I’m in the Goodwood Festival of Speed media center, which is full of people with cool jackets from various European races or F1 teams. I’ve just scarfed a “real British bacon” sandwich, and I’m inclined to take a nap, so it’s a great relief that Stellantis and the Italian government are yet again giving me life courtesy of their neverending stupid beef. I call it a stupid beef because the details are just a constant source of personal delight, even though the stakes are billions of dollars and hundreds or thousands of jobs.
Slowly sips some black British tea…
There was an election here in the United Kingdom and a new government has been swept into power. The same has happened in France, where a coalition of moderates and liberals fended off a late charge from the Far Right. What will happen in the United States this fall? It’s a lot like Shitbox Showdown, where you’ve got two choices and there’s a lot of debate over which one will fail you first. The UAW backed President Biden early and is now, reportedly, waffling.
Contemplates eating another bacon roll…
General Motors is going to probably demolish most of the famous Renn Center HQ in Detroit, which is a key part of Detroit’s skyline. If this is like most GM projects, they’ll realize in about 10 years how far ahead of the curve the Renn Cenn was and will start a 20-year project to rebuild it.
Is it too early for a pint?
And, finally, did Facebook kill the car forum?
Le Notti Di Stellantia
I love Italian cinema. Fellini, Rossellini, de Sica, Benini, Antonioni, et cetera. I love how even the darker neo-realist films contain those little grace notes of absurdity that mimic the strangeness of life. Is there anything more absurd than the near-constant bickering over random things between Stellantis and Italy? The arguments over tiny-ass flags? Absolutely not.
All of Europe’s political structure is built on insecurity. The world is changing yet again and, after a brief period of light resurgence (mostly in Germany), threats are everywhere. It is this insecurity that has helped bring forward more populist governments, like Italy’s new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy Party.
Italy has long had a large industrial automotive base in the form of Fiat, which in the 1970s employed roughly thirteen trillion Italians. The company had a brief resurgence itself under the impatient but steady leadership of Sergio Marchionne, and Fiat even acquired Chrysler in what amounts to a fire sale. Given that more of the power in the relationship was in Italy, this seemed fine with the Italian government.
The creation of Stellantis, which combined Fiat Chrysler and the remnants of Peugeot-Citroen with some other bits, hasn’t been seen in Rome as such a good deal for Italy. Now Fiat is a partially American company based in Hoofdorp in The Netherlands and, even worse, is now partially owned by the French government.
Stellantis has, under Carlos Tavares, taken an approach to various governments that involves asking for massive handouts/subsidies and threatening to move jobs to other places if they don’t fork’em over. For some reason, this hasn’t endeared Tavares to the new Italian government, which is, again, populist. The lifeblood of populism is constantly getting mad about things, and Tavares seems to get off on picking fights so, yeah, here we are.
What do I mean by “here”? The Italian government is considering using a new law to strip away the Autobianchi and Innocenti brands from Stellantis. This is from Italian news site Il Sole 24 Ore’s (which means The Sun) article that translates directly to “Cars, China Wants Historic Brands Innocenti and Autobianchi.” Reuters breaks it down for us:
Il Sole said the government’s appropriation would be made possible under a law passed in December and a draft implementing decree, under examination by the Court of Auditors, concerning brands that have been unused for at least five years.
Once under government control, they could be given to “companies, including foreign ones, that intend to invest in Italy or move to Italy manufacturing activities located abroad,” the law says
Wow. The Italian government is out here Bobby Clarke-ing Stellantis. Brilliant. I love it.
Autobianchi is the famous Italian brand known for making their own versions of Fiats while Innocenti is known for doing the same thing with Minis. Neither brand has existed as an active carmaker for a while, but that doesn’t mean Fiat doesn’t want to keep them. Certainly, Fiat isn’t likely to be keen on having to compete with a Geely-owned car that’s called Innocenti, is built in Italy, and costs like half of what a Fiat 500 costs.
Is this going to happen? Probably not. While the PM is a populist, the other big source of power is the Elkann family which, you know, owns a big chunk of Stellantis. This feels like it’s just more carping from the Italian government which, if past is prologue, will induce Tavares to do or say something mean in response. I can’t wait.
UAW Reportedly Worried About President Biden
As a person who studied government and worked in politics, I think it’s fair to say that President Biden has been the most successful first termer since Bill Clinton. You may not like his policies or agree with them, but as a longtime senator, it would be hard to argue that he hasn’t gotten a lot of signature legislation through an extremely divided U.S. Congress.
Inflation is down, crime is down, and employment is relatively high. All of this would be a recipe for breezing into a second term if there wasn’t a concern that President Biden is a little old. Maybe a lot old. This was all on display during the first televised debate between former President Trump and President Biden. The current President seemed a little low energy and lost, though coherent on policy points, whereas the former one sounded like he just did a bump of coke after watching 900 hours of Alex Jones. Great choices, all.
This has freaked out some people in the Democratic Party establishment, as they believe that the ascendance of Trump would result in something akin to the end of Ghostbusters before they destroy the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. It’s been suggested that, hey, maybe there’s enough time to put in VP Kamala Harris, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, uh… Montpelier, Vermont City Councilperson Sal Alfano. Anyone.
One of the early endorsers of President Biden’s campaign is UAW President Shawn Fain and, according to this Reuters report, he’s got some cold feet:
Fain called together top officials at the nearly 400,000-member union to discuss concerns and what the union’s options are, according to the sources, who asked not to be identified. The union is considering its next steps, the sources said.
[…]
On Wednesday, Biden met with the executive council of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of U.S. trade unions, to shore up support among labor unions. Fain attended that meeting.
Recent polling has shown that the debate hasn’t changed the current polling much, so who knows, but clearly the UAW is talking about it.
GM To Kill Most Of The Renaissance Center?
Earlier this year GM announced it was making a deal with Detroit mogul Dan Gilbert to build a new office complex for the automaker. This led to the inevitable question: What happens to the current one, Detroit’s iconic Ren Center?
According to this Detroit Free Press story, it sounds like all that Class A office space might just get torn down:
High-level discussions involving General Motors, Dan Gilbert’s real estate company Bedrock, at least two architectural firms and construction companies on what to do with the Renaissance Center have led key decision-makers to increasingly consider at least partial demolition of the structure that has dominated Detroit’s skyline for half a century.
The discussions are preliminary, with studies underway on the best future use for the riverfront property after GM moves to Gilbert’s new Hudson’s Detroit building in the city’s core downtown. But according to several people familiar with the matter, early thinking leans toward tearing down most of the seven towers and leaving one or two standing to preserve part of the skyline. The tower or towers left standing of Detroit’s most recognizable building complex would then be renovated for new uses beyond the offices and shops it offers now, two of the people told the Detroit Free Press.
Even though the Ren Center has historically been an MC Escher-like maze of conference rooms where execs tortured their underlings, it would be weird to not have it there anymore.
Did Facebook Kill The Car Forum?
I might get most of my car news from Discord these days, but I still look to car forums for a deep history of how to fix my car. The days of arguing with friends, idiots, and idiot friends on VW Vortex or NASIOC or even Fchat is kinda of a thing of the past. Did Facebook kill the car forum?
That’s the contention of our buddy Sajeev Mehta over at Hagerty:
As the social media giant’s user base kept growing, it inevitably sucked in more traditional forum users and gobbled up their free time in the process. While I avoided directly interacting in the Facebook groups that gutted forums like Lincolnsonline.com so thoroughly, I’d join and occasionally lurk to see what people were talking about.
What I witnessed there was beyond tragic: a new generation of Lincoln enthusiasts were pulling these cars out of fields, inheriting them from relatives, and buying them on the open market only to ask the same questions “we” on the forums answered over 20 years ago. All the information was already in the forums, fact-checked by trusted members who knew their stuff (a concept that’s proven more challenging to execute in Groups), and easily searchable.
I’m not going to say the Internet used to be better, but…
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I was at a party last night and I thought someone said that Jamiroquai was DJing. It was not Jamiroquai, but here’s “Cosmic Girl” because it could have been him. He’s probably here.
The Big Question
Did FB kill the forum? What platform do you use now to talk about cars?
When you change how inflation is measured, you to can rig it so it is down, which they have done.
When major crime ridden cities stop reporting their crime statistics to the FBI magically the reported amount of crimes is lower.
People were laid off enmasse due to the COVID lockdowns and the accompanying slowdown of the world economy. Why would employment be up when everyone burned through what little savings they had after being fired and being unable to get work due to a global shutdown, as soon as the economy was opened back up?
It’s like you read my mind as I thought the exact same thing when I read that hilarious CNN/MSDNC/NYT party line about inflation and crime both being down under Biden!
This comment can also be read as: ” the data doesn’t fit my chosen narrative.”
Remember everybody arguing that a recession was definitely coming in 2022?
That recession is definitely coming in 2024, 2025, or 2026.
I almost fell out of my chair when I read that… It appears as if they are ignoring that we are seeing the worst inflation in decades, climate-change based energy policies that are unreliable and unstable, open boarders that are overwhelming most big cities, progressive DA’s that are allowing unspeakable crimes to go unpunished while attacking political opponents, and making America look foolish and weak in front of allies and enemies alike. I hope we never forget how poorly the Covid situation was handled, or how badly we left Afghanistan.
Biden was originally supposed to be the “moderate” candidate who was supposed to unite both sides of the aisle. .03 seconds later, he bent to the progressive left and their crap policies.
The issue is, they live in the real world, and you don’t.
Go back to facebook with this shit.
I seem to recall Biden’s predecessor and current opponent giving a speech to the UN General Assembly with bragging that elicited involuntary and immediate laughter from diplomats, whose job description specifically includes never showing what they personally think or feel so as to maintain the best bargaining position for the countries the represent.
Just like when Biden introduced Zelenskyy as President Putin in front of the whole UN?
Just because Trump wasn’t a very good president doesn’t necessarily excuse Biden for his own failings.
No. it certainly does not, but the statement to which I responded is one that isn’t really supportable, especially since even allies who think it’s time for Biden to pass the torch (not that Torch) remain grateful that he was elected and supportive of most of his foreign policy initiatives.
I remember that. Weren’t they laughing at him when he said they were too dependent on Russian Natural Gas and oil, so much so it compromised their national security? They really showed him………
That was the second outburst of laughter in the speech, when he specifically addressed the German delegation. But it was prescient of him. Maybe he got a heads up in Helsinki.
Trump kissed up dictators worldwide, undermined our allies, and had plans to pull the US out of NATO. He is an insecure narcissist who did more to damage American credibility than any other president in modern history.
What cities in particular have stopped reporting crime data? And are we talking violent crimes? Felonies? How about felonies that were plea dealed down to misdemeanors?
NYPD, LAPD, LACS, SFPD, SJPD, OPD, RPD, SCSO, SBCSD, SBPD, LCSO, etc.
None of the listed above PDs reported ANY crime data to the FBI.
Cook County Sherriff’s Office only reported one month’s worth of crime data to the FBI.
For the above listed PDs which are just the big ones I thought were worth mentioning, not all of the PDs are listed above.
There’s only one party who’s candidate is a convicted felon, who pledged to pardon convicted insurectionists, who elects convicted felons and who has convicted felons booked as speakers at their convention. They even put the intent to commit criminal acts into their platform. It used to be called the “stupid party”, now it could be called the “pro-crime party”.
GTFO with all this “crime” talk and take a long look in the mirror.
What was his felony conviction?
Specifically.
Is it your assertion that one of the most heavily armed subsets of the population decided to leave all their guns at home when they went to overthrow the Government?
I don’t know what speakers you’re specifically alluding to, but there are lots or victimless “crimes” that are felonies in this country.
That’s a very strange and very strong assertion.
If we go to https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/ and go do documents, then NIRBS tables, we can look at the raw agency participation data broken down by state (I’m afraid there doesn’t seem to be a way to provide a direct url except to per-state data) It seems like California, indeed, doesn’t show many of the agencies listed directly by name, but the jurisdictions seem to be covered by more local departments (for instance: there’s no ‘Los Angles’ but there is a ‘Burbank’.)
Illinois doesn’t seem to be reporting Sheriffs’ Office data to the FBI at all, at least through NIRBS, but instead reporting municipal and county agencies. (Not every state reports the same, which is less than ideal, but that’s what you get with fifty state governments all going their own ways I guess.)
Is there another data collection you’re referring to?
The good news is, if Trump wins those numbers will go back to being totally accurate without actually changing. Just like how the unemployment stats were rigged from 2008 to 2016, but then were suddenly accurate again from 2016 to 2020.
Either that or you’re just making up excuses because you’ve based your personality around personal devotion to a politician and the numbers don’t match what your beliefs say they should be.
“I’m not going to say the Internet used to be better, but…”
It was so much better back when….
I wasn’t on it, and had no desire to be.
Im not on Facebook, so guess I’m stuck with Autopian and the various regular car specific online forums for my vehicles. Wife has facebook, so she feeds me any important stuff I need to know from our circle. She’s a facebook marketplace wiz also.
I haven’t used FB in 10 years, I’ll never go back. I used to be so active on the VWVortex it was awesome, maybe it still is, I haven’t had a VW since 2008. We had a small group, called the MiVE (Michigan Volkswagen Enthusiasts) and would meet up on occasion. It was fun.
“Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria!” – Peter Venkman
I use Autopia to talk about cars. I don’t use Facebook.
The FB/forum thing is timely as my algorithm has fed me more and more posts from groups dedicated to car models the last few months. Usually I’m browsing it like I’m looking in the fridge for something to snack on when I’m not even hungry, but I find myself looking at some of it even if it’s a car I wouldn’t ever have a reason to buy.
I still get birthday emails every year from a couple forums that remain and I pause for a second and reflect on whatever period in my life I joined and was active on it. I lurk on a couple forums on occasion when looking for news or general info on a model, but not for long and not as a member. I’d think Reddit plays some part too though, if you search “[make] [model] [news/problems/etc]” you’re guaranteed to get some Reddit posts in there just as much as some remaining forums. And thus potentially less traffic.
I get the sense it’s that way for any number of message boards and forums though, outside of automotive. As mentioned in other comments just the way we use the internet today is different than ~20 years ago. A lot of forums seemed to be run by its original creators for a while and the upkeep seemed like no light task, it’s more like a passion project. So it’s a lot to transfer to someone when they want to move on from the job.
I am normally a lurker on forums and also every vehicle I have is olderish besides the fiances buick so most info I need is on older forums. I am not currently on any Facebook car pages and prefer not to be because facebook is a cesspool at times. I most use it to look at marketplace for cars. This really is the only place I discuss cars.
Not only Facebook, Reddit is my preferred choice to check for questions and topics. You get less drama compared to Facebook and the moderators do a good job (most of the time)
A couple of my vehicles still have thriving forums. Special shoutout to the Ford truck forum, which has been going for decades and is still strong. Also the Sienna forum, which has a surprising amount of DIY info for such a non-enthusiast coded vehicle.
The largest Viper forums were put behind a membership paywall a couple years ago, which is nonsense that I can’t support.
There is still a pretty good forum for MG people at the MG Experience. Mostly helpful with a few assjacks thrown in.
I only subscribe to 2 forums. One is focused on e-cigs/vapes, the other is kind of niche (HEY LBP). Both are going strong despite fartbook.
AFAIK, Fartbook never evolved beyond that one episode in Season 1 of Letterkenny
Facebook 100% has killed or at least crippled the car forum. The other thing that hasn’t helped is the dreaded Photobucket image not found.
Forums are still the best, well-organized source of reasonably well documented and vetted information on literally any problem imaginable for older (pre-2010ish) vehicle.
Oh hell yes, and we are worse for it. VWVortex had dudes dropping VR6’s into Cabios in their driveway while using a tree with a chain around it as an engine hoist. Every forum had that guy, who spent more time studying a relatively mundane car then your PCP spent in Med School. TDIclub was wild for this. You had dudes doing personal studies and renting equipment to do intake manifold flow rates for a car that came with 90 hp from the factory. Just the simple act of not having to sign up for forum, has really lowered the bar of entry. I have seen so many post, like “I have a 93 Mercury Capri non-turbo that I want to LS swap, does anyone have a step by step guide?”. Unless the car is fairly rare, its all just non-serious questions from non-serious individuals. Because even that 30 seconds it takes to sign up, seemed like enough of a barrier to keep out the riff raff. Now, the serious individuals flee, and the knowledge of those dudes who spend hours thinking about a commuter car isn’t passed along. So, you don’t get some confident 17 year old with VR6 and a dream, who has enough knowledge in the laptop to figure it out eventually. Instead you got dudes posting about like guns and various political statements all over the once thriving TDI group.
Facebook ruined the internet. It also sent my mother down a conspiracy rabbit hole. I fucking hate it.
I only got my first TDI VW (’14 Sportwagen) in 2020, and it always feels like I “missed the party” when I go to TDIclub for DIYs and general information.
You really did. Herm and a few other of the power posters either died or got into something else. It seems the only really active community is TDI Scumbags, which is not for everyone.
Which relates back to your mention of PCP, although perhaps not in the same context.
The forums I used to participate in are entirely gone. Some switched over to FB groups (which are entirely useless and un-searchable in any meaningful way). I don’t participate in FB auto groups.
Like all of Facebook, the algorithm favors conflict instead of content. An accurate how-to doesn’t cause a heated argument and gets shuffled off to a dark corner.
I usually resort to youtube for actual information, which isn’t great. It’s still miles better than banging my head against a Facebook wall.
I left Facebook in fall of 2020 and have never even been remotely tempted to go back. The site is an incredibly divisive cesspool full of bots, a plethora of bigotry varieties, misinformation, etc. I was briefly in some car groups but eventually had to leave because they always became overrun with the MAGA crowd screaming about how EVs were a tool of the devil to turn everyone gay and similar drivel.
I still go to forums, but they’re definitely not as much of a thing anymore. There’s no dedicated Kona N forum and the only N forums are primarily European and Australian. That’s not necessarily a bad thing of course, but there aren’t very many folks in yee haw land talking about their experiences and none of the numbers are in standard freedom units.
I’ll still post on the general Kona forum when people have N questions, and I was on a GR Corolla forum for a little while when I was trying to get one but holy shit is the JDM crowd insufferable. Anyway, bring back the forums. We shouldn’t have to sacrifice our well-being trying to navigate Mark Zuckerberg’s fascist sewer for information on cars.
Anyway, I anssume all of you know by now that I lean left on most issues, but I’m definitely not a party line Dem at all. If anything liberals annoy me nearly as much as the chuds. But I will say that it profoundly sucks that this is the situation we’re in. No one other than the most deranged MAGA folks wanted a repeat of 2020. Both parties failed spectacularly in providing us with viable candidates. Dems should have had a goddamn primary like literally everyone on the left wanted them to and Republicans should’ve shut down the Trump nonsense a decade ago and instead let a wannabe dictator B list celebrity absolutely destroy what little was left of their party.
Super fun. Very cool. We have two cognitively declining 80ish year old white men arguing about their golf games and a congress where the average age is something like 70. Very happy that elderly, primarily white men will run our country for eternity.
Anyway, I go back and forth on Biden to be honest. I held my nose and voted for him last time but have found his tenure to be pretty damn good overall. He got the pandemic under control, him and his administration have wrangled inflation pretty well, we keep adding jobs, he’s fighting to keep industry here, etc. Really the only thing I get hung up on is the fact that he won’t tell Netanyahu and his thugs to stop eviscerating civilians. I also think he’s played a role in the west getting closer and putting up a united front against Putin and Winnie The Pooh.
In literally any other situation he would absolutely cruise to a second term, but for whatever reason we’ve never been allowed to just judge him by his accomplishments. For a disturbing portion of our electorate, voting comes down to vibes and Biden doesn’t pass the vibe check due to his age. Is that fair? I personally don’t think so, but at the same time there’s nothing that can be done about it.
That being said I’m absolutely livid at the character assassination the mainstream media has carried out on him. The Times, CNN, etc should be ashamed. It’s unbelievable how far the standards of journalism have fallen in this country. They run 10 articles about WHAT ABOUT BIDEN’S AGE for any single mention of Trump rambling about batteries and shit. They’re not held to the same standard and it’s infuriating.
Where do they go from here? I have no idea, but to me it looks like a lose-lose situation. The easy play would be to anoint Kamala, but she’s not popular or particularly media savvy. She comes across as very abrasive and has a reputation for being a very difficult person to work with. I personally think Big Gretch is the strongest potential candidate, but how the hell would they slide her in? They could have a contested convention, but good fucking luck with the MSNBC crowd if you replace a black candidate with a white one. That’s not going to go over well…
I don’t see an easy way out. The Dems should have had a primary, but the way the media is throwing haymakers at Biden while completely ignoring Trump’s lunacy is criminal. I also legitimately wonder if Dems want to lose. Trump is the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to fundraising, and they’re all 1%ers, so it’s not like another term for him and his ghouls will harm them in any way.
Blah. Everything’s fucked. I’m gonna go drive…
And basically agree here.
We are fucked, again.
Never joined F Book. Thank God. A total shit show.
America, what a country!
You and I often lean in different directions, but this statement I 100% percent agree with.
” But I will say that it profoundly sucks that this is the situation we’re in. No one other than the most deranged MAGA folks wanted a repeat of 2020. Both parties failed spectacularly in providing us with viable candidates. Dems should have had a goddamn primary like literally everyone on the left wanted them to and Republicans should’ve shut down the Trump nonsense a decade ago and instead let a wannabe dictator B list celebrity absolutely destroy what little was left of their party.”
Most people I talk to are not asking “who is the better canditate” they are asking “who is the lesser evil” to their perspective. We are no longer voting FOR a candidate. We are reduced to voting AGAINST the candidate we don’t like. Thats a recipe for disaster.
I tend to consider myself Libertarian BUT NOT THE MODERN DEFINTION. Those guys are edge case crazies. I mean what it meant 20 years ago. Small government, you do you, let me do me, don’t try to force your you on me, and I won’t force my me on you. We all get along because tall fences make good neighbors.
Yeah I was a card-carrying Libertarian for years but the “I want nobody to judge me when I use racial slurs” guys took over and the “Cities shouldn’t have rules about what color your house is” people like me moved on.
When they booed Gary Johnson for saying drivers licenses were a good idea, I was out.
More than ever now, we need a sane political party to push back against the nuts that surround us, and we just don’t have one.
Ah, C’mon. We’ve got JFK Jr!
I’m not going to lie – “I had brain worms, but they died of starvation.” is actually a pretty compelling platform this year.
LOL so true. So sad. So true…
Starvation? I thought it was the lead poisoning that killed them.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who feels this way. 25 years ago I went down that rabbit hole, but after a while I could see it was mostly just self absorbed a-holes. In the end there was only 1 libertarian in the local scene that I really respected. He understood that if you don’t want people to tread on you, you have to avoid treading on them. For example, he was opposed to most environmental laws, but he also rode his bike to work, composted, and did all he could to keep his own environmental impact low.
I don’t think his approach was actually practical, but I could not help but respect that he thought about what making libertarianism work would really take and tried to live up to that.
I think I figured out why I had to stop paying attention to the Libertarians;
They actually only exist to be some sort of philosophical chat group where they debate the theoretical best way to govern. They have no interest in actually participating in governing the country or even winning elections. I think most of their “candidates” just don’t want to find a real job.
Political parties should exist to help candidates win elections. That is their primary function. The Libertarians only anoint people they deem to be pure in their beliefs for the purpose of circle-jerk levels of masturbatory, self congratulatory positions that no one will ever vote for.
In the end you can trust one guy to leave office in 2029 (or before) with the USA still being a free country, and the other guy tried to do a coup once, has no respect for civil liberties, and has been very clear about planning to open up concentration camps (for “illegals”…at first). So much as I would rather have better choices, I’m going to Vote Blue No Matter Who as I have every year from 2016 on.
There are other colors of the rainbow, and blindly voting along party lines is what continues messes like this.
I’ve said it before, the problem with the US is that, while in most countries there are several viable parties with different positions, you’ve basically got a party of mild conservatives, a party of raging fascists, and nobody is willing to try any other alternative.
Yeah I was looking at the elections of Canada, France, and the UK with utter jealousy.
I’d take pretty much any of the main line candidates in these countries over the two we have all day, every day.
Including freaking Le Pen.
I don’t have a desire to debate the politics again in the forums. I think you and I disagree on a lot but would probably find just as much to agree on politically.
But I do find it interesting when I speak with people of different political viewpoints on the media. It seems everyone thinks the media is biased against their particular POV.
I do listen to some “alternatives” to traditional news outlets and Biden having all of these troubles with coherence is nothing new. He’s been doing it since he ran the first time out. The political right thinks the media has been shielding him from the embarrassment the whole time. I tend to agree but also think if we had heard him falling all over himself, mixing up names and whatnot, by now it wouldn’t be a story.
A lot of people called out the media for not reporting on this or at least getting it wrong. I think they are really over-correcting now and I agree with you that now, after ignoring it all along, they are going way over-board.
Most of Trump’s idiocy I think has been covered and, Like Biden, sometimes I think it’s too much. But I do have to temper my opinion there by how much I’m just tired of hearing from and about the man. It was exhausting while he was president and it’s barely tolerable now.
If the Democrats want him out I think Kamala is your only answer. Due to campaign finance laws she is the only candidate legally allowed to use the money Biden has raised so far. Anyone else wouldn’t possibly be able to catch up in fund raising this late.
I think Biden is going to lose. I don’t really hope for it. Honestly I can’t “hope” for anything in this one since, due to my views, there’s just too much down side with either candidate for me to hope for anything. But, if the Democrats choose to go with Kamala, I think a second Trump term is a near certainty.
I am not pulling for anyone in this race. It’s just the way I’m reading things now. Also, it’s pretty far off and things can and will change. So I would say the best chance the Democrats have is to keep supporting Biden.
Man, this situation is bleak as hell.
Oh I’m sure we’d agree on a lot. Same with me and PlugInPA, V10emous, etc. I honestly don’t have much of an issue with conservative ideology until it comes to social and economic issues. I’m not exactly an SJW type but I believe in equity, I’m strongly pro LGTBQ rights, I studied institutional racism as part of my master’s curriculum with some very reputable professors (I won’t name drop or anything because I don’t want to be a prick lol) and believe it’s a very real issue, etc. Also voodoo/trickle down economics don’t work for anyone but the wealthy.
But I’m a big believer in traditional family values, hard work, etc. and I think if our society was better set up we wouldn’t have to rely so much on government. Old school (i.e. not the current terminally online incel-ey variety) libertarians and leftists have way, way more in common than people think. Hell I’ve voted for moderate Republicans before, they just don’t exist in the mainstream anymore. The second conservatives decide to stop sucking ass on social issues and leave trickle down alone I’m all ears.
Anyway, I pretty much agree. The current state of affairs is bleak as fuck. The Democrats have overtly sabotaged pretty much every legitimate left wing candidate who’s gained traction in the last decade and the Republican Party has ostracized moderates in favor of evangelical looney bin folks. The majority of the country doesn’t like either candidate!
I don’t either. I voted Biden over Trump in 2020 and I’ll do it again if I have to, but I’m not going to be excited about it. I don’t necessarily think Kamala is a great option either, but you’re correct that it basically has to be her. What sucks is that Dems actually have some strong up and comers who I think will have a lot of appeal to moderates (I like Gretchen Whitmer in particular) but they made their bed and now they have to sleep in it. They’re incredible at shooting themselves directly in the dick.
As usual, OG South Park proves prophetic. It really is a giant douchebag and a turd sandwich. But at the end of the day…one candidate is a grouchy old dude who’s increasingly having senior moments, and the other openly wants to dissolve our democracy and has the Supreme Court to do it. I feel like if you care about our country (and I sure do! Contrary to popular belief lots of lefties do) the choice isn’t that hard, even though the alternative is uninspiring to say the least.
Maybe Kamala is vaguely more inspiring? I don’t know, I’ve never been very fond of her and I’ve followed her career since she was an AG because I had an inside scoop that she might wind up being a big deal. There just isn’t a correct decision. Should’ve had a goddamn primary, like literally everyone said.
I hear you. Funny thing is I’ll be sitting this one out just like last time. I say funny because your reasons for holding your nose and voting for Biden are pretty much the same as mine for… just not.
What a weird time.
Here in the US, a trademark that goes unused for at least 3 years is considered abandoned and becomes available for someone else to claim. However, that’s exactly why companies file registrations with a very wide assortment of uses, so they can pick one to use in commerce and keep the registration current, even if it’s as simple as, say, licensing Geo to American Eagle Outfitters to print on T-shirts or putting the Mercury logo on packages of replacement parts, or authorizing some Chinese toy company to make die cast models of Plymouth Prowlers for sale in Rite Aid.
The filing will include language such as “automobiles and parts thereof, scale model replicas of automobiles, toys, apparel, luggage, fragrances, small electronics, sports equipment…etc”. It’s actually kind of surprising the amount of products GM put the HUMMER brand on after it was discontinued as a marque
I always though HUMMER-branded men’s perfume is for gag gifts.
The other thing that kills me about Facebook groups is the complete and utter inability for people to just search their question first. The number of times I’ve seen the same question asked on a near daily basis, when one quick search or even 3 minute scroll would answer it is absolutely insane.
This is to say, I don’t think Facebook itself has killed the forum, but the modern internet and social media culture has. People expect exact answers in seconds with zero effort on their part. It’s far less common for people to do the research first, rather than just beg for help, and act indignant when people rightfully remind them that “hey, the answer is here thousands of times over, try first, then ask”
It was shocking to me how many people would ask for the absolute most basic info on NA miatas in the FB groups I was in when I had mine. A chassis that widely modified, fixed, enjoyed and owned has every basic answer under the sun answered for easy consumption, usually on the first half page of google results, and certainly in a quick FB group search.
That’s true. My go to when I have questions about my vehicles is (in this order):
It’s incredible how many times people ask on Facebook what’s the right oil viscosity and best brand to use on their insert your vehicle here
The number of times that I’ve thought a question was a joke, only to see that the person is really asking things that should either be simple or imply some really incorrect assumptions…it’s bad.
Sometimes I think the people asking those questions are looking for validation that they didnt seriously screw something up when they have already done ‘X’ and someone goes, man, you shouldnt have done that!
Algorithms should not apply to ‘search’ functions. My wife would use FB marketplace when we where searching for cars for the kids since Craigslist around here is just a bunch of garbage. She would find one of interest to show me, but then could no longer find, or, one would pop up that’s been listed for weeks, but had not previously shown up using exact same searches. Favorite is ‘ooh here’s one’ only to notice its 2000mi away but have search set to only 50mi.
Photobucket helped kill forums too. By trying to monetize photo host
ing, a lot of the how-to’s that were a huge part of forums died off. Youtube sorta did that as well. You see kids, back in the day, we didn’t have video, we had pictures!
Back in the 00’s storage was the key issue. Seems silly to think about it now, but if we had had the seemingly infinite data storage that exists today back then, forums might have stood a chance.
Oh man, the photobucket thing has burned me a couple times. I’ll spend a bunch of time scouring forums for some extremely specific issue I’m having. I’ll finally stumble across a post from 2006 that covers exactly what I need to know. I’ll scroll through and come across a how-to or post that says something like “this attached picture shows the part number you need to get to solve all your woes”, only to be greeted with the dreaded photobucket broken link image.
Between that, and coming across broken links that lead to long dead domains, it is sometimes hard to fall back on forum information that is more than, say, 10 or 15 years old.
I will always seek out the forums, but they’ve definitely gotten worse. Search functions don’t work as well, organization is lacking, and fewer people are pointing people back to the proven info. Combine that with worsening tribalism and you can’t solve problems nearly as easily. If it’s a new problem, half the responses will claim it never happens, a quarter will offer solutions that clearly won’t work, 15% will ask follow-up questions already answered in the post, 5% will talk about how this is the thing that made them reconsider their purchase, and 5% will try to help. Searching for a known problem will lead to a bunch of posts that mention someone had a fix, but they don’t link to or describe the fix.
Most of the posts are about buying (which is understandable, since it’s a big purchase and an exciting one) and there are lots of photos of cars in different colors (also understandable), so it’s a lot better for buyers than mechanics, but even that is made difficult by the number of people who don’t want to see the car they’ve chosen criticized or some competitor praised. So honest feedback is there, but you have to filter through a lot of fans.
Did FB cause any of that? Maybe, in the very broad way social media has impacted the entire landscape and more directly in the reduction of forum users, but I don’t know how much. I think social media as a whole has had a massive impact on how we exist online and I think that the push to more video and photo content has hurt the text-based forums and changed what people post to them.
Sears left the Sears Tower and we didn’t knock it down. The might be reasons to rebuild the lower levels to improve the conference rooms but how could you demolish the city’s most iconic skyscraper?
Sears didn’t own the Sears Tower by the time they left, GM owns Renaissance Center, the real estate is a not-insignificant asset that they have to deal with once they’re no longer occupying it themselves. There isn’t demand for that office space in the Detroit market, and renovating the towers to another use (eg, residential) is probably more logistically difficult and expensive than just building new.
Which is such a shame because a high-floor residential unit with those views would be amazing. Actually, it IS amazing, as I’ve been in a few of the hotel rooms.
Something else will get built there, probably a standard gentrification condo box with aluminum framed rectangular rainscreen cladding
Which is a shame, because John Portman’s buildings really feel special and dramatic in a way most current modernist structures just don’t.
I dunno, I think Gilbert is doing some nice stuff downtown. The Hudsons building seems to be turning out nice. And he absolutely did a fantastic job on the Book Building, imo.
https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2023/04/05/bedrock-300m-book-tower-renovation-detroit
But, like anything, time will tell.
Well, in the case of the Book Tower, starting with a masterpiece is kind of like being born on third base.
Though, a truly successful renovation does take a lot of skill, still kind of pissed about the missed opportunities with the Book-Cadillac (the lobby’s original ornate ceiling had survived 95% intact behind 1950s renovations, then got completely ripped out by Ferchill Group in favor of a plain drywall one, WTF was up with that?)
I have mostly abandoned forums in favor of FB groups, but there are still a few active ones. When I had my Elise, Lotus Talk was the place to go still and I got a lot from there. Now with my Peugeot, there is a forum that while not overly active these days, is still a treasure trove of info that has saved me several times. Meanwhile, for the ST205 and Toyota Crowns I had, it was all about the FB groups.
There’s certainly something to be said about the supremacy of FB groups for cars that have only become legal for US import in the past few years, especially those that were Japanese/Asian market exclusives. So much forum value is in long post history, but if there isn’t any of that in English, starting from scratch is a lot easier in a free and quick to make Facebook group that has a much wider audience by default
100%. And while the complaint that Matt mentioned about people asking the same damn questions every day are valid, when it comes to the Toyota Crown, there’s not an English language forum that has anything to do with the old ones. Same with the Celica, plenty of info, not enough on the ST205 specifically and man there were very few shared things between the Celica we got and the GT-Four. The Peugeot was common enough in England that that’s where all my info comes from and where the forum is based, so it’s been nice to have that again after the JDM stuff.
I have been arguing that social medial killed internet forums for years. And the searchability and public utility of facebook groups is nil compared to just running a search with any search engine and finding quality discussions on your topic. I still rely on forums for any deep diving I need to do.
However, it is not facebook alone. I think many people switched their automotive consumption from forums over to Youtube as well. Instead of scrolling every new post in your favorite forum, you are off watching youtube instead. But yeah, I blame facebook.
While I agree somewhat, on the surface of this, I do think there’s a distinction worth making. Most of the forum casuals, the folks who were told to “use the search function,” by the forum veterans after posting a common question for the umpteenth time, are the ones who migrated to FB (which, in my opinion is largely useless). People who, like me, care about the quality of information they get and aren’t interested in the same regurgitated echo chamber reverb, will keep visiting forums. In my experience, this is just a winnowing of the chaff.
The old forums are definitely often times priceless, especially if your car is older and/or more obscure. I will say however, in defense of YouTube, I have been able to find some really great tutorials and vehicle specific walk throughs of tasks on that platform, presented in a way that’s easier to follow than even some of the best “how to” forum posts from back in the day.
That being said, they each have their place and strengths when it comes to diagnosing issues or parsing information
I’m not actually disparaging youtube. I personally am guilty of diverting time I used to spend on forums to now watching youtube channels. I have a channel there myself. I think, as you state, youtube adds to the total value of knowledge available. Facebook restricts it behind passwords and is unsearchable as a whole, so I am not a fan of facebook groups. But I can find forum posts and youtube video content from one search on google, so thats a win.
Politics warning.
President Biden is three years older than Mr. Trump. 81 vs 78. We have old and cogent or less old and incoherent. We also have to choose a defender of democracy versus a wannabe dictator.
They’re both old! This traditional media hand-wringing about President Biden’s age is a red herring. Mr. Trump is every bit as old while being much less coherent. Ranting about sharks and batteries? C’mon, man.
Seriously. You could put Biden on a ventilator for the next four years and I’d still pick him over Trump.
Wow, it’s like the movie “Dave” but real life.
Feels more like Weekend at Bernie’s, but yeah.
Almost the same plot! Clang, Clang, Clang.
I’d pick a demented monkey with a incurable STD over that god damned idiot too.
Exactly. I live in Pennsylvania, so I get polled a lot. Every time I have a simple answer: I’m not voting for a single Republican while Trump is their leader.
100% this.
news media is just about getting rage clicks. it sucks.
This site is sometimes better for relatively unbiased policy coverage than any other site. Much credit to the writers.
I totally agree they do a great job. Us, on the other hand…. 🙂 Also, I liked your ‘C’mon, man’ punchline! I see what you did there.
agreed!
Harvey Keitel line just before speeding off in his NSX;
“Just because you are a character doesn’t mean you have character”
So Detroit regains Michigan Central Station but loses part of the RenCen? I know the RenCen doesn’t have quite the historical significance of Detroit’s older buildings, but it’s still a big part of Detroit’s story. As an elder Millennial, I’ve only know Detroit with the RenCen and it would be weird to lose it from the skyline. To me, it would be like tearing down the Hancock building in Chicago. Not as mind-boggling as the Sears tower but still a heavy loss.
It’s about time a Western government finally decided to strike back at China.
Underrated comment, even at 12 minutes from posting.
Can we send them the Kardashians and any peripherally-associated acts?
Pretty sure that’s against the Geneva Convention.
This had better be in the running for COTD!
Nah, this demands COTD.
China may have pledged no first use, but someone dumping Fiat and Dodge on them may classify as an undeclared nuclear strike.