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Unions don’t work anymore

May 29, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Sherman Frederick

The American union movement fought slavery with Abraham Lincoln and sweat shops alongside Mary Harris “Mother” Jones back in the day. Unions were great … in the 1880s. Today unions don’t work. Federal and state employment laws protect workers, making the union proposition – for employers competing for the best work force and employees seeking out the best companies – useful as teats on a boar. Sorry. I know it’s considered uncool to question unions given the important early history.
Cheesily pickled politics

May 28, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

Artists have tried to teach us simple but obvious lessons since the first cave person picked up a rock to scratch on walls. Alas and alack, this monster mannunkind has proven maddeningly obtuse, mostly to our detriment. The highly honored TV series “The West Wing” (1999-2006) concluded with the election of the first minority president of the United States. Latino Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) narrowly won the presidency over his conservative rival, Republican Sen.
Get with the program

May 18, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Sherman Frederick

America’s Left wants one thing from newspapers: Complete and total obedience. Consider Dan Pfeiffer. I talked with him once during Barack Obama’s first campaign in Nevada. Seemed like a smart dude. But, like a lot of politicos who gain some election success, they start sipping their own bathwater and come to believe they’re doing the Lord’s work worthy of worship by all. Mr. Pfeiffer recently chided the New York Times for failing to sufficiently get with the program to defeat Donald Trump.
A smattering of splatterings

May 18, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

“You can only fool some of the people all of the time, and that’s usually enough” — Wisdom from a famous philosopherWARNING LABEL: If you are looking for a positive, upbeat joyful piece of writing, effusively suffused with hearts, flowers and platitudes, read something else. Anyway, furry, cute little platitudes are only found in Australia. I further declare there shall be no order, flow or congruity hereinbelow. Kinda like the world today.
Abortion: Debate with clarity

May 13, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Sherman Frederick

If it takes a comedian to get us talking in clear terms about abortion, then so be it. On April 13, Bill Maher on his HBO show Real Time said this about abortion: “Pro-lifers think it’s murder, and it kind of is. I’m just okay with that. I am. I mean there’s 8 billion people in the world. I’m sorry. We won’t miss you. That’s my position on that.”Thank you, Bill Maher.
What happened to us?

May 13, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

Did we do something when we should not have? Did we do nothing when we should have? Anyway you slice it, this world is the result of its dominant species, at once both awesome and awful. Immersing myself in media the past few days, I generated enough notes for three or four columns. Love, hate, reason, superstition — all well-represented. Then I saw the photo of that grieving mother. We have made so many of those in our short span on this orb and they all lead to the same damned and damnable place.
May Day Labor Day: Start Packing

May 4, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

Ah, ‘tis Spring when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of creative seduction, satyristic dancing, nubile wenches, fertile frolicking — and riots in the streets. Forgotten in the mayhem of these times is the painfully obvious: The ayatollah and Putin have won this round, having created worldwide chaos, advancing their dreams of conquest. Chaos, the best friend of dictators, creates insecurity and works like a charm. It elected Nixon in 1968 and we’ve never recovered.
Drunk immigrant driver

Apr 27, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Sherman Frederick

In a previous column, I raised the hope that Nevada’s senior U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Mastos might be in a perfect position to lead her party out of the current crisis on the Mexican border. Ms. Cortez Mastos’ grandfather immigrated from Mexico to better himself and his family. And, he did. His son, Manny, grew up to become a local politician and a mover and a shaker in the blow-and-go years of Las Vegas tourism.
Raw bits, base hits, old bits and obits

Apr 27, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

GREATEST HITS. Art Schallock turns 100 on April 25. In addition to joining the fastest-growing demographic in America, he is the oldest living major league baseball player. In recent years, I’ve been starved for baseball news here in the High Desert Outback of the American Dream. Apparently the San Francisco Giants are no longer relevant given the expensive transplantation of the Corporate Welfare Oakland/Sacramento Athletics. To Gomorrah South. In three or more years.
Watering the money trees

Apr 20, 2024 | sparkstrib.com | Andrew Barbano

Time to celebrate our recently announced water rate increases. Break out the best gray water champagne!I tried to obtain information from the Nevada Public Utilities Commission about the 2001 sale of the local water system by NVEnergy’s predecessor, Sierra Pacific Power. I received everything but what I asked for. When I pushed to get the price us peons paid, I was refused the info and referred to the Truckee Meadows Water Authority.