Commentary
Chattah, Fiore, and Marchant disgrace and demean the entire state
If Sigal Chattah, Michele Fiore and Jim Marchant had any decency they’d apologize to the people of Nevada and withdraw their candidacies. People who have no business holding public office run for office all the time. Sometimes they even get elected. If Chattah, Fiore, and Marchant were only guilty of being bungling office-shoppers looking for […]
How to get away with torture, insurrection, you name it
The U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection intends to hold another public hearing, likely the last before it releases its official report. The hearing had been scheduled for Sept. 28, 2022 but was postponed because of Hurricane Ian. Through earlier hearings this past summer, the committee has shown how former President […]
The political right’s efforts to defund the IRS are an attack on societal health and well-being
In December of 2019, my mom died. A couple of months later, the pandemic overtook American society, and as with so many other aspects of modern life that quickly took on an extra level of complexity and difficulty during those harrowing and chaotic months, settling her affairs got a good deal more challenging. One notable […]
The Inflation Reduction Act will lower costs for Nevada’s families
I worked hard for decades to set myself up for retirement. After a career in public service running Nevada’s unemployment insurance fraud program, I built a small business specializing in helping grieving families deal with personal property estates. During all these years, I paid into Social Security and Medicare. At 62, I want reassurance that […]
Breaking systems, harming families
Last month, I read with awe the incredible Caitlin Dickerson story in The Atlantic. The piece delved into what really happened with Trump’s family separation border policy in 2018. The piece is long and sprawling and presents a lot of details about ICE and the Dept. of Justice, leaders of Homeland Security, folks in the […]
Democrats are campaigning like it’s just another election year. It’s not.
A lot of Nevada politicians are getting called “corrupt” in political ads. So are they? It being Nevada, the correct answer is: “could be.” Though they are likely corrupt in ways much more banal and mundane than the “history’s greatest monster” motif characterizing political ads. And in some instances, candidates are corrupt in different ways […]
DeSantis and Abbott pull from segregationists’ playbook with their anti-immigration stunts
As a historian of racism and white supremacy in the United States, I’ve become accustomed to callous actions like those of Republican governors who organized transportation for Latin American migrants to states run by their political opponents. Governors Greg Abbott in Texas and Ron DeSantis in Florida are following the playbook of segregationists who provided […]
Conspiracy theories are dangerous even if very few people believe them
There is an open question among pundits and researchers: Do more Americans believe in conspiracy theories now than ever before? But as a scholar of conspiracy theories and their believers, I am concerned that focusing on how many Americans believe conspiracy theories can distract from their dangers. Even if most people dismiss conspiracy theories or […]
Democracy: Use it or lose it
Republicans, as they continue to call themselves, have good reasons to be against democracy. Their nominee lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. And yet on two of those five occasions, their candidate ended up in the White House anyway. And the framers of the U.S. Constitution, in an unsavory […]
The CCSD shell game (which they are really bad at playing)
Step right up, hims and hers and theys and thems, to the greatest game in the world. The object of this game is to follow this kernel of truth, which I am putting under one of these three shells. Note the shell that truth is under, and keep track of it as I move the […]
Some progress on economic fairness, and still a long way to go
It’s been a rough couple of years for American workers. First, working families were battered by a pandemic that caused massive unemployment, loss of health coverage and financial hardship for tens of millions of working people. The unemployment rate in Nevada hit 28% during the COVID-19 shut down which impacted many casino workers like myself. […]
Jim, Sigal, and Michele just living their best lives
You may think Nevada Republican candidate for secretary of state Jim Marchant is just a despicable election denying conspiracy peddler who, given the opportunity, would eagerly reject the will of Nevada’s citizens if more of them voted for a Democrat than a Republican. And he is. But he’s also a businessman! Or was? Whatever. Last […]