“One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to come up to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider.” — Damon Runyon (1884-1946)
In other words, never ever play the other guy’s game. That was a lesson soon learned by streetwise New Yorkers of Runyon’s day but apparently lost on prim and proper practitioners of prissy punctilio like Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Merrick Garland.
But not foreign to a native New Yorker like the indicted and defrocked ex-president.
His predecessor Barack Obama was not an alpha dog but rather a nice guy.
“Nice guys finish last,” famously advised baseball legend Leo Durocher.
Indeed, every time President Obama reached across the aisle Mitch McConnell returned a bloody stump. Biden suffered from the same malady and appointed a mellow fellow such as himself as attorney general.
Meanwhile, guys with stacked decks of cards run roughshod over new suckers who get born every minute.
Perhaps it is time to take advice from Donald Trump’s favorite president, Andrew Jackson. (I remain forever embarrassed that the only two American presidents named Andrew were freedom-loving racists.)
Slave owner and former general Jackson did whatever he wanted and didn’t care who objected. In his infamous confrontation with Chief Justice John Marshall, he reportedly said “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.”
Jackson didn’t give a tinker’s dam about his duty to enforce the law. He did what he damn well pleased and his yayhoo followers loved the bigoted swine for it. Sound familiar?
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. An extraordinary member of Congress just said pretty much the same thing.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, said President Biden should just refuse to enforce any federal court mandate to pull the drug Mifepristone from the market just because a hillbilly Texas judge wants to impose his religious dogma nationwide.
Time for some creative civil disobedience at the highest levels because good trouble works. So make good trouble as those Tennessee state lawmakers did so admirably.
If you play the other guy’s game, you will end up with an earful of cider which yayhoo moonhowlers will gleefully knock out of your head as they stomp you into the ground all the way to Mar-A-Loco.
THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE. It’s good to see the third incarnation of the first female-majority legislature in U.S. history pushing the envelope and considering some seriously progressive legislation in Carson City.
Alas and alack, Gov. Giuseppe Lumbago sits in the executive mansion, comfy in possession of a one-vote margin in the Nevada Senate GOP minority enabling him to withstand any veto over-ride. I am thus not optimistic for any of the measures currently under consideration which might prove beneficial to the unexalted like mothers and renters. If the Democrats had not suffered such abominable campaign management in 2022, this need not have happened. (Barbwire Nov. 16 and 23, 2022)
CORPORATE SUPERSPREADER UPDATE. Keolis Transit, those wonderful folks who turned our local mass transit system into a COVID-19 superspreader, have achieved national distinction once again.
“John P. Pigsley, 58, was arrested after he was indicted by a federal grand jury. He faces charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, tax evasion, filing a tax return and structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements. Pigsley was the former Assistant Chief Engineer of Facilities for Keolis Commuter Services, which operates the Commuter Rail system for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority,” reported Boston’s WCVB-TV (4-5-2023)
Pigsley and a pal stand accused of stealing a mere $8 million from the public agency.
Oink, oink.
This comes hot on the heels of Keolis’ international disgrace in a Paris, France, publication which disseminated news of their North American depredations. Keolis is a French multi-national 70 percent owned by an arm of the French government, “financed by public capital.” (“French carrier Keolis indicted by U.S. employees,” MediaPart, Paris France, 3-3-2023; Barbwire 3-8-2023)
Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson is the first since the late Sparks City Councilmember John Mayer to advocate revamping the Regional Transportation Commission’s money-hemorrhaging habit of subcontracting mass transit management to international exploiters. Mayer expressed his dissenting view two decades ago. Lawson now chairs RTC.
It’s time to begin the process of bringing transit back to the local level before Keolis forces the Teamsters Union into a fourth strike in three years.
GEORGE FOSTER, 1933-2023. The longtime business manager of Sparks-based Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 350/AFL-CIO died “peacefully in his sleep the morning of March 22, 2023,” according to his family. He earned his journeyman’s pipefitter designation in 1959 and became the union’s leader in 1968 until he retired in 1995. He lived for many years in Virginia City. He leaves four children. Rest in peace, brother.
DICK DIAMOND IS DEAD. I just got word from one of our former radio colleagues that Palmer Stewart has died. Also known as crazy DJ Dick Diamond on KCBN-1230am when he was barely out of high school (c. 1971), he was a top jock and later radio exec in Reno-Sparks for many years.
Palmer had a brother, attorney Dan Stewart, and his lovely wife, Jolene.
The last time I saw Palmer and Jolene came at Big Daddy Chuck Harper’s pre-pandemic adios. Chuck was also a KCBN alumnus from back in the day when good old rock ‘n’ roll was not yet respectable in the tight-butted northern Nevada of half a century ago.
Anyone with info about Palmer’s passing, please pass it along.
YOUR TAX DOLLARS IN ACTION DEPT. Reporting from the New York courthouse, ABC News stated that the Secret Service “wanted to get Trump in and out quickly.”
Just like Stormy Daniels.
Stay safe, get vaxxed and pray for the children Palestine Ohio,
Nashville Tenn., Ukraine and 63 other 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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