10 Comments
User's avatar
Katharine Hill's avatar

This column alone is worth the yearly subscription. Thank you, Lisa, for educating me and providing the receipts about the sneering rudeness of Miller ( and I thought Bondi was bad?).

Expand full comment
Dr Bob's avatar

Thank you, Lisa for bringing this to our attention. I’m beside myself with what this administration is getting away with, without much control from the other branches of government or the people for that matter.

Expand full comment
Johan's avatar

Stephen Miller did not slip. He revealed the playbook.

Invoking plenary authority in the context of National Guard deployment was not a legal argument. It was a power grab. From a behavioral lens, this is how authoritarian drift operates. Redefine terms. Test the boundaries. Count on institutional silence.

Checks and balances are not failing because they are weak. They are failing because too many actors have chosen not to act. When the judiciary defers and Congress abdicates, the executive expands by default.

Miller said the quiet part out loud. The real problem is how few people pushed back.

Thank you for keeping the lens sharp.

— Johan

Professor of Behavioral Economics and Applied Cognitive Theory

Former Foreign Service Officer

Expand full comment
Dr Bob's avatar

PS: this report has solidly enticed my motivation to re-up my subscription. Keep up the great work. We need you.!

Expand full comment
Mark In Colorado's avatar

Perhaps I need to reconsider whether reincarnation is possible.

Stephen Miller looks remarkably like Heinrich Himmler, one of the powerful people in Hitler’s inner circle who was a key person behind the Holocaust. And, of course, Miller’s rhetoric is the same as Himmler’s.

Expand full comment
Steven Branch's avatar

Herr Miller and Herr Vought are serving as co-presidents and are perhaps the most vile pair in this lawless administration. Drumpf is so inept and delusional he needs others to tell him what to say and do (notice I didn't say "think" because that's a nonstarter where he's concerned). Miller made CNN's Boris look like a fool. Surely, someone could have told him in his earpiece that Miller was simply not speaking because he knew he'd FU. At least that stopped Miller from spewing his venom lies for a few seconds.

Expand full comment
carol's avatar

The law will catch up to Miller and Voight in 2028. It will be extremely unpleasant for them. Karma is on its way.

Expand full comment
Paula Dunn's avatar

🎯 Lisa Needham

“Miller realized he slipped up by saying Trump has plenary authority under Title 10, but not because he thought he said something incorrect. He slipped up because even he knows it is an outrageous thing for Trump to claim absolute, unreviewable power”

https://bsky.app/profile/kenaiseasky.bsky.social/post/3m35nz63wqs2q

Expand full comment
Kate Cunningham's avatar

So disturbing that CNN removed that evidence of Miller’s plan to overturn our democracy.

Expand full comment
Randall D Ainslie's avatar

Thanks for your work and the carefully placed links to historical articles that help link together a very broad view. With the judicial focus by Miller I have to ask if he has any partnership with Leonard Leo? Seemingly too much simpatico?..

Expand full comment