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


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Barbwire Silver Anniversary 1988-2013 —>Now we go for gold
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.

   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.

— Leonard Cohen

"If voting mattered, they wouldn't let us do it."Travus T. Hipp, 1982

The Underbellyof the News—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential


Sexy scandals, whitewashes & black towers

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 8-21-2014 / Updated 8-28-2014, 9-4 and 10-14-2014


HAT TRICK: Barbwire wins 3rd straight Nevada Press Association First-Place Award

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME

Don Dondero's nomination is now before NPA directors. Thanks to all who sent in affirmations.

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
Updated 8-30-2011
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 2009, 2010 and 2011 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


HAT TRICK: Barbwire wins 3rd straight Nevada Press Association First-Place Award

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME

Support Dondero next

Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

New Veterans Administration boss Robert McDonald spoke in Sparks and Reno on Tuesday.

He defended improvements made in local services and invoked the high-sounding name of "The Joint Commission" as having certified the quality of care.

I've had harsh experience with that spineless outfit.

The Chicago-based Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals morphed into the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations and in recent years renamed itself as The Joint Commission.

It's a joint, alright, a private corporation in the business of flying into town, making sure paperwork is in order, then rubberstamping. For a fat fee.

"It's not an instrument of social change," a disdainful longtime high-level VA social worker told me.

I had a very unpleasant confrontation with them in 1982.

I warned them of dangerous conditions, especially unsupervised bathing, at the state mental health institute in Sparks.

Three days after they signed off and announced accreditation renewal, a troubled young woman drowned in bathtub. Details at NevadaLabor.com/

BLACK TOWER OBTUSENESS. Deputy Reno City Manager Cadence Matijevich this week praised Amazon to high heaven as news broke that the predatory retailer is moving its distribution warehouse from Fernley to Stead.

She called Amazon an exemplary employer with great programs for its workers.

Reno City Hall has long been divorced from reality.

Nothing's changed.

As I noted on July 17, "the August edition of prestigious 164 year-old Harper's Magazine presents a devastating vision of America's future....Get used to the word 'workampers,' perpetually itinerant senior citizens who live in rickety motorhomes and travel trailers to work seasonally nationwide. Amazon calls them its 'camperforce' while 'history-minded commentators have labeled them the Okies of the Great Recession...geriatric migrant labor...downwardly mobile older Americans' in 'ephemeral company towns.'" [1]

Hard, low-wage work. No benefits.

How truly Nevadian.

"Amazon comes off like a brutal plantation," I wrote.

THROUGH THE CRACKS. In all the furor over the school board and its shaky superintendent, why has no one remembered the May 26 Reno Gazette-Journal report that the Washoe County School District is under investigation by the U.S. Dept. of Education's Office of Civil Rights?

Aren't sexual, racial and ethnic discrimination er...sexy enough?

JUST SAY NO, DUMBO. Gov. Sandoval's Administration is blowing $140,000 on paid TV to tell kids that sex is dangerous so just say no.

Nevada ain't big on education, especially about sex.

The spots don't even dare offer a website.

See laughably and lamentably more at NevadaLabor.com/ [2]

GOMORRAH SOUTH SERENDIPITY. Thursday, "Nevada’s advisory committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will meet in Las Vegas to gauge public sentiment on the militarization of local police forces," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

"The meeting has been scheduled for over six months."

Las Vegas Metro PD has long been notorious as among the nation's most trigger-happy. _[3]

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

WEB EXTRAS...


TOAST ALERT. Teachers' union gross profits 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.

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.

"Media is the plural of mediocre."
                              — Jimmy Breslin

  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.

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 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.

The Underbellyof the News—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

1. Bruder, Jessica; The End of Retirement—When you can't afford to stop working; Harper's Magazine, August 2014, at 28

2. The last chapter of "What's the Use?" —> The official Sandoval Administration Just Say No explanation:

Our (federal) notice of awards did not stipulate restrictions on language that can and cannot be used. Abortion and condoms are not part of the PHAT (Promoting Health Among Teens) Curriculum that is used in Nevada for this program. However, there is a mention of the “pill” in the workbooks (not in the curriculum though).

The general approach when the kids ask questions about these topics is to emphasize that abstinence is the only 100% effective way to prevent unplanned pregnancy and STIs; condoms still pose some risk in the sense that there can still be skin to skin contact (HPV and herpes), and that the pill or other birth control does not protect against STIs/HIV.

When abortion is brought up, our subgrantees redirect the focus towards adoption being an option in that case, and since it’s an abstinence class, they keep abstinence as being the most effective approach at the forefront of any of these types of questions.

This is the second year that we will be paying Nevada Broadcasters Association a total of $70,000, for which they will provide a non-federal match of in-kind services; the AEGP receives $5 for every $1 paid, for a total match of $350,000.

Again, this funding is intended to establish a foundation (to wait to engage in sexual activity – by promoting awareness of unintended consequences such as pregnancy, HIV and STI’s) among our younger population (9-12yrs). As Nevada’s children enter into adolescence, the state utilizes federal funding intended to promote personal responsibility among at-risk youth who may already be engaging in sexual activity.

What's the use, part deux: Bill O'Reilly's Sex Education
Letter to the Reno Gazette-Journal / 8-16-2013

[3] Not Just Ferguson: 11 Eye-Opening Facts About America’s Militarized Police ForcesAmerican police departments are starting to look like invading armies. By Alex Kane / Alternet via Bill Moyers.com 8-13-2014

Labor Day 2014: Red, white and screwed
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 8-28-2014

Education Dysfunction Part XLV—>
Bringing serious heat well into the night

Nevadans host moment of silence for Missouri police shooting victim Michael Brown
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 8-14-2014

Nevada children have long been victims of separate and unequal education

Nevada education ranks dead last in nation for third year running
Dismal placements in children’s health, education, economic security, state of families & community
Las Vegas Review-Journal / 7-22-2014
OLD NEWS IS NEWS AGAIN: Nevada remains a hellhole for children
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 8-7-2014

Education Dysfunction Part XLIV—>
Pots and Kettles: Can't we all get along?

BREAKING NEWS: WCSD Vice-President Dave Aiazzi has announced that he has been diagnosed with leukemia and will be resigning by the end of September. Remember him with healing thoughts and prayers.
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 8-7-2014

TOO LEGIT TO QUIT. The Barbwire's ongoing investigation of phony Nevada graduation rates, now in its third year, just got respectable.
See Hiding in Plain Sight by Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 3-27-2014

Education Dysfunction Part XLIII—>
Playing the race card for profit and peril

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 8-7-2014

Marriage of convenience: Martinez return leaves some issues unsettled
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 8-7-2014

Happy Un-birthday, Chief Mieras
Reno News & Review Editorial 8-7-2014

Education Dysfunction Part XLII—>
We don't need no education or Pedro, either
Reno-Sparks-Washoe school boss fired and unfired

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune / 7-24-2014

We Don't Need No Education
The continuing Barbwire series


A cold shower for the NY Times Tesla gusher
40 years in the wilderness: Study says Silver State on downhill slide since 1970
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from
the 7-10-2014 Sparks Tribune

Ask Hobby Lobby to take in refugee kids
So five uptight old Catholic guys in grim reaper robes don't like contraception.
Wonder if they thought that way back in college?

Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from
the 7-3-2014 Sparks Tribune

The Status Quo Ante versus the Status Quo Uncle
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from
the 6-26-2014 Sparks Tribune

Tesla plants PR slants to get into the public's pants
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-19-2014 Sparks Tribune


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
Labor Day: State of the Unions
By Mark Robison / Reno Gazette-Journal / Sunday 9-1-2013

The above graph was 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.

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





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


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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.

Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413 signatory

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