Commentary
About Douglass & Trump
For the 4th of July, the Current ran excerpts from the famous Fourth of July speech Frederick Douglass delivered in 1852. The speech is rather long, selecting excerpts was a bigger job than I thought it’d be, and I’m sure people with more expertise will object to my selections/omissions. But I wanted to run it […]
Daily Current: Sex, fireworks, pastry… something for everyone
Oh sure, they say they’re not gonna snitch. On the Current this morning, Jeniffer Solis asks folks in a fireworks-happy neighborhood if they’re going use the Clark County’s new anonymous website to report fireworks-happy neighborhoods. Spoiler: “…if you’re serious about the problem you go after the source,” was the best answer. Sex Workers of the […]
Daily Current: Whose dumb idea was it to have the 4th fall on a Wednesday?
Weird work week, no? Some people, s’pose, might have stockpiled some vacation time and so are taking Monday & Tuesday off or Thursday & Friday off, and cobbling together five days off without losing any pay. Cool! Other people – oh, a conservative guesstimate is between a quarter and a third of Nevada’s workforce – […]
Daily Current: Just one link
Apologies, I’m traveling home today and don’t have time to glean the news. But I do want to share a piece from Josh Kurtz, editor of Maryland Matters, who was among several journalists from nonprofit publications it was my good fortune to meet, visit with and learn from in Washington D.C. over the last couple […]
Daily Current: Oh look the Supreme Court is horrifying
Now, Kennedy? Really? This about sums it up. “What is Justice Anthony Kennedy’s legacy? It might very well amount to dust. And it seems he’s fine with that.” Union no. On the bright side (where I’m always looking), Kennedy was already in the can for lo the many forces hell-bent on making life harder for […]
Daily Current: Area time warp may explain much
Schlepping Day. I, your beloved author of your beloved Daily Current, will be traveling today and for the rest of the week so the Daily Current may not present the full measure of comprehensive analysis and indispensable insight to which you have become accustomed. Deal. A star is born. In these, our troubled times, happy, […]
Joe Heck killed a zebra, on purpose
Over the last several months, more than once it may have crossed your mind that if there’s one person who may be happy he lost an election, it’s former Nevada Republican congressman Joe Heck. Heck, you may remember, lost the U.S. Senate race to Catherine Cortez Masto in 2016. A month before the election, and […]
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 […]