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

Breaking News & then some—>

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

 

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

Hustlers, Shucksters, Hucksters & Suckers
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-23-2026 / UPDATED 9-25-2026 / Expansions in blue


Greatest Hits Dept.

BREAKING NEWS—>

BOXCARS!
Barbwire wins 12th Nevada Press Association award

Hi yo Silver 2025
3-12-2025
4-17-2024
4-3-2024

Nevada Press Assn.
Hall of Fame
5 down, 4 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 and Ed Pearce 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!

 

 "Son, no matter how far you travel, or how smart you get, always remember this:  Someday, somewhere, a guy is going to come to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is never broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that the jack of spades will jump out of this deck and squirt cider in your ear. But son, do not bet him, for as sure as you do, you are going to get an ear full of cider." —Damon Runyon "The Idyll of Ms. Sarah Brown" 1933, "Guys & Dolls" 1950

Never, EVER, play the other guy's game. The fabled, foibled and confused Fake News Media are finally learning Runyon's lesson.

In 2017, I advised my exalted media colleagues how to treat quotations from Chairman Mouth: Send his wonderfulness to Page Six, the entertainment and gossip column.

The New York Daily News started Page Six shortly after Lord Rupert Murdoch took over the paper in 1976. It was an instant hit. The front page featured important stuff rather than what color panties some startlet lost at Studio 54.

After T-Rump's triumph, the legit news media continued to play by obsolete rules. Chairman Mouth never did.

Over half a century ago, I took a campaign press release into the Reno Gazette-Journal newsroom. The exalted executive editor said "none of this is a quote by your candidate. I can't use it. If your candidate says it, then it's news."

Huh? (We won.)

A few years later, I walked another release into the RGJ. It carried lotsa candidate quotes. A former editor of this newspaper was in charge and asked me where my guy said it. I said s/he didn't. It's a press release.

She scribbled "not in public forum" across it and the statement never ran. Public forum? Your freakin' newspaper is a public forum, lady!

Fast-forward half a century and the legit news media are finally giving The Orange Crusher the treatment he deserves. In a typical fit of little-girl petulance, Petula T-Rump kicked out White House reporters from CNN, Politico and MSNOW (formerly MicroSoftNBC or MSNBC) because they had been mean to him. That finally shook the cider out of their stuffy ears.

They have finally put the sumbitch thru addiction withdrawal. Psychos like Czar T-Rumpoff are hooked on the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd. Gotta have the rush of adulation.

A reporter recently asked a lawyer about his convicted client, Sam Bankman-Fried, the imprisoned founder of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange. The young sicko burned thru $26 billion convincing suckers that his get-rich-quick scheme was unlike the others. Ear cider still befuddles other senses, especially common sense.

The attorney was asked if SBF was given the choice of a low-security Club Fed-style prison with no Internet access or life in solitary confinement but with a computer, which would he choose.

"Solitary," said the lawyer. Shuckster Sam still needed to feel the crowd.

New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik wrote a book telling you all you need to know about Flabby 47: "Audience of One." (W.W. Norton,2019)

The first chapter was entitled "Keeping the Red Light On." It had nothing to do with prostitution, but the irony remains inescapable.

T-Rump learned early that when pontificating and bloviating for media suckers, if camera red lights flickered off, they had all they needed and were not recording. So you had to quickly start slinging some horse prunes to get the red lights back on.

A decade ago, I advocated editorial discretion — only putting T-Rump on TV when he had something of value to say, not when he was dancing to gay rock 'n' roll. Such drivel belongs on Page 6.

The hoary admonition "If your candidate says it, then it's news" has finally been pickled in cider. But the vinegar has soured democracy and turned our government into just another corporate Ponzi scheme. And a bad TV sitcom.

Sometimes I hate it when I'm right.

UPDATE —> AT LAST! CNN edits T-Rump for relevance The New York Times / 9-22-2026

RECOMMENDED READING: The redoubtable Thom Hartmann just put up a story about the propagandist who came up with the slogan "supply-side economics," conservative dogma to this day. Jude Wanniski wrote a Wall Street Journal column about how tax cuts would stimulate the economy and the rich beneficiaries would trickle down money all over us. In other words, how to have your soggy cake and still eat it, too. (Link at the expanded edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com)

The Barbwire never forgets. At the Las Vegas Review-Journal in the 1960s, Wanniski's column was used to publish phonied-up backgrounds of Republican candidates provided by his editor. Some won.

Hartmann draws a direct line from Wanniski to Reagan to T-Rump, all promising free pie in the sky. At least Cowboy Ron had the smarts to get outta Dodge when 241 U.S. servicemembers were killed in a 1983 Beirut barracks suicide-bombing.

Paraphrasing W.C. Fields, "You can fool some of the people some of the time, and that's usually enough."

MELT ICE—> MASK UP! Get the latest boosters. COVID is back —> big-time and with its big brother, the flu. Protect yourself and your family. Continue emanating vibes and prayers for the unvaxxed, unenlightened and oppressed as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Sarah Mullally (the new Archbishop of Canterbury), Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burma/Myanmar (Rohingya genocide) and eastern China (Uyghur genocide) among the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours.

May we survive WW3, perhaps coming soon to a polling place near you. Be very afraid. Speak. Act.Bnd vote, dammit.

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

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 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member of 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 Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024. For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now, head for BallotBoxing.US.

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

An e-mail from God
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-16-2026 / Expansions in blue

The Tech Bros of Billionaire Hell have their golden shorts all in bunch worrying about their own mortality. Who deserves to live forever more than them?

They have proven their superiority above all other life forms in the history of this world and undoubtedly all others as evidenced by the only measure that counts: Their bank balances.

They live in a teenage sci-fi fantasy. That book was written years ago and they just ripped off author Poul Anderson's (1926-2001) idea: When your body starts to wear out, convert your consciousness into x's and o's and kick the whole schmear into a fleshyesque robot. Better than cryo-freezing your head? (Wall Street investor warning: Don't invest in actual Nevada cat houses. Busty carbon-based life forms are inefficient.)

I bet the idea wasn't original with Poul A. either. He wrote "The Fleet of Stars" (final of a trilogy, Tor Books, 1997) more than 30 years ago. Hmmm...

That's about the time when today's Tech Bros were hiding under blankets committing unspeakable acts with flashlights focused on dirty magazines.

Anderson preached very Libertarian follytix with his novels. Anti-tax, government stupid and bad, well-armed corporations are good guys. His crew of raunchy rambunctious free-enterprise rangers have today morphed into the black-garbed sadists of ICE.

Life again imitates art, but not always in a good way. Chainsaw Elon wants to emigrate to Mars. (The sooner, the better for all of us, bro. I have a few suggestions for shipmates.)

How arrogant are these lowlifes? Well, you know who their godhead-on-earth is, so nothing should surprise you. GOP MAGA moonhowler mega-donor tech bro Peter Thiel actually trashed little Greta Thunberg (who became world-famous just a few years ago picketing for peace), as the spirit of the anti-Christ.

"In the 21st Century, the Anti-Christ is a Luddite who wants to stop all science," stated Scrooge McThiel. Ms. Thunberg, now 23, was pirated at sea by the Israeli Navy, arrested, brought to a prison and deported — all for being on a ship loaded with relief supplies for Gaza genocide victims.

Thiel's trashing should put her on track for a well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize. I know the Orange Crusher is jealous.

I'm not worried about the much-discussed Ai Apocalypse anytime soon. The Bros have virused economic collapse inside the Wall Street Ai Bubble. It will take years (and a new FDR or JFK like Sen. John Ossoff (D-Ga.) to right the ship. At least their funny money is creating a lot of construction jobs. At last count, 48 data centers now hum in Washoe County.

The major force which might delay this zombie apocalypse might be a good (?) old-fashioned depression.

Pope Francis termed our time as a slow-moving World War3. I accuse macho greed. Barbwire readers know my major solution lies with a majority of women controlling government. Men have proven incompetent. Hell, they are inviting the 'bots in! Arnold, stop them!\

This wholesale violation of all 10 Commandments comes concurrent with untold wonders. Moderna and Merck have actually developed silver bullets to cure cancer ala carte —> customized to YOU. A woman with a paralyzing brain disorder was able to speak after a brain implant interacting with a computer interface. (See the expanded Barbwire at NevadaLabor.com/)

OK, Mr. Thiel. You worship science above all others. Turn your Ai loose on an e-mail from God hisself. (Apologies to Gloria Steinem et al.)

After years of researching, the LZ Dark Matter Experiment, buried underground in South Dakota with more than seven tons of liquid xenon, finally got something never seen: evidence of a particle from the dark matter which comprises 85 percent of the known universe.

Us mere mortals are only aware of about 10 percent of our little reality. The rest is immense, immutable, unknowable and immune to analysis. When dark matter and dark energy first entered public consciousness over three decades ago, it was familiar. As a recovering Catholic, I wrote about it in these pages: Astronomers just took the first picture of God.

She does not look like Charlton Heston on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel. Alas and alack, this "monster mannunkind" (props to e.e. cummings) will accept no god not made unto man's image and likeness.

"What arrogance," wiseman George Carlin once groused. He called God "The Big Electron," vibrating all around us. "It doesn't judge. It just is." Quite Catholic. Dark Matter, get up some Dark Energy and call your office. We need all the help we can get.

THE SAND PAINTINGS OF TIME. I will properly roll the universe into an understandable ball in the book I'm writing. The topic is ecumenical: Everything you see, hear and feel.

"In 2021, (Amazon's Jeff) Bezos sent...William Shatner (to space). Best known as Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, (he) was on board (to fulfill one of Bezos’ boyhood fantasies, of course)...as the now 95-year-old actor watched our blue-and-green planet recede from the window, he was suddenly flooded with terror. 'The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness,' he later recalled, explaining that he had gained a much deeper appreciation for our planet’s sublime and fragile gifts.

“ 'Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna … things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind,' Shatner wrote. He took the trip expecting to be awestruck by the universe and instead he longed for home the minute he left: 'I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us.' ” (From The Guardian: Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor's new book "End Times Fascism")

AFTER THE TRIBUNE HAD GONE TO PRESS—> Biana Golodryga of Amanpour & Company interviews Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, co-authors of the very important new book "End Times Fascism."

AFTER THE TRIBUNE HAD GONE TO PRESS: BLOWING BUBBLES —> The most concise and insightful economic forecast I've seen in a long time —> Amanpour & Company's Walter Isaacson interviews Rana Foroohar, Associate Editor of The Financial Times, author of a new book "Sea Change: America's New Great Game in the Arctic Circle."

You possess all the knowledge you need, dear reader. The Age of Aquarius dawns —> if we don't blow it up first. Now speak. Act. Vote, dammit!

MELT ICE—> MASK UP! Get the latest boosters. COVID is back —> big and with its big brother, the flu. Protect yourself and your family. Continue emanating vibes and prayers for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Sarah Mullally (the new Archbishop of Canterbury), Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burma/Myanmar (Rohingya genocide) and eastern China (Uyghur genocide) among the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours.

May we survive WW3, perhaps coming soon to a polling place near you. Be very afraid. And vote, dammit.

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

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 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member of 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 Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024. For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now, head for BallotBoxing.US.

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

Inside Petula T-Rump's Closet—> Lust among the vampires
T-RUMP'S ULTIMATE COHN-JOB
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno/ Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-9-2026 / UPDATED 9-8 & 9-9, 9-10 -2026 / Expansions in blue

2026-09-08 18:47 PDT
From: barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us
To: News <news@ballotboxing.us>

Dear Onliners: "The Man Who Knew" (see below) airs TONIGHT, Tuesday Sept. 9, at 10pm PDT on PBS-RENO TV-5 and repeats thereat 3:00 a.m. PDT tomorrow, Wednesday 9/9. If it hasn't been totally scrubbed under MAGA Moonhowler pressure (see below), you may view it online hereat: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/script.html

For further great depression and obsession, read on. I promise a refreshing tonic at the conclusion. Unjoy and enjoy. Thank you kindly for your support.

Be well. Raise hell. Stay safe.

Andrea Luigi Quarantino Barbano

Who Do You Really Love? Lust among vampires
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-9-2026

UPDATED 9-10-2026—>PBS NEWS HOUR CHICKENS OUT, LEAVES COHN-TRUMP EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT OUT OF INTERVIEW WITH "AMERICAN SCOUNDREL" AUTHOR

PBS chickened out with interview of "American Scoundrel" author Kai Bird. He did note that the gay Roy Cohn aggressively persecuted his fellow gays while serving in government, most prominently as "bulldog" for Red Scare Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-Wisc.).

Bird noted without elaboration that McCarthy was "a bit of an empty vessel," meaning Cohn was his Svengali. Kinda like President Petula.

Mr. Bird noted what is apparently his operating thesis, that Cohn (dead of AIDS in 1986) cross-cuts the entire history of this country since the 1950s. We used to have a government of give-and-take compromise to make things work. Cohn has changed it from the grave to our current malaise of bickering and hateful division.

I would like to ask Bird if Cohn coordinated with another self-loathing individual of similar alternative pro-creative proclivities, J. Edgar Hoover.

During his life tenure as FBI boss, Hoover gathered blackmail files on everybody who was anybody in Washington. In 1974, Washington Post legends Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein noted that President Lyndon Johnson had once convinced the toxic and malacious Hoover to retire. (Like legendary mob lawyer Oscar Goodman, future mayor of Las Vegas, Hoover always denied the existence of organized crime, whether Mafia, Syndicate or other-labeled.)

Oscar always blamed law enforcement's jacketing of "The Mob" as an excuse for police failure to control "street crime." Years later, he admitted that he had to perpetuate that shuck and jive.

When the Post broke the story of Hoover's agreement to retire, he went bananas and forced Johnson to hold a press conference appointing Hoover for life. See Woodstein's "All the President's Men," 1974.

Hoover was legendary in New Orleans, where he purportedly spent a couple of weeks every summer "on vacation" with his FBI No. 2. Mostly in a suite in a posh hotel. Mafia legend has it that NOLA crimelord Carlos Marcello had pictures of J. Edgar in a dress.

In the transactional epoch of Cohn/T-Rump, money talks, bullshit walks and the Golden Rule means the one with the gold makes the rules. And so we scream from the hinterlands of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream.

BTW: CNN now lists as aired Christiane Amanpour's Sept. 4 show which included Mr. Bird's interview. I have CNN screen grabs which show otherwise.

And so goes rape and pillage by the properly pecuniarily plump.

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.)

Quarantino

TRANSCRIPTS—>Judge for yourself
Christiane Amanpour and Bird, 4 Sept. 2026
Jeff Bennett and Bird, 9 Sept. 2026
If these become unavailable, e-me and I will forward. Thank you.

Who Do You Really Love? Lust among vampires
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-9-2026

COLUMNIATOR'S INTRO NOTE —>
DEAR READERS: I didn't have room in print for my original intro which premieres here.

NEWS ITEM: President T-Rump sez if he can't get his way, he'll take his ball on go home. If only. He's illegally (according to day-late/ball-short Chief Justice John Roberts) building his balls...er, ballroom. And if he can't place his monicker back on the shuttered DC John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he'll order it bulldozed like a larger White House East Wing. T-Rump's a petulant little girl. "Petulant" means insolent, rude, ill-humored, peevish, bad-tempered, irritable, sulky in a childish and unreasonable way, especially over small or trivial things...Impatient annoyance when things do not go one's way...Acting like an angry child who pouts, snaps or complains over minor frustrations."

Apostate Oval OfficeTraitor and Outlaw, I dub thee here and foreverafter to be known as Petula T-Rump. (Sincere apologies to the great Petula Clark.)

ANNOUNCER: Time for Barbano on the Barbwire here on KROK-26fm, the Big KROK serving the High Desert Outback of the American Dream from American Flats.

INTRO MUSIC (Leonard Cohen): 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...

BARBANO: Good morning Nevada, California and all the ships at sea. I'm Barbano on the Barbwire, the radio show featuring open lines for open minds all the time. Not a podcast, a live people cast. No holds barred. Small minds discuss people. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas. We conspire and aspire to that third level of conversational consciousness.

First up today, a reminder that, as the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 approaches, the de-funded but never-de-fanged PBS is re-airing the 2002 episode of "Frontline" chronicling the impeachable offenses of President Dubya and his infernal general John Ashcroft, the defrocked Missouri senator.

Ashcroft and Dubya Bush were so busy cutting taxes for their rich friends that they shut their eyes to the looming holocaust. Ashcroft told his staff he didn't want to hear "another word" about terrorism. The re-run aired while this paper was on the press. You may access it pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/

"The Man Who Knew" tells the story of how Ashcroft and the FBI kept the New York FB I office in the dark about all those Arabians learning to fly but not take off or land commercial airliners.

Maverick agent John O'Neill was the bureau's best expert on Al Qaeda but not a Hooveresque team player. The FBI is a dark exercise in black-suit conformity and the nation continues to pay the price.

So did O'Neill. On 9/10, he told former FBI colleagues something bad was coming from Al Qaeda but he didn't know what it might be. He started his new job as World Trade Center director of security on 9/11, whereat firefighters later found his body.

You may access reruns at PBS-Reno https://watch.pbsreno.org/video/frontline-the-man-who-knew/ Additional links to the transcript at NevadaLabor.com/

Speaking of transcripts, another subversive PBS show, Amanpour and Company punched hard last week.

Last Friday, Christiane .Amanpour interviewed historian Kai Bird, author of a new book "American Scoundrel" about soulless attorney Roy Cohn, whose clients included Red-Scare Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-Wisc.), all five New York Mafia families and Donald J. Trump. I was amazed.

CNN DID NOT AIR the show according to CNN.com! (I screen-grabbed that info trying to find the usual transcript. If you can find it, please send it.) Now in the middle of the CBS-Paramount/Time-Warner merger which killed Stephen Colbert's Emmy-winner, I smell serious censorship from the top. Fortunately, PBS picked it up as usual and it aired here last Friday.

I did multiple websearches for the transcript to no avail. Some stations display Mr. Bird's face but no link to the program, including Rocky Mountain PBS and CNN.com itself. NADA!

Wonder why? The lines are lit. I'm Barbano and you're on the Barbwire...

CALLER FROM DAYTON: Andy, I saw the show. The most surprising part was that Trump came to the openly-gay Roy Cohn's funeral, sat in the back and wept in public throughout. Cohn died of AIDS.

Kai Bird told Amanpour that it was the only time he could find any evidence of Trump EVER showing any human emotion. Trump even hosted a private dinner for his mentor's intimates at Mar-A-Loco in FLorida afterward.

BARBANO: I guess buzzards of a feather flock together. Got a call from Elko...

ELKO CALLER: Andy, have you ever seen the play "The Boys in the Band"?

AB: Yes. It was an off-Broadway sensation in 1968, played Caesars Palace in LV in 1969 and became two major feature films and a Tony-winning revival with an all-star cast in 2018. It was about Alan, a "straight" but questioning guest who crashes a party hosted by his gay college buddy Michael. The characters represent the entire spectrum of gay malehood. The first act is hilarious, the second, poignant.

ELKO: Do you remember the vicious game?

AB: Yes. All attendees' names get put into a hat. The "winner" must call "the only person in the world he truly loves" and admit it out loud while the assemblage listens. The questioning visitor "wins" and his host hands him the phone. He dials.

"Hi. This is Alan. Sorry I haven't called. I'm at Michael's house and I called to say I love you."

Alan hands to phone to Michael who asks "who's this?...

"Oh, hi Madelyn, yes this is Michael. Alan just dropped by to visit. He says he's flying home tonight. Hug the kids and don't wait up."

Alan says good evening and leaves, after which Michael muses "He never did say why he came." [1]

ELKO: Makes you wonder what Donald Trump would do in that situation. Would he call Ivana or Ivanka? Marla Maples? Stormy Daniels? Melania? Or...

AB: ...Or Roy? What do you think, America? Lemme know next time. That's it for today's show. I leave you dancing. We can't find The Village People's "YMCA," so cue ABBA guys. Be well. Raise hell.

MUSIC (ABBA): Anybody could be that guy/ Night is young and the music's high/ With a bit of rock music, everything is fine/ You're in the mood for a dance/ And when you get the chance/ You are the dancing queen...(fade to news)...

PUBLIC SERVICE AD—>SOMETHING BETTER: Go the the front page of NevadaLabor.com for Norman Rockwell's 1961 Saturday Evening Post cover painting "The Golden Rule." Alas and alack, love's labours lost. I wept like T-Rump at a funeral. .

MELT ICE—> MASK UP! Get the latest boosters. COVID is back —> big and with its big brother, the flu. Protect yourself and your family. Continue emanating vibes and prayers for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Sarah Mullally (the new Archbishop of Canterbury), Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burma/Myanmar (Rohingya genocide) and eastern China (Uyghur genocide) among the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours.

May we survive WW3, perhaps coming soon to a polling place near you. Be very afraid. And vote, dammit.

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

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 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member of 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 Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024. For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now, head for BallotBoxing.US.

[1] Playwright dialogue approximated from the foggy mists of memory.

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

Hawk Fire burns 10,500 acres —> Evacuations remain
Reno Gazette-Journal update 06:38a.m. PDT 8-23-2026

01:58 PDT 8-23-2026—>Reno Nevada Hawk Fire Evacuation and Warning Info
Perimetermap.com is vague. Google Ai shows the current evacuation area. Google hawk fire reno nevada update evacuation/ CALL 775-882-TALK [8255] or Send updates and I will do the same / Stay safe. ANDREW QUARANTINO BARBANO

8-26-26: Going to Heaven in a Flash of Fire

9-2-2026: How Green Was My Valley

Instant Replay—>Top 10 Cures for What Ails Us
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno/ Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-19-2026
/ UPDATED 8-23-2026 / Expansions in blue

NVEnergy tries to fry your grandma
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno/ Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 8-5-2026 / UPDATED 8-5-2026 / Expansions in blue

Billionaire Warren Buffet's NVEnergy tried to broil grannyburgers this week and something stopped them. Maybe me.

The Mid-'26 Barbwire Blue-footed Booby Prizes
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno/ Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 7-29-2026
/ UPDATED 8-5-2026 / Expansions in blue

Barbwire addicts know that I usually call out the Booby Birds at the end of December. But booby mating season comes in July and August. Timing is everything whether or not you're into rhythm methods.

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

Big news. Prayers answered: Pope takes on T-Rump head-to-head.

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 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
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

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
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 © 1982-2026 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 57-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. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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