Between President Trump's ominous Tweets about the calm before the storm, and this one that just showed up: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/10/07/donald-trump-north-korea-tweetshowed up: s/743135001/ , don't we have enough to invoke the 25th amendment by now? Seriously, please! The guy is going to end up with millions getting killed, he's just as crazy as the Vegas shooter. Does anyone among the readers know what has to happen for the 25h amendment to be invoked; or do we actually have to fall off the cliff first?
My guess is that we'll fall off the cliff. If we haven't wised up by now, I don't think we are likely to.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are making only oblique criticisms in public. In private, I suspect they are afraid of pissing of Trump's before the 2018 elections. If Trump voters put them over the top in reelection bids in 2018, they'll be forced to maintain the fiction that the president is competent and sane.
Few Democrats are putting up a fight. If it looks like they might be sharpening their teeth, Trump throws them off scent by sweet talking them about DACA or some other program. So they make nice. Trump reneges on DACA, and Chuck and Nancy are wondering wha' happen???
The only hope I have is with the satirists. Trump may be goaded by laughter enough to go so far that even that gutless wonder Pence will step in.
Late night TV hosts and Alec Baldwin may be our finest patriots right now.
*pissing off Trump's base
ReplyDeleteBad enough he's a clown president, but a wartime leader? Would a bone spur make him resign? I think Chris Hedges' recent prediction that the empire has 10 to 20 years may be true, but how many will be hurt and killed by the thrashing of its death throes?
ReplyDeleteI think you need a two thirds majority of congress to agree Trump's incompetent for the 25th amendment to work . I don't think the Repubs would do that. I am really worried about us getting nuked - probably CA would be the first strike. I keep hoping Mueller will find something criminal Trump has done that merits him being jailed, not impeached.
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DeleteApplying the 25th is hard and there is no precedent. Essentially, the vice president and "a majority of the principal officers of the Executive Department"-- presumably the Cabinet -- have to certify to Congress that the POTUS has gone around the bend. At that point, the VP takes over, but as soon as the president says he is fine (in our current case, immediately), he is back in business, in which case if the VP and Cabinet want to fight on, they have four days to say "No, we mean it." Then Congress has about three weeks -- with the President in office -- to decide who is right. Of course, a lot of the current Cabinet members have already done things for which they are expecting a presidential pardon, so that trigger is unlikely to be pulled in the first place.
DeleteImpeachment is better. But he has already racked up a handful of matters over which a Congress not led by Ryan and McConnell might have acted. I mean, when you think that Paul Ryan and/or Beauregard Jefferson Sessions III may have to lift a finger to save the country you despair.
Crystal, I think you're right that something undeniably criminal is the best bet for getting rid of him. Impeachment would still require a two thirds majority, I believe. I think Mueller might be getting close to something because it seems like Trump is trying desperately to distract attention from the investigation.
ReplyDeleteStroke, heart attack ... those might get him gone, though presidents have suffered these events in the past and stayed in. If he is linked to criminal activity, it would be up to the Republicans to persuade him to quit rather than drag things out by impeachment. He doesn't listen to anyone, so it would be a long haul.
ReplyDeleteMeantime the TV and radio commentators are predicting Rex Tillerson's departure at State. He has made a hash of the department, but at least he was trying to talk to NK. Trump said that was a waste of time and is now making comments about "the calm before the storm," so things are about to get weird.
Meantime, Trump wants to defund subsidies for the ACA, CHIPs has been defunded, emergency efforts to Puerto Rico are slowed and distracted by TrumpRants, third major hurricane has hit the U.S. as the global-warming-is-a-hoax contingent is ascendant, the nuclear deal with Iran is in jeopardy, a tax cut that will likely damage the middle class and poor is in the table. I need not go on.
We are already in a world of hurt.
The stage was set by the previous dummy who Trump makes look smart. George Bush included NK in the axis-of-evil triad, one of which he destroyed and the dictator was hung. Then Libya during the Nobel Peace prize-winning presidency and Qaddafi was shot like a dog. No wonder the pudgy nerd thinks he needs a nuclear arsenal. He does.
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