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Aug. 2012-Aug. 2013: the Barbwire's Silver Anniversary Year
Barbwire by Barbano premiered in the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in those parts ever since. Tempus fugit.

The Post-dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune
Updated 9-8-2012

It doesn't take much courage to predict the future, especially if you haven't made any big bar bets. So here goes.

In May of last year, former Tribune reporter Joshua Silavent wrote a column I've oft-quoted, largely because of his world-class headline: The Post-dated Recession.

The kid got the future right and did so in just three words.

"No matter your opinion of the stimulus package — and there certainly is good reason to object to the $787 billion spending measure — the basic truth is that it shored up state, county and municipal budgets over the last two years," Silavent wrote.

As Sparks City Hall reporter, he had a front row seat.

The stimulus "covered deficits, paid teachers, supported infrastructure projects and funded social services, among other things," Silavent continued, "but that injection of money is quickly drying up, and though the economic recession officially ended after 18 months in June 2009, its ramifications are just now hitting home for state and local governments across the nation.

"Indeed, the recession has been post-dated. Only now are the checks coming due for the collapse of the housing market, the financial shock on Wall Street and the subsequent unemployment surge.

"In Nevada, this is evident in the state’s continued high rates of foreclosures, bankruptcies and joblessness," he wrote.

"The pain will be felt most strongly among society’s vulnerable populations. Seniors, the mentally ill and at-risk youth are sure to be uniquely harmed as public safety and health care funding are slashed. Moreover, cuts to education will undoubtedly produce a less-skilled and under-qualified workforce, jeopardizing the nation’s competitiveness and subjecting young adults to a devalued job market.

"There is no doubt that deficits and debts are a serious concern for governments across the United States and must be addressed in a focused and timely manner. But anyone who thinks that you can have massive spending cuts and at the same time produce the economic growth necessary to throw off the shackles of the recession isn’t being intellectually honest.

"And much like the effects of the recession have been post-dated, so too will the full range of impacts arising from unprecedented spending cuts.

"That’s a prediction you can take to the bank," Silavent concluded.

Such circumstances usually torpedo the occupant of the White House, but not necessarily this year.

Had a charismatic populist been nominated by the Republicans or a new third party, he or she could have been formidable.

Think Louisiana's Huey P. Long.

Instead of the legendary Kingfish, the cowardly lions fielded the Scarecrow and the Tin Man. (I'll leave the no-brain/no-heart jokes to others.)

President Obama has them pretty well beaten already. The electoral beancounters view Myth Rumpney's chances as increasingly dim. His only realistic gambit lies in preventing millions of Democrats from voting, especially in Ohio. (Shades of Karl Rove 2004.)

Voter suppression campaigns have reached epidemic proportions nationwide. Paranoid and vicious voter i.d. laws are the new Jim Crow. Here in Mississippi West, the GOP has apparently blown none of the above off the ballot. [UPDATE 9-6-2012: Federal appellate judges put None of the Above back on the November ballot. Alleluia!]

Alas and alack, on both the federal and state levels, typically confused voters will probably again opt for divided government, which means stalemate, gridlock, treading water — pick your favorite cliché.

Silavent's post-dated recession will begin to hit hard about the middle of November. Somehow, the economy always gets pumped up in election years, even during a slump. Then things start to cruelly fall apart just before the day called Thanksgiving.

January will bring Barack Obama's second chance. He can start reading the Franklin D. Roosevelt playbook to dig us out of the hole. Or he can keep his cockamamie campaign promise to hurl us toward a European-style train wreck.

The former professor will be faced with a choice on how the history books will remember him: FDR or Herbert Hoover.

There will be a bloody silver lining if the Romney-Ryan White Guys ticket squeaks through. They will unequivocally, enthusiastically and disastrously implement Grecian austerity which will trigger Great Depression Part Deux.

The pain will be great and the nation itself might not survive. While it may be called the United States with laws on the books that say so, the country will of necessity devolve into economic regions, something I began writing about 30 years ago. (See the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com for references.)

No matter who wins, the winds of a long, cold winter are blowing early. Romney-Ryan will force the country to invent a new Roosevelt or Barack Obama will get a rare political do-over to become one.

Life will imitate art, in this case the old Fram Oil Filter commercials: You can pay me now or pay me later.

Silavent's painful post-dated check is coming due.

SUPPORT THE NEVADA CITIZEN TV PROJECT to re-establish a sorely needed non-corporate community channel in these parts.

As political ads increasingly shotgun your consciousness, do you not feel the burn — and the burning need?

You may donate at ReSurge.TV or contact me or burn, baby, burn.

A people's TV station will act as an antacid.

Thank you.

WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES: Catch the Barbwire Labor Day column at NevadaLabor.com/

Be well. Raise hell.

____________
Andrew Barbano is a 43-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition. Followed by a moon shadow TRAVUS T. HIPP, 1937-2012 ADIÓS, COMPADRE — Our friend Travus, 75, passed away peacefully between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. PDT on 18 May 2012 at his home in Silver City, Nevada. The sun is in eclipse as I write this at 6:30 p.m. on May 20. CHANGE OF VENUE (5-22-2012) — Adiós in Silver City, Nevada, Saturday, May 26, 2012 —> Updated 5-27-2012 — > The auld church where Travus lived and died proved too small for the expected multitude, so gathering, gnoshing and remembering commenced at the Silver City Community Center, 385 High Street, at 10:00 a.m. PDT. The graveside memorial service began at High Noon. Travus was buried next to his rock star companion Lynne Hughes, a short walk away. My remembrance of Lynne from the 3-21-1993 Daily Sparks Tribune has been linked to Travus' formal obituary at this website. All memories accepted for permanent posting hereat. Stay tuned for pictures and stories of the appropriately rainy day. Thanks for all your kind words. Keep up the good work and the good fight. Be well. Raise hell. Andrew Barbano Barbano remembers the artist Reno Gazette-Journal 5-25-2012 NEW — Travus' life story and obituary Travus' last column in the 5-20 Daily Sparks Tribune Debra K. Reid photo / Sparks Tribune Jan. 4, 2009 Travus T. Hipp & Tales of Nevada's Futures Passed Expanded from the 6-3-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune      At bottom, he was an artist who used his voice to soar and slice, a tenor for the tenor of our times. Many of his mourning California listeners talk about the vocal spells he wove, how he soundly organized the noise of daily life into music that entertained, engaged, enlightened, educated, enthralled and occasionally enflamed. [From the saga of Travus T. Hipp and contributions by The Barbwire to the May 25 Reno Gazette-Journal and May 26, 2012, Daily Sparks Tribune.] POWERFUL PUNDITORY PANJANDRUMS: Compelling guest commentary including random samplings of the wisdom of Travus T. Hipp Nevada Press Assn. annual award winners announced. HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   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 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries ...and more ammo Economist: This is a true depression Elliott Parker Guest Editorial / Las Vegas Sun / 11-27-2011 The plight of the paper pushers The great recession made bashing public workers a national sport Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 11-23-2011 Bury the Bad News with Rose-colored Reporting How urgent can economic troubles be if leaders say things are getting better? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 11-23-2011 Fact-free nation: Inside the lie machine Mother Jones Magazine May-June 2011 / Cover story and in-depth analysis Bill Moyers: Welcome to the Plutocracy Money fights hard and it fights dirty Speech delivered at Boston University on 29 Oct. 2010 Part of the Howard Zinn Lecture Series Barbwire Corporate Welfare Archive Cabellyup.com From clear-cut forests to dirty Gulfstream waters, this land belongs to old BP TOLJASO LONG TIME AGO BP/ARCO: The greasy root of our evils Barbwire / Daily Sparks Tribune 9-10-2006 The awful truth — Read it and weep, fellow suckers Labor Day 2009: Rise of the Vampire Corpobots Expanded from the 9-6-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Angry Americans and Freudian fraud Using war to market cigarettes Expanded from the 8-23-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune BARBWIRE Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive Propaganda fuels gasoline price fixing Barbwire 8-14-2005 Donate to the cable ratepayer legal defense fund at our PayPal-enabled ReSurge.TV Consumer War Room 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 5-20-2007 Johnson, 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. Review of Alex Carey's Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Propaganda in the US and Australia The 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 Carey       BARBWIRE: The Nevada Republican Party Becomes Communist, 3-30-97 A prescient Plato on the dangers of oligarchy The 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

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Copyright © 1982-2012 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 43-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano premiered in the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in those parts ever since. Tempus fugit.

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