Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive

Hold on to your hats, Nevadans. After Kamala Harris’ rousing speech at the close of the Democratic National Convention last week, the presidential race is a toss-up and Nevada is absolutely, 100% back in play.

Sherman Frederick

That’s not just me talking. That’s what the bookies say.

And, here’s an odd tidbit as reported by Todd Dewey in the Las Vegas Review-Journal: The London-based Betfair Exchange reports that more money has been bet on Trump to win. But more wagers have been placed on Harris.

Make of that what you will. The bottom line from the betting world anyway is that this race is going down to the wire.

The way I’m seeing it is the Democratic Party has pulled off one of the greatest switcheroos in American history. After President Joe Biden’s mental breakdown at the debate in June, the real powers in the party dismissed him from service and took a chance on Kamala Harris, a lightweight San Francisco liberal.

And, I’m being generous when describing her as a “lightweight.” There are plenty of smart pundits on both sides of the aisle who say much worse about her character and readiness to lead the country much less the world.

Amazingly enough, the image makers have managed for now to make the public forget about all those strange video clips that make Mrs. Harris look and sound like a woke Dumbo, and recast her as a fresh freedom fighter ready to face down Putin and China.

Her excellent acceptance speech at the DNC put the cherry on top of the switcheroo. She came across as likable, which is the big hurdle to jump. She’s no mean Hillary Clinton or angry Joe Biden. This is the new and improved Kamala Harris.

Look, if she can ride that image to the finish line, she could easily win Nevada and the presidency.

RFK + DJT

There is one big wild card in that scenario. RFK dropped out of the race and endorsed Donald Trump. RFK was polling about 6% of the vote in Nevada, so this endorsement could be big for Trump in Nevada.

Beyond that, everyone should take a look at RFK’s exit speech. It’s a complete take-down of the Democratic Party’s behavior this presidential election cycle. Here’s part of the speech:

“As you know, I left that party in October because it had departed so dramatically from the core values that I grew up with. It had become the party of war, censorship, corruption, big pharma, big tech, big AG, and big money. 

“When it abandoned democracy by canceling the primary to conceal the cognitive decline of the sitting president, I left the party to run as an independent. The mainstream of American politics and journalism derided my decision. Conventional wisdom said that it would be impossible even to get on the ballot as an independent, because each state imposes an insurmountable tangle of arbitrary rules for collecting signatures. I would need over a million signatures: something no presidential candidate in history had ever achieved. And then I’d need a team of attorneys and millions of dollars to handle all the legal challenges from the DNC. The naysayers told us we were climbing a glass version of Mt. Impossible.”

GREAT BASIN

Elko’s Great Basin College has opened its Gold Mines Welding Technology Lab and will be open for classes this fall.

The state-of-the-art facility will help teach students the technical and practical skills to pursue meaningful careers in industries like mining and manufacturing.

Great Basin College calls itself “The gold standard in the silver state.”

NOMADS

The sequel to Walt Wilhelm’s first book “Last Rig To Battle Mountain,” is now out. It’s entitled “Nomads of the Badlands.”

The book continues the Wilhelm’s family story started in “Last Rig To Battle Mountain” In 1912, the Wilhelm family left the Ruth mine and prospected for gold in Nevada, Arizona and California.

The family prospected Siegelman, Goldroad, Oatman, Kingman, Topock in Arizona as well as Searchlight, Nelson, 4th of July Pass, El Dorado Canyon, and Cottonwood, in Nevada.

(Thanks for reading. Remember to laugh a little, avoid soreheads and always question authority. You can get more Properly Subversive at shermanfrederick.substack.com.)

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