Here I am late at night still in front of my computer.  I just finished teaching an online class.  However, I'm now writing an article about the Donald.  What a delight.  In a couple of months, I'll have to find something else about which to go off.  In the meantime, the Donald is still around.  He is the leader of the pack of some Republicans.  What rattles me is he leads by resorting to appealing to what a minority of Americans think.  He isn't leading but merely mouthing mistaken notions of the radical right.  His appeal is to talk about making America first.  In reality, what he is really saying is Me First.  I get that.

While I rant on about the Donald, I was interested in what, arguably the smartest person in the world, Stephen Hawking thinks of Trump.  So I went to the Internet and looked it up.

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist and has written A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell On The Shoulders of Giants God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History, The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of: The Most Astounding Papers of Quantum Physics, and How They Shook the Scientific World, My Brief History, The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe and co-authored nearly a dozen more books.  Additionally, he has won twice that number of internationally recognized awards for his insights into the universe. 

Therefore, if Hawking is able to understand nearly everything in the universe, he should be able to explain the Donald.  Nevertheless, he admitted that he couldn't explain the Donald.  Hawking was able to simply sum up Trump in a simple sentence, "He's a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator."

The demagogue, Donald

It is interesting that Hawking used the word demagogue, which comes from the Greek word dēmagōgos.  The word is the combination of dēmos, which means the people and agōgos, which means leading.  A demagogue originally meant a leader of the people. 

Over the centuries, demagogue's meaning morphed into an extremely negative term meaning malevolent, racist, manipulative, xenophobic, and bigoted.  Hawking is correct.  Look at a handful of demagogue comments by the Donald.

This is the Donald's sexist comment about Megyn Kelly.

This is the Donald's comment about John McCain.

This is the Donald's comment dissing New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez.

This is the Donald's comment on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel.

This is the Donald's comment about building a wall between Mexico.

This is the Donald's comment about banning all Muslims entering from the US.

This is the Donald's comment about his African-American.

This is the Donald's comment about surveillance of Muslims and mosques.

Then the Donald goes to Scotland to open his new golf course during his presidential campaign.  When asked about the UK's vote to leave the EU, his response was that it would help his golf course, a weak pound would increase those visiting it.  That is clearly a Me First statement.  What the people in the UK are worrying about is their losing a large chunk of their total worth as individuals and as a nation due to the devalued pound as a result of leaving the EU.  Additionally, the decline in the value of the pound will cause ripple effects upon the rest of the economies of the world.  However, the Donald could see the bright side of economic quagmire; it will help his investment in his golf course in Scotland. 

Then the Donald went off on talking about the UK's voting to leave the EU...in Scotland.

The Brexit vote

Scotland was the only part of the UK that in every voting district voted to remain in the EU by an average 62% and as high as 74% in Edinburgh.  England voted 46% to remain in the EU.  The Donald will talk off the cuff about anything, even he doesn't know about what he is talking.  He offended the vast majority of all the Scots.  They didn't want to leave the EU.  The Donald is not Stephen Hawking.

I also am not Stephen Hawking.  However, while watching the Brexit vote come in, I was surprised.  I thought that the vote would be close, but the UK would remain.  When it became apparent that the UK would leave, my next thought was that Scotland would have another vote to leave the UK.  And guess what?

The Scottish Parliament will revisit the 2014 referendum to leave the UK and stay in the EU.  It should be noted that Northern Ireland voted 56% to remain in the EU along with Scotland.  My guess is that they will vote either to leave the UK and/or finalize the talks about reuniting with Ireland.  It won't be long before the UK will have dwindled down to Wales and England.  At one time, it was once a vast empire.

This once was the British Empire

Donald the Dumb

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Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does."

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07/25/16