BARBWIRE EXCLUSIVE: After last week's paper was on the press, I confirmed a story that couldn't wait. Online Barbwire Confidential subscribers were thus informed about a Nevada connection to murdered Saudi Jamal Khashoggi. (How come none of the legit media noticed? Oh, yeah, I've got a mild case of institutional memory. I guess I deserve to be institutionalized.)

Jamal was the nephew of wealthy movie producer and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi (1935-2017) who resided in a Lake Tahoe mansion for many years and first came to worldwide attention due to a very high profile and humongously expensive divorce. Adnan and former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos were acquitted of racketeering and fraud by a Manhattan federal jury in 1990.

If Jamal Khashoggi receives justice in no other way, replacing Saudi oil with renewable energy (vote YES on Question 6) will hurt those murderous Saudi bastards in the only area that truly matters to them: their petty wealth.

Jamal is now a frontrunner for the most prestigious prize in journalism, the George Polk Award, named after the US journalist murdered in 1948 while covering the Greek Civil War.

BAD JUDGMENT DEPT. Despite evidence to the contrary, some people still exhibit the questionable judgment of asking me how and why to vote. (See last week's Barbwire.)

I can't cover everything in the Trib. My cyberfleet, especially because of my flagship, NevadaLabor.com (now in its 24th year), generates about 325,000 page views per month, more than just about any individual Nevada print or electronic medium and a lot of very high profile businesses and non-profits.

And it's all free. (I work cheap.) A twisted few actually pay to subscribe to Barbwire Confidential, a modest expenditure I recommend this close to a confusing election. Go to BallotBoxing.US or e me for details.

STAN THE MAN. You will find a detailed obituary for longtime state official and labor legend Stan Jones (1923-2018) at NevadaLabor.com/ All remembrances will be posted in perpetuity.

CORREXIONS & CONNIPTIONS DEPT. From Oct. 10: Historian Kevin Phillips' "The Emerging Republican Majority" was published in 1969.

FROM LAST WEEK. Question 1: I repeat a serious NO. At NevadaLabor.com, you will find a link to Gomorrah South attorney Dayvid Figler's analysis at Jon Ralston's Nevada Independent. Q1's not a victims rights measure no matter what the ad budget purports. It will enrich lawyers and the bail bond and for-profit prison industries. It was proposed so that Republican legislators could have another tough-on-crime brochure bullet point. It not only largely duplicates existing law but also makes it easier to overturn convictions. Its only funder resides in Las Vegas, released from jail without bail on major drug dealing charges. Imagine that. Undoubtedly a first Gomorrah South. (It helps when your a billionaire.) When no less than the American Civil Liberties Union stands opposed, that should tell you something.

It could very well win because there's no advertising opposition. A lot of heavy hitters swallowed the spin with the Kool-Aid, including Washoe DA Chris Hicks, local Sheriff Chuck E. Cheese and the Clark County DA who's prosecuting the bankroller. (Can you say "recusal"?) It demonstrates the power of a proper PR label. (Remember Right-to-Work, Fake News, Death Panels, Quota Queen and Stand Your Ground, to name just a few?)

QUESTION 2. I didn't think I'd have to justify removal of a sales tax on a necessity, i.e., tampons. The best journalist in Nevada, Dennis Myers, objects due to the use of the word "feminine" to describe hygiene products after Nevada statutes had been purged of gender-specific language. A Trib reader hit me harder.

"The argument for passage calls feminine hygiene products medical products," Janet gimletted, "insinuating that menstruation is a medical condition or problem. Just one more way to portray women as victims (poor things they bleed every month, so there must be something wrong with them.) And women just keep on accepting their 'victimhood.' "

Regulars may recall that I have oft written that Janet is absolutely correct according to ancient Hebrew law. Someone sick all the time was indeed demonstrably cursed by God. Remember Job?

I have long viewed that particular ancient superstition as the root of western oppression of women. (I paid attention in religion class at a Catholic high school.)

"So is there a proposal to exempt toilet paper from the sales and use tax because it is used for a medical condition?" Janet demands.

I'd support such. Nevada, the most regressively taxed state in the country, loves taxing necessities. Not long ago, we had a sales tax on groceries. Question 4 will remove the sales tax on medical devices at long last.

Income tax with no loopholes is the only truly fair tax with property tax a close second. Both are based on the more you make, the more you owe the society that facilitated your doing well.

"Do you really think that a woman's power to create should be termed a medical condition? I would have thought you more aware than that. Thanks for listening. Namaste."

Thanks for reading, Janet.

Namaste.

Be well. Raise hell.

Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.) / être bien, élever l'enfer (And my French.) / Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)
_______
Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan, executive 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 BallotBoxing.US and SenJoeNeal.org and DoctorLawyerWatch.com/ As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988 and received its ninth Nevada Press Association award and 6th first-place at the 29 Sept. 2018 NPA annual convention in Las Vegas. (That trophy and about six bucks will get you a Latte Mocha Cotsafracas Chingade at just about any Starbux worldwide, guaranteed.)

WEB XTRAS & SMOKING GUNS —>

Great Depression 2.0: Sure cure for what ails us
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-10-2018 Sparks Tribune

50 shades of rape: Tales of future past
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-3-2018 Sparks Tribune

THE BIG 3-0. Sunday, August 12, 2018, marked 30 years since the first Barbwire appeared in the Rail City's newspaper of record since 1910. "The Chilling of Hot August Nights" brought the first of nine Nevada Press Association awards. I'll add more memories of the early days of the Barbwire as time, space and the political season allow. (See above right. —>)

Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Sore-oppressed Soul-Sister Cities:
Menlo Park and Reno-Sparks-Fernley share similarly sad high-tech stretch marks

"All humanity has left the area": paying for Tesla's Gigafactory
Barbano and Nevada conservatives decry corporate welfare depredations
By Rory Carroll / The Guardian 7-3-2018
Editor's Note: The Guardian publishes 180,000 newspapers daily in London and environs and generates ONE BILLION monthly web page views. (I should live so long.)

"Facebook is taking everything": rising rents drive out Silicon Valley families
Property companies advertising their proximity to Facebook’s campus are giving low-income residents a choice: pay a huge rent increase or move out
By Sam Levin / The Guardian 6-20-2018

Peruse the Underbelly of the News —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

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