2017 Feb 13^th

The latest threat to the republic comes not from some puny missile from North Korea that can manage just a 300-mile flight; the threat to the republic is in the White House. On Sunday Stephen Miller was spread all over our TV screens to announce that his master, Donald J. Trump’s presidential behavior is not to be questioned. Mr. Miller is a slightly built, prematurely balding, 32 year old graduate of Duke University in political science who seems to have learned nothing about the constitution of the United States, or at least nothing worth remembering.

I watched his performance Sunday morning on Chuck Todd’s “Meet the Press.” I was, at first stuck by his absolute absence of facial expression. His lips moved but the rest of his face seemed absolutely frozen. I thought, this man believes that he is in enemy country, he is meeting the evil lying press head on so all of his defenses are up.

The content of his answers to Todd’s questions were, to say the least, frightening.  He was asked what evidence there was for Trump’s claim that millions of illegal immigrants voted. He had none but he said that he would come back at a later time and give Todd unarguable evidence that millions of people had voted illegally.

He pulled the same, “I’ll explain later,” gag on George Stephanopoulos’ program that same Sunday. Trump and his favorite Senator, Kelly Ayotte, lost their races in New Hampshire and Trump just can’t stand that, so time for some alt-facts. These “facts” presented by Miler hinge on people being bussed into New Hampshire expressly to vote against Ayotte and Trump. When Miller was asked for evidence that this happened he retreated to the old, “This morning on this show is not the venue for me to lay out all the evidence,” which is to say, I’m bull shitting you, you ninny. This has produced some blowback: an angry governor and some other functionaries have said there is a thousand dollar reward available to the first person who produces proof of these alt-facts; no takers so far.

Trump opposes anyone or any group he believes might limit his power. You can tick them off: the press holds his feet to the fire when he tries to get away with alt-facts, (lies). The court stops his ill-conceived executive order obviously aimed at Muslims. Aliens took the popular vote victory away from him. His hostility to each of these groups is well known and he does not attempt to conceal it. Miller said on “Meet the Press” that Trump’s action as president when he moves to limit the entry of aliens is “not reviewable.” This means that he believes the court voiding his executive order acted illegally. The obvious next step in this ballet is for Trump to ignore a court order he considers illegal and so move us completely away from the three co-equal branches, the checks and balances upon which the government is built.

Lest anyone believe that Miller did not speak for the president, Trump has already responded with his pleasure at Miller’s performance on Sunday.