BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames

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People love lists, good or bad, rich and poor, best and worst. Who's on first? What's the score? Who's number one?

The three greatest American presidents were George Washington (Federalist, 1789-97), Abraham Lincoln (Republican/National Union, 1861-65), and Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat, 1933-45).

Here are the dregs, my unlucky 13 worst, a baker's dirty dozen.

     12. Franklin Pierce, Democrat (1853-57). An ancestor of No. 2 George Walker Bush, the only elected president not re-nominated by his own party. Spent most of his term dead drunk.

     11. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-61, Republican). He allowed the Dulles brothers to run wild and begin a still cancerous-pattern of overthrowing the elected governments of small countries like Guatemala, Iran and so many more. The term "Ugly American" was coined for the Dulles dullards. (Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and CIA Director Alan Dulles.)

     10. A tie between Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson (1963-69), and unaffiliated John Adams (1797-1801). Johnson's domestic record (The War on Poverty) is second only to Franklin Roosevelt's. His downfall was the Vietnam War which still haunts and weakens America today. Adams was Johnson's mirror image. He pushed the Alien and Sedition Acts which allowed him to imprison any critic of the government. On the other hand, he settled our undeclared war with France, something Johnson could not do.

     9. Warren G. Harding (1921-23, Republican). Had he not conveniently died, he would have been impeached, convicted and removed from office for wholesale corruption.
His greatest qualification for president was that he sure looked like one should look.

     8. James Buchanan, Democrat (1857-61) who did little or nothing to avoid the Civil War.

     7. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921, Democrat). Re-elected on his anti-war promise, then promptly got us into World War One. He also jailed lots of uppity women who wanted the right to vote as well as many of his critics. He may have pushed formation of the League of Nations, forerunner of the United Nations, but sat shiva as the Treaty of Versailles was formed, which led to Adolf Hitler's rise to power.

     6. Andrew Jackson, Democrat (1829-37). The genocidal general is Number One's favorite. Jackson loved killing both Indians and the future. Because the Bank of the United States would not loan him money for his plantation, he destroyed it when he became president. The lack of a central bank hurt the US economy for decades. Like Number One, everything was a personal reaction. Policy and propriety mattered not at all.

     5. Richard Milhous Nixon (1969-74, Republican). Yes, he really was a crook who, with war criminal Henry Kissinger, intentionally prolonged the Vietnam War for five years. But he also signed some beneficial liberal policies into law including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

     4. Harry S. Truman (1945-53, Democrat). He caved to French President Charles de Gaulle and double-crossed Ho Chi Minh by returning Vietnam to France because the Michelin Tire and Rubber Company wanted its rubber plantations back. He also nuked Japan because he couldn't tell that his generals were lying to him and wanted to play with their new toy.

     3. Andrew Johnson (1865-68 Republican/National Union; 1868-69 Democrat ). Lincoln's greatest mistake was making this guy VP. His racism led to a century of Jim Crow which left us with the racist hangover of slavery which still metastasizes today. Missed conviction and removal by one senator's vote.

     2. George Walker Bush (2001-2009, Republican) and his shadow president Richard Cheney lied us into two middle eastern wars which will plague us for at least the next century.

     BOTTOM OF THE BARREL. NUMERO UNO: He Who Must Not Be Named (2017-present, sorta Republican). That cancer thrives on publicity, so why grant him more?

CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR: Hiram Ulysses Grant (1869-77, Republican). Like Eisenhower, a war hero who was a lousy administrator and presided over perhaps the third most-corrupt administration until number two Harding and our current monarch.

Millard Fillmore (1850-53. Whig). Considered by some the Jude the Obscure of presidents. But hey, he got a comic strip about a conservative duck named after him. Used to run in this newspaper back when we could afford such things.

William Henry Harrison, March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841. Ole General Tippecanoe made a long-winded inaugural speech in frigid DC weather, caught pneumonia and croaked.

Herbert Hoover (1929-33, Republican). An otherwise able public servant who made the mistake of listening to his patrician treasury secretary, Andrew W. Mellon, who said the wondrous invisible hand of the free market would automatically fix the Great Depression.

Ronald Reagan (1981-89, Republican). Misrepresenting his health, he was our first Alzheimer's president, thus making Nancy Reagan the second woman president. Mrs. Woodrow Wilson served when her husband suffered a stroke.

George H.W. Bush (1989-93, Republican) for marrying No. 12 Franklin Pierce's descendant, Barbara Pierce, and giving us No. 2 as well as several wars.

PRAY FOR KENNY. Retired firefighter and former Reno-Sparks NAACP President Kenny Dalton just underwent kidney transplant surgery. Say a prayer for him. Updates will be posted with this column at NevadaLabor.com and at RenoSparksNAACP.org/

     UPDATE: Salt Lake City, UT (June 18) — Former Reno-Sparks Branch president (1997-98) and current executive committee member Kenneth B. Dalton remains hospitalized in Salt Lake City after successful kidney transplant surgery. He is a retired Reno firefighter. Current President Lonnie Feemster spoke with Mr. Dalton on June 18. "I let him know of the many inquiries of concern for him and his condition. He was moved by the outpouring of love and expressed his sincere appreciation," Mr. Feemster stated. "He was in good spirits and is recuperating well," he added.

¡Sí se puede!
___________________

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BLACK LIKE ME 2119: The problem as solution
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-13-2019 Sparks Tribune / Updated 2-14 and 2-16-2019
Breaking News —> Culinary Union defeats decert at Circus Circus Reno
Dear Readers: The above column served as the conclusion of remarks I submitted before the "Tahoe Talks: Racism in America" symposium at the Incline Village, Nev., Library on February 12, 2019. So you might want to read "FADE TO BLACK" before you read "Black Like Me 2119".

	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

Triangle tragedy recalled as requiem "The Fire in My Mouth," a new oratorio by Pulitzer honoree Julia Wolfe, premiered with the New York Philharmonic Jan. 24 By Michael Cooper / The New York Times 1-23-2019

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 © 1982-2019 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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