“How are you going to overlook the murders of six million people?” – Spencer Tracy in “Judgment at Nuremberg”
That line from the classic 1961 film has saturated my consciousness for a month. More than 71,000,000 voters punched Donald Trump’s ticket. Average people, pundits, proselytizers, pretenders and poltroons have all overly examined the whys and wherefores.
Last Sunday, the Reno Kazoo-Journal added a couple thousand words about local precincts which had flipped either way since 2016. The words “virus” and “Covid” were not mentioned. Not. Once.
Perhaps Czar Donaldov has been right all along, perhaps it’s just gone away.
Alas and alack, neither the plague nor its principal propagator will be going away anytime soon.
A conservative colleague of mine from Sacramento/San Francisco talk radio days called to “give me the opportunity to gloat.”
I sent this in response: “ I assume you voted for the Tsar as did many people I know. All in all, downticket, the GOP had a helluva good election. Just ask Nancy Pelosi. So, make your case for why you voted but address this: How do you forgive/ignore/overlook the deaths of more than 300,000 Americans?”
He didn’t make it by deadline, so stay tuned online or next week’s paper. And join in. If you voted for Trump, please tell me how you got past the plague and his responsibilities governing it. I’m trying to fathom the unfathomable. Please enlighten me.
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. Lush Rambo’s KKKOH Radio and all them there liberal rockers will be singing the same tune Wednesday, Dec. 16, at 6:00 p.m. Six of the seven major network TV stations (4, 5, 8, 8.3, 11 and 21) will also participate in the simulcast of “Fighting COVID together.” Tune in, turn on, tell a friend.
GEORGIA ON MY MIND. Early voting is already underway to decide two U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia. If the Donkeykongs win both, Mitch McConnell loses his power to obtrude, obstruct and self-destruct. If the Trumpistas win either one, welcome to Great Depression 2. We’ve already had a taste of what’s in store both in 2008 and this year. Those economic crunches will be cakewalks compared to what looms.
The official Coronavirus death count now stands at more than 300,000 Americans. It’s probably closer to half a million because reportage was so sporadic early on. (According to Bob the Sphinx Woodward’s recordings, Czar Donaldov knew how dangerous it was but chose to tell his fans not to worry. Well, Pollyanna was also a dizzy blonde, right? And Woodward sat shiva till his book was published in October. Silence constitutes complicity, dammit.)
Experts (FAKE NEWS ALERT!) say that despite the current limited vaccine rollout, 300,000 more will die betwixt now and the end of March.
Please go to NAACP.org and do what you and so many Nevadans did before November: sign up to contact infrequent voters. It truly is a matter of life and death, perhaps for you and yours.
SUPERSPREADER MEETING. The morally obtuse Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County meets this Friday. Their agenda does not even touch on the fact that their mass transit system is a major source of the spike in COVID-19 infections in these parts.
Mask mandate? What mask mandate? Push it and you’re fired!
So let the five elected commissioners know what you think of the job they are doing by e-mailing them at <rtcpubliccomments@rtcwashoe.com> before 4:00 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 17. You can tune in Friday’s meeting online at RTCwashoe.com/
The RTC is comprised of Washoe County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung (R) and Bob Lucey (R), Reno City Councilmembers Neoma Jardon (R) and Oscar Delgado (D), and Sparks Councilman Kristopher Dahir (R). Individual contact info at NevadaLabor.com/
Rattle their cages. Lives are on the line. About two dozen drivers and support staff, and perhaps more, have been infected. God only knows how many passengers.
Friday should prove especially interesting given that Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve has demanded answers from her former subordinate, Bill Thomas, who moved from city hall to become RTC executive director.
I’ve already seen a preview. He’ll just call me and the Teamsters Union liars. (See last week’s Barbwire, “A Golden Goose for the Morally Obtuse.”)
Mr. Thomas’ media department refused to even allow the union to PAY for ads outside and inside buses featuring Gov. Sisolak asking riders to mask up.
Censorship means never having to say you’re sorry.
REST IN PEACE, BEAUTIFUL LADY. Sunday brought news of the December 1 passing of Ann Richardson Spencer, 89. The former Mrs. Nevada was married for 70 years to our Tribune colleague in columny Harry Spencer.
Please send your most powerful personal prayers, projections, condolences, emanations and/or meditations toward Harry and her family in their winter of sorrow.
Take care of each other and be careful out there.
Happy High Holly Days to you and yours.
¡Sí se puede!
Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno.
NevadaLabor.com/CesarChavezNevada.com Editor Andrew Barbano is a 52-year Nevadan whose reputation remains impervious to further augmentation or denigration. He serves as first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are strictly his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>
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