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A liberal case for a new, brutal death penalty
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-3-2019 Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-6-2019 GMT / Expansions in blue
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After a half-century in Nevada, I have finally become convinced of the value of the death penalty.

By the standards of Adolf Schicklgruber, Pol Pot or Joseph Stalin, 200,000 deaths is minor league. But those bastards are dead and immune from justice.

The assassins of 200,000 with many more in the pipeline are very much alive, filthy rich and killing more people all over the world every day.

These capitalists deserve capital punishment. Their names are legion: Purdue Pharma, Rhodes, Cardinal Health, McKesson, Amerisource Bergen, Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, Malinckrodt, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Allergan and many others.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declared that fictitious, soulless, immortal persons, aka corporations, are people with all the rights of carbon-based life, including the purchase of politicians. OK, let's play.

Evidence is piling up everywhere that the nation's major drug pushers have long known that Oxycontin, Oxycodone and their spinoffs are highly addictive. And they sold opium derivatives like candy to children.

The Sackler family, which owns Purdue and Rhodes, has been stashing billions overseas to protect their criminal organization's estimated $13 billion personal net worth. (Websearch at will.)

Richard Sackler "urged the company to blame the patients. ' We have to hammer on abusers in every way possible," he stated, adding "They are the culprits and the problem. They are reckless criminals.' " (NY Times 4-1-2019)

Since so many of their customers die prematurely, the sack-and-burners had to find new sources of revenue. They didn't have the luxury of hooking teens into a 50-year nicotine addiction.

The Sacklers not only profited from creating the problem but also got into the business of remedies by starting drug addiction treatment companies and developing overdose remedies. That's classic American illegal monopolistic behavior known as vertical integration whereby one mafia family controls all aspects of the business from production to end user.

I thus nominate America's corporate drug dealers for consideration as Advertising Age marketers of the year. And for the death penalty.

If corporations are people under the law, then punishment for intentional mass murder (that's redundant, I know) is in order.

I've long favored the death penalty for corporate killers. I've also long been ridiculed by friends for saying it. "Come back to the real world, Andrew," said a labor leader after a worker's death was caused by intentional company negligence.

Now, the disease is ubiquitous. Drug addiction is the latter day version of bubonic plague. Companies that murder their customers should be taken over, liquidated and the proceeds used to remedy the damage. Sucker...er, stockholders get nothing for having funded and profited from such atrocities.

Liberals should come aboard because this entails a positive redistribution of ill-gotten wealth which will make the society more egalitarian. It will also undercut moonhowler accusations that liberals don't advocate personal responsibility. Conservatives who favor an eye for an eye will have the opportunity to prove it. Many say a death penalty is a deterrent. Let's find out.

None of this should exempt the likes of the Sacklers from personal civil and criminal liability, starting with sackcloth and ashes. Then pull their passports, put them on ankle monitors and confiscate their yachts and private jets.

Let death give birth to justice for once.

SAY IT AIN'T SO, HARRY. A couple of weeks ago, my Sparks Tribune colleague in columny Harry Spencer wrote "Ever since the slaves were freed by Lincoln, their progeny has been able to compete on the same level as other Americans."

Please tell me that's a huge typographical error and not a disappointing rewrite of history.

CESAR CHAVEZ CELEBRATION XVII drew an all-star crowd last Wednesday, starting with Gov. Sisolak and international country music hall of famer (and longtime Nevadan) Lacy J. Dalton. We lost a few attendees to the flu and the weather, but the evening still broke records. Details at CesarChavezNevada.com/

I was honored to present both the gubernatorial and Washoe County Commission César Chávez Day proclamations to a UNR-sponsored gathering on Wells Ave. last Sunday. One year, there were four César events. Next year, maybe we'll go for five.

WASHOE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS would be able to implement rent-hike justification ordinances under Senate Bill 398 requested by Sen. Julia Ratti, D-Sparks. It was heard by a senate committee last Monday. Stay tuned.

¡Sí se puede!