Operant Conditioning and Conditional Expectations and Change
In Operant Conditioning, Path Dependency and Societal Revolution, Part 2, I brought in the concept of expectation management, but did not develop it too much. This post looks at it in more detail and how it relates to and reinforces…
Can a Free Republic be a Superpower: Part 2a: Is the US a Superpower?
On the surface, this question seems almost silly. The US has a nuclear arsenal, one of the strongest economies, and outstanding military power. Yet we ran from Afghanistan with our tail between our legs in near total disgrace. We did…
Can a Free Republic be a Superpower? Part 1: Introduction
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the…
Why do we act in other than our self-interest? Is the rational actor/choice theory valid?
Over a few blog entries (see the Defending the Republic series), I have wondered why people who do not seem to benefit from social justice efforts support and endorse them. Why would a white male push an agenda designed…
Trump Assassination Attempt and the Golden Spike
In Part 4 of the Operant Conditioning series, I used the golden sike that united the trans-continental railroad: Why do we need to do this? Because we have lost the art of constructive debate. Both sides rely on far more…
Thoughts on Ukraine Part 12: Chinese Interests in the Ukraine Crisis
A 24 September 2021 report from the Center for Economic Security states that China was Ukraine’s largest trading partner. A 25 February VOA report states the Russian invasion places billions of China-Ukraine trade at risk. “In the period from…
Thoughts on Ukraine Part 11: New Equilibrium
Figure New Equilibrium Issues The figure above starts as a section of the New Equilibrium portion of the Conceptual Framework developed in Part 1. I have added elements based on developments over the last week. As the central question…
Thoughts on Ukraine Part 10: Why do the People Fight or Not Fight?
Figure 1 Russian Tank Destroyed in Afghanistan (Left) and Ukrainians Fighting Russians (Right) The part started out differently than it turned out. I was going to contrast the Ukrainian fighting to the Afghan disintegration against the Taliban in 2021…
Thoughts on Ukraine, Part 8: Multi-Domain Operations
Figure Multi-Domain War A story in my morning news feeds got me thinking. Yahoo Finance wrote: “This is in effect a financial war now,” warned Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid. Perhaps Yahoo Finance is not the best source, but…
Thoughts on Ukraine, Part 7: The Joint Corporatist Scenario
Figure Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping pose for a photograph before their talks in Beijing, China. Photograph: Ramil Sitdikov/AP Part 6 laid out a most dangerous scenario and a most likely scenario for the events in Ukraine. This scenario centers…
