Barbwire by Barbano: The shrinkflation of democracy

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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Je Suis Charlie
"Our republic and its press will rise or fall together." — Joseph Pulitzer

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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

The shrinkflation of democracy
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 5-29-2024 / Updated 5-30-2024 / Expansions in blue

"Our republic and its press will rise or fall together." — Joseph Pulitzer

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Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame

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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

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TOP SECRET— HushHush!

Last week, the Reno Gazette-Journal announced its own funeral.

Democracy will go down with it along with the hundreds of newspapers already lost and those who have caught the RGJ disease.

Why should you care? After all, we can get daily news 24/7 for free someplace, right?

You get what you pay for and corporate America is making you pay dearly every day: At gas pumps, grocery stores, restaurants, your school and your job.

I have been railing against America's creeping monopolies for decades.

They continue to encroach a little at a time.

Kids pumping their own gas or sweating thru voicemail hell instead of talking to a human think it's OK because that's the way it's always been.

Abuse and erosion become embedded.

"Starting Monday, June 24, the U.S. Postal Service will be delivering the Reno Gazette-Journal to optimize resources amidst increasing digital readership demand," Executive Editor Peggy Santoro wrote last week.

"The Reno Gazette-Journal will utilize a (postal service) program called Exceptional Dispatch, which allows time-sensitive periodicals including newspapers to be locally distributed. RGJ print editions will enter the mail locally, in Reno, and not be affected by the USPS's recent announcement that it will move Reno's mail-processing operations to Sacramento," she stated.

That, dear readers, is one serious sin of omission.

"Exceptional Dispatch" (AKA Second Class Mail) is mostly for mail that has three days to two weeks for delivery, like magazines.

Mrs. Santoro continued "The Sunday edition will be delivered on Saturday...This change will make a big impact on the consistency of delivery, which is great news for our print readers...Readers can also visit RGJ.com...Subscribers with questions or concerns can visit help.sitename.com/contact-us," she concluded.

OOPS DEPT. The above help-site name does not exist, even with prefixes added such as https:// and https://www/

RGJ.com subscriber info lays likewise devoid.

I don't blame Peggy. She's a great journalist and the senior employee at the Incredible Shrinking RGJ, having put in more than 30 years at hard labor.

She's seen it go from force to flat-line and is now the designated ICU nurse on death watch.

I've been in some form of the newspaper business since I was about 10 years old, a kid hawking the "greenstreak" afternoon final edition of the Fresno Bee on the streets of old downtown.

For all its flaws, the Reno Gazette-Journal remains the central news dissemination source for all of eastern California and northwestern and north central Nevada.

Making the system so user-unfriendly that the company can justify its elimination is an old corporate trick going back almost a century.

Make no mistake, it's coming. At minimum, this "upgrade" will make worse the forcible fracturing of citizen consensus and community cohesion into splintering silos of suspicion.

We've seen this show many times before.

Railroads made passenger service so bad that they could kill it due to "lack of interest." (TRANSLATION: Not enough profit.)

They kept passenger revenue by starting Greyhound, which is why bus terminals popped up next to railroad terminals all across the country, including Sparks-Reno.

After World War 2, Detroit auto barons took over cheap and efficient southern California mass transit, then made service so bad that citizens had to buy cars.

Gridlocked freeways were built along former rail rights-of-way.

Mrs. Santoro states "The Sunday edition will be delivered on Saturday, giving readers a head start on weekend features..."

Today, the Sunday RGJ goes to bed at 4:00 p.m. Thursday.

There are NO newspapers now printed in northwestern Nevada. From Fallon to Carson/Douglas/Tahoe to the RGJ, ALL are produced in California save for the Sparks Tribune which is printed in southern Nevada.

Killing home delivery might make collateral damage of the San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

When the RGJ eliminated Saturdays, it killed Saturday delivery for all, scrambling all Saturday, Sunday and Monday deliveries.

In my experience, the "Sunday" paper would now have to close Wednesday (or earlier) to be on California presses Thursday, get trucked to Reno's Vassar Street post office by Friday to hit Washoe households on Saturday — in a perfect world. (Everybody knows that presses, computer systems and vehicles never break down and Donner Pass will never be closed again as a personal favor to Postmaster Louis the Clueless Dejoyless and his favorite president.)

As the Washoe County Registrar of Voters Cari-Ann Burgess told the RGJ after Dejoyless announced the January 2025 move of most mail processing to W. Sacramento, first-class mail, which is supposed to get anywhere in Washoe in two days, currently sometimes takes as long as seven.

Mme. Registrar added that if the change goes ahead, it means the end of mail-in voting.

Thus, the shrinkflation of democracy.

Triple hall-of-fame journalist and Tribune alum Dennis Myers once noted that voter registration is the best system yet devised to keep citizens from voting.

Add that to all the other hassles, mix in a little corporate propaganda as news, and you end up with government by monied corporations, the very definition of fascism.

I write this feeling two emotions, sorrow and anger.

The republic is in bad enough shape without placement of further inhibitors to inform the body politic and let them vote.

Did I mention that the ad accompanying Mrs. Santoro's corporate statement last Sunday ignored whether or not the paper would continue Monday and Tuesday publication?

The icing on this crummy cake is that subscriber prices, in print and online, will more than double.

The shrinkflation of news and thus democracy.

Stay tuned if you can.

It ain't over 'til it's over.

¡Sí se puede!

Vaxx up, stay safe, pray for Ukraine and almost 100 other currently war-torn lands.

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 55-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 of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and 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.

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

Breaking News —> Masks work!

Cheesily pickled politics
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 5-22-2024 / Updated 5-23-2024

A smattering of splatterings
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 5-15-2024 / Updated 5-19-2024

What happened to us?
Did we do something when we should not have? Did we do nothing when we should have?
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 5-8-2024

One Photo That Captures the Loss in Gaza
"Dr. Sam Attar went over and only then realized that the boy was dead."
By Nicholas Kristof / The New York Times 5-4-2024

Karam and his mom at the hour of his death

Breaking News —> Masks work!

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
Expansions in blue / Updated 4-11, 4-14, 4-15, 4-16 & 5-2-2024 GMT

So stated Tina Turner in the 1985 blockbuster "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome."

That line best summed up my overwhelmed feelings last Friday evening when the Northern Nevada Central Labor Council inducted the late Tribune journalist and my old friend Dennis Myers into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame.

Using a hockey analogy, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar noted that the occasion completed a hat trick for Dennis. He had previously been so honored by both the Barbwire and Nevada Press Association rogues galleries.

Living up to my self-imposed nickname of Quarantino, I attended via Zoom, dressed appropriately for the solemn occasion: In a sweatshirt and UnionYes! baseball cap.

I thus stood surprised and amazed by the second installation of the evening, The Barbwire Man hisself.

Zounds.

I told the sold out event's attendees that this represented the second-greatest honor of my life, eclipsed only by the day I married my wife, Betty, 40 years ago.

I was and remain humbled to stand with giants who accomplished much more than I ever will. The César HOF includes Nevada's two greatest legislators, Sen. Joe Neal and Assemblymember Bob Price, both D-North Las Vegas.

Fred Ross, Sr., the union stalwart who taught César Chávez how to organize abides therein, as do Maria Zamora, who marched with Chávez from Delano to Sacramento in the 1960s; United Auto Workers stalwart George "Battling" Nelson of Sparks who stood beside Chávez and United Auto Workers legend Walter Reuther at the dedication of the United Farm Workers headquarters; Nevada labor mainstays Dan Rusnak and Sam Lumpe; the late Nevada Labor Commissioner Stan Jones and his wife, Wendy; and the original Chávez HOF honoree, Darlene Jespersen.

Ms. Jespersen was a longtime Harrah's bartender who refused to follow demeaning new corporate makeup face painting rules. Her wrongful termination case broke new ground for women's rights at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Dennis, Nevada's greatest reporter, was the first journalist so honored. I can only state that I am the second because Dennis himself accorded me that appellation.

I still term myself an advocate and hellraiser. I don't present both sides, especially when the other side is suffused with flaming bigoted moonhowlers.

Video of Myers and Barbano inductions —>

https://youtu.be/pFNUBW1vhEo

https://youtu.be/GopULsYDWuE

Text of Judge Patricia Lynch acceptance speech for Dennis Myers

Official Cesar XVIII commemorative program book

A posthumous accolade / By Matthew Bieker
Reno News & Review 4-27-2024

ADIOS, VERITA BLACK PROTHRO. Last Saturday came news of the death of the beautiful Nevada activist and businesswoman. Verita paid heavy dues in her shortened life. When she ran for Washoe County public administrator in 2018, some freedom loving racist defaced her candidate signs with black spray paint.

The Nevada Democratic Party sent out a double notice, also including the hit-and-run fatality of Kurt Englehart, aide to Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev.

I stand proud and humbled by having known and worked with most of the above superstars in the firmament of human aspiration.

READER RUMBLINGS: Tribunistas have reacted to this newspaper's March 27 publication of the Nevada Independent news service exposé of our regional health care octopus. ("Renown Health is a powerhouse in Northern Nevada. Is that a problem?")

Last week, I added some very necessary perspective regarding the origins of the malady by calling attention to the 1995 Washoe County Grand Jury report documenting the outright theft of our formerly publicly owned, low cost hospital.

Some Tribune subscribers sent these comments: "I worked there as a head supervising nurse. Their 'non-profit' status is just a moniker. Actually, 'More Money' is their tacit motto." And this: "I remember times when management harassed me to make sure all my employees only gave Renown management five-star ratings or I would be demoted, go without a raise or some other hellish reprisal."

I built a whole website of research on the depredations of our health care conglomerate which will be linked to the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

UNHEALTHY CARE, PART DEUX. The fake news New York Times just published a major scandal regarding big health insurance companies. Many have retained an outfit which earns billions in commissions based on how much health care they DENY to insured patients.

"Don't like your $100,000 surgery bill? Sue us, turkey." [UPDATE: Websearch "hamby nytimes.com tool helps insurers reap fees shift costs" to view several articles.]

I have never seen a better argument for a single-payer national system. Fully one-third of all U.S. health care dollars go toward profit and paperwork. This has resulted in the highest costs for just about the poorest care in the industrialized world.

Social Security, that dastardly government run program, only costs three percent to run. Continuing rape and pillage by the health care industrial complex must come to an end.

I remember when moonhowlers took to the streets to campaign against Obamacare. Some dimbulb woman actually told a reporter she was there to "keep government's hands off my Medicare."

In 2009, the U.S. government became the largest health care customer in the country. Combined with the military, the Veterans Administration and other programs, Uncle Sam has long been paying most of the bills. It's well past time to reign in pillagers like Renown, Cigna, Aetna, Humana, United Health Care (aka AARP) and Big Pharma.

Sorry, Ronnie, government is not the problem. Government is the solution.

HISTORY FOR DULLARDS. Supporters of T-Rump, the croaker who raps America, want to rename DC's Dulles Airport for the Orange Crusher. What an insult to the legacy of the Republican Dulles Brothers, Allen who headed the CIA, and John Foster Dulles who served as Secretary of State, both under President Dwight Eisenhower.

These bastards made a sport of overthrowing small democracies, most notably that of Iran. The latter was accomplished because British Petroleum wanted their oil refinery back after the democratically elected Iranian government nationalized the industry after decades of western exploitation.

We are at war with Iran today because of the depredations of the Brothers Dulles back in the 1950s.

So why trade a headache for an upset stomach?

SLIGHTLY CYNICAL DEPT. Congratulations to the universities of South Carolina and Connecticut for winning their respective women's and men's minor league professional basketball championships.

___________________
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 55-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 of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and 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.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

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

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
1947-2023

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

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$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

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Andrew Barbano is a 55-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.
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

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
1947-2023

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