Barbwire by Barbano: Suicide for citizens but not political careers

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   They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on Earth
   But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the virgin birth
   I remember one Christmas morning
A winter's light and a distant choir
   And the peal of a bell
and that Christmas tree smell
   and eyes full of tinsel and fire

   They sold me a dream of Christmas
They sold me a Silent Night
   And they told me a fairy story
Till I believed in the Israelite
   And I believed in Father Christmas
And I looked to the sky with excited eyes
   'Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise

JESUS

was a radical, nonviolent revolutionary who hung around with lepers, hookers and crooks
wasn't American and never spoke English
was anti-wealth, anti-death penalty, anti-public prayer (Matthew 6:5)
but was never anti-gay
never mentioned birth control
never called the poor lazy
never justified torture
never fought for tax cuts for the wealthiest Nazarenes
never asked a leper for a co-pay
and was a long-haired, brown-skinned, homeless community-organizing, anti-slut-shaming middle-eastern Jew.

— I Believe in Father Christmas
By Greg Lake and Peter Sinfield (1975)
With a little help from Sergei Prokofiev
Listen to Max Volume on KOZZ 105.7 for the full rendition.

@JohnFugelsang
(as forwarded by Shayne del Cohen)
Barbwire Christmas carols from days of futures past

Suicide for citizens but not political careers
Lives are on the line —> The bus line
BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 12-30-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 12-31-2020 & 1-1-2021 GMT

Greatest Hits Dept.

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT

Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame

Support Don Dondero
and Jake Highton next
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10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th Nevada Press Association award

GOLD 2017-18

2018 First-Place Winners
From the depths of despair to the den of iniquity & holy of holies

"Excellent work. These are some of the most moving columns I've read."
— NPA contest judge/9-29-2018

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Bronze 6-pack
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1997 Pulitzer Prize entries

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

The Dean's List

The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.

RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
TOP SECRET— HushHush!

Geewillikers Batman! No malarkey? Heavy-hitting local leaders are telling people to avoid our superspreader bus system? Have the powerful finally figured out that the great unwashed are human, too?

Not quite. But even backhanded support is better than no support at all.

KOLO TV-8 is airing a spot with a bunch of local luminaries begging people to stay home on New Year's Eve. That's just plain un-American in a state where drunk driving is considered a constitutional right.

The commercial leads off with local bus boss Bill Thomas, followed by Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson, Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve, Washoe County Commissioner Bob Lucey and county health officer Kevin Dick.

They all sing some version of the same tune: Stay safe and stay home on New Year's Eve.

As a disincentive, Mr. Thomas and the Regional Transportation Commission mass transit system have canceled New Year's Eve free rides, although regular bus service remains.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to the frontline transit workers who have maintained essential transit service during the past ten months," Thomas said in a press release.

The official statement added that "masks are required when taking transit and transit passengers are reminded to practice social distancing while onboard and at transit stops."

Pardon me while I take my antihistamines because I just broke out in a rash. I'm allergic to bullshit.

RTC propaganda even states that they are 99.9 percent mask-compliant. Au contraire, chingades madres.

Do any of these people actually ride the buses they are getting paid to mismanage? Do any of our hallowed public officials ever talk to drivers? (Anybody who wants a dose of reality, please call me to make appointments.)

As best I can determine, they get their information from Mr. Thomas and his taxpayer-funded media propaganda machine.

RTC's foreign-owned subcontractor, Keolis-19, has threatened drivers with firing if they insist that Trumpistas and other lemmings wear masks.

It's a national disease. Keolis also manages part of Los Angeles mass transit and fired an African-American driver recovering from breast cancer for insisting on masks because her immune system was compromised.

Nice guys, eh wot? But the local guy brags about keeping ridership at pre-plague levels.

The new KOLO TV-8 propaganda commercial even includes the station's general manager Matt Eldridge, proof positive that "KOLO Cares." Especially for those with paid ad budgets.

The real star of the Channel 8 spot is Washoe County Commission Chair Bob Lucey who says "at RTC, we care about keeping you safe."

My rash itches.

As the Reno Gazette-Journal noted two weeks ago, Lucey chaired a county commission meeting filled with death-desiring lemmings ranting against business regulations designed to keep people safe during the plague. Masks were optional, as was public safety, something Mr. Lucey has learned can be ignored with impunity as Regional Transportation Commission Chair. He was just re-elected, praise the Lord.

"I had a full agenda and didn't have time to remind people to wear masks," Lucey said.

County staff did not disinfect the microphone and lectern between speakers. Aachoo.

Meanwhile, RTC bus boss Bill Thomas is saying that RTC supports compliance with Gov. Steve Sisolak's safety mandates.

Everyone noted above has been hit many times by screams for safer conditions by my sisters and brothers at the Teamsters Union and the Reno-Sparks NAACP.

No one has responded. Officials at the federal, state and local levels have passed the buck: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam, local police departments, both city councils and the county commission all the way up to Sisolak's office. They talk a good game. They do nothing. About two dozen local drivers have been infected with COVID-19, as have some support staff and RTC employees. Two drivers have spent time in hospital intensive care units.

Would death bring attention? No, just more PR.

Meanwhile, upwards of 20,000 passengers a day ride the three local bus systems with drivers powerless to enforce safety rules. (See NevadaLabor.com for smoking gun proof.)

Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve just announced a new mental health PR campaign this week as her town drips with disease. I believe the appropriate clichéd analogy has something to do with using Band-AIds to treat gunshot wounds.

Hope is on the way. Reno is now proud to be the first member of the Hopeful Cities Campaign, another great example of compassionate conservatism. Compassionate means they care. Conservative means you're on your own in the Mitch McConnell fan club.

Contact info to make your opinion known to our fine public servants will be available with the expanded web version of this unfortunately oft-repeated paean at NevadaLabor.com/

The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County (RTC) is comprised of Washoe County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung (R) and Bob Lucey (R) and Reno City Councilmembers Neoma Jardon (R) and Oscar Delgado (D). The City of Sparks seat has been filled by Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson as of Dec. 18, 2020. (Click here for multiple RTC e-mail addresses.)

MOLTO GRATO. I am indeed most grateful to everyone who responded so positively to my Christmas Day Barbwire Confidential bulletin. If I could make a few lives brighter during dark times, this all becomes worthwhile. Grazie.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

Hope you and yours enjoyed Happy High Holly Days
Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus/Chanukah/Thanksgibleting
Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad
HAPPY NEW YEAR / Feliz Año Nuevo / Felice Anno Nuovo
Frohe Weihnachten und beste Wuensche fuer 2021

¡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.)
___________________

Andrew Barbano is a 52-year Nevadan whose reputation remains impervious to further augmentation or denigration. He is executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, superannuated labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and BallotBoxing.US and SenJoeNeal.org and DoctorLawyerWatch.com and Protect Our Washoe.org and ChantalCoalition.org among others. He is a withdrawn-in-good-standing member of Culinary Local 226. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. He has lived in both northern and southern Nevada during his half-century+ in the Silver State. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988 and received its 10th Nevada Press Association award (6 of 10 first-place) at the 21 Sept. 2019 NPA annual convention in Ely. In 1996, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for a six-month investigative series. His multi-media road construction zone safety campaign for Laborers' Union Local 169 won a first-place award from the National Safety Council in a nationwide competition. (Such ephemera and about six bucks will get you a Latte Mocha Cotsafracas Chingade at just about any Starbux worldwide, guaranteed.) His work has appeared on CNN, in The New York Times, The Guardian of London/UK and more important publications.

CWA9413/AFL-CIO
BRWR X12/30 DeathWish/BRWR/OPSN20

A Barbwire Christmas carol in the time of plague

I believed in Father Christmas
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-19-2018 Sparks Tribune

The Sermon on Mount Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-25-2019 Sparks Tribune

So this is Christmas —> What have you done?
BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 12-23-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 12-25 & 12-27-2020 & 12-28-2020 GMT / Expansions in blue

I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on Earth
Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell
The Christmas we get we deserve

Greatest Hits Dept.

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT

Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame

Support Don Dondero
and Jake Highton next
Send endorsements

10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th Nevada Press Association award

The Grasshopper and
the Dragonfly
9-6-2017

Kicked off the Ledge
4-18-2017

NATIONAL NEWS FIRST-BREAK
Back to the Future in
Mississippi West Nevada
10-18-2017

Gold 2017
Don't ask Renown Med for marijuana to help your chemo
10-4-2016
We Don't Need No Education
Toxic turf threat ignored
12-13-2016
Kate Smith & Lady Gaga
2-14-2017

Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake
4-18-2013
2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon
5-30-2013
The politics of media ga-ga boosterism
3-20-2014

More statewide and national award winners

We Don't Need No Education—>
Neverending Barbwire Series

1997 Pulitzer Prize entries

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

The Dean's List

The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.

RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
TOP SECRET— HushHush!

Sen. Mitch McConnell resembles the latter remark.

Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau once defined "compassionate conservatism" during the administration of President Bush the Lesser.

"Compassionate means we care. Conservative means you're on your own."

After months of dawdling, Congress just passed a too little, too late relief bill that even Czar Donaldov thinks is more than 50 percent too small. And the money is free. Investors all over the globe are willing to loan money to the US Treasury at negative interest rates because we are still the safest place to stash cash.

The feds originally screwed up by failing to copy German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Rather than send millions to unemployment offices ill-equipped to handle the surge, Germany sent money to businesses and institutions to keep people employed. No long lines, no expensive re-training when things ratchet back up.

Here on the High Desert Plantation, some displaced folks haven't received dime one and often go hungry just a step away from homelessness.

Meanwhile, McConnell fiddled while America burned. When you are looking more soul-less than Donald Trump, you have really achieved the wildest heights of sadism.

We remain a very primitive species. Our artists and philosophers have been advising us for millennia about our collective malady and how to mitigate it. We fail to listen at our peril. Who needs clean air to breathe if you've got a respirator to do it for you? COVID-19's lesson in irony — or warning from God — is lost on so many of our self-absorbed selves.

I can quote wise persons from Jesus to John Lennon, but you've heard it all before.

So I'll quote the late Sir Sean Connery in his Oscar-winning role in The Untouchables: "What are you prepared to do?"

MEMENTO MORI. Death and Transfiguration are harsh themes at a time of year usually reserved for joy. C'est la guerre.

TOUCHED BY GREATNESS. This Sunday brings the 15th anniversary of the death of my wife, Betty Joyce Luffman Donlevy Barbano. She was 64 when pneumonia stopped her generous heart. It's also the fifth anniversary of the day I got to interview Sen. Bernie Sanders. Thrice.

Monday would have been the 72nd birthday of Nevada's greatest journalist, former Tribunite Dennis Myers, felled by a stroke at his Sparks home in August, 2019. He was the best that ever was and I will defend that point against all comers from Mark Twain on down.

I ran one campaign this year, nominating Dennis for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. He was elected. He already stood among only eight others in the Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniators Hall of Flames, a much more exclusive club. Next year, he will be the first journalist inducted into the César Chávez NevadaLabor.com Hall of Fame — if we hold César Chávez Celebration XVIII on the great labor leader's birthday, March 31. Cross your fingers, eyes, arms, legs and toes.

DORIS NACHTSHEIM, 1930-2020. The retired teacher and community leader died on Dec. 11. I had the honor of serving on the Reno Philharmonic Board with Doris when its founder, Maestro Gregory Stone, was turning the reins over to a new generation. Gregory's imperiousness was made palatable by his lovely wife, Inge, like Doris a teacher, who recruited Doris into the organization.

Unlike many, the old maestro and I got along very well. I never told him how much he resembled by late father.

Any artsy outfit is loaded with prima donnas, divas, egomaniacs and unrealistic dreamers. Doris was an island of calm sanity in what was always a rambunctious environment

A couple of years back, Firefighters Union President and Reno FD Battalion Chief Dick Nachtsheim spoke before the Reno-Sparks NAACP. I stopped the big guy on his way out the door and asked if he was related to Doris.

"Yep, my mom," he said, noting that he was one of the little kids on stage at many performances, including the burning at the stake of Joan of Arc, a Reno Opera Guild production.

Perhaps that subconsciously led him to his distinguished career.

SPEAKING OF OUT OF CONTROL FIRES. Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson has replaced Sparks Councilmember Kristopher Dahir on the board of the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County. Perhaps Hizzoner will show some chops and try to control a mass transit system that refuses to enforce social distancing and Gov. Steve Sisolak's mask mandate.

If epidemiologists are looking for patient zero in the current surge of plague infestations, check out the conditions 20,000-plus bus passengers and their drivers must endure every day.

I wonder if any of the current commission members ever ride the bus as former Sparks Councilman John Mayer did when he was on the bus board.

Much more at NevadaLabor.com/

CORREXION. I have been reliably informed that a recently re-elected Sparks Councilcritter is not a Republican but is registered as non-partisan. I'll be charitable and not soil the newspaper with his name at Christmastime.

He ran a dog whistle campaign of intolerance against an opponent openly of alternative procreative proclivity. Not very Christian at all but quite Trumpian, which may partially explain but by no means excuses my confusion.

So an apology is certainly in order. Mea maxima culpa to the Republican Party for my error in thinking this sot was one of yours.

Stay safe, take care of each other and be careful out there.

Happy High Holly Days to you and yours.

¡Sí se puede!

A Barbwire Christmas carol in the time of plague

I believed in Father Christmas
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-19-2018 Sparks Tribune

The Sermon on Mount Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-25-2019 Sparks Tribune

Transitions and decisions in a darkening winter
BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 12-16-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 12-18 & 12-22-2020 GMT / Expansions in blue

"How are you going to overlook the murders of six million people?" — Spencer Tracy in "Judgment at Nuremberg"

That line from the classic 1961 film has saturated my consciousness for a month. More than 74,000,000 voters punched Donald Trump's ticket. Average people, pundits, proselytizers, pretenders and poltroons have all overly examined the whys and wherefores.

Last Sunday, the Reno Kazoo-Journal added a couple thousand words about local precincts which had flipped either way since 2016. The words "virus" and "Covid" were not mentioned. Not. Once.

Perhaps Czar Donaldov has been right all along, perhaps it's just gone away.

Alas and alack, neither the plague nor its principal propagator will be going away anytime soon.

A conservative colleague of mine from Sacramento/San Francisco talk radio days called to "give me the opportunity to gloat."

I sent this in response: " I assume you voted for the Tsar as did many people I know. All in all, downticket, the GOP had a helluva good election. Just ask Nancy Pelosi. So, make your case for why you voted but address this: How do you forgive/ignore/overlook the deaths of more than 300,000 Americans?"

He didn't make it by deadline, so stay tuned online or next week's paper. And join in. If you voted for Trump, please tell me how you got past the plague and his responsibilities governing it. I'm trying to fathom the unfathomable. Please enlighten me.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. Lush Rambo's KKKOH Radio and all them there liberal rockers will be singing the same tune Wednesday, Dec. 16, at 6:00 p.m. Six of the seven major network TV stations (4, 5, 8, 8.3, 11 and 21) will also participate in the simulcast of "Fighting COVID together." Tune in, turn on, tell a friend.

GEORGIA ON MY MIND. Early voting is already underway to decide two U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia. If the Donkeykongs win both, Mitch McConnell loses his power to obtrude, obstruct and self-destruct. If the Trumpistas win either one, welcome to Great Depression 2. We've already had a taste of what's in store both in 2008 and this year. Those economic crunches will be cakewalks compared to what looms.

The official Coronavirus death count now stands at more than 300,000 Americans. It's probably closer to half a million because reportage was so sporadic early on. (According to Bob the Sphinx Woodward's recordings, Czar Donaldov knew how dangerous it was but chose to tell his fans not to worry. Well, Pollyanna was also a dizzy blonde, right? And Woodward sat shiva till his book was published in October. Silence constitutes complicity, dammit.)

Experts (FAKE NEWS ALERT!) say that despite the current limited vaccine rollout, 300,000 more will die betwixt now and the end of March.

Please go to NAACP.org and do what you and so many Nevadans did before November: Sign up to contact infrequent voters. It truly is a matter of life and death, perhaps for you and yours (Click here for more info). Speaking of life and death...

SUPERSPREADER MEETING. The morally obtuse Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County meets this Friday. Their agenda does not even touch on the fact that their mass transit system is a major source of the spike in COVID-19 infections in these parts.

Mask mandate? What mask mandate? Push it and you're fired!

So let the five elected commissioners know what you think of the job they are doing by e-mailing them at <rtcpubliccomments@rtcwashoe.com> before 4:00 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 17.

You can tune in Friday's 9:00 a.m. meeting online at RTCwashoe.com/ or bit.ly/RTCWashoeYouTube/

The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County (RTC) is comprised of Washoe County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung (R) and Bob Lucey (R) and Reno City Councilmembers Neoma Jardon (R) and Oscar Delgado (D). The City of Sparks seat is now filled by Councillor Kristopher Dahir (R). Individual contact info at NevadaLabor.com —

Rattle their cages. Please. Lives are on the line. About two dozen drivers and support staff, and perhaps more, have been infected. God only knows how many passengers.

UPDATE: Per the Dec. 17 Reno Gazette-Journal, Mr. Lucey, chairing the Washoe County Commission earlier this week, refused to enforce the governor's mask mandate at a heavily attended and contentious meeting. At least these guys are consistent.

UPDATE: Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson replaced Mr. Dahir on Dec. 18.

Friday should prove especially interesting given that Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve has demanded answers from her former subordinate, Bill Thomas, who moved from city hall to become RTC executive director.

I've already seen a preview. He'll just call me and the Teamsters Union liars. (See last week's Barbwire, "A Golden Goose for the Morally Obtuse.")

Mr. Thomas' media department refused to even allow the union to PAY for ads outside and inside buses featuring Gov. Sisolak asking riders to mask up
.
Censorship means never having to say you're sorry.

REST IN PEACE, BEAUTIFUL LADY. Sunday brought news of the December 1 passing of Ann Richardson Spencer, 89. The former Mrs. Nevada was married for 70 years to our Tribune colleague in columny Harry Spencer.

Please send your most powerful personal prayers, projections, condolences, emanations and/or meditations toward Harry and her family in their winter of sorrow.

Stay safe, take care of each other and be careful out there. Happy High Holly Days.

¡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>

A golden goose for the morally obtuse
Expanded from the 12-9-2020 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

"We just come to work here, we don't come to die." — Union longshoreman and labor songwriter Harry Stamper

As I noted last week and countless times before, corporations that knowingly kill people deserve the death penalty. My latest nominees for liquidation include disgraced jetliner manufacturer Boeing and Oxycontin drug dealer Purdue Pharma.

Alas and alack, they will just buy their way out cheap.

But what do you do about politicians who just walk away from the human misery of their constituents? Vote them out? At Sparks and Reno city halls, incumbency guarantees re-election. So it was last month with Reno City Councilmember Neoma Jardon whose dereliction of duty qualifies her for a cabinet position in the second Trump administration.

Jardon has gotten divorced — from reality.

At last Wednesday's council meeting, Jardon, who chairs the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County, asserted that the local transit system, for which she is responsible, forces passengers and drivers to wear masks.

If that's not the case, “that’s a problem for me,” responded Councilmember Devon Reese.

"Has Chair Jardon ever boarded a bus? Nothing could be further from the truth," stated Teamsters Local 533 President Gary Watson.

"Our transit system has created an epidemic of denial during a deadly pandemic," Watson asserted.

"More than two dozen drivers plus some support workers have contracted COVID-19. Social distancing is a thing of the past. Some buses pack passengers like sardines at peak hours but the foreign-owned management contractor will not dispatch additional vehicles to relieve overcrowding," Watson said.

The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County consists of Washoe County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung (R) and Bob Lucey (R); Reno City Councilmembers Neoma Jardon (R) and Oscar Delgado (D). The City of Sparks seat is now filled by Councillor Kristopher Dahir (R). (Click here for multiple RTC e-mail addresses.)

UPDATE: Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson replaced Mr. Dahir on Dec. 18.

Mr. Delgado recently announced that he and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19.

For decades, RTC has subcontracted management of the transit system to for-profit contractors. The current boss is foreign-owned Keolis Transit America.

"Our patience with Keolis evaporated when we learned that a passenger was refused boarding because his pants were down but maskless passengers were allowed on the bus," Watson said.

"Maybe we should re-name the disease KEOLIS-19," Watson suggested.

"RTC has two levels of bureaucracy on top of the foreign subcontractor, so whenever there's a problem, elected officials and system administrators can blame the non-Nevadans and walk away. Giving control to foreign companies provides local elected officials with plausible deniability no matter what happens," Watson asserted.

Jardon is the poster child for this criminal lack of accountability. Former Sparks Councilman John Mayer, who served on RTC, once told me that he was the lone voice for ending the wasteful and unaccountable subcontracting. RTC staff could manage the operation, cutting out expensive duplication. John actually rode buses to learn about the system but got no support for trimming all that fat.

"Over the years, it's only cost untold millions in tax dollars. Now, it's costing lives," Watson complains.

The bus system has now become a rolling superspreader, a major contributor to Washoe County's spiraling Coronavirus infection rates.

"We need the strongest enforcement in the state because 20,000 passengers a day are being exposed due to the intransigence of transit managers and indifference of our political leaders," Watson said.

"Show me a local bar that serves 20,000 people a day," Watson demanded.

Drivers are under constant threat of discipline or firing for refusing to board maskless passengers.

Why is Keolis so cavalier with people's lives? One answer may be that they are simply watching their cash flow. Mass transit usage is way down nationally so doing anything to maintain ridership helps at contract renewal time.

With election season now over, perhaps public pressure may finally force the five dilettante and dilatory RTC commissioners to finally start doing their jobs and serving the public that pays them. For a change.

SPEAKING OF CHEATERS. Believe it or else, the Trump Environmental Protection Agency just did something to protect the environment. Gadzooks!

EPA released a study showing that more than half a million diesel trucks are pulling a Volkswagen and cheating on smog checks.

Anyone can go online and buy a device that will instruct an onboard computer to tell a smog check station's computer that the truck is compliant. The tampering produces the equivalent of nine million extra trucks' worth of emissions.

The solution is obvious. The 2021 Nevada legislature must pass a law ordering random diesel truck tailpipe checks and establish fines for anyone caught using the cheating devices.

Might Nevada lawmakers be the first in the nation to do something innovative? Based on our history, probably not, but hope springs eternal.

TRUMP IS QUALIFIED. "If you can't be good at your job, be so thoroughly, defiantly terrible at it that your superiors are fooled into thinking that you simply must be doing something right," New York Times sports columnist Mike Tanier wrote.

"Adam Gase's ongoing employment as New York Jets head coach is a testament to the principle of belligerent incompetence," he added.

Belligerent incompetence, the touchstone of Donald Trump's career. He should apply to the Jets after he's fired in January.

THE POWER OF MYTH. The Times recently interviewed a besieged South Dakota nurse who related how dying patients, with their last breaths, would scream for a magical wonder medicine to save them because they remained absolutely certain that COVID-19 is a hoax. Their president told them so.

SAGE ADVICE. Trump's lazy let-the-states-do-their-own-thing approach to virus containment was best described by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson as "like roping off a pee-ing section in a swimming pool."

Hope you and yours enjoyed a happy and safe Thanksgibleting. Happy High Holly Days.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

Recipes to die for in a toxic holiday season
BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 12-2-2020 Sparks Tribune / UPDATED 12-3 and 12-4-2020 GMT / Expansions in blue

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Corporations that intentionally kill people deserve the death penalty.

Stockholders lose their entire investments. Executives who perpetrated the crime should be held personally both criminally and civilly liable.

My current picks for liquidation with extreme prejudice: Purdue Pharma and Boeing.

Purdue's a family-owned drug dealership. They have killed untold numbers of people by bribing doctors to over-prescribe Oxycontin and its related addictives. The pill-popping Mafiosi pled guilty last week but have pulled a maneuver from the Donald Trump playbook: bankruptcy. The drug-dealing Sackler family, reportedly worth at least $13 billion (with a B), will pay chump change as their part of the deal, $225 million (with an M).

A former executive at Reno's now-sold Jones-West Ford, his associates and a local doctor were busted for selling Purdue wares. (I've always wondered why the feds never moved to condemn and acquire the exec's family's car dealership. I guess high-level drug dealers can afford top gun lawyers.)

Boeing bosses knew that the 737 Max jetliner was defective, convinced limp-wristed Federal Aviation Administration inspectors to trust them, and now 346 people lie dead. The destruction reverberated worldwide, destroying families, jobs and tanking the company and its long-cherished credibility.

Both outfits should be folded, sold off and the proceeds used to compensate victims. Any leftovers go toward a government account to fund future anti-corruption activities.

May the perps burn in hell.

GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE DEPT. Corporations in Switzerland just killed two progressive proposals along the above lines. One would have held Swiss companies liable for human rights violations and environmental damage abroad. The proposal won at the polls but was vetoed by state (canton) governments under Swiss law.

An initiative that would have prevented Swiss institutions from funding war weapon and material manufacturers also failed.

From great dissents come future great majorities.

LABOR OF LOVE. Just in time for Thanksgibleting, Laborers' Union Local 169 just donated $12,500 in grocery store gift cards to seven northern Nevada nonprofits.

They included the Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality, the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Vietnam Veterans of America.

As a former trumpet player for the VFW Post 8900 band during my salad days in Fresno, many thanks to my union sisters and brothers. Details at NevadaLabor.com/

A TALE OF TWO BOYNTONS. Last month brought news of the deaths of two men separated by time and color but not in improving the lives of others.

Former TV-2 and TV-8 news anchor Brent Boynton died at age 64 from COVID-19. After his TV days, he served as press secretary to former Gov. Jim Gibbons and most recently took a tough and critically important position at the Reno Housing Authority. He once told me that he had offers to leave Nevada for major market news positions, but like a rare few, chose to make his home here. He was a mellow dude.

All Bruce Boynton wanted was a cheeseburger but ended up making new law at the U.S. Supreme Court with future justice Thurgood Marshall as his lawyer. Bruce Boynton was born in Selma Alabama in 1937 and died in Montgomery last month. As a young law student heading home in 1958, he refused to sit in the dingy black section of a Richmond, Virginia, bus station restaurant. He was arrested and fined $10. Virginia courts, of course, ruled against him but in 1960, the U.S. Supremes held in his favor, a win that sparked the 1961 Freedom Riders campaign in the deep south. Sparks resident Erma Fritchen, a retired Nevada teacher, and former Reno-Sparks NAACP President Eddie Scott were among them.

Now they all belong to the ages.

PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS DEPT. The good people at the Reno Gazette-Journal ran a promotional banner above the newspaper's masthead on Thanksgiving Day.

"Your complete Black Friday shopping resource!", it stated. In an unintentional bit of overcompensation or obtuseness, the headline was accompanied by an illustration of a BLACK family at Thanksgiving dinner complete with a laptop computer next to the turkey. I bet more than one person in the newsroom gobbled hard after seeing that. The clip art was probably cheap.

PIOUS TALES OF THE GREAT PUMPKIN. I've baked a few pies in my checkered past, but never of the pumpkinish persuasion. Quarantining, I had Thanksgiving goodies delivered by Safeway (a union shop, natch). They were out of pies, so I asked my delivery consultant to get me a can of pumpkin pie fixings.

A sharp young lady named Cierra asked if I had the required evaporated milk.

"Oh, er, uh, sure, I knew that. Thanks. Please include one."

It was organic, too. Once the pie was in the oven, I remembered what my old friend, former Sparks businessman John Hanks, often advised: When all else fails, read the instructions.

Zounds.

The recipe on the can called for adding both the milk and two eggs. Egad. What to do?

When the pie came out of the oven, I fried two eggs over easy and placed them on top of the aromatic creation. The residual heat cooked the eggs to over-medium by the time the delicacy was served. (Culinary tip from an old frycook: Add craisins below the two eggs and you've got a smiley face on your magnum opus.)

Somewhere, John the old cropduster pilot is having a good laugh at my expense. You, too.

Believe it or else.

Hope you and yours enjoyed a happy and safe Thanksgibleting. Happy High Holly Days.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

THE DAY AFTER

Asked to buck-up his constituents with a positive thumbs-up, President Trump instead goes digital with his feelings. Or maybe his thumbs were just too busy elsewhere on his perfect body.

(Photo: Anna Moneymaker for the Fake News New York Times 11-4-2020) NevadaLabor.com

We have met the enemy and he is us
BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 11-25-2020 Sparks Tribune / UPDATED 11-29 and 11-30-2020 GMT / Expansions in blue

"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)

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!

10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th Nevada Press Association award
6 of 10 gold
Tribune editorial page voted 2020 best

Dennis Myers 2nd Barbwire nominee elected to NPA Hall of Fame

Support Don Dondero and Jake Highton next
Send endorsements

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 11-18-2020 Sparks Tribune / UPDATED 11-19 & 11-20-2020 GMT / Expansions in blue

American Monster M*A*S*H: Suicide is painless

Greatest Hits Dept.

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT

Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame

Support Don Dondero
and Jake Highton next
Send endorsements

10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th Nevada Press Association award

The Grasshopper and
the Dragonfly
9-6-2017

Kicked off the Ledge
4-18-2017

NATIONAL NEWS FIRST-BREAK
Back to the Future in
Mississippi West Nevada
10-18-2017

Gold 2017
Don't ask Renown Med for marijuana to help your chemo
10-4-2016
We Don't Need No Education
Toxic turf threat ignored
12-13-2016
Kate Smith & Lady Gaga
2-14-2017

Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake
4-18-2013
2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon
5-30-2013
The politics of media ga-ga boosterism
3-20-2014

More statewide and national award winners

We Don't Need No Education—>
Neverending Barbwire Series

1997 Pulitzer Prize entries

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

The Dean's List

The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.

RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
TOP SECRET— HushHush!

"Suicide is painless: It leaves your assassins blameless." — Theme from M*A*S*H

Donald Trump wants to kill me. I know that.

But how should I regard his gang lusting after my death? Should a good Christian forgive the malefactors for the crimes of their leader, turn the other cheek and accept a cruel, painful and lonely extermination?

Is each and every Republican (and all other benighted trolls who voted to reinstall their godhead), now my mortal enemy? Their king has been and continues trying to terminate me because he is the principal proliferator of two deadly diseases, one a microbe, the other, microscopic reptilian-brained disregard for the dignity of life.

Czar Donaldov will soon be banished to his former life of golfing, clenching, wenching and stenching, leaving it to his lessers to clean up his leavings. You and I are but collateral damage in the most remarkable life lived since that of Jesus of Nazareth, at least according to America's second king.

Searching for answers, I talked to my token non-partisan one-man Sparks focus group. Now that he's a mature grandpa, I thought he might think rationally before voting this year. His political philosophy is "they're all crooks, a pox on both their houses."

He voted for Trump. Again.

"Biden is mentally on the skids," according to him, parroting one of the czar's manufactured fantasies.

"Biden is there to last just long enough so that woman can become president," my old friend added.

Translation: He voted for Trump because Trump looked macho versus Biden the Wuss. Does my friend have a hangup with powerful women? Well, he certainly married one who is his equal in brains and toughness. But Mr. Focus hasn't changed much over the years.

I remember one time that he needed a cigarette and refused a Virginia Slim because "Vagina Slimes" were for girls. Of course, Pretty Eve and Virginia Slims were just cancer sticks with flowers printed on the packaging, but his macho would not let him smoke one.

So he let Trump smoke him.

"Name me one good thing Biden has done in 47 years in public life," Mr. Focus demanded, echoing another presidential canard.

Well, I calmly stated, Biden was the point man getting Obamacare through Congress.

Silence.

I knew that my friend and his family have been using the Obamacare Nevada insurance exchange for several years because it delivers the most bang for their buck.

Point. Set. Match. I changed the subject.

I remain amazed at how the United States, with an arguably fairly well-educated population, can still be demagogued into dis-reality. We now live in BizarroWorld, a Kafkaesque nightmare of death and woe, both here and around this beleaguered little planet.

Nevadans feel caught between the proverbial devil and deep blue sea. Wiser heads know that shutdown or bankruptcy are not the only options.

Managing the pandemic "is not a switch, it's a dial," stated NPR journalist Tamara Keith, who added that "politics does not live well with the world of nuance."

Years ago, comic wiseman Bill Maher noted "Americans don't do nuance."

So Gov. Steve Sisolak has warned us Silver State denizens that we either start crushing the Corona curve of infections within the next week or he may have to reinstate drastic measures.

Even my friend Focus wears a mask, so maybe there's hope. Some will live and some will die.

Alas and alack, due to the Regional Transportation (RTC) of Washoe County's acting like a bi-polar ostrich, the local bus system remains a superspreader. Almost two-dozen drivers are now infected with COVID-19. Why are you reading the first news about it exclusively in the Tribune? Because the politicians and their minions still romance that faithless mistress, Ms. Rosy Scenario.

The five RTC commissioners who sit shiva while their empire burns are Sparks Councilmember Kristopher Dahir, Washoe County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung and Bob Lucey, and Reno Councilcritters Neoma Jardon and Oscar Delgado. Call or write them. Get into their precious faces. Contact info with the web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

Everyone from federal workplace safety officials to U.S. District Court to the governor to local health and elected officials have been contacted about the superspreader bus system.

Only Teamsters Local 533 and the Reno-Sparks NAACP have advocated for the workers and passengers.

Because Americans don't do nuance. So what's next, martial law? Czar Donaldov would dig it.

ETERNAL REWARDS. Two dictators are responsible for all this murder and mayhem, China's Xi Xin Ping and our own Orange Crusher, both of whom chose to ignore the Coronavirus rather than risk tarnishing their precious public images of competence and divine omnipotence.

So what's a proper punishment for their sins? How about re-education Commie-style?

Let's go Old Testament. May the Good Lord grant Xi and Trump eternal life. And permanent residence on a desert island in a 10 by 20 cell with only each other to contemplate the lives they have lived. And those they have destroyed.

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice, said Dr. King.

Amen.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

Legerdemoniacal legerdemain: 3 Rights Make a Left
BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 11-11-2020 Sparks Tribune / UPDATED 11-13-2020 GMT / Expansions in blue

"Two wrongs don't make a right, but why do three rights make a left?" — Ogden Edsel

Recent events have left us all a bit breathless as we attempt to comprehend the conundrums of the fall. Inhale.

CHILDREN OF LESSER GODS. The ongoing election season will stretch well into next year betwixt Georgia, the halls of the DC blackrobes and heaven knows where else.
The surprising support for Czar Donaldov is perhaps easiest to explain.

As the old New York comic Phil Foster used to remind people, "everybody's got a beef."

El Presidente has been an entertaining vehicle upon which beleaguered bravados could project themselves and their beefs.

Addressing union members at the Sparks Labor Temple a decade or more ago, former House Majority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich., talked about his constituents.

"They are concerned about jobs and giving the finger to Washington," he stated. That Fickle Finger of Fate was forcefully administered four years ago. Ouch.

So why did the will of the people go down the way it did last week, almost installing a fascist dictatorship?

Reporter Major Garrett of CBS News answered in seven words: "Strength beats empathy and economy beats COVID."

Zounds, can we be that narrow as a nation? Hell, yes, a perfect storm of biblical proportions.

Warrior Saul was named King of Israel by acclamation because "Saul stood head and shoulders above any other man." The rank and file anointed the baddest dude in the tribe as their protector-in-chief. If Mr. Strength had not been such a turnoff, Mr. Empathy would not be putting his transition team together today.

Millions of voters made decisions on image, emotion and overly simplistic labels. Do they still teach civics in school?

I remember a quote from one of my Fresno State history profs: "Democracy without education becomes tyranny without mitigation."

Damn, have we come close. Florida hates "socialism" but loves Social Security. The win lies in the spin. Go figger.

Now, all President-elect Biden has to worry about is that inhuman incarnation of the Picture of Dorian Gray who may once again control the morally obtuse U.S. Senate.

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

VETERANS DAY: LORD, HAVE MERCY. General and President Dwight Eisenhower left us with one clear piece of advice: He'd like to see his former profession put out of business. So on this, the 102nd anniversary of Armistice Day which proclaimed the end of World War One, let us pray that our primitive species may soon stop making more veterans.

SEASON OF THE WHICH. The Witch of November always comes early in voting years. Whether your candidates won or lost, decompression can be quite diverting and oftimes depressing. On more than one occasion, I have walked alone down Victorian Square after an election night gathering just in time for a cold wind to blow in around midnight. Mother Nature is so very efficient at sending reminders that no matter the meanderings of this monster mannunkind, our power is as puny as our longevity.

Superstition has it that events, especially traumatic ones, happen in threes. And so it is today in the High Desert Outback of the American Dream. We have lost three giants that we just assumed would always be with us.

First, screen acting legend Sir Sean Connery, then television personality Alex Trebek. They were part of America's families for decades. We welcomed them into our homes and oftimes knew more about them than we knew about our next-door neighbors.

The third toll of the bell has reverberated the most tellingly in Sparks. Longtime resident Dr. John Genasci is gone. The legendary UNR athlete and Washoe County educator died of heart failure at his Sparks home on Oct. 17. Over the past half-century of my residence in these parts, I knew of Dr. Genasci and his wife of 55 years, Kay, via the media.

I got my first inkling of the esteem in which they were held at last year's César Chávez event. Kay Genasci made reservations and after they were seated, someone came rushing up to inform me that Dr. Genasci was in the house. The announcement could not have been more enthusiastic had it been Sir Sean or Jeopardy's Trebek. (Oh, by the way, Gov. Sisolak was there, too.)

I never had a perspective on all Dr. Genasci achieved until I read Jim Krajewski's eye-opening remembrance in last Sunday's Reno Gazette-Journal. Among his many achievements, the great educator served as principal at Washoe High, Hug High and Sparks Middle School.

The man actually took out a second mortgage on his home to help fund an $80,000 project to bring lights to the Hug football field. Wow. I am sorry that the late matriarch of Hug High, Dolores Feemster, is not here to provide a few words of remembrance.

Genasci's legacy abides in the now-longstanding Education Alliance adopt-a-school program (formerly Partners in Education) which supports all aspects of Washoe County's chronically underfunded system.

The body politick lost three grand knights as November approached. They served us so very well. And always will.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 11-4-2020 Sparks Tribune / UPDATED 11-6-2020 GMT / Expansions in blue

The greatest political figure of 2020

Greatest Hits Dept.

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT

Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame

Support Don Dondero
and Jake Highton next
Send endorsements

10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th Nevada Press Association award

The Grasshopper and
the Dragonfly
9-6-2017

Kicked off the Ledge
4-18-2017

NATIONAL NEWS FIRST-BREAK
Back to the Future in
Mississippi West Nevada
10-18-2017

Gold 2017
Don't ask Renown Med for marijuana to help your chemo
10-4-2016
We Don't Need No Education
Toxic turf threat ignored
12-13-2016
Kate Smith & Lady Gaga
2-14-2017

Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake
4-18-2013
2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon
5-30-2013
The politics of media ga-ga boosterism
3-20-2014

More statewide and national award winners

We Don't Need No Education—>
Neverending Barbwire Series

1997 Pulitzer Prize entries

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

The Dean's List

The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.

RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
TOP SECRET— HushHush!

This newspaper will be on the street before the first vote counts are released but the Barbwire not only fearlessly predicts the clear results, but herewith names the 2020 politician of the year.

Drum roll, please for Marina Udgodskaya, the new mayor of Povalikhino, Russia, a farming hamlet of log houses, wood-burning stoves and rutted dirt roads 300 miles east of Moscow.

In Russia, as in all dictatorships, maintaining the illusion of democracy is critical to retaining power. That's how President Trump's buddies Czar Vladimir and Chairman Xi Xin Ping stay in power.

The Communist Party mayor needed a patsy to defeat in this year's rigged election but no one would file, so he ordered the city hall janitor to do so.

Marina, a 35 year-old mother of two teens, is a day laborer's wife ("I like farming"). She did not campaign. And kicked Mayor Nikolai Loktev's ass. The new mayor more than doubled her salary to $380 a month and is now planning to (gasp!) do things for the people. For a change.

The citizenry's number one desire is for that new-fangled invention called street lights. Their new mayor is working on it. She's now a superstar throughout the country.

She should avoid toasting her victory with any libations offered by someone she doesn't know as some of Czar Putin's detractors like Aleksei Navalny have learned the hard way.

Marina Udgodskaya has my vote as the most inspiring pol of this bastard year.

ATTACK OF THE ORANGE CRUSHER. My Big Apple correspondent, high-rise union ironworker Steven Gulitti forwarded a meme which now dominates the front page of NevadaLabor.com. Some very skilled artisan sculpted a very scary Trump-O-Lantern, noting that the "Trumpkin is orange on the outside, hollow on the inside and should be thrown out in November."

So it will. Here's how.

Last week, I offered semi-knowledgeable bar bet odds on Nevada's close races from local elections up to the top. I made Biden an 11-10 favorite to win here, slim odds because union members vote twice as frequently as most other categories and four in 10 of my brothers and sisters are Republicans. Nationally, it will be a different story.

POLLYANNA'S PEERLESS PREXY PREDIXION. I don't think the presidential thing is going to be close and that we will know the winner by midnight Pacific Standard Time or shortly thereafter. Czar Donaldov has never tried to expand his 40 percent base. Those who were charmed by his brutishness went all-in four years ago and they will show up with a few stragglers this week. The pie has gotten bigger but they bit off more than they could chew and the Democrats will eat their lunch.

Humongous nationwide early voting turnout was fueled by the formerly lackadaisical who have now tasted the bitter fruits of apathy.

Of the blue wall northeastern rust belt states, only Wisconsin and Michigan offer same-day voter registration. It's likewise not available in North Carolina or Florida.

Ex-wrestler Jesse Ventura was elected Minnesota governor in 1992 because one in six voters registered on election day. Still, it was a multiple candidate race and he won with about 37 percent.

I will relish seeing what cockamamy reason Trump and his lawyers come up with to challenge the results when his own phony deadline has been met and the election has been called on election night. (His deadline is midnight but he doesn't adjust for time zones. He's not a detail person.

UPDATE 11-6-2020 GMT—> WEST WING REDUX: LIFE IMITATES ART

SIR SEAN CONNERY, 1930-2020. Some media giants become such a part of our lives that living or dead, they will always be with us. So it will be with the handsome kid who grew up poverty-stricken in Edinburgh, Scotland, and became one of the most recognizable figures in the world.

When he got a break, he made the most of it. He refined Ian Fleming's James Bond character and imbued the screen legend with his own sense of humor.

In 1989 when People magazine named him sexiest man alive, Connery noted that not many men are sexy when they're dead.

Married to his second wife since 1975, the once-divorced superstar long ago asserted that often "a man owes his success to his first wife and his second wife to his success."

I quoted that bit of wry wisdom to a small roomful of women and the temperature therein immediately dropped about 40 degrees. Never said it again.

Connery once said that author Fleming wanted either Cary Grant or Trevor Howard to play his creation. Years ago, I read a story that the deciding factor was the producer's wife. Mrs. Albert Broccoli viewed screen tests and advised her husband to go with the lesser-known Scotsman.

"The women will love him," she advised. The rest is history.

Thomas Sean Connery was no blushing violet. His knighthood was postponed for years because of his support for Scottish independence.

"There is no more creative act than creating a new nation," he stated in 2014. Maybe Brexit will finally make that dream come true. Here on this side of the pond, we have to reinvent America anew. Too bad 007 won't be around to help us figure it out.

Requiescat in pace.

GIVE AND GET. YOU'LL FEEL GOOD. As the town locks down again because the virus has turned the corner and is hurtling straight at us, the Reno Cigar Lions Club is still collecting working computers for distance-learning kids. PCs and laptops are needed but anyone with an extra laptop or desktop PC can help. Call (775) 453-0307 or e-mail RenoCigarLions@gmail.com.

Grassroots Books on E. Grove Street (behind the Scandinavian Designs furniture store on Reno's Kietzke Lane), continues its free books for kids campaign.

"We're giving 1,000 local kids (ages 2-8) a chance to get 50 free books. All they have to do is sign up online to reserve a time slot and get free tickets. It's outside so it's safe and kids love it," sez store manager Aline Polikalas. Sign up at GrassRootsBooks.com or call (775) 828-2665. Tell 'em you heard about via the Barbwire

Instant Home Library Giveaway UPDATE: Grassroots has had almost 1,400 responses thus far but continues to accept reservations. "That's over 68,000 free books infused into the area," reports Ms. Polikalas, adding that "owner Zoe Miller ranks early literacy high on our mission list."

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 10-28-2020 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

FREEBIE ALERT! FREE election bets. NEW!

"Never fail to take advantage of the word free" advised one of my first bosses in the advertising business.

I remain amazed at how many retailers fail to push that simple button on human nature. Politicians sure learn it early.

Czar Donaldov is nothing if not the incarnation of Dire Straits' observation "money for nothin' and the the chicks for free."

In most election years, I make book on selected races. So here's my bettors' bible, which usually produces for those who follow, especially after a few beers. Alas, bar bets are another endangered species in this year of strange life forms.

RENO CITY COUNCIL WARD 1. Incumbent Jenny Brekhus 7 to 5 over developer-backed realtor JD Drakulich. (His ancestors, Steve and Bette, would blush knowing that he's a fence-sitting non-partisan with heavyweight Republican backing.) Brekhus, the adult supervision at Reno City Hall, is buoyed by an almost plus-3,000 Democratic edge in her formerly establishment-Republican central/old Reno district.

RENO CITY COUNCIL WARD 5. Ditto, which is why incumbent Republican Neoma Jardon has been hustling Democratic endorsements in her northwest Reno district. Newbie Darla Fink enjoys a 3,000 Donkeyite registration edge in what used to be a rollover GOP district. As in just about every race this year, non-partisans can make up the difference but my longtime polling experience teaches that the NP's generally bend with the prevailing winds. Fink 11 to 10.

COUNTY COMMISSION WARD 1 pits another Democratic novice, Alexis Hill, against two-term Republican incumbent Marsha Berkbigler, a retired Charter/Spectrum cable exec. Hill has a plus-3,500 D registration advantage in the northwest Reno area. As in all of the above races, NP's are about 20 percent of registrants. Even money tossup.

RENO CITY COUNCIL AT-LARGE. Used car dealer heir Eddie Lorton's bomb-throwing is scary. He has raised a few good issues against incumbent attorney Devon Reese but has also played demagogue on many others. Negative campaigns work and I'm afraid he can tar other good council candidates with his hysterical advice. Reno now sports about an eight percent D registration edge, which will help both Reese and Joseph Biden. Reese in a citywide squeaker, 11-10. As I cautioned last week, Lorton looks like a destructive force quite similar to Jeff Church, speaking of whom...

SCHOOL TRUSTEE DISTRICT A. Republican Church faces embattled twice-elected former school board member Scott Kelley in a district with a huge Republican registration edge. I thought Church could very possibly beat current trustee Jacqueline Calvert in 2018 and was pleasantly surprised when the soft-spoken Gold Dust West foodserver won. Why? "You ever meet Jeff Church?" asked a dour voter of my acquaintance. Church 9 to 5.

SPARKS ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 31 pits incumbent union Democrat Skip Daly against former Assemblymember Jill Dickman who unseated him in the 2014 red wave. Daly returned the favor two years later and has held the seat since. The northeastern Sparks/Spanish Springs district puts Daly at a plus-2,000 GOP registration disadvantage. The district has been the most competitive in the state for a decade. Daly has been unable to implement his vaunted ground game due to the Trump virus but demonstrably knows how to win elections. Dickman's minions have gone from running an above-board campaign in 2018 to no-slurs-barred this year. Daly's record as an effective lawmaker will prevail. Daly 11-10.

SPARKS CITY COUNCIL WARD 1 Wendy Stolyarov over one-term incumbent Donald Abbott. She has a strong D edge in registration. Four years ago, Denise Lopez won the primary within the ward but lost citywide. Now that the race is ward-only, it's Stolyarov's to lose. Her answers to Reno Gazette-Journal reporter questions are singularly the best of ANY candidate running this year, all the way to the top. She proved both knowledgeable and original in her perspecive for the Rail City's future. Wendy wins 2-1.

THE OTHER WENDY, JAUREGI-JACKINS, for the District 15 state senate seat vs. incumbent Heidi Gansert: tossup at best in the now-slightly Democratic district. 6-5 and pick'em.

WASHOE DISTRICT COURT DEPT. 10 pits equestrienne personal injury TV lawyer Kathleen Sigurdson against incumbent Judge Elliott Sattler. This race was tame until veteran journalist Jon Ralston published an exposé last week linking Sigurdson with union-busting Grand Sierra Resort owner Alex Meruelo as "the primary financial backer...challenging a sitting judge who has ruled against his properties in the past...amid a complex, expensive and longstanding legal fight between the Grand Sierra Resort and a group of condominium owners in the hotel," journalist Riley Snyder wrote on Ralston's Nevada Independent website.

On one TV spot, Ms. Sigurdson says "courts should not be owned by one person or group." If you say so, ma'am. She's spending lots of money in what may prove a banner year for female candidates. Even money.

BALLOT QUESTION 1 which would remove the Nevada university system from its semi-autonomous position in the state constitution. Somebody is paying for a ton of TV supporting it, making allegations of out-of-control personal slush funds. (Something I exposed in this column as far back as 1996, my Pulitzer nomination year.) Former Washoe Democratic Chair Jim Richardson, longtime UNR professor and union leader, has called Q-1 a danger to academic freedom. Indeed, both the executive and legislative branches have in the past sought vengeance against educators they didn't like. I went to an expert I trust.

"I voted No!" states former university regent Nancy Price who retired to Sparks more than a decade ago and led a one-woman crusade against abuses in the system during her tenure.

"The legislature can and should audit the system," she says, cautioning "(but) they haven't done it except for one time when I asked (Assembly Speaker) Joe Dini to do so. He said he never got more pushback on anything but they did it...sort of.

"Oversight would be a tremendous job. So the argument doesn’t hold water. Just like some donors want to make policy, so do some legislators. It’s in the Constitution for good reason. This biannual legislature can’t do its oversight responsibility now. Adding the system would be tragic."

Amen, sister. I'm worried because there's no TV in opposition, at least in these parts. Bet Q-1 to win by a whisker, 11-10, unless somebody's running contra-TV in Gomorrah South.

NOW THE BIGGIE. The only poll that shows Nevada close comes from Trump backer Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Review-Journal. The New York Times average sez Biden has a seven-point lead. As always, Washoe is the swing county in the swing state. As the Barbwire reported three weeks ago, a lot of union members are closet Trump cultists. The giant Culinary Union is pulling out all the stops statewide. Biden, 11-10.

Sorry if I've missed your favorite race. The above are the ones I see as interesting and perhaps profitable bar bets. Anybody who makes money on this semi-knowledgeable advice owes me a drink sometime in 2023 when it may be safe to saloon again.

FREE! FREE! FREE! Grassroots Books on E. Grove Street (behind the Scandinavian Designs furniture store on Reno's Kietzke Lane), is offering FREE! books for kids.

"We're giving 1,000 local kids (ages 2-8) a chance to get 50 free books. All they have to do is sign up online to reserve a time slot and get free tickets. It's outside so it's safe and kids love it," sez store manager Aline Polikalas. Sign up at GrassRootsBooks.com or call (775) 828-2665. Tell 'em you heard about via the Barbwire.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡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. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 10-21-2020 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

Suede-shoe salesmen sucker city hall

Only the names of the towns change. The elected officials are interchangeable. The tune is always the same. And they always dance.

In my half-century kicking around these parts, I've noticed a formula for hogging whatever you want out of the taxpayers' treasury.

First, have representatives fly in from out of town. Everybody knows that big city guys know more than any of the local hicks. The newbies have to wear $2,000 suits, thousand-dollar shoes from some country you can't pronounce and carry briefcases right out of a James Bond movie.

The suede shoe city slickers promise permanent prosperity and jobs-jobs-jobs. Just sign here and don't pay any attention to the fine print about the deed to your soul.

It doesn't matter if the town fathers are rich or poor. The late Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, a Democrat-turned-Republican millionaire and natural-born leader, fell for the same siren songs as any yahoo from Yerington.

Flattery means never having to say you're sorry. And it's bi-partisan. There is no better example in the current election cycle than a mailer I just got from my Reno City Councillor, Neoma Jardon, a Republican running for another term.

She's been endorsed by two of her Democratic colleagues, Devon Reese and Oscar Delgado.

Reno and Sparks city council races are technically non-partisan but that only works one way — if the party name can be used to help the candidate. Otherwise, it's a non-issue, so ignore the label, right? Sure.

These fine folks have violated one of the oldest rules of follytix: Never get involved in another campaign if you are on the ballot. That rule gets trashed a lot these days, an indication of the power of money.

I voted by mail for Mr. Reese because his opponent is a nutso bombthrower just like school board candidate Jeff Church. In the Age of Trump, I've had quite enough of candidates out to tear down the institutions they purport to serve.

Regular readers know of my serious issues with Ms. Jardon and Mr. Delgado. Both sit on the Regional Transportation Commission which runs the three local mass toxic...er, transit... systems. The local bus line has never enforced Gov. Sisolak's mask order. As a result, upwards of 20,000 passengers a day, their drivers and support crews, all risk Coronavirus infection. Some have fallen.

My friends at the Teamsters Union have called and written the five RTC commissioners and have been stonewalled to this day.

No wonder Reno-Sparks-Washoe now tops the state in skyrocketing COVID-19 infections. The Reno-Sparks NAACP is the only other organization that has advocated for the average folks on the bus. President Lonnie Feemster came aboard as soon as he heard of the dangers.

The transit system largely serves the politically powerless, those of humble means: minorities, the poor, the young, the disabled, the elderly, the homeless.

Once you get on the Reno City Council, you're making a lot of money and can keystone the position to enhance your career. I have been especially rankled at Mr. Delgado who springboarded to political power by launching his first campaign at the home of the late and legendary Reno-Sparks NAACP matriarch Dolores Feemster. (I attended.) Anyone endorsed by Dolores carried northeast Reno, Delgado's district.

When her daughter-in-law, distinguished educator Dr. Debra Feemster, ran for re-election to the school board, Delgado refused to help. She lost to an unqualified Sharron Angle anti-public education Republican.

Of all the RTC commissioners, I would have expected the friendliest reception from Oscar whose district mirrors the demographics of the transit system. I break out in a rash when I see Oscar's re-election TV commercials touting how he's helped build crosswalks to keep kiddies safe while crossing the street. Great, as long as they haven't breathed the air on the bus they just rode.

Incumbent Reno Councillor Jenny Brekhus, a Democrat, has been the adult in the room at city hall for eight years. Needless to say, the developer establishment is gunning for her big time. Mayor Hillary Schieve's designated hitter lost in the primary, so the juice simply moved to the last guy standing in the central old Reno district, registration in which has gone surprisingly Democratic for the first time in memory.

The result of this perpetual miasma of well-dressed, perma-pressed penury-perpetrating power plays: Cities and schools which cannot meet the needs of their citizens due to hundreds of millions in corporate welfare giveaways. The RTC bus system is managed by a foreign-owned behemoth paid hundreds of thousands a year to abuse workers and passengers while spreading disease.

For a little shop of horrors detailing who's doing what, with which and to whom, access the NevadaLabor.com corporate welfare archives which will be linked to the expanded web edition of this column. It will go a long way toward explaining why our parks, roads, schools and first responders are chronically underfunded.

Ms. Jardon's mailer asserts that "I have put political games aside to focus on how our city's policies affect lives. I've worked alongside community members and forged bonds with my Democratic colleagues who have praised my cooperative efforts."

Gee, why is she now saying nice things which would have gotten her called a RINO (Republican in Name Only) in bygone years? Democrats now outnumber Republicans in her northwest Reno district.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡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 currently 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>

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
Expanded from the 10-14-2020 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

Bigotry means never having to say you're sorry

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The Dean's List

The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.

RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
TOP SECRET— HushHush!

Remember those pointy-headed pseudo-intellectuals who told us that we were at the end of history in a post-racial society?
They should subscribe to my Barbwire Confidential e-mail list. A week or so ago, I put out a bulletin from Reno-Sparks NAACP President Lonnie Feemster recruiting volunteers to make calls motivating infrequent voters.
Well, you got trouble, folks, right here in River City. Endemic racism is alive and well in the formerly former Mississippi West.
Apparently doing anything to get people to vote threatens macho or somesuch. Here is verbatim from the best of the closet Klansmen responses.
FROM MR. COURTEOUS: "Totally shameful to care more about black lives terrorists that care more about black lives than all Americans. Please take me off your email list. you are not the man I thought you were. I am for all Americans and this tells me you are not. You surely don't think for one minute they care about you. You are like all the rest. UNAMERICAN ! Shame on you. They have already changed America but all their rioting-stealing-killing and wasting billions of dollars just to show their black power. Yes the corrupt ballots are coming and what follows? Corruption. Thanks a lot! '"
AB: I'll take him off my e-list when he takes me off his.
FROM MR. MOGUL: "How can you possibly think what you are standing for is right? The democratic party no longer exists and you should know that. Do not send this propaganda to any American and you should be ashamed of yourself for supporting it !!"
BARBANO RESPONSE: Long time, old friend. Hope you and yours are well. I'm just encouraging people to vote. Stay positive, test negative. — Andrew
MR. MOGUL REPLIES: "Andrew — By this action you are continuing in the same old tradition that Blacks need to follow the same old ways and vote democratic and that's not true. President Trump has moved to help develop a strong family base and promoted job creation for Blacks and did more for Black education than Black Obama ever did when he and Biden were given the chance.
"Obama played to the 'White' Hollywood crowd, as if 'he' was, and he spent more money and did more traveling than all the other US Presidents combined," the onetime consumer lobbyist groused, adding "His wife Michelle had around 47 hand slaves as well as her mother stayed in the White house too. She took her own planes on trips costing the taxpayers millions.
"Don't think for one minute that the NAACP is any different now than it has ever been. They will have to get real jobs if we get President Trump re elected. I pray that the Black voters do wake up and see these bureaucrats for the deceivers they really are and that the Republican Party is truly trying to raise them up out of welfare -- to have self respect for themselves and each other and gain a belief in their own abilities that in this great nation, thru all it's (sic) faults, offers them equal opportunities to achieve greatness. The NAACP doesn't teach them that does it Andrew??
"You are a strong voice - let it work for this nation and democracy as we know it Please !!"
Mr. Courteous is a member of a local clean up the community group. Mr. Mogul and I met when we lobbied on behalf of similar consumer interests at a long-ago legislative session. I was particularly disappointed in his narrowness. Guess you never really know anyone.
The most surprising thing was both saw only "NAACP" which called up Trumpian dog-whistle Pavlovian responses and blinded them to what I actually wrote. They perceived something like "NAACP equals lazy uppity blacks making mischief for benevolent white America."
They never addressed what's so bad about trying to get people to vote.
I pray for their enlightenment.
CONEY ISLAND. Thanks for the compliments about my exclusive Interview with Judge Amy Coney Barrett, which could only have been written by a former all-star altar boy. ("Superspreaders, homotextuals & hall of famers" Barbwire 9-30-2020) You might refer to it as U.S. Senate Republicans administer the holy sacrament of confirmation this week.
JOHNNY, WE HARDLY KNEW YE. In recent decades, former Sparks City Councilmember John Mayer was just about the only voice at City Hall for hiring local labor at area-standard wages. He stood alone in voting for future Assemblymember Skip Daly's advocacy that local workers on public construction projects should get decent pay. (See NevadaLabor.com/). Five years ago, Mayer's successors on the Sparks Council removed all journeyman standards for electricians, plumbers and pipefitters so that a non-union contractor could turn Victorian Square into rabbit warrens on the cheap.
John was likewise one of the few sensible members on the Regional Transportation Commission (bus system) where his successors continue to ignore the governor's mask mandate as COVID-19 infections surge.
In his dotage, John has taken to endorsing anti-union Republicans. I am disappointed.
ABBOTT AND PAVLOVO. Incumbent Sparks Councilcritter Donald Abbott is using dog-whistle codewords against challenger Wendy Stolyarov. He asserts that he is "one of us." He stole that slogan from the late Republican U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt's 1974 campaign against then-Lt. Gov. Harry Reid who was from (gasp) Las Vegas.
Fear of the other sells in today's Confederate follytix. If you meet Ms. Stolyarov, you cannot help but be impressed at the danger — to Mr. Abbott's re-election.
Similar bigotry is on display in the campaign literature of Councilman Paul Anderson, a smear to inform voters that his opponent, Quentin Smith, is (gasp) black. Zounds.
State Sen. Julia Ratti, D-Sparks, issued a scathing denunciation of the above low-life tactics. One Facebook post even called for Anderson's resignation. See NevadaLabor.com for smoking guns.
"Powerful words at the right moment," commented local attorney Henry Sotelo, whose attention should be focused on the Reno City Council right now. The top gun lawyer has applied for a vacancy on Reno Municipal Court, a very demanding job. Send endorsements to Mr. Sotelo at <henry@henrysotelolaw.com> and carbon-copy me. Details with the expanded Barbwire web edition at NevadaLabor.com/
SUICIDE IS PAINLESS DEPT. I can't figure out why Czar Donaldov continues to encourage his lemmings to pretend the Coronavirus is nothing to worry about. If you're already behind, why try to infect and perhaps assassinate your dwindling base of supporters? Hell, I get sick just seeing him so I wear a mask watching the news.
CONGRATS TO US. In this year's Nevada Press Association competition, the Tribune won best editorial page among smaller newspapers, which most Nevada broadsheets are. I am proud to be the sole liberal sandwiched between semi-respectable reprobates.
Take care of each other and be careful out there.
¡Sí se puede!
Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno.
___________________
NevadaLabor.com Editor Andrew Barbano is a 51-year Nevadan whose reputation remains impervious to further augmentation or denigration. He currently serves as first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are strictly his own. The nation's oldest civil rights organization (unless you count the Ku Klux Klan), the NAACP is non-partisan and does not endorse candidates. The Barbwire is a different breed of cat. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
From the 10-7-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 10-20-20

Intervention Mayday! Suicidal Nevada union workers

Donald Trump is within striking distance of winning Nevada and if he does, union members may well be the deciding factor.
Zounds!
For decades, one of the deep dark secrets of organized labor has been that roughly four in 10 union members are registered Republicans. Look no further than retired Southern Pacific/Union Pacific workers in the Rail City known as Sparks.
Union election canvassers learned years ago not to knock on their doors. If they see you're campaigning for Democrats, most are likely to slam a door in your face
To use an old Texas football term, they've done forgotten how to dance with who brung 'em. They are very upper middle class and financially quite secure due to their union jobs and now suffer a common affliction: Brain damage from pulling the ladder up behind them.
"As polls are beginning to show that Biden’s advantage over Trump gets narrow in key states, Democratic union workers are worried about Biden’s chances of victory. Biden had a five-point advantage or a 'likely Democrat' odds of seizing Nevada over Trump, according to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Lee Business School poll and the Cook Political Report, respectively. As time goes on, however, the very same Cook Political Report went from 'likely' to 'lean Democrat.' Florida, another battleground state with more delegates, went from leaning Democrat to a toss-up. For battleground union workers in Nevada, the state’s local election is shaping up to be in favor of Trump," wrote Christian Spencer in TheGrio.com
“I think Nevada could end up very much like Michigan did in ‘16,” said D. Taylor, the head of Unite HERE, the powerful Culinary Workers Union’s national organization, Bloomberg News reported last month.
This explains why my old union has dispatched precinct canvassers north and south in the past few weeks.
"Hispanic Democratic voters in Nevada make up about 17 percent of the state’s eligible voters, Bloomberg reports. Former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders defeated Biden in the Nevada caucuses after his Vermont challenger won half the Hispanic vote, according to CNN’s entrance polls of the (February) caucuses," Spencer wrote.
Last Sunday, NBC News reported about Nevada Latinos worried that their mailed ballots won't count and are thus uptight about voting in person.
In must-win Ohio, a poll released Sunday shows Trump and Biden tied. Zounds.
"Labor leaders have worked for months to sell their members on Biden, hoping to avoid a repeat of 2016 when Donald Trump outperformed among union members and won the White House. But despite a bevy of national union endorsements for Biden and years of what leaders call attacks on organized labor from the Trump administration, local officials in critical battleground states said support for Trump remains solid," Politico reported on Sept. 22.
" 'We haven’t moved the needle here,' said Mike Knisley, executive secretary-treasurer with the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council, who estimated that about half of his members voted for Trump in 2016 and will do so again. 'Even if given all the information that’s been put out there, all the facts — just pick an issue that the president has had his hands in — it doesn’t make a difference,' ” he stated.
"Among members of North America’s Building Trades Unions, there is a dead heat in six swing states, with Biden receiving 48 percent of the vote and Trump 47 percent, according to an internal poll shared with Politico.
" '(Trump) has a very, very, very solid foundation of our members,' said James Williams, a vice-president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, whose surveys of members painted a similar picture.
" 'They connect with his messaging and a lot of the fear-mongering going all the way back to when he was first elected with "Be afraid of the immigrant. The immigrant’s here to take your job."
" 'That resonated with our membership. They feel like their way of life and their way of living is under attack and without really understanding the dynamics at play. I mean, the immigrant worker is being abused by employers.'
"Trump’s support in some unions could provide an opening for him in the Midwest, particularly in the key Rust Belt states that powered Trump’s victory in 2016 — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — where union voters have a sizable impact. Roughly one in six voters nationwide is either a union member or comes from a union household, according to a (September) Gallup Poll, and that number rises to more than one in four in states like Michigan.
"Those voters, historically a bedrock of Democratic support, shifted away from the party in 2016, according to exit polls. Hillary Clinton won union voters by less than half as much as former President Barack Obama had four years earlier — and that swing alone may have been enough to account for her losses in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, one analysis found. Even if Biden takes back the White House, there could be far-reaching impacts on the Democratic Party and labor movement if that trendline persists.
"The question this year is whether Biden can win those union members back, and by how much. Some labor leaders said there is cause for hope for Biden: While many Trump voters remain firm in their support, they said, Biden is winning over more of their members than Clinton did. They attributed that in part to Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“ 'We’re seeing a whole different attitude toward Joe Biden than we saw mostly because Trump has a record of failure. Biden has a record of being there for us,” said Rick Bloomingdale, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.
“ ' It’s just a different feel out there. Obviously, we still have members who support Trump. ' ”
So what's the temperature here in the High Desert Outback of the American Dream? Look no further than Carson City, home to a huge number state workers, many now unionized. Former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and current Congresscritter Mark Amodei , both Republicans, graduated from Carson High. With the exception of revered ex-teacher Bonnie Parnell, Carson hasn't elected a legislative Democrat for more than two decades.
Some Nevada unions are hanging tough, others are split and their leaders are worried.
Why Trump? Well, he's a guy, for starters. To use NBC reporter and author Katy Tur's reasoning as to why Trump won in 2016: "He entertained people and he looked strong."
The fake news NYTimes just did a long piece about Trump supporters who actually believe he will protect Obamacare's pre-existing condition mandate once it's repealed. Mama mia.
Union members supporting Trump are like any other Americans, easy to spook into voting against their own interests. Corporate America has invested billions to overturn Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and they've done one helluva job.
Just keep the lower classes fighting for the crumbs that fall off the fatcat table so that they won't look up at who's eating their lunch.
Remember the old saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Somebody cue The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again."
It's crunch time. Which side are you on?
Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡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 Editor Andrew Barbano is a 51-year Nevadan whose reputation remains impervious to further augmentation or denigration. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
From the 9-30-2020 Sparks Tribune

Superspreaders, homotextuals & hall of famers

As longtime readers expect, the legendary Barbwire investigative team spared every expense in obtaining an exclusive interview with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement, Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

BARB-Q: Judge Barrett, you have seven children. What does your husband do?
ACB: Dishes.
BARB-Q: I hear you have matching bathrobes. What color are they?
ACB: You're kidding, right?
BARB-Q: You are a deeply religious person. Who's your favorite Catholic?
ACB: After last week, Mitt Romney, at least for awhile.
BARB-Q: What's your favorite movie?
ACB: "Hang 'em High." Clint's a great Republican.
BARB-Q: Any others?
ACB: "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and, after last week, "Fast & Furious."
BARB-Q: What's your favorite book of the Old Testament?
ACB: You're kidding, right?
BARB-Q: Who's your favorite Disney character?
ACB: Well, it used to be Donald Duck.
BARB-Q: Your mentor was Justice Antonino Scalia, for whom you clerked?
ACB: He is the father of modern textualism, basing decisions on the meaning of the words when the law in question was passed.
BARB-Q: So any word not in use before 1800 is suspect?
ACB: Cowabunga!
BARB-Q: Do you still go to confession?
ACB: No. My parish priest got really pissed off that I kept invoking attorney-client privilege or the Fifth Amendment.
BARB-Q: Do you think women should be ordained as priests?
ACB: Hell, no. Why open the door to another low-paid, long-hour job? I think Justice Ginsburg might agree on that one.
BARB-Q: If she wuz alive, she'd be turning over in her grave. Thank you, Mme. Justice-designate. Let's do this again soon.
ACB: Not if I can help it.
BRIGHT SHINING LIE DEPT. This tweet went out last Friday from Regional Transportation Commission bus system management: "Safety is everyone's responsibility." Except theirs.
"RTC and its contractors are doing their part and transit riders are urged to do theirs," the tweet chirped. "Follow the 3 Ws: Watch your distance, wash your hands and wear a mask."
Do lying tweeters grow longer beaks like Pinocchio with chicken feathers?
RTC sez they are enforcing Gov. Sisolak's mask mandate. Also a lie. Drivers who push masks get written up or fired. See the evidence for yourself at NevadaLabor.com/ The three Washoe County transit systems carry upwards of 20,000 passengers a day. Without masking, they are little more than rolling ocean liners, super-spreading deadly disease. And they're doing it on your dime, including buying expensive TV ads. Maybe they should change their name to the Regional Propaganda Commission.
RTC is currently comprised of County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung and Bob Lucey, joined by Reno Councilmembers Neoma Jardon and Oscar Delgado (the only Democrat on the board). The Sparks seat held by the late Mayor Ron Smith has been filled by Councilmember Kristopher Dahir (R). Moral obtuseness is a bi-partisan affliction.They won't lift a finger without you pushing. So push. Contact info at NevadaLabor.com/
Because government at all levels has failed to protect drivers and riders, the Teamsters Union has filed charges in federal court. Stay tuned.
SPEAKING OF UNION BUSTERS. The Reno Gazette-Journal ran a front page spread last Monday about "longtime northern Nevada builder Dianda Construction" changing its name to Plenium Builders.
Actually, they haven't been around very long at all. Longtime construction mogul Norm Dianda's sons started it a few years ago as a non-union, low-wage, questionably skilled enterprise. Dianda's Q&D Construction has been around for decades and is mostly unionized. Plenium fits right in to the anti-union bias of Sparks City Hall today. Five years ago, the city council loosened up skilled labor requirements to turn the failing Victorian Square into apartments on the cheap.
DONALD'S DUNCE DAY. Donald Trump, Jr., will campaign at Peterbilt Trucks in Sparks today. Feel free to attend if you want to catch your death during death-defyin' speechifying. Last week, Trump2 packed more than 800 into a 500-seat room in Chandler, Ariz. Almost all were maskless as well as clueless, like the guest of honor.
The speakers parroted every conspiracy theory in the book save for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tejas, assassinating President Lincoln, or somesuch.
An 18-year-old Republican finance student from Tucson, one of the few heretical mask wearers, expressed disappointment, describing the Trump re-election campaign as having the maturity level of a teenager. He was disappointed to see that the event was just a live trolling session.
Jonathan Gross wanted to hear about Trump policies. Nada.
"I came to hear about what Trump is planning to do with his re-election but it felt like just a slander of the left," he told the fake news New York Times.
ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS. I am the only campaign manager I know who will close 2020 batting a thousand. I'm officially 1-0 after former Tribunite Dennis Myers was voted into the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. Dennis' nomination last year came a bit too close to his August 2019 death. He collapsed from a stroke at his Sparks apartment and never regained consciousness.
I submit that he was and remains the greatest journalist in Nevada history. Mark Twain, also in the NPA HOF, only lived here about three years. I was further delighted that longtime RGJ columnist and internationally noted auto critic and motorsports writer Cory Farley made it in while he is still around to enjoy it.
I got RGJ columnist/editor Guy Richardson into the HOF on my first try a few years back. Next up, a couple more immortal Trib vets: UNR journalism Prof. Jake Highton and world class photographer Don Dondero.
You will find bios of all of my nominees at NevadaLabor.com/ My labor of love memorializing Dennis remains his only formal obituary. It's worth reading because it links to so many of his greatest hits and was excerpted in the press association announcement.
We worked — ahem — independently together in knocking now-Sen. Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, out of the 2015 Nevada State Assembly speakership. (See the website for sordid details.) The story went viral from the Maui News to the Times, Post and Journal, then crossed the pond to The Guardian of London/UK.
ADVICE FROM ON HIGH. "Stay positive. Test negative," sez CBS news anchor Norah O'Donnell. RTC, are you listening?
Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡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 Editor Andrew Barbano is a 51-year Nevadan whose reputation remains impervious to further augmentation or denigration. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.

Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx
Still crazy after all these years.

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
From the 9-23-2020 Sparks Tribune

Messages from the gods: Ignore at your peril

Blasphemy, defined as mocking someone's god, is the most popular capital sin in most religions. I prefer keeping my head by promoting presumption instead.
The preachers who irritate me most are those who presume and thus purport to speak for whatever god or Olympus they are selling.
Well today, I'm joining the rogues gallery of presumptuousness.
Look around you and tell me that whatever concept of the almighty you prefer is not sending serious telegrams by whatever means are available to omnipotent spirits.
Fire, ice, water, pestilence, disease, winds, storms, murder, mayhem, reality TV, carrier pigeon. God has even sent Donald Trump to us because She's fresh out of locusts.
We are now without both Rep. John Lewis and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Czar Donaldov may have nominated a Scaliante homotextual to Mrs. Ginsburg's seat by the time you read this.
The Notorious RBG's best bud on the court was her polar opposite, Antonino the Ancient. (He was apparently a good comedian, so they got along.) La Scalia's method of judicial activism was to get out the dictionary, look up the meaning of words, and consider those the gospel according to the framers. Easier than working.
Indiana Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who has apparently grabbed the president by the presumption, believes that Chief Justice John Roberts has betrayed the commands of textualism. Zounds. Call out the dragoons and have the blackguard flogged, drawn and quartered.
I wonder how a fundamental homotextual like her could bear to live in the same town where Pete Buttigieg served as mayor. I also wonder if she voted for him. Probably not. No self-respecting Notre Dame professor would commit such blasphemy.
Theocracy has made a big comeback in recent years and the wave has yet to crest.
As poet e.e. cummings might say, this monster mannunkind is devolving.
Our shaky democracy might shortly devolve into national breakup or civil war. At least the National Rifle Association's clients will continue to profit.
THE PROBLEM. As always, control by the wealthy, whether in the flesh or in legal fictions called corporations, who rape and pillage the body politick.
THE SOLUTION. As always, expanding economic opportunity with a healing dash of human respect for this magical little place we've been given for just a little time.
John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg lived their lives that way.
Remember the end of e.e. cummings greatest line: "pity this monster mannunkind...not."
RNR REDUX. Former Reno Gazette-Journal investigative ace Frank X. Mullen now helms the online reincarnation of the Reno News & Review. Glad to see it. His latest scoop about local Q-Anon moonhowlers seeking out sex trafficking where it doesn't exist is a-must read. See the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/
CITY HALL HIJINX. Economic Development Authority of Washoe County (EDAWN) Executive Director Mike Kazmierski is actively campaigning for the defeat of Reno City Councilmember Jenny Brekhus, D. That's dumb politics, especially when your outfit is knocking down a cool $100,000 a year in cash support from both the cities of Reno and Sparks.
GOVERNMENT WASTE R US. Within a few days of being sued by the Teamsters Union, the Regional Transportation Commission and its bus system subcontractor Keolis-19 are paying for slick TV spots selling the bright, shining lie that they are complying with Gov. Steve Sisolak's mask mandate.
See all the evidence to the contrary for yourself at NevadaLabor.com/ The three Washoe County transit systems carry upwards of 20,000 passengers a day. Without masking, they are little more than rolling ocean liners, spreading deadly disease. And they're doing it on your dime.
The Sparks seat held by the late Mayor Ron Smith still needs filling. RTC is currently comprised of County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung and Bob Lucey, joined by Reno Councilmembers Neoma Jardon and Oscar Delgado (the only Democrat on the board). Doesn't matter. Moral obtuseness in bi-partisan. They won't lift a finger without you pushing. So push.
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN. I've been on this beat for 50 years and nothing has changed. People of average means get elected to local government and are quickly surrounded by sycophantic buzzards who pick the public's pocketbook clean. It's called economic development by its supporters, corporate welfare by its detractors. (See the NevadaLabor.com corporate welfare archive.)
If you ever wonder why local schools, parks, roads and first responders are underfunded, now you know one big reason.
ETHIX, EFFLUENT AND AFFLUENCE. Lemmon Valley activist Tammy Holt-Still has filed a complaint with the Nevada Ethics Commission about Reno Councilmember Bonnie Weber, R, but that's not all.
Did you know that University of Nevada researchers would not test that open cesspool in Lemmon Valley (euphemistically called Swan Lake) for Coronavirus and other gremlins, but does so with sewage effluent in more affluent areas? Did you know that developers want to subdivide Swan Lake for sale when it dries up, just like the scam they pulled in the southeast Reno flood plain
Stay tuned and keep your waders handy.
Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡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 Editor Andrew Barbano is a 51-year Nevadan whose reputation remains impervious to further augmentation or denigration. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.

Diabolical Déjà Vu: Fire is the Devil's only friend
Barbwire accurately called 2016 presidential result 9 months out & stands behind 2020 prediction made four years ago
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-2-2020 Sparks Tribune

History foreshadows a GOP November win
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-16-2016 Sparks Tribune / Updated 2-19, 3-1, 3-8, 5-19 and 11-19-2016, 12-24-2019

President Donald Trump as Andrew Jackson? So opined a plethora of prestigious, highly-paid expert pundits on election night. The Barbwire warned of exactly that last March. Twice.
And that ain't all. Read 'em and weep, pilgrims.

Nobody knows nothin'
By David Horsey, Staff Cartoonist / Los Angeles Times 11-9-2016
BARBWIRE SEZ the awesome Mr. Horsey's assertion that only the LAT/USC poll was accurate ain't necessarily so.

Those with crystal balls shouldn't throw stones
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-15-2016 Sparks Tribune

Remembering the first female U.S. presidents
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-8-2016 Sparks Tribune

"Any system of prolonged political paralysis and failed liberalism vomits up monsters. And the longer we remain in a state of political paralysis — especially as we stumble toward another financial collapse — the more certain it becomes that these monsters will take power." — Christopher Hedges at NationOfChange.org 17 Oct. 2016.

All the more reason to subscribe to Barbwire Confidential.

Donny & Jimmy's Most Excellent White Castle Adventure
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-16-2020 Sparks Tribune

Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx
Still crazy after all these years.

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Donny & Jimmy's Most Excellent White Castle Adventure
BARBWIRE EXCLUSIVE 9-12-2020

The world class Barbwire investigative team has spared every expense to obtain a secret internal memo from an inside GOP source, DeepGLOP:

TO: Chairpersons, both Nevada Republican Parties (you know who you are)
FROM: Strategery Dept.
RE: Presidential visit this weekend in the Douglas County Alabaster Bastion

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The Dean's List

The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.

RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
TOP SECRET— HushHush!

As you are aware, our leader will descend hereabouts this weekend, flying thru hellfire and damnation into Reno, then driving — driving! — an hour each way to get to the postage-stamp Minden Airport. Such an indignity was foisted upon him by frightened Nevada liberals because polls show the state in almost a dead heat (treasonous liberal by 4, +/- 3, adjust for fake news bias).

We believe we have solved the transportation situation. We have suggested that he fly from Reno to Minden aboard a Nevada National Guard helicopter – on the same day that his cutting the guard's COVID-19 budget has Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak screaming like a stuck donkey. Revenge is a dish best served cold, eh, fellow Klingons?

Please turn out your die-hards (and I mean that literally, see below). Tell them not to wear masks as it just pisses off the old man. You can wear your cammos but please leave your machine guns at home. Oops, I forgot — we're talking Douglas County. Bring the heat. And your babies.

I hope they don't invite that treasonous library director who's trying to pervert the minds of our children with sympathy for black and brown terrorists. Does anybody know if Nevada Assembly Minority Leader Jim Wheeler can attend? The president would like a guy who says he'd vote for slavery if his constituents want it. That's true back-to-the-future democracy, not that wussy booklearning stuff.

We can turn defiance of Nevada's Antifa pro-mask governor into a net positive while cutting our losses. Make sure to keep detailed records of everyone who shows up. Some may exhibit COVID-19 symptoms from the rally shortly before insecure vote-by-mail ballots are sent in about two weeks.

Follow up and instruct them to get their ballots early if at all possible, then fill out a straight GOP ticket and promptly return them to their voter registrar's office.

DO NOT trust the postal service. We can't let word get out that Republicans know how to mail letters.

This is a win-win situation for the president. Dead or alive or hospitalized, all of the rally attendees will have voted, so their votes will count.

If some of them die before election day, the party will have proof positive that dead people are voting by mail, proving the president correct, as always.

What's not to like?

Yours in victory should you live long enough,

Luther Lovelace
Deep State Covert Consultant and freelance pet and birthday photographer
(You know how to contact me via the Dark Web. Today's user name is KochAin't )

ps: Hyper-liberal California Antifa thugs have rigged it so that the skies will look like the 7th circle of hell on Saturday. To keep our attendees safe until they can vote, please inform them not to breathe unless absolutely necessary.

END OF LEAKY MEMO. DISTRIBUTE AT WILL. OR NOT.

###

Andrew Barbano is a 51-year Nevadan whose reputation is impervious to further augmentation or denigration. For unparalleled coverage of the August 8 Black Lives Don't Matter mashup in Minden, go to NevadaLabor.com (unless you are easily offended because much offense was offered thereat). You will also be treated to the 2016 world champion political 'toon and the 2020 frontrunner. HOT TIP: Monitor NevadaLabor.com for major union news breaking within 48 hours.

9-16-2020 Sparks Tribune add-ons

THE AWFUL TRUTH. The above went out to a few hundred thousand of my e-mail co-conspirators in advance of Czar Donaldov's sojourn to the whitest part of Nevada last Saturday. It received the usual range of comments from the usual suspects.

One freedom loving racist in Gomorrah South trashed me for obviously defending George Floyd, the Minneapolis black man who died of a drug overdose.

Except he didn't. The coroner ruled it a homicide by cop and four fired officers now face felony charges. Obviously a Fox News fan.

The most curious result came from people I'd confused. I apologized, as creating confusion is one of my few talents. (Damn...I could'a been president.)

Some people actually wondered if the letter from "Luther Lovelace" (son of a famous movie star, perhaps?) was authentic.

I didn't think about it as I worked on it, but it really shows how hard it is to lampoon a real-life cartoon. The essence of a joke is stretching reality till it's funny. For the most part, El Presidente has already pushed it about as far as it can go. He tries to put us comedians out of work, then brags about job creation. What a guy.

There is justice in the world. Trump actually had to drive the 60+mile route both ways. I guess the guv wouldn't let him use a chopper.

Oh, the humanity!

HAT TRICK. I guess now I've done it all. The above hit on Trump was my third bruise on a president. Back in 1982, when Ronald Reagan was on his way to UNR to speak, I placed "None of Above" billboards on his motorcade route. (See NAGPAC.org)

In 1988, I accompanied some clients to hear then-VP George HW Bush speak at Reno High. While standing in line, I spoke with reporters from the Reno Gazette-Journal and Associated Press. I asked if they might have that morning's Wall Street Journal in their newsrooms. Affirmative.

I then called their attention to a front page story about how Bush the Elder was giving boring speeches filled with "cliches and bromides" and that his handlers were worried about his presidential campaign.

Sure enough, in addressing the crowd at the Reno High gym, he used some of the tired items the WSJ had noted. So the spin nationwide the next day was all about Bush giving another tired, hackneyed speech.

The above potshot at the Orange Crush gives me a hat trick. Keep lobbing up the softballs, guys. I'll swing for the seats, but only if the fans are masked.

SUE THE BASTARDS. Go to NevadaLabor.com to read the latest volley in the war to protect local bus passengers and drivers. My friends at Teamsters Local 533 have sued the operators of the local transit system for refusing to comply with Gov. Sisolak's order to wear masks. They filed last Friday in federal court.

I have built an entire website about the dereliction of duty by the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County. Call 'em, e-mail them, text them, tell them they are falling down in their most basic duty to the public.

The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County is comprised of Washoe County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung (R) and Bob Lucey (R); Reno City Councilmembers Neoma Jardon (R) and Oscar Delgado (D). The City of Sparks seat is vacant. Sparks Mayor Ron Smith's (R), passing was announced on August 19. Requiescat in pace.

Some 20,000 people a day are potentially exposed to COVID-19 on those rolling ocean liners.

Read "No pants? No service. No mask? OK" at NevadaLabor.com/

Once again, that's not a put-on. You can't ride the bus naked (like the trouserless Sparks guy who was refused boarding), but you can with a naked face.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now, subscribe to Barbwire Confidential at BallotBoxing.US —> Cheap. (HushHush!)

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