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 motorsport 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.
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.
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