Sunday, February 12, 2017

Stephen Miller Is The Creepiest Trumpist Yet; and: "The President's Executive Powers Will Not Be Questioned"

This guy was just sinister.
   And what was with the reading? He obviously had like a teleprompter...is that some loony innovation of the Trump camp? Or have I just never noticed it in the past? Who's feeding him answers? Did they have the questions ahead of time maybe? Because it's creepy enough that he's sitting there reading this statement from the administration and pretending that he's answering questions in a normal way. And it seems even creepier to me if someone is sitting at a laptop deciding which answers pop up on the teleprompter...
   And I find this:
A senior White House adviser on Sunday denounced federal judges who have stood in the way of Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban, warning that “the whole world will soon see” that the president’s executive powers “will not be questioned”.
   I see this in several places, and I think the suggestion (e.g. at the Guardian) is that this is some kind of warning or assertion of absolute authority--like: Soon you peons will see that President Trump brooks no opposition... Which...if an administration...whatever he is...apparatchik...said that...it would mean non-stop protests until Trump left office even I would be out in the streets and I generally hate that crap. That would be the end of the thing. But weirdly, though I can find clips of other parts of the interview, I can't find clips of that part. And those words are compatible with a very different interpretation. Something more like: Soon the Court will rule that the President really does have authority over matters of this kind--you'll see...  Another possibility is tactical ambiguity...which...also a get-driven-out-of-office-able offense.
   But, anyway...it sure as hell better not be that first thing or the ambiguous one, or that's the goddamn last straw right here right at the beginning of this so-called administration.

5 Comments:

Anonymous rotgut said...

That part is at about the 3:00 mark. The whole exchange on this starts at about 1:30.

Miller on Face the Nation

9:03 AM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Thanks for this man...

I thought it would be obvious which thing he was saying, but it was less clear than I thought it would be. I could be paranoid obviously...but it kinda sounded a bit more like the sinister thing to me...though not clearly so.

But in a case like this, isn't this true: ambiguity (inadvertent or tactical) is entirely unacceptable.

9:11 AM  
Blogger Pete Mack said...

Not sure how that can be taken as other than a threat. This is a President with mob ties, after all.

9:44 AM  
Anonymous rotgut said...

Yeah, I'm with you. I can't quite tell how much of my perception is colored by how generally creepy Miller is. I might find the Constitution sinister if he was reading it off a teleprompter to me. But yes, ambiguity on this seems unacceptable.

9:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah so you know, Omarosa is actually in the running for this title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03cmSdHD4-k

9:34 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home