TWIT: The Blue Dot

MAGAs know that the election will come down to the narrowest of margins in the swing states. So that is why they are focused on Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, which is comprised of Omaha and its southern exurbs (Sarpy County). The Second is a blue dot in a sea of red [photo] and its single electoral vote could be difference between winning and losing the biggest prize in US politics. MAGAs have been pressuring state legislators to change Nebraska's method of awarding electoral votes to winner take the entire state's five electoral votes instead of the current method in which three votes are awarded according to Congressional District. Maine is the only other state to use this method, which admittedly is more democratic.  Trumpilini won Nebraska by 19 percentage points last time.  Without the Blue Dot in the Democratic win column there could be  a 269 to 269 tie in the Electoral College. In that scenario the election would be thrown into the House of Representatives where Repugnants hold an advantage in state delegations. This scenario was the entire goal of Trump's fake elector scheme. Once again, the archaic absurdities of the Electoral College voting system is on display in this cycle.  Democracy needs election of the President by a popular vote.

The autocrats don't care about democracy as you should know by now. It has been that way since the founding, when Hamilton turned a collection of former colonies into a nation-state through military, fiscal, and monetary means, crushing "The Democracy" in the process. They would have succeeded in stealing the Second's single electoral vote had not former Democrat-turned-Republican state senator Mike McDowell from Omaha done the right thing. He said no to Republican Governor Jim Pillen's demand that the 32 year tradition be changed in time for the upcoming election forty-two days away. He is no doubt catching a lot of flack from MAGAs for his principled stand against partisan pressure. So hats off to Mike McDowell! You are welcomed back anytime.

On the legal front in the battle for democracy, the Special Prosecutor in the DC insurrection case was given leave to file an outsize brief in response tot he Supreme Court's invented immunity decision. Justice Roberts could not plausibly have given the Ochre Menace complete immunity from criminal prosecution, but he did his level best to delay and give the defendant legal arguments to prevent the case from going to trial, if ever, until after the election.

Judge Chutkan's decision does give the prosecution the opportunity to proffer new evidence in its brief since the MAGA justice partisans have required the District Court to sort the factual record to determine which category--immune, rebuttable immunity, or unprotected--his acts before and during the insurrection fall into. Of course the defense does not want any new facts made public since they will undoubtedly be incriminating, especially this close to Election Day. Judge Chutkan has called the defense's legal strategy "incoherent". That does not matter, Judge, as long as the strategy keeps Don the Con out of jail. The briefing will be completed by the end of October--just in time for the election. Suprise!

Only in America department: Haitian legal residents of Springfield, OH have finally had enough of the Trump slander machine. They filed an affidavit in Clark County Municipal Court complaining of Trump & Vance racist lies about 'pet eating' by the Haitian community under a Ohio statute (§2935.09) that permits a person to swear an affidavit of a crime committed against them. The Haitians charge a variety of crimes ranging from telecommunication harassment to raising false alarms and disrupting public services.   The next step is for the affidavit to be reviewed by a municipal court judge for the issuance of arrest warrants and transfer to the county attorney for filing of formal criminal charges.

credit: M Lukovich, Atlanta-Journal Constitution