Slashdot Mirror
Donald Trump's 'Nuclear' Uncle (newyorker.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
In 1936 a reporter watched Donald Trump's uncle John, an MIT professor of engineering, as he was struck by two high-voltage sparks while demonstrating the grounding of an new X-ray machine which could generate a million volts of power. And immediately after Nikola Tesla's death in 1943, the FBI called John G. Trump to review the scientific papers Tesla left behind, according to a new article in The New Yorker. They joke that now John's nephew Donald "seldom sounds as ungrounded as when he invokes Professor Trump, the younger brother of his father, Fred," while campaigning for president. But while comparing the candidate's statements to the historical record, they conclude that "John Trump really does seem to have been a brilliant scientist," noting that he performed both radar and short-wave research for the allies during World War II and helped design medical X-ray machines.
Before the replies about it come in, you do realize the point of posting this on the slashdot front page was to get page views as people ranting about Trump and the political flame wars that follow.
At no point did anyone involved in posting this story actually give a fuck that Fred Trump was a major asset to our species. Lets remember where we are and stay focused.
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Can we please stop with the submissions that contain anti-Trump insults disguised as "jokes"? There was just one a few hours ago, for crying out loud!
Look, I don't support Donald Trump, and I don't particularly like his policies. But the last thing I want to read when I come to Slashdot is some snide swipe at him.
He clearly represents the views held by a lot of Americans, perhaps even the majority of them, even if they can't come out and admit this publicly. He will likely be the next president.
If it weren't for that pathetic, childish jab at Donald Trump, this would be a really interesting submission about a very interesting scientific figure from history. But that stupid partisan attack ruins the submission.
Please, Slashdot, can we stop with this nonsense? Can we have objective submissions that aren't peppered with anti-Trump messages?
What's really sad is that now you don't have "opponents", you have "enemies".
Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill were two men with diametrically opposed beliefs and politics, but they did not hate each other. They were opponents, not enemies. They respected each other and were friendly, though not really the "friends" that some people see in the glow of nostalgia. They both believed in doing the best thing for the country and each knew that's what the other was trying to do too. They just had opposing views of what was best.
That doesn't happen today. People seem to believe that things are a zero-sum game where the only way they can profit is to take from you and the that only way you can profit is to take from them. If they won, then you lost. Nothing is a Win-Win. You must crush your enemy. (And probably drive them before you so you can hear the lamentations of their women.)
When asked about what "enemies" she'd made in her political carrier that she was proud of, one of Hillary's answers was "the Republicans." (The Republicans aren't much better, unfortunately.) Now why on Earth should anyone who considers themself a Republican have any trust in or respect for someone who says that you and they are "enemies"? Even crazy Uncle Joe [Biden] doesn't consider Republicans as "enemies" (though I doubt they're the "friends" he claims they are).
Yeah? How about this?
.They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. They're high school drop outs and white supremacists. And some, I assume, are good people.
When America sends its people to become Trump supporters, they’re not sending their best. . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
Trump is surely a very intelligent person.
I don't know about this.
Scott Adams seems to think Trump is a "master persuader" and I do agree he seems to have some genuine talent to appeal to his base that other candidates lack but I don't think it's necessarily intelligence.
I really think the core of his appeal is just saying the first thing that comes to mind and not care about offending people. That's why he's able to come up with memorable insults (or uncommon yet popular policy positions), it's because he's saying the things everyone has noticed but hasn't said out of politeness or practicality. I think the reason we haven't seen other people use this strategy is the problem he's hitting now. Offending so many people creates a ceiling of support and it's really tough for him to get more votes (or have a future in politics if that were his career).
As for his intellect in general, I think he's at least average intelligence, he did get a university degree and probably became pretty competent in real estate and some aspects of business, but otherwise I don't see any evidence of high intelligence, especially not in what he says.
The fact he shares 25% of his genes with a smart physicist is an interesting tidbit, though it doesn't really mean he's smart himself.
I stole this Sig