Wow, Omaha!

 

Republicans may be shooting themselves in the foot

 

GOP: Whatever it takes

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 09/23/2024:

I assume he knows to expect death threats.

FURTHER UPDATE:

Trump took issue with McDonnell’s decision, calling him a “Democrat turned Republican(?)” in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“I would like to thank Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska for trying to help the Republican Party simplify the complexity of the State’s Electoral Map. It would have been better, and far less expensive, for everyone! Unfortunately, a Democrat turned Republican(?) State Senator named Mike McDonnell decided, for no reason whatsoever, to get in the way of a great Republican, common sense, victory,” he wrote. “Just another ‘Grandstander!’ Who knows, perhaps one of the others two Republicans that were a “NO” Vote will change their minds.”

[...]

There was a meeting held Wednesday on the matter in Lincoln, the Times reported. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made the trip to attend in person while Trump reportedly called in to the meeting to “express his desire for the change.”

McDonnell said Monday that he personally wrote Pillen to make his position clear: “I will not change my long-held position and will oppose any attempted changes to our electoral college system before the 2024 election.”

[...]

McDonnell, a 58-year-old ex-Democrat, had been described as being a de facto tie-breaker on the issue for the 2024 election, The New York Times reported this weekend. His decision is squarely against Trump’s wishes and that of his Republican governor, Jim Pillen, who said he’d call a special legislative session to vote on the issue if he knew he had enough votes to pass it through. However, because of McDonnell and those under his influence, Pillen—and by extension Trump—simply doesn’t have the votes.

[...]

[McDonnell said] he believes any changes in how Nebraska allots its electoral votes should be decided by the voters themselves—not a surprise amendment at the 11th hour in a presidential election year.

  Daily Beast

Well, that's not very Republican of him.

FURTHER UPDATE :

I thought his family was full of teachers

Or maybe they're saying Nebraska. Tim Walz is for Trump?

Take America back?  Nah. 

UPDATE 09/05/2024: Well, that explains it.

Good on Nebraska

Typical Trump endorsement

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

What could possibly go wrong - Part 2

Ohio follows Georgia insanity.

This article says Alabama, Indiana, and Texas also have the same lax law, and Nebraska is considering it.

Welcome the old wild west.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Brilliant

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Does the Trump campaign EVER pay ANYBODY?

Going hard after that farm vote

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Cops can dance

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Yet more farmers who aren't happy with Trump

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Nebraskan Senator McCollister wants to be drummed out of the party - Part 2

You knew it was coming.

The Nebraska Republican Party on Monday called for GOP state Sen. John McCollister to re-register as a Democrat after he accused the party of enabling white supremacy in the United States.

“John McCollister has been telegraphing for years that he has little if nothing in common with the Republican voters in his district by consistently advocating for higher taxes, restrictions on American’s Second Amendment rights, and pro-abortion lobby,” Nebraska Republican Party Executive Director Ryan Hamilton said in a statement. “His latest false statement about Republicans should come as no surprise to anyone who is paying attention, and we’re happy he has finally shed all pretense of being a conservative.”

Hamilton added that he'd be "happy to send a change of voter registration form along to his office so he can make the switch officially and start, for once, telling the truth to voters in his district.”

[...]

"The Republican Party is enabling white supremacy in our country," McCollister said on Twitter. "As a lifelong Republican, it pains me to say this, but it’s the truth."

  The Hill

Keystone XL Update

Charlie Pierce is in Nebraska lately to report on the Keystone XL pipeline progress - or lack thereof.

[T]he past week was a blessed relief from the incredible carnival of fools now playing out in our national politics. It is one battle among hundreds, but it is being fought with all the right weapons, especially that much-derided one…politics. It was refreshing to be around.

[...]

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA—Above the main doors of the state capitol building here are carved the following words:

The salvation of the state is the watchfulness of the citizen.

[...]

[S]ome citizens [...] a fascinating mix of Native peoples, ranchers, farmers, retirees, environmentalists, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents [...] got watchful and they noticed that TransCanada, the energy behemoth, was not acting in good faith at least in presenting the economic effects, and that their state government apparently didn't care very much about that, so they organized, and sued, and marched, and sued some more, and marched some more, and they finally jammed up the project to the point where President Barack Obama squashed it. Then the election happened, and the Keystone project got energized again because Americans elected a vulgar talking yam who doesn't care to know very much about anything. The citizens sued again, and they marched again, and, this week, they brought almost 500,000 public comments to the offices of the Nebraska Public Services Commission, all of which asked that the Keystone XL pipeline project be killed really most sincerely dead for good and all.

They may not win. It's still a pick 'em on whether the PSC will come down on their side or not. But their movement will go on because it lives up to the words carved into the capitol of their state.

[...]

Yes, Nebraska went for the president* with nearly 60 percent of the vote, and that was a shame. I suspect many of the people fighting the pipeline the hardest may have voted for him. America can be a puzzle sometimes.

  Charles P Pierce

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The XL Pipeline

"I entered the fight to start with because I believe very strongly in our rights as American citizens to own property and not have other people taking it for their personal gain. Then, I broadened it as I found out more about the project and about the stuff that's going to be coming through the pipeline, and that all our rivers and streams have been put at risk."

Randy Thompson watched the government stand by, largely idle, while TransCanada bullied him and his neighbors with threatening letters, stonewalled about the effect of leaks on the fragile Sandhills region of Nebraska, and on the Ogallala aquifer, the massive underground reservoir, already imperiled by drought in some places, that services most of the arable farmland in the country, and through which the proposed pipeline will pass. He's laughed at the preposterous promises of an economic boom; at one point, TransCanada promised that the pipeline would provide 100,000 new jobs. It later was revealed that these jobs included employment in the "entertainment" industry that would spring up along the pipeline's route. "Strippers," Randy says. "They're talking about strippers. And temporary strippers at that."

  Charlie Pierce

Charlie Pierce interviewed a Nebraska Republican cattleman about the proposed pipeline. I hope that's enough to get your attention and send you over to Charlie's post.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.