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BARBWIRE |
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¡Viva
Chávez!
César
Chávez Celebration XIV
/ Celebración
de César Chávez XIV
Wednesday
30 March 2016
/ Miércoles
30 de Marzo 2016
Highlights
of the 2015 event at Circus Circus Reno
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—
Leonard Cohen
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If
only Shakespeare had written the Constitution
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 1-26-2016 Sparks Tribune
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PACK! We
Don't Need No Education—>
Neverending Barbwire Series Support the project at http://resurge.tv#donate SUING
FOR SCHOOLS If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs and Unions — new power to the people on the public airwaves The
program premiers were available to every television set in the region
because of a high-mileage media hybrid. The
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The U.S Constitution was mostly composed by future president James Madison in late 18th Century English.
Too bad he had no flair
for early 17th Century Shakespeare.
In the longrunning sit-com Two and a Half Men, screwoff urchin Jake
Harper (played by Angus T. Jones) protests that his school assignment,
Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, is not written in English.
If only the Constitution were so arcane, we might not have the likes of madcap
Ammon Bundy freezing his buns off in Oregon and asserting that the federal
government has no power over him unless the local sheriff grants it.
That's the same doofus constitutional scholarship that landed actor Wesley
Snipes in prison for tax evasion.
In addition to Madison's text, there are more than two centuries of amendments,
legislation, court decisions, regulations, treaties and presidential executive
orders which impact every aspect.
Bundy is a sideshow compared to the union-busting case currently in front of
the U.S. Supreme Court (Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association).
The plaintiff asserts
that public employees don't have to pay for union services even if they receive
union benefits in states which have passed "agency shop" laws.
Republican State Controller Ron Knecht, proving that college degrees
don't guarantee depth, recently wrote in the Elko Daily Free Press that
it's like a magazine subscription. If you don't re-subscribe, you don't have
to pay.
Actually, in Nevada, which has no agency shop law, about four in 10 workers
get a free ride courtesy of dues-paying union members.
The chiseling minority
receive union pay, benefits and representation for nothing, the equivalent of
getting Knecht's magazine for free.
Union busters assert a First Amendment right to freebies on grounds of
freedom of speech and assembly (free association).
OK, two can play that game. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments
mandate that no person may be deprived of property without due process of law.
Taking union member dues to service non-members certainly fits that description.
That's two amendments for the good guys vs. one for the bad guys.
Constitutional checkmate?
Perchance to dream.
MAJ. JOHN ARTHUR RIGGS, 1946-2016. The longtime Sparks resident, holder
of a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts, died Jan. 12. His was a
lifetime of service to America and Nevada. The UNR grad established full-time
schools in the state prison system and was also a longtime parole and probation
officer.
He served as state president of the Nevada Jaycees (Junior Chamber of
Commerce) and commander of Reno Camp 25 of the Sons of Union Veterans of
the Civil War.
My friend John will be memorialized at 10:00 a.m. on Jan. 26 at Mountain
View on Stoker Ave. in northwest Reno.
HAPPY TALK. "The happiest human activity
is sex and the second-unhappiest is Facebook." So reports the venerable
Harper's Magazine in its February edition.
I would have guessed right on one of out two.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
The Underbelly of the News—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
BARBWIRE WEB EXTRAS... TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY: FEEL UP YOUR FIRE METER. The Reno Gazette-Journal did big spreads on threeconsecutive Sundays (Sept. 14, Sept. 21 and Sept. 28, 2014) on NV Energy smart meter fires. Welcome aboard. Barbwire readers were two years ahead on the fire meter issue. (Touch a Smart Meter, Go to Jail — 11 October 2012
FIRE METER UPDATES: THE NEVADA FIRE MARSHALL'S INVESTIGATION concluded "don't worry,
be happy." I'm still worried and will continue fondling NVE's precious equipment —> If your smart meter feels very hot, not just from sunshine, call 911.
In its Sunday 21 Dec. 2014 front page headline major story, the Reno Gazette-Journal published results of the NVEnergy-commissioned "don't worry, be happy" echo study. On 1-27-2015, the RGJ published an analysis based on veteran reporter Anjeanette Damon's review of more than 1,000 pages of documents. Barbwire bottom line: NVE handles this like auto manufacturers handle defects —> It's cheaper to pay legal settlements after people are injured or killed than to fix the problem.
Don'tcha worry 'bout a thing! If you can't trust your power company, whom can you trust?
DIDN'T THEY MAKE A MOVIE CALLED "THE INCREDIBLES"? On 2-6-2015, the RGJ reported that the Public Utilities Commission has ordered NVE to hire an independent laboratory to review the material. UPDATE: The report said all is well. I still recommend feeling up your fire meter on a regular basis.
ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is. A thousand thanks to those who keep sending show suggestions.
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"Media
is the plural of mediocre."
— Jimmy Breslin |
Stay tuned.
I encourage you to donate to the cause at Barbwire.TV/ The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accountants for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet. This is important. We've got a lot of work to do
Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
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Andrew
Barbano is a 47-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 and DoctorLawyerWatch.com/
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 Sparks Tribune since
1988.
Peruse
the Underbelly of the News —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
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Smoking
Guns... Leading
questions and lead-headed leaders In
Sparks, politics isn't personal, just business If
you can't trust Dear Abby, whom can you trust? Open
season on law-breaking dangerous drones Faraday's
fair name befouled in fallow fields of Vegas This
is not the America anyone's God blessed And
we didn't even get kissed afterward Dirty
deeds done dirt cheap — again and again Turf
and training: Dirty deeds done dirt cheap On
artificial turf, don't breathe unless necessary Sorcerer's
apprentices work cheap in Nevada Weekend
at Bernie's with Eugene McCarthy's grandchildren Last
of the dinosaurs: Grease for corporate gears The
Donald and The Church Lady run among us
We
Don't Need No Education
Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest 2013-14: BARBWIRE SCORES SIXTH NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION AWARD
2010
GOLD
HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years
in a row. RED
flags flying low over Sparks The
wrath of self-righteous racism
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Copyright © 1982-2016
Andrew Barbano
Andrew Barbano is a 47-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 moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
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