I herewith contradict my oft-repeated advice to bury gold in a backyard coffee can for the duration of the looming Great Depression2. (PEERLESS PREDIXIONS PAST — Great Recession: Barbwire 5-29-2005 et seq.; GD2, Barbwire 12-27-2017 et seq.)

Invest some of your retirement money in any company that manufactures coat hangers.

No wonder Czar Donaldov put a tariff on imported metals. He knows that demand for abortion wire services will skyrocket when his new Supreme Court nominee is confirmed.

SCOTUS COITUS INTERRUPTUS? As usual, the crackerjack Barbwire investigative reporting team has spared every expense in determining why El Presidénte del Ego Grande didn't nominate comely redheaded Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

Our spies report that she refused to be left alone in the same room with the president for a one-on-one interpersonal interview.

Even if untrue, it's a great story and Americans are suckers for great stories, eh wot?

As the late Tribune columnist and Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Famer Travus T. Hipp oft-advised, sometimes cheap shots are the only shots you get.

DARK BROMANCE. Vladmir Putin is the richest (about half a trillion USD) and most powerful man in the world. He owns our White House and broke the European Union by funding the Brexit UK mutiny. He kick-started the re-emergence of the Soviet Union by annexing Crimea by force.

Solidarity Union legend and former Polish president Lech Walesa has warned of civil war in Poland if the current regime does not stop trying to rig the independent judiciary. (Sound familiar?)

Czar Donaldov most admires the bloodiest dictators among his fellow heads of state.

Alas and alack, we have become what we despise. We are the empire. Where is Luke Skywalker when we need him?

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN. Fascist dictatorships are now the emerging fashion in governments worldwide. The best warnings were all written by women.

Jane Mayer followed the "Dark Money" (2016). Naomi Klein traced the evolution of fascism in "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" (2007) and "No is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics" (2017). Naomi Wolf wrote the playbook. (See below.)

For four decades, I have advocated that the only viable salvation for this endangered little speck of a planet lies with our females. Many simply view the world differently than us dumbass studs.

First-generation women pols like Reagan favorite Margaret Thatcher had to prove their street cred by acting more warlike than boys. Nevada spawned her share.

Second-generation female officials can now feel secure in advocating less butchering and more nurturing, less bombing and more parenting, less wounding and more healing.

This tiny planet possesses all the resources we need to live long and prosper if what poet ee cummings called "this monster mannunkind" would only stop committing suicide.

TOP 10. In "The End of America" (2007), Naomi Wolf checked off the basic fascism to-do list. Her chapter headings alone provide a primer on how dictators rise. If some of this rings chillingly current, it certainly should.

It can never happen here, right?

ONLINE ADDENDUM: Please keep in mind the simple difference between the two authoritarian regimes of dictatorship. Leninism (mis-defined as Communism) is an authoritarian form of government where a narrow clique at the top of government controls the means of production. Fascism is also a brutal concentration of power but the means of production remain largely in private hands.
The old Soviet Union and the current version of China are the best examples of classic Leninism. True communism is best typified by the utopian egalitarian community fantasized in James Hilton's 1933 novel and classic 1937 film "Lost Horizon." Directed by Frank Capra, a valhalla of civilization and repository of mannunkind's knowledge is preserved in a remote valley in the Himalayas in a world on the verge of self-destruction in World War II.
Communism turned into Leninism when Vladimir Lenin and his pal Josef Stalin ousted the revolutionary Russian government, ushering in a century of oppression. Vladmir Putin's Russia is a hybrid of Leninism and Fascism with a lot of the means of production turned over to "kleptocrats" now respectfully described as oligarchs. All of this has made Vladimir Putin not only a latter day czar but also the richest man in the world, worth about half a trillion by some estimates.
As the great union longshoreman-philosopher Eric Hoffer so aptly noted half a century ago, when taken to their logical conclusions, Leninism and capitalism lead to the same place. (Fascism is an extreme version of capitalism. Barbwire 5-8-2005)

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED READING: THE FIRST ECOTOPIAN NOVEL, "The Fifth Sacred Thing" by Starhawk (Maya Greenwood) (Bantam, 1993).

GUARDING SPARKS. The Guardian/UK, one of the world's most credible newspapers, recently dispatched one of their very best to report on the street-level impact of Tesla.(Barbwire 12-27-2017) Rory Carroll has worked hot spots in every hemisphere and authored a book ("Comandante") about the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez. He published a killer piece on Sparks last July 3. You will find it linked to the expanded edition of this column at Barbwire.US/

I spent two days with the international journalist and suggested several interviews, including two senior citizens who live on the edge of homelessness due to uncontrolled rent increases. (Join RENTvolution.org) Sparks City Manager Steve Driscoll stated that his budget has been flat for two years despite all the growth and its concurrent demands.

State Controller Ron Knecht noted that in 2017 alone, Tesla tax freebies cost our parks, roads, schools, cops and firefighters $68.7 million. (And taxpayers wonder why Reno firefighters don't have serviceable hook 'n' ladder trucks.) I have always agreed with conservatives that corporate welfare is an abomination that picks the pockets of the people.

The Guardian prints 180,000 papers a day in London and environs. Its website generates ONE BILLION page views per month. (I should live so long.) Another public relations coup for Nevada to go along with nuclear waste, Yerington racism and pollution and our proud status at the bottom of just about every list of community attributes.

I don't think I'm going to get any luncheon invitations from Gov. Veto El Obtúsè or his fellow economic development pimps anytime soon.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
_______
Andrew Barbano is a 49-year Nevadan, executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, 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/ As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988 and received its 8th Nevada Press Association award and 5th first-place at the 30 Sept. 2017 NPA annual convention in Carson City. (That trophy and about six bucks will get you a Latte Mocha Cotsafracas Chingade at just about any Starbux worldwide, guaranteed.)

WEB XTRAS & SMOKING GUNS —> Sore-oppressed Soul-Sister Cities:
Menlo Park and Reno-Sparks-Fernley share similarly sad high-tech stretch marks

"All humanity has left the area": paying for Tesla's Gigafactory
Barbano and Nevada conservatives decry corporate welfare depredations
By Rory Carroll / The Guardian 7-3-2018
Editor's Note: The Guardian publishes 180,000 newspapers daily in London and environs and generates ONE BILLION monthly web page views. (I should live so long.)

"Facebook is taking everything": rising rents drive out Silicon Valley families
Property companies advertising their proximity to Facebook’s campus are giving low-income residents a choice: pay a huge rent increase or move out
By Sam Levin / The Guardian 6-20-2018