Be Careful in the Field

[Ric7308]

You all be very careful out there!

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/artic ... 762786.php

[PLS7393]

Very true Ric, and this is reason number one why I do NOT work in Oakland.

[Jim Frame]

I grew up about 1/4 mile from the place described in the article. Things sure have changed!

[MikeT]

I agree about Oakland being dangerous. I was working on Golf Club Drive there back in 2019 and witnessed people driving on that narrow canyon road driving probably 60-80 miles an hour. One person drove right through a stop sign at a 3 way stop at a high rate of speed and collided with another vehicle which was badly damaged and then sped off. Luckily we were at a safe distance and nothing happened to me and my assistant nor our equipment and vehicles. I don't think anyone was injured in the accident. It was crazy to witness that. Some people treated that road like it was the Indianapolis speadway!

Looking out for thieves is a whole other danger!

[Ric7308]

The fact that the thieves brazenly pointed a gun at the driver and carjacked everything is what got my attention. Given the value of the equipment in survey vehicles, not to mention the people, I was concerned that some of your people could be next. I hope not.

[Jim Frame]

Given the value of the equipment in survey vehicles

Another good reason not to have identifying information on one's truck.

[Steve Martin]

Crime has gotten worse in Oakland over the last 10 years.
EBMUD had several instruments stolen during that timeframe.
The crew could be just 50' across the street and a truck would roll up, some lowlife would jump out and throw the instrument in the back and their off.
One crew even got a video from the neighbor who recognized the truck as the squatters occupying a house down the street. The police took a report but did not follow up. Only one instrument was recovered when a pawn shop owner called Leica to inquire about the instrument.

Another crew was narrowly missed by a drive by shooting, so yeah, be careful out there.

[DWoolley]

The United States is now a kleptocracy. The citizenry has found its place within the governance.

I believe I read the unemployment insurance was taken for $400 billion. California is reporting $20 billion. I have read numbers as high as $31 billion. The California authorities have recovered $1.1 billion. They do not expect to recover much more.

I believe I read we have given Ukraine more than the Vietnam war costs us over 15 years or some such matrix.

No foreseeable changes on the horizon. Hunker down, relax and hope the Reaper takes you in your sleep.

'Merica

[Jim Frame]

I believe I read we have given Ukraine more than the Vietnam war costs us over 15 years or some such matrix.

$111B for Ukraine in 2022 (source: USA Today) (Yeah, not the greatest source, but it *was* a fact-checking article.)

$844B for the Vietnam war in 2019 dollars (Same source, different article.)

Not even close.

[DWoolley]

Jim:

I conflated the article.

"U.S. government has pumped more money and weapons into supporting the Ukrainian military than it sent in 2020 to Afghanistan, Israel, and Egypt combined — surpassing in a matter of months three of the largest recipients of U.S. military aid in history."

"Before the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan last year — two decades after they were ousted from power — the U.S. government spent some $73 billion in military aid to Afghanistan, in addition to billions more it spent on the country’s reconstruction and the $837 billion it spent going to war there.

https://theintercept.com/2022/09/10/ukr ... oversight/

For context, think of dollars as seconds on a clock, a millions seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds on the same clock is 31 years. A trillion seconds is 31, 688 years.

No matter how you dice it, some family in Youngstown, Ohio [pick any city in the Rust Belt], with their adult children and grandkids living in the basement, living on the dole and enjoying their fentanyl, aren't feeling the Ukrainian love. I further read, 57 percent of all Americans cannot even afford to pay an unexpected $1,000 emergency expense.

If Comrade Putin decides to go nuclear, literally, I am hoping for a direct hit and not cloud drift for the kill, sweet mother of mercy, just one time, let my horse come in. Althoooough, a 3-legged kid, due to fallout, with the coordination to run would be a heck of a sight to see. Sorta puts Oakland into a different context.

Dim as the lights may burn, we can all be grateful Dick Winters and Easy Company, and of their respective peer groups, have passed. It would be a bitter pill, unjust, for them to see their sacrifices were essentially for nothing...grateful for those tender mercies.

'Merica, please pass the fentanyl.

[Jim Frame]

The last time the world tried to appease a well-armed megalomaniac -- around 1938 or so -- it only gave him more time to build his war machine. The U.S. subsequently lost 400,000 young men putting paid to that bill. (My dad's unit -- the 99th Reconnaissance Troop, part of the 99th Infantry Division -- arrived in Belgium just in time for the Battle of the Bulge. It was a tough winter. He didn't like to talk about it much, and he had nightmares until the day he died. See https://www.99recon.com/prologue.html for details.) It's much better to spend billions of dollars now so the Ukrainians can keep the lid on than having to send U.S. troops en masse at a later date. I think Dick Winter would agree.

[CBarrett]

Political discussions may cause issues in this forum...

I came from a country that had wars on it's soil, in WWII (my grandparents fought in it, my parents were 1-10 years old. Then we had a war in 1990's, my dad fought in it, I was already in the US and unable to have contact with my parents for several years. They survived. Two highschool friends did not. Severe Economic and political fallout also follows.

Russia has massive imperialistic designs, historically they believe they are entitled to access to Mediterranean and indian ocean at the minimum. Being almost landlocked is putting a big damper on their world dominating ambitions. Between Genghis Khan and Alexander the great and then the Katherine the great etc... they believe it is their god given right and destiny.

Growing up in the middle of that was, well, interesting to say the least.