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Everybody knows the dice
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Leonard Cohen
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Teenage
Immigrant Welfare Mothers on Drugs
Barbwire
by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-29-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune
/ Updated 3-31-2023
ORIGINAL
TRIBUNE TEXT IN BLACK / Correxion appears in magenta
WEB EDITION EXPANDED TEXT IN BLUE
BIG
NEWS FROM THE 9-22-2012 NPA CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH Watch NevadaLabor.com for show times. Help us get the word out. Support the project at http://resurge.tv#donate SUING
FOR SCHOOLS If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs and Unions new power to the people on the public airwaves The
program premiers were available to every television set in the region
because of a high-mileage media hybrid. Barbwire.TV:
The
Barbwire's Greatest Hits HAT TRICK: Barbwire wins 3rd straight Nevada Press Association First-Place Award |
I have been taking dark pleasure in tortured Republican recriminations as party hacks rewrite the history of this past Nov. 6.
Last Tuesday, Nevada Newsmakers host Sam Shad asked Republican Washoe D.A. Dick Gammick about how to fix his party.
Gammick's Romneyesque
answer: Personal responsibility. Cut welfare. Offer training (for non-existent
jobs) rather than unemployment checks.
Sputtering in circles, Gammick then endorsed return of the ultimate Franklin
D. Roosevelt liberal job stimulus: the Civilian Conservation Corps.
The Austin Lounge Lizards once sang about such misguided macho when they
lampooned fat cats who blame everything on "Teenage Immigrant Welfare
Mothers on Drugs."
The GOP risks collapse as the grand cycles of history have foreshadowed not
once but twice.
CYCLE ONE: The late JFK aide and eminent
historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., popularized the view of American
history as cycles of about 30 years.
The latest liberal/progressive swing began with Bill Clinton's 1992 election.
I wrote the following in the Tribune of Nov. 8,
1992:
"For historical perspective, please read The Cycles of History by (Schlesinger) and The Politics of Rich and Poor by conservative Kevin Phillips.
"Phillips traces unbroken presidential cycles dating back to Thomas Jefferson. Each contains a 'minority interruption.' This century's blips on the screen were Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and Jimmy Carter....
"'Years ago, both scholars predicted a Democratic victory last Tuesday (Nov. 3, 1992). Phillips also proved correct that the 1968 election of Richard the Rotten indeed foreshadowed "The Emerging Republican Majority", as he titled his groundbreaking tome published right afterward. (NOTE: The original column stated the book preceded the election. Dennis Myers caught the error. Mea culpa.)
I followed up with this last March 4:
Well, we've had our presidentus interruptus in Dubya, the accidental president installed by a supreme court vote of five to four after a stolen election. President Obama will have to roll the rock back up the hill all over again and will need help from all of us to get it done.
Schlesinger also warned of another looming danger. Political attitudes are formed when people are between the ages of 15 and 24. They bring those values with them when they come to power roughly 30 years later.
Franklin D. Roosevelt grew up in the Progressive Era when his presidential cousin, Teddy, was busting Standard Oil. John F. Kennedy's New Frontier and Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society were updates of the FDR New Deal of their younger days.
Which means that the devil children of Ronald Reagan will rise like zombies from a bad black-and-white movie to haunt us in about five years.President Obama should thus perhaps consider establishing a cabinet level department of exorcism.
CYCLE TWO: In his book The Cousins Wars, Republican historian Kevin Phillips noted that restorations of previous dynasties have proven disastrous.
"Phillips developed the projection in comparing the British, French and American revolutions in his 1999 book," I noted.
"The essence of political restoration is neither republican nor monarchical. It depends upon the delusionary psychology of a political class willing to let its memory grow more and more clouded until it sees fit to reinstate something second-rate," Phillips wrote in the February 2000 edition of Harper's Magazine.
"In both (England and France), the political elites came to prefer the return of an inexperienced heir. Charles II was called back to England in 1660; Louis XVIII to a re-established throne in 1815...Bush the Younger is classic restoration material...Not a few observers have described him as cocky, lazy and arrogant (like Charles II), and intellectually undistinguished (a perfect late Bourbon).
"When the restored James II fell in 1688, that was the end of the Stuart kings," Phillips wrote."When the restored Bourbons followed suit in 1830, that was the end of their house. Should a Bush Restoration implode on its own whir of cocky inadequacy, that could be a similar last hurrah not simply for the family's power but for the Republican Party," Phillips noted.
"It doesn't take much to predict that George II will soon risk American lives in some foolish war," I commented on 21 January 2001, adding "Dick and Colin are back fouling the bowels of government...Indeed, Dubya offers a single cure for all ills. At any bad moon on the rise, he howls for a huge tax cut for rich campaign contributors."
Dubya, McCain
and Romney were demonstrably second-raters.
Last March 4, I concluded
that "the Republican Party today stands
perilously close to marginalization, the last step before evaporation. If the
GOP continues self-destruction, the Democrats may easily become the party of
big business. A new Labor-Greens
counterweight could then emerge, a populist mix of workers, minorities,
environmentalists, retirees and occupiers. In other words, the formerly middle
class that today's Democratic leaders ignore at their peril in pursuit of the
desensitized and ephemeral middle-right."
Schlesinger's cyclical hangover is almost upon us.
King
Ronald the Vague took office more than three decades ago. Some of the young
moonhowlers have already started to skulk about the capital lawn, greased with
goo from Tea Party billionaires.
The Dept.
of Exorcism will be sorely needed.
The 2016 election may
bring the Year of the Living Dead.
WILD THINGS. Wildflower Village kicks off a major art exhibition tonight
from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. at 4275 W. 4th Street in Reno. You can meet artists
displaying their wares and avail yourself of latte or more lascivious libations.
It's worth your time. Info: 775-827-5250.
SUPPORT THE RETURN OF RENO-SPARKS
COMMUNITY TV.
If this year's elections didn't convince you, the 2013 legislature certainly will.
Join up.
You may donate at ReSurge.TV or contact me.
This
is important.
Thank you.
HIE THEE TO MY MAILING LIST. About half a dozen major news stories have originated in this column either in print or online over the past several weeks.
If you're
into non-corporate filtered news, sign
up.
Be
well. Raise hell.
____________
Andrew
Barbano is a 43-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez
Committee, producer of Nevada's annual
César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president
and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks
NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications
Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com
and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are
strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail
barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.
Barbwire by Barbano has originated
in the Daily Sparks Tribune since
1988.
Smoking Guns...
John F. Kennedy's 2013 inaugural address
Excerpted from the original full text from 12-29-1991 (.pdf)
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-22-2012 Daily Sparks TribuneJFK, Jr.: Hope dies hard and yet springs eternal
Barbwire by Barbano / Daily Sparks Tribune / 7-25-1999Your better life today had President Kennedy lived
Barbwire by Barbano / Daily Sparks Tribune / 12-28-1997
We Don't Need No Education
The continuing seriesPlease don't cook or eat the books
ITALIAN STEREOTYPE VALIDATED: Aiazzi and DiLoreto almost throw blows
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-27-2012 Daily Sparks TribuneThe flipside from an old fry cook
Legit media stenographers fail to pop the corporate welfare question
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-20-2012 Daily Sparks TribuneA great week for scandals
School district master chefs continue cooking the books
Tenth in a continuing series on the collapsing future of Nevada education
Teachers' business tax petitions hit Nevada streets while Chicago teachers do likewise
Damning inspection report brings union call to oust Reno VA hospital leadership
State ignores voter registration lawsuit until the day after this column printed
I defy you to find all of the following elsewhere either in depth or in context.
NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER: New community TV channel
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-13-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune
Humongously updated on 9-14, 9-15 and 9-17-2012Life and Death at the Reno Veterans Hospital
American Federation of Government Employees Local 2152/AFL-CIO Press Release
Union Executive Summary of Inspection Report
Office of the Medical Inspector Report
All Adobe Acrobat Reader (.pdf ) documents
...and more ammo...
The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks TribuneThe Post-dated Recession
By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011
Union decline and rising inequality in two charts
by Colin Gordon
Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012
Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition.WOMEN AND UNIONS ORPHAN MAJORITIES
The Barbwire Labor Day column
Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012Followed by a moon shadow
TRAVUS T. HIPP, 1937-2012ADIÓS, COMPADRE Our friend Travus, 75, passed away peacefully between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. PDT on 18 May 2012 at his home in Silver City, Nevada. The sun is in eclipse as I write this at 6:30 p.m. on May 20.
CHANGE OF VENUE (5-22-2012) Adiós in Silver City, Nevada, Saturday, May 26, 2012 > Updated 5-27-2012 > The auld church where Travus lived and died proved too small for the expected multitude, so gathering, gnoshing and remembering commenced at the Silver City Community Center, 385 High Street, at 10:00 a.m. PDT. The graveside memorial service began at High Noon. Travus was buried next to his rock star companion Lynne Hughes, a short walk away. My remembrance of Lynne from the 3-21-1993 Daily Sparks Tribune has been linked to Travus' formal obituary at this website. All memories accepted for permanent posting hereat. Stay tuned for pictures and stories of the appropriately rainy day.Thanks for all your kind words. Keep up the good work and the good fight.
Be well. Raise hell.
Andrew BarbanoBarbano remembers the artist
Reno Gazette-Journal 5-25-2012NEW Travus' life story and obituary
Travus' last column in the 5-20 Daily Sparks Tribune
Debra K. Reid photo / Sparks Tribune Jan. 4, 2009Travus T. Hipp & Tales of Nevada's Futures Passed
Expanded from the 6-3-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune
At bottom, he was an artist who used his voice to soar and slice, a tenor for the tenor of our times. Many of his mourning California listeners talk about the vocal spells he wove, how he soundly organized the noise of daily life into music that entertained, engaged, enlightened, educated, enthralled and occasionally enflamed. [From the saga of Travus T. Hipp and contributions by The Barbwire to the May 25 Reno Gazette-Journal and May 26, 2012, Daily Sparks Tribune.]
Nevada Press Assn. annual award winners announced.
HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row.The winning entries
Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck
Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune
Click here to view the show on your desktopRED flags flying low over Sparks
Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks TribuneThe wrath of self-righteous racism
Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune
The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries
And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?
The Dean's List
The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.
RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006
The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners
Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL
Barbwire / 11-30-2008
Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry
Barbwire / 8-3-2008
Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here?
Barbwire / 6-15-2008
The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners
The price of a piece / 6-17-2007
Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007
The Lady in the Red Dress
10-28-2007
Economist: This is a true depression
Elliott Parker Guest Editorial / Las Vegas Sun / 11-27-2011The plight of the paper pushers
The great recession made bashing public workers a national sport
Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 11-23-2011Bury the Bad News with Rose-colored Reporting
How urgent can economic troubles be if leaders say things are getting better?
Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 11-23-2011Fact-free nation: Inside the lie machine
Mother Jones Magazine May-June 2011 / Cover story and in-depth analysis
Bill Moyers: Welcome to the Plutocracy
Money fights hard and it fights dirty
Speech delivered at Boston University on 29 Oct. 2010
Part of the Howard Zinn Lecture SeriesBarbwire Corporate Welfare Archive
Cabellyup.com
From clear-cut forests to dirty Gulfstream waters, this land belongs to old BP
TOLJASO LONG TIME AGO
BP/ARCO: The greasy root of our evils
Barbwire / Daily Sparks Tribune 9-10-2006
The awful truth Read it and weep, fellow suckersLabor Day 2009: Rise of the Vampire Corpobots
Expanded from the 9-6-2009 Daily Sparks TribuneAngry Americans and Freudian fraud
Using war to market cigarettes
Expanded from the 8-23-2009 Daily Sparks TribuneBARBWIRE Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive
Propaganda fuels gasoline price fixing
Barbwire 8-14-2005Donate to the cable ratepayer legal defense fund at our PayPal-enabled ReSurge.TV Consumer War Room
Phillips, Kevin; Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know
Harper's Magazine; May 2008; page 43
Phillips has authored numerous books on history and politics over the past 40 years. His most recent, Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, was published by Viking on April 15, 2008.NAOMI WOLF: Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps
There are some things common to every state that's made the transition to fascism. Author Naomi Wolf argues that all of them are present in America today.
Alternet 5-20-2007Johnson, Chalmers; REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE? A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States; Harper's magazine; January, 2007. I love it when heavy hitters validate what I've been saying for years in the tiny Sparks Tribune.
Barlett, Donald L. and Steele, James B.; America: What Went Wrong? (1992); America: Who Really Pays the Taxes? (1994); America: Who Stole the Dream? (1996) ; Andrews & McMeel/Universal Press Syndicate.
Review of Alex Carey's Taking the Risk Out of Democracy:
Propaganda in the US and AustraliaThe Orwell Diversion by Alex Carey
Excerpted from the book available below
ORDER Taking the Risk Out of Democracy
Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty
By Alex Carey
Edited by Andrew Lohrey
Foreword by Noam Chomsky
University of Illinois Press
SEE ALSO: Lapham, Lewis H.; Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill, A Brief History; Harper's Magazine cover article; September, 2004, page 32.
By one conservative estimate, the corporate right has spent about $3 billion over the past three decades manufacturing public opinion to suit big business goals. Lapham's number covered the early 1970's to the present day. Alex Carey noted that by 1948, anti- New Deal corporate propaganda expenditures had already reached $100 million per year, not adjusted for inflation, for advertising alone. (Carey, ibid; page 79)
Adjusted for inflation, that 1948 $100 million becomes $801,659,751.04 in 2005 dollars.
Conservatives Help Wal-Mart, and Vice Versa
As Wal-Mart struggles to rebut growing criticism, it has discovered a reliable ally: conservative research groups.
New York Times 9-8-2006; Free registration may be required.BARBWIRE: Labor Day '94: People vs. corporate con job, 9-4-94
Chilling forecasts from Alex CareyBARBWIRE: The Nevada Republican Party Becomes Communist, 3-30-97
A prescient Plato on the dangers of oligarchyThe sands of time do not cloud the long memories of the sheiks of Araby
Barbwire 9-10-2006
Rinfret, Pierre A.; Peace is Bullish; Look magazine, 5-31-1966
Copyright © 1982-2012
Andrew Barbano
Andrew Barbano is a 43-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.
Barbwire by Barbano premiered in the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in those parts ever since. Tempus fugit.
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