Can you feel it? It's getting bad out there. I just heard that all the schools in my county that

[Divine Discontent]

are under 500 students will close this summer. That's hundreds and hundreds of jobs lost. Not sure if the stimulus money will stop this from occurring but I see the signs of mass struggling everywhere I look - more friends and family unable to pay their bills, more homeless, thousands of jobs cut from every big employer every day. My sibling lost his high paying (well, high paying to me, $30/hr) job.

All I can say is hang in there everyone. Buy a bunch of rice & beans, some honey, vitamins, and maybe some water purification tabs just to be prepared, like in a hurricane when you get batteries, blankets, water, etc, because who knows how bad this will get.


Oprah is doing a homeless episode today (assume it will be rebroadcast tonight) with Lisa Ling, about Sacramento homeless (Lisa's hometown), and this video about LA's homeless is very telling about how bad it's getting.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x275833

[HillbillyBob]

1. Its funny when I said stock up on rice and beans last year because it is going to

get bad out there I was a doom and gloom pessimist..I guess it depends on timing.
We had a decent garden and got way more beans than we planed for when we planted.
I always try to buy what is on sale and had stocked up on rice before it went nuts with a shortage.

[Divine Discontent]

2. good move! yes, I remember saying something last year as it started getting bad before people I

know LOST their homes, and eventually jobs, and seeing people here on DU become homeless and jobless, and YES, people accused anyone saying what we say as being doom and gloomers... they're the scared ones - we're the prepared ones they'll run to.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. This is what eventually happens when selfish people are told they shouldn't

have to pay taxes.

[Divine Discontent]

4. yes, and it's amazing that 52,000 of them are suing Switzerland to stop USB from telling the US govt

who they are! Sick anti-American pigs. All of them - and I'm certain out of the 52,000, we'll know thousands of the names (or someone on DU will).

[marions ghost]

5. What's the update on that?

when are we supposed to know the names....

[Divine Discontent]

6. gotta work it's way through the Swiss courts apparently,

"$14.8 billion in assets" - nice.

"The settlement provoked intensive questioning over the future of Switzerland’s secretive banking industry as international pressure mounts for more transparency."

Swiss govt bowed to us pressure so, I'm thinking this will pretty much come out who at least the 250-300 are that the US was enquiring about, not so sure about the 51,700 others that the suit represents. I'm sure there's people from ALL parties, backgrounds, etc, in that list.

[marions ghost]

7. good I hope this comes out

I don't really care what their backgrounds or politics are. Tax evasion is tax evasion and with all this loss of taxpayer money going on now, we're gonna need more from somewhere.

This needs to stop.