Barbwire: There just ain't no cure for stupid

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

There just ain't no cure for stupid
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-8-2020 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

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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!

"The chief justice has made his decision. Now let him enforce it." — President Andrew Jackson

Why, Lord, why oh why did the only two presidents named Andrew have to be such freedom-loving racists?

President Donaldovitch's favorite predecessor ignored any executive branch duty he didn't like. Which goes a long way toward explaining why Trump is so often pictured standing with a portrait of Jackson. And why Harriett Tubman will not replace Jackson on the $20 bill until well after the orange crusher has left office.

No less than Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak just entered a Twilight Zone flipside of Jackson's scenario. Like Jackson and Trump, he's the chief executive officer of his government, but freedom-loving law enforcement will not back his authority ordering facemasks in public.

The guv last week threatened "swift and decisive action" against employers in serious non-compliance. A Reno Gazette-Journal followup mentioned fines of "up to $135,000 if an employer is found in willful violation."

So how and by whom? I've tried to get the attention of local government to absolutely no avail. I have e-mailed the Sparks and Reno mayors and city councils, Washoe County commissioners and health officers as well as the entirety of local law enforcement. I've left voicemails in lots of places, including the governor's office, the health district hotline and responsible(?) elected officials. Nada.

OSHA swamped statewide
KRNV TV-4 / KRXI TV-11 July 7, 2020

Note: The above story contains one stale datapoint. The latest update shows northern Nevada having dropped to 82% compliance from 84%, while Gomorrah South improved from 66% to 75%.
(Reno Gazette-Journal 7-7-2020)

I am particularly concerned about my Teamsters Union sisters and brothers who carry upwards of 20,000 passengers a day on the three local transit services. Regional Transportation Commission management has said screw the governor and ordered drivers to allow anyone aboard, masked or not. The main subcontractor, a foreign-owned outfit named Keolis, could not possibly be giving priority to its annual bonus option if ridership and revenues hit targets, right?

The transit system is a double whammy for all service workers, let alone drivers and support personnel. Many people who cannot drive or afford autos ride buses to get to jobs, medical appointments or perhaps fetch trifles like groceries.

A major share of service employees are black and brown who, not so coincidentally, generally have the highest rates of Coronavirus infections and deaths. (The health district released data of Washoe infections by zip code but not deaths by zip code. I wonder why.)

The guv hisself faces a double whammy this week: A special session of the legislature starts Wednesday with just about every person and organization in the state looking for relief from budgetary bloodletting. At the same time, he's got to find a way to stop the surge in infections or in two weeks find that Independence Day was actually Incubation Day. (I stole that line from PBS UK correspondent Malcolm Brabant.)

The cold, hard fact remains that the local bus system is playing with people's lives and Kafkaesque government apparently could not care less. Neither Reno police nor the Washoe County sheriff will enforce Sisolak's mask mandate. (Ditto Lyon County's lawmeister.) So how does the good guv bust anybody? Who assesses the big fines? (See Occupational Safety & Health Administration [OSHA] link, above.)

Doctors across the nation are incarnating Sarah Palin's fabled death panels, forced to make dreaded decisions on who gets care and who's left to die as hospitals are overwhelmed.

Veteran RGJ columnist Cory Farley presented the most efficient solution I have yet seen. "If you're spotted unmasked, you'll be detained" and taken to Renown Medical Center's yet-unused parking-garage-turned emergency room. Barefacers will be busted "for a two-week quarantine or until a COVID test, at your expense, shows you're not infected."

I would add that the cost of the stay in the most expensive hotel in town should also be the responsibility of baldfaced scofflaws at our local Guantánamo.

BACK TO REALITY DEPT. Mentally inert and morally obtuse citizens, freedom loving racists and other Trump cultists will continue to believe the virus is a hoax until someone they know has died of the new plague. Or perhaps when they personally get laid up for three months with a tube cut into their throats. Then maybe it will be safe to ride a far less-crowded bus. Not until.

POWER PLAY DEPT. Hit the five elected officials who rule the transit system: Sparks Mayor Ron Smith, Washoe County Commissioners Bob Lucey and Vaughn Hartung, Reno Councilcritters Neoma Jardon and Oscar Delgado. The latter three face re-election challenges this November. Contact info at NevadaLabor.com/

POWER PLAY PART DEUX. Transit passengers should use the power of iPhones to snap time-and-date stamped photos of maskless fellow travelers. Those who come down with the virus may thus build a body of evidence documenting how they got infected for future class-action lawsuits.

CARL REINER 1922-2020. He directed the greatest movie of all time, "Oh, God!" starring George Burns and John Denver. He originated one of the greatest TV sitcoms, "The Dick Van Dyke Show." In those and many other ventures, Reiner used the gift of laughter to teach memorable moral lessons.

In all the tributes to him this past week, I saw no mention of his most courageous stand, a 1963 episode of the Van Dyke show which CBS refused to air.

In "That's My Boy," Dick Van Dyke's character becomes paranoid that his new baby has been switched with that of another couple at a very busy hospital. The joke's on him (and us) when the other baby's parents show up — African-American parents.

Reiner threatened to quit the hit series if CBS killed the episode. Back then, network boss William S. Paley was TV's god incarnate. God caved. (The hit show was probably making lots of money.)

Carl Reiner died like I wanna die. He put out a tweet trashing Trump on the day he left for the big TV studio in the sky.

Rest in peace, great writer. You done damned good.

Take care of each other and be careful out there.

¡Sí se puede!

[4-20-2019] — About 100 demonstrators from almost all the region's unions, local community service organizations and political activists joined Culinary Union members picketing Circus Circus in the late afternoon of April 18. A couple of CC suits came out to see what all the fuss was about, as if they didn't already know. In addition to the familiar union "contract now!" chants came calls for a strike against the Carano jocks. ¡Viva Huelga! ¡Sí se puede

REAL NEWS DEPT. In January 2019, 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 for 35 days. Thank you, Czar Donaldov.

Barbwire 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—>

Ship of Fools: Washoe County as derelict ocean liner
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-1-2020 Sparks Tribune

Weird love of dos Tejanas for El Jefé Trump
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-24-2020 Sparks Tribune /

Government shuts down when it should step up
Wherein I become a 36-year overnight success
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-17-2020 Sparks Tribune

Top 10 cures still go begging
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-10-2020 Sparks Tribune

Don't let fear and anger convert us to Germany 1933
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-3-2020 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue
BREAKING NEWS—> City of Reno reimposes martial law

Presidents Trump & Harding channel Mark Twain
WE WON! City of Reno votes down Ballardini Ranch annexation
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-27-2020 Sparks Tribune

Ballardini Ranch: Love's Labours Lost. Again.
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-20-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-21 and 5-27-2020 GMT

Letter from gods of alpha males & alpha mails
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-13-2020 Sparks Tribune

Re-name former Hug High for Dolores Feemster
By William C. Webb, John A. White, Jr. and Andrew Barbáno / RGJ.com 5-7-2020 / Reno Gazette-Journal op-ed 5-10-2020

Make Dolores Feemster's light shine brightly
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-6-2020 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-7 & 5-9-2020 / Expansions in blue

MAGAcidal maniax are loosed upon the land
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-29-2020 Sparks Tribune

Trump wants your cat and your shorts
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-22-2020 Sparks Tribune

A gold record message from the King
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-15-2020 Sparks Tribune

Are you ready to die for your country?
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-8-2020 Sparks Tribune

Payback: Corona, Cocaine & Trump
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 4-1-2020 Sparks Tribune
Photos, video and commentary from Barbwire correspondents in the belly of the beast: New York City and northern Italy
And remembering when Andy met Betty on April Fools Day 44 years ago

Kinks and hijinx in the time of plague
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-25-2020 Sparks Tribune

The lighter side of the latest plague
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-18-2020 Sparks Tribune

Medflies, flyweights and President Pelosi
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-11-2020 Sparks Tribune

Trump's Blackrobes: Humpty Dumpty Homotextuals
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-4-2020 Sparks Tribune

Bernie or bust, Dolores a must
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-26-2020 Sparks Tribune

Czars Donaldov & Nixon win Democratic Caucus
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-19-2020 Sparks Tribune

Springtime for fat cats & unburied hatchets
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-12-2020 Sparks Tribune

Love saves a life on Reno's mean streets
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-5-2020 Sparks Tribune

Bill Harrah's cookie cutter crumbles
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-29-2020 Sparks Tribune

Going to confession with Father Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-22-2020 Sparks Tribune

National welfare, corporate welfare and MLK
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-15-2020 Sparks Tribune

The New Jim Crow — Nothing New
By Michelle Alexander / New York Times January 17 & 19, 2020
Printable Text Version

The only way to stop killing is to stop killing
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-8-2020 Sparks Tribune

Barbano sells out to white Republicans
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-1-2020 Sparks Tribune

The Sermon on Mount Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-25-2019 Sparks Tribune
Typhoid Mary infects Sparks Addams Family
In the spirit of true democracy which provides that your rights don't allow you to sneeze on mine
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-18-2019 Sparks Tribune
A fake news fable for our times
In the spirit of true democracy which provides that your rights don't allow you to sneeze on mine
Barbwire Confidential by Andrew Barbáno / 12-11-2019 Online Edition
Red-flag warnings — Ignoring history at our peril
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-11-2019 Sparks Tribune
Major rent raunch and a big book launch
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-4-2019 Sparks Tribune

Billionaire Tom Steyer owes me $5
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-27-2019 Sparks Tribune

Back to the future down Amnesia Lane
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-20-2019 Sparks Tribune

People get ready, that train's a comin'
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Barbwire Confidential Internet Edition 11-12-2019 / Updated 11-14 & 11-15-2019
A version of this column appeared in the 11-13-2019 Sparks Tribune
An excerpt of the following was included in Andrew Barbano's address to the school board on Nov. 12.
SPECIAL REPORT FROM THE SCENE OF THE CRIME: Clever maneuvering prevents vote after 4 of 7 trustees announced support for Feemster.

DO NOT risk your kids at Golden Eagle Park
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-6-2019 Sparks Tribune

Tale of 2 city halls: Cancer kids & brain damage
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-30-2019 Sparks Tribune

Written in the stars: UNR football for racial justice
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-23-2019 Sparks Tribune

Goodbye, Columbus: A mirror for America
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-16-2019 Sparks Tribune

Déjà vu all over again: Bernie turns 2020 into 1968
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-9-2019 Sparks Tribune

City of Reno turns W. Plumb Lane into horny street
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-2-2019 Sparks Tribune

Hip-hopping mad over molesters and Mad Kings
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-25-2019 Sparks Tribune

Trade the Confederacy straight across for Greenland
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-18-2019 Sparks Tribune

Cut in twain
(Myers' favorite photo)

Dennis Myers: Enroute to the universe next door
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-11-2019 Sparks Tribune
Obituary, 1948-2019
[En Español — La Voz Hispana En Nevada 9-18-2019]

Philippines to Burning Man to Ireland: Adios GOAT
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-4-2019 Sparks Tribune

Nevadian Dennis Myers: The Greatest Of All Time
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 8-28-2019 Sparks Tribune

Veteran Nevada reporter Myers removed from life support
Obituary: Dennis C. Myers 1948-2019
[En Español — La Voz Hispana En Nevada 9-18-2019]
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Internet Edition 8-25-2019

Reno City Council passes rent control
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-17-2019 Sparks Tribune

DAY OF THE DEAD
Relieve Rent & Pillage: Save SB398 & AB399
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Online Legislative Edition / 4-12-2019 / Updated 4-13 and 4-14-2019 GMT
Fairness for tenants dies 4-12 unless lawmakers throw it a lifeline

Politics does not reward the shy
Rent justification and a death penalty for corporate depredation
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-10-2019 Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-11 and 4-12-2019 GMT
Fairness for tenants dies 4-12 unless lawmakers throw it a lifeline

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 with outrageous rents and scrambling schools
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

Rentvolution.org

We Don't Need No Education

A cuckoo coup and a president, too
Barbwire exclusive: Secret 2017 meeting set the setup in motion
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Uploaded 7-23-2019 / Expanded from the 7-24-2019 Sparks Tribune

Alfred E. Neuman for Washoe school superintendent
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-10-2019 Sparks Tribune

Witness at the execution
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-3-2019 Sparks Tribune

Gang banging on 9th Street
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Barbwire Confidential Extra Edition / Monday 7-1-2019 / Updated 7-3-2019

NevadaLabor.com We Don’t Need No Education Archive

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