Trendlist: Althouse

Friday, February 25, 2022

Althouse

"The same qualities that made her music radical in the fifties also make her work sound antiquated now: a Black woman animated the horror..."
"Breathe.... Get moving.... Nourish yourself.... Stay connected.... Or sign off...."
"Biden Picks Ketanji Brown Jackson for Supreme Court."
"In Tawada’s dreamlike travelogue 'Where Europe Begins'... a young Japanese woman travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway tries to identify where, exactly, one continent shades into another..."
"My friends, I think, were afraid, now that I am old, that I am at risk of some dire breach of political etiquette by feebleness of mind or some fit of ill-advised candor."
Words of the morning: "irredentism" and "revanchism."
"President Biden said the right things. The expected things.... But what words, really, could be equal to this moment, to this day..."
"Approximately 69% of Russians now approve of Putin, compared to the 61% who approved of him in August 2021..."
"The U.S. could have refused to elucidate its security commitments to Ukraine, much as it has done vis-à-vis Taiwan for decades. The implicit threat of U.S. and NATO intervention..."
At the Sunrise Café...

"The same qualities that made her music radical in the fifties also make her work sound antiquated now: a Black woman animated the horror..."

Posted: 25 Feb 2022 01:01 PM PST

"... and emotional intensity in American labor songs by projecting them like a European opera singer.... Odetta was the secret-agent contralto, amplifying a history of pain others were using for sing-alongs.... If 'Blade Runner' and 'Seinfeld' were early manifestations of the twenty-first century, Odetta was the last glowing ember of the nineteenth century, a performer who made her name on the stage with a voice that could reach the cheap seats and the town square, too. Bob Dylan's early records are omnipresent, whereas Odetta's are not. Certainly a matrix of biases helped bring about this outcome, most of them unfair. But at least one deals with the character of her singing itself. Her 1957 album 'At the Gate of Horn' is recorded well, and Odetta's vocal quality is as heavy and shiny as gold. She did not let go of her opera willingly. Until the seventies, when she began to loosen her vocals, Odetta rarely missed a chance to use her chest voice, extend a note, and twist it with vibrato."

From "How Odetta Revolutionized Folk Music/She animated the horror and emotional intensity in American labor songs by projecting them like a European opera singer" by Sasha Frere-Jones (The New Yorker).

"Breathe.... Get moving.... Nourish yourself.... Stay connected.... Or sign off...."

Posted: 25 Feb 2022 01:35 PM PST

= "5 ways to cope with the stressful news cycle" (NPR).

Does that help?!

It seems lame. Yes. But, really, do you think, when you are watching the news from Ukraine, you are somehow helping? Do you think have a duty to rubberneck, to pay attention, to cry tears from afar, to construct arguments blaming the other side [Biden/Trump] for doing/not doing things that wouldn't have made a difference? What are you doing?

"Biden Picks Ketanji Brown Jackson for Supreme Court."

Posted: 25 Feb 2022 07:31 AM PST

The NYT reports.

The official announcement from the White House is out. "President Biden sought a candidate with exceptional credentials, unimpeachable character, and unwavering dedication to the rule of law. He also sought a nominee — much like Justice Breyer — who is wise, pragmatic, and has a deep understanding of the Constitution as an enduring charter of liberty," the White House says in its statement.

ADDED: WaPo greets the announcement with this sad headline: "Democrats hope Sen. Luján makes a quick recovery from stroke with vote on Supreme Court nominee looming."

Do the Democrats need every single Democratic Senator? No confidence that surely at least one Republican will cross over?

Jackson received three Republican votes — Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) — when she was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last year. But Graham, citing the reports on Jackson, tweeted Friday that her expected nomination shows that Biden has been won over by the "radical Left," signaling he could reverse course on a Supreme Court nomination vote.

What is the evidence that Jackson is "won over by the 'radical Left'"? I'm sure my question will be answered ad nauseum.

"In Tawada’s dreamlike travelogue 'Where Europe Begins'... a young Japanese woman travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway tries to identify where, exactly, one continent shades into another..."

Posted: 25 Feb 2022 07:10 AM PST

"... but none of the passengers can agree. Gradually, she descends into a trance brought on by reading Tungus and Samoyed fairy tales, which cut across the journey like a polar wind. The woman learns from an atlas that Japan is, tectonically, a 'child of Siberia that had turned on its mother and was now swimming alone in the Pacific . . . a seahorse, which in Japanese is called Tatsu-no-otoshigo—the lost child of the dragon.' She begins to dread the finality of arrival."

From "The Novelist Yoko Tawada Conjures a World Between Languages/Writing in Japanese and German, Tawada explores borderlands in which people and words have lost their moorings" (The New Yorker).

"My friends, I think, were afraid, now that I am old, that I am at risk of some dire breach of political etiquette by feebleness of mind or some fit of ill-advised candor."

Posted: 25 Feb 2022 06:59 AM PST

"They are asking me to lay aside my old effort to tell the truth, as it is given to me by my own knowledge and judgment, in order to take up another art, which is that of public relations."

Says Wendell Berry, quoted in "Wendell Berry's Advice for a Cataclysmic Age/Sixty years after renouncing modernity, the writer is still contemplating a better way forward" by Dorothy Wickenden in The New Yorker.

Berry's wife Tanya said "It's too late for it to ruin your whole life." (He's 87.)

He was talking about his forthcoming book, "The Need to Be Whole," which some of his friends "urged him to abandon." It it, "he argues that the problem of race is inextricable from the violent abuse of our natural resources, and that 'white people's part in slavery and all the other outcomes of race prejudice, so damaging to its victims,' has also been 'gravely damaging to white people.'"

Berry summons writers, from Homer to Twain, who extended "understanding and sympathy to enemies, sinners, and outcasts: sometimes to people who happen to be on the other side or the wrong side, sometimes to people who have done really terrible things."

In this spirit, he offers an assessment of Robert E. Lee, whom he calls "one of the great tragic figures of our history." He presents Lee as a white supremacist and a slaveholder, but also as a reluctant soldier who opposed secession and was forced to choose between conflicting loyalties: his country and his people.

"Lee said, 'I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children,' " Berry writes. "For him, the words 'birthplace' and 'home' and even 'children' had a complexity and vibrance of meaning that at present most of us have lost." Berry wants readers to hate Lee's sins but love the sinner, or at least understand his motives. War, he suggests, begins in a failure of acceptance.

Having gotten into one of the worst fights of my entire life by taking the position that the subordination of women is also gravely damaging to men, I can imagine the storm that awaits Berry upon the publication of "The Need to Be Whole."

Somehow, an awful lot of us have a deep aching need to be half.

Words of the morning: "irredentism" and "revanchism."

Posted: 25 Feb 2022 05:39 AM PST

At Meadhouse this morning, one of us was looking up "revanchism" just as the other was looking up "irredentism." Do you know the difference?

From the Wikipedia article "Irredentism":

Irredentism is a political and popular movement whose members claim (usually on behalf of their nation), and seek to occupy, territory which they consider "lost" (or "unredeemed"), based on history or legend.[1][2] The scope of this definition is occasionally subject to terminological disputes about underlying claims of expansionism, owing to lack of clarity on the historical bounds of putative nations or peoples.
This term also often refers to revanchism but the difference between these two terms is, according to Merriam-Webster, that the word "irredentism" means the reunion of politically or ethnically displaced territory, along with a population having the same national identity. On the other hand, "revanchism" evolved from the French word "revanche" which means revenge. In the political realm, "revanchism" refers to such a theory that intends to seek revenge for a lost territory.

There's this illustration, with the caption, "An 1887 painting depicting schoolchildren in France being taught about the province of Alsace-Lorraine, which was lost in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and which is depicted by black coloring on a map of France":

"President Biden said the right things. The expected things.... But what words, really, could be equal to this moment, to this day..."

Posted: 25 Feb 2022 05:28 AM PST

"... when Europe faces what may be the most dangerous and consequential war on the continent since the Second World War? As Biden spoke, Ukraine was fighting—alone—against overwhelming military odds. There was a pitched battle in the nuclear hellscape that the Soviet Union left behind in Chernobyl. In Kyiv, air-raid sirens sounded for what must have been the first time since the Second World War, and a military official warned that the Russians' goal was to quickly encircle the capital and decapitate the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky.... In his appearance Thursday afternoon, Biden said he believed that Putin would 'test the resolve of the West to see if we stay together,' and vowed, 'we will.' But ... [i]n the weeks leading up to the invasion, officials had pledged retaliatory measures, including possibly cutting Russia off from the swift international banking system, but Reuters reported that Europeans were still refusing to take this step, even with Kyiv now under attack. When he appeared to announce sanctions, Biden confirmed that the Europeans had in fact balked. 'That's not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take,' he said. Plenty of other measures have been left untaken, as well, including sanctioning Putin himself, which Biden said he was considering. What, exactly, is the President waiting for? He did not say. The historical record will show that Biden had strong words after the invasion, and also that this confrontation with Russia was the last thing he wanted his Presidency to be about...."

From "In Washington, a Ukraine Tragedy Foretold/But what can Biden really do to stop Putin?" by Susan B. Glasser (The New Yorker).

"Approximately 69% of Russians now approve of Putin, compared to the 61% who approved of him in August 2021..."

Posted: 25 Feb 2022 04:53 AM PST

"... according to Russian polling agency the Levada Center. And 29% of Russians disapprove of Putin, down from 37% in August 2021. The polling group is the leading independent sociological research organization in Russia and is widely respected by many scholars, including myself.... The Russian public largely believes that the Kremlin is defending Russia by standing up to the West. Putin has enjoyed relatively high approval ratings since he first became president in May 2000. His popularity averaged 79% in his first 20 years in office. Some political scientists attribute this trend to 'Putin's personal charisma and public image' and Russians' preference for a 'strong ruler.' Other experts argue that Putin's approval ratings are actually related to Russians' indifference and symbolic trust in political leaders.... The popular narrative is that Russia is a besieged fortress, constantly fending off Western attacks. Half of Russians blame the current crisis on the U.S. and NATO, while 16% think Ukraine is the aggressor. Just 4% believe Russia is responsible.... Polls conducted since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 consistently show that most Russians support the independence of the two self-declared republics in the Donbas. But they do not see them becoming a part of the Russian Federation...."

From "Putin's public approval is soaring during the Russia-Ukraine crisis, but it's unlikely to last" at The Conversation. That's by Arik Burakovsky, Assistant Director, Russia and Eurasia Program, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

"The U.S. could have refused to elucidate its security commitments to Ukraine, much as it has done vis-à-vis Taiwan for decades. The implicit threat of U.S. and NATO intervention..."

Posted: 25 Feb 2022 04:42 AM PST

"... would have forced Putin to contend with the risks of further escalation. Instead, Biden granted Putin a free hand. The U.S. also refused to provide advanced weapon systems to Ukraine.... And for those who might argue that Russia would have preempted the shipment of weaponry by invading, I would contend that if invasion was already the predicted outcome, what was there to lose? All the while, the Biden administration failed to pair diplomatic overtures with sufficiently powerful, credible military pressure, perhaps over fears of a bilateral conflict with Russia. These fears were misplaced. I can say from my significant experience dealing with the highest levels of Russia's military leadership that it has no interest in a bilateral confrontation with the U.S. Russian leaders have zero desire for nuclear war, and they understand that they would inevitably lose in a conventional war. However, Russia excels at compelling the U.S. to self-deter.... Over and over, the president's longtime senior advisers seem to have recommended narrow, low-risk policy options, and these backfired."

From "America Could Have Done So Much More to Protect Ukraine/The paths to deterrence were not taken" in The Atlantic.

That's by Alexander Vindman. Remember him?

At the Sunrise Café...

Posted: 24 Feb 2022 05:10 PM PST