Tag: resignation

25th Amendment Contingency Plan

 

 

This is the moment to begin making contingency plans for Executive Office vacancies. 

 

Either a VP or Presidential resignation or impeachment would throw the US into chaos. That's why Congressional leaders should make a concerted effort to identify multiple credible, competent replacement candidates in the increasingly likely event the 25th Amendment becomes necessary soon.

 

The President is very likely to have the shadow of impeachment growing closer. That means there are two other big things coming into play. 

 

1- Trump might decide at any given moment to resign. His unstable personality combined with his persecution complex makes that possibility a real concern. He certainly wouldn't go through an impeachment trial. As in his business life, he'd attempt to find a way to 'settle' without admitting wrongdoing. That means resigning. 

 

2- It's already apparent that the scandals enveloping Trump that might actually lead to impeachment are likely to pull Pence into the same orbit. It's not unlikely that Pence might be offered up as the sacrificial lamb if Trump believes having Pence take responsibility would provide Trump sufficient cover. 

 

This why I think it's imperative to find a viable, willing replacement VP. I'd suggest it be someone like Lindsay Graham, Bob Gates, Chuck Hagel or even Mitt Romney who a) could win near universal congressional support b) would pledge not to run for re-election and c) is not tied to Trump or Pence. That's the type of person who could help pull the country out of the Trump/Pence morass AND be politically acceptable on both sides of the aisle. 

 

This feels like a scary situation to even contemplate. Not having a game plan is scarier still.

 

 

 

-Franklin Oliver

 

 

Thoughts on Writing- Nikki Giovanni’s Resignation

 

Resignation 


by Nikki Giovanni

 

I love you

because the Earth turns round the sun

because the North wind blows north

sometimes

because the Pope is Catholic

and most Rabbis Jewish

because winters flow into springs

and the air clears after a storm

because only my love for you

despite the charms of gravity

keeps me from falling off this Earth

into another dimension

I love you

because it is the natural order of things

 

 

This is the first stanza of a poem I anticipate loving forever. My wife and I used this for a reading at our wedding and several years later, I like the poem even more than I did then. Giovanni is not generally perceived as a romantic poet but she has a deep vein of passion within her work that does, at times, take on a specifically romantic form.


Part of what I like so much about Resignation is that Giovanni reminds her reader that being in love should feel absolutely, perfectly normal.

 

I know many folks who don’t buy into Giovanni’s premise. Instead, they feel most comfortable with problematic, difficult and contentious romantic relationships. To an extreme, I know someone who ended a relationship because it wasn’t challenging enough. Things were too smooth for her liking. That’s an almost unbelievable concept to me. If you’re in love with someone, shouldn’t your standard experience with that person be pleasant and enjoyable? Shouldn’t trouble between you be the exception to the rule?

 

In Resignation, Giovanni defines love as the organizing principle of life in an amorous relationship. In the world she creates in this poem, love is the backdrop to how we live and who we are. Perhaps it’s only because I’m a hopeful romantic but I’m convinced that she’s on the right track. Whatever the reason, I’ll go with it. Joyfully.

 

I love you

because it is the natural order of things

 

Indeed.

 

FDO