BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream

Barbwire Archives

Site map
SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions

The Barbwire's Silver Anniversary—>Now we go for gold
Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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. Everybody knows the scene is dead    But there's gonna be a meter on your bed That will disclose    What everybody knows.

— Leonard Cohen

Travus T. Hipp Feb. 20, 1937 — May 18, 2012 NEW: The Bullfrog Times-Picayune and Sticky Stones: Last blast from the past NEWLY UPLOADED: Love ain't free Evelyn Kerr's remembrances of the life and times of Travus T. Hipp from the pages of TimeMazine CD available

Stabbing rock-sucking kangaroos on the Ides of May
Reno Gazette-Journal blatantly manipulates mayoral contest
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-15-2014 Sparks Tribune
Updated 5-19 and 5-22-2014

Business is great at the Reno Kazoo-Journal. More pages, more color, more splash.

More disappointment.

Their cosmetics mask incompetence.

Sparks-Reno-Washoe citizens suffer when the region's principal news origination and dissemination source sinks toward the relevance of a chamber of commerce newsletter.

Wittingly, unwittingly, half-wittedly or all of the above, the Gazette-Journal and corporate fellow-traveler KNPB TV-5 are aiding and abetting renewal of the figurative fox's lease on local chicken coops.

Sparks gets treated like the clichéd redheaded stepchild.

Last Tuesday's RGJ interviews with the three Rail City mayoral candidates were remarkable for their irrelevance.

I needed oxygen after trudging through such vapidly thin air.

The RGJ and the PBS affiliate are producing two TV debates, each with five of the 18 Reno mayoral candidates. (Sparks can go suck rocks at Rock Park.)

The lucky 10 will be selected based on three phony factors:

1. Number of "social media campaign followers," but which media will count? Wikipedia lists more than 100 such websites.

2. Total campaign fundraising. Including the candidate's own money?

3. Total paper ballots torn from actual pages of the RGJ. Xerox copies not allowed.

Campaigns have thus been buying newspapers in bushels, licking envelopes and bandaging paper cuts. Follytix as secretarial bloodsport.

This corporate media filtering creates a kangaroo primary before the actual primary.

The lame excuse from the obtuse: Allowing all 18 on TV would be unwieldy.

Bullshit.

The City of Reno owns TWO cable TV channels, Sparks and Washoe County have one each. All four have lots of extra hours running zero-audience government fluff or dead air.

AT&T U-Verse also carries the Sparks channel and about 30 English and Spanish over-the-air stations serve people who have cut the cable or dissed the dish.

What legitimate criteria might the corporate media employ to decide who appears on intentionally truncated TV?

How about education and years of voluntary community service?

Nah, nobody cares about qualifications. We're playing moneyball here.

No one is willing to make book on how the Reno races will go and I haven't seen any polls.

Word from the precincts is that voters almost uniformly abhor the status quo.

Alas and alack, the RGJ/TV-5 selection system embraces it.

Even normally placid Sparks is grumbling about a paucity of services.

Hangovers from the Griffin, Cashell and Martini corporate welfare mayoralties will throb long after their names are forcibly forgotten.

Any incumbency is thus an albatross, which means three Reno candidates suffer dead seabird syndrome: County Commissioners Bonnie Weber and Marsha Berkbigler and Councilmember Hillary Schieve.

On April 3, I wrote that the scene is set for instant replays of 1975 when Sparks ousted the Joe Conforte council and 1979 which brought the upset election of legendary Reno Mayor Barbara Bennett.

So who can wear that mantle?

Watch the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com.

This is important.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

WEB EXTRAS...

HONOR YOUR DON. Campaign season is upon us. I'm working to elect legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including the Tribune and most probably every newspaper in Nevada.

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.

The Barbwire got the late Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Guy Richardson elected in 2012.

Help me double down

TOO LEGIT TO QUIT. The Barbwire's ongoing investigation of phony Nevada graduation rates, now in its third year, just got respectable. (Scroll down to Hiding in Plain Sight.) Read it and weep, then review the series for yourself.

TOAST ALERT. Teachers' union tax petition supporters and opponents would do well to review the Barbwire of Feb. 28, 2013.

Passage of the tax initiative could easily lead to a successful court challenge that would at the same time blow out not only the revenue hike, but also term limits and the state's worst anti-union laws. Something for everybody. [UPDATE]

ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is.

PayPal monthly subscription software is now operational at the website.

A thousand thanks to those who already responded and keep sending show suggestions. Current frontrunners include (pardon the pun) wild mustangs as canned goods, education and  i-Guns with César Chávez in Nevada recently surging.

Now come queries about ballot questions. The Jan. 30 column brought a surge of inquiries about the Nevada State Education Association corporate tax petition on this November's ballot.

Stay tuned.

  Please forward additional ideas or vote on the above.

  I encourage you to donate to the cause at Barbwire.TV/

The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accountants for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet.

This is important.

We've got work to do.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

____________
Andrew Barbano is a 45-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 and DoctorLawyerWatch.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 Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... Barbara Bennett, Erik Holland and Václav Havel Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-22-2014 Sparks Tribune Negative Optimism: Making the best of being worst Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-8-2014 Sparks Tribune Nevada State AFL-CIO conventioners join anti-education initiative business coalition Steve Sebelius / Las Vegas Review-Journal 5-2-2014 In search of the modern day Barbara Bennett Barbwire by Barbano / Substantially expanded from the 4-3-2014 Sparks Tribune BREAKING NEWS: State illegally uses tax money vs. teacher tax vote By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review / 3-13-2014 We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series JOSEPH FRANCIS ASSALONE, 1929-2014 TRANSITION: All Nevada labor mourns the passing of longtime Nevada Assn. of Letter Carriers leader Joe Assalone. Watch NevadaLabor.com for memorial service details. His namesake scholarship campaign annually awards thousands. Committal Service Monday, May 19, 2014 11:20 a.m. — 12:00 Noon Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery 1900 Veterans Memorial Highway Boulder City, NV 89005 702-486-5920 UPDATE: 5-7-2014 —> From Letter Carriers Branch 720 President Glenn Norton: The services for retired NALC State President Joe Assalone will be held on Monday, May 19 at 9:30 a.m. at St Francis of Assisi, 2300 Sunridge Heights Parkway, Henderson NV 89052. Interment to follow immediately at Veteran's Memorial Cemetery at 11:20 am. No obituary of any sort has appeared anywhere save on this website. All info will be appreciated. Only one memory and no obituary have been posted on Palm Eastern Mortuary's Assalone page as yet. I have requested one via that website, but they have neither responded nor posted my remembrance. That's OK. The dead have limitless time. Here is my Facebook memo about my friend and brother Joe. Posted to Legacy.com: I've placed an item in the April 24 Sparks Tribune about Joe's passing. Please send me an obituary and photo for NevadaLabor.com/ I posted the following on Facebook on Sunday, April 20: There are two ways to tell if someone is your friend. First, if he/she always tells you the truth. Second, if that person is willing to run against the prevailing winds on your behalf, no matter the cost. Such a man was my friend Joe Assalone. When I was the Democratic nominee for Congress against Barbara Vucanovich and the Laxalt machine in 1984, Joe was one of my strongest advocates. It was the year of re-coronation of King Ronald the Vague and Democrats had no chance, so why support them? Joe took my case all the way to the top of NALC in DC, several times. He wouldn't let go in the face of the word "no." He finally had to inform me that the national leadership assumed I couldn't win and even though Mrs. Vucanovich had always voted against the interests of NALC, the national union was going to send her money anyway. I think of that irony and my friend Joe every time I check my box at Reno's main p.o., re-named for Barbara by her successor, Jim the Dim, and a place I am proud to have picketed on many occasions with my NALC/APWU brothers and sisters. I don't re-fight old battles or old battle axes. Mrs. Vucanovich and I had a pleasant conversation not long before her recent death. May she rest in peace. I hope that Barbara and Joe find a way to have a conversation. That old man will never stop organizing. Requiescat in pace. Be well. Raise hell. / Este bien. Haga infierno. In Solidarity Forever, Andrew Barbano ps to Joe: I mailed back my raffle tickets and a check for your scholarship program earlier this month, so there's no need to call, although I wish you would. 4-28-2014 Hello Andrew. I was sorry to learn of the passing of brother Assalone but appreciate the story you related about his fight against his own union over donating money to a member of Congress that never supported the National Association of Letter Carriers or other unions. I recall a story he told me about how the U.S. Postal Service could simplify their bulk mail service and entice more businesses to utilize it but the U.S.P.S. wasn't interested in hearing about it. It's still so complicated that many businesses pay fees to mailing houses to deal with the U.S.P.S. bulk mail rules. I no longer have one of Joe's business cards but I seem to recall that he included the saying (roughly quoted): I shall pass this way but once. Any good that I can do or kindness that I can show, let me do it now, for I shall not pass this way again.* Joe did his share and will be remembered by many that he met along the way of life. In solidarity, Dan Dan Rusnak is the retired Business Manager of Laborers' Union Local 169. * Here's the full quote from the back of one of Joe's business cards: "I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I show to my fellow creatures, let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." ...and more ammo.. Nevada Day Required Reading The Lady in the Red Dress The Barbwire's classic Nevada Day column written in 1983 The compleat history of the Silver State in 500 words SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Sparks Tribune 10-31-2013 and previously Barbano on the Barbwire plots new TV season Barbwire Special Web Edition / 10-21-2013 Barbwire: Nevada not really a state No, we were not Battle Born in Kenya Top 10 reasons Nevada lives in the 19th Century Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-17-2013 Sparks Tribune Low-income penalty: Nevada socks it to the working poor BARBANO: Nevada is one big company town Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 State of Health National health care comes up against a very sick state. WHAT'S IN IT FOR US? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 USA at crossroads: New Deal or new Confederacy? Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-10-2013 Sparks Tribune UPDATE—>Bill Moyers: Shutdown is simply secession by other means ...and more ammo yet 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 The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was

SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions

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/cabellyup, Cable TV, Cancer Kids/Mining, Energy, Food, Health Care, Resurge.TV/consumers, Starbucks, Wal-Mart We Don't Need No Education Search this site | In Search Of...

Barbwire Archives

Copyright © 1982-2014 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 45-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 Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: 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