Carolyn Goodman was Right: Another in a Series

(Chuck Muth) – Back in mid-April, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman called on Nevada Gov. Steve von Sisolak to START the process of a controlled, responsible re-opening of Nevada’s economy.

She referred to the discombobulated blanket #SisolakShutdown as “total insanity.”

She was right.

Had we started the process back then, we wouldn’t be where we are today under the threat of closing up again.  The COVID-19 challenges we’re facing now would have been addressed over two months ago.  We would have already taken corrective measures.

Make no mistake: The COVID threat was with us in April, is with us now and will still be with us six months from now.  The governor’s fiddling and delay has only extended the recovery period and commensurate pain.

And, um, since the threat of the virus was still with us when von Sisolak allowed a partial re-opening, wasn’t he using our entire state as a “control group”?  Where’s all the yelping and kvetching from the same Branch COVIDians who attacked Mayor Goodman over this?

Another thing…

Mayor Goodman, in an April interview with CNN’s Anderson “Pretty Boy” Cooper, accurately noted that it would be up to individual business owners to take various precautionary safety measures upon re-opening and that the public and the market would then decide which to patronize.

And lo and behold, that turned out to be true, too.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal published a story today detailing the different levels of COVID prevention different casino operations are taking.  As reported, under von Sisolak’s Phase II partial re-opening…

“There are no standards for how, or even if, Las Vegas casinos check their customers for fevers to try to halt the spread of the coronavirus.  Every operator has a different procedure.”

For example…

“This means that, while downtown’s Fremont was limiting its number of entrances and greeting every customer at the door with a temperature screening, the Four Queens across the street had every door wide open and wasn’t checking visitors.

“On the Strip, the MGM and Caesars properties weren’t alone in just screening hotel guests. That also was the case at The Strat, Sahara, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Treasure Island. …

“At Wynn Las Vegas and Encore, as well as The Venetian and Palazzo, guests can be screened several at a time, usually without slowing down, by thermal imaging cameras that give the operators a ‘Predator’-style look at everyone who enters.

“Boyd properties – including Aliante, the Cannery, Gold Coast, The Orleans and Suncoast – and Station resorts – including Green Valley Ranch, Red Rock, Santa Fe and Sunset – take more of a stop-and-wait approach. …

“Downtown, the California and the D rely on machines that scan the inside of guests’ wrists, with the latter registering skin temperatures in the dangerously low 90s. The Plaza offered the choice of presenting your forehead or wrist, although if your forehead ran warm, your wrist needed to be scanned anyway.”

So once again we see that Mayor Goodman was right on the money.

Gov. von Sisolak is now doing the exact same things Madam Mayor called for in April…just two months and a lot of unnecessary additional pain later.

Where does she go to get her apology?

Drive-By Muthings

* My wife was cornered and robbed by two black guys while making a delivery at an apartment complex off Martin Luther King Boulevard in Las Vegas on Wednesday.  She’s OK; just understandably shaken up.  But wanted to return to work immediately after filing a police report with Metro.  Tough gal.

Sorry, but those two black lives don’t mean a damn thing to me.

* It’s funny how the Fake News Industrial Complex is trying to smack President Trump because some of the candidates he’s endorsed in GOP primaries have lost.  But they’ve all lost to…pro-Trump challengers.  Some even more pro-Trump than the endorsed candidate.  So how is that a “loss” for the President?

* Inside the NFL I: Now we’re gonna be graced with the “Black National Anthem” before the game.  Yeah, that’ll sure improve race relations. Can’t wait for the response when fans in the stands exercise their First Amendment right and refuse to stand.

* Burgess Owens, former NFLer and black conservative candidate running for Congress in Utah, tweeted: “There is no ‘black national anthem’. Why does it feel like the country is trying to segregate again sometimes?”

Alas, it’s black separatists, not whites, who are on this crusade.

* Inside the NFL II: Corporate America and the Thought Police are ratcheting up the pressure on the Washington Redskins to change its name.  If past is prologue, it won’t be long before the Washington Caucasianskins take the field.  Though blacking out “Washington” probably ain’t far behind, too.

* Oops. Sorry.  “Whiting” out.

* The City of Las Vegas tweeted that taxpayer-funded “license officers” will be out in force this weekend “to enforce @GovSisolak’s mask directive.”  I think we’ve just found a good place to start with layoffs of non-essential government employees.

* State Sen. Yvanna Cancela, Nevada’s #AOC, tweeted today: “Wear a mask. It’s the most patriotic thing you can do on this 4th of July.”  She’s obviously a product of our government-run public schools.

Actually, the 4th of July is a celebration of individual liberty & declared independence from tyrannical government. As such, the most patriotic thing you can do this weekend is resist such tyranny.

* Why are so many patriots defying von Sisolak’s mandatory mask order? Not sure exactly who he was, but a guest on a news program this week had the answer: “I will tell you, one thing people cannot tolerate is hypocrisy or inconsistency.  Then they just do not listen to you.”

Our governor, especially when it came to the Black Lies Matter riots and looting, has been the EPITOME of hypocrisy and inconsistency.  If people aren’t listening to him – and they’re not – he has only himself to blame.  Worst governor in America.

* The Supreme Court this week struck down what are called “Blaine Amendments” in state constitutions – including Nevada.  That means states can no longer discriminate against religious schools when implementing voucher and scholarship programs.  Long overdue.

* In response to another SCOTUS decision this week striking down a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics – which was, by the way, authored by a DEMOCRAT – Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto-Reid tweeted: “We must continue working together to protect women’s freedom to make their own health care decisions.”

I replied: “Isn’t wearing a mask a health care decision? Shouldn’t we trust women to make that decision? Her body, her choice…right?”  No response.  Go figure.

* News Flash: Nevadans have been able to request a mail-in ballot for any reason for decades before the Kung Flu hit.  So anyone afraid to vote in person can already avoid going to the polls.  No reason to deny the rest of us from in-person voting and no reason to automatically mail a mail-in ballot to EVERYBODY.

* Psst. Not sure who needs to hear this, but you CANNOT catch the Kung Flu from someone who doesn’t have it.  And if you see someone without a mask and you’re not sure if they *might* have it, just stay six feet away from them.  But if you’re still too afraid, stay home.  You know, for Nevada and whatever.  Pass it along.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

“In response to the coronavirus outbreak, New Jersey moved to an all vote-by-mail system. In late June, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal charged Paterson City Councilman Michael Jackson and Councilman-elect Alex Mendez with voting fraud. Two other men were also named.  Charges included fraud in casting mail ballots and unauthorized possession of ballots. Many of the problems were related to a pernicious practice called ballot harvesting.” – Las Vegas Review-Journal, 7/3/20

(Mr. Muth is president of CitizenOutreach.org and publisher of NevadaNewsandViews.com.  He blogs at MuthsTruths.com.  His views are his own.)