Whose fault is ordering children, workers, minorities, the elderly and disabled to their deaths?

Covering their precious asses is the primal priority of most public officials. The most frequent enunciations of denunciation are "that's not my department" or "that wasn't my fault."

The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County (RTC) and the Washoe County School District are today empires of impunity.

After being warned by experts not to send kids back to school, our elected school board did just that. Hell, they were just getting into the groove set by our fearless leader Czar Donaldov, right?

"It's frustrating when you provide data to really well-informed and educated people and they are like, 'OK, that doesn't fit my agenda and so I'm going to go forward...with what, maybe, I wanted to do even though the data (are) not telling me what I want (them) to say,' " Washoe County Health District Senior Epidemiologist Heather Kerwin told the Reno Gazette-Journal's Siobahn McAndrew.

In an RGJ column, former Assemblymember Pat Hickey, R-Reno, stated that school closings make it "virtually impossible for the economy to reopen because of how difficult it is for parents of younger children to return to work." Another presidential parrot.

Our social safety net was raggedy before Trump, now it drips with gasoline, ready to burn.

"Poor little Johnny. Lost his mom for lack of daycare."

Trump's attempt to illegally suspend payroll witholding (which must be matched by employers) is the early death knell for Medicare and Social Security.

El Presidente just appointed an unqualified yes-man to replace Dr. Anthony Fauci as his COVID-19 advisor. This quack from the hyper-conservative Herbert Hoover Institution advocates the failed Swedish system, which is "let everybody get infected to build up immunity and we'll try to save old people if we can." Didn't work. Sweden is now walled off from the rest of Europe.

In 1964, the 31st president commented on his namesake's mission statement: “Ours is a system where the federal government should undertake no governmental, social or economic action, except where local government, or the people, cannot undertake it for themselves.” One writer termed that "the reactionary right’s antipathy toward true liberalism." Except corporate welfare and cutting taxes for the rich, of course.

If we had a decent social safety net, we would not be in this fix. Trump and his erstwhile BFF, Chinese President Xi Xin Ping, dallied until the virus bit them in their precious uncovered asses. Millions will be dead and/or permanently disabled as a result. This country destroyed its pandemic preparatory system as part of conservative fiscal vigilance: "It hasn't happened since 1918, so why spend money when we can cut taxes for our golfing buds?"

All that matters now is foisting blame. Mineral County is Nevada's only safe school district. Hoovering up to Hickey's position, progressive (don't say liberal!) Gov. Sisolak has passed the buck to local school districts despite the fact that Washoe's is demonstrably inept.

They are not alone. I've been writing for weeks how RTC's elected officials endanger 20,000 passengers and workers every day by refusing to order riders to wear masks. Drivers continue to be threatened with firing if they push safety.

RTC is the top tier of a very stale three-layer cake intentionally designed to shield elected officials from accountability. Five elected officials get paid to do nothing while their minions abuse workers.

The second tier is RTC staff, now headed by former acting Reno City Manager Bill Thomas. The lowest tier is whichever union-busting subcontractor RTC has hired (for usually about $500,000 a year) to make life miserable for employees. The contractor and RTC staff often overlap, a waste of resources, but who cares? It's only public money.

To borrow one of the late, great Molly Ivins' greatest zingers, RTC "is as weak as bus station chili." (Speaking of heartburn, my name is posted on TV at the downtown Reno station as an enemy of the state for having ordered drivers to harass passengers. Gee, power I didn't know I have. I'm a 51-year overnight Nevada success. Finally got my name in lights. Could posters at the post office be next? Probably not. We may not have a post office if Trump gets his way.)

The current bus system subcontractor is multi-national Keolis, based in France. Their local manager is one Abul Hassan. If his IQ gets any lower, we'll have to water him twice a day. (Tip of the hat to Molly again.)

So far, two drivers and one administrator have caught COVID-19. Information is not easy to come by. Bring heat if you know anyone in this rogues gallery of the morally obtuse.

Every local elected official, all state lawmakers, constitutional officers and the governor's office have been notified of this situation many times.

Bull Connor Reincarnated Swallowing hatred — guts, feathers and all Sheriff Dan Chokerley at work (Confirmed and authenticated photo) At his pre-protest "limited press conference," Sheriff Bull actually denied making the threat he put in writing to the library director. (Remind you of anyone you see on TV a lot these days?)

GEORGE CARLIN DEPARTMENT: X-RATED WARNING. The next paragraph contains one of the great moralist's Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say on Television. Most of them are OK today but the following remains a Shibboleth even if the original Shib has been let. Please stop reading if you are a gentle snowflake.

This came in from a longtime news stand Tribune buyer: "Andy: is the Gazette-Journal reaching a new low or showing incredible bravery by putting an angry probably racist white woman with a t-shirt that partially says "Offended...FUCK OFF" on the front page of Sunday's GaZoo?"

ZOUNDS. How did I miss it August 9? Indeed, photographer Jason Bean's photo shows a mob of maskless white people confronting a "Black Lives Matter" mask-wearing white person at the August 8 protest in front of Douglas County Sheriff Dan Chokerley's office. (See last week's Barbwire for coverage.)

The RGJ oversight, if indeed it was, perhaps came because the angry woman's shirt was black with shiny black lettering, very hard to read. I looked online for the photo but it has been curiously absent, which is a shame. Poor gentle snowflakes. (If you find it, please send it.)

Last year, ace Tribune photojournalist John Byrne won photo of the year over every paper in the state for his killer image of a women's march under the Reno Arch. The t-shirts, placards, faces and downtown perspective told a thousand words in one picture. Mr. Bean's photo does the same and deserves a Pulitzer nomination, not banishment.

UPDATE: If you can handle dirty looks and dirty words, here's the smoking gun. Unjoy.

WILL HE OR WON'T HE? Before today, in my 32 years writing for the Trib, I've only used the F-word once, in 1992, totally in context. I was soon informed by a new boss on his first day that the old rules were off and we were heretofore a family newspaper. (That long-ago exec is the only one of all who is now dead.) I wonder how the above will appear in the final edition.

SHORT SHOTS. A protect-the-post office rally happens 10-12noon at the Reno Main P.O. on Vassar Street this Saturday...State Treasurer Zack Conine has $30 million in short-term rental assistance available. Apply ASAP at housing.nv.gov/

Take care of each other and be careful out there

CHANGE THE DATE / SAVE THE DATE — Friday, October 23. For obvious reasons, I've moved César Chávez XVIII from March 31, the great labor leader's 93rd birthday. The event will be held at the Atlantis Resort, sponsored by Laborers' Union Local 169, the Reno-Sparks NAACP and the usual suspects. Doors open 5:30, dinner 6:30-ish. I don't know how I'll top my greatest hits of a cherried-out Aretha Franklin 1965 pink Cadillac convertible (with suitable live music) followed by Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak with suitable politics, but I'm working on it. Ex-Tribunite Dennis Myers will become the first journalist inducted to the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame. In addition to the HOF, nominations remain open for union organizer, employer and project of the year. Reservations at CesarChavezNevada.com/

This is the second time I've moved it and will do so again if necessary. I'm even shopping for union-made Christmas pIñatas. Maybe I can get one that looks like Mitch McConnell.

¡Sí se puede!