* The scuttlebutt in Carson City is that Democrats are slow-walking bills this session, hoping to force Gov. Lombardo to veto the worst of the worst bills AFTER the session ends. That would mean veto override votes wouldn’t take place until the start of the 2025 session when D’s believe they’ll have a veto-proof majority in both houses of the Legislature.
* It’s hardball, but makes sense from their point of view. They already have a veto-proof majority in the Assembly and are just one seat away from a super-majority in the Senate. And in 2024, Republicans have three Senate seats in play.
* Sen. Heidi Gansert is now in a huge D seat thanks to redistricting. She’s probably the only Republican who can hold it, but it’s still gonna be tough.
* Sen. Carrie Buck has shot herself in the foot politically so often and so badly – especially her ill-advised and failed bid to be the Clark County GOP chair two years ago - that an expensive primary is all but assured in a Democrat-majority district.
* And Sen. Scott Hammond will be termed-out next year, leaving his “swing” seat open without the benefit of incumbency. Assemblyman Richard McArthur is expected to run for the seat, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll get a free pass in the primary.
* Meanwhile, the D’s have only two seats that could be considered even marginally in play: Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro and Sen. Dallas Harris. Both represent strong Democrat districts.
* So, for Republicans to protect vetoes by Gov. Lombardo in 2025, the GOP’s best – maybe only hope – is to win two Assembly seats to get themselves out of the super-minority. The opportunities are there, but Republicans are gonna have to find some strong candidates who run near-flawless campaigns.
* A heavy, but not impossible, lift.
* LVRJ columnist Victor Joecks writes that Senate Bill 155, sponsored by Democrat Sen. James Ohrenschall, “would lead to tent cities” like what we see in dysfunctional California cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles.
* If passed, Joecks warns, “The homeless would have free rein to take over parks. They would continue to spread out in drainage tunnels and on vacant lots. It would even be harder to keep the homeless from sleeping on sidewalks.”
* If you want to know what REALLY should be done to fix the homeless situation in Nevada, check out this eye-opening column by Dave Marlon: click here
* Walmart announced this week that “it expects about 65% of its stores to be serviced by automation by the end of its fiscal year 2026, just days after revealing plans to lay off more than 2,000 people at facilities that fulfill online orders.”
* But, yeah, let’s keep jacking up the “minimum wage” and “paid time off,” right?
* This is what happens when the government sticks its nose into the private affairs of private companies. As Reagan so famously put it, the government isn’t the solution to our problems; it’s the cause of them.
* The “high-tech lynching” of conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas continues unabated.
* AOC - aka, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – has called for Thomas’ impeachment, claiming his “degree of corruption is shocking, almost cartoonish.” Which is rich coming from such a clownish figure herself.
* What did Justice Thomas do to invite such vitriol? Well, he went on vacations with his wife over the past 25 years as the guest of a close, longtime family friend without listing the trips on his financial disclosure reports. For shame!
* Except…
* According to the Associated Press, “food, lodging or entertainment received as ‘personal hospitality of any individual’ does not need to be reported if it is at the personal residence of that individual or their family.”
* AP further reports that while disclosure requirements for all federal judges were “beefed up” last month, Thomas’ trips occurred before the changes. In addition, “overnight stays at personal vacation homes owned by friends remain exempt from disclosure.”
* In a statement released today, Justice Thomas wrote…
“As friends do, we have joined them (the other couple) on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them. Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable.”
* In other words, Justice Thomas has done nothing wrong. He’s being targeted because he’s a conservative black man married to a conservative white woman who’s also a very high-profile conservative political activist.
* And I suspect AOC is mad that Justice Thomas doesn’t want to date her.
* Now, about Hunter Biden…
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Democrats want to disarm law-abiding citizens while letting criminals out of jail.” – Scott Adams
Mr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, publisher of Nevada News & Views and blogs at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.