I’ve noted this in previous columns. Allow me to underline it again because it is important.
After Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto saw her political life flash in front of her in the last election cycle, there’s been a marked increase in press releases from her office extolling the hard work she’s doing on behalf of Nevadans.
So the same from our other alleged senator, Jacky Rosen.
The latest round of press releases to hit my desk are almost hilarious in their inaneness.
Consider this from Sen. Jacky Rosen.
She sits on the Small Business and Entrepreneurship committee and she sends out a press release to tell the unwashed masses in Nevada —who she must think are dumb as rocks — that she has joined a bipartisan group of colleagues in introducing the Expanding Access to Capital for Rural Job Creators Act to help eliminate hurdles small businesses in rural areas disproportionately face when trying to access capital.
And what does the Expanding Access to Capital for Rural Job Creators Act do, exactly?
Well, the EATCFRJCA (or whatever the hell it is called for short) is “bipartisan legislation (that) would lay the groundwork for expanding access to capital for small businesses in rural communities by requiring the Securities and Exchange Commission for Small Business Capital Formation to submit an annual report on the unique challenges rural businesses face when trying to secure investments. From these annual reports, Congress could weigh legislative action to ensure the growth and success of rural small businesses across our state and nation.”
Did you get that? EATCFRJCA doesn’t actually get rural small businesses access to more money, it only mandates that the SEC write an annual report to Congress on how rural small businesses are not getting more money.
Brilliant. Thank you Sen. Rosen for your concern.
Meanwhile, Sen. CCM is up to the same trick.
She sent us a press release telling Nevadans how she and other senators have sent a strong letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg telling him to crack down on “Meta’s failure to address malicious actors’ exploitation of its platforms – including Facebook and WhatsApp.”
She writes: “Despite Facebook’s acknowledgment that human smuggling and drug trafficking activities violate its community standards …. [p]revious reporting has found that drug cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean widely use Meta’s platforms to traffic drugs, recruit members and smugglers, extort victims, and publish hit lists.”
You gotta love it.
Sen. CCM yells at Zuckerberg about drug cartels, but she’s quiet as a mouse on President Joe Biden’s ineffective policies on the southern border – a border that is so porous that drug smugglers and human traffickers ply their trade daily with little consequence.
Nevada has a fentanyl problem of enormous proportion, yet our senior senator is writing a group letter to Facebook?
My point here is not to challenge Rosen and CCM’s desire to do what’s best for Nevada. They no doubt mean well. But they are not doing well.
Stop telling us what effective senators for Nevada you are by sending us press releases that literally do nothing.
It’s not smart, unless, of course, they think Nevadans can’t sniff out bullsh*t when it is presented to them.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The corporate media’s ability to — overnight — turn anyone who dissents in any way into some sort of fascist or even Hitler-like figure, and then have millions of their followers go around mindlessly repeating it, is both impressive and chilling” – Glenn Greenwald
“But mostly chilling” – Sherman R. Frederick
ONE MORE THING
– Goose feather pillow manufacturing is quite complicated. I’d explain it to you, but I don’t want to talk down to you.
– After a big fight, I took my wife by the hand and said I really wanted to make this marriage work. She replied: ‘Oh believe me, it’s already work.’
– Spacing matters just as much as spelling. Even though I love wildlife, somehow I doubt my friend is hosting a “Superb owl party.”
— I was raised by a pack of hyenas. Life was tough. Food was scarce. But, boy, did we laugh.
Thanks for reading a Battle Born Media newspaper. We still highly recommend that you avoid soreheads, laugh a little, and always question authority.
“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick, a Nevada Hall of Fame journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@ gmail. com.
