Penny PressNevada, USA Volume 16 Number 10 NOVEMBER 8, 2018

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Credits:Publisher and Editor: Contributing Editors:Fred Weinberg Floyd Brown Al Thomas Doug French Robert Ringer John Getter Pat Choate Ron Knecht Byron Bergeron

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Letters to the Editor are encouraged. They should be emailed to: pennypresslv@gmail.com No unsigned or unverifiable letters will be printed.

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THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 2

By FRED WEINBERGPublisher

Back in the early 90s, when Michael Bloomberg was merely a billionaire, I had the opportunity to be one of the first radio station

owners to take his new radio network on the stations I then owned in Oklahoma.

As with anything else new, there were some engineering issues which I attempted to fix on our end expeditiously. I called New York and to my surprise, the billionaire CEO taught me an incredibly valuable life lesson by taking my call instantly. We resolved the

issue almost immediately.He was warm and actually

grateful that someone in Tulsa, Oklahoma would take his radio network.

I suspect those qualities got him elected to run what used to be a virtually ungovernable city until Rudy Giuliani made a dent in the mess both pre and post 9-11.

His politics have never been mine—especially on the issue of the Second Amendment.

Nonetheless, I was very surprised at an intellectually dishonest political commercial he ran pre-election which started talking about something we almost agree on and ending up as a swipe at the President and Republicans.

“Political violence tears at the heart of our democracy. And violence against a

religious group, in a house of God, tears at the heart of our humanity. At these moments of great national tragedy, we look to Washington to lead... we expect a plan. We expect to be called to a higher purpose. We expect to work together. I don’t hear that call coming from Washington these days. Do you?”

No, I don’t look to Washington to lead when a nutburger shoots up a synagogue in Pittsburgh. I look to the Pittsburgh police department which did an extraordinary job of doing exactly that. Then, I look to both state and federal prosecutors to finish up the leadership. I also would expect the President to come to the scene and act as the consoler in chief—which he did. The plan

is that we live in a mostly sane country and we don’t shoot up any place.

“Sadly, our greatest threats today can be found from within our borders, from a government that is constantly on the verge of shutting down over partisan bickering, that is accumulating record debt, and failing to address our most urgent problems,”

No disagreement there but pretty disingenuous considering what’s coming.

“At this moment, we must send a signal to Republicans in Washington that they have failed to lead, failed to find solutions, and failed to bring us together. That’s

Penny PressNEVADA USA 16 PAGES VOLUME 16 NUMBER 10 NOVEMBER 8, 2018

Penny WisdomReaganomics: You start a business in your parents' garage. Obamanomics: You move into your parents' garage. —Ted Cruz

The Conservative Weekly Voice Of NevadaInside:All Trump Needs isA Ring Announcer

See Editorial Page 6

RON KNECHT PAGE 5FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6ROBERT RINGER PAGE 7DOUG FRENCH PAGE 9WOLFGANG KLIETMANN PAGE 10ROBERT FELLNER PAGE 11CHUCK MUTH PAGE 14

Bloomberg's Plea To Vote Dem Dishonest

Commentary

Continued on page4

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 4

why I’m voting Democratic. America is the greatest nation on earth and for all our sakes we must start becoming the UNITED States of America once again.”

Really?You “signal” Republicans by putting Maxine Waters and Gerald

Nadler in charge of the House?Seriously?And you think Congress will actually start doing its job?I’m not here to defend the current Congress. Why do you think

clowns like Jeff Flake, Paul Ryan and Bob Corker are leaving? They can’t defend what they have done, either.

But I don’t see Nancy Pelosi leaving along with Ryan. And I surely

don’t see Diane Feinstein leaving along with Flake or Corker.This is where Bloomberg’s intellectual dishonesty comes in.He’s not in love with Democrats. He doesn’t believe a Democrat

Congress will actually do anything about the “political violence” he bemoans.

He just wants to take a shot at Donald Trump, who he personally dislikes (apparently more than several million dollars worth).

Which means he’s doing exactly what he says shouldn’t be happening. You can act this way—like a petulant five year old—when you have

the money. But he shouldn’t assume those of us without his resources don’t see it. Even deplorables have eyes.

Maxine Waters is Some Kind of 'Signal'Continued from page 3

God Bless Christena Jensen

Surrounded by her loving family, Christena Kathryn Jensen departed peacefully for Heaven Wednesday, October 24, 2018 at the age of 97. Daughter Kathy Knecht, granddaughter Karyn Knecht and son-in-law Ron Knecht all loved her dearly and will miss her forever.

She was born May 2, 1921 in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn New York to wonderful parents Robert and Christena Hammond, as was her younger sister Doris (who predeceased her). When she was a girl, her father occasionally took her to Dodger games at Ebbets Field, which later made

Ron envious.Christena attended the College

of William and Mary for a year before transferring to Skidmore College and obtaining her BA in 1943 as an English major. She worked on Wall Street and then attended Columbia University’s School of Occupational Therapy, receiving a certificate in 1945. From 1945 to 1953, she worked as an occupational therapist at four hospitals in the northeast.

In 1953, she and her friend Betty travelled to Europe, spending some months in Spain, which they enjoyed immensely. Upon returning, Christena served three years as an occupational therapist at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto California.

In 1958, she took an administrative job at Lockheed

Missiles and Space Division in Palo Alto. There she met LaVern C. Jensen, an engineer and later administrator at Lockheed. Like Christena, Vern was one the nicest and most interesting people anyone ever net. After a first dinner date, much boating and other dates, they were married in a small family ceremony November 28, 1959.

They had a great honeymoon road trip through many national parks in California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, which only whetted their appetite for more travel.

In 1960, they drove from California to New York in her 1957 Chevy, the first of a few classic Chevies they owned. They flew with Betty and her husband to London, where both couples had arranged to buy TR3s (red for the Jensens, white for the other couple) in which to tour Europe.

They visited the home sites of Jensen families in Norway and Sweden, and saw much of the continent during a rainy period. They slept on a straw mattress in Venice and loved Italy. Making their way back to London, they flew to New York and drove back across the continent in the Chevy because their TR3 would not arrive for some weeks.

With a new home and more boating, they were very happy. And happier still when their only daughter Kathy arrived in 1961. They lived for a while with Vern’s parents as they fixed up their home, but kept traveling.

Kathy stayed with her grandparents while they visited the 1965 New York World’s Fair and New England, and in 1969 Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philipines, Singapore, Malaysia

and Thailand. The three moved to Los Altos in the 1970s, and stayed there through the 1990s.

In 1975 they went to Mexico and in 1976 returned for an extensive tour of Europe, both times taking Kathy. The next year they made a road trip to Lily, South Dakota – now a ghost town – to show Kathy where her father’s family lived before fleeing the Dust Bowl and Great Depression with only their suitcases.

In 1979, it was the Hawaiian Islands. Then road trips in 1983 to San Simeon and Hearst Castle and in 1985 to Texas. Also, in 1985 they returned to England and Scotland and visited the Hammond home sites. In 1986, it was Florida to visit relatives. Later trips to Spain, Morocco, the Amazon and China didn’t include Kathy, who stayed home to work and take care of the pets.

Surrounded by Christena, Kathy and Ron (then engaged to Kathy), Vern died in 1997 from mesothelioma that developed from his work in World War II in the Marin ship yards.

After the birth of granddaughter Karyn in 2001, the family moved to Carson City. Ron has always said the three-generation household is ideal. Christena was a great mentor to Kathy and said her life was greatly enriched watching Karyn grow up.

To Kathy, like Christena in many ways, she was the ideal mom. To Karyn, the perfect grandmom. And to Ron, the best mother-in-law ever.

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 5

The Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:Brent R. Taylor, the mayor of North Ogden, Utah, and a father of seven, who was killed in action while serving in Afghanistan as a member of the Army National Guard, officials confirmed. Taylor, 39, was killed in an apparent insider attack after a member of the Afghan security forces opened fire at a base in Kabul where foreign troops provide training to Afghan forces. Taylor is survived by his wife, Jennie, and their seven children who range in age from 11 months to 13 years old. He is deserving of the thanks of a grateful nation.

President Donald Trump for his non-stop in-motion support for his GOP troops during the past month leading to the election. He is truly a leader and leaders lead from the front.

The Penny Press Sends A Bronx Cheer And A Bouquet of Weeds To:Barack Hussein Obama whose rallies would be embarrassing if his boasts weren’t so silly. He told one rally that the current economy was due to his work. He also mocked the current President’s characterization of the migrant caravan just as he called ISIS the JV of fighters. www.pennypressnv.com

Tips Of Our Capand

Bronx Cheers

RON KNECHT and JAMES SMACK

Commentary: Ron Knecht & James Smack

When President Donald Trump won his election in 2016, there were calls for an end to the Electoral College.

It would not be out of the question for Republicans to call for an end to gerrymandering so that mid-term elections might be less likely to change the balance of power in the House of Representatives,

Given the results of last Tuesday’s election, now the Democrats have a real problem.

At least half of America loves President Trump. If that were not true, the Republicans would have lost the Senate as well.

If the Nancy Pelosi storm troopers—Maxine Waters, Gerald Nadler, Adam Schiff and the like—stay in control, this President is more than capable of going right over their heads and smacking them around like a cat playing with a dead or dying mouse.

He will have a very loyal Senate, given his campaigning pre-election and given the fact he will be pretty much rid of the RINO contingent led by Arizona’s appropriately named soon to be former Senator Jeff Flake. .

Judges will continue to be confirmed and any talk of impeachment is wasted breath since you need 67 votes in the Senate to actually remove a President. Not happening. Further, should the Supreme Court Justices in their 80s—there are two—leave the Court, Trump’s new Senate majority will allow him to name an even harder edged conservative since getting every GOP vote will no longer be necessary.

If the Democrats don’t play ball in the House, they will simply be part of a body which has an approval rating of 14% which is to say that even their mothers don’t like them. Totally irrelevant will be the political terminology used to describe them on Fox News and other news organizations which do not take their cues from the Democrat Party.

Also, the President will be able to kick the crap out of the House Democrats in the runup to the 2020 election. He will be able to use them as a punching bag should he choose.

Now, there may well be a sizable majority of Democrats in the House who want nothing to do with Pelosi and friends.

Were they to be successful in tamping down the Schiffs, Waters and Nadlers, they would potentially find a President who is willing to work with them on the issues of the day and maybe there would actually be some progress. It’s not impossible.

But my Vegas handicapper friends are setting long odds on the Democrat old guard giving up their new found power. Like the attempted Senate Democrat lynching of now Justice Brett Kavanaugh, that would/will be the gift that keeps on giving.

Elijah Cummings, who runs the Democrat Black Caucus told Fox News that he fully expects Pelosi to become the speaker.

If that’s true, despite the speech she made election night, war is inevitable.

And, if it’s war, I’d take President Trump and the points. (Again, my friends in Vegas agree.)

The handicapping goes like this: Pelosi has never had to take on a streetfighter like Trump in her career. He’s smarter, more agile, not afraid to beat up a woman speaker and, oh yes, he’s the President of the United States.

If she wants war, all we need is ring announcer Michael Buffer. A referee won’t be necessary.

That’s the job of the United States Senate.

FRED WEINBERG

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 6

OPINIONFrom The Publisher...

Pelosi vs. Trump? Take Trump and the Odds

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 7

A Final Word on the 2018 MidtermsEditor’s Note: This column was written prior to the election. We thought it was worth running anyway.

Here we are again, ground zero for another election. But this time around there’s a different feeling in the air, a feeling that the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before.

Those who pay attention to politics see tomorrow’s midterms as a referendum on capitalism versus socialism, free speech versus political correctness, freedom of thought versus groupthink, nationalism versus globalism, reinstating America’s national sovereignty versus open borders, strict constructionism versus legislating from the bench, rule of law versus mob rule, and, yes, liberty versus tyranny.

But first, a bit of prediction history. In my January 3, 2018 article, “Spasms of a Dying Party,” I wrote:

With the aid of the FNM (and even Fox News!), the Dirty Dems continue to promote the baseless narrative that all signs point to a blue wave in the 2018 midterms.

Whether they actually believe such nonsense or are just trying to gin up the Radical Left base, it’s nothing more than another spasm of a dying party: Just proclaim it and it will magically come to pass! To be sure, there will be a wave in 2018, but it will be a bright-red wave.

Five months later, in my June 13, 2018 article titled “One Last Time: No Blue Wave,” I stated:

I can’t understand what took conservative pundits and politicians so long to figure out that the 2018 Blue Wave is, and always has been, a myth. I first wrote about this back on January 3 of this year in an article titled “Spasms of a Dying Party.”

Today, with everyone from Hannity to Pat Buchanan jumping on the bandwagon and chiming in about the disappearance of the Blue Wave, it’s all but official: There will be no Blue Wave in November. Republicans will, at a minimum, hold their majority in the House and gain a net of anywhere from three to ten seats in the Senate.

Now, with election day less than 24 hours away, I stick by my June 13 prediction that Republicans will pick up three to ten seats in the Senate. The most likely number is five or six, though I can easily envision it being closer to ten.

As to the House, while I admit the polls have me a bit spooked, common sense tells me that the odds favor the GOP hanging on to a majority. Of course, I’m referring to my common sense, which can be dangerous when it comes to making predications.

I constantly have to remind myself that tens of millions of people voted for frauds like Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and even Hillary Clinton. Which I guess is the main reason why, after all these years, I still have a tendency to overestimate the common sense of millions of voters.

Even so, in an effort to calm populist fears, I am obliged to say that even if the Dirty Dems should squeeze out a majority in the House, it’s no reason to panic. Here’s why:

After they put their hateful, insane ways on display for two years, voters will overwhelmingly vote them out of office in 2020. Trump, of course, will not only win easily in 2020, he will be (and already is) much more knowledgeable about how the swamp game is played. And with

Paul Ryan, Bob Corker, John McCain, and Jeff Flake gone, it will much easier to quickly move his agenda forward.

Trump’s biggest threats will come not from Democrats but faux Republicans like Marco Rubio, Ben Sasse, Lisa Murkowski (who, thankfully, is sure to be primaried in 2022), Susan Collins (yes, that Susan Collins), and, above all, Mitt Romney.

Unfortunately, Romney will be around until 2024, and until then you can be certain he will make it his fulltime job to oppose Trump and his policies. He is a truly vile human being, and, as difficult as it may be for Trump to do, he should make a concerted effort to ignore him. Nothing would be more painful to a super-narcissist like Mitt than being ignored.

The Dirty Dems will be helpless to remove Trump from office via impeachment. Sure, they can impeach him in the House, but there’s zero chance he would be convicted by the Senate. Which means more wasted time and more taxpayer money down the drain, which in turn will give Independents yet another reason to vote Republican in 2020.

While it’s true that the Dirty Dems will quash any legislation aimed at cutting taxes, eliminating more regulation, cracking down on illegal immigration, etc., they cannot stop Trump from continuing to change things through executive orders. It’s true that each of these executive orders will probably have to be taken all the way to the Supreme Court, but guess who controls the Court? Yes, Barackus, for once in your life you were right: Elections really do have consequences.

And even if an executive order is overturned by the Supreme Court, it can be ensconced into law by a Republican House and Senate after the coming 2020 Republican landslide.

Perhaps best of all, once the elections are over, Trump will be free to send Jeff Sessions packing, after which his replacement (Joe DiGenova? Pam Bondi? Rudy Giuliani?) can start empaneling grand juries and issuing subpoenas to the real criminals in Washington. The right attorney general should have Hillary in an orange jump suit in short order, with a long list of Democratic criminals not far behind, and a Dirty Dem controlled House could do absolutely nothing about it.

Of course, none of this will matter if Republicans manage to hold the House. Which, if people were well informed and rational, would be a sure thing. Unfortunately, millions of voters are not well informed and rational.

That said, it still baffles me why even the most moderate Republican — or even an Independent or libertarian — would vote for anyone who promises to raise taxes, increase business regulations, eliminate due process, welcome unlimited illegal aliens into the country, abolish ICE, implement socialism, and silence those who disagree with their radical policies and continue to label them racists, xenophobes, and purveyors of hate speech.

Which is why I say that no matter how much a voter may dislike the Republican running in his district, he would do well to heed the words of the great Thomas Sowell, who once said, “Democrats are the best reason to vote for Republicans.”

If you can top that one, you’re a lot better with words than I am. Nothing is more effective than truth coupled with simplicity. ROBERT RINGERRobert Ringer (© 2018)is a New York Times #1 bestselling author who has appeared on numerous national radio and television shows, including The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, ABC Nightline, The Charlie Rose Show, as well as Fox News and Fox Business. To sign up for a free subscription to his mind-expanding daily insights, visit www.robertringer.com.

Commentary: Robert Ringer

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 8

The NFL: Land of the CaligulasWhat happens when a political reporter does a book about the NFL?

You read plenty about his favorite team, the New England Patriots, his man crush, Tom Brady, the eclectic group of grown children who own the teams-- ”the Membership” and, of course, Donald Trump.

Mark Leibovich generally spills his ink and sarcasm at the The New York Times Magazine and wrote a wonderfully dishy book about Washington D.C. entitled “This Town.” His “Big Game: The NFL in Dangerous Times” repeats his “This Town” playbook: Lots of juicy and laugh-out-loud snarky nuggets.

If you wonder why Donald Trump constantly picks on the NFL with its kneeling players and lower ratings, Leibovich has the answer, contrary to Washington Post reviewer Joe Nocera’s view that the author “has nothing to say.”

It is “the Membership,” who are the “puffed-up billionaires who own the store,” writes Leibovich. “These are the freaks, the club that Trump couldn’t crack.” On the next page, the author refers to the Membership as “bespoke Caligulas.” He goes on about how much TV time the owners receive as “presiding plutocrats.”

Leibovich doesn’t stop poking “this freakish assembly.” Meanwhile, another part of the book is a love letter to Tom Brady, Robert Kraft, and the Patriots. The author is from Boston after all. Paper and packaging magnate Kraft bought the team in 1994, besting other suitors including Mr. Trump.

Who knew the Patriots are the favorite team of the Alt-right? Richard Spencer says Tom Brady is an “Aryan Avatar,” plus the Pats are “consistently NFL’s whitest team,” with caucasian wide receivers no less.

The book has plenty about deflategate, concussions, the evils of Commissioner Roger Goodell, and hatred of the Washington Redskins and its owner Daniel Snyder. The author is from Boston after all.

Hall of Fame owner Jerry “how ‘bout them Cowboys” Jones and his constant companion, a tumbler full of Johnny Walker Blue, has a prominent

role in the league and the book. It sounds as if the Blue gets the best of Jones, who launches into incoherent rants at owner’s meetings, including immortal words such as, “But stadiums are about television rights. Do you think these networks pay these rights fees to broke dicks? With their ass hanging out?”

I understand Jerry: bread and circuses don’t come cheap.Jones made his money in petroleum. “Eighty-five percent of everything

he does in oil and gas will lose money,” Leibovich writes. “It has made Jones less fearful of failure, he said.” The socialist kibbutz that is the NFL is a stressless money-printer for the Cowboy owner.

So back in 1984, with Pete Rozelle as commissioner of the league, the current White House occupant managed to get a meeting with Rozelle and made the pitch to be an owner. “They [Rozelle and the NFL brass] just saw him as this scumbag huckster,” Leibovich quotes Jeff Pearlman as saying. “He was this New York, fast-talking, kind of con man.”

Unlike the rest of us, the Membership, at the time, got a peek at the Donald’s finances. Leibovich writes,

Trump did not come close to passing muster with the Membership. He was, for starters, not considered sufficiently solvent or transparent to proffer a serious bid. Football owners, as it turns out, get a much closer look ar a candidate’s finances than electorates do.

Trump would try again to join the Membership in 2014, pursuing an unsuccessful purchase of the Buffalo Bills.

The Raiders move to Las Vegas is mentioned, with $750 million in taxpayer funds for owner Mark Davis who “surprises people if he can roll out of bed and put on his pants,” according to another in the Membership.

It’s thought that Barack Obama motivated Donald Trump to run for President with his caustic remarks about the Donald at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

Maybe. But, if the Membership had just cut the New York con man a break and let him buy a team and fleece taxpayers, Trump might have been content to hang out with the other Caligulas and rake in real money. DOUG FRENCH

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 9

Commentary: Doug French

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 10

Switzerland Steps Up As A U.S. Ally in the Trade Wars

President Trump is levying tariffs on several major trading partners. And they’re striking back.

China says it’s prepared for “the biggest trade war in economic history” and promises to impose retaliatory tariffs of “equal scale and equal strength” on U.S. goods. The European Union has slapped tariffs on U.S. products ranging from bourbon to motorcycles. And Mexico has hiked tariffs on $3 billion worth of American imports.

These countries are playing with fire — a full-blown trade war could deeply damage their economies since they’re heavily dependent on exporting goods to America. They’d be wise to de-escalate tensions and address the structural trade imbalances that have angered President Trump.

For inspiration, they could look to Switzerland, a famously neutral country that has quietly carried on a balanced and mutually beneficial trading relationship with the United States.

Switzerland’s economic ties to the United States date back to the mid-1800s. As of 2016, Switzerland — which has a population of just 8 million people — was one of the United States’ largest trading partners. The two nations traded $115 billion in goods and services.

The benefits flow both ways. The United States imported $14 billion more goods than it exported to Switzerland. But the United States also sold $9 billion more in services than it purchased.

As a result, the total U.S. trade deficit with Switzerland was less than $5 billion — a pittance compared to our $375 billion deficit with China and our $71 billion deficit with Mexico.

Swiss firms have also made substantial direct investments in the

United States. For example, drug manufacturer Novartis is bringing a $55 million

gene therapy production plant and 200 jobs to North Carolina. Swiss chocolate maker Lindt, which has located half of its factories in America, is expanding its Stratham, New Hampshire plant with a $201 million investment. This March, Swiss synthetic flooring company Gezolan opened a $12 million plant in Georgia. And in July, Swiss satellite manufacturing company RUAG began production at a Florida facility which will ultimately support over 600 jobs.

All told, Swiss firms have plowed $224 billion into the United States, making the small alpine country our seventh largest source of foreign direct investment. These companies support over 460,000 American jobs which pay an average salary of $103,000.

Meanwhile, U.S. firms have returned the favor by investing $155 billion in Switzerland.

The Swiss immigrant Albert Gallatin (1761-1849), who became Secretary of the United States Treasury and served under presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, would no doubt be proud of the current state of Swiss-American trade relations. Gallatin brought fiscal discipline to the nascent United States and is honored with a prominent statue in front of the Treasury building in Washington, D.C. The inscription reads simply “Genius of Finance.”

President Trump has targeted several countries for their allegedly unfair trade practices. But Switzerland isn’t in his crosshairs — and for good reason. Swiss companies and officials work hard to ensure the trade relationship remains fair and balanced. Other countries ought to follow Switzerland’s lead. WOLFGANG KLIETMANNDr. Wolfgang Klietmann is a former clinical pathologist and medical microbiologist at Harvard Medical School. He is a board member of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce’s Boston chapter.

Commentary: Wolfgang Klietmann

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 11

Commentary: Robert FellnerNevada Government Pay Gap Highest in the Nation, New Data Shows

When measured as a percentage of private-sector earnings, Nevada local government workers were by far the highest paid in the nation last year, according to newly released Census data.

Last month, the U.S. Census Bureau released 2017 earnings estimates for the median full-time, year-round worker.

At $58,644, the median earnings for local government workers in Nevada were 46 percent greater than the $40,259 received by Nevada’s private-sector workers — a disparity that was by far the largest nationwide and nearly six times greater than the eight percent differential found at the median state nationwide.

Hawaii had the 2nd largest local government pay gap nationwide, with median earnings for local government workers coming in at 31 percent above median earnings for private-sector workers.

It is important to note that this pay disparity does not control for occupational differences between the two groups. When controlling for education, experience and other factors that affect pay, the earnings difference between the groups nearly disappears.

Nevada government workers, however, receive non-monetary forms of compensation that are far greater than what is available in the private sector. So while the earnings gap functionally disappears when accounting for factors such as experience and education, total compensation among government workers remains considerably higher than their private-sector counterparts.

When the vastly richer health and retirement benefits, greater levels of job security and more generous paid leave provisions enjoyed by Nevada’s government workers are accounted for, their total compensation can be as much as 57 percent greater than what a private-sector worker performing

the same job would receive.Nevada public pay ranks 5th highest nationwideEarnings for Nevada’s local government workers also fares well when

measured against the earnings for local government workers in other states.

After adjusting the values to reflect the difference in price levels among the 50 states, as calculated and reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ 2016 Regional Price Parities report, the median earnings for local government workers in Nevada were higher than what their government peers earned in 45 other states.

Nevada’s private sector, however, fared much worse, with private-sector earnings that ranked ahead of only 3 other states nationwide:

This data is instructive when considering SEIU of Nevada’s recent refusal of a proposed 2 percent pay raise from Clark County. The union is instead demanding a 3.25 percent raise, and is now in arbitration over the dispute.

Compensation for government employees consumes roughly two-thirds of Clark County’s general fund budget. On a statewide basis, government pay and benefits cost taxpayers roughly $10 billion last year — which was equal to 80 percent of all tax revenue collected by every state and local government agency in Nevada.

Thus, in the event Nevada’s government pay gap continues its upward growth, the resulting tax hikes necessary to sustain such excess may become too great to bear.

Because such outsized pay packages come at the expense of taxpayers who earn much less themselves, elected officials should consider the fairness and sustainability of continually caving in to government unions’ endless demands for even more.

Of course, the outsized political influence of Nevada’s local government unions makes this extremely unlikely, which is why legislators should extend the prohibition of government-sector collective bargaining to include local agencies, as well as state agencies. ROBERT FELLNER

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 12

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 13

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Big Candy’s Annual Scarefest Nothing to Be Frightened Of

Well, another Halloween has come and gone. So we won’t have to worry about Big Candy scaring us about the U.S. sugar program again for another month…when the annual hysteria over the cost of candy canes for Christmas begins.

In between will be Thanksgiving, when we can all give thanks for having a president in the Oval Office who understands it’s not a “free market” if our international competitors are being subsidized by their governments to give them an unfair advantage in a distorted marketplace.

But candy makers and other sweets and treats manufacturers are relentless. When asked in a recent interview what issues concern him most in the confectionary industry, Steve Vande Walle of Vande Walle’s Candies replied…

“Sugar supports have been causing issues in our industry for decades. It is hard for large U.S.-based confectionery companies to be competitive when their major ingredient, sugar, costs more in the U.S. than it does on the world market.”

Thus, perpetuating Big Candy’s “Big Lie” campaign about U.S. sugar prices.

First, the only reason sugar prices cost more in the U.S. than the global market is because of foreign government subsidies. That’s not a free market. Secondly, this obscures the fact that the cost of American sugar today is almost exactly – if not a little less – than it was over 30 years ago.

Thirdly, it’s a gross misrepresentation to blame the cost of sugar for challenges facing U.S. manufacturers. Rather, it’s the higher cost of LABOR – combined with higher taxes, higher costs for regulatory compliance and higher costs for insurance – that makes it harder for U.S. based confectionary companies to compete with foreign manufacturers.

Nevertheless, a recent report by Karl Evers-Hillstrom notes that Big Candy is spending a king’s ransom in political contributions trying to persuade Congress to pull the rug out from under American farmers and throw them to the international wolves.

“Representing the biggest candy makers,” Evers-Hillstrom wrote, “the National Confectioners Association (NCA) ramped up its contributions during the 2018 election cycle, giving $447,373 to candidates and PACs.”

“In addition to giving more to candidates,” Evers-Hillstrom continued, “NCA has increased its lobbying presence in 2018, spending north of $500,0000 through September 30,” largely in support of the Sugar Policy Modernization Act which would gut the U.S. sugar program.

In addition, Evers-Hillstrom reports that Hershey has spent $840,000 and Nestle $1.07 million on lobbying in 2018 while Mars has coughed up $3.6 million combined for 2017-18.

That’s a scary amount of dough. Good thing Halloween is over. On to the March of the Candy Canes! CHUCK MUTHMr. Muth is president of Citizen Outreach and publisher of Nevada News & Views.

THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 14

Commentary: Chuck Muth Every week in Nevada, someone is trying to screw us.

Most of the time, we elected that someone.

That's why we conserva-tives NEED a WEEKLY voice.

That's why the Penny Press has made sticking up for us little guys a whole new Nevada tradition.

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THE PENNY PRESS,NOVEMBER 8, 2018 PAGE 15

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