Today’s column got started in a Reno bar decades ago. I was drinking with a bunch of lawyers. The conversation was wide-ranging until somebody uttered the magic words: “Jeep case.”
That opened the floodgates. All had war stories about their many Jeep cases, even criminal defense, corporate or estate-planning specialists.
I never forgot that free seminar in consumer abuse.
Then came last Thursday’s Reno Kazoo-Journal front page story about a local teen who spent the last two years refurbishing a 1984 Jeep CJ-7 which he donated to the Hot August Nights nostalgiafest charity auction.
Some blithe spirit paid $40,000 for the shiny rolling death trap. Adding insult to injury, U.S. taxpayers subsidized the tax-deductible purchase.
Be careful what you Make-A-Wish for.
I dropped everything I was doing and posted the following at the Reno Gazette-Journal website: “Your story can kill people. If you will call me, I will put you in contact with some top gun trial lawyers who have tried and won ‘Jeep cases.’ Just about every personal injury lawyer of long standing has had one or several.
The post-WW2 commercial/consumer Jeep had to be engineered for consumer comforts. (Ask a few WW2 vets about how many soldiers died or were seriously injured because those cute little Jeeps flipped like pancakes.) The young man has already exacerbated the problem of the original manufacture by adding higher suspension. Raising the center of gravity means easier rollover, especially for an inexperienced driver. (See the DJ Benardis death case your paper covered extensively.) The road to hell is paved with good intentions and the teen mechanic and Hot August Nights are heading straight for a cliché ending and a plethora of lawsuits. Please call me.”
Benardis was a local high school football hero with a scholarship to play for Notre Dame. He was killed when his Jeep rolled near the Reno spaghetti bowl.
The Reno newspaper last week noted that the young mechanic and his family had “taken the car for a few test drives, and they’ve given it their seal of approval for on- and off-road excursions.”
Zounds.
The RGJ’s accompanying photo showed a typical macho RV with chassis well above the wheel wells, a raised center of gravity and recipe for turning a vehicle into a rolling stone. Ironically, “60 Minutes” last Sunday aired a piece on military vehicle rollovers featuring today’s Jeep, the Humvee, another high-centered death trap with the requisite WW2 Jeep-emulating grille.
“Thank you for bringing this to my attention,” the RGJ reporter responded, adding “I will discuss this with my editor.”
I sent the paper a CJ-7 website filled with the bravado of macho dudes not afraid of a little rollover risk or being thrown thru the windshield.
Just about any automobile can flip. American movies and TV are filled with such stunts. Careful and experienced drivers have a better chance of survival.
Maybe the story of that fine young man’s early death combined with that of last week’s $40k coffin can save a few lives.
If only people make a wish to remember.
FREEWAY FREAKOUT. I’ve found an entertaining way to scare people about the horrors of artificial intelligence without pointing to Republican governors. I write down TV closed-captioning nonsense.
“Northbound I-80” was recently termed “North Bong 80” on TV-11’s Oakland news. Not to be outdone, TV-4 described the Tahoe classic boat “concourse d’elegance” as “con Coors day a gonz.”
Understandable. Bongs and beer can make people gonzo.
RENTVOLUTION. After last week’s debacle in Gomorrah South, the Reno City Council remains alone in infamy as the only local government ever to have voted for rent control (1979, promptly repealed. Barbwire 7-17-2019)
The North Las Vegas City Council just agreed with its city clerk in refusing to place the Culinary Union’s rent control initiative on the November ballot. The next step is also predictable: court, also like Reno long ago. And the little people suffer. Stay tuned to Rentvolution.org/
GOOD NEWS FROM RENO CITY HALL. Longtime Councilmember Neoma Jardon has resigned to become boss of something called the Downtown Reno Partnership. The “non-profit” is largely funded by downtown redline tax money which would otherwise go to frills like schools, roads, parks and first responders. Earmarked taxing districts were all the rage in the 1970s. Reno and Sparks have several, all attractively named corporate welfare fronts by which casinos may ensure that their taxes are diverted for their own benefit. Just like the convention authority.
Jardon’s most recent claim to infamy was chairing the tax money wasting Regional Transportation Commission, currently comprised of four Republicans, including Sparks Mayor Ed Lawson, and non-partisan Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve. On Jardon’s watch, bus system employees went on strike three times in 2021 with Teamsters Local 533 winning each time.
Worker abuses remain epidemic and very costly. Who will Reno councillors name to replace Jardon? I know of two sensible choices, neither of whom have much chance.
CALL YOUR MOTHER. The Sparks-based Northern Nevada Central Labor Council just announced a new attraction for its Labor Day LaborFest at Reno’s Idlewild Park: A presence that once struck fear into the hearts of every union-busting swine in North America.
The Mother Jones Museum in Mt. Olive, Ill., is sending a giant inflatable made unto the image and likeness of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones (1837-1930), a legend of 20th Century union organizing.
“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living,” she famously shouted to the rooftops. (Today’s venerable hell-raising magazine is named in her honor.)
She spoke to the Sheet Metal Workers Union in Sparks on January 6 (!), 1912. The NNCLC has asked me to delve into the Barbwire archives for more Mother Jones Nevada connections. All submissions welcome.
Stay safe and pray for Ukraine and 53 other currently war-torn lands.
As Mother Jones might say,
Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Quarantino Barbano is a 53-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us
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