Paid GOP Shills

We know Rush What's-His-Name, the Impotent Misogynist had paid callers....
We know there are services to which companies subscribe to post regarding certain issues - we've seen it in Massachusetts with out-of-state Shills posting stuff revealing their regional ignorance and we've seen it with TOYOTA. 

We know that Donald Trump paid actors to fill his rallies.

Need “Grassroots Crowds” At Your Next GOP Political Rally – This Company Provides the Actors

— August 2, 2015

No one likes you? No problem. No one shows up for your political events? No problem. Need protesters at a competitor’s political event? No problem. Call Crowds on Demand at 650-353-0083.

What will Crowds on Demand do for you? They will hire actors to become your instant crowd, holding banners, asking questions, even fainting at the sight of your presence. They even can have actors who appear to be paparazzi.

Think the above is a joke? It’s not. This company really exists, and is being used by political candidates to make it appear they have grassroots support. They also can have their actors appear at a competitor’s campaign stop to make it seem that people despise their adversary.

This is great news for the present GOP candidates, as surely the only persons who possibly could stomach attending their rallies are paid actors. I hope their getting paid big money, because after attending these GOP events they are going to experience a lifetime of PTSD.

https://www.ringoffireradio.com/2015/08/need-grassroots-crowds-at-your-next-gop-political-rally-this-company-provides-the-actors/

TOYOTA plunges into water

Firefighters remove a lifeless body from the water after a car went into the water at the San Pedro Slip, in San Pedro, Calif., Thursday, April 9, 2015. (Steve McCrank, Daily Breeze)

Divers emerge from the water as debris believed to be from the car floats to the surface where a car went off the berth and into the water at the San Pedro Slip. (Steve McCrank, Daily Breeze)

Los Angeles: Boy dead, brother in critical condition after parents' car plunges into harbor at Ports O' Call

By Donna Littlejohn, Larry Altman, Megan Barnes

Los Angeles News Group

 

Posted: 04/10/2015

 

 

LOS ANGELES -- One boy died and his brother was clinging to life Thursday after their parents' car plunged into Los Angeles Harbor and sank 30 feet into the murky water.

Firefighters made a desperate effort to save the trapped children after finding their parents swimming in the water when they responded to the accident at 6:10 p.m. near the parking lot of Ports O' Call Village, an entertainment area in San Pedro.

"(The man) came up out of the water and swam pretty fast up to one of these ladders" at the dock," said witness Frank Palazzolo, 15, of San Pedro. "The (mother), she came up hovering over the car and I thought she was drowning. She was going crazy. She was screaming, 'My kids, my kids,' screaming real loud."

One firefighter, Miguel Meza, stripped off his clothes and jumped into the water. Fire Department divers pulled the parents to safety and plunged underwater to go after the children, who witnesses said were submerged for 10 to 15 minutes before they were brought to the surface.

"The diver came up with the kid and he was just floating. He was lifeless," Palazzolo said.

Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said both boys were pulseless and not breathing when brought to land.

The Associated Press reported that the boys were 8 and 13, and that it was the elder who died.

Firefighters repeatedly questioned the adults to determine whether any other occupants of the car were still underwater. Divers searched every area of the blue Toyota to make sure no one else was still trapped.

"They forced open the trunk of the vehicle," Humphrey said. "They could barely see their hands in front of their faces."

The adults, who were speaking Spanish to rescuers, were reported to be in fair condition, Humphrey said.

The mother stood on the dock as firefighters rolled one of the boys on a stretcher toward an ambulance.

"She was blank," Palazzolo said. "She wasn't saying anything. She was just leaning up against the pole."

Aerial shots from a television helicopter showed paramedics performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on one of the children when they arrived at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Los Angeles Police Department South Traffic Bureau detectives responded to investigate the crash.

Preliminarily, Humphrey said, it appeared to be just a terrible accident, but Los Angeles police Capt. Brian Whitten said later, "We don't know if the vehicle was driven into the water intentionally."

Witness Sal Terzoli of San Pedro said he was working on his fishing boat Ocean Pride when he heard tires screeching. He looked across and saw the Toyota traveling 20-30 mph crash into the water
Terzoli said it took just a few seconds for the car to sink.

Palazzolo, who was with Terzoli, estimated the car was moving at 15 mph at a 45-degree angle to the channel, as if the driver was going to park.

"It looks like they sped up ... and went down real quick, about 30 feet out," he said. "They were going pretty fast."

He suggested the driver mistook the gas pedal for the brake. "That's what it looked like, because they had some speed," the teen said.

The witnesses said the car went over the dock at an area without log pilings sticking up to block its path. The area is designated for fishermen to fix their nets.

"I've been down here for 25 years and this is the first time I've seen something like this," Terzoli said.

"It was like a movie."

Charlene McCarthy Blake

Toyota is #1 in cases of sudden unintended acceleration and FORD is #2. The current unintended acceleration plaguing newer vehicles is the electronically-induced type. The engine throttle control systems depend on computer software to command them. Sometimes glitches occur...like in some of your other electronic devices...which can cause the command to be different than what you desire.

The evidence of the glitch is often undetectable after the vehicle is restarted. Unfortunately, the EDR (black box) is not always accurate as shown by expert Dr. Antony Anderson in his analysis of a 2012 Toyota Highlander. The EDR results indicated the driver was not braking when she was doing so. The EDR results are inconsistent.

The key to avoiding a horrific crash during a SUA event is whether or not the vehicle has an effective fail-safe in the event a glitch occurs. If it does not, as in the case of the glitch-prone Toyota ETCS-i, then the vehicle may become a runaway with an ineffective means to stop it. Unfortunately, the safety standards aren't as strict in automobiles as they are in airplanes. Some manufacturers have more effective fail-safes than others. In the case of Toyota, an embedded software expert, Michael Barr (see Oklahoma Bookout vs. Toyota court case involving a 2005 Camry) found that an electronic glitch could induce a SUA event. Another expert, Dr. Henning Leidecker, found that a SUA event could also be triggered by "tin whisker" formation, particularly in 2002-2006 Toyota Camry vehicles.

SUA events have been DEADLY for vehicle occupants as well as pedestrians and people in storefronts, buildings, and even homes. The numbers of such crashes are ever-increasing with the advent of the very complex ELECTRONIC throttle control systems.

With the increase in such serious vehicle crashes, there is a concerted effort to show driver "pedal misapplication" or a "medical condition" or some other reason for the incident...anything other than a vehicle defect. Investigators aren't scrutinizing the buggy electronic throttle control software or other conditions that can elicit a terrifying sudden unintended acceleration incident. They usually just examine the *mechanical* causes which tend to be just red herrings in these cases. Investigators simply don't have the expertise to find such electronic glitches. In fact, the staff at the NHTSA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, do not have this very specialized training!

Think of it...the next step in electronically-controlled vehicles seems to be so-called "self-driving cars." Do YOU want to be in a such a vehicle when there is no evidence that strict safety standards, particularly in the throttle control system's software, have been adhered to? Will you just BLINDLY trust the automaker (criminally-investigated and nearly-prosecuted Toyota and soon-to-be GM and others?) to come through for you and your family's safety *on its own*?

A recently published Huffington Post article by Jonathan Handel,
How Do We Know Driverless Cars Are Safe? Google Says 'Trust Us'

Posted: 07/01/2014 7:23 pm EDT Updated: 07/02/2014 1:48 pm EDT speaks to these very issues and poses tough questions about Google's "driverless" vehicles. Educate yourself carefully before you put your faith in automakers who have knowingly lied to their customers and the government for decades. Study the issue of vehicle electronic sudden unintended acceleration and ask WHY we aren't seeing it addressed publicly. WHY is blame placed on the driver with little more than speculation about which pedal was used or with little more than an assumption on medical condition. This is being done *even when the drivers steadfastly cite a VEHICLE PROBLEM as the cause of the crash. Absence of proof is not proof of absence of a serious ELECTRONIC computer glitch or other electronically-caused SUA.







 

Toyota's Tactics!

Koua Fong Lee went to prison because he was unable to STOP his RUNAWAY TOYOTA CAMRY!

Instead of fixing TOYOTAS.....restoring their reputation for dependability....

TOYOTA hires gaggles of attorneys to flood our courts with nonsense.....

Toyota, told to pay $10.9 million in car crash, wants driver to pay $4 million

• Article by: RANDY FURST , Star Tribune
• Updated: February 17, 2015 - 11:26 PM

 

 

The carmaker wants driver Koua Fong Lee to pay $4 million of its $10.9 million settlement.

 

 

The Toyota Motor Co., which was ordered by a jury to pay $10.9 million as a result of a fatal accident in St. Paul, has asked U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery to make Koua Fong Lee pay more than $4 million of the award because the jury found Lee 40 percent at fault in the crash.

 

Bob Hilliard, the Texas attorney who represented Lee in the federal trial that ended earlier this month, was informed of the motion by a reporter. Hilliard called the proposal “baseless and desperate.”

 

Hilliard said that Toyota never filed a counterclaim against Lee, 37, the driver of the 1996 Toyota Camry. “They never brought him in as a third-party defendant,” Hilliard said. “They can’t now seek a contribution from him. It’s ridiculous.”

 

Following a three-week trial and about four days of deliberation, the jury of six men and six women on Feb. 3 found Toyota 60 percent at fault and Lee 40 percent at fault in the June 10, 2006, accident in St. Paul.

 

Lee’s attorneys argued that two nylon accelerator pulleys became stuck as Lee exited from eastbound Interstate 94 at Snelling Avenue, and despite efforts by Lee to apply the brakes, his Camry gained speed and rear-ended a 1995 Oldsmobile Ciera which was sitting at a stoplight at Snelling and Concordia. Toyota claimed Lee accidentally stepped on the gas pedal rather than the brakes.

 

The driver of the Ciera, Javis Trice-Adams, and his son, Javis Jr., 9, were killed instantly in the crash.

 

Devyn Bolton, 6, the daughter of his ex-wife, Bridgette Trice, sustained serious injuries and died more than a year later.

 

In one motion filed Tuesday, signed by Toyota attorney Bard Borkon, Toyota said that 40 percent of the $10.9 million in damages that Toyota must pay totals $4.076 million. “The $1,250,000 the jury awarded to him would offset some of the $4,076,000, but he would still owe Toyota $2,826,000,” the motion stated, adding that Lee should pay that amount.

 

Toyota also sought reductions in other payouts awarded to victims of the crash. For example, it said that Bridgette Trice was paid through insurance $1 million for medical expenses for her daughter, and $6,407 in funeral expenses. The $4 million Toyota was ordered to pay Trice and the little girl’s grandmother should be reduced by that amount, the Toyota attorneys wrote.

 

Similarly they asked that Quincy Adams, the little girl’s grandfather, who was also injured in the crash and received $1.25 million in the jury decision, should have it cut by $77,894 which were medical expenses for which he was already reimbursed.

 

Jemee Lee, Koua Fong Lee’s daughter, who got $150,000, should have her award reduced by $19,768 that she got through insurance, the Toyota motion said.

 

Jassmine Adams, who was also in the Ciera, was awarded $4 million for serious leg injuries she sustained that will require more surgery. She should have her payout reduced by $30,000 which she received from Lee’s insurer, the Toyota attorneys said.

 

The company also asked for several other reductions based on insurance payments.

 

Minnesota law requires attorneys seeking to have a jury award reduced for collateral payouts must file motions within 10 days of when the judgment is formally entered in court records.

 

Hilliard, Lee’s attorney, said Tuesday, “It’s amazing the world’s largest car company is now trying to nickel and dime this judgment and go after these very modest-income, working-class people.”

 

A Toyota spokesman said the company’s attorneys would not comment.

 

The lawyers also filed a motion asking for a hearing before Montgomery on April 22 or as soon thereafter that it can be scheduled.

 

 

http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/292311981.html

 

 

THE PAID TOYOTA SHILLS ARE AT WORK!

 

How do you know who's a TOYOTA SHILL?

 

THE TOYOTA SHILLS resort to:

 

NAME CALLING

INTRODUCE FALSE ACCUSATIONS [such as Koua Fong Lee was intoxicated, when in fact, he was returning from church and no evidence of such has ever been presented]

MISREPRESENT THE FACTS or MAKE UP THEIR OWN

Continue to repeat the same lies

 

and much else clearly revealed in their comments  

 

 

 

 

Descartes 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

Thanks Toyota! You just made my next car purchase easy. I'll be sticking with Honda. Shut up and pay the damages. Trying to reduce the judgment to family members who lost their loved ones by nickel and diming this and that (and to Toyota it is nickel and diming) just convinced me.
For those that don't like it ....guess what??? This is America. In America juries are the finders of fact. The jury spoke. You may not like their decision, but you also weren't privy to much of the information which they had

 

 

jt_2002 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

NHTSA still has no documentation on suggested repair or maintenance on any of this equipment for 1996 camry's. The only thing close is a recall on cruise control acceleration with a recall date 10 yrs before this accident occurred. That recall makes no reference to breaks [sic] not working or not being able to auto turn off cruise control.

These 1996 camry's are almost 20 yrs old now. Every time this story comes up, I feel bad for everyone involved. But the party I get upset with is NHTSA. They've had ample time to put this issue to rest. Either there is a problem or not. They are the ones that have to use science, engineering, and facts to prove a problem does exist and to what extent.

 

 

shorty12b 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

 

What poor PR on Toyota's part. My last three cars I purchased were Toyotas. I've lost a lot of respect for Toyota with their tactics in this case. I think I'm done buying Toyotas.

gutshot 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

Ok folks, this is tactical. Toyota is upping the ante to force a settlement that will vacate the verdict. It does not give a rip about this case except for the bad precedent it sets for many other cases. Google res judicata/collateral estoppel.

JohnnyRockran 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

I will never buy another Toyota as long as I live, or at least until I see some of Toyota's "top brass" agree to spend 60% of Mr. Lee's time in prison behind bars.

csjohn1 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

As a Toyota Camry owner, Toyota's actions/inactions are shameful. Sorry, Toyota, you lost me as a customer.

csjohn1 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

@aqualungman "Tort Reform" is nothing less that a GOP gift to corporations. Limit liability on malpractice and misfeasance only encourages bad behavior. Tell me aqualungman, if your brand new regulator failed because of design or manufacturing flaws and you suffered irrecoverable brain damage would a gross limit on compensation be okay with you and your caregivers? We should not protect corporations from liability. GAD!!

codger1016 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

I have owned several Toyotas in the past. Never again.

Mtka 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

@codger1016 I have owned 3 Toyota Corollas. I have been driving the current one for 18 years. At 103,000 miles it is starting to show a little rust around the back wheel wells. The body will go long before the engine does.
That said, I am rethinking which brand to go with in the future.
Toyota - do the right thing and foot the entire bill. This man spent two years away from his young family. He has paid enough. Don't tarnish your image any further.

berrymom 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

@codger1016 I've never owned one, and certainly won't now. There is nothing wrong with letting your pocketbook speak for your moral values. It's no longer about the quality of the vehicles; it is about the honor and integrity of the management of Toyota.

rshackleford 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 17, 15

Why did Toyota OK the use of nylon pulleys in something so extremely important as the accelerator cable routing? A hint: they can MELT and WARP plus become brittle after heating and cooling over many years time.
I want to ask that question to the engineer that proposed and had the design approved. Were metal pulleys just that much more expensive?

rshackleford 5ptsFeaturedFeb. 18, 15

@aqualungman Two minutes of research shows that engineering grade nylon (called "Nylon 6-6") has a melting temperature of 516F. And, if the engineering grade was not used, that temp is much lower.
That is the MELTING point. I bet warping (due to softening of the nylon) occurs at a much lower temperature, especially with a tensioned wire/cable wrapped around a portion of it is causing physical stress.
PLUS, all critical parts are supposed to have a "safety factor" of 3 (three). So, 516/3 is 172F. That part should never reach or exceed 172F.
Also, while cleaning, I found a pair of 20 year old Bauer "Turbo" (all plastic bodied) hockey skates. They used to easily support every bit of torque my 225 lbs could put into them. But, when I picked one up, the nearly 1/4" thick plastic ankle area broke apart into pieces. It had dried out and become brittle. And they have been in the basement for years at a stable temperature, not inside a vehicle's engine bay.

JUST MY OPINION....AT THE MOMENT!

TOYOTA's Expert LIES UNSUCCESSFULLY, Paid $1.4 MILLION!

Doesn't this beat all?

Thanks go to Trudy Baltazar for documenting TOYOTA'S ANTICS!

Bob Hilliard Startled Courtroom in 1996 Toyota Camry Liability Lawsuit




http://trulinespublishing.com/2015/01/31/bob-hilliard-startles-courtroom-1996-toyota-camry-liability-lawsuit/

Let's not forget that TOYOTA BLAMED THE DRIVER in Oklahoma [Bookout & Schwarz] and couldn't explain SKID MARKS indicating the DRIVER tried to slow the RUNAWAY TOYOTA!


When the jury didn't believe TOYOTA'S LIES, TOYOTA rushed to settle with a confidentiality agreement. We'll never know what lives are worth to TOYOTA!