America's worst-kept secret – and most terrifying – is to have elected a leader of the free world lacking the cognitive acuity to be safely trusted to operate heavy equipment, much less a code to the nuclear football.
President Biden's transparently obvious and dangerous confusion likely explains why a letter signed by three dozen House members of his own party have urged that he relinquish full control over America's nuclear weapons in favor of a committee approach.
Spearheaded by Rep. Jimmy Panetta of California, the letter says, "Vesting one person with this authority entails real risks. Past presidents have threatened to attack other countries with nuclear weapons or exhibited behavior that caused other officials to express concern about the president's judgment."
On March 8, our Commander in Chief left millions scratching their heads when he bizarrely forgot the name of his own Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, and our nation's central defense headquarters, the Pentagon.
"I want to thank the … uhmmm… the former general, I keep calling him General … , uhh …. the guy who runs that outfit over there. I want to make sure we thank the secretary for all he's done," said Biden.
It's a certain bet that our military adversaries paid gleeful attention to those remarks which came during an International Women's Day event pointed out Austin's key national security priority to "take on sexual assault in the military." Biden also highlighted Austin's bold, decisive leadership in providing updated hairstyle requirements and maternity flight suits.
Not mentioned, was at what late stage of pregnancy expectant mothers would be encouraged to fly combat missions.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin, for one, is clearly amused by Biden's obvious cognitive struggles in challenging him to an internationally televised debate.
"I've just thought of this now," Putin recently told a Russian state television reporter. "I want to propose to President Biden to continue our discussion, but on the condition that we do it basically live, as it's called. Without any delays and directly in an open, direct discussion. It seems to me that would be interesting for the people of Russia and for the people of the United States."
Putin emphasized that he didn't want to delay, proposing he and Biden hold the discussion as early as March 19.
"I don't want to put this off for long. I want to go the taiga this weekend to relax a little," Putin said. "So, we could do it tomorrow or Monday. We are ready at any time convenient for the American side."
Putin's debate invitation followed the day after Biden said during an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that he thought Putin was a "killer."
"Mmm hmm, I do," Biden responded.
Warning of a possible "irreversible deterioration of relations," Biden's remarks provoked Russia to take the rare step of recalling its ambassador to Washington. The last time Russia recalled its ambassador for consultations was in 1998 in protest over the bombing of Iraq ordered by then-President Bill Clinton.
In response to reporters' questions, White House press secretary Jen Psaki wisely suggested that "the discussion" was unlikely to happen. "I'll have to get back to you if that is something we're entertaining. I would say that the president already had a conversation with President Putin," she said, adding that "The president, of course, will be in Georgia tomorrow and quite busy."
Biden's White House handlers are understandably reluctant to allow Joe to embarrass the administration – the nation – with such disastrous tragic-comedy theater on a global international stage. Such prudent concern also readily explains why Vice President Kamala Harris, rather than exclusively Joe, is now conducting solo meetings with foreign leaders, a role seldom delegated to vice presidents.
And yes, it's also a reason we might believe House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she said that her proposal to create a sanity assessment tribunal under the 25th Amendment that can remove a president deemed mentally unfit from office was "not about Donald Trump."
This is all the more understandable given that Joe has repeatedly confused Kamala's vice president position with his own.
While celebrating the U.S. nearing the administration of 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, Biden said, "Now when President Harris and I took a virtual tour of a vaccination center in Arizona not long ago, one of the nurses on that, on that tour injecting people, giving vaccinations, said that each shot was like administering a dose of hope."
Nor was this the first time Biden has given Harris an oral promotion. In December, Biden referred to Harris as the president-elect while discussing how they publicly received COVID-19 vaccine shots.
"I took it to instill public confidence in the vaccine. President-elect Harris took hers today for the same reason," Biden said at the time.
Perhaps more frightening, a majority of America wasn't paying attention in voting for a president with obviously deteriorating cognitive deficits.
A new book, "Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency," by two New York Times best-selling authors attributed his win to a Biden camp campaign strategy of "you put your dumb uncle in the basement.''
Joe's policies on key issues never even seemed to come up during the virtual election non-campaign trail from his protected basement bunker to rare parking lot appearances. The legacy media never bothered to ask. Others who dared to pose probing questions were rebuffed or ignored.
Authors Jonathan Allen of NBC News and Amie Parnes of The Hill noted that President Biden won the White House because the coronavirus provided an excuse to let him stay hidden to protect his campaign from its biggest liability — the candidate himself.
Scandalously, they didn't remotely consider protecting America.
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 10 books, "What Makes Humans Truly Exceptional," (2021) is available on Amazon along with all others. Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.