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#kelly — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #kelly, aggregated by home.social.

  1. europesays.com/be-fr/239941/ « Il a refait sa vie, il s’est marié, il a un enfant… Moi, ma vie ne sera plus jamais la même » : Kelly, la victime de Midou Mouhli, raconte les séquelles laissées par l’agression à l’Aldi de Saint-Nicolas #« Il #agression #BE #BEFr #Belgique #Belgium #Enfant #jamais #Kelly #laissées #marié #même #Midou #Mouhli #raconte #refait #SaintNicolas #séquelles #Victime

  2. Democratic leaders were outspoken during the massive US military buildup in the Middle East,
    ⭐️decrying his unwillingness to engage with Congress and lack of long-term strategy for Iran.
    🔸They noted that it was Trump, during his first term, who shredded Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran.

    Once the US and Israeli military struck on Saturday, the sharpest voices accused the president of riding roughshod over the constitution.
    Senator Bernie #Sanders denounced the assault as “an illegal, premeditated and unconstitutional war”,
    while Senator Chris #Van #Hollen warned it amounted to a “regime-change war” that would leave the US less secure.

    Senator Tim #Kaine, long a thorn in the side of presidents of both parties on war powers, called the strikes “a colossal mistake”
    and demanded a swift vote requiring Trump to seek authorisation.

    Others, however, were more qualified. Tom #Suozzi, a New York Democrat who co-chairs the Problem Solvers caucus, wrote on X: “I agree with the President’s objectives that Iran can never be allowed to obtain nuclear capabilities.”
    Henry #Cuellar of Texas said the threat posed by Iran was “real and longstanding”.
    And not all Democrats are lining up behind a war powers rebuke.

    There may be enough defections to block a war powers resolution,
    -- although a few libertarian Republicans could join those in favor.
    The split also exposes a deeper unease within Democratic ranks over how robustly to confront Iran and how far to go in backing Israeli military action.
    There are also political traps as Republicans accuse them of lacking patriotism and ignoring the Iranian diaspora who have taken to the streets to celebrate Khamenei’s downfall.
    The discomfort is embodied by Senator Mark #Kelly, a former combat pilot and potential 2028 presidential contender. Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Kelly was asked if he agrees with Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican senator, that the world is now safer because the supreme leader of Iran is dead.
    Kelly replied: “Well, I agree with that part. I mean, it’s a good thing that the supreme leader is gone and some of the folks around him.”
    👍But he also delivered a withering assessment of the White House’s preparation.
    ♦️ “Hope is not a strategy,” Kelly warned,
    questioning whether the administration had any serious plan for the aftermath.
    Air power can destroy targets, he added,
    ⚡️but fully eliminating capabilities without boots on the ground is “incredibly challenging”.

    The congressional debate over war powers would mostly be symbolic.
    🆘Even if a resolution were to pass the narrowly split Congress, Trump likely would veto it and Congress would not have the two-thirds majority needed to overturn that rejection.
    Congress has often failed to block other US military actions, including in a Senate vote on Venezuela,
    👉but the roll calls stand as a public record.
    theguardian.com/us-news/2026/m

  3. A grand jury in Washington
    refused Tuesday to indict Democratic lawmakers
    in connection with a video in which they urged U.S. military members to resist “illegal orders,”
    according to a person familiar with the matter.

    The Justice Department opened an investigation into the video
    featuring Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and four other Democratic lawmakers
    urging U.S. service members to follow established military protocols
    and reject orders they believe to be unlawful.
    All the lawmakers previously served in the military or at intelligence agencies.

    Grand jurors in Washington declined to sign off on charges
    in the latest of a series of rebukes of prosecutors by citizens in the nation’s capital,
    according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.
    It wasn’t immediately clear whether prosecutors had sought indictments against all six lawmakers
    or what charge or charges prosecutors attempted to bring.

    The FBI in November began contacting the lawmakers to schedule interviews,
    outreach that came against the backdrop of broader Justice Department efforts to punish political opponents of the president.

    Trump and his aides labeled the lawmakers’ video as “seditious”
    — and Trump said on his social media account that the offense was
    “punishable by death.”

    Besides #Slotkin and #Kelly,
    the other Democrats who appeared in the video include
    Reps. Jason #Crow of Colorado,
    Chrissy #Houlahan of Pennsylvania,
    Maggie #Goodlander of New Hampshire
    and Chris #Deluzio of Pennsylvania.

    apnews.com/article/trump-milit

  4. Donald Trump is borrowing a strategy from authoritarian regimes to #intimidate potential critics and #discourage them from speaking out, according to a senator under investigation by his administration.

    #Elissa #Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, faces questioning after she organised and appeared in a #video with other Democrats imploring military service members to #refuse#illegal #orders”.

    Fellow senator #Mark #Kelly and three Democrats from the House of Representatives are also being investigated.

    To Slotkin, a former analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency ( #CIA ), it is a deliberate effort to chill free speech that rhymes with her experience of #dictatorships around the world.

    “They’re now using a well-worn playbook that employs #physical intimidation and #legal intimidation to get,
    A, you to shut up, and
    B, for other people thinking of criticising the president on such issues to be dissuaded from doing so,”
    she told the Guardian in a phone interview.

    “It’s absolutely a strategy well used in other countries and other authoritarian governments.

    As a CIA officer I’ve served in places like this,
    I’ve studied places like this my entire life,
    and Trump is sadly using that #playbook in the United States right now.”

    Now 49, Slotkin completed three tours in Iraq with the US military before moving into national security roles at the Pentagon and White House under presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama.

    In 2018 she turned to electoral politics, winning a long-held Republican seat in #Michigan and helping Democrats reclaim control of the House.

    She secured re-election in 2020 and 2022, campaigning on issues such as access to affordable healthcare and efforts to bring manufacturing back to her home state.

    Her ascent continued in 2024 when she won an open Senate seat despite Trump carrying Michigan in the presidential election.

    Last year she delivered the Democrats’ rebuttal to Trump’s joint congressional address.

    Then in November she was among six congressional Democrats,
    all with military or intelligence backgrounds,
    who in a 90-second video cited the "Uniform Code of Military Justice"
    and said no one has to carry out orders that violate the law or constitution.

    #Trump branded the video message “treasonous” and amplified a social media post suggesting that the six Democrats be #hanged.

    Defence secretary Pete #Hegseth is attempting to #retroactively #demote Kelly,
    a former navy pilot and astronaut,
    from his retired rank of captain.

    👏The Arizona senator is suing Hegseth to block those proceedings,
    calling them an unconstitutional act of retribution.

    Meanwhile US attorney #Jeanine #Pirro, the justice department’s chief prosecutor in Washington, has requested an interview with Slotkin.

    theguardian.com/us-news/2026/j

  5. The alchemy of big law was always the way in which you seamlessly revolve in and out of government - the allure of making a lot of money and governing.

    That is what is shattering.

    Relatedly, for the first time in my lifetime, Democratic voters are turning against their own leaders.

    40% of Democratic voters approve of Congressional Democrats, and 49% disapprove.

    Last year, 75% approved and just 21% disapproved.

    At town halls, Democratic members of Congress are encountering not support, but rage.

    As Axios reported, a “senior House Democrat told Axios that a colleague called them after a town hall crying and said: "They hate us. They hate us.”’

    Democratic voters haven’t fingered biglaw as the culprit, so the question right now is whether corporate America and big law will remain homeless,
    or whether firms like Paul Weiss can recapture what they had.

    But there is deep rage in the Democratic base, and on the right, at oligarchy.

    And there’s another group ascending against the anti-populists who run Democratic politics.

    On Friday, there were 34,000 people in Denver, Colorado at a Bernie Sanders rally.

    For context, that’s 5% of the population of Denver, and 1% of the population of the Denver metro area.

    One of the speakers was FTC Commissioner #Alvaro #Bedoya, who Trump had tried to remove last week.

    Bedoya and his colleague, #Rebecca #Kelly #Slaughter, had been in the shadow of former Chair Lina Khan, but were important officials in moving populist policy.

    In contrast to Paul Weiss, instead of lying down, they chose to fight.

    Both are doing media tours to discuss the work they are doing against oligarchy.

    Bedoya went to Colorado and spoke before that giant crowd. When was the last time a commissioner of a small Federal antitrust agency did that?

    Sanders, who is attracting a lot of people who did not support him in 2016 and 2020 to his rallies, is building a different kind of politics.

    He has refined his argument to focus on oligarchy, the group of superrich who are running the United States.

    And a newer generation of politicians are recognizing in that argument something that makes sense.

    There are conflicting messages, notably the New York Times’ Ezra Klein and The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson launching a campaign around the concept of Abundance, which I’ll touch on soon.
    But the possibility of sharpening policy tools to bring our oligarchs back into our democracy and match them with a political coalition is there.

    And in that sense, I am thankful to Paul Weiss and Brad Karp.
    -- In this dangerous moment, the Democratic corporate establishment, by capitulating so obviously to Trump in return for corporate money, has just ripped out the heart that ran the Clinton, Obama, and much of the toxic parts of the Biden administrations.

    And they did so at the only moment in the last two decades during which normal Democrats are looking for someone to blame for their own party’s fecklessness.

    And who better to blame than the would-be Kamala Harris staff, a pack of Google and private equity defense lawyers - and Chuck Schumer’s brother - who, when the chips were down, bent the knee to Trump?

    -- Matt Stoller

    thebignewsletter.com/p/monopol

  6. On Monday, the Senate armed services committee approved Pete #Hegseth’s nomination,
    But he awaits confirmation by the full chamber.
    In a joint statement, Elizabeth #Warren, Tim #Kaine, Mark #Kelly, Mazie #Hirono, Richard #Blumenthal, Tammy #Duckworth, Jeanne #Shaheen and Kirsten #Gillibrand
    👉 demand meetings with Pete Hegseth before the full Senate votes on his confirmation:
    The senator's joint statement reads:
    "In a sworn statement under the penalty of perjury, a new report shows U.S. Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth was ‘erratic and aggressive’ toward his second wife over many years, to the point that she feared for her safety.
    The report also details repeated instances of his drinking alcohol in excess, including the need to be dragged out of a strip club while in uniform.
    This affidavit is part of a disturbing pattern of behavior that has been documented through numerous public and private reports.
    The affidavit also raises additional questions about the thoroughness of his FBI background check during a rushed confirmation process.
    Despite repeated requests, Mr. Hegseth has refused to meet with the vast majority of Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
    We request that Mr. Hegseth meet privately with every interested lawmaker on the committee before the Senate votes on his nomination
    so that we can have frank discussions about the new information that has come to light.
    It would be irresponsible and contrary to our constitutional duty for the Senate to vote to confirm this nomination before such meetings have occurred."

  7. so much about this makes my heart hurt & my intellect fearful…still, read it, gifted…

    How #GeneralMarkMilley protected the #Constitution from Donald #Trump

    By Jeffrey Goldberg
    The Atlantic

    (excerpt)

    “… Before the meeting, (#Milley)… was told that Trump might ask him to serve as chairman of the #JointChiefs.

    BUT, if given a CHOICE, #Kelly said, he should avoid the role.

    theatlantic.com/magazine/archi