Trail Mix

Perhaps the most dangerous possibility our president faces now is giving sworn testimony. James Comey confirmed today to the Senate that Independent Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating obstruction of justice.

If that’s the case at least two consequences emerge: that Trump will be called to testify and that his hinted-about tapes of the Comey conversations will be subpoenaed.

Can Trump tell the truth under oath? The risk of perjury, given his nature, is so great that I can imagine his team doing everything possible to avoid it.

Do the tapes exist? Mueller can certainly call his bluff with a subpoena. Either they must be produced, refused to supply, or Trump acknowledges his tweet hint was bullshit — or, even worse for Trump, they were destroyed. None of these outcomes go well for him.

As things stand, Comey and Mueller are all over Trump’s ass. Wouldn’t want to be there.

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?

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By PatD, a Trail Mix Contributor

Wiki tells us that a bully pulpit is a conspicuous position that provides an opportunity to speak out and be listened to. This term was coined by United States President Theodore Roosevelt, who referred to his office as a “bully pulpit”, by which he meant a terrific platform from which to advocate an agenda. Roosevelt used the word bully as an adjective meaning “superb” or “wonderful”, a more common usage at that time.

The tweet is the current president’s platform,  less a pulpit from which to inform but more to bully.  In addition, we are told not to take the tweets as statements of statesmanship. Not policy, not written for the ages and, perhaps, not even truthful.

On CNN Sebastian Gorka, a White House national security aide, says the President’s tweets are only social media, not policy. When asked about Trump’s controversial remarks in an interview on Monday’s NBC Today Show Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway decried the media for its “obsession with covering everything [Trump] says on Twitter and very little of what he does as president.” [….]

When pressed further on Trump’s tweets, Conway said she wasn’t going to “let [the president] be seen as the perpetrator here,” and argued that the media should be less focused on Trump’s social media presence and the on-going Russia scandal and more concerned about the recent string of attacks ISIS has either inspired or directed.

NBC’s Guthrie argued that as president, Trump’s statements on Twitter carry a great deal of weight and are considered a reflection of his agenda.

Spicer: Trump tweets “official”

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By Sturgeone, a Trail Mix Contributor

Bob……….Like Homer, a wandering guitar player, and a voice of his times.

[Bob Dylan received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.]

By PatD, a Trail Mix Contributor

Hari Sreenivsan (PBS NewsHour): Buckhannon is a town with a population of less than 6,000. It’s a deeply conservative place with a long history tied to coal. Its mayor calls it the most Trumpian place in America. But Buckhannon is also where a growing group of women are finding their voice through protest and where speaking up has angered some people, including the men in their lives.

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