How is it possible for this thing to be triggered automatically and at the same time impossible to untrigger?

Mr. President, it is not only possible, it is essential, that is the whole idea of this machine, you know.

The talents is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy, the fear to attack.

And so because of the automated and irrevocable decision-making process, which rose out human meddling,

the Doomsday machine is terrifying, is it simple to understand?

I'm completely credible and convinced.

That's the famous scene from the 1964 Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove,

in which the mad doctor explains to the American president the workings of the Doomsday machine,

triggered to automatically destroy the world in the event of a nuclear attack.

It was cinematic satire at its finest, capturing the absurdities of the Cold War era nuclear arms race.

Now, a new novel, Make Russia Great Again, by acclaimed satirist Christopher Buckley,

imagines a modern-day version of the Doomsday machine called Placid Reflex,

a computer program created by US intelligence that automatically attacks a Russian election

as retaliation for the Kremlin's interference in America's 2016 election.

In Buckley's version, the onslaught by Placid reflux, triggers a crisis in US relations

during which a furious American president named Donald J. Trump is desperate to do anything he can

to malify his dear friend Vladimir Putin.

We'll talk to Buckley about the challenges of writing satire during a Trump presidency

and we'll talk to slate legal analyst Dalia Lithwick about the Supreme Court's landmark rulings this week

about access to Trump's tax returns on this episode of Skull Duggery.

Because people have got to know whether or not they're president of Sikrup,

but I'm not a corrupt.

...