The focus of this blog has been kept fairly narrow, so that the reader has a reasonable expectation before spending a valuable click. I broke the rule egregiously with a five part Address to Davos, a consideration of the period spanning the near future to 2038.  I broke even more egregiously with Why Russia Hacked the DNC; In Defense of Liberty, which is in effect an endorsement of the Democratic candidate. I would hope that this blog gives the impression of a thoughtful voter. In past elections, I’ve paid scant attention to party lines.

With the elephant and donkey rampaging through the china shop in place of the bear, it’s opportune to break the rule again. The theme of bite size posts will have to do with the electoral misrepresentation, or at least obscuration, of the issues affecting the U.S. position in the world. It is not a partisan sin. It results from strenuous attempts to reconcile, in a way the electorate would understand, the every-man desire for prosperity against the benefits and costs of relations with the external world that every-man benefits from  or pays for.

If you’re fond of hyper-dimensional geometry, draw a 6-dimensional cube on your Riemann tablecloth, and label the axis:

• Hard power.
• Soft power.
• Globalization.
•  Competition of economic systems (state sponsored capitalism versus laissez-faire capitalism.)
• Moral idealizations.
• Human development.

(I’ll have six-dimensional notepads in the website store for a million bucks a pop, as soon as the flying saucer drops them off. )

The first thing to consider is whether these axis truly independent. Can they be reduced to a fewer number by interdependence? Everything has costs.

To be continued shortly.