Video Tutorial: How to Remove The President With The 25th Amendment

Sunday night Madam Secretary produced an 42 minute long dramatic tutorial on how to remove the President using the 25th Amendment.

https://www.spockosbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/Madam.Secretary.S04E12.Sound_.and_.Fury_.mp4

The episode started with an unexpected ‘sonic’ attack on an American embassy from an unspecified source. President Dalton used aggressive language on TV to threaten Russia. He then secretly ordered an attack on Russian satellites. Dalton’s staff questioned his decision and the Secretary of Defense refused to launch an attack. The President fired him and replaced him with an underling.

The Secretary of State and Chief of Staff knew something wasn’t right with the President’s aggressive behavior. They worried it could lead to war. They started looking for the reasons he was acting strangely, then they looked at their options to prevent him from acting. In a meeting of cabinet members to discuss the options, the replacement for the Secretary of Defense reminded the Chief of Staff, National Security Advisor, and Secretary of State that the President is their Commander-in-Chief and refusing an order isn’t something you do lightly, even if the President’s order could lead to a global war.

https://www.spockosbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/Madam.Secretary.S04E12.Sound_.and_.Fury_.part2_.mp4

As I watched President Dalton’s cabinet debate enacting the 25th Amendment, I mentally put the names and . . . → Read More: Video Tutorial: How to Remove The President With The 25th Amendment

No Laws Stopped Trump From Launching A Nuke Today

Did you know that Trump could have launched a nuke today? It would have been in response to a false alarm in Hawaii.

No law could have stopped him. Only “norms” — and as we know, he’s not good at following those.

On December 1, 2016 Alex Wellerstein, a historian of nuclear weapons at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. wrote a piece for the Washington Post explaining how and why the whole system was set up so the president — and only the president — could decide when to launch. No one can stop President Trump from using nuclear weapons. That’s by design.

[Trump] will have sole authority over more than 7,000 warheads. There is no failsafe. The whole point of U.S. nuclear weapons control is to make sure that the president — and only the president — can use them if and whenever he decides to do so. The one sure way to keep President Trump from launching a nuclear attack, under the system we’ve had in place since the early Cold War, would have been to elect someone else.

I’ve been listening to the book Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, . . . → Read More: No Laws Stopped Trump From Launching A Nuke Today

Trump Is Like, TV Smart

I read a great article 5 Things TV Writers Apparently Believe About Smart People by @cs_coville from Cracked in 2011. My favorite section was “It’s Okay To Be A Dick, As Long As You’re Smart” There are many examples of smart dicks, but at the time she used Dr. House.

“A further staple of the supergenius genre is the guy who treats other people like crap, and gets away with it because of his amazing talents. It’s actually hard to find a TV genius who isn’t a shithead. These people are unfriendly, antisocial, or generally messed up when it comes to communicating with other humans, but avoid getting sued or shot in the face only because it turns out they’re always, always right.”

 

“When Trump says he is “like, really smart.” he might mean a TV version of a smart person. Specifically someone who uses his “smarts” to win. The type of smarts Trump used to win isn’t your standard IQ smart. Trump can look at the big picture and say, “The Apprentice ratings didn’t lie. I was a hit. The Electoral College numbers didn’t lie. I’m the President.” Both of those statements are true. Trump can ask . . . → Read More: Trump Is Like, TV Smart