Obama during his administration usually had the reverse midas touch in regard to any business which he lauded and on which he wasted government money. Case in point, two lemons from “Government Motors”:
Six years ago, President Barack Obama promised to buy a Chevy Volt after his presidency.
“I got to get inside a brand-new Chevy Volt fresh off the line,” Obama announced to a cheering crowd of United Auto Workers activists. “Even though Secret Service wouldn’t let me drive it. But I liked sitting in it. It was nice. I’ll bet it drives real good. And five years from now when I’m not president anymore, I’ll buy one and drive it myself.”
Now it looks like Obama will not get his chance to make good on the promise. General Motors announced Monday that it would cease production of the hybrid electric plug-in Volt and its gas-powered sister car the Cruze. The announcement came as part of a larger restructuring by the car company as it seeks to focus production around the bigger vehicles in favor with U.S. consumers.
Go here to read the rest. To be fair to the most ex of our ex-presidents, most politicians, especially on the port side of our politics, would swiftly bankrupt any business which they headed in the private sector. That is your cue Doctor Stantz:
A $41,000 lemon, mind you.
A Yugo came to mind as I pondered the Portside Motor Division. Call it a bowl of lemons. Himself would make the perfect spokesperson.
Cars are selling in the US. Toyota, Honda, Kia, Subaru, VW, Hyundai, Nissan, etc. Cars from Ford and Chevy….not so much.
I consider elecrtic cars and hybrids to be a joke. The batteries require rare Earth metals. They cannot be made or disposed of in the US. The electricity comes from coal or natural gas.
They are soyboy-mobiles, driven by bearded skinny jeans wearing wimps who can’t drive a clutch.
The Lordstown closing hits close to home. I grew up 30 miles west of the Cruze plant and was there on a field trip in 1978.
I consider elecrtic cars and hybrids to be a joke.
Then don’t buy one. Status games are status games. They’re no less repellent when someone is snarling about ‘soyboys’ than they are when someone’s arbitrarily delineating in-groups and out-groups per some other consumer preference.
To be fair to the most ex of our ex-presidents, most politicians, especially on the port side of our politics, would swiftly bankrupt any business which they headed in the private sector.
General Motors and Chrysler have been quite capable of sending themselves hurtling into bankruptcy court without any input from politicians. It’s a pity they haven’t faced reorganization or liquidation. The whole fandango in 2009 was to screw over the ill-connected (bondholders) in favor of Democratic Party clients (the UAW). That’s what Democratic pols do.
No clue why BO was willing to admit that he takes orders from his bodyguards. People who belong in leadership don’t.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkX0LV7tTCE
Then don’t buy one.
If only we had the option– we’re buying them if we get to own them or not!
I’ve driven a Volt a few times. It’s not a bad car by any stretch of the imagination.
It’s a good one, in fact–just not a $40K+ good one.
And don’t think this is the end of electrics–the Detroit 3 (and their competitors) seem to be angling more and more in that direction.
But what GM did yesterday was a kick in our Michigander teeth–especially the shuttering of the Poletown plant. In 1981, the City and State shredded an old but decent neighborhood to help GM build the Poletown plant. Now, apparently, for nothing.
Not so by the way, the Michigan Supreme Court would later abrogate and overrule the original Poletown decision as a violation of the Michigan Constitution. Far too late to do anyone any good, but at least we no longer recognize a Kelo-type precedent which forcibly transfers private property to richer private hands.
https://jalopnik.com/a-part-of-detroit-was-destroyed-in-the-1980s-so-gm-coul-1830666242
“We’re on the eve of destruction.”
The really, really stupid people that believe they are smart are in control in California. So, by law in 2030 50% of electricity generation must be from renewable sources, i.e., sun beams and zephyrs. And, by 2045 there can be no energy generated or home heating from fossil fuels or other pollutants.
News: 18 June 2018: Green energy made Ontario, Canada the most debt-ridden province on Earth.
Not to worry. Making energy much more expensive will make you much richer. The really smart kids told me!
Of course, when CA goes belly up they’ll blame capitalism.
.
The problem is the idgets who promise technology that isn’t there yet or is too expensive for the average family guy or gal to use. There’s nothing wrong with hybrids: we beat the Japanese navy with hybrid diesel-electric submarines, after all. The people I know with the newer hybrids are pretty satisfied, but the all-electrics still can’t hold enough charge to get decent range, and may never do so in a manner competitive with other vehicle types. Government fiat can’t change physics.
I suspect one of the reasons Obama shoveled those taxpayer
dollars to GM was to purchase the goodwill of Michigan voters.
Effective use of taxpayer dollars was not the goal, and neither
was the long-term good of either GM or citizens of Michigan.
Once the 2012, 2014, 2016 elections were over, no one in
Obama’s administration could care less whether GM’s plant
stayed open or not. I also suspect that those taxpayer dollars
bought the goodwill (and the Democrat campaign donations)
of GM executives and the auto workers’ union.
I think Obama did much the same when his administration
(mis)spent billions of taxpayer dollars on so-called “green”
energy. Over $500 million taxpayer dollars were handed to
Solyndra, even after the CBO warned against the company’s
instability. It went bankrupt within a year. Bright Source
has lost $1.6 billion in Obama handouts. LSP Energy– same
story: given piles of taxpayer dollars, only to go belly-up
shortly thereafter. Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.– also quickly
bankrupt. Abound Solar– $400 million in taxpayer dollars,
also bankrupt by 2012. ECOtality: received over $115 million
and is bankrupt. A123 Solar received $279 million in taxpayer
dollars, lost $400 million, and then received another $500
million from the Obama administration. UniSolar is a similar
story. Evergreen Solar received $527 million in taxpayer dollars
and was bankrupt by 2011. Ener1 Inc. received $118 million
from Obama, but went bankrupt by 2012. The list goes on…
Back in 2012, the feckless Congressman John Boehner swore
he’d hold the Obama administration to account for an estimated
$10 billion wasted on “green energy” companies that folded
without producing a single tangible benefit for US taxpayers.
Obviously, no such accounting took place for Obama. Just
as the Democrats in general and Obama in particular were the
ones benefiting from the funneling of taxpayer dollars to GM,
the funds wasted on those solar energy companies was a
similar grift– shovel taxpayer dollars to friends who in turn kick
a cut back in the form of campaign contributions. It looks like
“investment in the future”, and in the short term, buys jobs and
glowing press, but the companies collapse and the jobs
disappear, and taxpayers are left paying the tab. We’ve subsidized
nothing but temporary jobs, luxurious severance packages for
the executives of the failed businesses, and the campaign coffers
of Democrats.
I doubt anyone in the Obama administration seriously
thought the Volt was viable in the long term, just as no one
expected the billions invested in solar would produce anything
useful. They didn’t care, because it was never the goal to
get good value for all those taxpayer dollars. That waste
was designed to enrich Democrats and their friends, and it
succeeded brilliantly. Don’t like it? Democrats don’t care.