A threat of war with Venezuela huh? Know where that came from? From cable TV reports today (Aug. 11) about Venezuelan dictator Maduro addressing Trump.
Really, all the commentary, all the media examination, all the politicians parsing answers avoids the obvious doesn’t it?
People with the megaphone of media access have to start saying out loud what they know is by now clear to most sensible people.
The president of the United States is a seriously disturbed man. Will, in the end, this result in his removal from the office? There is of course impeachment for what the Constitution calls “high crimes and misdemeanors”, which would appear for the moment to be in the hands of the special prosecutor. Then, there is the 25th Amendment.
Supposedly on vacation Trump spends his days drawing the world’s attention to himself because he cannot live without it. How is he doing this on his “vacation” out there in Bedminister in one of his agoraphobic castles or on his agoraphobia pathways moving between them? By saying a lot of really stupid things, by demonstrating ignorance of the most fundamental facts of history, foreign affairs and domestic governance, by boasting, bragging, lying as ever and always, and for a clincher implicitly threatening nuclear war.
There’s no duck and cover from crazy.
Fact is, according to a little research the U.S. has 6,800 nuclear warheads of which 1,800 are said to be actively deployed.
A president does not talk like this, does not refer explicitly or implicitly to our nation’s arsenal of destruction except to assure us of its stability and protection and responsibly examine ways with Russia for bilateral reductions (they have 7,000). Never can a president suggest nuclear weapons use. Never, not once — much less three days running.
It’s hardly amusing even from this source, it’s beyond stupid, beyond out of bounds. It is crazy — and everyone in Washington knows it: All of them, no matter their own politics know this. Even some of his hatted haters must know it.
We are supposed to know, indeed everything we know about the traditions of our military leadership tell us the answer — that if ordered to do so by the president they would carry out a nuclear use order. But can anyone really known what the Joint Chiefs of Staff would say or do if he actually orders the use of one or more of those 1,800 available nuclear warheads in the present circumstance?
Would they actually carry out such an order? Or would they report the fact of the order to the vice president and the leadership of the House and Senate, triggering that constitutional crisis so many have warned we may be heading for?
If they so acted, it would become the kind of constitutional crisis for which the 25th Amendment provides an exit presently guarded by Utah Senator and President Pro Tempore of the Senate Orin Hatch and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (see text below).
Still, any remote chance it would trigger much less succeed would require agreement by at least one quarter of the Republicans in Congress. Chances of that? Mainly though it would be in the hands of Senate Majority Leader McConnell.
Well, what does the 25th Amendments say, what are its instructions to remove, temporarily or permanently, a deranged president. The 25th Amendment has four sections of which, as the lawyers say, the pertinent part is Section 4. Here it is — a thick forest of the unknown except that in the present moment at the end of its use, it could put Pence in the presidency.
“Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Section 4. 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.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days 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. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.”
Peeling the Onion 