oldshurst442

Duck Dodger in the 21st and half ceeeeeentury!!!! (or at keast that is how I remember it goes...)

What Portland, Oregon? Anger Southern and maybe you downvoted because, why? I dont know why you downvoted Southern, but I took it upon myself to (not derail the word association thread) and post a Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam Looney Tune cartoon depicting an angry (Southern soldier) Yosemite Sam... Im acutely aware of where Portland resides on the map... Im deeply understanding (pun intended of the deep part) of where the South is and what Southern States make up the South. In fact, in the cartoon, the Mason-Dixon line is shown. Not only do I know what that means and why it is, but I also know that you, buddy boy, live very close to the Mason-Dixon line to the south of you... In fact, that beautiful river you posted a while ago crosses that line... Im surprised you didnt get the connection... You always do...

@ocnblu I say...I say 'ole boy, David wasnt that far off I give you Anger & Southern, the only way I know. The Looney Tune way.

Loved that movie Back to the game: Elvis

You wouldn't even know how...

You said it yourself... the oil industry feeds far more than... So why does the oil industry STILL get help from that same state coffer you want to defend? The oil industry is a multi trillion gabagoodillion dollar industry. Why arent you up in arms for them still getting some teet from taxpayers? Like I said... I really dont understand the pushback that some industries face while others dont seem to bother the endless sucking of public money even when its CERTAINLY not necessary anymore... PS: Like you say, even if gasoline powered cars go away, there is enough oil products to be consumed that the oil industry still stays to be a gabagoodillion dollar industry. There is no need for big oil to cry foul for EV subsidy help, or gasoline taxes to go up or whatever. The big oil industry is certainly not gonna go away and whither. And BECAUSE its a gabagoodillion dollar industry, they could INVEST in EVs and make THAT much MORE money. But NO! The fat phoquing cats that collect all that phoquing money from all the phoquing oil derivative products out there, and all the phoquing government subsidies want ALL that wealth ALL to themselves... And WE as consumers ALLOW them to do that. Ill repeat.... I really dont understand the pushback that some industries face while others dont seem to bother the endless sucking of public money even when its CERTAINLY not necessary anymore... What we OUGHT TO DO, is pull a French revolution on some of these fat phoquing cats STILL having their fat phouqing cat hands out. Let them eat cake...and they beheaded the bitch... Ill repeat: At the turn of the last century, big oil got all kinds of help...all kinds of wars were fought, people died...but yet here we are...we get a little upset when gasoline taxes are asked to go up to subsidize another power source... Why do we want to be so loyal to big oil? I mean...I get why Texans and Albertans get all huffy and puffy about it. But as for Alberta...they got another source of energy they could exploit. WATER... They could EASILY make gabagoodillion amounts of money doing the water thing... NOPE! If the people that want to continue to pollute the planet by driving internal combustion engines...THEY could subsidize the cleaner fuel alternative. And when not enough taxpayer money is collected by gasoline, we could tax electricity the way we tax gasoline in 2020... Oh...and when EXXON's ship captain gets drunk and hits a rock because he was too sloshed to see where the phoque he was going...EXXON could pay BILLIONS in not only clean-ups, but in FINES. Dont worry...EXXON has got gabagoodillion amounts of money. They could afford it the billions in fines to clean up their messes... (yes I realize that was a 30 year old accident...but oil spills CONTINUE to happen WITHOUT a NAY or PEEP by ANYBODY. I toss a banana peel in the street, Ill get pushed to the ground, read my rights and fined...and Im lucky for that as I have white skin...had I been black though...)

Well... The oil industry got big big....big subsidies from governments...and continue to get big, big...big subsidies from governments to continue on... Tit for tat is what I say. Government gives tax breaks to car makers all the time Government has bailed out car makers in the past. These car makers produce oil burning cars. Does it seem economically fair to let EVs survive on their own? The oil industry did not do it on their own. I really dont get the push back for one industry to get help while the other STILL gets help...

This had me laughing. I got a visual cue from Robocop. And then poof! This song popped in my head

@ocnblu This was my inspiration.

Wet

He grew up now. More mature. USA-1: "Hey Dfelt. All grown up and going to town. Look at this. End of an era. DFELT! Hey OH!!!! Come ere!!! " Dave: "Let me say hello. Hey USA! How are ya!" USA-1 "Come over here! Havent seen you in 6 phoquing years. End of an era, Jesus Christ! Your name looks terrific! How you feelin?!" Dave: "Watch the name! Watch the name!" USA-1: "You little Dfelt you! I know you all my life. End of an era. You gettin' too big for me, now." Dave: "Dont go bustin' my balls USA, Okay?!" USA-1: "Hey, if I wanted to bust your balls Id call you phoquin' DeeFelt." Dave: "Im no longer Dfelt, man! Just Dave! I dont do DFELT no mo."

I just want to mention that... Mercedes was a true luxury brand. But then again, all horseless carriage automobile manufacturers in the late 1890s and early 1900s were luxury brands as it were only the rich that afforded and bought these new contraptions. Remember, 'twas Henry Ford that wanted to produce and sell an automobile for the masses and perfected the production line to get the cost/unit down on his Model T for the everyday people to afford a car... With that being said...Mercedes/Benz/Daimler (like I give a shyte who bought who and what was what???!!!) STOPPED being a luxury brand, STOPPED being a car manufacturer May 8th 1945. A couple of years after that, thanx in part to American and British business interests, and American and British governments on behalf of Americans and British, Mercedes-Benz started building cars again. But NOT luxury cars. Cheap and affordable econoboxes for Germany's new reality... Thanx in part to WESTERN CAPITALISM and for us to show those dastardly Russian Commies who is best. Western Germany was inundated with money to build up West Germany for us to show them Ruskies what Capitalism is all about...to show them that Communism sucks... East Germany got the shyte because The Russians wanted to PUNISH Germany. We in the west wanted to show up the Russians. We treated our enemy just 5 years before as our BFF. The Russians though...they didnt forget. Up until 1990, the Russians didnt forget... In other words. Lots and lots of money was subsidized to Mercedes to build this In order for us to show up this But make no mistake about it... Mercedes Benz was no longer a luxury car maker. It was a mainstream econobox maker that got Western money to rebuild a former car maker in hopes of returning a profit, but mostly to shop up Communism with a couple of high falutin' vehicles... The thing is...the cars below were the REAL reality of Mercedes Benz in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s... Mainstream mediocrity selling to the working class... And livery sales...

@ocnblu What I think? Answer:

What party? And the other question is: Your point? Wireless phone chargers are a thing you want to argue against? For Tesla actually making their own and cashing in? Because obviously its too late and time has past them by for them to actually make their own phone charger... Its not as if they never had the know-how to do one....its not as if they havent built a battery charging infrastructure all over the world for their cars...for you to actually question how good their wireless phone charging accessory is... Like honestly David... This is not an "OUCH" moment. And this is not "to each their own" moment either... This is just a flagrant hatred for nothing moment... And honestly...it seems like Electrek is getting paid advert dollars for them to peddle Amazon's shytty products... Made in China no less, shytty products... They casually slip that in there, in hoping nobody notices the blatant shilling...

I have an issue with you or anybody else saying "OUCH" and that its so much cheaper through 3rd party suppliers... That is not any different from ANY other business in ANY other domain. Apple hardware products are certainly more expensive than 3rd party compatible products... Canon/Minolta/Sony/Nikon photo camera accessories were and still are more expensive than 3rd party compatible products... Cuisinart/Kitchenaid coffee filters and other name brand accessories for their appliances are certainly more expensive than the generic compatible 3rd party products... Nutella branded spread spoon is more expensive than a Dollar Tree version Oakley and Ray Ban branded cases are more expensive than a Kirkland from Costco brand sunglass case... You get the picture... I mean... OK...you got a beef with Tesla...which is cool, but lets be a tad less biased when it comes to these kinds of things... Tesla, afterall, is banking on the fact that they got great brand recognition and want to cash in on it. Porsche, Ferrari...and even Hummer back in the day did and does exactly that. I say...no big deal.

Im the same. I LOVE Telsa's tech. I get excited by their products. But not enough emotional charge to spend my money on. Something is a miss for me regarding Tesla products. The X-Factor for me is missing. The styling is not to my liking enough for me to drive with pride. Im definitely not thinking like @David that their styling is a failure. Maybe a notch above your thinking that the products dont appeal to you enough. Im OK with their styling. But not OK enough to spend my good, hard working coin on. Their interiors dont bother me. Im cool with that. Well...the Model S' interior Im good with. The Model 3 and Y's direction of a computer screen for all really bothers me. More so now then then. I too, will buy an EV. Yeah...like you, we will see what the next 10 years will give us. PS: I ignore all social media shyte. No matter who is speaking to us through social media. Even Trump. I think Trump is trolling his haters on Twitter. He knows he has detractors so he lets loose. He also knows he has followers that love him on Twitter. So...he lets loose on Twitter. He is NOT a stupid man. He knows advertising...

Yet...we have argued in the past about what constitutes luxury. And yet...Tesla's luxury is not about opulence. Its about technology. We all know how pricey this technology is to produce. And we all know that EVs just cant be sold at regular Joe prices as its impossible to yield what is necessary for a business to survive...PROFITS. Its the Corvette argument for Tesla. Tesla could hire a few Italian leather makers and get a few of the best high spec tolerance production guys out there and price their vehicles in the 250 000 dollar range and make themselves into a boutique car maker... But THAT is not what the founders of Tesla wanted of its cars and their marketing plan reflects that. So...pricing had to come down to the luxury level. NOT the UBER luxury level. But THAT means certain things have to be compromised. And although we might find certain things in a Tesla disappointing, the marketing plan, the pricing is something that we could say is working out well for Tesla. We are indeed paying for the tech. NOT for the opulence. Like a Corvette. We are paying for the technology and the performance and the image the Corvette has given us for the past 60 years. Not for the fine italian leather... Yet the C8 has given us that too. But...Tesla is NOT 60 years old though... But dont get me wrong. I UNDERSTAND FULLY WHERE YOU COME FROM. IM JUST DEFENDING TESLA. I AM NOT TRYING TO PICK A FIGHT WITH YOU.

The state of American business... Some Americans give tooo much importance to what Elon Musk has to say on Twitter...and they equate that to Tesla products... Good or bad. Musk promises fields of dreams. The corporate world and the media world praise the phoquer and they equate that to Tesla products in the form of smoke and mirror Tesla stocks. Others see the shyte he says on Twitter and they try to equate that shyte to the products he produces and say that Tesla cars are shyte. The problem is...that REALITY is SELDOM a criteria to which Tesla is judged by. Both good and bad. American business, politics, entertainment. Its all garbage television. Its reality TV. Its the OJ Simpson Trial. Its the Kardashians. Its Jersey Shore. Its pathetic.... Hence Musk with his field of dreams promises and Twitter responses and podcast interviews smoking doobies. Hence President Trump actually doing the same phoquing thing the last 4 years. Remember, Trump was also a reality TV superstar... Dont go giving me downvotes. Reflect on what I have said. See about GM losing market share in the US mainly to Japanese car companies and the China dilemma on US economy and world political stage and see how all the shyte I said and how it blends together... I may be crazy for thinking this way...yet Im not wrong in a strange and scary way...

That starts at home... Making a deal with the Devil is never a good thing. Like I said...its starts from home. But its tooo late now. China's technology today has learned from the decades of reverse engineering and corporate secret theft that China's tech could actually stand on its own... Any forcible technology sharing that the Chinese government implicates now is just icing on the cake... American CEOs in ANY industry have gotten to the point today where they ALL focus in ALL the WRONG things and implicate ALL the WRONG plans. Its all about cost cutting. Which is a good thing. I guess. But the costs that are actually cut are the WRONG types of cost. Payroll. We North Americans view the working soul as the enemy of capitalism. We view the payroll as the number 1 cost cutting measure. We do NOT invest IN the worker for the WORKER to be PROUD of what he produces and for him/her to be PROUD of his/her working environment and his/her work ethics and the QUALITY of work to be had... And its only natural. When North American society CONTINUES on RAGGING about how shyte, how lazy, how NOT worthy the AMerican worker is, well, obviously the end result of the American worker WILL be a worker that is shyte, lazy and NOT worth a piss. When American CEOs care NOT about the product itself , but about how cheapening it to wield better cost per production... When American CEOs and American corporate thinking is JUST about the quarterly stock shares JUST to cater to the monthly dividends that the shareholders demand and all else takes a back seat...when insider trading and all kinds of questionable moral scruples surround American corporate ideologies... When CEOs make tons of phoquing money because "they deserve it" or they are "smarter" than the rest of us and when they bankrupt the phoquing companies and we ALLOW them to STILL rake in their huge year end bonuses. When we allow offshore accounts When we allow tax loopholes When we have ALLOWED our phoquing companies to move out of this country (yours and mine...Canada) in the FIRST PHOQUING PLACE... I think Ive mad ranted enough today. Believe it or nor....I AM in a good mood. Very happy!!! Its just that, there is sooooooo much wrong with American business that Im afraid, its just toooo phoquing late to start fixing anything. No amount of Making America Great again chants will fix the mess that corporate America done for itself the last 40 years. American corporations have woven themselves tooooo deep in other countries' economics and have forgotten their home territory that its tooo late for that to solve itself. In the car industry, toooo many Americans for toooooo long are salty towards their own that Im afraid, that that too, is too ,late to solve. So much so that even Tesla, gets poo pooed...IN THE US...by some Americans... Mind phoquing boggling. Tesla gets poo pooed by V8 loyalists. Tesla gets poo pooed by coal lovin' rednecks. Tesla gets poo pooed by GM, Ford loyalists Tesla gets poo pooed by crazy righties JUST because they think crazy lefties love Tesla...in phoquing spite... Mind phoquing boggling... Tesla gets poo pooed by self hatin' Americans JUST because Tesla has a very strong following by other Americans JUST because Tesla has thrown a wrench at the status quo... mind phoquing boggling... Yet Tesla...is AMERICAN... No phoquing American pride yet MAGA hats (nothing political...just the image of MAGA hats) and waving of the Star Spangled Banner is all I see yet underlying self hatred is what I also see... Mind phoquing boggling it is...

I hear you. I feel the same. Other than a C8 Corvette, Cadillac CT5-V, Mustang and the upcoming Bronco and Mach E, I feel no real pride for FoMoCo or GM. Fullsized trucks are cool. Im still getting warm to them. Not there yet 100% Take my two rants with a grain of salt. I soooooo much love American cars that I get emotional when market share or reliability is a topic, and I go off the deep end. Ill take a jab at GM or American cars myself when the topic is ONLY focused on GM or American cars in general. But when the world's cars are concern, Ill defend Americana like nothing else. My two rants above are very emotionally charged diatribes. Comical, cartoony, slippery slidey on the facts. I understand that. But my two rants are not that far off the truth either. And it comes straight from my heart.

Its just shouldnt BE that way. Id like to know if Mercedes has EVER lost THAT much market share in Germany or Toyota/Honda in Japan. And while yes, America's capitalism doesnt allow for protectioni... HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! Boeing and dairy and lumber and this current administration tells me otherwise but that is something that I already knew. It comes as a surprise to many though. Its just that this current administration blew the door wide open and exposed America's protectionist policies... The problem though lies with some bulshyte Boomer and hippy asshats that have it in for American cars since the early to mid 1970s. Vietnam war being the culprit. Gas guzzling American muscle cars and land yachts and V8-6-4 Cimarrons are just the excuse. My honest opinion...

In Europe... the countries that build cars, their folk are fiercely loyal to their home market. Germans never think about buying anything but German. The French never think about buying anything but French and so on. In Germany, the German car factories are heavily subsidized by the German governments while the unions protect the German auto worker to degrees that the UAW will never see in America DESPITE what we think about the UAW in North America... The Japanese too. Same story in Japan as with Germany... The one European country that poo pooed their automotive industry is the one that does not have an automotive industry to call their own anymore. And laughably, British TV and British automobile journalism diss American cars and even MORE laughably STILL try to insist that Rolls Royce and Bentley are English makes. Just because manufacturing is still being done in the UK... I see the similarities with the UK in the US with how Americans view their own automobile industry...and watch-out...the American car industry is not that far off in emulating the one in Britain...especially during this pandemic. Chrysler is already in foreign hands... And what is funnier....AND SCARIER...is that Americans not only poo poo their own phoquing industry HARDER than the Brits done with their car industry, at least the Brits have the illusion that their marques are still British. The sad and scary part is that Americans dont think that American cars are...American...but rather think that Japanese cars made in America are indeed American. To go further than that, American built German cars...remain to be German. Americans will bitch and moan about the UAW and will bitch and moan about the American factory worker yet still want American car manufacturing to return back to America, yet most Americans poo poo the American built car but wont poo poo the foreign American made products. They call those American... It boggles my mind how far this mess has gone since the 1970s oil crisis hit America. It boggles my mind how we all have poo pooed American cars during the last 40 phoquing years yet we still praise foreign cars yet WE KNOW that foreign cars were JUST AS BAD, IF NOT WORSE then those shytty American cars. Toyota went down a path in the late 1990s-mid 2000s that was JUST AS BAD, if NOT WORSE as GM's path was in the 1970s, yet here we are...we still poo poo on GM yet we phoquing praise Toyota. AMERICA....GET YER SHYTE FIXED!!! GET YOUR HEADS SCREWED ON PROPERLY. YA"LL MISSING A FEW SCREWS!!!

You never keep your vehicles that long... In fact, the second they are broken in. You ditch and move unto a new ride... ?

Tipper Gore

Al Gore