Remember those pointy-headed pseudo-intellectuals who told us that we were at the end of history in a post-racial society?
They should subscribe to my Barbwire Confidential e-mail list. A week or so ago, I put out a bulletin from Reno-Sparks NAACP President Lonnie Feemster recruiting volunteers to make calls motivating infrequent voters.
Well, you got trouble, folks, right here in River City. Endemic racism is alive and well in the formerly former Mississippi West.
Apparently doing anything to get people to vote threatens macho or somesuch. Here is verbatim from the best of the closet Klansmen responses.
FROM MR. COURTEOUS: “Totally shameful to care more about black lives terrorists that care more about black lives than all Americans. Please take me off your email list. you are not the man I thought you were. I am for all Americans and this tells me you are not. You surely don’t think for one minute they care about you. You are like all the rest. UNAMERICAN ! Shame on you. They have already changed America but all their rioting-stealing-killing and wasting billions of dollars just to show their black power. Yes the corrupt ballots are coming and what follows? Corruption. Thanks a lot! ‘”
AB: I’ll take him off my e-list when he takes me off his.
FROM MR. MOGUL: “How can you possibly think what you are standing for is right? The democratic party no longer exists and you should know that. Do not send this propaganda to any American and you should be ashamed of yourself for supporting it !!”
BARBANO RESPONSE: Long time, old friend. Hope you and yours are well. I’m just encouraging people to vote. Stay positive, test negative. – Andrew
MR. MOGUL REPLIES: “Andrew — By this action you are continuing in the same old tradition that Blacks need to follow the same old ways and vote democratic and that’s not true. President Trump has moved to help develop a strong family base and promoted job creation for Blacks and did more for Black education than Black Obama ever did when he and Biden were given the chance.
“Obama played to the ‘White’ Hollywood crowd, as if ‘he’ was, and he spent more money and did more traveling than all the other US Presidents combined,” the onetime consumer lobbyist groused, adding “His wife Michelle had around 47 hand slaves as well as her mother stayed in the White house too. She took her own planes on trips costing the taxpayers millions.
“Don’t think for one minute that the NAACP is any different now than it has ever been. They will have to get real jobs if we get President Trump re elected. I pray that the Black voters do wake up and see these bureaucrats for the deceivers they really are and that the Republican Party is truly trying to raise them up out of welfare — to have self respect for themselves and each other and gain a belief in their own abilities that in this great nation, thru all it’s (sic) faults, offers them equal opportunities to achieve greatness. The NAACP doesn’t teach them that does it Andrew??
“You are a strong voice – let it work for this nation and democracy as we know it Please !!”
Mr. Courteous is a member of a local clean up the community group. Mr. Mogul and I met when we lobbied on behalf of similar consumer interests at a long-ago legislative session. I was particularly disappointed in his narrowness. Guess you never really know anyone.
The most surprising thing was both saw only “NAACP” which called up Trumpian dog-whistle Pavlovian responses and blinded them to what I actually wrote. They perceived something like “NAACP equals lazy uppity blacks making mischief for benevolent white America.”
They never addressed what’s so bad about trying to get people to vote.
I pray for their enlightenment.
CONEY ISLAND. Thanks for the compliments about my exclusive Interview with Judge Amy Coney Barrett, which could only have been written by a former all-star altar boy. (“Superspreaders, homotextuals & hall of famers” Barbwire 9-30-2020) You might refer to it as U.S. Senate Republicans administer the holy sacrament of confirmation this week.
JOHNNY, WE HARDLY KNEW YE. In recent decades, former Sparks City Councilmember John Mayer was just about the only voice at City Hall for hiring local labor at area-standard wages. He stood alone in voting for future Assemblymember Skip Daly’s advocacy that local workers on public construction projects should get decent pay. (See NevadaLabor.com/). Five years ago, Mayer’s successors on the Sparks Council removed all journeyman standards for electricians, plumbers and pipefitters so that a non-union contractor could turn Victorian Square into rabbit warrens on the cheap.
John was likewise one of the few sensible members of the Regional Transportation Commission where his successors continue to ignore the governor’s mask mandate as COVID-19 infections surge.
In his dotage, John has taken to endorsing anti-union Republicans. I am disappointed.
ABBOTT AND PAVLOVO. Incumbent Sparks Councilcritter Donald Abbott is using dog-whistle codewords against challenger Wendy Stolyarov. He asserts that he is “one of us.” He stole that slogan from the late Republican U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt’s 1974 campaign against then-Lt. Gov. Harry Reid who was from (gasp) Las Vegas.
Fear of the other sells in today’s Confederate follytix. If you meet Ms. Stolyarov, you cannot help but be impressed at the danger — to Mr. Abbott’s re-election.
Similar bigotry is on display in the campaign literature of Councilman Paul Anderson, a smear to inform voters that his opponent, Quentin Smith, is (gasp) black. Zounds.
State Sen. Julia Ratti, D-Sparks, issued a scathing denunciation of the above low-life tactics. One Facebook post even called for Anderson’s resignation. See NevadaLabor.com for smoking guns.
“Powerful words at the right moment,” commented local attorney Henry Sotelo, whose attention should be focused on the Reno City Council right now. The top gun lawyer has applied for a vacancy on Reno Municipal Court, a very demanding job. Send endorsements to Mr. Sotelo at <henry@henrysotelolaw.com> and carbon-copy me. Details with the expanded Barbwire web edition at NevadaLabor.com/
SUICIDE IS PAINLESS DEPT. I can’t figure out why Czar Donaldov continues to encourage his lemmings to pretend the Coronavirus is nothing to worry about. If you’re already behind, why try to infect and perhaps assassinate your dwindling base of supporters? Hell, I get sick just seeing him so I wear a mask watching the news.
CONGRATS TO US. The Tribune won best editorial page among smaller newspapers, which most Nevada broadsheets are. I am proud to be the sole liberal sandwiched between semi-respectable reprobates.
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. He currently serves as first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are strictly his own. The nation’s oldest civil rights organization (unless you count the Ku Klux Klan), the NAACP is non-partisan and does not endorse candidates. The Barbwire is a different breed of cat. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>
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