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


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"Our republic and its press will rise or fall together." — Joseph Pulitzer

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"Media is the plural of mediocre."
— Jimmy Breslin (1928-2017)

Bluish waves, silver bullets, yellow dogs & chickens
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-14-2018 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue


Greatest Hits Dept.

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT

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The 9th Muse
Barbwire wins 9th Nevada Press Association award

GOLD 2017-18

2018 First-Place Winners

From the depths of despair to the den of iniquity & holy of holies

"Excellent work. These are some of the most moving columns I've read."
— NPA contest judge/9-29-201
8

The Grasshopper and
the Dragonfly

9-6-2017

Kicked off the Ledge
4-18-2017

NATIONAL NEWS FIRST-BREAK
Back to the Future in
Mississippi West Nevada

10-18-2017

Gold 2017
Don't ask Renown Med for marijuana to help your chemo

10-4-2016
We Don't Need No Education
Toxic turf threat ignored

12-13-2016
Kate Smith & Lady Gaga
2-14-2017

Bronze 6-pack
In the Uber-Nevada legislature, words can kill
4-28-2015
On artificial turf, don't breathe unless absolutely necessary (above)
11-24-2015
Leading questions, lead-headed leaders
1-19-2016

Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake
4-18-2013
2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon
5-30-2013
The politics of media ga-ga boosterism
3-20-2014

More statewide and national award winners

We Don't Need No Education—> Neverending Barbwire Series

1997 Pulitzer Prize entries

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success

Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

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

Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
TOP SECRET— HushHush!

 

Nevada's vaunted Blue Wave was a spray bottle of Windex.

You could have won bar bets on last week's political races with no more knowledge than which party registered the most voters in a district.

Statewide, all the Donkeykongs won save secretary of state candidate Nelson Araujo, defeated by incumbent Wicked Witch of Voter Suppression Barbara Cegavske. He failed to raise the issue. (See below.)

The victories of Gov.-elect Steve Sisolak and U.S. Sen.-elect Jacky Rosen reinforce my Oct. 17 comment about weakness at the top. Given a Democratic registration edge of more than 100,000, they should have landslided their opponents

In Washoe County, the partisan split was just as predictable. Only Assemblymember Skip Daly, D-Sparks, prevailed in a GOP district, as did just two other Gomorrah South legislative candidates. Two D's also survived "non-partisan" races in Republican jurisdictions, Reno Councilmember Naomi Duerr and Kalie Work who beat incumbent County Recorder Lawrence Burtness.

ONCE PER CENTURY. The hills of Nevada are littered with the bones of mayors who ran statewide, e.g., Oran Gragson, Bill Briare and Jan Jones of Las Vegas; Roy Bankofier and Pete Sferrazza of Reno. Add long-ago Clark County Commissioner Hank Thornley.

But not current Clark Commission Chair Sisolak who joins Reno Mayor Richard Kirman as the only two who made the jump.

I've polled this issue. Locals usually don't view officials they encounter frequently in a gubernatorial light. As one Washoe commissioner told me years ago, "every time I vote on something, I've made someone mad at me for life."

Kirman let things cool off, serving as mayor in 1907-1909 and governor 1935-1939.

YELLOW DOGS. In the mid-1970s, a campaign memorabilia collector displayed some of his huge stash in the foyer of the Nevada Legislature. The Associated Press asked had he noticed any trends over 200 years. Yes, yellow loses most often, red-white-blue wins. Of course, most campaigns use the colors of the American flag, but I've kept a tally every election year and his anecdotal observation has proven prescient.

This year, six winners and 15 losers used yellow. (Sisolak vs. Adam Laxalt is a push because both used yellow-ish. Likewise both sides of Question 3.)

BLAST FROM THE PAST. Light-Gov.-elect Kate Marshall would have wiped the floor with Republican U.S. Senator Dean Heller had former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Searchlight, allowed her into the race. My dear friend Kate deployed a secret weapon. United Auto Workers legend, boxing historian and César Chávez NevadaLabor.com Hall-of-Famer George "Battling" Nelson (1932-2016) was the distinguished older gentleman appearing behind Kate in the final scene of all her TV spots.

Organized labor, the Reno-Sparks NAACP and the Great Basin Youth Soccer League dedicated the final Johnson-Jeffries Heavyweight Fight of the Century memorial in Nelson's honor at Moana Springs last August. With the old fighter in her corner, Kate couldn't lose.

BLASTING THE DEMS. Longtime Democratic Party stalwart Laurie Haley, wife of former Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley, was reportedly working the phones at Demo HQ. And telling voters to support Republican Darin Balaam for her husband's old job. She need not have bothered. Republicans enjoy a substantial voter registration edge in Washoe which complemented Balaam's financial superiority and made him a safe bar bet.

RUMBLE IN THE GREEN FELT JUNGLE. My spies report that perhaps as many as 100 workers have been laid off at downtown Reno's Eldorado Hotel-Casino. I'd like to hear from anyone pink-slipped. E me or call (775) 786-1455. All replies confidential, of course.

LEO DUROCHER DEPT. The baseball hall-of-famer legendarily said that "nice guys finish last." I know of at least seven candidates, including Araujo, who had silver bullets and proved too timid to shoot.

It is thus fitting that U.S. House of Representatives Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said on election night that "impeachment's off the table."

As my old friend, talk radio legend and former Tribune colleague in columny Travus T. Hipp used to say, "when there's a fight, liberals cut and run."

Painfully true in this case. Again. As I wrote when she did the same in 2006, defending the president against impeachment eats of up half of his time, as evidenced by the Clinton fiasco. Bush the Lesser and puppeteer Cheney would thus have done less damage in their final two years.

No less than Czar Donaldov might say that unilateral surrender of major leverage demonstrates incompetence in the art of the deal.

Dammit.

THE NEW MATH. Today, we live in the alternate universe of untrue truths and alternative facts. No less an institution than Macy's Department Store has gotten into the act. They've advertised a one-day sale. Last Monday thru today.

George Orwell, call your office.

Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno.
_______
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 —>

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

For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now: Tell your friends and friendly enemies to subscribe to Barbwire Confidential for warm laughter, cheap thrills, hot scoops and occasional cold logic at BallotBoxing.US/ Cheap at twice the price. (Hush Hush!)

Last year's dark foreshadowings unfortunately became reality. I thus suggest inoculation by signing onto the HushHush! list at BallotBoxing.US/ It's cheap as well as enlightening entertainment. Thank you kindly for your support.

"Media is the plural of mediocre."
— Jimmy Breslin (1928-2017)


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

Smoking Guns—>
If we stop killing, we stop killing ourselves
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-7-2018 Sparks Tribune
Personal & political hygiene for fun & prophet
The Nevada connection to murdered Saudi Jamal Khashoggi
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 10-24-2018 Sparks Tribune
BallotBoxing '18: Maximum confusions & contusions
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-17-2018 Sparks Tribune
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

Barbwire 30th Anniversary Trilogy
Now well into a 4th decade of equal opportunity harassment of the rich, famous & powerful
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.)

Part 3: Biting the hand that feeds me
GOP '18 upsets: Déjà vu all over again
Laxalt and Heller favored to win in November
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 9-5-2018 Sparks Tribune
Part 2: Biting the moonhowlers
Good reasons to lie to those pesky pollsters
Heller eats sheep balls to get the courage to perpetrate guilt by association
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 8-29-2018 Sparks Tribune
Part 1: Bitten by my buds
Machine Gun Michele and her low-caliber, low-cut friends
The censored Barbwires of the 2015 legislature finally see ink and my fantasy fiancée bares all
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 8-22-2018 Sparks Tribune

30 Years before the masthead: Barbano remembers the Barbwire's greatest hits
By Kayla Anderson / Sparks Tribune 8-22-2018

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.


$75 dead or alive: Still crazy after all these years
A mass murderer becomes famous on TV a century later

How come nobody noticed 'til now?
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 2-21-2018 Sparks Tribune

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory owners Max Blank and Isaac Harris. Is not Mr. Harris eerily familiar to television junkies?

From the Emmy-winning opening slate of the blockbuster "Cheers" television series. Combined with its "Frasier" spinoff, it lasted 20 years.
The "shirtwaist kings" immigrated from Russia and made a fortune manufacturing "Gibson Girl"-style blouses. (Photo, "The American Experience"/PBS)
The Emmy-winning opening slate of the "Cheers" television series before the "slate" of creators is superimposed. Looks like Mr. Harris' dead ringer (at left) is having a bloody good time.

"Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" Chico Marx disguised as Groucho Marx in "Duck Soup" (1933)
Back to the story of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist holocaust

SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions (A favorite John Hanks aphorism I've been using for decades)

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Copyright © 1982-2018 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He is the executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president and political action chair 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.

Betty J. Barbano
2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005

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