Global Cycling News

On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 07:12:05 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 3:57:41 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/26/2020 4:42 PM, wrote:
On Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 1:09:57 PM UTC-7, Ralph Barone wrote:
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Sun, 26 Jul 2020 08:43:51 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

The country with probably the longest history of slavery making comments
like that? Those that they didn't sell into slavery or enslave in foreign
countries, they shipped of to Australian to die.

White Cargo
The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America
https://nyupress.org/9780814742969/white-cargo/


Snopes gives that meme a grade of “Well, not quite true”.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ir...early-america/

Snopes and Answers are entirely politicized and misleading. Don't believe one single thing they "rule" on.

OK, give us your alternative.

It certainly isn't some ignorant biased lying bull**** from someone like you who will simply take the opposite opinion of mine just like CNN does of Trump such as when Trump says that China is going bad things by invading Hong Kong and CNN then defends the Chinese Communist Party. You are the sort of filth that if you weren't so old, weak and ready to die would be beaten to death.

Jeeeze but you are stupid. "China invading Hong Kong"? As Hong Kong is
a part of China their actions in Hong Kong are no different from the
Federal Government's actions in Oregon.

What is it that they say, "Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander"?

Cheers,
John B.

On Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 6:24:49 AM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/28/2020 6:41 AM, Andre Jute wrote:
On Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 2:32:42 AM UTC+1, Frank Krygowski wrote:


I play a lot of traditional Irish tunes with my friends. It's well known
that (for example) Donegal fiddling is heavily influenced by Scottish
fiddling, and there are songs and tunes in both areas that are closely
related. It's said the reason for all that is the regular migrations of
seasonal workers.
--
- Frank Krygowski

If you kept your mouth closed, Franki-boy, you would seem less ignorant.. Get a map, look at where Donegal is, right next to the separate country of Northern Ireland, read up about the Plantation, and even you might eventually come to the conclusion that "migrations of seasonal workers" had absolutely nothing to do with any similarity of folk music between Donegal and adjacent Scottish-settled countries, and consanguinity and an open border everything.

You sound like an idiot even on America, so common sense dictates that you should STFU about distant nations for fear of sounding even more of an idiotic jerk.

Andre Jute
What a smug, ignorant moron this man Krygowski is

I normally ignore Jute the Troll, but some of his misinformation is too
vile to let slide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donegal_fiddle_tradition

"The Donegal fiddle tradition is the way of playing the fiddle that is
traditional in County Donegal, Ireland. It is one of the distinct fiddle
traditions within Irish traditional music.[1]

"The distinctness of the Donegal tradition developed due to the close
relations between Donegal and Scotland, and the Donegal repertoire and
style has influences from Scottish fiddle music. For example, in
addition to the standard tune types such as Jigs and Reels, the Donegal
tradition also has Highlands (influenced by the Scottish Strathspey). ..."

--
- Frank Krygowski

Tell us all again how I didn't hit my head on a tree branch in the bike lane in Livermore because you've been there and done that you moron. If there is one thing that you know all about it is life, the universe and everything. And you make us all aghast at your intelligence with every posting.

On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 10:59:14 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 7/27/2020 10:12 AM, wrote:
On Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 3:57:41 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/26/2020 4:42 PM, wrote:
On Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 1:09:57 PM UTC-7, Ralph Barone wrote:
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Sun, 26 Jul 2020 08:43:51 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

The country with probably the longest history of slavery making comments
like that? Those that they didn't sell into slavery or enslave in foreign
countries, they shipped of to Australian to die.

White Cargo
The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America
https://nyupress.org/9780814742969/white-cargo/


Snopes gives that meme a grade of “Well, not quite true”.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ir...early-america/

Snopes and Answers are entirely politicized and misleading. Don't believe one single thing they "rule" on.

OK, give us your alternative.

It certainly isn't some ignorant biased lying bull**** from someone like you...

As usual, Tom, you avoided the question and sunk into middle school
playground insults.

The question was the veracity of an article on historical events. Many
such articles are tainted by present day political opinions, and most
historical events have complicated causes.

How do you propose we discern reality? Hint: It's extremely unlikely
that it will consistently come from a right wing extremist website.

So Tom, answer the question.

Frank, Frank! You just gotta stop trying to confuse Tom with reality.
He has his own little world in which he is all knowing and always
right.

If you jerk him out into the real world and he has to fact reality
there is no telling what the results will be.

Cheers,
John B.

On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 08:27:38 -0700, sms
wrote:

On 7/27/2020 9:30 AM, John B. Slocomb wrote:

snip?

Seriously now, isn't it possible in the U.S. today to get along on
minimum salary? I don't mean to have the 40" TV in the toilet and all,
but to get along? Maybe only one bicycle (I know how scary that is)
and a second hand car, pay the rent and eat?

Yes and no. A single person could survive on a minimum wage job, renting
a room from someone, using food stamps and a food bank for food, and not
owning a car. But they could not rent a market-rate apartment with a
minimum wage job. To rent their own apartment they would have to get s
Section 8 voucher or get into a subsidized Below Market Rate (BMR)
apartment (for which there is a big waiting list).

Certainly I haven't been in the U.S. in nearly 50 years but, while I
don't doubt you, it seems almost unbelievable that in the "greatest
economy in the world" a working man can't get along without government
assistance.

In contrast, in this little downtrodden nation, our "Cleaning Lady"
who comes in half a day, and undoubtedly works somewhere else the
other half, supports two school age kids - her husband ran off and
left her - rents a small, maybe 2 - 3 room place, owns a small
motorcycle, all without any help whatsoever from the Government,
although in honesty I have to say that Thailand has universal health
care.

Cheers,
John B.

On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 08:37:12 -0500, AMuzi wrote:

On 7/27/2020 5:37 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 01:14:11 -0700 (PDT), Lou Holtman
wrote:

On Monday, July 27, 2020 at 4:49:21 AM UTC+2, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/27/2020 12:30 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 01:05:05 +0000 (UTC), Ralph Barone
wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Sun, 26 Jul 2020 20:09:49 +0000 (UTC), Ralph Barone
wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Sun, 26 Jul 2020 08:43:51 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

The country with probably the longest history of slavery making comments
like that? Those that they didn't sell into slavery or enslave in foreign
countries, they shipped of to Australian to die.

White Cargo
The Forgotten History of Britain?s White Slaves in America
https://nyupress.org/9780814742969/white-cargo/

Snopes gives that meme a grade of ?Well, not quite true?.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ir...early-america/

As usual, reality lives between the extremes. The consensus seems to
be that Snopes is generally correct, but I prefer to read (skim) the
available literature and make up my own mind about a topic I know
little. So far, the only thing I've read worth debating is whether
indentured servitude or volunteer slavery is bad, evil, illegal, etc
with plenty of opinions at each extreme.


Right. And there are still a lot of legal ways to be “indentured”. Just
listen to Ernest Tubb’s song Sixteen Tons or talk to somebody working
multiple minimum wage jobs to barely pay for food and rent.


Seriously now, isn't it possible in the U.S. today to get along on
minimum salary? I don't mean to have the 40" TV in the toilet and all,
but to get along? Maybe only one bicycle (I know how scary that is)
and a second hand car, pay the rent and eat?

I know that some states have an extremely low minimum but California,
for example, it is $13.00/hour - $104/8 hour day, $520/5 day week.
Cheers,
John B.

At the start of our marriage, I felt fairly poor. Our bank account was
scarily low. I didn't see how we would ever afford a house.

I read a book called _Champagne Living on a Beer Budget_ or something
like that. It seemed intended for people living in a big city apartment,
which was not us; but it had tons of tips, like "Why do you think your
four kitchen chairs have to match? Buy whatever's at Goodwill and paint
them. Why do you think your toaster needs to be chrome? Paint a rusty
one. Why do you need two cars, or even one? Ride your bike!" And "Good
old stuff is GOOD!"

We kind of followed that advice for a while. (Except we did buy the
tandem.) In a few years, we had our down payment for a house. A few
years later, we were paying cash to buy cars. We didn't have fancy
furniture, the world's best stereo, the fanciest bikes. But we didn't
have debt, except for the house - and we paid that off early.

I now know a young couple in our neighborhood who spend thousands of
dollars at the drop of a hat, while complaining about not having money.
Heck, their boat probably cost as much as our finest car.


--
- Frank Krygowski

It is all about choices. I'm from a generation brought up with 'save up first, then buy'. Followed that rule my whole life except for my house which I also paid off early. It took me a while to understand the credit card concept because it didn't fit into my mindset, still doesn't.

Lou

When I lived in Riverside Calif. I had to get a credit card as most
fuel stations were "Exact change or credit card only". So I got one.
On Payday I'd take my check into the bank, deposit it and go right
across the office to the credit card guys and pay my last month's
charges.

One payday the credit card guy says, "You know you don't have to pay
this all in one month" and I told him that according to the contract
if I paid within one month of getting my bill there was no interest
charge.

The guy replied, "Yup, a few of you have figured that out".

Cheers,
John B.


Have you ever considered running the Treasury? You're a
natural.

No, it is probably "Un-American" not to borrow money these days :-)

Cheers,
John B.

On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 08:42:03 -0700, sms
wrote:

On 7/27/2020 3:37 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:

snip

When I lived in Riverside Calif. I had to get a credit card as most
fuel stations were "Exact change or credit card only". So I got one.
On Payday I'd take my check into the bank, deposit it and go right
across the office to the credit card guys and pay my last month's
charges.

Wow, you could actually pay your credit card bill in a bank back then?

56.1% of Americans pay their credit card bill in full every month (this
was in 2018, pre-Covid). So more than "a few" people understand that
paying 9-24% interest is probably not in their best interest (no pun
intended).

These days, there are big financial advantages to paying with a credit
card versus cash, check, or debit card, as long as you pay your bill n
full each month.

Over here it is impossible for a retired person to have a "credit
card", the banks just won't issue one. What we have is a "debt card"
which serves the same function but is only valid for whatever monies
you happen to have in the account against which the card is issued.

Currently there is no advantage to paying by card, at least in any
face to face situation, but given the advantage to both the banks and
businesses in dealing by computer the day is obviously coming when
payment by cash will require a surcharge :-)

Cheers,
John B.

On Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 12:23:07 PM UTC+1, news18 wrote:
On Tue, 28 Jul 2020 03:41:10 -0700, Andre Jute wrote:

On Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 2:32:42 AM UTC+1, Frank Krygowski wrote:


I play a lot of traditional Irish tunes with my friends. It's well
known that (for example) Donegal fiddling is heavily influenced by
Scottish fiddling, and there are songs and tunes in both areas that are
closely related. It's said the reason for all that is the regular
migrations of seasonal workers.
--
- Frank Krygowski

If you kept your mouth closed, Franki-boy, you would seem less ignorant.
Get a map, look at where Donegal is, right next to the separate country
of Northern Ireland, read up about the Plantation, and even you might
eventually come to the conclusion that "migrations of seasonal workers"
had absolutely nothing to do with any similarity of folk music between
Donegal and adjacent Scottish-settled countries, and consanguinity and
an open border everything.

Lol, thus speaks someone who read it on Wikipedia or was it the local
tourist signage.

Nah, I didn't claim expertise. But I've been to Donegal many times, I know where it is, I know what is right next to it, and I know where those right next to it came from. As you clearly still don't know. So I'll leave you wallow in your ignorance.

Andre Jute What a smug, ignorant moron

What was that book that you claimed summarised all of world history;
Gideons, Gibbons, whatever. I love it when, after claiming expertise,
people show their ignorance by claiming 'Northern Ireland' when it has SFA
to do with the subject matter.

Oh dear. See what I said above. Here's a tip: Northern Ireland has *everything* to do with it.

Unsigned out of contempt for the thief Peter Howard, aka "news18"

On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 21:35:39 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 7/28/2020 10:11 AM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 07:12:05 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 3:57:41 PM UTC-7, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/26/2020 4:42 PM, wrote:
On Sunday, July 26, 2020 at 1:09:57 PM UTC-7, Ralph Barone wrote:
Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Sun, 26 Jul 2020 08:43:51 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

The country with probably the longest history of slavery making comments
like that? Those that they didn't sell into slavery or enslave in foreign
countries, they shipped of to Australian to die.

White Cargo
The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America
https://nyupress.org/9780814742969/white-cargo/


Snopes gives that meme a grade of “Well, not quite true”.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ir...early-america/

Snopes and Answers are entirely politicized and misleading. Don't believe one single thing they "rule" on.

OK, give us your alternative.

It certainly isn't some ignorant biased lying bull**** from someone like you who will simply take the opposite opinion of mine just like CNN does of Trump such as when Trump says that China is going bad things by invading Hong Kong and CNN then defends the Chinese Communist Party. You are the sort of filth that if you weren't so old, weak and ready to die would be beaten to death.

Jeeeze but you are stupid. "China invading Hong Kong"? As Hong Kong is
a part of China their actions in Hong Kong are no different from the
Federal Government's actions in Oregon.

What is it that they say, "Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander"?

Interesting point. But I'd say China's moves are more worrisome than
those of the Trump administration, largely because Trumpers don't have
complete control over the courts.

Yet.

Hong Kong, it is doubtful.

The history is that the island was deeded to the British in 1842 as a
result of the first Opium War. As Hong Kong island is really a pretty
small place the British expanded to the main land in 1860 after the
2nd Opium War and additional territory was leased in 1898, for 99
years. In 1999 the lease ran out and the island and the New
Territories were returned to Chinese domain. It has been said that
retaining the island only, as Briton was entitled to do, was not
practical due to the limited space.

The agreement was that China would guarantee Hong Kong's economic and
political systems for 50 years after the transfer.

Now then, During the period of British ownership Hong Kong was ruled
by a governor appointed by the Crown and all senior officers in the
government were appointed by the Crown. In addition to the appointed
officials Hong Kong had a 70 (I believe) man executive counsel,
appointed in earlier times and elected, I believe, later on.

So, Hong Kong has no real "democratic" history, in the usual sense,
nor did the Chinese ever agree to a "democratic government" for the
area.

Next, It is required by article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law, which
came into force in 1997 that a "Security Law" should be enacted by the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,

Article 23 of the Basic Law states:
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on
its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition,
subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state
secrets, to prohibit foreign political organisations or bodies from
conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit
political organisations or bodies of the Region from establishing ties
with foreign political organisations or bodies.

However the Hong Kong Administration did not comply with the agreed
Article 23 and in 2020 the Chinese Government enacted a security law
for Hong Kong.

Cheers,
John B.

On Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 2:24:49 PM UTC+1, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/28/2020 6:41 AM, Andre Jute wrote:
On Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 2:32:42 AM UTC+1, Frank Krygowski wrote:


I play a lot of traditional Irish tunes with my friends. It's well known
that (for example) Donegal fiddling is heavily influenced by Scottish
fiddling, and there are songs and tunes in both areas that are closely
related. It's said the reason for all that is the regular migrations of
seasonal workers.
--
- Frank Krygowski

If you kept your mouth closed, Franki-boy, you would seem less ignorant.. Get a map, look at where Donegal is, right next to the separate country of Northern Ireland, read up about the Plantation, and even you might eventually come to the conclusion that "migrations of seasonal workers" had absolutely nothing to do with any similarity of folk music between Donegal and adjacent Scottish-settled countries, and consanguinity and an open border everything.

You sound like an idiot even on America, so common sense dictates that you should STFU about distant nations for fear of sounding even more of an idiotic jerk.

Andre Jute
What a smug, ignorant moron this man Krygowski is

I normally ignore Jute the Troll, but some of his misinformation is too
vile to let slide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donegal_fiddle_tradition

"The Donegal fiddle tradition is the way of playing the fiddle that is
traditional in County Donegal, Ireland. It is one of the distinct fiddle
traditions within Irish traditional music.[1]

"The distinctness of the Donegal tradition developed due to the close
relations between Donegal and Scotland, and the Donegal repertoire and
style has influences from Scottish fiddle music. For example, in
addition to the standard tune types such as Jigs and Reels, the Donegal
tradition also has Highlands (influenced by the Scottish Strathspey). ..."

--
- Frank Krygowski

You should have quit while you were ahead, Franki-boy. Like the idiot you are you claimed that "the reason for all that is the regular migrations of seasonal workers." Even your shoddy source says absolutely nothing about the "migrations of seasonal workers", because it isn't true. You made it up in your desperate desire to sound like an expert.

I already gave you all the necessary tips to work it out for yourself: the geography of Donegal and Northern Ireland, and the history of the Plantation. But you didn't look it up, did you? You're really no better than Slow Johnny: one hit on the notoriously unreliable Wikipedia and you claim to be an expert on other people's countries. You just can't help yourself, no matter how often you're shown up as an ignorant windbag.

Okay. The reason Donegal music is somewhat different from what is played in the rest of Ireland is indeed Scottish influence, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with Irishmen going across the sea as seasonal labourers. And it has everything to do with the Plantation of Scottish families and whole tribes in Northern Ireland (which your ignorant sidekick the thief Peter Howard claims has nothing to do with it, leaving us with the belief that he reads a map as counterproductively as you do), so that the cast of Northern Irish music -- right next door to Donegal for the entire length of that long county -- is decidedly Scottish.

Go find a better reference, moron, and come apologise for misleading us.

Andre Jute
Not holding my breath for the graceless coward Krygowski to apologise

On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 21:39:09 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 7/28/2020 10:42 AM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Mon, 27 Jul 2020 08:27:38 -0700, sms
wrote:

On 7/27/2020 9:30 AM, John B. Slocomb wrote:

snip?

Seriously now, isn't it possible in the U.S. today to get along on
minimum salary? I don't mean to have the 40" TV in the toilet and all,
but to get along? Maybe only one bicycle (I know how scary that is)
and a second hand car, pay the rent and eat?

Yes and no. A single person could survive on a minimum wage job, renting
a room from someone, using food stamps and a food bank for food, and not
owning a car. But they could not rent a market-rate apartment with a
minimum wage job. To rent their own apartment they would have to get s
Section 8 voucher or get into a subsidized Below Market Rate (BMR)
apartment (for which there is a big waiting list).

Certainly I haven't been in the U.S. in nearly 50 years but, while I
don't doubt you, it seems almost unbelievable that in the "greatest
economy in the world" a working man can't get along without government
assistance.

In contrast, in this little downtrodden nation, our "Cleaning Lady"
who comes in half a day, and undoubtedly works somewhere else the
other half, supports two school age kids - her husband ran off and
left her - rents a small, maybe 2 - 3 room place, owns a small
motorcycle, all without any help whatsoever from the Government,
although in honesty I have to say that Thailand has universal health
care.

Universal health care would make a huge difference to low income
Americans. It might also stop the practice of Americans showing up at
expensive Emergency Rooms to get treated for minor maladies like severe
colds, bad headaches, etc.

We have a (now retired) ER physician in the family. He has many
interesting tales to tell about that.

I used to hear horror stories from the British not long after they
enacted their national health care and now we have it here. It isn't
free, it costs 30 baht, per visit, about 1 hour's minimum wage, which
gets you in to see the doctor and all subsequent treatment/medicines
prescribed by the doctor is included. For those over 60 it is free,
but for citizens only!

My wife had thyroid and diabetes problems, controlled by medicine, and
has tests and sees a doctor quarterly. She leaves the house about
07:00 and gets back by 13:00, usually.

But when I was in the Air Force it was much the same. If you had the
sniffles just go to "sick call" and people did.

I go to a major public hospital in Bangkok, largely because when I had
the heart attack that's where they took me, and I've just continued
with the same doctor. I see the doctor quarterly and it takes about
the same amount of time as my wife's visits but being a foreigner I
have to pay for it.

Cheers,
John B.