BARBWIRE by 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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Photo: Debra Reid, Sparks Tribune

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. — Leonard Cohen, 1934-2016 By Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) & Sharon Robinson © 1988 CBS Records, Inc.

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

UNDER CONSTRUXION

EXPANSION, LINX AND REFERENCES TO FOLLOW

BARBWIRE BY ANDREW BARBANO
FOR THE 9-28-2022 SPARKS TRIBUNE
963 words including bio note.
Editor: "yayhoo" and "guerrero" are intentionally so expressed.
Please italicize "Esté bien. Haga infierno." at the end if possible.
Thank you.
AB

Fight like a Guerrilla Gorilla
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-28-2022 / Expansions in blue

Maybe I just look like a bank robber or mad bomber.
All I know is that in recent years, I've been treated as a probable terrorist, drug dealer or stick-up man purely on cosmetics.
It all started awhile back when I walked into my friendly neighborhood Bank of America branch as my last stop one late afternoon.
Dressed for business, I fished my deposit from my briefcase.
"Oh, thank God," said an uptight teller.
"Huh?"
"You fit our new bank robber profile, a man wearing a hat, carrying a briefcase who arrives just before closing. A robbery would make me way late to fix dinner for my family, talking to cops and everything," she confessed.
"Sorry to disappoint," said I.
Soon thereafter came my personal legislative debacle. I arrived in Carson City wearing a lobbyist-as-undertaker black suit topped off by my black aussie golf stetson complete with Phoenix Suns hatband.
The Nevada State Assembly was in joint session for an address by one of our congresscritters. The state senate sergeant-at-arms and a security muscleman ordered me to take off my hat. Is that against some rule, I asked. They said yes. Does the same apply to women? Yes.
They not only escorted me out but shadowed me around the building as I visited the press room.
I asked the Legislative Counsel Bureau about this no-hat rule. Nonesuch. At least "Kicked off the Ledge" scored the Tribune a first-place Nevada Press Association Award. (Barbwire 4-18-2017)
Fast-forward to this past Monday. I made an appointment at that same BofA to get some documents notarized. I've now been doing business at that branch for 38 years.
Enter Elmer Fudd, their in-house notary/teller who would accept only "valid government documents" as necessary identification. To him, that meant a driver's license AND a passport. Period. The bank's website said bring two valid pieces of identification and I brought plenty, including my birth certificate, voter registration and Social Security cards.
My never-used 1979 passport had long expired and I never thought to bring it anyway. I left notarizationless.
Apparently, BofA staff briefings fail to include an old adage: Never pick a fight with anybody who buys ink by the barrel. (Or runs a dozen websites.)
Did I think of closing my account? Hell, no. I opened my first BofA account at 17 and that counts for something.
During a lifetime of promoting justice, the late great Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, fought against discrimination in the building trades. One personal grassroots solution: become a good customer. He told me stories of how his status as a longtime client helped him wedge thru closed doors to bring diversity into a formerly all-white club.
The same approach counts in politics. You, one individual, can be effective if you recognize opportunities to fight guerrilla style.
Complaining to management often gets a contribution to the shredder. Instead, use whatever you have as many times as you can. Post on Yelp.com or other consumer sites. Be concise and accurate. Tell your friends. When you witness unfairness, speak out, call, write, upload, talk to people.
Several times a month, I need to contact tech support or somesuch. I usually get connected to other states or countries. When I'm talking to the Philippines, I conclude with a polite thanks and recommend voting against anybody named Marcos or Duterte. (Both brutal crime families are again in power.)
When I'm talking to Florida or North Carolina, I tell them to vote against their yayhoo governors. When I get a Texan, I advise supporting Beto O'Rourke against their current flaming fascist. Gov. Greg Abbott fallaciously blamed green energy for killing so many of his constituents when the state's grid failed in the dead of winter due to government neglect.
When he signed a bill making abortion illegal in all cases, Abbott was asked “why force a rape victim to carry a pregnancy to term?”
Abbott replied that "rape is a crime and Texas will work tirelessly to make sure we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas."
So Texas is now a safe haven for women, right? Wrong.
“Under Abbott, Texas leads the nation in rape offenses while the rate of arrests for rape has fallen by nearly HALF," O'Rourke responded. "What happened to eliminating rape in Texas?”
https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2022/08/07/fact-check-does-texas-have-most-rape-offenses-united-states/65382978007/
Yayhoos, moonhowlers, freedom-loving racists and crypto-fascists have now crawled out of the woodwork. You know who they are. Put them under a bright spotlight and don't let up.
Everyone has a network of contacts. Use them, people you know and even those you don't. Persistent guerrillas win because they are too numerous to silence.
Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that "publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial disease. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants."
Organize. Vote. Let your light shine bright, brave guerrillas.
MIKE GUERRA, 1956-2022. "Guerra" is Spanish for "war." Mike Guerra lived up to his name.
The longtime union activist and RTCRide transit operator died on August 31 due to complications from Parkinson's disease. He was just 65.
"Rain or shine, heat or cold, smoke or smog, Mike stood with us on the picket lines through all three 2021 strikes," stated Teamsters Local 533 President Gary Watson. "He was a true union warrior."
His family said his condition had deteriorated surprisingly quickly over the past few months.
Please help them with his final expenses at gofund.me/c1fed539/ or send checks or money orders payable to Mike's mother, Olivia Baker, addressed to her attention at Teamsters Local 533, 1190 Selmi Drive No. 100, Reno 89512. Formal obituary at NevadaLabor.com/
Rest in peace, my union brother. a brave guerrero who never let up and did us all proud.
Stay safe and pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
__________________
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 53-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>
CWA 9413/AFL-CIO
BRWR Z9/28 Guerrillas/brwr/opsn22

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 Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame Support Don Dondero and Jake Highton and David Toll and Foster Church and Norman Cardoza Send endorsements Eee-yo-leven! Barbwire wins 11th Nevada Press Association award GOLD 2017-18 2018 First-Place Winners From the depths of despair to the den of iniquity & holy of holies "Excellent work. These are some of the most moving columns I've read." — NPA contest judge/9-29-2018 The Grasshopper and the Dragonfly 9-6-2017 Kicked off the Ledge 4-18-2017 NATIONAL NEWS FIRST-BREAK Back to the Future in Mississippi West Nevada 10-18-2017 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 More statewide and national award winners We Don't Need No Education—> Neverending Barbwire Series 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries Barbwire.TV: 15-year overnight success Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008 The Barbwire's Greatest Hits BEATING LUSH RAMBO AT HIS OWN GAME: Highlights from radio days mp3 file 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!

I spent Monday from midnight till dawn watching her sendoff soirée, held in the grandest tradition of Janis Joplin who likewise left a chunk of money in her will to throw a helluva party. (Her majesty spent a bit more.)

I had to take a bit of time off from my Britannia all-nighter to roll out the recycling for my Teamsters brothers. I thus took advantage of PBS highlights Monday evening in case I had missed anything important. Big mistake. The queen's gambit was followed by what documentary impresario Ken Burns describes as his magnum opus, "The U.S. and the Holocaust."

I had avoided watching that three-parter. Current reality is so dark I don't require additional regression.

Alas and alack, Burns proved correct. This damned thing is probably his greatest work. Monday thus fittingly became a dark and stormy night, complete with thunder and hailstones in my 'hood.

From his post-show interview with Stephen Colbert, Burns noted that his series will conclude with parallels to present day America. The opening installment will chill you to the bone, déjà vu all over again.

Hitler comparisons have been hurled so often that they are borderline meaningless. Czar Donaldov has accused his myriad critics of being closet Nazis. (Somebody break out the scorched pots and kettles.)

Trump's idol, Czar Putin, likewise fell back on the trite and true, using fear of Nazis to justify his holocaust against Ukraine.

Burns' trilogy looks at how an isolationist America chose to ignore Hitler's rise to power, as did so many others. He couldn't succeed, right? (Déjà vu 2016, anyone?)

I don't know if Burns used it, but no less than aviator Charles Lindbergh, a flaming anti-semitic racist, led U.S. isolationism in the mid-1930's as fascism ran wild worldwide, kinda like now. Lucky Lindy got very quiet after Pearl Harbor. [POST-PRESS TIME UPDATE 9-21-2022: Burns and company spent a lot of time focusing on white supremacist Lindbergh in the second installment.]

Donald Trump's success parallels Hitler's in so many ways. Trump has used the Nazi template by instinct, not design. It's just that the dictator playbook works the same everywhere. Get into power via election, then make sure you stay for life by any means necessary. Like so many dictatorships today.

Hitler, Trump and their soul brothers share one necessary scapegoat: The Other, especially immigrants. Like my family.

The lazy ignorance of so many of my fellow citizens dismays but must not dissuade. The latest dingbat fad is that we are not a democracy but a republic so there's no democracy for Trump to subvert. Why? Because the MAGA moonhowlers have said so.

CIVICS 101. "Republic" is shorthand for representative democracy. True democracy is a town hall meeting where all citizens show up, have their say and vote on every issue, right down to ordering paper clips. Just right for 16th Century colonies.

Instead, we democratically elect representatives to act for us. Representative democracy, a republic.

President Franklin Roosevelt saw the danger but there was no support to help European Jews in the midst of the Great Depression given mistrust in government sown by World War One. President Woodrow Wilson won re-election in 1916 by promising to keep us out of European combat. Then promptly sent troops the next year.

I hope Mr. Burns includes the story of the ocean liner filled with Jewish refugees from Hitler which was refused entry to the U.S. It had no choice but to return to face German ovens. [POST-PRESS TIME UPDATE 9-21-2022: Burns and company indeed told the bittersweet story of the German ocean liner St. Louis.]

I remember a long-ago interview with one of the brave few Americans who volunteered to fight against Francisco Franco's revolution in Spain, arguably the laboratory for Hitler's blitzkriegs.

"America could have stopped fascism cold," he lamented. "But we wouldn't."

Ignore Mr. Burns' video red flag at your peril and that of your children. And your country.

Déjà vu all over again.

TWOFER WEDNESDAY. At 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, Culinary Union 226 kicks off a canvas launch from its Reno offices at 5450 Equity Ave.

North and south, over 250 of the union's members have taken leave from their jobs to campaign for Democratic candidates and officeholders. The very diverse union will understandably contact a wide array of minority households. Local 226 is the only major organization of any stripe with the guts to do anything about Nevada's skyrocketing rents and exploitation by corporate landlords.

Info: Bethany Khan <bkahn@culinaryunion226.org> (612) 598-0174. Livestream available at Facebook.com/Culinary226/

TRACK 2: Activists from an array of national railroad unions have called for informational pickets at rail terminals nationwide on Wednesday. The goal is keeping the heat on the nation's railroads notwithstanding a tentative agreement avoiding a national strike announced last week by President Biden.

It got little media attention, but one Machinists Union local had actually voted down the deal 2-to-1 the day before the president's announcement.

"While all of this is happening, the rank and file is not standing idly by, but is mobilizing," stated Reno-based train driver Ron Kaminkow of Railroad Workers United.

Apparently, there are more than a few folks not too happy about tentative contracts with the various rail behemoths. Union workers recently had to fight fang and claw to stop the corporations from foolhardy cutbacks. Would you board a jetliner knowing there's no co-pilot? They have hinted at more demonstrations "channeling this mass discontent."

Mr. President, I suggest calling your labor secretary. Better yet, just contact Mr. Kaminkow <ronkamikow@yahoo.com> (608) 358-5771. Tell him you heard it on the Barbwire.

HELP MIKE GUERRA. Thanks to all who've donated to help the ailing RTCRide bus operator. Contribute at gofund.me/c1fed539/ or send checks or money orders payable to Mike's mother, Olivia Baker, addressed to her attention at Teamsters Local 533, 1190 Selmi Drive No. 100, Reno 89512.

Stay safe and pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.

¡Sí se puede!

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 53-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 of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. He is retained by no political campaign. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Web xtras and smoking guns —> Madcap Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would eliminate rape in the Lone Star State as he signed an almost total ban on abortion. How's it going so far? Ooops.

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

"Do you promise to tell the truth and nothing but?" asked lawyer Larson E. Pettifogger.
"I do," swore the suede-shoed witness.
"State your profession."
"Advertising."
"Step down."

That's the text of an installment of "The Wizard of Id" comic strip from decades ago. Therein, cartoonist Johnny Hart captured timeless truth in three panels.

Trying to get a handle on what people say has been an insoluble conundrum since talking evolved from grunting. And perhaps before.

Dictators and kings would seem to have it easy. Just exile, imprison or snuff anybody who says things they don't like.

Repression notwithstanding, the drive for expression seems a universal human trait, hard-wired into sentient beings right after food, shelter and clothing — emojis in a dead heat with sex and laughter.

Ancient Egyptians communicated in complex pictures and symbols, much like oriental languages yet today. The Arabic alphabet caught on because it was simple, just 26 characters forming things called words. Clear and concise. "Flour or flower?" What's not to like?

We've now come full circle, from scrawls on cave walls to hieroglyphics, complex codes, then back to symbols with smiley faces.

Regulating expression is a minefield. Back fence gossip widely spread can get you sued for damages. Trying to foster innovation, Congress in its wisdom exempted these new-fangled things called websites from liability for spreading falsehoods the likes of which would get this newspaper busted.

Mix malice aforethought with our innate human desire to trust one another and you've created a combustible combination ripe for exploitation.

No greater example of perverted trust lies with the geography of the microphone.

For some reason which I've never fully fathomed, we attribute wisdom to the flip side of the mic. Abuses of the media megaphone can perpetrate great harm. Witness Orson Welles' 1938 radio dramatization of the "War of the Worlds." It was so well-produced by the great writer-director-actor that even with disclaimers that it was a drama, it caused widespread panic.

My own sainted Italian mother typified consumer vulnerability. Watching some TV show, she would occasionally ask me "is that a true story?"

"No, mom," I would respond, "it's a fictional story."

"But things like that do actually happen," she correctly responded. Even then, fiction was well on its way to becoming reality when filtered thru mass media, be it back fence or Facebook.

On my long-ago radio show, I twice ran experiments proving the danger inherent in media confusion. Once in northern Nevada and again in Sacramento/San Francisco, I opened by noting that I was going to conduct a put-on. For the next three hours, I would perform an act as a nutso conservative.

The late Lush Rambo jump-started his career the same way with an extreme spoof, a lampoon of his predecessor, Morton Downey Jr. Alas and alack, there were enough dingbats listening who believed his act. He went with the flow and the rest was history.

Like Welles, I began by informing the audience that I was doing a reversal by presenting right-wing moonhowler talk. I repeated the disclosure every five minutes.

Unfortunately, many of the phone callers only heard what they wanted to hear. For days thereafter, I was praised for seeing the error of my liberal ways.

Our humanity is nothing if not a dissonant symphony of misplaced belief. Whether coming from religious dogmatists, business charlatans or political opportunists, they market their wares in plain sight. Profitable prophets. All it takes is being on the dispensing side of the microphone.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., memorably said that democracy without regulation becomes tyranny. I've actually had people tell me "they couldn't advertise something if it's not true, right?"

Practitioners of my former profession are a legion of very bad examples. Far from muckraking author Vance Packard's book title of half a century ago, they are much more than "masters of deceit." Some even manufacture the products of deception.

Madison Avenue ad agencies have for years helped develop boutique drugs that can serve a few. They then advertise their potions everywhere, creating demand among people who won't benefit from the stuff. Patients start bugging their physicians for the new fad prescription. Some doctors give in just to stop the pestering. Others are on the take from drug companies, commissioned salesmen with medical degrees.

If most people weren't honest, there could be no such thing as checking accounts. Or paper money. Trust is the currency of commerce. And politics.

Alas and alack, there are always buffoons and poltroons who put themselves first. Czar Donaldov is the most recent bad example. He doesn't need to sell steaks, worthless college degrees or flaky real estate deals anymore. He just sells words, flogging his true believers with the threat of the day, solution to which is always the same: money. For himself. Instant millions for creative fiction.

So what's the solution? Regular Barbwire readers know that my long-term fix lies with women in politics. A majority without male egos would be a good start.

More immediately, participate in overthrowing the government this November. VOTE.

Also a good start. But choose wisely.

BAND-AIDS ON GUSHING GUNSHOT WOUNDS. A few weeks ago, an expert asserted that soon, everything on the Internet will be fake.

Things have reached such a low ebb in this time of warped perceptions that no less than five states have passed laws requiring some form of "media literacy" instruction in schools. About time. Photoshop was bad enough (or good enough) at altering reality. China-owned TikTok has now turned a paper cut into a hemorrhage.

Alas, no matter what, you can't cure stupid.

HELP MIKE GUERRA. Thanks to all who've donated to help the ailing RTCRide bus operator. Contribute at gofund.me/c1fed539/ or send checks or money orders payable to Mike's mother, Olivia Baker, addressed to her attention at Teamsters Local 533, 1190 Selmi Drive No. 100, Reno 89512.

Stay safe and pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.

¡Sí se puede!

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 53-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 of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. He is retained by no political campaign. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.