BARBWIRE
by
ANDREW BARBANO
Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream


Barbwire
Archives

Site map
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

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

"Media is the plural of mediocre."
— Jimmy Breslin (1928-2017)

¡Viva Chávez!
César Chávez Celebration XVI / Celebración de César Chávez XVI
Saturday 31 March 2018
/ Sabado 31 de Marzo 2018

Highlights from the record-breaking 2017 event at Circus Circus Reno

All the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential


   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 the scene is dead
   But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
   What everybody knows...
   Everybody talking to their pockets.
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
   and a long red rose.
   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


2018 Nevada Press Association first-place award-winner (one of three)

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXVIII—>
You've got to be taught to learn to hate
NATIONAL NEWS FIRST-BREAK
FIVE WEEKS AHEAD OF THE LEGIT MEDIA. First in a series.
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-18-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 10-19, 10-29, 10-31-2017 & 10-4-2018 / Expansions in blue


Greatest Hits Dept.

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT

Support Don Dondero
and Jake Highton next

Send endorsements

8 the hard way!
Barbwire wins 8th Nevada Press Association award

GOLD 2017
Don't ask Renown Med for marijuana to help your chemo
10-4-2016
We Don't Need No Education
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
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

We Don't Need No Education—> Neverending Barbwire Series

1997 Pulitzer Prize entries

Barbwire.TV
Watch NevadaLabor.com for show times.
Help us get the word out.

Support the project at http://resurge.tv#donate

SUING FOR SCHOOLS
Reruns on Carson-Dayton 226

Additional programs
on Boulder City cable. Go to bcnv.org and then
go to the BCTV link.

If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs and Unions — new power to the people on the public airwaves

The program premiers were available to every television set in the region because of a high-mileage media hybrid.

The shows appeared on both commercial and community stations. The non-corporate entity produced the events, commercial TV greatly expanded distribution.

Thus began an ongoing series of sane public interest programs which generate both entertaining heat and more than a little light.

Please spread the word and consider contributing to the cause online at ReSurge.TV.

You may also take the public option known as the U.S. Postal Service and send a check or money order to ReSurge.TV, P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

Your contribution will help fund the distribution as well as ongoing efforts at developing new media, including a regional, non-corporate community radio station and the return of community television to Reno-Sparks-Washoe.

You are present at the creation of what I hope can become a new media model where the programming accurately reflects what's happening on the ground and the media impact is powerful enough to forcefully pass the message upward.

Thanks.

Be well. Raise hell.

Andrew


Click here for selected on-demand re-runs from the Barbwire.TV archives

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success

Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file


Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

"The redneck god of all gods we bout to go nigger huntin"

So read a recent Snapchat photo caption featuring a Yerington teenager with a rifle, a pistol and a knife. The coverup now goes all the way up to the Lyon County Sheriff's office which shredded three reports about threats and harassment at Yerington High School.

The FBI advised the Reno-Sparks NAACP to refer that issue to Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt.

In the Sparks sphere of influence, cops last week busted a kid who made threats to shoot up Yvonne Shaw Middle School in Spanish Springs.

What else is new? The Washoe County School District ignored NAACP complaints of overt racism at Shaw in 2012.

A year later, Shaw, led by Principal Gina Leonhard, received "a top five-star ranking in the Washoe County School District's Performance Framework. The jump was the biggest in the district among non-elementary schools." (Sparks Tribune 9-26-2013)

In a 12 Oct. 2012 letter to Principal Leonhard, with copies to Superintendent Pedro Martinez and the board of trustees, Reno-Sparks NAACP President-Elect Jeffrey Blanck wrote that "a black female seventh grade student was subject to numerous racial epithets and repeatedly called a 'nigger.' "

Her parents "reported this to the school a minimum of five times. The racial epithets led to (the student) being involved in a fight with one of the students who called her a 'nigger.' (The black student) was suspended but the girl spewing the racial epithets was not. Apparently the students who have called her a 'nigger' have had no discipline whatever and the situation is only escalating...(She was) spat upon by another student who was spewing racial epithets."

Blanck added that the girl was threatened with an organized beating, causing her mother to escort her to school. A huge swastika was painted on the street near the family home.

Signs of "KKK" were flashed at the girl. Complaints to the school were ignored, Blanck wrote. The girl's parents removed her from Shaw. Another African-American girl also left.

"They were told by an assistant principal that everything the school can do has been done," Blanck noted, adding that other incidents led to black student suspensions while the perps walked.

The district response was basically "how dare you?"

Their defense: They've had anti-bullying student "enrichment time" and shown movies. So please go away.

"It is apparent from the pre-disposed, accusatory tone of your letter, your uninformed and unfounded allegations, the recipients on your cc list, and the absence of this office (thereon), that you are not interested in promoting peace and tranquility among the students at YSMS," responded WCSD lawyer Christopher Reich.

"Stopping the hurtful words has been the focus and will continue to be," he concluded.

He didn't mention stopping the hurtful spitting or spraying "KKK" on black student lockers. Similar incidents were reported at Spanish Springs High at the time.

Yerington may have an excuse. Perhaps pollution from the old Anaconda copper pit poisoned the minds of its children.

And maybe their parents. The father of the Snapchat kid with the guns is a former Yerington police officer and now a local athletic coach. Yerington High suspended the kid who posted the photo. That student's father is an active Lyon County Deputy Sheriff.

BLAME THE VICTIMS. The father of two harassed black girls has been threatened with trespassing charges if he shows up at the Yerington HS campus.

At last week's annual NAACP Community Policing Forum, four-time former Branch President Lonnie Feemster asked the wall of cops in attendance "when's the last time you did a t-shirt check?"

The 5 women you meet in Chucky's jail
Caitlin Thomas/Reno News & Review 10-12-2017

He noted that police in other jurisdictions have found sworn officers wearing racist, neo-Nazi and Klan t's under their uniforms. One killed a black man while on duty.

None of the four departments represented, including the Reno and Sparks chiefs, offered a reply. (Washoe County Sheriff Chuck E. Cheese played hooky, perhaps due to last year's questioning.)

PERSISTENTLY POISONOUS PEJORATIVES. Multiple students are reportedly involved in racial threats and harassment in old Pizen Switch, the original name for Yerington that perhaps should have been retained.

Nevada was once nicknamed "Mississippi West," a pejorative which, sadly, often still applies.

Stay tuned.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

ONLINE EXTRAS —>
We Don't Need No Education Part LXXX—>
The poisoning of old Pizen Switch proliferates
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-1-2017 Sparks Tribune
We Don't Need No Education Part LXXIX—>
Mississippi West don't need no education
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 10-25-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 10-29-2017 GMT
Window of opportunity: 48 hours for human rights
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-11-2017 Sparks Tribune
Las Vegas 2017: Fire is the devil's only friend
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 10-4-2017 Sparks Tribune
Rewriting the Civil War and the Mexican War
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-27-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 9-28-2017
Freedom loving racists shoot to rewrite history
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-20-2017 Sparks Tribune
Rewriting History
Reno News & Review Editorial: Remove Klansman's sculpture at UNR / 9-14-2017
Virginia City Nevada celebrates Slave Labor Day
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Special online Labor Day edition 9-2-2017

ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is. A thousand thanks to those who keep sending show suggestions.

Ready for Trump TV? Inside Sinclair Broadcasting’s Plot to Take Over Your Local News
Its mix of terrorism alerts, right-wing commentary and “classic propaganda” could soon reach 3/4 of the US.
By Andy Kroll/Mother Jones Oct.-Nov. 2017

How Sinclair Broadcasting puts a partisan tilt on trusted local news
By William Brangham/ PBS NewsHour 10-10-2017

Top-down Democrats haven't learned
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 8-10-2017

More Faux than Fox? Corporate octopus Sinclair moves to dominate Nevada and U.S. television
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 8-3-2017


  Stay tuned.

  I encourage you to donate to the cause at Barbwire.TV/ The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accountants for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet.

  This is important. We've got a lot of work to do.

 

END OF TIMES SURVIVAL KIT. Defend yourself with humorous or humorless but always-peerless predictions for 2017by subscribing to the Barbwire Confidential News Service. Hush Hush!


"Media is the plural of mediocre."
— Jimmy Breslin (1928-2017)

Last year's dark foreshadowings unfortunately became reality. I thus suggest inoculation by signing onto the HushHush! list at BallotBoxing.US/

It's cheap as well as enlightening entertainment. I suggest coming aboard now. Subscription prices go up soon. Thank you kindly for your support.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

Andrew Barbano is a 49-year Nevadan, executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and BallotBoxing.US and SenJoeNeal.org and DoctorLawyerWatch.com/ As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988 and received its 8th Nevada Press Association award and 5th first-place at the 30 Sept. 2017 NPA annual convention in Carson City. (That plaque and about six bucks can get you a Latte Mocha Cotsafracas Chingade at just about any Starbux worldwide, guaranteed.)


Peruse the Underbelly of the News —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

All the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now: Tell your friends and friendly enemies to subscribe to Barbwire Confidential for warm laughter, cheap thrills, hot scoops and occasional cold logic at BallotBoxing.US/
Cheap at twice the price. (Hush Hush!)


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

NevadaLabor.com | U-News | Bulletins + Almanac
Casinos Out of Politics (COP) | Sen. Joe Neal
Guinn Watch | Deciding Factors
| BallotBoxing.US
DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive
Barbwire Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive
Annual César Chávez Celebration
War Rooms:
Banks, Cabbies, Cabela's/cabellyup, Cable TV, Cancer Kids/Mining, Energy, Food, Health Care, Resurge.TV/consumers, Starbucks, Wal-Mart
We Don't Need No Education
Search this site | In Search Of...


Barbwire
Archives


Copyright © 1982-2018 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 49-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

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

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

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins