{"id":27473,"date":"2020-07-06T07:51:38","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T15:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=27473"},"modified":"2020-07-09T07:10:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T15:10:37","slug":"atlantic-city-protest-fizzles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/atlantic-city-protest-fizzles\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic City protest fizzles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Well, that could have been a lot worse. The scheduled fireworks show<\/a> at Mount Rushmore<\/strong> didn’t set off a forest fire and Boardwalk activist<\/s> anarchist Steve Young<\/strong> failed in his goal<\/a> to “shut down the city.” What did he accomplish was to land in the pokey, while his protest drew what was reported to be “a crowd of dozens.” For better or worse, people don’t think ‘hot spot of racial injustice’ when they consider Atlantic City<\/strong>, which may explain why Young’s attempt at stirring outrage foundered. It probably didn’t help the protest that Young himself showed up a half-hour late. Reported The Press of Atlantic City<\/em>, “Two vocal supporters of President Donald Trump<\/strong> made up the bulk of the counterprotest.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Lives Matter<\/strong> protester Denise Walker<\/strong>, in Young’s absence, showed how it’s done by leading the throng in an 8-minute, 46-second kneel-down in memory of George Floyd<\/strong>. Young, once he could be bothered to show, used his bullhorn to call for (among other things) better pay from the casinos for their African-American employees. Aforesaid casinos were counting on the holiday weekend to jump-start business and had to be relieved that Young’s rally flagged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Even more of a relief, the threat of a 300-thug motorcycle-gang incursion was a complete no-show. Patrick Jeanty Jr<\/strong>., a BLM regular, was ambivalent about the protest, telling the newspaper, \u201cShutting the city down can mean different things depending on the context. But Steve Young has a history of saying something at inappropriate times.\u201d Had Young succeeded, added County Executive Dennis Levinson<\/strong>, the economic hit would have fallen upon those who could least afford it. Really. What’s to be gained by putting an economic hurt on a casino industry when the front-line workers are always the ones to feel the hurt?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of the casinos, they reopened in ‘dry’ fashion: without beverage service. Really, Gov. Phil Murphy<\/strong> (D), how is one to gamble properly without getting sloshed? Worse still, for smokers, they had to go cold turkey (we foresee a run on nicotine patches in Atlantic County<\/strong>). Mincing few words, Murphy added, \u201cUnfortunately, the national [pandemic] scene compounded by instances of knucklehead behavior here at home are requiring us to hit pause on the re-start of indoor dining for the foreseeable future.\u201d\u00a0He added that he felt “comfortable” in his split-the-baby measures<\/a> for casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hard Rock Atlantic City<\/strong> President Joe Lupo<\/strong> pronounced himself “disappointed” with Murphy’s strictures while Borgata<\/strong> simply canceled its reopening altogether. Although the governor’s orders fell hardest on food and beverage servers, Murphy found an unlikely ally in Unite-Here<\/strong> President Robert McDevitt<\/strong>, who said \u201cI really don\u2019t even think [they] should open. Why would they? This is like Catholic school: A handful of people misbehave, and the entire class gets punished.” The gubernatorial cutbacks meant that 70% of McDevitt’s constituents were idled, instead of the expected 40%. Speaking for the rank and file, Hard Rock International<\/strong> CEO Jim Allen<\/strong> countered, \u201cPeople are really desperate for a job and a paycheck,\u201d Phil Murphy, Bob McDevitt and Steve Young be damned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As though Station Casinos<\/strong> wasn’t already in a world of hurt itself, company President Richard J. Haskins<\/strong> was killed in a boating accident<\/a> on Independence Day, while taking it easy in Michigan<\/strong>. CEO Frank Fertitta III<\/strong> called Haskins “a trusted advisor, a brilliant strategist, a steady hand in good times and in bad and most important \u2013 a friend to all. It is very hard to imagine Station Casinos being the Company it is today without Rich.\u00a0He will be sorely missed by all who knew him.” We are saddened by the news and our thoughts are with the Haskins family in this time of sorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jottings<\/em><\/strong>: Trying to get a fetlock up on the competition, Plainridge Park<\/strong> in Massachusetts<\/strong> is reopening July 8<\/a>, ahead of Encore Boston Harbor<\/strong> (July 12) and MGM Springfield<\/strong> (July 13). Given that MGM and Encore will be unable to offer poker, craps and roulette, slots-only Plainridge suddenly has a near-level playing field … As Coronavirus<\/strong> spirals into the stratosphere in Florida<\/strong>, casinos in the Miami<\/strong> area (except for tribal ones, who are at their own devices) have been ordered to close … PointsBet<\/strong> is the newest sponsor (and sports-betting partner) of the Detroit Tigers<\/strong> … M Resort<\/strong>‘s William Hill<\/strong> sports book was closed last Friday after an employee tested positive for Covid-19<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, that could have been a lot worse. The scheduled fireworks show at Mount Rushmore didn’t set off a forest fire and Boardwalk activist anarchist Steve Young failed in his goal to “shut down the city.” What did he accomplish … 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":[23,36,165,283,63,112,245,69,243,57,196,252,233],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27473"}],"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=27473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27474,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27473\/revisions\/27474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}