NEWS THAT AIN’T NEWS. YET. By the time you read this, I will be the worse for wear. On Monday and Tuesday this week, the Nevada State AFL-CIO met to endorse primary election candidates. The biggest fireworks were expected between Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls Christina Giunchigliani and Steve Sisolak, both Clark County commissioners.
Northern Nevada unions have not endorsed in that race. The Southern Nevada Central Labor Council endorsed Sisolak probably because of his support of the Oakland Raiders taxpayer-subsidized stadium construction. Giunchigliani is the jockocracy’s harshest critic.
Chris G has been doing voter outreach which Sisolak is now beginning in these parts. Sisolak started TV during the NCAA basketball tournament and has never stopped. He’s got about $4 million which is great for a governor’s race but not if you’re the power company.
POWER TO THE POWERFUL? NVEnergy and its allies will spend $30 million and perhaps much more to defeat Question 3 on the November ballot. They bought $12 million in TV just last week. They call the proposed constitutional amendment Enron2 and with some reason. I’ll be delving into it further. My biggest lament is that some of Nevada’s earliest advocates for consumers have sold out to the dark side of the force and the Darth Vader of Enron2, Gomorrah South casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.
MAD HATTERS. I plan to wear my hat all week as usual. I probably won’t get kicked out of the labor convention at Circus Circus or come close to arrest. I couldn’t say that 53 weeks ago. April 11 brought the anniversary of the lowest point of my checkered career: I was thrown out of the Nevada State Assembly Chamber for the crime of wearing a hat, then threatened with arrest for hanging around the press room. (Barbwire 4-18-2017)
So let’s see, which places must I permanently avoid? The ledge for sure. Haven’t been back since. And Tesla County until they replace that madcap sheriff. (Barbwire 10-31-2014) Ditto all them freedom loving racists in Yerington.
CESAR CHAVEZ XVI on the great labor leader’s 91st birthday featured the best entertainment since inception. However, we did not break the all-time attendance record. I told people that if they wanted to complain about Chávez’s March 31 birth date, call his mom but I don’t think her number’s listed. A still-substantial Saturday crowd enjoyed a good time despite heavy competition from five major religious events: Passover, Easter, spring break (big with pagans and Druids), the NCAA basketball Final Four and the Giants vs. the Dodgers. Alleluia.
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN. My old boss Bob Brown, now a member of the Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Fame, once editorialized that it’s time to disband the US Air Force Thunderbirds. He ventured that opinion in The Valley Times just after the entire team had flown into the ground while practicing near Nellis AFB in 1982. Earlier this month, we lost one pilot plus a humongously expensive aeroplane.
A couple of years back, a story broke that the Taiwanese military was having trouble meeting its recruiting goals because Formosan politicians don’t glorify the military. We’ve since seen revelations that millions in taxpayer money has been paid to billionaire United States pro sports operators for flag-waving demonstrations at games. They serve the same function as the Thunderbirds: propaganda supporting enrichment of the military-industrial complex.
How out-of-control is our empire? Read Dennis Myers’ tour de force “Bloat,” the cover story in the January 11 Reno News & Review. (Linked to the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/) You’ll be shocked if you remain at all shockable.
And remember the recent news that within a decade or so, our ever-expanding national debt will be bigger than the annual value of the entire U.S. economy. Social Security and Medicare are thus endangered species.
So what the heck? Let’s have a military parade in Washington with a flyover by those Thunderbirds who survived last week’s fatality.
We’re number one! Let’s go bomb some brown people and party on.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Barbano is a 49-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>
Charles Barnum says
Are Doctors Liable?
Recently a doctor in Sparks diagnosed “Alcohol Abuse” (Alcoholism) in a patient. The doctor did not inform the patient of her diagnoses. Instead she secretly added it to his medical records. Nor did she prescribe drugs to treat him. Nor did she refer him to an addiction specialist. Alcohol Abuse causes 88,600 accidental deaths a year. Will a doctor who fails to alert Police that a dangerous person just departed her office be liable for any deaths he might cause by running over children in a crosswalk?