By Pogo, a Trail Mix Contributor
Yesterday on WaPo, Joel Goldstein published an article entitled Trump opponents have rediscovered the 25th Amendment. Here is what you should know about it. Although it is not really much of a source for travelling, hopefully, down that road it is worth the read, particularly this section:
Section 4: The amendment empowers the vice president and Cabinet to declare a president incapacitated
The section that some have recently discussed addresses the problem of a president who is unable or unwilling to acknowledge his or her inability “to discharge the powers and duties” of the presidency.
Under current law, the vice president and a majority of “the principal officers of the executive departments” — which the legislative history makes clear are essentially the Cabinet officers listed in the line of presidential succession — may declare the president incapacitated by a written notice to the speaker of the House and the president pro tempore of the Senate. At that point, the vice president automatically takes over presidential powers and duties as acting president.
While it offers little hope of seeing the so-called President kicked out in the foreseeable future, one can hope, right?
More Posts by Pogo
pogo, thanks for the thread. so it takes a majority of “the principal officers of the executive departments” — which the legislative history makes clear are essentially the Cabinet officers listed in the line of presidential succession — plus the veep to do the dirty deed. that means 8 out of 15 of the current crowd? alas, a case of diogenes in search of an honest man…. how many of those 15 can we count on?
Not enough patd, not enough.
In the meantime, Berkeley Breathed invites you to join Opus. Pass the popcorn
Dvit…….mucho congratulatos…….a successful and right-minded daughter is such a joy…….
Dvitale – Congratulations on the daughter’s achievement.
DV, the achievements of families are wonderful things; my congrats to daughter, mom & dad, et alia
C-SPAN 3 will televise Comey hearings if you want to avoid chit chat. On line at CSPAN.org
Showtime is almost here. The tension is rising. Dems are talking obstruction, R’s appear to have lost the ability to talk. This should be a fascinating hearing.
If you just need a laugh, here’s an opinion piece by idiot ex-congressman Jack Kingston trying to frame Comey’s testimony.
God, where to start? First, Trump told Lester that he had decided to fire Comey because of his handling of the Russia investigation – that Trump tried to have at least a part of dropped.
Second, what McCabe’s comments reflect are that Comey did not bow to whatever pressure TRUMP put on COMEY. Here’s what his comments on the Trump-Comey convos were:
Kingston kinda ignores that little snippet.
Third, Comey is NOT appearing as a disgruntled ex-employee. He is appearing as a witness in a Senate investigation into among other things, whether the president attempted to obstruct justice by influencing the FBI’s conduct of an ongoing investigation into his campaign’s contacts with Russian actors during his tenure as FBI Director – before Trump fired him after he wouldn’t commit to see his way clear to drop the Flynn part of the investigation.
Fourth, the LAST thing Kingston or Trump wants is for Comey to stick to the facts. The irony of a Trump surrogate (and he certainly is and has been since he was a campaign adviser) being concerned about “rumors, falsehoods and disinformation” is almost too rich to contemplate.
I would rather see an impeachment and conviction which takes a president out of office forever. The 25th amendment also allows for the return of a incapacitated president. In other words, we could see SFB being relieved and then returned to office on political whims. No thank you. Damn the torpodeos, full speed ahead!
Humorous side bit for the southerners amongst us and those who love them. NPR has declared that the correct spelling from Comey remarks is “lordy” not “lordie” to which some wag contributed, “I guess ‘lawdy’ isn’t under consideration.”
This took off is a spate of silliness that included “lawdy, lawdy, lawdy miss claudy” and asking if this decision had been run by the church ladies.
Hey, eProf, me too.
I hope Sen Cornyn’s karma catches up with him soon
I hope he eats bad turtle soup
Wasn’t that special?
I was catching up on a few things and saw a few messages regarding being born after Watergate. For all who are too young or were in prison during that era. There was a stream of hearings. We had our favorites to watch and cheer on. I hope we see the current crop of republicans return to those days and act like Republicans.
Rather sad today. It may very well be time for someone close to Senator McCain to tell him it is time to leave for “matters of health”.
Don’t Let James Comey’s Hearing Distract You From Republicans’ Obamacare Repeal Efforts – HuffPost
https://apple.news/AXtuw5orQQ3CGZ913Q6aDMA
And yet, both healthcare and Comey will both be pushed aside as MelaniER moves to D.C. this week.
Lordy, I hope there are tapes & someone is brave enough to leak them.
McCain has always tried to ride the fence, which is why he seems to fixate on something odd from time to time.
I’ve been grateful for McCain’s Republican dissent and willingness to criticize our treasonous and criminal POTUS. Yeah, he’s looked better- so have I.
Senator Burr is the only gooper looking good. This endless Clinton derangement syndrome has got to stop
Kudos to McCain …kind of like all the trophies kids get for showing up
The new gooper rationalization is that Pussy G and Mr.Real Doanld Trump jr were too stupid to know they were doing something wrong.
Jared The Accidental Traitor
Pussy G The Accidental Obstruction
Not one Republican senator challenged Comey’s facts or credibility, just lamely quibbled about interpretation of Trump’s words. Trump must be fuming.
Lol, we’ll have a literal freeloading immigrant in the White House. Nice job, racists!
“No, I can definitively say the president is not a liar,” Sanders told reporters at the White House during an off-camera briefing Thursday. “It’s frankly insulting that that question would be asked.”
“I’m not a liar and I am not a crook” the moving twit tweets and having tweeted, the twit moves on: nor all his impropriety nor witlessness shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all his tears wash out a word of it. [my apologies to omar k]
That’s true Sarah it is sad the question has to be asked and the president is not the only liar
–what is a group of liars –a lollygaggle?
ps apparently there is a real term — a confederacy of liars
I’m sure we could do better
Now the battle has been joined. Who do you believe, a senile old man who lives in a different reality or the FBI man, who has faults, whose memos written immediately after the meetings are legal memos and accepted as fact in legal proceedings?
The senile old man has a weird lawyer. Seems like the type you come across after suing a used car dealer for a car that breaks one block from the dealership and you sue for damages.
Comey confirmed Mueller investigating obstruction. Sets up Trump sworn testimony, perjury risk.
Mueller investigating obstruction means he can subpoena tapes Trump hinted about, call his bluff.
and now for our musical interlude
“she might want to read for it in a state not requiring the torture of law school…. ” – Pat
Oh my, does even Delaware still do that ?
According to SFBs associates he does record stuff. It will be a real laugher if they admit in hearings they were recorded and they believe he still records. I think odds are that he did record the meetings and he has stashed the tapes in Orlando because he is the king or dictator and is the law.
It is also a good time to replay All The President’s Men and search around for any videos on Youtube of the Watergate hearings.
The matter of obstruction revolves around,
1. the deadbeat’s use of the declarative, “I’d like you to drop it,” rather than the imperative, “Drop it.”
2. the repeated veiled threat to Comey’s position. Implying an ‘if . . . , then . . . .’ to suppress a prosecution is also criminal extortion. The record of successful cases against makers of such veiled threats is centuries long and dreary.
3. The deadbeat did not want the case against the spy flynn dropped enough to either pardon him, or to order Comey to drop the case. trump picked Comey to bear the brunt of the backlash against letting flynn go, because the deadbeat couldn’t bear the backlash himself. If trump pardoned the spy, it would cloud our nation’s agenda. In other words, trump used a national security argument to protect his pal, a living threat to our national security. Therefore, the deadbeat chose to fire Comey, and take that backlash himself, while the case against the spy flynn continues to run amok. It seems that trump is not qualified to play chess against 3d graders.
bb, tapes can be altered and he has certain friends who know how to.
xr, according to wiki: A small number of jurisdictions still permit this. In the states of California, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington an applicant who has not attended law school may take the bar exam after reading law under a judge or practicing attorney for an extended period of time.
wapo’s the fix re Sen. John McCain’s bizarre questioning of Comey
McCain later released a statement, joking that “maybe going forward I shouldn’t stay up late watching the Diamondbacks night games.”
The rest of the statement reads:
nice classy ring not usually heard in present day critterville hearings was this exchange as quoted in wapo:
“You said [Trump] said, ‘I hope you will hold back on that.’” “But when a president of the United States in the Oval Office says something like ‘I hope’ or ‘I suggest’ or ‘would you,’ do you take that as a directive?”
Comey replied, “Yes. Yes, it rings in my ear as kind of, ‘Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?’”
King said, ” I was just going to quote that in 1170 [of] Dec. 29 Henry II said, ‘Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?’ And then the next day he was killed. Thomas A Becket. That’s exactly the same situation. We’re thinking along the same lines.”
The reference between Comey and King goes back to an outburst from King Henry II about the Archbishop of Canterbury. The story passed down through history is that Henry II, who was frustrated by Becket, cried out, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”
Becket was then murdered by four knights.
in this case who would be current cast in the 4 knights’ roles: bannon, eric, donjr, and jared?
speaking of eric, at least trevor noah noted the forbes charity story
Published on Jun 7, 2017
Trevor finds out why First Son Eric Trump reportedly channeled funds from a charity event for pediatric cancer into the Trump family business.
Comey suggested today there’s more to learn about Sessions and Russia, so telling he would only detail it in closed hearing.
Comey and Mueller on his ass should make Trump take up booze and start talking to the furniture. He is so screwed.
NEW THREAD