Things are bad...

[Guy Mancuso]

I had to drive from Los Angeles to San Bernardino this morning and passed the rail yards in Fontana. There were rows of idle locomotives lined up on a track alongside the freeway. I didn't pay attention to my odometer right away, but from when I did, there were almost three miles of locos, nose to tail. This is a graphic indicator of how slow things are.

Did you win or lose. Lawyer talk here

 

[stephengilbert]

Have to return tomorrow. We finished testimony at 4 and the judge asked if we wanted to argue then or at 9:30 tomorrow. Before I could grab him by the throat, my co-counsel said tomorrow.

But to quote a lawyer I used to work for when he was asked how court went: "Lose a few, continue a few."

 

[Georg Baumann]

Not sure what your biggest concerns are Folks.

My biggest worry ist that we may not recover from the current events! A bit tough for me to write that as it would require a lenghty in depth analysis from my historical point of view to make it reasonable.

My bottom line is that we are in danger to loose the "nano thin layer" called civilisation, the very layer that seperates us from barbarism and anarchy.

Real moral and ethical values that strengthen the foundation of every civilisation are dilluted to say the least, if not gone. We turned into a "quarterly reports society" and it failed completly. I am afraid, if we do not re adjust our core values and start acting accordingly, our very foundation is endangered to melt away like ice in the arctic. The impact of that crisis has not even begun to show its ugly face yet, it will take another 6 months until the real impact becomes more obvious in my opinion....

The inherent vicious cycle would be recession -> depression -> war, and all I hope is that we will be able to stop this dynamic and avoid the worst case, but I am not holding my breath.... Really really sad. I find it heartbraking to see the cues of unemployed getting longer by the minute....

 

[kweide]

Georg,

totally agree.
Its time for a revolution. Globalization is needed, not on economics but on moral, ethics and social behavior. Return to the real facts of mankind, to the essential values. That is NOT money or how to betray your neighbor. Time to get some strength from family and love. If not, mankind is doomed...
We only have ONE earth but we deal with it as if have two of them. We only have one family but treat them mostly bad. Leaving home in the morning should be a celebration, a deep wish to see again.
Georg, i feel there is a way. Be a forerunner. I try to do it too....
Hope for a better world...

 

[Georg Baumann]

I bet, well, not fair.... <grin> I know Jack as a somewhat similiar view, for different reasons may be, nevertheless! .... Concerning the chance of recovery that is....

Klaus, there will be a point where I trust only one thing .... the loaded pumpgun in my office. Civil unrest and worse are phenomenons inevitably coming if "they" continue to treat people as if they are nothing but.... human capital!

Return to the real facts of mankind, to the essential values.

Here is the problem.... such values have to be first point agendas, like.... NOW! This is global, hence, the time of national interests is over! - Please! - This recession is a kindergarden compared with the more than likely economical impacts climate change will cause on every continent, starting in Asia!. We have a choice here! Of course, this is a task on a scale we never faced before, but we have to .... !

 

[johnastovall]

Maybe we all need to go back and read, "Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered."

 

[Georg Baumann]

Dublin.... Texas....

Hi John! - I used to live close to Dublin - Ireland - quite some time.

That would be nice, wouldn't it! Read one book and that's it.

We have to work a helluva lot if we want results.... The politicians, where I am, have other interests!

Honestly, ... and this is personal in deed!

I lost trust in democracy, not that I ever had such, but in my world, we are governed by suits who know ****!

This is a stupid totalitarian form of burocracy, and .... hold on to your butts.... inefficient! :ROTFL:

I shall be excused now, I am celebrating birthday and have to attend.... besides, drunk as Hell .... cheers!

Thanks John!

 

[Oxide Blu]

I know what you mean... :ROTFL:
But the other side of all the fun...
I did a few times let young people here know to stay out of trouble...
Like with a minor conviction, can not go to USA...
I'm all good though... :angel:

I guess it isn't as bad as Australia telling someone they can't come in because they have a criminal record.
:ROTFL:

 

[jonoslack]

I shall be excused now, I am celebrating birthday and have to attend.... besides, drunk as Hell .... cheers!

Thanks John!

Happy Birthday

and yes . . . I am english, but that was NOT meant ironically

 

[waynelake]

I guess it isn't as bad as Australia telling someone they can't come in because they have a criminal record.
:ROTFL:

I think its if have marijuana conviction, can not go to USA.

I understand humor, but Australia? Theres rivalry between NZ/Aust...
If can not get into NZ (applying for citizenship), Australia would be next choice. Any Kiwi can go to Australia for long as they want, like even decades, and vise versa.

I think if anyone were to go to Sth Island, NZ, and longer the better, would not want to leave, a photographic nirvana, weather permitting...

What some others are posting, is maybe similar to what I've thought about. Like how bad... a way out... Japan went through a decade in the '90s... I do not know precisely, but economy crashed, the govt putting money into development, the economy started to recover, make progress. They stopped putting more money back into development and it crashed again, 10 years before recovering.

 

[Oxide Blu]

I understand humor, but Australia? Theres rivalry between NZ/Aust...

Well, I was just considering the irony -- Australia not allowing someone in because of a criminal background, but the whole country was founded as a dumping ground for England's criminals. Not like the US -- we are only England's street urchins.

 

[waynelake]

Well, I was just considering the irony -- Australia not allowing someone in because of a criminal background, but the whole country was founded as a dumping ground for England's criminals. Not like the US -- we are only England's street urchins.

Well now I understand...
...and, Mmm... any excuse to escape England... :ROTFL:

 

[JohnH]

Well, I was just considering the irony -- Australia not allowing someone in because of a criminal background, but the whole country was founded as a dumping ground for England's criminals. Not like the US -- we are only England's street urchins.

As an Australian, I love being able to tell North Americans - mainly those from USA - that they too were settled by convicts... [And not all of the colonies in Australia were convict-settled - some were settled by free settlers. ]
:toocool:

Up to the War of Independence the Brits sent large numbers of their felons to the colonies in America. Then they had to store them on hulks in the Thames. Eventually they decided to ship them to colonies in the newer world...

According to NPR -

'In 1718, the British Parliament passed the Transportation Act, under which England began sending its imprisoned convicts to be sold as indentured servants in the American colonies. While the law provoked outrage among many colonists -- Benjamin Franklin equated it to packing up North American rattlesnakes and sending them all to England -- the influx of ex-convicts provided cheap and immediate labor for many planters and merchants. After 1718, approximately 60,000 convicts, dubbed "the King's passengers," were sent from England to America. Ninety percent of them stayed in Maryland and Virginia. Although some returned to England once their servitude was over, many remained and began their new lives in the colonies.'

Another reference - 'In 1769 Dr. Johnson, speaking of Americans, said to a friend, “Sir, they are a race of convicts and ought to be content with anything we may allow them short of hanging.” In the latest edition of Boswell, who chronicled this saying, it is explained by the following footnote: “Convicts were sent to nine of the American settlements. According to one estimate, about 2000 had been sent for many years annually. Dr. Lang, after comparing various estimates, concludes that the number sent might be about 50,000 altogether.”1 Again, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, under the article “Botany Bay,” we read: “On the revolt of the New England colonies, the convict establishments in America were no longer available, and so the attention of the British government was turned to Botany Bay, and in 1787 a penal settlement was formed there.” In keeping with these statements is a conversation related in the autobiography of Dr. Francis Lieber (p. 180). The scene was a breakfast in 1844 at Dr. Ferguson’s in London. “I remarked how curious a fact it was that all American women look so genteel and refined, even the lowest; small heads, fine silky hair, delicate and marked eyebrows. The Doctor answered, ‘Oh, that is easily accounted for. The super-abundance of public women, who are always rather good-looking, were sent over to America in early times.’”'

This is a learning site...

John

 

[Georg Baumann]

Happy Birthday

and yes . . . I am english, but that was NOT meant ironically

Hehehe! Thanks man!

 

[Oxide Blu]

As an Australian, I love being able to tell North Americans - mainly those from USA - that they too were settled by convicts...

Not my family -- they weren't felons until they got here.
:ROTFL:

 

[atanabe]

. . . After 1718, approximately 60,000 convicts, dubbed "the King's passengers," were sent from England to America. Ninety percent of them stayed in Maryland and Virginia. Although some returned to England once their servitude was over, many remained and began their new lives in the colonies.'

John

I think the majority took jobs as Senators and Congressmen :ROTFL:
footnote: Washington DC is in Maryland bordered by Virginia