I informed you thusly!
Peter Navarro is the Natalie Harp of Trump economists:
[Though it’s just anecdotes from books, they’re worth considering for how probable they actually seem.]
A Team of Rivals Soulless Ass-Kissers
[Maybe Doris Kearns Goodwin’s next title?]
Whew, that’s a relief! I mean, it’s not like Trump’s instincts on COVID–it’s no big deal and will magically go away.*
*I realize Trump’s actual instincts on COVID were to treat it as a public relations disaster for him personally, and not the global public health disaster it was. But we’ve covered that ground in other threads.
Although, thinking about this, it’s like this could be an economic pandemic–experts ignored, bad policies, gaslighting, trying to monitor and interpret incomplete real-time data, spreading global effects, uncertain outcomes.
Some MAGAs seem to think the virus was a hoax, or a Chinese plot to make Trump look bad, etc. Maybe those people didn’t know anyone who died of COVID or didn’t get infected themselves. I somehow suspect even MAGAs will feel this in their wallet. Of course, this will be blamed on Democrats/Biden/Soros, along the lines of “He [Biden] made me [Trump] do it!”
It’s both a hoax that killed no one and biological warfare created by Fauci; either way, it’s cured by ivermectin, a drug sold by big Pharma that you take to show big Pharma that you have seen through their tricks
See here for similar logic:
“Thanagar’s champion, Hawkman can talk to birds. He also can’t talk to birds. Sometimes, he can’t even speak normally at all! Even if he could talk normally, or to birds, there are no birds on Thanagar, because it does not exist. Hawkman was sent here to study Earthly police methods, because Thanagar’s own methods suck! That’s OK though, because Thanagar still does not exist! Yet it is populated by peaceful barbarians! Who are stupid, and also warlike!”
One interesting thing: Navarro sent memos to the NSC and to Trump about COVID. In the memos, Navarro predicted serious harm and horrible numbers, suggesting big $ appropriation quickly:
Navarro memos warning of mass coronavirus death circulated in January [2020] [Axios]
Even a blind squirrel finds a stopped clock …
Yeah, it illustrates the difference between the Trump 45 and 47 admins. Navarro realized COVID would be bad for US businesses. I’m not sure how much he cared about people. Now, he’s even more of a public yes-man. (Not that he wasn’t before. I don’t have much of an economics background and in the first term I was like “Who is this idiot?” when I saw him on TV.)
It’s all enablers now.
Compare the first and current Secretaries of Defense–Mattis was a respected 4-star USMC general and Hegseth is a 2nd-tier Fox host with a drinking problem who couldn’t run some non-profits and has “clean OPSEC” issues.
~And you know who you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could use a man like Rex Tillerson again!~
I always thought of Navarro as the guy that reporters call when they want a credentialed economist to advocate crude protectionism (as opposed to industrial policy). Interesting quote by @Ann_Hedonia : I’m guessing that Navarro is simply stating the current within-administration consensus: if Trump wants an opinion, he will tell it to you.
I put Hastert in that bin.
Outside of the administration, there are plenty of conservative economists, but they have difficulty in the GOP, which isn’t especially interested. Kings don’t need philosophers except as window dressing. Democratic administrations are different: Obama famously appointed a team of rivals. There are some similarities - you aren’t suppose to air your disagreements publicly in Democratic administrations (though leaking is tolerated to varying degrees).
I have the sense that Treasury Secretary Bessent understands economics and that he understands the nature of his job as well as Hastert does.
Umm, ITYM “Hassett.” I don’t think even Donald Trump would touch Dennis Hastert with a ten-foot pole these days…
I think Trump’s issue would be that there was man-teenage boy pole-touching with Hastert. If it’s man-teenage girl touching like Epstein, there’s less of a problem, I would guess.
Natalie Harp sounds like a modern day Unity Mitford, who was a British socialite who became obsessed with Hitler and stalked her way into his inner circle.
When Germany declared war on England, Hitler told her and her notorious and fascist sister Diana to go back to England. Unity, who was most definitely suffering from mental illness(es), had a full blown meltdown and attempted suicide by shooting herself in the head. She tragically survived.
The story of the Mitford sisters is my favorite WWll sidebar. There is novel by Marie Benedict called *The Mitford Affair” about the Mitford sisters (who did not share political views, the youngest, Jessica was a fervent Communist) and their roles in WW2.
Mitford was, coincidentally, conceived in Canada in the town of Swastika, Ontario, where her family had gold mines.
Well damn, I’d make fun of that if it happened in fiction.
Well, when you’re named ‘Unity Valkyrie’ and your sisters are ‘Diana’ and ‘Jessica’, psychological problems are perhaps not surprising.
Fascinating story, and one about which I knew nothing. Thanks for sharing that.
Natalie Harp and …
My sense is that these are two woman at whom MTG and Lauren Boebert look and say “Cray-cray!”
Oh, no! They knew people who died, but many of them pretended it didn’t happen or there were pre-existing conditions and they were going to die anyway. My wife’s cousin, Trump supporter and anti-vaxxer, died from COVID. When we showed up to the funeral, her other idiot cousin met us in the parking lot and the first thing he said was, “Just two little shots and we probably wouldn’t be here today.” I say idiot cousin because it’s the smartest thing I’ve ever heard that man say.
My mother, Trump supporter, anti-vaxxer, retired nurse, refers to the COVID vaccine as the “kill shot” and simultaneously holds the belief that the pandemic, sorry, plandemic, wasn’t dangerous at all but somehow managed to kill people with pre-existing conditions. When my brother-in-law lost a relative to COVID, my mother couldn’t help but chime in about pre-existing conditions, so my sister had to step in and tell her to shut up.
A friend of mine lost her step-father to COVID. An ardent Trump supporter who refused to get the vaccine, he was a truck driver, an essential worker, who got COVID while on the road. I knew the family well enough to go to the funeral and nobody would discuss what killed him. They were embarrassed to even admit it was COVID.
MAGA has a tendency to bury their heads in the sand when presented with evidence contradicting what they know to be true. The “fuck your feelings” party are ruled by their own emotions.
My maga brother-in-law said he lost over $20,000 in the stock market over the past two days. “Hey the market goes down, the market comes up,” he said. “Trump knows what he’s doing.”
Yes; they are cultists. No amount of evidence is enough to change their opinions; it’s wrong, a lie, proof “The Conspiracy” is real, or just ignored. Cults are an intellectual closed system that facts don’t penetrate.
My brother lost over $1M. Made absolutely no difference to his position.
[bolding mine]
My only quibble with that statement would have to do with geography 