Once again there is so much to talk about I can't even think straight and put it to paper in any kind of sensical order.
Let the rambling begin.
Remember all those times when you were a kid and your parents gave you that amazing advice of how to avoid getting sick during flu season?
Remember son, always stay 6 feet away from
everyone.
This is the key to not getting sick.
Yeah, I don't remember that either, because it never happened, and this has never been sound advice.
It's like when I look up to the sky and ask people:
Hey, do you ever remember airplanes creating persistent contrails that turn into a creepy ass mist in the sky? I don't.
Nah bro, that's totally normal.
But that is off topic.
I swiped this off a chair from Amazon sort center SMF5, where I've had a part time job for pushing 30 months. Don't worry, they have plenty. They put one on every chair in the entire warehouse and this one happened to fall on the ground.
My favorite edition to this narrative was added Sunday March 22, 2020:
THESE TAPES ARE 6FT APART.
Isn't that nice?
Amazon really cares about the safety of their employees!
Yes yes, I feel very safe.
I counted 54 of these labels from the edge of the parking lot to the front door of SMF5.
Here's the location on Google Maps for reference.
Fun fact:
Back when we were still doing standup (a 5 minute announcement at the beginning of shift) at the end of said standup there is a chant that everyone is encouraged to do.
It goes something like this:
STOMP STOMP Clap
STOMP STOMP Clap
STOMP STOMP Clap
Operations: "S-M-F"
Worker Drones: "So Much Fun"
Operations: "We don't stop"
Worker Drones: "Till the sorting's done!"
Isn't that fun?
We get our own custom chant!
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
Working here has been my secret shame for 30 months, but now that working is currently a privilege it's a pretty sweet deal.
During the crisis:
- We get a $2 raise
- We get double-time overtime instead of time-and-a-half.
- We can work more than 30 hours (normally limited to avoid health insurance)
- Have started to acquire Vacation-time in addition to our sick-time.
- Essentially double the paid time off (PTO).
- Taking voluntary extra shifts (VET) gets you a raffle ticket.
- Can enter to win PS4, iRobot, Roku TV, or Nintendo Switch.
- Infinite unpaid-time-off (UPT)
- We can no call / no show or leave anytime we like
Isn't Amazon Great?
Seriously WTF is going on?
You know how I know that Amazon is totally full of shit? At the beginning of break time they've been handing out consumables like Gatorade, muffins, granola bars, and fresh fruit.
Wait wait, I'm not done.
They give us these things before anyone has even had a chance to wash their hands.
Hey I see you just touched 300 random packages,
take this,
eat it,
good job.
Not a joke.
Don't worry folks, we're gonna stop the spread of this virus by standing 6 feet apart (which is literally impossible to do when scanning packages off a lane and putting them onto the pallets they belong). Operations comes in during break reminding us to keep our social distance, and when associates reply back, "that's literally impossible out on the floor" they just gloss over that fact and say something that amounts to, "Try your best, safety is number one. We care."
Amazon is number one.
It's actually hard to tell if they believe the bull shit they are spewing or not.
After all, these commandments are coming up on high, way above their paygrade.
Trump is spewing some bullshit today about how we should reopen the economy. This is probably the first time I've heard him say something that I wholeheartedly agree with. Yes! Open the fucking economy! Do it!
They're not going to do it.
Oh! Boohoo, look at that!
Trump, champion of the people!
He just wants to get citizens their jobs back and get this economy back on track!
LOL, Yeah Right!
This is a scripted response meant to piss off liberals and enamor republicans, further splitting the divide between citizens of this country.
#covidiots
Hashtag #covidiots is trending on Twitter. Because if you don't social distance during this time you're a fucking idiot. Hey, you know a really good way to bridge the gap between ideologies and work to unite communities?
Call them idiots.
That always works.
I Promise.
GET IT!?!? BECAUSE COVID AND IDIOT END AND BEGIN WITH THE SAME 2 LETTERS!!!!11
Tell me, who are the idiots again?
Now I'm the idiot telling the #covidiot people they are idiots for calling the idiots: idiots.
Stupid is contagious.
The only purpose this hashtag serves is to give people "following the rules" an echo chamber with the function of patting themselves on the back. Wow, good job morons. Your evil overlords that you don't even know exist are very proud of you right now. Stay inside and do nothing while everything is taken away from you.
To be fair, the people being called #covidiots... why are they outside again? Are they fighting the man? Are they trying to get some money to feed and take care of their families? No, they are in Florida on spring break partying it up while the world ends. Okay, maybe they are idiots after all.
Nothing's going to ruin my vacation, bro.
That's what this is all about.
Where do we think this whole "stand 6 feet away from people" thing came from? Why do we think they are pushing an anti-encryption law for messaging services like Whatsapp? Why do we think they are pushing facial recognition technology so hard right now?
Spoiler alert: the answer is not to track COVID-19
They obviously are expecting mass social unrest, rioting, and straight up martial law. We will not be allowed to form groups to organize a resistance. The stage has already been set. Any group of people seen in public will be targeted as a threat. The population has already been trained to stay separated under the guise of saving lives.
My girlfriend is already terrified. She will not listen to what I am saying. She told me to read this NPR article explaining why we are "deliberately allowing our economy to go on a downward spiral". I read it. What did I learn?
Collectively — intentionally — we are putting much of the economy on lockdown. The priorities are clear: save lives and keep hospitals and emergency rooms from being overwhelmed. For now, that means America is an economic ghost town.
That's pretty much it.
This is not new information. I thought I was going to learn something. I didn't. How is parroting the already known mainstream narrative helpful? People need to believe this lie in order to stay sane right now I guess.
Even with all those sweet-ass deals that Amazon is giving employees right now, many are still too afraid to show up to work. And that's just from fear of getting sick, it has nothing to do with what's actually going down right now.
My mom lives in Mexico. She told me she got across the border right before they closed it.
Remember when everyone was like:
Hey! Why is the razor wire on our side.
And the conspiracy theorists be like:
TO KEEP YOU IN.
And then we all laughed at them because they are fucking morons?
Tell me, are we still laughing now?
Apparently it isn't enough that most everyone is dirt poor even in the face of exponential technological advancement. The government is literally preventing citizens from working and then airdropping money onto the people that they want to survive. Non-citizens are fucked. There is definitely going to be some aspect of systemic-racism via this helicopter money that's going to fuck over people who don't have white skin or are undocumented.
I'm already angry that it looks like I'm going to have to do my taxes for last year in order to get this USD airdrop.
I haven't done my taxes since 2012. Am I a tax evader? No, in fact, the government owes me money.
I'm poor as shit.
I made $11.5k last year and $12.5k the year before that. The year before that I made less than $1000 I think because I got the Amazon job at the end of the year during Christmas-time peak. I made $0 from that point all the way back to 2012.
I refused to be a part of this fucked up system. I took out max school loans. I maxed all every credit card I could get. I've spent hardly anything for 8 years. I have been living the most low maintenance lifestyle possible due to my political beliefs.
I refuse to feed this disgusting system.
My credit score is at or below 400. I have sacrificed my identity to achieve my goals. Every month I get a new settlement from the debt-collectors bargaining at a lower level.
Suck on my debt, fuckers!
You're not getting a penny!
If Bitcoin moons, perhaps I'll negotiate something crazy with them like paying 1 cent on the dollar just so I can say I did it and get my identity back before the 7 year statute of limitations.
https://wallethub.com/edu/cc/statute-of-limitations-for-credit-card-debt/25602/
Shit, nevermind.
Maybe my time is almost up.
Whelp, this one is running long.
I told you I had a lot to talk about.
Gonna break it up into a second post.
#buzzoff!
Today, i fixed the showers for a teacher stuck at home.
She was sewing face masks... out of cotton cloth.
It looks like a face mask, but is just one layer of thin cotton.
(No filter material.)
Its for the patients to make them feel better.
I see so many people going full libtard on this virus.
When you point out that SARs was worse, more, faster, more deadly...
Well, this virus may actually be a bio-weapon, and we could really see a lot of city dwellers die.
But, when the outbreak started in China somewhere in November... we are WAY to late to be shutting down borders to control the spread of something that seemed to be released and spread around the world very efficiently by the WHO.
Yep, Chump is going to get Mexico to pay for that wall... to keep americans out.
i do not know what to make of this mess, none of it makes sense unless you go FULL conspiracy theory. And then, what T.H.E.Y. are doing appears terrifying.
I can'twait until we start to see convictions for selling used face masks on Amazon, Ebay, and Craigslist.
From the moment I heard about the wall, I have been pointing out that all that's necessary to stop illegal immigration is to end providing the benefits illegal immigrants come here to get. Almost none of them just sneak in over the border (unless they're smuggling drugs), because the place to apply for asylum gets bypassed if you do, and all you need to do to get in is apply for asylum.
Now that we see the razor wire on the American side of the wall, we hear crickets instead of walltards.
Speaking of crickets, Greta.
I was talking to an ex-military gal today, who says her only source of media is NPR radio now, and when I pointed out the WHO still hasn't advised shutting down air traffic from Tehran, Florence, or Wuhan yet, and this is tantamount to vaccinating people with live SARS2, she called epidemiologists, the Lancet, the JAMA, and the NEJM 'right wing terrorists'.
God save the Queen, because the rest of us are not safe.
Well, good luck on that... Over here, I have a different problem. Even if I have money, I have no place to buy food with that money. Everything is closed and Online Supermarkets will only deliver at home 5 weeks from now.
It looks like I'll have to eat beans and canned tuna for the next few months!
Wow, hang in there bud...
My GF wants me to go to the store today... should be interesting...
Might be a good time to learn about the edible wild plants in your area. SO many of the "weeds" and random bushes we don't even think about are actually foods, often with powerful medicinal properties.
You work for Amazon and hold all those "fuck the system" beliefs.
Interesting piece nevertheless
Gotta work somewhere.
Gotta pay taxes.
Gotta use USD.
Have you managed to avoid wage/tax/debt slavery somehow?
From what I can tell, there are really only 2 things that keep people stuck in that system:
No, I have not yet! but I doubt my beliefs are as strong as yours :)
This social distancing fad being pushed on everyone, is a modern, non-discriminatory form of segregation! Equality for all! And it all plays into the wider and larger agenda's that have been waiting in the background for a very very long time. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of average people are constantly falling for the same traps over and over again. It's pretty frustrating to see how people are reacting in such a subservient way, through the lens of fear, while asking to be exploited by the very people who want to enslave them even further than what they already are.
Greatest post ever.
Very similar to my situation actually. I was hoping to get some of that sweet mana from the feds butthole butt very little chance of me filing my taxes. I also havent filed in a number of years due to making under the poverty level.
Fortunately (I hope) for me, fate landed me overseas during these shenanigans and they extended peoples visas here so we don’t have to travel. I might just never go back. Of course of it all goes to shit there, technocratic prison is likely to spread across the globe like a pandemic...
Love it! My thinking on this is pretty simple. If someone takes something from you they should give it back. If they don't they are thieves, generally speaking, as it's not always the case that it's theft. The government has cost me about 2grand so far and I WANT THEM TO REIMBURSE me! I understand the possible contagion issues and the likely need for this, but they have to reimburse people or they are thieves and criminals. Denmark has it right so far and they've 'frozen' their economy for 3-months. Although not guaranteed to work it's the correct decision for the people at this moment.
Do they have you wearing masks? If not then the social distancing isn't going to do a whole lot because you'll all be filling any space you're in with virus just by breathing if you're infected. It's getting all over the packages too.
No masks, I have a box of M95 at home but I don't even use them.
I was told multiple times that masks are not effective for avoiding getting sick, and that they are only good for not getting others sick. So much contrary info out there.
Well it logically follows that if they suspect some workers have it and everybody dons masks, the virus couldn't spread from the infected people to others. My guess is they don't have enough to give everyone. Otherwise they'd require you to wear one at all times.
We process up to 500K packages a day. Who knows how many people touch and/or cough on each package. Even doctors are facing a shortage of M95 masks. There is no way to obtain them at the moment.
Really good blog post.
Is the $2 an hour raise permanent? What are you going to do with the extra money? Is Amazon your only job?
I also try and live pretty cheap and not a fan of the 40 hour or more a week rat race.
I don't believe so.
Bitcoin.
Unless you count this blog and my programming projects, yes.
So, ah, I think all I learnt from this is that Amazon workers are riddled with viruses?
I LOL'ed helplessly. Savage!
Haha, couldn't help myself...
Great rant.
Please tell me that chant is a joke!
I'll tape record it for you sometime.
Oak5/Oak7 has a similar chant, I was on the maintenance crew fixing their robots and conveyor systems tho, so I didn't have to eat the Amazon shit, as I worked for a contracted company, JLL.
OMFG I literally CANNOT believe it - this is in the realms of 'happiness is mandatory'.
Yea, the place is pretty brain washing. They also pay just enough to make people tolerate it, mainly because locally it's better pay then anywhere else. They beat local business by I'd guess a dollar or two. People dont argue with the dollar too much. Oh, and get this, they want you to quit and pay you a bonus if you do to never come back. IIRC it's like.... $5k @edicted is that still right?
That's nothing for them in the long run!
If I was in the States I'd be all over the homesteading or van dwelling scene, seems like a sensible way to go if you can!
OMFG please do!
So today I secretly went to my girlfriend house avoiding coops on the main streets, to have some fun :) Accidentally we have been at a negative distance, me inside her...
So am I now a criminal?
That's totally insane!! Fuck the system!!
And regarding the chemtrails, they are absolutely ON topic.
You, sir...are an evil bastard! lol
Yeah sure :) Lmao!!
But seriously speaking I live in Italy, and today if one cop had stopped me for a control. I would have been sued, because I went out without a self certification and without a valid reason, that are: go buy food, or go to work.
That's unbelievable!! Having sex is a Ultra valid reason for my mental health!!
I will take this one. This virus can only spread through water droplets that you release when u sneeze. 6 feet is approx. the distance they can travel. Hence the 6 ft.
You give way too much credit to people for coming up wit
The economy is run by greedy sociopaths. The economy shut down at the worst possible time. They know exactly what they are doing, and they don't care if a few million people die because of these decisions. They make decisions like this all the time.
These people are playing the emotions of the general public. They are reptiles; they have no such feelings. Oh! Think of the children! What about grandma!? Gotta think like a sociopath to understand that they want the economy shut down. This is not an inconvenience to them. This is the exact trigger they were looking for the fleece the sheep; the perfect scapegoat.
You give way too much credit to people for coming up with such elaborate plans. People are stupid. There are no groups out to get you. All they are doing is looking to do what's best for them today.
Accept all those think tanks, and the reports they generated, that outlined pretty much what has bean happening.
Accept for all those CIA and FBI and Military operations that would make your hair stand on end.
And we really only know about the declassified ones. Project Bluebeam, Project Paper Clip...
I take it you've never run a business. It's amazing what you can learn about being fucked over as soon as you set out to do something actually beneficial.
This is factually incorrect. That is the most efficient airborne mechanism, since aerosol transmission of ~10 meters has been proven. However, that is far less efficient than droplet transmission. More efficient yet is picking up the virus from solid surfaces.
The Diamond Princess still had live viruses on surfaces 37 days after they were left there by infected passengers.
Basically, a two meter distance makes crowd control ridiculously easy, and that's why it's touted. It might even reduce transmission rates, but masks, gloves, and PPE either work for ballroom dancing, or they don't work at all and being a health care worker is playing Russian Roulette with a 20 chambered pistol every time you deal with a new patient.
But how many times have you had those $300 capital one credit cards go to collections only to have them offer you another a few months later? I'm on #4..... I obviously don't have the intelligence to be responsible. LoL. Our stories are quite similar. Love it. I was fixing kiva bots for awhile (Amazon robotics now), that was a funny job.
Nice rant , sir. I wholeheartedly agree.
People are still blind to the con virus 'event'.(but rapidly waking up, imo),
Something much bigger is going on.
We have no eggs! FFs!
https://peakd.com/hive-168088/@lucylin/an-egg-an-egg-my-kingdom-for-an-egg
You have no eggs because you keep no chickens.
....yeah, but our next door neighbor has a chicken farm (normally full of eggs).
And on the other side, we get supplied with duck eggs, so no crisis.
But it's all still very weird, how all the surrounding egg suppliers got bought up in 24 hours.
We are talking a lot of eggs.
Very weird things are becoming the new normal. I am preparing to keep chickens. I am preparing to do so covertly, just because. Seems the best thing to do in the circumstances.
Debtors prisons are making a comeback too.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/01/09/think-debtors-prisons-are-a-thing-of-the-past-not-in-mississippi
No worries, drive through confessions will offer salvation!
Huge fan of the Marshall Project!
Debtor's Prisons have long been restored via the contempt looplhole. As soon as you are court-ordered to pay, not paying becomes a jailable offense: contempt of court. Nifty thing about contempt is open-ended sentences. As long as you don't pay, you can remain captive.
NPR. Jesus.
I approve of your approach to taxes and the fucked up system. It's pretty much what I have been doing for ~10 years now, ever since Citi stole my house with the help of my ex, various jurisdictions, and corrupt lawyers. I'm thinking I should file for the last three years just to make my refund larger. Maybe it could be big enough to actually pay me a reasonable hourly rate for doing the paperwork.
Dunno how they pay refunds now. I don't have a bank account they can dump money in. Can they do Amazon gift cards?
Thanks!
Ha
Oh yeah, she's full on mainstream liberal.
Can be a challenge.
Many volunteer hours for local government and the Obama campaign.
Still, we get by pretty well.
Great writing. This was a pleasure to read, thanks !
The bit about the Amazon SMF chant though, is that a joke ? Damn, they got no f*king limits.
As the second person to ask if this is a joke...
I guess I need to tape record it.
Working for Amazon is a dark secret, lol. I wasn't expecting that. But we do what we got to do to survive in this debt slavery system and if you're one of the smart ones who's stacking sats with your earnings, then more power to you my friend!
Sometimes I wonder where I'd be if I completed that computer science degree and had a real job. I'd certainly be paying 100 times more taxes, that's for sure.