I suggest a fate worse than death for the two greatest mass murderers of our time.

Xi Jin Ping and his admitted BFF Czar Donaldov of Trump do not deserve execution. They deserve a Scandinavian sentence which is much worse.

The Chinese and American presidents are admittedly guilty of killing untold thousands of their own people. In US courts, lesser beings would be indicted for criminally negligent homicide, aka depraved indifference to life.

Afraid of bad PR, Mr. Xi let people die rather than jump on the Coronavirus outbreak. He forced Dr. Li Wenliang to sign a public confession that he was wrong to blow the whistle. The good doctor paid for his crime of being a good doctor: The virus killed him.

The facts on the record show that after the SARS outbreak, China implemented a world class early warning system. Officials failed to use it, rightly fearing retribution from Beijing.

Emulating Emperor Nero, Trump played golf while the world burned, even on the day we got our first confirmed case. South Korea, on that very same day, jumped on the virus like white on rice and very few of its citizens have died. Trump allowed 430,000 people to fly directly into the US from China after first news of the outbreak, some from ground zero Wuhan. Nearly 40,000 entered in the two months after Trump's oft-touted travel ban. Flights continued last week, according to last Sunday's NYTimes front page.

Under a properly authoritarian regime, both presidents should be drawn and quartered. But that's too good for them.

I suggest an old land of the Vikings method of settling disputes, one which the World Court might look to emulate for such war criminals. The principals get dropped off on an island and told that they cannot return to society until they have negotiated a settlement.

In this case, I suggest a life sentence on that island for both with no more than basic provisions and each other.

*Welcome to hell, you miserable bastards.

DIE FOR YOUR COUNTRY. Trump is well on his way to an easy re-election. People always look for comfort from daddy in fearful times. Alas and alack, our daddy is a greed-infested lying psycho.

A National Public Radio affiliate has stopped airing Trump's daily reality sho...er, "press conference" because he contradicts his own experts and spews propaganda. Trump has bragged about what great ratings his press conference gets.

The master of TV once again owns the airwaves. Biden who?

The fake news media continue to play by old rules that if the president says it, it's news. No matter how many corrections they run, it doesn't matter. More than half the country apparently believes him these days.

People attribute wisdom and knowledge to anyone they see on the screen or hear on radio. So he must be doing a good job. Logical, huh?

The only thing we can do to prevent his phony cronies and kleptocratic royal family from scoring a second term: DIE. In great numbers. Which is already happening.

Only the reality of mass death and destruction will torpedo this dictator. His bosom buddies worldwide are using the outbreak to remain in power for life.

If Trump is defeated this November, despite everything his Republican cult pulls to keep people from voting, then at least perhaps a million Americans will not have died for nothing.

God help us because our government will not.

NEWSIE BLUES. The hedge fund that owns Gannett just announced unpaid furloughs and salary reductions chainwide. Reno has been victimized by the corporate raider pattern: take out a huge, high-interest loan to acquire newspapers, then fire people and sell off assets, e.g., the Reno Gazette-Journal building to the City of Reno for remodeling as a police station.

The NYTimes just ran a piece that says the newly-merged/acquired Gannett newspaper chain, largest in the U.S., could be had for the bargain-basement price of $261 million, about a third or less of what Michael Bloomberg spent running for president. Bottom line: It's not worth it because of the huge debt load incurred by the hedge fund pirates.

Even prior to the recent merger, Gannett for years pushed their most experienced (and thus highest paid) journalists into early retirement. Gannett said they would not furlough anyone making less than $38,000 per year. How generous. Those who remain incur a 25 percent pay cut.

Last Sunday, in announcing the cutbacks, RGJ editor Brian Duggan ran a front page plea for public subscription support. He did not (or could not) mention that "mandatory furloughs" would target the higher paid and more experienced, although their website stated so.

Reno News & Review acting editor Jeri Davis made a similar plea via e-mail. The now-shuttered venerable weekly is trying to resurge online.

Duggan and crew have been performing heroically and at great personal risk. They have apparently removed limits on access to rgj.com, as has The New York Times, as does this newspaper. I have never charged for access to any of my dozen or so websites in three decades.

The news business will only survive if Facebook, Google and their lesser vampires start paying for what they now get free. So subscribe to as many as best you can. It's important.

BALL GAMES. Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve ordered golf courses closed. Gov. Sisolak overruled her.

"The golf courses have been a serious bone of contention with me," she informed me.

"I am working on it but you’re correct, the governor overrides my power. (I am) trying to see what I can do to mitigate this. I honestly think during this time we should be taking a strict approach to flattening the curve and saving lives."

Many jurisdictions have banned golf and some courses have filed suit to re-open.

I sent Mlle. Mayor a query because some of my readers complained about finding errant balls which can carry the Coronavirus. Apparently, microbes don't make balls fly straighter.

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 4-8-2020: The mayor is apparently quite persuasive. Late Wednesday afternoon on the day this column hit news stands, her position was adopted by the governor hisself. In his statewide press conference, Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered all golf courses, skateboard parks and basketball courts closed. He said people have been sending photos of golfers in groups, not using individual carts, people on basketball courts and skateboard parks. Perhaps we were part of the last straw on the donkey's back.

CHANGE THE DATE / SAVE THE DATE — Friday, October 23. For obvious reasons, I've moved César Chávez XVIII from March 31, the great labor leader's 93rd birthday. The event will be held at the Atlantis Resort, sponsored by Laborers' Union Local 169, the Reno-Sparks NAACP and the usual suspects. Doors open 5:30, dinner 6:30-ish. I don't know how I'll top my greatest hits of a cherried-out Aretha Franklin 1965 pink Cadillac convertible (with suitable live music) followed by Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak with suitable politics, but I'm working on it. Ex-Tribunite Dennis Myers will become the first journalist inducted to the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame. In addition to the HOF, nominations remain open for union organizer, employer and project of the year. Reservations at CesarChavezNevada.com/

This is the second time I've moved it and will do so again if necessary. I'm even shopping for union-made Christmas pIñatas. Maybe I can get one that looks like Mitch McConnell.

Be careful out there. And take care of each other.

Andrew Barbano is a 51-year Nevadan, executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, superannuated labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and BallotBoxing.US and SenJoeNeal.org and DoctorLawyerWatch.com and Protect Our Washoe.org and ChantalCoalition.org/ He is a withdrawn-in-good-standing member of Culinary Local 226. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. He has lived in both northern and southern Nevada during his half-century+ in the Silver State. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since 1988 and received its 10th Nevada Press Association award (6 of 10 first-place) at the 21 Sept. 2019 NPA annual convention in Ely. In 1996, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for a six-month investigative series. His multi-media road construction zone safety campaign for Laborers' Union Local 169 won a first-place award from the National Safety Council in a nationwide competition. (Such ephemera and about six bucks will get you a Latte Mocha Cotsafracas Chingade at just about any Starbux worldwide, guaranteed.) His work has appeared on CNN, in The New York Times, The Guardian of London/UK and more important publications.

WEB XTRAS & SMOKING GUNS —>

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

Eldorado-Caesars merger means labor union battles far beyond Reno & Las Vegas
Culinary Union leader D. Taylor: "Where are they going to cut?"
Building trade union campaigns continue
By Ed Komenda / Reno Gazette-Journal / 6-27-2019

[4-20-2019] — About 100 demonstrators from almost all the region's unions, local community service organizations and political activists joined Culinary Union members picketing Circus Circus in the late afternoon of April 18. A couple of CC suits came out to see what all the fuss was about, as if they didn't already know. In addition to the familiar union "contract now!" chants came calls for a strike against the Carano jocks. ¡Viva Huelga! ¡Sí se puede!

REAL NEWS DEPT. In January 2019, Culinary Union Local 226 defeated an attempt by Circus Circus-Reno to decertify (terminate) the union's representation of its workers. No word on whether management plans to appeal the result to the National Labor Relations Board which was recently put out of business for 35 days. Thank you, Czar Donaldov.