Saul Alinsky, as everyone knows now was a special idol (a soulmate really) of our dear leader Barack Hussein Obama. One of Alinsky’s rules for radicals was to pick a target and make him/her the face of the issue because people “bleed” and institutions don’t. You then target all your fire on the person to bring him down and thus win on the issue.
In this article at the Daily Beast we watch in fascination as reporter Spencer Ackerman, in tones expressing shock, wants you to believe that Stephen Miller (Senator Jeff Sessions former Senate aide) is Machiavelli*** in the flesh and has been, are you ready, stepping outside his role on the Domestic Policy Council and sticking his nose in to the National Security Council on the subject of refugees. Gasp! How dare he?
Nevermind that refugee policy is domestic policy!
But, that isn’t why I’m posting this article from the Beast (hat tip: Peter). I’m posting it because last Wednesday, I said this (below) in a post about what went wrong while Trump was out of the country? This is one line from that post:
“Every day that the White House is silent on the stunning news we heard last week says to me that the White House agrees with the 75,000 admissions this year.”
Now the Beast gives us some insight in to how the ‘Deep State’ did, in fact, line up the lawyers to keep the President from going ahead (ignoring the Hawaii judge) with the most important part of the EO and the part that I highlighted in my post yesterday—the President could have ignored the courts on the refugee moratorium. It was an across-the-board temporary (120-day) slowdown that involved all religious and ethnic people (not just Muslims!) entering as refugees and it set the CEILING for the year at 50,000 after the moratorium would have ended. It was not a religiously-based ban!
For the umpteenth time, the Refugee Act of 1980 gives the President enormous power to set a CEILING and to choose the countries from which we will take refugees in “consultation” with Congress. Congress does not have to approve the plan, but Congress can use the Appropriations process to pay for more (or less) refugees. But, then the President has the power of the pen to tell them to take a hike if they appropriate more than is needed! He can also ask for a rescission of funds now!
Be sure to see lawyer for Human Rights Watch—there is no legal obligation to resettle a single refugee!
Here are some snips from the Daily Beast (take some of this with a grain of salt because this is a Leftwing publication) for you to ponder:
Stephen Miller, the hard-right White House speechwriter and domestic-policy adviser, became a conservative celebrity for penning President Donald Trump’s apocalyptic “American Carnage” inaugural address and for serving as the public face of the administration’s travel ban.
But Miller is trying to take on a second role—a power move known only to a handful people in the White House and across the administration. The nationalist firebrand has elbowed his way into national-security and foreign affairs, trying to push the U.S. government to adopt hard-line stances on refugees and other international issues. [Gasp!—ed]
Now look at this! Who are the “horrified administration officials?” Could they be the Obama holdovers, the ‘Deep State?’
The series of moves has so horrified administration officials that they’ve created a paper trail to try to keep Miller from implementing his nationalist goals for international issues—spelling out the consequences of disobeying court orders, for example, that prevent Trump from further curtailing the number of refugees coming into this country.
Among those documents, officials told The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity, is a guidance paper from the Justice Department about the legal liabilities the administration would incur for flouting a judge’s order on refugees.
Who in the Justice Department? Obama holdover lawyers?
Back to Ackerman’s complaints about Miller’s nose in national security issues….
Since the National Security Council’s composition is up to each president, Miller’s involvement isn’t “per se” inappropriate, said David Rothkopf, an NSC historian. But, Rothkopf said, Miller “has no national-security experience and is largely seen as a political operative, and neither of these characteristics tends to be a positive on the NSC.”
Miller’s incursions into the realm ordinarily reserved for the NSC are not limited to refugees.
Continue reading about Miller/Machiavelli ….
He took that focus to the White House, playing a leading role in drafting the controversial restrictions on entry to the U.S. of travelers from majority-Muslim nations and refugees.
Those restrictions, spelled out in executive orders, faced massive legal pushback. In March, Trump attempted to revise the so-called Muslim ban to pass judicial muster. The revamped executive order retained a critical provision on refugees: Section 6 of the March order limited their entry to 50,000 in fiscal year 2017, less than half of the 110,000 refugees Obama forecasted admitting into the country this year. [These Leftwing reporters never mention that Obama in his previous 7 years NEVER set a ceiling this high, why now, in his final months in office? It was to give Hillary a running start! (or to screw Trump)—ed]
Almost as soon as Trump issued the new order, federal judges blocked the administration from enforcing key aspects, including the Section 6 refugee cap.
I want to remind you that the Maryland case that went to the 4th Circuit did not address the refugee cap! I suspect that was because in that case the judge understood that Trump had the power on the refugee cap (CEILING). The Hawaii judge did put a halt on the cap issue, but the 9th Circuit has not ruled. Readers, try hard to separate the so-called ‘travel ban’ (for all forms of entry from 6 majority terror-producing Muslim countries) in your mind from the refugee across-the-board moratorium and ceiling issue as I did here yesterday.
In retrospect, Trump’s team should have kept the issues separate.
Broken record alert! Trump did not need an Executive Order to slow the flow of refugees to your towns and cities. At most, he should have simply notified Congress.
Here we go again, unnamed “officials” are worried about Miller! The Beast continues….
Inside the government, however, officials [Obama holdovers?—ed] had concerns about whether Miller would abide by the injunction. With the U.S. almost certain to surpass the order’s intended refugee limits, those tasked with implementing refugee policy [State Department bureaucrats?–ed] this spring began fearing that the nationalist wing of the administration would attempt t o blame bureaucrats for undermining Trump’s policies. So they did what experienced officials [Deep State bureaucrats and RINOs in the WH or on the Hill?—ed] excel at doing: They created a paper trail to keep the entire administration on the same page.
Lawyers across the government discussed and created documentation spelling out the government’s obligations now that the judges had blocked the refugee cap. A critical aspect of that effort was a Justice Department guidance making clear that the administration would put itself in legal jeopardy by defying the injunction.
Time to fire those Justice Department lawyers, the ones mentioned in the NYT article? And, does Ackerman mean lawyers on the Hill as well, when he says “across the government?”
[….]
“While we stand ready to implement the executive order to its maximum effect should the court order be lifted, in the meantime, we don’t want to run afoul of the legal rulings,” said the U.S. official.
Miller and his allies “know the lawyers are really skittish, so they’re trying to avoid the lawyers, who say ‘No, you can’t do that,’” another official said.
Along with a spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year that did not curb refugee admissions, the maneuver worked. Last week, the State Department acknowledged that it is lifting weekly refugee quotas. The U.S. has already admitted nearly 50,000 refugees in fiscal year 2017, with four months to go.
The “spending bill” is where the Republicans in Congress teamed up with the refugee industry and the Deep State bureaucrats to end-run the White House.
Here is Ackerman’s wrap-up on Miller/Machiavelli. Conclusion: Bannon and Miller are one and the same (so they need to be side-lined or canned) and the Left appears to love McMaster (scary, very scary!).
Trump in January placed Bannon on the NSC, only to reverse course under pressure, including dissatisfaction from National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Rothkopf, the NSC historian, said Miller’s incursions into NSC territory indicated the persistent potency of the administration’s nationalist faction.
Miller “is seen as a vestige of the Bannon regime that was supposed to have been defunct or marginalized. Clearly that didn’t work out as promoted,” Rothkopf said.
“They remain influential, and Miller’s role is a further sign that McMaster’s control of the NSC process is not complete, which is very worrisome.” [Does this mean that the Left is happy with McMaster and is trying to save his power? Now that is scary!—ed]
Back to what I said last Wednesday: Every day that the White House is silent on the new 75,000 admission level for this year signals acquiescence.
If the White House was rolled by the Deep State (with the help of the refugee industry contractors) and the Republican leadership in Congress, the White House should admit it and tell Trump voters that they are trying to drain the swamp and trying to keep us safe, but it is very very hard. There is no shame in saying that!
***Don’t miss the portrait of Niccolo Machievelli at wikipedia, here.