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


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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

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

An Alternative National Anthem

   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 that the boat is leaking.
Everybody knows that the captain lied.
   Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died.
   Everybody talking to their pockets.
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
   And a long red rose.
Everybody knows.

   Everybody knows that you love me, baby.
Everybody knows you really do.
   Everybody knows that you've been faithful,
Give or take a time or two.
   Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
   Without your clothes.
Everybody knows.

   Everybody knows that it's now or never.
Everybody knows that it's me or you.
   And everybody knows that you live forever
When you've done a line or two.
   Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
   For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows.

   Everybody knows that the plague is coming.
Everybody knows that it's moving fast.
   Everybody knows that the naked man and woman —
Just a shining artifact of the past.
   Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
   That will disclose
What everybody knows.

   And everybody knows that you're in trouble.
Everybody knows what you've been through
   From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach at Malibu.
   Everybody knows it's coming apart.
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
   Before it blows.
And everybody knows.

Everybody knows. Everybody knows.
   That's how it goes. Everybody knows.


By Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson.
© 1988 CBS Records, Inc.

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



The divine right of kings, casino gods & dingbat heirs
Barbwire
by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the Wednesday 6-26-2019 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue
/ Updated 7-1-2019 GMT


Greatest Hits Dept.

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

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The 9th Muse
Barbwire wins 9th 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
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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

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Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

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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 rumbles in the green felt jungle have proven true. Don Carano's kids are fixing to take over Caesars Entertainment which will create the nation's largest gambling den of iniquity (roughly 60 casinos in 16 states).

As Yogi Berra once advised, it ain't over till it's over. The Carano hotels are virulently anti-union and have recently suffered a string of defeats at the hands of the giant Culinary Union in both Reno and several other markets. (Ironically, Don Carano was once major legal counsel for the International Teamsters Union.)

Locally, long-smoldering kindling reached a flashpoint last year resulting in ongoing union demonstrations in front of the Silver Legacy, Eldorado and Circus Circus.

In recent years, the Sparks Nugget, Harrah's (long a part of Caesars) and the Eldorado triplets have farmed out millions in remodeling projects to low-wage out-of-state contractors.
Nevada gambling regulators and the US Dept. of Justice will both address the big question: What constitutes an anti-competitive monopoly? Locally, the Caranos would control four of the six major hotel-casinos within the Reno city limits. (Four of eight if you include the smaller Atlantis and Cal-Neva.)

The children of John Ascuaga and the late Don Carano have not acquitted themselves well after taking over the family store. The Ascuaga kids failed to police illegal money laundering, breaking state and federal laws resulting in a $1 million federal fine. The Nugget was almost immediately sold to new owners and Michonne Ascuaga resigned her seat on the Nevada Gaming Commission.

The Carano kids drove daddy's baby right into bankruptcy.

RED FLAG WARNINGS. Corporate raider Carl Icahn does not lose money. He took over Caesars after the Gomorrah South legend assumed crushing debt to acquire new holdings. With recession warnings everywhere worldwide, perhaps Mr. Icahn knows when to get outta Dodge and has found some suckers to allow him to quit winners. The merger still has to be approved by both regulators and corporate boards.

NEW BOSS LADY? Flight Attendants Union President Sara Nelson will demonstrate with Culinary workers in Las Vegas today. She may become the first woman to head the national AFL-CIO. I hope so.

CHA-CHING DEPT. Washoe County School Superintendent Traci Davis has hired attorney William Peterson, the same guy who intimidated a former school board into making Davis' predecessor, Pedro Martinez, a millionaire.

Insiders fear that the latest fiasco will result in the school district becoming unable to buy liability insurance because of all the legal settlements of recent years.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST.
In a series of recent columns, I questioned the need for Senate Bill 398. Sen. Julia Ratti, D-Sparks, deserves high praise for trying to do something meaningful for renters. Her bill purportedly gave local governments more authority to foster low-cost housing. The words "rent" and "control" were not mentioned.

According to Sunday's Reno Kazoo-Journal, southern Nevada Democrats killed the bill because "members of the (Democratic) caucus from other regions felt like their local governments had sufficient tools necessary to address the problem," according to Assembly Majority Leader Teresa Benitez-Thompson, D-Reno.

I wallpapered the ledge twice with an online column asserting that SB398 was not a rent control bill. You can tell that lawmakers jump when I holler.

It appears that the Democratic Assembly supermajority agreed with me that existing law allows municipalities to enact rent control, cost-based rent increase justification or whatever else they think will keep people from being thrown onto the streets.

The game's afoot.

FREEDOM LOVING RACIST ALERT. Last week, I chanced upon a sports talk show broadcast from Reno's Club Cal-Neva. The topic asked which UNR athletic figure is most hated, former Wolf Pack and 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick or former basketball coach Eric Musselman, now at the University of Arkansas. Czar Donaldov hisself would have been impressed by the masterful combination of Lush Rambo-style straw-man fake facts with Trumpian false equivalence.Talk radio in northern Nevada has been a vast wasteland since the late great Tribune columnist Travus T. Hipp and I left Nevada airwaves in 1993.

CORREXION: A couple of weeks ago I mis-remembered the name of the Tribune reporter who wrote the front page story about a local senior citizen whose 34-cent overdraft turned into $1,000 in charges from useless US Bank. (Barbwire 12-18-2007) Janine Kearney wrote the article.

CLARIFICATION. Last week, I noted that George Walker Bush's ancestor, President Franklin Pierce (Democrat, 1853-57) was the only president not re-nominated by his own party. Pierce was the only ELECTED president so dissed. (He spent most of his term dead drunk.) Several others were vice-presidents elevated after their president's death in office, including Pierce's predecessor Millard Fillmore (1850-53, Whig).

KENNY DALTON UPDATE. The former Reno-Sparks NAACP president (1997-98) and retired firefighter remains hospitalized in Salt Lake City after successful kidney transplant surgery.

"I let him know of the many inquiries of concern for him and his condition," current NAACP President Lonnie Feemster reported. "He was moved by the outpouring of love and expressed his sincere appreciation. He was in good spirits and is recuperating well."

PAST DEADLINE UPDATE June 25, 2019 8:44:33 AM PDT — FROM KENNY VIA SHAYNE DEL COHEN: "DOING GREAT — Hey SHAYNE. I just got back from 1.9 mile walk."

From: Ken Dalton
To: <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>
Subject: Humbled
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2019 23:18:05
Hey Andy. I am doing well and building up my strength every day so I can get home as soon as possible. I am humbled by the community’s concern with my recuperation. Hope to be home soon.
Thank you,
Kenny

Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2019 03:20:43
To: Ken Dalton
From: Andrew Barbano <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>
Subject: Re: Humbled

Kenny: Great to hear from you. Keep the reports coming. I respectfully request the honor of buying you the first beer to test your new kidney — Bud Light, of course. Gotta break it in slow.
Be well. Raise hell.
AB

Watch NevadaLabor.com and RenoSparksNAACP.org for updates.

Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (And my French.)
Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

¡Sí se puede!
___________________

Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan, executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, superannuated labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and BallotBoxing.US and SenJoeNeal.org and DoctorLawyerWatch.com and Protect Our Washoe.org/ As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. He has lived in both northern and southern Nevada during his half-century+ in the Silver State. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988 and received its ninth Nevada Press Association award (6th first-place) at the 29 Sept. 2018 NPA annual convention in Las Vegas. His multi-media road construction zone safety campaign for Laborers' Union Local 169 won a first-place award from the National Safety Council in a nationwide competition. (Such ephemera and about six bucks will get you a Latte Mocha Cotsafracas Chingade at just about any Starbux worldwide, guaranteed.) His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian of London/UK and more important publications.

WEB XTRAS & SMOKING GUNS —>

REAL NEWS DEPT. In January, Culinary Union Local 226 defeated an attempt by Circus Circus-Reno to decertify (terminate) the union's representation of its workers. No word on whether management plans to appeal the result to the National Labor Relations Board which was recently put out of business for 35 days. Thank you, Czar Donaldov.

[UPDATE 4-20-2019] — About 100 demonstrators from almost all the region's unions, local community service organizations and political activists joined Culinary Union members picketing Circus Circus in the late afternoon of April 18. A couple of CC suits came out to see what all the fuss was about, as if theydidn't already know. In addition to the familiar union "contract now!" chants came calls for a strike against the Carano jocks. ¡Viva Huelga! ¡Sí se puede!

CONSUMER CONUNDRUMS: PINK SLIPS, PURGES AND PRUNING. I need to hear from recently purged Eldorado Hotel-Casino, Circus Circus-Reno and Silver Legacy employees. Barbwire spies report perhaps 100 workers got the ax just in time for the holidays. In the Tribune, at Barbwire.US and in the London Guardian, I have lamented the deepening desperation of renters here in Tesla boomtown. I'm now getting complaints about medical and dental practices purportedly pruning their patient loads, cutting loose the less-lucrative.

That's de facto malpractice but medical professionals are lawsuit-proof under Nevada law — unless you're rich enough to personally pay a few hundred grand in legal fees. That's why TV lawyers only advertise for arrest or accident cases these days. If you've been cast adrift by patient pruning, call me at (775) 882-TALK or e-mail me.

Eldorado-Caesars merger means labor union battles far beyond Reno & Las Vegas
Culinary Union leader D. Taylor: "Where are they going to cut?"
Building trade union campaigns continue
By Ed Komenda / Reno Gazette-Journal / 6-27-2019

Sore-oppressed Soul-Sister Cities: Menlo Park and Reno-Sparks-Fernley share similarly sad high-tech stretch marks.
"All humanity has left the area": paying for Tesla's Gigafactory
Barbano and Nevada conservatives decry corporate welfare depredations

By Rory Carroll / The Guardian 7-3-2018
Editor's Note: The Guardian publishes 180,000 newspapers daily in London and environs and generates ONE BILLION monthly web page views.
(I should live so long.)
[MUCH MORE TESLACIDE]
"Facebook is taking everything": rising rents drive out Silicon Valley families
Property companies advertising their proximity to Facebook’s campus are giving low-income residents a choice: pay a huge rent increase or move out
By Sam Levin / The Guardian 6-20-2018


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!)

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. Thank you kindly for your support.

Smoking Guns—>

The Barbwire Presidential Dirtiest Dozen
Barbwire
by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the Wednesday 6-19-2019 Sparks Tribune

Carson City, Transylvania County, Nevada USA
Barbwire
by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the Wednesday 6-12-2019 Sparks Tribune

Trumpeting tragedy as Great Depression2 descends
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-5-2019 Sparks Tribune

Nevada: Righteous results, wrongheaded reasons
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-29-2019 Sparks Tribune

Nevada Business Opportunity: Abortion Tourism
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-22-2019 Sparks Tribune

May 15: The Ides of Uncle Walter Cronkite
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-15-2019 Sparks Tribune

What if they gave a murder and nobody came?
BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL: Sheriff Balaam's icy hot patch
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-8-2019 Sparks Tribune

MayDay for renters, movie fans and avengers
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-1-2019 Sparks Tribune

Sen. Ira Hansen announces his pregnancy
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-24-2019 Sparks Tribune

Priorities for butt-, rent-, birth- and gun-control
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-17-2019 Sparks Tribune

DAY OF THE DEAD
Relieve Rent & Pillage: Save SB398 & AB399

Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno
/ Special Online Legislative Edition / 4-12-2019 / Updated 4-13 and 4-14-2019 GMT
Fairness for tenants dies 4-12 unless lawmakers throw it a lifeline

Politics does not reward the shy
Rent justification and a death penalty for corporate depredation
Barbwire
by Andres Luis Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 4-10-2019 Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-11 and 4-12-2019 GMT
Fairness for tenants dies 4-12 unless lawmakers throw it a lifeline

A liberal case for a new, brutal death penalty
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-3-2019 Sparks Tribune

50 years in Nevada: Trying to outlive them all
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-27-2019 Sparks Tribune

Guns, gouging and guts: once upon a time in the west
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-20-2019 Sparks Tribune

Guv keynotes César XVII: 17-year overnight success
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-13-2019 Sparks Tribune

Judge not lest ye be judged — or misjudged
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-6-2019 Sparks Tribune

Even in Sparks, God works in mysterious ways
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-27-2019 Sparks Tribune

OF CRABS AND CLANS: White bibs or white sheets tonight
Barbwire Confidential by Andres Luis Barbáno / 2-23-2019 SPECIAL ONLINE HUSHhush E-EDITION

Trump's Wall: First step toward ending Nixon's War on Drugs
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-20-2019 Sparks Tribune

BLACK LIKE ME 2119: The problem as solution
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-13-2019 Sparks Tribune / Updated 2-14 and 2-16-2019
Breaking News —> Culinary Union defeats decert at Circus Circus Reno
Dear Readers: The above column served as the conclusion of remarks I submitted before the "Tahoe Talks: Racism in America" symposium at the Incline Village, Nev., Library on February 12, 2019. So you might want to read "FADE TO BLACK" before you read "Black Like Me 2119".

Andrew Barbano, former governor of Nevada
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-6-2019 Sparks Tribune

Downtown Sparks: New taxes, gun controls & a wall
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-30-2019 Sparks Tribune

Striking sex: The only thing Trump understands
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-23-2019 Sparks Tribune

Sands of time blast the milestones of life
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-16-2019 Sparks Tribune

Bob Price: Cowboy, lawmaker, union man and Elvis fan
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-9-2019 Sparks Tribune

Crystal Balls: Peerless Predixions 2019 & Beyond
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-26-2018 Sparks Tribune



$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

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

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Copyright © 1982-2019 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He is the executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president and political action chair 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.

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

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