Another Post About Physics

The results are still coming in as I write, but it seems Donald Trump has scored another crushing victory, this time in Nevada. It is becoming increasingly apparent that his campaign is, if anything, gaining momentum, and that he will likely be the one to take the field against whichever champion the Democrats put up in November. He may very well win.

From a quick survey of Twitter, it seems this is causing a good deal of concern over on the Democratic side of things. I’ve just read a lot of incredulous remarks about fascism, racism, bigotry, Hitler, how-could-such-a-thing-actually-be-happening-in-America, and so on. (As far as I can gather, the general idea seems to be that we are nothing more than a “proposition nation of immigrants”, or something like that, and so none of this makes any sense at all.)

Come on, people. This is all as lawful, and predictable, as the sunrise. Don’t they teach you anything in school anymore? Bueller? Bueller?

Pull a great and immensely heavy pendulum as far and as high as you can, as fast as you can. (Maybe you can even get some of your Republican friends to help.) Pull and pull and pull it, until your grip fails.

This is what happens next. Duh.

14 Comments

  1. JK says

    I simply cannot understand it!

    Roger Ailes and Media-Empire Rupert Murdoch puts up a bunch of blondes (with legs) supporting “All-the-Rights” and; suddenly “Campaign 2016” goes All Screwy?!!!

    Trump! I say for POTUS – Megyn Kelly for VAPID!

    VAPORUS in 2016!

    Christ.

    And then there’s Chris Matthews – its plainly Stigmata.

    Sheesh

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 3:33 am | Permalink
  2. John says

    Democratic politics is dominated by signaling, and there is very little room for cause-and-effect analysis at a signaling party.

    I used to hope intelligent liberals would wise up and see that establishment elite policies are detrimental to their interests and defect, but I guess Bernie Sanders is their idea of doing that…sigh…

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 9:09 am | Permalink
  3. Troy says

    The idea that Trump is a racist show out of touch with reality you average leftist is. When I was growing up in the 70’s, I recall seeing dogs attacking blacks. Blacks getting fired hosed. Stories of black men being hung for the temerity of being seen with a white woman. Contrast that with you typical pussified modern version of racism where if you point of the propensity of black inner city youth for violence, stating those facts makes you a racist. What is also interesting about the left is that they have been arm and arm with republicans in the most structurally racist policy since Jim Crow: the drug war. Liberals, with Republicans have helped lock up more non-violent black men since slavery. You’d think such cognitive dissonance would somehow keep them from getting to clothes on.

    Back to Trump. Trump isn’t q racist as normal people would define the term. This is a man who has lived and worked in the most cosmopolitan city in the world: New York City. If you are a white supremecist who only want to be around fellow white people, you’d probably be quite miserable in New York City. I have little doubt that Trump has worked with more ethnicities than your average virtue signalling leftist. Trump has been in the rough and tumble New York media system for over 40 years. If he was a racist…. like a real @$@$ing racist, we’d know it by now,

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 9:44 am | Permalink
  4. Whitewall says

    “Democratic politics is dominated by signaling…”. True. First signal, they are no longer “democratic”. We on the other side mistakenly assume they still are. The Twitter aftermath of the Trump win was a kind of Rorschach test I think. Absolutely no sense of irony or whatever in view of their own two candidates.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 9:53 am | Permalink
  5. Absolutely no sense of irony …

    The list is a long one, Robert:

    * No sense of irony.
    * No sense of accountability.
    * No sense of reason.
    * No sense of nuance.
    * No sense of decency.
    * No common sense.
    * No uncommon sense.
    * A great deal of nonsense, however.
    * etc.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 1:26 pm | Permalink
  6. JK says

    I used to hope intelligent liberals would wise up and see that establishment elite policies are …

    I would humbly submit John, “the loyal opposition’s intelligentsia” has a bit of the same (well, I’m thinking my hillbilly-ways would go too long so) syndrome on its hands too.

    http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/who-hit-john

    Of course I’d be the first to admit “they’ve” something (which; on its face it would appear very much un-democratic) of a firewall in the form of their *Super* delegates. I guess we’ll see.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 2:12 pm | Permalink
  7. Pull a great and immensely heavy pendulum as far and as high as you can, as fast as you can.

    The consequences of the loss of grip, Malcolm, are independent of the speed of the pull, assuming the loss of grip occurs at the maximum extent of the pull.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 2:37 pm | Permalink
  8. Whitewall says

    Henry, at 1:26, you summed up leftism in all its unworkable glory. Yet it proceeds along like a malignant tumor.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 2:56 pm | Permalink
  9. Malcolm says

    The consequences of the loss of grip, Malcolm, are independent of the speed of the pull, assuming the loss of grip occurs at the maximum extent of the pull.

    Why yes, I know this, Henry; I’m actually quite well-informed about this sort of thing. (To be absolutely, pettifoggingly persnickety about it, your correction only applies if the pendulum is no longer moving when you let go (i.e., the end of the pull). If you still have the thing moving fast when your grip fails, its momentum will carry it a little further; it will decelerate to zero velocity at some maximum displacement greater than where it was when you let go, then begin to accelerate in the other direction. It’s the same as giving a kid a mighty push on a swing. But you know all of this, of course; I’m just nitpicking.)

    I threw in “fast” only because the Left has been moving that pendulum just as fast as they can these past few years.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 4:11 pm | Permalink
  10. I had no doubt about you being well-informed, Malcolm. But since you also prescribed “a great and immensely heavy pendulum” it seems to me that it would take a Superman to make a pull that would give the pendulum some left-over kinetic energy after he had lost his grip on it. But then again, it’s not likely that we would be telling Superman to “get a grip” :)

    You are right, of course, that the Left (especially 0bama) is moving as fast as it can to put in place as much of their poorly thought out policy as they possibly can before the pendulum reverses its course.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 5:29 pm | Permalink
  11. Incidentally, Malcolm, I suspected you might object to my comment, which is why I elected to include the proviso “assuming the loss of grip occurs at the maximum extent of the pull”. As we both know, a pendulum’s acquired potential energy only depends on the extent to which it is pulled into place, and independent of the manner in which it has been placed there.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 5:45 pm | Permalink
  12. Yes, Robert, though I’m sure my list is only the tip of the iceberg.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 6:13 pm | Permalink
  13. Malcolm says

    …which is why I elected to include the proviso “assuming the loss of grip occurs at the maximum extent of the pull”. As we both know, a pendulum’s acquired potential energy only depends on the extent to which it is pulled into place, and independent of the manner in which it has been placed there.

    Ah yes, but in my proviso (a response to your proviso), I pointed out that if you’d really got it moving it might keep going up after you stopped pulling and let go.

    I think we have now officially beaten this thing to death.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 6:38 pm | Permalink
  14. I’ll see your proviso, Malcolm, and raise you another: I have pointed out that a mere mortal like myself could not possibly budge such an “immensely heavy pendulum”. It would require the effort of a superhuman being.

    What we seemingly have here is a case of being in violent agreement over a minor aspect of classical mechanics. I regret having made my original comment.

    Posted February 24, 2016 at 7:13 pm | Permalink

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