Barbwire by Barbano: Raw bits & obits

BARBWIRE
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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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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

Raw bits, base hits, old bits and obits
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-24-2024 / Updated 5-2-2024 / Expansions in blue

GREATEST HITS. Art Schallock turns 100 on April 25.

In addition to joining the fastest-growing demographic in America, he is the oldest living major league baseball player.

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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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In recent years, I've been starved for baseball news here in the High Desert Outback of the American Dream.

Apparently the San Francisco Giants are no longer relevant given the expensive transplantation of the Corporate Welfare Oakland/Sacramento Athletics. To Gomorrah South.

In three or more years.

If they can beat back a November statewide vote to scuttle their $380 million freebie from Nevada's tax base.

Mr. Schallock, born and still residing north of the Bay, helped the New York Yankees to three World Series titles, 1951-53.

On the road, Yogi Berra was his first roommate. On the mound, he faced 14 hall-of-famers. Ted Williams, the greatest hitter of all time, went 0 for 2 against him.

"When he was called up for his major league debut in 1951, the Yankees made room on their roster by optioning to Class AAA Kansas City a disappointing rookie named Mickey Mantle," the NY Times reported this week.

Now that's a story. And it gets better. Websearch "nytimes.com schallock" and get stuff all the way back to Schallock's signing with the Yankees in 1955.

The online edition of the most recent Times story goes charmingly further than the edited print edition. Well worth reading.

Schallock relied on a tricky fastball and a big breaking ball "like that lefthander from the Giants," he stated. Who? Carl Hubbell?

"Bumgarner," he told the Times, as in Madison Bumgarner, the SF Giants 2014 World Series MVP.

It felt good to read a little about the Giants, even though I had to buy the New York Times to get it. Schallock's full interview will be linked to the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

Do yourself a favor and read his story, festooned with a palace full of baseball royalty from a guy who walked among them.

A TALE OF TWO CAPITALS. Legendary investigative reporter Denny Walsh died on March 29 at 88. He won a Pulitzer Prize for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in 1961.

He had a talent for flat pissing off editors, politicians and mobsters with equal aplomb. He got a fired a bunch but "never-gave-a-inch."

A SacBee Denny 'toon

After he was axed by the fake news New York Times, he formed an investigative team for the McClatchy chain based in California's capital.

He was soon digging into Nevada's capital. In 1983, McClatchy published Walsh's story alleging Chicago wise guy involvement in the 1970s financing of former Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt's Carson City Ormsby House Hotel-Casino.

By 1984, Laxalt was Nevada's senior U.S. Senator and media-anointed "President Reagan's Best Friend."

Laxalt sued one of McClatchy's papers, the Miami Herald. It became a national sensation.

Walsh liked to brag that he never lost a libel case. This one was settled out of court and later revelations showed he was onto something.

But that was never the point.

The reason for the court action was to serve notice on the liberal media to screw not with Reagan's re-election campaign or face hyper-expensive legal action.

The fake news media got the message and King Ronald the Vague won in a landslide despite demonstrable early dementia.

By the end of his second term, Nancy Reagan was the acting president of the United States.

SPEAKING OF WISE GUYS. T-Rump, the hip hopper who raps America, recently compared himself to America's most famous mobster.

"The great Alphonse Capone," T-Rump gushed, "he was seriously tough, right?"

Trump bragged about being indicted more times than old Scarface but even got that wrong.

Maybe he should read up on his idol. I suggest G-Man Eliot Ness' book "The Untouchables."

Oh, I almost forgot, the Orange Crusher doesn't like to read. Just as well.

He might learn that Capone got away with just about everything, as has T-Rump.

So far.

Capone finally scored a long vacation at Alcatraz by the Bay for financial crimes.

Lemme see. Which high profile pol do we know who's currently on trial in New York for financial crimes?

Seriously tough, right?

THE RAWFUL TRUTH. Anti-womens' rights crusader Beverly LaHaye died last week at 94.

The religiously righteous housewife hated housework — "the endless little tasks that had to be repeated over and over again and seemed so futile," she said.

So she started a national organization dedicated to convincing America's women that the Bible commands, commends and condemns them to what the Puritans called "huswifery."

"This is a truly liberated woman," she said, channeling The Almighty.

"Submission is God's design for woman."

I once heard a prominent Nevada Mormon bishop praise his brilliant mom for "choosing to submit to my father."

Kink blithely unintended.

A photo of Ms. LaHaye with Ronald Reagan circulated with her obit this week.

She wears a suit therein. Hmmm...that rang a bell.

Wall Street Journal Pulitzer winner Susan Faludi authored a two-inch thick 1991 bestselling masterpiece entitled "Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women."

She interviewed several anti-feminist females who were walking examples of women's liberation, including Ms. LaHaye.

They wore business attire, headed organizations, got involved politically and didn't do windows.

Echoing Faludi, LaHayes' NYTimes obituary noted "In some ways, Mrs. LaHaye's life was a model of the female empowerment championed by the feminist movement."

Ms. Faludi concluded that "the activists of Concerned Women for America (LaHaye's organization) report to their offices in their suits, issue press releases demanding that women return to the home, and never see a contradiction.

"By divorcing their personal liberation from their public stands on sexual politics, they could privately take advantage of feminism while publicly deploring its influence.

"They could indeed 'have it all' — by working to prevent other women from having that same opportunity." ("Backlash," page 256)

The fight goes forward. The dream will never die.

¡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!

Ain't we a pair?
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.

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

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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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