LetMyPeopleVote
LetMyPeopleVote's JournalCourt blocks Trump administration's freezing of Gateway funding
This ruling makes me smile
https://x.com/News12NJ/status/2019938234885669269
https://longisland.news12.com/court-blocks-trump-administrations-freezing-of-gateway-funding
Work on the Hudson River rail tunnel officially stopped at 5 p.m. Friday after funding ran out.
Officials from both New York and New Jersey sued the Trump administration over the issue. They were looking for a temporary restraining order to keep the work going.
The project would double the number of rail tunnels between New Jersey and Manhattan. Construction has been going on since 2023, and $1 billion has already been spent. There were five active worksites.
The project was fully funded by Congress in 2024. New Jersey and New York argue that withholding the funds is a breach of contract.
Judge denies DHS bid to rush removal of Liam Ramos and his family
Kristen Stenvik, superintendent of the district where Liam goes to school, said the ruling provides both “additional time” and “continued uncertainty.”
Judge denies DHS bid to rush removal of Liam Ramos and his family www.ms.now/news/dhs-rep...
— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-02-07T00:01:26.219Z
https://www.ms.now/news/dhs-reportedly-seeks-expedited-removal-of-liam-ramos-and-his-family
The government filed a motion Wednesday seeking to end asylum claims for Liam’s family, according to Minnesota Public Radio, which first reported the news Thursday night. MS NOW has not viewed the filing.
At an asylum hearing Friday, the family was granted a continuance, according to Kristen Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam goes to school. Stenvik cited “a legal representative of the family” as the source of the information she shared......
Arias told Minnesota Public Radio the family’s future was uncertain.
“The government is moving many pieces. It’s doing everything possible to do us harm, so that they’ll probably deport us,” he said in Spanish, according to MPR’s translation. “We live with that fear, too.”
Stenvik previously told MS NOW four other children from the school district she presides over were in the same Texas detention facility where Liam and his father were. The school district shut down Monday after receiving a bomb threat.
In her latest statement, she said the Friday ruling provides both “additional time” and “continued uncertainty for a child and his family.”
Judge denies DHS bid to rush removal of Liam Ramos and his family
Source: MS NOW
The Department of Homeland Security unsuccessfully sought to expedite deportation proceedings against the family of Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old formerly detained with his father by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Minneapolis, a local school official said Friday.
The government filed a motion Wednesday seeking to end asylum claims for Liam’s family, according to Minnesota Public Radio, which first reported the news Thursday night. MS NOW has not viewed the filing.
At an asylum hearing Friday, the family was granted a continuance, according to Kristen Stenvik, superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam goes to school. Stenvik cited “a legal representative of the family” as the source of the information she shared.
The legal representative said the family expressed thanks for the outpouring of support, asked for prayers, and requested privacy, Stenvik added.
Danielle Molliver, the family’s attorney, told MPR on Thursday that the filing was “retaliatory.” Molliver did not respond to MS NOW’s requests for comment Friday. It is unclear when the family is next due in court.
Read more: https://www.ms.now/news/dhs-reportedly-seeks-expedited-removal-of-liam-ramos-and-his-family
Judge denies DHS bid to rush removal of Liam Ramos and his family www.ms.now/news/dhs-rep...
— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-02-07T00:01:26.219Z
MaddowBlog-Trump tries to show off his math skills, but flunks arithmetic
The president doesn’t use numbers and statistics like an adult; he uses numbers and statistics that he thinks sound good and make him feel better.
Trump tries to show off his math skills, but flunks arithmetic www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Price (@slashersteve.bsky.social) 2026-02-06T17:47:21.035Z
“Whatever the claim, the president has the numbers to prove it, even if he has to make them up.â€
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-tries-to-show-off-his-math-skills-but-flunks-arithmetic
The president said “nobody else” was capable of such a feat, adding that he’d produce “numbers that are not even thought to be achievable.”....
Or put another way, when the president said these are “numbers that are not even thought to be achievable,” he was correct, but not in the way he intended.
This came to mind on Thursday night, as Trump launched his TrumpRx.gov website. The New York Times noted:
President Trump again repeated a mathematically impossible claim that this program would reduce drug prices by “300, 400, 500 or even 600 percent.” A 100 percent discount would be a price cut to $0. For example, when listing weight loss drugs that would receive discounts, Trump said that it would cut “the price of Wegovy from more than $1,300 to $199, a 578 percent difference.”
No, really, that’s what he said.
Trump: "Novo Nordisk will be slashing the price of Ozempic from more than ,000 to 9. And the price of Wegovy from more than ,300 to 9, a 578% difference."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-02-06T00:12:04.042Z
.....This is the same president who’s so confident in his mathematical expertise that he has come up with international trade tariff rates based on formulas that only exist in his head. That’s obviously unwise, but it’s especially problematic given his unfamiliarity with how numbers work.
I’m often reminded of something Bill Lueders wrote for The Bulwark last year: “Whatever the claim, the president has the numbers to prove it, even if he has to make them up.”
It remains an important detail. The incumbent president doesn’t use numbers and statistics like an adult; he uses numbers and statistics that he thinks sound good and make him feel better.
MaddowBlog-White House tries to defend Trump amplifying a racist video targeting the Obamas
After Karoline Leavitt tried to defend the latest example of the president’s routine racism, the White House stepped on her dreadful argument.
Trump amplifying another racist video got me thinking about the commitment he made to Black voters in his second inaugural — and how quickly he returned to the kind of gutter racism that helped fuel his political rise in the first place. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-06T16:01:29.577Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-tries-to-defend-trump-amplifying-a-racist-video-targeting-the-obamas
The list, alas, continues to grow longer. The Associated Press reported:
President Donald Trump used his social media account to share a video about election conspiracy theories that includes a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle. […]
Nearly all of the 62-second clip, which was among dozens of Truth Social posts from Trump overnight, appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as the 2020 presidential votes were tallied. At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two primates, with the Obamas’ smiling faces imposed on them.
The fact that the Republican president didn’t make the video himself is hardly exculpatory: Trump saw the video and thought it’d be a good to idea to amplify it, just as he did in his first term when he promoted a video of a supporter wearing Trump campaign gear while shouting “white power!”...
Republican Sen. Tim Scott, who is Black, wrote online that he was praying the video “was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” The South Carolinian, who’s currently chairing the National Republican Senatorial Committee, added: “The President should remove it.”....
Complicating matters, a few hours after Leavitt tried to defend the racist video, the White House changed its story, saying in a statement, “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.”
Evidently, the press secretary’s “fake outrage” line proved unsustainable.
In his second inaugural address, Trump said: “To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records, and I will not forget it. I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come.”
Like too many of Trump’s promises, he wasted little time in trashing this commitment and returning to the kind of gutter racism that helped fuel his political rise in the first place.
MaddowBlog-Trump said he'll release federal funds if officials rename Dulles Airport, Penn Station after him
The president’s obsession with self-glorification is old hat, but his tactics regarding the Gateway infrastructure project are new.
Trump’s Gateway tunnel pitch sounds an awful lot like extortion: If Democrats want to save the project, restore the funds, and prevent the job losses, they’ll have to indulge his self-glorification obsession.
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-06T14:07:04.902Z
Articles of impeachment have been introduced over less.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-gateway-federal-funds-rename-dulles-penn-station
The good news is that the president recently signaled a willingness to release the resources that would allow work to continue. The bad news is the specific condition he has in mind. Punchbowl News reported:
President Donald Trump offered to release the funding for the massive Gateway infrastructure project if Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer agrees to support renaming both Washington-Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station after Trump.
The Trump administration directly made the request of Schumer, according to four sources familiar with the situation.
.....For those keeping score, Trump and his allies have now applied the president’s name to the Kennedy Center and to the Institute of Peace, announced the construction of “Trump-class” battleships, unveiled a commemorative legal-tender coin that will feature his face on both sides and have launched “Trump Gold Cards,” “Trump Accounts” and “TrumpRx” (the government’s new drug-pricing website). By some accounts, the president wants the forthcoming White House ballroom to be named after him, too.....
The president’s pitch is, for all intents and purposes, an attempt at extortion: If Democrats want to save the infrastructure project and prevent the job losses, they must indulge the president’s obsession with self-aggrandizement and self-glorification.
Articles of impeachment have been introduced over less.
“This is ridiculous,” Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said in a statement. “These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers. At a time when New Yorkers are already being crushed by high costs under the Trump tariffs, the president continues to put his own narcissism over the good-paying union jobs this project provides and the extraordinary economic impact the Gateway tunnel will bring.”
She added, “I demand that the president put people first and unfreeze this project and all the others his administration has been holding hostage for his personal gain.”
Slotkin declines DOJ interview request in 'illegal orders' video case
Sen. Elissa Slotkin and other Democratic lawmakers filed a video last year reminding troops that they can ignore illegal orders.
Slotkin declines DOJ interview request in ‘illegal orders’ video case www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
— Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T23:54:07.373Z
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/05/slotkin-interview-video-doj
In a Thursday letter to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro reviewed by The Washington Post and first reported by the Associated Press, Preet Bharara, an attorney for Slotkin (Michigan), defended the senator’s decision and said the message that Slotkin and the other Democrats shared was “uncontroversial and incontrovertible.”
“As a former member of the intelligence community, and current member of Congress with oversight of those communities, Senator Slotkin felt duty-bound to ensure those individuals understood that the law not only allows, but requires them, to refuse an illegal order,” Bharara wrote.
On Thursday, Slotkin said in a video on X that many lawyers told her “just be quiet, keep my head down, and, hopefully, this will all just go away.....
Slotkin’s legal team, Bharara added, met with two members from Pirro’s office. He said the officers “could not articulate any theory of possible criminal liability or identify any statute they were relying on or that could have been violated.”
Spokespeople for the White House, the Justice Department and Pirro’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
I cannot believe that any real attorney would open this investigation. Pirro needs to be disbarred or sanctioned for this so-called investigation
Slotkin declines DOJ interview request in 'illegal orders' video case
Source: Washington Post
Sen. Elissa Slotkin has refused to voluntarily participate in a Justice Department investigation over a video she and five other Democratic members of Congress recorded late last year that urged U.S. troops to resist unlawful orders from the Trump administration.
In a Thursday letter to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro reviewed by The Washington Post and first reported by the Associated Press, Preet Bharara, an attorney for Slotkin (Michigan), defended the senator’s decision and said the message that Slotkin and the other Democrats shared was “uncontroversial and incontrovertible.”
“As a former member of the intelligence community, and current member of Congress with oversight of those communities, Senator Slotkin felt duty-bound to ensure those individuals understood that the law not only allows, but requires them, to refuse an illegal order,” Bharara wrote.
On Thursday, Slotkin said in a video on X that many lawyers told her “just be quiet, keep my head down, and, hopefully, this will all just go away.....
Slotkin’s legal team, Bharara added, met with two members from Pirro’s office. He said the officers “could not articulate any theory of possible criminal liability or identify any statute they were relying on or that could have been violated.”
Spokespeople for the White House, the Justice Department and Pirro’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/05/slotkin-interview-video-doj
Slotkin declines DOJ interview request in ‘illegal orders’ video case www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
— Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T23:54:07.373Z
The Borowitz Report-Washington Post Subscribers Cancel En Masse After Bezos Names Melania Editor
Washington Post Subscribers Cancel En Masse After Bezos Names Melania Editor
— Susanbeth5781 (@susanpatrick1.bsky.social) 2026-02-06T00:34:57.157Z
open.substack.com/pub/borowitz...
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/washington-post-subscribers-cancel
Calling the hiring of the First Lady “not a bribe,” Bezos said, “We wanted to find someone who wouldn’t be tainted by any experience in journalism, and Bari Weiss was already taken.”
Mrs. Trump will make history as the first editor of a major US paper with a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, industry experts said.
In her first official act, Melania changed the Post’s slogan to “Democracy in Darkness Be Best.”
MaddowBlog-Trump shares his plan for the $10 billion he expects to receive from his IRS lawsuit
The more the president tries to defend his desire for a taxpayer-financed payout, the worse his position appears.
Trump shares his plan for the billion he expects to receive from his IRS lawsuit - MS NOW
— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2026-02-05T23:49:05.193Z
apple.news/ARl5TPJvuSMe...
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-shares-his-plan-for-the-10-billion-he-expects-to-receive-from-his-irs-lawsuit
More than five years later, Trump has decided that the criminal penalty wasn’t enough: He believes the disclosure of the truth entitles him to a $10 billion payout from the federal tax agency, which the president sued last week.
The payout, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent conceded to senators, would come from American taxpayers.....
Just as notably, the underlying lawsuit is still absurd, and vague assurances about where some or all of the money might go at some future date don’t turn a baseless case into a good one.
But there is another part of Trump’s pitch that stands out for me. From the transcript:
I have another lawsuit with the United States. I sued because they broke into Mar-a-Lago. … And I’ve won that case. I mean, I virtually, they broke, the FBI illegally, Biden and his group. It wasn’t Biden. He didn’t know what he was doing. It was a group of very smart radical left people. They’re very smart. They just, they’ve lost their way.
And they broke into Mar-a-Lago. They broke into my home. They went through my wife’s drawers. They went through, you know — it’s a double meaning. They went through Barron’s, my son’s, everything. They went through the whole house. Hundreds of people, they went in with guns. They went in guns, would’ve been a-blazing. I brought a lawsuit. Essentially, the lawsuit’s been won. I guess I won a lot of money.
Most of this is familiar nonsense (no one, for example, “broke into” his glorified country club, and there was no secret cabal orchestrating the law enforcement process), but one element to this deserves additional scrutiny: He said he’s “essentially” won a lawsuit that resulted in him getting “a lot of money.”.....
On the other side of Capitol Hill, two leading Democratic senators, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden and Banking Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren, launched a new investigation this week into Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
“While the Internal Revenue Code permits a taxpayer to seek redress for unauthorized disclosures, Congress designed this provision to provide compensation for proven harm — not to confer $10 billion dollar windfalls to a President seeking to line his own pockets at taxpayer expense,” the Oregon and Massachusetts senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
They added, “The leaks occurred from May 2019 through September 2020, when President Trump was in office and his hand-picked nominees, Steven Mnuchin and Charles Rettig, controlled the Treasury and IRS respectively. Trump is in essence now suing the government for his own failures during his first term. This lawsuit is a shameless and transparent act of corruption that should make any American’s head spin. We fear that instead of fighting this frivolous attempt by President Trump to profit off the failures of his own administration, cabinet officials intend not only to capitulate to Trump but coordinate with him in this brazen theft from the American people.”
The concept that trump would have officials he appointed approve a settlement of this bogus claim is crazy.
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