I am a sponge for follytix. Spongebob Squarepants starts to drip this close to an election. However…
Somewhere within the morass of Republican bravado, I found some relevant advice: Trying to talk reality with people deep into believing conspiracy theories only makes them retreat further into fantasy.
Current polls agree that most voters made up their minds long ago and all the money being showered on media is really directed at the one or two percent of remaining reasonable minds. Those folks probably watch premium cable or no TV at all, use smartphones mostly to make phone calls and thus avoid the cacophony of commercials as best they are able.
The most I can offer in this cacophonous cavern of controversy is basically headlines of stuff upon which I will expand at NevadaLabor.com/ So buckle up, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
CAN SIGAL’S SIGNALS SHOW ANY WORSE? The GOP nominee for Nevada attorney general sent an e-mail on Monday trashing those lowlifes at the Centers for Disease Control for recommending that COVID-19 vaccines be added to the childhood immunization schedule.
“Keep your hands off our kids!” snorted Sigal Chattah.
Mills Lane used to say he was only interested in facts. Not fellow Republican Chattah. The facts are that “a recent study by Scientific Reports found that areas with higher levels of Fox News viewership had lower Covid vaccination rates” and — surprise ! — higher hospitalization and death rates.
The impact of Fox propaganda was “independent of local health care or even partisanship. Plus much of the effect was concentrated in people younger than 65” who mistakenly thought they’d be safer from the plague and were thus more receptive to Fox’s poison. (Zeynep Tufecki, NYTimes 10-19)
DARK POETIC JUSTICE? At least five conservative anti-vaxx talk show hosts died of Covid over the span of a few months last year.
“It’s become so easy to lucratively lie to so many people,” sociologist Tufecki concluded.
Alas, millions who should listen choose not to do so and thus bob for french fries at Republican suicide socials thrown by the powerful they seek to become. Chattah presents a textbook case of a conspiracy theory addict drowning in delusion and quite ready to subsume the vulnerable.
CRASHING A REPUBLICAN PARTY. My Carson City phone number, a vestige of legislative session talk TV days, got me a tele-town hall invitation from Assemblymember PK O’Neill, R-Carson, and southwest Reno/Incline Assembly District 26 GOP nominee Rich DeLong. The latter is the favorite to replace Lisa Krasner who will probably walk to the state senate next month in a safe GOP district. I was surprised the call screener would let me ask my question about why Carson City state employees, consistently abused by stingy lawmakers, keep voting Republican. They changed the subject and dumped me right quick. See NevadaLabor.com for my report.
FEEL THE BERN! Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, announced a nationwide tour last week. He will visit both Reno and Gomorrah South to rally the new bedrock of the Democratic Party, those aged 18 to 44. I posted the story at NevadaLabor.com when it arrived last Friday. Stay tuned for details.
KUDOS TO ED PEARCE. The senior reporter among all northern Nevada media aired a killer piece last Monday about 16-year Washoe sheriff’s detective Kim Frankel who was horribly injured in the line of duty and permanently disabled. The privatized and Orwellianly named “workers compensation” system made her condition worse thru bureaucratic delay and refusal to pay. Washoe County government is complicit. Why pay for care when you can throw someone away? “Insurance” becomes a scam when workers are not compensated.
The beautiful young woman’s travails will bring tears to your eyes. (See KOLOTV.com) Pearce concluded by noting that thousands of injured worker cases are backlogged by the privatized for-profit system. In the 2023 session, Nevada lawmakers absolutely must fix what their predecessors broke despite the always stingy state budget.
ROTTEN PEAS IN A POD. Millions of people worldwide need not have died were not Czar Donaldov and his buddy Xi Xing Ping such ruthless rulers who care only for their power. Xi has pretty much appointed himself president for life. Longtime Trump biographer Maggie Haberman noted this month that should the Count of Mar-a-Crisco win a second term, he will pull a Xi and overload the government with unqualified loyalists. (The current Trump-appointed postmaster general presents a preview of what nightmares may come.) Thus does democracy slowly morph into fascist autocracy. But hey, who’s listening? America wants to party — maskless.
MASKS AND JABS MANDATORY. Feminist author Rebecca Solnit and environmentalist legend Bill McKibben headline “Democracy Weekend” starting at 5:00 p.m. this Friday at the southwest Reno Unitarian church. Details at ThirdAct.org/working-groups/nevada/ Secretary of state Democratic nominee Cisco Aguilar will participate.
END GAME: Next month, Republicans take over enough state governments, especially secretaries of state, to scuttle certification of the 2024 election. Unless a Republican has prevailed, make sure no candidate gets a certified majority of states. The Constitution dictates that the House of Representatives names the president if no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes. It’s happened before. Those wiser than me say that the MAGAlomaniacs will win the House next month. Game. Set. Match.
If you want to stop the steal, please consider voting.
THANKS TO ALL who have responded to help the family of RTCRide transit operator Mike Guerra who died at 65 on August 31 due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. Please visit gofund.me/c1fed539/ or send checks or money orders payable to Mike’s mother, Olivia Baker, addressed to her attention at Teamsters Local 533, 1190 Selmi Drive No. 100, Reno 89512.
Stay safe and pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 54-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us
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