What do Donald Trump and Joe Lombardo have in common?
If you said they both gave speeches within one week of each other in which neither of them mentioned the price of eggs, you’re right.
But while both men demonstrate they have higher priorities than your grocery bill, they’re not entirely two (overpriced) peas in a pod.
“I was saved by God to make America great again,” Trump explained in his speech.
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The only non-corporeal source of salvation Lombardo invoked was an imaginarily benevolent “Nevada Way.”
And that’s not the only difference between the president and the governor.
In his speech, Lombardo boasted of presenting “a budget that’s centered and balanced,” but followed that up by firing his budget director because the budget Lombardo had sent to state lawmakers was unconstitutionally unbalanced. And then Lombardo tried to let his chief of staff take all the blame. Classy!
Trump, by contrast, has been following up on his speech by carpet-bombing the nation with what he calls “executive orders,” even though a good deal of them aren’t so much specific orders as nebulous executive thoughtlets of things Trump thinks it would be nice for somebody to do someday if someone in the government Trump’s underlings are in the process of depopulating can figure out how to do them.
Trump’s executive “order” on lowering prices to consumers falls into that category.
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Trump & eggs
“President Donald J. Trump Delivers Emergency Price Relief For American Families to Defeat the Cost-of-Living Crisis” reads the title of one of Trump’s “Presidential Actions” issued Monday.
Emergency price relief?
Cool.
How’s he going to do it?
Glad you asked.
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“I hereby order the heads of all executive departments and agencies to deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people,” the order reads.
Okay, how are the department heads going to do it?
By “pursuing appropriate actions” to lower the costs of housing, health care, and appliances, and eliminating “harmful, coercive ‘climate’ policies that increase the costs of food and fuel,” the “order” reads.
The aforementioned heads are supposed to report their progress in 30 days. And then again 30 days after that. And then every 30 days until …consumer morale improves?
Two days later Trump issued another executive “order,” with the exact same title. It reiterates all the original’s vague nothings but has additional whining about Biden that somebody probably forgot to put in the first time.
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Unless you want to count the iffy-at-best proposition that petroleum companies (or more to the point, their shareholders) want to heavily invest in new oil & gas production, the “emergency price relief” orders have no details for how to actually relieve prices. And even if you share Trump’s faith that there’s nothing drill baby drill can’t do, the “emergency” order is devoid of any measures that could be described as “emergency” actions.
Lombardo & eggs
Lombardo’s strategy for addressing consumer costs likewise flirts with nonexistence.
“We all know working families need to catch a break,” Lombardo said at one point in his address. In the same vein, a few sentences later he declared “prices are higher because of the compounding effects of inflation,” demonstrating what a great sleuth he must have been back when the former lawman was on the force.
The governor presented some housing and health care initiatives of questionable efficacy as if they might someday translate into savings for households. But that’s a stretch, to put it charitably.
The “break” that he can bestow on consumers, Lombardo added, is “the promise of not raising taxes on hard-working Nevada families.”
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That’s the least he can do.
No, seriously, not raising taxes is literally the very least the governor, and the Democrats in the Legislature, can do, because doing that would be doing nothing at all, when in fact something should be done.
Nevada’s tax system is upside down — the less money you make, the larger percentage of it you pay in taxes. Turning the tax system right side up — and actually lowering the costs of many consumer goods in the process by cutting the sales tax rate — is not rocket science.
It’s politically hard though. So Nevada elected officials in both parties rarely even indicate an awareness of Nevada’s inflation-compounding tax system, let alone talk about it.
Crypto & eggs
After Trump proclaimed that he is God’s holy vessel on Earth, he (Trump, not God) signed an executive order directing the Department of Interior to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Later that day while heralding Trump as civilization’s savior, Elon Musk gave what he (Musk, not God) insists was absolutely positively not a Nazi salute.
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What does all of that (and so much more) have in common with the policy agenda in Nevada?
If you said none of it will bring down the price of eggs, you’re right.
But while the executive branches in Washington and Carson City are both AWOL on consumer prices, there are of course many differences between the nation’s capital and the Reno exurb.
For instance, Nevada politics and policy in the next several months promise to fail to bring down the price of eggs while being rather dreary.
National politics and policy, by contrast, promises to fail to bring down the price of eggs by providing a plurality (though not a majority) of the U.S. electorate something it perhaps craves even more than lower prices: A freak show.
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In an interview with Time magazine after the election Trump confessed that he might not be able to bring down prices because that’s hard, even though on the campaign trail he suggested it would be easy peasy because he’s TRUMP! So lifelike. (Image from Trump’s meme coin website)
But for Nevada families who, as Lombardo put it, “need to catch a break,” maybe there is a silver lining.
A couple days before his inauguration Trump rolled out a crypto meme coin, along with artwork depicting an image of Trump that is uncannily realistic if Trump was only 40 years younger and had Ryan Gosling’s body. The meme coin’s website warns it is not an investment opportunity “of any type,” but that’s just a thing Trump’s lawyers put on there so if you lose all your money it’s not Trump’s fault, which seems silly because nothing has been or ever can be Trump’s fault (there’s probably an executive order that says that, but if not there’s a definitely a Supreme Court ruling that does).
So perhaps this is really Trump’s plan, as well as the break Lombardo says Nevadans need to catch: Working families will get rich trading Trump’s crypto coins and never have to worry about the price of eggs again.
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A string of deadly crashes in and around Pahrump has prompted Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill to push for more safety measures along dark, sidewalk-free roads.
“The worst penalty is death, if you consider that,” McGill said.
The recent deaths include a single-vehicle rollover on State Route 160 during the morning hours of the last Wednesday in January that killed one person and injured another.
Then, into February, two pedestrians were killed in less than three days.
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The first was a 7 p.m. crash on Quarter Horse Avenue. Investigators believe a 2006 Jeep Liberty was driving on the street when it hit a pedestrian, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
A few days later, this last Saturday, state troopers responded to a crash just after sundown at Charleston Park Avenue. A sedan hit a pedestrian, who was also pronounced dead at the scene.
Nevada State Police investigators are still investigating both pedestrian cases before more details are released.
McGill said the recent crashes were enough to spur action.
“When the third one came out, I was sitting at home and watching TV. I looked at my wife and I said, ‘We got to do something about this,’” McGill said.
McGill is responding with a reflective vest giveaway, pointing to limited infrastructure as a possible factor. He noted a lack of street lights off State Route 160 and no sidewalks inside the community.
“The only light that you have is the ambient light from houses and cars so it is really dark,” McGill said.
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John Treanor of AAA Nevada said poor visibility can quickly turn dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians.
“It is very easy to be confronted with a situation that you cannot see coming because the visibility might be bad,” Treanor said.
Treanor encouraged pedestrians to carry lights and drivers to be prepared if they end up outside their vehicles in dark conditions.
“Having lights on you. Even carrying a flashlight allows something where a driver can see it,” Treanor said. “If you are a driver, make sure you have the right stuff in your car, in case you do get in a situation where you are on the side of the road and now you are in dark. Make sure you have a kit with some reflectors, some lights. Anything the trunk of your car in case you need it.”
McGill said vigilance is important even in daylight.
“Any time of the day, you have got to be vigilant. You have to keep aware of your surroundings if you are a walker or on a bicycle or if you are the driver,” he said.
Authorities also urged caution as more people may pull off roads in rocky areas along the route toward Death Valley National Park during springtime blooms, increasing the need for drivers and pedestrians to stay alert.
A waterfront mansion on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe just sold for $46 million, less than three weeks after hitting the market.
The speedy deal marks a departure from the typical U.S. market.
Nationwide, homes took a median 78 days to land a buyer in January, five more than the same time last year and the 22nd straight month of homes taking longer to sell on a year-over-year basis, according to data from Realtor.com.
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The lavish log cabin-like residence, in Incline Village, listed on Jan. 24 for $47.5 million. It sold 20 days later, on Feb. 13, listing records show.
The more than 7,000-square-foot residence was built in 2014, and has double-height living spaces, walls of windows, beamed ceilings, fireplaces, and plenty of rustic exposed stone and wood, listing images show.
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There’s also a gym, a wet bar, a spa, a wine room, an office, two separate game rooms, seven bedrooms and dramatic Lake Tahoe views. Outside, there’s a private sandy beach, multiple decks, a heated driveway and two exterior fireplaces, according to listing information.
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The seller and the buyer are both limited liability companies, according to property records. Both parties were represented by Jeff Brown of Tahoe Mountain Realty, who declined to comment on the deal.
The median home price in Incline Village was $1.595 million as of December, a fall of 3.3% from a year earlier, according to data from Realtor.com. Listings, meanwhile, spent an average of 130 days on the market.