BARBWIRE
by
ANDREW BARBANO
Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream
The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames


Barbwire
Archives

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

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

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

Andrew Barbano Editor/Publisher
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.

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



Joyfulness replaces Dejoylessness
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-28-2024 / Updated 8-28-2024 GMT / Expansions in blue /


Greatest Hits Dept.

NPA Hall of Fame

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

BREAKING NEWS—>
New Barbwire Winners!

Jake Highton & Guy Louis Rocha 2024 honorees BUENO!
4 down, 4 to go

Support Don Dondero
and David Toll and
Foster Church and
Norman Cardoza
next.
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/9-29-201
8

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 statewid e 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!

 

The hit man assigned to destroy the US Postal Service is skulking around northern Nevada this week.

Betwixt now and Friday, Aug. 30, US Postmaster General Louis the Clueless DeJoyless will address a rural letter carriers national convention at the Peppermill Hotel-Casino.

Media and public attendance blackouts have been announced. Only NevadaLabor.com and Barbwire e-list readers even knew that the lowlife was going to be in town.

I learned from a tip early Monday morning, spread the word and the legit media bit with full incisors.

Monday evening, a large crowd of postal workers and other union members rallied in front of Reno City Hall. Curiously, TV coverage did not mention Dejoyless coming to town.

Probably because he's dodging the public in general and his own postal workers in particular. Ben Franklin, he ain't.

"Melissa Ray with the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association confirmed DeJoy would be speaking but said the proceedings at their convention are not open to the public or media. It is unclear what day DeJoy will speak," KRNV TV-4 reported after I notified them.

Moving regional mail sorting from Reno to W. Sacramento would accelerate erosion of northwestern Nevada and eastern California delivery.

Dejoyless is perpetrating similar dastardly deeds all across the country. His first task when appointed in 2020 was ordering destruction of countless millions of dollars worth of mail sorting equipment, claiming that it was no longer needed.

All just in time for the 2020 election with huge swaths of the nation using mail-in ballots for the first time, much of it necessitated by Czar T-Rump's dereliction of duty on the COVID-19 plague.

Hmmm...in whose interest was it to suppress voting?

Dejoyless' appointment by the Postal Board of Governors was heavily criticized but it didn't matter. He had donated more than $1.2 million to Trump's campaign "and millions more to Republican Party organizations and candidates. He was also in charge of fundraising for the (2020) Republican National Convention," National Public Radio reported. (NPR 5-7-2020)

President Bush the Lesser appointed his wife as U.S. ambassador to Estonia and Czar Donaldov nominated her to be ambassador to Canada.

Dejoy got the USPS coming and going. His companies did billions in business with the postal service repairing equipment before he ordered mass destruction. It's no secret that he favors privatization, a guaranteed way of making a rich man into a filthy and obscenely wealthy oligarch. Witness T-Rump's idol, Russia's Vlad the Impaler and his buds.

Just as privatization of the Nevada injured workers insurance system and the theft of Reno's Washoe Medical Center (now the Renown octopus) made a few guys filthy rich, Dejoy has dreams of sugar-coated packages dancing in his hairless head.

Once upon a time, a letter mailed from me to a next-door neighbor would take just a day. (I tested it.)

Now, just getting something from Sparks to Reno takes two days and sometimes more. The national standard was once two days to anywhere in the continental U.S. Not no more, bro.

The legit media have long reported that the postal service loses money every year.

Untrue. Congress passed a poison pill requiring the semi-private USPS to shunt billions every year into a retirement plan for workers who have not yet been born — 75 years into the future. No other organization public or private labors under such a financial burden.

And who suffers? Us peons.

STOP THE PRESSES. Today's column is a perfect example of why I have driven so many Tribune editors to drink. Getting a piece done early means it might be stale by the time it hits doorsteps.

So, sorry boss. On Tuesday morning, the Reno Gazette-Journal broke the story that the postal service has announced scuttling of the plan to move mail sorting to California. Alleluia.

RGJ.com made no mention of Dejoyless at the convention.

He was appointed to make the service so bad that nationwide privatization for profit would look undeniable.

The Postal Board of Governors needs to fire this yayhoo NOW!

WELL DESERVED AND STILL WAITING. As I reported last week, Tribune alumni Guy Louis Rocha and Jake Highton are now successful 2024 Barbwire nominees to the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. They will be honored at the NPA state convention in Reno next month.

Jake and Guy were the third and fourth Barbwire candidates. RGJ columnist Guy Richardson and Trib alum Dennis Myers preceded them.

Nevada historian and author Guy was honored at a private luncheon this month and may or may not attend the September awards presentation, depending on his health.

UNR Journalism Emeritus Professor Jake passed away a couple of years ago.

Four in, four to go. (See right—>) I have campaigned for legendary photographer and Trib contributor Donald Dondero for many years. The late Gold Hill News publisher, author David Toll, recently joined the list.

Then there are two great journalists who have been shamefully ignored for decades, the late Foster Church and Reno resident Norman Cardoza.

Those gentlemen shared Nevada's first Pulitzer Prize in 1977 and have been ignored by the NPA.

I will continue my campaign while I draw breath. Hope springs eternal, Norm.

I REPEAT: Vaxx up, dammit! COVID is running wild and will get worse as fall approaches. The Democratic National Convention turned into a superspreader because so many think the plague is over. Hundreds of Americans are dying each week.

Get the latest booster, stay safe and continue to pray for Ukraine and almost 100 other currently war-torn lands.

¡ 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 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.

 

 

 

 


Across the Universe
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-21-2024

Prophets and Profits
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."— Groucho Marx

Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno
/
Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-14-2024

Miss Priscilla Goodbody channels Princess Cassandra
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno
/
Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 7-19-2023

Love letters from Miss Priscilla Goodbody
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno
/
Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 7-12-2023

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

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

For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now, subscribe to BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL—>Cheap. (HushHush!) Hie thee to BallotBoxing.US/


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!)

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

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

NevadaLabor.com | U-News | Bulletins + Almanac
Casinos Out of Politics (COP) | Sen. Joe Neal
Guinn Watch | Deciding Factors
| BallotBoxing.US
DoctorLawyerWatch.com | Barbwire Oilogopoly Archive
Barbwire Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive
The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames
Annual César Chávez Celebration
War Rooms:
Banks, Cabbies, Cabela's/cabellyup, Cable TV, Cancer Kids/Mining, Energy, Food, Health Care, Resurge.TV/consumers, Starbucks, Wal-Mart
We Don't Need No Education
In Search Of...


Barbwire
Archives


Copyright © 1982-2024 Andrew Barbano

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

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

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated. Sign up for news and bulletins