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(Photo:
Anna Moneymaker for the Fake News New York Times 11-4-2020) NevadaLabor.com
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BARBWIRE
BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 11-25-2020 Sparks Tribune /
UPDATED 11-29 and 11-30-2020 GMT / Expansions in blue
We have met the enemy and he is us
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public" " — Popular revision of a statement by Baltimore Evening Sun columnist H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)s
Millions of lemmings
are jumping over the cliff this week, risking death and disability for themselves
and their loved ones. Such chivalry. Such valor. Such freakin' stupidity!
Anybody want to attend a South Dakota motorcycle convention?
"If we get it, we get it," said a middle-aged S. Dakota cycle mama
a few months ago. Wonder if she's still alive. That debacle in Trumpland turned
into a 20-state superspreader. Kinda like our
local bus system.
"I don't care, I want to see my babies," one woman told an interviewer
at a swamped airport.
"We've got to live our lives," said some dude in a baseball cap.
Yeah, very shortened lives.
"After all these weeks, we deserve to get out and have a little fun,"
stated a ringy dingy co-ed.
"Don't travel anywhere," stated the patron saint of the pandemic,
Dr. Anthony Fauci of anyone at increased risk, adding "if there's
anything you want to clamp down on, it's bars."
The good doctor should have quit while he was
ahead: Don't travel anywhere. Anybody. Dammit!
I don't know why I keep wasting ink on warnings when so many people put pleasure
or convenience against the safety of themselves and others. Show your love
for your family by giving them time off from your holiday wonderfulness so
that you don't help any of them end their time on this little blue marble.
If you want to commit suicide, I'm a pro-choice libertarian. But please put
your affairs in order and do not take anybody with you, like grandma this
Thursday. And please jump into a deep gulch or abandoned mine so that you
won't be found for years. Why traumatize rescuers or first responders?
FIREFIGHTER: "Madame Librarian, your library's
on fire!"
LIBRARIAN: "You'll find all you need to know about firefighting in section
12-d. Have a nice day."
LOVE'S LABOURS LOST DEPT. Speaking of
fires, the recent Southwest Reno Pinehaven conflagration might have
been avoided had some of the homeowners followed thru on an advocacy organization
I wrote about years ago.
Some newly-Nevadan Caughlin Ranch transplants were concerned about
increasing development in the canyonlands and the hillcrests, the former a
safety concern, the latter, a visual blight burden. This was when a now-forgotten
regional policy of stopping construction on ridgelines was being raped and
pillaged. (Homes with an expansive valley view sell for much more.)
Last week, the Reno fire chief noted how burning canyons were almost impossible
for his first responders to access.
The community organization was never formed. I think the spark plugs decided
they had made a mistake moving here and went back to high-cost California
with a better school system.
Since then, there have been two devastating fires in that area of multi-million
dollar homes.
Whether it's disease or dismemberment, Americans are so damned short-sighted.
TOLJASO DEPT. On February
16, 2016, with 17 Republican candidates still in the race, I noted that the
cycles of American history foreshadowed a GOP victory that year and a Democratic
win in 2020. I'm now two for two.
SIX YEARS AGO TODAY.
The New York Times ran a quarter-page on my story, first
broken in this newspaper on Nov. 18, 2014, about the long record of racist
writings by Assembly Speaker-Designate
Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, also in this newspaper. With a little turbocharging
by hall of fame reporter
Dennis Myers, the story went worldwide and Ira stepped down.
He went on to the state senate. His former assembly seat is now help by his
wife, Alexis. My former Tribune colleague in columny is a very
sharp guy and a good writer. Alas and alack, he has never overcome his upbringing.
I occasionally pray for his enlightenment.
Ira should have at least sent me a card, or a six pack, or maybe flowers for
getting him into the Times with a photo. I'm still waiting.
IMMORTALITY. Reno-Sparks' oldest restaurant,
Casale's Halfway Club, made the Times on Nov. 11. In The Gray
Lady's ongoing "Those We've Lost: Faces from the Coronavirus Pandemic,"
they told the
story of Tony Stempeck, 63, who died of COVID-19 less
than a month after the death of his mom, Inez Casale Stempeck,
93. He died the day his new business cards arrived noting
that he had acquired his mother's title as owner-operator. Over the
years, the late Reno-Sparks
NAACP matriarch Dolores Feemster and I enjoyed an occasional ravioli
feast at Inez and Tony's place. The late hall
of fame Tribune columnist Travus T. Hipp was an Inez favorite.
Requiescant in pace, dear friends.
POTSHOTS AND PUNDITRY. If you would like
a few laffs, go to the front page of NevadaLabor.com for my
latest potshot at the president using a recent photo of him flipping the bird
to America. I did a websearch and was rather surprised that no one in
the world has reacted to the Times printing such a picture
— just as only I reacted to the dirtiest word in English on the front
page of the Reno Gazette-Journal a few months ago. (Unretouched
photo at NevadaLabor.com/)
George Carlin, where are you when we need you?
Scroll down a few screens at NevadaLabor.com
and you will see the 2016 and 2020 political satires of the year.
And a moldy oldie which I will bring back for the High Holly Days: Trump's
last hurrah as The Grinch.
Unjoy. Stay safe. Happy
Thanksgibleting.
¡Sí se puede!
Be
well. Raise hell.
Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon
my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (And my French.)
Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)
___________________
NevadaLabor.com/CesarChavezNevada.com
Editor Andrew Barbano is a 52-year
Nevadan whose reputation remains impervious to further augmentation
or denigration. He
is a member of Communications
Workers Local 9413/AFL-CIO and serves as first vice-president
of the Reno-Sparks NAACP.
As always, his comments are strictly his own. Barbwire
by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune
since 1988. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>
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