For Pete’s sake—invoke the 25th Amendment! Adopted after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the 25th Amendment to our Constitution provides a path for succession in the event that “the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
Powers and duties. Though there is no doubt that this white house bully is able to abusively discharge the powers of his office, he is clearly unfit to discharge the duties, including a rational choice of action to guarantee security, a rational strategy that avoids world-wide disruption and a rational exit strategy from a misguided folly.
Had Congress or the Cabinet done their duty and declared this president to be unhinged, dangerous, and unable to discharge the duties of his office, the world would have been spared the catastrophic meltdown in which we now find ourselves.
Instead, he has embroiled us in a widespread and escalating war that threatens the economies of every country and the safety of millions of people, not to mention the unforgivable loss of lives of those deployed in a directionless and dangerous enterprise. And all of it due to the most recent example of Imperial Madness.
“Imperial madness” is an actual psychological term adopted to describe the psychological, ethical or strategic deterioration of rulers holding absolute power, leading to self-delusion, tyrannical behavior, an absence of concern and a mountain of hubris. Historically, it has been used to describe the mad behavior of Roman Emperors such as Caligula, who demanded that the Romans worship him as a god, or Nero, who executed his family members and watched Rome burn while sketching out new palaces for himself to build from the ashes, (though he was not likely “fiddling while Rome burned”, as the violin had yet to be created).
Perhaps our American Nero will be remembered as playing, not a violin, but golf, as the world burns in the conflagration he began.
In time, the definition of Imperial Madness was amended to include, “a syndrome of addiction-like behavioral excesses” which, together, displayed overwhelming pride and defiance of the gods, or, in our case, the bounds of rational behavior. The definition now also includes “a tenacious use of will to destroy evidence that would tend to contradict the wisdom of the unilateral decision of the ruler.”
When our allies, who were not, of course, consulted before the attack on Iran, gave a giant raspberry to our Caligula of the Hormuz Strait, he labelled them ungrateful for all the support we have given NATO. In truth, of course, he has repeatedly threatened to pull us out of NATO and to refuse to protect our NATO allies from Russia. Having strengthened Putin’s hand, yet again, by removing the sanctions on Russian oil, thus allowing Russia to realize billions of dollars needed to launch a new battle front in Ukraine, he continues to put the nations of NATO in harms way, while insulting them and demanding their help.
We need to get going on the 25th Amendment. In the immortal words of Paul McCartney, “Do it now, do it now, while the vision is clear. Do it now while the feeling is here.”
Truth Nor Consequences
Truth or Consequences was a game show hosted by Ralph Edwards that ran on NBC radio from 1940-57. Contestants were given about two seconds to answer an off-the-wall question meant to be impossible to answer, after which “Beulah the Buzzer” would sound and the poor sap would be called upon to face “consequences” which meant engaging in a stunt guaranteed to be embarrassing to them and entertaining to us.
Our current embarrassing stunted dictator, however, has invented a third choice: neither truth nor consequences. 1) Not Truth: From the first moment of his attack on Iran on February 28, he has insisted that he and Iran are engaged in negotiations, though Iran has contradicted that myth at every turn, and orange guy has continued to bomb, something one does not usually do while negotiating. He also told us that the US had destroyed “100%” of Iran’s military capability, which, as we can see, on our own TVs, is certainly not the case. Etc. etc. lie after lie. (2) Not Consequences: Perhaps even more importantly, this liar has never be forced to face the consequences of his actions, especially the failures of his “business” life.
In the files of our favorite consultant—Wikipedia–there is a totally separate, alphabetically organized, 24-page list titled, “Businesses of Donald Trump That Went Bankrupt”. Twenty-four pages.
Most telling, however, is the fact that, although every one of those businesses failed, harming investors, purchasers, believers and clients, the orange guy did not suffer a setback. He would make off with the bulk of the (contributions, investments, deposits) before the failure, making certain that others, and not he, suffered the consequences. We are currently witnessing this manipulation in his back-and-forth now-we-are-talking, no-we are bombing, no-we are sending troops, no-I am holding off, tweets that are perfectly timed (and leaked) to guarantee that great fortunes will be made by a few in the wildly swinging stock market. Including him and his family. This is not Trump Always Chickens Out, but rather Trump Amasses Capital Obscenely. (TACO)
How could we, then, expect, that he would foresee (or care about) the consequences of bombing Iran? He seems genuinely surprised (for the two seconds he can concentrate on one topic) that the Straits of Hormuz are blocked, that Iran is not backing down and that our allies, whom he has treated like enemies, are not kissing his ring.
Imperial madness, indeed. Or, perhaps it’s just an example of what former consigliere Steve Bannon called “Flood The Zone”. That is, put so many crazy, undeniably unhinged and dangerous actions in play throughout the world as fast as you can in order to make sure that we can’t possibly keep up with the latest outrages. Flood the Zone theory also posits that, after a while, totally fatigued, we will come to see these mood swings, contradictions, outrages and dire consequences as normal.
Many were still surprised and saddened, however, at the response of the faux king president, on hearing that former FBI Director, Robert Mueller, a moral and ethical man who had led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election designed to secure the election of the current president, had passed away. “Good,” he said, “I’m glad he’s dead.” What human could utter such words? Or perhaps the white house destroyer, himself, is a deep-fake, AI-generated, clone.
In any event, he has, inadvertently, created the perfect precedent for the celebrations that will go on all over the world on the day that Lucifer collects his soul. As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
Author
About The Author
