how can this be?

We ARE there.

He cannot cut off funding that has passed through Congress. The Supreme Court has already told him that he does not have that power. The "power of the purse" is invested in Congress, not the Presidency, so unless Congress votes to pull funding from somewhere, Dump can whine and threaten all he wants, but Congress isn't going to go along with any such scheme. it is highly unlikely that he can get Congress's help in pulling funding for much of anything, especially when it comes to damaging various States or large programs that Congress has funded.

He HAS been "cutting off funding passed through Congress" for the past 11 months and every entity that has had that happen, has been forced to go to court and hope that a TRO is put in place, and if so, then 45 ignores the court order, delays funding restoration while appealing the lower court ruling.

And although most appellate courts have upheld the district court TROs, when they do, 45 goes running to "Daddy Roberts" and the appellate court ruling is overturned through the "shadow docket", and the funding continues to be delayed until en banc reviews resolve the issue, and then *maybe* the funding is restored, sometimes months later.

USAID is the epitome of "cutting off funding passed through Congress" and the agency no longer exists now.

In some cases, 45 learned about submitting a "recessions package" for Congress so they can repeal their original funding for certain things, and the GOP zombies have obeyed, and passed the rescissions.

He has also withheld the distribution of funding until the end of the fiscal year (Sept. 30) - dubbed a "pocket rescission", and if that withheld funding is not spent before Oct. 1, it automatically falls back to the Treasury, and is "killed" for whoever it was designated for.

He was impeached for it, but not convicted.
A Republican House wouldn't even impeach.
He knows he can get away with practically anything.

was the "test case" and this 2nd term, he has gone hog wild.

I had just heard on the radio yesterday that the illegally withheld LIHEAP funding was finally released here in PA and the state got the transfer and finally opened up application process for assistance.

Long-awaited $3.6B in heating assistance released to states and tribes

The announced funding release finally happened some 2 weeks after the shutdown ended.

https://truthout.org/articles/trump-is-punishing-blue-states-by-defunding-their-infrastructure-projects/
Infrastructure projects like high-speed rail in California, $11 B in water projects, Hudson tunnel
Clean energy projects.

America.

will do anything about it. Even after a year of his bullying and threats, I still find it hard to believe that it is happening so openly.

Who is threatening to hurt Indiana? Who has taken FEMA away from states the Felon doesn't like?

Not the Democrats. Not in the past, not now and not in the future. The Democrats have been there after natural disasters, with FEMA funds and in the trenches. Almost every single democratic policy has been for the greater good. Not punishment, not vindictiveness. Republicans may not agree with every policy but no way can they say it was done out of meanness. Never, meanness.

Can you say the same about this administration, this President or the Organization that is controlling the Whitehouse, both Legislative bodies and the Supreme Court.
Heritage is so close to achieving their final plan, they can taste it. But Indiana is a small bump in the road. Sure, redistricting would be a nice accomplishment but more importantly, their are some independent Republicans that are standing up to the Felon and the big concern is the possibility of more Republicans coming to their senses.

The more red states and red voters he pisses on and pisses off the better. They like it when he does bad things to others, but not to them. If they are directly impacted, they may push against him and his cronies - ether voting against him and his or just staying home on election day - thereby denying him an illegal third term or giving control of the congress back to the Dems.

A man can dream ...

At most, we can hope for a moment of “yeah, it’s hard, but he’s doing the best he can, and it’s the Democrats’ fault anyway.”

But the SCOTUS 6 have been overturning the lower courts and allowing the funding delays to continue "pending the appellate court's review on the merits". And when that happens, the damage continues to be inflicted for sometimes months before a final decision is made and funding is possibly restored (and if it is, there is ALWAYS some manufactured "glitch" that delays the final money transfers).

"Blackmail" is a threat of the reveal of something compromising about the victim if they don't give in to a demand.

But in this case, a threat about "not approving a map or else you get your funding cut", is just a part of 45's overall extortion scheme, where a threat of primarying has been added on too as a sweetener threat.

A number of institutions (whether state, media outlet, university, or corporation) that receive money from the federal government, have been extorted if they didn't bend the knee (including crap like "removing DEI" and "woke policies" and other nonsense), and when they resisted, the funding was cut.

It it happens it we I'll be hilarious to watch the deep red States crying foul especially when they did zero to rein in Trump's terrorism.

since a group there was able to gather enough petitions signatures (that are being verified at the moment) to call for a referendum on whether to redistrict.

FL is supposed to reconvene in January to start their process and Ted Lieu issued a warning to FL -

Link to tweet

Most of the red states were ALREADY gerrymandered!

It might even lead to an even greater bloodbath for the GOP in 2026. Go for it Donnie.

Comply or suffer.

Too bad if something were to happen to it.

It’s called extortion.

even they aren't free under Trump. They have to rubber stamp everything he wants, they have no free will, or punishment. Never mind they pass the rest of his agenda; one vote he disagrees with, and they are toast. And Trump wants some pretty crazy stuff.

Appeaing the bully makes it worse, not better.
Only Republicans can fix this.

States have the right to bend the knee for their king

N/t

Not anymore.

See this for how they have created a "Unitary Executive" by fiat and thanks to "Daddy Roberts" - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3581069

but only the party. from this wording, even the term "our country" excludes everyone who isn't on board with the authoritarian plan.

and of course krasnov's goals are much narrower than that: he's only in it for himself.

this is, i assume, an impeachable act? is extortion impeachable?

After GOP loses control of a couple deep red states, the threats will stop.

The state was not always ruby red. This is mostly the result of many decades of gerrymandering at the legislature level, and then using the power to gaslight the public over and over.

Most of the Governors have been right-wing, but not MAGA types. Braun is a crook from the git and a perfect soulmate to Trump. He made his money through shady contracts with the state.

So it is remarkable -- way more than simply remarkable -- astounding, that so many Republicans have turned on Braun. That says they are starting to see the danger in the usual GOP overreach. I hope Trump does make good on these threats. That will cause the legislators to put enormous pressure on Braun to sue the Trump administration, because these threats are clearly illegal, let alone actually carrying out the threats.

This is how the MAGA monster dies.

If you cut off funding those detainees will have to be moved somewhere. A s-hole country perhaps.

Not that it seems a threat to the Orangeman.............

to Trump's ever-increasing rap sheet. This is what happens when you allow your ego to go unchecked and let greed overtake everything else in your life. What a great human being.

Raise taxes on the billionaires to extreme limits. Take the savings and offer each state huge increases in funding IF they Gerrymander at least one more Democratic seat and more for each additional seat. We will need complete control for many years to restore our country to what it was and have a chance to improve it without Republican roadblocks.

"Be a shame if something happened to it."

"Do what we say, and no one gets hurt."

On state capitols that don't cooperate with dear leader. That'll get them to vote for him next time around.....also send all your 12 to 16 year old girls to Trump's new ballroom.

strong libertarian streak in that they don't like being told what to do or being bullied. I think this is especially true in the mid- and mountain- west states. I suspect this was a big part of the reason this redistricting effort failed.

The other surprise that Chris Hayes reported on tonight was the role former governor Mitch Daniels played behind the scenes.

For 70+ years, the USA has presided over a gradually-progressing global order, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, that avoided some potential disasters while sowing the seeds of future disasters. Unfortunately, the USA can no longer operate "safely" from a position of leadership. It's time for the UN to leave America, move to Switzerland maybe. Especially with the new tourism restrictions, FIFA might want to rethink its location lineup. We can no longer be trusted to host the Olympics. At this point, it's just irresponsible to let the USA in on anything that requires planning.

We're still heading for rock bottom on this bender, and we'll need some time in rehab after impact.