Barbwire: Fair warning to the rich, famous & powerful

An Alternative National Anthem
By Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) & Sharon Robinson
© 1988 CBS Records, Inc.

   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 that the boat is leaking.
Everybody knows that the captain lied.
   Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died.
   Everybody talking to their pockets.
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
   And a long stem rose.
Everybody knows.

   Everybody knows that you love me, baby.
Everybody knows you really do.
   Everybody knows that you've been faithful,
Give or take a time or two.
   Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
   Without your clothes.
Everybody knows.

   Everybody knows that it's now or never.
Everybody knows that it's me or you.
   And everybody knows that you live forever
When you've done a line or two.
   Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
   For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows.

   Everybody knows that the plague is coming.
Everybody knows that it's moving fast.
   Everybody knows that the naked man & woman —
Just a shining artifact of the past.
   Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
   That will disclose
What everybody knows.

   And everybody knows that you're in trouble.
Everybody knows what you've been through
   From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach at Malibu.
   Everybody knows it's coming apart.
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
   Before it blows.
And everybody knows.

Everybody knows. Everybody knows.
   That's how it goes. Everybody knows.

I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island.
— Leon Russell, 1942-2016

"The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have." — Kierkegaard

Fair warning to the rich, famous & powerful
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-15-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 7-18-2020 / 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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and Jake Highton and Dennis Myers next.
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10 the Hard Way
Barbwire wins 10th 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/9-29-2018

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!

Today's my birthday and I may damned well be driving you crazy for another 25 or 30 years at least.

This week brought news that my cousin Louie (Louis Joseph) Barbano passed away peacefully in the early morning hours of July 13 at his retirement residence in the San Luis Obispo, Calif., area. No virus. The years simply caught up with the former pole vault star and deep-sea diver.

My bro and I were looking forward to attending his 100th birthday party last April but the current national plague emanating from the White House intervened.

Had the cards been dealt differently, my younger brother Larry and I should both be about Louie's age. But my dad, who raised Louie, married late and produced two Vietnam era rock 'n' roll baby boomers.

If Big Lare and I have inherited the longevity gene which Louie demonstrably carried, we are both candidates for centennial decrepitude. Our Grand Aunt Martha ("Tsi Marta" in auld country lingo) lived to about 100 and all my first cousins made it well into their nineties.

Louie was as close as I've ever come to an older brother. I never knew the full story until much later, but my father, Henry, the Fonz of west Fresno, raised his nephew as a son.

Louie won a track scholarship to Sacramento State but was unable to take advantage of it. My family of farm workers could not afford proper clothes and expenses during Great Depression, Part One.

Louie married sweet Mary Jane Renna, the girl next door. They eventually opened up their own pizza store, a textbook immigrant American Dream success story.

I remember my cousin-bro Louie for his easygoing generosity and crystal clear memories of times and people long gone. I always took notes when I called him.

His story was my story, a first-generation son of immigrants from a feudal society. Reams have been written about people like us who basically grew up in both the old country and the new world. We stand enriched for it.

So instead of running my folks' cafe in Fresno, I'm here trying my best to address the ills of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream. (In case you haven't noticed, the longstanding hierarchy of Sparks and Reno is still quite Italian-farmer.)

Louie will have a part of whatever I accomplish because he's a part of me.

Requiescat in pace, frater mei.

DEAR ANDY'S ADVICE COLUMN: PLAY HOOKY. My late wife, Betty, made me a grandfather on the day we married. I now try my best to watch over eleven grandkids and three G-G's, including a brand new great-grand baby girl. I can't order parents around, but if I had school-age offspring under my roof, wouldn't nobody be going back to school this year.

From Trump's dingbat secretary of anti-public education to the head of the Washoe County Medical Society, welcome to mass-malpractice land.

"The benefits of attending school outweigh the risks for elementary students," say they. Nay, say I.

WTF DEPT. School is always the best place for kids to contract and spread little wiggly beasties, second only perhaps to hospitals.

Low-income people have trouble acquiring that new-fangled thing called distance learning if they have no computers. The Washoe County School district burned out copy machines printing written lessons last spring.

Reno-Sparks NAACP President Lonnie Feemster, who's been on overload all year, has been working on getting iPads into kids' hands. (Watch the web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com for details.)

If you believe Czar Donaldov and EdSecretary Ritzy Betsy Devolutionary, read on.

FATAL VISION. The news has been wallpapered with heartrending stories of late. The saddest came from the doctor who held the hand of a 30 year-old man at his death. He had attended COVID-19 "I dare you" parties at some university.

"I made a mistake," he whispered to the doctor. "I thought it was a hoax. I'm sorry."

One of my spies reports a query from a neighbor who has her TV tuned to Fox Noise 24/7: "Why don't people like President Trump?"

Bubble heads stay in the bubble till burst by hoaxy beasties.

DIGITAL MEDIA. The San Francisco Chronicle is going online only, stopping home delivery and mail subscriptions as well as news stand sales in this region. I remember the 49ers once noting that their market stretched from northern California to Reno. Facebook ate the news business, stealing stories from journalists. The Chron is just the latest casualty. There are more.

Longtime Nevada author and publisher David Toll has suspended his longtime online Nevadagram travel service. He linked one of his greatest stories as a farewell present, the saga of Nevada's first movie star, Edna Purviance of Winnemucca. She was one of Charles Chaplin's leading ladies in the golden age of Hollywood. I have visited her museum display in Winnemucca.

PRESTI-DIGITATION. Longtime radio personality Don Darue needs support to keep his weekend "Risky Biscuit Hayseed Hoot" on the air on KUNR-fm. Go to HootRadio.net to get into his sweatshirt fundraiser.

Retired attorney and superannuated rocker Geoff White, who earned a second doctorate with BeatlesFlashback.com, just released a six-cut album online, Reflections on the Key to Life. Go to GeoffandFriends.com/ These guys are good.

Oughtta be. They've been practicing long enough.

DIGITAL COMMUNICATION. Local radio legend Pam Farris (KOZZ 105.7-fm) has fully recovered from a stroke save for one area: the middle finger of her right hand. The Silver Voice requires both hands to make one bird fly.

I have deduced the problem. As you know, our president needs two hands to drink a glass of water. I think my friend Pam has flipped the bird so often listening to the news that she burned herself out with silent digital commentaries.

Perhaps she can recover that last bit of the fading art of succinct communication in January when we all may achieve a well-earned respite from regression and oppression.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

[4-20-2019] — About 100 demonstrators from almost all the region's unions, local community service organizations and political activists joined Culinary Union members picketing Circus Circus in the late afternoon of April 18. A couple of CC suits came out to see what all the fuss was about, as if they didn't already know. In addition to the familiar union "contract now!" chants came calls for a strike against the Carano jocks. ¡Viva Huelga! ¡Sí se puede

REAL NEWS DEPT. In January 2019, Culinary Union Local 226 defeated an attempt by Circus Circus-Reno to decertify (terminate) the union's representation of its workers. No word on whether management plans to appeal the result to the National Labor Relations Board which was recently put out of business for 35 days. Thank you, Czar Donaldov.

Barbwire 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.

Smoking Guns—>

There just ain't no cure for stupid
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-8-2020 Sparks Tribune

Ship of Fools: Washoe County as derelict ocean liner
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-1-2020 Sparks Tribune

Weird love of dos Tejanas for El Jefé Trump
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-24-2020 Sparks Tribune /

Government shuts down when it should step up
Wherein I become a 36-year overnight success
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-17-2020 Sparks Tribune

Top 10 cures still go begging
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-10-2020 Sparks Tribune

Don't let fear and anger convert us to Germany 1933
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-3-2020 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue
BREAKING NEWS—> City of Reno reimposes martial law

Presidents Trump & Harding channel Mark Twain
WE WON! City of Reno votes down Ballardini Ranch annexation
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-27-2020 Sparks Tribune

Ballardini Ranch: Love's Labours Lost. Again.
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-20-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-21 and 5-27-2020 GMT

Letter from gods of alpha males & alpha mails
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-13-2020 Sparks Tribune

Re-name former Hug High for Dolores Feemster
By William C. Webb, John A. White, Jr. and Andrew Barbáno / RGJ.com 5-7-2020 / Reno Gazette-Journal op-ed 5-10-2020

Make Dolores Feemster's light shine brightly
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-6-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-7 & 5-9-2020 / Expansions in blue

MAGAcidal maniax are loosed upon the land
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-29-2020 Sparks Tribune

Trump wants your cat and your shorts
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-22-2020 Sparks Tribune

A gold record message from the King
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-15-2020 Sparks Tribune

Are you ready to die for your country?
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-8-2020 Sparks Tribune

Payback: Corona, Cocaine & Trump
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-1-2020 Sparks Tribune
Photos, video and commentary from Barbwire correspondents in the belly of the beast: New York City and northern Italy
And remembering when Andy met Betty on April Fools Day 44 years ago

Kinks and hijinx in the time of plague
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-25-2020 Sparks Tribune

The lighter side of the latest plague
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-18-2020 Sparks Tribune

Medflies, flyweights and President Pelosi
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-11-2020 Sparks Tribune

Trump's Blackrobes: Humpty Dumpty Homotextuals
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-4-2020 Sparks Tribune

Bernie or bust, Dolores a must
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-26-2020 Sparks Tribune

Czars Donaldov & Nixon win Democratic Caucus
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-19-2020 Sparks Tribune

Springtime for fat cats & unburied hatchets
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-12-2020 Sparks Tribune

Love saves a life on Reno's mean streets
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-5-2020 Sparks Tribune

Bill Harrah's cookie cutter crumbles
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-29-2020 Sparks Tribune

Going to confession with Father Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-22-2020 Sparks Tribune

National welfare, corporate welfare and MLK
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-15-2020 Sparks Tribune

The New Jim Crow — Nothing New
By Michelle Alexander / New York Times January 17 & 19, 2020
Printable Text Version

The only way to stop killing is to stop killing
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-8-2020 Sparks Tribune

Barbano sells out to white Republicans
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-1-2020 Sparks Tribune

The Sermon on Mount Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-25-2019 Sparks Tribune
Typhoid Mary infects Sparks Addams Family
In the spirit of true democracy which provides that your rights don't allow you to sneeze on mine
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-18-2019 Sparks Tribune
A fake news fable for our times
In the spirit of true democracy which provides that your rights don't allow you to sneeze on mine
Barbwire Confidential by Andrew Barbáno / 12-11-2019 Online Edition
Red-flag warnings — Ignoring history at our peril
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-11-2019 Sparks Tribune
Major rent raunch and a big book launch
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-4-2019 Sparks Tribune

Billionaire Tom Steyer owes me $5
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-27-2019 Sparks Tribune

Back to the future down Amnesia Lane
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-20-2019 Sparks Tribune

People get ready, that train's a comin'
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Barbwire Confidential Internet Edition 11-12-2019 / Updated 11-14 & 11-15-2019
A version of this column appeared in the 11-13-2019 Sparks Tribune
An excerpt of the following was included in Andrew Barbano's address to the school board on Nov. 12.
SPECIAL REPORT FROM THE SCENE OF THE CRIME: Clever maneuvering prevents vote after 4 of 7 trustees announced support for Feemster.

DO NOT risk your kids at Golden Eagle Park
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-6-2019 Sparks Tribune

Tale of 2 city halls: Cancer kids & brain damage
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-30-2019 Sparks Tribune

Written in the stars: UNR football for racial justice
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-23-2019 Sparks Tribune

Goodbye, Columbus: A mirror for America
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-16-2019 Sparks Tribune

Déjà vu all over again: Bernie turns 2020 into 1968
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-9-2019 Sparks Tribune

City of Reno turns W. Plumb Lane into horny street
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-2-2019 Sparks Tribune

Hip-hopping mad over molesters and Mad Kings
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-25-2019 Sparks Tribune

Trade the Confederacy straight across for Greenland
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-18-2019 Sparks Tribune

Cut in twain
(Myers' favorite photo)

Dennis Myers: Enroute to the universe next door
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-11-2019 Sparks Tribune
Obituary, 1948-2019
[En Español — La Voz Hispana En Nevada 9-18-2019]

Philippines to Burning Man to Ireland: Adios GOAT
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-4-2019 Sparks Tribune

Nevadian Dennis Myers: The Greatest Of All Time
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 8-28-2019 Sparks Tribune

Veteran Nevada reporter Myers removed from life support
Obituary: Dennis C. Myers 1948-2019
[En Español — La Voz Hispana En Nevada 9-18-2019]
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Internet Edition 8-25-2019

Reno City Council passes rent control
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-17-2019 Sparks Tribune

DAY OF THE DEAD
Relieve Rent & Pillage: Save SB398 & AB399
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Online Legislative Edition / 4-12-2019 / Updated 4-13 and 4-14-2019 GMT
Fairness for tenants dies 4-12 unless lawmakers throw it a lifeline

Politics does not reward the shy
Rent justification and a death penalty for corporate depredation
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-10-2019 Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-11 and 4-12-2019 GMT
Fairness for tenants dies 4-12 unless lawmakers throw it a lifeline

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 with outrageous rents and scrambling schools
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.)
[MUCH MORE TESLACIDE]

"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

Rentvolution.org

We Don't Need No Education

A cuckoo coup and a president, too
Barbwire exclusive: Secret 2017 meeting set the setup in motion
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Uploaded 7-23-2019 / Expanded from the 7-24-2019 Sparks Tribune

Alfred E. Neuman for Washoe school superintendent
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-10-2019 Sparks Tribune

Witness at the execution
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-3-2019 Sparks Tribune

Gang banging on 9th Street
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Barbwire Confidential Extra Edition / Monday 7-1-2019 / Updated 7-3-2019

NevadaLabor.com We Don’t Need No Education Archive

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