by Carlotta Grandstaff, Hamilton
I have called my three representatives in Congress repeatedly in the past few weeks to ask specific questions about the Elon Musk DOGEbag hacker team of flying monkeys and what they’re up to. Have they hacked into the IRS computer systems? Is my 2024 tax filing safe from Elon Musk? Which of the VA’s three branches – health care, benefits or cemetery services – will bear the brunt of the 1,000 job cuts demanded by co-chancellors Trump and Musk? How does the richest man in the world feel about taking food and medicine from the poorest children in the world? What role did Rep. Zinke and Sens. Daines and Sheehy play in the decision to abolish USAID? Will there be funds for wildland firefighters this year? How much funding is being cut from the National Park Service? How is the Rocky Mountain Lab affected by deep funding cuts to its parent agency, the National Institutes of Health? Why are elected members of Congress allowing an unelected ketamine-using neo-Nazi billionaire to do their jobs? Do they have plans to take their jobs back? What private financial and health data have the DOGEhackers stolen from American citizens after ransacking federal government agency computer systems? What are they planning to do with it? Calls to Daines go to voicemail; no staffers ever answer his phones because he’s a coward, running from his constituents like he did several years go in Hamilton when he ran out the back door of a local snowmobile dealer and into the safety of his SUV to avoid his constituents waiting for him out front. Occasionally, I get actual staffers for Zinke and Sheehy on the phone. My questions are both valid and panicked. I get no answers.
From Daines:
Radio silence.
From Zinke:
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t know.”
From Sheehy:
“Ma’am, I’m just a junior staffer here.”
I did receive an email response from Daines following my emailed question to him about his abdication of responsibility to his constituents, and his willingness to allow Elon Musk and the musketeers to cut federal funds and abolish entire agencies created by Congress. He was shocked – shocked! – at the federal debt, he said, and something needed to be done to rein it in, as if it’s not Congress’s job. As if he, an elected member of the Senate, had nothing to do with the federal debt. As if he never voted to adopt a federal budget. As if space aliens landed on earth for the express purpose of passing a budget to make Americans spend more money than we have. The shock and outrage of it!
There are only two questions left to ask. With Elon Musk in charge, strolling into the Oval Office in ball cap and T-shirt, exploiting his four-year-old son, X, by draping him on his shoulders like a political prop, the questions are these: What role does Congress play in the political life of the United States anymore? What is Musk planning to do with the treasure trove of data that he mined, illegally and unconstitutionally, from government computers?
I will continue to pressure my reps, waste of time though it is since all three seem to be fellow travelers cheering on the destruction of the rule of law and Article 1 of the US Constitution, but what else can a voting citizen do?
Here are their numbers:
Ryan Zinke 202-225-5628
Tim Sheehy 202-224-2644
Steve Daines 202-224-2651
Call them. Tell them you want your power back. Tell them if they don’t give it back you’re just going to take it.
peter Lethenstrom says
happy your still batting, despite Ravalli County being the capital of inbreeding!
happy to hear you are still batting. thank you!
Happy to see you still batting! Difficult as it is in the “capital of inbreeding”. I remember well the day when
Happy to see you are still batting as difficult it is being in the “capital of inbreeders”. Thank you!
I was there that day when “Houdini” AKA Daines went out the back door at dealership in Hamilton. And he continues with forked tongue.
I fired off a one sentence letter to editor and formulating another letter. One thing I learned long ago about Ravalli County is that you can’t tell them too much as critical thinking is an obscure thought!
Stay in the game as we have many innings yet to be played!
Mike Miller says
After reading that poorly formed and error filled letter, I’m pretty sure “peter” is the one with the inbreeding.
peter lethenstrom says
I admitted I am not tech savvy and said I was sorry for errors. That being said I still stand by what I stated. I would be more than happy to meet in person and discuss the lack of formulated critical analysis that runs in the valley and extended at state legislature.
May I ask how long you have lived in MT and specifically the Bitterroot valley if that is your domicile?
Mike Mercer says
In this “Tech Savvy” world one should at least be aware that perfect information is not available so a well trained gut instinct is more valuable than “formulated critical analysis”. This may be difficult for a well trained academic to understand but it is an informed choice to follow our gut and bypass analysis paralysis. Critical analysis is a fine tool to use for 20/20 hindsight but the real world moves much too fast and plays loose with the whole truth to attempt an honest analysis.
Trumps in and the world has changed, time to refine your arguments if you want to have any affect on the future…just a suggestion.
Mike Miller says
How long I’ve lived anywhere has nothing do with your fundamental inability to form coherent writings. Get out of here with that straw man fallacy.
Given your poor fundamentals of grammar, I doubt your ability to form a critical analysis of anything.
peter lethenstrom says
sorry about duplicate sentences. I goofed and the simple reason is I am not technology savvy. That being said I still stand behind what I wrote. I am a veteran from the Vietnam era and have called Zinke’s office to express the BS that current Administration is having upon vets and NOAA and beyond.. Zinke, a vet himself should get off his horse, like the one he rode in trump’s first go around, and speak the truth about vets and the role NOAA plays in military, framers/ranchers, airline industry, safety of communities as weather patterns spread across the U.S. etc.
Carlotta Grandstaff says
trumpmusk cut 1,000 jobs from the VA, last week, and yesterday cut an additional 1,400. Very despicable and shabby treatment of our veterans. Zinke, Sheehy and Daines support these cuts.
Frank says
I’m not at all concerned with what DOGE is accomplishing, I voted for it! I am concerned about Biden’s anti-Trump IRS agent that illegally leaked the records of 405,000 people. “A former Internal Revenue Service contractor who leaked President Trump’s tax returns to two media outlets also disclosed information about more than 405,000 other filers, the agency revealed to the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month.”
Pamela Morris says
Better get your facts right instead of quoting right wing social media. Some people think the truth is flexible. Hilarious. Truth is singular, stand alone, and out there to find.
Kevin says
Carlotto, don’t panic! The HOA meeting has just begun.