BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO

Barbwire Archives

Bullfighting a billion in Tonopah
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-7-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune
8-11-2011 Greatly expanded and updated edition of this column wherein the DA comes apart like a cheap watch
Site map
Corporate Propaganda Research Archive

Everybody knows the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.    Everybody knows the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost.    Everybody knows the fight was fixed. The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.    That's how it goes. Everybody knows.

— Leonard Cohen

HAT TRICK: Barbwire wins 3rd straight Nevada Press Association First-Place Award In 2011, we go for the Sombrero Barbwire.TV Watch NevadaLabor.com for show times. Help us get the word out. Support the project at http://resurge.tv#donate SUING FOR SCHOOLS Updated 3-21-2011 Lawsuit gains support 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. The shows appeared on both commercial and community stations. The non-corporate entity produced the events, commercial TV greatly expanded distribution. Thus began an ongoing series of sane public interest programs which generate both entertaining heat and more than a little light. Please spread the word and consider contributing to the cause online at ReSurge.TV. You may also take the public option known as the U.S. Postal Service and send a check or money order to ReSurge.TV, P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510. Your contribution will help fund the distribution as well as ongoing efforts at developing new media, including a regional, non-corporate community radio station and the return of community television to Reno-Sparks-Washoe. You are present at the creation of what I hope can become a new media model where the programming accurately reflects what's happening on the ground and the media impact is powerful enough to forcefully pass the message upward. Thanks. Be well. Raise hell. Andrew Click here for on-demand re-runs from the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Barbwire.TV archives Barbwire.TV: 15-year overnight success Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008 The Barbwire's Greatest Hits Highlights from radio days mp3 file HAT TRICK: Barbwire wins 3rd straight Nevada Press Association First-Place Award In 2011, we go for the Sombrero

I wonder how the good ole boys in Tonopah will look in slippers, silk stockings, funny berets and butt-tight, gaudily embroidered pedal-pusher pantaloonies.

A Spain-based construction company, Cobra Energía, has been unofficially-officially (not a typo) contracted to build a 1,500-acre, taxpayer-subsidized solar power array near the central Nevada metropolis.

It's unofficial because requirements to get a $737 million federally-guaranteed loan say no project can be bid without a review of area standard wages. Nonetheless, the unofficial contractor will unofficially break ground in a few days, wage determination or not.

Last Wednesday, the Cobras España even threw a party to promise the locals that they will hire 90 percent Nevada workers.

Pure pickle smoke.

It can't happen unless they secure skilled union labor, which the conquistadores refuse to do. (Sole exception: one highly specialized subcontractor with no non-union competitors.)

As usual on such boondoggles, most workers will be imported, slightly-trained and creatively classified to receive the poorest wages. Olé.

Casino moguls Don Carano and John Ascuaga are union busters but realize that only skilled union pros can build their high rises. The Nugget and Silver Legacy towers are union work.

Cobra must start before the end of next month or lose the still-tentative federal underwriting. There are serious discrepancies about water availability but the developers refuse to address them. Environmental legal action is possible.

If all goes forward as is, officials will have to turn a blind eye to wholesale violation of a laundry list of laws.

No biggie. Illegality rarely stops powerful companies in this corporate welfare state.

SCREW THE LAW, BUSINESS IS BUSINESS. In a nationwide sample, the Department of Energy's own inspector general found that DOE totally failed to enforce wage and hour laws. Thousands of workers were underpaid with the difference going directly to corporate profits. They wuz robbed, we're sorta used to it, living in Nevada and putting up with our labor commissioner and attorney general.

COBRA IS AN ASP. The conquistadores have applied for 20-year Nevada sales, use and property tax breaks of 75 percent — corporate welfare that bleeds schools, roads, parks, police and fire protection. Stay tuned.

THE LV SUN CAN SCORE ANOTHER PULITZER PRIZE to go with its 2009 medal for a sparkling series on Las Vegas Strip construction worker deaths. The España bandidos will push a low-skilled workforce to build a major project on a tight timeline. Can you say CityCenter, Part Deux?

Because of pitiful pay, Nevada can't hire workplace and mine safety personnel, chronic shortages going back years. In 2010, a Ruby Pipeline worker was killed in northern Washoe County because of a lack of qualified inspectors on another rush job.

JOE CONFORTE FOR LABOR COMMISSIONER. Michael Tanchek, our latest anti-worker labor commissioner, has been shoved sideways. Word is out that Gov. Sandoval's administration will fund a nationwide search for a low-salary job heretofore filled by Nevadans. Many years ago, it was even somebody with labor experience. Legendary brothelmeister Joe Conforte is my pick to click. At least Joe made sure his girls got paid.

GRAND SIERRA TERROR. New owners at northern Nevada's largest hotel are hiring wholesale temps to replace union and non-union workers. Some soon-to-be-fired longtime employees are being forced to train their replacements. To make a reservation, call India.

WHEN CAN YOU CROSS YOUR OWN PICKET LINE? The Nevada State AFL-CIO and the Nevada Alliance for Retired Americans have scheduled conventions Aug. 21-23 at the Grand Sierra. Insiders say key issues may include proposing a potential business tax initiative petition and reviewing formation of a new Labor Party.

Delegates and union retirees may be stuck in a quandary: Stay inside to wave the union banner in management's face in support of union and non-union workers.

Or picket the place.

Or both.

Why is there almost always a Hot August Strike in Reno?

V.A. NO WAY, JOSÉ. Local veterans advocates report that Reno's Ioannis A. Lougaris Veterans Administration Medical Center got $31.7 million in federal stimulus money to hire supplemental workers. Number of minorities hired so far: ZERO.

FIRE SALE. A couple of weeks ago, desperate residents pounded on the door of the Sun Valley fire station, screaming for help to fight a raging blaze. The lone caretaker said he couldn't leave but handed the citizens the keys to the brush truck. How's that for fiscal conservatism?

ADIOS, MARIA. Nevada labor-human-civil rights legend Mary Valencia Wilson, who marched through California with César Chávez, will be remembered in word, song and spirit at 3:00 Sunday afternoon at the Sparks American Legion building at 730 4th Street, next to the post office across from city hall.

Gospel-jazz-blues diva Pat Esters will shiver the timbers with Amazing Grace, the classic 1773 hymn composed by repentant slave ship master John Newton. She will also perform gospel legend Mahalia Jackson's If I Can Help Somebody.

To anyone who knew our friend Mary, the great Mahalia perfectly captured one small woman's very big life in just a few beautiful words.

Complete details at RenoSparksNAACP.org.

U-TUBE. Check the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com for the latest Barbwire.TV schedule around the state. I have ordered the Employee Free Choice Act program into rotation, also viewable 24/7 online...On KRNV TV-4 Thursday at 12:30 p.m., I'll share Sam Shad's statewide Nevada Newsmakers show with Reno Gazette-Journal political writer Ray Hagar, university system chancellor Dan Klaich, D.A. Dick Gammick and former Washoe Demo Chair Chris Wicker...Support the return of community radio and television in these parts. Go to Resurge.TV to volunteer your time or treasure or both. It's now more important than ever. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: 8-11-2011 Greatly expanded and updated edition of this column wherein the DA comes apart like a cheap watch

Be well. Raise hell.
______

Andrew Barbano is a 42-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. 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 Nevada Press Assn. annual award winners announced 9-18-2010. HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place for third year in a row. This year, we go for the sombrero. 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 desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters 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 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries ...and more ammo Fact-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 Series Barbwire 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 suckers Labor Day 2009: Rise of the Vampire Corpobots Expanded from the 9-6-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Angry Americans and Freudian fraud Using war to market cigarettes Expanded from the 8-23-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune BARBWIRE Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive Propaganda fuels gasoline price fixing Barbwire 8-14-2005 Donate 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 5-20-2007 Johnson, 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 Australia The 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 Carey       BARBWIRE: The Nevada Republican Party Becomes Communist, 3-30-97 A prescient Plato on the dangers of oligarchy The 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

NevadaLabor.com | U-News | Bulletins + Almanac Casinos Out of Politics (COP) | Sen. Joe Neal Guinn Watch | Deciding Factors | BallotBoxing.US DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive Barbwire Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive Annual César Chávez Celebration War Rooms: Banks, Cabbies, Cabela's, Cable TV, Cancer Kids/Mining, Energy, Food, Health Care, Resurge.TV/consumers, Starbucks, Wal-Mart Search this site | In Search Of...

Barbwire Archives

Copyright © 1982-2011 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 42-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.

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins