I am pretty sure you and I are of the same generation, maybe only a few years apart, so we both know who “these people” are;

They are the same 30 to 40% of the electorate that would have followed Nixon to the gates of hell.

The same ones that fought tooth and nail to resist the Civil Rights movement in the ‘60’s

The same ones that thought McCarthy was spot on in his endeavors.

The same ones that thought the British should handle their own squabbles in Europe

The same ones that thought John Thomas Scopes should have been burned at the stake.

The same ones that thought the participants in the UAW Sit Down Strike should have been shot.

The same ones that thought the Suffragettes needed to be jailed.

Who are these people?

The same ones that that thought King George III was getting a bad rap and that those assholes in Philadelphia needed to keep it down.

The ones that think that no one should be allowed to stand in their way, regardless of who it is they are following, as long as that person hates the same people they do.

You know who these people are.

The same ones that have been standing in the way of human progress since time immemorial and think they are right, no matter the time or place.

They are the ones we have been disagreeing with our entire lives.

They are the ones that WE keep dragging, kicking and screaming, into the future.

Just imagine if we didn’t have to drag them anymore.

Since it is a new program, the presence of an engineer shouldn't come as a surprise.

And FWIW, I do this exact same sort of work - driving trucks transporting US mail intercity and interstate. I physically handle the mail about 10% of the time. All of it is loaded into transport units that are on wheels or palletized.

One of the most common pieces of equipment looks like this, called a "GPC" or "General Purpose Container" ;


Note the yellow device with the round hole at the top. This is a hitch so several can be hooked together and pulled with an electric Tug. The opposite end has a small length of pipe of slightly smaller diameter that the round hole fits onto.

The Tug looks like this, though this is a brand new unit and most in current use are much older designs, but they look very similar;




Others include "BMC" (Bulk Mail Container), Wire baskets (Simply called "Wires" ) and Canvas Hampers.
Here's 3 of the primary and most common containers in one photo;



"CIN BMC" would stand for "Cincinnati Bulk Mail Center". If you look carefully at that aluminum container, you can see a handle that has a mechanism hanging straight down from the center of it, with a pin visible at the bottom. That is a locator pin which can be used in the Distribution and Sorting centers that have in-floor conveyors, basically a chain that runs just under the floor level that is accessible via a channel. The pin is dropped through the channel and a hitch will grab the pin and pull the container along to the various sorting stations it might need to go to.

The mail hauled in the trucks mentioned in the OP travel from one sorting center to another, and is then sorted for street delivery. More often than not, the driver either places the trailer against a doc and drops the trailer or places it in a numbered parking space and a yard jockey truck comes along and places it on a dock.

Or did you spend your entire career driving tractor trailers and using a CB in the only county in the country where calling another truck driver a “Good Buddy” is NOT considered an insult?

So....was it flat or van? If flat, step? Skateboard? Drop? Low boy? Gooseneck? Or were you in the Parking Lots? Lift gate? Or tanks? Smooth bore or baffled? Maybe you did wiggle wagons? Bed bugger? Bulk? Coal bucket? If van, dry? Reefer perhaps. Or was it Hot shots? Did you stay on the big roads or were you most often running through the woods? Being as well versed in trucker vernacular as you clearly are, I’m sure you know precisely what each and every one of those terms refers to without the need to Google them.


You said:

Which is, for such a short statement, loaded with ignorance.



Using that expression in an off hand way as you did is tantamount to calling a complete stranger a “Faggot”. THAT’S WHAT IT MEANS. “Referring to the 1970’s use of the term” means you are clueless as to how the term has evolved and is currently used, PERIOD. It wasn’t a derogatory term until the movie “Convoy” came out and the popularity of CB’s soared. Then every schmuck with a radio in their car thought they were “The Rubber Duck” and the rest of the industry got sick of it. It took all of 6 months for the meaning to universally change. Using that saying in the way you did, without proper context, displays an understanding of Trucking culture and CB slang as deep as a mud puddle.



Except that’s not what it means to every truck driver in the country older than 45, which is the vast majority of them.



That is not only selective editing, it is inaccurate and shows you didn’t really do the research.

Googleling the term “Good Buddy” gives a shitload of results that clearly explain that it is most assuredly a pejorative.





Yeah. In the seventies.. Do you often make references to disco as if it is common or something that everyone regularly participates in?





Keyword “out of style”. Yeah. No shit. By at LEAST 30 years. “23 Skidoo” and all.



Actually, you DID mention those, as I highlited above;

“Do they still use CB ham radio?”

There is no such thing as a “CB Ham Radio”. CB and Ham are 2 different radio types, using different frequencies. A Ham radio can call around the planet, basically. A legal (unmodified) Citizens Band will barely reach 5 miles. If you want to sound like you know what you’re talking about, at least try and get some understanding of the subject matter.

I took issue with this because I, like millions of other professional drivers, are sick and fucking tired of people thinking that throwing around the term “Good Buddy” makes them sound as if they are in the know, when all it does is display a profound ignorance of the industry and culture shared by over 4 million of your fellow Americans.

If you still think I’m wrong, and that the term is harmless, go to any large truck stop, get on a CB and ask “Are there any good buddies around?”

Try it. I dare you. You’ll get an earful you won’t soon forget.

From here









Here's the NASA Website story;
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/features/supersonic-shockwave-interaction.html

( A minor aside; In the movie at the beginning of this scene, the boys are seen walking in front of the World Trade Center, with the twin towers off their right shoulders. This would mean they were walking East, toward Wall Street and the NY Stock Exchange. The scene to follow takes place ostensibly in the New York Mercantile Exchange where commodities are traded, which is located on the Hudson River, basically behind them. In other words, the movie shows them walking the wrong way, away from the building which houses the trading floor!)


So here's the gist;

The Duke Brothers thought they had information that the Orange harvest was going to be slim, and when that would be announced, the price would spike - simple law of supply and demand.

So they tell their "Pit Trader" to BUY all the FCOJ he can right from the opening bell, thinking that they were going to be able to buy OJ at a lower price initially and after the news report from the Agriculture Department broke, they would have a large position at a lower than market price.

Essentially, they were trying to "Corner the Market" by buying up as many contracts as their trader could. This created a buying frenzy, as the rest of the pit wants to follow the lead of such a well known willing buyer (Bearing in mind the Duke Brothers own a very large commodities trading brokerage. What they do affects everyone else). This causes the price to rise. Simple supply and demand; Lots of buyers, only a few sellers, price rises.

With each buy order, the Duke brothers are laying out real cash from their own account, so they are dependent on the information they have being correct and the price of each contract continue to go up........

BUT....we know it ISN'T correct, and so do Lewis and Billy Ray.

So they wait.....and Billy Ray gets anxious....and they wait....until....

Lewis sees the price get to the level he wants and shouts out that he is selling April contracts at "142!"

Now there is a new seller and the whole pit goes nuts. But do Lewis and Billy Ray actually OWN the FCOJ contracts they are selling? No. They don't. They are "Selling Short" meaning they are selling that which they do not own, but can, or will either borrow from someone else temporarily (which can actually happen when you sell short on the stock market) or the sale is covered before the end of the trading day via a "buy to cover".

With each short sale they make, they are padding their account. Each and every sale is real dollars to them, even though they don't own a thing yet.

The price begins to fall. More sellers than buyers now, so the law stated above is reversed. They want to sell as much as they can as fast as they can because they know the crop report is going to be announced soon and they want as much cash as they can possibly gather because they KNOW the truth and it is the opposite of what the Duke brothers think. This is where the Duke Brothers realize "That's not right" and see our heroes in the pit, selling like mad. They realize the info on the crop report is wrong and hurry down to the pit to get their trader to stop buying and start selling. But alas, he is not successful.

So the announcement comes and the pit goes silent as they all watch the television.

The INSTANT the agriculture rep says "The cold winter has apparently not affected the orange harvest" the pit goes wild again because everyone that had bought at high prices knows now that those prices were too high and they have to unload them or they will have bought FCOJ for way more than market value.

So a selling frenzy ensues. Lewis and Billy Ray fold their arms. They're done selling. The price plummets, because everyone is trying to sell overpriced contracts and there are virtually zero buyers. Lewis watches the price fall to a point he likes (around 46 or so) and says "Buy em'" and now they are one of the only traders in the pit willing to buy what everyone else is desperate to sell.

The price plummets even more all to their advantage. BTW, This is where the money Ophelia and Coleman gave them comes into play, because even though they have all the cash from the short sales from before, now they have the extra cash the other two gave them to buy even more contracts.

A side note pointed out on one blog I read long ago;

In order to really make this hurt the Dukes, at this point the boys would SPECIFICALLY AND PURPOSEFULLY NOT BUY from the Duke's trader or the Dukes themselves. They want to stick the Dukes with a shit load of overpriced contracts, so the entire time they are buying, they are ignoring the Dukes.

And they did. The boys basically did what the Dukes thought they were going to do; Corner the FCOJ market.

The closing bell rings (BTW This was ostensibly an entire trading day of say, 6 hours or so, much longer than the 5 minutes the scene takes) and the boys look up at the board, showing the closing price of 29. They started selling short at 142. The difference is all profit to them.

And then the shit hits the fan.

"Margin call, gentlemen.

Why you can't expect...

You know the rules. All accounts to be settled at the end of the day's trading, without exception.

You know perfectly well we don't have three hundred ninety four million dollars in cash!

I'm sorry, boys. Put the Duke brothers' seats on the exchange up for sale at once, Seize all assets of Duke & Duke Commodity Brokers, as well as all personal holdings of Randolph and Mortimer Duke.....


We're ruined!"


If one were to assume all the losses stated by Randolph ($394,000,000) went to the boys, and that's a good bet and more, adjusted for inflation, $394 mil from 1983 to today comes out to just under a billion. $999.94 million, according to this inflation calculator.

There are several real world issues with this entire scenario of course, the least of which is that it could never happen today because of trading curbs and likely couldn't have back in 1983 either.

But it's a fun scene, and one of my all time favorite movies.

Hope that helps a little.

::::Looks frantically for the rule that requires me to accede to your silly whims:::::

Nope. Nothing there





::::sniff::::: That’s the sweetest thing anyone has said to me all day. The answer is still no.



A good guess on a coin toss is not only incredibly pedestrian, it will not get you what you want, so please stop asking






Not only do I not know enough about you to construct a reasonable prevarication, I have virtually zero interest in remedying that situation





Again with the kindness, the flattery and the utterly remarkable insight. Also, putting “friend” in quotes doesn’t make you look sincere. It makes you look dubious.

Still....nope. Not gonna happen.

A HERETIC I AM
Happily trifling with DU neophytes for 15 years

Feel better? Now that it is a few hours on, do you feel like you gave me the good old what for? A proper online thumping, as it were?

I am so happy you made the insinuation that I, someone who has been a member here almost 5 years longer than you have, perhaps doesn't belong or should find another message board to post on. Why didn't you just come out and tell me you thought I was a closet Republican and I should go and post at Free Republic? Why be so coy?

It is clear you think I don't belong here, or rather, and perhaps more to your true point, I SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO POST ON DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT I SAID

There. That's really what this is all about, right? You don't like it when your sensibilities are distressed and dammit all to hell, THAT PERSON RIGHT THERE SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO SAY THESE THINGS!!. And my sensibilities, or anyone's for that matter, should not be distressed. At all.

Right?

I really, REALLY love this bit from your post #50 ;



Do you realize how privileged that makes YOU sound? I'm betting the answer is No, you don't. Of course, I have no idea if you have ever traveled overseas, or if you have ever even left the county you were born in, but the arrogance is astounding.

If I were to call you or any other woman a "Twat" then I would expect and frankly deserve to have that post or thread hidden. It is a pejorative in that context. But that's not what happened. I didn't do that. And in the context of the piece I put up, the author is calling the President of the United States, Donald Trump a Twat. Which he absolutely is.

Googling the word brings this up, from Wikipedia;



The secondary definition is "also used in British English as vulgar slang for the vulva or female genitals in general"

Which means that even though the word can be used in the context you find offensive, THAT'S NOT HOW IT WAS USED here. There is a reason the 'vulgar' definition is secondary; Because it's not the first!

One other thing; You said "You are "tired" of people "being offended"? Aw, yeah..Whiney white guys have it so tough, don't they?"

1) You put "tired" and "being offended" in quotes. Nowhere in ANY of my responses on this thread did I use those words in a way that your quote marks make sense.
2) You follow that up suggesting I am "tired of people being offended". That is absurd on it's face. Humans get offended all the time for all sorts of things. To quote you, "That doesn't mean I have to like, or feel comfortable with all.of their aspects." But on the other hand, so what?
3) You suggested I was "privileged" twice. As if it is an insult. Funny! Good one! As a truck driver, I rarely find myself referred to in that way. Thanks!
4) You think I am on my way to being permanently banned from DU? Really? Well, it's been 5,672 days now, and 18,750 posts. About 3 and 1/3 posts per day on average. I suppose I should start using more words you don't approve of, eh?
5) I only whine when I am tired. I wasn't tired during any of my previous posts. I am a white guy however, so you at least got one thing spot on correct in this whole thread.
6) No. I don't give a fuck anymore. I am not going to walk on eggshells, so to speak, on this board simply on the off chance that one or two or however many people might find one single fault with something I post. The vast majority of posts I put up are innocuous, by and large. It took someone else's writing to get you to be pissed off at me! That's pretty funny if you think about it.

I don't put up that many OP's. I'm not going to alter my posts just to satisfy you or anyone else who insists on finding offense where none is intended.

OK? Bless your little heart and have a nice day now, hear?

From a good friend on Facebook shared this outstanding diatribe:

https://www.facebook.com/terry.casey1/posts/10161693482585093