Russian Plans to Invade Germany?

Russia has always had plans to invade Germany. They have twice invaded Germany (to help start the First World War (Germany was planning to invade Russia and the Tsar rather clumsily decided to try to nip it in the bud) and to help end the Second). Each invasion required general planning.

The Soviet Union had plans to invade Germany for World War Three, yet that opportunity fizzled out when the Soviet Union ended. Fortunately Russia’s military inherited the plans to invade Germany and they probably exist in some computer software someplace in Moscow. Complete planning routes, personnel, equipment, deployment of rocket forces and so forth upgraded with continuous real-time input. It would be a great battle that would require a lot of sophisticated programming writing to command and control troop and weapons deployments as well as to keep track of opposition forces. I think that sort of stuff is de rigueur for modern nations concerned with the invade or be invaded scenarios that exist in select historical environments including those of the present.

In my opinion Russia has no interest in war on its western front. They would prefer good trade relations and have been a little rebuffed by the civilian sectors more so than tradition foreign military-industrial elements. Some civilians have found it to their advantage to regard Russia as the new evil empire to replace the vanished Soviet Evil Empire. Maybe former Soviet possessions have some real estate value to them.

Russia isn’t especially wicked for keeping good planning software- there are a lot of moving parts and variables with a nice assortment of constants for any possible modern conflict. Simply consider placement of those beautiful little 22 kilogram tactical nuclear bombs that special soldiers can carry around; if one has a few hundred of them where would be the best places to send them, and how would they go? Would reservations or alternate, green transportation be needed to get them to the show on time?

Modern freight and package delivery systems require vast networks of real time planning to command and control deliveries of packages in a timely way. Military deliveries of weapons packages require a similar structure and that important sort of planning can not be put off until the war starts- Pre-invasion gaming is required ad nauseum even if the plans are never fielded.

Everyone, even gamers, have invasion plans...

The United States has largely born the cost of post-Second world war containment of communism, terrorism and genocide itself as the primary force. It is of course had allies now and then that have shared the sacrifice. The U.S.A. has no colonies, and seeks none- it is a trading kind of commercial nation that many people hate for its success. Keeping some military forces abroad-such as at Okinawa and Japan, was necessary for a number of reason- and has helped stabilize Asia for some decades after MacArthur’s direction of reconstructing the Japanese political economy concluded. It may be true that the United States- that drew down so many forces from Germany after the cold war, should relocate some of the remaining forces in Germany to Afghanistan to keep the area free from terrorist training for some time until the culture has evolved to one with a more egalitarian democratic characteristic.

If there were no plans or interests of foreign peoples to war on their neighbors or whomever, to invade or occupy etc. The United States could have few troops anywhere beyond its borders and save some money with the military industrial complex evolving into other commercial ventures and production. If the world required no policemen it would be a better place than it is now, Unfortunately the dangers of modern terrorism and desires of some forces to rule the world, impose their own economic or moral authority over others with force has not ended. In fact, there is rumored to be racial disharmony in some places, though the U.N. is a bunch of nice guys.

What Can Be Changed in the Political Economy of the U.S.A.

A political economy interfaces politics and economics. For the U.S.A., when government regulation quality and understanding is lacking the private sector and government investment goes to seed; the ecosystem declines, economics serve capital concentration entirely for its own sake rather than national citizenry well-being, national financial balances run tens of trillions of dollars of deficits, and wealth is concentrated to the point of creating a virtual aristocracy or plutonomy.

Remedies exist that are obvious, yet the corporatism phenomena of the private sector merging with the government that becomes a servo-unit for it following it about has negated the selection of quality political candidates and oversight.

Patents can be reformed such that exclusivity exists for just three years with 10% royalties to patent holders from anyone in the common domain era after three years, Regulations can be made to reward quality production that reduces mal-effects on the ecosystem. Capital acquisition by individuals can be capped at a percent of the national income that is low enough to prevent political power from being concentrated as well as economic, and ecological economics can become a guiding principle for the political economy, instead of being a vague outline in the shadows.

A Question for Grasshopper

I made one of those posters for grasshopper as applied to global warming questions. It seems like the left use Buddhism in their tool kit for environmentalism- yet is that accurate?

I like John Stuart Mill's work on utilitarianism. It seems to me the debate was always about act and rule based versions. The greatest good for the greatest number as the golden rule for utilitarians for example would, a priori, proscribe mass killings from drunk drivers IMO, or nuking innocent cities to kick off urban renewal.A consequentialist might wait until after the fact to decide if the consequences of the nuking were good or bad. 

 I am not sure if it is a Zen Koan. If i interpreted the meaning correctly, for Buddhists reality is illusory. If nothing is more than a temporal illusion, and return to nothingness (nirvana) is best, then killing the puppy is nothing meaningful either. Because so many of the post-industrial left tend to like Buddhism quite a bit, and are environmentalists too (at least nominally), I though I would try to point out the inconsistency in values; if everything is illusory then why concern about global warming and ecosphere decline? I don't share the viewpoint, yet it is interesting to note that by the turn of the century most people on Earth (if present trends continue) won't have access to brain growing omega 3s because of over-fishing, ocean warming, habitat loss etc.

 https://www.inverse.com/article/59208-omega-3-shortage

Today some academic insiders of the east look toward consequentialism as the justification for leftist ethics for grasshoppers of the cognoscenti. In my opinion though, some of the deontological systems that are Bible based work better, yet if one's idea is to change social moral norms to something that anti-Christians would be comfortable in, then Bible deontological ethics would be problematic. Few people actually study ethics then  personally apply them I think.

Ethics aren't difficult to find-especially in Muslim cultures. All human cultures have social behavior patterns that have set acceptable parameters; even lawful parameters. Sociologists and others study human behavior, and mass human behavior, and the rules of social behavior are fairly well known. Moral behavior is the way people interact in society-what they actually do, and what manner they follow those rules, historical rules, ere applied ethics. Morality are the rules of what is acceptable social behavior, and ethics are the way those rules are used by people. It is a very old custom.

 The ten commandments and other deontological systems were moral paradigmata. Thou shalt not kill, steal, perp adultery, etc are as old as human society. One might argue that social rules against bad behavior originated with society as an innate logic for social behavior, and their may be some truth in that. Plainly people are not amoeba or zombies free to consume their neighbor for-themselves without legal, moral or ethical concern.

Collapse of Roman Empire Not a Good Fit for USA

Direct comparative criteria for national collapse of the old world empires and modern societies are not exactly on the mark without some enumeration of points. They have fundamentally different elements and paradigms for nations. Roman civilization in its day was far ahead of most of the rest of pagan, ignorant Europeans. Celts had only relinquished their cannibalistic warrior ways in Switzerland with the appearance of Germanic enemies who marginalized them. Germans had stick villages. England had Stonehenge, yet it was probably short, darker people from Malta that migrated north to bring their technology to the cold isle. I wonder if the structure around St. Peter's square could be said to imitate Stonehenge structure a little?

Italians are a Germanic people too, and the Roman Empire following the Etruscan inherited the knowledge of the very ancient civilizations to the south. Roman expansion through France and Britain was nearly like an advanced extra-terrestrial civilization arriving on Earth where live the conceited hillbillies believe they know it all. Ancient Roman Civilization took the best of the near East and Greek knowledge too, and brought everything to the far west and north.

Roman civilization was due to collapse when it had served its purpose of bringing civilization and Christianity to all of Europe. Christianity was the common tie that drew formerly pagan and violent peoples into a proto-modern-European Civilization. It became a violent Europe with rapidly developing technology tempered with Christianity in a largely illiterate social environment. Imperial Rome could only go so far and last so long. Tamarlane would surge into invading unto Iraq. There was too much going on up North and West, while Constantine moved the main focus of his ruling era toward the East in Constantinople where the Eastern version of the Roman Empire survived another thousand years beyond the west.

The United States compared to Rome has not yet fulfilled its destiny as a leading technological and cultural accelerator of human prospects within a democratic political economy. It is possible that branches of the United States may survive off-world longer than the terrestrial version- maybe ten or twenty thousand years. I would think if that occurred it would not be recognizably American except in name only should some uncreative group of people full of nostalgia for this millennium wish to call themselves the USA or America.

The United States hasn't a history of owning foreign colonies- it is a trading empire with much direct investment in foreign entities. It hasn't foreign possessions to lose. True it was stuck with the Philippines for a few decades, yet it rectified that when practical to do so.

It is possible that the rapid decline in Christianity in the United States could precipitate national economic and social collapse. Rich corporations tend to be over-promoting their existing values and methods to the detriment of democracy’s marketplace of ideas. Good ideas may have few readers as the authors are marginalized in the commercial ecosystem.

Perhaps Mexican illegal aliens and other Latinos will bump out the existing cultural composition in the United States and transform the nation into something else- a Nova Mexico, through evolution and leadership weakness in the U.S.A. Alternatively China may absorb America like the Borg absorbs civilizations as Americans hand them the political economy on a silver platter because of cheap labor and sales opportunities in China. No one ever said the Chinese are stupid- they won’t look a gift horse in the mouth, as the saying goes.

The United States could fade away as environmental crisis overtakes the vanities of mass consumerism political economics. Certainly there is no political leadership aware of the science of ecological economics in the United States.

Alaska's northern towns have warmed up a lot since 1976. The Alaska Climate Research Center publishes a chart comparing temperatures from 1976 to 2018, and the results are consistent with global warming observations and theories. The temperature change for Barrow in autumn, for example, is 18.0 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chart from Alaska Climate Research Center-affiliated with U.A.F. Geophysical Institute.

North Slope and Alaska Interior are Much Warmer than 24 Years Ago

Alaska's northern towns have warmed up a lot since 1976. The Alaska Climate Research Center publishes a chart comparing temperatures from 1976 to 2018, and the results are consistent with global warming observations and theories. The temperature change for Barrow in autumn, for example, is 18.0 degrees Fahrenheit.

http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/ClimTrends/Change/TempChange.html

The Alaska Climate Research Center is funded by government grant and is affiliated with the University of Alaska-Fairbanks geophysical institute.

Weather record from 1949 to 2018 also show increased average temperatures.

How the Fed Would Work A Green New Deal

The Fed would create a lot of electronic dollars to loan to itself (new public debt)- however many trillions the Democrat Party leaders deemed useful, and allocate that pot of money to various contractors known to be sympathetic to Democrat Party politicians.

Because a green new deal would require some copious latitude for condemnations, expropriations and relocations of sundry establishment content found to obstruct government eco-redesign plans, some Supreme Court quibbling would ensue for some time, so a leftist court would be de rigueur for implementation of the Von Green Deal plan.

Giving the U.S.A. a great tax increase again would be necessary to fund the deal and make it seem like it would pay for itself. Maybe a 50% tax on the income of the top 5% earners. $12,000 of free income  for all would end unemployment and employment for some.

It would all go very smoothly and the dawning of the Age of Aquarius would arrive at last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjxSCAalsBE

Unchanging Laws of Physics

Physicists generally believe the laws of the Universe haven't changed. There was an idea about a possible variable speed of light, yet that was not developed too far. One might want to throw out the word 'eternal' from the cosmology criterion. The Universe is believed to have had a beginning at T=0 and now is about 13.3 billion years old (unless it is an unobservable Multiverse- the boundaries could never be observed with the present physics knowledge and tech). So if it has any sort of eternal character about it that would be in one direction-outward as time and matter runs down, unless of course it is an eternally recurrent Universe that expands and contracts like a yo yo (an improbable idea and it would require constant never changing laws ad infinitum).

The reason for the assumption that the laws of physics haven’t changed since the start of the Universe is based on observations of the Universe together with the body of physics knowledge theory development and how that correlates with observations. One need distinguish between the laws of physics that exist in nature and human ideas about what those laws are. Physicists and their theories are fallible. Their ideas evolve over time and usually improve.

https://www.livescience.com/solution-to-worst-prediction-in-physics.html

The Universe has a thermodynamic nature- it started highly organized and compact and unwinds to expand in a disorganized form. Initially there was just one force and field, highly compact, and it expanded and cooled down in to four primary forces that exist today. At very high temperature such as occurred at the start of the Universe the forces unify.

There is a Multiverse theory wherein each unique Universe has its own laws. Yet once the Universe starts it irreversibly flows ‘downslope’ as it were unwinding along within its particular balances of physical structure.

Physical laws are discovered rather than invented, so it is quite right that the understanding and description of physical laws may change. What does not change is the operating mechanics of any given universe. It is the operating laws of a universe that make it that particular universe.

An analogy might be that of a square box with three dimensions and six sides including the top and bottom. A box in that Universe could not have ten sides, or two sides, and be a square box. It would be possible to redefine what a side is and say for example that all of the sides of the box excluding the top and bottom are just one sides (ignoring the corners), yet the box that must exist in the Universe would be the same box regardless of how it is described (assume that there is one perfect example box that really exists to describe). In that same Universe a box described as having six sides could not be a box described as having three sides without either a logic or categorical error/inconsistency in the definition of sides.

Descartes' Meditations about first principles of thought and certainty (epistemology) of what is known or knowable began with self-reflection on thought. Zhuangzi had a famous saying about a man dreaming he is a butterfly and vice versa- the east had several thinkers who considered the possibility that reality as illusory before Descartes. Descartes' main differentiation from his predecessors is in his development of reason as the tool for epistemology and certainty. He wrote the Meditations of a Method while employed as a mercenary in Switzerland where he spent a lot of time inside an oven that was used as a sauna. 

https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/meditations/

President Trump's Steady Foreign Policy

U.S. Foreign policy has remained fairly constant the past two years. What has changed is the emergence of characteristics of the policy initiatives in Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan that show a certain variegated approach toward bellicose rhetoric and military disengagement.

President Trump has directed negotiations with the Taliban that excluded the lawful government of Afghanistan and the media reports they are close to reaching a deal for the United States to withdraw half of its troops right away and possibly more later in exchange for three promises or wishes the Trump team asked. President Trump seems to have short-term profit strategy in his foreign policy, yet with Afghanistan long-term commitment is required to create a Taliban-free culture that isn’t a coordinating center for Eastern hemispheric terrorism. 

What would have happened if the United States had allowed the Nazi party to return to Germany in 1963? The answer probably is that today it would be run by the 4th Reich of Nazis. Germany required a half century before it really changed, and Afghanistan will require a century more or less of U.S. garrisons working with the Afghan people before it has a culture that can co-exist with the west (although the west need be tolerant of Muslim moral norms generally and should not expect to coerce those to change).

The President’s North Korean diplomacy with North Korea is good, yet bad because that nation continues to develop nuclear weapons and systems to deliver them. Since China was saturated with W-54 small nuke technology by the Clinton administration’s allies, and as Pakistan has that too, there may be a deep feeling that portable man and drone carried nuclear weapons are a thing of the second world’s future so they can play around with the western leaders until the time is better for changing balances. I wonder if President Trump has any awareness of that, if it is so.

President Trump has expanded U.S. ground forces in Poland at their request to defend against the Russian menace, that is more of a result of Democrat party insistence than anything else, that bad relations with Russia rise, that the Ukraine was usually not part of Russia and Russians should have no interest or claim on it or the Crimea. If Germany does not require U.S. forces to make sure that young Adolph II does not seek to be the Chancellor, some of those could be shifted to Afghanistan to garrison it for a century to make sure the Taliban does not let a profusion of terror training and bomb making underground clinics arise amidst the mass stoning of women that were westernized and lynchings of anyone that worked with the United States.

Iran has been given sanctions (as has Russia) and stern warnings, yet nothing will follow that. President Reagan walked softly and carried a big stick while President Trump has a boastful mouth and threats that are like one huge, dark cloud passing in the summer desert sky. He is fundamentally a man of profit and peace with recalcitrance to spend on fighting- wars are costly. Still, some defense allocations are necessary to keep the peace, rather than rash withdrawals or commencement of hostilities.

With illegal immigration from Latin America and elsewhere over the southern U.S. border the President has shown a consistent approach of defending U.S. national interests. As the Chief enforcement officer of the U.S.A. he has worked to stop illegal entry into the nation. 

China policy has also been a consistent program to require Chinese compliance with equal rights and normal responsibilities of trading partners; primarily the United States. The President has used tariffs to enforce the policy as well as other measures. Prior President were loose with China trade policy and a lot of U.S. business relocated to China. That trend developed so far that much U.S. manufacturing capacity was being lost.

Analysts have said that the policy of Wall Street was to have tech employment on the American coasts, flood the nation with illegal aliens in the center to keep wages down and manufacture things in China. The President has resisted that apparently, though he too is a billionaire. His foreign policy is consistent enough.

Would It Be Possible to Grow Brainless Beef Without Stomachs in Warehouses?

Growing the meat of beef cattle without a whole cow; a meat growing mechanism without stomachs, flatulence, without a brain or legs, sitting on a warehouse shelf somewhere and fed with artificial nutrients might be a project that bio-scientists might investigate to develop and replace the present global warming gas, cattle raised for slaughter technosystem that badly affects the planetary ecosphere because of the vast numbers of cattle.

 The growing product would have no head, no nervous system or anything not required for direct support of growing the meat. It would be meat minimalism shaped perhaps as a large New York steak five foot in diameter and two feet thick. It would have no genetic engineering or pesticide contact. It would be an all-natural food. 

Manufacturing beef in a way that would be comparable to growing watermelons would free up the acreage exploited for cattle grazing and stop the CO2 from those multiple stomachs and a-holes. New businesses such as The Mindless Meat Company could sprout.

Meeting the meat challenge should be within the capacity of science and technology.

Make Northern Ireland a Free Trade Zone

It should be hard to believe that British leaders and Eurocrats given months or years to figure out how to make Northern Ireland a free trade zone able to govern its own trade and set its own rules, yet remain a British client state. It isn't unbelievable as it should be. Politicians these years don't have full wattage in their brains ordinarily.Britain and Northern Ireland would have a joint foreign origin trade control criteria that wouldn't let foreign interests exploit North Ire as a back door to England for easy dump in England.

The Yellowstone Security and Power Project

A Yellowstone super-volcano eruption is the largest clear and present threat to life on Earth. Billions might perish from famine in a global cooling period that would follow. It is not too soon to innovate ways of controlling the development of an eruption; perhaps with heat relief from exploiting the geo-thermal power resource of Yellowstone.

https://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/yellowstone-volcanic-threat-level-elevated-to-high/article_5f6c1675-0fca-5ed6-a30a-f8786a217ea7.html

The Yellowstone magma reserve underground has the energy to create enough electricity to enable a national electric vehicle in-line power grid. Removing all of the nation's fossil fuel cars and replacing them with electric would be a good way to reduce greenhouse gases.

https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/

The down side of exploiting Yellowstone's geothermal power is that it might induct more heat from down below and precipitate a super-eruption.

A number of other factors could make the super-volcano erupt sooner than expected...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2018/08/21/yellowstone-supervolcano-eruption-stop-worrying-its-blow/973633002/

That includes unforeseen plate tectonic activity and meteors from space striking some area of the surface sending shockwaves along.

At the least the US Government should form a scientific committee to investigate all of the variables and constants about the super-volcano to discover how it might be safely harnessed to produce electric power. There is so much heat that salt-water could be siphoned from the Pacific in pipelines and evaporated to make freshwater for agriculture elsewhere in the nation, after passing through turbines to make electricity for the nation auto grid. It might be possible to refill Lake Bonneville and other water storage areas and develop agriculture with irrigation across much of the S.W. It might be quicker to siphon saltwater to Deming New Mexico and create a border canal with double covers to spill it in and evaporate-condense on the lid to desalinate it as it flows in locks east and west. There is no harm in getting more bang for the buck with a better than a fence boundary security barrier with millions of gallons of fresh water for agriculture, drinking and recreation in Arizona, New Mexico, California and the Sonora desert. Perhaps both methods should be invested in with research at the least.

Image credit- National Park Service

Trump Afghan Deal Is Like Letting the Nazi's Return to Power in Post-War Germany

President Trump's effort to cut a peace and mostly retreat deal with the Taliban seems too much like an appeasement deal to let the Taliban return to power. The President's betrayal of Afghan security forces looks pretty bad. The United States doesn't need another Vietnamization of the war policy failure- though in the case of Vietnam it was the best choice perhaps remaining.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/zalmay-khalilzad-says-afghan-taliban-agree-in-principle-to-peace-deal-but-they-scoff-at-trumps-bluff

President Trump should establish strong defrappe bases in several areas of Afghanistan that are designed by engineers for good security and look toward a special air force of small drone to police the nation. Twenty thousand soldiers in permanent bases to provide security and reinforcement for non-Taliban Afghan forces ought to be enough. The United States has been in Europe since 1940 and no one is calling for complete withdrawal. In fact the President recently expanded troop deployments in Poland- a location that is unlikely to have an invading Russian Army any time soon, and where they can enjoy sausage and beer off duty.

Central Asia has a lot of racists and America haters. It is a  location from which defense against China, should they attack the United States perhaps with hundreds of suitcase nukes on drone, would be practical for containment of expanding Red Army elements. More so than Europe, American forces in the Eastern hemisphere have a purpose in serving in Afghanistan.

President Trump should drop the Taliban appeasement plan, and reconsider his appeasement plan of the North Korean Dictator too. The President could establish a permanent new branch of the Army called the Afghan Corps that would return those interested in serving there for a decade, if they wish. It could have Marines serving in the same Afghan Corps units as the Army- and perhaps be more accessible to foreign enlistment for service.

The Trump appeasement deal seems designed to try to influence Democrat voters to check his box in 2020 since Republicans might hate the plan already. The President might indicate support for legal dope smoking in the military too if he goes even further toward looking for Democrat voter support.

 Iran must be really worried now that President Trump is showing such a willingness to give the enemy whatever they want. The Afghan appeasement deal seems like one a hopeful rube would make; a rube silly enough to believe the Taliban won't actually purge regular government forces and take everything for themselves. Maybe the President is turning toward Rand Paul libertarian isolationism. President Obama would have been roundly criticized for an appeasement policy deal with the Taliban.

A commitment to Afghanistan for the long haul is required to police it from radicals and to assure those that partner with Americans that they won't be left to twist slowly in the wind when the desire for instant gratification by U.S. politicians is thwarted. Those that choose to work with the United States for the benefit of their nation and themselves, as well as in support of U.S. interest in security, have a life-long exposure to victimization by the Taliban. If the United States once again betrays those that trust it, that can't be good for the prospect of seeking future alliances that might be required.

Why Elizabeth Warren Will Win in 2020

Senator Warren's victory in 2020 is almost inevitable. She is the sole candidate able to accomplish all of the Democrat agenda if she is given a Senate to go with the House ensemble. I will enumerate a few items from the bucket list and other reasons why the Warren win is inevitable.

1) Flood the nations with 4 million more illegal aliens the first term
2) Add a few trillions dollars to public debt with medicare for everyone
3) Add a few trillion more with a special Green Rube Goldberg global warming remediation mandate
4) Sign a new deal with Iran giving them everything they need, with less for the U.S.A. this time
5) Force Dictator Kim to the table to give up his ensemble of miniaturized nuclear weapons made from the W54 design
6) Force Vladimir Putin to recognize Ukrainian independence while giving up the Crimea
7) Bring peace and love to all of the people Republicans have oppressed
9) Confiscate all guns in America
10) Get rid of the electoral college votes of the red states to let the wisdom of the blue choose
11) End use of the word 'felon' in criminal proceedings
12) End any sort of use of offensive language in America and the Internet with careful union screening and censoring out of all the bad language and ideas.
13) Fill the Supreme Court with leftists
14) Increase taxes on the rich to 75%
15) End the return to the moon program
16) Create titles for uralcrats with more than a decade of federal service, and a table of ranks
17) Expand socialism to let the government have a seat on every corporate board.
18) Prove with new testing that she really is a lineal descendant of Pocahontas
19) Add a 60% carbon tax on oil corporation extractions at present West Texas Intermediate Crude price
20) Outlaw abortion after the third post-parthum trimester
21) Appoint Beto O'Rourke Ambassador to Mexico
22) Build a Hollywood liaison and party planning suite in the West Wing
23) Establish a $12,000 guaranteed annual income from the govmint for all registered voters
24) Eliminate all unemployment in the U.S.A.
25) Return the economy to a new normal 1% steady growth pace after a corrective crash
26) Bring requisite evolution classes to all public schools and demonstrate that inferior pace of evolution brings resistance to Democrat agenda, xenophobia, faith in God etc.
27) Democrat Party Evolutionist lawyers will prove Dem Party is the one for intellectuals and Republican aka 'Red' party is of non-intellectual dummies with CEO puppet-masters.

About Reality

Reality may refer to the principle of existing or being in existence, yet what existence is made of and what the structure of a Universe or Multiverse really is, and that relation to the mind of God (it could be a tiny part of His thought), has different meaning or content to different people in relation to what they think about it.

The Cave allegory and the Republic with the description of forms and higher structures has been a paradigm for describing reality (Platonic realism) in contrast to superficial appearance, or nominalism. The forms did turn out to be true, in the sense that physics and particle physics have forms that exist as the foundation of all matter. There are particulars and Universals- a particular hydrogen atom and the Universal form of hydrogen atoms, for example.  There are even more forms including forces such as the nuclear and gravity that are probably the same everywhere in the Universe. Plato's idea of forms may be comparable to Democritus' thought about atoms. Tegmark actually speculated about the entire Universe being made at its foundation of mathematics, spin vectors, spacing, intervals etc I suppose.  Math is an idea- perhaps of God. Logical spacing and energy compounded into complexity.

Neo-Platonism such as Plotinus wrote about in the 54 Tractates named The Enneads elaborated Plot's ideas and considered The One and why The Intelligence would issue forms and more concrete reality. 

Molecules, atoms electrons, quarks, muons, hadrons, gluons etc have forms of energetic interaction. Limits to their being exist, and some believe it is pure idea. Bishop Berkeley speculated in the Three Dialogues of Hylas and Philonous that all matter may be an idea of God, and of course Leibniz thought the smallest particle-an atomic irreducible structure was a one-dimensional windowless monad made of spirit. A point in modern physics as zero dimension and a string-one-dimension. 

Yet I think that the topic about reality and contingent being may be compared to that Chinese puzzle box or cups with another smaller (or larger) one within (or without) another one infinitely- Buddhist of course regard belief in God as a heresy, and believe that phenomenal reality must return to nothing- as if the big bang and universe of being must return to nothing for ever, while Hindu's believe that God (Brahma to them) recycles it now and then, and Christians believe it occurs once and then God places souls into different realms than the material, temporal Universe, eternal realms.

Why Racism?

Political tribalism and group identification is easiest at the racial level. After more subtle differences intra-racially that caused political divides and conflicts have been made superfluous because of various political changes race identity becomes the largest remaining differentiator especially consistent with cultural differences. Group racial identity should not be taken out of context and assumed to be solely an evolutionary, innate trait inherent in all of any race conditioning social and political behavior. Racism is tied to definite economic factors and political economy as well as culture.

I wouldn't at all agree that human behavior is inherently preconditioned. That seems silly to me. A huge amount of behavior is learned, and the learning is a consequence of circumstantial historical factors such as exists in culture, geography and political economy. People can change their behavior and attitudes toward race fairly easily as circumstances change- for instance as may occur in military socialization (we are all green) and in economic mutual advantage. Lizards of a given color have been studied and observed to have a cyclical battle with lizards of other colors, and programmers can write code to make programs biased toward other programs, yet humans have free will and are quite able to change their attitudes and ideas especially when it is to their economic advantage. B.F. Skinner observed certain characteristics of native human behavior that are organic, yet there is a large element of reason too, and a human capacity to organize based on rational expectations and goals that bring advantage to humans transcending of skin color variations and constants.

Are Abortion, Homo Marriage, Trillions of New Public Debt and Border Defense Failure A Winning Democrat Platform for 2020?

The Democrat Party platform of adding trillions of dollars of new public debt for various programs, homosexual marriage, abortion and failing to defend the national boundaries against illegal immigration are what Presidential candidates believe is their winning edge. The candidates also would like to tax the rich with huge increases, forgetful that they voted unanimously to cut the taxes on the rich and everyone else when President Obama had support of both houses of Congress to do that instead of letting the Bush II tax cuts expire and cutting taxes on just the poor and middle class.

Democrats would like liberal dope legalization too. Confiscating guns in order to allow union thug rule is on the party radar screen too. Interesting quality control management.

The United States and 1990s Era Russian Economic Chaos

The reconstruction of the Russian political economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union has been a thing to marvel about. I read a book named An Economic History of the Soviet Union written by Alex Noyes long ago. Some day I would like to read another named An Economic History of Post-Soviet Russia.

I took a course on Russian governance from St. Petersburg University last year that had a good history of the 1990s to 2017 political changes in Russia- and there were a lot, yet the economic history is somewhat more vague. An American can compare it to the reconstruction of the South after the civil war, yet that was so long ago and in a very different historical era. For a modern nation to reconstruct an economic system from the ground up is something of a miracle in progress- and accomplished mostly without state violence (at a Stalin scale) or dictatorship.

The United States was concerned with international security and the problem of transition all of Europe too that had formerly been somewhat forcibly made part of the Soviet bloc. To get peace and prosperity for all while containing military conflicts in Serbia and Iraq-Kuwait while preventing nuclear weapons proliferation from old Soviet stockpiles (especially those in Kazakhstan) wasn’t simple.

Unfortunately some of the rough spots in present Russian-American and European relations were sewn in the Clinton administration era that did not comprehend the importance of the Ukraine and Crimea to Russians. While Russia was addressing some of its own problems with places like Chechnya the United States had issues with 9–11 and a war on terrorism. For some reason the U.S. Democratic Party developed a real antipathy to Russia and Vladimir Putin, and reasons for not developing closer relations were made to be more important than finding a way to go ahead and develop closer economic and social ties.

It is possible that bureaucracies and military industrial complexes are loathe to change old relationships such as old dogs can’t be taught new tricks (cliche).

Gregory Sachs is/was a good consulting economist, yet the huge problems of Russia changing to a privatized from a communist foundation were more than tweaking a few things like interest rates. It is hard to be a back seat driver for people with their own ideas. The entire structure required reconstruction and no one actually had any experience at that. Germany for example, after the Second World War, like the rest of Europe, had plenty of experience with western economic history, ideas and institutions. Russia was without most of those.

Democracy and capitalism allow competitive free markets, so it is difficult to find completely impartial, benevolent actors in macro-economics with the power to reform foreign economies- for that is beyond the interest or power of most corporations and governments, including the United States of America. Maybe the United States should have had a Marshall Plan for Russia, yet it seemed best to provide some assistance to Russia while allowing them to go ahead and organize themselves.

The Economic Balance of East and West

The historian of civilizations Arnold Toynbee late in his life regarded the world as being one civilization. With the economic entanglement between the United States and China, that is easy to see. Certainly there are many differences culturally, yet they are not separate civilizations nor is the world economy entirely localized in developed nations.

I would disagree that the east was ever in power of anyone besides itself. From the Shang dynasty to the Chin and Han China had no dominating power over the west. The Mongols were influential and devastated Russian lands however their conquest and Empire did not encompass much of western Europe. In the 14th century a Turkic-Mongol named Tamerlane conquered much of Iraq, the Caucasus and Southern Russia. The Americas were conquered by people from its East; Europeans, in the 15th century, and never recovered though a synthetic Euro-Afro American culture developed that became indigenous itself. Muslims conquered more lands that were formerly European obviously, yet the Arabs were not too Eastern of a people.

China regaining or recovering power is occurring within a western economic philosophy, or rather two western philosophical paradigms; Marxism and Capitalism. Much of the brilliant Chinese scientific contributions are done with collaboration from westerners or even while working at for instance, American Universities. China has lots of foreign investment, though some investors have relocated production to Vietnam recently to avoid the problems of Chinese tariffs and recalcitrance at becoming fully equal economic players on a level field with western nations on issues such as protection of intellectual properties, patents and currency valuation.

World economic powers of wealth and capital are trans-national these days, unfortunately in some respects, good in others. If one region of the world were to collapse the economy would be exploited for profit and redeveloped by others to exploit cheap labor or consumers. If the population of a region were to collapse from genomic terrorism and mass die off such as the 13th century Bubonic plagiues of Europe, others would swiftly move in to fill the shoes of the departed, and the population that remained might become more fecund and replace their population within a couple of generations.

regions of the world are no longer remote or isolated. People scour the world for investment opportunities or cheap places to live. If any part of the world were to collapse that would present an opportunity for regional reconstruction and renewal such that it would be better than it was before.

In my opinion the best prospect for collapse is simple the world population itself. The causes could be the collapse of the ecosphere’s ability to support human life stimulating a cascade of disasters such as wars, famines and plagues, or genomic terror effort gone awry.

Why Leftists Hope Hurricane Dorian Will Hit Conservative Voters

In the Northern Hemisphere hurricanes spin from the left (counter-clockwise) to punish the right as best as can be worked. Conservatives are like the calm at the eye of the storm around which leftist radicals fueled by the warm waters of the broadcast media circle in a hateful rage. Plainly a sunscreen at L1 need be constructed at and launched from a moon base to dampen increasing global heating and leftist chaos storming while time permits.

Leftist Coriolis forces are driven with bi-polar vector capitalization in pursuit of thermodynamic redistributionist goals. Equalization storms of temporal hurricane strength occasionally arise even though astonishing permanent Bush 2 tax cuts from a Left President sometimes drop all political direction like infiltration with a cold, occluded front.

What Is Coriolis Effect? How Does It Affect The Hurricane Spin?

Examples of Capital- What it Is

Wiki has a good list of kinds of economic capital.

Capital - Wikipedia The main point presented is that capital is any asset useful for production. I should add to the wiki list that military capital is useful for producing war, peace and political capital. Christian capital is useful for producing eternal life with the Lord God.

I tend to regard anything of value as capital, since any material or intellectual property may be useful for production of other goods or ideas.

Consider invention of new ideas; pre-existing ideas combined together can produce a new synthetic idea(s).  That is comparable to arithmetic where with a two and a three, it is possible to produce a five.

Humans exist embedded in a thermodynamic physical field of being in which they are self-aware and aware of the field and characteristics of it objectively. If they were unchanging and static beings the concept of production might not be so important; capital is consistent with thermodynamic change or artificial production that supports human life and its proprietary interests.

Natural capital such as comprise forests and the services they produce in supporting human life, and oceans, rivers, clouds, the sun etc all may be regarded as natural capital beneficial to human existence. Ecological economics is a field that values natural capital and seeks to sustain or increase it so far as possible.

Social and political capital exist useful for production in marketing and political goals respectively. The late President Ronald Reagan had much social capital before he began building political capital, for example.

Scientific capital can reap innumerable production benefits. Even the Chinese lunar probe that discovered a gel like substance of unusual color on the dark side of the moon (possible ET scat), may be useful for something someday (coprolite research dump for exopologists).

China's lunar rover discovers 'gel-like' substance in crater on moon

Breakthrough enables storage and release of mechanical waves without energy loss

Synopsis: Quantum Interference Across an Astronomical Distance

A New Way to Store Information in Molecules for Millions of Years

Large corporations often have technical and intellectual as well as financial capital that allows quick production of material objects from new ideas they can invent, purchase or redistribute unto themselves from others in sundry ways.

An interesting example of capital is the dirt (regolith) of the moon. Apparently it can yield Helium 3 useful for fusion reactors (or not because there are scientific questions about that) and more immediately, lunar materials could be used to produce a sun screen to reflect light when the mirroring surface (600,000 square kilometers) are launched from the moon inexpensively (compared to Earth) to the Lagrange Point 1. Mirroring surface at L1 facing the sun could screen out 1 or 2% of the sunlight reaching the Earth and cool it down a little. That might be a practical dampener of some of the global warming problem. A moon base would be required to build the sun screen, and fortunately President Trump is trying to fund a moon base (although the global warming problem is not perhaps interesting to him). The moon dirt and other minerals have real value for production.

Monetary capital compounded with investment produces more monetary capital. The 1% have so much monetary capital as well as other kinds that it dwarfs the capital of the rest of society (at least that of the bottom half). The monetary and financial capital of the richest is so deep that it is like a gravity well such as the sun that brings all of the objects of the solar system to orbit around it and eventually gobble them up as would a black hole.