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

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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

Lies, loves, loss, laughs & other L-words
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from Sparks Tribune 7-28-2021 / Expansions in blue

I'm a flaming, card-carrying, die-hard L-word with a capital "L" Liberal.

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 Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame Support Don Dondero and Jake Highton next. Send endorsements 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 BEATING LUSH RAMBO AT HIS OWN GAME: 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!

Lush Rambo did a magnificent job of corporate propaganda, so demonizing the venerable term that Democrats and liberals now call themselves "progressives." Lukewarm.

Decades ago, Washington Post columnist William Raspberry noted that a sure sign of a persistent problem is if it has to be re-named every generation.

So darkies became Negroes who became Colored. (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded at the height of Jim Crow America in 1909.)

"Colored people" persisted until the dawn of the new civil rights era in the 1950s, then "black is beautiful" and "black power" replaced it.

Black is still around (witness the TV series "Black-ish") but has been changed by the liberal media gods into a proper noun or propriety adjective, e.g., "Black people."

Hence, "Black" is always capitalized when referring to black people in the New York Times.

My 4th grade Catholic school grammar and phonics teacher, Mrs. Burkhart-DaFonte, would be horrified. (Look up the definitions of common noun and proper noun and stay after school!)

It's been 53 years since track stars Tommie Smith (1945-2019) and John Carlos hoisted black-gloved fists on the medal podium during the "Star-Spangled Banner" at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

They were shoeless, wearing black socks to protest black poverty.

Foreshadowing the ostracism of former UNR/49er star Colin Kaepernick, they were vilified and immediately barred from the Olympic village, suspended from the US team and sent back to the land of the free, home of the brave, with liberty and justice for some.

The reactionary moonhowler US Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (so much for black power).

It's been half a century and the problem persists. Our confusing language reflects society.

So what's in a name? Silly syllables.

Doing it better than George Orwell, the late, great wiseman George Carlin warned us that reality could be smothered by syllables.

The perfectly descriptive "shell-shock" became "combat fatigue," which morphed into "hysterical neurosis" and "traumatic stress syndrome" which is now "post-traumatic stress disorder," a bloodless term now marketed and shrink-wrapped to PTSD.

Which the man in the street might think is the latest venereal disease.

We now have millions of mind-blown vets walking around this country with their lives drained of everything including a meaningful name for their affliction. (BTW: When do we stop making more veterans?)

Capitalizing "Black" ain't doing nobody no good. Nor is using "people" (or worse) "persons" of color. Black has one syllable, the latter moniker has five. I hope the shrinkage is a positive sign.

Somewhere in the past few decades, two versions of "African American" (stand-alone and hyphenated) caught on. Using fourth-grade training, I finally figured out that the hyphen defines the usage. (This is the all-time champ, seven syllables plus a hyphen. Carlin always said beware of extra punctuation.)

So you can be an (adjective) African-American scholar who is an expert on (noun) African Americans.

Don'tcha dare teach kids in school about slavery or killing American Indians for sport. (I am no fan of "Native American," another modern re-labeling, wallpapering persistent pernicious problems. I am a native American, too — a child of Italian farm workers and a native of exciting Fresno.)

Tell it like it is and was, dammit. As Sen. Joe Neal's mom advised him long ago, you can't run from the truth.

LOVE AND LOSS. Rev. John Jeffrey Auer III, pastor of downtown Reno's First United Methodist Church from 2003 to 2009, died in Fresno, California, on July 21, five days short of his 78th birthday. I am proud to have known him and his late wife, Julie, worked with him on MLK celebrations and stood beside him when he marched for civil rights right here in River City.

He told me that the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., motivated him to seek the ministry. John and Julie served in the Peace Corps in Turkey and went on to a life of public service.

It's never been printed before, but the reactionary Republicans at his Reno church tried to get him fired for publicly protesting the Iraq War and other closer to home depredations of corporate officialdom. Rev. John narrowly weathered the storm. Had he been axed, I would have organized a picket of the church no matter what he said.

I have met my share of holy men and women in my 75 years. John Auer, who was physically a gentle giant of a man, stands with giants evermore.

LITTLE WHITE LIES. Teamsters Union Local 533 finally got the Reno-Sparks bus system overlords back to the bargaining table this week after a year of foot-dragging.

The bad guys hired very vicious, high-priced union busters who don't think the little people should get a fair day's pay for a good day's work in a safe environment. (Tell a rider to wear a mask and you can get your ass fired.)

Smoking gun of foot-dragging: The bad guys at foreign-owned subcontractor Keolis-19 delayed bargaining before their contract expired June 30 by insisting on endangering the lives of negotiators.

They demanded face-to-face bargaining rather than using Zoom teleconferencing. Of course it all went to court, causing further delays.

No wonder for-profit Keolis-19 can't hire enough drivers and dozens of routes are being cancelled daily during a heat-stroke summer.

A former Tribune reporter even bought a car because the bus system that once served his needs became so undependable. What a country.

LOVE'S LABORS LOST. Because of the resurgence of the plague, I have again been forced to postpone this year's on-site César Chávez celebration.

The moveable feast is now scheduled for Nevada's next official César Chávez Day, March 31, 2022, his 95th birthday.

Cross your fingers and toes, but if America continues to ignore vaccination and safety procedures, the future looks very uncertain.

LAUGHS. Rock 'n' roll, noisy kitchens and construction site blasting have cost me much of my hearing. Closed-captioning is thus ubiquitous at my house.

So today marks a new ongoing Barbwire feature: CC and TV bloopers.

Did you know there's a Butt Valley Reservoir in Butt County, California? KTVN TV-2 news so noted on a fire map last week.

And the computer hasn't quite caught up with the name of KRNV TV-4's new meteorologist who replaced Cassie Wilson who moved to (aargh!) Kansas.

Channel 4's cc computer thus mangled Madison Macay into "Medicine" Macay and "I'm not a sin" Macay.

Stay pure. Stay cool. Stay safe. Stay tuned.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

Losers, winners, saint, sinners & Yogi
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from Sparks Tribune 7-21-2021 / Expansions in blue

The overlords of the local bus system would normally lead a list of losers for the past week, but Washoe County has lost its edge to the freedom-loving racists down south, Douglas County, Nevada.

Normally, when a librarian quits, no big deal. When cow county Nevada loses a national star, that's news.

Amy Dodson innocently introduced a resolution before her board of directors to support Black Lives Matter, tolerance and diversity.

Hundreds of other U.S. libraries did so in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May of last year.

Her proposal raised such a hue and cry that her own board would not back her up, voting 3-2 to spend $30,000 to investigate itself. (A recent report said it came in at $40k.)

Worst of the worst was Bull Connor wannabe Sheriff Dan Coverley who announced that because of Ms. Dodson's hubris, Douglas law enforcement would refuse to respond to any 911 calls from the library.

That's grounds for losing your badge in most places, but Nevada's backwaters often follow only selected portions of the law, stuff that they like.

One Douglas county commissioner even wanted to defund the library. (George Orwell, call your office.)

Ms. Dodson weathered the storm, won the prestigious 2021 Paul Howard Award for Courage, the Pulitzer for the nation's librarians, and has now taken a job in Illinois.

LOSER, TOO: The Reno Gazette-Journal which did an excellent job covering the Black Lives protest in Douglas County following the dissing of Ms. Dodson.

Reporter Jenny Kane and photographer Jason Bean ventured into the belly of the beast as about 50 protestors, including people from Sparks and Reno, were surrounded by more than 200 machine-gun toting freedom-loving racists.

Machine Guns and Racism in Nevada's Alabaster Bastion

The RGJ's sin lay in censoring itself.

Mr. Bean shot a photo worthy of a Pulitzer Prize.

His paper published it on the front page the next day, August 9, 2020.

It showed a white guy wearing a Black Lives Matter facemask being confronted by a maskless man in a bulletproof vest and a hateful-looking woman resembling a bad imitation of Wagnerian soprano Brunhilde in wraparound shades.

The expression of racial hatred on her face was so compelling that I didn't notice the black-on-black inscription on her bib until a Tribune reader pointed it out: "Offended? FUCK OFF!"

Apparently, the RGJ staff either didn't notice or tried to commit award-winning journalism on the sly.

When I went to their website, the photo had been nuked and was available nowhere on the web. (Barbwire Confidential readers know where to look.)

One Pulitzer, nuked.

WINNERS: The passengers, drivers and support staff of the Washoe County transit system.

As I reported last week, the five billygoats gruff who serve on the Regional Transportation Commission were scheduled Friday to rubberstamp a substantial raise and bonus for the guy who has run the bus system into the ground and onto the precipice of a strike.

RTC Executive Director Bill Thomas already makes $220,000 a year. His performance was "evaluated" by persons unknown and was given glowing reviews.

Not once in the voluminous "review" was management of the beleaguered bus system mentioned.

Drivers, union officials, Reno Councilmember Jenny Brekhus and community leader Chip Evans showed up to inform the commissioners of their dereliction.

For once, they at least pretended to listen and tabled Mr. Thomas' rakeoff for further review.

Monitor NevadaLabor.com for smoking guns, pictures and other breaking news.

WINNERS: The Richmond, Virginia bus system, its employees and passengers.

Retired Laborers' Union Local 169 Business Manager Dan Rusnak reports "here in Richmond, the local RTC has announced they will use $5 million or so in federal Covid funds to keep the fares at zero until June 2022. Definitely eliminates a lot of passenger contact with the driver."

Washoe RTC's contractor, foreign-owned Keolis-19, has skimmed millions in federal funds directly toward corporate profit while spending only $380,000 on bus safety.

WINNER: Former four-term Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards who died last week at 93.

He was a quintessential larger-than-life southern pol, high-living, womanizing, corrupt to the hilt and very open about it.

His constituents loved him for it.

He also had a sparkling record of upgrading Confederate Louisiana into a more modern state, pushing reforms to help the common folks, hiring women and minorities and "improving social services, health, education and highways," according to the New York Times.

"We all knew he was going to steal, but he told us he was going to do it," said one of his supporters.

A biographer once asked a preacher who supported Edwards how he could support such a libertine.

"Well, he don't drink or smoke."

Yogi Berra would appreciate that response.

Edwards eventually pushed the envelope too far, soliciting bribes for casino licenses.

He shook down SF 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo, Jr., for $400k.

He testified against Edwards, but the dirt rubbed off on little Eddie, causing him to sign over the team to his sister and idiot bro-in-law, leading to two decades of football mediocrity.

Me, I'm Italian but I only hold one grudge: I will never forgive Eddie for trading Joe Montana to Kansas City.

Had he gone to the slammer with Edwin, I would have called it even.

Edwards was a legend at Reno casinos who loved his amiability and very generous tipping.

Edwards generated the greatest bumper sticker in U.S. political history.

When he ran for a fourth term and defeated Republican Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, his supporters came up with the best meme I've ever seen: "Vote for the Crook. It's important."

Rest in peace, guv.

HOME RUN. The best story of the month is about a new Yogi Berra stamp. Yogi (1925-2015) is only the 30th major leaguer so honored by the postal service and the first since Lou Gehrig in 1989 to receive an issuance all his own.

I'm gonna buy a bunch.

The art on the stamp showing Yogi in full Yankees catcher's gear has been widely praised. It was painted by artist Charles Chaisson who comes from a long lineage of postal workers.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

"So I'm ugly," Yogi once said, adding " I never saw anyone hit with his face."

You're beautiful, Yogi.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

Czar Donaldov infects Reno-Sparks bus system
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from Sparks Tribune 7-14-2021 / Expansions in blue

"Who controls the past, controls the future." — George Orwell

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 Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame Support Don Dondero and Jake Highton next. Send endorsements 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 BEATING LUSH RAMBO AT HIS OWN GAME: 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!

Tell a bright, shining lie often enough and enough people will believe it to make you mountainously rich.

One of my first bosses in the ad business once gave a perfect analysis as to why our car dealership commercials weren't working: "We're not telling people what they want to hear."

That advice applies to used cars and even more to follytix.

Don't like history? Detest facts? Think outside the confines of that truthiness box.

I love that our schools are being subjected to moonhowler warnings about hurting kids' feelings by teaching accurate history.

Laws are being passed all over the Confederacy to muzzle teachers. Mao, Stalin and Josef Goebbels would be proud.

So teaching about slavery, Jim Crow, Indian wars and other niceties about America's checkered past would permanently wound our precious snowflakes and turn them into automatons? That ship has sailed, baby.

"Arrrgh! What diminishing academic and scholastic skills I come across with today's University of Nevada-Reno students at the undergraduate level," stated a longtime prof on Wolf Pack hill, adding "a recent 'student evaluation' criticized that 'while feedback is readily forthcoming (from the instructor), it is not helpful because the professor always insists on textual evidence.' Unbelievable."

Donald Trump is the poster child of post-facts America. He just called his treasonous January 6 rioters "peaceful people, these were great people...the love in the air, I've never seen anything like it."

Stormy Daniels, you've been dissed.

Remember how the pissed-off defrocked prez praised the racist Charlottesville, Virginia, rioters even after one killed a woman and injured others with his auto?

As always, Trump is not original. Stalin and Mao were also expert at rewriting history. Please read "Forced Forgetting" by Timothy Snyder, appropriately in the July 4 NY Times Magazine."

"In Europe, laws censoring the discussion of history have been a prelude to the rollback of democracy," Snyder writes, adding "memory management enables voter suppression."

Corporate America has become adept at twisting reality to break the backs of workers. Witness the plight of Washoe County bus operators and riders.

Drivers that do not have assigned routes are considered extra board operators and the company has been working them to death with 14-hour days.

People are burned out and quitting, one of the reasons that the RTC Ride system is short-staffed.

Retirements are the other factor. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting to work could prove a death sentence. It's no surprise that many who could just walked away.

The foreign-owned, for-profit corporation that mismanages the bus system has refused to enforce Coronavirus safety protocols for well over a year. Officialdom has sat shiva.

During the record-breaking heat wave of the past week, buses have simply stopped running on a lot of routes. Confused passengers are left to bake in the sun like cookies.

.RTC management's solution: Blame the Teamsters Union. Here's the truth from a longtime driver.

Wonder how many are contracting the new more virulent and deadly Delta variant that has already killed two people here?

RTC bureaucrats like RTC Executive Director Bill Thomas make hundreds of thousands a year to allow Keolis to mis-manage the system. The five elected RTC commissioners play see-hear-speak no evil.

Keolis has skimmed millions in federal relief dollars to corporate profit and shipped the loot to Europe while spending very little to make buses safer — while threatening drivers with firing for trying to enforce mask mandates. Czar Donaldov would be so proud of his true believers.

Even the capital of the Confederacy is doing better than us. Richmond's RTC has announced they will use $5 million or so in federal COVID funds to keep fares at zero until June 2022.

Monitor NevadaLabor.com for video, smoking guns and other breaking news.

From the 7-7-2021 Barbwire:

HOT AUGUST STRIKE 2.0 ? The Regional Transportation Commission's mass transit system contract with Teamsters Union Local 533 expired at midnight, June 30.

Once again, local governments have pulled a Pontius Pilate and washed their collective hands, asserting that it's not their department, just a beef between their hired gun and the Teamsters.

RTC was built for non-accountability to the public for the past 40 years. There have been several near-strikes and a full blown one 19 years ago.

Political blame shifting has underscored the entire tense relationship.

SEE, HEAR & SPEAK NO EVIL DEPT. The current unaccountable politicians who seem content to provoke a strike are Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson (R), Washoe County Commissioners Vaughn Hartung (R), and Bob Lucey (R); Reno City Councilmembers Oscar Delgado (D) and Neoma Jardon, (R) board chair. Mr. Delgado and his wife both tested positive for COVID-19 in December. He is currently CEO of the Community Health Alliance of Washoe County. Go figger.

Regional Transportation Commission board e-mail <rtcpubliccomments@rtcwashoe.com>

Like today, the 2002 fiasco only happened because the contractor wanted it to. Today's for-profit hired gun is European-based Keolis Transit.

Strikebreakers are already in town, putting buses under possibly illegal surveillance.

I will be even more outraged if I find out they are being paid with federal COVID-19 relief money. Ditto their $1,000-a-day union busting consultants.

The union wants a decent contract and safe working conditions for a change — not another lesson in the Union Busting 101 handbook which Keolis is following to the letter.

I've been down this road before. These tactics are typical of a contractor looking to bust out the mighty Teamsters in a minor market in order to give itself a calling card to generate business in other cities and countries.

It's cheap to test-market your strategy in a small town, an old story.

Keolis has now accused the union of "dilatory behavior," which Keolis has been guilty of for years. Psychologists, especially those that dwell on the likes of Czar Donaldov, call the malady projection. (Remember how Trump called the Bidens a crime family?)

The crime here is the superspreader bus system as the COVID-19 Delta variant descends.

Our bus system transports upwards of 20,000 passengers a day and Keolis has refused to enforce masking or other safety requirements for more than a year.

The workers are tired of living in fear, having seen dozens of their peers taken seriously ill, some in ICU. If drivers try to enforce mask mandates, they risk firing.

I am most tired of so many people who should know better calling this a "post-COVID world."

That's true only of the 600,000-plus dead with more joining the club every day.

A local woman in her 40's just became Washoe County's first fatality from the new more contagious and deadly Delta variant.

Monitor NevadaLabor.com for smoking guns, pictures and other breaking news.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

CWA 9413/AFL-CIO