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


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

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Andrew Barbano Editor/Publisher
Photo: Debra Reid, Sparks Tribune

 


   Everybody knows the dice are loaded.
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed.
   Everybody knows the war is over.
Everybody knows the good guys lost.
   Everybody knows the fight was fixed.
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.
   That's how it goes.
Everybody knows...
Everybody knows the scene is dead
   But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
   What everybody knows...
   Everybody talking to their pockets.
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
   and a long red rose.
   Everybody knows. Everybody knows.
That's how it goes.
Everybody knows.

By Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) & Sharon Robinson
© 1988 CBS Records, Inc.


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


 

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

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

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

The Pope and Rope-A-Dope
Barbwire by Andrew Barbano / Expanded from the 4-15-2026 Sparks Tribune [Expansions in blue]


Greatest Hits Dept.

BREAKING NEWS—>

BOXCARS!
Barbwire wins 12th Nevada Press Association award

Hi yo Silver 2025
3-12-2025
4-17-2024
4-3-2024

Nevada Press Assn.
Hall of Fame

5 down, 3 to go

7-31-2025 Barbwire Winner
Congratulations to Barbwire nominee Norman Cardoza, 1977 Pulitzer Prize winner, Reno Gazette-Journal


2024 Barbwire Winners!

Jake Highton & Guy Louis Rocha 2024 honorees BUENO!

Barbwire nominee Dennis Myers elected to NPA Hall of Fame (2019)

WE WON: BIG NEWS FROM THE NEVADA PRESS ASSOCIATION CONFAB IN GOMORRAH SOUTH —> BARBWIRE NOMINEE GUY RICHARDSON INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME ON FIRST BALLOT (2012)

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Eee-yo-leven!
Barbwire wins 11th Nevada Press Association award

GOLD 2017-18

2018 First-Place Winners

From the depths of despair to the den of iniquity & holy of holies

"Excellent work. These are some of the most moving columns I've read."
— NPA contest judge/9-29-201
8

The Grasshopper and
the Dragonfly

9-6-2017

Kicked off the Ledge
4-18-2017

NATIONAL NEWS FIRST-BREAK
Back to the Future in
Mississippi West Nevada

10-18-2017

Gold 2017
Don't ask Renown Med for marijuana to help your chemo

10-4-2016
We Don't Need No Education
Toxic turf threat ignored

12-13-2016
Kate Smith & Lady Gaga
2-14-2017

Bronze 6-pack
In the Uber-Nevada legislature, words can kill
4-28-2015
On artificial turf, don't breathe unless absolutely necessary (above)
11-24-2015
Leading questions, lead-headed leaders
1-19-2016

Hopelessly trying to win an earthquake
4-18-2013
2013 Loony Tunes Legislative Lexicon
5-30-2013
The politics of media ga-ga boosterism
3-20-2014

More statewide and national award winners

We Don't Need No Education—>
Neverending Barbwire Series

1997 Pulitzer Prize entries

Barbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success

Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008

The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
BEATING LUSH RAMBO AT HIS OWN GAME: Highlights from radio days
mp3 file

The Dean's List

   The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.

RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

Tomorrow's news today —> Subscribe to Barbwire Confidential
TOP SECRET— HushHush!

 

The Earth has been spinning around the sun at about 67,000 miles per hour for about 4.5 billion years.

This monster mannunkind (props to e.e. cummings) hasn't been aboard for the equivalent of the eyelash bat of a bantamweight flea.

Lightweight minds have predicted the end of the world for eons. False prophets find it profitable. I even have a book chronicling the history of doomsday scenarios.

Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx
Still crazy after all these years.

For decades, the principal source of Israeli tourism has been risk-taking American fundamentalists who want to support Israel as a base for the Battle of Armageddon wherein Jesus will defeat Satan and bring on Judgment Day. The site is supposed to be Megiddo in northern Israel where missiles are conveniently currently flying.

Alas and alack, the U.S. military appears to have a substantial number of such speaking-for-God fatalists who want to do their part to bring on a neo-holocaust, starting with blasphemously Bible-beating Secretary of Offense Pete Hegseth. He is currently the point person beating the Doomsday drum for the dunce-capped pointy-heads who fancy making us all atomic toast.

It is thus no wonder that T-Rump and his true believers are ticked off at this woosy pope guy. Leo14 is flat-out bad for business. (See below.)

I am proud that this column alone foolishly advocated for the impossible, election of an American pontiff, a couple of days after Pope Francis died. (Barbwire 4-23-2025, verified by Google Ai)

The former Father Bobby Prevost of Chicago has not disappointed.

People tend to forget that Jesus was crucified after conviction for blasphemy. (John 8:58), and forgiving a paralytic (Mark 2:7). He was a peacenik troublemaker who didn't suit the Pharisee power structure. Their concept of a messiah was a warrior who would raise an army to defeat Rome and bring Israel back to her former military glory.

I guess the Pharisees and Sadducees finally got their wish, albeit a couple of millennia late.

What's to worry? God is on the side of the righteously anointed of Wall Street, right? Right?

Wherever T-Rump goes, money follows. His bff Putin is making billions now that our ruler has removed sanctions on Russian oil. And the Iranians have likewise made billions thanks to our wolf of Wall Street.

The ayatollahs have obviously read the biography of Muhammad Ali. The three-time heavyweight champ invented Rope-a-Dope for his 1974 Rumble in the Jungle with hard-punching champion George Foreman in central Africa.

Ali dodged, covered up and took a barrage of blows leaning against the ropes until Foreman punched himself into exhaustion, then knocked him out in the eighth round.

The U.S. cannot sustain a long war. Major questions are being raised about the depletion of our weapons stockpile. Xi Xin Ping is watching as Taiwan trembles.

I am afraid that Iran is looking for one strike to kill lots of American soldiers which will make us run. That's what happened in Beirut Lebanon in 1983. Two truck bombs killed 307 people, including 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel, six civilians and two of the attackers. President Reagan immediately pulled out.

T-Rump is likewise a master of mission interruptus.

BULLETPROOF BARBWIRE INVESTMENT ADVICE, worth whatever you are paying for it. The hot stocks right now are for-profit prison vampires and any munitions manufacturer. The U.S. is armorer to the world, making 42 percent of the world's killing contraptions.

President Bulsha Tartist is thus keeping his promise to create jobs. Wonder why he doesn't tout the success of his pet growth industries?

BE VERY AFRAID: T-Rump's 2025 Big Beautiful Enrich-the-Rich bill included ramping up military draft registration. Another major jobs program.

When do we invade Canada? Speaking of which...

ARTEMIS 3 AND 4 ARE IN JEOPARDY. NASA will soon get a humongous budget cut once T-Rump realizes that the Artemis 2 crew included a woman, a black man (aargh!) and (gasp!) A CANADIAN!

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are licking their greedy chops for a corporate takeover of the carcass of NASA after T-Rump exacts his revenge for the taxpayer-funded DEI moon shot.

Musk's SpaceX hits the stock exchanges soon.

I REPEAT MY POSITION ON WAR: I'm pro-life.

SAD STORY and, alas, a familiar one. A local young man just deployed to T-Rump's war TV show. He and his pregnant fiancée rushed their wedding so that she and their unborn baby will get survivor benefits should he return in a body bag. Or not at all.

SPECIAL THANKS TO STEVEN GULITTI,
my union brother and New York City high-rise iron worker for the Groucho meme.

As Lech Walesa's members say in Poland, SOLIDARNOSC!

MELT ICE —> Mask up! Get the latest boosters, protect yourself and your family, mask yourself up to melt ICE, and continue praying for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Sarah Mullally (the new Archbishop of Canterbury), and the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours. May we survive WW3.

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

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

____________________________

Blasphemy (noun) : Mocking God; the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God; the act of claiming the attributes of deity; irreverence for something considered sacred or inviolable.

Excerpt from PBS NewsHour 4-15-2026—>

Co-anchor Amna Nawaz: We're joined now by Reverend James Martin. He's a Jesuit priest and editor at large of "America" magazine...And, as we just reported, Father Martin, I have to ask you about these pictures. The president posted that A.I. image of himself being cradled by Jesus. That followed an A.I. image of himself as Jesus that he later deleted. That followed, we should remind people, an A.I. image of himself as pope. Do these images go too far, in your view?

Rev. James Martin: Yes, I mean, particularly the one where he is picturing himself as Jesus. Some people have used the term blasphemy. I think it's more appropriate to call it idolatrous.

The First Commandment is, you shall have no other gods before me. And so to picture yourself as Jesus is really trespassing into that territory. And it's not just Catholics who are upset. I think any Christian who saw that would have to scratch their heads or be offended...[Full transcript]

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member of Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

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

Breaking News —> Masks work!

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

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

How to Live Forever
Barbwire by Andrew Barbano / Expanded from the 4-8-2026 Sparks Tribune [Expansions in blue]

My Golden Girl
Barbwire by Andrew Barbano / Expanded from the 4-1-2026 Sparks Tribune [Expansions in blue]

"Each life touches so many others" — Henry Travers as Clarence the Guardian Angel in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946)

Happy Anniversary, Betty.

Exactly 50 years ago today, I met the lady I would marry. We always laughed that April Fools' Day was actually our anniversary

Whenever I ask friends to remember her, I always add "with laughter." She was the most original wit I ever met, a much better writer and a flawless editor.

By 1976, Sparks businessman John Hanks had expanded his Pauline's Sportswear franchise to Reno and Carson City. I first met my BFF John a few years earlier when he was president of the Greenbrae Center Merchants Assn.

On 4-1-1976, his Carson location had scheduled a communitywide fashion show at the church of one Pastor Thunder (his real name) near downtown.

John's Capital City store manager was running the event I had volunteered to emcee. John told me to meet him at the Carson location and we would head for the church.

When I walked thru the door, I was greeted by a gorgeous blonde, dressed in black, with golden hair streaming below the small of her back. She handed me a script. I didn't think I needed one and didn't look at it until the well-attended event got underway. It was funny and entertaining.

The blonde lady could write.

John bought dinner afterward at the legendary Dug's West Indies. On April Fools' Day 1976, America had turned 200 and I had met the girl I would marry. She gave me the rest of her life. Betty reposes with her daughter, Debra, at Carson's Chapel of the Valley.

Her full story will be linked to the web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/ Her achievements were many, large and small.

Without her, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford would not have a Bureau of Consumer Protection to fight utility rate hikes and other consumer outrages.

One of the many children Betty mentored is a now a tenured professor at the University of Chicago.

A single story will suffice. While living in Seattle, she noticed that the neighborhood children of a struggling family wore very stylish clothes.

Their father had a nervous condition that manifested when he was around strangers. He simply could not hold a job.

Betty befriended them and learned that the father could sew exceptionally well and made all his children's clothes.

Betty found him work he could do from home on his sewing machine. He became successful and able to support his family.

"I just saw where the potential was," she told me. Multiply that by a few hundred, and you know the Golden Girl that I met 50 years ago today.

Te amo in aeternam, Joise Bettine.

MELT ICE —> Mask up! Get the latest boosters, protect yourself and your family, mask yourself up to melt ICE, and continue praying for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Sarah Mullally (the new Archbishop of Canterbury), and the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours. May we survive WW3.

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

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member of Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

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

Breaking News —> Masks work!

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

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

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

Big news. Prayers answered: Pope takes on T-Rump head-to-head.
Thank heaven he's openly a counterweight to the Orange Crusher, as I hoped on 4-23-2025

From the den of iniquity to the holy of holies
Barbwire by Andrew Barbano / Expanded from the 3-25-2026 Sparks Tribune [Expansions in blue]

GET POPE LEO ON COLBERT'S SHOW! VOTE NOW —> YES OR NO

Pope Leo hits T-Rump and WarHog on Palm Sunday
By  Amelia Benavides-Colón | NOTUS / Salt Lake Tribune / 3-31-2026

FIRST, THE LORD'S WORK: GET POPE LEO ON COLBERT'S SHOW!

The Barbwire Pope petition launched over the weekend, totally anonymous and asking you to vote yes or no. Why include room for moonhowlers who want Colbert to fail? Because I live in a dwindling democracy and I'm not going to make it worse.

I would be delighted if some rabid rabbit started a campaign to vote against. Any publicity is good publicity. I will be wallpapering the world with this for the next few days.

Decide for yourself.

Hie thee to BallotBoxing.US to access the voting page or go directly to https://strawpoll.com/w4nWWqxjWnA/

At BallotBoxing.US, you will also find a link to last week's column making my case for the affirmative: "Vote to get Pope Leo on Colbert's show." Spread the word.

Pope Leo-14 is a somewhat bigger star than the late great Betty White.

"The online petition for Betty White to host Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 2010 was a landmark viral campaign that saw 29-year-old (Texas) fan David Matthews' Facebook group gather nearly half a million supporters, leading to a historic, (Emmy) award-winning performance by the then 88-year-old actress. While (Executive Producer) Lorne Michaels had tried to book her previously, the social media pressure was the turning point in getting her to say yes," according to People.com/

So go vote for the pope, dam...er, darn it! This is important.

DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP. The Iranians proved correct on Monday when they poo-poohed T-Rump's announcement of an imminent deal to end his bloody "excursion." Them dirty Persians stated there were no ongoing negotiations and that President Bulsha Tartist just said otherwise to pump up Wall Street.

SOMEBODY (I wonder who?) jumped into futures markets 15 minutes before opening.

At the start of trading (7:05a.m. Eastern), the Orange Crusher announced he was going to give Iran five more days to be nice before more manufacturing more mayhem. Markets skyrocketed.

"There were large, suspicious moves in the prediction market Polymarket before previous attacks on Iran and Venezuela. But this front-running of U.S. policy was really large: the Financial Times estimated sales of oil futures in that magic minute Monday morning at about $580 million, and that doesn’t count the purchases of stock futures," Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman noted.

I FEEL SORRY for my exalted peers. Legit journalists, not including me, continually play T-Rump's game, analyzing him as though he were a rational human being. He's not. Our CEO is a malevolent psychopath with no human emotions. Psychos learn how to conduct themselves by watching others, making them convincing actors.

The only way to understand the asylum comes with realizing that T-Rump is simply producing a TV reality show at all times. And his minions are simply gathering billions in sponsorships. Like this past Monday morning at 6:50a.m. EDT.

I worry that soul-less Mr. "Biggest Ever" will resort to nuclear holocaust. Great TV, right?

DIRTY DEEDS PART DEUX. I've had the same phone numbers for decades. I am thus on just about every pollster's call sheet. Some even think I'm a Republican donor(!). If you take time to listen to a poll, you can learn a lot.

I participated in a detailed survey testing just about everything good and bad you might say about Democratic State Treasurer Zach Conine and State Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-LV. They will face off in the June primary for term-limited Attorney General Aaron Ford's job.

Unless somebody is really stupid, neither hopeful could have paid for the poll I got because some of the negatives tested were absolutely disgusting. Some GOP pollster from Texas was trying to determine what the Republican nominee might best use in ads to make voters sicker in November.

I got another poll from Idaho which hung up on me the moment I said I was "extremely likely" to vote. "We already have enough of those," the lady said.

Remember, it was seldom- or never-voters that put T-Rump in the gilded bulldozed White House.

Mr. Ford has already made a substantial mistake in his quest to win the Donkeyite nomination for governor. Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill is the only female name on the primary ballot against him. He should have made sure three women named Suzy, Jennifer and Betty filed in the race. Such is the power of the automatic female voter.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Republican Gov. Giuseppe Lumbago had $16 million in the bank vs. $2 million for Ford at last count. The guv has had a political action committee (PAC) running wholesale negative ads against Ford while the AG's campaign has sat shiva.

The primary is just over two months away. If some non-descript PAC starts running spots supporting Ms. Hill, you will know that the guv has identified her as the weaker adversary and wants her to advance to November. An old trick, but it works.

NO KINGS RALLY PART DEUX forms at 10:00a.m. PDT this Saturday in Reno at Arlington and W. Liberty, then marches to the the City Hall Believe Plaza. Links with the expanded web Barbwire at NevadaLabor.com/

MEA CULPA. Last week, I made a mistake about who's who in the saint department. The late great Pope John 23rd was at long last canonized by Pope Francis. Leo-13, a tremendous advocate for human rights, remains out in the cold. Gotta hunch that may change rather soon.

MELT ICE —> Mask up! Get the latest boosters, protect yourself and your family, mask yourself up to melt ICE, and continue praying for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Sarah Mullally (the new Archbishop of Canterbury), and the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours. May we survive WW3.

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

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org and MississippiWestNV.org among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

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

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

Vote to get Pope Leo on Colbert's show
Barbwire by Andrew Barbano / Expanded from the 3-18-2026 Sparks Tribune [Expansions in blue]

VOTE NOW —> YES OR NO

"If you want something done, do it yourself." — AESOP

THE LORD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS. Last week, comic actress Wanda Sykes advocated for Pope Leo XIV as the final guest on May 21 on the T-Rump-canceled CBS "Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

President Bulsha Tartist cut a dirty deal with his pals, the Ellison billionaires, to not interfere with their outfit, Paramount, taking over CBS. Heiress Shari Redstone wanted to retire after turning a large fortune into a smaller one. When daddy died, CBS was worth $25 billion. The Ellisons got it for 80 percent off.

T-Rump's price: Cancel Colbert's top-rated late night show. (Yes yes, I'm sure that I'm just repeating liberal left-wing-commie fake news propaganda in questioning our pristine president's morals and ethics. But that's just me.)

Our mad king has perverted the ethics of a Nevada cat house into our governing axiom: What's in it for me? Everything's negotiable, right down to your basic bodily functions.

ONLY THIS COLUMN called for election of an American pontiff after Pope Francis died on April 21, 2025. (Continually verified by Google A.i.) I saw no other counterweight to our megalomaniacal mad king. The pope's got 1.4 billion members. T-Rump ain't competitive. Leo14 has not disappointed.

"Listen up, guys. And I mean all you guys, the 138 old men in red robes who will soon spend a few days in the world's most exclusive frat house, illustrations by Michelangelo," I wrote last April 23.

"I am one of your flock. I received the fabled indelible mark on my soul which the church says makes me a member in vitam aeternam.

"The United States has helped all of your countries over the past century or so. Now we need saving.

"Don't just do it for us, do it for yourselves and your flocks. We are still the fattest, richest, most powerful country in the world. Alas and alack, darkness has engulfed us. We have raised demons of our own making who spread the plague of ignorance.

"We are paying a heavy price, but so are you, and all the weak and the meek who look up to you. Just the mindless and cruel elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development has already caused many of your children to die horrible deaths from starvation and preventable diseases.

"We Americans of peace stand cold and naked in our hour of darkness. We have lost our way and flail about in dire need of a leader who will guide us out of the wilderness before ignorance and fear engulf the entire world.

"Let there be a United States pope and may he take the name of Francis the Second. Powerful and symbolic, it will convey to the misbegotten that they follow the wrong path, a journey toward misery rather than mercy," I implored.

My prayers were answered. The former Father Bobby Prevost of Chicago is now Pope Leo 14.

Hitting a home run his first time up, he chose an even more symbolic name than Francis. Pope Leo 13 was a late-19th Century champion of peace and worker/human rights as the industrial revolution swept the world.

Leo-13 has been ignored for well-deserved sainthood. Like the long-delayed John23rd (finally canonized by Francis), Leo-13 shook up the system and the world for the better. That kinda stuff hurts corporate supporte

Anybody notice how well the two most recent Leos resemble each other?

The highly honored Mr. Colbert is a devout Catholic, as Wanda Sykes noted.

The new Leo is box office, as they say in Hollywood. His satellite speech to the folks in his hometown produced a standing room-only crowd at White Sox Stadium.

"The attendance of over 30,000 was notable, as it exceeded the 2025 White Sox average attendance of fewer than 17,000 fans per game," the NYTimes noted.

Tickets sold for just $5 but some appeared on secondary markets for more than $1,200.

We got us a rock star pope.

Leo and his Cardinal Crew from Chicago, Newark and DC have proceeded to kick T-Rumps precious hamburger buns.

PAYBACK TIME. Right after I saw Wanda's outrageous suggestion last week, I posted SOMEBODY START A WORLDWIDE ONLINE PETITION! In 2010, one guy with one online petition resulted in the late great Betty White hosting Saturday Night Live. It produced one of their best ever.

No one has started a draft, so let''s do as old Aesop advised. I posted the above to NevadaLabor.com after I watched Colbert on March 12 and started the campaign on lucky Friday the 13th.

My petition will be linked to NevadaLabor.com by the time you read this, a simple yes-or-no vote. I decided against asking for signatures by name or even anonymously. Sparks petition circulators have told me that people live in such fear these days that many fear signing anything. [[VOTE NOW, YES OR NO]]

My prayers were answered for an American pope. Now, let's rub salt into the Orange Crusher's fragile psyche by giving Colbert a world-class sendoff.

Spread the word.

Alleluia!

MEA CULPA. I posted that I would treat statewide and local races this week, but holy war comes first. If you get polled, lemme know what was asked and where the pollster was based. Lots more online and next week.

Get the latest boosters, protect yourself and your family, mask yourself up to melt ICE, and continue praying for the oppressed, unenlightened and unvaccinated as well as Popes Leo and Francis, the Dalai Lama, Sarah Mullally (the new Archbishop of Canterbury), and the world's more than 160 currently war-torn lands, including ours. May we survive WW3.

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

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)
être bien, élever l'enfer (Pardon my French.) Stammi bene. Scatenare l'inferno. (And Italian.)

Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 57-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com, SenJoeNeal.org, DoctorLawyerWatch.com, BallotBoxing.US,ConsumerCoalitionv.org,ChantalCoalition.org, Rentvolution.org, MississippiWestNV.org and CesarChavezNevada.com among others. He is a longtime member and former vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP and a member Sparks-based Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO. As always, his comments are entirely his own. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Sparks Tribune since August 12, 1988. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into the César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Breaking News —> Masks work!

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

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

Welcome to FantasyLand boys and girls
Barbwire by Andrew Barbano / Expanded from the 3-11-2026 Sparks Tribune

Under the Blood Moon—>Little boys playing with war toys
Barbwire by Andrew Barbano / Expanded from the 3-4-2026 Sparks Tribune

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

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

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

Pinky & the Brain taking over the world
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno / Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-2-2025

Ain't we a pair?
Dennis Myers & Andrew Barbano inducted into César Chávez Nevada Labor Hall of Fame
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno
/
Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 4-10-2024

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

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

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

To Die For
My daughters were born 65 years ago yesterday. Alas, their youth was cut in twain.
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno
/
Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 1-17-2024

 

Web Xtras & Smoking Guns—>

Why the science is clear that masks work
By Zeynep Tufecki / The New York Times / 3-10-2023

Breaking News —> Masks work!

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

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

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For all the news you never knew you needed to know 'til now: Tell your friends and friendly enemies to subscribe to Barbwire Confidential for warm laughter, cheap thrills, hot scoops and occasional cold logic at BallotBoxing.US/ Cheap at twice the price. (Hush Hush!)

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$75 dead or alive: Still crazy after all these years
A mass murderer becomes famous on TV a century later

How come nobody noticed 'til now?
Barbwire by Andrew Barbáno
/ Expanded from the 2-21-2018 Sparks Tribune

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory owners Max Blank and Isaac Harris. Is not Mr. Harris eerily familiar to television junkies?

From the Emmy-winning opening slate of the blockbuster "Cheers" television series. Combined with its "Frasier" spinoff, it lasted 20 years.
The "shirtwaist kings" immigrated from Russia and made a fortune manufacturing "Gibson Girl"-style blouses. (Photo, "The American Experience"/PBS)
The Emmy-winning opening slate of the "Cheers" television series before the "slate" of creators is superimposed. Looks like Mr. Harris' dead ringer (at left) is having a bloody good time.

"Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" Chico Marx disguised as Groucho Marx in "Duck Soup" (1933)
Back to the story of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist holocaust

Triangle tragedy recalled as requiem
"The Fire in My Mouth," a new oratorio by Pulitzer honoree Julia Wolfe, premiered with the New York Philharmonic Jan. 24

By Michael Cooper / The New York Times 1-23-2019

Wasting workers where everybody knows your name
Barbwire by Andrew Quarantino Barbáno
/
Expanded from the Sparks Tribune 10-18-2023

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Copyright © 1982-2026 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 56-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He was the longtime executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and has been a quarter-century member and 10- year officer of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO inducted him into Nevada Labor Hall of Fame on April 5, 2024.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since. His first byline in the paper came in 1973.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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