U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) goes after DOGE and OMB Secretary nominee Dan Bishop after he struggles to answer whether President Donald Trump would cut Social Security: "I don't think any American should trust that these programs are safe if you can do anything you want." pic.twitter.com/GNKjlDhCKM
— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) February 25, 2025
Placemarker, because WaterGirl has a serious constructive post in the wings.
Overnight, I pulled together a *bunch* of skeets / tweets on the Repubs’ growing terror at how little the WH Occupants’ proposed budget is going to please their constituents… and a corresponding batch from our Democrats, now in Array. Some of them will probably be outdated by the time most of you see this, anyways, so: Keep the positive thoughts!
Baud
Thank you, AL.
SiubhanDuinne
The more I see of Slotkin, the more I like her. She argues well on behalf of her constituents.
Elizabelle
Good morning, AL and Baud and SD.
AL, is this the overnight thread you mentioned? Had not read it yet; photo is a Cabinet meeting with hipster Musk in a dominating position, as The Felon slumbers in his seat.
Not a conspiracy theorist, but does anyone else think that The Felon actually sold Musk the presidency? Looks like he might have, more or less.
Belafon
It looks like an EO will be coming out today completely banning trans people from the military.
Elizabelle
That’s a very good clip of Slotkin, and she speaks clearly and the Fox News bubblebots would totally listen to her and get what she is saying.
I wish the clip was longer. I wanted to hear more of what the nominee was saying in response.
siddhartha
WaterGirl, if you read this, I saw you asked me to email you in one of the threads. Pardon me if I should know this, but where do I find your email address? Thank you! (hope it was ok to ask here. please feel free to delete if not!)
zhena gogolia
@siddhartha: I think if you click on her nym in the sidebar, you’ll get it.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments over the last couple of days.
Elizabelle
@Belafon: AP Story overnight:
In lawsuit filing, Pentagon says transgender troops can’t serve unless they meet a warfighting need
Also: “warfighting.” Bizarre word. Have seen it before. I guess that’s the part of our brave military that is not involved in ramming DEI down our civilian throats?
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Can people talk about the potential joy in someone unaliving Elon Musk without expecting a visit from the secret service or termination of TSA precheck or Global Entry status?
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
siddhartha
@zhena gogolia
Thank you! And, of course! And, right back at you!
The Thin Black Duke
@Elizabelle: When the next war starts, transgender soldiers will be the cannon fodder.
alex
@SiubhanDuinne: yeah, but she voted to confirm several Trump cabinet members and voted in favor of Lakan Riley. She’s trash and is simply not equipped.
Redshift
Hey, Elizabelle, were you on the DNC zoom on Monday? I had a family thing come up and missed it.
The two things I was hoping to hear were grassroots action sooner than elections, and some kind of opposition communications plans.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Maybe its Google translate from Russian?
@zhena may know.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
There’s probably not any kind of incriminatory paper trail, but I think there was a stupendous quid exchanged for a ginormous quo, yeah.
It continues to amaze me how sanguine FFOTUS is with Leon’s personal dress code in the Oval and Cabinet Room. This is, after all, the man who struck his college-aged son so hard that junior was knocked to the floor, because he wasn’t wearing a SUIT. To a BASEBALL GAME. But evidently now a cap indoors and a cheeky T-shirt are just fine for White House meetings.
SiubhanDuinne
@alex:
Oh damn. I did not know that. Thanks for setting me straight on that.
Big sigh.
Gretchen
Nicole Maliatakis must be hearing from her constituents because she has a series of Facebook posts about how the budget says nothing about Medicaid. 23% of he Staten Island constituents are on Medicaid, and another 11% on Medicare. She says they’re going after $100 billion of waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid but doesn’t explain how they’re going to do that. I suppose if you spend nothing, nothing is wasted.
Gretchen
@SiubhanDuinne: Good point! Don Jr. had to wear a suit to a baseball game to show respect, but Elon can dress like he just rolled out of bed and it’s fine.
Redshift
@Elizabelle:
I think it’s several things:
He craves the approval of actually rich people.
Unlike most people he discards or turns the mob on, he can’t destroy Elon.
We all noted his obvious mental decline, and even before that, he never wanted to do the job of president, so outsourcing it is fine.
Ohio Mom
@Gretchen: Every now and again, I am impressed that something gets through those MAGA thick skulls. I can’t imagine what they are going to do with this information though. Probably double down.
Belafon
@Elizabelle: In the bsky post I saw about it, someone was reporting that some women are being removed from “combat” areas.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Anymore, Congress is a useless debate club, something akin to the UN general assembly. I’m no longer impressed with anything that takes place at hearings – no zingers, no salient points.
Why are we paying for them to even have staffs at this point?
I say that as long as they’ve abrogated responsibility, they don’t get the privilege of staff or coverage.
Ramalama
Hurray for array.
Belafon
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Conflating Congress with Republicans I see.
Elizabelle
@alex: Burn the witch! Slotkin is trash!
Purity pony is the way to shining Democratic victory!
(I am not in favor of Laken Riley, and wish Dems had voted against Trump nominees, en bloc. Even young Rubio. But really, alex.)
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Can anybody tell me what nomination hearing yielded a worthwhile thing which prompted anyone to step back from a nomination in this era?
Elizabelle
@Redshift: Did not see the DNC Zoom. Am so spoiled by Zoom organizers sending a reminder email, and they did not. Need to step up my game there.
And good points re The Felon. Worst POTUS evah.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: There is something going on with the President and the King. I wish we would learn what, in time to do something about it. Good catch on the hipster dress code.
@schrodingers_cat:
LOL. Have seen “warfighter” term in use for at least a year or two now. Sounds like militaryese. But such a “pounding our chests” word.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Belafon:
They’re running it right now.
A collective raspberry at directed at the dais would be a good response:
“Speaker Johnson (note – no honorific ‘Mr Speaker’), if you’re going to make this body a joke, we’re going to treat you as you should be treated, a despicable clown. Until you lead us to a position of responsibility albeit with some policy differences, we’re voting to strip our staffs and privileges, starting with yours.”
Make it hurt. Make it embarrassing.
rebelsdad
@Elizabelle: *claps enthusiastically*
Come sit by me.
WereBear
I had some human kindness from a bank officer who straightened out the thing their bank created so this is enough Disney miracles for one freakin’ day.
Tomorrow, I shall do NOTHING that isn’t already paid for. I have a massive spreadsheet job to do in the coming weeks and not looking forward…
Harrison Wesley
@Elizabelle: Sounds like a term gamers would use.
p.a.
Is Muck behind the removal/ban EO? Or is one of the Bible prigs writing it for preznit nappytime?
Old School
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Not sure if Neera Tanden counts or not.
JML
It’s not new; it was in heavy use at the Pentagon back when I was there, and I’ve been gone for over 20 years now. But it’s definitely military-ese and is defined as whatever they need it to mean at the time.
glory b
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, I remember Michael Cohen talking about the high level of business decorum he required, white shirts, suits, ties, “Mr. Trump” was the only way to address him.
Thinking of that. it’s hard to imagine him being okay with Elon wearing T shirts, jeans and baseball caps, always accompanied by a toddler.
Now I’m kind of thinking that Elon is rubbing it in, showing him who’s REALLY in charge.
Eolirin
@SiubhanDuinne: She was representing her constituents in taking those actions. She is not from a blue state.
Alce _e_ardillo
@Elizabelle: I am thinking this is as likely as not. Rump seems barely able to put a single coherent sentence together,( I know- but it seems worse). He perseverates obsessively on Canada, and Greenland, in a way that makes me think his dementia is fulminating, and he is not far from needing to be spoon-fed. He may have made this deal to be the figurehead, and enjoy the perks while Musk does the work.
different-church-lady
Every Frankenstein thinks he can control his monster.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Old School:
That was an interesting list. It was also instructive to see that Roger Taney had always been an asshole.
different-church-lady
@Alce _e_ardillo:
MEDIA, SUMMER: “The country refuses to elect an old man!”
[DEMOCRATS REPLACE OLD MAN, COUNTRY ELECTS SENILE OLD MAN]
MEDIA: “Why did Democrats let this happen?”
Kirk
Warfighter – or warrior – as opposed to “just soldiers” has been going on for a long time.
It’s been an instant red flag for me when evaluating leaders. It seems like a good line for the people on the tooth end, but first it nibbles at morale on the tail and it also encourages lack of discipline at the tooth. After all, what warfighter wastes time doing anything that isn’t putting bullets on the enemy? The higher the leader the bigger the red flag gets.
LAC
@different-church-lady: Yep, second verse, same as the first.
I think “GAH” is going to be word for 2025.
kwAwk
My thoughts for today are that people are going ape shit over Trump’s Gold Card idea, but here’s the rub I think. People are saying it allows rich people to buy their way into the country, but it sounds like they’re already able to do that with the EB-5 visa program and all Trump is doing is raising the price.
I say fuck it, take the money and run.
Gretchen
@Kirk: The Warfighter crowd assumes that there is nothing valuable done by anyone who’s not driving a tank waving a gun. Does someone need to service the tank, provide meals, fill out paychecks? The “warfighters” wouldn’t last long without the support of other troops, but since neither Trump nor Musk has ever been anywhere near the military, they don’t know that.
Elizabelle
Thanks to jackals re “warfighting.” Whoever came up with that bombastic term years ago: not so much.
@Alce _e_ardillo: I guess it might take the first batch of departing Trump 2 officials to give us a picture of what was really happening.
HinTN
@Elizabelle: The entirety of the logistics tail and the systems development process exist to support “the warfighter”.
ETA – @JML: got there first.
Belafon
@Gretchen: The reason our military works is because, as someone put it, we can put a battalion anywhere in the world in 72 hours and supply them ice cream (ie, we can get them whatever they need). Break that supply chain capability, and our fighters are done for.
Chris Johnson
@Kirk: Tell me you don’t place any value in logistics without using the word logistics XD
prufrock
@Belafon: During WWII, the Germans at least initially looked down on the American infantry.
They never looked down on the logistics corps. They were frightened of it.
SFAW
They don’t seem to be that afraid, since the House Rethugs voted for it unanimously. Plus, I have little doubt that they’ll come up with various lies to try to deflect “accountability.”
cmorenc
@kwAwk: The “Gold Card” visa for $5M inherently reeks, but since the payment would presumably need to be made directly to a government agency, what I don’t get is where the opportunity for grift is. If there is some eligibility screening beyond just having $5M it could be corrupting the screening process with some form of pay-for-play on top of the $5M, but corrupting the green card process could be done without the $5M fee to the government – um wait- they are going to “privatize” this special process in some way by contracting it out aren’t they?
JML
@Gretchen: correct. the current GOP leadership are mostly warrior wannabes, guys who pretend they “know” and respect the military, but only in the most superficial ways. the fetishize terms like “warfighter” without actually understanding what it means or what is actually necessary to fight a war, move troops and material around the world, and get the jobs done. It’s why the screamed so hard about the withdrawal from Afghanistan: it was actually pretty competently done but a clown like Hegseth doesn’t actually know anything about what’s involved in something like that.
kwAwk
@cmorenc: If you can get a green card by simply opening a Sonic franchise for $2 million, I don’t see the difference between just charging someone $5 million for a green card.
Though I could see this as the Tech world’s end around for H1B visas too though, which could be a problem but I don’t know.
Don_K
@alex: Yeah, I’ve been disappointed in her so far. Also disappointed that Peters, free from worrying about re-election, has voted in step with het so far.
This Michiganian is recovering from a carotid endarterectomy on Tuesday and trying to stay relaxed. I just wish my senators would go.on the warpath.
Soprano2
@Elizabelle: It sure seems to me like he did.
glc
prospect.org/politics/2025-02-27-these-ten-democrats-need-to-be-primaried/
Soprano2
@SiubhanDuinne: I think that tells you what you need to know about who is the dominant person in that relationship.
Soprano2
@Gretchen: My husband said when he was in the Army it was a 10-1 ratio – ten support troops for every one soldier in the field.
Geminid
@prufrock: German soldiers and officers really feared US artillery during WWII. That was the one combat arm where the US Army was clearly superior.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: Kay spoke pretty highly of Elissa Slotkin when she ran for the Senate. Kay allowed that Slotkin was not as liberal as she was, but Kay is a practical person and Slotkin impressed her as a capable politician.
db11
Given Trump’s relentless threats against Canada’s sovereignty and his evident lust for our minerals and water, I’m almost relieved to see him gutting the military’s logistics capabilities.
It’s insane how much damage he has done (everything, everywhere, all at once) to US power, influence, reputation and relationships — and it’s less than 6 weeks in.
Kayla Rudbek
@Elizabelle: “warfighter” is because they don’t want to say soldiers/sailors/airmen/Marines, particularly because of Space Force (which to my dying day I will say should be rolled back into the Air Force). I hate seeing that language.
meander
Speaking of Michigan: City Pulse, the weekly alternative newspaper of Lansing, Michigan has a piece about a local Indivisible group rallying outside of Rep. Tom Barrett’s office in Lansing. Barrett is a first term-er for MI-07 who won the seat vacated by now Sen. Slotkin. He’s a veteran of the Army or Army National Guard. I live in MI-07, so my letters to Barrett often mention the horrible treatment of veterans and their families by the Trump/Musk/DOGE pillagers.