To me, the saddest part is that his great-grandparents (or maybe great-great) were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, and the United States' open door was the only thing that saved his ancestors from a 1-way visit to Hitler's gas chambers!
There is no lower being than one who rolls up the gangplank after they've gotten on the boat to safety. Not to mention the fact that the Hebrew Bible admonishes us something like 35+ times to welcome the stranger and treat the stranger as one of our own.
I sure hope there is a God and an afterlife, because if there is, then he's going to have a lot of explaining to do.
If I recall correctly, it was the grandparents' generation on one side of the family and the great-grandparents' on the other. There is no question that the Millers lost family, not too far extended, to Himmler the First. And now along comes Sonny Boy to be Himmler the Second. There are no words to adequately convey the evil. Freud (who, if his name were Flores, would have already been "desaparecido" by Miller from Alligator Auschwitz) would have had a field day with him.
Unfortunately that seems to be a common occurrence in U.S. history, going back at least to 1620 and the landing @ Plymouth Rock. Of course they thought their way was the only way and everyone else was a heretic, so their intolerance was divinely sanctioned (or something). Subsequent arrivals have had more secular motives.
I have no doubt that when the third person came down the gangplank of the Mayflower, the first one tapped the second one on the shoulder and whispered:
"they let THEM in here?!? There goes the neighborhood!"
Pretty much every subsequent wave of arrivals were moderate--and sane--compared to the Puritans. My people were Quakers, who settled in PA, and were, imo, the sanest of the lot.
These early groups were all fleeing religious persecution of one sort or another in Europe. And did their best to live Godly lives in the New World. But Miller is a modern outlier, who apparently learned nothing of the Nazi's attempt to exterminate his people.
Thank you for that post Susanna! His cousin was extremely eloquent in her Facebook post in the way in which she tied all his evil idiosyncrasies together.
Susanna: saying Miller was an "awkward, funny, needy middle child who loved to chase attention" is not my idea of saying "good things" about someone! Not when that awkward needy person has ended up as a rage-aholic.
I read recently (somewhere) SM came back from summer vacation after 8th grade to dump a school friend --because he was Latino. What in hell happened that summer?
Yep. That’s what all these idiots obsess about — teenage sexual frustration. Some pretty natural blonde in JR high chose the Latino boy and he never got over it.
It's saying *understanding* things about someone. Birth order and family dynamics can make a big difference in how someone grows up, but the generalizations don't predict how any individual is going to turn out.
How about providing a source for what you read? That would give us half a chance to check out its reliability.
Somewhere on Substack in the past few days, a reference to an interview with the dumped 8th grade friend, part of a threesome of boys who just hung out doing normal after school stuff. Until a major alteration.
Jeezus. The internet has really disintegrated civil discourse.
Trump key cabinet members are all totall incompetent and have no statemanship. They all are willing to lie. The entire world is astonished how America, once a beacon of freedom and liberty, could become such a country in less than a year. A total frightening development of the human history.
So is Trump, for that matter. Son of an immigrant, grandson of another, two foreign-born wives, employed undocumented immigrants seasonally at his Bedminster golf course for years....
He hired those undocumented Polish workers for his tower project, because he thought he would be able to get away with Wage Theft - that they would all have to go back to Poland and never be able to pursue him for the money he owed them.
Thank you so much for sharing this story of your family and reminding all of us Trump's story as well. I always say if you are not a Native American (Indigenous person of this land we call America) you are from an immigrant family or were stolen from your lands to become slaves. Let us all look back and remember.
In a manner of speaking, the colonists were illegal immigrants having no legitimate claims to the land in which they settled. Occupancy of “discovered” lands was viewed through the lens of religion. If the indigenous people were not Christian, the Catholic Church considered them savages and heathens deserving to be held in bondage for their lifetimes. Catholic countries used “terra nullius” (no man’s land) as their justification for stealing it. Likewise, England used Lockean reasoning to claim lands. Locke considered indigenous lands to be “uncultivated” and therefore unimproved. Using Adam of biblical fame as his example, he reasoned that anyone who tilled unimproved land could claim ownership of it through his labor.
Daniel Solomon: I wonder if Miller read this article--he's probably too busy celebrating the recent burning down of a judge's house and the hospitalization of her husband and son.
Keep your eye on the prize. Democracy. Rule of law.
Trump is the "captain of the ship" ad everything he and Vought do is his responsibility. Sure Miller is an asshole and he has an identity problem and could be nutsy koo koo, but he takes the attention that should go to his fuhrer.
Miller is horrifying, but let's not forget Russell Vought, primary author of Project 2025, that even Trump knew was so toxic he pretended not to be familiar with it when he was trying to get elected.
TRUMP IS VULNERABLE. Yesterday, Bondi testifying...from Meidas, per Ron Filipkowski.
… AG Pam Bondi had a heated and contentious hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Committee where she refused to answer questions, made personal attacks against Democratic senators, and got extremely defensive and angry whenever the subject of Jeffrey Epstein came up.
… Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): “There has been reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of Trump with half-naked young women. Do you know if the FBI found those photos? Have you seen them? Bondi: You sit here and try to slander President Trump left and right.” (She never answered the question).
… Mehdi Hasan: “Notice her non-answer. This is explosive. Should be explosive. The US AG who said she had the Epstein files on her desk cannot say whether or not the FBI has pix of Trump with half-naked women, which one witness who knew Epstein has said he has seen.”
Paraphrasing, the images say a thousand words. Maybe a million.
Trump might be "vulnerable," but allot of what he is doing, like charging Comey and conditioning Congressional investigations, is window dressing to buy time, to exhaust the electorate and people working for "the people," and to wait for just the right time to strike--the military thing was probably a part of this planning.
Addendum: he and his sycophants already have shown that he and they care nought about the law, instead, they are contemptible of it. When they can and the timing is right, they will crush it.
Satan Miller and Russell Bought are the ones running the show and trump is a demented puppet. It has happened more than a few times that trump appears surprised when finding out about what is going on....
I agree, we'll get around to Mr. Vault. And others, like H. Teeter Peel, Kegsbreath, Tom Homely, Bam! Ponzi, and others. The list is long. Keeping a long list of colorful nicknames in the back pocket, in reserve for the time when our numbers and organizing are both overhwelming and meticulous enough to send them packing. But laughing them out of office right before they go.
Praying it's not too late, too. And I believe in answered prayer.
The Trump administration is rife with nasty, sadistic characters. Who is “the most rabid person in the administration (where the competition is stiff)”? Bondi certainly hit an eleven on the nasty meter, in her Congressional testimony yesterday. Tom Homan is a vile, stupid ogre. JD Vance is an evil little weasel. Russell Vought is fueled by bile and sadism. Kristi Noem celebrates the cruelty of ICE’s brutal arrests. Kash Patel, not smart enough to be Dracula, instead channels Renfield. Hegseth is…is…actually too dumb to be truly evil.
But! Stephen Miller, whom his cousin Alisa Kasmer in July called “the face of evil”, takes the prize. I’ll let her explain further, “You’ve (Miller) destroyed so many lives just to feed your own obsession and ego and uphold an administration so corrupt, so vile, I can barely comprehend it. As surreal as it all feels, this IS reality. As much as I try to disassociate from it, the truth remains—being this close to such deep cruelty fills me with shame. I am gutted. My heart breaks that this is the legacy you have brought to our family. A legacy I never asked to share with you, and one I now carry like a curse.”
Yes, as the article mentions the competition for worst of the worst is stiff in this administration*. I'm glad you mentioned the Cash Peddler, too. And J.D. Retreat. Each one of them needs a different approach. Myself, I recommend getting inside H. Teeter Peel's head, reverse surveillance, or convincing him that many of his enemies, in fact, know what he had for lunch, and where. For Vault, it's sending him letters, written by a sincere, serious *conservative* Christian, reminding him of the deadlines he's missed, and his defeats in court. (After verifying the same via our own research, fact-checking, etc. And I'll volunteer to impersonate - except the Christian part, but I can "do" a conservative one - I know the lingo.)
It's a long list, but between all of us, it's do-able. Oh, and next Tuesday I'm thinking of having myself a chicken taco. Hail to the Chief!😆😅🤣
I would like to think that voters will be repulsed by more of Steven Miller, but I’m not so sure. They weren’t repulsed by a presidential candidate who said that he could grab women by their pussy. They weren’t repulsed by a President who describes “shit hole” countries. They weren’t repulsed by a president who makes fun of a reporter with a disability. I no longer have faith in the judgement of the average American voter.
This is why I think there's no cheese down the Epstein tunnel. Not that there aren't photos and plenty of evidence corroborating Trump's involvement (and who knows who else) . . . just that if the Access Hollywood tapes and everything else you cite weren't his undoing, why should we think this will be? Several weeks ago he was quoted as saying, "Smart people don't like me." What does this say about the people who do like him, that support him, that voted for him? Did they even notice that he insulted their intelligence . . . their devotion . . . their existence?
I totally agree that voters overlooked and/or accepted Trump's repulsive behavior. It made me wonder what those people are really like. They must, ultimately, support Trump's beliefs. To me, those that voted for Trump in 2024 are just as disgusting as he is.
Unfortunately, most Trump voters who are reluctant to admit they were snookered in 2024 won’t be persuaded that Miller is out of control, because they LIKE what the regime is doing to immigrants and ‘sticking it to the libs.’ Because Hilary was right. And even more unfortunately, the public likely WON’T notice that Miller is the one determined to incite violence in cities and gin up the mob anger against judges, because the damned corporate media won’t tell them.
While no longer surprised, I’m still always appalled at the willful ignorance of half of American adults, although I have to cut them slack because it's not entirely their fault, what with Fox deliberately lying and the rest of the outlets deliberately omitting key facts.
Thank you, Jen, for this important essay. Particularly your recommendation: “Democrats would be wise to make this snarling, racist, and unhinged character the face of the MAGA party.” Yes! Let’s go even further and brand Miller the shadow president, as he appears to be making major decisions for the regime. Dumpty cannot stand competition and hates to share the spotlight. He might put Miller on a short leash, or dump him altogether.
The stiffest competition for Miller is Bondi. Anyone else see the clips of her at the recent Senate hearing? Good god. Not only is she beginning to resemble a walking Jared Jewelry advertisement, but her sneering disrespect for her questioners was stunning. And I'm no longer easily stunned by the MAGA crowd. But she is clearly a cheap toadie for Trump, while Miller appears to be something else--a deep-dyed racist with much too much in common with a convinced SS officer than is comfortable to contemplate.
"Barbie" Bondi gave quite a performance. She's an embarrassment to her profession and to the US. I'd say and to herself but I think she's rather proud of all that sneering and shouting. (The facade of propriety disappeared quickly.) What's interesting to me is that so many of the females this president surrounds himself with are replicas of Ivanka, the daughter he once said he'd like to "date." (My recollection is that Ivanka as pretty young then.)
Having a fixation on adolescent and other youngish blondes is only one of Trump's many quirks. It does, however, serve the purpose of elevating his ultimate creepiness clearly into public view. At one point, for example, he called Ivanka 'hot' and/or a "nice piece of ass" on the Howard Stern show. The man has no boundaries when it comes to his appetites. Yecch!
This really reflects that as a sociopath he has none of the normal paternal protectiveness, affection and respect for his daughter that would make such comments unthinkable to most men, even the most otherwise lecherous.
At some level this is a truly sad, sad story, isn't it? My dad was my hero, and of my two parents he was by far the parent who supported me most. When I imagine a father looking lecherously at his daughter, it makes me shiver for the pair of them.
We've officially crossed over the borders into crazy town when some psycho sets fire to a judge's house and nearly kills people. This attack hasn't received near the national publicity it should. Any normal president would condemn this in the harshest language and vow that the FBI will catch the unhinged lunatic who started the fire. I doubt the FBI is even looking for whoever did it, because, of course, the Bureau is being run by another psycho. Yesterday, I wrote my Republican Senators and district representative and reminded them they are complicit in this madness by standing back and letting a bunch of idiots run roughshod over our democracy and the rule of law. I also reminded them that this madness will fail, and they will be on the wrong side of history when it does.
It isn’t proven – yet – that the fire was caused by arson. It’s being investigated. But I agree that it is extremely suspicious, even probable. Judge Goldstein had received many credible death threats in the days before, and NY Rep. Dan Goldman believes it was arson.
Someone told me that it had been determined it was cars parked in the garage under the house or by the house. Which I know can happen because I have a friend who owns a fire extinguisher company who will not park her lithium battery cars under her house.
I sincerely hope that's true. Most of those fools who make death threats are just hiding behind their computer screens. Fortunately, so far at least, few have acted on their threats.
Sounds like a convenient excuse. But who told you and who determined it? She recently refused to turn over SC voters information to the Feds after being ordered by Trump or Bondi to do it. I think we have to wait and see.
Considering the DOJ and all its attending agencies are under the control of psycho bootlickers, I doubt we'll get a legitimate investigation of the fire, unless it's by local law enforcement.
I doubt an investigation by local law enforcement would give us the truth—it’s South Carolina, and run by Republicans. Maybe someone like Greg Palast? Or Zev Shalev?
Someone posted it in replied to my comment in another subset column that I was upset that it was likely fire bombed by a Maga supporter. So I figured it was someone who had more information or more recent information than I did.
Possibly the vile , vicious Mr. Miller is just the fellow Trump wants in the ring , just to get an uprising going so he can declare the insurrection act and rule by decree , which he is apparently doing right now. Stephen Miller is just the culprit to stir the pot until is is boiling over with rage. The Heritage Foundation cabal could care less what is happening in the White House. They need the diversions to slip their draconian policies into place. I have no trust in Russell Vought or Brendan Carr. Yes Stephen Miller is the Joseph Goebbels of the MAGA regime. The polls are no concern of the Heritage Foundation folks.. The elections will be rigged as they have all the voters personal data downloaded by Peter Thiel. The ICE gestapo agents will be swamped into the blue states to just poll watch and intimidate the voters. Don't let that stop you from voting. Stay calm , don't riot , let the Stephen Millers rant on to eternity.
Stephen Brady: I blame Fox News--not 100 percent, but a lot . . . by their fakery as a news outlet, they formalize Trump's every lie--to those who still think all newspeople are, indeed, newspeople . . . sort of like Walter Cronkite was in his time.
Miller's idea that the judges are trying to control the president (and the presidency) reeks of the reigning theory of executive all-power--the judges are interpreting the law, as is their job and habit, not "trying to control Trump." It's like tariffs. They just don't get it. But understood under the idea of the theory of executive power, everything applied that has to do with the rule of law is understood by Trump as a personal slight--instigating whine, whine, and more whine. And BTW, Bimbo Bondi proved yesterday that she is in competition with Trump over how many logical fallacies she can use in one sitting.
That Americans voted for this nightmare reflects a deep character flaw in the psyche of the American Body Politic. tRumps measly plurality shows how disturbing he was to a lot of voters. But there was so much anti-Harris animus to contend with. He defeated her with ad hominem attacks.
Who voted for Miller, Vought, or Bondi (or the rest of the current cabinet)? They are, however, the end result of having voted for Trump. MAGA and the complicit GOP own this whole mess.
Assuming in her lack of answering questions that Bondi also lied to Congress, she should be tried alongside James Comey. The old adage what's good for one is good for all comes to mind.
Steve, also: Those who voted for Trump, especially the second time, are an indication (in my view) of a generational loss of civics education; not necessarily deliberate, though I think there is some of that via right-wing politics, but rather in attrition--for one thing, slowly, the curriculum lost an emphasis on the social sciences, humanities and arts, including civics/politics and history--at the service of an overplay of the "goods" of capitalism (the ME generations) and of the push for science and technology which is okay, except for what it tended to push out of the curriculum--a broadening of what it means to be human in a world with other human beings.
There is then a huge vacuum between the voter and their understanding of their own significance as a citizen in a democracy. The problem is decades old and (I think) is manifest in the utter political stupidity of MAGA, even though many are (ahem) good at their work.
Yep re: a half century of failures in teaching civics in history.
Add in three+ decades of Fox News, Limbaugh & Levin and the rest of right wing radio, and now two decades of social media right-wing nuttery . . . and here we are.
I live in rural America. I do a lot of house calls fixing folks' computers. Invariably, Fox News plays on the TV all day 7 days a week.
Stanley Krute: Doesn't surprise me about Fox. The same with going into a retail outlet or doctors' office or my car fix place--Fox News. It makes me want to throw up. If the Epstein files get published and reveal Trump's massage escapades, MAGA will say it's fake video.
Spot on. The Republicans deliberately, and with malice, engineered the division in this country starting with Reagan, doubling down with Newt Gingrich's Contract On America, gearing up with the creation of Homeland Security (which instantly evoked thoughts of the nations that like to talk of "the fatherland" or the "motherland"), and accomplished with AM hate radio, Sinclair, and Fox serving as Republican state media.
Steve: As an addendum, the potential to even get a good civics/historical education is in public/not private education (even by names generated from Orwellian thinking). The GOP right wing has been going after public education for years badmouthing teachers, unions, and defunding public schools (well documented--see Network for Public Education). And just today, funny you should mention it, ProPublica writes this (see link below):
"These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department. Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of public schools as we know them.
Thank you for th links. There is no question that Republicans, and now MAGA and this administration, continue the attack on public education that they've been at for decades. Indoctrination over education may well be the goal.
Hi Steve 218: Slews of educators and others have been documenting and resisting anti-public education for decades (for instance, Diane Ravitch)--most who are anti-public push for vouchers and for charter schools (putting "public" in their names) and are either unaware of the right-wing intentions of oligarchs and well-funded groups like ALEC to appropriate and direct curricula, or they are complicit with it. They have a lot of money.
Also, public education teachers who just want to teach their students what they need to know, have been in the crosshairs of such movements for those same decades as the powers-that-be have slowly drained their resources and poisoned the public against anything (not so oddly) public.
That seems to have come to a head with the advent of Trump. You should see the stuff I get from the Gates Foundation, which does lots of good things in other venues, but has failed miserably (in my view) over the years where education was/is their issue. They seem to be finding out stuff just now that educators have been trying to get across to them for decades.
Basically, teaching and learning for children occurs first between persons.
Stephen Miller is pure evil.
Apparently his own family has disowned him
A cousin who grew up with him (and had good things to say about him as a kid) has repudiated his beliefs. An uncle publicly condemned him in 2018. https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/stephen-miller-dumped-by-own-family-as-humiliating-public-putdown-resurfaces-i-grieve/ar-AA1NWuZa
To me, the saddest part is that his great-grandparents (or maybe great-great) were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, and the United States' open door was the only thing that saved his ancestors from a 1-way visit to Hitler's gas chambers!
There is no lower being than one who rolls up the gangplank after they've gotten on the boat to safety. Not to mention the fact that the Hebrew Bible admonishes us something like 35+ times to welcome the stranger and treat the stranger as one of our own.
I sure hope there is a God and an afterlife, because if there is, then he's going to have a lot of explaining to do.
If I recall correctly, it was the grandparents' generation on one side of the family and the great-grandparents' on the other. There is no question that the Millers lost family, not too far extended, to Himmler the First. And now along comes Sonny Boy to be Himmler the Second. There are no words to adequately convey the evil. Freud (who, if his name were Flores, would have already been "desaparecido" by Miller from Alligator Auschwitz) would have had a field day with him.
Explanations depend on the opportunity of due process. Maybe he'll just be assaulted and deported straight to Hell.
Unfortunately that seems to be a common occurrence in U.S. history, going back at least to 1620 and the landing @ Plymouth Rock. Of course they thought their way was the only way and everyone else was a heretic, so their intolerance was divinely sanctioned (or something). Subsequent arrivals have had more secular motives.
I have no doubt that when the third person came down the gangplank of the Mayflower, the first one tapped the second one on the shoulder and whispered:
"they let THEM in here?!? There goes the neighborhood!"
Pretty much every subsequent wave of arrivals were moderate--and sane--compared to the Puritans. My people were Quakers, who settled in PA, and were, imo, the sanest of the lot.
These early groups were all fleeing religious persecution of one sort or another in Europe. And did their best to live Godly lives in the New World. But Miller is a modern outlier, who apparently learned nothing of the Nazi's attempt to exterminate his people.
The lesson may be "I'll do unto them before they do unto me."
Thank you for that post Susanna! His cousin was extremely eloquent in her Facebook post in the way in which she tied all his evil idiosyncrasies together.
Susanna: saying Miller was an "awkward, funny, needy middle child who loved to chase attention" is not my idea of saying "good things" about someone! Not when that awkward needy person has ended up as a rage-aholic.
I read recently (somewhere) SM came back from summer vacation after 8th grade to dump a school friend --because he was Latino. What in hell happened that summer?
I'm convinced some girl he liked dated a Latino, and he's never gotten over it.
Yep. That’s what all these idiots obsess about — teenage sexual frustration. Some pretty natural blonde in JR high chose the Latino boy and he never got over it.
Or something terrible happened on the playground.
Stephen Miller? Girl? Really?
It's saying *understanding* things about someone. Birth order and family dynamics can make a big difference in how someone grows up, but the generalizations don't predict how any individual is going to turn out.
How about providing a source for what you read? That would give us half a chance to check out its reliability.
Is it worth making a federal case out of it?
Somewhere on Substack in the past few days, a reference to an interview with the dumped 8th grade friend, part of a threesome of boys who just hung out doing normal after school stuff. Until a major alteration.
Jeezus. The internet has really disintegrated civil discourse.
He is a sadistic sociopath.
He is the ugly face - literally and figuratively - of this ugly, grotesque administration.
Trump key cabinet members are all totall incompetent and have no statemanship. They all are willing to lie. The entire world is astonished how America, once a beacon of freedom and liberty, could become such a country in less than a year. A total frightening development of the human history.
Stephen Miller's uncle, a board certified psychiatrist, says he's a hypocrite. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/13/stephen-miller-is-an-immigration-hypocrite-i-know-because-im-his-uncle-219351/
So is Trump, for that matter. Son of an immigrant, grandson of another, two foreign-born wives, employed undocumented immigrants seasonally at his Bedminster golf course for years....
Plus, Trump was/is the poster boy for employer sanctions for using illegal workers on his job sites. Had to pay a $2mil fine plus make restitution.
Hired temporary workers from the Balkans to displace the locals at Mar a Lago and Doral.
He hired those undocumented Polish workers for his tower project, because he thought he would be able to get away with Wage Theft - that they would all have to go back to Poland and never be able to pursue him for the money he owed them.
immigrant decended kids...
Thank you so much for sharing this story of your family and reminding all of us Trump's story as well. I always say if you are not a Native American (Indigenous person of this land we call America) you are from an immigrant family or were stolen from your lands to become slaves. Let us all look back and remember.
In a manner of speaking, the colonists were illegal immigrants having no legitimate claims to the land in which they settled. Occupancy of “discovered” lands was viewed through the lens of religion. If the indigenous people were not Christian, the Catholic Church considered them savages and heathens deserving to be held in bondage for their lifetimes. Catholic countries used “terra nullius” (no man’s land) as their justification for stealing it. Likewise, England used Lockean reasoning to claim lands. Locke considered indigenous lands to be “uncultivated” and therefore unimproved. Using Adam of biblical fame as his example, he reasoned that anyone who tilled unimproved land could claim ownership of it through his labor.
Daniel Solomon: I wonder if Miller read this article--he's probably too busy celebrating the recent burning down of a judge's house and the hospitalization of her husband and son.
Keep your eye on the prize. Democracy. Rule of law.
Trump is the "captain of the ship" ad everything he and Vought do is his responsibility. Sure Miller is an asshole and he has an identity problem and could be nutsy koo koo, but he takes the attention that should go to his fuhrer.
Is that the best his uncle can come up with? hypocrite?
Thanks for the article. I would have hoped his uncle would have let us in on some more psychological understanding of the man.
Miller is horrifying, but let's not forget Russell Vought, primary author of Project 2025, that even Trump knew was so toxic he pretended not to be familiar with it when he was trying to get elected.
IF you cut off the head, the body dies.
TRUMP IS VULNERABLE. Yesterday, Bondi testifying...from Meidas, per Ron Filipkowski.
… AG Pam Bondi had a heated and contentious hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Committee where she refused to answer questions, made personal attacks against Democratic senators, and got extremely defensive and angry whenever the subject of Jeffrey Epstein came up.
… Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): “There has been reporting that Jeffrey Epstein showed people photos of Trump with half-naked young women. Do you know if the FBI found those photos? Have you seen them? Bondi: You sit here and try to slander President Trump left and right.” (She never answered the question).
… Mehdi Hasan: “Notice her non-answer. This is explosive. Should be explosive. The US AG who said she had the Epstein files on her desk cannot say whether or not the FBI has pix of Trump with half-naked women, which one witness who knew Epstein has said he has seen.”
Paraphrasing, the images say a thousand words. Maybe a million.
Since she did not respond to Senator Whutehouse's question with "No", it is fair to assume that her non-answer meant "Yes".
Trump might be "vulnerable," but allot of what he is doing, like charging Comey and conditioning Congressional investigations, is window dressing to buy time, to exhaust the electorate and people working for "the people," and to wait for just the right time to strike--the military thing was probably a part of this planning.
Addendum: he and his sycophants already have shown that he and they care nought about the law, instead, they are contemptible of it. When they can and the timing is right, they will crush it.
The Epstein petition is the mecanism to get Republicans on the record, and many Republicans privately admit Trump is nuts.
Satan Miller and Russell Bought are the ones running the show and trump is a demented puppet. It has happened more than a few times that trump appears surprised when finding out about what is going on....
I agree, we'll get around to Mr. Vault. And others, like H. Teeter Peel, Kegsbreath, Tom Homely, Bam! Ponzi, and others. The list is long. Keeping a long list of colorful nicknames in the back pocket, in reserve for the time when our numbers and organizing are both overhwelming and meticulous enough to send them packing. But laughing them out of office right before they go.
Praying it's not too late, too. And I believe in answered prayer.
The Trump administration is rife with nasty, sadistic characters. Who is “the most rabid person in the administration (where the competition is stiff)”? Bondi certainly hit an eleven on the nasty meter, in her Congressional testimony yesterday. Tom Homan is a vile, stupid ogre. JD Vance is an evil little weasel. Russell Vought is fueled by bile and sadism. Kristi Noem celebrates the cruelty of ICE’s brutal arrests. Kash Patel, not smart enough to be Dracula, instead channels Renfield. Hegseth is…is…actually too dumb to be truly evil.
But! Stephen Miller, whom his cousin Alisa Kasmer in July called “the face of evil”, takes the prize. I’ll let her explain further, “You’ve (Miller) destroyed so many lives just to feed your own obsession and ego and uphold an administration so corrupt, so vile, I can barely comprehend it. As surreal as it all feels, this IS reality. As much as I try to disassociate from it, the truth remains—being this close to such deep cruelty fills me with shame. I am gutted. My heart breaks that this is the legacy you have brought to our family. A legacy I never asked to share with you, and one I now carry like a curse.”
Your comments are, in my humble opinion, totally accurate. Well done!
Yes, as the article mentions the competition for worst of the worst is stiff in this administration*. I'm glad you mentioned the Cash Peddler, too. And J.D. Retreat. Each one of them needs a different approach. Myself, I recommend getting inside H. Teeter Peel's head, reverse surveillance, or convincing him that many of his enemies, in fact, know what he had for lunch, and where. For Vault, it's sending him letters, written by a sincere, serious *conservative* Christian, reminding him of the deadlines he's missed, and his defeats in court. (After verifying the same via our own research, fact-checking, etc. And I'll volunteer to impersonate - except the Christian part, but I can "do" a conservative one - I know the lingo.)
It's a long list, but between all of us, it's do-able. Oh, and next Tuesday I'm thinking of having myself a chicken taco. Hail to the Chief!😆😅🤣
Here is Professor Timothy Snyder's short but powerful analysis of Stephen Miller's recent assaults on our democracy: https://open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p/stalinism-and-stephen-miller-video?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2rctb
I would like to think that voters will be repulsed by more of Steven Miller, but I’m not so sure. They weren’t repulsed by a presidential candidate who said that he could grab women by their pussy. They weren’t repulsed by a President who describes “shit hole” countries. They weren’t repulsed by a president who makes fun of a reporter with a disability. I no longer have faith in the judgement of the average American voter.
This is why I think there's no cheese down the Epstein tunnel. Not that there aren't photos and plenty of evidence corroborating Trump's involvement (and who knows who else) . . . just that if the Access Hollywood tapes and everything else you cite weren't his undoing, why should we think this will be? Several weeks ago he was quoted as saying, "Smart people don't like me." What does this say about the people who do like him, that support him, that voted for him? Did they even notice that he insulted their intelligence . . . their devotion . . . their existence?
I totally agree that voters overlooked and/or accepted Trump's repulsive behavior. It made me wonder what those people are really like. They must, ultimately, support Trump's beliefs. To me, those that voted for Trump in 2024 are just as disgusting as he is.
Comedian George Carlin said that half of the people are dumber than the average American.
americans are idiots
Unfortunately, most Trump voters who are reluctant to admit they were snookered in 2024 won’t be persuaded that Miller is out of control, because they LIKE what the regime is doing to immigrants and ‘sticking it to the libs.’ Because Hilary was right. And even more unfortunately, the public likely WON’T notice that Miller is the one determined to incite violence in cities and gin up the mob anger against judges, because the damned corporate media won’t tell them.
While no longer surprised, I’m still always appalled at the willful ignorance of half of American adults, although I have to cut them slack because it's not entirely their fault, what with Fox deliberately lying and the rest of the outlets deliberately omitting key facts.
Thank you, Jen, for this important essay. Particularly your recommendation: “Democrats would be wise to make this snarling, racist, and unhinged character the face of the MAGA party.” Yes! Let’s go even further and brand Miller the shadow president, as he appears to be making major decisions for the regime. Dumpty cannot stand competition and hates to share the spotlight. He might put Miller on a short leash, or dump him altogether.
Couldn’t agree more. Let’s help make Miller so toxic that Trump will have to kick him out or st least muzzle him.
The stiffest competition for Miller is Bondi. Anyone else see the clips of her at the recent Senate hearing? Good god. Not only is she beginning to resemble a walking Jared Jewelry advertisement, but her sneering disrespect for her questioners was stunning. And I'm no longer easily stunned by the MAGA crowd. But she is clearly a cheap toadie for Trump, while Miller appears to be something else--a deep-dyed racist with much too much in common with a convinced SS officer than is comfortable to contemplate.
"Barbie" Bondi gave quite a performance. She's an embarrassment to her profession and to the US. I'd say and to herself but I think she's rather proud of all that sneering and shouting. (The facade of propriety disappeared quickly.) What's interesting to me is that so many of the females this president surrounds himself with are replicas of Ivanka, the daughter he once said he'd like to "date." (My recollection is that Ivanka as pretty young then.)
Having a fixation on adolescent and other youngish blondes is only one of Trump's many quirks. It does, however, serve the purpose of elevating his ultimate creepiness clearly into public view. At one point, for example, he called Ivanka 'hot' and/or a "nice piece of ass" on the Howard Stern show. The man has no boundaries when it comes to his appetites. Yecch!
This really reflects that as a sociopath he has none of the normal paternal protectiveness, affection and respect for his daughter that would make such comments unthinkable to most men, even the most otherwise lecherous.
At some level this is a truly sad, sad story, isn't it? My dad was my hero, and of my two parents he was by far the parent who supported me most. When I imagine a father looking lecherously at his daughter, it makes me shiver for the pair of them.
Nail on head. MILLER MUST GO.
Makes a good tarbaby.
We've officially crossed over the borders into crazy town when some psycho sets fire to a judge's house and nearly kills people. This attack hasn't received near the national publicity it should. Any normal president would condemn this in the harshest language and vow that the FBI will catch the unhinged lunatic who started the fire. I doubt the FBI is even looking for whoever did it, because, of course, the Bureau is being run by another psycho. Yesterday, I wrote my Republican Senators and district representative and reminded them they are complicit in this madness by standing back and letting a bunch of idiots run roughshod over our democracy and the rule of law. I also reminded them that this madness will fail, and they will be on the wrong side of history when it does.
It isn’t proven – yet – that the fire was caused by arson. It’s being investigated. But I agree that it is extremely suspicious, even probable. Judge Goldstein had received many credible death threats in the days before, and NY Rep. Dan Goldman believes it was arson.
I pray it wasn't arson. But the "administration" has done everything it can to convert us to Nazi Germany I wouldn't be shocked if it was.
Someone told me that it had been determined it was cars parked in the garage under the house or by the house. Which I know can happen because I have a friend who owns a fire extinguisher company who will not park her lithium battery cars under her house.
I sincerely hope that's true. Most of those fools who make death threats are just hiding behind their computer screens. Fortunately, so far at least, few have acted on their threats.
Sounds like a convenient excuse. But who told you and who determined it? She recently refused to turn over SC voters information to the Feds after being ordered by Trump or Bondi to do it. I think we have to wait and see.
Considering the DOJ and all its attending agencies are under the control of psycho bootlickers, I doubt we'll get a legitimate investigation of the fire, unless it's by local law enforcement.
I doubt an investigation by local law enforcement would give us the truth—it’s South Carolina, and run by Republicans. Maybe someone like Greg Palast? Or Zev Shalev?
Someone posted it in replied to my comment in another subset column that I was upset that it was likely fire bombed by a Maga supporter. So I figured it was someone who had more information or more recent information than I did.
Possibly the vile , vicious Mr. Miller is just the fellow Trump wants in the ring , just to get an uprising going so he can declare the insurrection act and rule by decree , which he is apparently doing right now. Stephen Miller is just the culprit to stir the pot until is is boiling over with rage. The Heritage Foundation cabal could care less what is happening in the White House. They need the diversions to slip their draconian policies into place. I have no trust in Russell Vought or Brendan Carr. Yes Stephen Miller is the Joseph Goebbels of the MAGA regime. The polls are no concern of the Heritage Foundation folks.. The elections will be rigged as they have all the voters personal data downloaded by Peter Thiel. The ICE gestapo agents will be swamped into the blue states to just poll watch and intimidate the voters. Don't let that stop you from voting. Stay calm , don't riot , let the Stephen Millers rant on to eternity.
This is America's government for the next 3+ years!
G-d have mercy on us all.
Stephen Brady: I blame Fox News--not 100 percent, but a lot . . . by their fakery as a news outlet, they formalize Trump's every lie--to those who still think all newspeople are, indeed, newspeople . . . sort of like Walter Cronkite was in his time.
I blame Moscow Mitch.
Miller is a perfect example of how you never encounter a believer in a master race who would qualify for membership.
Reminds me of Groucho Marx: “ I wouldn’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member”!
Yeah it's sort of the exact inverse, isn't it!
good phrase Richard !
The Jewish Nazi.
Miller's idea that the judges are trying to control the president (and the presidency) reeks of the reigning theory of executive all-power--the judges are interpreting the law, as is their job and habit, not "trying to control Trump." It's like tariffs. They just don't get it. But understood under the idea of the theory of executive power, everything applied that has to do with the rule of law is understood by Trump as a personal slight--instigating whine, whine, and more whine. And BTW, Bimbo Bondi proved yesterday that she is in competition with Trump over how many logical fallacies she can use in one sitting.
That Americans voted for this nightmare reflects a deep character flaw in the psyche of the American Body Politic. tRumps measly plurality shows how disturbing he was to a lot of voters. But there was so much anti-Harris animus to contend with. He defeated her with ad hominem attacks.
Who voted for Miller, Vought, or Bondi (or the rest of the current cabinet)? They are, however, the end result of having voted for Trump. MAGA and the complicit GOP own this whole mess.
Assuming in her lack of answering questions that Bondi also lied to Congress, she should be tried alongside James Comey. The old adage what's good for one is good for all comes to mind.
Steve, also: Those who voted for Trump, especially the second time, are an indication (in my view) of a generational loss of civics education; not necessarily deliberate, though I think there is some of that via right-wing politics, but rather in attrition--for one thing, slowly, the curriculum lost an emphasis on the social sciences, humanities and arts, including civics/politics and history--at the service of an overplay of the "goods" of capitalism (the ME generations) and of the push for science and technology which is okay, except for what it tended to push out of the curriculum--a broadening of what it means to be human in a world with other human beings.
There is then a huge vacuum between the voter and their understanding of their own significance as a citizen in a democracy. The problem is decades old and (I think) is manifest in the utter political stupidity of MAGA, even though many are (ahem) good at their work.
Yep re: a half century of failures in teaching civics in history.
Add in three+ decades of Fox News, Limbaugh & Levin and the rest of right wing radio, and now two decades of social media right-wing nuttery . . . and here we are.
I live in rural America. I do a lot of house calls fixing folks' computers. Invariably, Fox News plays on the TV all day 7 days a week.
Stanley Krute: Doesn't surprise me about Fox. The same with going into a retail outlet or doctors' office or my car fix place--Fox News. It makes me want to throw up. If the Epstein files get published and reveal Trump's massage escapades, MAGA will say it's fake video.
Spot on. The Republicans deliberately, and with malice, engineered the division in this country starting with Reagan, doubling down with Newt Gingrich's Contract On America, gearing up with the creation of Homeland Security (which instantly evoked thoughts of the nations that like to talk of "the fatherland" or the "motherland"), and accomplished with AM hate radio, Sinclair, and Fox serving as Republican state media.
Those are excellent observations, and it's true that the lack of emphasis in education on courses like Civics & Government is catching up with us.
Steve: As an addendum, the potential to even get a good civics/historical education is in public/not private education (even by names generated from Orwellian thinking). The GOP right wing has been going after public education for years badmouthing teachers, unions, and defunding public schools (well documented--see Network for Public Education). And just today, funny you should mention it, ProPublica writes this (see link below):
"These Activists Want to Dismantle Public Schools. Now They Run the Education Department. Under Trump, the Department of Education has been bringing in activists hostile to public schools. It could mean a new era of private and religious schools boosted by tax dollars — and the end of public schools as we know them.
https://www.propublica.org/article/education-department-public-schools-activists-linda-mcmahon-trump?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature
Thank you for th links. There is no question that Republicans, and now MAGA and this administration, continue the attack on public education that they've been at for decades. Indoctrination over education may well be the goal.
Hi Steve 218: Slews of educators and others have been documenting and resisting anti-public education for decades (for instance, Diane Ravitch)--most who are anti-public push for vouchers and for charter schools (putting "public" in their names) and are either unaware of the right-wing intentions of oligarchs and well-funded groups like ALEC to appropriate and direct curricula, or they are complicit with it. They have a lot of money.
Also, public education teachers who just want to teach their students what they need to know, have been in the crosshairs of such movements for those same decades as the powers-that-be have slowly drained their resources and poisoned the public against anything (not so oddly) public.
That seems to have come to a head with the advent of Trump. You should see the stuff I get from the Gates Foundation, which does lots of good things in other venues, but has failed miserably (in my view) over the years where education was/is their issue. They seem to be finding out stuff just now that educators have been trying to get across to them for decades.
Basically, teaching and learning for children occurs first between persons.
Steve: Some of the news commenters are already talking about the "two-tiered system of justice."
Not new to me. I've read the same reports.
Excellent article and will share.