Auto Manufacturers Cannot be Trusted

Once again we have been reminded that auto manufacturers cannot be trusted. Remember that fact when you shop for your next car.

I always held Toyota in the highest regard. I used Toyota as a standard when urging my employees to do their best. I would say, “I want Toyota quality.” Those were my words in the 1980s and 1990s, well before Toyota’s developed an acceleration problem that cost lives. In my opinion there has never been an adequate explanation of the cause of that problem. Toyota ended up paying out a staggering $1.3 billion to settle lawsuits related to unintended acceleration, and in some of those cases the drivers were probably at fault.

General Motors kept quiet about the ignition switch that would shut off while their cars were in motion. That too cost lives. 13 people died. Almost 780,000 Chevrolet Cobalts and Pontiac G5s were recalled and the company paid a $35 million fine. What is sad is that it would have only cost 57 cents to fix each faulty ignition switch.

Now we have the VW installed software that masks the real performance of its diesel cars. There is no direct impact on the buyers of the cars but the company and its dealers will notice a substantial decline in sales.  The company management is to blame for this stupid decision.  20% of German exports are cars shipments.  Imagine what the impact will be on German factories.

How many other industries lie about their products?  

There is NO PROOF We Can Trust Iran

The agreement with Iran over its right to a nuclear program that is for peaceful purposes must be viewed with significant skepticism.  There should be no agreement without a complete and verifiable elimination of all their facilities that could develop a nuclear weapon.  A new president was selected in Iran and suddenly that country has turned a page and is willingly agreeing with demands of the world.  It is too incredible to be taken seriously.

I don’t have to be an expert on nuclear and missile diplomacy to be suspicious of Iran’s ultimate intent.  I only have to look at the time line of events that ultimately led to a North Korea with the ability to shoot nuclear armed missiles at the United   States, Japan, South Korea and most of the nations rimming the Pacific Ocean.

Iran is using the North Korean template to further its development of nuclear weapons that will threaten the world.

The Arms Control Association has posted on its web site Chronology of U.S.-North Korean Nuclear and Missile Diplomacy along with some extra details from Wikipedia.

Here are the highlights of the sequence of events dealing with North Korea.

December 12, 1985:North Korea accedes to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) but does not complete a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Under Article III of the NPT, North Korea has 18 months to conclude such an arrangement. In coming years, North Korea links adherence to this provision of the treaty to the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons from South Korea.

September 27, 1991: President George Bush announces the unilateral withdrawal of all naval and land-based tactical nuclear weapons deployed abroad. Approximately 100 U.S. nuclear weapons had been based in South Korea. Eight days later, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev reciprocates.

January 30, 1992: More than six years after signing the NPT, North Korea concludes a comprehensive safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

February 9, 1993: The IAEA demands special inspections of two sites that are believed to store nuclear waste. The request is based on strong evidence that North Korea has been cheating on its commitments under the NPT. North Korea refuses the IAEA’s request.

Late 1993: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency estimate that North Korea had separated about 12 kilograms of plutonium. This amount is enough for at least one or two nuclear weapons.

January 1994: The director of the CIA estimates that North Korea may have produced one or two nuclear weapons.

June 15, 1994: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter negotiates a deal with North Korea in which Pyongyang confirms its willingness to “freeze” its nuclear weapons program and resume high-level talks with the United States. Bilateral talks are expected to begin, provided that North Korea allows the IAEA safeguards to remain in place, does not refuel its 5-megawatt nuclear reactor, and does not reprocess any spent nuclear fuel.

October 16, 1996: After detecting North Korean preparations for a test of its medium-range Nodong missile, the United States deploys a reconnaissance ship and aircraft to Japan. Following several meetings in New York between U.S. and North Korean diplomats, the State Department confirms on November 8 that the missile test has been canceled.

July 15, 1998: The bipartisan Rumsfeld Commission concludes that the United States may have “little or no warning” before facing a long-range ballistic missile threat from “rogue states,” such as North Korea and Iran.

September 9, 1999: A U.S. National Intelligence Estimate reports that North Korea will “most likely” develop an ICBM capable of delivering a 200-kilogram warhead to the U.S. mainland by 2015.

January 14, 2005: North Korea says it is willing to restart stalled talks on its nuclear programme, according to the official KCNA news agency. The statement says North Korea “would not stand against the US but respect and treat it as a friend unless the latter slanders the former’s system and interferes in its internal affairs”.

January 24, 2013: The North Korean National Defense Commission announces its intentions to conduct another nuclear test and continue rocket launches.

March 13, 2013: North Korea confirmed it ended the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement, declaring that North Korea “is not restrained by the North-South declaration on non-aggression” and warned that the next step was an act of “merciless” military retaliation against its enemies.

March 26, 2013: The U.S. again dispatched B-52 bombers from Guam to overfly South Korean territory as part of the ongoing Foal Eagle exercise. These flights were, according to US Department of Defense sources, routine flights intended to demonstrate America’s capability of maintaining a “continuous bomber presence” in the region.

March 30,2013: North Korea declared a ‘state of war’ against South Korea. A North Korean statement promised “stern physical actions” against “any provocative act”. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared that rockets were ready to be fired at American bases in the Pacific. This was in response to two nuclear-capable American B-2 stealth bombers flying over the Korean peninsula on March 28.