{"id":26122,"date":"2020-02-17T07:56:49","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T15:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=26122"},"modified":"2020-10-16T07:09:10","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T15:09:10","slug":"culinary-defeats-itself-red-scare-in-a-blue-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/culinary-defeats-itself-red-scare-in-a-blue-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Culinary defeats itself; Red scare in a blue state"},"content":{"rendered":"

By failing to coalesce behind a rival candidate, the Culinary Union<\/strong> may have gift-wrapped Nevada<\/strong> for Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/strong> [I]. According to the Boston Globe<\/em>, which noted lingering tensions<\/a> between Sanders and the Culinary, a \"\"recent poll “found Sanders the clear front-runner in Nevada with 25 percent support to [Joe<\/strong>] Biden<\/strong>\u2019s 18 percent. [Elizabeth<\/strong>] Warren<\/strong> was in third with 13 percent, followed by [Tom<\/strong>] Steyer<\/strong> with 11 percent. [Pete<\/strong>] Buttigieg<\/strong> and [Amy<\/strong>] Klobuchar<\/strong>, who are only now putting in major resources into the state after focusing on Iowa<\/strong> and New Hampshire<\/strong>, each had 10 percent.” By contrast to its seemingly ineffectual blasts at Sanders, the Culinary’s decision to sit on its hands\u2014dictated by consigliere<\/em>\u00a0Harry Reid<\/strong>\u2014spells Silver State doom for Biden. Reported the Globe<\/em>, “Biden was introduced by US Representative Steven Horsford<\/strong> to a half-full union hall.” Ouch.<\/p>\n

Sanders’ not-so-secret weapon is the Latino community, where his numbers are especially strong. “The only negative ads on the air in the state are against Sanders, but they\u2019re funded by a pro-Israel<\/strong> group rather than a rival.” That “pro-Israel group” would almost certainly\u00a0be spelled “Sheldon Adelson<\/strong>.” The Democratic establishment\u2014including Gov. Steve Sisolak<\/strong>\u2014is playing it coy, clearly unwilling to bet on any potentially losing horses. All of which means that Sanders will best a fragmented field of rivals and gain momentum heading into make-or-break Super Tuesday. Better enjoy those Culinary health benefits while you still have them, guys.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0As though coronavirus weren’t creating enough of a Sino-scare, something calling itself the Committee on the Present Danger: China<\/strong> will be playing Vegas on Wednesday. The group’s\u00a02020 Policy Battlespace \"\"Threat Briefings<\/strong> have closely tracked the presidential primaries (next stop: South Carolina<\/strong>). The aim of these events is to expound “about the ominous ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party<\/strong> (CCP) and\u2014thanks in no small measure to\u00a0financing from U.S. investors<\/em>\u2014its growing capabilities to act on them.” (Emphasis in the original.) The committee<\/a>, whose mentors include Newt Gingrich<\/strong>, contends that “our next Commander-in-Chief will\u00a0have to<\/em>\u00a0contend with\u00a0and counter\u00a0<\/em>China\u2019s decades-long ‘unrestricted warfare.'”<\/p>\n

The Committee\u00a0trafficks in fear mongering<\/a> about Commie infiltration of American institutions like CalPERS<\/strong>. Speakers at the event, which will be live-streamed on Facebook<\/strong> from a Summerlin<\/strong> law office, include former assemblyman Jim Marchant<\/strong>, former acting assistant secretary of defense Frank Gaffney<\/strong> and\u00a0Tiananmen Square<\/strong> massacre survivor Dr. Sean Lin<\/strong>. We wonder if any casino execs will be surfing in. As someone who still calls the capital of China “Peking” and regards the country as “Red China,” I wonder if the committee isn’t preaching to the choir.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0That was quick. Blackstone Group<\/strong>‘s $4.6 billion purchase of MGM \"\"Grand<\/strong> and Bellagio<\/strong> has closed<\/a>, with Blackstone buying\u00a0approximately 4.9 million MGP Class A shares at $30.67\u00a0per share. MGM Resorts International<\/strong> could use such good news now.<\/p>\n

* Former drug mule Billy Hayes<\/strong>, of Midnight Express<\/em> infamy, is coming to Las Vegas<\/strong> to promote medicinal pot. He’ll be playing three engagements: Feb. 20 at the Sahara West Library<\/strong>, March 14 at Windmill Library<\/strong> and a third TBA. Be sure to cancel some appointments: Hayes’ show runs 190 minutes.<\/p>\n

* On a much-needed lighter note, online-dating applications are now taking their cues from slot machine design. Explains Casino.org<\/strong>, “Much like the lever-pull on slots when all bets are off as to which images will flash up on the screen, when you swipe left or right, it could be your \"\"\u2018special someone\u2019 that next pops up. You just don\u2019t know what\u2019s coming, and that\u2019s what makes it so addictive.” Couldn’t find your true love at the first swipe? Maybe the second swipe will hit the jackpot, and then the third and so on … feeding our dopamine addictions. There are even slot-like sound effects to keep you playing, er, dating. They also gratify one’s impatience at finding Mr. or Ms. Right. As mental health counselor C.J. Everhart<\/strong> puts it,\u00a0\u201cThis isn\u2019t just about wanting to meet someone and feeling stuck\u00a0using these apps to do so, this is about having developed a need, almost a compulsion to be on the apps.\u201d Sounds familiar, all right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By failing to coalesce behind a rival candidate, the Culinary Union may have gift-wrapped Nevada for Sen. Bernie Sanders [I]. According to the Boston Globe, which noted lingering tensions between Sanders and the Culinary, a recent poll “found Sanders the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[275,151,26,52,224,245,207,33,12,8,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28303,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26122\/revisions\/28303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}