Barbwire: Espera!

"Donald Trump has a heart of gold. Cold, yellow and hard." -- Paul Drahn (adapted from an old LV union frycook-philosopher I was once privileged to know.)

"No matter how cynical you become, it's hard to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin
"You can fool some of the people some of the time and that's usually enough." -- W.C. Fields update of Abraham Lincoln
"I'm the Sheik of Araby,
Your love belongs to me.
At night when you're asleep,
Into your tent I'll creep." -- T-Rump's oily dream (Snyder, Smith & Wheeler, 1921)
Time to snap back to reality. Why is President Bulsha Tartist massing forces to do to Venezuela what his pal Putin is doing to Ukraine? I submit so he can prove to his idols that his is bigger than theirs. Venezuela sits on the largest oil reserves in the world, bigger than the Saudis.
So, he kills cheap, abundant alternative energy to jack up the price of oil while he takes over much of the petroleum business.
As I have oft stated, the U.S. government today is the result of the largest corporate takeover in history. Chairman Donaldov's only goal, after self-gratification, is profit.
He blackmailed Ukraine into committing to give the U.S. half of its agrarian export revenue in exchange for releasing T-Rump-delayed military aid. Putin the Rapist reveled in ecstasy.
We occasionally bailed out companies like Chrysler/Stellantis and GM, but the taxpayers never became permanent investors.
Until now.
"Government Pours Billions Into Private Equity Stakes. Trump officials cite national security -- Unusual ties to firms raise questions." -- New York times front page lead story, 12-2-2025
The Donald was never a very good student. Fascist governments are not supposed to take over the means of production which should be left in private hands with a dictator supporting them. It's them dirty commies that take over the private sector, remember.
Maybe he paid somebody to take his final civics exam. Welcome to communism, Comrade T-Rump.
I can envision his conversation with Chinese boss Xi Xin Ping: "When I invade Venezuela, you take advantage of the distraction to grab Taiwan. Just don't bomb their world-class microchip manufacturing, which I will split with you. Deal?"
The wild card in this apocalyptic fantasy may come when superpower distractions enbolden terrorist outfits like Isis and Al Qaeda. 9/11 Part Deux, anyone?
And Ukraine? "My pal Putin will protect my investment in the agricultural products." Eh wot?
It can't happen here? Now that our government is openly committing premeditated murder, the only thing left is to scale up to maximize rate of return.
Kim Jong Un, Duterte and bin Salman nod in dark admiration.
"I'll bend every effort to win and I come from a long line of effort benders." -- W.C. Fields
SHORT SHOTS. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, ain't nobody's fool. The media hot dog is retiring from Congress after exactly five years -- when she vests in government pension benefits.
In this twisted time, the only thing that matters is getting famous as quickly as possible. Bote Mother Theresa and Charles Manson could get book deals and movie contracts.
"Life's a bitch and the bitch is television." Author David Ritz.
If you've been puzzled as to why pseudo-Fox TV empire Sinclair has moved Channel 4 to 11.2, here's a theory.
Only 12 to 15 percent of households are total cord cutters, no TV other than over-the-air free. So who cares if they get screwed over?
Sinclair has not published the full changes, so here they are.
11.1 - FOX
11.2 - NBC
11.3 - Charge! (cop shows)
4.1 - ROAR (Comedy)
4.2 - Comet (Sci-fi and fantasy)
4.3 - Antenna (Classic TV comedy)
4.4 - Rewind (Classic TV comedy)
21.1 - NSN (Sports)
21.2 - The Nest (Reality/True crime)
21.3 - Dabl (50s-60s comedy)
THE LONG GAME. Remember way back in 2009 when TV went from analog square-screen to digital and the government funded billions for us peons to buy converters if we would just go buy expensive new TV sets?
Well, get set for instant replay. It's called NextGen TV and it will bring us lots more channels and undoubtedly greater expense.
TV, including iPhones, cut the cord of our connections to each other and gave us Donald T-Rump whose face is in our faces 24/7/365, just like George Orwell's Big Brother in his prescient 1949 novel "1984." Orwell never explained how Big Brother got two-way TV in every room everywhere, creating a total surveillance state.
Well, now we know. We bought Orwell's "telescreens" ourselves. The last line in the book described the capitulation of main character Winston Smith: "He loved Big Brother."
Life imitates art.

Get the latest boosters, protect yourself and your family by masking up, continue praying for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Ethiopia and the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 56-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org, MississippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

Under construxion / Stay tuned

Happy Thanksgibleting, fellow suckers
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 11-26-2025
Updated 12-3-2025 GMT/ Expansions in blue

From the pharmacy to the grocery store, you are stuck in a rigged game. As I have oft noted, a few major corporations and their billionaire bosses have succeeded in the biggest corporate takeover in history -- the US government.

The average American worker has not had a raise, adjusted for inflation, since 1973. Millions live daily with a seething frustration wondering why they can never get ahead of the game.
Over the past half-century, voters have often decided to "do something, even if it's wrong."
And we have, several times.
The American Medical Association killed universal health care in the late 1940s, calling in communism-socialism. Red Scare works. Great Britain passed it and their national health care system became the model for the modern world.
Socialism? In 2009, the U.S. government passed the 50 percent threshold as the biggest payer of health care.
An insurance company better known as AARP, caved to Bush the Lesser and Dick Cheney to prevent Medicare from negotiating drug prices. Now this from the fake news New York Times: "last week, Medicare officials announced that the standard Part B premium, which covers services such as physician visits and hospital outpatient care, will be $202.90 a month — up 9.7 percent. Next year is the first time the monthly premium will exceed $200 — and it will be 66 percent higher than a decade ago. The annual Part B deductible will also climb, to $283, up 70.5 percent over the past 10 years.
"The Part B premium is just one component of senior health spending, but it’s a closely watched number for many, because typically it is deducted from retirees’ Social Security checks.
"The net annual cost-of-living, or COLA, increase in Social Security benefits depends on the dollar amount of the Part B premium increase. Next year, the Part B rise will consume a substantial portion of the 2.8 percent Social Security COLA announced last month. The average retired worker receives $2,008 per month; the premium increase, $17.90, will reduce that worker’s effective COLA to 1.9 percent. For a lower-income beneficiary receiving $1,000 per month, the effective COLA is just 1 percent.
“ 'Many people will not receive the COLA they might be anticipating, because the premium eats part of it,' said Tricia Neuman, senior vice president of KFF, a health care research nonprofit," the Times noted (11-21-2025)
Then, a ray hope, but first, the coming storm.
"The growth of Medicare Advantage plans — which now account for more than half of total enrollment — plays a role as well. These privately offered alternatives to government-run traditional Medicare often reduce upfront costs by including prescription drug coverage. They also include out-of-pocket caps ($5,320 this year) without the Medigap policies that provide that protection in traditional Medicare. That comes with trade-offs, including health care provider networks and frequent red-tape hassles with coverage approvals, known as prior authorizations.
"Medicare spends about $80 billion more annually for Medicare Advantage enrollees than it would if they were enrolled in traditional Medicare, leading to higher spending for both Part A (which covers hospitalization) and Part B," the Times noted.
Zounds!
"Federal programs can help. Medicare Savings Programs cover premiums and out-of-pocket costs for low-income seniors and automatically enroll them in the Low Income Subsidy program for Part D prescription drugs. Yet only about 60 percent of eligible seniors participate, often because they are unaware of the programs or find enrollment complex."
So apply if you are not a financial heavy hitter.
Rubbing in the sale, the fake news PBS reported last week that Medicare Advantage insurers are using A.I. to turn down claims. Astoundingly less that one lousy percent of the denied ever file an appeal.
I am one such. Aetna failed to informed me of a generic medication. I spent about $1,500 before I learned that a zero co-pay alternative had been available since 2019.
I have enough paper to start a large fire of A.I.-generated claim denials. Only one ever mentioned the issue. The rest came from the "generic turndown" department.
Even if you talk to a living person, you get a letter from Hal the Computer which never treats the issue. Or me or my wallet.
The industry uses the abovementioned "benefit managers" which are basically hired guns on commission to turn down claims. Kinda like the doctors on the take from Purdue Pharma to addict people to oxycontin -- like my late granddaughter, Tara. Dead at 22.
I repeat what I always advise: Insurance companies are in only two businesses, collecting money and denying claims. Rigged game, indeed. People suffer and die as a result.
T-RUMP HAD TO CHANGE HIS DIAPERS if he watched the dirty commie fake news PBS last week.
Last week, I asked "what really inflamed the colonists to start shooting? When King George III and Lord North placed troops in the streets of Boston to control the people. Sound familiar, President T-Rump? Oh, I forgot, you are rewriting history in your own image and likeness. But I do know you are a TV junkie. Try to resist your compulsions."
If he watched, he watched producer Ken Burns and writer Geoffrey C.Ward conclude the six-part series with a warning from Alexander Hamilton regarding the checks and balances built into the US Constitution as a protection against demagogues.
"History will teach us that...of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants".
In 1792, Hamilton described a demagogue as "a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune...known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty…" who seeks to "ride the storm and direct the whirlwind".
Maybe President Bulsha Tartist will try to defund them. Ooops! Been there. Done that.

¡Sí se puede! Or, as they say in Poland, SOLIDARNOSC!

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

UPDATE: WORLDWIDE LEADER? ACT OF GOD OR JUST A GARDEN-VARIETY IMPOSSIBLE DREAMER? ALL OF THE ABOVE? VERY POSSIBLY. Was Andrew Barbano the only advocate for an American pope? Google apparently says YES! At minimum, the Barbwire stumped and broke Google trying to find out. See for yourself. And please lemme know what you think.

Let it Be: An American Pope Francis2
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-23-2025, uploaded 4-22-2025

Pinky & the Brain taking over the world
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-2-2025

Ain't we a pair?
Dennis Myers & Andrew Barbano inducted into César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-10-2024

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

On January 16, 1959, two babies were born.
They became sisters in both life and death.

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
12-18-1947 / 10-18-2023

To Die For
My daughters were born 65 years ago yesterday. Alas, their youth was cut in twain.
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 1-17-2024

Web Xtras & Smoking Guns—>

Why the science is clear that masks work
By Zeynep Tufecki / The New York Times / 3-10-2023

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

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$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

Wasting workers where everybody knows your name
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 10-18-2023

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Andrew Barbano is a 56-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He was the longtime executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and has been a quarter-century member and 10- year officer of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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