There was quite a bit of passion in the 9 o'clock hour on MSNBC this morning, as Stephanie Ruhle hosted Las Vegas billionaire Steve Cloobeck and Nevada journalist Jon Ralston on her show. The "Reopen" protests have, unsurprisingly, hit Nevada, and there's a great deal of pressure to open up the Vegas Strip — primarily coming from wingnut Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman.
Cloobeck appeared ready to blow a gasket, and took the liberty to drop some profanity twice — just in case it didn't take the first time. Ralston was calmer in demeanor, but no less searing in his criticism of the mayor for going along with the right-wing, anti-science dogma that wraps itself in the "Pro-Life" sashes, but goes on TV begging the old people to just die already so the economy can get moving again.
Ruhle asked Cloobeck about the clash between Nevada's governor, a Democrat who has kept businesses closed, and the mayor of Las Vegas, who called the decision "total insanity."
RUHLE: What?
CLOOBECK: Mayor Goodman is the mayor of the City of Las Vegas downtown. She has nothing to do with the strip, and we're sick and tired of hearing this. The person in charge of the strip is Miss Kilpatrick. And she's head of the county commission. And that's what runs the Strip. Once and for all, enough, Mayor! You have nothing to do with the strip! It's utter bullshit. Utter bullshit!
Honestly, I don't know why she has Cloobeck on. He loves to swing his d*ck around, and even though I agree with a lot (NOT ALL) of his views, I find him pretty insufferable. So, when Ruhle sits there and blinks and looks a little flustered at his language, I gotta say, "Come ON, girl, this cannot surprise you." But anyhow, he happens to be right about this, and Mayor Goodman needs to stay in her lane. Then Ruhle threw it over to Jon Ralston, who had much more illuminating insight about the astroturfing nature of these protests, and boiled everything down to one very simple, cogent question.
RALSTON: Well, Steve is right that the mayor, who said this is total insanity, is really the insane one, Stephanie. She's been saying all kinds of crazy stuff since the beginning of this. She's being supported by a couple of her council members. And the real issue here is, and you understand this, Stephanie, is because there's so much noise around this issue, the tug-of-war between what's best for the public health of the state versus getting this crushed economy and we're going to be crushed as badly as anyone, back together. The governor has to make some agonizing decisions. They are literally life and death decisions and these ankle-biters, like the mayor and like these protesters, that were ginned up by the Trump campaign, and the state Republican party, which bought ads this weekend attacking the governor, as well. I don't understand what the end game is here. The governor is going to present a plan maybe as early as today to start a partial reopening. But the Las Vegas strip, which is the iconic boulevard most people know Las Vegas by, it's not going to suddenly be open again. It's going to be very incremental and phased in, and it might not start for a little while.
What IS the end game here? It sounds like there IS already a plan to partially reopen. Why are Republicans so, SO resistant to knowledge and reason?
