"Not even 48 hours after word got out a 43-foot-tall nude effigy of Donald Trump hung suspended from a construction crane, the indecent artwork was gone."

"But for most of Saturday and Sunday, a mile or two off Interstate 15, a few hundred yards from the always-bustling Love’s Travel Stop just north of Sin City, the statue had people stopping and staring.... [T]he statue was what some would call 'anatomically correct,' displaying the unknown artist’s concept of the very public billionaire’s private parts.... Alex Lannin, a 53-year-old special-education teacher in Las Vegas, brought Spirit Airlines flight attendant Honey Hunter, 27, of Spokane, Wash., to view the piece. 'I would say [it’s] very creative, like a piece of artwork, you know,' Hunter said.... Real-estate professional Clem Zeroli, 25, brought his girlfriend Tommi Alexander, 24, to pose together for a selfie at the site.... 'It’s not very respectful,” Zeroli said, “but I think it’s kind of funny. Any publicity is good publicity.'"

From "Pop-up exhibit? 43-foot naked Nevada Trump effigy vanishes after roadside ruckus" (NY Post).

We've been through this before.

I blogged naked Donald Trump effigies on August 19, 2016. There were 5, simultaneously, in 5 difference cities. I said: "The brutality is already there in politics, so we should have the words and pictures to express it. Here's Frank Zappa saying that on 'Crossfire' in 1986.... '[Brutality] is already in politics....'"

And on October 18, 2016, I had "Gender equality: Naked statue division": "In August, we saw the naked Trump statue set up in Union Square in NYC, and today we get the naked Hillary statue at the Bowling Green subway entrance in downtown Manhattan."

What goes around comes around as they say, and I'm not encouraging the creation of retaliatory naked statuary. I'll just quote Bob Dylan again: "Even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked."

"Park officials can’t patch up the fallen rocks and perch them back on their original site. Once people intervene..."

"... the attraction is no longer a product made by Mother Nature. 'If you restore it, then it becomes anthropogenic. It is art rather than something natural,' said Elizabeth Cottrell, a geologist at Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. 'That doesn’t invoke the same wonder and awe of nature.'"

From "Lake Mead visitors caught on video destroying ancient rock formations/National Park Service rangers are looking for information on two male suspects in the vandalism incident" (WaPo).

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Looming and dooming.

I'm reading "How Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Could Doom Joe Biden/The independent candidate looms as a serious drag on Biden’s Latino support in Arizona and Nevada" by Adrian Carrasquillo in Politico.

Kennedy’s popularity appears to be a function of name recognition and a general lack of enthusiasm for President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, not to mention voters brushing their views onto the somewhat empty canvas of his candidacy.

As if RFK Jr. is mainly an empty space and Biden and Trump are just guys people are blasé about. Sorry. That's just a random/filler sentence. The article is full of specific material Latinos in Arizona and Nevada. Those are important swing states and in both the Latino population is about 30%.

So... another excerpt:

"The fact that a 'none of the above' option could overpower any enthusiasm from the supporters of Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, is another blow..."

"... to her slim chances of winning the nomination over Mr. Trump, who maintains a commanding lead in polls. It also blunts any effort of hers to demonstrate momentum or score at least a symbolic victory. Mark Reynolds, 56, had planned to vote for Mr. Trump in Thursday’s caucuses. But he stopped by a polling place briefly on Tuesday morning to cast a vote for 'None of These Candidates.' 'It’s just to send a message,' Mr. Reynolds said, noting that the primary itself was a 'waste of time.'"

From "Haley Outvoted in Nevada Primary by ‘None of These Candidates,’ Without Trump on the Ballot/Ms. Haley ran essentially unopposed in the primary, which awards no delegates. The former president will compete in Thursday’s caucuses" (NYT).

1. Even writing this post feels like a waste of time.

2. Nevada has an idiotic system. I resent even having to put effort into understanding it. 

3. "Slim chances"... give me a break.

4. Why is it surprising that "none of the above" did well? I think "none of the above" is just about everybody's preference in any election. But, of course, here, "None of These Candidates" was literally on the ballot, and everyone understood that "None of These Candidates" meant Trump.

5. Elsewhere, people are trying to get "Trump" off all of the ballots. If they succeed, watch for the raging response from the "none of the above" supporters.

"Why Trump isn’t on the GOP primary ballot in Nevada."

The Nevada Sun has a hard-to-read explanation, but I'm linking to it because what I saw elsewhere was even harder to read. I'd like a straightforward, clear account of what the hell happened.

Control of the Senate will not depend on the Georgia runoff.

The Nevada race has gone to the Democrat.

That's a relief. It's good to be emerging from this period of uncertainty about the balance of power.

If the Republican had won in Nevada, we'd have a repeat of 2020, spending weeks obsessed with Georgia, dependent on Georgia.

I see that Georgia has moved up the date of the runoff election, so it is the first week of December now. After the 2020 election, the runoff was in January. That's better, but it's also much better to not have control of the Senate depend on a runoff in one state.

The Democrats are massively constrained after the 2022 election, if, as it seems, Republicans do take control of the House. It's unlikely that there will be another Supreme Court opening before 2024, and if there is, the Supreme Court will only be put into more of a balance — 5-4 instead of 6-3.

"Nearly everything about Michael Heizer’s land art megasculpture called 'City' can seem hard to fathom."

"That it’s a mile and a half long and nearly half a mile wide, smack in the middle of a remote stretch of the high Nevada desert, where what passes for a neighbor is Area 51. That the nearest blacktop is an hour’s drive away, on a dusty, bumpy, former livestock trail, across a couple of mountain ranges. That it cost $40 million to build. Even that it’s called 'City.' It’s a city in name only. Exquisitely groomed dirt mounds, roads, buttes and depressions like dry lake beds spread out in no immediately obvious order and in different directions.... It’s meant to be trekked and explored on foot, slowly, at eye level, where the site swallows you up.... There are moments I’ve resented trudging from one end of the site to the other, through the dirt and the heat or cold, waiting for an epiphany.... It is bravado, awesome and nuts...."

From "It Was a Mystery in the Desert for 50 Years/In a remote Nevada valley, the artist Michael Heizer’s astonishing megasculpture is finally revealed" by Michael Kimmelman (NYT).

"New human remains were found at Lake Mead in Nevada over the weekend, days after a decomposed body was found in a metal barrel at the lake's shrinking shoreline...."

"The discovery comes nearly a week after remains were found in a barrel at Lake Mead on May 1, exposed by receding water levels. That victim was believed to have been killed between the mid-1970s and the early 1980s based on clothing and footwear the victim was found with, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said....."

NBC reports.

The shrinking water exposes decades-old murders, and the date is estimated based on a police assessment of whatever was left of the fashion. Was the skeleton wearing platform shoes?

"With pageantry, people think it is only about beauty. But it’s how you present yourself, what you advocate for, what you’ve done and the goals you have...."

"I worked with Pride Tree, talking to kids and supporting them and helping them build a wardrobe because sometimes they don’t have access to clothes than express their gender identity.... I told the judges that as a transgender woman of color and a survivor of physical and sexual abuse, I am everything that is underrepresented in this country. Our voices matter. Those whose voices aren’t always heard deserve the chance to be heard.... It means a lot to represent Nevada.... We are an example for other states and we can create a place that is less hateful for all."

Said Kataluna Enriquez, quoted in "First transgender Miss Nevada USA calls win ‘huge honor’" (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Nevada caucus results.

I'm not seeing anything worth linking to. The results just aren't in yet. Bernie is winning big, that's the projection. But how big? And how much panic will ensue? I'm avoiding the chatter on TV, and I have some pity on the talking heads tasked with keeping it up for hours on end. But here's my post, where you can chat all you like.

Kavanaugh is "a great intellect, a great gentleman, an impeccable reputation, went to Yale, top student, went to Yale Law School, top student, so we're going to let it play out, but I gotta tell you...."

"... he is a fine, fine person, so — and he's got tremendous support, I can tell you, just like Neil Gorsuch, who's now on the Supreme Court has tremendous support. So, we'll let it play out, and I think everything's going to be just fine. This is a high. quality. person."

Said Trump, last night in Las Vegas:



Here's the whole rally:



Trump was rallying for the incumbent Senator Dean Heller, who wouldn't even say he was voting for Trump right before the 2016 election. Last night, Trump said:

"I didn’t like him; he didn’t like me. And as we fought and fought and fought, believe it or not, we started to respect each other, we started to like each other, then we started to love each other. And the fact is, he has been a tremendous supporter ever since I won the election. He’s always been there. We can count on his vote. I mean Wacky Jacky will never vote for us, folks. She’s wacky."

"Wacky Jacky" = Jacky Rosen, the Democrat trying to unseat Heller. I have no idea what's supposed to be wacky about her, but "wacky" certainly does rhyme with Jacky, who has the nerve to oppose the stellar Heller feller.

By the way, if you laughed at "went to Yale, top student, went to Yale Law School, top student" because it seemed like idiotic repetition, it's not. Kavanaugh went to Yale as an undergraduate. Trump is ticking off stages in Kavanaugh's fine, fine career. So put aside that Kavanaugh man of straw.

"Nevada could become the first state to allow users of recreational marijuana to light up in clubs and lounges..."

"... a state legal body said this week, opening a new front in what is already a booming pot business," The Hill reports.

None of the four other states where marijuana is legal for recreational use — Washington, Colorado, Alaska and Oregon — currently allow so-called pot lounges. All four states restrict marijuana use to private residences. 

That doesn't work too well in a tourist destination. And you can't have the tourists smoking pot in hotel rooms and Airbnbs.

The Nevada legislator who spearheaded much of the legalization movement, state Sen. Tick Segerblom (D), has said... “We’re going to really market this thing around the world”...

Don't worry it's a nickname. His parents didn't name him Tick.

Remember our "tick flick"?



That was back in '09.

By the way, marijuana might help with Lyme disease.

"Buoyed by the support of enthusiastic workers in the city’s big casinos, Hillary Clinton defeated Senator Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday..."

"... thwarting his momentum and proving to an anxious Democratic Party that she maintains strong support among minority voters that she can carry to a general election," the NYT reports.

At a caucus at the famed Caesar’s Palace, blackjack dealers, pit bosses, cooks and housekeepers excitedly declared their support for the former secretary of state. “She’ll change immigration. She’ll change the economy. She’ll change todo!” said Dora Gonzalez, 54, a casino porter at the Bellagio, using the Spanish word for everything.

“And she’s a mujer!” added her friend Elba Pinera, 51, and originally from Honduras, using the Spanish word for woman....

And Mrs. Clinton, who is typically a reserved presence on the trail, seemed to embrace the quirkiness of campaigning in Las Vegas... even receiving the endorsement of 500 sex workers, mostly from Carson City brothels, who formed the “Hookers 4 Hillary” group.

A mujer's gotta do what a mujer's gotta do.

In the Valley of Fire Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

On the Valley of Fire Highway...

... you can go wherever you want.

In the Valley of Fire.

Up there, a man kowtows to a woman.

Nevada landscape.

All pictures taken yesterday, outside of Las Vegas, on the way to the Valley of Fire. The Valley of Fire is more dramatic than these roadside pics, and I'm saving them for later. I'm in Las Vegas for family reasons, but I'm seeing a few things, including not just the scenic landscape but some Vegas-y shows. You might be interested to know that I saw Murray the Celebrity Magician and the impersonator Gordie Brown.

"The tens of thousands of people who both read my columns and listened to my radio shows through two decades in the media know this has been a carefully orchestrated attack..."

"... to remove a conservative Republican from a major leadership role in State government. The deliberate character assassination and the politics of personal destruction have totally distorted my views and record."

Said Lee Hansen, who'd said a lot, in print and on the radio over the past 2 decades. You can see "the tip of the iceberg" here.

Why should more than 10 people show up at a Sak 'n Save at in Reno to see Sandra Fluke?

Who is this woman? Why is she a celebrity? She's read a couple of speeches prominently, in Washington D.C., where she was selected for that role by — which Democratic bigwigs? Why?! And Rush Limbaugh made fun of her elevation into the spotlight. He did it in a crude way that boosted her name recognition. That seems to be the closest thing to something that she did to achieve prominence, and I imagine that in her own mind, surrounded by those who chose her and elevated her, she may think she is an eminent person capable of drawing crowds. What a splash of cold reality to find yourself deposited — by your promoters — at a grocery store in Reno where nobody cares.

"Romney holds large lead in Nevada."

"With 9% of the results in, Romney had about 45% of the vote while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas were tied far behind with 22% each. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who had largely bypassed the state, had 11% of the vote. Those numbers were gathered from vote counters at caucus sites across the state."