With Victor Gould: piano, Jonathan Michel: bass, and Darrian Douglas: drums. Posted by Chad Lefkowitz-Brown
Author: Alan Vanneman
Shorter Bill Barr: Yes, I am a complete tool. Surprised?
Well, I am, for one, not. In fact, there never was a doubt in my mind that William Barr was a super shit, a super shit—to muddy the metaphor—of the very first water, a sentiment I have expressed any number of times, in exuberantly fecal prose. If there ever were any doubt in anyone’s mind—and…
Is Ross Douthat smarter than Joe Biden? Probably.
I have, in the past, beat on poor Ross Douthat so lustily that the poor man recently moved to have me declared a public nuisance. But now I feel compelled to admit that, despite the appalling mendacity of his pseudo “Never Trumper” posturing/apologetics, Ross can still serve an occasional winner, and he did so with…
Benny Green—“Monk’s Dream”
Recorded in 2011 at KPLU Seattle’s studio. Posted by KNKX Public Radio
Meet the New Anti-Semitism, Same as the Old Anti-Semitism. Or is it worse?
Peter Beinart has a characteristically excellent post in Jewish Currents, Antisemitic Zionists Aren’t a Contradiction in Terms, explaining why, both historically and today, many anti-Semites around the world praise and admire Israel—because they want their countries to be as ethnically “pure” as they imagine Israel to be, and because they wish “their” Jews would get…
The Gratitude Trio—“Monk’s Dream”
Dawn Clement, piano, Chuck Deardorf, bass, and Matt Wilson, drums. Posted by KNKX Public Radio
Can Nancy Drew crack this case? I’ll bet you $23.80 she can!
If you’re half as desperate for “escape” as I am, you’ll welcome the opportunity to take a 4-hour B-movie bath, courtesy of YouTube, in Nancy Drew, Detective (shown above), Nancy Drew, Reporter, Nancy Drew, Trouble-Shooter, and Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, a sometimes delightful and often at least satisfying mini-series of sorts cranked out…
Political Notes from All Over
“Anyone but Joe,” anyone? Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Spending the last few weeks laughing at the Republicans over their self-inflicted imbroglio/embroilment trying to elect a speaker for the House of Representatives was a treat. Well, now it’s our turn to suffer, as Uncle Joe’s Corvette winter plus the upcoming Hunter Biden follies, which…
Shorter Yuval Levin: Just because the Republican Party’s right wing is acting like a bunch of nihilistic idiots doesn’t prove that they are a bunch of nihilistic idiots. At least, I hope it doesn’t.
Yeah, philosophical gent that he is, ole Yuval likes to take the long perspective on things, and after some hemming and hawing about what’s been going on in the House of Representatives, comes up with this conclusion: Even if the spoils of the speaker fight [i.e., the “reforms’ demanded by the far right] aren’t transformative,…
King Joe? Dictator Joe? Well, maybe. Sort of. We’ll just have to see how this plays out.
Regardless of how the current hullabaloo/Mexican standoff in the House is resolved, whether Kevin McCarthy gets the job, or some other poor emasculated schmuck takes over—a schmuckless schmuck, as it were—the odds are approximately a million to one that the House of Representatives will be all but ungovernable in 2023. Specifically, I think the Republicans…