ALL OF THE PRESIDENTS FAULTS, ALL OF THEM!

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the men and women who died while serving in the country's armed forces.

Yesterday, May 26th was Memorial day, a time unfortunately spent by many Americans shopping for sales to buy "stuff", going on vacations, and bears very little resemblance to the true meaning of what that sad day is all about.

Simply put, Memorial Day is about Americans, mostly young soldiers who went to war and died, never to return to their loved ones, never to live their lives, and all their dreams stolen by the evil of this world

It is fitting to write this blog about Memorial day, the day after this "holiday", since mostly no-one, except the families of those who died fighting in these wars, even remembers the significance of what yesterday was truly about.

In recent weeks, the every few years "new news" about the disgraceful conditions of the dysfunctional Veterans Affairs (VA).

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a government-run military veteran benefit system with Cabinet-level status. It is the United States government’s second largest department, after the United States Department of Defense.^[1] With a total 2009 budget of about $87.6 billion, VA employs nearly 280,000 people at hundreds of Veterans Affairs medical facilities, clinics, and benefits offices and is responsible for administering programs of veterans’ benefits for veterans, their families, and survivors. In 2012, the proposed budget for Veterans Affairs was $132 billion. ^[2]

The VA 2014 Budget request for 2014 is $152.7 billion. This includes $66.5 billion in discretionary resources and $86.1 billion in mandatory funding. The discretionary budget request represents an increase of $2.7 billion, or 4.3 percent, over the 2013 enacted level.^[3]

In particular, the problems veterans experience getting Veterans Affairs medical care and with VA mental health care, where veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and even those at high risk of suicide face long waits, according to VA staffers and internal investigations.

At some VA medical centers, qualified mental health professionals, nursing staff and bed space are in such short supply that some mental health patients are discharged early. "The turnaround on patients has gotten faster, there's a lot of pressure to get them in and out and a lot of them aren't ready to leave," said a VA psychiatric nurse, who added that patients are sometimes discharged "AMA", against medical advice.

The raging discussion over the VA waiting list scandal is about who's to blame, and the consensus of the political talking heads is that it's President Obama's fault for breaking a promise he made in 2008 during his first campaign.

"I am tired of hearing stories of vets navigating a broken veterans bureaucracy," he said in 2008. "I will promise to make that a priority of mine when I'm President of the United States of America."

But as I read through various articles, it's also President Bush's fault for launching two long nation-building wars - breaking a promise he made during his first campaign.

"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world, and nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road and I'm going to prevent that," said Bush.

But then, as it turns out, 37 percent of the VA's caseload has nothing to do with the last two wars but is in fact linked to the use of Agent Orange during Vietnam.

Which means President Kennedy is also to blame. "I don't agree with those who say we should withdraw, that's be a grave mistake."

JFK authorized the use of Agent Orange, and President Johnson said later during the Vietnam War, "And we will stay until aggression has stopped."

LBJ is to blame for deploying it.

Then there's President Carter who started an Agent Orange Registry, but not much else, then President Reagan who decided the government would not accept liability at all for Agent Orange, and just kicked the can down the road.

Not a great track record for the White House, but what that means is, we can finally agree: It is the Presidents fault.

ALL OF THEM.

Not just for the VA mess but in general for the deaths of the brave soldiers who died as victims of the politics waged by cowardly politicians sitting safely in the White House, sending our young soldiers to fight and die in wars that get waged using "patriotic" hollow words that years later are exposed for the lies that they originally were.

ALL OF THEM!!!

THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

The financial world is going gaga over the alleged great jobs numbers and economic gains reported about the U.S. economy over the past few months.

We’ve been over this saga many times. The methodology for calculating jobs gains is not even close to accurate. The unemployment rate is now a marketing gimmick rather than an accurate economic metric.

Indeed, here are some staggering statistics that indicate just how messed up the US economy is right now.

·      The labor participation rate is the lowest since 1978.
·      There are over 90 million Americans without a job right now.
·      An incredible 20% of all American families do not have a single member who is employed.
·      There are over 47 million Americans on food stamps.

There is simply no way to spin these numbers. The US Federal Reserve has spent over $3.2 trillion and generated virtually no real job growth (accounting for population growth).

See for yourself:

Well, what about as a percentage of the population?

Has the percentage of working age Americans that have a job been increasing or decreasing?

As you can see from the chart posted above, the percentage of working age Americans with a job has been in a long-term downward trend. 

When the year 2000 began, we were sitting at 64.6 percent.  By the time the great financial crisis of 2008 struck, we were hovering around 63 percent.  During the last recession, we fell dramatically to under 59 percent and we have stayed there ever since.

And the numbers behind this chart also show that employment in America did not increase last month.

In March, 58.9 percent of all working age Americans had a job.

In April, 58.9 percent of all working age Americans had a job.

Things are not getting worse (at least for the moment), but things are also definitely not getting better.

The month that Barack Obama entered the White House, we were in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and only 60.6 percent of all working age Americans had a job.

Since only 58.9 percent of all working age Americans have a job now, that means that the employment situation in America is still worse than it was the day Barack Obama took office.

When you account for how the potential labor pool has grown, the number of employed Americans has gone almost nowhere but down since the 2008 recession supposedly “ended.”

At the end of the day, spending money doesn’t create real job growth. An employer only hires someone if they believe that the person’s output will have a net benefit for the firm (meaning the money the person’s output brings in is larger than the money the firm pays them for their work).

That’s what creates a sustainable job. Spending money just to create some position where a person sits at work 50% of the time doing nothing is of no real long-term value to the economy, the person, or the firm.

In simple terms, the great attempt to prop up the US economy through spending and printing money is at an end. The world takes a long time to catch on to these changes, but the shift has already begun. It’s now just a matter of time before stocks figure it out.

The issue of creating jobs is now front and center in regard to setting monetary policy. Sadly the people in Washington remain clueless in understanding how "real" jobs are created; Creating jobs in a mature market should be required to pass a certain "taste" test.

When a job that falls outside the description of government worker fails to make economic sense it becomes a form of working welfare with the taxpayer picking up the tab. 

We as a country and as a society have paid dearly for each unsustainable job created through government incentives and partnerships, because of the nature of many of these jobs, we might even call them temporary.  

It is becoming apparent to many that the financial system has become dysfunctional.  People are forced to loan their savings to governments and banks with negative interest after adjusting for inflation. 

Today for other than student and auto loans there is scant demand even at low interest rates. We must differentiate the kinds of economic growth and understand that all growth is not created equal. If you spend money, but afterwards have little to show for it, you have wasted it.  

There are nearly 102 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now.  And 20 percent of all families in the United States do not have a single member that is employed.  

So how in the world can the government claim that the unemployment rate has "dropped" to "6.3 percent"?  

It all comes down to the manipulation of how the U.S. Labor department defines who is "unemployed".  For example, last month the government moved another 988,000 Americans into the "not in the labor force" category.  

According to the government, at this moment there are 9.75 million Americans that are "unemployed" and there are 92.02 million Americans that are "not in the labor force" for a grand total of 101.77 million working age Americans that do not have a job.  

Back in April 2000, only 5.48 million Americans were unemployed and only 69.27 million Americans were "not in the labor force" for a grand total of 74.75 million Americans without a job. 

That means that the number of working age Americans without a job has risen by 27 million since the year 2000.  Any way that you want to slice that, it is bad news.

Unemployment statistics have been manipulated for decades by numerous administrations from both political parties to project this distorted, artificially inflated, "happy" amount of Americans who have jobs.

Don't let anyone fool you with talk of an "employment recovery".  It simply is not happening.   

The official unemployment rate bears so little relation to economic reality at this point that it has essentially become meaningless.

How in the world can we have an "unemployment rate" of just "6.3 percent" when 20 percent of all American families do not have a single member that is working?

Here is how that 20 percent figure was arrived at:

A family, as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a group of two or more people who live together and who are related by birth, adoption or marriage. In 2013, there were 80,445,000 families in the United States and in 16,127,000, or 20 percent, no one had a job.

So if one out of every five families is completely unemployed, then why is the official government unemployment rate not up at Great Depression era levels?

It is because, in my opinion, our government has been manipulating the numbers to make them look much better than they actually are.

Why don't they just go ahead and get it over with?  

They can just define every American that is not working as "not in the labor force" and then we can have "0.0 percent unemployment".  Then we can celebrate how wonderful the U.S. economy is.

And don't be fooled by the "288,000 jobs" that were added to the U.S. economy last month.  For workers under the age of 55, the number of jobs actually dropped by a whopping 259,000.

If we were using honest numbers, the official unemployment rate would look a lot scarier.  John Williams of shadowstats.com has calculated that the unemployment rate should be about 23 percent.  I don't think that is too far off from the actual amount.

Meanwhile, the quality of the jobs in our economy continues to go down.  The House Ways and Means Committee says that seven out of every eight jobs that have been "added" to the economy under Barack Obama have been part-time jobs.  But you can't raise a family or plan a career around a part-time job. To be honest, it is very hard for a single person to even survive on a part-time wage in this economic environment.

As the quality of our jobs goes down, so do our incomes. The median household income has declined for five years in a row, and the middle class is falling apart.

Without middle class incomes, you can't have a middle class.  Considering what we have been watching happen, it should be no surprise that the home ownership rate in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in 19 years.

Please don't blame the people of the U.S. for this mess.

The economic catastrophe of the U.S. economy, and as an extension, the world's economy should not be blamed solely on President Barack Obama's administration as he inherited a shit load of major, crucial financial structural problems from the previous Bush administration.

Also, don't dump this, as being caused by the entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. It cannot be blamed or fixed on the backs of the average American who receives entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare that they deserve and paid for with their own money.

These Entitlement programs have NOT contributed to the financial debt of the United States (CLICK HERE), despite the popular political rhetoric that it has, or should be drastically reduced in benefits given to regular folks. The idea that these programs should be reduced or eliminated is just typical political bull shit of scapegoating the most vulnerable, instead of facing the real truths of decades where government mismanagement, waste, and corruption have bled us dry as a Country.

At a gut level, most Americans understand that things are much worse than they used to be.

The Pew Research Center recently asked people what "class" they consider themselves to be.  The results were shocking.

Back in 2008, only 25 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be "lower middle class" or "poor".

Earlier this year, an astounding 40 percent of all Americans chose one of those designations.

We are in the midst of a long-term economic decline, and no amount of propaganda is going to change that.

But based on the "happy numbers" being trumpeted by the mainstream media, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, it is slowly bringing their quantitative easing program to an end.

When quantitative easing is finally totally cut off, we shall see how the financial markets and the U.S. economy perform without artificial life support.

Personally, I don't think that it is going to be pretty.

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION FOR JUSTICE OF GM VICTIM SARAH TRAUTWEIN AND ALL VICTIMS OF MURDER BY GENERAL MOTORS

Prosecute GM for failing to recall unsafe vehicles 

Petition BY: Karlie Brighton Yarbrough, Jacksonville, Florida in Memory of her Cousin 19 year old  Sarah Trautwein. 

Sarah was killed by the negligence and indifference of a human life, by General Motors.

"Dear Jerry,

Thanks for signing my petition, "DOJ: Prosecute GM for failing to recall unsafe vehicles."

Can you help this petition grow stronger by asking others to sign too?
Thanks again -- together we're making change happen,

Karlie Brighton Yarbrough"

To sign this petition and have your voice heard that human life, any innocent human life has a value of preciousness that must be respected by GM, our Government, and all human beings CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION.

Does your heart beat, do you have a pulse, do you care about innocent victims whose lives are trying to be erased as if they were never alive. Surely you have 5 seconds to go to the link ABOVE and sign the petition to have your voice heard. Don't assume this will always "be someone else's child" No one is safe when our children's lives are treated as disposable garbage. 

"My cousin was killed when her Chevy Cobalt's ignition switch turned-off, causing her car to continue moving without being able to steer.  Her airbags also didn't deploy.  

It was a beautiful summer morning and Sarah and Betty were driving home from visiting friends in Myrtle Beach.  Sarah Trautwein was a freshman at the University of South Carolina.  

She was planning on studying pediatric cardiology and helping children with heart problems.  She was the kind of girl who was friends with absolutely everyone, always smiling, and unconditionally adored her family.  

This particular instance she cut her trip short because she was missing her puppy, Sonnie, and her mom, Renee, way too much to stay away any longer.  

So, 7:00 that morning she woke-up and hit the road for home.   She got on I-95 north and only had under an hour to go when Sarah and Betty fatally hit a tree.

You see, Betty was Sarah’s name for her 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt, and, unfortunately, Betty had a glitch.  A big glitch.  A glitch that ultimately ended Sarah’s 19-year life.  

The glitch within Betty was a faulty ignition switch that would randomly turn-off the vehicle while it was driving down the road; an ignition switch whose replacement would cost $0.59.  That’s right:  an ignition switch that would cost less than the change found in practically anyone's vehicle.

As it turns out, General Motors (the company who owns Chevrolet) knew about this defect.  The INFAMOUS General Motors!  General Motors:  the company the American government and taxpayers had to financially support and bailout of financial ruin in 2009.  General Motors:  the company whose famous Chevrolet motto is “The Heartbeat of America.” General Motors: the company who touts safety ratings on their vehicles.  General Motors:  the company who killed my cousin.

Not only did we find out that Sarah died without her airbag deploying, we recently found-out that Sarah’s vehicle was one of 2.6 million that should have been recalled for the faulty ignition switch.  Seems simple, right?  Funny enough, we also found-out that there was a company cover-up in regards to this issue in 2006. A COVER-UP!  A cover-up recently questioned by congress!  

They knew about the issues with their vehicles, went through measures to hide them from the public, ate dinner and went home to bed. 

Meanwhile, my aunt hasn’t had a full night’s sleep since Sarah’s passing, couldn’t eat for months, and will wear the pain of losing a child on her face until the day she dies.  

Yet GM could have prevented this: the untimely deaths of so many!  And mind you, this was three whole years before Sarah’s death! 

So, no, it wasn’t Betty who killed our precious Sarah.  

It was GM, the so called “Hearbeat of America.” 

It was the executives and employees at GM who were knowingly involved in the negligence, cover-ups and the scandal of the situation.  

 It was anyone who knew about the neglect.  If only one person had spoken-up our Sarah and the 40+ others who have been killed in similar accidents would be here today.

This is a serious matter and serious action must be taken.  Please help us raise awareness and spread the word and help save lives.  And please don’t be fooled by any of GM’s attempts at saving face. 

General Motors/Chevrolet executives are shrewd, unethical, and heartless people:  making it virtually impossible to be the “Heartbeat of America”.

*While this petition was written from the perspective of Sarah's family and friends, this petition is in the hopes of avenging ALL those who were killed or injured due to GM's gross negligence."

Readers of this Blog can take 5 seconds out of your life and sign this petition. It is a simple, but effective way to express your support of all Victims of injustice and the manner in which human beings are disrespected, tossed away as if they were a piece of garbage, and their lives attempted to be erased as if they never existed ! 

WHY DOES MY HEARTBLEED-THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS PRIVACY ON THE INTERNET

 

Once again, a major story has been revealed today about a seriously weakness in Internet web security that affects at least 66 per cent of all Internet web sites.

Amazingly, this flaw has existed for over two years without any of the web sites affected even being aware of the problem.

Instead, this security error has been discovered by an independent group of technology researchers.

So much for the illusion that anyone has left that their personal information is protected from identity thieves and we are all victims or potentially vulnerable to this huge problem.

The real problem is that the web site providers, almost all of them Corporations, are simply too lazy, too cheap, to spend the money necessary in providing stronger security internally on their sites to protect us.

What's a person to do?

Nothing is the answer, since technology is everywhere, and there is no way to avoid your information being stored on a server maintained by these websites. 

Even if you never used the Internet, your information is entered through store purchases and "mined" by Company's that sell your marketing information, profile, and most of who you are to other Company's that then enter it all into their web server data base. 

Technology cannot continue on its current course of slipshod, weak and indifferent policies of not protecting the public in a better manner.

There will never be 100 per cent full proof security, 
but  a lot of this stuff is not rocket science, requires basic monitoring, better software, and a desire
on behalf of Internet providers to at least provide 
some real protection against having their users 
private information easily stolen.

Users can test if web sites they use are vulnerable to this bug, CLICK HERE TO TEST, although this test is reported to not be 100 per cent reliable.

Critical Security "BUG" -(CLICK HERE)- 

"Heartbleed" Hits Up To 66 Percent Of the Internet
The Heartbleed bug has affected the back end of a full two thirds of the Internet.

As much as 66 percent of the Web may have been compromised by a newly revealed security flaw called Heartbleed.
 
Named by the researchers who discovered it, Heartbleed is a bug that affects an important Internet security protocol called SSL. Specifically, it affects one particular implementation of SSL called OpenSSL.

For context (and to understand how bad Heartbleed is), here's how SSL and OpenSSL work: Every time you log into a website, your login credentials are sent to that web site's server. But in most cases those credentials aren't simply sent to the server in plain text, they're encrypted using a protocol called Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL.

As with most protocols, different software makers have created different implementations of SSL. One of the most popular is an open-source implementation called OpenSSL, used by an estimated two thirds of currently active websites.

Heartbleed is a bug in OpenSSL. Hackers can exploit Heartbleed to get raw text from emails, instant messages, passwords, even business documents -- anything a user sends to a vulnerable site's server.

And the scariest part? 

The Heartbleed security flaw existed for nearly two years before it was discovered by legitimate researchers. That's plenty of time for black-hat hackers to have discovered and exploited the bug.

Matthew Prince, CEO of content delivery network Cloudflare, one of the first businesses to be notified of the bug, told The Huffington Post that sadly, there's not much normal netizens can do to protect themselves. "When you finish using a website, make sure to actively log out," Prince advised that makes it less likely that a hacker exploiting Heartbleed will be able to take your personal information.

Prince also put in a word of comfort: "Heartbleed is so serious, it's such a big, bad event, that almost every major service is scrambling to clean it up as quickly as possible." He estimated that most currently vulnerable websites will be "patched" by the end of the week.

Though a number of major websites have already been patched, others, including OKCupid, Flickr, Imagur and Yahoo.com, reportedly remain vulnerable to Heartbleed.
 
Vulnerable sites should not be logged into until they're patched  check those sites' blogs or Twitter feeds for updates and once a website has its patch in place, you should change your password for that site as soon as possible.

What makes these problems so frightening is that no-one appears to be awake in these IT departments of the worlds Company's to even catch a major security flaw such as heartbleed. 

If the private researchers hadn't discovered this bug on their own, no-one would even know that it exists.

To be honest, there has to be hundreds of security flaws in the various technologies that exist.

Soon there will be another one discovered and  everyone will rush to "patch it".

Patches are just what the word means, they are temporary ways of closing a loophole in software. 

The only way to fix these problems is for Corporations to invest the resources and time to take this seriously.

Perhaps they should hire those that steal by exploiting these bugs, to redesign their web sites.

Don't hold your breath about this ever happening,
as it's not "cost effective" to protect your privacy 
in the Corporate culture of this world.

A HUMAN LIFE IS NOT EVEN WORTH 59 CENTS- GM, TOO BIG TO FAIL,TOO BIG TO CARE

This is one of those story's that shows again the horrible truth of the lack of value given to a human life by our society.

It is about how no one gives a shit about any of us regular folks and how money, profits are the real god worshipped by our society.

It is about General Motors (GM), the same GM that earned 3.8 Billion dollars in the year 2013 -CLICK HERE, and is the 7th largest Corporation in America.

It is the GM that declared bankruptcy in 2009, and then on July 10, 2009, General Motors emerged from government backed Chapter 11 reorganization after an initial filing on June 8, 2009.^[13][14]  

On December 10, 2013, the U.S. Treasury sold the last of its GM stock bringing an end to the controversial government ownership of the car company. 

The final cost of the GM bailout cost the U. S. taxpayer $12 billion ($10.5 billion for General Motors and $1.5 billion for former GM financing GMAC, now known as Ally).

You see GM was too big to be allowed to fail as a Company and so it was bailed out of Bankruptcy by the taxpayers of the United States, even though its financial failure was caused by the Company's decades of mismanagement.

But what kind of company did the government and taxpayers save? 

One that waited a decade to recall millions of cars with a lethal defect that would shut down engines without warning. 

One that chose not to replace the defective part when it was first detected, a faulty spring component in the ignition switch, which would have cost 59 cents to replace when it was first detected.

GM had a "culture of cover up," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, on Wednesday at a congressional hearing featuring embattled GM CEO Mary Barra.

McCaskill, a former prosecutor, said an engineer for the company had "repeatedly lied" when he didn't admit in a deposition that he had changed the faulty ignition switch, but not the part number, clearly showing that GM was trying to cover up its previous failure to fix the bad part. 

McCaskill further stated that “The facts are pretty clear. You don’t need an investigation to understand that they had a defective switch and someone at GM in the engineering department changed that faulty switch to a newly designed, non defective switch and didn’t change the part number.”

“There is no reason to keep the same part-number unless you’re trying to hide the fact that you’ve got a defective switch out there that in fact ended up killing a number of people on our highways,” McCaskill concluded.

GM's behavior "goes beyond unacceptable," Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said on Wednesday. "I believe this is criminal," she said.

Now, due to the pressure put on GM by a small group of families, whose relatives are 13 victims of a fatal GM automobile defect in an ignition switch, that was known to GM for at least the last 10 years, there is a mounting uproar about how GM deliberately hid this defect from the public "because it was too expensive for them to recall the affected cars for repairs".

They have only gone public at this time about this defect in their automobiles due to the bad publicity generated by the victims families, and not because of any accountability concerns that the Company suddenly feels.

GM has also officially confirmed that the"too expensive" repair cost is 59 cents per car to fix the defective ignition switch.

GM only admits to 13 deaths caused by this ignition defect, but the amount of people killed is expected to rise much higher as investigators from government agencies conduct a comprehensive search of fatalities linked to the affected GM model cars. 

If you drive a car made by GM or know anyone who does, please share this as you may save your/their life. Call your local GM dealer, even if your car model is not yet mentioned as there is no way to be certain that GM is including publicly all the actual affected models.

Apparently the 59 cents per car repair fix cost was  considered much too expensive for GM, although they made over 13.3 billion dollars in 2013, to avoid killing human beings who drive their death trap cars. 

Even now, while millions of people drive these ticking time bomb cars with the defective ignitions, essentially automobiles that are deathtraps, GM says that repairs to these cars will take until next October.

So rather than expedite this repair process, or better yet tell people to STOP driving these cars, GM continues to ignore the lives of human beings who are in danger of being killed by the cars fatal defect. 

Profit clearly more important to GM, a Company too big to fail but too big to care about it deliberately deciding to kill numerous innocent human beings, because 59 cents a car repairs is too much money for them to spend, and telling people to stop driving these automobiles, well that wouldn't be "cost effective" either.

There appears to be no wiggle room for GM on this issue as to their being legally guilty of murder. They consciously made a business decision based on profits over saving human lives. But they will wiggle their way out of this, as so many previous Corporations have done.

And so as the usual "script' in these cases unfolds, the current GM CEO Mary Barra blames this all on former GM executives, and that of course she knew nothing about any of this.

We know how this story will end. GM will pay money to the families who were murdered by them, Congress will seek all the publicity that they can get to enhance their political status from this, and no one will ever go to jail from GM for murdering at least 13 people and then hiding what they did.

GM has so far linked 13 deaths and 31 crashes to the switches, which can inadvertently be moved out of position, potentially disabling the air bags. 

GM hasn’t publicly named the 13 victims but after an exhaustive search on online, I am able to name some below during this blog post. These are victims families who have gone public with their facts, but have not been discussed very much by the mainstream media.

Unlike you and me, who would be sentenced to prison for life, GM and Company's such as GM, always manage to escape prosecution, especially for killing innocent people. 

General Motors should be seen as no different than other murderers, killers of innocent people.

GM represents the classic arrogant Corporate Culture credo and that of our very own legal system which are designed to use their power to detach themselves from accountability, by not providing justice to victims.

Instead, these systems are in the business of erasing the lives of human beings who lived, and were killed by injustices. Sadly, that is the way it is, the way it will always be.

Let's put human faces on the victims and their families whose lives were ended by their being murdered by GM.

The birth mother Laura Gipe Christian of Dentsville, Md.(above) CLICK HERE TO READ MORE whose 16-year-old daughter Amber Marie Rose was killed in a crash of a Cobalt in 2005. 

Amber's  2005 death was the first linked to an ignition switch problem that's triggered a massive recall of General Motors vehicles, says that says through a Face Book Group called "GM Recall Survivors"- CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS GROUP set up by families of victims, she's identified at least 29 fatalities due to the defect. GM only acknowledges 13 deaths.

"I found 29 so far myself,". She said she's determined the additional fatalities using crash data, police reports or eyewitnesses [who reported] the airbags did not deploy."

Ken Rimer of Hammond, Wis., whose stepdaughter Natasha Weigel, 18, was killed in a 2005 Cobalt said, “They are not just 13 victims. We are real people.”

Sarah Trautwein, 19, lost control of her blue 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt on Interstate 95 near Charleston, S.C. as she headed home from visiting friends in June 2009. Her car began to run off the road, authorities said, causing her to over correct and hit a tree in the highway median. She died instantly.

Susan Hayes, 49, of Ticonderoga, N.Y., said she received a recall notice in February for her son’s silver Chevrolet Cobalt. By then, her son, Ryan Quigley, 23, had been dead for more than two years. He and a friend were killed when Quigley’s Cobalt, purchased just four months earlier, veered off the road and plunged over an embankment, landing upside-down in a small stream not far from the family’s home. The force of the crash was so violent that it broke her son’s sternum.
  
Cathy Sachse, whose mother-in-law was killed in 2009, while driving a Saturn Ion in Missouri.

Richard Scott Bailey, a U.S. Marine who died driving a 2007 Chevy Cobalt.

Amy Rademaker of St. Croix County, Wis., who died 
when her Chevy Cobalt crashed and her air bags did 
not deploy.

Joshua Wooten of Adams, Tenn. died  in a 2009 crash driving his 2006 Chevy Cobalt.

Kelly Ruddy, 21 years old of Scranton, Pa. was killed in 2010 when her Chevrolet Cobalt veered inexplicably off the highway and crashed.
 

(Kim Langley, far left, mother of Richard Scott Bailey, a U.S. Marine who died driving a 2007 Chevy Cobalt, Laura Christian, center left, of Harwood, Md., birth mother of Amber Marie Rose, the first reported victim of the GM safety defect, Randal Rademaker, center, father of Amy Rademaker of St. Croix County, Wis., who died when her Chevy Cobalt crashed and her air bags did not deploy, and Shannon Wooten of Adams, Tenn., whose son son Joshua died in a 2009 crash driving their 2006 Chevy Cobalt, gather at the Capitol for a news conference in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite).

(Victims:The above photos of 13 dead victims of the General Motors Company safety defects related to a faulty ignition switch that has been linked to at least 13 deaths and dozen of crashes).

(Heartbreaking: Congressmen who were doing the questioning throughout Tuesday's hearing repeatedly drew attention above to the families of the victims who brought photos of their loved ones into the chambers).

(The victims relatives above decided to come as a collected force, calling themselves 'GM Recall Survivors').

It was revealed today that the piece needed to fix a defective ignition switch linked to at least 13 traffic deaths would have cost just 57 cents, according to documents submitted by General Motors to lawmakers investigating why the company took 10 years to recall cars with the flaw.

CEO Mary Barra has testified in a congressional hearing today saying that she was disturbed by past GM comments that the cost of replacing defective switches in some cars was too high.

'I am deeply sorry,' Barra said at the beginning of the hearing.

At a hearing Tuesday, members of a House subcommittee demanded answers from Barra about why the automaker used the switch in small cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion even though it knew the part didn't meet GM's own specifications.

Looking for answers: Barra said that the company has ordered a wide-ranging investigation and she will know the answers to many of the committee's questions once that is completed

Colorado Representative Diana DeGette held up a switch for one of the cars and said a small spring inside it failed to provide enough force, causing car engines to turn off when they went over a bump.

DeGette showed how easy it was for a light set of keys to move the ignition out of the ‘run’ position. 

That can cause the engine to stall and the driver to lose power steering and power brakes.

‘Documents provided by GM show that this unacceptable cost increase was only 57 cents,’ DeGette said.

In her prepared statement, Barra said she doesn't know ‘why it took years for a safety defect to be announced,’ but ‘we will find out.’

Since February, GM has recalled 2.6 million cars over the faulty switch. The automaker said new switches should be available starting April 7.

'Too costly': Congresswoman Diana DeGette holds up an ignition switch that reportedly cost 57 cents per piece but GM heads previously said that a recall would be too expensive

Owners can ask dealers for a loaner car while waiting for the replacement part. Barra said GM has provided more than 13,000 loaner vehicles.

GM has said that in 2005 company engineers proposed solutions to the switch problem but that the automaker concluded that none represented ‘an acceptable business case.’

In an exchange with Pennsylvania Representative Tim Murphy, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Barra acknowledged that the switch didn't meet the company's own specifications.

Murphy also read from an e-mail exchange between GM employees and those at Delphi, which made the switch.

One said that the Cobalt is ‘blowing up in their face in regards to the car turning off.’

Barra announced that the company had retained Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer who helped lead the disbursement of claims for Boston Marathon and September 11 victims, to help address how GM should compensate the families of their victims.

In his prepared remarks, David Friedman, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, pointed the finger at GM, saying the automaker had deliberately hidden information for the last decade that could have led to a recall, but shared it only last month.

Republican Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan, who serves as the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said GM and government regulators got complaints about the switches 10 years ago, and GM submitted reports to the agency.

Committee member Representative Henry Waxman said that committee staff members found 133 warranty claims filed with GM over 10 years detailing customer complaints of sudden engine stalling when they drove over a bump or brushed keys with their knees.

The claims were filed between June 2003 and June 2012.

Waxman said that because GM didn't undertake a simple fix when it learned of the problem, ‘at least a dozen people have died in defective GM vehicles.’

Some current GM car owners and relatives of those who died in crashes were also in Washington seeking answers.

The group attended the hearing after holding a news conference demanding action against GM and stiffer legislation.

TRACKING THE TIMELINE: FROM WHEN THE PROBLEM WAS FIRST REPORTED MORE THAN A DECADE AGO TO WHEN GM FINALLY ISSUED THE RECALL

2001: A report on the Saturn Ion, which was still in development, notes problems with the ignition switch, but says a design change solved the problems.

February 2002: GM approves the ignition switch design, even though it was told by Delphi — the supplier — that initial tests showed the switch didn't meet GM's specifications.

2003: A service technician reports that a Saturn Ion stalled while driving, and that the weight of the owners' keys had worn down the ignition switch.

Late 2004: The Saturn Ion's cousin, the 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt, goes on sale. GM learns of at least one crash where a Cobalt engine lost power after the driver inadvertently moved the key or steering column. GM engineers replicate the problem in test drives. An inquiry is opened within the company, but closes after potential solutions are rejected.

February 2005: GM engineers meet to consider making changes to the ignition switch after stalling reports. But an engineer says the switch is "very fragile" and advises against changes.

March 2005: The engineering manager of the Cobalt closes an investigation, saying an ignition switch fix would take too long and cost too much, and that "none of the solutions represents an acceptable business case."

May 2005: A GM engineer proposes changing the design of the key so it won't tug the ignition switch downward. The solution is initially approved but later cancelled.

July 29, 2005: Amber Marie Rose, 16, dies in a frontal crash in her 2005 Cobalt. A contractors hired by NHTSA found that the Cobalt's ignition had moved out of the "run" position and into the "accessory" position, which cut off power to power steering the air bags.

September 2005: GM's legal staff opens a file on the Maryland crash.

December 2005: GM tells dealers to inform owners of Cobalts to take excess items off their key chains so the key isn't pulled downward. Also, inserts placed on customers' keys can prevent the keys from shifting while in the ignition. The bulletin includes the 2005-2006 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2003-2006 Saturn Ion, 2006 Chevrolet HHR, 2006 Pontiac Solstice and the 2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit, which was sold in Canada. Warranty records show that only 474 owners got those key inserts.

April 2006: A GM engineer signs off on a redesign of the ignition switch. The new switch goes into cars from the 2007 model year and later.
October 2006: GM updates the dealer bulletin to add vehicles from the 2007 model year.

March 2007: A group of GM employees learn from NHTSA staff of the 2005 fatal crash. By the end of the year, GM has data on nine crashes — in four, the ignition had moved from the run position to the accessory position.

August 2007: NHTSA contracts with Indiana University to study a 2006 Wisconsin crash in which two passengers died. The report finds the ignition in the 2005 Cobalt was in the accessory position and the air bags didn't deploy.

September 2007: Chief of NHTSA's Defects Assessment Division proposes an investigation of air bags failing to deploy in the Cobalt and Ion. Two months later, a NHTSA panel decides not to open a formal investigation, saying that the air bags aren't failing at a higher rate than peer vehicles.

2009: GM decides to change the key's head from a "slot" design to a "hole" design to reduce downward force. The key is changed for the 2010 model year — the last year the Cobalt is sold.

2010: After a NHTSA investigation, GM agrees to repair power steering motors in a little more than 1 million 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalts and 2007-2010 Pontiac G5s.

2011: GM launches a new investigation into 2005-2007 Cobalts and the 2007 Pontiac G5 to determine why their air bags didn't deploy in crashes.

2012: GM widens the investigation, but it closes without reaching a conclusion.
December 2013: Incoming CEO Mary Barra learns about the ignition switch defect.

January 2014: A committee of GM executives approves a recall.

February 13: GM recalls 780,000 compact cars, including Chevrolet Cobalts, Pontiac G5s and Pontiac Pursuits from the 2005-2007 model years.
February 25: GM expands the recall to include Saturn Ions and three other vehicles. The recall now totals 1.6 million vehicles worldwide.

March 5: NHTSA demands that GM turn over by April 3 documents showing when it found out about the ignition switch problem. Barra promises employees an "unvarnished" investigation into what happened.

March 10: A House subcommittee says it will hold a hearing, eventually set for April 1, on the GM recalls. The Justice Department is also conducting a criminal probe.

March 17: GM announces three new recalls of 1.5 million vehicles, as part of an effort to assure buyers that it's moving faster to fix safety defects.

March 18: Barra apologizes for the deaths that occurred. She appoints a new global safety chief.

March 28: GM expands the small car recall to include 971,000 vehicles from the 2008-2011 model years, which may have gotten the defective switches as replacement parts.

March 31: GM recalls 1.5 million vehicles, including the 2010 Cobalt and the 2004-2007 Ion, because the electronic power-steering assist can suddenly stop working.

April 1-2: Barra, NHTSA acting chief David Friedman to testify before Congressional committees.

April 7: GM expects replacement switches to be available at dealerships. The company says the repairs could take until October.

How do you replace a human life that is gone forever?

GM and the Corporate Culture they represent really does not "waste" their valuable time with such trivial things as the cost effective value of protecting human beings who buy their products.

The job of murders, killers is to erase the memories of the victims, and that is what GM will eventually succeed at doing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Consumer Alert: GM Ignition Switch Recall Information 

General Motors has notified NHTSA that it is recalling vehicles because a defective ignition switch can affect the safe operation of airbag systems.

This is a serious safety issue that should be addressed immediately by following GM’s recommendation to "use only the ignition key with nothing else on the key ring" and getting the repairs as soon as consumers receive final notification from GM. Owners can also contact GM for information on how to request courtesy transportation.
These recalled GM vehicles include:

• All 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt
• 2005-2007 Pontiac G5
• 2003-2007 Saturn Ion
• 2006-2011 Chevrolet HHR
• 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstice
• 2007-2010 Saturn Sky

NHTSA urges owners of these recalled vehicles to contact GM immediately and to access additional information provided by the company on their corporate web site. You may also contact the GM Customer Engagement Center at 1-800-222-1012.
You may also contact customer service for your specific GM model:

• Chevrolet: 1-800-222-1020 (TTY 1-800-833-2438)
• Pontiac: 1-800-762-2737 (TTY 1-800-833-7668)
• Saturn: 1-800-553-6000 (TTY 1-800-833-6000)

Again, until the recall repairs have been performed, it is very important that customers remove all items from their key rings, leaving only the vehicle key. The key fob (if applicable), should also be removed from the key ring. Always wear your seatbelt.

View GM-supplied documents regarding the three recalls:

• 05-07 Chevrolet Cobalt, 07 Pontiac G5
• 03-07 Saturn Ion, 06-07 Chevrolet HHR, 06-07 Pontiac Solstice, 07 Saturn Sky
• 08-09 Chevrolet Cobalt, 08-11 Chevrolet HHR, 08-10 Pontiac G5, 08-10 Pontiac Solstice, 08-10 Saturn Sky

Consumers can also view the complete public recall file for NHTSA Recall 14V047

THE SUPREME COURT SAYS TO AMERICANS GO TO HELL

When religious persons control private, for profit businesses, what rights do they have over you as your employer?

Could they make you go to church on Sunday? Could they make you kneel in prayer five times a day?

But this past Tuesday,  March 25, (CLICK HERE) the Supreme Court of the United States began hearing oral arguments about whether private businesses with devout owners should be exempt from providing health plans to employees under the Affordable Care Act that include access to contraception.

It's sometimes known as the Hobby Lobby case, named for one of the companies that sued because its religious owners believes that God prohibits contraception.

That Hobby Lobby would take this matter all the way to the Supreme Court tells me those owners truly believe they would end up in hell if they obeyed that law.

So the court has a tough decision to make. They really should have refused to hear this case and leave things as they are.

The Supreme Court is not above God, although some of the Justices seem to believe that they are god like, but I don't imagine it wants to be seen as forcing Americans to do what sends them to hell.

I should also point out there are many things that can get you sent to hell. We all know religious persons who feel that one or two recent wars that they were forced to pay for, as well as our entire nuclear arsenal, are a clear violation of at least one of the major commandments.

So if the Supreme Court is going to protect one person's religious sensitivities over how the government forces them to spend their money, wouldn't they have to do the same for everybody?

I doubt that would happen, as our so called unbiased legal system in the United States is dysfunctionally unequal when it comes to providing equal justice for all.

Religion has no place has no place in the US Supreme Court. Religion, or the lack thereof, is such a deeply, deeply personal thing. People who think they've got a personal pipeline to the divine make me nervous. People in power who think they've got a personal pipeline to the divine make me even more nervous.

Religion has been used in this country to justify all sorts of evil things, hatred of people who are "different", intolerance, ignorance, edifice complexes of expensive buildings while the poor are often ignored, massive coverups of children being abused by those who wear the cloak of god  It encourages revisionist thinking, like the Texas Board of Education's reshaping American history in its textbooks.

And unless you've pulled some mystical magic trick, died, crossed over to the great beyond and come back again, how do you really know what God's thinking? If, that is, He/She exists at all.

Well the Supreme Court is going to eventually tell us their answers to these questions and it will become the law.

No doubt in my mind, that win or lose, a whole lot of innocent people will be going to hell thanks to whatever the Supreme Courts decision will be.

MEGHAN MURPHY-A CHILD LOST-A MOTHER'S FEELINGS

Sometimes I have a blog story to post but I cannot bring 

myself to write it. 

My blog is often an extremely emotional experience for me to 

write, especially when it is about other victims, young victims 

who have died. 

They all remind me of my son Steven Nathaniel Wolkoff 

and become too painful to write because I know what the 

parent(s) of the other child are feeling, the pain of

living with and the unforgettable memories of their 

son or daughter who is now gone forever.

I have avoided writing today's Blog because it pains me 

very much to do so,but it is now time for me to write 

about Meghan.

I had previously written a Blog Story-CLICK HERE,  

when Meghan Murphy died at the age of 30 years, on 

February 5th 2011.

Recently I read a beautiful but terribly sad Journal entry -

CLICK HERE-- on a memorial site for Meghan.

This journal post entry below was written by Meghan's mother, 

Marcia Murphy and reprinted here with her permission. 

It is a poignant window into the world of parents 

who have lost a child. 

"A Snowy Day"

 Journal Entry Posted: Feb 13, 2014 6:00am: 

"Unable to sleep and being overcome with the feeling Meghan wants me to make an entry in this journal, I'm reaching out to all of you who did so much to help us get through those last few months.

I want to share a few thoughts and something that has happened which I know Meghan would be very happy about. 

This is a week that takes me back to an unhappy time, Meghan's passing and burial.  

So many thoughts of those last few months I spent with Meghan have been running through my mind.  Her presence, her attitude, her smile, all somehow transforming that heart wrenching experience into a time with so many uplifting and warm memories.  

It is a time that fills my heart with every emotion possible for a human being to bear.  I cling to the moments that give my heart joy and search back in my memory for all the wonderful hours spent with Meghan from the minute she was born.  I'm fortunate to have so many wonderful memories to cherish, but nothing really makes me feel the slightest bit better about this loss.  

Three years have passed.  I am convinced that for a parent there just isn't any amount of time that will heal our sorrow.  Everyone who has lost a loved one has a sorrow all their own. With the loss of a child each individuals sorrow is something no one can share or understand.  I think of Meghan telling me so many times that we just have to accept what is happening, and I'm still striving to do that. 

I still get notes from friends in her past; a Lantern placed on the Ganges in India in her memory, books have been dedicated to her, a walkway brick placed in the sun at Agnes Irwin's and donations to the school in her memory, donations to Heifer International,  a marathon run and Women's Swimming events completed in Ithaca in her memory.  

Knowing that others are remembering her is  comforting to me.  There were so many friends at Meghan's burial service whom I didn't get a chance to speak with. I wish I had spoken out that day and thanked everyone and asked everyone I hadn't spoken with to send me a note telling me how they knew Meghan.  I'm proud that she is such a loving person and had so many friends.

It is snowing here this morning.  We already have at least five or six inches. It makes me remember a day many years ago when I awoke to a day such as this at our home in Pennsylvania.  I got dressed to go out to shovel our driveway.  I found Meghan and our dog Muffin were outside enjoying themselves.  Meg had already shoveled half the driveway.  She said she didn't mind because she loved a snowy day, and there was something magical about being out in a new snowfall.  She was having such a good time.  It was contagious.  We finished the driveway and took a walk with Muffin.  

That was just the most wonderful morning.  I thought of that day at her burial with the snow swirling around us at Greensprings.  I knew Meghan was loving mother nature's added touch. 

I knew that someone had asked permission to film Meghan's burial.  I thought they would be doing this for some footage to use on Greenspring's website.  I truly don't remember seeing one person with a camera that day, but they were there. 

I've checked Greensprings Natural Cemetery web site often to see if they added any of Meg's burial. I thought they just decided not to use it.  

When I spoke with the Director of Greensprings a few months ago, he mentioned that the documentary about green burials was coming out and it included some footage from Meghan's burial. 

I didn't understand that the people filming were doing so because they were making a documentary on green burials not for the web site.  

I have to say, I was a little shaky on this type of burial.  It was Meghan's idea.  She and her friends planned all of it.  It truly was a very spiritual and mystical experience for me that day.  It certainly was just perfect for Meghan.  

So as it turns out the group filming the documentary have used footage from Meghan's burial to open their documentary (A Will for the Woods) on green burials.  I missed a showing in Syracuse, but hope to see it when it gets to Ithaca in the spring. (The producer of the film sent me a CD with the opening of the movie)  The film opens with the horses coming through the snow pulling Meghan on the sled. The snow is falling and it is a beautiful site.  

The footage is less than a minute, but it ends with Meg being lowered into her final resting place. The producer said many have commented on the opening scene and how moving it is.  

To think that the last few seconds of Meghan's bodily presence here on earth are part of a documentary encouraging something that many feel is better for the environment makes me smile.  

Meghan isn't even here and somehow has managed to get into a green documentary.   

I always thought she was amazing but this so much more than amazes me.  I know she would be happy about this, and that makes me feel excited for her.  (My dearest Meg, it just makes my heart feel light, even skip a beat.) 

I know Meghan would think this is just the greatest.  I'm sure she wants me to share this with all of you, and I thank you for being there for us all those months so long ago as well as now.    
 I know Meghan wants us all to be happy.  I have so many happy memories because of her.  

I just try to think of those times as often as I can and it really does help. 

Remember to be kind and forgiving to those you love.  

Try to understand the differences in all of us and embrace your loved ones with a  hug or kiss you can remember and carry in your heart. 

Wishing you happiness,

Love,

Marcia"

My thoughts after first reading Marcia's amazingly honest, yet tragic experience of living with Meghan's loss, is how much courage she has and that is something all of us who have lost a child share with her.

We each cope with our loss in different ways but there 

is an understanding of what we feel that those in our 

situation can only truly understand. It is so true as 

parents of children that we have lost, how the grief 

and sorrow can never go away.

I can't feel how it could since we loved our Meghan 

and Steven so very much. They have always been part 

of who we are as human beings and their tragic deaths, 

the reality of suffering they bravely endured, only make 

them even more missed by us as every hour, day, week, 

month, year passes. 

We see their friends getting married, having children, 
experiencing the simple wonders of every day life and 

our children will never have a chance to live the rest

of their lives.  

It haunts me all the time that I am here, and Steven 

is gone forever. 

It should be the other way around but it isn't, such is 

our sobering, ugly reality. 

The feelings of losing a child are indescribable to 

anyone else, except another parent who has also 

lost a child. 

It is the worst nightmare of a parent come true and 

no one except people in our "club" can truly 

understand how we feel, no words, no memorials, 

no tributes, nothing can give us back our beloved 

Meghan and Steven. 

Marcia conveys these feelings in her post in a way that 

makes my heart ache.

It is one of these rare written feelings that anyone 

who reads her words should feel within themselves.

We will always remember 

Meghan Murphy and Steven Nathaniel Wolkoff. 

REST IN PEACE OUR BELOVED CHILDREN.

REST IN PEACE ALL CHILDREN 

WHO HAVE LEFT THEIR PARENTS MUCH TOO SOON.