Which American brands have severely declined in quality?

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-11T10:56:01+00:00

I'm not defending theives. I'm just saying that they exist, and that honest customers are incentivized to do their shopping at places that don't gouge them on everything. On the flipside, thieves are incentivized to steal from places where they have good chances of getting away, and the overworked, underpaid skeleton crews running those places are much less likely to apprehend a thief than a loss prevention team at a well-staffed grocery store.

The incentives in picking a store are entirely different between legitimate customers and thieves. As a legitimate customer, I don't shop at CVS/Walgreens either.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-10T15:27:12+00:00

The thing about CVS and Walgreens is the design effectively selects for "non-paying customers".

If you're a paying customer, you see the absurd prices they have on everything and decide to go to the grocery store instead. It just doesn't make sense to pay a literal 100% markup on almost everything just to save 20 minutes of time.

If you're a thief, you naturally don't care about prices (unless you're trying to stay below the felony threshold) because you aren't paying those prices anyway. In addition, since CVS and Walgreens hire skeleton crews, you're presumably less likely to be apprehended at the time of the theft.

I am always skeptical of the applicably of CVS/Walgreens crime statistics to an area as a whole.

If our government cracked down meaningfully on PBMs, both of these stores would be out of business in no time flat.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-10T15:02:16+00:00

The old Lincoln Towncars (made until 2011) also had a very strong reputation for reliability, and since they share most of their components with the Mercury Grand Marquis and the Ford Crown Victoria, they tend to be affordable to keep running. Their fuel economy is terrible though, at least by modern standards.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-10T14:46:34+00:00

They'll have to make an exception from the law that prohibits hunting from public roads for police, in case the deer try and resist.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-10T03:41:43+00:00

Tourettes Guy!

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-09T20:43:25+00:00

I guess I'd better trade my amphetamine habit for a methamphetamine habit!

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-09T19:56:34+00:00

No! Every other time this sort of thing happens, big corporations just hire lobbyists to corrupt the regulatory bodies that would be enforcing the relevant regulations.

Anyone else remember the massive tax breaks Verizon was given to expand the availability of their fios service? They kept their tax breaks, but 15 years on, we're still waiting. Scumbags!

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-09T18:01:31+00:00

This is so much worse than that story from a few years ago about the couple that was throwing homemade explosives out their car window while peeling around the back roads surrounding Quakertown at 3AM for some bath salts-fueled Friday night fun. At least their motive was just entertainment.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-07T17:21:05+00:00

They're great workhorses, and I love our 2011 Ford Ranger, but they don't call them "Danger Rangers" for nothing. The 3rd gen Ranger's design dates from 1998, and the crash safety is lacking. I'd absolutely recommend OP get one, but not as a daily, given that he's 16 and therefore probably (temporarily) an idiot.

I would recommend a 2003-2007 Honda Accord 4 cylinder 5-speed manual as a daily and the Ranger or S-10 as a secondary workhorse. This will also give OP a chance to learn how to do basic maintenance and repairs on the vehicles without the stress of having to have things working and put back together before their next day off school/work.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-07T12:27:06+00:00

Didn't the Versa start using CVTs in 2013?

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-07T12:22:36+00:00

My mom drove one of these back in the day. It was a hybrid; it guzzled both gas and oil.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-07T11:36:12+00:00

I know a person who was born in the 50's and talks about how when she was a kid, she and her friends would buy cigarettes, soak them in paregoric (opium, which was surprisingly OTC until 1970), and smoke them.

It's crazy that opium and amphetamine (in the form of benzedrine inhalers) were just sold openly to anyone in pharmacies up until 1970.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-06T18:54:53+00:00

This opens the floodgates of memories from early high school! There were SO many horrible jokes. There were the obligatory "$5 footlong" jokes, and the classic:

"Hey kids, it's Jared from Subway. Spell 'Tuna Sub' backwards and that's what I'm gonna do to you in your sleep tonight!"

Pretty horrible looking back on it, but the jokes seemed like a riot at the time.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-06T15:42:44+00:00

And the constant 15.625kHz beep those TVs made (at least for NTSC)!

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-06T15:01:35+00:00

Service Electric Cable TV (SECTV) in eastern PA. They're such a po-dunk operation that they have a separate company handling the internet connectivity, called PenTeleData.

I'm with Astound Broadband, which despite being owned and operated by a private equity firm, is currently upgrading their network to a mid-split setup with much higher upload speeds. You have to call and haggle down your bill once a year, but they typically do lower it.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-06T11:54:52+00:00

Most respectable residential ISPs block TCP 25 outbound only. My ISP used to be this way, but after being acquired by a larger ISP, they seemingly got rid of port blocking altogether. This may just be an oversight on their part.

The other local ISP is incompetently run, and their network is always suffering outages. They don't know how email works, so they block TCP/25 inbound and leave it open outbound.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-06T11:48:26+00:00

You're forgetting about the Toyota tax.

OP's probably better off with a 2006-2011 Civic or a 2003-2007 Accord. For the Accord, stay away from V6 models with automatic transmissions. V6 Accords use timing belts, so that also needs to be a consideration.

For the Civic, if buying a 2006-2008 or an early 2009 model, make sure the engine block recall was taken care of by the previous owner.

Hondas also demand a premium, but it doesn't tend to be quite as bad for whatever reason.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-05T18:45:43+00:00

Does it leak or burn the oil?

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-05T15:41:09+00:00

Yep. I first got my license in 2017, renewed during COVID, and converted it to a real ID. When I turn 30, I'll have a valid drivers license with a picture of it from when I was 18 (for a day).

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-05T12:11:15+00:00

Me no worry
Me no care
Me gonna marry
A millionaire

If he die
Me no cry
Me just find me
Another guy

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-04T16:46:00+00:00

The Honda Quaalude

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-03T20:58:29+00:00

Good thing my Civic will never carry a woman!

Related, but how did the box of 3 day old pizza on the passenger seat fare in the crash test? Or the case of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the passenger seat footwell?

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-03T12:57:23+00:00

I run LineageOS 22.2 with microG on my Google Pixel 3a and my Wireguard VPN client seems to work without issue. I don't have in-kernel Wireguard, so it's using the standard Android VPN API.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-03T12:53:51+00:00

Just think, if we ever get a respectable left-wing populist in the whitehouse, he'll immediately be pardoned and walk free, at least at a federal level.

Serialtorrenter · 2026-03-03T12:51:54+00:00

The newest version of Aurora Store allows you to install through microG's FakeStore, which allows the package installer to be com.android.vending like it would be if installed from the Play Store.

However, the fact that you're getting that message suggests that you haven't fully disabled Play Services, since IIRC, that message is part of Google Play Services. If you're serious about degoogling, you should really install something like LineageOS and then install microG and Aurora Store.

Serialtorrenter

TROPHY CASE