Commentary
Daily Current: The short American century
Still, it was a good run while it lasted. Four legitimately appointed and confirmed Supreme Court justices plus Neil Gorsuch equals five, and that’s more than the four dissenters, so Trump’s travel ban is upheld. When combined with zero tolerance, trade wars, alienating our best and most trusted allies, dismantling post-WWII international institutions, and general […]
Attorney General Sessions, in the Peppermill, with the false choice
“What is the compassionate and right thing to do?” asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions in Reno Monday, according to the text of his prepared remarks delivered to the National Association of School Resource Officers. “The compassionate thing to do is to protect our children from drugs and violence, put criminals in jail, and secure our […]
Daily Current: So, was it good for you?
Shaky. Cookie. So what do you call someone who returned your campaign contributions, refused to endorse your candidacy, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his state’s governor to blast your health care policy, sat and giggled, excruciatingly, while you humiliated him (and, by extension, his state), and who then spent an entire year doing everything he could to […]
Daily Current: Heller made his bet
Dizzy Dean. This week Dean Heller scrambled to distance himself from Trump’s border omnishambles. If, as seems likely, Heller is belittled and demeaned in his own state by Trump this weekend, Ron Brownstein states an obvious point Heller may (or may not) want to consider: “…by any reasonable standard, Capitol Hill Republicans marched themselves in […]
Guest op-ed: GOP should keep promise, protect patients with pre-existing conditions
A decade ago, I was advocating for Nevada members of Congress to support the Affordable Care Act (ACA). At the time, I was motivated by the stories of Cancer patients and survivors, who were facing discrimination in access to health insurance due to their pre-existing conditions. I did not know that my son would be […]
Daily Current: Las Vegas braces for visit from angry person
“Trump ends separations” declares the headline atop the Las Vegas newspaper this morning. Of course, families are still separated. And Trump & Co. has no clear plan for bringing them back together. “It is a crisis Donald Trump created and always had the power to solve.” That’s Molly Ball’s lede on her story in Time […]
Daily Current: Heller tells Sessions to stop it
Better late than later. “We therefore ask you to halt implementation of the Department’s zero tolerance policy,” wrote a dozen Republican senators Tuesday, including Nevada’s Dean Heller, in a letter to Attorney General Jefferson B. Sessions. A cynic might see a purely political calculation from the most vulnerable Republican senator on the 2018 ballot to […]
Guest op-ed: Nevada voting rights progress is on the line
For too long, politicians have been putting up barriers to voting and making it harder for people to exercise their constitutional rights. In 2017, Jason Kander founded Let America Vote to create political consequences for politicians who engage in voter suppression. Across the country this year, we’re finding the politicians who are making it harder […]
Daily Current: NV GOP dismayed, but not *that* dismayed
The buck stops…where? Leading the Current this morning, Nevada Republicans are dismayed about the U.S. separating migrant children from their parents and putting the children in prison camps, but not dismayed enough to acknowledge that their president and his administration started it, and could stop it any time. Former U.S. Attorneys to Sessions: Stop it. […]
Daily Current: Trump in Las Vegas, Laura Bush in the Post
Trump raises money for Heller in Las Vegas Saturday. You can be in the same photograph with Trump for a mere $15,000, and for $50,000 you can sit with him. At the same table. While he’s eating. So get those tickets now! Trump will also speak to the Nevada Republican Convention (that will only cost […]
Guest op-ed: County land bill is a wish list for privatizers
If Donald Trump could write his own proposal for managing public lands in southern Nevada, it might look something like the bill slated to be voted on by the Clark County Commission on Tuesday, June 19. Complete with public land sell-offs to developers, giveaways to utility companies, and a huge exemption to the Endangered Species […]
The downside of pushing economic development
“Average hourly earnings have increased by nearly 20% since January 2007,” reads one of the charts presented to state economic forecasters by the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance (LVGEA) earlier this month. “Tesla Update! Going Strong!” added a graphic presented by the Reno-based Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN). Like LVGEA, EDAWN is part […]