BallotBoxing
 The All-American Bloodsport

Rough & Tumble — No Holds Barred


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

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
— Paul Valery, French critic & poet (1871-1945)

Barbwire Confidential: Hush-Hush!

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Get ahead of corporate-influenced news CHEAP! –>
GREATEST HITS: All the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now

 

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

Updated on 1-15-2020 GMT

National welfare, corporate welfare and MLK
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-15-2020 Sparks Tribune

"America exists today to make war." — Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Chief of Staff to U.S. Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, 2002-2005

The only way to stop killing is to stop killing
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-8-2020 Sparks Tribune

Barbano sells out to white Republicans
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-1-2020 Sparks Tribune

Hope you and yours enjoyed Happy High Holly Days
Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus/Chanukah/Thanksgibleting
Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad
HAPPY NEW YEAR / Feliz Año Nuevo / Felice Anno Nuovo
Frohe Weihnachten und beste Wuensche fuer 2020


© 2019 The New York Times

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Sermon on Mount Barbwire
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-25-2019 Sparks Tribune

Typhoid Mary infects Sparks Addams Family
In the spirit of true democracy which provides that your rights don't allow you to sneeze on mine
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-18-2019 Sparks Tribune

A fake news fable for our times
Typhoid Mary, quite contrary
In the spirit of true democracy which provides that your rights don't allow you to sneeze on mine
Barbwire Confidential by Andrew Barbáno / 12-11-2019 Online Edition

Red-flag warnings — Ignoring history at our peril
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-11-2019 Sparks Tribune

Major rent raunch
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-4-2019 Sparks Tribune

Billionaire Tom Steyer owes me $5
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-27-2019 Sparks Tribune

11-30-2019
Happy St. Andrew's Day in Scotland and my house.
Hoist ye holy spirits.

Alleluia!

BREAKING NEWS AND THEN SOME—>

Requiescat in pace
Dennis C. Myers
12-28-1948/8-25-2019

Nevada's Greatest Of All-Time journalist, would have been 71 years old today. The GOAT was a goat —
a Capricorn. As Voltaire once opined, "God is a comedian playing to an audience afraid to laugh."

On 12-27-2005

Requiescat in pace
Betty J. Barbano
2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005

On 12-27-2015

Hunka Hunka Bernie Love

SOLIDARITY — Communications Workers of America members and their families from throughout northern Nevada pose with Sen. Sanders after his speech. NevadaLabor.com editor Andrew Barbano, far right, holds up his copy of the Dec. 3 edition of Rolling Stone with Sen. Sanders on the cover. The senator signed it immediately after the photo-op. Primo.

Sanders promises penalties for state corporate welfare

Sparks, Nev. (U-News) [Copyright © 2015 NevadaLabor.com] 4:55 p.m. PST 12-27-2015, 00:55 GMT 12-28-2015 — Campaigning in northwestern Nevada, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, told a standing-room-only crowd at the Northern Nevada Labor Temple that he would work to inhibit state vs. state corporate welfare.

Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 26/AFL-CIO Business Development Director Rob Benner asked "Senator, I assume you've noticed the 'Fix Tesla First' sign on the wall. Another electric car company, China-owned Faraday, has just received $334 million in tax breaks to come to Nevada. This came almost exactly a year after state government granted Tesla $1.4 billion. What can you do to fix this?"

Sanders understood the problem, stating that "it's not as simple as I will say it, but I would work to see that states lose some portion of federal benefits when they grant huge tax incentives such as you are describing which hurt needed services."

Sanders also said that he would support automatic union recognition if 50 percent plus one worker sign cards saying they want a union.

President Obama promised to support such legislation when he ran in 2008, but the White House never got behind the now long-dead Employee Free Choice Act.

Sanders also opposed a recent proposal to enact a national "right-to-work-for-less" law, adding that if workers get the benefits of a union contract, "they should contribute."

He noted his longtime opposition to treaties such as NAFTA and the Trans Pacific Partnership which ship jobs to low-wage countries. He added that he knows some Republican senators who have problems with the TPP and it may not pass in this session of Congress.

Sanders advocated for a $15 per hour minimum wage, noting that a working male today makes $700 per year less than he did in 1973, adjusted for inflation. Sanders added that women have also lost ground, especially over the past decade.

NevadaLabor.com Editor Andrew Barbano asked Sen. Sanders if he would support a fix to Obamacare which has put union health plans in jeopardy and is forcing union workers to pay a tax for which they receive nothing.

"Absolutely," Sanders replied.

Sanders answered every question from the audience which ranged from moppets to retirees. One young man noted that since he will be 18 by the general election next year, he will be allowed to participate in Nevada's February caucus. Sen. Sanders noted that Iowa likewise allows youth participation. He added that he's running ahead in New Hampshire, is getting closer in Iowa and if he also does well in Nevada and S. Carolina, victory will be possible.

In the Dec. 3 edition of Rolling Stone, he stated that "Nobody denies, Hillary Clinton least of all, that she is an establishment candidate."

Sanders signed Barbano's Dec. 3 Rolling Stone cover.

 

145 years ago
Barbed wire was patented (11-24-1874), ensuring full employment for doctors and lawyers in perpetuity.
On 18 Jan. 1813, Joseph Glidden, inventor of barbed wire, was born.
The west was never the same. Likewise here.
Stick with The Barbwire to sharply point out the awful truth. Always here.
Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

Requiescant in pace
John F. Kennedy
May 29, 1917 — November 22, 1963

C.S. Lewis: November 29, 1898 — November 22, 1963
Aldous Huxley: July 26, 1894 — November 22, 1963

Back to the future down Amnesia Lane
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 11-20-2019 Sparks Tribune

We Don't Need No Education Part XCII—>
People get ready, that train's a comin'
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Barbwire Confidential Internet Edition 11-12-2019 / Updated 11-14 & 11-15-2019
A version of this column appeared in the Wednesday 11-13-2019 Sparks Tribune
An excerpt from the above was included in Andrew Barbano's address to the Washoe school board on Nov. 12.
SPECIAL REPORT FROM THE SCENE OF THE CRIME:
Clever maneuver prevents vote after 4 of 7 trustees announce support to name school for Dolores Feemster

We Don't Need No Education Part XCI—>
DO NOT risk your kids at Golden Eagle Park
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 11-6-2019 Sparks Tribune

Boffo reviews!
74th Annual Reno-Sparks NAACP
Freedom Fund Awards Banquet Oct. 19, 2019

Tale of 2 city halls: Cancer kids & brain damage
+Freedom Fund Banquet Update
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 10-30-2019 Sparks Tribune

Written in the stars: UNR football for racial justice
Freedom Fund Banquet Update
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 10-23-2019 Sparks Tribune

Goodbye, Columbus: A mirror for America
How Italians Became "White"
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 10-16-2019 Sparks Tribune

Déjà vu all over again: Bernie turns 2020 into 1968
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 10-9-2019 Sparks Tribune

City of Reno turns W. Plumb Lane into horny street
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 10-2-2019 Sparks Tribune

Hip-hopping mad over molesters and Mad Kings
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 9-25-2019 Sparks Tribune

Trade the Confederacy straight across for Greenland
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 9-18-2019 Sparks Tribune

Dennis Myers: Enroute to the universe next door
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 9-11-2019 Sparks Tribune

Philippines to Burning Man to Ireland: Adios GOAT
Dennis Myers Memorial 9-15-2019
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-4-2019 Sparks Tribune

Nevadian Dennis Myers: The Greatest Of All Time
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 8-28-2019 Sparks Tribune

Dennis Myers, 1948-2019
OBITUARY: Veteran Nevada reporter removed from life support
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Internet Edition 8-25 and 8-26-2019
[En Español — La Voz Hispana En Nevada 9-18-2019]

Strike schtick


BREAKING NEWS —> PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS ON THE STREETS OF STEAD —> Activist/philanthropist/business tycoon Tom Steyer and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg joined the UAW/GM strikers on Sept. 27. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., will hit the picket line at 10:45 a.m. PDT on Thursday, Oct. 3.

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 19:10:21 -0700
Subject: UAW Rally in Stead, Saturday, September 28th, 11:00a.m.
The AFL-CIO is going to be out with the striking UAW workers tomorrow, 11:00a.m. PDT

Intensive care
St. Mary's-Reno nurses picket Wednesday September 18, 2019

The Trump Whisperer and a $40,000 baseball ticket
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 8-21-2019 Sparks Tribune

Perfectly Nevadian: Joe Conforte, 1925-2019
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 8-14-2019 Sparks Tribune

Guns and roses, traitors & political poses
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 8-7-2019 Sparks Tribune

TRUMP URGES UNITY VS. RACISM
— New York Times front page headline 8-6-2019
BARBWIRE TRANSLATION: "You provide the unity, I'll provide the racism"
Coming in Wednesday's Sparks Tribune: Guns and roses, traitors and political poses

7-28: Happy Birthday Senator Joe Neal.

BREAKING NEWS AND THEN SOME—>

Reno City Council passes rent control
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-17-2019 Sparks Tribune


Broken Promises in Boomtown —>

Drug Addiction: Nevada's Chronic Corporate Welfare Tax Giveaways

Nevada corporate welfare queens rip off megabux from dumb hick taxpayers
By James De Haven / rgj.com 7-22 / Reno Gazette-Journal 7-28-2019

Corporate welfare ripoffs — Nevada business as usual
By Former Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno / Reno News & Review 7-25-2019

TURNING TRICKS QUESTION: Is Nevada’s corporate welfare paying off?
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 7-18-2019

Assemblymember Skip Daly, D-Sparks, has criticized Gov. Steve Sisolak for vetoing Assembly Bill 444 which would have created a legislative committee to review Nevada's epidemic of corporate tax breaks.
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-3-2019 Sparks Tribune

Racism Comes Out of the Closet
By Nobel Prize Winner Paul Krugman / nytimes.com 7-15 / The New York Times 7-16-2019

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXIX—>

The Sting, spike heels, green eggs & ham
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-31-2019 Sparks Tribune

A cuckoo coup and a president, too
Barbwire exclusive: Secret 2017 meeting set the setup in motion
"The firing of Traci Davis was nothing short of a long-term, well-orchestrated coup."
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-24-2019 Sparks Tribune

Alfred E. Neuman for Washoe school superintendent
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-10-2019 Sparks Tribune

Witness at the execution: School superintendent fired 6-1
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 7-3-2019 Sparks Tribune

Gang banging on 9th Street
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Barbwire Confidential Extra Edition / 7-1-2019

Veni, Vidi, Jockocracy?
Locker room rules: Caesars goes commando, union vows resistance to Eldorado empire
By Bryan Horwath / Las Vegas Sun 6-28-2019 / Reno Gazette-Journal 7-8-2019

The divine right of kings, casino gods & dingbat heirs
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-26-2019 Sparks Tribune

The Barbwire Presidential Dirtiest Dozen
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-19-2019 Sparks Tribune

Carson City, Transylvania County, Nevada USA
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-12-2019 Sparks Tribune

ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY:
NAACP LEADER SLAIN IN JACKSON — PROTESTS MOUNT

13 June 1963 (The New York Times) — A day after President Kennedy asked all citizens to take up the cause of civil rights, Medgar Evers, Mississippi Field Secretary for the NAACP, was assassinated in front of his home. Myrlie Evers, his wife, told protestors that night that "her husband had spoken of death last Sunday and said he was ready to go," The Times reported. Byron De La Beckwith was finally convicted of the murder three decades later.

Trumpeting tragedy as Great Depression2 descends
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 6-5-2019 Sparks Tribune

Nevada: Righteous results, wrongheaded reasons
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-29-2019 Sparks Tribune

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!
Washington, DC (5-22-2019) — Tsar Donaldov nukes infrastructure bill until Democrats stop "witch hunt" investigations. To Trump, that's negotiation. To criminal lawyers, that's called a
PLEA BARGAIN.

Nevada Business Opportunity: Abortion Tourism
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-22-2019 Sparks Tribune

¡Viva Chávez!
César Chávez Celebration XVIII / Celebración de César Chávez XVIII
Tuesday 31 March 2020 / martes 31 de Marzo 2020
In a historic first, Gov. Steve Sisolak delivered the keynote address at the record-breaking 2019 event at the Grand Sierra Reno

May 15: The Ides of Uncle Walter Cronkite
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the Wednesday 5-15-2019 Sparks Tribune

What if they gave a murder and nobody came?
BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL: Sheriff Balaam's icy hot patch
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno /Expanded from the 5-8-2019 Sparks Tribune/Updated 5-9 & 5-10-2019

MayDay for renters, movie fans and avengers
 1982 Reno homicide—>Cold case gets hot
Alas, another Barbwire Peerless Predixion Prevails—>Caudill cavorts with Sharron Angle's acolytes
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-1-2019 Sparks Tribune

Sen. Ira Hansen announces his pregnancy
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-24-2019 Sparks Tribune

Priorities for butt-, rent-, birth- and gun-control
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-17-2019 Sparks Tribune

DAY OF THE DEAD
Relieve Rent & Pillage: Save SB398 & AB399
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Online Legislative Edition / 4-12-2019
Fairness for tenants dies 4-12 unless lawmakers throw it a lifeline

Politics does not reward the shy
Rent justification and a death penalty for corporate depredation
UPDATE: Fairness for tenants dies 4-12 unless lawmakers throw it a lifeline
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-10-2019 Sparks Tribune

A liberal case for a new, brutal death penalty
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-3-2019 Sparks Tribune

HISTORY IN THE MAKING
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak delivers the keynote address at
César Chávez Celebration XVII 3-27-2019

50 years in Nevada: Trying to outlive them all
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-27-2019 Sparks Tribune

Guns, gouging and guts: once upon a time in the west
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-20-2019 Sparks Tribune

Guv keynotes César XVII: 17-year overnight success
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-13-2019 Sparks Tribune

Judge not lest ye be judged — or misjudged
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-6-2019 Sparks Tribune

Even in Sparks, God works in mysterious ways
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-27-2019 Sparks Tribune

OF CRABS AND CLANS: White bibs or white sheets tonight
Barbwire Confidential by Andres Luis Barbáno / 2-23-2019 SPECIAL ONLINE HUSHhush E-EDITION

His own Man: Nevada Legislature learned to work with a black senator
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 2-21-2019 / Review of "The Westside Slugger: Joe Neal's lifelong fight for social justice"
Clarification about the review: In 2003, Sen. Neal won passage of an increase in Nevada's gambling tax on the state's largest, most profitable casinos. It has not risen since he retired in 2004.
Sen. Neal and author John L. Smith will autograph copies on March 27 at César Chávez XVII at the Grand Sierra-Reno.

Hot off the press: "The Westside Slugger"
The life and times biography of Joseph M. Neal, Jr.
Nevada's first African-American senator
By Nevada Press Association Hall of Famer John L. Smith
Published in January 2019 by the University of Nevada Press

Trump's Wall: First step toward ending Nixon's War on Drugs
"Our for-profit prisons overflow with mostly black and brown people convicted of dastardly crimes like possession of two ounces of the Demon Weed."
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-20-2019 Sparks Tribune

NAACP Nevada Black History Month information

Happy Valentine's Day, Betty.

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

BLACK LIKE ME 2119: The problem as solution
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-13-2019 Sparks Tribune

Andrew Barbano, former governor of Nevada
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-6-2019 Sparks Tribune

Downtown Sparks: New taxes, gun controls & a wall
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-30-2019 Sparks Tribune

Striking sex: The only thing Trump understands
UPDATES: CULINARY UNION DEFEATS THE CARANO CIRCUS ATTEMPT TO DECERTIFY (TERMINATE) THE UNION
The murderous 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire gets NY Philharmonic treatment and a Barbwire exclusive
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-23-2019 Sparks Tribune

Retired IBEW Local 401 Business Manager Jerry David and wife found slain in Reno home
Linked to 2 other recent homicides in Douglas County / Evidence of robbery found
UPDATE: Suspect in custody
By Siobhan McAndrew / Reno Gazette-Journal 1-19-2019

Sands of time blast the milestones of life
Nevada MLK weekend events announced
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-16-2019 Sparks Tribune

Hall of Fame Nevada Assemblymember Bob Price Dies

Hot off the press: "The Westside Slugger"
The biography of Sen. Joseph M. Neal, Jr.
By Nevada Press Association Hall of Famer John L. Smith
Published in January 2019 by the University of Nevada Press

Hope you and yours had Happy High Holly Days
Merry Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus/Chanukah
Hope you and yours enjoyed enthralling Thanksgibleting.
HAPPY NEW YEAR / Feliz Año Nuevo / Felice Anno Nuovo
Frohe Weihnachten und beste Wuensche fuer 2019

More stupid signs of our republic's decline
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-2-2019 Sparks Tribune

Crystal Balls: Peerless Predixions 2019 & Beyond
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-26-2018 Sparks Tribune

So this is Christmas: May we get what we deserve
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-19-2018 Sparks Tribune

Melvin and Howard: The untold reality show
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-12-2018 Sparks Tribune

A Christmas fantasy for freedom-loving racists
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-5-2018 Sparks Tribune

November 30 —> St. Andrew's Day. Alleluia!

A pledge of allegiance for our empire's children
The above was published before the death of President George HW Bush. His record survives him.
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-28-2018 Sparks Tribune

Requiescant in pace
John F. Kennedy
May 29, 1917 — November 22, 1963

C.S. Lewis: November 29, 1898 — November 22, 1963
Aldous Huxley: July 26, 1894 — November 22, 1963

144 years ago on Thanksgiving weekend
Barbed wire was patented (11-24-1874), ensuring full employment for doctors and lawyers in perpetuity.
On 18 Jan. 1813, Joseph Glidden, inventor of barbed wire, was born.
The west was never the same. Likewise here.
Stick with The Barbwire to sharply point out the awful truth. Always here.
Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

Trumptasic tree ornaments for fun and prophet
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-21-2018 Sparks Tribune

Bluish waves, silver bullets, yellow dogs & chickens
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-14-2018 Sparks Tribune

If we stop killing, we stop killing ourselves
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-7-2018 Sparks Tribune

Required Reading
The Lady in the Red Dress
The award-winning Barbwire classic Nevada Day column written in 1983
The compleat history of the Silver State in 500 words
SPARKS TRIBUNE 10-31-2018

Personal & political hygiene & hijinx for fun & prophet
Barbwire by Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-24-2018 Sparks Tribune

Women march to the polls in downtown Reno Oct. 21

BallotBoxing '18: Maximum confusions & contusions
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-17-2018 Sparks Tribune

Great Depression 2.0: Sure cure for what ails us
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-10-2018 Sparks Tribune

Labor legend Stan Jones dies

50 shades of rape: Tales of future past
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-3-2018 Sparks Tribune

From Barbwire Confidential

9:14 p.m. PDT 9-26-2018 / 04:14 GMT 9-27-2018 — MY WILDEST DREAM: Tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. PDT, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford walks into the U.S. Senate crucifixion star chamber flanked by her new legal team — lawyers Anita Hill and Barack Obama. (Can we also get Gerry Spence out of retirement?)
Alas, love's labours lost.

Blacks honor whites with a dash of electric pink
In search of a pink Cadillac to honor Aretha
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-26-2018 Sparks Tribune

Democrats don't win campaigns, Republicans lose them
Instance in point —>

Tue, 25 Sep 2018 13:45:34 PDT

To: info@dscc.org (Amnesia Lane)
From: Andrew Barbano <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>
Subject: Re: Tammy, Maria, Dianne, Kirsten, Heidi, Mazie, Amy, Claire, Tina, Debbie, and Elizabeth

Dear Proper Person:

Poor Jacky Rosen, jinxed from within. This is by no means the first time you've forgotten about Ms. Rosen. We're used to such out in the provinces of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream. But we press on regardless.

Perhaps your web wizards have trouble counting past 10. That's not as bad as the sterling professionalism displayed by our gubernatorial nominee's minions.

Thanks for the column item.

Be well. Raise hell.

Andrew Barbano
Barbwire.US
BallotBoxing.US
NevadaLabor.com

ec: The usual suspects

>Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2018 20:19:2 GMT
To: Andrew Barbano <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>
From: "Elect Senate Women (via DSCC.org)" <info@dscc.org>
Reply-to: info@dscc.org
Subject: Tammy, Maria, Dianne, Kirsten, Heidi, Mazie, Amy, Claire, Tina, Debbie, and Elizabeth

11 of our of Democratic women are up for re-election this year. Donate to the Women’s Senate Network to support all our women candidates

YEAH, I know Congresswoman Rosen's not an incumbent senator (from the Latin for "old men"), but Nevada's supposed to be the most winnable seat this season. Ignoring Ms. Rosen constitutes back-handed damning with faint praise. — AB

The more things change, the more they remain the same
Half a century apart and but still together: Mothers and daughters will be honored at Sept. 29 NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-19-2018 Sparks Tribune

FROM JOURNALIST DENNIS MYERS' DAILY ALMANAC


IN MEMORY
Addie Mae Collins
Denise McNair
Carol Robertson
Cynthia Wesley

ON SEPT. 15, 1963, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was bombed by Ku Klux Klan members, killing four girls attending a Sunday service at which the sermon was titled "The love that forgives"; ON SEPT. 15, 1979, using a hot air balloon that took months to devise, two east German families escaped over the Berlin wall; ON SEPT. 15, 2007, Sally Field received an Emmy for her portrayal of family matriarch "Nora Walker" in the television series Brothers and Sisters and the Fox Network censored part of her acceptance speech: "But at the heart of Nora Walker, she is a mother. So surely this belongs to all the mothers of the world. May they be seen. May their work be valued and raised, and especially the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait-wait for their children to come home from danger, from harm's way, and from war. ... And let's face it, if mothers ruled the world, there would be no goddam wars in the first place."

FROM A FATHER AND A BROTHER

Osama bin Laden's strategic logic was to embroil the United States in a never-ending conflict to ultimately bankrupt the country.

"All that we have to do is send two mujahadeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written 'Al Qaeda,' " he said in 2004, "in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note."

Why are we continuing to do what Bin Laden wanted all along? I refuse to take Bin Laden's orders. I will not stay quiet. End the war.

— Joe Quinn, veteran of two tours in Afghanistan who lost a brother in the World Trade Center. His son is now deployed in the never-ending war. (New York Times op-ed, 9-11-2018)

 

 

 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." — George Santayana

 

Dim and Dimmer: Ghost of Jim the Dim rides again
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-12-2018 Sparks Tribune

Michael Moore and Checkers the Corporate Crime-fighting Chicken try to breach a criminal fortress — but can't get past the fortress waitress. (From his Emmy-winning series, TV Nation)

Message from the Mahatma —> FAHRENHEIT 11/9
Opening Night kick-off of the Toronto International Film Festival

TORONTO 6 Sept. 2018 —We open nationwide on September 21, 45 days before the most important election in American history (and with voter registration still open nationwide!). I have spent the better part of this year constructing a film that will not only explain how the @#&% we ended up with Trump, but also help show us the way out. I must warn you — I do not pull ANY punches in the film. No one is spared— not even me.

This film is THE moment of truth we've all needed for some time and I truly believe its release will be the real beginning of the end for Donald J. Trump (and perhaps, more importantly, the eventual end of the rotten, corrupt system that gave us Trump in the first place).

I need your help. I’ve made a film that was meant to be seen on a big screen, in a dark theater, filled with a hundred strangers. My hope is that you will experience the magic of cinema the way it was meant to be experienced, in a movie theater. It's the best way to truly feel the big story I'm telling you. Any bit of anger, despair, or frustration you’ve felt over the past few years must be channeled into action this fall!

We are the majority — never forget that. But we need to rise up. That’s the only way out of this mess.

All my best,

Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com

 

 

P. S. I'll bring you into the world premiere tonight via Facebook Live just before 11pm ET.

Barbwire 30th Anniversary Trilogy
Now well into a 4th decade of equal opportunity harassment of the rich, famous & powerful

In-house memo to Barbwire Confidential Subscribers
Remember, this is VERY HUSH HUSH, just between us.

RENO, NV 1:12 p.m. PDT / 20:12 GMT (5 Sept. 2018) —

Dear Friends and Fellow Unindicted Co-Conspirators:

As you know, planning ahead is not my strong suit. Ask any harried editor. The last three Barbwires turned into an unintentional trilogy of timely temerity. (See below.)

Today's Tribune was on the press by the time I received the political fox paw of the year (thus far). It will have to wait until next week's paper, but this can't wait. I swear on a stack of "Art of the Deal" remainders that I am not making this up.

I got an e-mail from Nevada Democratic gubernatorial nominee Steve Sisolak yesterday. (Screenshot available upon request.)

Here's the complete subject line which took up the entire capacity of my e-mail program's display: "I want to tell you about what happened when my dad got laid"

We know what happened, Mr. Commissioner: YOU.

Here's what it said when I opened up the e and the sin of omission performed an act of cyber-contrition:

       Subject: I want to tell you about what happened when my dad got laid off.

Either way, labor day became inextricably involved at some point.

This underscores a Nevada political season remarkable for its lack of laughs. Since facts have been permanently exiled, humor remains as the most devastating political weapon in any campaign arsenal. Alas and alack, amateurs abound.

Souvenir copies of the Sparks Tribune Barbwire 30th Anniversary Edition will be available at next week's Northern Nevada Central Labor Council and Reno-Sparks NAACP meetings. (One paper and about six bucks will get you a Costafracas Latté at just about any Starbux.)

 

NATURAL WOMAN: QUEEN OF SOUL ARETHA FRANKLIN DIES AT 76
DETROIT (8-16-2018) — Aretha Franklin, the undisputed Queen of Soul who stood as a cultural icon around the globe, has died at age 76 from advanced pancreatic cancer. Several years ago, Rolling Stone named her the greatest rock singer of all time, ahead of Ray Charles and Elvis Presley. Music rises as tears fall around the world. May she continue to make a joyful noise unto the Lord into eternity.

ALMANAC: On August 16, 1977, Elvis died. On August 16, 2018, Aretha died.

Wisdom from the immortals: Goethe, Ali & Connery
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 8-15-2018 Sparks Tribune

Buy local? 'Bye local and goodbye to Paul Laxalt
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 8-8-2018 Sparks Tribune

Analog anachronisms and digital dinosaurs
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 8-1-2018 Sparks Tribune

Ballardini black hole: Let's get our millions back
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-25-2018 Sparks Tribune

Putin & the Blowfish: High treason season of the witch
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-18-2018 Sparks Tribune

SCOTUS coitus interruptus and terminal Teslacide
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-11-2018 Sparks Tribune

Fake boobs and fake news: Guts, feathers and all
Another public relations coup for Nevada: Teslacide
In The Guardian/London & worldwide, Barbano and Nevada conservatives decry corporate welfare depredations
Menlo Park and Reno-Sparks-Fernley share similarly sad high-tech stretch marks
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-4-2018 Sparks Tribune

Cat house to state house: Any publicity is good publicity
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-27-2018 Sparks Tribune

Ghost in the machine: The return of NAGPAC
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-20-2018 Sparks Tribune

Lucky June 13: Cheap shots and low blows
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-13-2018 Sparks Tribune

A duo of D-Days visit Nevada this week
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-6-2018 Sparks Tribune

Mother Dolores: Our village loses its patron saint
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-30-2018 Sparks Tribune

Grandma, gold standards, forearms and tin ears
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-23-2018 Sparks Tribune

Las Vegas hospitality workers overwhelmingly vote to authorize citywide strike

Nevada Democratic Gubernatorial Debate: 6:00 p.m. PDT 5-21-2018 KTVN TV-2 (Northern Nevada) and KLAS TV-8 (Southern Nevada). The game's afoot. Watch The Barbwire for a review.

Beer & music and rendering unto Caesar
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-16-2018 Sparks Tribune

Stormy weather: Poll dancing for fun & prophet
UPDATED Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-9-2018 Sparks Tribune

Flint, Nevada: Dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-2-2018 Sparks Tribune

Just when you thought there was no good news
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-25-2018 Sparks Tribune

¡Viva Chávez!
César Chávez Celebration XVI / Celebración de César Chávez XVI
Wednesday 31 March 2018 / Miércoles 31 de Marzo 2018
Circus Circus-Reno
Complete event reports:

Flying machines in pieces on the ground, part deux
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-18-2018 Sparks Tribune

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXVIII—>
Flying machines in pieces on the ground
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-11-2018 Sparks Tribune

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXVII—>
Marked for life for making a phone call
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-4-2018 Sparks Tribune

March 31 — On this date in 1878, boxer (and future world heavyweight champion) Jack Johnson was born in Galveston; in 1927, César Chávez was born near Yuma, Arizona.

March 21 (Barbwire/César Chávez XVI Update) — On this date in 1806, Benito Juárez was born. ¡Viva Juárez!

Wednesday, March 14: National student walkout for gun control. Stand by for detention, you rambunctious little protestors. The University of Nevada-Reno says OK. The Washoe County School District says you're busted, you truant juvenile delinquents.

DETENTION JUNCTION: Reno-Sparks students will risk reprisals for walking out against guns
By Siobhan McAndrew / Reno Gazette-Journal 3-13-2018

Walkout date is an opportunity for Washoe students
Washoe School District Trustee Scott Kelley Op-Ed / Reno Gazette-Journal 3-13-2018

Hope for a nation more interested in butt control than gun control —  Andrew Barbano, Sparks Tribune, 3-14-2018

A world in fear: It's always 9/11 somewhere
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-14-2018 Sparks Tribune

March for Our Lives — and against guns — Saturday, March 24, gathering in front of the Bruce Thompson Federal Building, W. Liberty at S. Virginia, Reno, 11:30 a.m., concluding at the Reno City Hall BELIEVE PLAZA at 1:30 p.m. PDT / Info: Nnedi Stephens, 775-338-4561

WASHOE COUNTY COMMISSIONER KITTY JUNG WINS POLL POSITION ON CANDIDATE FILING DAY
Kitty comes in like a lion in March
Filing, fencing, fundraising and fighting for the community

MORE Barbwire

What's harder: Finding a doctor or Stormy Daniels?
Sucking up money: The ever-expanding tentacles of the voracious Renown medical octopus
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-21-2018 Sparks Tribune

West Virginia teachers: Strike one, strike won
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-7-2018 Sparks Tribune

Lousy lawyering for pun and prophet
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-28-2018 Sparks Tribune

Recognizing the red flags of instant replay
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-21-2018 Sparks Tribune

How to befriend a racist: Because that’s one way to change someone’s mind
By Wade Gainer / Reno News & Review 2-15-2018

The Nevada first lady we wish we had: love & laughter on St. Valentine's Day
Valentines for Cleopatra & wayward beautiful girls
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-14-2018 Sparks Tribune

Bliss Barbies: The yellow brick road to anorexia
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-7-2018 Sparks Tribune

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXVI—>
Racist terrorism in the Nevada outback
Mississippi West 2018: Sexy moral depravity abides
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-31-2018 Sparks Tribune & affiliated publications

Latest Klannish Nevada racism reports

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXIV—>
Bizarro R Us: Win bar bets predicting the 51st state
Terrorism in the Nevada outback
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-17-2018 Sparks Tribune and affiliated publications

The spirits of MLK and Bull Connor live right here
Terrorism in the Nevada outback
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-10-2018 Sparks Tribune / Updated 1-11 and 1-12-2018
"The good Lord created the world. Mankind built the cities. And the Devil thunk up the small town." — Auld folk wisdom

Latest Klannish Nevada racism reports

Chickens Beware! Reno Gazette-Journal names fox its citizen of the year
Reno News & Review Editorial 4 January 2018
BONE DRY MARTINI always drank the corporate welfare Kool-Aid
EXTRA EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT! —> Barbwire by Barbáno Special Internet Edition 12 Dec. 2015

Hope you and yours enjoyed Happy High Holly Days
HAPPY NEW YEAR / Feliz Año Nuevo
Frohe Weihnachten und beste Wuensche fuer 2018

All the Money in the World: The greatest story never told
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-3-2018 Sparks Tribune

Happy High Holly Days to all
Merry Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus/Chanukah
Hope you and yours enjoyed enthralling Thanksgibleting.
HAPPY NEW YEAR / Feliz Año Nuevo
Frohe Weihnachten und beste Wuensche fuer 2018

11-24-2017— 143 years ago on Thanksgiving weekend, Barbed wire was patented (11-24-1874).
On 18 Jan. 1813, Joseph Glidden, inventor of barbed wire, was born.
The west was never the same. Likewise here.
Stick with The Barbwire to sharply point out the awful truth. Always here.
Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
All the news you never knew you needed to know—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

COVER YOUR YEAR-END: Those with crystal balls should cover their glasses
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-27-2017 Sparks Tribune

Civil Rights Advocacy Rewarded

Reno-Sparks NAACP efforts result in two nominations among seven finalists for Reno Gazette-Journal Citizen of the Year Award
By Editorial Page Editor Brett McGinness
Reno Gazette-Journal / Sunday 12-24-2017

As a result of former four-time Reno-Sparks NAACP President Lonnie Feemster's activism in the Yerington High School racism case, Swope Middle School teacher Todd Bodensteiner had his Reno students write to the abused Yerington teens. Mr. Bodensteiner is now a finalist as is the late Reno-Sparks NAACP Executive Committee Member Darryl Feemster, Sr. (1962-2017). He was nominated by Reno-Sparks Branch First Vice-President Andrew Barbano. The winner will be announced in the Sunday, December 31, 2017, Reno Gazette-Journal. Thanks to everyone involved with the Branch for their membership and involvement and all the support we have received from Nevada and nationally. Keep up the good work and the good fight. — AB

Princess Cassandra and perpetual war machines
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-20-2017 Sparks Tribune

Christmastime investment advice from Al Capone
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-13-2017 Sparks Tribune

Nevada waived legislator conflict rule for Raiders vote
Barbano: "The deal drips with cronyism"
Associated Press & Center for Public Integrity / Tampa Bay Times 12-8-2017 / Reno Gazette-Journal 12-11-2017

Fake news Valhalla: Putin, my president and me
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 12-6-2017 Sparks Tribune

Darryl K. Feemster 1962-2017
A sojourn into the life of a fallen Nevada giant
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-29-2017 Sparks Tribune

BREAKING BAD
Walter White and some other white guy
Who's,,,
...Who?
On Nov. 23, 2014, after revelations by The Barbwire/Sparks Tribune, the Reno News & Review and the Reno-Sparks NAACP, Assemblymember Ira-Hansen, R-Sparks, resigned as speaker-designate of the Nevada State Assembly.

Latest Klannish Nevada racism reports

Happy Birthday, Ms. Nevada
Nevada Day Required Reading
The Lady in the Red Dress
The Barbwire's award-winning Nevada Admission Day classic written in 1983
The compleat history of the Silver State in 500 words (E.B. White would be so proud.)
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Sparks Tribune 11-4-1990 and oftimes since

Las Vegas 2017

Fire is the devil's only friend
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-4-2017 Sparks Tribune

Throwing the book at big guns and little cowboys
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-8-2017 Sparks Tribune

True racism means never having to say you're sorry
Blushing Violet Warning: Uncensored dirty pictures attached

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXVI—>
Racist terrorism in the Nevada outback
Mississippi West 2018: Sexy moral depravity abides
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-31-2018 Sparks Tribune & affiliated publications

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXIV—>
Bizarro R Us: Win bar bets predicting the 51st state
Terrorism in the Nevada outback
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-17-2018 Sparks Tribune and affiliated publications

The spirits of MLK and Bull Connor live right here
Terrorism in the Nevada outback
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 1-10-2018 Sparks Tribune / Updated 1-11 and 1-12-2018
"The good Lord created the world. Mankind built the cities. And the Devil thunk up the small town." — Auld folk wisdom

Civil Rights Advocacy Rewarded

Reno-Sparks NAACP efforts result in two nominations among seven finalists for Reno Gazette-Journal Citizen of the Year Award
By Editorial Page Editor Brett McGinness
Reno Gazette-Journal / Sunday 12-24-2017

As a result of former four-time Reno-Sparks NAACP President Lonnie Feemster's activism in the Yerington High School racism case, Swope Middle School teacher Todd Bodensteiner had his Reno students write to the abused Yerington teens. Mr. Bodensteiner is now a finalist as is the late Reno-Sparks NAACP Executive Committee Member Darryl Feemster, Sr. (1962-2017). He was nominated by Reno-Sparks Branch First Vice-President Andrew Barbano. The winner will be announced in the Sunday, December 31, 2017, Reno Gazette-Journal. Thanks to everyone involved with the Branch for their membership and involvement and all the support we have received from Nevada and nationally. Keep up the good work and the good fight. — AB

NV rural racism updates: Cow county coverup continues to corrupt

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXII—>
Thanksgibleting 2017: Success, sorrow & sustenance
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-22-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 11-23-2017

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXXI—>
Brain damage means never having to say you're sorry
Nevada's Most-Censored News Stories of 2017
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-15-2017 Sparks Tribune

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXX—>
The poisoning of old Pizen Switch proliferates
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 11-1-2017 Sparks Tribune

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXIX—>
Mississippi West don't need no education
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-25-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 10-29-2017 GMT

One of three award-winning entries: We Don't Need No Education Part LXXVIII—>
You've got to be taught to learn to hate
NATIONAL NEWS FIRST-BREAK FIVE WEEKS AHEAD OF THE LEGIT MEDIA. First in a series.
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-18-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 10-19-2017 GMT

Nevada students denied diplomas over failed exams get shot at redemption
By Meghin Delaney / Las Vegas Review-Journal 10-20-2017

Window of opportunity: 48 hours for human rights
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 10-11-2017 Sparks Tribune

Labor's stake in the fight for veterans' health care
By Suzanne Gordon and Ian Hoffmann / Labor Notes 10-12-2017
Ian Hoffman is with AFGE 2152 representing workers at Reno's Ioannis A. Lougaris Veterans Medical Center

Rewriting the Civil War and the Mexican War
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-27-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 9-28-2017

Freedom loving racists shoot to rewrite history
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-20-2017 Sparks Tribune

One of three award-winning entries:
The grasshopper and the dragonfly
Adios to a grandfather and a grand-daughter who never met
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 9-6-2017 Sparks Tribune / Expansions in blue

Virginia City Nevada celebrates Slave Labor Day
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Special online Labor Day edition 9-2-2017 / Updated 9-3,4,5

Just in time for President Trump's visit to Reno—>
True confessions of Nevada's undercover Republican presidential PR man
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 8-23-2017 Sparks Tribune

2018 —> The year of estrogenizing dangerously
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 8-9-2017 Sparks Tribune/ Expansions in blue

Authentic fakes, blonde flaks & grumpy old men
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-19-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 7-20-2017

Union busters in town to disrupt Reno-Sparks-Washoe bus system
Workers reject deficient contract offer, strike authorized
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Special Online Edition 7-13-2017 / Updated 7-14, 7-15 and 7-16-2017 GMT

Trump converts flaming liberals into gunfighters
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-12-2017 Sparks Tribune

America's final Independence Day looms
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 7-5-2017 Sparks Tribune

We Don't Need No Education Part LXXVII—>
Flint Michigan, Sparks-Reno style
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-28-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 6-29-2017

Of Sons & Giants: Reno-Sparks NAACP families grieve

Workers demonstrate at Sparks Nugget


Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., opposes GOP health care bill
Las Vegas Review-Journal / 6-23-2017

Rx for Rape and Pillage

SMOKING GUN —> The big picture ain't pretty. DC GOP lawmakers are trying to bludgeon thru Obamacare "repeal" because the budget cuts therein will substantially reduce projected deficits. Without those projections in law, under current revenue-neutral rules, they will not be able to pass their tax cuts for the corporately wealthy. No less than conservative Reason Magazine Editor Peter Suderman said that on the June 19 PBS/Bloomberg Charlie Rose TV program. As Lily Tomlin once opined, no matter how cynical you become, it's hard to keep up.

The game's afoot. So use a foot to kick some ass.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.

Andrew

LEGISLATIVE BETRAYAL: One for the books under the bus
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-21-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 6-21-2017

Condemned at Birth
The diabetes establishment inhibits research on a very promising diabetes CURE
"Tell us how it will make ever make us money."
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-14-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 6-14 and 6-20-2017

Nevada consumers consumed again
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 6-6-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 6-8-2017

Ring up hope before checking out
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-30-2017 Sparks Tribune

Drafting the Donkeyite Dream Team
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-23-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-25 and 5-26-2017

Trumping Reagan's television rules
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-16-2017 Sparks Tribune

Bench warrants and G-forces
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-9-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-10-2017 GMT

May Day for Labor Day
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 5-2-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 5-3 and 5-4-2017 GMT

Trump'll shake 'em up
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-25-2017 Sparks Tribune

One of three award-winning entries:
Busted at the Legislature
Fear & Loathing @ the Ledge
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-18-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 4-20, 4-21, 4-22, 4-23 and 4-25-2017.
Expansions in blue; much more to follow; stay tuned.

60 Revenging Rakkasans
Barbwire by Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-11-2017 Sparks Tribune

¡Viva Chávez!
César Chávez Celebration XVI / Celebración de César Chávez XVI
Saturday 31 March 2018 / Sabado 31 de Marzo 2018
Highlights from the record-breaking 2017 event at Circus Circus Reno

Halls of Fame and Glory
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 4-4-2017 Sparks Tribune

On April 4, 1968, the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., 39, was shot to death in Memphis, Tenn. (NY Times)

In search of César Chávez
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-28-2017 Sparks Tribune

8 the hard way!

BARBWIRE SCORES 8TH NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION AWARD


   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.

I hope you understand I just had to go back to the island.
— Leon Russell, 1942-2016

More Barbwire

In search of César Chávez
Barbwire by Andres Luis Barbáno / Expanded from the 3-28-2017 Sparks Tribune

Not necessarily news
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-21-2017 Sparks Tribune

Death Panels, Part Deux
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-14-2017 Sparks Tribune

Positively negative
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-7-2017 Sparks Tribune/ Updated 3-9 and 3-12-2017

Equal Rights Betrayal
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-28-2017 Sparks Tribune / Updated 3-1, 3-3, 3-6 and 3-8-2017

Recall in Tesla County moves ahead
18:18 GMT 2-24-2017 / 6:18 PST 2-23-2017 (Barbwire Confidential U-News) — Recall of Tesla County sheriff qualifies for ballot

Reidless or Rudderless?
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-21-2017 Sparks Tribune

Kate Smith & Lady Gaga
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-14-2017 Sparks Tribune

Feliz al dia de Santo Valentino

Go Trump Yourself
23:18 GMT 2-9-2017 (Info from Reuters via Las Vegas Review-Journal, comments via Barbwire) — A U.S. federal appeals court (made up of three so-called judges) on Thursday unanimously upheld a temporary suspension of President Donald Trump’s order that restricted travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. Stay tuned.
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

The Gorsuch Nonesuch: Poison Annie's Revenge
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-7-2017 Sparks Tribune

Smoot, smut and stash
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-31-2017 Sparks Tribune

The last question
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-24-2017 Sparks Tribune

Patient Zero Plagues
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-17-2017 Sparks Tribune

Democrats in Margaritaville
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-10-2017 Sparks Tribune

Regressions, Transitions and Predictions
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-3-2017 Sparks Tribune

HAPPY NEW YEAR / Feliz Año Nuevo
Frohe Weihnachten und beste Wuensche fuer 2017
Happy High Holly Days to all
Merry Christmas/Kwanzaa/Solstice/Festivus/Chanukah
Hope you and yours enjoyed enthralling Thanksgibleting.

11-24-2016 — 142 years ago on Thanksgiving Thursday,
Barbed wire was patented (11-24-1874).
On 18 Jan. 1813, Joseph Glidden, inventor of barbed wire, was born.
The west was never the same. Likewise here.
Stick with The Barbwire to sharply point out the awful truth. Always here.
Get ahead of corporate-influenced news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
All the news you never knew you needed to know—>TOP SECRET, HUSH HUSH!

Education Dysfunction Part LXXV—>
Year-end or end of times?
Smoking gun: throwing more money at public schools actually works
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-27-2016 Sparks Tribune

First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-20-2016 Sparks Tribune

Dark predictions and enlightened people
Nevada State AFL-CIO leadership changes
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-6-2016 Sparks Tribune

The Barbwire billion-dollar cure for what ails us
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-29-2016 Sparks Tribune

On Nov. 23, 2014, after revelations by The Barbwire/Sparks Tribune, the Reno News & Review and the Reno-Sparks NAACP, Assemblymember Ira-Hansen, R-Sparks, resigned as speaker-designate of the Nevada State Assembly.

In Memoriam: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 5-29-1917/11-22-1963

Toxins, turkeys, takeovers and true Nevadians
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-22-2016 Sparks Tribune

 

President Donald Trump as Andrew Jackson? So opined a plethora of prestigious, highly-paid expert pundits on election night. The Barbwire warned of exactly that last March. Twice.
And that ain't all. Read 'em and weep, pilgrims.

Nobody knows nothin'
By David Horsey, Staff Cartoonist / Los Angeles Times 11-9-2016
BARBWIRE SEZ the awesome Mr. Horsey's assertion that only the LAT/USC poll was accurate ain't necessarily so.

Those with crystal balls shouldn't throw stones
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-15-2016 Sparks Tribune

Remembering the first female U.S. presidents
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-8-2016 Sparks Tribune

"Any system of prolonged political paralysis and failed liberalism vomits up monsters. And the longer we remain in a state of political paralysis — especially as we stumble toward another financial collapse — the more certain it becomes that these monsters will take power." — Christopher Hedges at NationOfChange.org 17 Oct. 2016.

History foreshadows a GOP November win
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-16-2016 Sparks Tribune

All the more reason to subscribe to Barbwire Confidential.


Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
— Paul Valery, French critic & poet (1871-1945)

Thank you for NOT voting early—>
SUBSCRIBE TO BARBWIRE CONFIDENTIAL: Hush-Hush!

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

EVIDENCE IN POINT: The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters
Will an anti-voter-fraud program designed by one of Trump's advisers deny tens of thousands their right to vote in November?
The Crosscheck program is a response to the imaginary menace of mass voter fraud.
By Greg Palast / Rolling Stone 9-8-2016

Democrats for Trump
Running Mate Exposed


If you voted early, read this and regret it
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-8-2016 Sparks Tribune

On Nov. 6, 1860, former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeated three other candidates for the U.S. presidency. (New York Times)
11-4-2016: On this date in 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, as the country chose him as its first black chief executive. (New York Times)

Death wish: How the war on drugs turned into massive black disenfranchisement, electing regressives
"How the Democrats screwed over their most loyal supporters."
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 11-3-2016

Poor Denny's Almanac — Déjà vu all over again and again

Child pawnography in the year of amorality
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-1-2016 Sparks Tribune

Downtown good ole boys never know when to quit
BREKHUS BREXIT: BAD MOON RISING OVER CITY HALL
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-25-2016 Sparks Tribune

Single-Payer Health Care Essential for America
Government allows unwarranted corporate profits from taxpayer-developed medicines
By Jake Highton / Sparks Tribune 10-25-2016

Environmental champion Marge Sill dies
Memorial service set for Dec. 2, 2016

Oakland Rapists: Softshoe fascism on steroids
Nevada adopts an official state religion: The NFL
Also: Bernie Sanders and Trump Jr. blow into Reno
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-18-2016 Sparks Tribune

News & Review editor Dennis Myers on statewide Nevada Newsmakers TV

Psychotrump vs. Pantsuit: Vegetarian confrontation
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-11-2016 Sparks Tribune

Don't ask Renown for marijuana to help your chemo
Corporate welfare's bitter fruit: Union-busting, prevailing wage-violating Syufy burns Sparks City Hall again
Teamsters 533 CEO Debbie Calkins on statewide TV
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-4-2016 Sparks Tribune

Wolf Pack defeat foreshadowed Trump debate win
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-27-2016 Sparks Tribune

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
Most law enforcement officials at NAACP Tri-State Conference oppose gun show purchase background checks
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-20-2016 Sparks Tribune

Justice delayed: Blackguards, gypsy cops and police poltroons
Bret Black charged with murder
Barbwire / Sparks Tribune 9-13-2016
The sordid history of the case

None of the Above looking good in 2016
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 9-6-2016

HONORING LABOR AT THE 2016 LABOR DAY PARADE
Area workers again march through historic Virginia City to celebrate the value of work on Labor Day
Northern Nevada Central Labor Council: Labor Day stands for much more than selling sofas
NevadaLabor.com 9-5-2016

Walk a mile in Colin Kaepernick's cleats
"In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate."—Toni Morrison
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-30-2016 Sparks Tribune


Mark Twain for President
1879 | Hartford, CT

Member of Nevada's oldest union, CWA 9413/AFL-CIO

Campaign Promises

I have pretty much made up my mind to run for president. What the country wants is a candidate who cannot be injured by investigation of his past history, so that the enemies of the party will be unable to rake up anything against him that nobody ever heard of before. If you know the worst about a candidate to begin with, every attempt to spring things on him will be checkmated. Now I am going to enter the field with an open record. I am going to own up in advance to all the wickedness I have done, and if any congressional committee is disposed to prowl around my biography in the hope of discovering any dark and deadly deed that I have secreted, why—let it prowl.

In the first place, I admit that I treed a rheumatic grandfather of mine in the winter of 1850. He was old and inexpert in climbing trees, but with the heartless brutality that is characteristic of me, I ran him out of the front door in his nightshirt at the point of a shotgun and caused him to bowl up a maple tree, where he remained all night, while I emptied shot into his legs. I did this because he snored. I will do it again if I ever have another grandfather. I am as inhuman now as I was in 1850. I candidly acknowledge that I ran away at the Battle of Gettysburg. My friends have tried to smooth over this fact by asserting that I did so for the purpose of imitating Washington, who went into the woods at Valley Forge for the purpose of saying his prayers. It was a miserable subterfuge. I struck out in a straight line for the Tropic of Cancer, because I was scared. I wanted my country saved, but I preferred to have somebody else save it. I entertain that preference yet. (Courtesy of Lapham's Quarterly)

MARK TWAIN, “A Presidential Candidate.” This sketch was published a year before the election of 1880, in which Republican James A. Garfield beat Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock with 214 of the 369 electoral college votes, but only by a 0.9% margin of the popular vote—the smallest in American history. Mark Twain published The Innocents Abroad in 1869, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885. In 1906 he observed in “What Is Man?” that “fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can.” (Courtesy of Lapham's Quarterly)

Psychographic testing biases police application exams
By Patricia Gallimore and Andrew Barbano / RGJ.com 7-14-2016 / Reno Gazette-Journal 7-17-2016

Top 10 cures for what ails us: Better late than never
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-12-2016 Sparks Tribune

Report: Rise in poverty threatens to further weaken Nevada education system
Ian Whitaker / Las Vegas Sun 7-7-2016

When public interest is secondary to public relations
Managing the spin of the war on drugs
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-5-2016 Sparks Tribune

Who owns Nevada's PBS TV 5-and-10-cent store?
Who shot JR? Ralston show axed without notice.
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-28-2016 Sparks Tribune

Donald Trump, Charles Manson and Mother Theresa
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-21-2016 Sparks Tribune

Rent control, damage control and butt control
Donald Trump's VP running mate uncloaked
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-14-2016 Sparks Tribune

Muhammad Ali: Winning against earthquakes
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-7-2016 Sparks Tribune / Updated 6-10-2016

Nevada utilities continually consume consumers
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-31-2016 Sparks Tribune

Dirty words for dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-24-2016 Sparks Tribune

Karmic fowl, fox paws and other freakin' f-words
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-17-2016 Sparks Tribune

Be careful what you wish for: Justice is a game
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-10-2016 Sparks Tribune

Quick fixes & old hexes in the month of yes, you May
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 5-3-2016 Sparks Tribune

It's OK, that's the way we've always done it, right?
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 4-26-2016 Sparks Tribune

When taking the cure is worse than the disease
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 4-19-2016 Sparks Tribune

ON THE AIR —> Reno-Sparks NAACP President Patricia Gallimore and First Vice-President Andrew Barbano will guest on The Crisis Magazine Radio Program, Tuesday, 19 April 2016 at 10:10 a.m. PDT. The hostess will be Crisis Publisher Laura Blackburne. The call-in number is (516) 877-9843. Established in 1910, The Crisis is the official publication of the NAACP. The program will air live on WTHE 1520-am in the New York City/New Jersey/Connecticut metropolitan area. A recording of the show will be available in a day or two at the station's website. Turn on, tune in and tell a friend.

Barbwire Confidential: Hush-Hush!
[4-8-2016/U-News Exclusive ] —> On Thursday, April 14 at 1:45 p.m. PDT in Washoe District Court Dept. 7, 75 Court St. in Reno, Judge Patrick Flanagan will consider disqualification of Republican Jason Guinasso's candidacy in Assembly Dist. 26 (southwest Reno/Incline Village). Stay Tuned.

Deconstruction, carpetbaggers and hall-of-famers
District attorney's court filings in the Guinasso candidacy case available with the above column
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 4-12-2016 Sparks Tribune

For all the news you never knew you needed to know —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential

Voter Registration: The best method yet devised to prevent citizens from voting
Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review cover story 4-7-2016

Turnabout is Airplay Dept.

DON: Hey, Ted. Got any pictures of your wife naked?
TED: No!
DON: Wanna buy some?

Copyright © 2016 Andrew Barbano BallotBoxing.US/ Use with attribution granted.

April Foolishness: How to stop a world at war
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 4-5-2016 Sparks Tribune

Fighting for human rights on César Chávez Day
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-29-2016 Sparks Tribune and Reno Gazette-Journal

True love, machine guns and My Sharrona
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 3-22-2016 Sparks Tribune

3-17-2016 Happy St. Patrick's Day!

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's rarely remembered but always worth mentioning that St. Patrick was a slave who later returned to minister to Ireland.

Poor Denny's Almanac — On March 17, 1876, in a search for Crazy Horse, the U.S. Army claimed to have accidentally attacked the wrong Lakota village in South Dakota and on the same day in Montana, General George Crook and his force attacked a Native American village on the Powder River, wiping out many inhabitants and destroying the village; in 1942, General John DeWitt, architect of the concentration camps for U.S. citizens in the west, issued an order making Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Utah a second military zone from which “enemy aliens” were barred (the coastal states plus Arizona had already been designated the first prohibited zone); in 1960, President Eisenhower approved a covert paramilitary plan, illegal under international law, to overthrow the government of Cuba; in 1966, farm workers led by César Chávez began a march from Delano to Sacramento. (From Nevada reporter Dennis Myers' daily Poor Denny's Almanac/PDA

The Ides of March 2016: Washoe County Commission proclaims ¡Hail César!

¡Viva Chávez!

César Chávez Celebration XIV / Celebración de César Chávez XIV
Wednesday 30 March 2016 / Miércoles 30 de Marzo 2016
Circus Circus Reno / Sponsorship & ticket info

Those with crystal balls shouldn't throw stones
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 3-15-2016 Sparks Tribune

Remembering the first female U.S. presidents
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 3-8-2016 Sparks Tribune

Hillary Clinton commits the ultimate typo:
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2016 00:15:38 +0000 (GMT)
From: "HillaryClinton.com" <info@hillaryclinton.com>
To: barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Andrew -- Polls just closed on the East Coast, and already, we've won Virgina and Georgia.

I pray for and fear for the health and career of the poor staffer who blew it.

Community Teach-In for Gun Sense – Thursday March 3, 5:30 p.m., Bethel AME Church, 2655 Rock Blvd, Sparks NV
RSVP to Temple Sinai

TV or not TV — Oscar blackouts and PBS blacklists
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 3-1-2016 Sparks Tribune

Nevada workers strike megabucks Tesla battery plant
2-29-2016 / Updated 3-1-2016

Screw the courts and screw the dealers: Wynn continues to rip off tips
Las Vegas Review-Journal 2-24-2016

Thanks to all Nevada Caucusians

Nevada caucuses: Star-studded or star-crossed?
Interview with Titanic star Frances Fisher campaigning for Bernie in Nevada
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 2-23-2016 Sparks Tribune

History foreshadows a GOP November win
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 2-16-2016 Sparks Tribune

Las Vegas Culinary Union Plans Nonviolent Civil Disobedience and Mass Arrests at Palace Station
Sheriff Joe "Arpaio" Lombardo Denies Culinary Union Members Constitutional Right to Peaceful Protest
2-12-2015

Michael Moore hospitalized, asks the public's help as his new film approaches release

Michael Moore begs President Obama to visit the poisoned people of Flint, Michigan
Sign the petition!

Psycho-spying the presidential pretenders
Psychological profiles of candidates and presidents
Previous analyses of Justice Clarence Thomas and President Obama proven correct
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 2-9-2016 Sparks Tribune


Primary colors: NAACP supports statewide faith organizing campaign

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For Lonnie L. Feemster, Nevada State Director
NAACP National Voter Fund
(775) 722-0042
e-mail <lonnielfeemster@netscape.net>

MAKING HISTORY IN BLACK HISTORY MONTH: AFRICAN-AMERICAN CLERGY VOTER EMPOWERMENT PROJECT EXPANDS TO LATINO AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS
NAACP supports statewide campaign


The Las Vegas and Reno/ Sparks NAACP Branches will support the Faith Organizing Alliance (FOA) in Las Vegas and the African-American Clergy Council of Northern Nevada (AACCONN) in a 2016 statewide Get Out The Vote (GOTV) campaign organized and operated by faith-based leaders and organizations across Nevada.

Activities will include caucus training, voter registration, voter education and a number of voter turnout activities, including the popular “Souls To The Polls” effort during early voting and on election day. The statewide GOTV program expects over 150 organizations to work together on this historic effort.

"The GOTV effort will include telephone calls, sermons and community town hall meetings. The broadly-based groups will ask for commitments from citizens to educate themselves and fulfill their civic responsibility to choose our future leaders," stated longtime NAACP National Voter Fund Nevada State Director Lonnie Feemster.

"This presents a powerful opportunity to overcome the impact of big money and political inequality," Feemster added.

The campaign will target the black electorate in Nevada while collaborating with Latino, Asian, ethnic minority and other non-partisan efforts to empower communities and help overcome political inequality in Nevada.

The nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, the NAACP always supports voter empowerment and increased voter participation. Local NAACP branches do not endorse any candidate or political party.

The president of the Faith Organizing Alliance is Dr. Ralph E. Williamson, Senior Pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church in North Las Vegas.

Bishop Dr. John Wynn, Pastor of Reno's Greater Harvest Church, chairs the African American Clergy Council of Northern Nevada.

To support the GOTV effort or obtain additional more information, contact:

Northern Nevada — Lonnie L. Feemster, NAACP National Voter Fund, Nevada State Director (775) 722-0042
Southern Nevada — Rev. Leonard B. Jackson (323) 791-3242

 

Donald Trump: from ivory tower to Hightower
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 2-2-2016 Sparks Tribune

If only Shakespeare had written the Constitution
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 1-26-2016 Sparks Tribune

Leading questions and lead-headed leaders
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 1-19-2016 Sparks Tribune

Hope you and yours had Happy High Holly Days

Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend traditional event schedule

In Sparks, politics isn't personal, just business
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 1-12-2016 Sparks Tribune

If you can't trust Dear Abby, whom can you trust?
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 1-5-2016 Sparks Tribune

Open season on law-breaking dangerous drones
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 12-29-2015 Sparks Tribune, Updated 12-30-2015

On 12-27-2005

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

On 12-27-2015

Hunka Hunka Bernie Love

SOLIDARITY — Communications Workers of America members and their families from throughout northern Nevada pose with Sen. Sanders after his speech. NevadaLabor.com editor Andrew Barbano, far right, holds up his copy of the Dec. 3 edition of Rolling Stone with Sen. Sanders on the cover. The senator signed it immediately after the photo-op. Primo.

Sanders promises penalties for state corporate welfare

Sparks, Nev. (U-News) [Copyright © 2015 NevadaLabor.com] 4:55 p.m. PST 12-27-2015, 00:55 GMT 12-28-2015 — Campaigning in northwestern Nevada, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, told a standing-room-only crowd at the Northern Nevada Labor Temple that he would work to inhibit state vs. state corporate welfare.

Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 26/AFL-CIO Business Development Director Rob Benner asked "Senator, I assume you've noticed the 'Fix Tesla First' sign on the wall. Another electric car company, China-owned Faraday, has just received $334 million in tax breaks to come to Nevada. This came almost exactly a year after state government granted Tesla $1.4 billion. What can you do to fix this?"

Sanders understood the problem, stating that "it's not as simple as I will say it, but I would work to see that states lose some portion of federal benefits when they grant huge tax incentives such as you are describing which hurt needed services."

Sanders also said that he would support automatic union recognition if 50 percent plus one worker sign cards saying they want a union.

President Obama promised to support such legislation when he ran in 2008, but the White House never got behind the now long-dead Employee Free Choice Act.

Sanders also opposed a recent proposal to enact a national "right-to-work-for-less" law, adding that if workers get the benefits of a union contract, "they should contribute."

He noted his longtime opposition to treaties such as NAFTA and the Trans Pacific Partnership which ship jobs to low-wage countries. He added that he knows some Republican senators who have problems with the TPP and it may not pass in this session of Congress.

Sanders advocated for a $15 per hour minimum wage, noting that a working male today makes $700 per year less than he did in 1973, adjusted for inflation. Sanders added that women have also lost ground, especially over the past decade.

NevadaLabor.com Editor Andrew Barbano asked Sen. Sanders if he would support a fix to Obamacare which has put union health plans in jeopardy and is forcing union workers to pay a tax for which they receive nothing.

"Absolutely," Sanders replied.

Sanders answered every question from the audience which ranged from moppets to retirees. One young man noted that since he will be 18 by the general election next year, he will be allowed to participate in Nevada's February caucus. Sen. Sanders noted that Iowa likewise allows youth participation. He added that he's running ahead in New Hampshire, is getting closer in Iowa and if he also does well in Nevada and S. Carolina, victory will be possible.

In the Dec. 3 edition of Rolling Stone, he stated that "Nobody denies, Hillary Clinton least of all, that she is an establishment candidate."

Sanders signed Barbano's Dec. 3 Rolling Stone cover.

 

 

 

Nevadian hemlock: Cancer, brain damage & anti-education with a twist of racism

Corporate welfare cancer spreads
Faraday's fair name befouled in fallow fields of North Vegas
Circuitous reasoning followed by circular logic leads to Sparks City Council forming circular firing squad
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 12-22-2015 Sparks Tribune

12-14-2015: Sparks council allows unlicensed plumbers & electricians
And we didn't even get kissed afterward
Barbwire by Barbano / Sparks City Council Special online report 12-14-2015

Don't diminish value of technical education
SAFETY WARNING: Sparks City Council votes Dec. 14 to allow unlicensed plumbers & electricians
Guest editorial from Stan Jones and Andrew Barbano
Reno Gazette-Journal online 12-10-2015 / Print edition 12-14-2015

Listen to radio campaign rallying Sparks workers & citizens
Featuring the voices of Jim McClain, Donna Lewis and Andrew Barbano


NAACP unanimously opposes removal of licensing standards

     WHEREAS the NAACP has always supported the need for an educated workforce,
     AND WHEREAS the City of Sparks is proposing to remove licensing qualification requirements for plumbers and electricians,
     BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Reno-Sparks NAACP opposes passage of Sparks City Council Agenda Item No. 10.2 on its 14 December 2015 agenda, which would remove all such licensing qualification standards.

— Passed unanimously at the 12-10-2015 Reno-Sparks NAACP general membership meeting

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap — again and again
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 12-8-2015 Sparks Tribune

Turf and training: Dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 12-1-2015 Sparks Tribune / Updated 12-2-2015

On artificial turf, don't breathe unless necessary
Toxic turf all over town
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 11-24-2015 Sparks Tribune

Sorcerer's apprentices work cheap in Nevada
Want minimum-wage plumbers and electricians building your house?
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 11-17-2015 Sparks Tribune

Barbano on statewide Nevada Newsmakers TV

 

Las Vegas luvs El Jefe Donaldo

Trump hotel workers in Las Vegas and elsewhere unionize
Culinary Local 226 / 12-7-2015

Trump can stay at his own unionized hotel when he debates in Las Vegas next week
Las Vegas Review-Journal / 12-7-2015

Donkeyites luv The Donald, too


What a guy.

 

Machine Gun Michele Fiore wants to shoot Syrian refugees
Barbwire by Barbano / Excised from the 3-10-2015 Sparks Tribune as "not suitable" / Updated 12-2 and 12-8-2015

Happy Thanksgibleting
Love and laughter to you and yours
Almanac for Thanksgiving weekend

Weekend at Bernie's with Eugene McCarthy's grandchildren
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 11-10-2015 Sparks Tribune / Updated 11-12-2015

Last of the dinosaurs: Grease for corporate gears
Reno Gazette-Journal "retires" most experienced journalists
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 11-3-2015 Sparks Tribune / Updated 11-12-2015

The Donald and The Church Lady run among us
Trump deigns to descend upon Sparks to dispense his wisdom and ubiquitous wonderfulness
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 10-27-2015 Sparks Tribune

Bigoted Reno Gazette-Journal column debunked
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-29-2015
Reno-Sparks NAACP responds

Sen. Ruben Kihuen to emcee NAACP 70th Annual Freedom Fund Awards Dinner Oct. 24 at Circus Circus-Reno — Speakers & award winners announced

From holy of holies to lair of the moneychangers
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 10-20-2015 Sparks Tribune

Parsing the paranoia of powerful penny-pinchers
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 10-13-2015 Sparks Tribune

Good news, bad news and Machine Gun Michele
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 10-6-2015 Sparks Tribune

NAACP sets 70th Annual Freedom Fund Awards Dinner Oct. 24 Circus Circus-Reno

Voter I.D. and driver's license office closures black-out Alabama's Black Belt
Alabama statewide newspapers / 9-30-2015

Strange bedfellows and nubile wenches
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-29-2015 Sparks Tribune

Barbano on statewide Nevada Newsmakers TV show

9-22-2015 —> Yogi Berra is dead at 90. All America mourns.


9-25-2015

Editor, Reno Gazette-Journal:

Two great moralists topped the news last Thursday, September 24. Curiously, neither made the front page (1-A) of your newspaper.

While I enjoyed the huge photo of the young lady with the mohawk haircut stacking motorcycle helmets, you might have found room for at least a postage stamp-sized mention of either Pope Francis or the late Yogi Berra.

I know which one I would have chosen.

Andrew Barbano
Reno, Nevada

Published in the 10-1-2015 Reno Gazette-Journal

Pondering the bright side of warmongering
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 9-22-2015 Sparks Tribune

Sacramento mayor and Rheeactionary wife get right-wing millions to fund
private schools at taxpayer expense
Who's Funding Kevin Johnson's Secret Government?
Sister newspaper of Reno News & Review sued for seeking public information
By Dave McKenna / Deadspin/Gawker Media 9-18-2015

Making it: Do casino jobs provide a way into the middle class?
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 9-17-2015

Cheering for cheating when jockocracy rules
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 9-15-2015 Sparks Tribune

Another lawsuit challenges religious school tax grants
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 9-17-2015

Parents file second lawsuit against Republican education privatization law
 Las Vegas Review-Journal / 9-9-2015

We don't need no education, biblical or not
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 9-8-2015 Sparks Tribune

Support Sen. Bernie Sanders' Workplace Democracy Act
"This fall, I will introduce a bill in Congress whose sole purpose is to restore and encourage workers' rights to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions."
The Workplace Democracy Act will help our economy and rebuild the middle class. It will
1. Ensure companies can’t prevent workers from getting a first contract.
2. Make it easier for workers to form unions through a majority sign up process.
3. Strengthen the enforcement when corporations break the law.

Five Ways To Help Labor on Labor Day
Jonathan Cohn / Huffington Post 9-6-2015

Remember workers on Labor Day weekend

Labor Day 2016: Nevada workers' last stand
Barbwire Exclusives: Gansert will run to replace Brower in Nevada Senate
Complaint filed against welfare-bashing illegal GOP front petition
Barbwire by Barbano / Uploaded 8-30-2015/ Expanded from the Tuesday 9-1-2015 Sparks Tribune

Hope one of your detractors attends your funeral
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 8-25-2015 Sparks Tribune

I Didn't Come From Your Rib — You Came From My Vagina
Country wisdom for moonhowlers who salivate to take their country back
A musical reminder to the GOP / Daily Kos 8-20-2015

Anaconjob continues
Mining is The Pits — Business often blocks health and safety measures
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 8-20-2015

Don't call a lawyer to sue a doctor
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 8-18-2015 Sparks Tribune
DMV lines, voting lines and lines in the sand
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 8-11-2015 Sparks Tribune

Modest Catherine Cortez Masto Fundraiser Aug. 9 in Reno

Barbano promotes Voting Rights Act 50th Anniversary on statewide television
Sam Shad turns down wager that FOX News debate will not win time period

Heroic lions, pampered elephants & sweating RINOS
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 8-4-2015 Sparks Tribune

JFK and LBJ: The truth about the besieged 1965 Voting Rights Act

Ironic colonics, shameless strumpetry & repo men
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 7-28-2015 Sparks Tribune

Happy birthday, Sen. Joe Neal. Born 7-28-1935, Mounds, Louisiana.

Stumpin' for Trump
Democrats should join Donald Trump on the bridge to the future and push
Andrew Barbano guest editorial / Reno News & Review 7-23-2015

Education Dysfunction Part LIX—>
Moving the needle and needling the weasels
Education funding hike non-existent / Confederate flags fly in Sparks
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 7-21-2015 Sparks Tribune

15 July 2015
On this date in 1986, César Chávez spoke to Nevada workers at the Musicians Union hall in Reno

Just in time for the Nevada Presidential Caucus:
Barbano announces Democrats for Trump
Trumpwump Logo contest begins

Education Dysfunction Part LVIII—>
School, life, death, taxes and other high ironies
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 7-14-2015 Sparks Tribune

All the news you never knew you needed to know
Barbwire by Barbano / Blue text represents substantial expansion from 7-7-2015 Sparks Tribune

New developments in the Judith Black murder case

Applying Christian forgiveness to a fault
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 6-30-2015 Sparks Tribune

Federal lawsuit aims to declare Nevada minimum wage unconstitutional
Las Vegas Review-Journal 6-24-2015

Life & death tickle the underbelly of the news
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 6-23-2015 Sparks Tribune

Education Dysfunction Part LVI—>
Al Capone takes stock of Nevada education
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 6-16-2015 Sparks Tribune

The 2015 Nevada Legislature's greatest hits
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Tuesday 6-9-2015 Sparks Tribune

Stench of sulfur suffuses Nevada's year of the gun
The ghost of Trayvon Martin today hangs heavy over Sparks.
Would killer Wayne Burgarello have been acquitted if he was black?
Barbwire by Barbano / Full-length edition expanded from the censored 6-2-2015 Sparks Tribune

2015 LEGISLATIVE END GAME (at least until special sessions start)
Union workers sound the alarm door-to-door in Carson City and Las Vegas
9:00 a.m. PDT Saturday 30 May 2015

Union cabbies plan mass Las Vegas Strip stoppage/demonstration May 29
Las Vegas Review-Journal 5-28-2015

Gomorrah South casino mogul castrates First Amendment in Nevada
Lawmakers bend over to make it easier for Steve Wynn to file frivolous lawsuits that can stifle and bankrupt any critic
By Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 5-28-2015

Dogs and ponies, DARE traps and tokenism
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-26-2015 Sparks Tribune

Cab users: buckle up or else
By John L. Smith / Las Vegas Review-Journal 5-21-2015

Corporate welfare unites me with the moonhowlers
Even Ira Hansen sells out to the gambling-industrial complex
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-19-2015 Sparks Tribune

Hotplates, hotheads, hot rumors and hot Moose
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-12-2015 Sparks Tribune

¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Poor Denny's Almanac for 5-5-2015

On May 5, 2012 at Barrio Logan, the Navy cargo ship U.S.N.S. César Chávez was christened.

MayDay! The bright side of riots in the streets
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-5-2015 Sparks Tribune

In the Uber-Nevada Legislature, words can kill
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-28-2015 Sparks Tribune

Tesla rewrites history to chisel worker paychecks
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-21-2015 Sparks Tribune

Radiation Nation:
Gomorrah South bakes in the glow of victory
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-14-2015 Sparks Tribune

¡Viva Chávez!
César Chávez Celebration XIII / Celebración de César Chávez XIII
Tuesday 31 March 2015 / Martes 31 de Marzo 2015
Circus Circus Reno event highlights

Revenge, redistricting and amnesia in Cartoon City
Plus highlights from César XIII
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 4-7-2015 Sparks Tribune

César Chávez fought for the dignity of work
by Tony Mayorga
Guest Commentary / Reno Gazette-Journal / 3-31-2015

Harry Reid, Eddy Arnold, César Chávez and Gaga Madonna
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-31-2015 Sparks Tribune

Barbano: GOP strategy to cripple labor, the gerrymander Nevada control thru at least 2022
By Cole Stangler / International Business Times 3-25-2015

High noon for the high desert outback of the American Dream
Small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas.
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-24-2015 Sparks Tribune

St. Patrick, I need a green energy beer
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-17-2015 Sparks Tribune

Michele Fiore: the Italian girl mama wanted for me?
Barbwire by Barbano / Excised from the 3-10-2015 Sparks Tribune as "not suitable"/Updated

Who was that lady I saw you with last night?
(But can she cook?)

Barbano to legislative committee 3-9-2015: Let Tesla, Switch and Apple help pay for police officer video cameras

Clinging to the Ledge: guts, feathers and all
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 3-3-2015 Sparks Tribune

We don't need no stinking wages!
Barbwire by Barbano / Special online legislative edition 2-26-2015

The skeleton of the underbelly of the news
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-24-2015 Sparks Tribune

Parsing our parsimonious public pursers
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-17-2015 Sparks Tribune

The flush of victory and the irony of deceit
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-10-2015 Sparks Tribune
Murder most foul on the Comstock

Senate Republicans take a jackhammer to the bedrock of Nevada trade unionism
The last bastion of local hire comes under fire
By Sean Whaley / Las Vegas Review-Journal 2-4-2015

Follytix, Foxcatchers and corporate weasels
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 2-3-2015 Sparks Tribune

Machine Gun Michele and cheap Ma Bell
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-27-2015 Sparks Tribune

The South Rises Again. Does Ira Hansen know about this?
3 states make MLK holiday a co-celebration honoring Confederate General Robert E. Lee
Shaun King / Daily KOS 1-22-2015

Education Dysfunction Part LIII—>
Gov. Veto El Obtusè talks some trash
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 1-20-2015 Sparks Tribune

Dastardly dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-30-2014 Sparks Tribune


FREEBIE ALERT: FREE MOVIE WEDNESDAY NIGHT, DEC. 17

ONE-TIME SHOWING, part of a coast-to-coast tour: Shadows of Liberty reveals the extraordinary truth behind the news media: censorship, cover-ups and corporate control.

FEATURING: Danny Glover, Julian Assange, Dan Rather, Amy Goodman, David Simon, Daniel Ellsberg, Norman Solomon, Janine Jackson, Dick Gregory, Roberta Baskin, Jeff Cohen, Robert McChesney, John Nichols, Chris Hedges, Kristina Borjesson, and many more.

Northern Nevada Labor Temple
1819 Hymer Ave. / Sparks NV 89431
Wednesday, Dec. 17, 7:00 p.m. PST

Shadows of Liberty reveals the extraordinary truth behind the news media: censorship, cover-ups and corporate control. Filmmaker Jean-Philippe Tremblay takes an intrepid journey through the darker corridors of the American media landscape, where global conglomerates call the shots. For decades, their overwhelming influence has distorted news journalism and compromised its values. In highly revealing stories, renowned journalists, activists and academics give insider accounts of a broken media system. Controversial news reports are suppressed, people are censored for speaking out, and lives are shattered as the arena for public expression is turned into a private profit zone. Tracing the story of media manipulation through the years, Shadows of Liberty poses a crucial question: Why have we let a handful of powerful corporations write the news?

OFFICIAL SELECTION: IDFA, Sheffield Doc/Fest, HotDocs, Vancouver Intl. Film Festival, DOKFILM, Bergen Intl. Film Festival, Canberra Intl. Film Festival, Leeds Intl. Film Fest, Docs DF, London Intl. Documentary Festival, Open City Documentary Festival

WATCH THE FILM'S TRAILER ON YOU TUBE

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Debra Brown, U.S. Outreach Coordinator
Shadows of Liberty
720-917-4900

Barbwire review of the film and its predecessor / Sparks Tribune / 1-6-2015

Barbano on statewide Nevada Newsmakers TV show
Tuesday 12-16-2014 KRNV TV-4 Reno/KENV TV-10 Elko 11:30 a.m. PST
Andrew Barbano and Sam Shad for an entire program
(About damn time after 22 freakin' years)
Psychically cynical but nonetheless newsworthy political proctology, peerless professional prognostication and
epic poetic proselytizing promiscuously promised.
TV and radio re-run times and dates + view online

KRNV TV-4 Reno/KENV TV-10 Elko 11:30 a.m. PST Wednesday, 12-10-2014
Check hell for snowfall: Barbano and Gammick actually agree on something.
Re-run times and dates + view online
Host: Sam Shad
Guest: State Senator James Settelmeyer, R-Minden, Capital Senate District 
Pundits: Jesse Gutierrez, Former Executive Director, Nevada Hispanic Services
Dick Gammick, Washoe County District Attorney
Andrew Barbano, Editor, NevadaLabor.com

BALL'BOX SMOKING GUNS: The Ira Hansen Files

BREAKING BAD
Walter White and some other white guy
Who's,,,
...Who?

Corporate welfare unites me with the moonhowlers
Even Ira Hansen sells out to the gambling-industrial complex
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-19-2015 Sparks Tribune

Breaking Bad 5: Machine Gun Michele and the good ole boys
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-16-2014 Sparks Tribune

Breaking Bad 4: Ira & ammosexuals flip us the finger
Hansen places his puppets in top slots but still controls the lower house.
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-9-2014 Sparks Tribune

Breaking Bad 3: Ira, the guv and the dragonslayers
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 12-2-2014 Sparks Tribune

Nevada Lawmaker Ira Hansen Is Forced From Leadership Post Over Remarks on Minorities
By KIMBERLEY McGEE and ADAM NAGOURNEY / The New York Times / 11-24-2014

BREAKING BADDER: 11-24-2014: Ira on TV-4 about Israel and gays. Whatta guy!

Breaking Bad Part Deux: Ira blames the Tribune
Barbwire by Barbano / Submitted for publication 11-21-2014 / Expanded from the 11-25-2014 Sparks Tribune

Speaker-elect Hansen bigot, racist, homophobe
BARBANO REMARKS ON STATEWIDE NEVADA NEWSMAKERS TV PROGRAM
KRNV TV-4 Reno / KENV TV-10 Elko / 11:30 a.m. PST Tuesday, 11-18-2014
Re-run times and dates + view online
Host: Sam Shad
Guest: Ray Hagar, Reno Gazette-Journal
Pundits: Michael Hackett, Alrus Consulting
Jesse Gutierrez, charter school operator and former Executive Director, Nevada Hispanic Services
Andrew Barbano, Editor, NevadaLabor.com
Related item: Follytix '15: From Topless Campaign to Breaking Bad
On the documented racism and bigotry of incoming Nevada State Assembly Speaker Ira Hansen
Barbwire by Barbano / Sparks Tribune / 11-18-2014

Reno-Sparks NAACP calls on Assembly Republican Caucus to replace Hansen
11-20-2014

Reno News & Review 11-20-2014: Republican leader left a trail
By Dennis Myers

Mark Lipparelli Republican favorite for Dec. 2 State Senate appointment by Democratic Clark County Commission
By Ben Botkin / Las Vegas Review-Journal 11-18-2014 R11/7

Democratic-dominated commission to appoint new GOP state senator
By Ben Botkin / Las Vegas Review-Journal 11-7-2014

____________________________________________

Poor Denny's Almanac for Armistice Day, 11-11-2014

Voting, gloating, loathing and scapegoating
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-11-2014 Daily Sparks Tribune

If you voted early, this will make you regret it
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-4-2014 Daily Sparks Tribune

Barbwire Confidential: Hush-Hush—>Thank you for NOT voting


Sen. Virgil Getto, R-Fallon, 6-19-1924/11-6-2014

I first met Virgil during my maiden voyage at the Nevada Legislature in 1973. I saw a lot of him during the federal court water wars of the 1970s when I did media work for the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District.

My most vivid memories of the good senator lie in his plain-spoken manner.

Once, he came out of a Reno federal court hearing fuming — at the irrigation district's lawyers for their self-protective, weasel worded language. He didn't care who heard him. I surely did and I remember four decades down the road.

During the 1981 legislative session, Virgil came up to me and offered his sympathies after finding out that I was stuck putting up with some of his cliquish fellow lawmakers and their good ole boy club.

My late wife, Betty, liked Virgil, once noting that in the senate he was a farm boy surrounded by city boys, an onion in a field of flowers.

I think he would have found that a compliment coming from a woman who married another onion.

Sometimes onions get noticed and do great things, occasionally bursting into beautiful flowers themselves.

Such was the life of Virgil Michael Getto. I remember him warmly and with great respect.

Andrew Barbano, Reno

Posted to Legacy.com 11-11-2014

 

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

   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

Virginia City's next scary sexy Hollywood movie
Virginia City 911: Sexy Sheriffing in Old ConforteLand
Barbwire by Barbano / Special Nevada Day Edition 10-31-2014, Updated 11-1 and 11-3-2014 and 2-12, 3-3, 6-23, 7-2 & 7-15-2015, 9-13-2016, 2-23 and 3-13-2017

Recall in Tesla County moves ahead
UPDATE 3-13-2017: Storey sheriff recall set for 11 April 2013

18:18 GMT 2-24-2017 / 6:18 PST 2-23-2017 (Barbwire Confidential U-News) — A petition to recall Storey County Sheriff Gerald Cook Antinoro was certified today by acting county clerk and registrar of voters Vanessa Stevens as having enough valid signatures to move forward. Ten percent of county registered voters from the previous general election were necessary, or 477. Stephens today certified 491. The next step is up Republican Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske. Read on for the continually updated sordid story of Storey's lawless lawman. Now you know why I haven't journeyed to Storey County since 2014.
Be well. Raise hell. — Andrew

Embattled sheriff faces recall petitioners at town hall
By Kenzie Bales / KRNV TV -4/KRXI TV-11 / Jan. 28, 2017
Legal "claims have reportedly resulted in nearly $150,000 in settlements. The sheriff also allegedly violated the county's sexual harassment code on two occasions."

Every 10 years or so, a major scandal springs from outback Nevada to the cheers of journalists, columnists and scriptwriters.

Back in the 1970s, it was the Nye County Brothel Wars which originated in New West Magazine and became of a book of the same name. The scandal was turned into a blah 1981 TV movie starring Pernell Roberts (Trapper John, MD and Adam Cartwright from Bonanza) and Eileen Brennan (Oscar nominee and Emmy winner for Private Benjamin). The book was all about Nevada's Nye County cat houses and the good ole boy system.

TV did everything but write in Big Bird. "Dirty City," the original title was scrapped and the whole thing was transplanted to the fictional Crestridge, Wyoming, about a political tussle over (don't laugh) massage parlors.

Right.

Maybe that's why we had to wait until 2010 for Love Ranch starring Dame Helen Mirren (Oscar winner for The Queen) and Joe Pesci (Oscar winner for Goodfellas) as Grace and Charlie Bontempo, a thinly disguised Sally and Joe Conforte. Love Ranch had everything — sex, jealousy, corruption, shooting and death. Because some of downtown Reno had not changed since the 1970s, part of the film was shot in these parts.

The script was kinda sappy. Doomed heavyweight boxing contender Oscar Bonavena's fictional character was named (I'm not making this up) Armando Bruza. Get it?

We don't have to wait another 30 years. The next promotional bonanza is staring us right in the face.

If it flies, I will personally nominate Storey County Sheriff Gerald Antinoro as Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority Promotion Man of the Year, an honor first given to the guy who brought all those bowlers to the area back when the Confortes held sway in Virginia City and Sparks.

Since it will be set in the present, we won't have G-rating considerations cluttering our minds. Today, anything goes.

You want rough sex, you got it. Call the Sparks Police Department for the gruesome rape complaint filed last April against the sheriff and one of his deputies. It's so grotesque, I will neither quote from it nor upload it to any of my websites. When Joe Hart at KRNV TV-4 first reported it last May, he didn't upload it either.

MARISKA HARGITAY, CALL YOUR OFFICE. At the Oct. 15 Virginia Highlands candidates night, the sheriff said the rape never happened, then questioned why the victim took eight years to report it. I guess he doesn't watch Law & Order SVU.

When challenged by his opponent, Shawn Mahan, Mr. Antinoro added "This victim worked at Sparks P.D. She contacted the other person involved and that was just a year ago."

So did it happen, or not? You can listen for yourself at the sheriff's own campaign website.

What kind of courage did it take to walk into a place where, according to Sheriff Antinoro, many people know you, and then make public such twisted and intimate details?

Another woman recently filed eerily similar charges with Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez-Masto. It's as depraved as the Sparks file, including intimations of the legendary kinds of petting zoos only found south of the border. Chains mandatory, whips optional, bring your own handcuffs.

ABSURDS OF A FEATHER

Antinoro endorses Assemblymember Jim Wheeler, who would bring back slavery "if that's what the constituency wants."

   “As Sheriff, it is my fundamental duty to protect people and their rights. It is good to know there are lawmakers like Assemblyman Wheeler, working to ensure those rights are not infringed upon by the government.”
      — Gerry Antinoro, Sheriff, Storey County
         From Assemblymember Wheeler's website

Another public relations coup for Nevada

Blood in the water:
Wheeler's hypothetical slavery vote
Stephen Colbert/Comedy Central 10-31-13

Jim Wheeler a "slave" to his constituents
Jonathan Capehart/Washington Post 10-29-13

Wheeler apologizes, sorta. Chamber of Commerce demands resignation
Ed Vogel/Las Vegas Review-Journal 10-29-13

Baby, this movie is writing itself! Another public relations coup for Nevada. Maybe we can get major product placement sponsorship from Tesla. (The state's tapped out on that project and can't afford it.)

UPDATES
2-10-2015: Clark M.E. concurs with Washoe — Murder most foul

3-3-2015: Spatter me not on the lone prairie

6-23-2015: Murder, she wrote

MORE UPDATES

A third woman has also come forward.

I've filed public records requests with both Storey County and the AG. The sheriff publishes his cel-phone number (775-881-8196) on county business cards but District Attorney Bill Maddox says since the sheriff pays the bill himself, it's not a public record.

So if a Nevada government agency wants to keep its dealings secret, officials just need to figure out a way to subcontract? Public meetings and public records be damned, we're talking heavy business here.

Barry Smith, Executive Director of the Nevada Press Association in Carson City, says "No elected official should be able to hide public records by using a private cell phone or e-mail account. Clearly, that’s not the intent of Nevada’s public records law."

So who should play the sheriff in our movie? I nominate Howie Mandel for his first dramatic role. Hey, nobody thought Michael Keaton could do Batman, but he was saved by the rubber muscle suit. Mandel looks like Antinoro with about as much hair. Both guys present psycho-scary visages on camera. Perfect.

Our film can conclude by going from light to dark.

You want federal investigations? I've got a great one for action movie lovers. You want drugs and motorcycles? We've got drugs and motorcycles running up and down Interstate 80 with Storey County curiously marked absent from the regional drug interdiction task force. (Last I heard, a goodly chunk of I-80 was within Storey jurisdiction, but maybe they moved the freeway while nobody was looking.)

Sex in squad cars? Part of the job (and better than yoga, from what I understand). Sex in public offices? Piece of cake.

Then comes the really heavy stuff: The botched investigation into the death of Judith Black, bounced from Storey to Washoe County and back, then whip-sawed down to Las Vegas for a third or fourth opinion.

UPDATE
Sister files papers to freeze all Judith Black assets
Comstock Chronicle 7-3-2015

Julia Depew filed the action in Washoe District Court on June 25. Judge Lidia Stiglich has entered a temporary restraining
order, according to Reno attorney Julie Throop.

"We're trying to freeze all assets until there is some resolution in this matter and
what we know so far is in the filings," Throop stated.

"In addition to (widower Bret) Black, Margaret Parks, ADP LLC and US Bancorp are listed as defendants. A hearing is set for July 6," the newspaper reported.

Civil action filed by Judith Black's sister alleges murder most foul
 KRNV TV-4 / 7-13-2015

Justice delayed
Bret Black charged with murder
Barbwire / Sparks Tribune 9-13-2016

  Nary a peep has been heard from Gomorrah South since June.

  Nice of them to wait until after that pesky November election.

  Antinoro's the perfect anti-hero, leaving Wendover during seriously troubled times for eastern Nevada law enforcement, then heading for Vegas to change his name from Gerald Cook and reinvent himself.

WELCOME TO THE PONDEROSA. Taking advantage of small town divisiveness, he's now the biggest fish in a small pond and he does have his fans.

"He's the best Storey County has had in living memory," said an oldtimer I've known for decades.

At least the best since Joe Conforte, anyway.

All we need now is a convenient grand jury investigation and perhaps a good car chase down Geiger Grade, then I can start writing my book and screenplay.

 Thanks for the career opportunity, sheriff.

Your place in Nevada history is secure.

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

Andrew Barbano is a 46-year Nevadan and editor of BallotBoxing.US among a dozen or so others. His commentaries have appeared in most Nevada newspapers, occasionally in regional and national magazines, national radio networks and Nevada television systems. Excerpts from the above were published in the 10-28-2014 Sparks Tribune. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>

If you think all of this bad, remember that Ebenezer Scrooge and his grandkids lurk just around the corner at the 2015 session of the Nevada Legislature. So get ahead of corporate-influenced news by subscribing to Barbwire Confidential because the system is on crutches and Tiny Tim may not survive the session—>

Peruse the underbelly of the news—>Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential.

2014 MAKES A SIX-PACK —> BARBWIRE SCORES
SIXTH NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION AWARD

If you voted early, this will make you regret it
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 11-4-2014 Daily Sparks Tribune

Happy 150th Birthday, Ms. Nevada
Nevada Day Required Reading
The Lady in the Red Dress
The Barbwire's classic Nevada Day column written in 1983
The compleat history of the Silver State in 500 words
SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Sparks Tribune 10-31-2013 and previously

Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln on display in Reno only thru Nov. 2

Follytix '14: Year of the Topless Campaign
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-28-2014 Sparks Tribune

Words from God on Nevada ballots and Ebola
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-21-2014 Sparks Tribune

A second LV Democratic candidate for assembly ruled ineligible due to residency but remains on ballot
Las Vegas Review-Journal 10-29-2014

Judge rules Las Vegas Democratic assembly candidate ineligible but sole valid opponent can still lose
By Ben Botkin / Las Vegas Review-Journal 10-16-2014

Ex-Prez Bill Clinton rallies LV Democrats, Biden coming next
Las Vegas Review-Journal 10-28-2014

Cheap thrills: Sex banned in Gomorrah South
How to intimidate Nevadans from registering to vote — by a Democrat, no less
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-14-2014 Sparks Tribune

2014 BallotBoxing.US News Archive

Liberal reasons to oppose liberal positions and policies
Guaranteed to irritate all points of the political spectrum

Political Animal Crackers & Crackups

      "I think it is dangerous to confuse the idea of democracy with elections. Just because you have elections doesn't mean you are a democracy...I'm still taken aback at the extent of indoctrination and propaganda in the United States. It is as if people there are being reared in a sort of altered reality, like broiler chickens or pigs in a pen."

— Indian novelist Arundhati Roy
in the Barbwire of 9-12-2004


      The American electorate is a dumb cow that follows the herd, is easily stampeded, gets milked for all she's worth and produces offspring for meat, muscle or cannon fodder to benefit the few. When all used up, she is sent to the slaughterhouse so that she may give her overlords the last full measure of devotion, bones for Jello and hide for belts. No stars and stripes for her grave because she doesn't merit one, having been totally consumed by our consumptive system. — Barbwire 9-12-2010

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

Great Minds Think Alike Dept.
Over-rated New York Times Pulitzer over-achiever Thomas Friedman predicts emergence of a third political party a month after the Barbwire did so for the umpteenth time (He's just one short.)
Paul Krugman: Murdoch as Citizen Kane / GOP candidates paid off by Faux News
New York Times 10-3-2001

Travus T. Hipp
Feb. 20, 1937 — May 18, 2012

BREAKING NEWS 10-24-2014: Travus and Lynne Hughes' longtime home, the old church in Silver City, has burned to the ground with the loss of one life. Say a prayer and treasure the memories. Sean Laughlin promises to rebuild. Victims were Travus' first wife, Sandra, and her dog.

NEW: The Bullfrog Times-Picayune and
Sticky Stones: Last blast from the past

NEWLY UPLOADED: Love ain't free
Evelyn Kerr's remembrances of the life and times of Travus T. Hipp from the pages of TimeMazine CD available

In Memoriam

Assemblymember Pete Livermore, R-Carson City, dies at 73
4th Nevada State Assembly veteran (+Peggy Pierce, Jeffrey, Hogan) to die in the past year
By Sean Whaley / Las Vegas Review-Journal Capital Bureau 10-20-2014

Nevada Assemblymember Joe Hogan, D-Las Vegas, a strong voice for justice, dies from aftereffects of stroke at age 77
By Laura Myers/ Las Vegas Review-Journal 10-17-2014

Former Nevada State Assembly Majority Leader Jack Jeffrey, D-Las Vegas, dies
NevadaLabor.com / U-News 10-10-2014

USEFUL LINX

2014 BallotBoxing.US News Archive

2007-2013 BallotBoxing.US Index/Archives

2006 Statewide Political News Roundup

2006 BallotBoxing.US Index/Archive

BallotBoxing.US 2004-2005 Archive

BlackBox.voting.org

HBO Special: Hacking Democracy

BARBWIRE: Election theft warnings ignored for 30 years

Nevada Newspapers + Hottest Blogs

Updated Political History of Nevada published
First new edition in 10 years

Election theft Y2K: 1988 warnings ignored
Daily Sparks Tribune 11-19-2000

NevadaLabor.com — now in its third decade
as the Internet flagship for working Nevadans
The prettiest home page on the web. See for yourself.


Site composed and maintained by Deciding Factors, CWA 9413/AFL-CIO signatory

Comments and suggestions appreciated.

Entire contents copyright © 1982-2017 Andrew Barbano