I'm strictly reporting facts. How you feel about them is your decision. Though I suspect you didn't read everything I wrote if you come to that conlusion.

That was last quarter. You don't have to be very good at economics to look at world crop supplies, the age of the current farming equipment fleet, and other such data and conclude this next year will be tough for ag companies like Deere.

Of course the above is nothing new - ag is a cyclical business, you see the above ever 5-10 years. Previous to the current CEO the last layoffs of this type of position was the mid 1980s - several other CEOs saw the same signs the current one does and were able to manage it without layoffs.

Don't have China become involved in the conflict.

This is the tricky one for China - if Russia continues on the path they are clearly look to go, they will be attacking NATO next which in turns means NATO will go full war to respond and China will be forced to figure out how they respond to that. Could go in many different ways of course.

I hope it never gets that far, but that depends on Ukraine winning.

Sure, but they won't spread to the majority of the population in 100 years.

The danger is the crankshaft will hit the oil and foam up. Start the engine run at some rpm for a minute then check for foam at the dipstick if okay do a test drive with sharp corners and check again - if no foam you are okay. If ther is foam drain some out and then let the engine / foam settle overnight before driving.

Read the manual. Changing the oil too soon is not helpful. modern oils often give the least wear at 8000 miles (the longest chain moleculs break down and that is accounted for by making the longer than needed.

if you really want the engine to last install a bypass filter use 25k mile oil and then do an oil analisys every 10k miles when you replace the filters - only changa oil when the lab says so. the lab will charge more than the cost of an oil change which is why almost nobody does this.

for most of us the engine will out last the gest of the car with just regular oil changes so this above is not useful advice.

Diesel is clearly better if you are driving 20,000+miles per year. However you are not doing near that, so it won't be worth the extra cost. Today diesel is so much more expensive than gas that the real advantage is only that diesel engines last longer, and in your case the body will fail first.

How much of your driving is towing vs unloaded? If you are only towing then a large engine is better - displacement = torque = more fuel efficient. However if you are mostly unloaded something like the Ford Ecoboost engine is much more fuel efficient unloaded and when towing you lean on the turbo to use more fuel (as much as the large displacement engine!) and so still have the power - but the engine won't last as long overall and will break more often - thus not a good choice if you mostly tow.

I would lean to the 3/4 ton trucks. While a 1/2 ton truck has the specs to do the job, all of them are aimed at the luxury car market these days, and so they will make compromises that make them not as good for real work. 3/4 ton still is targeted at people doing real work and so they will have better compromises. (if you were asking 30 years ago a 1/2 ton would be fine)

Do you need something now? Electric trucks are just coming out and should start hitting the used market soon. They only do about 100 miles when towing, but are much more environmentally friendly if you can live with that limitation. I wouldn't think about sticking with the truck you have now for 3 more years to see what happens here (and also 3 more years to get real world experience with how electric trucks really work for people in your application)

It is up to congress to stop that not the courts. He should be impeached if he tries that.

Only if rail has to compete with 'free' public roads. Private rail had a long history before cars. They were not always loved, but they worked.

Finding the replacement is what worries me.

Well that and if the bed is going how is the frame

The bed is starting to rot off my 1999 truck, I'm not sure how or if I should repair it

So would I. Those in the military who are talking give me the impression they have done tests and while the results are classified (thus I don't know what the truth is) they have counter measures (which again are classified so I don't know what they might be)

Most of the planet was not accessable. It was there but your local population grew until the land couldn't support more. There wasn't much opportunity to move as the surronding villages had the same problem.

of course when a famon came you got a few generations of peace here and there

For most of history you would be better off if you could kill the next village over. You want to be friends with the people in your village, but if you kill the next one you can expand your farm/hunting/gathering grounds and then leave it to your kids - while otherwise you won't have enough food for all the kids and your DNA is in danger of not getting passed on.

In our modern world we mostly have plenty of food (and when we don't lack of land is not the issue), but that isn't what our DNA is evolved to "think"

That is the meme, but when I talk to military people they point out Russian incompetence. They do not believe NATO ships are that vulnerable. Ukraine is using a lot of tanks, but because they are using them according to good military doctrine they are not taking nearly as many losses. Note that Ukraine and Russia both got their tank instructions from the old Soviet playbook not a NATO book (though Ukraine as had NATO training as well), there is nothing about using a tank well Russia shouldn't know, but they are failing to follow their own book on how to use tanks.

Be careful here. Experts would tell you that Russia was going to invade Ukraine. However as you say Russia wasn't ready for it.

Unfortunately China is not running out of everything and they are looking like they might back Russia here. Iran is also backing Russia and not to be underestimated.

WWI was called the great war, and the war to end all wars until WWII broke out. I sometimes call WWII just the great war part 2 - the treaties that "ended" WWI were clearly setup (on hindsight!) to make the war break out again in the future when Germany got sick of those treaties.

The point is names are added after the fact and often don't make a lot of sense if you know details.

Often car companies offer a rebate or the low rate. If you do the math the rebate is often for more than the difference in interest payments between the low and normal rate.

We are also hoping it doesn't turn into WWIII. It could for sure, but there is the possibility that things can calm down in a few years.