BARBWIRE
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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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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)

An Alternative National Anthem

   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 red 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 and 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.


By Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson.
© 1988 CBS Records, Inc.

I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island.
Leon Russell, 1942-2016



Trump's Wall: First step toward ending Nixon's War on Drugs
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-20-2019 Sparks Tribune / Updated 2-21 and 2-22-2019 GMT / Expansions in blue
Breaking News —> Culinary Union defeats decert at Circus Circus Reno



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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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Barbwire wins 9th Nevada Press Association award

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The Grasshopper and
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Don't ask Renown Med for marijuana to help your chemo

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We Don't Need No Education
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12-13-2016
Kate Smith & Lady Gaga
2-14-2017

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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
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3-20-2014

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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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TOP SECRET— HushHush!

 

After Democrats read the following, I may have to re-register as a Federalist, a Whig, a Tory, a Laborite, a Silverite, a Communist or perhaps a Know-Nothing.

I've been called worse, but it must be said: Czar Donaldov has finally done something right. Quite accidentally, of course, a purely unintended consequence, kinda like El Presidénte hisself who's the personification of the pre-digital wisdom that even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Trump's going to skim $2.5 billion from drug interdiction and slide it toward his border wall meme. (More on that later.)

In so doing, he has taken probably the biggest step ever in ending Richard Nixon's War on Drugs. A half-century ago, President Richard the Rotten researched the nation's burgeoning drug problem by sending a pair of lawyers onto the streets of DC to find out what works. They did: treatment.

Nixon almost moved forward, then saw that crime and punishment got more votes and the War on Drugs was on.

As with Vietnam, we lost. All you need view is the Oscar-winning film "Traffic" to see how government intervention acts as a price support system for the likes of El Chapo.

Our for-profit prisons overflow with mostly black and brown people convicted of dastardly crimes like possession of two ounces of the Demon Weed.

Without the War on Drugs to keep prices high, El Chapo's successors go out of business. No wall kept him from moving his product into this country.

CRIMINAL MINDS. A 19 year-old illegal immigrant sits today in the Washoe County Jail accused of four Nevada robbery-murders. News reports say he came from El Salvador, a central American banana republic where the Carter and Reagan administrations funded death squads in the 1980s, including the murder of Catholic Bishop (now Saint) Oscar Romero.

American nuns were raped and murdered among countless of other atrocities. (For a snapshot, see the film "Salvador" starring Gene Hackman, Nick Nolte and Joanna Cassidy.)

The United States has been dabbling in banana republic skulduggery for more than a century, most notably with President Teddy Roosevelt's gunboat diplomacy. "Banana republics" became the catch-all phrase for poor nations after those wonderful folks who still bring us Chiquita Bananas got the U.S. to invade to protect United Fruit Company plantations.

We overthrew governments, crushed democracies and funded mass murder. To this day, their oppressed people detest our government but love what America stands for. That's why they peacefully migrate north.

This country now greets immigrants with firearms instead of open arms.

I wonder about that young accused killer's mindset. He grew up in a drug cartel-infested society where, as Mao Zedong once said, "power comes from the barrel of a gun."

The kid made it to America and found an unsecured pistol which he allegedly stole. Did he see that as his pathway to prosperity, just as he was socialized growing up? If you watch enough TV, you quickly learn that all disputes in the United States are settled with guns, right?

I'd like to know if four Nevada killings had their roots in our government helping corporations exploit poor countries.

ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL. Trump's southern border abortion started as a gimmick from recently-busted campaign manager Roger Stone to remind a scatterbrained presidential candidate to talk about immigration. Trump saw how his cult responded to the wall demand and turned the talking point into a promised reality, an Internet meme run amok
.

The current buzzword "meme" comes from the Greek "mimeme," i.e., an imitated thing, basically a cyberspace bumper sticker. Trump's meme has morphed into a monstrous movie-style McGuffin to fan the flames of American fear of "the other." Think of that huge dark domino from "2001: A Space Odyssey," or the unseen Blair Witch. Or the dark side of The Force.

NYTimes Magazine story editor Willy Staley recently noted that what began as a gimmick has become "an idea that persists not because it will benefit us but simply because it thrives in our (short attention span, Internet-based) environment." (NYTimes Magazine 13 January 2019, online 14 January)

I lament the emerging emoji/meme replacements for language as we devolve into the darkness of the post-literate society.

Hope you and your loved ones enjoyed a Happy Valentine's Day.

RE-MARK YOUR CALENDAR. Nevada César Chávez Celebration XVII will take place on Wednesday evening, March 27, at the Grand Sierra-Reno. Please change your schedule if you highlighted another date. I apologize for any inconvenience. Thanks for your patience. Monitor CesarChavezNevada.com for updates.

¡ 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 50-year Nevadan, executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, superannuated labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor ofNevadaLabor.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 ninth Nevada Press Association award (6th first-place) at the 29 Sept. 2018 NPA annual convention in Las Vegas. (Such ephemera and about six bucks will get you a Latte Mocha Cotsafracas Chingade at just about any Starbux worldwide, guaranteed.)

WEB XTRAS & SMOKING GUNS —>

REAL NEWS DEPT. Last month, Culinary Union Local 226 defeated an attempt by Circus Circus-Reno to decertify (terminate) the union's representation of its workers. No word on whether management plans to appeal the result to the National Labor Relations Board which was recently put out of business and may soon be again. Thank you, Czar Donaldov.

PINK SLIPS, PURGES AND PRUNING. I need to hear from recently purged Eldorado Hotel-Casino, Circus Circus-Reno and Silver Legacy employees. Barbwire spies report perhaps 100 workers got the ax just in time for the holidays. In this newspaper, at Barbwire.US and in the London Guardian, I have lamented the deepening desperation of renters here in Tesla boomtown.

I'm now getting complaints about medical and dental practices purportedly pruning their patient loads, cutting loose the less-lucrative. That's de facto malpractice but medical professionals are lawsuit-proof under Nevada law — unless you're rich enough to personally pay a few hundred grand in legal fees.

That's why TV lawyers only advertise for arrest or accident cases these days. If you've been cast adrift by patient pruning, call me at (775) 882-TALK or e-mail me.

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.)
[MUCH MORE TESLACIDE]

"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


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!)

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.

Smoking Guns—>

BLACK LIKE ME 2119: The problem as solution
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-13-2019 Sparks Tribune / Updated 2-14 and 2-16-2019
Breaking News —> Culinary Union defeats decert at Circus Circus Reno
Dear Readers: The above column served as the conclusion of remarks I submitted before the "Tahoe Talks: Racism in America" symposium at
the Incline Village, Nev., Library on February 12, 2019. So you might want to read "FADE TO BLACK" before you read "Black Like Me 2119".

Andrew Barbano, former governor of Nevada
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-6-2019 Sparks Tribune

Downtown Sparks: New taxes, gun controls & a wall
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-30-2019 Sparks Tribune

Striking sex: The only thing Trump understands
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-23-2019 Sparks Tribune

Sands of time blast the milestones of life
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-16-2019 Sparks Tribune

Bob Price: Cowboy, lawmaker, union man and Elvis fan
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-9-2019 Sparks Tribune

Crystal Balls: Peerless Predixions 2019 & Beyond
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-26-2018 Sparks Tribune



$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

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Copyright © 1982-2019 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 50-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

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