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

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. — 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

 

Betty J. Barbano 2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005 Remember her laughter On January 16, 1959, two babies were born. They became sisters in both life and death. Larry Barbano, Frater Mei 12-18-1947 / 10-18-2023

UPDATE: WORLDWIDE LEADER? ACT OF GOD OR JUST A GARDEN-VARIETY IMPOSSIBLE DREAMER? ALL OF THE ABOVE? VERY POSSIBLY. Was Andrew Barbano the only advocate for an American pope? Google apparently says YES! At minimum, the Barbwire stumped and broke Google trying to find out. See for yourself. And please lemme know what you think.

Payback Time: Colbert to PBS Never gonna happen? Neither was an American pope. See above. Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 7-23-2025 Guess what? 2-time Pulitzer winner Ann Telnaes went to Reno High School View her 'toon the Bezos WaPost censored Left: "Dead Puck" © 2025 Ann Telnaes (Also a bit of a self-portrait)

Lampoons & harpoons for poltroons, dragoons and buffoons
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-20-2025 / Updated 8-23-2025 GMT/ Expansions in blue

Greatest Hits Dept. Nevada Press Assn. Hall of Fame BREAKING NEWS—> 5 down, 3 to go 7-31-2025 Barbwire Winner Congratulations to Barbwire nominee Norman Cardoza, 1977 Pulitzer Prize winner, Reno Gazette-Journal 2024 Barbwire Winners! Jake Highton & Guy Louis Rocha 2024 honorees BUENO! Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame (2019) 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 (2012) Support Don Dondero and David Toll and Foster Church 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/9-29-2018 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!

BUBBLE RAP: Regular readers know well that I have a serious problem with rigged games like the retail price of gasoline or many items at your local grocery store.

The average American worker hasn't had a raise since 1973, adjusted for inflation, but prices always outstrip wages.

This has resulted in that nameless, seething frustration so many feel about running faster and faster on a treadmill while getting nowhere but tired.

Voters lashed out and decided to do something even if it's wrong. And did. Twice.

Which brings me to the biggest rigged game of all — the stock market, a casino by another label.

Gamblers know the term "flat show," a rigged carny game in which the players have absolutely no chance of winning.

Casinos are a flat show. Skillful gamblers, like blackjack card counters, are quickly 86'd and blackballed via a worldwide information sharing network.

I have lately seen reams of commentary, re-jiggered versions of age-old diatribes, about the resilience of the stock market. Nothing, not even T-Rump's transitory tantrums, keeps Wall Street down. Like the Tangerine Mussolini (props to Rosie O'Donnell), the market defies gravity.

None of the recent commentary adequately explains Wall Street and all that I've read ignores a hidden given: computerized trading using killer algorithms.

A few years ago, I read about one major money outfit that even built its own fiber optic system — a private Internet over miles and miles — so that its computerized trades could profit on any trend, no matter how momentary.

Let's say a stock trading in Hong Kong takes a slight dip. Before New York gets the update, the private system places the equivalent of a bet that the stock will fall, then cashes in.

Even if the whole deal lasts only five seconds and the profit is minuscule, multiply it by millions of transactions 24/7, and you've got an ever-burgeoning stock bubble.

Even if the bubble bursts, as they all do, the big traders make money no matter what the market does.

It's the equivalent of sports betting. The house always wins. Years ago, I was at the Sparks Nugget for some event and placed $20 on a ballgame that ended in a tie. When I went to get my money back the next time I was in the club, I got $19. The club kept "the vig" aka "vigorish," which used to define the Mafia's cut of every bet.

Now, it's the club's service charge plus federal tax. (Yes, Uncle Sam has long been in on the vig.)

What's the small investor to do? As the sign at Reno's late lamented Harolds Club once advised, "gamble no more than you can afford to lose."

Experts currently marvel at how overpriced stocks currently are. Red flag.

Be ultraconservative. Nothing's safe. And if you are fortunate enough to have savings in the current exploitive environment, hedge your bets with gold or reputable precious metal mutual funds.

Be forewarned that the above comes from a guy invested in none of the above.

SHIBBOLETH SHOOTOUTS. A "shibboleth" is a forbidden word. It comes from the Bible story that anyone who could not properly pronounce a password — a shibboleth — was identified as a warrior of the opposite tribe and immediately put to death.

Media types using certain shibboleths these days get scorned as skulduggerous lowlifes.

For instance, some folks don't want the current bloody Gaza oppression called a "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing." OK. How about "special military operation"? (Props to Czar Putin.)

Every day, politicians utter "thoughts and prayers" for the latest victims of gun violence. NONE dare utter the words "gun control." Another shibboleth.

Thoughts and prayers are cheap.

Here on the High Desert Plantation, educators and pols decry the holes in education budgets made worse by President Bulsha Tartist's tantrums.

NOBODY dares utter the shibboleths of "casino tax" or "mining tax," the base reasons for Nevada's neverending paucity of government services.

School kids don't need to eat, right? Hunger will toughen them up.

Where is Sen. Joe Neal when we need him?

THE ENDLESS SUMMER. I remember summers as a wonderful three months filled with adventures from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Nevada school kids get about six or seven weeks, ending last Monday.

So take the kids to Laborfest '25 at Idlewild Park on Sept. 1 and remember the good old days. See RenoLaborfest.com/

INFLATION NATION. Years ago, a caller to an LA talk show came up with a red flag to watch for: "When the price of a pound of hamburger reaches parity with an ounce of gold." Ouch.

Beef prices have skyrocketed as have gold prices — both of which forecast a bad moon on the rise.

ENTERTAINMENT EXCESS. This weekend, a "battle of the bands" is scheduled at the Sparks Marina. They'd get more attention if they called it the Battle of the Buns. (For a moment, I bet you thought I was going to get down and dirty, didn't you? Perish forbid.)

The Barbwire Battle of the Buns promotion would be conducted by those competitively selling hot dogs and hamburgers at the Battle of the Bands ± irrespective of the physical attributes of the vendors.

Get the latest boosters, protect yourself and your family by masking up, continue praying for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Ethiopia and the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours.

¡Sí se puede! Or, as they say in Poland, SOLIDARNOSC!

Legendary union leader, former Polish president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa's national speaking tour begins later this month in LA.

He'll appear in every major market save Washington DC. He's apparently lived through enough martial law imposed by tyrants. See HistoryExplorer.com/

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 56-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 and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member 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. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

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. Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

Blame Nevada for T-Rump cancer
37th anniversary Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-13-2025
Updated 8-14-2025 GMT/ Expansions in blue

"Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty." — Hannah Arendt via Paul Krugman/Substack 8-13-25

My fading "Bernie 2016" bumper sticker still stands strong, propped up in my office window. A neighbor still has his yard sign in his garage.

I had the rare privilege and high honor of speaking with and interviewing the great one three times. You know him. In person, he is exactly what you see on TV, grandpa trying to help you along.

By 643 whole votes in the 2016 Nevada presidential caucus, Nevada doomed American democracy to our current mad king.

Bernie was sweeping to the nomination but U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did not want it to happen.

Organized labor was staying neutral. Harry pushed some Las Vegas union guys to go all-out for Hillary Clinton. Harry got major LV Strip hotels to set up polling places in their properties so workers could vote onsite.

Mrs. Clinton won by a whopping 643 votes. Sen. Reid did to Bernie what Rep. James Clyburn did to Bernie in South Carolina four years later.

The net effect of both Democratic disasters is President Bulsha Tartist, our first fascist dictator.

I don't write these words lightly, but with heavy heart. I was sent on this path down Amnesia Lane by David Brooks' NYTimes column of two weeks ago, "The Key to Democrats Becoming Relevant Again,"(Sunday, August 3, national print edition).

Brooks is a rare rational conservative, a moral and wise man. But he moved me to high dudgeon (that means he REALLY pissed me off) when he wrote "The central argument of the 21st Century is no longer over the size of government, (but) over who can best strengthen the social order. In this contest, the Republicans have their champion, and the Democrats aren't even on the field." (Emphasis added.)

BULL!

This smarmy viewpoint has afflicted America since the Red Scare era of madcap Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wisc.

It raised its ugly head again in last week's Reno Kazoo-Journal when an otherwise rational reporter posed the 2025 version of the McCarthy question: "Is Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford too liberal to win Nevada?"

My head ached with echoes of Nevada as Mississippi West: How many readers would jump to "too black" or "too commie?"

Ford is running against incumbent T-Rump shill Gov. Giuseppe Lumbago, now presiding over La Migra roundups of unionized casino workers among others who look too dark to be proper Americans.

The Washoe County Jail is being expanded to house more brown people as the alternative to losing other federal funding.

Is a red light in the window included in the budget?

David Brooks is dead wrong. Democrats have a stablefull of champions. Bernie, who's non-partisan, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. D-NY, have been drawing rock-star volume crowds all across the country. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., stands as tall. The Donkeyite farm team is impressive.

Alas and alack, the legit media deem them and their peers "out of the mainstream." Bull.

Bernie, AOC and their crew remain and have been exactly where America is: national health care, access to life-saving prescriptions, free college education, feeding children, rebuilding the middle class which has shrunk since King Ronald the Vague began the process in earnest in 1981.

T-Rump just appointed a for-profit college shill to a high post. All schools should be run by for-profit corporations, right?

Brooks' NYTimes column was titled "The Key to Democrats' Becoming Relevant Again."

Alas and alack, he falls into the T-Rump trap of playing the Tangerine Mussolini's game.

Racist and woman-hating talk show demagogue Rush Limbaugh so demonized the word "liberal" (which just means "open -minded") that now liberals call themselves "progressives." (I had the distinct privilege and high honor of defeating Lush Rambo on the radio in northern Nevada long ago.)

Democrat, liberal, progressive — labels don't matter, leaders do.

We live in such a climate of fascist fear that people are afraid to sign petitions to their government. Scratch one more constitutional right. Use it or lose it.

Chinese, Russian and N. Korean artificial intelligence operations are going to have a field day in conspiracy theory-driven America.

Question everything and everyone. Think for yourself. Don't allow yourself to be spoonfed.

Our nation's capital is now under martial law.

Fight back or be flat or your back.

If our mad king can outlaw birthright citizenship, that means all people born within the U.S. are not really citizens. Can only naturalized citizens thus be allowed to vote? Or will citizenship simply be defined as whatever T-Rump wants it to be?

T-Rump needs another war to justify spreading his cancer. Mexico? Canada? Denmark? (I'm in favor of trading Texas and Florida straight up to the Danes for Greenland.)

Nordic lands have much to teach us. Peace breeds prosperity. Alas and alack, this monster mannunkind (props to poet e.e. cummings) seems bent on destroying itself.

Trying to psychoanalyze the mind of a madman is fruitless, but here's one more try. T-Rump is not an educated man. Long ago, somebody told him that the federal government was largely funded by a national sales tax (aka tariffs) — back in 1789. Gowabunga!

His tariff mania has one logical result. He wants to go down in history as the man who repealed the income tax. (And saddled the have-nots with the bill.)

Nevada spawned T-Rump. Reversing that criminal tide can start right here.

Fight back, dammit! You have everything to lose.

Get the latest boosters, protect yourself and your family by masking up, continue praying for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Ethiopia and the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours.

¡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.)

Or, as they say in Poland, SOLIDARNOSC! (Lech Walesa begins a nationwide speaking tour in Los Angeles later this month.)

 

 

 

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 56-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 and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member 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. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

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. Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

 

 

UPDATE: WORLDWIDE LEADER? ACT OF GOD OR JUST A GARDEN-VARIETY IMPOSSIBLE DREAMER? ALL OF THE ABOVE? VERY POSSIBLY. Was Andrew Barbano the only advocate for an American pope? Google apparently says YES! At minimum, the Barbwire stumped and broke Google trying to find out. See for yourself. And please lemme know what you think.

Let it Be: An American Pope Francis2
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-23-2025, uploaded 4-22-2025
Updated 4-23-2025/ Expansions in blue

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me,
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.
And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me,
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be." — Paul McCartney & John Lennon, 1970

Listen up, guys. And I mean all you guys, the 138 old men in red robes who will soon spend a few days in the world's most exclusive frat house, illustrations by Michelangelo.

I am one of your flock. I received the fabled indelible marks on my soul which the church says makes me a member in vitam aeternam.

The United States has helped all of your countries over the past century or so. Now we need saving.

Don't just do it for us, do it for yourselves and your flocks. We are still the fattest, richest, most powerful country in the world.

Alas and alack, darkness has engulfed us. We have raised demons of our own making who spread the plague of ignorance.

We are paying a heavy price, but so are you, and all the weak and the meek who look up to you.

Just the mindless and cruel elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development has already caused many of your children to die horrible deaths from starvation and preventable diseases.

We Americans of peace stand cold and naked in our hour of darkness.

We have lost our way and flail about in dire need of a leader who will guide us out of the wilderness before ignorance and fear engulf the entire world.

Let there be a United States pope and may he take the name of Francis the Second.

Powerful and symbolic, it will convey to the misbegotten that they follow the wrong path, a journey toward misery rather than mercy.

Mercy — If there is one word that defines the life of Pope Francis, that more than suffices.

Yes, our war machine continues to cause unconscionable harm in many of the unfortunate climes of this small planet.

But it has been and can be repurposed to light our way, to finally give peace a chance.

War is the most counterproductive addiction of our still-evolving species.

Small souls now use America's power to further the goals of the unenlightened, the self-centered, the greedy.

The merciless.

Francis saw the good in all of us and of this magical little world which blesses us as our home. God gave us each other to care for each other. Many wise prophets have come forth to teach us wisdom and mercy.

Alas, so many of us and our brethren have ears but will not hear, eyes that will not see, perpetrating wars in the name of their gods in order to enrich themselves.

Jesus left us with one over-riding and oft-ignored admonition: "Whatsoever you do to these, the least of my brethren, you do also to me."

America has been your shield for a century. Now, that shield has fallen to the soaked battleground.

You must help us pick it up.

The promise, the idea, the hopefulness of America still stirs the imagination of the world, especially the oppressed yearning to breathe free.

Francis saw the desperation caused by our lack of proper stewardship of our home. The dispossessed move by the millions into the wilderness.

Francis taught us not to react with fear but love.

America is a land of immigrants, going back to the first wanderers from Asia who crossed arctic ice and looked southward.

The north has prospered but the world's southern hemisphere still lies sore oppressed.

The Catholic Church long ago stopped growing in the north because of the narrowness of small men.

Help America rejuvenate our tremendous potential for mercy. We need only follow the better angels of our nature.

Give us an American pope. He need not be from your number, perhaps a humble priest who has demonstrated the resolve of a fatherly lion.

The past errors of the church's ways came thru common human weakness.

Please, shed the shackles of 5,000 years of the primacy of the primitive.

Embrace the enlightenment which radiates all around. And recognize the intrinsic — yes, God-given — value of all living things.

Send us new hope. We have proven how much good we can do and how much harm we can avoid.

Embrace the large to enhance the small. Wisely fill the Shoes of the Fisherman.

You may well not get many more opportunities.

And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree
There will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be. Let it be.

And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me
Shinin' until tomorrow, let it be.
I wake up to the sound of music, Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be.

Get the latest boosters, mask up and continue praying for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Pope Francis, Ukraine, Gaza and the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours.

¡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.)

Or, as they say in Poland, SOLIDARNOSC!

 

 

UPDATE: WORLDWIDE LEADER? ACT OF GOD OR JUST A GARDEN-VARIETY IMPOSSIBLE DREAMER? ALL OF THE ABOVE? VERY POSSIBLY. Was Andrew Barbano the only advocate for an American pope? Google apparently says YES! At minimum, the Barbwire stumped and broke Google trying to find out. See for yourself. And please lemme know what you think.

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 56-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 and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member 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. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

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

Pinky & the Brain taking over the world
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-2-2025

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 On January 16, 1959, two babies were born. They became sisters in both life and death. Larry Barbano, Frater Mei 12-18-1947 / 10-18-2023