THREE VIGNETTES SHOW THE LAMENTABLE STATE OF OUR COUNTRY PART 2

YESTERDAY, WE SHARED EXTREMELY DISTURBING VIEWS of our government’s Department of Homeland Services ICE raid in Chicago, both the DHS propaganda as well as bravely recorded videos of Chicagoans. Today in Part 2, two more vignettes are shown of our Mobster-in-Chief and his consigliere.

An oldie but a goodie from March 25, 2024. Image by Ben Pearce in The New York Times.  

The Queens Felon’s Threat. The government shutdown is generating chaos of all sorts, but Trump brought matters to a new mobster low by saying, “It depends who we’re talking about. I can tell you this, the Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy.”

Yes, like digging in “On Health Care Demands in Shutdown Fight,” as reported by NBC News.

“For the most part,” Trump said, “we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take of them in a different way.”

Geez, talk about mob lingo. “This is a nice little deli you’re running, but it wouldn’t be so nice if someone dropped a bomb into it.” 

And Then There’s Stephen Miller’s Dumb-Struck Moment. “It was an odd TV moment,” reports Michael M. Grynbaum, in “Stephen Miller Cited ‘Plenary Authority,’ Then Paused. Conspiracy Theories Started Flying,” The New York Times, October 9, 2025.

“Stephen Miller, President Trump’s deputy chief of staff,” Grynbaum continues, “was answering a CNN anchor’s question from the White House lawn on Monday when he stopped midsentence, falling silent and blinking at the camera.” 

Screen grab from CNN. Access to the video can be gained through the NYT link.

“A few minutes later,” Grynbaum says, “Mr. Miller was back onscreen, and the interview resumed; Mr. Sanchez apologized and told viewers that ‘some wires got crossed.’ CNN said a technical mishap had occurred. But by that point, the internet was doing what the internet does.” And anyone watching the video has to wonder about “a technical mishap”….

Plendary Authority?? “At issue, it seemed,” Grynbaum says, “was the phrase uttered by Mr. Miller immediately before he abruptly stopped speaking. Responding to Mr. Sanchez’s question about the legality of deploying National Guard soldiers to Portland, Ore., Mr. Miller cited a federal law under which, he said, ‘the president has plenary authority.’ ”

Plenary? Since When?? “Plenary authority,” Grynbaum recounts, “is a legal term that effectively means limitless power. The Trump administration has invoked the term at least once before, in a legal argument as to why the president should be allowed to rapidly deport Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act; a federal appeals court ruled against the administration in that case last month.” 

Miller’s Response. “Mr. Miller did not use the term again once the CNN interview resumed,” Grynbaum recounts. “After Mr. Sanchez repeated his question, Mr. Miller asserted that ‘the president has the authority anytime he believes federal resources are insufficient to federalize the National Guard to carry out a mission necessary for public safety.’ He and Mr. Sanchez went back and forth over whether the conditions in Portland justified such an extraordinary deployment of domestic soldiers.”

And, of course, we all know Portland’s real quandary: As Andy Borowitz noted (and SimanaitisSays celebrated) “Federal Troops Arrive in Portland and Immediately Form Bands.” ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025