Readers have been asking why we haven't done much here on Trumpist lunatic Stephen Miller, the guy who writes the imbecilic crap Trump reads off his teleprompters-- instead of just harping on Bannon, Bannon, Bannon. #PresidentBannon. Well, over the weekend Miller stepped out into the limelight and went on national TV to defend Trump-- every channel, right?-- and to say Trump can't be held accountable by the judicial branch. The only Americans who agree are the drug-addled, two-digit IQ Trumpist base.Miller is from Santa Monica. His old home is represented by the Trump regime's most outspoken congressional antagonist, Ted Lieu. When Miller was transitioning from Lincoln Middle School to Santa Monica High, he stopped accepting calls from one of his close friends, Jason Islas, eventually telling him, "I can't be your friend any more because you are Latino." He was just 14 and the snotty little racist never looked back. "Displaying his hostility toward minorities, Miller complained to school administrators about announcements in Spanish and festivals that celebrated diversity. In his third year at the school, the 16-year-old Miller wrote a letter to The Lookout, a local publication, about his negative impression of Hispanic students and the use of Spanish in the United States... In that article, Miller also complained about his school's celebration of Cinco de Mayo, the existence of a gay club and a visit by a Muslim leader.Sunday, Digby did a pretty thorough job on Miller, Jeff Sessions' contribution to the White House inner circle. She cited both the new NY Times profile and an older what's-this-thing? from Mother Jones.Richard Spencer, one of America's most prominent, uncloseted young neo-Nazis-- as opposed to the ones that the Dulles brothers imported from Eastern Europe-- is an old comrade-in-arms of Miller from when they were pushing racism, xenophobia and bigotry at Duke. Glenn Thrush's Times profile introduced Miller as the 31 year old Trump advisor behind many of "Trump’s most contentious executive orders." While he worked for 2 prominent fascists in Congress, Michele Bachmann and sex predator John Shadegg before going on to the Senate office of sociopath Jeff Sessions. One of his jobs there was to kill Marco Rubio's immigration reform bill and at one point he was sending around "nasty news articles" (like a version of this one) to senators and their staffs. Republican senators are not Stephen Miller fans.
The ascent of Mr. Miller from far-right gadfly with little policy experience to the president’s senior policy adviser came as a shock to many of the staff members who knew him from his seven years in the Senate. A man whose emails were, until recently, considered spam by many of his Republican peers is now shaping the Trump administration’s core domestic policies with his economic nationalism and hard-line positions on immigration.But his unlikely rise is emblematic of a White House where unconventional résumés rule-- where the chief strategist is Stephen K. Bannon, until recently the head of the flame-throwing right-wing website Breitbart News, and the president himself is a former reality television star who before winning the nation’s highest office had never shown much interest in the arcana of governing.Yet all three men are bound by a belief in an America-first economic policy that has suddenly moved from the fringes of American politics to the Oval Office.“Stephen was the kind of guy who would make a passionate ideological argument to a roomful of people who were there to make pragmatic decisions,” said Alex Conant, a former aide to Mr. Rubio who remembers squaring off against Mr. Miller at a routine Republican messaging meeting that turned into a full-dress immigration debate.Mr. Miller has been at the epicenter of some of the administration’s most provocative moves, from pushing hard for the construction of a wall along the border with Mexico to threatening decades-long trade deals at the heart of Republican economic orthodoxy, to rolling out Mr. Trump’s travel ban on seven largely Muslim nations, whose bungled introduction he oversaw.Working in an administration that “didn’t come here to do small things,” as Mr. Bannon has put it, is a role that Mr. Miller -- universally known as a tireless worker-- has been preparing for much of his life. From his days at a public high school in Southern California, where he preached against “political correctness” and liberalism and called in to conservative radio shows, to his time at Duke University, where he was known for controversial writings in the student newspaper and a failed attempt at a run for dorm president, he has delighted in challenging prevailing orthodoxies.At a freshman mixer, recalled a college classmate who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Mr. Miller announced, “My name is Stephen Miller, I am from Los Angeles, and I like guns.”Mr. Miller, known for his skinny ties, so-outdated-they’re-chic pants and his recently abandoned chain-smoking habit, enjoyed a relatively turbulence-free ascent in Mr. Trump’s orbit until the travel ban. His eagerness to keep a tight lid on key details of executive orders to prevent leaks-- as well as his inexperience-- has at times hampered coordination between the West Wing and agencies that would have to carry them out, several White House officials said.
Digby put together some highlights from his Sunday gasbag appearances:
On Face the Nation:"The President of the United States has accomplished more in just a few weeks than many presidents accomplish in an entire administration."On the travel ban Face the Nation:"I think that it's been an important reminder for all Americans that we have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many cases a supreme branch of government."On This Week responding to Trump's inane comment that thousands of people were bused into New Hampshire to illegally vote for Hillary Clinton, explaining why he lost there:"George, go to New Hampshire. Talk to anybody who has worked in politics there for a long time... I can tell you that this issue of busing voters into New Hampshire is widely known by anyone who's worked in New Hampshire politics. It's very real. It's very serious. This morning, on this show, is not the venue for me to lay out all the evidence."On General Flynn on Meet the Press:"They did not give me anything to say... It's not for me to answer hypothetical. It wouldn't be responsible. It's a sensitive matter."This is the quality of racist who is serving as senior adviser to the president. And the president loves him.He especially loves this, I'm sure:Dickerson: What have you all learned from this experience with the executive order?Miller: Well, I think that it's been an important reminder to all Americans that we have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many cases a supreme branch of government...The end result of this, though is that our opponents, the media, and THE WHOLE WORLD will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that THE POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT to protect our country are very substantial and WILL NOT BE QUESTIONED.Yes, he actually said those words. I added the all caps because you know in your heart that how it sounded in the original German.Jawohl, mein Kommandant
UPDATE: Leonard Pitts, Jr. responds to Miller on behalf of Americans:
What you do 'will not be questioned?' Lord, have mercy. That’s the kind of statement that, in another time and place, would have been greeted with an out-thrust palm and a hearty "Sieg heil!" Here in this time and place, however, it demands a different response:Just who the hell do you think you are?Meaning you and all the other trolls you have brought clambering up from under their bridges. Maybe you didn’t notice, but this is the United States of America. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Nation of laws, not of individuals? First Amendment? Freedom of the press? Any of that ringing a bell?