TDS affects even the true believers
When ultra conservative Jeff Sessions turned out to be insufficiently loyal to Trump, he was replaced with a true believer—Bill Barr.
Yet according to the National Review, even Bill Barr is now suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome:
In pre-recorded testimony played during Monday’s hearing, Barr discussed a report touted by Trump in the wake of the election purporting to show problems with voting machines made by Dominion.
“I was somewhat demoralized because I thought, boy, if he really believes this stuff he has, you know, lost contact with—become detached from reality,” Barr told the committee.
Barr said later in his testimony that he would inform Trump of “how crazy some of these allegations were,” that Trump did not appear interested in the facts of the matter.
Lost touch with reality . . .
2025 favorite . . .
finger . . .
nuclear button . . .
Tags:
13. June 2022 at 11:56
No point in cynicism. GOP might elect DeSantis. Who knows? Like if you said at this time in Obama last term Trump would be president most people would have laughed you out of the room. The NYT, before switching to its fascist takeover narrative, dismissed it as a joke.
Things can change quickly.
13. June 2022 at 13:55
“To know him is to loathe him”
13. June 2022 at 14:31
Always interesting that you seem to be more afraid of Trump than, say, the nuclear threat by Putin or Xi.
Even if Trump would give the order, he does not decide alone, the American generals must participate — and they do not participate if there is no clear rationality behind it, and there really isn’t.
I wouldn’t be so sure about Putin though. Those who had illusions now know that the Russian generalship even carries out Putin’s criminal orders in Ukraine without relevant resistance. Even the largest nuclear power plants were temporarily not safe.
And Xi’s security apparatus seems to carry out Xi’s orders without hesitation as well, no matter how absurd and cruel the orders are, see Uyghurs, see Zero Covid.
13. June 2022 at 15:41
“Even the largest nuclear power plants were temporarily not safe.”
There isn’t a safety risk to the public if a nuclear reactor is shelled.
13. June 2022 at 15:59
Christian, Name one blogger who has spent more time warning about the nuclear threat from Russia. You really are an idiot.
13. June 2022 at 17:03
Todd, I guess details depend on reactor design.
In any case, the Russians ordered their clueless grunts to dig up the contaminated soil around the exploded Chernobyl reactors. Many of those boys got radiation sickness foe their troubles.
The Russian occupation also interfered with the engineers running the power plants. Which might have been a bigger danger than any shelling.
13. June 2022 at 19:03
There is simply no way that Ukraine nuclear reactors, if under attack, can pose a health risk to the public and only a very low risk to workers there.
14. June 2022 at 09:40
it sounds simple, but maybe not
most reactors have a containment wall(s) that are intended to keep the bad stuff and the good stuff out. in normal operations, workers have a lot risk with it being whole. it attacked, unless some one really careful (i.e. not Russia), they might incentivized to a) not shoot a hole in the containment B might actually be able do so.
and when (or if) the containment is breached, much bad stuff will get out
14. June 2022 at 10:00
Scott,
I readily admit, and have admitted several times, that you have been part of the “Romney” group that correctly predicted since at least 2012 that Putin’s Russia remains an immense danger to the US and to world peace.
That’s to your credit, although of course there’s the unpleasant backstory in your case that you like to take this threat to basically downplay the danger from CCP China. It’s a bold bet that basically relies on CCP China not making an idiot of itself and starting an insane ideological war over a small island — a scenario, however, that is unfortunately becoming more and more unlikely. So really, a bold bet. We all hope you’re right, but can’t see how you will be right. Hope dies last, I guess. So let’s keep on hoping.
However, what I will NOT admit is that since 2012 you have predicted that Putin is basically a fascist, an emotionally unstable person, an ideologue who really has his finger on the nuclear button, and who really has the power to push that button, and where there is also a real danger that the military will follow him, as they are now following him in Ukraine. I can’t admit all this because you never really wrote anything like that. You only wrote and write something like that about Trump.
The obvious problem here ist that the crazy Trump situation is not the same as the crazy Putin situation. The questions about Trump and the button have even been played out several times in the American media. The military would not follow him, that has been discussed several times. Yet, of course, you make these TDS posts playing with that; while from 2016 to 2021 (even 2022) there is certainly not a single post of yours playing with really “crazy” Putin having his finger over the button, even though by now we know for sure that this scenario more likely.
Given that, the multitude of entries (and non-entries) in your blog(s) about those topics do not match reality. There’s A LOT of “crazy Trump” posts between 2016-2022, and not really that many “crazy Putin” posts between 2009 and now, if any.
14. June 2022 at 11:55
Christian, More lies and still more lies.
“It’s a bold bet that basically relies on CCP China not making an idiot of itself and starting an insane ideological war over a small island”
I’ve probably warned at least 10 times that there is a danger that China will attack Taiwan. I’ve criticized Xi Jinping dozens of times.
Stop lying.
“I can’t admit all this because you never really wrote anything like that.”
I have pointed out that the biggest danger of a nuclear war comes from Russia, not China. Whether I use the specific term “crazy” is utterly immaterial. Just at Econlog, I have 25 posts discussing Putin—all critical.
In any case it’s childish to respond to an accurate post criticizing Trump by claiming I ought to be blogging on something entirely different. It’s my blog, and I’ll discuss whatever I want. Stick to the subject.
14. June 2022 at 15:15
I agree that Putin is far more likely to drop a nuclear bomb than Xi. Xi faces greater constraints both institutional and, I believe, personal. Regarding Trump, I see him as a threat to many of our institutions and norms but I don’t think of him as a nuclear bomb dropper. Then again, the only world leader who has ever dropped a nuclear bomb on on people was a man of integrity who respected our institutions. And he did it twice. Go figure.
15. June 2022 at 08:25
Carl, I certainly agree that Trump is unlikely to drop a nuke. The main problem with Trump is that he’d like to abolish democracy in America and replace it with a dictatorship. How do I know that? He already tried.
I am amused when Trumpistas (not you) claim that Trump’s no danger because the bureaucracy won’t let him get his way. When I point out that Trump didn’t do the things he promised to do during his first term, they then whine about the “deep state”.
16. June 2022 at 05:11
I thought I remembered this blog being about economics, not politics.