Barbwire by Barbano: Dirt cheap and cheap shots

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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

Dirt cheap and cheap shots
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 7-24-2024 / Updated 7-26-2024 GMT / 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

Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame

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Barbwire wins 11th Nevada Press Association award

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In the Uber-Nevada legislature, words can kill
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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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For all you kids who wonder what Sparks City Hall's doing to you instead of for you, here's a quick primer of embarrassing questions.

NUMBER ONE: Whaddya know about Golden Eagle Park? If they only know it's a place that produces lotsa tourist revenue for the city, educate them or vote against them. I've won a pair of Nevada Press Association awards railing against the cancer-causing, brain-damaging, child abusing toxic turf at that abomination.

The turf, made largely of ground-up old tires, is hazardous, especially to children. I've built a whole website about it which has become very popular over the years. Except at Sparks City Hall. (See ConsumerCoalitionv.org/)

NUMERO DOS. What do you think of President Biden's proposal to cap rent increases at five percent per year on projects containing 50 or more units? Those who do not control costs lose their substantial federal corporate welfare...er...tax breaks.

Wall Street is not the only culprit in screwing the young and the working class. About 350,000 low-income federal housing units were built each year before the coming of King Ronald the Vague. Reagan cut the budget, just as he did for mental health programs and so many others. Under Presidents Ron and Nancy, only 50,000 units a year were allowed, a hangover that continues to this very day. Look under just about any bridge.

Now that an unregulated (thanks, Ron and Don!) Wall Street is so dripping with wealth that they need Uncle Scrooge-style money bins, the bad guys have been gorging on single-family homes and apartments, raping and pillaging in the process. Another triumph for free market capitalism.

As usual, Nevada gets hurt the worst. Here in Mississippi West, we have the most oppressive environment in the country for our worker bees. To our betters, it's an investment, tax and corporate welfare Valhalla. (See the Barbwire Corporate Welfare Archives at NevadaLabor.com/)

TRIPLE THREAT: ANOTHER RIGGED GAME. The fake news New York Times just broke a story about a software company that sells programs allowing landlords to share data and fix prices, a blatant violation of the law. The Yieldstar software outfit RealPage is from Texas. It figures. They love ripping off the lessers among us down in the anti-Christian Confederacy.

Simple rent control can work. When vacancies are below 5 percent, increases must be justified based on documented actual costs — kinda like NVEnergy's restrictions. Once availability goes past 5 percent, all bets are off.

I proposed that in 1978 in a growth period just like now. I still bear the scars. The Reno City Council actually passed rent control but got so much heat, they quickly repealed it. (See Rentvolution.org/)

The betrayal ended up making Barbara Bennett the first woman, and still greatest Reno mayor. (No other Reno mayor made the Reno Gazette-Journal's turn-of-the-millennium list of "100 Who Made a Difference.")

FOUR ON THE FLOOR. Sparks Mayor Don Lawson is right that Sparks must grow or dry up. We're outta land. Taxing new growth is the only way for major municipalities in Nevada to stay afloat.

They are super-stingy with parks, roads, schools, police and fire protection largely because of all the corporate welfare tax breaks rich guys have juiced thru government. Tesla, the Sparks Marina, the gambling and mining industries are just a few examples. (See the Barbwire Corporate Welfare Archives at NevadaLabor.com/)

So what to do? The big boys want the feds to give rich developers humongous amounts of public land to do with as they will. (Don't believe their promises about low income housing.)

Here's a sensible proposal published by Jon Ralston's Nevada Independent last week: "Federal land sale planned for Vegas affordable housing," read the headline.

"The Bureau of Land Management is moving ahead with plans to sell 20 acres of public land to the Clark County Department of Social Services for an affordable housing development.

"It would be the first sale of public land below fair market value under a new agreement between the Department of Interior and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Vaxx up, stay safe, pray for Ukraine and almost 100 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.)

EDITOR'S NOTE: The name of one exalted person above is incorrect. Extra points if you can catch it.
_________________________

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 55-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. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

We've seen this movie many times
Commissar Donaldov is a closet sado-masochist:
"Hurt me, tell me you love me, then bend over."
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 7-17-2024
Updated 7-18-2024 GMT / Expansions in blue

"Winter, 1963, it felt like the world would freeze, with John F. Kennedy..." — Dream Academy 1985

First the assassination, then the assassination of the assassin, all on TV for the entire world to see. Great television, eh wot?

Soon followed Vietnam, the first televised war, punctuated by race riots and draft riots in the streets of the formerly United States. All promptly beamed to your living room.

Many amateur social psychologists have anointed the Woodstock, NY, rock concert and love fest as the climax of the 1960s. For those who didn't see the movie, the 1969 rain-soaked Woodstock was somewhat of a predecessor to Burning Man. I have another candidate for number one.

Almost no one saw the 1969 Haskell Wexler film "Medium Cool." I bought a ticket as did some of my friends back when I lived in Gomorrah South.

The title was a takeoff from author Marshall McLuhan's typification of television as a "cool medium," in contrast to radio and newspapers. The latter "hot media" require participation through use of imagination, intellectual engagement to help construct the whole message.

PIXELS OVER PEOPLE. In contrast, television is a cool medium. It hits you in the face with no assistance from you. I remember back in Catholic high school when they warned us kids about the dangers of passively lying back, their version of "the idle mind is the Devil's workshop."

Pity the poor lout who comes across "hot" like Richard Nixon or your boring high school science teacher. The telegenically gifted (JFK) present as "cool" and thus can permeate impressionable brains.

Wexler ingeniously set his film during the anti-Vietnam War rioting around the 1968 Chicago Democratic national convention. (Guess where the Donkeykongs are meeting this year.) He intercut footage of actual events around a drama surrounding a TV newsman played by Robert Forster.

At the end of the film, the crusading journalist's auto is t-boned in a collision. Forster and his passenger may or may not have survived. A crowd gathers. Do the first arrivals rush to help?

No. They click a photo.

Cut to black.

We've all been living personal versions of Medium Cool countless times ever since. All to our detriment as a cohesive society and nation.

PEERLESS PREDIXION. Even after being shot and nearly killed while making "great television" (his term about January 6), that great rapper of America T-Rump will not endorse gun control. His model? Why, Ronald Reagan of course. Shortly after being rushed to an E.R. after his nearly fatal shooting in 1981, Reagan made clear that gun control was off the agenda, where it remained until 1991.

Seven years after his re-election and more than two years after he left office, Reagan "endorsed" the Brady Bill, named after his former press secretary who was paralyzed after taking a bullet for his boss.

Given that Reagan had been in the throes of Alzheimer's for many years, former president Nancy Reagan probably approved the slightly tardy position change.

HOW TO SUCK UP AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE. The anointing of legendary T-Rump trasher and freshman Ohio Sen. JD Vance as T-Rump's running mate is not only an early Christmas present for Czar RasPutin, but also proves conclusively that Commissar Donaldov is a closet sado-masochist: "Hurt me, tell me you love me, then bend over."

I give you the MAGA Moonhowler choice for veep. The Ohio Hillbilly opposes aid to Ukraine and probably sealed the deal when he said "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."

Psychiatrists label such behavior as "projection." The archaic term is "the pot calling the kettle black." I prefer to assert that in MAGA World, "every accusation is an admission."

TRUMP'S NEXT JUSTICE. Florida Judge Aileen Cannon just passed her audition to join her idol Clarence Thomas and the ammotextuals on the U.S. Supreme Abort.

She abruptly dismissed the classified documents case against Czar Donaldov a day before the GOP national convention. Maybe she wanted to take an early lunch or long weekend.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. T-Rump called the black-robed denizens in the land of the Supremes "my justices." Among all the predictable assassination conspiracy theories which have popped up between here, Beijing and Moscow, has anybody seen one that uses the high court's presidential immunity decision as a reason to "prove" last week's hit on the Orange Crusher was ordered by his successor? (Lemme know.)

Under the ruling by the Ammotextuals, a sitting president is forever immune from prosecution for ordering a hit on his/her political opponent(s).

So that nutso kid from Pennsylvania must have been working for the Dems, right?

SPEAKING OF JUDGES. With the only Democrat and one other non-partisan dropping out, only non-partisan senior housing activist Marsela "Marsy" Kupfersmith (pronounced "cooper-smith") remains to oppose appointed Washoe County Commissioner Clara Andriola this November. She represents most of Sparks from downtown to the eastern county line and northward past Spanish Springs to Pebble Creek.

On July 3, Kupfersmith challenged the disqualification of her nominating petition in court where it awaits a decision by Washoe District Judge Kathleen Drakulich. Her honor may punt the issue to Nevada Secretary of State and chief elections officer Francisco Aguilar. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Indeed, earlier this week, the judge bounced it to the SOS and/or Carson City District Court. Stay tuned.

Vaxx up, stay safe, pray for Ukraine and almost 100 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.)
_________________________

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

Dream Team: Tom Hanks & Oprah Winfrey
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 7-10-2024
Updated 7-11-2024 GMT / Expansions in blue

Creeping Senility vs. Glaring Insanity
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 7-3-2024 / Updated 7-2-2024 GMT / Expansions in blue
"God is a comedian playing to an audience afraid to laugh." — Voltaire

TV T-Rump Raps America
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 6-26-2024
Updated 6-26-2024 GMT /Expansions in blue

Ammotextual orgy of death
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 6-19-2024 / Expansions in blue
"Hell is empty and all the devils are here." — Shakespeare's "The Tempest"

Devouring their own
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 6-12-2024
Updated 6-13 & 6-19-2024 GMT / Expansions in blue

President Donald Kardashian
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 6-5-2024 / Updated 6-7-2024 GMT / Expansions in blue

The shrinkflation of democracy
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 5-29-2024 / Updated 5-30-2024 / Expansions in blue

Cheesily pickled politics
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 5-22-2024 / Updated 5-23-2024

A smattering of splatterings
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 5-15-2024 / Updated 5-19-2024

What happened to us?
Did we do something when we should not have? Did we do nothing when we should have?
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 5-8-2024

One Photo That Captures the Loss in Gaza
"Dr. Sam Attar went over and only then realized that the boy was dead."
By Nicholas Kristof / The New York Times 5-4-2024

Karam and his mom at the hour of his death

Breaking News —> Masks work!

Ain't we a pair?
Dennis Myers & Andrew Barbano inducted into César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-10-2024
Expansions in blue / Updated 4-11, 4-14, 4-15, 4-16 & 5-2-2024 GMT

So stated Tina Turner in the 1985 blockbuster "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome."

That line best summed up my overwhelmed feelings last Friday evening when the Northern Nevada Central Labor Council inducted the late Tribune journalist and my old friend Dennis Myers into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame.

Using a hockey analogy, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar noted that the occasion completed a hat trick for Dennis. He had previously been so honored by both the Barbwire and Nevada Press Association rogues galleries.

Living up to my self-imposed nickname of Quarantino, I attended via Zoom, dressed appropriately for the solemn occasion: In a sweatshirt and UnionYes! baseball cap.

I thus stood surprised and amazed by the second installation of the evening, The Barbwire Man hisself.

Zounds.

I told the sold out event's attendees that this represented the second-greatest honor of my life, eclipsed only by the day I married my wife, Betty, 40 years ago.

I was and remain humbled to stand with giants who accomplished much more than I ever will. The César HOF includes Nevada's two greatest legislators, Sen. Joe Neal and Assemblymember Bob Price, both D-North Las Vegas.

Fred Ross, Sr., the union stalwart who taught César Chávez how to organize abides therein, as do Maria Zamora, who marched with Chávez from Delano to Sacramento in the 1960s; United Auto Workers stalwart George "Battling" Nelson of Sparks who stood beside Chávez and United Auto Workers legend Walter Reuther at the dedication of the United Farm Workers headquarters; Nevada labor mainstays Dan Rusnak and Sam Lumpe; the late Nevada Labor Commissioner Stan Jones and his wife, Wendy; and the original Chávez HOF honoree, Darlene Jespersen.

Ms. Jespersen was a longtime Harrah's bartender who refused to follow demeaning new corporate makeup face painting rules. Her wrongful termination case broke new ground for women's rights at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Dennis, Nevada's greatest reporter, was the first journalist so honored. I can only state that I am the second because Dennis himself accorded me that appellation.

I still term myself an advocate and hellraiser. I don't present both sides, especially when the other side is suffused with flaming bigoted moonhowlers.

Video of Myers and Barbano inductions —>

https://youtu.be/pFNUBW1vhEo

https://youtu.be/GopULsYDWuE

Text of Judge Patricia Lynch acceptance speech for Dennis Myers

Official Cesar XVIII commemorative program book

A posthumous accolade / By Matthew Bieker
Reno News & Review 4-27-2024

ADIOS, VERITA BLACK PROTHRO. Last Saturday came news of the death of the beautiful Nevada activist and businesswoman. Verita paid heavy dues in her shortened life. When she ran for Washoe County public administrator in 2018, some freedom loving racist defaced her candidate signs with black spray paint.

The Nevada Democratic Party sent out a double notice, also including the hit-and-run fatality of Kurt Englehart, aide to Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev.

I stand proud and humbled by having known and worked with most of the above superstars in the firmament of human aspiration.

READER RUMBLINGS: Tribunistas have reacted to this newspaper's March 27 publication of the Nevada Independent news service exposé of our regional health care octopus. ("Renown Health is a powerhouse in Northern Nevada. Is that a problem?")

Last week, I added some very necessary perspective regarding the origins of the malady by calling attention to the 1995 Washoe County Grand Jury report documenting the outright theft of our formerly publicly owned, low cost hospital.

Some Tribune subscribers sent these comments: "I worked there as a head supervising nurse. Their 'non-profit' status is just a moniker. Actually, 'More Money' is their tacit motto." And this: "I remember times when management harassed me to make sure all my employees only gave Renown management five-star ratings or I would be demoted, go without a raise or some other hellish reprisal."

I built a whole website of research on the depredations of our health care conglomerate which will be linked to the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

UNHEALTHY CARE, PART DEUX. The fake news New York Times just published a major scandal regarding big health insurance companies. Many have retained an outfit which earns billions in commissions based on how much health care they DENY to insured patients.

"Don't like your $100,000 surgery bill? Sue us, turkey." [UPDATE: Websearch "hamby nytimes.com tool helps insurers reap fees shift costs" to view several articles.]

I have never seen a better argument for a single-payer national system. Fully one-third of all U.S. health care dollars go toward profit and paperwork. This has resulted in the highest costs for just about the poorest care in the industrialized world.

Social Security, that dastardly government run program, only costs three percent to run. Continuing rape and pillage by the health care industrial complex must come to an end.

I remember when moonhowlers took to the streets to campaign against Obamacare. Some dimbulb woman actually told a reporter she was there to "keep government's hands off my Medicare."

In 2009, the U.S. government became the largest health care customer in the country. Combined with the military, the Veterans Administration and other programs, Uncle Sam has long been paying most of the bills. It's well past time to reign in pillagers like Renown, Cigna, Aetna, Humana, United Health Care (aka AARP) and Big Pharma.

Sorry, Ronnie, government is not the problem. Government is the solution.

HISTORY FOR DULLARDS. Supporters of T-Rump, the croaker who raps America, want to rename DC's Dulles Airport for the Orange Crusher. What an insult to the legacy of the Republican Dulles Brothers, Allen who headed the CIA, and John Foster Dulles who served as Secretary of State, both under President Dwight Eisenhower.

These bastards made a sport of overthrowing small democracies, most notably that of Iran. The latter was accomplished because British Petroleum wanted their oil refinery back after the democratically elected Iranian government nationalized the industry after decades of western exploitation.

We are at war with Iran today because of the depredations of the Brothers Dulles back in the 1950s.

So why trade a headache for an upset stomach?

SLIGHTLY CYNICAL DEPT. Congratulations to the universities of South Carolina and Connecticut for winning their respective women's and men's minor league professional basketball championships.

Vaxx up, stay safe, pray for Ukraine and almost 100 other currently war-torn lands.

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 55-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. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

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

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
1947-2023

To Die For
My daughters were born 65 years ago yesterday. Alas, their youth was cut in twain.
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 1-17-2024

Web Xtras & Smoking Guns—>

Why the science is clear that masks work
By Zeynep Tufecki / The New York Times / 3-10-2023

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Barbwire dark foreshadowings unfortunately have a way of becoming 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.

$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

Wasting workers where everybody knows your name
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 10-18-2023

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Andrew Barbano is a 55-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He was the longtime executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and has been a quarter-century member and 10-year officer of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

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

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
1947-2023

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