I’m a tough guy for preachers to impress. John Auer is impressive. The former pastor of downtown Reno’s First United Methodist Church found his calling after inspiration from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He engineered a year-long commemoration around the 40th anniversary of King’s murder. Because he dared to speak at anti-war rallies, tall John took serious heat … [Read more...]
Parsing the paranoia of powerful penny-pinchers
The longer that overlords hold power, the more paranoid they become. So it is today with the gambling-industrial complex. A dozen years since their spectacular failure of 2003, they finally got their gross receipts tax passed by the Republican-dominated 2015 legislature. (Nevada cannot levy personal or business net income taxes because of 1990 ballot … [Read more...]
Good news, bad news and Machine Gun Michele
Information is power. And money. Back in the Dark Ages, books were locked away in castles and monasteries. The illiterate unwashed were told what they contained by authorized spokespersons. Thus were born both modern politics and religion. In this day of Trumpian strumpetry, truth doesn’t matter. Say any damned thing, create lots of buzz and drive up your poll … [Read more...]
Strange bedfellows and nubile wenches
IRA THE TAXER? Corporate welfare was one of the few areas wherein Ira Hansen and I consistently agreed back when he was a Tribune regular. Assemblymember Hansen, R-Sparks, did two segments on the Nevada Newsmakers TV show last week. Ira talked about mining and gambling, their measly rates of taxation and the social problems gambling causes, paying both low wages and low … [Read more...]
Pondering the bright side of warmongering
War is perhaps the greatest creator of change, good and bad. If not for war, we would not have come out of WW2 with electronic computers, first developed to quickly calculate artillery trajectories. Many daughters of Rosie the Riveter never left the workforce when women were fired en masse after WW2 so the surviving men could take their jobs. Congress passed the G.I. Bill to … [Read more...]
Cheering for cheating when jockocracy rules
Does a defensive back admit to holding and demand a penalty? Have you ever seen a baseball player ask an umpire to reverse calling him safe? In the post-Michael Jordan era, traveling is almost never called because scoring titillates. Sport shares the ethics of crime and politics: Cheating only matters if you get caught. The only game with a remaining shard of honor is one … [Read more...]
We don’t need no education, biblical or not
I’ve been right more often than the Bible over the past 40 years. That’s mostly because I’m a lot closer to reality than ancient writers of morality metaphors for illiterate goatherds or pyramid construction slaves 3,500 years ago. (They REALLY needed a union.) If you think the above intentionally inflammatory, you are entirely correct. Please don’t become angry with … [Read more...]
Labor Day 2016: Nevada workers’ last stand
Last June, one labor leader termed the 2015 legislative session “The Great Escape.” Republican Gov. Veto El Obtúsè’s 2015 tax proposals would not have passed without Democratic and union support. Minus that bargaining chip, 2017 will bring open season on unions unless Democrats can regain a majority in at least one chamber. Control of the state Senate lies in northwest … [Read more...]