[Guardian] Stephen Hawking has said that he fails to understand the popularity of Donald Trump, the presumptive US Republican presidential candidate. The multi-messenger speaks !
ITV’s Good Morning Britain asked the man who has widened the world’s understanding of time, space, stars, galaxies and black holes if he could explain the popular appeal of the billionaire tycoon. 'Inexplicable' to some possibly.
Hawking, perhaps the world’s most famous living scientist and the author of one of the world’s best-selling books, replied: "I can't. He's a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator." But isn't the 'lowest common denominator' an essential key to solving the problem ?
Scott Adams of Dilbert fame appears to understand Mr. Trump's appeal. I think he's about as smart as Dr. Hawking...
He also ventured once again into political issues, appealing to British voters to back the remain campaign in the EU referendum on 23 June - not just for economic and security reasons, but for the sake of science as well. In March, he pronounced the prospect of Brexit "a disaster" for science. “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” ― Stephen Hawking
#7
Hawking's general knowledge seems to have been engulfed by a black hole.
Also his plea for more looted taxpayer's money for the current raft of Lysenkoism is plain daft.
Obviously what would billionaire Trump know about wealth creation?
#8
I think it was P.J O'Rourke who best described the Brief History of Time (I'm paraphrasing 'cause I can't find the quote) as the book everyone bought to decorate their coffee table to show how smart they are but that nobody read.
Boston, MA - In the midst of national controversy over so-called "bathroom bills," Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker told the Boston Globe Tuesday he will likely sign a bill protecting transgender individuals' access to restrooms, locker rooms and other public facilities of their choosing.
Baker has remained steadfastly ambiguous on the bill since its inception, at times infuriating supporters while heartening those who would rather see the legislation die. A moderate Republican in a deep blue state, this isn't the first time Baker has broken from the party line. It is, however, an especially notable difference, given the tenor of national conversation on this and similar issues. 'Republican' my ass. Establishment Republican - sure thing!
Back in February, analyzing Donald Trump's appeal, David Gelernter wrote: "Political correctness. Trump hasn't made it a campaign theme exactly, but he mentions it often with angry disgust. Reporters, pundits, and the other candidates treat it as a sideshow, a handy way for Trump (King Kong Jr.) to smack down the pitiful airplanes that attack him as he bestrides his mighty tower, roaring. But the analysts have it exactly backward. Political correctness is the biggest issue facing America today.
...Political correctness is not, as some might claim, just an effort to encourage niceness. As Gelernter notes, it's an effort to control people. Like the Newspeak in George Orwell's 1984, the goal is to make it impossible for people to speak, or even think, unapproved thoughts.
...So nobody "respectable" was willing to launch a full-scale counterattack on PC, on or off-campus. Crack the occasional joke, maybe. But actually do something? Not so much.
But when "respectable" people won't talk about things that a lot of voters care about, the less-respectable will eventually rise to meet the need. That's what Trump's doing. And a lot of people are cheering him on not so much because they're fans of Trump personally as because they're happy to see someone finally stand up to the PC bullies.
Will electing Trump solve all the nation's problems? Nope. But, as mentioned above, it will show that more than half the country rejects the culture of political correctness, and the political class that let it take over. And for many people, that’s reason enough.
#1
So we have an estimated 12 million illegal aliens now living in the United States. I give you this number but I don't believe anybody knows how many there really are. Anyway, they came here illegally. They broke our nation's laws the minute they stepped across the border. Then they proceeded to take advantage of all the resources and benefits available in our nation regardless of the cost to the tax paying citizens. They take jobs and housing that would normally be available for citizens. They wave their Mexican flags and walk around like they own the place. They threaten our political system by creating a vast new voting block that votes consistently for the Democrats. Most of them are basically good people but there are those among them who are criminals and others who have dubious, foreign political agendas. They have no legal or logical argument to justify what they have done but they have something that seems to work even better whenever anybody calls for them to be deported and for the border to be secured: They call us racists. It is a base and dishonest appeal to emotions that has no place in our political discourse.
There are a great many Hispanics who are citizens, whose families have been in this country for generations. If you have friends who are among these Hispanics, if you value those relationships, it really hurts to be called a racist. That's what political correctness will do for you.
#2
EU, in New Mexico, the 'Hispanics' in the southern tier identify themselves of Mexican decent. The middle and northern tier identity themselves as Spanish decent. I live not far from a village that was founded 60 years after Jamestown. They are not amused about the 'illegals' anymore than you or I. Governor Martinez comes from the southern portion, thus the friction with the Trump.
[Wash Times] The ugly protest scenes outside Donald Trump’s rallies are doing more damage to the protesters than to Mr. Trump’s political chances, according to analysts who say the violence and anti-American sentiments are backfiring.
Protesters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last week toted Mexican flags, burned American flags and clashed with police, racking up $50,000 in damage to the neighborhood.
Perhaps even worse for the rioters, they are likely chasing undecided voters toward the side of the man they are protesting.
"When people show up throwing bottles and waving the Mexican flag, you have had a lot of people who may have not been willing to support Trump who see this and say the enemy of my enemy is my friend," said former Rep. Tom Davis, who ran House Republicans’ campaign committee for two cycles a decade ago. "There is no question these are helping Trump, and Democrats know that."
The billionaire businessman’s stern calls to tighten border controls, his vow to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and his declaration that Mexican society is sending "rapists" and other bad elements to the U.S. have angered Hispanic activists, who view Mr. Trump’s campaign as a tipping point in politics.
#2
if this is truly driving voters to Trump, it will all of a sudden disappear from the dominant liberal media.
Disagree. The narrative says Trump is such an evil, nasty person that he is driving normally decent people to acts of third-world violence and savagery. And riots make for good TV.
Besides, no one we know is voting for The Donald anyway. Right, Pauline?
"The Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action." It also states: "Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country."
One set of rules for me, another set of rules for thee.
"Middle-class white folks" and "working class whites" are "culturally under assault," said Pat Buchanan on Saturday, speaking with left-wing CNN’s Michael Smerconish on the anchor's eponymous show. 'Cultural assault?' Well yes, but only for the past 50 years or so.
Speaking about an article he published last Thursday, Buchanan headline "The Great White Hope" described Donald Trump as appealing to the aforementioned whites as he said President Barack Obama appeals to blacks.
"Are the good times really over?" was being answered in the affirmative by disillusioned white voters, aid Buchanan.
Pointing to Trump’s record-breaking volume of total votes in the Republican presidential nomination process, Buchanan said the majority of the increase was driven by the whites he identified.
"Nationalism and populism," aid Buchanan, were primary drivers of Trump’s base of white supporters.
"Are you helping or hurting [Trump] when you cast his campaign in those terms?" asked Smerconish about the racial element of Buchanan’s analysis, a question not asked of Democrat appeals to racial, ethnic, gender, and other identity politics.
#4
Though it is fair to post this article after JosephMendiola referenced it.
The bigger point, it seems to me, is that the things that made America great are not encoded in a single race or any other particular group, but are available to anyone willing to be law-abiding, tolerant, frugal, hard-working, independent, and creative in their approach to problem solving. Mr. Trump cannot save the white race -- which to Mr. Buchanan preferably would not include people of my faith despite the colour of my skin, or JosephM's, either -- without saving the culture that makes race completely irrelevant.
A typically wordy David Horowitz criticism of Bill Kristol and his diehards... Sounds like a 60s era pop band.
Over the Memorial Day Weekend, Bill Kristol doubled down on his betrayal of this country with a pair of tweets:
“Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate — an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance,” Kristol tweeted.
He also said, “Those accused of betraying GOP by opposing Trump can take heart from P. Henry 251 years ago today: ‘If this be treason, make the most of it!’”
This fatuous invocation of an American patriot to justify the betrayal typifies the arrogant disregard for political realities shared by all those involved in a defection that could produce even greater disasters than the Obama era’s 400,000 deaths by jihad and 20 million refugees across the Middle East.
A week earlier, a “Never Trump” diatribe appeared in National Review, written by Charles Murray. To summarize why “Trump is unfit outside the normal parameters” to be president, Murray cited these words by NY Times columnist David Brooks:
Donald Trump is epically unprepared to be president. He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. His vast narcissism makes him a closed fortress. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and he’s uninterested in finding out. He insults the office Abraham Lincoln once occupied by running for it with less preparation than most of us would undertake to buy a sofa … He is a childish man running for a job that requires maturity. He is an insecure boasting little boy whose desires were somehow arrested at age 12.
This is a perfect instance of “Trump derangement syndrome,” the underlying animus that motivates Kristol and his destructive cohorts. Dismissing Trump as an ignoramus and a stunted twelve-year-old is the stuff of schoolyard put-downs, not a serious critique of someone with Trump’s considerable achievements. Yet this is typical of Trump’s diehard opponents on the right. Is Trump more unprepared than Barack Obama whose qualification for the presidency was a lifetime career as a left-wing agitator? And how did that work out? Despite the lacunae in his executive resume, Obama is now regarded as “one of the most consequential presidents in American history” by reasonably qualified experts.
Can Trump be reasonably criticized, and is he something of a loose cannon? Of course he can, and yes he is. But criticisms that focus exclusively on the candidate miss the larger reality of this election, which is not merely a contest between two candidates but a clash between two parties and constituencies with radically differing views of what this country is and should be about, and even more importantly about the threats we face and how to deal with them.
Obama’s most consequential domestic legislation is the Affordable Care Act, which he had no part in writing. It was the work of left-wing think tanks and the congressional Democrats. So it will be with Trump, which is why all the blather about his vagueness or impracticality on policy issues is beside the point. Will he build a wall the length of the Mexican border? Probably not. But will he secure the border? Probably so. Will a Democrat — whether Hillary, Bernie, or Joe Biden — secure our borders and stop the flow of illegal immigrants, criminals, and terrorists? Certainly not. In addition to their decades-long war for amnesties and open boarders, Democrats are responsible for the more than 350 “Sanctuary Cities” that openly defy federal law and provide safe havens for those same illegal immigrants, criminals, and terrorists.
Open borders, Sanctuary Cities, importing unvetted Muslim refugees from the Middle East are but the tip of the iceberg in assessing the threat that the Democratic Party and its candidate (whoever it is) pose to America’s national security. For twenty-three years since the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the Democratic Party has been the party of appeasement and retreat in the holy war that fanatical Muslims have declared on us. The first bombing of the World Trade Center misfired but still killed six people and wounded 1,000 others. Clinton never visited the site while his administration insisted on treating it as a criminal act by individuals who needed to be tried in criminal courts, an attitude that would culminate in Barack Obama’s refusal to recognize that we were in a war at all, and certainly not one with fanatical Muslims. To a man and woman, the Democratic Party’s elected officials continue to participate in and support this denial. More at the link
not to Mr Trump, but to all the registered Trunks you and yours chided, coerced, and demanded vote for losers like Dole, McCain, Romney, et al. All those back stabs to Sara Palin, backing and funding a senile Senator over a Tea Party alternative, and delivering Boehner V.2.
#3
Donald Trump Baraq Obama is epically unprepared to be president. He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. His vast narcissism makes him a closed fortress. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and he’s uninterested in finding out. He insults the office Abraham Lincoln once occupied by running for it with less preparation than most of us would undertake to buy a sofa … He is a childish man running for a job that requires maturity. He is an insecure boasting little boy whose desires were somehow arrested at age 12.
#4
That and he'd be able to provide both a Birth Certificate AND College Transcripts, EU6305.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/31/2016 15:32 Comments ||
Top||
#5
In Defense of Krystol, he must *REALLY* believe Trump is the devil because he's tearing down National Review's credibility to the point I find it hard to believe they'll be around in a year or two.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
“There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.” 
[Wash Times] The ugly protest scenes outside Donald Trump’s rallies are doing more damage to the protesters than to Mr. Trump’s political chances, according to analysts who say the violence and anti-American sentiments are backfiring.
"Middle-class white folks" and "working class whites" are "culturally under assault," said Pat Buchanan on Saturday, speaking with left-wing CNN’s Michael Smerconish on the anchor's eponymous show.
In other news: Colonel Baden Powell announces 'Siege has ended, Mafeking has been relieved.' 
