Carolyn Goodman, the current Mayor of Las Vegas and wife of ex-mayor Oscar Goodman, shocked the world with her preposterous assertions about opening up the Las Vegas Strip during a live interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN. Mayor Goodman insisted that Las Vegas re-open in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Mayor Goodman immediately received blowback from all sides of the political spectrum and health officials.
When happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas… except an airborne novel coronavirus. Just when you thought things could get any crazier during our weird and trouble times, the mayor of Las Vegas talked a bunch of nonsense during a live interview with CNN. For many viewers, it was the first time they encountered Mayor Carolyn Goodman and the bizarre interview left everyone wondering… 1) is she drunk?, and 2) how the heck did she become an elected official?
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak issued a decree to shutter all casinos through the end of April. It was an extension of an original decree he made in mid-March to shut down all casinos and major public spaces for 30 days. It was sort of surprising to see Nevada become one of the earliest states to shit down casinos when many folks assumed Vegas would be the last holdouts to close their doors.
While the coronavirus outbreak and pandemic continues to ravish the United States and countries all over the globe, Gov. Sisolak will most likely keep casinos closed for the entire month of May running through Memorial Day weekend. Memorial Day typically marked the beginning of summer in America. The greenheads running casinos hoped they could re-open before Memorial Day, but that outlook seems grim and outright fatal.
Even the World Series of Poker officially cancelled their summer series that expected to have 101 bracelet events for the 51st running of the donks. The folks running the WSOP announced a postponement this week and they pushed back the series until this fall. At least there are some adults in the room looking to protect their employees and maintain public health, because if it were up to Mayor Goodman and many casino operators, they'd still be open for business.
Mayor Goodman's disastrous interview on CNN came on the eve of the 2020 NFL Draft, which was supposed to take place in Las Vegas with a stage over the Bellagio fountains. The NFL made the wise decision to avoid Vegas at all costs and migrated their draft online with commissioner Goodell hosting the three-day draft from the confines of his basement.
However, despite the migration of the NFL Draft to the virtual world, and postponement of the largest and most prestigious poker tournament in the world, and the cancellation of the largest EDM festivals on the planet (Electric Daisy Carnival), Mayor Carolyn Goodman would rather use gamblers as test subjects and a control group.
Only in America will you find someone who's willing to make a buck off the poor decision making of others, even if it risks the lives of front-line employees and public servants.
Decisions coming out of the Mayor's mansion in Vegas are not sane, nor humane. Then again, should we expect anything different from a puppet propped up by so-called big business entities that operate in the murky world of Sin City? Can we really trust the judgement of non-politician, whose husband is a former mob lawyer turned political puppet?
Maybe we should just call it like it is? File this one under: political hack spews crazy things on CNN so her puppetmasters can get rich.
In case you missed it (click here to watch), Mayor Goodman appeared on a segment on CNN, shortly before noon Vegas time, and it quickly went viral.
Look, I don't care if you had a few cocktails or pharmaceuticals before noon. After all, it's always Wine O'Clock in Sin City and people have different coping mechanisms during the pandemic. I'm willing to overlook the obvious "don't give two fucks" attitude of getting sauced before a stint on CNN, but it is highly irresponsible for an elected public official to endanger the lives of hardworking Vegas residents and local degenerate gamblers that cannot and will not ever think rationally aside from getting their gambling fix.
At the same time, Mayor Goodman wants to keep the fat cats happy at the expense of the lives and safety of thousands of casino workers, medical workers, and other public servants that protect casinos and the Strip, by insisting on opening up casinos, hotels, convention centers, sports, and other entertainment options in Las Vegas like bars, clubs, restaurants, and golf courses.
After all, casino workers and “essential workers” are considered low skill workers and expendable, which is just a fancy adjective that means that dealers and security guards will be quickly replaced if they die.
When Anderson Cooper tried to show her a graphic that demonstrated the spread of coronavirus from a casino in Macau, she quickly shot him down.
"This isn't China, this is Las Vegas, Nevada," said the Mayor.
Yikes. She sounds more and more like the mayor in the first Jaws movie that insisted they keep the beaches open, despite the pleas of science and law enforcement that a ginormous predator is still feeding on their residents. When it comes down to big bucks, especially billions in gambling dollars, who gives a flying fuck about public safety?
It's Las Vegas after all... the greedheads and fatcats could care less about the safety of their customers. They've been pushing degeneracy and poor decision making for decades, especially with the "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!" mantra.
Well, maybe they should have a new mantra. "What you can't see, won't kill you. Let's gamboooool!"
Goodman insisted that Las Vegas should be the "control group" and she tossed out references to a placebo and Typhoid Mary. Yes, she name-checked Typhoid Mary.
She also suggested that if any casinos have a lot of infections, then that specific casino should be shut down, while others remain open.
"You're offering nothing other than being a cheerleader. I don't understand. Do you not have any sense of responsibility?" shot back Cooper.
"You didn't have people with Ebola on a casino floor," said Cooper
"Well we don't know that," retorted Goodman in a reply that felt like it should have been a sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus.
In an interview with Katy Tur, Mayor Goodman also said, "Let the businesses open and competition will destroy that business if, in fact, they become evident that they have disease, they're closed down. It's that simple."
Instead of shit talking nonsense on CNN, Mayor Goodman should have been calling upon the federal government to ramp up widespread testing. Nevada has been one of those "don't ask, don't test" states, so no one truly has any idea how bad it is in southern Nevada. One thing is certain, shutting down casinos might have saved countless lives because casinos are breeding grounds for filth and germs. But even if Nevada flattened the curve, they're susceptible from asymptomatic out-of-town gamblers transmitting COVID-19 from wherever they caught it in their hometown and then spreading it in Sin City.
