Missing Brake Pads On GM Sonic – & Long Rant

GM is recalling 4,296 Chevrolet Sonic’s because they “may be missing brake pads”. These missing brake pads may cause an increase in stopping distance… I had to hold back my coffee so it wouldn’t spew all over the computer. Increase stopping distance?!?! Ya think?!?!? How the heck does this get past QC? How does 4,296 of them make it past QC and how do they know it’s that specific number?

Funnier yet, why are they waiting until January 14th to notify customers?!?!? Does this sound patently insane to you or am I alone here? Of course GM states no accidents have happened because of this, no of course there hasn’t been after all you have three other wheels that “should” have brakes on them and will do the job no problem.

Some of these wonder cars have been on the road for 6 months!Yet another reason why I will never own GM, this one takes the all time cake. Somebody needs to have a talk with GM, the UAW and GM suppliers because all failed here. The sad fact it took 6 months to figure this out and issue a service bulletin and then finally a recall is beyond belief.

On to the rant… if I lose you from here, I understand, just need to vent.

I don’t believe in bailouts, back when Fischer, the company that made horse carriages went bankrupt horses were still used to pull carriages. From the rubble of the bankrupt Fischer came GM. What’s the point of my story? Too many people believe that if GM failed too many jobs would have been lost, the same thought’s were spoken back when Fischer failed only back then, there were no bailouts. They went bankrupt and life went on, new companies were born. Hey that was over 100 years ago, it’s different now right? Last time I checked, the law and our Constitution give companies ample opportunity to get help in various legal ways, nowhere do I see “bailout stupid companies” listed.

Failed companies failed for a reason and from the ashes new companies arise and new jobs are created and lessons are learned and at times an entire industry is formed. Creating many more jobs than were lost. What happens when you bail companies out? Lessons are not learned, they are rewarded and the same type of bozo’s that were a part of the problem are still there to create the same problems all over again. Hello Fannie & Freddie… they are once again an issue, are you shocked that they need help, again? Have you seen the pay packages they still get? Where are the OWS protestors to scream about that?

We live in a society today where mediocrity is rewarded, participation awards given, no score kept, all so everybody is “equal”. Funny, at work if I don’t do a good job I don’t get rewarded or given the same pay as somebody else because it wasn’t earned. Life isn’t fair and doing the least to get by shouldn’t be rewarded. Sometimes we aren’t “equal” to another person doing the same kind of task, forcing equality in everything helps who exactly? I really want to know because if somebody who does next to nothing is getting the same benefit as I do while working my butt off what reason do I have to continue working so hard for? Anybody?

We are losing our position of world leader in practically everything because of this mentality. The Occupy Wall Street Movement exists because of this mentality. Yes, there are corrupt people in Wall Street and guess what, much of that corruption came at the heals of Government regulations that left the door open for it. Dodd and Frank get a pass for the legislation they help write that made it possible for people to get loans and not be qualified for them, do some leg work and see if I’m wrong, let me know what you find. Wall Street doesn’t write the law, the mental midgets we put into office do and I see no OWS protestors at any door step of anybody in Congress, do you?

Our debt is 100% of GDP and we are quickly trying to catch up to Greece which is 150% of GDP, in 3 years we have incurred 6 TRILLION more in debt and we think that incurring more by way of socializing health care is the way to go? Really? That’s the answer? Think I liked Bush? He created 4 Trillion in 8 years, but Obama is making him look like a spend thrift! I had a lot of issues with Bush but as a President you knew what he said is what he meant, even if he was wrong. All I have seen from Obama in 3 years is blame and apologies to foreign countries for any slight the US may have perpetrated to them.

I have never seen a President so keen on blaming others, so lets put him back in office for 4 more years of the blame game, great idea. 6 trillion in 3 years, how much more can he spend in 5 more? How much before even the left says enough, wait, the left will never say enough, they don’t know how. Heck neither party says enough is enough, they talk about it but that does nothing.

We now live in a country where a Union and the Government can try to dictate where planes are built. Surely this is Russia right? Nope Boeing may not be my cup of tea but they should be allowed to build where ever they want, free from union demands and Government dictates. 

Back to GM, GM is proving why bailouts don’t work, UAW pay offs, 350 million dollars in new battery plants for cars that don’t sell, forcing out a car 6 months early and not meeting sales goals… all brought to you by the Government, more proof that we need them out of our lives, not further encroached into our lives. Building a car that in the end costs so much more than they can sell it for they have to subsidize the car further by giving incentives to buy it, again paid for by the tax payer. The utter gall of it, where is the outcry? The media sits quiet. Solyndra and other multi billion dollar losses by Government hand outs, no problem, just tax payer money never to be seen again.

I predict GM won’t ever fully repay the tax payer, the Government may cook the books so it looks like they did but if you follow the money and see how much is still being poured into GM you would see how it’s impossible to get out of the debt. I don’t see the battery plants or the Government incentive programs being listed as part of the debt incurred by GM and yet, those are tax dollars at work.

Anyway I digress, too many people think Government is the answer, the very same Government that pays $500.00 for a toilet seat, creates a healthcare plan that Congress doesn’t have to use because they have 200 private plans to choose from and a fully funded tax payer paid for pension plan. Take a look at the list of companies that fought for the new healthcare law that have now gotten waivers from having to be part of it.

Somebody explain to me why the ARRP, SEIU, too many Unions to list are on the waiver list after they fought so hard for this new law?? 12% of the total US workforce is waived because of who they work for or are protected by in Unions. I guess Unions really do work then, put untold millions into Democratic coffers to get the law passed, then be put on the waiver list so you don’t have to be part of it and get backing by the Government during contract disputes.

I see the GOP side running for President and I see Obama with a different face, nothing will change until we decide it needs to. Until then we get more of the same and if this debt and bail out mentality continues and we Govern by feelings instead of by what really works, it’s going to end badly for this country.

We have gotten the Government we deserve due to complacency and ignorance while the people we elect fill their pockets through legal insider trading, pork barrel spending and whatever they can squeeze from corporate hand outs and out right bribes. I could point out the millions made by Nanci Pelosi in insider trading, there are names from both sides of the isle on insider trading but you know what, insider trading is legal for members of Congress etc.. what puts you or I in jail, they do on a daily basis and profit from, how insane is that??

Obama says the free market has failed, he also says that individuals can’t make it without him in office so to vote for him again or we are lost and people call him a genius. I say to you using the words of Winston Churchill “Socialism is a dream, sooner or later you wake up to reality”. Or “A nation trying to Tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle”. Here is a few more “Socialism works until you run out of other peoples money”.

The very best quote yet “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

We are at 14 trillion pushing hard to get to 15 trillion in debt, we are literally proving why doing things with Government running the show and taking more from us doesn’t work. Congress approved of the new healthcare law forcing us to pay for it but hey, they need a few years to fill the fund first, remind you of Social Security? Yeah, the very fund they robbed from for decades and is now in serious trouble, so the money I have paid into it since 1977 will likely never see my pocket when I retire. Imagine seriously what a Government run program like healthcare will be like. If that doesn’t scare you, nothing will.

They rob from these tax payer funds and we re-elect them and they tax us more to re-fill them so they can rob them some more. But hey, we’ll just do as Obama does and blame the GOP for everything… yeah that works… both sides are to blame pure and simple, change needs to come from both… but the blame game is fine for the most powerful man on the planet.  

I have to stop now, I have droned on and on and this started out being about brake pads missing and turned into a full out political vent. If you’re one of those that thinks everything is great and going as it should, have a great time during the next great depression because at the rate of Government spending, it’s coming and if you think we can survive as a country at plus 100% GDP, you failed economics class in school.

On this last note have a great night everybody… sorry for the lengthy post, it’s how I feel and sometimes you need to let it out or burst.