The April Fool’s joke. It’s a silly custom, isn’t it?
Wikipedia defines April Fool’s Day as, “April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day is an annual
custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting ‘April Fools!’ at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may be revealed as such the following day. The day is not a public holiday in any country except Odessa, Ukraine, where the first of April is an official city holiday. The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks upon one's neighbour has been relatively common in the world historically.”
I included the full blurb because of its reference to Odessa, Ukraine, which is currently embroiled in the Russia/Ukraine war, though from recent news reports, it doesn’t appear as though the city has been hit nearly as hard as other Ukrainian urban centers. Regardless, it’s no good-natured laughing matter to these folks waiting to see if the full force of the Russian military will make them a target. This is one April Fool’s joke nightmare the Ukrainians would rather wake up from.
You’re forgiven if you think that Ukraine isn’t the only example of world events that isn’t funny these days or worthy of an April Fool’s joke. Here in America, it’s hard to maintain much of a sense of humor when yearly inflation is in the high single digits and looks to be going even higher, COVID-19 refuses to go away -- or our elites won’t let go of using it as an excuse to spend us into oblivion and further rob us of our freedoms -- and the southern border remains a sovereign geographic line in name only.
The day before the 2020 election, you no doubt could’ve drawn a lot of laughter -- and chills -- by saying something like, “Joe Biden wins the election, he dramatically scales back oil and natural gas production, tries to end any semblance of election integrity, gets a Democrat Congress to appropriate nearly $2 trillion in useless COVID relief/welfare, decrees vaccine mandates, imprisons American citizens in Gulag-like jail cells, stumbles into a war scenario with Russia -- and appoints Jen Psaki to be his chief spokesperson.”
“NOVEMBER Fool’s!!!!”
Okay, it wouldn’t have worked. Yet all of those things -- and much, much, more -- have occurred since the votes (legal and otherwise) were counted. As if this listing of real events weren’t bad enough, the White House has had to walk back several of senile Joe’s own statements in the last week. Conservatives have suggested and proved that Biden isn’t up to the job. As I’ve frequently noted in this space, a good many of his misstatements, gaffes, flat out falsehoods (lies) and temper tantrums have been comical.
But now, the man could be endangering our national security. Some even insist that it’s time to consider invoking the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to send him to the care facility early. Tucker Carlson concluded during his opening commentary at Fox News the other night:
“…Biden just said everything that he has said for the last week is true and none of it has been corrected by people who work for him. The truth is, Joe Biden has no idea. Joe Biden has no idea what his publicists say when he goes to sleep, that midway through his answer, Biden starts walking back his own comments. He does that just minutes after saying he would never walk back his own comments. ‘None of that occurred,’ Biden said. Look, it feels almost like we're being mean to the guy by quoting him, and no one wants that. No one is making fun of his age or his diminished condition, only trying to defend the country. Then moments later, Biden declared that no reasonable person would think he wants regime change in Russia.
“PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Because it's ridiculous. Nobody believes we're going to take down, I was going, I was talking about taking down Putin. Nobody believes that.
“All right. Joke's over, too much is at stake. If there was ever a time, if there was, in U.S. history, ever a time, to invoke the 25th Amendment, it is now. As Joe Biden himself put it, ‘For God's sakes, this man cannot remain in power,’ for all of our sakes.”
Liberals scoff at the notion and dismiss Carlson, as they always do, as a racist rightwing reactionary conservative media scion who tosses rhetorical bombs intended to inflame and infuriate the white supremacist Republican base, to motivate them to do things like drive a car into leftist protesters in Charlottesville, lead an “insurrection” on the U.S. Capitol grounds, or, with generous prodding from the FBI, plot to kidnap “progressive” politicians like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
My retort would be, “What did he say that wasn’t true? I want specifics and be willing to back up your argument with facts.” That’s usually enough to get fans of “The View” to pipe down and resort to silent scowling while stewing in their boiling liberal juices. But Democrats are never deterred by reason, are they?
Which brings me to Carlson’s main assertion: Is it time to invoke the 25th Amendment? Lots of folks have talked about it, including all Democrats during Donald Trump’s first term. It’s kind of a nebulous concept, actually, and, like all constitutional provisions, can’t just be done on a whim.
The 25th Amendment reads in part: “Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
“Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office…”
As everyone knows by now, this Amendment was proposed and passed after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It obviously deals with incapacity, but contemporary political opportunistic enemies have recommended using it for simple removal of a “crazy” (in Donald Trump’s case) or senile (in senile Joe’s case) president.
Basically, according to the amendment’s text, all Kamala Harris would need to do is get the majority of the Biden cabinet to agree with her that their boss must be kicked to the side because he’s no longer capable of faithfully executing the duties of the office of president of the United States. Lots and lots of credible arguments could be made in support of this accusation, though I’m not sure whether any of said Democrats would be honest or capable enough to make them. Even then, they’d have to put together a coherent written declaration to Nancy Pelosi and Senator Patrick Leahy (President pro tempore of the Senate) explaining what they thought was essential.
Who would write the declaration, Maxine Waters? Alexandria Ocasio Cortez? Ilhan Omar? Ayanna Presley? Senator Mazie Hirono? Senator Cory Booker? Do any of them even know the alphabet or the typing keyboard?
Besides, would you trust Kamala Harris, Merrick Garland, “Secretary Pete” Buttigieg and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra (among others) to make that grave of a judgment? They’d likely all figure that they should be the next president and could just as readily do the same to president Kamala when the right moment arrived.
At any rate, on April Fool’s Day, here’s how veep Kamala Harris could get the removal-for-senility conversation started:
--After receiving yet another report of senile Joe Biden making an outlandish, national-security-endangering statement and then walking it back a few hours later, Vice President Kamala Harris said to herself with no one else in the room, “I’ve had enough. Joe can’t be trusted to lead this administration anymore.”
Acting on her impulse, Kamala buzzed the front office, hoping that someone/anyone was there to receive her ping. Her staff had resigned practically en masse in recent months and finding replacements during COVID’s generous welfare provisions had been exceedingly difficult. Besides, no one wanted to work for the woman, which exacerbated the problem -- not for all the oil in Russia or the cheap manufactured goods in China. “Hello? Hello? Anyone there?” Kamala dribbled hopefully, her frustration level rising. Just as she was about to throw another desk lamp against the wall, a voice answered, “Yeah? Whaddaya want this time?”
“Gimme Pete Buttigieg’s home number,” Harris barked back in her most agitated office voice, the one reserved for inferior employees. “I know he isn’t at work because he and Chasten said Pete needs to set a better example of the benefits of universal family leave, so I can’t just dial him from here.”
Upon receiving the information and dialing the number, Kamala heard Pete Butt’s familiar phony tone on the headset, with very loud crying babies in the background. “Pete? Pete? It’s Kamala, I know you’re on leave, but I got an idea to run by you.”
“Just a minute, Mrs. Harris,” the youthful man said. (Buttigieg covered the phone with his hand, which poorly stifled his shouting at Chasten to take the twins into the other room while he schmoozed the vice president.) “Okay, that’s better. What can I do for ya, madame VP?”
Kamala went on, “Listen Pete, it’s never an easy thing to say the president is too senile to handle his job any longer, but that time has come, I fear. I mean, the man said (doing her best Joe Biden impression) ‘For God's sakes, this man cannot remain in power,’ and then claimed he wasn’t asking for Vlad Putin’s head on a platter and regime change in Russia. He’s bonkers, man. Even I can see it. Loyalty only goes so far.
“Sooner or later, he’s going to goad the Russians or the Chinese or the Canadians into bombing us. Polls say most Americans want Joe and Nancy Pelosi to take a brain test. The people are behind us, Pete. Let’s get on a conference call with the rest of the cabinet. If we can convince half of ‘em to ditch Joe, we’ll Uber a letter up to Capitol Hill and we can send the old goat away with a two-thirds tally in both chambers. Getting all the Republicans onboard should be a snap!”
Buttigieg paused for a moment to gather his thoughts on the astoundingly audacious plan. The vacationing Transportation Secretary had sour infant spit-up all over his expensive, billionaire campaign donor paid-for business shirt and wasn’t prepared for this type of question so early in the day. “Um, wow, Kamala, that’s a pretty shocking request. I haven’t talked to Joe in a while but the last time we chatted he wasn’t any dumber than the day he asked me to join his cabinet.
“I’ll have to consult with Chasten about it, but yeah, count me in! Most of the cabinet members, like both of us, are rabid leftists with ambitious agendas, so ditching that old coot will only help us in our mission to take over the whole country and world. If you can dream it, you can do it!” Pete shouted, satisfied. “Awesome, Pete!” Kamala bellowed in response. “I’ll get my staff to arrange a whole-cabinet conference call, where we’ll present the idea in 30-second ‘elevator pitch’ style. We can get this done! We really can!
“Oh, and one more thing… APRIL FOOL’S!!!!!
“You fell for it, chump! Of course, now I’m gonna have to tell Dr. Jill that you were okay with kicking her eternally disorientated hubby out of office. Better start sending your resume out, pal, because you’re gonna be lookin’ for another job! Loser!”
Click!
-- It’s hard to tell whether Kamala Harris or half of the Biden cabinet officers would go along with a 25th Amendment procedural removal of senile Joe from his elected office. If the idea is presented to them, they might not take it seriously or figure it was an April Fool’s joke or other attempt to upset the media’s notion that Joe Biden is a great president. What would it take?
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