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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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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

Under Construxion / Stay tuned

 

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

Barbwire
Archives

Site map
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

Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

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

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


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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!

 

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.

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

Under Construxion / Stay tuned

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
The Fake News New York Times wasted a thousand words of space with Monday's contribution by former Biden White House Press Person Karine Jean-Pierre.
"Trump is falling into the same trap as Biden," the headline declared." That's where you could stop reading. She moaned that the economy was upticking under her boss, aka Clarence Thomas' best friend, and that the public just didn't get the message. Welcome to instant replay.
And what was her job again? Oh, yeah. Media. Which was too splintered to allow Bidenesque wondrousness to infect the body politick. Poor sweet baby.
She concluded by committing columaniacal suicide -- offering no call to action. My heart bleeds.
Fortunately for me, the guest column had a big grayish-blah illustration that allowed room to scrawl notes for this Barbwire in about three minutes.
Alas and alack, I have not seen ANY candidate of any political persuasion address the big picture. As Bill Clinton demonstrated thru eight years of frustration, baby steps won't work.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are beating the populist drums and deserve endless support.
But the cancer is much bigger and has spread worldwide. T-Rump buddy Balsonaro's kid just topped the Brazilian presidential primary. I pray that incumbent Lula da Silva gives B-2 a Brazilian or the Amazon will soon be paved over.
So what's my beef? Immortal corporations. In 1981-82, I had the good fortune to work with eminent economist Dr. David Schwartz in establishing Nevada's first consumer advocate entity. (It's been expanded and is still going under Attorney General Aaron Ford.)
Dave once mentioned research done by a colleague who totaled the distance you'd need to go on the Fortune 500 to learn how many outfits controlled half the assets of business America. Half a century ago, it was about 250, maybe a bit more.
I did the same thing in this column about 30 years ago. Down to about 125. Big Google Ai in the Sky makes it easy now, courtesy of Wikipedia: "Because massive commercial banks, insurance conglomerates, and investment firms hold tens of trillions of dollars in assets on their balance sheets, the top 30 to 40 companies on the Fortune 500 control roughly half of the list's total corporate assets."
Zounds.
Microsoft set the standard: Why innovate? Just acquire a feisty competitor for any price so you can control their product at your price. Or just kill it outright.
As I have oft-noted, our government is victim of a corporate takeover. That's not new but now it's borderline terminal.  Our military has been used to impose corporate will for over two centuries. Why the Alamo? Mexico outlawed slavery. Why the Vietnam War? Because French Prez Charles de Gaulle the Pompous wanted Michelin's rubber plantations back after WW2.
Look up where the term "banana republics" came from. Hola, Chiquita!
I have yet to see any candidate propose increased anti-monopoly enforcement by the feds. Heaven forfend, not big government! Teddy Roosevelt, call your office.
Big insurance companies are now using Ai to upcode Medicare Advantage claims, adding extra "procedures" to milk more money out of the system. (NYTimes 10-25-2026) Benefits will be cut next year while T-Rump's trolls slice more from the skeleton of government. They doomed millions by killing U.S.A.I.D. and just eviscerated Obamacare.
Yawn. Monopoly puts people to sleep. SEX! Got your attention, didn't I? The price at the gas pump has been rigged by BigOil for more than 40 years. I've built a whole website about the Oilogopoly.
Yawn. Let's go see which movie star has been caught in flagrante backseato.
Can't blame the electorate too much. The little guys have been ground down for decades. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal left America the most egalitarian place on Earth after WW2. People could afford homes, college was cheap or free. Immigrants -- including my family -- prospered.
The banditos have been cutting it back ever since. Today, we have a Confederate president and white supremacist government.
How inept are we? Our military is well-prepared to re-fight WW2 should anyone care to engage. Gotta take care of them fat corporate contractor cost over-runs.
Now comes news that Putin the Impaler has offered Lukoil, Russia's worldwide oil company, to T-Rump's minions -- after Ukraine gets settled, of course. It's the biggest bribe in recorded history. Somewhere, Xi Xin PingPong is grinding his teeth wondering what he can trade for Taiwan before our Chairman Mouth keels over at McDonald's.
Vote like your children, your life and your country depend on it. Otherwise, we very probably won't get another chance. The Mouth that Roared warned us several times that if we elected him, we would never need another election.
WORD GAMES PEOPLE PLAY DEPT. We live in troubled times with loud moanings from the disgruntled coming from every nook and cranny of the planet. Help me out. Find me someone -- anyone -- who will admit to being blissfully gruntled but got dissed and ignored by the Fake News Media.
NEWS QUIZ: As noted last week, there are some depths to which even I will not go for a column guffaw. Again, here's the setup for a great test-marketed joke for which I refuse to print the PUNchline because it's so obvious: "What college did Jeffrey Epstein and Donald T-Rump attend?"
E-mail your solutions/zingers and we'll see if twisted minds really do think alike.
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

Under Construxion / Stay tuned

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.
Which brings me to yayhoo Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy, the Cajun goober with the famous name.
Just ahead of T-Rump's DC blowjob on Xi Xin PingPong, Kennedy called Chinese, Russian, North Korean and Iranian leaders "part of a colony of reptiles." Some network TV producer, who probably got lunch out of it, flashed a photo of soulless White House Svengali Stephen Miller as part of the story.
In his blithering bout of bayou bile, Kennedy stumbled over something more profound. These guys are ruled by the reptilian lower brain all humans share.
As critters evolve, their brains become more complex, building atop what's already there. Remember those smart and scary velociraptors from the "Jurassic Park" movies?
Archaeologists found fossilized velociraptor skulls which analysis showed that their brains were just beginning to fold when the big asteroid hit and left Earth to our underground ancestors 65mm years ago.
Big Google Ai in the Sky sez " ' Reptilian brain' refers to the brainstem and the basal ganglia (the R-complex), which control basic survival functions, instincts, and automatic body processes...The oldest, innermost layer is called the reptilian or lizard brain. Modern neuroscientists view this model as a bit too simple, but people still use the term to describe the primitive core of the brain. 
"Key Parts and Functions
    •    Brainstem: Controls vital life support functions like breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and balance.
    •    Basal Ganglia: Manages primal, automatic behaviors, survival instincts, and physical reactions like the fight-or-flight response.
    •    Behaviors: Drives territoriality, mating drives, aggression, and rigid routines that do not change easily through learning."
Pretty good scientific slicing of the world today. Next time you see Stephen Miller or any lineup of T-Rump suckups, concentrate on how many look like lizards or two-legged vipers.
To do what dictators do, basic humanity (upper brain capacity) must be  severely retarded. And so we suffer as their actions and inactions maim and kill.
"Trump, Xi overlooked fentanyl in Beijing (summit)" USA Today headlined last June. Our Own Chairman Mouth and Xi Pong both ignored COVID because the virus made them look less than all-powerful. Millions lie dead as a result. Between them, they are poised to eclipse the total of mass murders and plagues perpetrated by Mao Zedong in his decades of depredation.
COMIC RELIEF. Jimmie Kimmel hosted New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani on his Brooklyn-originated show last Monday. It may rerun Friday (ABC/KOLO TV-8). The opening skit had me doubled up with laughter. It's worth a click on your remote.
I didn't catch Mamdani's interview. Christiane Amanpour (CNN/PBS) hosted Catholic commentators about Pope Leo's pilgrimage to France. (Yes, his beloved White Sox made the baseball playoffs. Kinda like him -- as a wild card.)
An interview with author Ben Macintyre captivated me.
He discussed his new book "Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War’s Most Extraordinary Spy." Vladimir Kuzichkin, a top Russian KGB operative stationed in Tehran, Iran, chose to defect to the West in 1981. He provided complete details of a Soviet Union plot to take over Iran after the U.S. puppet government was kicked out. Looking to make nice, Ronald Reagan's CIA Chief William Casey provided Kuzichkin's info to the new ayatollah government which immediately arrested and/or murdered 8,000 Iranians.
The young guys who did that in 1981 are part of the Iranian government today. The U.S.-spawned cancer abides.
DIRTY JOKES DEPT. Kuzichkin's cover name was "Redwood." He was a tall, movie-star handsome dude, a commie, a Red. And he suffered from erectile dysfunction, hence the "wood." Author Macintyre thought he'd be bleeped. Nope. Amanpour doubled up with laughter.
Two-legged reptiles in three-piece suits with crocodile shoes have no sense of humor because they don't know when they themselves are the jokes. They can stop reading now while real people have some fun.
RENO CITY HALL is a dirty joke on any given day. Can you believe all the news this week about the big internal investigation about the firing of the ex-chief and executive higherups at the police department?  And nobody will publish the stupid story about what the hoohaw is all about.
It took me just a couple of phone calls months ago. All this time, grief, embarrassment and money are being wasted over a less-than-grownup case of playing hooky from school, then lying to mommy about it. Yawn.
DIRTY T-RUMPS. I just read where President Bulsha Tartist's treasury secretary was born with alternative procreative proclivities. AKA homosexuality. Scott Bessent is one of THEM! So why didn't T-Rump's Bible-abusing base insist that Mr. Bessent undergo brutal born-again conversion therapy to wash the queer out of him before he was confirmed by the puppet Republican senate?
My best guess: All that exposure to Christian morality and Bessent might have come out a closet Democrat.
NEWS QUIZ: Believe it or else, there are some depths to which even I will not go for a column guffaw. So, here's the setup for a great joke but I refuse to print the punchline because the pun is so obvious: "What college did Jeffrey Epstein and Donald T-Rump attend?"
E-mail your solutions/punchlines and we'll see if twisted minds really do think alike.
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, 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

Hustlers, Shucksters, Hucksters & Suckers
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-23-2026 / UPDATED 9-25-2026 / Expansions in blue

The 2025 Barbwire Blue-footed Booby Prizes
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno/ Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 12-31-2025

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
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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 was the longtime executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and is a 25-year+ member and former first vice-presdient 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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