Πολ Κρούγκμαν : A petulant, violent and deranged individual is running America/Ένα οξύθυμο, βίαιο και διαταραγμένο άτομο κυβερνά την Αμερική!
Ο Πολ Κρούγκμαν στο κείμενο που αντλούμε από την ιστοσελίδα του και το οποίο έχει κανει μεγάλη αίσθηση χρησιμοποιεί τον όρο “sundowning” (μια κατάσταση κατά την οποία κάποιος —συνήθως με άνοια— γίνεται πιο μπερδεμένος, επιθετικός και αποσυνδεδεμένος από την πραγματικότητα καθώς πέφτει το σκοτάδι), για να περιγράψει μεταφορικά τη νοητική και ψυχοσυναισθηματική κατάσταση του προέδρου των ΗΠΑ.
Λέει ότι , όταν βλέπεις κάποιον που αγαπάς να υποφέρει από sundowning , είναι τραγικό — αλλά είναι εντελώς διαφορετικό όταν αυτό φαίνεται να συμβαίνει σε έναν πρόεδρο, που περιβάλλεται από ανθρώπους που επαυξάνουν την παραίσθηση και τις καταστροφικές παρορμήσεις του.
Παραθέτει μια πρόσφατη επιστολή που έστειλε ο Ντόναλντ Τραμπ στον πρωθυπουργό της Νορβηγίας, η οποία δείχνει —σύμφωνα με τον Κρούγκμαν— αποσύνδεση από την πραγματικότητα και ακραίες ιδέες, όπως απαίτηση του ελέγχου της Γροιλανδίας.
Τέλος, τονίζει ότι δεν είναι μόνο ο ίδιος ο Τραμπ που φέρει ευθύνη αλλά και οι συνεργάτες -υποστηρικτές, που γνωρίζουν ότι κάτι δεν πάει καλά με αυτόν τον άνθρωπο , αλλά συνεχίζουν να τον στηρίζουν.
GerontakosIt’s Sundowning in America
A short post. Today doesn’t seem like a day for charts and number-crunching.
I had never heard the term “sundowning” before it happened to my own father, yet it’s a fairly common syndrome. In his last few months my father remained lucid and rational — remained himself — during daylight hours. Once the sun went down he deteriorated, becoming confused, paranoid and aggressive.
It’s terrible to watch sundowning in someone you love. But that’s a personal tragedy – not a national or global one. It’s an entirely different matter when the president of the United States is sundowning — a president surrounded by malign sycophants who tell him whatever he wants to hear and indulge his every whim, no matter how destructive.
For good reasons, it’s normally bad practice to pronounce on someone’s mental health from afar. Some of us still remember when right-wing pundits liked to call anyone critical of George W. Bush mentally ill. But after reading the letter that Trump just sent to the prime minister of Norway (Jonas Gahr Støre has confirmed that it’s genuine) there should be no doubt that we have a president who is suffering a real detachment from reality:
Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.
Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.
I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland. Thank you! President DJT
This might not exactly be sundowning, since it’s not clear that Trump is lucid and rational at any time of the day. What is incontrovertible is that he’s deeply unwell and rapidly getting sicker.
In fact, Trump is so deeply unwell that it’s time to stop blaming him for all the terrible things he’s doing. He is what he is. Responsibility for the catastrophe overtaking America now rests with his enablers — people who have to know that he’s a sick man but continue to support his depredations.
Some of these enablers are monsters themselves. For example, Stephen Miller, Trump’s immigration czar and the architect of his violent ethnic cleansing policies, is clearly a fanatic who is using Trump to achieve his own fascist goals.
However, many of Trump’s enablers aren’t fanatics, just amoral opportunists. Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, clearly understands how destructive Trump’s actions are, evidenced by the fact that he has at times tried to tone them down. But for some inexplicable reason, Bessent has decided to sell his soul to Trump.
And then there are those who revel in the reflected glory, who are such utter narcissists that they’re willing to destroy this country in return for the limelight and perks. In that camp we can find Pete Hegseth with his Pentagon makeup studio, who is purging the finest officers in the military; Kristi Noem with her Barbie-in-a-10-gallon-hat act, who positively gushes while calling a murdered mother a terrorist; and Kash Patel, who thinks its fine to fly on an FBI jet to watch his girlfriend sing while overseeing the debasement and corruption of the FBI.
And what can we say about the cowardly Republicans in Congress, who are still sustaining Trump even though many of them – perhaps most of them – are privately appalled by his behavior? It would take just eight of these people — four Republican senators and four Republican House members — to switch sides and caucus with the Democrats to end G.O.P. control of Congress and eliminate much of Trump’s power. But taking such a step would mean risking Trump’s wrath by standing up and acting like patriots, rather than knuckling down and averting their eyes as Trump descends into madness.
How did a great, sophisticated nation, one of the world’s longest-standing republics, end up so fragile that it can be undone by one man’s dementia? That’s an important question, the answer to which I believe lies in the straight line from Bush vs Gore and the Roberts Supreme Court, to January 6th, to the execution of Renee Good. However, what’s more important is that we realize where we are right now, that we don’t try to sugarcoat and sanewash what’s happening: A petulant, violent and deranged individual is running America.
Paul R. Krugman
Ο Paul R. Krugman είναι καθηγητής οικονομικής στο Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center), ενώ έχει διατελέσει καθηγητής στο MIT και στο Princeton University. Έχει πολυάριθμες δημοσιεύσεις σε επιστημονικά περιοδικά και, ως αρθρογράφος στους New York Times, έχει συμβάλει στον δημόσιο διάλογο για οικονομικά θέματα. Είναι συγγραφέας 20 και πλέον εξαιρετικά επιτυχημένων βιβλίων. Έχει διακριθεί στο πεδίο της οικονομικής για την καινοτόμο εργασία του σχετικά με το διεθνές εμπόριο, η οποία έχει ανατρέψει τις παραδοσιακές θεωρίες για την παγκόσμια οικονομία. Για την παραπάνω εργασία του τιμήθηκε με το Νομπέλ Οικονομίας το 2008.
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