Gorgeous Modern Classical Guitar: Zsófia Boros, “Le Secret D’Hiroshigé (Composed by Mathias Duplessy)

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The focus of Zsófia Boros’s third recording for ECM’s New Series is split two-ways, with one spotlight turned towards contemporary compositions from Argentina and the other on the multiple-idioms spanning music of French composer Mathias Duplessy. Fanfare magazine has spoken of the Vienna-based Hungarian guitarist in glowing terms, noting her “clear, beautiful tone, liquid phrasing, precise layering of melody and accompaniment, fluid figuration and her emphatic sense of mood and emotion” – all qualities that are especially apparent on El último aliento. The album takes its name from the Carlos Moscardini composition which closes the record. Other Argentinian composers interpreted by Boros here are Joaquín Alem, Quique Sinesi and Alberto Ginastera, together making for a vivid repertory that sees the guitarist alternating technique, pace and mood in supple waves. For Sinesi’s “Tormenta de ilusión” Boros switches to the ronroco, a stringed instrument that hails from the Andean regions. By combining the Argentinian music with the expressive pieces by Duplessy, Zsófia Boros creates a suspenseful programme that emphasizes her distinct touch, commitment and wide ranging influences in a quietly compelling manner.

Discover the new album ‘el ultimo aliento’ here: ecm.lnk.to

Website: ecmrecords.com
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127 comments
1
Patricia Kayden  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:27:14am

2
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:29:53am

re: #1 Patricia Kayden

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Not when a possible major war in the Middle East is brewing…. that may deserve top headlines for now…

3
Patricia Kayden  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:30:38am

re: #2 Hecuba’s daughter

True. Scary times.

4
sagehen  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:34:54am

so if Iran’s actions this weekend used

170 drones
120 ballistic missiles
30 cruise missiles

…..

question 1: how many days’ worth of Russian attacks can’t they buy stuff for; and
question 2: what-all did we and allies use up to intercept these flying bombs and keep them from hitting ground?

5
retired cynic  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:35:12am

CL’d:

re: #340 retired cynic

I know we have some French Bulldog lovers, and Persian cat lovers and probably English Bulldog lovers, too, here. The fashion breeding of ever-more flattened faces brings with it some animals that snore and snort and have major trouble breathing. We had a dumped cat who was brachycephalic, and she fought breathing issues the rest of her life. At the end she had trouble eating and breathing at the same time, and I was constantly on call to keep her nostrils open, and to find something she could eat.

A vet at the U of I has developed a surgical response to these problems, so that the animals can be relieved. The article pertains to dogs, so I’m not sure how successful this has been on cats, but for our Frenchie owners, here is the link:

vetmed.illinois.edu

6
Jay C  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:40:31am

Upthreaded:
re: #332 steve_davis

sorry, the pedant in me, which is 99% of me, is calling “Gettsyburg viewed as a turning point” as complete and utter bullshit. By the time Gettysburg happened, the South had already lost the war. Vicksburg was the turning point. Gettysburg was just lee trying desperately to find boots for his nearly shoeless army.

Not that it’s not a useful pastime re-fighting Civil War campaigns, BUT….
1. The capture of Vicksburg as a (“the”?) turning point of the ACW was noted, generally, only afterwards: the final surrender on July 4 was the culmination of a six weeks’ siege; and was looked on at the time as vaguely a sort of anticlimax. Though no one in the North wasn’t going to celebrate, anyway. (My own opinion is that the Union finally seizing control of all of the Mississippi served to validate Winfield Scott’s much-derided “Anaconda Plan” of 1861, which few on the Blue side wanted to be reminded of)
2. The story of the Confederates raiding Gettysburg looking for shoes rests on a single post-war account which (AFAIK) has been questioned by most modern historians. It’s considered more likely that the two armies collided at that particular town because of the way the local road system was oriented: leading the more-mobile Confederates to concentrate their forces quicker. Which, as usual, they did.
3. Not that it needs much repeating, but Donald Trump’s grasp of the Battle of Gettysburg is like most else in that lump of mush he calls a brain… a National Disgrace.

7
Unabogie  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:42:01am

It’s disconcerting to me that any overreaction by Israel to an attack from Iran will in any way affect the standing of our country, which is not responsible for either. The problem is that both the Left and the Right have a vested interest in casting Biden as having control over the situation and failing to fix it. It would be vastly better if the Left was interested more in solving problems than they are.

8
Decatur Deb  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:46:14am

re: #7 Unabogie

Getting back to normal problem solving will be a luxury. There is one abnormal problem that must be solved first.

9
Dangerman  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:48:31am

re: #5 Captain Ron

“Trump and Mike Johnson zero in on noncitizen voting. It’s already illegal and very rare.”

Two reasons we all know

- stir the pot /rile the base

- it’s how they think because it’s what they would do

10
A Cranky One  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:49:39am

re: #8 Decatur Deb

Getting back to normal problem solving will be a luxury. There is one abnormal problem that must be solved first.

11
Decatur Deb  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:50:57am

re: #10 A Cranky One

[Embedded content]

It’s pronounced “Trohmp”.

12
Semper Fi  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:52:40am

re: #1 Patricia Kayden

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Damn that..

(I deleted many bad words)

13
Patricia Kayden  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:54:14am

14
Belafon  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:55:23am

My wife is showing me the Beevus and Butthead skit from SNL and the cast can’t keep it together.

15
Charles Johnson  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:56:17am

Well, looks like the Bypass Paywalls extension has been shut down by The Man.

news.ycombinator.com

16
Dangerman  Apr 14, 2024 • 11:57:47am

From Joe bacon upstairs somewhere… Currently a top 10 comment

“The termination had easily been approved by the first committee, and it seemed like the higher-level committee would sign off too. But in a halting manner, the doctor explained the committee had decided since each condition by itself was survivable, it didn’t meet the criteria for termination. She told Shannon it was the hardest phone call she’d made in her professional career.”

No

The committee had decided to ignore the actual circumstance of multiple simultaneous “conditions” and instead invent a scenario that was not in front of them to consider

17
Dangerman  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:00:00pm

re: #13 Patricia Kayden

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From the other day’s discussion, this is why I stopped using a thumbs up irl , or online or emoji or…

18
Charles Johnson  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:01:34pm

The fact that every mainstream news site is now locked behind a paywall is a real boon for the spread of misinformation, because very few right wing sites have paywalls — which means their disinfo and propaganda can spread much more easily. Paywalls are a slow motion disaster.

19
Dangerman  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:03:42pm

STEPHANOPOULOS: Just to sum up. You support Trump for president even if he’s convicted in the classified documents case. You support him for president even though you believe he contributed to an insurrection. You support him for president even though you believe he’s lying about the last election. You support him for president even if he’s convicted in the Manhattan case. I just want to say, the answer to that is yes, correct?

SUNUNU: Yeah. Me and 51% of America.

20
jaunte  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:05:07pm

re: #19 Dangerman

51% of America

WRONG

21
Unabogie  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:08:24pm

re: #9 Dangerman

re: #5 Captain Ron

“Trump and Mike Johnson zero in on noncitizen voting. It’s already illegal and very rare.”

Two reasons we all know

- stir the pot /rile the base

- it’s how they think because it’s what they would do

I’m talking about the people shouting “Genocide Joe!” at Biden over the actions that Bibi takes. The Left pushes the same false narrative as the Right here: Joe Biden could affect this situation but won’t (for the Right it’s could but can’t)

Both of these are wrong, but the Left has to keep it going because they want normal Democrats to turn on Joe Biden and embrace their movement, so they ascribe to Biden power he doesn’t have. For the Right, it’s just a reflexive “everything bad that happens anywhere is Biden’s fault” which Trump just loves to use no matter how stupid it is.

So as Biden is the closest thing the Left has to an actual ally in power, they’d be wise to help him win by not pushing a falsehood.

22
Dangerman  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:13:58pm

re: #20 jaunte

WRONG

Yeah he was flayed for that idiocy
Think he knows the last time an R for prez got over 50%?
Or what tfgs actual base is?

In addition to the basic idiocy of the entire position

Wasn’t this guy once a voice of republican reason?

23
Belafon  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:14:40pm

re: #18 Charles

The fact that every mainstream news site is now locked behind a paywall is a real boon for the spread of misinformation, because very few right wing sites have paywalls — which means their disinfo and propaganda can spread much more easily. Paywalls are a slow motion disaster.

Yep, but even reporters have to eat.

24
Hecuba's daughter  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:17:07pm

re: #21 Unabogie

I’m talking about the people shouting “Genocide Joe!” at Biden over the actions that Bibi takes. The Left pushes the same false narrative as the Right here: Joe Biden could affect this situation but won’t (for the Right it’s could but can’t)

Both of these are wrong, but the Left has to keep it going because they want normal Democrats to turn on Joe Biden and embrace their movement, so they ascribe to Biden power he doesn’t have. For the Right, it’s just a reflexive “everything bad that happens anywhere is Biden’s fault” which Trump just loves to use no matter how stupid it is.

So as Biden is the closest thing the Left has to an actual ally in power, they’d be wise to help him win by not pushing a falsehood.

It was the left who helped to give us Trump in 2016; they will be happy to do it again to punish Democrats who haven’t accepted all they are promoting, even though the Democrats will give them most of what they want while the Republicans will take it all away.

25
Charles Johnson  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:18:21pm

re: #23 Belafon

Yep, but even reporters have to eat.

That money doesn’t go to the reporters. Just ask them. It’s going to CEOs and shareholders, and their private jets. Newsrooms are getting major layoffs everywhere.

26
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:23:11pm

re: #4 sagehen

A Shaheed drone is a about 20K a unit.

A Bayraktar, the Turkish launcher platform drone the Ukrainians use (and now being purchased by…everyone that you’d flinch contemplating what they’d do with a cheap assassination drone) is about 5-6 million per unit by contrast.

27
silverdolphin  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:24:35pm

re: #342 garzooma

Lincoln disagreed. As of over a year later he was sure he was going to lose re-election to a candidate committed to letting the South win:

TL:DR This gives me the opportunity to tell one of my favorite stories, of how the organizational structure of th North allowed it to use technology to a much greater effect than the South. Meade pushed power more to the edges, giving his generals much greater power to make strategic decisions than Lee.This made a difference.

_______

When we are in the middle of one of these transitions, it is always impossible to determine what the turning point is. But in hindsight, there is never any real doubt which side will win. And usually it is because the winning side has reorganized itself to deal with the increasing complexity of the world and the war it fights.

Gettysburg is important to me because it exposed all the faults with the South. To devastating effect when the North actually fought back. Meade had only been on the job for a few days going up against what many still consider a genius. And Meade crushed Lee. In my mind, by distributing much of the power to make decisions down the hierarchy to the actual men in the field.

One of my favorite points about this battle is how complex, yet simple it was. I’ll just look at the use of cannons and artillery. The largest cannonade in American history by the South was designed to destroy the Union forces. Because they were firing on an elevated position, the Rebels used cannon shells with fuses to explode in the air, sending shrapnel down on the Union. But, the timed fuses used were from a different factory that, in the humid conditions of the battle, burned slower. So all those shells overshot the hill, landing well behind it, actually forcing Meade to evacuate his headquarters. But due to the smoke, which hung in the humid air, they could not see that this was happening. The true fog of war.

The Union guns were under the control of one officer who Meade had givien total operational field command that placed him above ALL others, including major generals. In the return of fire, he purposefully had his cannons slow down their fire and eventually stop. Lulling the South into thinking their cannonade was successful. He had to override a superior general who wanted the firing to continue to help morale. But he now had lots of ammunition to deal with Picketts Charge, something he knew was coming.

The South thought they had destroyed the Union position and that they had no more ammunition to stop the charge. The unexpected fire from Cemetary Ridge destroyed the lines.

Pickett’s Charge was not a stupid plan, if Lee’s cannons had succeeded. He actually had some cannons that were effective against the Union position but they stopped firing for some reason because the Confederate cannons were not under the control of one field officer who was actually on the field, who could tell them to keep firing.

And a single officer who had spent the time before the charge placing all the Union artillery for devastating crossfire on the area of the charge.

Just to show the complexity yet simplicity of the battle, I look at Little Round Top. We all know about the heroics there on the 2nd day of battle but I find the importance of technoogy also. By holding Little Round Top, the Union was able to move several Parrott rifled cannons into position (this actually led to several Union officers being killed) that were able to point towards the field of Pickett’s charge the next day.

The rifling of these cannons made them capable of hitting targets at 1800 yards and with a muzzle velocity of 1300 feet per second. There were 2 of them capable of reaching the open field Pickett’s men were trying to cross, hitting them from the side. These two guns ripped through the Confederate line, plowing a line through muliple lines of soldiers, seeming to come from nowhere since the shells traveled faster than the speed of sound, faster than the eye could see. Longstreet later commented on how devastating the unexpected rounds coming from the charge’s right, thinking it was an entire squad of cannons.

It was two. Placed in the proper position because the Union held Little Round Top. Placed there because the North has a single officer in charge of ALL its cannons. One officer who, it turns out, literally wrote the book on the use of artillery during the Civil War. Henry Jackson Hunt is one of my favorite heroes of that battle. And all credit goes to Meade for distributing power to him, allowing him the ability to win.

28
piratedan  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:28:43pm

re: #19 Dangerman

note to self, cross Sununu off of the guest lists for any News program for the rest of his life.

29
Belafon  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:28:58pm

re: #25 Charles

That money doesn’t go to the reporters. Just ask them. It’s going to CEOs and shareholders, and their private jets. Newsrooms are getting major layoffs everywhere.

Let’s say we drove every paper private, though, and made the CEO take a $300K per year salary. Where would the newspapers’ income come from?

30
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:36:24pm

31
(((Archangel1)))  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:37:42pm

re: #4 sagehen

Based on multiple experts in Israel, the cost of the defense measures it used is approx. $1.3 billion while Iran is estimated to have spent approx. $200 million for the offensive measures it used.

32
silverdolphin  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:39:17pm

As a visual aid to my comment at #27, here is Hunt’s placement and sighting for the Union Cannons on the day of Pickett’s charge. The 2 Parrott cannons on Little Round Top are at the bottom, able to provide devastating crossfire. As if he had not covered all the rest of the field. If the fuses on Lee’s cannons had worked properly, Hunt’s plan might not have come to fruition.

Union Cannons on July 3
33
retired cynic  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:47:17pm

34
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:48:20pm

re: #7 Unabogie

It’s disconcerting to me that any overreaction by Israel to an attack from Iran will in any way affect the standing of our country, which is not responsible for either. The problem is that both the Left and the Right have a vested interest in casting Biden as having control over the situation and failing to fix it.

You’re forgetting the that entire artifice of US international power is that the US has the ability to fix this kind of thing, and the our relations with client states is justified by the idea we have some kind of leash on them such the action is moral. That centrists suddenly want nuance is just…funny…because centrism has devoted decades of energy to rejecting systemic analysis of problems in favor of heroes-and-villains narratives, baking them into primary education. The idea that “the Left” has somehow arrived at the notion that the President can do something via irrationality just doesn’t bear up when the nation in general visualizes the President as singularly capable of fixing things…which was a big part of both voting for Obama and Trump, both selling the vision of sole individuals as primary actors in history, rectifying the country.

All this is extra fucking weird since “Iran sells weapons to bad people and thus is culpable in their badness” is a load-bearing argument in the sphere of American influence, and getting mad about the inference “America sells weapons to Israel and KSA and is culpable in their badness” is, well, the lacy slip of realpolitik showing.

Centrism always pulls this shit: sure we’ve been in charge since WW2 but actually we’re not fucking up, we’re being totally reasonable and finding common ground with the party that’s been using fascist talking points since 1950. And when something misfires: like the obvious “don’t buy gas from the giant nationalist dicatorship, that will go badly once they have enough money” or “don’t give the monarchists will oil a chance to socially engineer the Islamic World to prevent Communism” the center does what it always does:

t would be vastly better if the Left was interested more in solving problems than they are.

At the risk of overstepping my importance—I’m nobody—the Left’s point is that you can’t solve problems “as they are” because people with power have no incentive to solve them and are perfectly comfortable with a back-and-forth of low-level destruction of unimportant people.

Appealing to “realism” has been a bad-faith proposition since Reagan, since the people condescendingly taking that position are also the people actively ruling out all possibilities they find inconvenient. Particularly in foreign relations, where things barely change with the party in power.

And that’s what’s going on right now: America companies sell arms to people that blow up human beings in ways that are embarrassing to the rules-based international order—an unforced error compounding how we gutted the rules-based international order to lose two wars and generally look stupid blowing up kids— and the American government gives coupons to those countries while claiming that there is a larger stability (Picture not Found) that must be maintained…which sounds reasonable if you live inside a house of whig-colored glass where you never encounter the thought that American interests creating the crisis it must now police—with a lot of help from the KSA, and in the case of Iran, oil companies—and thus it’s stance of “stay the course” kind of seems like stalling tactics ticked-off in lives of random Arabs.

If you want people to respect realism, you can’t constantly hide behind a fiction in which past “realistic” choices haven’t created current consequences.

35
EPR-radar  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:50:44pm

re: #19 Dangerman

Shorter version of Sununu here: “Yes, Trump might be a devil escaped from Hell, but magic R”

That’s the Republican goal, the triumph of their propaganda over any decency or reasoning power Republicans might still have.

This party must have its power ended, before they kill us all.

36
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n 😷 Trips  Apr 14, 2024 • 12:59:05pm
37
JC1  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:01:57pm

re: #22 Dangerman

Yeah he was flayed for that idiocy
Think he knows the last time an R for prez got over 50%?
Or what tfgs actual base is?

In addition to the basic idiocy of the entire position

Wasn’t this guy once a voice of republican reason?

The guy looks a lot like Sean Spicer, and sounds just about as believable.

38
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n 😷 Trips  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:05:24pm

NY Post’s Twitter administrator is gonna get fired

39
steve_davis  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:08:55pm

Learning to evalute AI responses while onboarding with a company. A 10-minute module has me creating 5 pages of notes. Pay me serious money, get the serious part of my brain.

40
ericblair  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:16:28pm

re: #26 The Ghost of a Flea

A Shaheed drone is a about 20K a unit.

A Bayraktar, the Turkish launcher platform drone the Ukrainians use (and now being purchased by…everyone that you’d flinch contemplating what they’d do with a cheap assassination drone) is about 5-6 million per unit by contrast.

These aren’t comparable, though. Russia is paying around the equivalent of $300k for each Shaheed drone, which is a loitering munition. A Bayraktar is a larger, much more capable drone that carries munitions, and is not destroyed during the mission: it lands and is reloaded for the next one.

41
BeenHereAwhile  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:17:18pm

re: #345 terraincognita

You know, I feel sorry for the tree trimmer. Seems like a decent person, a hard working man, getting fleeced by the king of the grifters. What is for absolutely certain is the Donald Trump doesn’t give two shits about this individual and is only concerned what he is going to make off his labors.

Trump considers him a rube and feel totally justified in extracting money made by honest hard work away from him…a sucker born every minute.

Never smarten up a chump.
Never give a sucker an even break.

42
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:21:38pm

re: #6 Jay C

Upthreaded:
re: #332 steve_davis

3. Not that it needs much repeating, but Donald Trump’s grasp of the Battle of Gettysburg is like most else in that lump of mush he calls a brain… a National Disgrace.

“Little Round Top” was another of Stormy Daniels’ nicknames for him…

43
sagehen  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:25:40pm

re: #29 Belafon

Let’s say we drove every paper private, though, and made the CEO take a $300K per year salary. Where would the newspapers’ income come from?

It used to come half from the classifieds, 35% from display advertising within the pages, and 15% from subscriptions.

The internet killed that model.

The savings from no longer buying as much paper and ink, delivering hard copies to subscribers, or distributing 3 editions a day to newsstands all over the city, doesn’t come close to making up the difference.

44
Unabogie  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:26:58pm

re: #34 The Ghost of a Flea

I don’t consider myself a centrist, but I also don’t think American presidents have control over wars between two countries that we don’t even plausibly control and who have strong interests in pursuing war. We control Israel like Ukraine controls Trump. Trump is as hostile to Ukraine as Bibi is to the Democratic party. We have some levers, but not enough to outweigh Bibi’s sincere desire to stay out of prison.

And so I stand by my original contention, which is that screaming about Genocide Joe is ridiculous as well as counterproductive, and also promotes a false idea that American presidents can unilaterally fix the world.

And if you look at my posting history, I am in no way a supporter of Israel in this conflict and would support an immediate cease fire, as well as a cessation of arms shipments to Israel.

45
Randall Gross  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:27:44pm

I went to see the new Ghostbusters, and I have to say it’s better than the average “it’s a franchise, let’s make another sequel” trash we get nowadays.
We are also somewhat shocked that somehow the Royals are leading their division…

46
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:27:59pm

re: #43 sagehen

Now you get an intern to mine the Internet for trending stories, pull them down and report on them for the fact that they are trending.

47
sagehen  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:41:25pm

re: #34 The Ghost of a Flea

— and the American government gives coupons to those countries while claiming that there is a larger stability (Picture not Found) that must be maintained…which sounds reasonable if you live inside a house of whig-colored glass where you never encounter the thought that American interests creating the crisis it must now police—with a lot of help from the KSA, and in the case of Iran, oil companies—and thus it’s stance of “stay the course” kind of seems like stalling tactics ticked-off in lives of random Arabs.

If you want people to respect realism, you can’t constantly hide behind a fiction in which past “realistic” choices haven’t created current consequences.

Are you familiar with this book? Almost a hundred years old, written mostly about US actions in Central America and the Caribbean, but applies just as much to the Middle East and Asia.

(Butler is the most decorated US Marine ever, including the Medal of Honor twice for actions in two different wars. He’s who the Businessman’s Plot wanted to lead the Bonus Army to overrthow Roosevelt and institute a fascist US Gov’t in the 1930’s)

48
jeffreyw  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:45:11pm

49
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:45:51pm

re: #47 sagehen

What kind of parents name their kid Smedley??

I mean even for old school names that’s a bit odd.

50
Decatur Deb  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:47:57pm

re: #49 Eclectic Cyborg

What kind of parents name their kid Smedley??

Smedley Butler Sr and his wife Lavinia.

51
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:48:58pm

re: #47 sagehen

Smedley Butler, the guy that is hardly known by Americans but who seems to always come up in conversations by those who study US history.

52
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:50:20pm

re: #50 Decatur Deb

Smedley Butler Sr and his wife Lavinia.

Origin: British
Meaning:flat meadow
Smedley as a boy’s name is of Old English origin, and the meaning of Smedley is “flat meadow”.

Smedley Stewright

53
Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:52:56pm

Only when the world stops using oil will we stop having wars over it.

54
silverdolphin  Apr 14, 2024 • 1:52:56pm

re: #42 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

“Little Round Top” was another of Stormy Daniels’ nicknames for him…

OMG. That is brilliant. I can never watch Gettysburg again without that coming to mind. Well done, sir.

55
silverdolphin  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:03:40pm

re: #47 sagehen

Are you familiar with this book? Almost a hundred years old, written mostly about US actions in Central America and the Caribbean, but applies just as much to the Middle East and Asia.

[Embedded content]

(Butler is the most decorated US Marine ever, including the Medal of Honor twice for actions in two different wars. He’s who the Businessman’s Plot wanted to lead the Bonus Army to overrthow Roosevelt and institute a fascist US Gov’t in the 1930’s)

Devil Dog: The Amazing True Story of the Man Who Saved America is how I found out about Smedley. I wonder why we have never seen a serious movie about him? /s

I mean, the movie Amsterdam was about the Business Plot but they completely made up every character. Probably why it was a flop.

56
steve_davis  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:07:14pm

re: #52 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Origin: British
Meaning:flat meadow
Smedley as a boy’s name is of Old English origin, and the meaning of Smedley is “flat meadow”.

Smedley Stewright

it would be funnier if it were old english for “broken rubber” or something.

57
DodgerFan1988  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:20:34pm
58
Nerdy Fish  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:21:21pm

…

59
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:24:39pm

re: #44 Unabogie

I don’t consider myself a centrist, but I also don’t think American presidents have control over wars between two countries that we don’t even plausibly control and who have strong interests in pursuing war. We control Israel like Ukraine controls Trump. Trump is as hostile to Ukraine as Bibi is to the Democratic party. We have some levers, but not enough to outweigh Bibi’s sincere desire to stay out of prison.

And so I stand by my original contention, which is that screaming about Genocide Joe is ridiculous as well as counterproductive, and also promotes a false idea that American presidents can unilaterally fix the world.

And if you look at my posting history, I am in no way a supporter of Israel in this conflict and would support an immediate cease fire, as well as a cessation of arms shipments to Israel.

Sorry, I’m not accusing you of centrism or anything else and more riffing off what you said trying to dissect how all political discourse is defined by an Overton Window that is cultural and political. When I used “centrism” and “whig” it’s to refer to a kind of American normative instinct entrained by how we’re taught to think about that affects basically everyone.

What I’m trying to encapsulate is the impossibility of leftist discourse in American civic life created by that Overton Window—nobody cares about systems, nobody talks in terms of systems, material analysis of history is largely taboo—which transitions immediately into hostility if leftists use the exact same rhetoric used by liberals and conservatives.

Name calling in the American political context it’s effective because we’ve been raised on hyperindividualism, moralism, and the notion of Great Men. If you’re mad because now, occasionally, a leftist uses that rhetorical form and it gets a minimum of attention…well, who created the larger terms of the debate in which name-calling is more effective than detailed explanations?

And I stand by my statement that a major contributer to the idea that Biden can fix this is the Biden administration, because part of the mystique of the American sphere of influence is that the US government, and the president, can impact such things. Yeah, it would be way better if everyone understood government as a system, but we just haven’t trained anyone to think in those terms, have we? We’ve done the exact opposite, fracturing every person off into their own personal mirror-walled chamber in which everything is about personal choice.

And if we did talk about government as a system, then culpability would diffuse in ways that required bigger responses…and we’re not having that, because at some point you’d have to acknowledge things like that action of capital on war. We’re not “giving aid” to our allies, we’re subsidizing our arms industry with the full knowledge that people that don’t matter will die…and that’s no longer about singular bad actors but a utilitarian calculation that some people’s comfort must be purchased at the price of random mangled bodies.

But also, I am absolutely blaming Americans that pose as “centrists” for most America’s problems because “centrism” has largely just come to mean neoliberalism (individualism and moralism, privatization or public-private infrastructure, etc: Thatcher policy for short) and neoliberalism exists to strip from discourse socialist and anarchist notions of collective uplift and has succeeded in doing so. We’ve created a nation, even a world, of desperate alone people and the consequence of this is that we’re governed by psychopaths and populism rapidly bends into scams and cult-of-personality if not literal cults.

There is no institutional leftism in this country—no socialists, a handful of social democrats—yet “leftism” is constantly more of an obstacle to Democratic goals than the Democrats who constantly vote against Democratic policy because they’re mostly Republicans. When the center shifts right because the center votes only its self-interest, leftists are blamed for criticized Democrats and thus weakening. When the Democrats put a uniquely flawed candidate up against a dude that promising infinite titties and sweets to a mass of “fuck you, I got mine” voters, somehow it’s lack of leftist enthusiasm for Thatcher-ass goals that makes the former win.

“Realism” is constantly being diluted, expectations for what is possible lowered, and I think it’s bullshit to imagine that somehow the people demanded more and better are unreasonable and thus responsible for failures when the people with power, when they can exercise that power freely, choose the shitty self-serving options most of the time. Rather than admit that past compromises with conservatism created current conditions, Democrats complain as though they’re the victimized parties, as though the crisis of confidence is not a direct consequence of things they did in past.

60
sizzzzlerz  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:25:30pm

re: #58 Nerdy Fish

Margarine Tater-Greens doesn’t know what “antisemitic” means. She just knows it’s a word that makes people really angry when it gets used.

Like a 3-year old using cuss words mummy and da use with out a clue what they mean, only that it gets a rise out of the big people.

61
BeachDem  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:26:41pm

re: #19 Dangerman

[Embedded content]

Ah remember the halcyon days when Sununu the “moderate” was strongly supporting Nikki Haley the “moderate?”

Both lying sacks of shit, but the media spent days singing their praises. Sigh

62
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:31:43pm

re: #58 Nerdy Fish

Margarine Tater-Greens doesn’t know what “antisemitic” means. She just knows it’s a word that makes people really angry when it gets used.

re: #60 sizzzzlerz

Like a 3-year old using cuss words mummy and da use with out a clue what they mean, only that it gets a rise out of the big people.

Horseshit.

She knows exactly what she’s saying.

It’s simple: good Jews are Jews that are killing Muslims right now. Ukrainians are Nazis because Russia is a reactionary Christian kleptocracy and therefore anyone they kill deserves it. The real way to support Jews is to give the IDF weapons at a time when those weapons are being used on Palestinian Arabs in ways that merit war crime accusations. The real way to fight Nazis is to let Russia take Ukraine no holds barred.

That’s not stupid, it’s monstrously cruel…but more importantly it’s a declaration that morality lies in identity: it’s good to kill if it’s the Bad Kind of Person, and it’s her right to assign those labels.

63
BeachDem  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:33:39pm

re: #18 Charles

The fact that every mainstream news site is now locked behind a paywall is a real boon for the spread of misinformation, because very few right wing sites have paywalls — which means their disinfo and propaganda can spread much more easily. Paywalls are a slow motion disaster.

One positive recent event. As much as it makes my eyes cross to subscribe to my local rag that mainly covers restaurants and real estate, I always felt compelled to do it. Now, at least, my subscription to the local paper gives me access to all 30 McClatchy papers.

64
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:35:02pm

They’re planning to kill a lot of people, they keep saying aloud variations on “people are not equal and we will enjoy the suffering of the inferior” and you’re acting like it’s a cocktail party gaffe.

65
sagehen  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:35:05pm

re: #51 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Smedley Butler, the guy that is hardly known by Americans but who seems to always come up in conversations by those who study US history.

I want George Clooney to make a movie about him. It’d be even better than his Edward R Murrow flick.

66
Yeah Sure WhatEVs  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:35:16pm

Hey guys, what’s your thoughts on upgrading to iOS 17?

It’s for my mom.

67
Nerdy Fish  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:36:58pm

re: #64 The Ghost of a Flea

They’re planning to kill a lot of people, they keep saying aloud variations on “people are not equal and we will enjoy the suffering of the inferior” and you’re acting like it’s a cocktail party gaffe.

Okay then, I’ll withdraw from the conversation. Sorry for the offense.

68
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:39:24pm

re: #66 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

My iPhone 15 has it and it seems to be pretty good. Of course I am still trying to get used to my new iphone.

69
goddamnedfrank  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:40:52pm

re: #62 The Ghost of a Flea

Horseshit.

She knows exactly what she’s saying.

It’s simple: good Jews are Jews that are killing Muslims right now. Ukrainians are Nazis because Russia is a reactionary Christian kleptocracy and therefore anyone they kill deserves it. The real way to support Jews is to give the IDF weapons at a time when those weapons are being used on Palestinian Arabs in ways that merit war crime accusations. The real way to fight Nazis is to let Russia take Ukraine no holds barred.

That’s not stupid, it’s monstrously cruel…but more importantly it’s a declaration that morality lies in identity: it’s good to kill if it’s the Bad Kind of Person, and it’s her right to assign those labels.

It’s also why that House Resolution that conflated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism was so manipulative, myopic, dangerous, and frankly anti-semitic itself in the way its reductive logic erased and delegitimized many Jews.

70
goddamnedfrank  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:43:12pm

re: #66 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

Hey guys, what’s your thoughts on upgrading to iOS 17?

It’s for my mom.

Always upgrade to the latest version until you can’t anymore, for security reasons if nothing else.

71
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:44:26pm

re: #67 Nerdy Fish

Okay then, I’ll withdraw from the conversation. Sorry for the offense.

I’m not offended and I don’t want you to withdraw. I mean, I’m not averse to insults. I work hard on my insults, I hone them to points.

I’m just deadly serious about the question “why” though: I really want you to think about why this is the form of discourse. Not in some moralistic way where you’re examining yourself to find fault, by why trivialize something that’s threatening? Why take a readable statement and claim it’s illegible?

This is a trend and it fascinates me because it’s a kind of hyperindividual, parasocial phenomenon that I think is what makes internet discourse go awry: public figures are so present in our lives that their offenses seem personal, and the correct response seems to be personal right back.

I think these people should be mocked and insulted…to their faces, in print media, on random walls…but I think it’s really important to understand them, their danger, and insult them accordingly as ghouls and sadists.

72
retired cynic  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:44:27pm

re: #53 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

Only when the world stops using oil will we stop having wars over it.

Then we’ll transfer over to wars over water.

73
Dangerman  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:45:26pm

re: #24 Hecuba’s daughter

It was the left who helped to give us Trump in 2016; they will be happy to do it again to punish Democrats who haven’t accepted all they are promoting, even though the Democrats will give them most of what they want while the Republicans will take it all away.

There aren’t enough “far left” for that strategy to ever work
(If we cause enough pain and chaos they’ll come around and see things our way)

They can sometimes cause the pain part
After that they could never muster enough votes to “do it our way”

74
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:46:45pm

I am also obsessed with the transmutation of malice into disability. It’s so strange to me that the worst thing you can say about a person isn’t that they’re cruel, but that they’re inherently incapable.

I feel like this is a horrible tell about values in hyperindividualist society: that you can be awful as long as you’re functional.

75
retired cynic  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:48:42pm

re: #66 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

Hey guys, what’s your thoughts on upgrading to iOS 17?

It’s for my mom.

I don’t have a problem with it. My needs are very simple: don’t get hacked is #1.

76
BeachDem  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:48:46pm

re: #47 sagehen

Are you familiar with this book? Almost a hundred years old, written mostly about US actions in Central America and the Caribbean, but applies just as much to the Middle East and Asia.

[Embedded content]

(Butler is the most decorated US Marine ever, including the Medal of Honor twice for actions in two different wars. He’s who the Businessman’s Plot wanted to lead the Bonus Army to overrthow Roosevelt and institute a fascist US Gov’t in the 1930’s)

Smedley Butler: I appeared before the congressional committee, the highest representation of the American people under subpoena, to tell what I knew of activities which I believe might lead to an attempt to set up a fascist dictatorship. The plan, as outlined to me, was to form an organization of veterans to use as a bluff, or as a club at least, to intimidate the government and break down our democratic institutions

77
The Ghost of a Flea  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:54:18pm

re: #47 sagehen

Are you familiar with this book? Almost a hundred years old, written mostly about US actions in Central America and the Caribbean, but applies just as much to the Middle East and Asia.

[Embedded content]

(Butler is the most decorated US Marine ever, including the Medal of Honor twice for actions in two different wars. He’s who the Businessman’s Plot wanted to lead the Bonus Army to overrthow Roosevelt and institute a fascist US Gov’t in the 1930’s)

I think about “War is a Racket” all the time.

78
Belafon  Apr 14, 2024 • 2:59:27pm

re: #49 Eclectic Cyborg

What kind of parents name their kid Smedley??

I mean even for old school names that’s a bit odd.

It was either that or Sue.

79
BeachDem  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:00:00pm

80
mmmirele  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:00:12pm

re: #18 Charles

The fact that every mainstream news site is now locked behind a paywall is a real boon for the spread of misinformation, because very few right wing sites have paywalls — which means their disinfo and propaganda can spread much more easily. Paywalls are a slow motion disaster.

The Guardian is not locked behind a paywall. Yeah, they’ll bug you about it, and it can be quite obnoxious, but they don’t have a paywall. theguardian.com I know this because I get the message when I access from work (because I won’t log in). I do pay for the Guardian, but I’m not my ex-boyfriend who has donated not insigificant sums to the Guardian every year but refuses to get an account because he doesn’t want to be tracked. (Go figure. Me, I’ve just given up.)

81
Dangerman  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:01:36pm

re: #78 Belafon

It was either that or Sue.

+1

82
A Cranky One  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:10:27pm

83
Markm1960  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:20:25pm

re: #13 Patricia Kayden

[Embedded content]

Johnson looks several inches shorter than Trump but appears to have much larger hands.

84
goddamnedfrank  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:22:51pm

Bruh …

Tesla (TSLA) has halted Cybertruck deliveries, according to social media chatter, possibly to address a problem with the accelerator pedal.

In recent days, forums dedicated to the Tesla Cybertruck had several posters saying their upcoming deliveries were delayed or canceled.

Others had complained about the accelerator pedal getting stuck.

Tesla does not have a media relations department, and often doesn’t disclose key news to the public.

The accelerator pedal is definitely getting stuck, when it’s all the goddamned way down.

Cybertruck is a death trap

85
Randall Gross  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:31:09pm

Rep. Gallego is arguing that repeal is not enough for the awful AZ territorial statute; I think he’s right - Dems need to not only repeal, but also put abortion rights on the ballot.
nbcnews.com

86
BeenHereAwhile  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:33:13pm

re: #66 Yeah Sure WhatEVs

Hey guys, what’s your thoughts on upgrading to iOS 17?

It’s for my mom.

iPhone 15 Pro - iOS 17.4.1

Personal minor quibble observation:
iPhone Bluetooth doesn’t always sync with paired car stereo system. Was not an issue with previous iPhones & iOS.

(I stream a lot of audio podcasts)

Turning the car audio system off, then back on is now sometimes necessary to achieve handshaking.

Always kept my iphones pretty well sanitized and locked down with not a lot of apps - more option creep with subsequent iterations of iOS - would prefer being able to turn off more of the iOS option creep.

87
No Malarkey!  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:33:54pm

re: #29 Belafon

Let’s say we drove every paper private, though, and made the CEO take a $300K per year salary. Where would the newspapers’ income come from?

Without paywalls, it would have to come from advertisement revenue.

88
piratedan  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:40:21pm

re: #85 Randall Gross

and there’s already a petition drive to get it on the ballot and they were already well on their way, suspect it’ll happen.

89
A Cranky One  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:42:11pm

90
PhillyPretzel ✅  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:42:57pm

re: #89 A Cranky One

lol

91
No Malarkey!  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:46:39pm

re: #61 BeachDem

Ah remember the halcyon days when Sununu the “moderate” was strongly supporting Nikki Haley the “moderate?”

Both lying sacks of shit, but the media spent days singing their praises. Sigh

Sununu knows the mainstream media will not call him out for endorsing Trump, which will be long forgotten in 2028 when he runs for President. However if he denounced Trump he would have forever burned his bridges with the MAGA base of the GOP. Its pure calculation of what benefits him politically, without any regard for what is in the best interests of the country as a whole.

92
Randall Gross  Apr 14, 2024 • 3:51:36pm

We are about to indulge in some smoked char sui baby backs, see you all later…

93
goddamnedfrank  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:03:55pm

re: #84 goddamnedfrank

Bruh …

The accelerator pedal is definitely getting stuck, when it’s all the goddamned way down.

[Embedded content]

bsky.app

94
William Lewis  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:05:19pm

re: #27 silverdolphin

TL:DR This gives me the opportunity to tell one of my favorite stories, of how the organizational structure of th North allowed it to use technology to a much greater effect than the South. Meade pushed power more to the edges, giving his generals much greater power to make strategic decisions than Lee.This made a difference.

_______

When we are in the middle of one of these transitions, it is always impossible to determine what the turning point is. But in hindsight, there is never any real doubt which side will win. And usually it is because the winning side has reorganized itself to deal with the increasing complexity of the world and the war it fights.

Gettysburg is important to me because it exposed all the faults with the South. To devastating effect when the North actually fought back. Meade had only been on the job for a few days going up against what many still consider a genius. And Meade crushed Lee. In my mind, by distributing much of the power to make decisions down the hierarchy to the actual men in the field.

One of my favorite points about this battle is how complex, yet simple it was. I’ll just look at the use of cannons and artillery. The largest cannonade in American history by the South was designed to destroy the Union forces. Because they were firing on an elevated position, the Rebels used cannon shells with fuses to explode in the air, sending shrapnel down on the Union. But, the timed fuses used were from a different factory that, in the humid conditions of the battle, burned slower. So all those shells overshot the hill, landing well behind it, actually forcing Meade to evacuate his headquarters. But due to the smoke, which hung in the humid air, they could not see that this was happening. The true fog of war.

The Union guns were under the control of one officer who Meade had givien total operational field command that placed him above ALL others, including major generals. In the return of fire, he purposefully had his cannons slow down their fire and eventually stop. Lulling the South into thinking their cannonade was successful. He had to override a superior general who wanted the firing to continue to help morale. But he now had lots of ammunition to deal with Picketts Charge, something he knew was coming.

The South thought they had destroyed the Union position and that they had no more ammunition to stop the charge. The unexpected fire from Cemetary Ridge destroyed the lines.

Pickett’s Charge was not a stupid plan, if Lee’s cannons had succeeded. He actually had some cannons that were effective against the Union position but they stopped firing for some reason because the Confederate cannons were not under the control of one field officer who was actually on the field, who could tell them to keep firing.

And a single officer who had spent the time before the charge placing all the Union artillery for devastating crossfire on the area of the charge.

Just to show the complexity yet simplicity of the battle, I look at Little Round Top. We all know about the heroics there on the 2nd day of battle but I find the importance of technoogy also. By holding Little Round Top, the Union was able to move several Parrott rifled cannons into position (this actually led to several Union officers being killed) that were able to point towards the field of Pickett’s charge the next day.

The rifling of these cannons made them capable of hitting targets at 1800 yards and with a muzzle velocity of 1300 feet per second. There were 2 of them capable of reaching the open field Pickett’s men were trying to cross, hitting them from the side. These two guns ripped through the Confederate line, plowing a line through muliple lines of soldiers, seeming to come from nowhere since the shells traveled faster than the speed of sound, faster than the eye could see. Longstreet later commented on how devastating the unexpected rounds coming from the charge’s right, thinking it was an entire squad of cannons.

It was two. Placed in the proper position because the Union held Little Round Top. Placed there because the North has a single officer in charge of ALL its cannons. One officer who, it turns out, literally wrote the book on the use of artillery during the Civil War. Henry Jackson Hunt is one of my favorite heroes of that battle. And all credit goes to Meade for distributing power to him, allowing him the ability to win.

Long before this, General Buford won the battle with the single finest dragoon operation in North American history. The delaying action that allowed Meade to hold the high ground was everything. It all flows from there.

95
darthstar  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:08:58pm

re: #93 goddamnedfrank

bsky.app

[Embedded content]

Tesla…. what, do you want to live forever?

96
Charles Johnson  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:09:29pm

Possibly the greatest music video of all time.

Dance the Night Away - Van Halen

97
darthstar  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:10:00pm

And can’t they just do an over the air software patch?

98
darthstar  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:12:51pm

re: #97 darthstar

And can’t they just do an over the air software patch?

Another way to die in a Tesla

Mastodon

99
darthstar  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:14:29pm

Software updating. Please stand 100 feet away from the vehicle.

100
gwangung  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:16:14pm

theguardian.com

Tara Davis-Woodhall, an American who placed sixth in the long jump at the Tokyo Games and took silver at last year’s world championships, reacted with equal parts humor and horror, commenting: “Wait my hoo haa is gonna be out.”

I dunno. Lots of [male] comic book fans will see nothing wrong with these…

101
Charles Johnson  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:16:27pm

re: #98 darthstar

Another way to die in a Tesla

[Embedded content]

The only car that kills you while it’s standing still.

102
jaunte  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:20:49pm

Katherine Alejandra Cross @quinnae.com

This is, obviously, a deservedly nuclear embarrassment for Tesla, but it’s also looking increasingly like a regulatory scandal. There is no way this vehicle should’ve been declared street-legal.

Tesla Halts Cybertruck Deliveries Due To Accelerator Pedal Issues
carbuzz.com

103
b.d.  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:22:21pm

If you get paralyzed by your Tesla while it is updating, Elon will give you a 15% discount off of his brain chip implant.

104
DodgerFan1988  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:24:39pm


The Woke Mind Virus

105
Belafon  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:27:59pm

One of the most important books ever written:

106
GlutenFreeJesus  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:32:51pm

re: #104 DodgerFan1988

I really hope the CT is the thing that kills Tesla.

107
JC1  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:38:56pm

There are also rumors of TSLA about to lay off 20% of it’s workforce.

108
silverdolphin  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:51:11pm

re: #71 The Ghost of a Flea

TL:DR Flea (Ghost?) led me to write another epistle. Not to really disagree (I am not sure I have the rhetorical tools to even agree with them ;-) but to demonstrate why I believe we are in the middle of breaking the old system the Left hates, that defined humanity for the last 15,000 years and forming a new one to take humanity further. And it is seen in dropping testosterone levels. (Added: sorry if there are any errors. Spent too much time checking for errors aleady ;-)
___________________

Click to Reveal

Damn, Flea. You are on fire today. Not sure I ever really want to directly engage forcefully with what you say, not because I fully disagree with anything you say but because I’m afraid you would convince me and I am just too old to change my core view of the world ;-)

I’ll explain a little bit why I may be more sanguine than you about humanity. Because I believe the system that has provided the most selective pressure on human evolution the last 15,000 years (ie agriculture) is crumbling and being replaced by one better suited to the cultural environment we now inhabit. And that the breakdown of this system is likely inevitable. If we cannot adapt, then humanity will fail, like any other animal that fails to a adapt to a new environment. But we can aleady see the first green shoots of a new system, one that provides greater survivability for those who adopt its organizational structure, its balance of “fight or flight.”

These systems will be imperfect because humanity cannot fully understand the environment we inhabit but they will be able to deal with a level of complexity ours today simply cannot. This will be the culmination of cracks to the system that started over 500 years ago.

It took roughly 1000 years to transition from foraging to agriculture. I hope this one will be faster.

While I might be wary of all you say, I do not disagree with a lot of it. The Right wants to reduce everything to a utilitarian, zero sum trolley problem (Is it better to kill a family at a wedding to get 1 suspected terrorist or 3 Black men?) Binary solutions to everything. Some win so that others may lose. That is the goal of society.

The left has its own problems but it does often recognize that there should not be a trolley at all, that the system as stated needs to be changed. Neither side should lose. That is the goal of society,

First time I heard the trolley problem I said I’d derail the trolley by turning the switch as I went over. Like some sort of Kobayashi Moru test, I was told I could not do that, that the rules of this world were set. And I said I do not live in such a world. I was told that this was simply an exercise in ethics and morality and I said, no it is an outgrowth of a certain view of the world. Morals and ethics are too complex to reduce to such a question. That is how I knew which side I was on.

Now, I am a biologist so I come at these questions with a little less passion and a more longterm view since in the scheme of the biosphere we inhabit, morals and ethics are not paramount for most animals. Survival to pass on genes is everything. Adapting to changing environments is critical. For most animals, life is bloody, tooth and claw. And solitary.

Humans, as highly intelligent social animals, adopted a different strategy. The group became a protective device to allow passing on of the genes. And, much of what we call morality and ethics are primarily designed to protect the group’s stability. No murder. No stealing. No lying. Sure, they can be broken at the edges somewhat but any society that refused to follow even simple rules like these would collapse and all might die if left to fend for themselves.

Now, to simplify things, we come from apes that developed two different approaches for a sustainable group. The chimps are mostly patriarchal, authoritarian with leadership driven by high testosterone, low cortisol levels when competing. In the simplistic “fight or flight” model, they are the fight, playing a zero sum ame where one side wins, often through violence, and the other side loses. It is all stick. Sounds like conservatives today.

Bonoboes are largely matriarchal and have flatter organizational structure with leadership driven by higher cortisol levels. In the win-win “flight” model, they, and their opponents, live for another day.They see the importance of the group rather than the individual and seem to solve things more by pleasure, sex and working with others. It is the carrot. Sounds like the classic hippie Left.

Turns out humans have both biological systems, which is the big reason for our success. It that allows us to organize really complex societies by balancing the mixtures of the two, depending on the cultural environment.

Generally, we have some leaders who respond to competition by increasing testosterone, representing the zero-sum, “fight” response. If their approach provides better chances of survival the group they become rulers. But we also have leaders who respond to competition by increasing cortisol, representing the win-win, “flight” response. If their approach provides survival, they are the supreme leaders.

And a major difference between the two approaches is who is included in the group. Those led by high testosterone do not trust anyone outside of the group, historically acting with violence. Higher cortisol, lower testosterone leads to treating many of the others as family, until proven otherwise.

Data suggest that for much of the time from 50-70K years ago until about 15,000, lower testosterone levels were found in human groups than had been present in the previous generations.This drop in testosterone levels corresponded to a period where economies first arose, where trade could occur because the groups that did not fear the outsider became richer, were more likely to survive. Those systems built around win-win were more successful.

That changed with the introduction of agriculture. Now a more hierarchical, zero-sum approach (if I farm your land you cannot) provided greater selective advantage. The outsider was now competition for scarce resources. Even if agriculture has severe nutritional ramifications (ie foragers remained taller than farmers up until the 1800s), even if the life expectancy dropped, its selective advantages prevailed. As a biologist, I would never think it would be better for a species to see individuals so greatly harmed as a plus. But it obiously was.

And what happened? The data show that testosterone levels rose again. Those groups with leaders driven by zero-sum approaches saw themselves more likely to survive than as foragers.

And that has driven humanity ever since. Until about 500 years ago. The Age of Exploation started to change everything.

Since then, the groups that have added more win-win, democratic approaches have generally won over those with more zero-sum. They use the information and economies that com from working with others to make wiser decisions and enrich themselves. They have become more adaptive, able to more wisely answer complex problems. (They were still embeded in a system that rewarded more zero-sum approaches so for a long time, these changes were at the edges.)

Because they allow other voices than just the leader at the top. One reason they win is because they can more easily adapt to disruptive technologies and economies (usually driven by greater information gluts that clog up older systems) than authoritarians, using them to create a new group that provides even greater survival possibilities than before.

We have gone from information taking years to connect to people, to months, then weeks then days, seconds. Each step has seen an increase in the win-win, democratic approach because larger groups of people are needed to effectively deal with thatamount of information flow.

None of these new groups is perfect, mainly, I hope, because they were still operating inside an authoritative system. BUt I believe that they are now strong enough to replace the old system, as it finds itself simply unable to adapt to the new cultural environment we inhabit.

Now we are entering a state where information flows in microseconds. We once again have to enlarge who is included in the group to rebalance our approaches and create a new system, one that can make wiser decisions on complex problems.

Now if we were entering an age where win-win approaches defined more by the carrot than the stick are more successful, what might we expect in the makeup of the testosterone-cortisol axis? Lower testosterone.

And that is exactly what we see. Testosterone levels have dropped in half in the last 50 years. Most people are afraid of lower testosterone levels. I am glad. It makes it much more likely that the zero-sum approaches of agriculture will give way to a new balance in the testosterone-cortisol axis.

I believe we are already seeing this. which is why we are seeing the systems based on the older models fight so hard.They recognize the existential nature as they really cannot compete.

Because the new system will see a huge expansion of who is included in the group, in the family. I believe it will grow to encompass all of humanity, just as the old system now encompasses Italians as White.

We will need to move here if we hope to solve the complex problems now facing us - human health and climate change. I am confident we will because the selective advantages of those groups who move in this direction is so great that it will eventually overwhelm all others. Just as agriculture overwhelemed foraging.

But I am a scientist so I could be wrong ;-)

109
silverdolphin  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:57:06pm

re: #94 William Lewis

Long before this, General Buford won the battle with the single finest dragoon operation in North American history. The delaying action that allowed Meade to hold the high ground was everything. It all flows from there.

Absolutely. That forcd the battle that Meade did not want but which he accepted, to his everlasting credit. To my mind, the entire success of Gettysburg depends on the accurate decisions made by the generals under Meade, often with only minutes to make the decision. And the entire failure of the Rebels can be laid on the wildly inaccurate decisions of Lee. He asked his men to follow orders that were simply not realistic or possible.

110
sizzzzlerz  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:58:49pm

re: #100 gwangung

[Embedded content]

theguardian.com

I dunno. Lots of [male] comic book fans will see nothing wrong with these…

Who do you think designed them?

111
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 14, 2024 • 4:59:57pm

re: #110 sizzzzlerz

Who do you think designed them?

Definitely someone with testicles.

I just don’t get why men and women can’t use the same style kit.

112
Ace Rothstein  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:02:02pm

Watching 60 Minutes. It’s a miracle that Salman Rushdie is still alive after that attack.

113
teleskiguy  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:02:02pm

Colorado State House of Representatives passed a bill banning the sale of assault rifles. Nine Democrats joined all the Republicans in voting no, including my state representive. She knows that shit is poison to her constituents. It probably won’t pass in the Senate.

Mastodon

114
Eclectic Cyborg  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:02:13pm

Hahahahahaha. Yeah, good luck with that, assholes.

115
piratedan  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:03:38pm

re: #113 teleskiguy

so-called? would he have preferred recreational death-dealer?

116
silverdolphin  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:03:51pm

re: #100 gwangung

[Embedded content]

theguardian.com

I dunno. Lots of [male] comic book fans will see nothing wrong with these…

I bet we see a lot of them choose the unitard version. I wonder what Nike developed for the Muslim women competing for the US?

117
Grunthos the Flatulent 🇳🇿  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:03:52pm

re: #83 Markm1960

Johnson looks several inches shorter than Trump but appears to have much larger hands.

And he’s not even the shortest Johnson in that photo.

I’ll get my coat.

118
sizzzzlerz  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:03:57pm

re: #99 darthstar

Software updating. Please stand 100 feet away from the vehicle.

If vehicle starts smoking, evacuate the entire neighborhood and notify your local bomb squad.

119
Decatur Deb  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:06:57pm

re: #115 piratedan

so-called? would he have preferred recreational death-dealer?

It gets into “clip vs magazine”, but there is no rigid definition in popular use. CA had a useful enough definition when it had a ban.

120
teleskiguy  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:09:17pm

We’re not Idaho where weirdos show up with long guns to the Capitol every time a Democrat speaks out of turn. But I can see escalation happening with the reich wing weirdos in the state if a ban on the sale of assault weapons passes and is signed by the Governor.

121
sizzzzlerz  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:12:26pm

re: #86 BeenHereAwhile

iPhone 15 Pro - iOS 17.4.1

Personal minor quibble observation:
iPhone Bluetooth doesn’t always sync with paired car stereo system. Was not an issue with previous iPhones & iOS.

(I stream a lot of audio podcasts)

Turning the car audio system off, then back on is now sometimes necessary to achieve handshaking.

Always kept my iphones pretty well sanitized and locked down with not a lot of apps - more option creep with subsequent iterations of iOS - would prefer being able to turn off more of the iOS option creep.

I’m running 174.1 on both my iphone 14 and ipad. The iphone upgrade went off without a hitch and I have seen no issues in performance, battery life, or any feature I’ve used. The ipad, however, did have a painful upgrade experience. After it was complete, many of my apps stopped working. I’d launch them and they’d die immediately. Browsing the intertubes, I found a site suggesting the problem was with iCloud and that you should logout and then log back in. This worked for me. No idea why. The sites I looked at all indicated that the problem occurred with the iphone as well. Just not for me.

122
Charles Johnson  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:15:19pm

Noticed that all my blog entries about Donald Trump that used to be categorized “Politics” are now under “Law.”

123
Decatur Deb  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:16:25pm

re: #122 Charles

With any luck it will shift again to “Prison Reform”.

124
jaunte  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:16:29pm

Ex-President Trump has been recategorized to Defendant Trump.

125
Decatur Deb  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:17:56pm

re: #124 jaunte

Ex-President Trump has been recategorized to Defendant Trump.

When he gets a number, I’ll play it in the Lotto.

126
FormerDirtDart 🍕🐀 No Capt'n 😷 Trips  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:53:05pm

re: #104 DodgerFan1988

The Woke Mind Virus

127
BeenHereAwhile  Apr 14, 2024 • 5:58:18pm

...


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