United States of Adelson

One of the more unwittingly ironic Adelson-backed ads claims that Joe Biden, 77, is too old to run the country. That’s pretty rich coming from Sheldon, a veritable Methusaleh at 87. Other Adelson-backed PAC ads sport his characteristic bitterness, including some racist dog whistles, like “Jobs vs. Mobs” (whites against blacks) or one in which two clueless suburban housewives ask, “What do you know about Jaime Harrison?” (“He’s black” is the subtext. Can’t trust those negroes.) Actually this is pretty mild coming from a man who once called for genocide against Iran. In addition to Trump, Adelson is spending large on behalf of senatorial shill Lindsey Graham (R), Sheldon’s one reliable puppet against Internet gambling. (Uh, that horse has left the barn, Shel.) Other Adelson-backed PACs are the Senate Leadership Fund ($50 million) and the House Leadership Fund ($40 million), as well as various dark-money groups. Adelson’s $250 million election putsch, er, push dwarfs even that of Michael Bloomberg ($107 million). We never thought we’d live to see the day when Sheldon Adelson was making common cause with neo-Nazis but this election cycle has taken us irretrievably through the looking glass.

Adelson’s local archnemesis, meanwhile, the Culinary Union, is pulling out all the stops for Biden after infamously sitting on the fence during the Nevada primary. (Bernie Sanders cleaned up.) The Culinary has been deploying 400 door-to-door activists since Aug. 1. Now that’s what we call “retail politics.” When the Culinary masses its troops, “Everyone has their temperature taken before they enter, and no one has to be asked to wear a mask.” Good on them. And if there’s one unifying issue, it’s Coronavirus. Flamingo cocktail server Aretha Wilder says of her aunt, “She was on a ventilator for three weeks. She’s paralyzed on her left side, so it’s personal to me. This election is personal to me.” The union says it has knocked on 450,000 doors so far and it won’t let up canvassing, not even on Election Day. Culinary Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Argüello-Kline says it’s a high stakes gambit: “Donald Trump is a threat to the livelihoods of workers and our families.” Can the Culinary keep Nevada ‘blue’? After its primary-election stumble it has a lot to prove.

Casinos owned by Caesars Entertainment seem to have picked up on the Trump administration’s “Covid? Who cares?” mantra. One of our reliable sources reports that Caesars Atlantic City, Harrah’s Resort and the Tropicana all now eschew thermal checks of incoming guests. For the record, “Golden Nugget has checkpoints at the entrance from the self-park garage, from the building across the street where Chart House is located, and the main front entrance. Ocean [Casino Resort] has checkpoints at the Boardwalk entrance, the entrance to the hotel on the 11th floor and the two entrances to the casinos from the self-park garage.” Resorts Atlantic City has them at its two main entrances, Hard Rock Atlantic City at the main entry, the Boardwalk one and at the self-park garage, while Borgata deploys temperature scanners at the main entrance, the Water Club one and (again) the self-parking garage. Shame on Caesars for this dereliction of duty and kudos to everyone else.