BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO

Barbwire Archives

Site map
Corporate Propaganda Research Archive

Moonhowlers, smoking guns & warning labels
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-17-2013 Daily Sparks Tribune

Big polluters and perverters will support any remedy that doesn't work.

Herewith, a checklist of industry-blessed positions guaranteed not to hurt fat bottoms or fat bottom lines.

WARNING LABELS. Smoking has gone down in this county but remains epidemic both domestically and internationally.

Yesteryear's bland package warning labels have blended into the wallpaper.

Teen smoking is rising in these parts.

Big Tobacco has fought imposition of disgustingly groady new warning labels and has thus far won in court.

Apparently, the First Amendment prohibits promulgation at the expense of profits.

You will have proof-positive that tobacco-style labels don't work the day the National Rifle Association endorses them for gun purchase invoices.

MOVIE, TV and VIDEO GAME RATINGS. Hollywood produced much more interesting work before imposition of a censorship code in the mid-1930's.

Director King Vidor even filmed a legendary underwater ballet which dared to display Dolores del Rio's redoubtable derriere. (Bird of Paradise, 1932)

Fearing critics, Hollywood self-censored.

Fast-forward to the present multi-media era and ask yourself how that's working so far.

In a similar jugular vein, a discredited dogmatist named Alan Greenspan thought Wall Street would regulate itself.

Now comes the NRA endorsing a crackdown on video games.

Stronger warning labels, anyone?

TV/RADIO SPOTS. Those that work get censored. Those that won't bore us to death every day.

In 1990, the California Dept. of Health Services produced legendary anti-smoking media.

I ran some for free on my radio show and defeated Lush Rambo in the process.

Smoking plummeted and the industry soon killed the campaign's funding.

The TV equivalent of warning labels apparently does no good.

Prescription drug commercials come laden with scary statements but people continue to demand drugs promising paradise in pill form.

The Lunesta Tinkerbell looks dreamily alluring even though that stuff can be lethal.

TAXOPHOBIA. Reaganaut moonhowlers consider it religious dogma that taxes hurt the economy and kill jobs.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

When the U.S. had a progressive tax code from 1945 to 1970, we enjoyed the strongest economy the world had ever known and created that now-endangered species called the middle class.

President Clinton pushed a progressive tax increase through Congress in 1993 and lost both the Senate and House of Representatives the following year.

The tax hike helped fuel the economic boom of the 1990's.

Spreading the wealth through progressive tax policy works.

Alas, progressivity has been eliminated over the past four decades, which is why former Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, in last week's alternative state-of-the-state address, noted that Nevada's wealthiest pay a 1.5 percent tax rate while poor people pay 10 percent of their incomes.

Even though they may question global warming and evolution, moonhowlers are quick to accept such disparity as God's plan of survival of the fattest...er...fittest.

I disclaim any liability if this column ticks off some corporate PR department.

WEB EXTRAS

VOTE FOR THE LUCKY 13, the most powerful Nevadans of 2013. Send nominations to <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

Last year's rogues gallery will be linked to the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

SUPPORT THE DONALD. Kudos for the kind words about Don Dondero (1920-2003) as we ramp up the campaign to install the photographic superstar in the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including this newspaper.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

HELP REVIVE RENO-SPARKS COMMUNITY TV.

If last 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.

LET'S GET IT ON. E-me to get on the Barbwire News bulletin list for information not filtered through corporate lenses.

I broke a bushel of major stories last year.

More soon.

Feliz año nuevo.

Be well. Raise hell.

____________

Andrew Barbano is a 44-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 Tribune JFK, Jr.: Hope dies hard and yet springs eternal Barbwire by Barbano / Daily Sparks Tribune / 7-25-1999 Your better life today had President Kennedy lived Barbwire by Barbano / Daily Sparks Tribune / 12-28-1997 We Don't Need No Education The continuing series ...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 Tribune The 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 / 9-3-2012 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest 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 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 yet Barbwire Corporate Welfare Archive Barbwire Corporate Propaganda Archive Cabellyup.com

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 © 1982-2013 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 44-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 moved to the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins