DAN SCHINHOFEN: Special session fiasco part 2

During this current “special session”, our Democrat-controlled Legislature has prioritized police “reforms” and seem to have forgotten that we are in, what they call, “a health emergency”. While Nevada does have some bad officers, from the vast majority of police in our state, we have not seen racism as a driving issue. Still our state Democratic leaders think that getting on the record with specious “reforms” is a priority, so that their other Democratic friends feel good.

While many in this state remain out of work and many others will lose or have lost their businesses already, because of arbitrary and capricious directives from our governor, our Legislature is wasting time on police reform without even mentioning the biggest problem in police forces around this country, police unions.

They have also taken up a bill to clear the way for all mail-in ballots, which we have seen from other states, are rife with corruption. The biggest issue for me was that this Democrat-run Legislature did not even talk to the secretary of state, the only Republican in a constitutional office, before ramming through this bill. Our elected representative who handles elections, the secretary of state, was cut out of the process. Now that should raise serious concerns for everyone. If the Republicans had done this to the only Democrat in state office, they would be howling at the moon and crying foul. The other glaring issue is allowing “harvesting” where a “community organizer” could go into a senior assisted-living facility and “help people fill in their ballots” and then they collect them and turn them in for that person. Now that is where fraud can happen.

At least our local clerk mentioned in an open meeting that Nye would still have some in-person voting during early voting and on Election Day. Sam Merlino and her staff have always done a great job and she was a great person to work with when I was in office. I trust her to run a fair election.

Meanwhile, those few Republicans left in the state Legislature seem content with allowing this one man, Sisolak, to continue to enact arbitrary and capricious rules that only further our debt as a state and individuals. While they do not have the votes to even force a vote on repealing Sisolak’s dictator powers they should at the very least be bringing this issue up.

I, and many of the people I know, have sent letters to the Republican minority asking them to stand up and be heard on this issue which corrupts the very basis of our republic. To date, not one reply on the substance of our request, other than, “we are in the minority.” Just walk out, as they, the Dems, are not allowing any real debate on any of this. Evidence of this is voting at 1 a.m. on Sunday morning with no public allowed to speak in person. Demand a vote on the dictatorship of Sisolak.

While the governor and his Democrat cronies seem happy enough to allow him to continue in his role as dictator, many of us have had more than enough of his “directives”. With seven counties having no deaths and eight others less than 20, he has enacted sweeping changes to our state and has punished those 15 counties just because Clark County has shown an increase in cases. (While the fatality rate is dropping.)

To be clear, not all the “deaths” reported are directly from COVID-19 as pneumonia and other influenza-like illnesses are also counted as COVID deaths. People who die in a hospital that show symptoms of COVID are being counted as having died from that virus.

On another note, recently here in Nye County, our school board had decided, in an open meeting, that elementary-aged kids could return to school full time. Somehow, after that public meeting, they decided against that and are now going to the two days in school, three days at home. I could find no backup when they held that meeting so I have no idea what data they used to decide allowing them to go to school five days a week, but I guess that point is mute as they seem to have changed their minds OUTSIDE of a public meeting.

To make matters worse, they now tell us that elementary kids can be only 3 feet apart and that includes while on a bus. The exception is that they must stay 6 feet away from the driver. How much more capricious and arbitrary can you get? No wonder so many of us don’t take this seriously.

While the CDC and even Dr. Fauci, in a hearing before Congress last week, have stated it is safe to return them to school, we have our state medical adviser, you know the one that isn’t licensed to practice medicine in the United States, advising differently. While the Orange County California School Board had a white paper in their backup to make a decision on allowing children back to school full time with no masks or social distancing, our state and local boards continue to cave in to unions and fear (or fear of unions) and tell us to keep our kids home.

Families have suffered enough from these lockdowns and hyper-fear of this virus, which is less deadly than the Hong Kong flu from 1968. I didn’t miss school during those years and twice as many people died from that than from COVID when adjusted for population rates.

During this crisis I have had people asking, “How many deaths are enough,” and I would now ask our elected officials, “How many more deaths of despair and loss of jobs and businesses are enough for you all.” Take a hard look, in an open public meeting, on all the science that shows masks can be harmful to our health, that this virus is not a danger to children, and the science behind whether or not hydroxychloroquine is safe to use as a treatment for this virus.

Judging from what we have seen so far, our elected representatives will continue to avoid their duties and just allow Sisolak to continue with his arbitrary and capricious rules that cause loss of life and income to the majority of Nevadans.

One last thing, in this session they are also looking at taking half the mining revenue away from those counties that have mines to give to other counties, like Clark, to help fill their budget shortfalls. So, they will once again punish the rural counties to help cover the damage they continue to do by not allowing businesses to reopen fully. Here’s a clue for our legislators - you only have money to operate the government from tax revenue and while you continue to not allow businesses to operate they will not be able to pay taxes and the hole we are in will just get deeper. Follow the science and open the schools and businesses NOW!