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Might Makes Right

Opinion

Donald Trump and Republicans have proven – yet again — that they can bludgeon the (air) safety and (food) security and (financial) stability of the American people and win. That’s right – win.

Thanks to eight Democrats in the U.S. Senate, Republicans today can celebrate that they rolled the Democrats who won bigly in this past Tuesday’s elections. Republicans were being blamed by the American people for the federal shutdown, since they control every lever of the federal government.

Senator Jacky Rosen, who had voted against ending the shutdown all along, joined fellow Senator Catherine Cortez Masto who didn’t vote for the shutdown once. Eight Democrats were required to cross over to the other side — Nevada provided 25% of those votes. Nevada and New Hampshire are the only states whose Democratic Senators, all women, had both to vote to throw in the towel and give the Republicans the win. These are two of the smallest states in the country and together they provided 50% of the votes needed for the great cave.

What did the Democrats get? A promise to have a vote in the Senate (only) on extending tax subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, which will fail because the Republicans will vote against that. So, those who now can’t afford the huge premium increases in the ACA will presumably do without health insurance. (There were some other concessions Republicans made about ensuring government workers get back pay and would not be furloughed).

The Republicans in the House and Senate have voted more than 40 times to kill the Affordable Care Act since Democrats pushed this through under the leadership of Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi more than 10 years ago — saving countless lives of Americans who could afford health care for the first time. Republicans could not win that vote to end it — but they did win de-funding much of it this year and eventually drowning it in the bathtub.

I have no doubt that Cortez Masto and Rosen were under enormous pressure from the Tourism Industrial Complex in Nevada who are being impacted by the air travel snarling orchestrated by Trump’s Transportation Department, thereby depressing visitors to Las Vegas and Reno. That affects jobs for Nevadans. There is the matter of air safety to consider — would you feel safe flying today with this mess in the sky created by Republicans? And food insecurity is a real issue. I’m sure neither could bear that children in Nevada were going hungry despite the best efforts — including our club’s — in stepping in to support food banks which has volunteers who work very hard feeding the vulnerable. The Republicans came off downright ghoulish fighting in the courts to stop SNAP benefits from being distributed.

So what do you think? There is a comments section below. Did Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto do the right thing in voting to open the government without winning any health care concessions for the millions of people who will now go without health insurance? Was it time to give up the fight? Was the pain worth it? How do you think Democrats look today — like the adults in the room?

If you have an opinion, I welcome you to express it here on our website blog. (click on “leave a comment” on the left). We also have a Facebook where you can comment.

The Great Gatsby Presidency

You know the premise of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, right?

Gatsby is relentless in his pursuit of wealth. He throws lavish parties and amasses a fortune through illicit business dealings. He loves Daisy and gets caught up in a love triangle which leads to tragedy. Eventually the destructiveness of Gatsby’s obsession is exposed along with the moral emptiness of the wealthy elite. The story takes place in the Roaring 20’s before the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

Which leads us to the Halloween Great Gatsby themed party at Maralago on Friday night, on the eve of 42 million Americans losing their food benefits, during the fourth week of a federal government shutdown.

If ever there was a decadent “let them eat cake” moment from the Presidency of Donald Trump — this was it.

My description can’t do it justice — but Sam Stein at the Bulwark can. Here is the video whereby he describes The Great Gatsby party.

Using Food As A Weapon

Opinion

Hunger is not a crime. A person who is unemployed, down on his luck, homeless, elderly, disabled or ill, a child, or any circumstance whereby one needs a government subsidy to stave off hunger — that person is not a criminal.

Food should not be a reward or punishment in the wealthiest nation on earth.

Earlier this year the (supposed) richest man on earth gleefully cut our government’s food distribution to the poorest people on the planet through USAID. He wielded a bejeweled chain saw onstage to celebrate, ignoring that he had no mandate from the people or authorization from Congress to do that.

This week we’ve been treated to the spectacle of gilded gifts, including an ACTUAL GOLD CROWN being bestowed on our wannabee monarch who is on an Asian tour. This is the fourth week of a federal government shutdown which is hurting all Americans, but mostly government workers and agencies which rely on a functioning government, which has stopped functioning. On purpose.

Food subsidies (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP) get cut off tomorrow, Saturday, November 1. Food is now a weapon in the hands of the sociopaths atop our government.

Here is what we must do. Support our food banks. N.O.W. They are more reliant on donors than ever before. One food bank manager said she senses panic setting in, much like we experienced during COVID, but she calmly stated that we cannot panic. No, we cannot. We can take action instead.

Food banks cannot fully step into the breach of the impact of SNAP benefits being cut, but they can help — if we help them.

Mesquite to Moapa Democrats are collecting checks for the Virgin Valley Food Bank, Parade of Lights Corporation (Salvation Army in Mesquite) and the Cappalappa Family Resource Center in Moapa Valley.

If you prefer bringing food or personal items, they are requesting canned tuna, chicken, soups, Progresso soup, beans, fruit, pasta sauce, spaghetti, mac and cheese, Hamburger Helper, peanut butter, jam, cereal or toothpaste, soap, laundry detergent, shampoo, toilet paper, tissue, paper towels, diapers, baby wipes, feminine hygiene, disposable razors and hand sanitizers.

You can drop off to The Meeting Spot, 312 West Mesquite Boulevard, Suite 103 (next to the Virgin Valley Food Bank, facing 1st Street South) on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday from 10 a.m. until noon during Democrats business hours. If you need a special drop off time, call or text 702-715-8403 and one of our volunteers will meet you there.

We can’t let them beat us at this cruel game. This is an emergency. We are asking you to help in whatever way you can to feed those who need us.

Thank you.

Legal Update – This afternoon a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to continue paying food stamps to the 42 million Americans who rely on them to purchase groceries. Another federal judge is weighing in on a different complaint on Monday. The courts may come through, there may be appeals which hold up distribution, the government may refuse to comply — we have an array of unknowns. For now, let’s take action steps and help our neighbors.

Horsford: Pausing SNAP Despite Emergency Fund is a Choice

This is a press release issued on October 30, 2025

Lawmaker Urges Administration to Protect SNAP Recipients Immediately

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-04) today sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins urging her to use the $6 billion contingency fund for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) before benefits end on November 1st for more than 42 million vulnerable Americans.

“As we enter the holiday season, House Republicans are on their fifth week of a taxpayer-funded vacation and America’s largest food assistance program is about to shut down,” Rep. Horsford said. “Congress created the contingency fund to prevent this exact crisis – the administration’s ongoing refusal to use it contradicts Congressional intent and worsens food insecurity for half-a-million Nevadans who depend on SNAP. The politics of incompetence and cruelty must end. When Trump and Republicans control all branches of government, this isn’t merely an unfortunate series of events – this is their plan.”

Congress created the SNAP contingency fund to ensure operations could continue during lapses in appropriations. Both the Government Accountability Office and prior shutdown contingency plans – including one issued during President Trump’s previous administration – affirm that these funds are legally available to pay benefits during a lapse in appropriations.

Key letter excerpt:

A lapse in benefits would harm one in eight Americans – and in my home state of Nevada, one in six. Such a failure would not only endanger already hungry households but would also send shockwaves through entire communities. Yet, despite having both the clear statutory authority and the available funding to provide relief, your Department has chosen to withhold these critical benefits at the direction of President Trump. I am deeply concerned by your refusal to release the funds necessary to sustain SNAP beginning November 1, 2025.

The threat to SNAP comes as the program is already experiencing deep cuts as a result of the Republican’s “Big Beautiful” bill in July. Approximately 4 million people in a typical month will lose some or all of their SNAP food benefits once the GOP’s changes are fully implemented, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

On October 24th, Rep. Horsford led a letter to Governor Lombardo signed by his fellow Nevada Congressional Democrats, Reps. Titus (NV-01) and Lee (NV-03), urging he do everything within his power, including calling for a Special Session of the Legislature, to protect SNAP recipients.

Nevada’s Attorney General, Aaron Ford, has also pushed to protect SNAP recipients in the Silver State. Earlier this week, he joined 25 other Attorneys General in a lawsuit to force the Trump administration to use SNAP’s emergency fund.

Full text of Rep. Horsford’s letter to Secretary Rollins is available here.

Podcasts Are Better Than TV

OPINION

If you haven’t spent time exploring the expanding world of podcasts, I suggest you do so. You can get the news in real time, or close to it, with smart analysis from trustworthy sources.

I have mostly turned off TV news. I catch a few favorite shows periodically, but I turn to YouTube with an array of choices to fit my time and mood. I am amazed at how dedicated these podcasters are to bringing truth to their audiences in light of how little they are paid compared to what they could (and did) command in mainstream media. The shows are different and reflect the personalities of the hosts who can be quite creative.

Who are my go-to’s? Well, it depends. I love what Don Lemon is doing. He is unleashed and spent last weekend trekking around Chicago and bringing the conflict between ICE, police and protesters to the viewer in real time. It was fascinating. You didn’t see any of this on legacy media. Each day, he does a live broadcast at 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. Pacific Time. Lemon is a pro who built up his credentials on CNN for years.

I also love watching Jim Acosta, another trusted CNN alum. He spends time on long form interviews and he can now express his opinion without media overlords. Acosta covered the first Trump administration and his perspective is priceless.

If you have time to listen to one person each day, make that Heather Cox Richardson. She is a renown historian who puts what is happening into historical context. Richardson broadcasts nearly every day.

I am hooked on former Republican political operatives and opinion writers who are Never Trumpers. These include Tim Miller, Sarah Longwell, Jonathan V. Last, Bill Kristol, and Mona Charen at The Bulwark as well as Rick Wilson and Stuart Stevens at The Lincoln Project. These are the ones who bucked their party, ended friendships and have firmly stood on the side of preserving Democracy. They have a moral compass.

The biggest of them all is MeidasTouch. Founded by three brothers during COVID, led by attorney Ben Meiselas, this format is hard hitting opinion and news updates. New material is dropped all day and night long. Occasionally they will go live for important news. This is the only “liberal” podcast that breaks the top ten in viewers on YouTube. I check in every day.

Other notable mentions that I peruse regularly include Pod Save America, with former Obama staffers, Harry Litman for legal analysis, media mainstays Charlie Sykes and Steve Schmidt, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway to find out what the Silicon Valley oligarchs are up to, and I really enjoy Keith Edwards for quick updates and Trae Crowder for humor. There are others, which I will list below. You will figure out what appeals to you once you view their content.

How best to watch? I subscribe to YouTube. I pay a monthly fee because I detest commercials and am willing to fork over cash to eliminate them. There are commercials embedded into many podcasts because they’ve got to pay their bills. Simply hit “subscribe” and you will get a menu of those you follow. A blue dot will appear when there is new content. A red dot indicates that the podcast is live. You can upvote and comment, follow comments of other viewers and otherwise engage.

You can also follow podcasts on Substack, Spotify, Apple and other platforms but I find YouTube to be the easiest to access.

Here is my tip — check in on these podcast during No Kings weekend. You will get more information than you will find on regular TV.

These are the podcasts that are in my “subscriber” menu. I’m sure you will find others and I welcome you to share them with me. The podcast landscape is fluid and my hat is off to everyone who works hard to bring us news and commentary in this evolving format.

MeidasTouch

The Bulwark

Heather Cox Richardson

Pod Save America

The Lincoln Project

Don Lemon

Jim Acosta

Keith Edwards

Talking Feds with Harry Litman

Lincoln Square

Democracy Docket

The Warning with Steve Schmidt

Rick Wilson’s Against All Enemies

The Mark Thompson Show

Legal AF

To The Contrary with Charlie Sykes

The Contrarian

Terry Moran

Simon Rosenberg

Thom Hartman

Al Franken

Politicon

Democracy Now!

Secular Talk

Katie Phang

The Ezra Klein Show

Christine Amanpour Presents: The Ex-Files

Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway

The Joy Reid Show

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams

Keith Olberman

Fast Politics with Molly Jang-Fast

Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara

Trae Crowder

The Enemy from Within

Katie Couric

This Is Gavin Newsome

Aaron Ford Discusses Strengthening Schools, Making Nevada More Affordable in Rural Mesquite

Horsford: Republicans Shut Down the Government They’re Supposed to be Running

THIS IS A PRESS RELEASE FROM CONGRESSMAN STEVEN HORSFORD

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steven Horsford (NV-04) released the following statement as Congressional Republicans failed to fund the federal government despite having unified control of the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the White House.

This marks the first government shutdown since 2018, when Republican majorities in the House and Senate shuttered federal agencies for 34 days during Donald Trump’s first term as president, costing the U.S. economy $8 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“Republicans were elected to run our government – instead, they just ran it into the ground,” Rep. Horsford said. “Federal services have stopped; federal employees aren’t being paid; and yet another opportunity to protect healthcare for millions of Americans was completely ignored.

“Nevadans pay their taxes and deserve to get their money’s worth, regardless of which party is in charge,” Horsford continued. “But blanket tariffs, healthcare cuts, and tax hikes were already taking a heavy toll on our state, before this shutdown. My constituents are right to question how any of these policies help them, or how a government shutdown is in anyone’s best interest.

“The concerning truth is this administration and its allies in Congress seem to want this shutdown,” Horsford added. “The same president who fired tens of thousands of federal employees just shuttered the federal government entirely. And the same Congressional Republicans who passed a law cutting healthcare for millions of Americans just cancelled votes rather than working with Democrats to keep more Americans insured.

“The last time there was a government shutdown was in 2018 when Donald Trump was in the White House and Republicans controlled the House and the Senate,” Horsford said. “Seven years later, we are in another government shutdown with Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of the House and Senate. The pattern is clear.

“My constituents deserve better. Their constituents deserve better. Federal employees deserve better. And our country deserves better.”

Rep. Horsford launched a site page on his website for constituents to receive timely updates on how the government shutdown is impacting them.

More information is available here.

Death Be Not Proud!

The following is an essay from a 1980 issue of OMNI magazine written by the great science fiction author and editor, Ben Bova. I believe it is even more relevant today than it was 45 years ago.

It was only a small item, down in the corner of a page of the Sunday New York Times:

“… smallpox has been eradicated.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced that smallpox has been wiped out everywhere on Earth. One of the great killer diseases has itself been killed. No more need for smallpox vaccinations. No more need for international travelers to carry the yellow cards that prove they are not bearers of the dreaded disease as they cross national borders.

The rest of the news that same day was filled with the usual passions: riots, threats of war, terrorism, starvation, population problems in India and Latin America, inflation, unemployment, strikes… on and on and on.

Americans were in the streets, marching in memory of those who were killed in military service. It was Veterans Day, when we honor our dead and remember the wars we have fought.

Iranians were in the streets, too, in Tehran, where they held more than 60 American citizens hostage in the U.S. Embassy and were demanding the return of their deposed shah so that he could face the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s version of justice.

No public celebrations greeted the news from WHO. No one cheered from any rooftop. Smallpox is a thing of the past. The scourge that has killed millions and scarred hundreds of millions will never again threaten any child or adult. Ho hum. That’s what scientists are supposed to do, right?

Well, yes, it is. But how often does the public stop to reflect that what scientists do is rather miraculous?

Perhaps I’m prejudiced. I started my writing career as a newspaper reporter back in the late 1940s. Every summer, in those days, newspapers carried a long, ugly running story about polio. It was like covering the baseball season. All summer long we ran box scores every day on the number of children who had died of polio, the number placed in iron lungs, the number crippled for life.

That’s life. What can you do about it?

Then one springtime we carried one single story. Lots of human interest. Plenty of wonderful photographs. Children were being inoculated with the Salk vaccine.

Good front-page stuff: a kid screaming bloody murder as a doctor jabbed a needle into his arm and his anxious mother smiled bravely in the background.

That was a dull summer, poliowise. And there has never been another summer when any newspaper in the land has had to carry a running account of polio’s ravages.

Now we’ve wiped out smallpox. We’ve eliminated another killer disease.

A curious doublethink takes place in most human minds on subjects such as this. Polio, smallpox, tuberculosis, for countless ages were regarded as inevitable natural disasters that humankind just had to bear, scourges sent by the gods to keep us in our place. Then science – the product of human thought – puts an end to these diseases, and people accept their absence as being in the natural order of things.

The same people who unthinkingly accept the gift of life from modern science, as if scientists are supposed to produce miracles the way chickens produce eggs, are quick to blame modern science for many of the problems that our society has not solved.

“No more nukes,” they chant, holding science (and scientists) responsible for Three Mile Island.

“No DNA experiments.” they shout, visions of horror movies dancing in their heads.

“No research on intelligence,” they demand, being told that such studies are done by “elitists.”

Such people form the shock troops for the armies of ignorance. In another place, or another time, they would be shouting. “Death to the Shah,” or “Down with Galileo,” or even “Sieg Heil!” Like Konrad Lorenz’s ducklings, they will follow whatever or whoever moves across their field of vision at the critical moment when they are ready for imprinting.

Unwittingly, they are destroying our one true hope for a better future: science, the most human activity that human beings engage in, the highest expression of rational human thought.

Yes, the work of scientists can lead to nuclear reactors or genetic engineering or computers that are smarter than we are. Scientific research and experimentation can also lead to the banishment of disease, hunger – and ignorance.

For, beyond all the controversy on the uses of scientific knowledge lies the fact that the ultimate goal of science was summed up beautifully by the English poet John Donne, nearly four centuries ago:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful; for thou art not so ….

And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die!

Congressional Black Caucus Statement on Charlie Kirk Resolution

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) and members of the Congressional Black Caucus issued the following statement:

“Violence has no place in our politics, whether it is the murder of Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman, the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, or the killing of Charlie Kirk. We must unequivocally reject violence in all its forms. Too many times in our nation’s history, political differences have turned to violence – violence that our community, in particular, knows too well from the assassinations of Black leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medger Evers, and Fred Hampton, among other“At the same time, we must condemn violence without abandoning our right to speak out against ideas that are inconsistent with our values as Americans. We strongly disagree with many of the beliefs Charlie Kirk promoted: including his belief that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended racial segregation, was a mistake; his denial that systemic racism exists; his promotion of the Great Replacement theory; and his offensive claims about Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Michelle Obama, and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee lacking adequate cognitive ability.

“The resolution introduced in the House to honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy is not about healing, lowering the temperature of our political discourse, or even ensuring the safety of members of Congress, staff, and Capitol personnel. It is, unfortunately, an attempt to legitimize Kirk’s worldview — a worldview that includes ideas many Americans find racist, harmful, and fundamentally un-American.

“In the wake of this tragedy, President Trump has senselessly threatened to go after the political left. The American people are tired of this kind of cynical politics. It’s disheartening to see a tragedy used to further divide the country and suppress honest debate. As the conscience of the Congress, the CBC has a responsibility to speak out against this on behalf of our communities, and we are calling on each of our colleagues who share our values to follow suit.

Enough is enough.”

The Crumbling Constitution – the First Amendment Goes Down in Flames

One by one, the opposition voices are being silenced – Stephen Colbert, Jerry Greenfield (of Ben and Jerry’s), and now Jimmy Kimmel. NPR and PBS have been defunded. Even the highly respected Voice of America is off the air. Just like the governments in Communist China, North Korea, Hungary, and Russia, the Trump administration is moving to seize control of all the media. Trump and his minions have learned from their dictator-mentors that if the government’s voice is the only one that people hear, then that government can control not only the narrative but the citizens as well.

Unfortunately, this tactic works. Witness Russia where there is still surprisingly strong support for Putin despite the harsh economic sanctions and the failing military campaign in Ukraine. It’s because the Russian people are being told continuously by the government media that they are actually winning the war and that the West will soon bend to their will and cancel the sanctions. Hearing no other voices in opposition, especially since Putin poisoned Navalny, the Russians accept it as the truth.

The day may be coming when no one in our country will be allowed to say anything negative about the administration or its supporters regardless of the First Amendment. Further, if the Trumpists continue to follow the autocratic playbook, the government may soon begin monitoring social media for dissension or force the social media companies, some of whom are already on Trump’s side, to filter and report anything that is not fully consistent with their far-right agenda. All of this raises one question. Are we now seeing the end of freedom of speech?

The First Amendment also protects freedom of the press. But when largely right-leaning multi-billionaires own all the stations on television and radio, will the broadcast media become just mirrors of Fox News? Disney/ABC and Paramount/CBS have already “bent the knee” in order to avoid Trump’s wrath. Honest journalism, which reached its peak with the likes of Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Dan Rather, and their contemporaries, seems to be completely dead. I wonder if the next season of “60 Minutes” will be filled with either irrelevant pablum or stories in praise of Trump. Likewise, newspapers and other news outlets, either willingly or under threats of lawsuits, may become simply repeaters of the government approved information, something like Pravda in the old USSR or today’s China Daily.

What about freedom of religion – also a part of the First Amendment? There is currently a strong movement by Christian Nationalists to claim that the United States was founded as a Christian-only country. But the Treaty of Tripoli, which was signed by President John Adams in 1797 (only six years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights), says the opposite. Article 11 of the treaty clearly states, “(T)he government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion…” Despite this, there are those who believe that the laws of our nation should be based solely on their particular religion’s interpretation of God’s wishes.

Finally, there are the remaining First Amendment rights – the rights to assemble peacefully and to petition the government for redress. Remember that Trump has been granted broad immunity by SCOTUS. So if peaceful anti-Trump protestors are beaten, arrested, or even shot, I won’t be surprised. Nevertheless, I intend to continue to be one of those protestors.

Is the United States of America doomed? I don’t know. But in all my 78 years, I have never seen such an effort to openly turn our country into a dictatorship. Even Nixon was eventually forced to face the consequences of his illegal activities. But when every day brings fresh assaults on our democracy, I fear for tomorrow.