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


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Je Suis Charlie

"Media is the plural of mediocre."
— Jimmy Breslin (1928-2017)

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¡Viva Chávez!
César Chávez Celebration XVI / Celebración de César Chávez XVI
Saturday 31 March 2018
/ Sabado 31 de Marzo 2018

Highlights from the record-breaking 2017 event at Circus Circus Reno

All the news you never knew you needed to know—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential


   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.


I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island.
Leon Russell, 1942-2016


May Day for Labor Day
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-2-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-3 and 5-4-2017 GMT / Expansions in blue.

In case you didn't notice, Monday was Labor Day — everywhere but the United States.


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

Support Don Dondero next
Note: Alas and alack, Dondero did not make it in 2015 or 2016.
Make this the year!

7-COME-11!
Barbwire wins 7th Nevada Press Association award

BRONZE 2016
4-28-2015
11-24-2015
1-19-2016

6-pack: BRONZE 2014
Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake / 4-18-2013

The 2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon / 5-30-2013

The politics of media ga-ga boosterism / 3-20-2014

We Don't Need No Education—> Neverending Barbwire Series

Barbwire.TV
Watch NevadaLabor.com for show times.
Help us get the word out.

Support the project at http://resurge.tv#donate

SUING FOR SCHOOLS
Reruns on Carson-Dayton 226

Additional programs
on Boulder City cable. Go to bcnv.org and then
go to the BCTV link.

If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs and Unions — new power to the people on the public airwaves

The program premiers were available to every television set in the region because of a high-mileage media hybrid.

The shows appeared on both commercial and community stations. The non-corporate entity produced the events, commercial TV greatly expanded distribution.

Thus began an ongoing series of sane public interest programs which generate both entertaining heat and more than a little light.

Please spread the word and consider contributing to the cause online at ReSurge.TV.

You may also take the public option known as the U.S. Postal Service and send a check or money order to ReSurge.TV, P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

Your contribution will help fund the distribution as well as ongoing efforts at developing new media, including a regional, non-corporate community radio station and the return of community television to Reno-Sparks-Washoe.

You are present at the creation of what I hope can become a new media model where the programming accurately reflects what's happening on the ground and the media impact is powerful enough to forcefully pass the message upward.

Thanks.

Be well. Raise hell.

Andrew


Click here for selected on-demand re-runs from the Barbwire.TV archives

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success

Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 file


Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Bowing to the wealthy, political leaders more than century ago grudgingly established a day for workers as far as possible from the rest of the world's rabble. So September it remains stateside.

The USA today has the most repressive labor laws among first-world countries. That's why Australians and Swedes live longer despite far lower health care costs. Here, every day brings a new May Day distress signal.

Nevadans are continually bombarded by glowing PR about living in a paradise of economic diversification. Valhalla, this ain't.

The City of Reno remains in default over hundreds of millions of debt incurred by copious orgies of corporate welfare. (See below.)

Former Tribune columnist Bill Hanlon hoisted Gov. Veto El Obtúsè in Sunday's Reno Gazette-Journal.

"The governor raised taxes last session supposedly for education," Hanlon stated, "but if you follow the dollars, we see it went to his 'signature' programs at the expense of the very students in need of assistance."

In other words, to his cronies, Hanlon asserted.

"The result, a ranking of dead last!" he concluded.

The 2015 $1.4 billion tax hike, passed by a Republican majority legislature (with substantial Democratic support), was actually a re-packaging of the gambling industry's 2003 gross receipts tax, reviled by conservatives. Like the 2003 proposal, it imposed new taxes everywhere but gambling.

Former Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, and LV Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Sam McMullen, with the help of bi-partisan enlightened souls, saw the 2003 shuck for what it was. Gambling industry Gov. Kenny Guinn, who proposed the tax, had no choice but signing the legislative alternative. It took until 2015 for the juice lobbyists who own Gov. Sandoval to finally deliver their gambling clients' fondest desire.

The Barbwire was the first of few to disclose that education funding remained flat despite the 2015 tax increase.

Construction at Tesla, the University of Nevada and many jobs created by Nevada corporate welfare programs pay substandard area wages. The boomtown publicity effect has expanded the population resulting in skyrocketing rents but not commensurate income for workers.

Most of the bumpy streets damaging your vehicle's suspension will only get worse because there's no money to fix them. Schools will increasingly resemble sardine cans.

So when you hear about worker demonstrations, show up. Every day is labor day here, the neverending fight for fair pay for a fair day's work.

TOLD YA DEPT. In 2014, the Barbwire warned of the questionable qualifications of Washoe County Sheriff Chuck Allen. Sometimes I hate it when I'm right. Like President Bush the Lesser with Hurricane Katrina and California Gov. Jerry Brown and the medfly, when confronted by crisis, Allen folded when his jail inmates started dying.

MINIMAL MASTO. Despite her campaign rhetoric, Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto has not joined fellow Democrats supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders' bill for a $15 minimum wage. Barbwire spies were told that "as long as there is no current senate bill, Cortez-Masto would not make any statements. (We) encouraged her to support it anyway, for whatever that means. (The aide) said that she would probably be in support of it if it becomes a bill."

Or maybe when Halley's Comet returns.

OFFTRACK. Union Pacific busted Reno with train trench debt. Adding insult to injury, Senate Bill 427 now before the Nevada legislature mandates two operators for each train because UP wants to go to single-driver locomotives.

Zounds. For more, go to Railroad Workers United, then contact your Nevada legislators.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
______________
Andrew Barbano is a 48-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and first vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his comments are his own. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us> Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988.

ONLINE EXTRAS —>

END OF TIMES SURVIVAL KIT. Defend yourself with humorous or humorless but always-peerless predictions for 2017 by subscribing to the Barbwire Confidential News Service.

Last year's dark foreshadowings unfortunately became reality. I thus suggest inoculation by signing onto the HushHush! list at BallotBoxing.US/ It's cheap as well as enlightening entertainment

Subscribe today to get the exclusive End of Times Retrogression, a Procession for Progression, an Obsession to relieve Depression, Proselytizing Prayer for Divine Intercession at the Legislative Session. Don't wait— procrastination is the devil's dislocation. Hie thee hence to BallotBoxing.US/

THE GOOD DON. Nominations are afoot for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.
Time to ramp up for world-famous Tribune photographer Don Dondero. Here's the compelling case for his induction.

SMOKING GUNS —> Trump'll shake 'em up
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-25-2017 Sparks Tribune
Busted at the Legislature
Fear & Loathing @ the Ledge
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-18-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-20, 4-21, 4-22, 4-23 and 4-25-2017 GMT.
Revenging Rakkasans
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-11-2017 Sparks Tribune
Halls of Fame and Glory
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 4-4-2017 Sparks Tribune
In search of César Chávez
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-28-2017 Sparks Tribune
Not necessarily news
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-21-2017 Sparks Tribune
Death Panels 2.0
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-14-2017 Sparks Tribune
Positively negative
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-7-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 3-9 and 3-12-2017
Equal Rights Betrayal
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-28-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 3-1, 3-3 and 3-6-2017
Reidless and Rudderless?
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-21-2017 Sparks Tribune
Kate Smith & Lady Gaga
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-14-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 2-16, 2-17 and 2-21-2017
"By the 1920s, pseudo-scientists and polemicists in the 1920s popularized the notion that Italians were a separate race from Anglo- Americans. 'There’s no doubt those ideas were still around in 1942.' "
The Gorsuch Nonesuch: Poison Annie's Revenge
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-7-2017 Sparks Tribune
Smoot, smut and stash
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-31-2017 Sparks Tribune
The last question
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-24-2017 Sparks Tribune
Patient Zero Plagues
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-17-2017 Sparks Tribune
Democrats in Margaritaville
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-10-2017 Sparks Tribune
Regressions, Transitions and Predictions
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-3-2017 Sparks Tribune

TOMORROW'S NEWS TODAY: FEEL UP YOUR FIRE METER. The Reno Gazette-Journal did big spreads on three consecutive Sundays (Sept. 14, Sept. 21 and Sept. 28, 2014) on NV Energy smart meter fires. Welcome aboard. Barbwire readers were two years ahead on the fire meter issue. (Touch a Smart Meter, Go to Jail — 11 October 2012)

FIRE METER UPDATES: THE NEVADA FIRE MARSHALL'S INVESTIGATION concluded "don't worry, be happy." I'm still worried and will continue fondling NVE's precious equipment —> If your smart meter feels very hot, not just from sunshine, call 911. In its Sunday 21 Dec. 2014 front page headline major story, the Reno Gazette-Journal published results of the NVEnergy-commissioned "don't worry, be happy" echo study. On 1-27-2015, the RGJ published an analysis based on veteran reporter Anjeanette Damon's review of more than 1,000 pages of documents.

Barbwire
bottom line: NVE handles this like auto manufacturers handle defects —> It's cheaper to pay legal settlements after people are injured or killed than to fix the problem.

Don'tcha worry 'bout a thing! If you can't trust your power company, whom can you trust?

Smoking guns: Rooftop solar assassination
NevadaLabor.com Energy War Room

DIDN'T THEY MAKE A MOVIE CALLED "THE INCREDIBLES"? On 2-6-2015, the RGJ reported that the Public Utilities Commission has ordered NVE to hire an independent laboratory to review the material.

UPDATE: The report said all is well. I still recommend feeling up your fire meter on a regular basis.

ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is. A thousand thanks to those who keep sending show suggestions.

"Media is the plural of mediocre."
— Jimmy Breslin (1928-2017)

  Stay tuned.

  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 a lot of work to do.

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

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


Andrew Barbano
is a 48-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.

Peruse the Underbelly of the News —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

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

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Copyright © 1982-2017 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 48-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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