-08]: The glaring error in the Virginia Supreme Court's gerrymandering decision: "The court buried itself in dictionaries and missed the obvious."

• Nia Prater [04-23]: ICE will reportedly curb some of its most aggressive tactics.

• Elie Honig:

  • [04-24]: Trump seems to be planning ahead for losing the Senate.

  • [05-08]: Why the Jim Comey prosecution is about to fall apart (again): While the charges are ridiculous, and should be laughed out of court the moment they appear, I do appreciate this paragraph:

    Let's stipulate up front: Comey is a legendary blowhard, an inveterate fibber, and a pretentious prig whose guiding principle is that he alone has access to some mystical code of morality that conveniently justifies his outrageous conduct over the past decade. The former FBI director's arrogant defiance of core DOJ policy likely swung the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump and earned excoriation from the DOJ's nonpartisan inspector general and a bipartisan procession of former AGs. Comey then launched a sneak attack on the incoming Trump administration and later chortled publicly about how he broke ordinary FBI protocol in the process. Comey leaked to paint himself as a hero to undermine Clinton (in 2016) and to undermine Trump (in 2017). Afterward he claimed that even though he arranged for sensitive FBI information to be released through a personal friend to the media, it somehow wasn't a leak. Nobody likes the guy, and everyone has got their reasons.

• Cameron Peters [04-28]: James Comey gets indicted (again): "Trump's revenge ploys are getting kookier." How kooky? "prosecutors allege that a 2025 social media post Comey made, showing seashells arranged to read '86 47,' was a threat to take the life of, and to inflict bodily harm upon, Donald Trump."

• Kelli Wessinger/Noel King [04-29]: This is what it takes to become Trump's attorney general: "Who is acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, formerly Donald Trump's personal lawyer?"

• Rachel Rebouché [05-02]: The Fifth Circuit seeks to unilaterally reimpose an outdated abortion pill protocol: "What comes next is shifting terrain. The drug manufacturer has asked the Supreme Court to intervene, but the Food and Drug Administration could also step in."

• Andrew Duehren/Alan Feuer [05-12]: Justice Dept. officials consider settling Trump suit against IRS: "One of the settlement terms under review is for the IRS to drop any audits of the president, his family members and businesses." The ostensible reason for the suit is that someone at IRS leaked some of Trump's tax returns (which, once upon a time, he had promised to release himself, as has been customary for all other presidential candidates, at least in recent years). As a tweet linking to this put it: "This would constitute one of the most brazen, most appalling acts of corruption in US history." For more on this:

  • Scott Lemieux [05-12]: Today in the John Roberts presidency: It looks like the exemption from audits would be permanent, effectively making this deal a license to steal.

Trump's Administration: Trump can't remake America in his own image (i.e., destroy the country, its culture and civilization) just by himself. He needs help, and having largely purged the government of civil servants and replaced them with his own minions, this is what they are doing (whether he's paying attention or not):

• Center for American Progress [2025-10-23]: The Trump Administration is erasing American history told by public lands and waters: "Through a series of executive orders targeting place names, signage on, and access to public lands and waters, the Trump administration is erasing important chapters of American history." I should follow this website more closely. For instance:

  • [2025-05-28]: See them while you can: Trump's policies threaten America's national parks and public lands: "By selling out national parks and other public lands, the Trump administration is endangering some of America's great travel destinations."

  • [2025-09-22]: The Trump Administration's expansive push to sell out public lands to the highest bidder: "After bipartisan opposition forced Senate Republicans to remove language from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would have sold off public lands, the Trump administration is still moving forward with proposals to transfer control over tens of millions of acres of public land to the oil and gas, mining, and timber industries."

  • [02-04]: How the Trump administration's embrace of oil, gas, and chemical industry interests will endanger children's health: "The Trump administration's actions to eliminate lifesaving environmental protections would allow corporate polluters to emit more toxins and chemicals, exposing more than 2 million kids to pollutants that increase the likelihood of lifelong health concerns — such as asthma, autism, ADHD, and cancer — while undercutting the administration's own 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda."

  • [02-20]: The Trump administration is intentionally erasing the black history told by public lands and waters: "Public lands tell America's full and true story, yet new Trump administration policies threaten to erase Black history, undermine access, and distort the national memory." I'd counter that "full and true" was an exaggeration before Trump came along and "flooded the zone with bullshit" (as his buddy Steve Bannon advised). Getting recognition for blacks, native Americans, and many others has always been an uphill battle, not just to get some recognition for exceptional individuals but to remind us that ordinary people like us have always been an essential part of the nation's history.

  • [04-07]: Trump's budget request cuts programs that help ordinary Americans and sinks that money toward war: "What are some of the proposed cuts in the Trump administration's fiscal year 2027 budget?"

  • [04-13]: The Trump administration's changes to the child care and development fund would strip families of thousands of dollars in potential child care savings: "Removing a 7 percent cap on child care copayments would put much-needed relief from rising child care costs out of reach for families in 10 states."

  • [04-22]: Trump's war of choice with Iran threatens a global hunger and health crisis: "President Trump's war of choice is generating a devastating food and health crisis, made far worse by his administration's gutting of the global humanitarian system."

  • [05-08]: How Trump's $500 million UAE crypto deal trades US national security for family profit: "Days before Trump's second inauguration, the United Arab Emirates' "Spy Sheikh" secretly bought 49 percent of the Trump family's crypto firm. Months later, the administration handed over America's most sensitive AI chips technology to the United Arab Emirates despite national security concerns. This isn't just profiteering; it's a betrayal of U.S. national security." Well, it's mostly just graft, which you could also say about damn near all the other things the US buys for defense and war.

  • Trump's Take: A liveticker of the "cash and gifts received over the past 552 days," at which point the total is over $2.6 billion. Details follow on the many ways Trump and his family have cashed in on the presidency. I'd be very surprised if they caught all of it. Nor do they get into the post-presidential sweepstakes (which have greatly benefited past presidents, especially Clinton and Obama). While the crypto deals are the largest and most egregious, the ones that bother me most are the $90.5 million in "legal settlements," which could hardly be more explicit as bribes.

• Whitney Curry Wimbish [04-16]: GOP food stamp work requirements hit just as jobs dry up: "Millions of people will lose food stamps, according to early estimates."

• Caitlin Dewey [04-22]: Another Trump official exits in scandal: "Lori Chavez-DeRemer's resignation underscores a familiar pattern in the Trump administration." She was Secretary of Labor.

• Merrill Goozner [04-22]: RFK Jr. and the perils of peptides: "The Health and Human Services Secretary's push to deregulate unapproved peptides will inevitably lead to worse health outcomes.

• Pratik Pawar [04-29]: What really happened after Trump slashed HIV funding: "The official numbers are finally here." Well, we're not all dead yet, but they're working on it.

• Adam Federman [04-30]: Trump bulldozed a 1,000-year-old archaeological site to make room for a second border wall.

• Gregg Gonsalves [05-01]: The rise of the Vichy scientists: "Too many scientists are willing to collaborate with Trumpism in the mistaken assumption that obedience will save their own necks." Again with the Nazi analogies, because once again they seem to be the only historical precedents that come close to the gravity of the current situation. Focuses on anti-vaxxers currently in vogue at NHS. Refers to a piece on similar opportunism in the law schools:

  • Steve Vladeck [01-29]: Legal scholarship and the dual state: "A few thoughts on the responsibilities of legal academics in a time of increasing governmental lawlessness." While I've mostly been following Ian Millhiser at Vox, Vladeck also has a newsletter, One First, "aiming to make the Supreme Court's rulings, procedures, and history more accessible to all." It looks to be worth following.

• Jack Healy [05-04]: Home on the range no more: Trump wants bison gone: "The Trump administration is evicting bison herds from federal grasslands, in Montana, siding with ranchers and Republican leaders over environmentalists and tribal leaders."

• ProPublica [05-04]: 8 things you should know about Trump's effort to "take over" the midterm elections: "Trump is gutting federal agencies and installing allies who supported his claim that the 2020 vote was stolen."

• Nia Prater [05-08]: ABC takes the fight to Trump administration over FCC's View probe.

• Timothy Noah [05-08]: It's no longer safe for civil servants to be good at their job: "If you're an effective federal worker, don't let Trump find out — you might not be one for much longer." This remind me that I had never heard the word kakistocracy before Trump (definition: "government by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous people"), although it evidently was used as far back as 1644 (in reference to Roman Emperor Nero, who famously "fiddled while Rome burned"). Most of the examples given strike me as misapplied, suggesting it's already turned into a generic but meaningless slur, but the Trump administration is chock full of such people, not just incompetent themselves but intent on exporting their incompetence to everyone around.

• John Feffer [05-08]: Trump's ostrich policy on climate change: "The president has downgraded the threat of climate change to the point of non-existence. Like Stalin, Trump now stands alone."

  The administration's campaign started with the scrubbing of all references to climate change from federal websites. It has encouraged more widespread self-censorship: anyone who wants to keep their federal job or apply for a federal grant has tactically removed anything Green-related from their descriptions and applications. This animus toward anything climate-related has also shaped many of the administration's latest budget cuts: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget halved, $1.6 billion cut from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the $4 billion Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program eliminated, $449 million in renewable energy funding slashed. . . .

  The administration's approach can also be seen in the carrot side of the equation. It has approved pipelines like the recent Bridger Pipeline Extension, green-lighted deep-water oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil companies, and tried to prop up the dying coal industry. The administration has paid out $2 billion to companies to cancel their wind power projects and invest instead in fossil fuels. Deregulation and lack of enforcement — of pollution standards, of safety and health requirements, of environmental permitting — have been huge gifts to companies spewing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

• Mark Olalde [05-10]: Trump exempted some of the biggest polluters from air quality rules. All it took was an email: "Admin set up an EPA address where companies could get compliance pause simply by sending an email."

Donald Trump and His Cult: While his administration implements malign policies crafted by lobbyists and right-wing think tanks, the news is so dominated by his cult of personality that it seems like a full-time job just to resist the rising tide of vanity and stupidity.

• Margaret Hartmann: She also handles the British royal family beat, which I have even less interest in than I do Melania (or her idiot husband).

  • [04-22]: Trump hiding ballroom donors for secret, non-corrupt reasons: Or so they say. While the donations look like bribes in the short term, further out they're just likely to be embarrassing.

  • [04-25]: Is Melania Trump a US citizen? Her immigration story, explained.

  • [04-30]: Amazon mulls Apprentice reboot absolutely no one needs: "Trump is making money from reruns, Don Jr. doesn't need a hosting gig, and Amazon has already done plenty of groveling. So who is this for?"

  • [05-01]: Don Jr. has incredible excuse for putting wedding on hold: "While Bettina Anderson just had her bridal shower, the latest rumor is that the couple won't wed until the Iran war is over."

  • [05-05]: Surprise! You're paying $1 billion for Trump's ballroom: "The White House insisted the project wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. A new GOP bill includes $1 billion in public funding for ballroom 'upgrades.'"

  • [05-07]: Gold 22-foot Trump statue definitely isn't a false idol. Thus spake Pastor Mark Burns, before anyone even asked.

    It says a lot about our current president that in response to the news that a giant gold statue of Donald Trump was dedicated this week, you have to ask, "Which one?" . . .

    Today, we're focusing on a statue dubbed Don Colossus, which now sits outside the Trump National Doral Miami golf course. The statue, which depicts Trump with his fist raised, was commissioned by the $PATRIOT cryptocurrency group shortly after the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt. Artist Alan Cottrill finished it before Trump's second inauguration, as the New York Times reported earlier this year. But then Don Colossus was held hostage in a payment dispute between Cottrill and the crypto bros. The disagreement was resolved this spring when an anonymous donor stepped in and paid the artist the remainder of what he said he was owed.

    So in late April, the 15-foot statue was placed atop a seven-foot pedestal on the grounds of Trump's Miami golf course. And on Wednesday, the statue was formally unveiled at a dedication ceremony presided over by Pastor Mark Burns, a friend of the president who helped organize the project.

    The "not a gold calf" line came from Burns, lest someone mistake "gathering to praise a giant golden status [as] textbook idolatry."

• Stephen F Eisenman [04-24]: How Fascism works now: A note about Trump as the Healing Christ: "By attending to obvious outrages — the supposed blasphemy of an image of Trump as Healing Christ — the public is more likely to overlook bigger, but less promoted ones, like weakened pollution standards, cuts to disease research, and of course, war. But there's another, equally important communication strategy at work, and it's hiding in plain sight: insipidness or kitsch. That's the language of fascism now."

• Andrew O'Hehir [05-03]: An arch bigger than the Arc de Triomphe? Hitler wanted that too: "Tyrants and dictators often dream of building gigantic monuments to themselves."

• Hafiz Rashid [05-11]: Trump turns White House UFC cage match into massive cash grab: Of course. You hear about TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome), but there's also a TBS (Trump Bewilderment Syndrome): the inability lots of us have to see any attraction whatsoever in most of the things Trump claims to value. I've never once, even out of morbid curiosity, been tempted to watch The Apprentice. Similarly, UFC is something I lack even the slightest interest in ever attending or viewing. Very little that he does or says has any interest whatsoever — aside from the many cases that are purely repulsive, but they only matter because for some reason he is president. TDS is often cited by his supporters as way to ignore the possibility that anyone might have cause for taking exception to him. TBS is less useful to them, because it is clearly subjective.

Other Republicans:

• Gary Blumenthal [03-02]: Is Roger Marshall the worst US Senator in Kansas history? If you want an argument, I'd note that Sam Brownback didn't even get a mention here. I'll also note that I never forgave Bob Dole for his dirty campaigns against Bill Roy, who came within a hair of becoming the best US Senator in Kansas history. But Marshall is pretty bad, and not just for his extraordinary suck up to Donald Trump. Blumental misses the most glaring example: during Covid, while he was still a US Rep running in the Senate primary, as a MD he prescribed Ivermectin for his whole family. Certainly proved he's not the sort to let science or professionalism get in the way of political expediency. By the way, I looked some more at Blumenthal's blog, and responded at some length here to a piece he wrote on Israel.

• Naomi Bethune [04-02]: The far-right cash machine: "There's money in bigotry, and specialized crowdfunding platforms are where to get it."

• Ed Kilgore:

  • [04-23]: Trump's average job approval hits new second-term low: As far as the mid-terms are concerned, the interesting numbers are the "strongly disapprove" (47.5%) and "strongly approve" (22.8%), as mid-term voter turnout always slumps, which makes strongly-held opinions loom even larger.

  • [04-23]: Why the GOP's new midterms strategy won't work: The "new" strategy is actually just the old one: to bash the Democrats, blaming them for everything that's gone wrong under Trump. This is largely because they've convinced themselves that most Americans hate Democrats as much as they do, and for the same reasons (you know, that they are radical communists who will take your guns away, promote abortion and atheism, and convince your children that they'd be happier as another sex). That's never been remotely true, but somehow Democrats manage to look guilty by denying such nonsense. This reminds me of the advice given to lawyers when they neither have facts nor law on their side: pound the table. Given how thin Trump's margins have been, and how disillusioned many people have become since "Trump Will Fix It!" proved a hollow promise, it shouldn't be hard for Democrats to tip the balance. Still, until Democrats show some actual skill at campaigning, we should all be nervous.

  • [04-30]: DHS shutdown finally ends with an exhausted whimper: After 75 days, Republicans decided to get what they wanted through some kind of future "budget reconciliation" which they could pass on a straight party line vote.

  • [05-05]: Republicans' second 'Big Bill' isn't beautiful at all.

  • [05-06]: Trump's polling is getting into George W Bush territory: "Disapproval of his performance as president is now pervasive across nearly every issue, and he's particularly unpopular with independents."

  • [05-08]: Trump's Big Ballroom could tank GOP's 'skinny' ICE bill: "After the WHCD shooting, it seemed like a good idea to market Trump's ballroom as a security imperative. Now it's a politically dangerous boondoggle."

  • [05-08]: Trump's affordability agenda barely exists anymore. Did he ever have one?

• Sarah Jones [05-07]: JD Vance and the rise of the Catholic right: I have zero interest in reading Vance's Communion, but my hunch is that his conversion was a calculation based on the newfound prominence of Catholics on the right (including a majority of the Supreme Court). Sam Brownback is an earlier example. I wondered about his lord and master Peter Thiel, and was informed that he was raised evangelical Christian, with "somewhat heterodox" views, but also "he is known for his deep interest in Catholic theology and in 2026 was hosting lectures on the Antichrist near the Vatican."

Democrats:

• Ross Barkan [04-23]: Chuck Schumer used to be popular. Now he's stuck. Quotes the D-NY Senator as saying (at an AIPAC conference): "We say it's our land — the Torah says it, but they [Palestinians] don't believe in the Torah. That's the reason there is not peace. They invent other reasons, but they do not believe in a Jewish state, and that is why we in America must stand strong with Israel through thick and thin." Because we Americans, with our separation of church and state, and constitutional guarantees of equal treatment under the law for all, belived that a foreign country that mocks our values should be able to quote a line from the Torah and use it to justify killing, torturing, and otherwise discriminating against and harming a large segment of the people who live there?

• Eric Levitz [04-27]: Democrats' latest critique of Walmart is wrong — and dangerous: "No, Medicaid is not 'corporate welfare.'" Filed here because the author is calling out Democrats explicitly, although the general complaint is applicable to Republicans as well, who differ mostly in omitting the word "corporate" before attacking "welfare."

• Zack Beauchamp [04-29]: This billionaire could be California's next governor — and he wants to arrest Stephen Miller: "Tom Steyer talks to Vox about using state power to fight the Trump administration." It takes a lot of ego to run for president, and that's something billionaires have in spades. When Steyer ran for president in 2016, he had the ego (and the money), but he didn't have a campaign that actually appealed to anyone. He seems to have found one now, on the left, which as I've long said is where the answers come from. He's picked up an endorsement from the Bernie Sanders-founded group Our Revolution. Reminds me that Ralph Nader wrote a novel back in 2009 called "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!". JB Pritzker, in Illinois, is another example. (Mike Bloomberg is not.) Sometimes you have to take what you can get. Or as Steyer puts it several times here, that's the world we live in.

• Eoin Higgins [05-01]: Graham Platner handed centrist Dems a bruising defeat in Maine: "After throwing their support behind Gov. Janet Mills, party leaders are left doing an about-face on the insurgent candidate."

• MJ Rosenberg [05-01]: Death to end stage capitalism: Time for Dems to be the Social Democratic Party: 20 points about capitalism. I could use this as scaffolding for commentary, grouping some things, discarding (or revamping) others. I still see a place for capitalism going forward. It's just not the only place, and it's one that becomes progressively unimportant as we get on to better things.

The Economy (and Economists): Also see Dean Baker.

• Doug Henwood [2015-09-03]: Age of the Unicorn: How the Fed tried to fix the recession, and created the tech bubble: "The number of 'unicorn' tech companies is increasing dramatically — but the bubble will burst eventually." Old piece, featured "from the archive." My impression is that for the most part, the tech bubble is still growing, in what is still "a staggering misallocation of capital." There is a broken link to "the suggestion by Mike Konczal and others to 'socialize Uber,' by turning the thing into a driver-owned cooperative." Sounds like a good idea to me.

• Hal Singer [03-10]: Another war, another excuse for profiteering: "Every energy crisis is a windfall for oil refiners — and consumers pay the price."

• Jared Bernstein [04-15]: The Trump adminstration's policies have hurt growth, jobs, and prices: "A new macroeconomic simulation suggests that the Trump administration's agenda has generated slower growth, fewer jobs, and faster inflation."

• Stacy Mitchell [04-20]: How Amazon's AI algorithms raise the prices you pay: "Online price swings look like fierce competition. In reality, they're part of an invisible strategy that steers the entire market upward."

• Robert Kuttner [04-24]: Time to stop lionizing Powell: "The Fed chair has been an enabler of the economy's hyper-financialization and speculative excess. Resistance to Trump is too low a bar."

• Mike Konczal [05-09]: The irony of a jobs pickup that lands right where it started: "And what tariffs and immigration have to do with it."

Technology (Including AI):

• Susannah Glickman/Amba Kak/Sarah Myers West [04-08]: The great AI grift: "Tech leaders want you to believe that AI is the key to a new golden age. The reality looks more like a bold, government-backed heist."

• Ryan Cooper [04-23]: Meta is a monopoly even if TikTok can compete: "It is foolish to suggest that competition anywhere proves that a company isn't a monopoly." Still, he doesn't make the case as clearly as it should be. Any company that owns a patent (or other exclusive intellectual property) has a monopoly right, at least to the extent that it is able to collect rents beyond what competition allows. Pharmaceutical companies don't compete with each other so much as they exercise and exploit monopolies over individual drugs. HP has a monopoly selling ink for the printers it manufactured. Perhaps at some point words like "monopoly" and "antitrust" should be recognized as antiquated, in that they are really just extreme forms of much broader (and in some cases subtler) behavior. Unfortunately, our "antitrust" laws limiting anti-competitive behavior were mostly passed in the 1880s, leaving us playing catch up with 140 years of rent-seeking innovation (not that the most common and effective means, bribing politicians and officials, is a new development). One monopolistic innovation that has become increasingly prevalent is network effects, which even more than IP is the source of Meta's monopolistic power.

• Timothy Noah [04-23]: How the tech world turned evil: "Once upon a time, they were counterculture idealists bringing power to the people. Today they're greedy monopolists who'd sooner destroy our democracy than be reined in by government in any way — and they have to be stopped." This is stuff I've been reading a lot of recently, including notes from recent books by Corey Doctorow and Tim Wu. For what it's worth, I think the shift toward evil has more to do with money than tech. And the shift to Trump is due to their shared perception that nothing else matters.

• John Herrman [04-25]: The downgrading of the American tech worker: "Meta is laying off more stuff — and monitoring the rest to train AI."

• Jasmine Sun [04-30]: Silicon Valley is bracing for a permanent underclass: Seems like an important article (I haven't delved very deeply into it yet), but one thought I have is that industry estimates of the economic effect of AI are likely to be very tailored not to what the tech can or cannot do, or what the public does or does not want, but to the opportunities to jack up their stock prices, which right now is the main thing AI has going for itself. Since most of the target customers are looking to save money on labor, that's a major angle. What happens to people out of jobs isn't going to impact their bottom line, at least directly, so can be ignored. That they might all wind up in a permanent underclass is, well, at first approximation also not their problem. Granted, those people may eventually be driven to revolt, but the leading wave of AI tools are being designed to surveil and control dissidents, and to lock them out of political channels and otherwise shut them up. As for the problem of who do you steal from when all the wealth is held by the super-rich, AI should help there, too, creating a cycle of cannibalism as sport.

• Astra Taylor/Saul Levin [05-08]: The fight against AI datacenters isn't just about tech — it's about democracy: "Claims of nimbyism are a misunderstanding: the movement is about whether regular people have a say in fundamental decisions." I don't really get the whole data center issue, but I do understand that new tech can be good and/or bad, and leaving it to the big companies drives it toward bad, so slowing them down makes sense. But the answer probably has more to do with the companies than with their tools.

• David Futrelle [05-11]: How prediction markets are taking control of everything: "We have seen the future, and it is Polymarket and Kalshi processing insider bets on mayhem, chaos — and celebrity-wedding guest lists." I grew up with an intense hatred of gambling. (I got it from my mother, but it's probably the only one of her prejudices I kept.) I don't want to criminalize it, because I don't like banning things just because they're bad for you. But I also don't think we should go around advertising and promoting it, because it's not only bad for individuals, it warps society, especially our apprecation of the value of work. While Republicans have pretty much kept with their old prohibitionist impulses, the one exception is gambling, which they have embraced with gusto. They seem to get off on folks playing with their money, and not just because that makes it easy to separate it from them. But also because they promote an ethic of pure gain for no work, a dream which beats even fraud. Stripped of all the other bullshit (and there's a fair amount of that here), prediction markets are just gambling, but elevated to a massive scale, tied to real world events that insiders can manipulate at will.

• Sam McAfee: I was forwarded a PDF by mutual friends, and started to quote it before I tracked it down.

  • [03-23]: The reality behind the singularity: I'm not especially up on this discussion, but found this interesting. He attributes the "singularity" concept to Ray Kurzweil (The Singlarity Is Near, 2005), then notes:

    What this framework inherits, without much examination, is a fundamentally Cartesian view of mind. Cognition, in this model, is computation. The brain is hardware. Intelligence is a function that runs on it, and can in principle run just as well, or better, on different hardware entirely. The substrate, in other words, does not matter.

    This is a position that several decades of neuroscience research have given us good reasons to question.

    Antonio Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis, developed across a series of influential works including Descartes' Error (1994), demonstrated through careful clinical study that emotional processing is not incidental to rational decision-making but constitutive of it. Patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the region most associated with emotional integration, did not become more rational in the absence of emotional interference. They became incapable of making decisions at all. The implication is significant: what we commonly describe as reason is not separable from the affective systems that the singularity framework is inclined to treat as noise.

    Lisa Feldman Barrett's more recent work in How Emotions Are Made (2017) extends this argument further, presenting evidence that emotion and cognition are not merely intertwined but that the distinction itself may be a useful fiction. The brain, in Barrett's account, is a predictive organ constantly modeling the body's internal state and its relationship to the external environment. Feeling and thinking are different descriptions of the same underlying process.

    The implications for the singularity argument are not trivial. If intelligence in any robust sense requires embodiment, a body whose states are continuously integrated into cognition, then the prospect of disembodied computational intelligence reaching or exceeding human cognitive capacity is not simply technically difficult. It may be the wrong description of what intelligence is.

    The broader framework known as 4E cognition (embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended) further develops this position across a range of disciplines, arguing that cognition emerges from the dynamic interaction between organism, body, and environment rather than from computation occurring within a bounded system. On this account, the question of whether a machine could be more intelligent than a human is a bit like asking whether a map could be a better traveler than a person. The category does not transfer cleanly.

    And then there is the social dimension, which the singularity framework tends to underweight to a degree that borders on negligence. Human cognitive capacity is not simply individual. It is distributed across relationships, institutions, cultural practices, and accumulated knowledge that has been refined across tens of thousands of years of collective life. The organizational intelligence that allows human societies to coordinate at scale, to build and maintain institutions, to sustain trust across generations. This is not separable from the embodied, emotionally regulated, socially embedded creatures who produce it.

    The latter point risks some fuzziness, and I suspect will prove hard to pin down. It's much easier to train AI to quantitatively approximate intelligence than qualitatively, not just because we have a pretty good idea of the former but not the latter, but also because quantities are by definition measurable, whereas qualities are not.

  • [2025-12-27]: The risk of AI writing is leadership without judgment: This earlier piece, which appeared as the title in the PDF I was sent, is styled as management advice. Indeed, the most prominent word is "leadership," which means that the sales pitch starts with a bit of flattery. McAfee turns out to be a "technology and product leader, author and coach" for a management consulting company called Humanize (or maybe that's their product and/or service? he is one of 14 members of their "personal board of advisors," where "coach," "strategist," "expert," "facilitator," and "storyteller" are the most common occupations). Some interesting things here, but I'm often unsure whether meant to solve problems or just inadvertently expose them. For example:

    Generative AI doesn't just help the CEO write faster. It changes when the CEO stops thinking. It offers coherence early, before ambiguity has done its work. It makes conclusions feel available before judgment has fully formed. When a medium removes friction from thinking, leaders don't just move faster — they skip the moments where responsibility normally takes shape.

    Tools don't merely speed work up. They define what counts as work in the first place.

    Human writing started to sound like this long ago — safe, optimized, detached from real stakes.

    AI doesn't create this problem. It removes the last excuses for ignoring it.

    This led into a section called "We Were Already Drowning in Bad Writing."

Regular Columnists

Sometimes an interesting columnist writes often enough that it makes sense to collect their work in one place, rather than scatter it about.

Dean Baker:

• [03-22]: $200 billion for Trump's Iran "Excursion" is real money: First thing I did when I saw this was flash on Everett Dirksen's quip — back from the 1960's, and nowhere in evidence here, so all I'm doing is showing my age — that "a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money." Baker offers other examples of much smaller things one could spend money on, but aside from "Minnesota fraud" the more significant difference is that they're things that generate positive value. Most of them will even result in long-term positive paybacks (although child care and health care may seem nebulous to accountants). The Iran War will only result in negative paybacks, which is to say the massive expenditure now is only a down payment on future inevitable and irrecoverable costs. Even when people talk about burning or blowing up cash, they're showing the limits of their imagination. Reality is far worse.

• [04-14]: Inflation is a process: Notes the return of "anti-inflation hawks" arguing for "a structural break" causing persistent post-pandemic inflation. Baker argue for an alternative "bad breaks" theory, where the baddest of breaks was Trump becoming president, feeding price rises with tariffs and war (and I would add lax constraints against anti-competitive behavior, including price gouging). By "process" he means that inflation is something that takes time to develop, as higher prices raise costs which get fed back into even higher prices (he cites the "wage-price spiral" of the 1970s). He doesn't go much into what the current process is (after all, he's arguing against any such thing), but what I think is that the supply disruptions by and after the pandemic kicked off a general psychology where businesses discovered they could get away with price gouging (in common discourse described as "inflation") and took advantage of decades of anti-competitive consolidation. The wars and tariff shenanigans just added to the pile of excuses, but another big motivation (for business) was that under Biden workers got a bit of real income gains, and businesses were desperate to claw that back.

• [04-15]: Are the Republican killing you? "Americans in Republican-led states live significantly shorter lives than those in Democratic states, highlighting major health disparities." The difference in life expectancy is 8 years longer in Hawaii than in West Virginia. "Even moving away a few notches from the extremes, a person living in California can expect to live 5.5 years longer than a person living in Tennessee." Only one of the top ten states is nominally Republican (Utah), while only one of the bottom ten leans Democratic (New Mexico). Baker has fun with his cart by adding some foreign countries, showing not only that Japan and South Korea are way ahead of Hawaii (the top US state), but so are Albania and Costa Rica. Cuba scores higher than Idaho (12 in US), Iran (pre-war) better than Florida (19), Mexico better than Indiana (40), and even Russia beats out Kentucky (49, ahead of India, which also beats Mississippi and West Virginia).

• [04-17]: The stock market is not your friend: "Stock market gains driven by higher profit shares benefit a minority of investors, while most workers would be better off with higher wages instead." Sadly, many people regard the stock market as measuring the health of the economy, whereas a big part of what it really measures is how much business owners are at screwing everyone else over. (It also factors in real growth, so it's not simply wrong. And it also, more sensitively, not just measures but exaggerates investor panic, which has made it an easy mark for Trump's war machinations.) I suspect much of its allure is that it is reported daily, whereas most other economic measures come out monthly, quarterly, or annually. But that it mostly serves to inflate the importance of the investing class is also part of why corporate media pushes it so hard. (And why it matters to Trump.)

  In principle, the stock market reflects expectations of future after-tax corporate profits. Expected profits can rise because the economy is expected to grow more rapidly, and corporations will get their share as profits rise along with the economy. But that has not been the case over the last quarter-century.

  The after-tax profit share of national income has nearly doubled, going from an average of 6.6 percent in the 1990s to 12.5 percent in the last quarter of 2025. This explains most of the soaring stock market over this period, although the ratio of stock prices to corporate earnings is also near a record high, leading many of us to argue that we have a stock bubble.

  It is hard to see why the bulk of the population, who own little or no stock, should be celebrating the redistribution from wages to profits that provides most of the basis for the run-up in stock prices in the last quarter-century.

  Two further notes:

  There is one other point worth noting in this respect. As I said, the price-to-earnings ratios in the stock market are near record highs. That is also not something most of us have cause to celebrate.

  The run-up in house prices has far exceeded the run-up in rents over the last decade. This is likely at least in part attributable to people with big gains in the stock market bidding up house prices. Many of the big winners in the market have two or three homes.

  The common denominator here is that because rich people have more money than they can productively invest (let alone spend), they're driving up asset prices, possibly to bubble levels. In the case of house prices, this can have a major impact on affordability.

• [04-18]: A $600 billion increase for the military is a ton of money: "Trump's massive military budget proposal highlights how enormous spending increases often go underexamined without meaningful context." Again, he's comparing this waste to other more sensible possible expenditures. Even I find the figure so mind-boggling I'm not sure where to start. The $900 billion the old Department of Defense spent each year was almost totally wasted. Sure, it produced a jobs program for contractors and indolent youth, and provided some degree of a socialist safety net for the soldiers (and veterans, who had their own budget, as did the nukes and the supplementals for unplanned wars). But it subtracted from the productive economy, and shipped a lot of that money abroad, so jobs and education for Americans could have been handled much more efficiently. Still, when you take an enterprise which is already pretty close to worthless, and throw 60% more money at it, what happens? You're going to hire more soldiers, but you're going to get somewhat less than 60% more: not that many people want to waste their lives "in service," so maybe you bump up the pay and perks and get 20-30% more people (probably less qualified and trained; the recent expansion of ICE hiring is worth studying). And you can buy more stuff, but again you have too much money chasing too little value, so you'll wind up paying more to get anything of value, and since value is so hard to evaluate in war, you'll probably wind up with a lot of no value at all. Some of the latter will be pure fraud. Much of it will be software, especially AI, where the gap between sales pitch and reality may turn out to be infinite. Of course, you could just buy a lot of bombs and bullets, but that's just going to build up pressure to use them. Given that management has already renamed Defense to the Department of War, the worst possible outcome seems destined.

• [04-20]: We don't need billionaires, and we can structure the market so we don't have them: "A critique of claims that billionaires are essential to innovation, arguing that policy choices, not individuals, create extreme wealth." As Baker points out, there is no reason to think that "the innovations [billionaires] are associated with would not have taken place otherwise." (I'd add that many billionaires, including Trump, are responsible for no worthwhile innovations whatsoever.) But the bulk of the piece argues that "capitalism can be structured differently, with sections on:

  • Government-granted patent and copyright monopolies
  • Let the financial industry enjoy the free market: as opposed to repeatedly bailing them out
  • Whack private equity: The structure of bankruptcy laws is not intrinsic to capitalism
  • Make non-compete agreements unenforceable
  • Capitalism needs to be restructured to produce less inequality

  These are old themes for Baker (see his book, Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer), and much more can be written both about the problems and the solutions. I'd like to see bankruptcy laws changed so that companies can be restructured under employee ownership, which would preserve competition and jobs.

• [04-21]: Trump hits a home run for the green transition: "Trump's war-driven energy shock may unintentionally hasten the global shift to clean energy while weakening US dominance." This is more like a Wrong Way Corrigan touchdown than a home run for anyone, but it does underscore how right Chinese leaders were when they shifted focus from coal in the 1980s-90s to wind and solar, and moved their fledgling automotive sector from gas to electric. Roughly up to 2000, the Chinese saw emulating the west as the definitive development strategy, but since then they've dared to find their own way, starting with avoiding the warmongering the US succumbed to after 2001.

• [04-24]: Bad vibes and the Trump betrayal: "Consumer pessimism may stem less from economic fundamentals than from polarization and Trump supporters feeling betrayed by unmet promises." The partisan shift is certainly good for a few points swing, especially in the absence of sensible information. Trump's reliance on magical thinking may also have set unreasonable expectations, at least for the hordes of voters inclined to believe him. But isn't it also possible that the fundamentals measurements that Baker follows and touts don't seem to have a lot of relevance to most people's lives. The unemployment rate hits very hard on its edge, but until you get fired, it doesn't have a lot of impact. The felt impact of wage changes depends on how close it impacts you, at which point it seems to be more personal than macroeconomic. Rising prices have a broader and more immediate impact, so one might feel them without appreciating as much that your own wages have outpaced them. Then there are vibes that are measured very imperfectly, like precarity and enshittification.

• [04-25]: Trump's ignorance could kill millions: "Trump's apparent disregard for the predictable consequences of striking Iran could drive energy shocks, food crises, and widespread suffering that put millions at risk worldwide."

• [05-01]: Five bit takeaways from the first quartet GDP report: "The Q1 GDP report shows modest growth masking deeper weaknesses, including fragile demand, rising inflation, declining manufacturing investment, and no sign of an AI-driven productivity boom."

• [05-08]: The Trump corruption tax on the oil industry: "Perceived insider trading tied to Trump's oil-related announcements could distort futures markets and increase costs across the oil industry." Baker tends to use the word "tax" broadly, to refer to any extraneous cost imposed by an external source, usually but not necessarily a government. Insider trading is an example, as it extracts money from a series of stock trades, leaving everyone else (on average) poorer. Over time, it also undermines trust in the markets, as participating in them opens you up to depredation from people who know things you cannot know. This rot eventually carries over into futures markets. Those where originally set up as a means of risk management. That way you could secure future costs, instead of just waiting to see what happens. That usually cost you a small premium, but reduced the risk that you might get screwed. The problem is, once the market has been tainted by manipulations, no one knows how to set that premium, so the futures market also rots, and risk multiplies.

• [05-09]: Trump Accounts are a sick joke, not a threat to Social Security: "Trump accounts are unlikely to replace Social Security, offering limited benefits while Republicans simultaneously cut programs many families rely on."

• [05-11]: Citizens United, Buckley v. Valejo, and media ownership: Turning money into power: "Billionaires maintain political power not just through campaign spending, but through growing control of media and social media platforms." I suppose if you're familiar with William Randolph Hearst, you can't use the word "unprecedented" to describe the way media moguls like Rupert Murdoch, Larry Ellison, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos are imposing their politics on the media they own, but in my lifetime at least it's never felt like this much of an imposition. Baker advocates for using defamation suits against right-wing liars. I've gotten to where I hate defamation suits, but he may have a point:

  The Dominion lawsuit against Fox News was an enormous public service. In addition to many damning e-mail exchanges that were revealed in discovery, the $787 million settlement was effectively an admission by Fox that it spread lies about the 2020 election being stolen from Trump.

  One thing I've learned from reading Thomas Geoghegan is that the sue a company is a big equalizer, as you can obtain relevant documents in discovery, and compel them to answer depositions under oath. They still have huge structural advantages in our lopsided "justice" system, but it does even the playing field a bit, making it harder to hide from the truth.

Current Affairs/Nathan J Robinson:

• Ben Burgis/Matt McManus [04-15]: Steve Pinker doesn't know anything about Marxism: "Bill Gates' favorite writer keeps spewing out lazy clichés about Marxism being a 'disaster' whenever it's 'implemented.' But he's way off-base, and Marx deserves better critics." I think it's a little late in the day to care much whether people give Marxism proper respect, although I will point out that people who do will learn a lot of things that might otherwise escape them. Some time ago, I bought a copy of Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, because I'm sympathetic with its thesis, and I think that our sympathy with and desire for violence has in fact declined over recent centuries. But I never got around to reading the book, or anything else by him. But even if his thesis is valid over the long term, it's hard to deny that there is still a lot of violence in the world, and that there are periods (including the "30 years war of the 20th century" that so disturbed Adorno, and the current period where Netanyahu, Trump, and Putin are on the warpath seems to qualify) where violence has at least temporarily intensified.

• Nathan J Robinson [04-21]: The Bezos Post editorial page has become a mouthpiece for pro-billionaire propaganda: "Jeff Bezos said The Washington Post would no longer publish opinion pieces critical of free markets. Recent editorials show just how seriously the paper has taken this mandate."

• Nathan J Robinson [04-23]: In praise of "virtue signaling": "Signaling our convictions to one another is an important part of the push for moral progress." Ok, but not a point I really feel like making. He wants to map "virtue" onto "morality" and "signal" onto "expression," so what he's really defending is expressing your views of morality. The reason they call it "virtue signaling" is that they don't want to talk about morality; they want to talk about the superior airs you seem to be taking on when you assert that your moral views are better than theirs. That's almost always a caricature of what's actually going on, but does it really help your case to fight them on their terms?

• Adam McKay [04-27]: Staring at the pointing hand: "How do we actually get people to pay attention to the crises unfolding around us? As corporate media fails, we need to build a mainstream consensus against fascism and climate collapse."

• Nathan J Robinson [05-06]: The Democratic establishment can be defeated: "It's not 2016 anymore. We can throw out the party's sclerotic leadership."

• [05-08]: Why "progress" is a dangerous idea: "In his new book, Samuel Miller McDonald argues that progress is one of humanity's deadliest illusions." Interview with the author of Progress: How One Idea Built Civilization and Now Threatens to Destroy It. I don't particularly get the arguments here, although, sure, focusing on progress skips over a lot of history/pre-history that is interesting and possibly useful, and it's a mistake either to assume that anything new will be better, or that nothing new will ever be lost. I have a narrower political quarrel with people who call themselves "progressives": they are suggesting that change is inevitable, and we need to just go with it. The former may be true, but the latter needs to be mediated by political judgment. And for now, change is happening so fast and thoughtlessly that I wouldn't mind slowing down a bit, and thinking more. I don't know that McDonald and/or Robinson would disagree, but they don't exactly say so.

Jeffrey St Clair:

• [04-24]: "A picayune detail": Nazi science heads west. An updated chapter from the book Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press.

• [05-01]: Roaming Charges: Bad citizens: Starts with a section on WHCD "shooter" Cole Allen, suggesting that he didn't shoot, but was shot at (five times) by the Secret Service (who may have hit one of their own).

  + One of the inevitable problems with leading a conspiratorial movement, as Trump has done, is that your paranoid, conspiracy-minded followers will ultimately come to turn those conspiracies against you, as has happened in the Butler, PA shooting and already just a few hours after the shooting (if there was a shooting) in the hallway of the Washington Hilton . . .

  + Pete Hegseth: "The one institution that should win the Nobel Peace Prize every single year is the United States military."

  + Financial Times: "The number of white-collar prosecutions in the US has fallen to its lowest level in at least 40 years, leaving many white-collar criminal defence lawyers facing a major problem: they have nothing to do." Grift, graft and greed are good again!

• [05-08]: Roaming Charges: Pity, the poor billionaire: Ted Turner, Steve Roth a piece by Kyle Smith called "Billionaires Rock" ("We ought o build statues of them, not chase them from state to state").

  + According to the National Association of Realtors, the average age of a first-time home buyer in the US has climbed to a record high of 40. Meanwhile, the average age of a repeat buyer has reached a record high of 62.

  WSJ: More and more people are selling their cars, even though they still owe more money than the car is worth.

  + We keep being told that the US doesn't need foreign oil, yet as this chart from analysts at JPMorgan shows, the spiking gas prices in the USA in response to Trump's Iran war are higher than any region in the world, except Southeast Asia, which is the most dependent on oil from the Persian Gulf States.

  + Trump's top economic advisor Kevin Hassett finding (inventing) the good news about soaring gas prices: "Credit card spending is through the roof. They're spending more on gasoline, but they're spending more on everything else too."

  + Trump: "4 or 5 snipers way up high on buildings killed 42,000 Iranian protesters." (He went on to describe in graphic detail how the snipers, who allegedly killed 10,000 protesters apiece, aimed at people's heads, which then exploded, making these gruesome remarks in front of pre-teen children.)

  + In April, the level of atmospheric hit a new record high, averaging carbon dioxide detected in the atmosphere, averaging about 431 parts per million (ppm).

  + Dr. Tyler Evans on the hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius:

  There is a pattern that has repeated across every major outbreak I have worked on, from HIV in sub-Saharan Africa to COVID-19 in New York City. The acute event commands attention. The structural lesson does not. Cruise ships, whether they carry six thousand passengers or one hundred fifty, are mobile communities that move pathogens across borders faster than any public health system can track them.

  + I don't know what kind of people enjoy going on these floating Petri dishes after outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease, Norovirus, Covid and now Hantavirus . . . but they should all be nominated as a class for the Darwin Awards.

  + Of course, the Trump/RFK, Jr. CDC wasn't just MIA, it was gone, baby, gone, as in eliminated.

  Jonathan Reiner: Last year half of CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program staff were fired. This is the group responsible for investigating cruise ship outbreaks. The cuts were made despite the fact that US taxpayers don't pay for this team. The cruise ship industry does.

  Under his "Booked Up" section, I was pleased to see John Berger: The Moment of Cubism and Other Essays. Originally published in 1969, it is one of the most brilliant books I've ever read. I could also say that about his 1972 Ways of Seeing, which I think is different from the also newly reprinted 1960 book, Permanent Red: Essays in Seeing. I also recall reading The Success and Failure of Picasso (1965) and Art and Revolution: Ernst Niezvestny and the Role of the Artist in the USSR (1969).

• [05-12]: A force for a livable planet: Mitchel Cohen's unwavering sense of direction.

TomDispatch:

• Tom Engelhardt [04-21]: "You dirty ORANGE maniac! You blew it all up! Damn you to hell!": The editor appears to be blowing a gasket, but actually just scraped this title off a No King's Day protest sign. This makes me wonder what a truly unhinged screed against Trump might look like. I'm reluctant to guess, but it shouldn't stop mid-way to lament, "And the worst thing is that I feel I've written all of this before." Indeed, he has, especially the seemingly inevitable recycle of "he's also launched another brutally losing war against Planet Earth." Whenever I read something like that, I can only sigh, "Planet Earth is going to cope with whatever we throw at it (or dump onto it). It's what we're doing to ourselves that we should be worried about.

• Alfred McCoy [4-23]: Military disasters and the end of empire: Writes about "what modern historians now call 'micro-militarism,'" which Google AI defines as "the tendency of declining imperial powers to launch small-scale, often ill-fated military interventions to project strength and regain fading glory, which often accelerates their decline." And citing TomDispatch, is "often driven by emotional, irrational responses from leaders, not strategic necessity." I wasn't familiar with the term, so had to look it up. I don't much care for the term, nor for any explanation of modern events that harkens back to ancient Greece for examples. Current cases remind me of Trilling's decay of conservative thought into mere "irritable mental gestures." It matters little whether they lead to loss of power or merely reflect the fear that power has already been lost.

  • Michael Schwalbe [2012-11-26]: Micro Militarism: Examples here include "patriotic displays at sporting events, such as flyovers and national anthem singing, as a form of cultural militarism that discourages debate on war policy," and "celebrating military personnel in media, normalizing war-making as an integral part of national identity."

• William D Hartung [04-26]: Shutting down the war machine: Co-author of The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home, which Trump and Hegseth now want to give an extra $500 million to (beyond the $200 million "supplemental" they want for Iran?). It's tempting to fixate on the insane waste in this spending, but worse still is the off chance that someone in charge might be stupid enough to think they can actually use this military (especially now that someone has, so we're no longer talking hypotheticals).

• Andrea Mazzarino [04-28]: The trauma and the terror among us, or "The global war on terror's journey home: the collective trauma of America's twenty-first century wars."

• William deBuys [04-30]: The border wall thrives, the borderlands don't.

• Tom Engelhardt [05-03]: A world in Trumple deep "(And we are all his apprentices now)": Another tirade, self-conscious enough to forgo "section titles for a simple reason. It's all about Donald J. Trump and when it comes to him, in this strange world of ours, no one ever really gets a break." As usual, this winds up with Trump making "climate-change denial seem like a far too mild term."

• Karen Greenberg [05-10]: Trumpland is a man's world.

• Juan Cole [05-12]: The Strait of Hormuz oil crisis of 2026 is the biggest ever.

Miscellaneous Pieces

The following articles, on subjects that don't really fit anywhere above, are more/less in order published.

Jelani Cobb [05-04]: Two hundred and fifty years of complicated commemorations: "Donald Trump's aversion to admitting fault suggests that we will not likely see events that grapple with the nuanced nature of the nation's history this July 4th." Or any time. I am in no way looking forward to any 250th anniversary celebrations. I expect that each of them, with or without Trump, will only heighten my disgust with what this nation has become.

Kenny Torrella [05-06]: The backlash to Billie Eilish's vegan comments explains a lot about the American left (and everyone else): I hated this title even before I had any idea what Eilish's comments were. Why should anyone on the left care what Eilish or anyone else eats? Being left has nothing to do with what one eats, or what anyone else eats. The only real question is whether to treat all people the equally. If you think so, you're on the left. Conversely, you're on the right if you think there should be some kind of hierarchy, where some people receive preferable treatment over others. Whether you eat is affected by the left-right balance, but what you eat is up to you. Most people like to eat some meat (at least when given the option), but some don't, and some of those claim their rejection of meat and animal products is some kind of virtue. I disagree, but when those same people are antiwar, egalitarian and/or altruistic, I'm happy for them, and don't mind their idiosyncrasy, as long as they don't become too imperious about it. As a leftist, I feel it is important to respect other people's preferences. Attacking people who eat meat is bad politics, and bad manners. Putting the welfare of animals over people is another non-starter, especially given how far we still are from ending the mistreatment of people.

I'm even more bothered by the subhed: "Why are American leftists so reluctant to confront the meat industry?" Why is the author so eager to attack the left? And drive a wedge between them and the meat-eating majority? Actually, Vox has gone out of their way to focus on trashing the meat industry (Torrella's byline notes his "focus on animal welfare and the future of meat"; by the way, Current Affairs is also obsessed with meat, which I think undermines the rest of their agenda). I'm not saying the meat industry should be beyond reproach: it's big, competitive, runs on thin margins, and like all businesses is tempted to cut corners. But it also manages to keep extraordinary numbers of people living "high on the hog" (or whatever your preferred cut is). I understand most of the anti-meat arguments, but the only solutions are higher prices and scarcity, and whoever imposes that isn't going to be very popular.

As for Eilish, my main complaint is I don't understand what "loving all animals" means. It's more complicated than that.

Mike Masnick [05-06]: Matt Taibbi loses his vexatious SLAPP suit as judge explains what a 'metaphor' means. Taibbi had sued Eoin Higgins, author of Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left for "defamation" (aka, reporting).

Books: Reviews, although there are more books scattered above.

• Kohei Saito [02-11]: The enclosure of all: "How capitalism transformed the natural world." Review of Alyssa Battistoni: Free Gifts: Capitalism and the Politics of Nature.

  This past fall, the Liberal Democratic Party's Sanae Takaichi, who had long been regarded as an outlier on the party's right flank, became the country's first female prime minister. . . .

  Part of Takaichi's rise was fueled by heat. After the rainy season ended unusually early in much of Japan, the country saw a third straight year of record-breaking temperatures as the global average increase approaches the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement. Rice yields plummeted, and the resulting "rice shock" deepened public anxiety in an already inflationary economy and forced the government to release its emergency grain reserves for the first time.

  Out of this economic and ecological turmoil came a right-wing-populist turn. Enraged at the Ishiba administration's tepid response, many voters turned to Sanseito (the "Do-It-Yourself Party"), whose platform combined promises of food self-sufficiency and support for organic farming with a rhetoric of "Japanese First." Over time, its mix of nationalism, conspiracy politics, and environmental populism curdled further into xenophobia and opposition to climate action, taking the form of attacks on immigrants, renewable energy, and vaccines. To win back the many defectors to Sanseito, the Liberal Democratic Party swerved ever more to the right and elevated Takaichi to power.

  Sound familiar? From Donald Trump in the United States and Javier Milei in Argentina to the far-right resurgence in many parts of Europe, the pattern is unmistakable: The convergence of ecological disaster, resource scarcity, a flagging and disoriented liberalism, and climate-driven displacement leads to an authoritarian turn.

• Nancy Folbre [04-17]: What, exactly, is a fair wage?: "Arindrajit Dube brilliantly dissects how wages really are set — but overlooks the particular hurdles that care workers face." Review of the book, The Wage Standard: What's Wrong in the Labor Market and How to Fix It.

• Corey Robin [05-11]: The long revolution: "Will capitalism last forever?" Review of Sven Beckert: Capitalism: A Global History, a book which goes way back (1150) and ranges wide (starts with the merchants of Aden). While the historical sprawl is probably the most interesting aspect of the book — having recently read Hobsbawm's quartet, Cassidy's Capitalism and Its Credits, and into Acemoglu & Johnson's Power and Progress, I'm pretty familiar with the usual turf — but the tendency to be all-inclusive risks blurring what is most peculiar about capitalism: the unique power accorded to owners. If all factories (or for that matter all trade) are capitalism, is any future alternative possible? [PS: Elsewhere Robin describes the book as "poorly conceived and terribly written." He's less clear on that here, or maybe just more diplomatic, or just chooses to focus on the facts at issue?]

Obituaries: I had been using the New York Times, but they're giving me aggravation these days, so I'll switch over to Wikipedia (May, also April), which is probably better anyway. Roughly speaking, since my last report on April 15:

• [04-15]: Barbara Carr (85): Soul/blues singer. Name sounds familiar, but nothing in my database. [PS: Added The Best of Barbara Carr, which covers 1997-2001, B+(***).]

• [04-15]: Robert Skidelsky (86): British historian/economist, wrote a major biography of Keynes. I read his 2009 Keynes: The Return of the Master, which convinced me of his continuing relevance and value. I also read his later How Much Is Enough? Money and the Good Life, which is a question few economists ask.

• [04-19]: Desmond Morris (98): English zoologist, The Naked Ape was a big bestseller in 1967. My impression is that the book hasn't aged well.

• [04-19]: Dave Mason (79): English singer-songwriter, started in Traffic, had a solo career of some note in the 1970s.

• [04-22]: Michael Tilson Thomas (81): Classical music conductor, composer.

• [04-23]: Nicole Hollander (86): Cartoonist (Sylvia).

• [04-24]: Donald Riegle (88): Michigan politician, elected 1966 to House as a Republican, opposed Vietnam War, switched parties in 1973 and served in Senate 1976-1995.

• [04-24]: Tony Wilson (89): Trinidadian musician, member of Hot Chocolate (first two albums), I liked his 1976 solo album I Like Your Style.

• [04-29]: David Allan Coe (86): American country singer ("Take This Job and Shove It").

• [05-02]: Bob Skinner (94): baseball player (1954-66), two all-star games, manager.

• [05-06]: Ted Turner (87): Rich guy, inherited a billboard business, bought a TV station in Atlanta (WTBS), expanded it into Turner Broadcasting System, founder of CNN (and other cable networks), sold out to Time Warner (which he became largest shareholder in; he supported their AOL merger, regretted it later, losing a lot of money), owner of Atlanta Braves, married Jane Fonda (1991-2001), raced yachts, owns multiple ranches (about 2 million acres), signed a pledge to give away most of his money on death.

  • Jeet Heer [05-11]: Ted Turner proved even billionaires could be human.

• [05-09]: Bobby Cox (84): Baseball, short career as a third baseman (1968-69), long career as a manager with Atlanta, Toronto, and Atlanta again (1978-85, 1990-2010).

• [05-09]: Craig Morton (83): Football, quarterback for Dallas and Denver.

• [05-10]: Abraham Foxman (86): head of Anti-Defamation League (1987-2015), an organization set up to patrol against anti-semitism, but which has reduced its scope to attacking any criticism of Israel as anti-semitism.

• [05-12]: Rex Reed (87): Film critic.

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