This week, the PBS News Hour reported on the again increasing rate of child poverty in the biggest, fattest, most badass country the world has ever known.
Commentary
Child poverty dropped to record lows, as did the disparity between racial groups, thanks to Biden’s 2021 legislation. Like many good things, it’s been allowed to die. Children and families will die as a result.
The moonhowler House of Misrepresentatives actually passed a watered down version of the child tax credit program but it’s just sitting in the Democratic Senate. Low-tax/high cost-of-living states do the worst for their kids. Sound familiar? Look in the mirror.
Maybe Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto can address the situation when she speaks in Reno April 5 at the sold-out César Chávez Celebration XVIII.
Meanwhile, the Washoe County School District has announced serious cutbacks on childrens’ summer meal programs. Kids only need to eat when school’s in session, right?
Many states have passed laws to help struggling families now that the feds are stuck in wet diapers. Alas and alack, Nevada is a lonely island among western states. We haven’t done a damned thing.
All this again raises the eternal question: What is the cost of NOT spending. Youngsters can’t learn if they’re hungry. Better educated students grow up to be more productive members of society and return education investment a thousandfold — including paying higher taxes.
America is like a dumb jock or recalcitrant jackass — critters who only learn when they’ve been rapped upside the head by a 2×4.
But give us a disaster and boy do we shine. Eventually. It took not one but two major Gomorrah South fatal high rise fires before the gambling-industrial complex would let state lawmakers consider Sen. Joe Neal’s, D-NLV, toughest-in-the-nation mandatory sprinkler bill. It passed, then the gamblers figured out a way to stick Nevada taxpayers with the bill.
When the Orange Crusher ran the White House Real Estate office, only people dropping like flies by the thousands impelled him to do something. Nonetheless, he still prescribed drinking fish tank cleaner or chlorine bleach until warm weather would cheaply eliminate the plague. Whatta guy.
In the dimbulb light of all of above came Reno Gazette-Journal editor Brett McGinness’ brilliant piece entitled “Reno hasn’t has a 6.0 quake in 110 years.”
I had a 4.6 near my house in 2008 and I’ve never gotten over it.
Guess what! There is actually something called the U.S. Geological Survey Shakealert system. California, Oregon and Washington participate. Nevada monitoring stations feed info to the USGS but extra money would be needed to expand and implement the warning system to these parts.
Hungry kids. Less protection against earthquakes. When we get a major temblor that knocks down a couple hotels, maybe then we’ll do the usual.
After a bunch of bodies have been removed from the rubble. And after the plantation overlords devise a way to make you and me pay for their moral obtuseness.
THE JOKE I DARED NOT PRINT. Not long after the start of the Gaza War, I wrote an ad for a new high rise luxury condo on cheap balmy beachfront Mediterranean property. The BibiHamas Towers would be immunized against missile and artillery attacks because they would be jointly owned by Israel and Iran. I never developed the item because all that death and destruction are not fair game for satire.
Until…the fake news New York Times reported on Israeli real estate developers hosting shows in New Jersey and Toronto offering choice investment opportunities in the Holy Land. Complete with protestors, of course.
I’m on the mailing list of evangelicals promoting tours of Israel even in wartime. US fundamentalists are Israel’s most solid tourist base, supporting the country in anticipation of the prophecy of Armageddon being fulfilled.
We’re getting close.
DINOSAUR ALERT. If RINO means “Republican In Name Only,” why can’t Democrats have DINOs? I know more than a few Donkeyite dinosaurs. Like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-CoalMillions. Manchin singlehandedly killed help for children in a tight senate vote. DINO Joe thus dons the dirty jacket.
After all, dinosaurs eventually morph into lumps of coal for hungry children’s Christmas stockings.
A RACIST CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL? That’s an oxymoron, right? Wrong. Coach Sara Schopper-Ramirez was fired 20 days after winning the state 4A girls basketball title. She says administrators pressured her to give white girls on the team more minutes.
Manogue’s president has since taken leave and the athletic director quit. The best coverage so far has come from former RGJ sportswriter Chris Murray who broke the story for the Sinclair TV outfit. (Channels 4, 11 and 21) It will be linked to the expanded online edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/
I’ve been on the inside of meetings with Washoe County School District officials and families victimized by rampant racism. One official told me he has to handle a torrent of complaints, most of which never get media attention. And many which are summarily dismissed and/or ignored.
Manogue is a private school, so I surmise that Coach Schopper-Ramirez does not enjoy union representation.
Murray reported that the coach is planning legal action. Good. Manogue can afford the hush money but they can’t unbreak the egg on their sanctimonious faces.
SPEAKING OF EGGS. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants President Biden to substitute potatoes for eggs at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.
I appreciate PETA’s complaints about agribusiness treatment of chickens, but potatoes are not symbols of renewal. Easter is the Christian adaptation of ubiquitous pagan vernal equinox rituals. In Peru, the springtime goddess of fertility became the Blessed Virgin Mary after Spaniards invaded.
Sir David Attenborough named the simple egg as the most magnificent of nature’s creations in one of his ecological documentaries. I cannot disagree with the great naturalist.
BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL. Sen. Cortez-Masto may not be the only big gun at the César event. I’m working on an even bigger one. Stay tuned.
Vaxx up, stay safe, pray for Ukraine and almost 100 other currently war-torn lands.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Quarantino Barbáno is a 55-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, CesarChavezNevada.com and MississippiWestnv.org/ Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us
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