Site map
SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions

Je Suis Charlie

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

¡Viva Chávez!
César Chávez Celebration XV / Celebración de César Chávez XV
Wednesday 29 March 2017 / Miércoles 29 de Marzo 2017
2017 info and highlights from the record-breaking 2016 event at Circus Circus Reno

Death Panels, Part Deux
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-14-2017 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

Ebenezer Scrooge learned the easy way that stinginess kills. Tiny Tim got a reprieve. Not so us.

To his credit, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval went against GOP moonhowlers, expanded Medicaid and insured tens of thousands of lower-income Nevadans under Obamacare.Nonetheless, Nevada as usual sits at the bottom of the barrel in this category, spending less on Medicaid than any other state.

Under one possibility in the current proposed Obamacare "fix," Medicaid levels may be forever frozen at 2016 levels, which will lead to (Sarah Palin alert!) death panels. See below.

Former Sen. Joe Neal, D-N. Las Vegas, once told me that the late Gov. Mike O'Callaghan (1971-79) lived to see his two greatest achievements dismantled by his successors.

Whenever the nation's stingiest budget needs balancing, Nevada governors and lawmakers always hit the weakest first. We washed our hands of the physically disabled by privatizing injured worker insurance under Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn (1999-2007). The euphemistically named "workers compensation" was created to put government in the shoes of employers who might otherwise get sued for unsafe working conditions, saving them billions.

The Rural Mental Health Clinics Program pioneered by Big Mike never recovered from the cuts imposed by conservative Democrat Bob Miller (1989-99) in consultation with future Gov. Guinn. Cow County health care remains a life-threatening danger zone. (Barbwire 2 April 2006 et seq.)

Medicaid caps lead to rationed health care which leads to death panels where the sickest are left to suffer and die. (See Arizona 2010 [1]) We've seen all this before with Ronald Reagan's "New Federalism" where programs were turned into block grants which then suffered the death of a thousand cuts. Formerly financially sound states and municipalities starting going broke.

Streets in Omaha, Nebraska, are being ground back to gravel due to lack of funds. Sparks-Reno may be next because of all the corporate welfare doled out to billionaires who don't pay taxes for the growth they cause.

Gov. Sandoval has proposed cutting $20 million from the mental health budget which will severely impact the Sparks complex on Galletti Way. He says he trusts Tsar Donaldov Vladimirovitch to cover his play. Good luck with that.

I've invited the governor to speak at César Chávez XV at Circus Circus March 29. No governor has ever attended. Both Sandoval and his predecessor have forgotten as often as they've remembered to issue the legally mandated César Chávez Day proclamation. Mr. Sandoval can bring it with him and his family. All are welcome. See CesarChavezNevada.com/ The event's purpose is to celebrate the great labor leader's legacy and listen to officials and community leaders of all political persuasions who live it and work it every day.

Local workers will visit congressional representatives this week. Show up. Watch NevadaLabor.com or get on my e-bulletin list.

César Chávez wanted us to take care of each other. We still have a lot of work to do.

¡Sí se puede!

Dio benedica l'America.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

[1] Emanuel, Glickman and Gudbranson, "A Republican Plan to Ration Health Care," The New York Times op-ed, 8 March 2017, at A23.

ONLINE EXTRAS —>

END OF TIMES SURVIVAL KIT. Defend yourself with humorous or humorless but always-peerless predictions for 2017 by subscribing to the Barbwire Confidential News Service.

Last year's dark foreshadowings unfortunately became reality. I thus suggest inoculation by signing onto the HushHush! list at BallotBoxing.US/ It's cheap as well as enlightening entertainment

Subscribe today to get the exclusive End of Times Retrogression, a Procession for Progression, an Obsession to relieve Depression, Proselytizing Prayer for Divine Intercession at the Legislative Session. Don't wait— procrastination is the devil's dislocation. Hie thee hence to BallotBoxing.US/

THE GOOD DON. Nominations are afoot for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. Time to ramp up for world-famous Tribune photographer Don Dondero. Here's the compelling case for his induction.

SMOKING GUNS —> Positively negative
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-7-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 3-9 and 3-12-2017
7Equal Rights Betrayal
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-28-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 3-1, 3-3 and 3-6-2017
Reidless and Rudderless?
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-21-2017 Sparks Tribune
Kate Smith & Lady Gaga
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-14-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 2-16, 2-17 and 2-21-2017
"By the 1920s, pseudo-scientists and polemicists in the 1920s popularized the notion that Italians were a separate race from Anglo- Americans. 'There’s no doubt those ideas were still around in 1942.' ”