BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream

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The exclamation point of a successful con comes when the mark doesn't realize it even while getting kissed afterwards.

Some just won't recognize a hooker hustle despite abundant warning signs.

Long ago, moralist George Carlin decried ever-expanding euphemisms. "Shell shock," a perfectly good descriptive of the horrors of WWI, became "battle fatigue" in WW2.

The same soldier malady morphed into "operational exhaustion" and is now the dehumanized, bloodless "post-traumatic stress disorder."

The modern pseudo-scientific discipline of "corporate communications" was once "public relations," re-labeled from the unpalatable WWI term of "propaganda." (Chronologically count the syllables.)

Back in my talk radio incarnation when I regularly whipped Lush Rambo's pompous ass, I often noted that most news items get planted in the media by PR guys like me.

After so stating one day, I had occasion to visit the Reno Gazette-Journal newsroom. A longtime reporter, overflowing with righteous rage, just about threw her computer at me.

I calmed her down and reiterated my case that no newspaper has enough staff to self-generate all the items in an average edition. Even the church and movie listings are submitted externally. She finally had to agree that based on raw numbers, I was correct.

That's the easy stuff. The con job is what you don't see.

After 45 years in Nevada follytix, I can recognize a hustle from garden variety hookers, pimps and thieves.

Which brings me to the current Tesla euphoria which has the little valley by the mucky Truckee swooning like the San Francisco Giants in June.

There are basically three kinds of propaganda con.

First comes The Stonewall as employed by Apple, a news blackout for blackjacking the school district, state and local governments into conceding $86 million in backbreaking corporate welfare tax giveaways.

Effective when the fix is in.

Second is the Reversal of Fortune, slowly trickling out negative news.

I once reverse-engineered the story of major countywide property tax increases, resulting in nary a whimper from the public. Frightened elected officials were amazed.

Learning from PR disasters like McCulloch Oil's ill-fated Palomino Valley development in the early 1970s, the developers of the Meadowood project only announced the grand design after almost all of it had been completed.

About 1970, McCulloch announced a planned community north of Sparks that would grow to 20,000 people over 20 years.

Out came the pitchforks, tar and feathers. We didn't know it then, but the era of unplanned urban sprawl had begun.

To make sure no Las Vegas Strip-style competition could gain a toehold, downtown Reno casino interests bought large swaths of land along the S. Virginia Street corridor. Look where RanchHarrah stands today.

The Smith family of Harolds Club fame acquired a huge spread south of Reno.

Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes bought Harolds Club in a notorious 1970 midnight transaction engineered by Gov. Paul Laxalt, R. The ranch was sold sometime later.

The former rural site today hosts three major shopping centers, a couple of strip malls and numerous apartments and office buildings. The biggest hurdle was getting Meadowood Mall approved as a solo project.

Saying that Reno had "second-class shopping," the developers prevailed over marginal opposition. The area's second regional mall opened in 1978.

Only after almost the entire Smith Ranch was built out did the out-of-state developers announce the grand design, a textbook example of reverse-engineered or inverse PR. (The last remaining large open space in the valley, the Ballardini Ranch, has been touted as now ripe for development with the coming of Tesla.)

TESLACIDE. Finally, we have the Full Court Press, typified by Tesla's ballyhooed battery-building brouhaha. Neither backdoored nor sideways, such full-frontal nudity is often fair warning of fully-exposed rape and pillage.

Superannuated PR men like me can recognize media hype planted via corporate communications.

Reno Mayor Bob Cashell even appeared on the CNBC cable channel to announce we had won the Tesla sweepstakes. He was quickly contradicted by Mustang Ranch proprietor Lance Gilman whose day job is running the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (appropriately acronymed "TRIC"), supposed site of the Tesla facility.

CHUTZPAH DEPT. Money-losing Tesla is apparently willing to spend on major preliminary construction before making a site decision, a great way to play states against each other.

We already went Tap City for Apple. Texas and California have lots more money for much bigger corporate welfare bribes and they offer far better universities.

No matter.

As the legit media spin it, Tesla will solve all this community's problems.

"A lot of people think we're trying to put the screws to the states," Tesla boss Elon Musk told CNBC. "That's not our goal." (Reno Gazette-Journal 6-18-2014)

Beware full-frontal cons.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

WEB EXTRAS...

HONOR YOUR DON. Campaign season is upon us. I'm working to elect legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including the Tribune and most probably every newspaper in Nevada.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510. The deadline is the end of this month, so get it on.

The Barbwire got the late Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Guy Richardson elected in 2012.

Help me double down

TOO LEGIT TO QUIT. The Barbwire's ongoing investigation of phony Nevada graduation rates, now in its third year, just got respectable. (Scroll down to Hiding in Plain Sight.) Read it and weep, then review the series for yourself.

TOAST ALERT. Teachers' union tax petition supporters and opponents would do well to review the Barbwire of Feb. 28, 2013.

Passage of the tax initiative could easily lead to a successful court challenge that would at the same time blow out not only the revenue hike, but also term limits and the state's worst anti-union laws. Something for everybody. [UPDATE]

ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is.

PayPal monthly subscription software is now operational at the website.

A thousand thanks to those who already responded and keep sending show suggestions. Current frontrunners include (pardon the pun) wild mustangs as canned goods, education and  i-Guns with César Chávez in Nevada recently surging.

Now come queries about ballot questions. The Jan. 30 column brought a surge of inquiries about the Nevada State Education Association corporate tax petition on this November's ballot.

Stay tuned.

  Please forward additional ideas or vote on the above.

  I encourage you to donate to the cause at Barbwire.TV/

The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accountants for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet.

This is important.

We've got work to do.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

____________
Andrew Barbano is a 45-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org and DoctorLawyerWatch.com/ As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential Taxpayers taken for Teslacide demo ride Nevada follytix '14 still played under 1952 TV rules Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-12-2014 Sparks Tribune Nevada's righteous ayatollahs arise once again Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-5-2014 Sparks Tribune When your enemy is destroying himself, never interfere Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-29-2014 Sparks Tribune Barbara Bennett, Erik Holland and Václav Havel Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-22-2014 Sparks Tribune Stabbing rock-sucking kangaroos on the Ides of May Reno Gazette-Journal blatantly manipulates mayoral contest Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-15-2014 Sparks Tribune Negative Optimism: Making the best of being worst Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-8-2014 Sparks Tribune Nevada State AFL-CIO conventioners join anti-education initiative business coalition Steve Sebelius / Las Vegas Review-Journal 5-2-2014 In search of the modern day Barbara Bennett Barbwire by Barbano / Substantially expanded from the 4-3-2014 Sparks Tribune ...and more ammo... We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series Barbwire: Nevada not really a state No, we were not Battle Born in Kenya Top 10 reasons Nevada lives in the 19th Century Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-17-2013 Sparks Tribune Low-income penalty: Nevada socks it to the working poor BARBANO: Nevada is one big company town Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 State of Health National health care comes up against a very sick state. WHAT'S IN IT FOR US? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 USA at crossroads: New Deal or new Confederacy? Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-10-2013 Sparks Tribune UPDATE—>Bill Moyers: Shutdown is simply secession by other means ...and more ammo yet IMF Head Says Inequality Threatens Democracy. Here Are 7 Charts Proving She’s Right. By Erika Eichelberger / Mother Jones/BillMoyers.com 5-30-2014 “The behavior of the financial sector has not changed fundamentally…since the crisis. The industry still prizes short-term profit.” The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   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 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was

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Copyright © 1982-2014 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 45-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

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.

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