Nixtamalization:

There’s a number of videos on the subject, but I ran across it yesterday on Max Miller’s Tasting History series. He starts in on nixtamalization at about the 1:57 mark.

Bonhomie:

Bonhomie means exuberance, friendliness, geniality. Bonhomie is a noun that describes a state of good humor, cheerfulness, or being good-natured. Synonyms of bonhomie that may be found in a thesaurus are agreeableness, pleasantness, congeniality. The term bonhomie carries a connotation of being gregarious and full of love for one’s fellow man, a feeling that all is right with the world. People enjoy being around someone who is filled with bonhomie. The term bonhomie is a loan word from the French. While bonhomie is taken directly from the French where it means easy-tempered, it is derived from the French word bonhomme. Bonhomme is a French compound word combining the word bon meaning good and homme meaning man. Homme is derived from the Latin word homo, which means man. Bonhomie entered the English language around the turn of the nineteenth century. [Grammarist]

Noted in “Joe Biden triumphs over Trump as voters repudiate divisive, bullying president,” Toluse Olorunnipa, Annie Linskey, and Philip Rucker, WaPo:

Clinching the nomination early offered advantages, affording Biden time to unite the Democratic Party. He rolled out back-to-back-to-back virtual endorsements by former rivals in which they would appear together on video, events that fostered a sense of Democratic bonhomie after a bruising primary. He worked with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his supporters to develop policies, effectively muting the criticism from the left that had hounded the 2016 nominee, Hillary Clinton.

Parosmia:

Parosmia is a term used to describe health conditions that distort your sense of smell. If you have parosmia, you may experience a loss of scent intensity, meaning you can’t detect the full range of the scents around you. Sometimes parosmia causes things you encounter every day to seem like they have a strong, disagreeable odor. [healthline]

Noted in “When coffee smells like gasoline: Covid isn’t just stealing senses — it may be warping them,” Allyson Chiu, WaPo:

Just a little too weird. I find myself reading an article on Singapore experiencing a second spike in COVID-19 infections:

Encouragingly for the rest of the world, the city-state seemed to have suppressed cases without imposing the restrictive lockdown measures endured by millions elsewhere.

And then the second wave hit, hard. Since March 17, Singapore’s number of confirmed coronavirus cases grew from 266 to over 5,900, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. [CNN]

Meanwhile, I have this video playing on YouTube:

Yep, that’s Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman screaming at each other over a childhood incident involving a pail.

My sense of what’s appropriate just went diving out the window.

The FBI is finally getting around to telling us:

Today: building a digital defense with your TV.

Yes, I said your TV. Specifically your smart TV…the one that is sitting in your living room right now. Or, the one that you plan to buy on super sale on Black Friday.

Smart TVs are called that because they connect to the Internet. They allow you to use popular streaming services and apps. Many also have microphones for those of us who are too lazy to actually to pick up the remote. Just shout at your set that you want to change the channel or turn up the volume and you are good to go.

A number of the newer TV’s also have built-in cameras. In some cases, the cameras are used for facial recognition so the TV knows who is watching and can suggest programming appropriately. There are also devices coming to market that allow you to video chat with grandma in 42” glory.

Beyond the risk that your TV manufacturer and app developers may be listening and watching you, that television can also be a gateway for hackers to come into your home. A bad cyber actor may not be able to access your locked-down computer directly, but it is possible that your unsecured TV can give him or her an easy way in the backdoor through your router.

Hackers can also take control of your unsecured TV. At the low end of the risk spectrum, they can change channels, play with the volume, and show your kids inappropriate videos. In a worst-case scenario, they can turn on your bedroom TV’s camera and microphone and silently cyberstalk you. [FBI/Portland]

We’ve been looking at getting an LG OLED television, but have been put off by the price, which we expect to come down, and the fact that it now has a microphone so that Alexa, the personal assistant from Amazon, can listen in on you.

And I’m feeling fairly sure that snipping the wires from the microphone to the main processor would be a messy, warranty-voiding task.

So, unless LG acknowledges that some folks just don’t want Alexa, an OLED TV from LG may not be in our future, despite its superior (last I checked) energy consumption and display characteristics. Trading our security for additional features which, frankly, we’re not interested in just isn’t a favorable trade.

In general, a microphone and speakers are a communications medium, not only for you to use, but sometimes even computers. Yep, I’ve read about it: Years ago, a computer that was completely off the Internet was nevertheless hacked by someone – and the owner of the computer believes it was via the microphone in the victim and the speakers of a computer in the same room that was connected to the Internet.

I never heard if he figured out the technical details or not. I mean, the one off the internet had to have a vulnerability already … yeah, easier not to have Alexa and her damn microphone.

Make that one of your rules of digital ruling: if there’s a microphone on some computing device, be suspicious that someone is monitoring you, even if it appears to be off. Even of your phone.

Local academics believe that water wheels, used all around the world, were discovered on the banks of the Euphrates River in Anbar province and should be on the World Heritage List. [“Can Iraq get its water wheels on UNESCO World Heritage List?” AL Monitor]

Perhaps it’s unfair of me, but all I can see is a vast herd of waterwheels, prancing about the Euphrates, waiting to be discovered.

It has to be Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). I saw him on TV tonight, outraged at Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria. Remember, this is the guy who went from NeverTrump to being Trump’s sock puppet, playing golf and carrying water for him. Here’s one of his milder reactions; the one I saw on TV showed him spitting bullets.

You’re outraged, Graham? Really? Really? You’re up close and personal with this man-child of a President, and it didn’t occur to you that he has no concept of responsible governance?

Really, you must be fucking kidding because Trump’s incompetence has been highlighted over the last two years. In this regard, Graham, this is on your head. This is on the head of a GOP terrified to impeach and convict a President who has repeatedly demonstrated incompetence.

And, please, stop lying, you bloody fucking idiot. You said Obama was wrong to withdraw from Iraq? You bloody well know that he was legally constrained to leave Iraq due to a treaty signed by his predecessor, President Bush. Please stop saying Trump’s done so many good things. You’re just lying through your teeth and you know it. If you don’t, then your understanding of government is impaired and you should resign for the good of the Nation.

You want to fix this? Call for impeachment. Hell, I know Speaker Ryan collapsed, as usual, when Trump put the pressure on him regarding the Continuing Resolution, but maybe you can harass him into calling for a snap impeachment during this lame-duck session. Then it’ll be on you Senators to decide if your loyalty to a pathogen-laden Party leader who can’t find his ass with both hands is really more important than your loyalty to the President.

‘cuz I’m really fucking tired of your covering up the shit your dog keeps dumping on the carpet of what used to be a great Nation.

It’s actually fascinating.

More here.

I recall seeing a headline somewhere that suggested the opinions of the teenagers and young adults should be disregarded. Since I didn’t read the article, I don’t really know the reason given, but I’ll guess it’s because they’re young and inexperienced.

But here’s the thing – the incessant school shootings are becoming the defining incidents for that generation. Remember your history, specifically how the assassination of JFK defined the Boomers? I once asked my Mom, who was about 20 at the time of the assassination, about some remark I’d heard about the nation’s mothers coming together to help raise JFK’s youngest child, JFK, Jr., after the assassination, and she replied that, yes, she and all the other mothers of that generation really had felt that obligation, a collective obligation towards the Kennedy family. They had felt it on that tragic, historic day that JFK’s coffin rolled down the street

As much as I’ve never felt a part of any generation, I do acknowledge that the idea of generations do exist for many people, tied together by some incident with a large impact. For those Americans currently in their early teenage years through, say, their early twenties, these school shooting incidents, and, to a lesser extent, other mass shooting incidents, taken together, are becoming their defining set of moments. It’ll tie them together, the background fear, the preparations to survive sudden death in the form of armed madness – and, for a few well-publicized students, the marching out of schools, hands held high, under the gaze of the police – and the bodies.

I must admit that I didn’t pay much attention to the news yesterday, being busy and not much of a news watcher in any case. However, my Arts Editor (and wife), who is currently in Michigan caring for her ill mother, did have the opportunity to watch a lot of news coverage of the event. I gathered two things from talking with her. First, she was impressed by the March.

Second, the variance in coverage. The traditional mass media covered in depth and seemed to be earnest about getting the story. Fox News?

Not so much.

But it doesn’t matter, because those of that age range who didn’t go will avidly pursue news about the March. We are a social animal, we look for cues from others as to how to behave. They are a generation raised in an ocean of information. They’ll find that information regarding the March, regardless of the failures of news organizations with slanted agendas, and think about it.

And they’ll remember. Granted, humans don’t get their brains fully connected and working until their twenties, often their later twenties. This is how science understands the brain today.

But they’ll remember. They’ll remember their dead schoolmates. They’ll remember the calls for gun control.

And they’ll remember who opposed the more sane approach to guns, the one used by many other nations around the world. Who was in control of Congress and did nothing? The Republicans.

Oh, they made some sad noises, didn’t they? But they’ve done just enough, in their minds. Clarifying the Dickey Amendment surely must mean something! 

This will become a blot upon the Republican brand. A big blot. The blot that drives away a generation.

And this may be the beginning of the end of the National Rifle Assocation (NRA) as an important political force. They are the 2nd Amendment absolutists who push the assertion that more guns of all kinds make for a safer society. As the years have passed, their statements have become more and more unhinged; with their unexpected victory in the Presidential campaign, they lost their biggest rallying threat – that a liberal President would take away everyone’s guns – and have resorted to incoherent statements seeking to invoke basic fears about government taking away our guns and enslaving us all.

Here’s their statement on the March, via MSN:

“Stand and Fight for our Kids’ Safety by Joining NRA,” it said. “Today’s protests aren’t spontaneous. Gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites are manipulating and exploiting children as part of their plan to DESTROY the Second Amendment and strip us of our right to defend ourselves and our loved ones.”

This was an opportunity for them to reverse their course and begin a reasonable conversation on how to reduce gun violence. It was a test of their sanity. They failed. That failure, that clinging to a failed ideology, that desperate grasp of power, will be remembered by the young Generation which held a peaceful, civic-minded March. In a country of often limited rights, the NRA are the ones shouting that their favorite right should be unlimited – that not even training should be required.

In the end, the reactions of the forces for 2nd Amendment absolutists will define their fate for the generation that made it’s way to the nation’s capital and demonstrated one of the highest forms of civil discourse possible in our society. If they continue to pursue a course marked by a refusal to acknowledge that rights are necessarily limited in any society, this generation will not contribute to them, be it bodies or money.

And those leaders in positions of responsibility who did nothing? Their legacy will be that of shame and dishonor, no matter how much they shout they did the right thing by doing nothing, by digging their heels in and indulging in ludicrous proposals. Because legacies are defined by those who came after, and that’ll be the generation that Marched.

A Generation that felt its lives were risked, and lost, for a fallacious ideology.

Courtesy Gloria Copeland:

An evangelical minister who advised President Donald Trump’s campaign sparked an uproar Tuesday by suggesting that Christian faith makes people immune from the flu.

Texas minister Gloria Copeland, who sat on the Trump campaign’s evangelical executive advisory board, denied the country is in the midst of a severe flu outbreak in a Facebook video that went viral because, “Jesus himself is our flu shot. He redeemed us from the curse of the flu.”

Pyroclastic flow:

A pyroclastic flow (also known scientifically as a pyroclastic density current^[1]) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra), which reaches speeds moving away from a volcano of up to 700 km/h (450 mph).^[2] The gases can reach temperatures of about 1,000 °C (1,830 °F). Pyroclastic flows normally touch the ground and hurtle downhill, or spread laterally under gravity. Their speed depends upon the density of the current, the volcanic output rate, and the gradient of the slope. They are a common and devastating result of certain explosive eruptions. [Wikipedia]

I’ve read this phrase so many times, and yet have never been entirely clear on its meaning. Noted in “Indonesia’s Agung Raised to Highest Alert for Eruption,” Erik Klemetti, Rocky Planet:

The 1963 eruption of Agung was big. It ranked as a VEI 5, which is on the same scale as the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The volcano has a history of eruptions of this scale, with another VEI 5 eruption that produced pyroclastic flows, lots of ash fall and some lava flows in 1843. The 1963 eruption also emitted lots of sulfur dioxide and chlorine into the atmosphere, which caused a brief global cooling over the next year.

Trophic cascade:

Trophic cascades occur when predators in a food web suppress the abundance or alter the behavior of their prey, thereby releasing the next lower trophic level from predation (or herbivory if the intermediate trophic level is a herbivore). For example, if the abundance of large piscivorous fish is increased in a lake, the abundance of their prey, smaller fish that eat zooplankton, should decrease. The resulting increase in zooplankton should, in turn, cause the biomass of its prey, phytoplankton, to decrease.

The trophic cascade is an ecological concept which has stimulated new research in many areas of ecology. For example, it can be important for understanding the knock-on effects of removing top predators from food webs, as humans have done in many places through hunting and fishing. [Wikipedia]

Encountered in this video.

Leucism:

Leucism (/ˈljuːkɪzəm/;^[1] or /ˈluːsɪzəm/^[2][3]) is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes.^[1] Unlike albinism, it is caused by a reduction in multiple types of pigment, not just melanin. [Wikipedia]

Noted in “Elusive snowy white giraffes filmed in Kenya,” Melissa Breyer, Treehugger.com:

Different subspecies of giraffes have different patterns. For example, Masai giraffes have spots that look like oak leaves while Rothschild’s giraffes boast large, brown splotches outlined by thick, pale lines. Kenya’s own reticulated giraffe, has a dark coat with very graphic shapes and well-defined narrow lines. Unless, of course, that reticulated giraffe happens to be white as a ghost.

Incredibly rare with what appears to be only a handful sightings in the wild captured on film, white reticulated giraffes are pale in color thanks to a genetic condition called leucism. Unlike albinism, in leucism skin cells don’t produce pigmentation, but soft tissues, like dark eyes, do.

And a video!

Metastable:

In physics, metastability is a stable state of a dynamical system other than the system’s state of least energy. A ball resting in a hollow on a slope is a simple example of metastability. If the ball is only slightly pushed, it will settle back into its hollow, but a stronger push may start the ball rolling down the slope. Bowling pins show similar metastability by either merely wobbling for a moment or tipping over completely. A common example of metastability in science is isomerisation. Higher energy isomers are long lived as they are prevented from rearranging to their preferred ground state by (possibly large) barriers in the potential energy. [Wikipedia]

Noted in “Bigger bang theory: teach atoms new tricks to beef up explosives,” David Hambling, NewScientist (29 July 2017, paywall):

A good way to change a game is to change its rules. One line of research to do just that builds on a curiosity that was exercising the Royal Society back in the 1660s just when gunpowder was: Prince Rupert’s drops. These tadpole-shaped trinkets are formed by molten glass cooling rapidly, and are named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a cousin of King Charles II who first brought them to England. The way the drops form leaves them under tremendous internal strain. A hammer will bounce off the drop’s body and not break it, but if you snap the tail the strain is suddenly released, sending a wave through the drop, shattering it into powder.

This explosivity is based on the release of not chemical energy, but mechanical strain. At the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Maryland, Jennifer Ciezak-Jenkins and her colleagues have been experimenting with the same principle using nanoscopic diamonds. Diamond forms only at high temperatures and pressures, such as those found deep in Earth’s mantle, and is a “metastable” form of carbon. It is stable in ambient conditions, only crumbling over cosmic timescales back to graphite.

balaclavas:

A balaclava, also known as a balaclava helmet or ski mask, is a form of cloth headgear designed to expose only part of the face. Depending on style and how it is worn, only the eyes, mouth and nose, or just the front of the face are unprotected. Versions with a full face opening may be rolled into a hat to cover the crown of the head or folded down as a collar around the neck.

The name comes from their use at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War, referring to a town near Sevastopol in Crimea. [Wikipedia]

Noted in this CNN news report about violence in Venezuela:

Before the attack began, a man who identified himself as Perez appeared in a video online saying an operation was underway to seize democracy back from Venezuela’s “criminal government.” Flanked by a group of armed men in military fatigues and balaclavas, Perez claimed to be speaking on behalf of a coalition of military, police officers and civil officials.

Being more or less disconnected from pop culture, I’m sure all my readers know of this guy, but since my sister just introduced me to one of his performances, I must say Trevor Noah is marvelous, with both great content and superb technique. In this video, pay attention to his command of accent, and how he imagines the voice of Barack Obama was constructed with the help of Nelson Mandela.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mV8OQVqfdg

While perusing material on worries concerning the former National Security Advisor’s General Flynn, I ran across this exceedingly cute typo on NBC News:

Don’t miss these comments that former Gen. Barry McCaffrey made to NBC News about Trump’s pick to be his national security adviser, former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. “You know, I was very strong of my endorsement of him when he was first announced for the NSA position. I said he was correctly probably the best intelligence officer of his generation. But I must admit I’m now extremely uneasy about some of these tweets, which don’t sound so much like political skull drudgery, but instead border on being demented. I think we need to look into this and sort out what is going on here.” More McCaffrey: “I think that we need to aggressively examine what was going on with Gen. Flynn and his son dealing with these transparent, nearly demented tweets that were going out. I think it needs closer scrutiny.”

Bold mine! Although, on review, I’m not sure what Gen. McCaffrey was actually trying to say.

Speaking of losing the Internet, here’s a report by Mahmut Bozarslan on AL Monitor, on what happens when a geographical area accustomed to the Web loses it:

I was in a clothing shop on the main street of Yenisehir district when a customer came in. After he finished shopping, he went to the cashier and wanted to pay with his credit card. The cashier apologized, saying she could not perform the transaction because the internet was down. The customer walked out visibly upset; sales personnel were also disappointed. Similar disruptions were reported from many businesses that rely on internet communications. …

“In hospitals, urgent cases cannot be issued medicines. Turk Telekom, GSM companies: You are committing a crime. You cannot turn off the internet because a governor or the minister asked you to. Communication is a right. People have already paid in advance for internet services. Now they should go and sue these companies. Don’t let them get away with it,” he said.

The disruption lasted 12 hours on the first day and was restored to normal late at night. The next day, the disruption lasted more than 12 hours. The next day, the internet went down an hour before a planned protest action and became the longest disruption at 27 hours. Providers were still citing technical problems, but by that time it became clear that somebody was ordering the service disruptions.

The health sector was one of those most affected by the disruptions. Pharmacies could not sell medicine or could only sell to those who could pay with cash. A desperate relative of a sick person told Al-Monitor that the pharmacist could not give him the medicine his relative needed.

A bus company in Diyarbakir solved the problem by subscribing to an internet satellite connection. Saban Dogmus, manager of the company, told Al-Monitor that it lost at least 50,000 Turkish liras ($16,000) over three days.

“We set up a new system via satellite. We were desperate. We still cannot handle credit cards. The new system doesn’t handle that,” Dogmus told Al-Monitor.

In disruptions that totaled 48 hours over four days, losses by businesses in the city are in the millions. Alican Ebedinoglu, the president of Union of Traders and Artisans, said city businesses are in a crisis. He said all traders are affected and the city’s economy is on the verge of collapse. “Let’s start with our union. We cannot issue any documents to our members. We cannot register any new members. Our connection to the tax offices is through the internet. Many of our traders have switched to wireless internet. They are now helpless. Our members had been suffering from the tensions and clashes in the area already, and now this. They are at end of their resilience — 80% to 90% of our business depends on internet. Businesspeople are about to rise up. A trader owes money and needs credit, but I cannot issue the documents he needs from us. This is a major crisis,” Ebedinoglu told Al-Monitor.

The cause?

Internet disruptions began a few hours after the detentions Oct. 26 of the co-mayors of Diyarbakir metropolitan municipality,Gultan Kisanak and Firat Anli. First we thought it was a local problem that usually doesn’t last long. Internet browser administrators said they had a technical problem. But as time passed, we learned the problem was not confined to Diyarbakir but covered many provinces of east and southeast Turkey. Nobody believed that a technical mishap would disrupt internet service in such a large area, and there must be something else behind it. Many believed that the internet was cut off to prevent the organization of protest actions against the detention of the co-mayors.

Your friendly credit card imprinter, still available.

It may be worth your while to keep some cash handy. As useful as credit cards may be, they do constitute a dependency on the Internet that only older businesses can handle – those that still have the mechanical credit card imprinters. They take an impression from your card (thus the raised lettering), transferring it via carbon paper to a receipt, and then they send the receipt in to the credit card company for the actual payment. Via the USPS.

And watch out for autocratic leaders, eager to “preserve public order” at any cost, because rioting reflects poorly on them. Don’t elect any of your own. Electing them is something only chumps do.

QuHarrison Terry sounds the alarm for the consequences of losing the Internet on (ironically?) LinkedIn, an Internet-only company:

These attackers want to disable everything. Companies like Dyn are being targeted nationwide in an effort to stop internet access throughout the entire country.

Don’t believe me?

You can literally watch cyber warfare live right here, and see where attacks are coming from and who is being targeted.

While we don’t know who is responsible for the attacks and why they are doing it, we can only imagine an apocalyptic scenario of life without the internet.

Some of his imagination at work.

You decide no more work is getting done today, so you head home. Trying to call an Uber, you are stopped by an error message. Without a car, you walk to the bus stop, on the way noticing all the traffic lights are out and the roads are packed with angry and confused drivers…

An eery feeling passes through your body.

Hours have passed and there is no news on what is happening. It’s not until a neighbor fires up an old radio that you hear the internet is down and will be back up shortly. Broadcasters tell you to remain calm and to stay home.

An entire day passed and broadcasters continue to tell you very little. Fearing the worst, you head over to the grocery store to stock up on food, only to run into 500 hundred other people with the same idea. The manager of the store is yelling, “You must present cash at the door. We aren’t accepting any cards.” The tension of scared civilians is thick when all of a sudden a car drives through the window of the store–it’s the tipping point the crowd needed to burst into the store. Chaos ensues. People fight over rice and water.

The link he makes available is to NorseCorp. I did a little research and they appear to have a spotty history, but I’m unsure as to their current status or reputation. Their blog is a broken link. Their online depiction of real-time Internet attacks is fascinating – but is it trustworthy? Here’s a screenshot:

Source: NorseCorp.com

I poked at it a little bit and decided I’m not technically up to speed on security anymore. Last time I was active, we called them ruggies and estimated their average age to be 15 and living in the upscale part of the Twin Cities – back in the 1980s.

Things have changed, haven’t they?

… didn’t affect me personally. Certainly this blog is so minute that hardly anyone reads it. I didn’t notice any impact on any of the sites I used yesterday.

… that is, personally, not yet.

CNN/Money has a report this morning on the instrumentality of the attack:

Security firm Flashpoint said it believes that digital video recorders and webcams in people’s homes were taken over by malware and then, without owners’ knowledge, used to help execute the massive cyberattack.

Hundreds of thousands of devices appear to have have been infected with the malware.

It was a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack. Using the malware, hackers were able to flood a website with so much traffic that it impaired normal service.

We don’t have a webcam, but we do own and use a TIVO. so I now wonder if I was part of that instrumentality.

But you know what? It seems to me that, in the future, I will be part of the instrumentality. Involuntarily, but still will be stained with some of the guilt, because I will have provided the equipment, however unwillingly for an attack that compromises, at best, the livelihood of some people; at worst, people might die if an attack on a critical piece of physical infrastructure is successful.

Prototype of the Internet of Things. Image collected by the author in Faith, South Dakota, ca. 2012. Last seen headed east.

Do you know why I think this is nearly inevitable?

The predicted Internet of Things.

As we build this network creature, as it were, built of computers and refrigerators and DVRs and cars, we’re building a creature which is already cancerous, a servant that may knife us in the back at some point – or disappear without warning, without permission, at critical moments.

I face the future with a certain prickling along the base of the neck –

chyron:

In the television industry, a lower third is a graphic overlay placed in the title-safe lower area of the screen, though not necessarily the entire lower third of it, as the name suggests. …

Lower thirds are also often known as “CG” or captions, and sometimes chyrons in North America, due to the popularity of Chyron Corporation‘s Chiron Icharacter generator, an early digital solution developed in the 1970s for rendering lower thirds. [Wikipedia]

Learn something new everyday. I suspect there’s a word for words like chyron, not to mention g**g1e, but I don’t recall what that might be offhand.

Readers of George Orwell will often get into Orwell’s 1984 (aka Nineteen Eighty-Four) idea of doublespeak, or the redefinition of words to at least fool other people, and often to cause them to act in a way beneficial to those in authority, as a fascinating insight into current society, whether current society is today, thirty years ago, or the year 1984 was published.

HealthCarewatcher on political progressives site Daily Kos has an observation that, well, flips the 1984 script:

If you don’t pay close attention, it’s hard to notice exactly what Tim Walz is doing. The result has been left behind Democratic consultants trashing Tim Walz at every opportunity. But if you pay attention, you’d find that Tim Walz is effectively redefining masculinity and creating a permission structure for men (especially young men) to vote for the nation’s first woman President. He’s so good at it that the Russians are running smear campaigns against him.

Walz Instagram account, previously a sleepy corner of social media, has ballooned to 2 million followers. I’m an avid runner and yesterday a non political friend from the running club posted an interview Walz did with Kate Mackz while on a run in Central Park. I watched the interview and realized something: they are attacking Walz with baseless lies because he’s creating something that’s extremely dangerous to Trumpism: a positive, optimistic take on masculinity.

And masculinity?

Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. [Wikipedia]

In a very old-fashioned sense, masculinity is a teaching tool. That is, it says Here is the ideal man, the man that others will look up to. Achieve this set of skills, goals, attitudes, etc, and you are a man.

The trick, then, is to control which skill, goals, attitudes, etcetera., are considered desirable by society. By doing so, the majority of boys and young men, who are most susceptible to the evolutionary urge to compete for social standing, will engage in those behaviors. The easiest way is by embodying them.

Trump tries to be the imperious No rules for me! type. It’s a glorification of individualism, isn’t it? He’s very transactional, not understanding that past behavior can be indicative of future behavior, because that’s too hard to envision and goes against the grain; he takes anything he can and wants, because that fits his fantasy of being a man; he disregards the rules, even the very existence of society, proof of which lives in our legal systems and the thousand and more suits against him for not paying up on delivery of goods and services; he is sexually promiscuous, regardless of marital status. He doesn’t evaluate potential actions on his part against the metric of how they’ll contribute to society, but only how they’ll gratify him.

Walz? Everyone is becoming familiar with Coach, Teacher, Sergeant, Representative, Governor, and DIY-er Walz, aren’t they? He’s the everyday guy who contributes to society in a dozen ways. He’s the guy that, well, Trump parasitizes. Trump, in his high and mightiness, brings his personal selfishness to his job, believing it to be his job – such are the results of prosperity theology. Walz, in contrast, has made improving society Job #1. And for those readers who think politicians are parasites, keep in mind that a politician can be a parasite, but the job of governance is extremely important, and the competent politician is a treasure.

By Fernando Losada Rodríguez – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

By displaying Walz’s lifelong behaviors, what he considers to be masculinity is emphasized: volunteerism, jobs that contribute to social stability (see above), all those good things that don’t smack of a lamprey (see right, and imagine that attached to your flank, slowly liquidating you), like Trump, but of someone you can depend on.

In this we see the doublespeak flip of Orwell, itself flipped on its head. The Harris campaign’s goal has been to replace the vain, narcissistic, and useless vision of Trump’s masculinity, of rapine and plunder and lack of self-control, with the vision of men as, well, contributors to society.

No wonder the Russians are trying to slime him.

Which one do you want? And, for those who perceive the superiority of the new & old masculinity, who will receive their votes?

In this thread on the company represented by stock symbol DJT, my last look showed a company on its way off the cliff, but now it’s a company that’s been rescued – by the invisible hand of someone. Last time I discussed this, DJT’s price/sh was around $14. That was around September 20. Now?

Just short of a double. A reward for the inveterate risk taker and for those willing to bet on the invisible hand of President Putin and others in his league, looking to buy Mr Trump’s favor, should he win the Presidential race, by pumping up the price of something Mr Trump owns, and lots of: DJT stock.

Over on Daily Kos, tjlord wonders if he does still own it: