Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
The opening paragraph of section four of the 25th amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
The 25th amendment was adopted in February, 1967, a little over three years after much of John F. Kennedy's brain was sprayed across the trunk of his limo in Dallas. The terrible event caused many to realize if JFK had somehow survived Oswald's kill shot, but been left with the mental capacity of a stewed tomato, there was no firm constitutional process in place which would allow for the transfer of power to his Vice President.
It also occurred to the same people that if someday America elected a person as President who, after assuming office, proved to be absolutely nuts there also needed to be a way to legally shuffle him, or her out of the oval office besides impeachment. After all, being bat shit crazy, or utterly incompetent isn't necessarily a high crime, or misdemeanor, but in the nuclear age both can certainly lead to untold disaster.
The second paragraph of section four deals with the procedure which would take place if some God awful power struggle were to take place between a mentally unstable President and his Vice President and cabinet. You know, a big time, reality TV version of Herman Wouk's, "The Caine Mutiny."
All of which brings us to Donald John Trump.
Politico reports in early December at least a dozen members of congress, including one republican, attended a two day meeting with Yale psychiatrist, Dr. Brandy X. Lee. The subject of the meeting was Don Trump's mental health, or lack thereof.
Lee was quoted as saying, "We feel the rush of tweeting is an indication of his falling apart under stress. Trump is going to get worse and will become uncontainable with the pressures of the presidency."
Of course, Dr. Lee didn't enter the confab without some preconceived notions. She had already edited a collection of essays written by more than 24 psychiatrists which addressed the state of Trump's mind. The title of the resulting work is, "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump."
Now we have a book from Michael Wolff which is called, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House." Wolff claims he was the fly on the wall during the early months of the Trump administration and his version of what was and may still be going on is frightening.
That's if you believe him. The Washington Post, despite bearing the brunt of much of Trump's ire, declared many of Wolff's revelations are demonstrably wrong while others are, at best, unconfirmed and, or completely unverifiable. As the Post pointed out, the last thing anybody needs in this day of alleged fake news is for someone to print absurd falsehoods about Trump and his family.
Indeed, why give Don T. an opportunity to equate The Post, CNN, and The New York Times with some crude tabloid bottom feeder who makes shit up when the truth is grotesque enough?
In fact the only truly good thing to come from Wolff's extended screed, at least at the moment, is it ignited a feud between El Don and his former pal, Steve Bannon. Wolff quoted the chubby fascist as saying Don Jr. committed a treasonous act by meeting with Russians before the election. In response Trump said of Bannon, "When he was fired he not only lost his job, he lost his mind."
Yes, well, there is a lot of that going around lately.
On Tuesday night, apparently in an effort to confirm Dr. Lee's prognosis, The Big Orange Guy tweeted, "North Korean leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the "Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times." Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is much bigger and more powerful than his, & my button works!"
Congressman Eric Swalwell, D-CA said of the tweet, "...this is not normal behavior." Former George W. Bush aid, Richard Painter went on social media and wrote, "This Tweet alone is grounds for removal from office under the 25th amendment. This man should not have nukes."
Today the White House issued a statement which said any questioning of the President's mental health is, "disgraceful."
Right. No matter what, when it comes to the presidency we must never tarnish the office by saying, or writing something on Twitter that is disgraceful. That privilege is strictly reserved for the President.
The terrible truth is the 25th amendment only works if people like Mike Pence, Rex Tillerson, Jim Mattis, Steve Mnuchin, Jeff Sessions, Rick Perry, and Ben fucking Carson, or a republican congress decide to pull the plug on Donald Trump. Even if all those fucks had the inclination and guts--and they don't possess either--the trailer park Nazis who make up the Trump base would consider it an illegal coup and the republic might come apart at the seams in the aftermath.
No, we're stuck with this psycho-narcissistic-man-child-beast. At this point I'm just trying to convince myself we don't deserve him.
Unfortunately, I'm losing that argument.
sic vita est
1-4-18
Oh, we deserve him, all right. At least, those that voted for him do.
ReplyDelete