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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.

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

Breaking News & then some—>

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.

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

 

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

On January 16, 1959, two babies were born.
They became sisters in both life and death.

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
12-18-1947 / 10-18-2023

Under Construxion / Stay tuned

Never trust anybody over 30
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 10-28-2026 / UPDATED 10-30-2026 / Expansions in blue


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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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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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Those wiser than me have often said that history does not repeat, but it rhymes.
Wake up, American poets and pundits -- 2026 rhymes with 1968.
Legendary anthropologist Margaret Mead said that the Sixties were a turning point in history. For the first time, adults would have to learn from the young because the young were closer to the future.
Welcome to déjà vu all over again. Led by young people who recognize only a dismal future, millions are taking it to the streets in India, Italy, France, Spain and even tiny Albania (thanx, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump). Brazil just beat T-Rump's anointed presidential crook and the Amazon rainforest breathes easier. Serbia did an instant replay of Hungary and toppled its dictator with with a little thing called democracy. The same thing is happening right here in River City and environs.
T-Rump abused the trend by promising the people of Iran that if they started a revolution, he'd come to save them. Poor suckers. The ayatollahs machine-gunned thousands. Secretary of Vegetative State Marco Rubio just implored his fellow Cubanos to do the same. Alas, they still remember the bloody U.S. betrayal at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.
If Rip Van Winkle had fallen asleep then and awakened this month, he might not have noticed.
We live in the last gasp of white supremacy at the dawn of the Age of Aquarius.
The late great Gloria Steinem was asked if the Sixties were a flop. She wholeheartedly disagreed, pointing to all the progress made in human rights since then.
The jocks, as always, were slow to respond but now big biz is cashing in on womens' sports, all rooted in the hard work of Ms. Steinem and her legions.
As Pulitzer winner Susan Faludi noted in her groundbreaking bestseller "Backlash," something like today's Confederacy replay always happens trying to reverse progress. Remember  those vicious "you will not replace us" marches?
Ai may indeed facilitate the Age of Aquarius if we harness it. Using the capacity of computers that can add zeros and ones very very fast, scientists have already invented a silver bullet to kill cancer tumors.
We have been given a perfect little world where everything and everyone gets recycled to evolve into something better -- unless we destroy it.

CASINOS: ENDANGERED SPECIES. The new GLP-1 wonder drugs do amazing things for addicted people. Addicts are victims of the part of their brains that rewards compulsive behavior -- like eating sweets or gambling. Just as social media algorithms are engineered to hook you to their screens, so are slot machines. Take the wonder drug and you can beat the devil.
The Nevada Satan who must not be named is the bedrock of the casino industry. This demon addicts gamblers who will lose everything and still come back for more. Can you imagine a world in which Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous are no longer necessary? GLP-1 may make it so. If thus, Nevada has bet its chips on a shrinking industry, and that's bad business.

NEVADA BEHIND THE WAVE. The world is indeed in flux. Will we flux ourselves in next week's elections? The New York Times just moved the northern Nevada congressional race from "leaning Democratic" to "leaning Republican."
The Times also called the race for governor as a tossup. However, the conduct of the Elephantiasis set provides a chilling portent. Campaigns can't hide their strategies which they put on the streets every day.
Gov. Giuseppe Lumbago just failed to show for a scheduled debate at the Nevada Legislature with his opponent, A.G. Aaron Ford. The guv also refused a Times interview. Congressional candidate Flippo Marx has likewise been ducking the press. Sitting on your lead is dangerous, but sometimes effective.
Bettors lose money by following publicly published polls. All showed Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid losing to madcap GOP nominee Sharron Angle in 2010. Harry's very expensive internal polling showed otherwise. He smoked her by 40,000 votes in the Year of the Tea Party.
If Donkeyite Teresa Benitez-Thompson beats the 1981 Reid-engineered north/south gerrymander, she will be the first Democratic congresscritter in these parts since Jim Santini, 1975-83.
Flippo is putting out very creative lies against Teresa. I love the one about her "giving" tax breaks to a rich Chinese automaker. That was a Tesla-style corporate welfare rerun engineered by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval. The proposed LV auto plant never got off the ground and the tax breaks never happened.

DOUBLE HALL-OF-FAMER TRAVUS T. HIPP FROM THE TRIB OF LONG AGO: "If you don't vote, don't bitch!"

MELT ICE -- MASK UP! Get the latest boosters. COVID is back -- big-time with its big brother, the flu. Protect yourself and your family. Continue emanating vibes and prayers for the unvaxxed, unenlightened and oppressed  as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burma/Myanmar (Rohingya genocide) and eastern China (Uyghur genocide) among the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours.

May we survive the new WW3 perhaps coming quite soon to a polling place near you. Speak. Act. Vote, dammit!

¡Sí se puede! Or, as they say in Poland, SOLIDARNOSC!

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 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member of 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. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024. For all the news you never knew you needed to know, head for BallotBoxing.US.

NEXT WEEK'S TRIBUNE BARBWIRE: The unnoticed societal benefits of all those fake Ai memes and videos. (That was NOT a joke for relief of the multitudes burned out by all the usual grossness from pols, poltroons, dragoons and buffoons.)

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

Futile Follytix in Mississippi West
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 10-21-2026 / UPDATED 10-23-2026 / Expansions in blue

After last week's column about racism being raked up in November contests, I was sickened but not shocked what broke on local television.

The top of the Democratic ticket is now being Willie Hortoned (ala Bush the Elder vs. Droll Dukakis 1988). You know the schtick -- Black killers are coming for your women and children and it's the fault of Teresa Benitez-Thompson and Aaron Ford. Just in time for early voting kickoff, some PAC launched a new TV spot smearing both with the same old tar baby.
Their opponents -- Groucho and Harpo's bastard nephew Flippo Marx and Gov. Giuseppe Lumbago -- accuse them of letting murderers go free accompanied with a host of mugshots of black men. Subtle, huh?
It's just another version of "Beware the Other." An old European corollary lies the roots of this corrupt and common Jim Crow canard. It comes courtesy of my greatest teacher, Philip E. Levine (Pulitzer and National Book Award honoree and former poet laureate of the United States.)

Back at Fresno State, the great writer noted that Welsh coal miners were attributed the same sexual voraciousness as black men in this country. It was one way of excusing the exploitation and extreme poverty of the underclass. ("How Green Was My Valley, Barbwire 9-2-2026)
"They may shiver in their shanties and not have enough food for their children, but it doesn't matter because they can enjoy sex far better" than their betters. (My paraphrase of that lecture.)
Over my years, I have oft-heard much the same: "Their skin is like iron, you can't cut it with a knife...and they breed like rabbits."
Somewhere in hell, Der Feuhrer Adolf and his media consultant Josef Goebbels are laughing at Nevada.

WTF UPDATE. Do mailed ballots get postmarked at Nevada postal facilities or sent elsewhere, then returned for counting? I haven't seen anything in the legit Fake News Media.

I got ahold of a frontline union brother. "As far as I know," he wrote, "ballots are postmarked and processed in Reno. Mailed ballots should be sent at least a week in advance. Dropping in the mail or giving it to a carrier will delay the postmark a day. Post Office will hand stamp postmark if requested," he noted.
You can hand your completed ballot to a clerk at any postoffice and s/he will postmark it in your presence.
You may recall the brouhaha last year when USPS announced that ballot postmarking would be done in Sacramento.

WTF PART DEUX. As triple hall-of-famer and former Tribune stalwart Dennis Myers once noted, voter registration is the most efficient system yet devised to keep citizens from voting. It's actually a hangover from Jim Crow to keep them their freed plantation darkies from messing with white men's gov'ment, y'all.
I am thankful that election-day registration finally got approved for the High Desert Plantation, but not everyone should have to bring birth certificates, blood samples, DNA evidence and your firstborn to register to vote. Which brings me to Question 7 on the ballot.

It would do the same thing that Confederate states have been doing, making it harder to vote even if you're registered. Some people simply don't have i.d. cards for a host of reasons. For instance, tribal member i.d.'s don't include photos.
Everyone who lives here and pays taxes should have a say in how those taxes are spent. And I mean EVERYONE, not just our overlords and betters.
Alas and alack, in this dark time of the neo-Nazi ICE Gestapo, if you get caught without your papers, you go to jail. That includes you and me. Seig heil!

SPEAKING OF THE CONFEDERACY, Tejas provides good reasons to vote for Question 6 which will place a woman's right to choose in the Nevada Constitution. Q-7 is also a constitutional amendment. One of the best reasons to vote for 6 is why you should consider nixing 7: It takes FIVE YEARS to change the Nevada Constitution.
A voter initiative placed abortion on the ballot in 1990 and it won handily despite criticism that ti wasn't needed after Roe v. Wade. (HardyHarHar!) Another ballot measure could repeal the 1990 handiwork, which all by itself makes Q-6 urgent.

Texas provides the murderous icing on this coffin cake. Pregnant women in the Lone Stark State have been dying for lack of medical care because doctors are reluctant to provide ANY CARE which might result in criminal abortion charges. Which is why physicians have been leaving such places, including Idaho, in droves.
Who cares, right? Men can always find new baby factories.

SPEAKING OF TRAITORS, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman just called T-Rump a traitor for betraying Ukraine and snuggling up to Putini the Putana. (If you don't speak Italian, don't call somebody's wife a putana.) Hey, Czarino T-Rump, if Commie-hating Sen. Joe McCarthy and his enforcer (and yours) Roy Cohn were still alive, they'd be turning over in their graves.

WTF UPDATE. Last week, the Sparks City Council OK'd funding for new turf at Golden Eagle Park, a helluva revenue producer for city coffers. Lots of out-of-towners pay for the privilege of shortening childrens' life spans.
Golden Eagle reportedly wields the largest expanse of crumb-rubber fake grass anywhere. It causes cancer and brain damage, as I have oft reported. (See the web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/)
Official City of Sparks statement: "Sprinturf was awarded the project for $1,003,107.00...replacing the artificial turf on fields 5 and 6 outfields...The infill material is synthetic turf but is also referred to as crumb rubber." Aaargh!
 
Take your kid somewhere else. The ground-up used tires radiate benzene and a host of other cancer-triggers.

DIRTY JOKE DEPT. For the past three weeks, I've been asking for the PUNchline to a joke. So far, no winners. For the last time, here's the expanded setup for a great zinger for which I refuse to print the PUNchline because it's so obvious: "What college did Jeffrey Epstein, Donald T-Rump AND WOODY ALLEN attend?"
E-mail your solutions. In the current environment, we need all the laughs we can get.If you are squeamish, please don't buy next week's Trib as it will contain the complete and completely lewd liner. Unless follytix rears its pretty orange face.

MELT ICE -- MASK UP! Get the latest boosters. COVID is back -- big-time with its big brother, the flu. Protect yourself and your family. Continue emanating vibes and prayers for the unvaxxed, unenlightened and oppressed  as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burma/Myanmar (Rohingya genocide) and eastern China (Uyghur genocide) among the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours.

May we survive the new WW3 perhaps coming quite soon to a polling place near you. Speak. Act. Vote, dammit!

¡Sí se puede! Or, as they say in Poland, SOLIDARNOSC!

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 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member of 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. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024. For all the news you never knew you needed to know, head for BallotBoxing.US.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024

Hidebound and hellbound
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 10-14-2026 / UPDATED 10-18-2026 / Expansions in blue

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Better known as instant replay.
The shining city on the hill has gone dark. Camelot has fallen. Welcome to the darkside.
America once again has concentration camps, instant replay of the Trail of Tears and Indian reservation incarceration. Happy Columbus Day.
We also arrested, uprooted and interned Japanese citizens during WW2 based on a lie to President FDR from a racist military mongrel. Now, another monstrous mongrel sits in the White House working hard to make modern abuse of the non-white break all records.
There's only one vaccine for this strain of national rabies.
Will we fail in November? At best, I think we will come up just short. It takes 60 votes to move something thru the US Senate, 67 to convict and remove a criminal president. So much for the pleasant dream.
Mississippi West Nevada remains more retro than much of a nation which has never elected a woman president. Mexico -- MEXICO! -- machismo Mexico even got there first.
As goofy as it may seem, Teresa Benitez-Thompson may have a better chance at winning Nevada's northern-tier congressional seat than Attorney General Aaron Ford has to become governor.
As I have oft-noted, after Nevada's population expansion got us a second congressional seat, future US Sen. Harry Reid successfully gerrymandered a Gomorrah South district for himself. He won the seat, stepped up to the senate six years later and the rest is history.
The current configuration of the northern district remains heavily red. No Donkeykong has ever won in 42 years. A few have come close but no cigar.
Teresa is the best candidate since former Reno State Sen. Mary Gojack in 1982. Her opponent, Flippo Marx, is a buffoon of a carpetbagger who moved here to buy the office. And he damn well may do it. The Republican registration advantage (well over 70,000) is huge enough.
Yes, I know "non-partisans" outnumber both D's and R's. Many of the NP's are disaffected R's who will vote R thru heredity or habit. So why will Mr. Ford do worse?
He's black. Well, moderately brown. But we live in Mississippi West. Aaron is only the second black man ever to win a major party nomination. The first was the greatest of them all, State. Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas.
I had the honor of working with and for him over many years. That great man underwent no end of grief because he wanted to raise taxes on major Nevada casinos. (In 2003, his last year in Carson City, he finally did. See SenJoeNeal.org/)
Aaron and Teresa are fine public servants. Professionally, in addition to mothering the four most gorgeous kids you ever saw, she was a social worker who counseled the dying. St. Teresa is pretty awesome.
Corporate welfare at all levels remains Nevada's biggest problem. Racism isn't far behind.
I write this with heavy heart but I recently endured an instant replay of an old heartache. Years ago, a dyed-in-the-wool D who had served high up in a Democratic governor's administration, bragged in front of me that she had always voted for Democrats. Except Gov. Kenny Guinn, who defeated Sen. Neal in 2002.
Recently, another die-hard D told me she could not vote for Mr. Ford.
"There's just something wrong," she said. I understood the code.
Publicly published polls show Republican Gov. Giuseppe Lumbago with a narrow lead. This guy ordered Nevada State Senate R's to kill Sen. Dina Neal's bill to limit Wall Street speculators owning limitless numbers of houses, jacking up prices. (Dina now holds her late father's seat.)
Early voting begins this Friday. The "blue wave" must become a Blue Tsunami complete with tidal waves to overcome what T-Rump's banditos have in store.
Work. Speak. Vote, dammit! The game's afoot.
WTF DEPT. I called the Nevada Secretary of State's office with a simple question: Are completed ballots postmarked at Nevada postal service facilities or sent to Sacramento or elsewhere, then sent back?
You may recall the brouhaha last year when USPS announced that ballot postmarking was only available in California. And just one person was trained to use the specialized equipment.
Guess what? Secretary Aguilar's office does not take phone call requests and I could not even leave a message for someone to call me back. Just e-mail and wait. And he's up for re-election. Not exactly smart media relations, Cisco.
WTF, PART DEUX. Last week, the Sparks City Council OK'd funding for new turf at Golden Eagle Park, a helluva revenue producer for city coffers. Lots of out-of-towners pay for the privilege.
It's reportedly the largest expanse of crumb-rubber fake grass anywhere. And it causes cancer and brain damage, as I have oft reported. (Complete sordid details with Tribune photo linked to the web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/)

Statement from City of Sparks 10-13-2026: I received your voicemail concerning the Golden Eagle Regional Park artificial turf replacement. Sprinturf was awarded the project for $1,003,107.00. They will be replacing the artificial turf on fields 5 and 6 outfields. This is the first replacement of these two outfields. They were original to the park in 2008. The infields on these two fields were replaced in 2024, also by Sprinturf.  The infill material is synthetic turf but is also referred to as crumb rubber. I hope that helps. Thank you!
 
Julie Duewel
Communications Manager

Take your kid somewhere else. The ground-up used tires radiate benzene and a host of other cancer-triggers. But the crummy rubber keeps the phony grass looking perky for the cameras. The NFL Players Assn. has been successfully pushing to use a new-fangled invention called grass, which is more expensive to maintain. Get the picture?
DIRTY JOKE DEPT. For the past two weeks, I've been asking for the PUNchline to a joke. So far, no winners. Again, here's the expanded setup for a great zinger for which I refuse to print the PUNchline because it's so obvious: "What college did Jeffrey Epstein, Donald T-Rump AND WOODY ALLEN attend?"
E-mail your solutions. In the current environment, we need all the laughs we can get.
MELT ICE -- MASK UP! Get the latest boosters. COVID is back -- big-time with its big brother, the flu. Protect yourself and your family. Continue emanating vibes and prayers for the unvaxxed, unenlightened and oppressed  as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burma/Myanmar (Rohingya genocide) and eastern China (Uyghur genocide) among the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours.
May we survive the new WW3 perhaps coming quite soon to a polling place near you. Speak. Act. Vote, dammit!

¡Sí se puede! Or, as they say in Poland, SOLIDARNOSC!

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 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member of 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. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024. For all the news you never knew you needed to know, head for BallotBoxing.US.

Robber Barons Rule Me & You
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 10-7-2026 / UPDATED 10-18-2026 / Expansions in blue
"I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat!" — Will Rogers

Rise of the Reptiles
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-30-2026 / UPDATED 10-18-2026 / Expansions in blue

Perhaps the spirit of Noah Webster continues warning us from two centuries ago: "Reptilian" is still listed just before "Republican" in all of my dictionaries.

UPDATE: WORLDWIDE LEADER? ACT OF GOD OR JUST A GARDEN-VARIETY IMPOSSIBLE DREAMER? ALL OF THE ABOVE? VERY POSSIBLY. Was Andrew Barbano the only advocate for an American pope? Google apparently says YES! At minimum, the Barbwire stumped and broke Google trying to find out. See for yourself. And please lemme know what you think.

Let it Be: An American Pope Francis2
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-23-2025, uploaded 4-22-2025

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

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

My Golden Girl
50 years ago today

On January 16, 1959, two babies were born.
They became sisters in both life and death.

Larry Barbano, Frater Mei
12-18-1947 / 10-18-2023
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

Breaking News —> Masks work!

And the plague is rampant once again. Be very afraid.

Trump Victory Would Be a Public Health Disaster
By Whistleblower Rick Bright/New York Times/10-10-2024
For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now, subscribe to BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL—>Cheap. (HushHush!) Hie thee to BallotBoxing.US/


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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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Copyright © 1982-2026 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 57-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He is a 25-year+ member and former first vice-president 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 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. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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