American issues of Christianity, cosmology, politics, ecosphere, philosophy, contemporary history etc
2/12/25
Ukraine Corruption
2/5/25
Will DOGE AI Reduce Government Cost?
President Trump’s department of government efficiency is looking for ways to increase efficiency with AI. That may save on spending or give Skynet a boost toward the final solution. The pressing issue is will Elon Musk issue an opinion on Walmart’s left door entry; is that a woke policy to reverse common sense?
https://www.udio.com/songs/pimEyUAzVTCe5MzoPyDR5z
Electric cars can be made with lighter weight because they needn’t support a heavy fossil fuel engine. With solid state batteries built in the shape of a chassis very light electric engines will make cars low cost. Billions of poor people driving electric vehicles is a probable political economy of the future. Even boat and air cars powered with solid state batteries made in China may arise. The competition to dominate the global market for lightweight, ultra low cost electric vehicles may be fierce. Shoppers entering Walmart showrooms may have collisions with traffic volume and uncertainty about entry through the left or right side.
I would like an attachment for 12 volt batteries with an inverter to AC and USB ports for low cost. One can buy a complete unit and they work fin yet the battery can’t be replaced and tends to be small. A universal adjustable power accessibility attachment for $20 bucks would be an improvement.
1/26/25
Extension of Federal Flag poles 50 Percent Upward
Should federal flags poles have an upper 50% extension capability so in times of national irrational exuberance they can be flown at plus 50% mast?
1/19/25
Stop Spending on Ukraine
Russians lost about 6 million dead in WW 2; the most of the Soviet Union’s ethnic groups. As one with a balanced history background that included college courses in Russian history and the usual Western Civilization I understand and support the facts about US and global interests, unlike the Democrat Party leadership.
As an historical opinion I support Russia’s right to the Crimea and know that sharing Ukraine with Russia at 50% is the only rational policy. Pursuing false narratives promulgated since the Clinton carpet bagging land stolen berg days has harmed US global interests, credibility (people think it an opportunistic predator with a supportive propaganda media), effected a million casualties, made enemies of two WW2 allies and normalized nuclear brinkmanship. It’s also expensive with about a quarter trillion dumped to Ukraine.
The Soviet Union had an 800 mile front from the Black Sea and extended through Ukraine. Many Ukrainians were on the Nazi side killing Russians defending their homeland.
Russia was moving toward free enterprise and helped in the war against terrorism while Europe expanded NATO. Because of western greed we made an enemy of Russia and divided the world Economy between the BRIC nations and the west.
The world does not need to be politically divided in a second Cold War. A peaceful world with free trade, free enterprise and a transition to sustainable ecological economic policy cannot occur with a senseless war ongoing leading toward a stone age economy.
Those who forget the past are doomed to rest it was proven again true by the Democrats bungling of the end of the Cold war. Communism ended in the Soviet Union starting with a quarter million Soviet troops withdrawing from East Germany in Dec 1988. When communism ended peacefully it was difficult to avoid chaos. There was no government or people elected to the new governments. Yeltsin wrote a constitution for Russia.
There was no method to redistribute land that was public owned in the Soviet era into private ownership that was tested. Even as late as the mid 90s there were no income taxes on oligarchs and corporations. Some way had to arise to keep Russia together and remove power from the Mafia and oligharchs. Putin had to find a way to set the power criteria of regional governments and rebuild the military based on the US volunteer force. It was a complex difficult period with free enterprise growing in Russia. American businesses were invested there. Then NATO expanded Eastward eyeballing Russia as it had since Napoleon and Poland had since 1500.
The Russian Presidency was given superpowers by the constitution. He needed it to keep the home made experiment in democracy together I took a Coursera course online about Russian government from Petersburg University and researched online about Russian history since the end of the Cold War. It was a democracy.
The maladroit Democrat Party choices to be runt-like political midgets living within the Cold War era paradigm with an enemy to the East was political recidivism and follow. Leadership was required rather than fear, paranoia and cowardice that required an expanded NATO, increases military expense and that couldn't understand or lead to what was needed to continue the Reagan-Gorbachev normalization of relations east and west.
Russia has not sought conflict with the west besides restoration of it's sovereign lands in Ukraine. When Ukraine is shared those that would live in the non Russian areas should be free to move to West Ukraine and vice versa.
Understanding politics with competence involves understanding what motivates leaders on select issues, and how and why they form policies. Civilizations end because of bad leadership sometimes, such as that which occurred in imperial Rome following the Antonines.
Democrat leadership after Reagan, and even that of George W Bush has made a series of bad decisions. My concern is for justice internationally of course, yet primarily is for America alienating half of the world from trade and trust, increasing public debt and becoming incapable of supporting a peaceful and productive global political economy.
1/12/25
Christian Faith is Not in Worldly Politics
California Wildwires; How to Change the Criterion
Established economies are difficult to change to something better. Too much is invested in the present system. Change evolves at best with directed evolution instead of revolution. Putting fire breaks and fire proof housing in established communities would be nearly impossible.
What might work is using new technologies for improved fire spotting and suppression. Fire resistant Tesla style solar roof panels to create energy self-sufficiency to reduce fire ignition sources in power transmission lines suc as the Paradise fire ought to be mandatory.
I wrote years ago about establishing a million goat army to eat brush and forest floor dead leaf layers as a practical way to reduce fire combustibles. Before humans lived in North America lightning was the only source of ignition. Today there are literally billions with drunks tossing cigarette butts out the window along with a cloud of additional sources. Maybe some d signer bug will eat Los Angeles foliage occasionally in the future.
Drones could be used for fire spotting and faster suppression response time. Desalinating sea water on a large scale could fill covered fire control water reserves. I would suggest building canals along the Mexican border to fill with seawater pumped uphill to the Continental divide with solar power. Let the water and be collected when it comes on sloped clear roofs from the locks numbering in the thousands. Freshwater would flow in pipelines east and west to bring water to deserts.
Getting fire breaks built across the west will be nearly impossible with established vested interests resisting. As global warming increases national desertification people will want more water and find less unless the make it themselves. Making home power production increase is part of the equation for satisfactory fire suppression.
A nation cannot afford to pay for reconstruction of costly homes for the prosperous lost because the rich sometimes are airheads on public safety concerns a priori.
1/10/25
On the First Democracy
The Problem With N.A.T.O.
With 32 member nations N.A.T.O. is a very large military body. It can throw it’s power around such as in Ukraine, without concern for retaliation from nations it has sponsored war on. Recently met with the Zelinsky faction and guaranteed it would provide weapons and supplies to Ukraine at least until 2027. An undeclared war on Russia by the largest military alliance on Earth is a problem not only for Russia; it is a problem for the United States.
Zelinsky said the Rammstein accord will oppose the USA making Greenland part of America. He seems to want to make the U.S.A. an enemy of N.A.T.O. and to replace the U.S.A. after the U.S.A. quits the organization.
https://youtu.be/7MxDh5qKVOw?feature=shared
Russia never attacked a member of the alliance. N.A.T.O. leadership decided that it did not support any Russian claim to Ukraine or pre-emptive Russian move to defrappe its military activities in Ukraine and continued it membership build up to intimidate and threaten Russia. With plutocratic control of the press and western governance; governance bone-headed enough to believe that Ukraine war can be profitable for the west
So instead of seeking a peaceful resolution to end the conflict and restore normal relations with Russia continued to escalate even allowing attacks directly on Russia with N.A.T.O. weapons including missiles. Russia has yet to retaliate because it probably doesn’t ant to expand the war that would swiftly lead to a nuclear exchange. N.A.T.O. leadership has arrogated the right to attack any nation that draws its ire despite that nation not having attacked a N.A.T.O. member nation. That is an expansion of the N.A.T.O. charter.
American Presidents that are Democrats may be sycophants of the new N.A.T.O. doctrine, or even leaders to be an 800 lb guerrilla throwing its weight around as the world’s anarchist. Besides the United States the individual N.A.T.O. members wouldn’t have taken a belligerent stance with Russia over Ukraine. Yet as a military commune N.A.T.O. is a Don Corleone exerting its influence in a way that presets a threat even to the United States should it have strong dissension against a N.A.T.O action. There needs to be a better way to reinforce world peace and security than the N.A.T.O. alliance; once that conserves the sovereignty of the United States in foreign and domestic policy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNX8VEZZwwg
1/7/25
Replying to 'Why are White People Great at Everything?'
Shouldn't one start with a rectification of names? Confucius did; so; therefore ask what are white people and what is the everything they are supposed to be great at. I shall stipulate that the timing of the OP is importunate. Trying to use greatness with white people as a middle term for racism is harmful to Trump politics. The appearance of racism simply impedes good political works Trump might be able to do. Those policies are primarily not racist.
Modern economies have specialized occupational roles. No one is good at everything. Commercial aircraft pilots usually aren’t great dentists for example. Some people are good at a few occupations though usually not at one time. For those that aren’t white and are envious it may be the ownership of material goods and the things associated with homes, autos and devices that seem to be what the white people are ‘great’ at. Keep in mind that the IQ of the average white American is only about 100, so it doesn’t take rocket science to own average things in the USA; in fact it’s better to be average than to be great at something like philosophy or poetry with a higher IQ if one is seeking material satisfaction in life.
Black Americans have a lower average IQ than white and that isn’t surprising considering their history of intellectual repression and exclusion until modern times. A culture of social exclusion is hard on individuals concerned generally with simple survival in a hostile social environment. That exclusion long-term lowers IQ. Even a bad diet can lower performance on IQ tests. It is difficult to build a culture up intellectually. That tends to occur yet it is a long term advance.
Black Americans have a higher IQ than some sub-Saharan Africans. The life expectancy of some of that group is far less than much of the world’s. Poverty tends to lower IQ scores because diet and environment don’t support brain health. Most blacks haven’t had the positive early childhood environment supporting intellectual development that many white people have had.
Structures that were started by a particular race and culture should have at least a few individuals that excel in a given structure. Other cultures require time to catch up. Differences in achievement at given tasks among various cultures tend to be culturally rather than racially caused. Differences among individuals are more toward a combined genetic and cultural causality.Structures that were started by a particular race and culture should have at least a few individuals that excel in a given structure. Other cultures require time to catch up. Differences in achievement at given tasks among various cultures tend to be culturally rather than racially caused. Differences among individuals are more toward a combined genetic and cultural causality.
China had fantastic inventiveness thousands of years ago. It’s development was retarded by imperialism until the 20th century. Capitalism allows better quantitative opportunities for invention with the profit motive. Now that China has a mixed economy. It performs better than it did with a state dominated form of socialism.
One need find the difficulty of a task as an occupation and determine what sort of IQ is needed to perform a task and if it falls within the basic bell curve distribution of a race. Actually cold weather drove some invention while others inventions like metallurgy invented in the Middle East travelled north.
One can consider cultural advantages and tool kits at any point in history and find that some lead others for a time then even disappear. What of the glory of ancient Rome or the strong walls of Constantinople?
Because Europe was challenged by invasions for thousands of years technology advanced there quicker than in places less challenged.
Toynbee pointed out that easy living regions of Greece did not advance as fast as some places that were given more, yet not too great of challenges. China is advancing very rapidly. Economists have found that mature economies stabilize at a growth rate of perhaps 2 or 3% while developing economics have a much faster growth rate until they equalize with the nations with mature economies.
There is additionally the criterion of values. Were the values of Diogenes the Cynic more like those of Bill Gates or Lao Tzu. Cultural values can be followed by minions until the over participation destroys the health of an environment. Hundreds of millions may surge over the edge like lemmings with great skill; is that really a value to be admired?
I would really hate to live in a jungle in a primitive condition being ate by mosquitoes. Overcoming some of those challenges required biology at a level barely reached today- not a thousand years ago.
Europe had fewer tropical diseases than more southerly regions and that matters even now What sort of fire ant problem exists for campers in Europe in comparison to South Florida?
Africa is advancing almost too quickly now. Nigeria alone has, I believe, 85,000 PHds. There are modern looking cities all over the continent and the ecosphere is in decay and receives toxic waste from Europe.
There is only a human race now and individuals differ more in ability than traditional races.
1/5/25
The Problem with Ayn Rand's Philosophy
12/26/24
Avatar Drones Casing New Jersey Joints?
If you have ever taken a programming course you might learn of the criterion of writing specific instructions in algorithms to accomplish particular tasks. There are test conditions, loops, etc that can be used to send a robot named X to go somewhere, do something and return. That sort of program would be on the very low end of programming algorithms today. Especially if compared to AI. One will need to get new software for home burglar alarms down the road to guard against sophisticated robot thieves with programming to pick locks, bypass alarms and accomplish particular criminal tasks. Maybe avatar drones are casing the joint of New Jersey for future adverse missions.
Ukraine Top General Syrskyi Sends War Bloggers to Front Line
Ukrainian military commander Syrskyi becoming tired of the Ukraine Top war reporting web site named Deep State that published daily accounts of losses of the armed forces of Ukraine terminated that situation by sending the bloggers of Deep State to the front lines in the infantry. The life expectancy of soldiers of Ukraine on the front is not good. The bloggers will perhaps be killed in combat.
Future Democrat administrations in DC will may learn and apply the Zelinski-Syrslyi method to get rid of troublesome conservative bloggers.
https://youtu.be/I2QEMfC5uVw?feature=shared
Woodrow Wilson Created the Federal Reserve and Segregated the Federal Government to Support Uryvnias?
If a Rottweiler looks you in the eye then bites your wrist it’s good to go home and disinfect the wound. If a pit bull looks you in the eye then runs your way to bite an Achilles one need peddle faster.
Creating a federal reserve to back up and stabilize banks was practical yet is complex today. The Fed is worth about 7 trillion dollars today. It can loan 100 billion to banks at zero interest and banks lend out ten times that much adding a trillion dollars for the economy. Then the Fed can buy securities and Increase their worth I guess. Hard to know where all that cash for Ukraine went… Maybe to buy securities and print uryvnias. Dog food is costly.
Christian ethics are a good thing yet society is striving, hateful, envious, greedy and etc. One cannot use force of law to compel people to be virtuous, altruistic or wise. Competition in economics lead to ethics of trimming potential rivals. The world will be perfect with the Second Coming and probably not before…thermodynamics, deficit spending and concentration of wealth keep a hard edge to social reality.
If the President's Mind has Been on Vacation Who has Urged Sending Billions and Billions to Ukraine for War?
President Biden’s brain has been challenged to be competent the past four years while the Ukraine conflict has steadily escalated. Recently Joe Biden signed off on letting Ukraine attack Russia with US missiles. Who is the manipulator behind the throne guiding the President to live on the edge of global thermonuclear war?
12/11/24
Limp Wristed US Foreign Policy Let's Turkey Take Imperial Control of Syria
Turkey formerly was the Imperial ruler over the Middle East. It lost that status during the First World War after the allied victory over Germany, Turkey and other Habsburg powers. Turkey is the force behind the Syrian conquest by terrorist rebels affiliate with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State that are continuing the war on Kurds and their American supporters in Eastern Syria.
Plainly Turkey is unwilling to share Syria with Kurds and Israelis. Israel needs the southern third of Syria for a security zone and the Kurds finally should achieve enough living space to form their own nation joining with the Kurdish zone in Iraq in some kind of way acceptable to the Iraqi government.
The allied victory promised the Kurds their own nation at the end of WW1 and reneged on the promise. Turkey has found an opportunity to overthrow the World War 1 loss of their Imperial Empire and conquer at least Syria to start with. Because of weak American comprehension of history a limp wristed foreign policy has taken the wrong side in the Ukraine war and let Turkey run amuck in Syria. When firing a large caliber foreign policy hand gun one should keep their wrist straight.
President-elect Donald Trump abandoned the Kurds during his first term and has expressed a non-interventionist policy for Syria. He may choose to throw Turkey to the wolves and be as callous as the lame duck Joe Biden in letting the bully Turkeys have their way in rubbing out The long suffering Kurds that have supported US interests time and time again in the Middle East.
12/9/24
It Mayn't be Possible to Know the Shape of the Universe
Crossing the Red Sea (Yam Suf)
The premise that happiness is the only good is quite superficial. It’s good to know things, and to be saved unto eternal life for those of faith, yet knowledge doesn’t always make one happy. To require that happiness attend everything good is to demand that the good is somewhat silly. One could be high on dope and very happy even as it ends one’s life. There may in fact be objective standards for what the good is that people are entirely unaware of yet that are nevertheless valid.
One might be unhappy to learn that the Big Bang didn’t really happen, if it is possible to exhaustively disprove that theory. The Malament-Manchak theorem suggests that it isn’t really possible to know the global shape of the Universe after all. It is so though that many would be initially unhappy yet realize later that the facts are good and better than the happiness of believing in Big Bang Theory. https://aeon.co/…/scientists-are-no-longer-sure-the…
Socrates might have noted that if happiness can be detached from any property then it isn’t actually a meaningful part of the property that one is happy about. If one stipulates that happiness is simply a state of affairs that is always good, and that nothing else is good, one might not only be unhappy about that determination, one might have no sense at all about value theories, nor belief that there is such a thing as the good that can exist for itself; even if the awareness of the presence of the good occurs simply within a mind stimulated by externally perceived objects or circumstances that have no element of happiness in them.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/…/abs/pii/S1355219808000580 Malament-Manchak theorem
Happiness Isn't the Sole Good
The premise that happiness is the only good is quite superficial. It’s good to know things, and to be saved unto eternal life for those of faith, yet knowledge doesn’t always make one happy. To require that happiness attend everything good is to demand that the good is somewhat silly. One could be high on dope and very happy even as it ends one’s life. There may in fact be objective standards for what the good is that people are entirely unaware of yet that are nevertheless valid.
One might be unhappy to learn that the Big Bang didn’t really happen, if it is possible to exhaustively disprove that theory. The Malament-Manchak theorem suggests that it isn’t really possible to know the global shape of the Universe after all. It is so though that many would be initially unhappy yet realize later that the facts are good and better than the happiness of believing in Big Bang Theory. https://aeon.co/…/scientists-are-no-longer-sure-the…
Socrates might have noted that if happiness can be detached from any property then it isn’t actually a meaningful part of the property that one is happy about. If one stipulates that happiness is simply a state of affairs that is always good, and that nothing else is good, one might not only be unhappy about that determination, one might have no sense at all about value theories, nor belief that there is such a thing as the good that can exist for itself; even if the awareness of the presence of the good occurs simply within a mind stimulated by externally perceived objects or circumstances that have no element of happiness in them.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/…/abs/pii/S1355219808000580 Malament-Manchak theorem
12/8/24
Echoes of a Dying Sphere v2 1
AI Considers the DOGE Program
I gave a prompt to an AI about the new DOGE program. The following is what it output.
“Title: The Doge Program: Making America Efficient Again
Panel 1:
(Trump, standing behind a podium in a press conference, holding up a poster with a shiba inu in a business suit labeled “Doge Program.”)
Trump: “Folks, we have a huge problem—our debt is out of control! It’s caused by three things: illegal aliens, lazy Americans, and foreign aid. But don’t worry, I’ve got the answer: the new Doge Program!”
Panel 2:
(A reporter raises their hand.)
Reporter: “Mr. President, what does Doge stand for?”
Trump: “It doesn’t stand for anything—it’s just smart branding. Everybody loves Doge. So efficient. Much budget-saving. Wow.”
Panel 3:
(Cut to a meeting of “Doge Program” bureaucrats: a golden retriever in glasses and a shiba inu in a tie sit at a desk piled high with budget spreadsheets.)
Golden Retriever: “First step—cut all funding to foreign countries, except for countries we like. That’s good budgeting, right?”
Shiba Inu: “Wow. Much patriotic. Such fiscal responsibility.”
Panel 4:
(Back at the press conference.)
Trump: “And the rich? Folks, let me tell you—they’re working so hard, they don’t even have time to spend their money! We’re cutting their taxes to save the government money. If we tax them less, there’s less paperwork. No brainer.”
Panel 5:
(A skeptical reporter raises an eyebrow.)
Reporter: “How does that actually cut government spending?”
Trump: “Listen, these are the best ideas. The best. You wouldn’t understand. Doge understands.”
Panel 6:
(A shiba inu in the background barks enthusiastically while wearing a MAGA hat.)
Caption: And so began the Doge Program, revolutionizing the federal budget one meme at a time.”
The AI wrote some funny stuff yet even so I am not convinced that getting Americans to burn more fossil fuels and coercing the world to follow will actually make America great again,; or something to laugh about.
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