oldshurst442

13 minutes ago, balthazar said:

Caught my eye, so I poked around. Southern Poverty Law center estimates the current level of U.S. KKK membership is between 5000 and 8000. In the 1920s, it was between 1.2 and 4 million. "Diminished somewhat" - you think? KKK has a rally now and maybe 10 sheetheads show up.

A study by a D.C. think tank called New America produced a report basically stating that home-grown terroristic fatalities eclipses that of Islamist terrorists here (as long as you start counting after 9/11 of course), and that all hate groups combined (KKK, Black Panthers, anti-Gov't militants, lone wolf racists, etc) have killed 48 people in the last 15 years. Isis kills more than that a month worldwide.

These 2 fundamentalist groups (Isis & the KKK) aren't remotely on the same level.

Ha!

Keep turning a blind eye to it...use semantics to keep on turning a blind eye to it...

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/the-kkk-is-slowly-rising-again/news-story/98e196460ea63e7469881a0306422040

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/07/us/klan-numbers/

While members only tally up to 5000-8000, like you said, a far cry from the million that it once had...white power feelings are growing...especially after Obama's second term. And like I said, more and more visible Brown muslims are immigrating to the US. Those numbers will increase substantially in the months and years to come...

Plus...while muslim terrorism is nothing new, its OLDER than the KKK. Try hundreds of years, ask an Armenian or a Greek, or a Persian or Egyptian or Syrian...the ancient Persian or Egyptian or Syrian where they were conquered by Islam and forced into that religion...or a Greek and Armenian where muslim Turcs had us enslaved for 400 years...

OK....it seems like Im making an argument for you...

Try this on for size...

In the 1920s...1 MILLION KKK members existed in a North America that had approximately 100 million people. That includes black people... 

We will say its 1%...

Today the USA has 320 million...

Could the KKK grow to 3.2 million members?

I dont know, you dont either...

The real question is, do you really want to find out, or do you want to prevent it?

By negating and minimizing the KKK and by fueling fear about ISIS only enables the KKK even more.

No...I disagree. The KKK is on EQUAL level as ISIS.

REALLY???

Nazi worshipping??? At least ISIS is fighting for their own cause...as blind and misguided those causes might be...it aint as delusional as nazi worshipping...

Do you want me to post pics of Nazi death camps?

10 hours ago, FordCosworth said:

You might want want to read up a bit more on ISIS before comparing them to...well anything 

https://www.zerocensorship.com/amp-r/isis/atrocities

 

 

You may want to learn about North American history...

Its true that up here in Canada, we really did not have that kind of hatred on our streets.

But the KKK still exists today.

Its head was cut off and its power was diminished some what, but over the last 20 years, the KKK is picking up steam and flourishing and it might actually see bigger levels of popularity than it enjoyed 100 years ago.

And because Brown people are immigrating into the USA more and more, and more whites are being lied to about said Brown people to make them scared $h!less about Brown people, the KKK will not only continue killing Black folk, but today they also have Brown people to target.

Dont believe?

Its OK...

The news is out there for you to read about.

2 hours ago, ocnblu said:

Here we go, daring to compare ISIS to the KKK, Westboro Baptists etc. when there is no sane comparison between the actions of the two sides.  Liberalism.  It is a disease.

I dont know about Westboro Baptists, but the KKK...

The KKK, terrorized many many people for over 100 years. And although they did not strap bombs on themselves to blow up who they hated, they did however lynch people. They shot and murdered people. They strapped people on long ropes tied to the back bumper of cars and dragged them.

They are indeed a hatred group. They are indeed a terrorist group.

What you did judging people as 'liberals' is exactly what is wrong with today's hatred...

Name calling and judging and pointing fingers without actually trying to end the hatred.

All hatred.

Turning a blind eye to America's hatred groups and only concentrating on Muslims is NOT how the hatred will leave us...

Its hypocrisy at its best.

Comparing and pulling out similarities is actually trying to understand what is going on...

ISIS decapitates people.

KKK shoots guns and does other barbaric things.

ISIS ideals are based on religion. And the hatred for all things West.

KKK ideals are based on race and on religion as well. 

And the comparisons if we dig further only get eerily similar...

Cowardly attempts to hide their identity....

And you know what is MORE scarier for the KKK than it is for ISIS.

There is a faction of the KKK that idolizes Adolf Hitler...

Be a black man in the early 1900s where the KKK was protected and whole towns were part of the Klan...police officers, judges, sheriffs, teachers, store keepers... basically a black man's entire encounters with the white man by day time, and his worst nightmare by nighttime....

Be a black man during those times and then tell me ISIS is not like the KKK...

Sorry Mr. DFELT, but the irony is too good for me to pass up...

I apologize to many people I will be offending here. But it is to prove a point.

A latino gunman born in New Jersey, was in the American Armed Forces stationed in Anchorage just went on a shooting spree in a Florida airport...

Talk about all the Muslim terrorist acts you want, here is yet another public shooting spree the US is going through committed by AMERICANS KILLING OTHER AMERICANS fueled solely on mental illness and for the fact that gun responsibility in the States does not exist.

Want to talk about how Muslim Terrorist acts committed and are not chastised by other Muslims?

How about trying to figure out how to stop public shooting sprees where Americans kill other Americans by the dozens first, then we could talk about Muslims...lets take care of an American terrorist problem that kills Americans and let us not use the Constitution to defend gun abuse in America first, then we could tackle the Muslim terrorist problem as American on American gun violence kills more innocent American lives than Muslims do...

13 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Did this thread get moved to the Political Forum? 

Seattle is supposed to get snow this weekend, Hawks are playing in the playoffs tomorrow, Skiing is calling my name and I am having a hard time focusing on work.

And muscle cars.

Dont forget about the muscle cars.

The kids with the wife went tobogganing today. I didnt go. I was a wuss today. Too cold. I wasnt in the mood to freeze my nuts off. Maybe Im coming down with a cold as the  weather does not really bother me when it comes to outdoor activities.   

Also...

This song is not a rebel song. This song is Sunday Bloody Sunday...

I guess only Muslims commit terrorist acts and only Muslims defend such acts...us whites, we never commit such horror and we definitely dont turn a blind eye to it...

Good 'ol Satanic Ozzy...

Who would have thunk it that Ozzy aint so Satanic after all.

Maybe today's music should change, like it did in the 1960s...and in the early 1990s for that matter...

and one of my personal favorite singers of all time...

Im not gonna spend my life being a colour. Or a religion. Or a sexual orientation. Or a gender...

lot of hate going on today...its sickening!!!

55 minutes ago, FordCosworth said:

Hippies, Lefties and Lawyers...

Ugh... they ruined the West 

 

Hippies arose because the West, sometimes, gets a little too bigoted. The West, sometimes, wants everything to be...so white. So male and white and in power. With dumb assed puritan thoughts of purity...

Peace and Love. That is the message. Peace and Love. Its hard for peace or love to flourish when puritan Anglo white males want all the money, power and they rule with an iron fist!!! And they want it to always stay white and male...

Lawyers arose  when everybody that is not white or male and revolted against said white males and started defending themselves against these white males.

Blacks wanted equality.

Laws had to be put in place for blacks to be equal to white pure males.

Women burned their bras in protest.

Oh my pure white Anglo God...women wore no bras???!!!

How sinful that is to maybe a nipple show through  a T-Shirt, so laws were put into place for women to be at an equal setting as white puritan Anglo males...(irony as said puritan Anglo males judge Islam for their versions of female repressions...)

2 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

Sorry @oldshurst442 I tried to 'one up' your response to me but I got this as a response!
"You are not allowed to give reputation to this user."

WTF? THANKS OBAMA!

It registered.

You could thank Trump for it registering...

53 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

aaaaaaaaand things got overly political again.. lol

I was born in 1973.

Too young to remember the peace and love hippy stuff going on.

However, I read up on it. Love the songs in this era.

Love those muscle cars, man.

OK...hippies hated muscle cars...phoque them!!!

I feel like hippy 1960s rock should make a comeback. Certainly what we are experiencing today sure is similar to what was going on in the mid-to-late '60s..

Racial tensions. War.

No. No cover songs by today's groups and singers.

The same songs that were released then will do.

With the exception of this one..awesome rendition.

AND JUST BRING BACK OUR GODAMNED MUSCLE CARS BACK!!!

2 DOOR V8 RWD REAL MID-SIZED COUPE CARS..

29 minutes ago, surreal1272 said:

Semantics aside, the ATS is still essentially five years old and most definitely needs an update at this point. 

 

Sorry Casa but it has not been six years but again, it matters not in the long run. Five years in this market is too long without a proper update IMO. 

In reality...the ATS and the CT#  successor to the ATS and all other sub ATS models JDN wants to introduce need to be re-evaluated...

Cadillac needs volume. I get that.

Cadillac also needs prestige and models that exude prestige. They dont need cars that are priced at mid level Buick prices(or worse in thinking that those same prices are high Chevy prices) and they dont need super high priced cars either just yet. What they do need is what Casa does mention all the time...

Cadillac needs more variants to what they already have and possibly cars that are at the cheapest end of the spectrum, the very lowest they should go, is at the ATS level, but better thought out...and I guess the CT# replacement does just that. Not too many SUVs/CUVs more, but enough to satisfy the demand for them, which should satisfy Cadillac coffers in the volumes they seek...

They need to sweat out the details.

THIS is the area that needs the MOST attention.

The details that make a top tier luxury car maker...

Paint jobs, dealer service, interior trim hardware, new and fresh ideas that re-invent luxury for the 21st century...

The Escala 3 piece suit interior and trunk material is exactly that thought process that Cadillac needs to continue on and then will not only a sub ATS model will be better praised, but a supercar too...

Cadillac also needs to start leading again.

A supercar is only following in the footsteps of...

 Take your pic...

Acura...

Lexus...

Audi...

Acura had the NSX...lasted only 1 generation. At least it survived a decade plus. It took an eternity to bring it back. They did it right. But will this one last a decade? At least the NSX 1st gen DEFINED what ALL Acuras were to be...will generation 2 have the same effect?

Lexus and the LFA...

Great car. Over thought. Over engineered. Over budgeted. Over hyped. Great engine. No balls to re-use the engine. Killed off quicker than the XLR and forgotten by the public and Lexus that it ever existed.

Audi...and the R8.

Lamborghini all over this car but Audi was smart enough to Audi-fy it substantially...and what a car the 1st gen was...

Im not so sure the 2nd generation will see the same amount of greatness and reverence...

I see a pattern here. I dont want that pattern to be repeated by Cadillac...and Cadillac already failed with 1 attempt...

I just had to plug away again, this time on a slightly different angle. A slight twist in thinking but same message along the same lines...

54 minutes ago, ccap41 said:

JABRONI

That part alone is worth 1000 upvotes!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_ATS

Quote

Cadillac debuted the ATS to the press in the United States in January 2012, placed the ATS into production in July 2012 and began selling the ATS in the United States in August 2012 as a 2013 model. GM began selling the ATS in China in November 2013

That would be EXACTLY  5 years we were shown the ATS and 4.5 years its been sold...

Maybe you should go back into your momma's womb and learn better mathematics...

Semantics...I know...but Casa, when arrogant, expect arrogant responses...

Just wipe this post clean off your radar, its OK...I know you secretly read my posts anyway...

I dont have a favorite auto manufacturer per se.

GM fits as closely as the criteria suggests. However, General Motors is a company with many brands...past brands too. I was more of an Oldsmobile guy and a Pontiac guy...

Pontiac for the affordable go fast stuff and Oldsmobile for the luxury stuff. Yes, Oldsmobile more so than Cadillac. Cadillac is royalty, its the 1%er crowd. Im a blue collar guy. I work hard for my money, I got some money, OK, Ive managed to make a ton of it, but in no way Im spending it on a  car. Id rather a nice luxurious middle class car rather than stinkin' rich high class car. Id rather do other foolish things with my money. Its not as if my money works for me, I still have to be careful with my cash flows...

Problem is, Oldsmobile is no longer. Buick has not quite seduced me the way Oldsmobile always has, and Cadillac is just waaay too rich for my skin. Id rather an Impala or new 2017 Lacrosse over an ATS, but there are other manufacturers in that price range for me to consider...but 1 car from Acura or any other brand does not really constitute a favorite brand now does it?

So...Ill pick  Dodge to replace Pontiac and Buick to replace Oldsmobile. I do drive an Acura TL SH-AWD currently but the TLX does nothing for me.

I think Toyota/Lexus is my least favorite car manufacturer ever.

So...for my affordable go fast muscle car needs.

For my luxury car needs

Or the next generation Regal  

Lexus.

And that is it...

Wow...

Bunch of little quotes everywhere that I always say...

Anyhoo...

Ill make sure I keep on plugging my message over and over again...

Cadillac...

It does not have a loyal following for anything they sell, minus the Escalade. And Cadillac these days rely heavily on the Escalade to have an image...the rest of the sedan line-up is awesome, but people it seems dont want and lust over those products...yet.

If they are not careful with the Escalade, they will lose that too. What I mean by that, its because Rolls Royce, Bentley and Jaguar all offer real high end SUVs to give Escalade another 3 competitors to fight off in addition to M-B and BMW and everything else in between.

Let us not forget the Lincoln Navigator...its a-coming...and in an SUV crazy world, especially when the Navigator still has mojo left in her, and Im willing to bet all my estate on it, Lincoln will absolutely do the 'Gator right...

This means the Escalade may need to go higher in luxury, if not as to not alienate its current market share, it may need a more luxurious brother to compliment it. The Escalade needs another SUV brother to compliment it on the lower end of the scale. The XT5 plus another model.

The CT6 is great. But the CTS and the ATS needs to be aligned....yeah yeah...that is just around the corner...but we are not there yet are we? Yet we are talking about an exotic supercar for Cadillac..

Cadillac needs electric drivetrains that rival Tesla's. Not Chevrolet's. The Chevrolet Bolt, sure. But better range and on a bigger car...

Then there is the issue of image.

Cadillac has a lot of work to do in convincing people to buy their vehicles.

Cadillac is getting great traction...but nowhere near the amount to convince people to buy a 150 000 dollar supercar.

Lets talk about drivetrain gain...

The internal combustion engine is a relic of the past. That is how the young folk see that...

Going forward, a supercar will be required to be at a minimum...a hybrid...

We talked about the NSX...guess what? Its a technological tour de force...and its a hybrid...

We may laugh at Acura for many reasons for the 2nd generation NSX...but goddammit...they did it right!!!

Crucify me for what Im gonna say...I dont care...but the 2nd generation NSX is more advanced than the C7 Corvette...

The only reason one COULD crucify me for that statement, its because we are talking about a Corvette...problem is that a Corvette has that much branding to garner all that respect it deserves...

Chez Cadillac though... not so much.

C8 Vette as a Cadilac?

Nope...not yet...

The development dollars required to make a C8 platform into a Cadillac requires a lot of effort and time and money...

Ill give you an example...

Paint job...

A Corvette is a fantastic machine...punches waaaaaay above its price point...

Its paint job sucks... especially for the amount of money GM is charging you to buy one...

That is not even a concern though as

1. Its a Chevy

2. Its a Corvette.

Try that in a Cadillac...

A supercar on that level for Cadiilac will DEFINETLY need Rolls Royce 15 gazillion layers of clearcoat and polishing etc...

All that money needed to GET ALL THOSE PESKY HIGH END TOP TIER LEVELS OF QUALITY AND LUXURY AND DETAILS will be needed to be addresses...

Cadillac simply is not there at all for that...

Let Cadillac address the proper products that are needed now, the proper dealership network and service, the proper issues first...

Then there is the racing.

Cadillac needs to win first.

The Corvette is in its way for that, let alone Ferrari and Porsche and Mercedes Benz and everybody else...

The NSX had VTEC kicking in...that is how the NSX got away with it.

Cadillac doesnt have the luxury of a powerful meme like that...

I say...let the Corvette get GM's R&D money to continue to dominate...let Cadillac get the R&D money it deserves to reach higher levels and we will see what the future holds in 2025...

52 minutes ago, ocnblu said:

I'm 14

Somehow, with that post of yours...these songs just popped in my head...

Correct me if Im wrong...

But isnt the C7 platform just a heavily heavily revised C5 platform that was brand new in...1997...

Sure it is a GREAT platform...with it being all aluminum thanx to the C6 ZO6 and all with some components having carbon fibre rather than fibreglass...

There are far too many 'not ideal' circumstances for Cadillac to sell successfully an exotic 2 door coupe and roadster supercar...

On ‎2017‎-‎01‎-‎04 at 1:55 PM, cp-the-nerd said:

You sound like you're making a case for Cadillac badge jobs, and it's just not good for the brand. Besides, the Corvette's current platform isn't Cadillac worthy. It's an engineering compromise because they didn't have money for an all new chassis during C7 R&D.

A Cadillac version would weigh as much as the ATS-V coupe and be riding on leaf springs for Christ's sake.

This...

That would be another reason...

On ‎2017‎-‎01‎-‎04 at 1:29 PM, Cmicasa the Great said:

Here is a legit question... if Acura sold 276 NSXs.. why wouldn't Cadillac be able to sell 500 rebodied Z06s?

Cadillac cant...

Why?

1st reason:

2nd reason:

As in Honda/Acura has a lock in sports car racing branding...

NSX and VTEC are synonymous with modern day sports car racing tech...

To boot, there is a 3rd reason that involves the same logic in branding:

SH-AWD

A whole decade of VTEC kicking in with Integras and NSXs...and...HALDEX aint exactly known with ricer fanboys like SH-AWD is...

Yes, it was an eternity ago when that was happening, unfortunately for Cadillac, nothing has happened for them in this time frame...

V Series Cadillacs are getting real traction in changing people's perception about Cadillacs, unfortunately not too many people put speed, sports cars and Cadillacs together in the same breath...

Argue all you want with me, call me names....but that is the truth. 

6 minutes ago, ocnblu said:

You didn't strike me as someone who would have a lass.

I wanted to do a similar post...

I chickened out because I wanted to post a pic of a nice young Irish lass, but I deemed the message with the pic to be a little too creepy.  I am at an age where 19 year old girls seem like they could be my daughters...

Maybe I get the coolest? Or maybe not....

Coolest means just so much to all sorts of people...

Because the Veedub up above is one cool cat in itself!

My dad's 1970 GTO looked exactly like this one:

9 hours ago, El Kabong said:

Far be it for me to question your expertise in said field. 

In the field of wine-making?

Wine is a gift from the gods....

And me being Greek, Id say I enjoy it from time to time.

But wait...you meant something else entirely...

Ah...yes.

The irony...it being so thick, you could cut it with a cheese knife.

12 minutes ago, El Kabong said:

I like cheese. 

You also like wine.

I was at the drive-thru cash earlier today when this beautiful beast came a rolling!

It took me by surprise as big RWD coupes with big honking V8s just disappear  suddenly in Quebec this time of the year. All black except for the fuel filler door on the side. That was super bright chrome.

What an imposing, curvy awesomeness this car is!