Site map
SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions (A favorite John Hanks aphorism I've been using for decades)

Je Suis Charlie
"Our republic and its press will rise or fall together." — Joseph Pulitzer

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Hot August Strike: Déjà vu all over again
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-19-2021 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

This Friday, the overlords of the local mass transit plantation will vote to hire strikebreakers should organized labor, led by Teamsters Union Local 533, strike for the first time in almost 20 years.

Why? Me. The Barbwire never forgets. Not only does NevadaLabor.com have all you need to know about the current depredations of the Washoe bus system, but my archives are a Wayback Machine.

I've been fighting the various incarnations of the Regional Transportation Commission almost since its 1982 birth. Nothing ever changes, dammit. For exorbitant fees, they hire non-Nevada for-profit pillagers to run the system. Into the ground. The current contractor is a multi-national based in gay Paree. Whee.

Subcontractors allow politicians to pull a Pontius Pilate. They wash their hands of any crisis, blaming the furriners for futzing up.

The current mismanagers who ignore their duties with morally obtuse aplomb are Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson (R), Washoe County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung (R) and Bob Lucey (R); Reno City Councilmembers Oscar Delgado (more hereinbelow) and RTC Chair Neoma Jardon (R), plus Regional Transportation Commission Executive Director Bill Thomas (SeeNoEvil).

The Teamsters first struck the system in 2002 after coming close in 1999 and several times more over the years. The 1999 contractor, Ryder/ATE, imported strikebreakers without RTC authorization. Even though no walkout happened, they asked to be reimbursed by the taxpayers.

The late union driver and shop steward Eileen Wiley stated this in a Reno Gazette-Journal guest editorial on Sept. 6, 1999: "The employees of the Citifare bus system have asked the Regional Transportation Commission to restore unauthorized and unnecessary expenditures which we feel were deducted from our paychecks. Without notifying the commission, Ryder/ATE, Inc., the foreign-owned for-profit contractor which manages the system, committed $113,841.32 to import 36 Cincinnati strikebreakers for a work stoppage which never happened. Dividing $113,841.32 by 36 means each strikebreaker cost $3,162.26 for no work."

Imagine what the Parisian party animals will spend this time.

The late Teamsters CEO Lou Martino sent me to present the union's case before the elected officials. They voted to pay the blood money anyway.

Current for-profit contractor multi-national Keolis Transit of France is now asking for an upfront blank check. Item 4.13 on this Friday's RTC agenda does not mention strikebreakers at all, just "flexibility." Union busters always use that word, complaining that unions impair management "flexibility."

Keolis and RTC's Bill Thomas have been so flexible that drivers have been hospitalized in intensive care units and upwards of 20,000 passengers a day have been forced to board COVID-19 superspreaders.

The bus system serves the least among us: the young, the elderly, the disabled, low-wage workers, minorities — many of whom cannot drive or don't own cars.

RTC and Keolis have simply refused to enforce masking and safety orders. In a written order to drivers last Feb. 1, local Keolis boss Taquan Jackson reiterated "our drivers are not to enforce this (mask) policy whatsoever."

In the almost four decades of RTC existence, cause for a strike has never been more glaring or more in the public interest.

MICIAH LEE'S LAW KILLED. Assembly Bill 268, sponsored by Assemblymember Lisa Krasner, R-Reno, and Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, was killed last Friday by the Nevada State Senate Judiciary Committee.

Police officials and the Reno-Sparks NAACP stood in support of the mild measure which resulted from the killing of suicidal black teen Miciah Lee by Sparks police in January, 2020.

Washoe County already had a rapid response de-escalation structure in place but Sparks PD chose not to use it. This bill effectively said "ask questions first, shoot later."

So what message does this inaction convey?

LATE-BREAKING UPDATE 5-19-2021: Today came announcement of a sex workers rights initiative petition being kicked off in Oregon (semi-ironically on my birthday this summer). As a committed union man, I will of course support it. As the latter item demonstrates, us flaming Nevada liberals identify with sex workers because we long ago became desensitized to getting screwed by our friends.

GREAT WRITING, PART ONE. If you can afford six bucks, pick up the Sunday (May 16) New York Times at a news stand. If not, go to NYTimes.com and read reporter Susan Dominus' magnum opus about surviving high school during the plague.

She profiled an advanced placement class of sophomores in Columbia, Missouri, for the Times Sunday Magazine. It's not only superbly written, it will teach you a lot you may not know about how Donald Trump's negligence has affected so many families and will continue for a century to come. (I don't believe the lowlife's name was even mentioned in the piece, so I will mildly make up for it with the latter mild insult to the psycho who knowingly ignored the reaper.)

I will link Ms. Dominus' piece to the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/ I predict a George Polk Award and a Pulitzer.

GREAT WRITING, PART DEUX. The Nevada Press Association will hold its annual convention in Reno this fall. I have been successful in getting two great journalists elected to the NPA Hall of Fame, the Reno Gazette-Journal's Guy Richardson and former Tribunite (and longtime Reno News & Review News Editor) Dennis Myers. (See right.) Both stand ensconced in the much more exclusive Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniators Hall of Flames.

There are only two qualifications for the latter: You gotta be dead and your work must have had max impact.

I will renominate two of the Barbwire/Ivins Nefarious Nine for NPA honors this year: Longtime Trib columnist and University of Nevada-Reno journalism Prof. Jake Highton and high-hearted WW2 fighter pilot and world-class photographer Donald Dondero. Please send me your endorsements and personal memories of those two giants. I have built websites for all of the above and will add your comments so that the judges may see them.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

CWA 9413/AFL-CIO

The Terminator sez he'll be back
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-12-2021 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

Listen and understand. That Terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear. And it absolutely will not stop — ever — until you are dead!" [1].

Ironically and mostly unintentionally, that warning applies to all the unrelated items you are about to read. Ignore at your personal peril.

AMERICA PUTS OUT A CONTRACT ON ITSELF. The oracles have spoken, starting with my paisano, plague guru Dr. Anthony Fauci: Not enough Americans will become vaccinated against COVID-19 to get to the promised land of herd immunity.

As a result, people on this portion of the big blue marble will suffer and die at the dirty hands of this avoidable disease in perpetuity.

Maybe you. Maybe me. Maybe your grandma or grandpa. Your one-and-only, your kid, grandkid, co-worker, teacher, fellow church member, the guy who lubes your car, the barrista at the coffee place, the checker at the grocery store.

If you haven't had somebody close to you die already (a frequent excuse I've heard from anti-jab jabberers), you will.

Sane nations like Iceland, S. Korea, New Zealand and Australia, acted quickly and stomped out the plague. Much of our government went golfing until it was way too late.

Last week, two fully-vaccinated residents of Gomorrah South died of a new COVID-19 variant that came to Vegas to party. Once again, we've been warned. Meanwhile, casinos and businesses large and small can't wait to play like Donner Pass is open with no controls. Chains no longer mandatory. Whips and masks optional at the orgy of ignoble ignorance.

SILENCE IS GOLDEN. Got a scary e-mail at deadline.

Alas and alack, in the USA of today, life is increasingly cheap and death is both cheap and silent.

SPEAKING OF SILENCERS...AND SUPERSPREADERS: This just in from a guy figuratively and literally sitting shiva.

"District Board of Health Chair Oscar Delgado (stated) ' I appreciate the diligence of the Board of County Commissioners in approving the Washoe County COVID-19 Local Mitigation and Enforcement Plan today...This gradual approach of reopening for the month of May is reasonable, responsible and protects the health and safety of our community.' "

Mr. Delgado (D) is the CEO of the Community Health Alliance and in his capacity as a member of the Reno City Council, sits on the Regional Transportation Commission board.

He and his fellow RTC directors have lifted nary a finger after a year of complaints and legal actions regarding lax enforcement of COVID-19 safety standards on the RTC Ride bus system. Drivers have been hospitalized, some in ICU. Another Hot August Strike looms large while Oscar and his buds issue press releases.

Other morally obtuse RTC bosses include, but are not limited to, Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson (R), Washoe County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung (R) and Bob Lucey (R); Reno City Councilmember and RTC Chair Neoma Jardon (R), plus Regional Transportation Commission Executive Director Bill Thomas (SeeNoEvil).

I am disappointed but not surprised by Mr. Delgado's disingenuous statement advocating "reasonable, responsible" protection for "the health and safety of our community." (Perhaps he's a big fan of Queen Marie Antoinette. Who knew?)

Me, I prefer Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street. At least you always know where he stands.

TRUMP CULT LEGAL ADVICE. Here's the best analysis you will get of the moonhowler mindset of the Republican Party aka The Trump Cult. It's an old bit of advice for lawyers.

     "If the law's not on your side, pound the facts. If the facts are not on your side, pound the law. If neither is on your side, pound the table."

Which explains why Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, is getting pounded on the GOP butcher block this week.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

[1] Actor Michael Biehn as time-traveling soldier Kyle Reese in the classic sci-fi drama "The Terminator" (released appropriately in 1984). Written by Gale Anne Hurd, William Wisher Jr. and James Cameron, who also directed.

OBIT: The formerly United States of America
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-5-2021 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

WARNING: This English translation from state-sanctioned Mandarin was prepared from memory by people who read the original stolen by the spy who was executed for his crime. Do not be caught with this in your possession. Memorize and destroy. Anyone using anything but the official language may be executed."Listen and understand. That Terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear. And it absolutely will not stop — ever — until you are dead!" [1].

APPROVED BY THE PEOPLES' BUREAU OF TRUTH, an introduction to western history class presented by Prof. Zoroaster Chang at Formosa University, July 4, 2121.

Good morning students. Welcome to western history.

This course will focus on how China, under the leadership of our eternal and holy leader Xi Xin Ping, brought China to world dominance over the last century.

As you probably already know, it all began when the nation once known as the United States developed the most lethal virus the world has ever known at Fort Dietrich in an area called Maryland.

The capitalists transported the disease to Wuhan, China, and with the help of counter-revolutionary Moslem Uighurs and decadent Christians, released it in a popular marketplace. It spread worldwide and killed hundreds of millions.

Fortunately, our eternal and holy leader Xi was first to recognize the threat and immediately took steps to stop its spread in China while at the same time developing the Xi

Victory Vaccine which saved millions of lives.

Variations are still in use today, including that one you received on your first day here.

China's greatest rival a century ago was a North American nation once known as the United States.

They did not have the vision of our eternal and holy leader Xi, and refused to enforce measures to eradicate the virus and keep their citizens safe.

Rather than developing mass immunity through countermeasures and vaccinations, they impatiently pursued their decadent lifestyle.

The virus resurged many times, killing tens of millions and sapping the American empire of its vitality.

This came at a time of great political unrest.

After a rare liberal victory in 2020, reactionary capitalists again took control of the government, developed a siege mentality and banned all immigration.

Critically needed workers were never admitted in order to fill the many gaps in society left by the plague.

Our eternal and holy leader Xi recognized the potential of those who wanted to live in an enlightened industrial society and he gladly welcomed immigrants from all over the world, not only to China but to our many new colonies in Africa, Asia and South America.

The last vestige of what was once known as liberal democracy came in 2029 with the assassination of newly-elected President Jacqueline Aretha Kennedy.

By then, the devastated capitalist state was a nation in name only.

A national referendum was held in 2032 and by a large margin, Americans approved a template to dissolve.

For a good example of the results, we will review the history of one of the worst regions of the country, a place once known as Nevada.

The northwestern part of that arid region opted to become part of the new nation of Ecotopia, comprised of northern California through western Canada.

Southern Nevada, once known as Las Vegas, cast its lot with MexAmerica, which merely restored historical and cultural ties of the southwestern United States with Mexico and Central America.

Most of the northeastern United States became part of Canada, from Illinois to Virginia, with the exception of southern Ohio.

The southern climes made common cause with the mountain west, save for the state of Colorado, and became the nation of New McConnell.

Our eternal and holy leader Xi quickly recognized tremendous opportunities for the International Peoples Republic.

He renovated deposed U.S. President Joseph Biden's infrastructure plan and turned it over to Chinese construction companies.

Our eternal and holy leader Xi's leadership brought economic prosperity to most of the world while outliers languished.

He was once asked about taking control of the dissenters by force. He wisely demurred, noting that all would soon come to Beijing. He was, of course, correct as always.

Today, there remain very few pockets of resistance to the new order, again, all caused by the formerly united states.

Biden withdrew from Afghanistan which left a power vacuum.

Our eternal and holy leader Xi considered filling it but determined that it would be too costly.

Biden took a lesson from the potent womens' militia of Syria and trained Afghan women to organize their own army.

They defeated the Taliban in 2037. Today, the female-dominated elected governments of Syria/Lebanon and Afghani/Pakistan remain the two biggest obstacles to the prosperity brought by the Century of Our Eternal and Holy Leader Xi.

Afghani/Pakistan President Benazir Thunberg O'Brien will meet with our exalted and praiseworthy foreign minister Gingrich Yangtze in Beijing next week.

I look forward to your becoming fully immersed in the enlightenment of the paradise on earth created by our eternal and holy leader Xi.

As he always admonished us to remember, Mao is Great.
__________ 

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

Web Xtras & Smoking Guns—>