Barbwire by Barbáno: Bench warrants and G-forces

   Everybody knows the dice are loaded.
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
   Everybody knows the war is over.
Everybody knows the good guys lost.
   Everybody knows the fight was fixed.
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.
   That's how it goes. Everybody knows...
Everybody knows the scene is dead
   But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
   What everybody knows...
   Everybody talking to their pockets.
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
   and a long red rose.
   Everybody knows. Everybody knows.
That's how it goes. Everybody knows.

— Leonard Cohen, 1934-2016

I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island.
— Leon Russell, 1942-2016

Bench warrants and G-forces
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-9-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-10-2017 GMT / Expansions in blue.

As the old saying goes, Democrats don't win elections. Republicans lose them.

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Every few years, Democrats take a shellacking and sooner or later some unoriginal commentator notes that the Donkeykongs don't have a very deep bench.

Witness the 2010 gubernatorial campaign of Clark County Commission Chair Rory Reid, Senator Harry's kid. He was easily defeated by Gov. Veto El Obtúsè who at least did the body politick a favor by knocking out incumbent Gov. Jim the Dim in the GOP primary.

As I have oft-noted, the lobbyists who made Brian Sandoval a governor have followed a longstanding pattern. Their clients have waxed fat at the ledge as they've brokered their real and/or imagined juice over the executive suite.

Now going by three names on taxpayer-paid TV spots, accidental Republican Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt has served notice that he wants to succeed his grandpa Paul Laxalt, former Nevada governor (1967-71) and U.S. senator (1975-87). Adam is the son of former U.S. Sen. Peter Domenici, R-New Mexico, and Paul Laxalt's daughter.

Several unknown Democrats have declared for the 2018 gubernatorial primary. Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak has teased for years about filing. Garden-variety media award him credibility because of his $3 million bank account.

Barbwire spies report that the sour Sisolak probably couldn't carry his own Las Vegas district these days. Local officials have a hard time making their case statewide. The only ex-mayor to win Nevada's governorship was Reno's Richard Kirman in 1934, many years after leaving local politics. (See "Rory Rory quite contrary" Barbwire 19 Sept. 2010.)

So what to do with a thin bench against Laxalt's taxpayer-subsidized TV? How about Clark County Commissioner Christine Giunchigliani? Her credentials are far deeper than young Reid's or Laxalt's. "Chris G" was a teacher, union president and longtime legislative leader before running for the commission, the most powerful political body in Nevada. Which means she will have no problem raising money, as Sisolak and Reid demonstrate.

Is she hungry enough? Make some calls to whet the appetite of the G-Force.

KOCHTOPUS KAPERS. Laxalt the Lesser has already scared northern Nevada Congresscritter Mark Amodei (R-Carson City) out of the governor's race. Amodei is still courting the moonhowler right as evidenced by his vote to cut off health care to tens of thousands of his constituents and worse.

Amodei reportedly delivered the keynote address to the local chapter of Americans for Prosperity in Reno on March 31. AFP is the Koch Brothers' most overt among a plethora of dark money propaganda vehicles. All, alas and alack, are fully tax deductible, which means you and I are paying them to pollute the political pond with their own ill-gotten petroleum pusillanimy

86'D AT THE LEDGE, PART DEUX. After substantially expanding and cross-linking to most of my websites, the blow-by-blow version of my April 18 column is now available at Barbwire.US. I have also proudly sent a notice to lawmakers and staff, any of whom may be carrying concealed cannon down Carson way.

Forewarned is forearmed. Don't go down there unless absolutely necessary.

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

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 —> May Day for Labor Day
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Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-18-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-20, 4-21, 4-22, 4-23 and 4-25-2017 GMT.
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Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-7-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 3-9 and 3-12-2017
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Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-14-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 2-16, 2-17 and 2-21-2017
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TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY: FEEL UP YOUR FIRE METER. The Reno Gazette-Journal did big spreads on three consecutive 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)

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.

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.