Puppet Strings

Unless you are someone who has absolutely zero interest in politics you probably have noticed the tight control of responses coming from the Trump administration within his first month in control.  Whether it is Kellyanne Conway, Sean Spicer, or Stephen Miller there is an unwavering theme that goes through the visible representatives of the Trump truck and that is the irrational concept that the media (with the exceptions of Fox News and Breitbart) are fake/wrong/un-American and that the President's authority and "wisdom" is trustworthy to the point that we shouldn't question his motives.

Why don't we look at those three to begin with:

Object #1- Sean Spicer (Press Secretary)

Spicer's first foray with the press involved berating said press about lying about the crowd size of Trump's inauguration, first saying there were no definite numbers, but it was the biggest crowd ever.  Period.  

Object #2- Kellyanne Conway (POTUS Counselor)

Conway seems to resort from answering a question directly by insulting the interviewee and then twisting words to make it seem as if the people actually heard an actual question.  Of the three she had the best moment when she would not say the Spicer's attendance figures were false, instead calling them "alternative facts."  She also made a fake massacre in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  I don't know about you, but I can smell a lie from a mile away...

Object #3- Stephen Miller (Senior Advisor)

The newest member of the Alternative Facts brigade is Stephen Miller.  Miller was on ABC's This Week this past weekend and it looked something like this:

Not sure about you, but it was very noticeable how scripted his answers were.  He was for the most part monotone and you can see his eyes shifting as if he was reading left to right.  The biggest giveaway was went he was reciting a law code including the exact numbers, letters, and sections along with what that piece of information said word for word.

When talking about the recent court decision to halt the Muslim ban Miller said this:

"We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many cases a supreme branch of government. 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."

For people working for the President and are supposedly well versed in even basic high school civics lessons they should know about the following:

• Separation of Powers
• Each branch has different functions as to give the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches their unique identities.
• Checks and Balances
• Each of the aforementioned branches has the ability to "check" the other branch so neither of the three branches has more power than the others (i.e. staying balanced).  The Legislative Branch creates the laws, the Executive Branch either signs their laws or vetoes them (to which the Legislative Branch and override their veto with enough votes), and the Judicial Branch can declare a law unconstitutional. 
• Executive Orders can be checked by the Judicial Branch.  Just because the President can bypass Congress doesn't mean it can bypass a Federal Judge.
• Supremacy Clause 
• If a state law and a Federal law come into conflict the Federal law will always trump the state law.
• This clause does not mean the Executive Branch has supremacy over the other branches of government.

Despite all the campy-ness from the interview Trump as well as his ardent Breitbart fanboys gave it their two-Trumps up:

Congratulations Stephen Miller- on representing me this morning on the various Sunday morning shows. Great job!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2017

All Breitbart could do is quote the part of Miller saying voter fraud was a serious issue without given any real evidence to the matter:

"It’s very real, very serious." https://t.co/lR7uHtnFPJ

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 12, 2017

To sum things up, are we are going to get for the next four years (if Trump lasts that long) is a myriad of henchmen that will avoid, circumvent, or invent truths to make sure we stay in the dark until the real facts bleed out on their own.  Eventually Trump's most loyal supporters will get tired of this schtick and will want more transparency too and if they don't the GOP politicians will.