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White
sheets and dirty laundry
Expanded from
the 6-29-2008 Daily Sparks Tribune
Updated 9-14-2008,
9-25-2011, 6-5-2014,
10-21-2014
My wife Betty used to say that you are never given more than you can handle. She was correct, but so was the great comedian W.C. Fields who eloquently demonstrated that it's the small stuff that can drive you freakin' nuts.
Herewith, a bunch of little irritations that loom larger as they gather.
Saturday, June 28, 2008, 2:37 p.m. PDTWhite sheets & bull sheets
The neverending storyDear Bill:
Good to see that the laundry found your white sheets in time for weekend festivities.
I wrote about guys who think like you just last Sunday.
I think you may also want to read tomorrow's column when it posts.
Enjoy.
Be well. Raise hell.Andrew Barbano
Barbwire.TV
From: Retro Bill
Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:34:54 GMT
Saturday, June 28, 2008, 1:34 p.m. PDT
Subject: Who needs to "change" ?Boy if this isn't the truth!
As you watch the flooding here in the Midwest, have you noticed that there are no farmers running around with stolen plasma TV's or holding stolen liquor over their heads.There's no looting or yelling Where's Bush' FEMA? Where's my check?', or 'Why isn't the Gov't. out here saving me and my farm?'
Likewise, I've also noticed there are no reports of any other country coming to help or sending aid.
And where are Reverends Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton?
Shocking contrast isn't it???!!!!
"Among voters who say race matters, McCain leads Obama by almost 20 points."
— ABC News, 6-22-2008
The south has risen again: Racism means never having to say you're sorry
Barbwire / 9-14-2008Freedom loving racists
Barbwire / 6-22-2008
1. The Third Epoch of American Slavery is here, right now, but it has another name. It's called our prison system. So ventured Mary Valencia Wilson as we discussed the most important TV show you will never see.
As I noted last week, KNPB TV-5 bumped what is arguably Bill Moyers' most important program from prime time to 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.It included the best discussion of current American race relations I have seen in decades, preceded by two chillingly important bits of history.
"Moyers discussed America's inherent racism with two historians and promoted a TV show which I hope KNPB will air," I noted.
Be careful what you wish for.
After first airing it on high-definition channels which only those with expensive new TV sets can receive, Channel 5 did rerun Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, a documentary produced by descendants of the largest slave-trading family in American history.
Trouble was, they did not place it on the schedule. Unless you were watching at midnight Saturday, you missed it. Pouring salt into the wound, TV Guide carried a listing that the bumped Moyers show would re-air last Friday in prime time on Channel 5. Instead, they ran a Moyers program from 2006.
The bumped Moyers Journal had an interview with Douglas Blackmon, author of Slavery by Another Name, a history of the reimposition of slavery in the deep south from 1880 to just after World War II. Black men were imprisoned for trumped up crimes, then sold to industrial plants and mines where they lived and died under horror movie conditions, the second epoch of American slavery.
The third was pointed out by the amazing Ms. Valencia Wilson, who once marched with César Chávez. Making China look lenient, the U.S. incarcerates one in four of the world's prisoners. A disproportionate number are dark-skinned people increasingly performing work for private contractors at slave wages. Meanwhile, our schools starve.
Slavery is alive and well right here on the High Desert Plantation. Las Vegas has long been recognized as the U.S. hub of slavery and underage forced prostitution.
2. MIRROR, MIRROR: At the end of the show you were not allowed to see, Traces of the Trade filmmaker Katrina Browne says "all of us inherit this unfinished business."
That is exactly the theme of Rev. John Auer's quarterly retrospectives on the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the 40th anniversary year of his assassination.
A full slate of programs will take place at the venerable First United Methodist Church in downtown Reno on the last weekend of July. This installment will include song, dance, drawing and writing as part of Artown.
3. BARBWIRE.TV returns to its permanent time slot on Charter cable channel 16 this Tuesday from 2:00 to 4;00 p.m. and every weekday thereafter. The live call-in line is (775) 682-4144.
I dwell a lot on the foibles and fables of Gov. Jim the Dim, and recent talk-rock shows have been no exception. Did anyone notice how, in Thursday's televised address to the state, the guv trashed the 2003 tax hikes signed into law by his fellow Republican predecessor?If those increases were so bad, why didn't our taxophobic CEO ask the legislature to repeal them last week as they were forced to destroy state programs which will result in peoples' deaths?
4. GOD SAVE US, because our elected officials apparently won't. That's becoming an all-too-familiar refrain. Not to worry. A cadre of zealots who believe in government by the Christian Bible is once again fielding candidates for office right here in River City.
Starting on January 25, 1998, I began warning about adherents of the extremist National Federation of Republican Assemblies (not part of any state's lower house of elected officials). They believe in theocracy, domestic ayatollahs carrying a cross. Their websites have taken down that extremist aspect, but I have the smoking guns.
Ayatollahs are always with us
Update 10-21-2014
Update 6-5-2014
Update 9-25-2011
Update 1-9-2011
Update 6-13-2010
Update 10-25-2009
Update 10-13-2002
Update 10-25-1998In a bizarre twist, they seem to have made common cause with the supporters of Libertarian-Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, who convened a rump state convention in Reno yesterday.
Complete links to past installments on this sect will be linked to the online edition of this column. We will discuss this further at Barbwire.TV this week.
Tune in, turn on, call in and tell a friend.
5. While we're on the subject of morality, has anyone asked John Ascuaga if, upon conclusive proof, will he consider returning the stolen millions allegedly gambled away at his club by an addict-embezzler employed by Washoe County government?
If you buy a car which turns out to have been stolen, the original owner or his insurer may take possession even if you were unaware that the dealer was fencing stolen property. He never had good title to pass.The same would seem to apply to other stolen assets, like cash.
Wonder if Washoe County will pursue the matter.
6. HOT NEWS TIPS: Negotiations between my brothers and sisters at Teamsters Local 533 and the RTC/RIDE bus system resume on Tuesday at the Nugget. Look for some surprises.Up on the Comstock, local residents are chaffing under what they say is increasing petty harassment and intimidation by the Storey County Sheriffs Department. They have gone so far as to begin a legal defense fund and are looking for lawyers.
Be well. Raise hell.
The Bill Moyers Journal most northern Nevadans weren't allowed to see
Moyers previews Traces of the Trade
Author Douglas Blackmon talks with Moyers about his book,
SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME
Slavery by Another Name: The shameful history of the reimposition of slavery in the U.S. from the 1880's to about 1950Profs. Patterson and Loury discuss race in America with Bill Moyers
NOTE: As with Moyers, KNPB TV-5 did not air P.O.V.'s Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North when and where most Nevadans could get it.
Channel 5 over-the-air and cable analog ran Thursday, June 26, 3:00 a.m.
High Definition Only: Tuesday, June 24, 7:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.
Source: pbs.org
...and more ammo
Nevada Legislature
State of Nevada
Secretary of State
Clark County
City of Las Vegas
Reno City Council
Sparks City Council
Washoe County Commission
Washoe Registrar of Voters
The Dean's List
The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.
RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006
And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?
Phillips, Kevin; Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know
Harper's Magazine; May 2008; page 43
Phillips has authored numerous books on history and politics over the past 40 years. His most recent, Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, was published by Viking on April 15, 2008.NAOMI WOLF: Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps
There are some things common to every state that's made the transition to fascism. Author Naomi Wolf argues that all of them are present in America today.
Alternet 5-20-2007Johnson, Chalmers; REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE? A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States; Harper's magazine; January, 2007. I love it when heavy hitters validate what I've been saying for years in the tiny Sparks Tribune.
Barlett, Donald L. and Steele, James B.; America: What Went Wrong? (1992); America: Who Really Pays the Taxes? (1994); America: Who Stole the Dream? (1996) ; Andrews & McMeel/Universal Press Syndicate. For additional comments on the work of the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning team, use the NevadaLabor.com search engine and sweep for "Barlett."
Review of Alex Carey's Taking the Risk Out of Democracy:
Propaganda in the US and AustraliaThe Orwell Diversion by Alex Carey
Excerpted from the book available below
ORDER Taking the Risk Out of Democracy
Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty
By Alex Carey
Edited by Andrew Lohrey
Foreword by Noam Chomsky
University of Illinois Press
SEE ALSO: Lapham, Lewis H.; Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill, A Brief History; Harper's Magazine cover article; September, 2004, page 32.
By one conservative estimate, the corporate right has spent about $3 billion over the past three decades manufacturing public opinion to suit big business goals. Lapham's number covered the early 1970's to the present day. Alex Carey noted that by 1948, anti- New Deal corporate propaganda expenditures had already reached $100 million per year, not adjusted for inflation, for advertising alone. (Carey, ibid; page 79)
Adjusted for inflation, that 1948 $100 million becomes $801,659,751.04 in 2005 dollars.
Conservatives Help Wal-Mart, and Vice Versa
As Wal-Mart struggles to rebut growing criticism, it has discovered a reliable ally: conservative research groups.
New York Times 9-8-2006; Free registration may be required.BARBWIRE: Labor Day '94: People vs. corporate con job, 9-4-94
Chilling forecasts from Alex CareyBARBWIRE: The Nevada Republican Party Becomes Communist, 3-30-97
A prescient Plato on the dangers of oligarchyThe sands of time do not cloud the long memories of the sheiks of Araby
Barbwire 9-10-2006
Rinfret, Pierre A.; Peace is Bullish; Look magazine, 5-31-1966
Copyright © 1982-2008 Andrew BarbanoAndrew Barbano is a 39-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; a member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO, and the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune since 1988.
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