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


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

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

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   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


Dim and Dimmer: Ghost of Jim the Dim rides again
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-12-2018 Sparks Tribune / Updated 9-16-2018 / 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

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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
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

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

1997 Pulitzer Prize entries

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SUING FOR SCHOOLS
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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
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I have not been alone among political pros in terming GOP U.S. Senator Dean Heller and Attorney General Adam Laxalt as narrow favorites this November.

Heller's race is not even included in Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraising e-mails which tout close contests everywhere but Nevada.

After press time came news of a UNR poll showing Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Gomorrah South, and Heller in a dead heat. I remain unimpressed. Former State Treasurer and current light-guv frontrunner Kate Marshall would have had Heller by seven points by now.

Sen. Heller has said that if the Democratic edge over Republicans is 60,000 or less, he's re-elected. Based on last week's registration news, the Donkeyites remain stuck at +60k. Perhaps Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske's purges have worked. (The Tribune carried a report from the Nevada Independent that had the Donkeyites at +68k but perhaps they didn't learn longhand arithmetic from the same nuns I did.)


Donkeyite gubernatorial nominee Steve Sisolak has even generated letters to the editor wondering where his campaign has been since the June primary, although he recently began raising his profile up here in the provinces.

Last week's Barbwire was on the press when I received the political fox paw of the year (thus far), courtesy of Clark County Commission Chair Sisolak. I swear on a stack of "Art of the Deal" remainders that I am not making this up.

I got an e-mail from Sisolak's campaign that had me rolling on the floor. (Screenshot available upon request.)

Here's the complete subject line which took up the entire capacity of my e-mail program's display: "I want to tell you about what happened when my dad got laid"

We know what happened, Mr. Commissioner: YOU.

When I opened up the e, the sin of omission performed an act of cyber-contrition: "Subject: I want to tell you about what happened when my dad got laid off."

It was apparently a Labor Day e-mail which arrived a day late. (Such timing.) Either way, some sort of labor became inextricably involved at some point.

This underscores a Nevada political season remarkable for its lack of laughs. Since facts have been permanently exiled, humor remains the most devastating political weapon in any campaign arsenal. Alas and alack, amateurs abound.

Last week, I detailed how Republicans have warmed over the 1982 strategy which toppled four-term Democratic US Sen. Howard Cannon with the biggest underdog in Nevada history, Chic Hecht.

Bush the Elder copied the ghost strategy in 1988, banishing lightweight VP nominee Dan Quayle to red state reservations. Nevada Republicans have sent Laxalt to the Cow Counties, away from population centers and media.

If elected, Laxalt has the potential to eclipse one-term disaster Jim the Dim (2007-2011) as the worst governor of the last 100 years. Gibbons had much more of a base than Laxalt but, like Laxalt, he looked like a governor. Adam the Anti is just plain cuter than Raiders second-string linebacker Sisolak.

It's game over at the top of the ticket unless the Democrats do a better job.

GET YOUR TICKETS for a better show, the Reno-Sparks NAACP's 73rd Freedom Fund Awards Dinner, Sept. 29, Grand Sierra Hotel. Go to RenoSparksNAACP.org for info. Or contact me, (775) 882-TALK. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make get up and sing and dance.

ADIOS, THORNY. Last Saturday, I said a few words at the gathering for my erstwhile City of Reno cable TV board colleague Barbara Stone (1936-2018).

Therein, I conveyed condolences from the wife of another of our hardworking volunteers, my CWA Union brother Noel E. "Thorny" Thornsberry who died on Sept. 1 in Waterloo, Iowa, at 84. I wore a union pin we both liked in his honor. Thorny was a grand man.

BILLY CLYDE PUCKETT FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE. Burt Reynolds
played quarterback Puckett in the movie version of Dan Jenkins' pro football classic novel "Semi-Tough."

In his 2015 memoir "But Enough About Me," written with Jon Winokur, Reynolds stated "I had the feeling that instead of trying to develop the brand, Donald (Trump) was angling (to merge the USFL) with the NFL so he could wind up with an NFL franchise for a song."

Reynolds was part-owner of the Tampa Bay Bandits (1983-85), named after his most successful film series. The USFL was meant to be a spring-summer league, circumventing head-to-head competition with the NFL. He and his partners wanted to make football fun again, Reynolds wrote.

"It was Donald's fault that the USFL didn't survive...I like Donald but I hold onto my wallet when we shake hands...his personal ambition sank the USFL. He was interested in only two things: money and publicity."

Reynolds' bankroller, the late Canadian billionaire John Bassett (father of tennis star Carling Bassett), said that Trump's "ego transcended his business sense."

THE BANDIT ABOUT A TRUE BANDIDO: "In the years since, every time Donald runs for president, I pray he never gets the chance to do to the USA what he did to the USFL."
We were warned. Thanks for the memories, Bandit.

THE CURSE OF BURT. Many decades ago, my late wife, Betty, lived next door to an Arizona State professor who was a dead ringer for Burt Reynolds. This poor guy had to run through airports because women would start chasing him, trying to rip off his clothes.

The price of fame. Thanks for the memories, Bandit.

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 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. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. 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 trophy and about six bucks will get you a Latte Mocha Cotsafracas Chingade at just about any Starbux worldwide, guaranteed.)

WEB XTRAS & SMOKING GUNS —>

THE BIG 3-0. Sunday, August 12, marked 30 years since the first Barbwire appeared in the Rail City's newspaper of record since 1910. "The Chilling of Hot August Nights" brought the first of my eight Nevada Press Association awards. I'll add more memories of the early days of the Barbwire as time, space and the political season allow.

Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the
Barbwire in August of 1987

Tempus fugit.

Sore-oppressed Soul-Sister Cities:
Menlo Park and Reno-Sparks-Fernley share similarly sad high-tech stretch marks

"All humanity has left the area": paying for Tesla's Gigafactory
Barbano and Nevada conservatives decry corporate welfare depredations

By Rory Carroll / The Guardian 7-3-2018

Editor's Note: The Guardian publishes 180,000 newspapers daily in London and environs and generates ONE BILLION monthly web page views. (I should live so long.)

"Facebook is taking everything": rising rents drive out Silicon Valley families
Property companies advertising their proximity to Facebook’s campus are giving low-income residents a choice: pay a huge rent increase or move out
By Sam Levin / The Guardian 6-20-2018

ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is.


Metastasizical Statisticals

Trump FCC chair investigated for Sinclair ties
TheVerge.com / 2-15-2018

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


  A thousand thanks to those who keep sending sow suggestions.

  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 pontification by subscribing to the Barbwire Confidential News Service. Scandalous bonuses for new subscribers.

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. Thank you kindly for your support.

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

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

For 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!)


Smoking Guns—> Barbwire 30th Anniversary Trilogy
Now well into a 4th decade of equal opportunity harassment of the rich, famous & powerful

Part 3: Biting the hand that feeds me
GOP '18 upsets: Déjà vu all over again
Laxalt and Heller favored to win in November
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 9-5-2018 Sparks Tribune
Part 2: Biting the moonhowlers
Good reasons to lie to those pesky pollsters
Heller eats sheep balls to get the courage to perpetrate guilt by association
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 8-29-2018 Sparks Tribune
Part 1: Bitten by my buds
Machine Gun Michele and her low-caliber, low-cut friends
The censored Barbwires of the 2015 legislature finally see ink and my fantasy fiancée bares all
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 8-22-2018 Sparks Tribune

30 Years before the masthead: Barbano remembers the Barbwire's greatest hits
By Kayla Anderson / Sparks Tribune 8-22-2018

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.


$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

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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 the executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president and political action chair 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

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