Fear: Trump in the White House

[_subgenius]

If Trump is senile, deranged, dangerous, and inept then how has the executive branch accomplished anything (and yes it has)?... If Trump isn't doing the President thing then "President" isn't an actual function beyond football photo ops with Biden; late night talk shows; and Twitter.

Can he still sign his name?

That’s all that he has to do, but the action still carries some consequence.

Yes, the same consequence of throwing out the first pitch for baseball season....which may be yet another ball you can't get an eye on.

Nevertheless, the titular question still remains against the hyperbole of the left and Democrats.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I just ordered the book. If there are any good tidbits that are worth sharing I'll be sure to share!

- Doc

[Guest]

Pence doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who is overly concerned about the direction of the country.

I'm not at all sure about that, Schmo. What I am sure about is that Pence definitely has Presidential ambitions. Christian Supremacist Mike Pence: God Is Calling Me To Be President

Commenting on Pence, D’Antonio told CNN:

Absolutely everything Mike Pence does is oriented toward him becoming president. His decision to accept Donald Trump’s offer to be his running mate — it even goes back much further. By the time he had left high school, he had decided that he was going to be president of the United States… He thought God was calling him to, now, be vice president and function as a president-in-waiting.

Trump may be a buffoon, but Mike Pence is a cold, cruel, religious extremist with dreams of a Christian theocracy.
Vice President Mike Pence is a conservative Christian nightmare who rejects the separation of church and state, and places his Christian faith above the U.S. Constitution.

Pence, who is fond of saying he is “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,” is Sarah Palin without the charisma, a dangerous religious extremist who dreams of a Christian theocracy.

ETA:Pence Thinks God Wants Him to Be President After Trump Scandals

Trump biographer Michael D’Antonio told CNN on Tuesday that Vice President Mike Pence believes he is on a mission from God — to become president. Also, since God wants him to be president, he believes that President Trump’s many scandals will be his ticket to the Oval Office.

“Pence thinks God wants him to be president — and Trump’s scandals are how he’ll get there: Trump biographer”

[_Some Schmo]

Pence doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who is overly concerned about the direction of the country.

I'm not at all sure about that, Schmo. What I am sure about is that Pence definitely has Presidential ambitions.

Yes, but does he want to be President because he wants to change the direction of America or because he wants the adulation?

He may pay lip service to one problem or another, but his talk is almost as cheap as Drumpf's. He strikes me as an opportunist with little to offer. If he were really the man he'd like us to believe he is, he'd have stepped down as running mate after the Access Hollywood tape instead of making idiotic excuses for Drumpf.

I've never been able to trust anyone like him who wears cheap piety on their sleeve with huge arrows pointing to it.

[_Gunnar]

Yes, but does he want to be President because he wants to change the direction of America or because he wants the adulation?

He may pay lip service to one problem or another, but his talk is almost as cheap as Drumpf's. He strikes me as an opportunist with little to offer. If he were really the man he'd like us to believe he is, he'd have stepped down as running mate after the Access Hollywood tape instead of making idiotic excuses for Drumpf.

I've never been able to trust anyone like him who wears cheap piety on their sleeve with huge arrows pointing to it.

I don't necessarily disagree with any of that, but he is also undoubtedly a religious fanatic of the worst kind. See what I added to my last post before your last reply.

[_Some Schmo]

I don't necessarily disagree with any of that, but he is also undoubtedly a religious fanatic of the worst kind. See what I added to my last post before your last reply.

I did see your edit after I posted, and went and read the linked article.

Maybe he does have aspirations of turning the US into Gilead from The Handmaid's Tale. I am slightly curious how having Pence as President would affect the GOP and the country. I'm inclined to believe that most of what he wanted to do would get little support except from other religious fruitcakes.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Pence absolutely wants to be President of the United States, he absolutely feels called of God, and he absolutely wants to put the US "back" on a path to a Christian nation, whatever that means.

That dude is very serious about it, and shouldn't be underestimated.

- Doc

[_MeDotOrg]

Nice thoughts but they do not resolve the bedrock of our society, which is a respect for the rule of law. To usurp the President because you find him distasteful, or because you think him to be mean, or because you disagree....is more dangerous than Trump could ever be imagined as being.
You say "veer of course" as if the White House is staffed with seers and predictors...as if the course of the President is second hand to their own vision....the President was elected in a fair and legal election, it is not to be usurped because "gee, this guy's Twitter feed is horrible".
But your point about loyalty is earnest...but the thing about quotes is, they can be used to damn anything. Loyalty to our country is a convenient phrase that, under certain circumstances, is tantamount to "just following orders". Point being, the President is beholden to the People and they will ordain and dispense accordingly, as by design and by law.....but when a few "anonymous" people begin to take it upon themselves to know better, then we will have real fear.

From time to time in our history, people have tried to safeguard the country from the potential excesses of Presidents:

The scene from the White House south lawn on August 9, 1974, is vivid in the nation’s memory. That morning, President Richard Nixon famously boarded Marine One for the final time, put on a wide grin and fired off a final double-V to the assembled crowd.

But one of the most interesting aspects of that day is what didn’t happen on the south lawn: Even though Nixon had more than two hours left in his tenure, the most critical tool of the modern presidency had already been taken away from him. He never noticed it, but the nuclear “football” didn’t travel with him as he boarded the helicopter, and later, Air Force One for his flight back to California.

In a democratic country without hereditary power, royal crowns or bejeweled thrones, the nuclear football is in some ways the only physical manifestation of our nation’s head of state.

Yet, on that August day, it had been quietly removed from Nixon’s hands—remaining behind at the White House with the incoming commander-in-chief, Gerald Ford.

Moreover, Defense Secretary James Schlesinger recalled years later that in the final days of the Nixon presidency he had issued an unprecedented set of orders: If the president gave any nuclear launch order, military commanders should check with either him or Secretary of State Henry Kissinger before executing them. Schlesinger feared that the president, who seemed depressed and was drinking heavily, might order Armageddon. Nixon himself had stoked official fears during a meeting with congressmen during which he reportedly said, “I can go in my office and pick up a telephone, and in 25 minutes, millions of people will be dead.” Senator Alan Cranston had phoned Schlesinger, warning about “the need for keeping a berserk president from plunging us into a holocaust.”

There is no question that Schlesinger usurped the power of the President. I doubt if you will hear anyone call his act traitorous.

[_canpakes]

Nice thoughts but they do not resolve the bedrock of our society, which is a respect for the rule of law. To usurp the President because you find him distasteful, or because you think him to be mean, or because you disagree....is more dangerous than Trump could ever be imagined as being.
You say "veer of course" as if the White House is staffed with seers and predictors...as if the course of the President is second hand to their own vision....the President was elected in a fair and legal election, it is not to be usurped because "gee, this guy's Twitter feed is horrible".
But your point about loyalty is earnest...but the thing about quotes is, they can be used to damn anything. Loyalty to our country is a convenient phrase that, under certain circumstances, is tantamount to "just following orders". Point being, the President is beholden to the People and they will ordain and dispense accordingly, as by design and by law.....but when a few "anonymous" people begin to take it upon themselves to know better, then we will have real fear.

After watching the Right’s reaction to Obama for 8 years, it is amusing to see them wring their hands in faux concern about this sort of thing now.

[_Jersey Girl]

Elizabeth Warren

"What kind of a crisis do we have if senior officials believe that the President can't do his job and then refuse to follow the rules that have been laid down in the Constitution?" Warren told CNN. "They can't have it both ways. Either they think that the President is not capable of doing his job in which case they follow the rules in the Constitution, or they feel that the President is capable of doing his job, in which case they follow what the President tells them to do."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/06/politics ... index.html

This is what I tried to draw out earlier and I don't see anyone here giving a damn or maybe you guys do and I've missed it. We have reason to believe that significant officials in the White House are undermining the work of an elected official, President.

Doesn't that bother anyone?

If they believe he's not competent, then they should follow the Constitution otherwise they themselves are subverting the Constitution!

The NYT piece anonymous author says they wanted to invoke the 25th early on but chose not to because they didn't want to initiate a constitutional crisis.

Well, what in the hell do they think they're doing when admitting that they're trying to thwart the work of the President if not drawing us into a constitional crisis?

Do we really want insiders yanking paperwork off the desk of our President? A President, whether we like it or not, was elected by our own democratic process?

Somebody needs to put up or shut up in this case because until they do, all are suspect.