I'm praying my hard times are about to end. I was interviewed by a major machine tool company for a field job. It's been over a year since I became involved with an asbestos and toxic waste problem that ultimately got me fired. My unemployment was denied ( I was fired) and I could not find work for 6 months. I hope no one in this group is naive enough to think anyone gives a damm about toxic waste ... not in Maryland anyway. I'm less then 5 years from retirement and almost lost it all...my wife,house,health and now the bastards are threatening me with filing false charges about the toxic waste.... even though it was found. Of course I am only telling you part of the story...right? I mean in this great country of lawyers and lawsuits no one could be shafted like that.? Pray to God you never find out the way I did. I've read stories about guys that completely flipped out and took maters into their own hands for less then this company has put me through. However, I've never thought of it. .
In the meantime A congressman can take a bribe, have it documented by the FBI on video, have his house searched and turn up $90,000 in his freezer, and his "rights" are being viloated because he was caught.
I am so sick of the double standard in this country. If guy ends up going free, it's time we all started burning our tax returns.
They are the best money can buy. Welcome to the new USA. Vote, for who? They are all the same. Bend over "It's better now than it will EVER be again". I've been saying that for 20 yrs now..
========== The scary part is that you are right....
Unka George (George McDuffee)
There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the "money touch," but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), U.S. Republican (later Progressive) politician, president. Letter, 15 Nov. 1913.
Things have changed for the worse? I take it you guys know shit about history.
In "da good old days"....things were far far worse than they are today. The abuses of the "good ol days" gave us many of our laws today.
Perhaps you should read up on Tammany Hall, Huey Long and so on and on and on.
Btw..anyone seen Jimmy Hoffa in a while?
Gunner
"If thy pride is sorely vexed when others disparage your offering, be as lamb's wool is to cold rain and the Gore-tex of Odin's raiment is to gullshit in the gale, for thy angst shall vex them not at all. Yea, they shall scorn thee all the more. Rejoice in sharing what you have to share without expectation of adoration, knowing that sharing your treasure does not diminish your treasure but enriches it."
Strange, I don't seen to remember an Enron or the cost of health care ins being un affordable to many or the loss of machining jobs or 14 million illegal aliens & hospitals closing because of it & the rapid rise of city, state taxes 20 years ago, but what do I know I 'm a just a machine shop owner for the last 34 years.
The type of corruption or issues have changed over the years..not the fact of corruption or issues.
Safety, child labor, machinegun toting strike breakers, the Stockmarket Collapse of 1929, ward healers and on and on.
Perhaps you never heard of the Luddites, or the Wobblies, or the company towns, or heard the term Shanty Irish, or Irish Need Not Apply (as they were as numerous as fleas and would work for almost free..those damned Irish wetbacks), or the numbers of Chinese and Irish buried per mile when the railroads were being built.
Luddites were a case in point..google the term.
34 yrs? You started in the business during the Shining Times. America having come out of WW2 as the top dog, with the will and the ability to outproduce every nation on the planet, with the educational system to turn out top notch engineers and inventors. While there have been serious ups and downs..the US never ceased being the cream de la cream during those years. Europe was still in ruins after two conflagrations..ww1 and ww2...and the USSR an expanding threat on the near horizon. The Space Race, Vietnam, rebuilding Europe.
History gives one a perspective on the subject. Health care?..Chuckle..for much of our history..if your co workers and friends could get you on a wagon and to a "hospital"..you might live..maybe. The Company pay for it? Right. You were fired if you couldnt make it back to work the next day even if you lost that arm after getting sucked into an unguarded gear or an overhead belt system.
Actually..it was the Euros that took care of its craftsmen. In the US..you were simply gears in a machine, easily enough to replace after they had cleaned out the blood and body parts at your work station.
Count your blessings. Gunner
"If thy pride is sorely vexed when others disparage your offering, be as lamb's wool is to cold rain and the Gore-tex of Odin's raiment is to gullshit in the gale, for thy angst shall vex them not at all. Yea, they shall scorn thee all the more. Rejoice in sharing what you have to share without expectation of adoration, knowing that sharing your treasure does not diminish your treasure but enriches it."
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