Buy American!

[T3hPwn3r3r]

I went to Detroit weekend before last... While it is cleaner and better kept than Chicago, I must say the place has been DEVASTATED by the switch of the American people to the ultimate boring car - the Toyota Corolla.

Just a few pictures from the trip... I don't have many, as we mainly hung around the south and west side.
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs265.snc1/9234_248301585245_652345245_8634644_2868643_n.jpg
To Cinci!


http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs265.snc1/9234_248301600245_652345245_8634646_3283293_n.jpg
Crossing the Ohio river

http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs245.snc1/9234_248301620245_652345245_8634649_3403988_n.jpg
Touchdown Jesus

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs265.snc1/9234_248301610245_652345245_8634647_7468242_n.jpg
Dayton

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs265.snc1/9234_248301630245_652345245_8634651_587981_n.jpg
During my 1 night stay in Detroit, I met 4 people who had been fired from this plant.

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs265.snc1/9234_248301635245_652345245_8634652_3816578_n.jpg
Not positive what is in this building, but the auto industry has a presence everywhere. I believe it's either on the Willys/Jeep Freeway or the Chrysler Freeway

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs265.snc1/9234_248301645245_652345245_8634653_4462594_n.jpg
This place at 1 AM? Bad news.

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs245.snc1/9234_248301650245_652345245_8634654_8332275_n.jpg
All in all, the place is beautiful, better kept and planned than Chicago, the people are among the most hard working and character-filled people you'll ever meet. Many are now working 80 hours a week in fast food restaurants. Help these guys out, give them their job back.

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs245.snc1/9234_249594450245_652345245_8668048_1832323_n.jpg
Very little traffic, surprisingly, even during rush hour.

After my studies in long distance driving, not counting getting lost after a very quick highway pit stop (my navigator forgot a map), we made it from Lexington, KY to a NW suburb of Detroit in less than 5 hours!

[1Kurgan1]

I'm surprised to hear this job from you, but I'm also surprised you met so many fired from Ford, they are the ones who didn't take the loan and are doing the best. I say buy GM! :p

[FordGT90Concept]

Detroit is a modern pseudo ghost town. It's sad, but what can you do about it? Unions sucked the life out of the American auto industry. The unions aren't going away so the leech will eventually kill its host. As far as I know, none of the employees of Toyota are members of the UAW which makes Toyota, naturally, more profitable. Detroit just can't compete as long as the UAW is around.

[T3hPwn3r3r]

Why surprised to hear it from me? Either way, I've recently become romantically involved with a girl who I used to be friends with a LONG time ago who lives there now, so... Yeah. That was partially my motivation for buying American, God knows how her dad would react if I drove a Passat up :P

[FordGT90Concept]

LMAO! XD

Buy American, indeed. A shame a good chunk of it is going to the UAW though. :(

[T3hPwn3r3r]

Yeah, but I mean, what character does a Corolla have?

Then... what character does a 2010 Camaro have?

It turns into a giant fucking robot FFS :P

[FordGT90Concept]

Corolla = Hello Kitty? XD

[T3hPwn3r3r]

Corolla = Hello Kitty? XD

No, it's a soulless Asian refrigerator

[T3hPwn3r3r]

On that note I toyed with a Maserati today in the GT, think I've got driving stick down pretty well.

[T3hPwn3r3r]

Went up to Detroit again last weekend, going again this weekend... Hell, I might as well move there.

Pictures from the road up and then a few there, forgive me, I can't take pics and drive at the same time:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/Slash4040/100_0670.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/Slash4040/100_0671.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/Slash4040/100_0672.jpg
Lovely KY highways
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/Slash4040/100_0673.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y192/Slash4040/100_0674.jpg
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[T3hPwn3r3r]

Going back this weekend, not driving though, maybe crossing the border as well.

I'll be taking a nicer camera to get shots of the MANY things I missed in rush hour Detroit traffic.

[FordGT90Concept]

Some of the shots remind me of Northwest Iowa closer to the Missouri river (rolling hills with lots of corn). The shots of Detroit look a lot like Omaha (relatively flat with lots of trees).

[T3hPwn3r3r]

Some of the shots remind me of Northwest Iowa closer to the Missouri river (rolling hills with lots of corn). The shots of Detroit look a lot like Omaha (relatively flat with lots of trees).
I'll take pictures inside the actual city itself this weekend, however, the driving is very aggressive and for someone from a quaint midwestern mid-sized city, me taking them whilst driving would not have been safe.

[btarunr]

Wow, you are saying "buy American"? Nice. Detroit seems to be a wonderful place to drive. Kind of like America's 'Autobahn'.

[T3hPwn3r3r]

Wow, you are saying "buy American"? Nice. Detroit seems to be a wonderful place to drive. Kind of like America's 'Autobahn'.

1. Yeah. I like American cars.
2. No, traffic is insane inside the city.
3. Yes, you drive a little faster, but America's "autobahn" is in the west where speed limits aren't enforced in many places.

Basically, if a wonderful place to drive means being a giant clusterfuck, then yeah.

Keep in mind most of the pictures are from Ohio and KY

[Deusxmachina]

All in all, the place is beautiful, better kept and planned than Chicago, the people are among the most hard working and character-filled people you'll ever meet. Many are now working 80 hours a week in fast food restaurants. Help these guys out, give them their job back.

Vote for people who don't keep making government bigger, confiscating your money, then wasting it, and destroying the value of a dollar, and businesses might grow again and people will have jobs. Or, at the least, people might have enough saved after taxes to live off of if they lose their jobs.

It was funny looking at most of the pictures and thinking, "That looks pretty nice," and then being told they're from Ohio and Kentucky and not Detroit.

I don't know if a city being cleaner and better-kept than Chicago is much of an accomplishment or not. :p I hate going there.

[jmcslob]

Detroit is a modern pseudo ghost town. It's sad, but what can you do about it? Unions sucked the life out of the American auto industry. The unions aren't going away so the leech will eventually kill its host. As far as I know, none of the employees of Toyota are members of the UAW which makes Toyota, naturally, more profitable. Detroit just can't compete as long as the UAW is around.
Ford come on Labor is behind executive pay...I'm not saying the Unions are innocent but it's not just a labor fault...Don't forget Executives are the ones who decided to take money that was supposed to go to pensions as bonus's that BTW is and was Illegal and is now a high percentage of the cost of a car...

[T3hPwn3r3r]

Vote for people who don't keep making government bigger, confiscating your money, then wasting it, and destroying the value of a dollar, and businesses might grow again and people will have jobs. Or, at the least, people might have enough saved after taxes to live off of if they lose their jobs.

It was funny looking at most of the pictures and thinking, "That looks pretty nice," and then being told they're from Ohio and Kentucky and not Detroit.

I don't know if a city being cleaner and better-kept than Chicago is much of an accomplishment or not. :p I hate going there.

Quit your conservative fearmongering. Also, Chicago is amazing! :D

You can't blame this financial crisis on Obama, it happened far before he had the power to do anything about it.

If you wanna talk about confiscating our money, what do you have to say about this?
"Lost & Unaccounted for in Iraq - $9 billion of US taxpayers' money and $549.7 milion in spare parts shipped in 2004 to US contractors. Also, per ABC News, 190,000 guns, including 110,000 AK-47 rifles. "
"U.S. Monthly Spending in Iraq - $12 billion in 2008

U.S. Spending per Second - $5,000 in 2008 (per Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on May 5, 2008)"

Note that the Iraq war was completely unnecessary and I am not an anti-war hippy by any means, but I think if we're gonna spend this VAST amount of money bombing a highly undeveloped country, it should be Afghanistan.

[MT Alex]

I don't want to highjack this thread, but I doubt that a guy with "Ventura '12" for a signature is a Bush or Obama fanboy, and you are probably misjudging his call for a return to a more Libertarian form of government as being "conservative." He could be describing every administration since Wilson. And, if you haven't noticed, the dollar is toast.:(

As far as Chicago being amazing, I have heard that it has some fantastic museums.

But enough, back to the pictures of Detroit.

[FordGT90Concept]

$12 billion is chump change in a $480 (40:1) billion defense budget. $2.2+ trillion spent on bailouts in a $11 trillion (5:1) economy--now that hurts.

The national debt increases $3.94 billion per day.

The federal budget was in the red by over $1 trillion in fiscal year 2008. For every day of that year, the federal government was $2.74 billion short.


Edit: The Fed is going to start trying to pay off that $2.2 trillion soon. Failure to do so means inflation will run amock which is likely to be followed by a long, deep, depression.

[jmcslob]

What no pics of the Ghetto you have drive thru to get to Ford field....Looks like a war zone or @least it did 2 years ago
You just ahd to get that Pic of 8 Mile Rd. huh.....

[Deusxmachina]

I don't want to highjack this thread, but I doubt that a guy with "Ventura '12" for a signature is a Bush or Obama fanboy, and you are probably misjudging his call for a return to a more Libertarian form of government as being "conservative."

;)

There's a reason I often say, "Big Government." It's more a "big picture" thing.

T3hPwn3r3r, if you want to use examples of confiscated money, you should aim a little bigger. Such as the two TRILLION dollars unaccounted for by the Pentagon circa 9/10/2001. It would have been big news if not for what happened the next day.

Oh, and apparently all the records were kept in Building 7, which conveniently got destroyed. You know, the building that fell down exactly like the Twin Towers did despite not getting hit by a plane. What an amazing coincidence that three buildings would fall down in that manner all on the same day.

And, yes, some Detroit ghetto pics would be interesting.

[Cuzza]

No, it's a soulless Asian refrigerator


i agree the corolla is boring bland car but so are a lot of american cars these days. example: my parents had a holiday to the states, they had a rental car, it was a chevy impala. my mum told me about it and I said "coooool", thinking of old 60s impalas. then I found out it was a rounded non-descript FWD blob on wheels, just like a Toyota.

man you gotta realise that most people don't give a shit about the soul of the car. they want it to do it's job, the doors to open and shut, run with minimal maintenence until you dont like it anymore, be cheap to run and to stay cool inside. just like a refrigerator.

I do feel bad for the loss of the american auto industry, I am a big Ford fan. But if they can't compete economically, tough shit, get over it, or get some protectionism going.

[T3hPwn3r3r]

I don't want to highjack this thread, but I doubt that a guy with "Ventura '12" for a signature is a Bush or Obama fanboy, and you are probably misjudging his call for a return to a more Libertarian form of government as being "conservative." He could be describing every administration since Wilson. And, if you haven't noticed, the dollar is toast.:(

As far as Chicago being amazing, I have heard that it has some fantastic museums.

But enough, back to the pictures of Detroit.

I'll take some when I go back up in 2 weeks, I went yesterday as well (2 times in 7 days) and will make an extended stay soon.

As for Chicago museums, they're tourist traps, explore the suburbs by car and the city by foot and avoid every thing except for the tower skydecks that are listed in tourism info.

Find little hole in the wall resturaunts and be prepared for heaven.

[T3hPwn3r3r]

;)

There's a reason I often say, "Big Government." It's more a "big picture" thing.

T3hPwn3r3r, if you want to use examples of confiscated money, you should aim a little bigger. Such as the two TRILLION dollars unaccounted for by the Pentagon circa 9/10/2001. It would have been big news if not for what happened the next day.

Oh, and apparently all the records were kept in Building 7, which conveniently got destroyed. You know, the building that fell down exactly like the Twin Towers did despite not getting hit by a plane. What an amazing coincidence that three buildings would fall down in that manner all on the same day.

And, yes, some Detroit ghetto pics would be interesting.

I thought all of the 9/11 "truthers" were too embarrassed from being called out on their idiocy for the past 8 years to still talk about nonsense like that.

[T3hPwn3r3r]

i agree the corolla is boring bland car but so are a lot of american cars these days. example: my parents had a holiday to the states, they had a rental car, it was a chevy impala. my mum told me about it and I said "coooool", thinking of old 60s impalas. then I found out it was a rounded non-descript FWD blob on wheels, just like a Toyota.

man you gotta realise that most people don't give a shit about the soul of the car. they want it to do it's job, the doors to open and shut, run with minimal maintenence until you dont like it anymore, be cheap to run and to stay cool inside. just like a refrigerator.

I do feel bad for the loss of the american auto industry, I am a big Ford fan. But if they can't compete economically, tough shit, get over it, or get some protectionism going.
Your avatar in this post is entirely correct, in fact, the whole shebang is spot on.

I do want Ford and GM to stick around, honestly, because though the majority of Americans want appliances, I want a driver's car!

[FordGT90Concept]

I thought all of the 9/11 "truthers" were too embarrassed from being called out on their idiocy for the past 8 years to still talk about nonsense like that.
Uncle Sam keeps so many secrets in his jacket that today, he looks a lot like Michael Moore. 9/11 is no exception.

Who do you trust more: Your fellow citizens or your government?

[Deusxmachina]

I thought all of the 9/11 "truthers" were too embarrassed from being called out on their idiocy for the past 8 years to still talk about nonsense like that.

Look up how many buildings in history have fallen in that way due to fire. Planes? Building 7 was not hit by a plane.

Maybe we'd have more answers and evidence if the international crime scene had not been so quickly bulldozed and smelted away.

Engineers and architects and pilots and firemen and even some politicians around the world are still trying to put the pieces together. If you believe the pieces are already all put together, it must be bliss to not have such things weigh on your mind.

Trust your government. They've never lied to you before.

[T3hPwn3r3r]

I don't think the government is trustworthy at all.
Do I think the government could have prevented 9/11? Yes
Do I think they did it or planned it or instructed it at all? Not a bit.

That's ridiculous.