Connecticut Bank Dagang - Stamford, CT Bank Gagal - Episode 328

**Freesia Brindisi** (0:01)
Good morning, good morning. Thank you so much for joining me. This is the podcast, The Endurance of Labor Laws. I am your lovely host, Freesia Brindisi. Today is episode 328, and we're going to take a look at another failed bank from back in time because these things do affect the future. The one that we're going to take a look at today was Connecticut Bank of Commerce in Stamford, Connecticut. But before we dive in, let me give a big shout out to my listeners because as usual, you guys are awesome. I love to see you here. A big shout out to Oklahoma, California, and Michigan. In terms of countries, Singapore, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Turkey. Again, today we're taking a look at Connecticut Bank of Commerce, located in Stamford, Connecticut. This one failed June 26th, 2002 The bank that acquired them is the Hudson United Bank. Very interesting there. I wonder if that one's located in New York. We will take a look because whenever I think of Hudson, I think of the Hudson River, but you never know because rivers they go from state to state if they flow that way, if that makes sense. I say that because here in Oklahoma, we don't have a lot of large rivers. We mostly have smaller rivers and a lot of those get damned because we need a water supply because in Oklahoma, it's like we either get a lot of rain or no rain. We don't have consistent rain. It's not like New York or Florida or the United Kingdom. We very rarely have lush green fields just in general. I pray that changes because we do need a lot of rain. An example of this where we suffered really bad in Oklahoma was during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl that hit us really hard. But one of the reasons why the Dust Bowl hit so bad was because farmers were not farming correctly. They were depleting the top soil of its nutrients and they were not rotating their crops, they were not rotating their fields, they were not letting the land rest. So then when there was a lack of rain, the top soil that was just dirt, just like no nutrients in it at all, hardly, it just blew everywhere. Because the wind really picks up and blows here in Oklahoma. Not a big fan of it, but that's how it is. And so that's why we had a major dust bowl in the 1930s. Now I remember a little mini dust bowl that we have when I was in college. So that was, wow, let me think how many years ago that would have been almost 18 or 20 years ago. There was one fall, I think it was fall because we were coming out of summer, going into the fall. We had not had rain in a while and you would be walking outside. You would walk back in and everybody looked like they were wearing brown because dust got all over them and we had to wear handkerchiefs over our mouths, we had to wear bandanas, you had to protect your eyes. Because one of the things that sucks about dust bowls like that is that you can get dust in your eyes and your mouth and your lungs, which is really bad. But you can get infections from the dust that gets in your eyes, your nose, your mouth and your lungs. And if you get dust in your lungs, it can lead to you suffocating. It can lead to infections. It can also lead to scar tissue in your lungs. Because what a lot of people don't know or realize, and this maybe isn't common education. I happen to know because of what I've lived through and survived. But in the lungs, you have the lining of the lungs is called the pleura. And within that, you have air sacs. Air sacs, that's where the exchange of oxygen to your blood takes place. That's where basically your body gets rid of the things in the blood that it doesn't need in terms of things that you're inhaling and exhaling basically. So for example, if you're a smoker, you are permanently damaging and scarring the air sacs in your lungs. Like even if you're smoking weed, that is still really bad for your lungs. It's really bad for your heart and your brain. So just because you think you're smoking a natural plant, that doesn't mean that it's not doing damage to your body because it is. It's also slowly rotting your mouth. So just FYI, be aware of that. You're not supposed to be smoking anything. Like none of that stuff is supposed to be getting in your lungs. Whether it's cigarettes, tar, doing dip, which is absolutely disgusting. I hate that. Like it's so filthy, so disgusting, so gross. I pray that any and every man or woman that does that stops because it's so disgusting and repulsive. It's not just cowboys and hicks that do it. It's it's dumb. Anyway, so what I was saying was that whenever we had a little many dust bowl years ago, it really bothered my lungs and it bothered my airways. And so it's like I was coughing up phlegm that had dirt and soil in it. And that was hurting my chest. It was hurting my lungs. So just remember that you need to keep your lungs as healthy as possible. And so that includes like even when you're working outside, like whenever I do gardening, which is quite a bit and tilling the earth. And also when I'm cleaning the litter box for my cat, I always wear a mask. So if you're around any kind of pesticide or chemical, wear a face mask. Also wear goggles in terms of that, protect your eyes. But if you're cleaning out a litter box like I do, because I have a cat, pretty large one. She's really cute and really sweet. I wear gloves and a surgical mask to clean her litter box. Because you don't want to get any bacteria in your lungs or on your skin, or in your cuticles, because you may not know that you have a small cut on your hand or your fingers. And then you can easily get a bacterial infection. So just be safe with that. But I do wear gloves and a mask. Anyway, what I was talking about was that in Oklahoma, our soil is not as rich as like the Mississippi Delta or way up north in New York, where they have beautiful rich soil. We'll accept if it's a superfund site, because we've talked about different superfund sites in basically all 50 states now and our territories. And the upper northeastern part of the United States is the worst. Like they have the most superfund sites. And what's interesting is that those states are typically run by Democrats. Whereas the states that have the least amount of superfund sites or damage to the environment are red states. So they're run by Republicans. Are Republicans perfect? No. There's a lot of things that they can improve. But red states tend to do a whole lot better in so many different arenas and just run circles around Democrats. Also, most of the superfund sites that we looked at, and there's only about, I think we looked at, was it 2,000 of them? Because I know there's a little over 40,000 total. But we looked at the worst of the worst. And I think there are like 1,400 to 2,000 of them. Most of them were located on the east and west coast. Very few of them were located in the central part of the United States, which is very interesting, side note, because so many people looked out on Oklahoma and the Bible Belt states, and I say this, you have no, I was going to say, you have no right to look down on people. Well, technically you can. That's, if you have a lousy opinion of someone or something, fine, go ahead. But it needs to be about that specific person and something that they did that was wrong or bad. Like for example, I'm not a fan of some of the people that have disrespected me from New York and California and some other states because they're snobs. But not everybody in the state of California is a snob. In fact, there are many good people out there and there are so many Californians that are so sick of the Democrats. It's just really sad that Democrats that are very powerful in New York and California, they call the shots in so many ways. It's very much like Chicago, Illinois. It's very corrupt. But basically what my point is with that is that if you're going to shame and blame a region, you better know what you're talking about. You better know because you're going to look like an idiot. I could totally use a different word, but I'm working on my language. Plus this podcast, I choose not to use explicit language because I don't believe in vulgarity unless I stub my toe and then that's truly an accident. But anyway, so what's interesting is that the most corrupt states are in the northeastern part of the United States, they're on the west coast and the east coast, which is very interesting because that's where a lot of Democrats control almost everything. And so what's interesting is that whenever people look down on Oklahoma, they don't know our history and they don't respect our state. Now, I personally don't like living here. I never really have and I am going to be moving, but it's just because I don't agree with some of the ideologies. But you know, I do know some good people here. And you know, it's one of those things that you can't put everybody in the same basket and just say, oh, they're all bad.