I wept because I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet

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

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

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BREAKING NEWS —>HOT AUGUST STRIKE!
Teamsters Local 533 strikes foreign-owned RTC bus contractor Keolis Transit

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

Get on your hiking boots and pick up a picket
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / NevadaLabor.com 8-10-2021 / Expanded from Sparks Tribune 8-11-2021 / Expansions in blue

"I wept because I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet."

On the smoky streets of Reno, Nevada

Union leader Logan Lansborough, seated.

"My son Logan, in the wheelchair, was born with congenital absence of the tibia. At 17 months old, Logan had an operation to amputate both his legs. When Keolis first took over the transit system contract, I was trying to get Logan some new prosthetic legs but the company making the legs told me that Anthem/Blue Cross/Blue Shield had informed them that I had been terminated from Keolis employment — which was untrue. I had never missed work other than doctors appointments while Keolis always continued to deduct my premiums." — Michael Lansborough, union member and bus operator.

Transit bosses illegally cut service to seniors and disabled

"I wept because I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no feet."

So goes an ancient proverb popularized by Helen Keller.

You can see a living example of that wisdom most days in downtown Reno right now.

Logan Lansborough was born with congenital absence of the tibia, his father Michael told me.

"At 17 months old, Logan had an operation to amputate both his legs. When Keolis first took over the (Sparks-Reno) transit system contract, I was trying to get Logan some new prosthetic legs but the company making the legs told me that Anthem/Blue Cross/Blue Shield had informed them that I had been terminated from Keolis employment — which was untrue. I had never missed work other than doctors appointments while Keolis always continued to deduct my premiums," Michael added.

Michael Lansborough is a Teamsters union member and bus operator. His son Logan, in his wheelchair, has braved the smoke and the heat and worked the picket line with his dad and other union members since they took the bus system on strike eight days ago. You may have seen Logan on TV news.

I've been through more than a few strikes, but this is the first that had a dyed-in-the-wool poster child.

The greedy scrooges who run the bus system want to take away the health insurance that will provide 10 year-old Logan with more opportunities in life.

For the past four decades, local pols have handed the bus system (and untold millions of tax dollars) to for-profit contractors. Former Sparks Councilmember and Greenbrae Elementary School principal John Mayer told me years ago that he favored cutting out the middlemen and letting the Regional Transportation Commission staff run the bus system. John advocated for that when he served on RTC but found himself a lonely voice. The system is now set up so that nothing is anybody's fault, a bureaucrat and politicians' dream. (Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson now represents the Rail City on RTC.)

Current Reno Councilmember Jenny Brekhus has echoed Mayer's position, again a voice in the wilderness. So now, the second strike in 40 years has happened and what do the pols and six-figure staffers do — blame those greedy workers, of course.

The France-based multinational currently sucking up millions in local and federal money is Keolis-19. They are now threatening to hire strikebreakers and fire all the workers. It's illegal, but who cares?

They knew about this strike coming months ago. When other contractors feared walkouts, they imported rats immediately — paid for with taxpayer money, of course, whether or not they ever worked a day. Keolis has been unable to do so. Wonder why?

Would you want to work for an outfit that intentionally puts both workers and passengers at risk of the plague and death? Should you insist that a passenger wear a mask, you can get fired — Keolis actually did that to a young African-American mother in LA who was immuno-compromised due to chemotherapy.

That's how they run their plantation.

The bus system serves the least among us — minorities, the very young and very old, the disabled, the homeless, the poor, the ill, the weak, the homeless, the low-wage worker. They should not have to risk their lives and those of the transit workers just to get where they need to go.

Now, Keolis has shunted the shuttle services for the elderly and disabled to service downtown casinos.

This vampire needs to go back to France. I understand that night-time four-horse carriage services in Transylvania may need experienced management.

RICHARD TRUMKA, 1949-2021. The great AFL-CIO leader died of a heart attack last week. I wrote several years ago that the ideal replacement for former mineworker Trumka would be the current leader of the flight attendants union, Sarah Nelson. It's high time that the torch of organized labor be passed to a media savvy lady who knows how to fight.

If the Nevada State AFL-CIO convention still comes to town later this month, maybe she will show up and campaign for the job. I invited her to César Chávez Day last year, then this plague thing happened.

OMEN FROM THE CYBERGODS. I did a quick websearch to confirm Brother Trumka's age and guess what? Big Google in the sky flashed "People also search for Liz Shuler, George Meany and — drum roll, please — SARAH NELSON."

Shuler is now acting head of the international AFL-CIO and reportedly wants the top job. Meany was one of the worst AFL-CIO leaders ever — he supported Richard Nixon, fergawdsakes.

Shuler and Meany, understandable. Nelson high on Google returns, the gods are speaking.

Will organized labor listen? If Sister Nelson, 48, makes it to the top, remember Barbwire readers got it years early.

AULD LANG SYNE. Tomorrow begins year 34 of the Barbwire in this newspaper. The first installment, "The Chilling of Hot August Nights," appeared on August 12, 1988. (My first byline in the Trib ran in 1973.)

My tenure still does not come close to the great Carl Shelly, the namesake of Sparks' Carl Shelly Park at Baring and McCarran. The former Nevada assemblymember, D-Sparks, and Washoe County commissioner once owned the Tribune and continued contributing articles well into his nineties.

He was one of the most impressive business leaders I've ever dealt with, the kind of reasonable person who should hold public office. Carl is the bedrock reason that Shelly's True Value Hardware is still around in Sparks' Greenbrae Center, having survived the onslaught of the chains, several recessions and the Internet.

Stay cool. Stay safe. Stay tuned.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

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 52-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, BallotBoxing.US, ConsumerCoalitionv.com, Rentvolution.org, MIssissippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

______________________
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 (for real) Community Health Alliance of Washoe County. Go figger.

Regional Transportation Commission board e-mail <rtcpubliccomments@rtcwashoe.com> / RTC Executive Director Bill Thomas who gets paid $220,000 a year to look out the window while waiting to go to lunch.

BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL—>HushHush!

Softshoe fascism in Reno
A quickie class on constitutional & labor law for French bus bosses and their client as Hot August Strike 2.0 gets hotter

RENO, NV, USA (11 August 2021) — The English language offers a catchy catch-all term applied to situations where the power of government is abused to impose the will of big-money big business upon the disfavored. It's called fascism.
      Nevada has long been a poster child for just about every permutation of fascism, usually of the soft-shoe variety. Most are common corporate welfare depredations where dirty deals get done dirt cheap and allow honking hogs to gorge at the public trough — in short, trickle-down economics.
      But sometimes, the big bucks boys order the government to do their dirty work for them. The victims can blame the government and besides, it's cheaper.
      So it was Tuesday afternoon when the local bus bosses and their French puppeteers from Keolis Transit sicced Reno police on peaceful union picketers.
      Eight days into a bus strike, Reno Police Department (RPD) officers on Tuesday were called to the Fourth Street Bus station for allegations of trespassing on Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) property against Teamsters Local 533 union members," reported the estimable Jeri Chadwell at ThisIsReno.com/
      Some weasel from the Regional Transportation Commission accused the striking workers of trespassing on private property. Except it's not. It's not only public property but it also exists for the most public of uses: It's local government's bus terminal.
      Have these cats even bothered to research Reno City Code? It has enough loopholes to drive a busload of Teamsters thru. The overlords won't need to research applicable law and precedent. Union counsel sent them the bible several weeks ago. (See NevadaLabor.com for chapter and verse.) Maybe now they will read it. Hope springs eternal.
      "They’re trying to take us away from the building — saying we can’t sit under the shade structures, saying we can’t have our own shade structures and that we need to stay four to six feet away from the street,” Teamsters Vice-President Chris Fuqua told journalist Chadwell.
      That observation drips with the cynicism of irony. For the past 17 months, the France-based bus bogglers refused to enforce federal, state or local social distancing and mask mandates, turning the local mass transit system into a superspreader. They've provoked a strike and now want their workers socially distanced from, ahem, the streets — apparently caring more for asphalt than employees.
      Is it any wonder, then, that the workers will fight such an obtuse outfit for their health insurance? Keolis-19 wouldn't even use its own in-house security staff to get people to wear masks. Dozens of drivers were sickened, two hospitalized in ICU.
      Now at this late date, the bus bosses have hired doorshaker goons to keep their own striking drivers off both public property and the street.
      Wait a sec, Pierre. Have you looked down there? You will see only two kinds of property: the bus station and the streets. Maybe they think picketers can magically levitate upon request.
      The cops have told the Teamsters to stay on the sidewalks and away from the "private property" bus station. But there ain't no such critter.
      Union counsel's detailed seven-page law class letter and a memo to Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve may be viewed at NevadaLabor.com, where Ms. Chadwell's most excellent story may also be accessed.
      Here's some gratuitous legal advice for Keolis Transit and their bus system client: If you get sued and lose a civil rights case, you automatically have to pay the other side's legal fees. (Sorry, I can't provide a French translation.)
      Stay cool. Stay safe. Stay tuned.
      Be well. Raise hell. / être bien, élever l'enfer

Andrew Quarantino Barbano
CesarChavezNevada.com
NevadaLabor.com
Barbwire.US

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BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL—>HushHush!
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / SPECIAL WEB INVESTIGATIVE EXTRA 8-4-2021

BIZ BOSS: NEVADA STRIKE NEEDS TRUMP

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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

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RENO, NV (4 August 2021) —> Dear Readers:

As always, the ace Barbwire investigative reporting team has spared every expense in bringing you all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now. (BTW: If you want to picket with the bus drivers, just head down to the 200 E. 4th Street Reno bus station and pick up a sign anytime day or evening, especially during 3:30-9:00 p.m. "media hours.")

We have exclusively obtained a letter from an aggrieved Nevada businessman which was sent this morning to Mar-A-Loco, Florida via FedEx. (He told me he would never use UPS or the US Postal Service because they are unionized.)

Here is his plea to his Mahatma, unedited by Barbwire staff.

DEAR PRESIDENT TRUMP:

Northwestern Nevada is in the throes of a vicious transit strike right smack dab in the middle of our biggest tourist promotion of the year. Hot August Nights is kinda like the cancelled Burning Man you've probably heard about. Antique autos burn as much or more fossil fuel, except people mostly keep their clothes on. (Save in flagrante backseato.)

As a good Republican (don't tell my in-laws), I never side with those damn unions, but business is business and the bus strike that started yesterday is bad for business. The bus system is critical for getting minimum-wage casino workers to their jobs, fer chrissakes.

Just this morning, one of my busboys had the gall to ask me for a raise so he could buy a used moped with snow tires. If this strike lingers on, that was probably the first leak in the damn dam. Next thing you know, people will want health insurance like the Teamsters.

You and I both know that you won Nevada last year if those Las Vegas hippie liberals hadn't smoked up and stolen it from you. Here's your chance to make sure you sweep the state in 2024. As you are undoubtedly aware, Washoe County (Reno-Sparks) is THE swing county in a swing state. We have always leaned Republican.

Four of the five pols who sit on our local bus stop board are your loyal R followers. The lone Democrat just sits there trying to look prosperous.

They control the purse strings but let their staff run them like an old sweaty race horse. The staff is supposed to bird-dog this foreign bus operator but it's safer just to collect their lousy six-figure salaries. (I know that's not a lot to you, but it's big bucks here in the provinces.)

Every layer of our wasteful, taxpayer-funded bus system is incompetent and you are the world's foremost expert on incompetent management. If you come to Reno, you can become a Nevada and national hero just by saying two words.

Two. Words.

I suggest a biblical approach because you are recognized worldwide as an eminent biblical scholar.

Just ask what would Jesus do? The bus boss publicans command the temple of the moneychangers. (Wait — don't stop whomever is reading this to you.) Back in the time of the Lord, tax collectors like St. Matthew were called publicans. There was no Republican Party until awhile later.

So the elected bus bosses are tax-squandering publicans. They employ hypocritical Pharisees who cash fat paychecks while the publicans are washing their hands, like that other story we've all read about. (No, not Fauci. The other Italian, Punchy-somethin'.)

But look who they've hired to do their dirty work: A company that once took Jews to the ovens of Auschwitz. (Please tell Ivanka to inform Jared and have him call Bibi.) France-based Keolis Transit is a subsidiary of French railway company SNCF which is now totally owned by the French state.

"Holocaust survivor Leo Bretholz, 89, a Baltimore resident, said Keolis remains tainted by SNCF's...ownership until the French railway apologizes for the kind of stifling, packed freight car he escaped from as a 21-year-old. Bretholz, who lost 20 relatives in the Holocaust, said the SNCF train he and a friend jumped from after they pried apart rusty window bars in 1942 carried 1,000 people to Auschwitz." (Washington Post July 7, 2010, YEARS BEFORE that bald Bezos guy bought it.)

You will be on firm ground where this is concerned. A Goog...er, websearch...for "keolis nazis wwii owners holocaust reparations maryland" produces 46,200 results. (In 2010, Mr. Bretholz and several hundred others petitioned Maryland authorities not to retain Keolis to run their commuter trains.)

"SNCF, which has been partly owned by the French government since 1938, transported nearly 77,000 Jews and other Holocaust victims from France to Nazi camps, according to historians," the Post reported in 2010.

Now that it's totally owned by the French government, you can just call your pal Macron.

As always, only you can fix it.

In 2010, Maryland state lawmaker Heather Mizeur, D- Montgomery, said "I get that Keolis itself was not involved in World War II activities, but its (then) 60 percent majority owner was."

Forget history. That's not a GOP strong suit these days anyway, but the Bible certainly is, at least at last report.

Everyone knows you are one of the world's great litigators who has won countless breach of contract civil suits. Keolis is humongously in breach of their contract with the publicans and the Pharisees. The company has intentionally failed to provide dependable and safe transportation service. (They also don't like that mask thing that smears makeup. You know how that is.)

Instead, they have vacuumed the public treasury after the Pharisees told them no matter what they did would not be punished with cash penalties. They've been given a blank check to spend all the taxpayer money they need to hire all the rats necessary to break the strike and keep the buses running but haven't even been able to do that. (What's that old song? Oh, yeah, "Money for Nothin' and the Chicks for Free.")

You can speak more credibly about these issues than anyone alive today.

Nevada loves you, Mr. President. Just check today's Sparks Tribune for the story of how Lyon County (Yerington) wants to re-name their sheriff's office, jail and court buildings after you. Call them. The vote's tomorrow.

Unlike Lyon County, Keolis, the five publicans and their Pharisees are demonstrably everything that good government is not.

But you, and only you, can say the magic words that will call all three into account: "You're fired."

Always your loyal supporter, I remain

Sincerely,

Mark Brutus Yorick
Calumnius Gaming, LLC
Reno & Las Vegas, Nevada

ps: Have your latest campaign finance director call me back.

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________________
Andrew Barbano's commentaries have appeared in Nevada publications since 1973. As always, they are strictly his own. A 52-year Nevadan, he is editor/publisher of NevadaLabor.com, CesarChavezNevada.com and MississippiWestNV.org, among others. Links and references for the above may be accessed at NevadaLabor.com later today.

Mississippi West re-run & Hot August Strike 1.911
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / NevadaLabor.com 8-3-2021 / Expanded from Sparks Tribune 8-4-2021 / Expansions in blue

Right now, you inhabit the answer as to the meaning of your life — why you ended up living here in the High Desert Outback of the American Dream.

God or Vishnu or Allah or Buddha or Mother Nature or the universe put you here because this retro backwater needs all the help it can hustle.

Cases in point: reactionary racism and corporate plague proliferation.

WHO'S THE MEANEST OF THEM ALL? Since the 1960s, any given day in these parts brought a three-way tossup for the meanest and most backward of Nevada's Cow Counties.

You could make money betting that something racist and/or retro would be soiling the Silver State's reputation due to the doofusses residing in Churchill (Fallon), Douglas (Minden Gardnerville) or Elko counties.

Douglas, the richest and most retro, has rushed back to the future of late with its racist support of black bashing and white supremacy. (See the July 21 Barbwire for facts, flix and...ahem...f-words from the freedom-loving racists infesting Nevada's wealthiest alabaster bastion.)

Since 2018, Lyon County (Yerington) has become quite competitive. After scuttling plans to name a road for their New Messiah, Ole Pizen Switch wants to name its justice complex for Czar Donaldov.

Well, take the ribbon from my hair.

Lyon County commissioners want to re-package their sheriff's office, jail and all three courts for a guy who has demonstrated as much regard for the U.S. justice system as Dr. Hannibal Lecter showed fresh liver and a nice Chianti.

What's next, re-naming divorce court for Stormy Daniels?

Gotta give props to longtime Mason Valley News reporter Amy Alonzo's story in Monday's Reno Kazoo-Journal. I didn't need to peel onions to laugh myself to tears. The five Lyon commissioners will break out crisply-creased white sheets this Thursday to consider a resolution that only needs three of five ayes.

"Trump worked diligently to secure our borders to protect the citizens of the United States and fully enforced immigration laws," sez the rewrite of history before Snow White and her dwarves. That assertion contains at least three lies. First, Trump worked?

Secured our borders? In early 2020, he let 40,000 people into this country from China at the same time he trumpeted cutting off access to 2,500 other airline passengers as COVID-19 was beginning its spread.

Fully enforced immigration laws? Check out how Wife No. 3's family got into the country from Slovenia.

"Trump ended asylum fraud, shut down human smuggling traffickers and solved the humanitarian crisis across the western hemisphere." (Glory, hallelujah! Call the pope's sainthood committee.)

I don't have enough space to flesh out the fraud in the latter assertion. Just place any of those phrases in a Google search with Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua or Venezuela and see what you get for starters.

Want more human trafficking? Look no further than the brothels of Lyon County. Our very own Gomorrah South has for decades been recognized by law enforcement as the distribution hub for import pimps and thieves. They should name someplace near the Strip for Trump's soul brother Jeffrey Epstein.

In fairness, Czar Donaldov has made speeches at the Clark and Douglas county airports, so perhaps that's what Lyon Commission Chair Vida Keller meant when she wrote that resolution.

I've never seen an airport without a daily humanitarian crisis of some sort.

LYON COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI. Regular Barbwire readers will remember Jayla Tolliver and Taylissa Marriott. The African-American sisters lived a modern version of the 1955 deep south right here in fabled Mississippi West.

The Yerington High students were subjected to bullying, overt racism and continuing death threats all for the crime of being born with skin the color of café au lait. (That means coffee with milk if ya'll don't cotton to fancy French lingo.)

The two girls were almost run down by a truck in a Yerington restaurant parking lot for the crime of walking while black. At Nevadalabor.com, you will find original Snapchat photos of one of their fellow Yerington High students, complete with guns and a knife ("goin' nigger huntin' "). The father of the Snapchat boy is a former Yerington police officer and athletic coach.

Yerington High suspended the kid who posted the photo. That student's father is an active Lyon County Deputy Sheriff who may soon have to reprint his business cards. The girls' dad was threatened with trespassing charges if he dared to ever again show up at the Yerington HS campus.

"Yerington Mayor George Dini dismissed all that as the act of teenagers who meant no harm and were ignorantly unaware of what they were doing."

“This is a case of some kids acting badly," Dini told Reno Gazette-Journal reporter Siobhan McAndrew whose story ran at rgj.com/

Alas and alack, that statement never saw ink in the Reno paper.

The family sued in federal court. Top-gun lawyer Terri Keyser-Cooper kicked ass, scored money and a written agreement to go sin no more. The girls graduated.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Speaking of which...

OSCAR THE GRINCH. Reno City Councilmember and Community Health Alliance of Washoe County CEO Oscar Delgado did a half-hour on KTVN TV-2's "Face the State" over the weekend.

Never mentioned the looming countywide transit strike which may have hit by the time this column sees ink. Delgado sits on the Regional Transportation Commission.

He and his four cohorts have lifted nary a finger as the bus system has become a virus superspreader infecting operators and passengers alike over the past 17 months.

Mr. Delgado and his wife both tested positive for COVID-19 in December. Now, the bus bosses want to take away their workers' health care insurance.

Hot August Strike 2.0 thus looms large over the smoky valleys along the mucky Truckee. (Strike 1.0 came in 2002.)

Stay cool. Stay safe. Stay tuned.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

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

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

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.

¡Sí se puede!

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.

¡Sí se puede!

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

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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.

"I’m being told that (France-based) Keolis Transit is blaming missed routes on sick drivers. While drivers do call in, the company is supposed to be prepared for this. Every other transit agency is aware that drivers get sick. They have extra board drivers to cover these routes. Keolis refuses to pay for drivers to be on standby and therefore when a driver is sick there is nobody to cover."

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

"There are routes that do not have a permanent driver. Keolis will not cover those because currently the Regional Transportation Commission is not imposing fines of $1000 per missed trip. The company has nothing to compel them to fill the route. They just assume they can leave the elderly, the less fortunate, the kids, stand outside waiting for a bus that will never come. I used to receive calls if they had a route to cover. Not any other drivers have gotten phone calls, either. The company has made no effort to cover these routes. No reason to do it. Please do not use my name."

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.

¡Sí se puede!

CWA 9413/AFL-CIO

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Barbwire dark foreshadowings unfortunately have a way of becoming 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.

$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

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

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