I took the day off work.

First time I've taken a day off in a while.
Before COVID, I was only working like 12 hours a week.
Lately I've been working double that.

It's been messing up my rotator cuff a bit.

But that's not the only reason I'm taking the day off.
I'm also taking it off because Amazon is reinstituting the attendance policy tomorrow.

Up until now there was no penalty from skipping shifts.

So I'm taking the day off in protest.

Instituting some "light terrorism"

Everyone is being instructed that COVID-19 is very dangerous and deadly. I've seen the fear run rampant first hand. Weeks ago someone was afraid at work to eat an Asian snack that I offered them. Just today my roommate was on the verge of tears because her parents were talking about going through with their planned vacation in July.

No, July is much too soon!

I'm not afraid, so it's hard to relate, but the logic of this situation does not make Amazon look good. The vast majority of citizens (especially the left, and I live in California, which is notoriously left) believe that COVID is extremely dangerous and deadly. The authorities say as much.

Why would they lie?

In any case, if everyone, including Amazon, agrees that COVID is dangerous and deadly and a serious threat, then why are they suddenly forcing employees to come back to work by enforcing the attendance policy? If your points go into the negative, you're fired and I believe you have to wait something like 6 months or 2 years or something before you can apply for a job there again. That's a lot of needless psychological pressure being placed on people.

Why would they do this?

And then I found this:

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7j8zw/amazon-whole-foods-instacart-workers-organize-a-historic-mass-strike

Ah well, I didn't find it. My girlfriend has been showing me a lot of things lately because she doesn't like my conspiracy theory attitude on these matters. In any case, it just so happens that on the same day Amazon reinstitutes the attendance policy a strike is being organized. It becomes clear to me that this is an anti-strike tactic. Force people to come to work because more people are going to stop working from the strike; makes sense.

Workers at Amazon, Whole Foods, Instacart, Walmart, FedEx, Target, and Shipt say they will walk off the job on May 1 to protest their employers’ failure to provide basic protections for frontline workers who are risking and losing their lives at work. Meanwhile, these same companies are making record profits.

Here at SMF5 we are required to wear a face-mask. We have infrared scanners at the front door to check for fever. There is sanitizer everywhere, and I saw them just recently set up these crazy stand-alone hand-washing stations all over the facility. They were even tethering chairs to desks with what looked like a bike-lock cable at one point; I was happy when they removed them.

I guess this isn't good enough, or other facilities are much less funded.

The latter would track with what I've heard about warehouses in other states.

“We formed an alliance between a bunch of different companies because we all have one common goal which is to save the lives of workers and communities. Right now isn’t the time to open up the economy. Amazon is a breeding ground [for this virus] which is spreading right now through multiple facilities.”

A "breeding ground" you say?

I haven't seen a single sick person. I haven't heard of anyone saying they were sick or hearing that someone else is sick. No one even so much as coughs or sneezes. Perhaps this is just my experience.

The shelter in place here is currently set to May 17.
Our medical facilities are doing just fine and we don't have a lot of active cases.
https://www.solanocounty.com/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=32050

Hm yeah, I think we're good.

But you know what made me the most nervous?

The so-called “May Day General Strike” is the culmination of a series of strikes led by workers at companies like Whole Foods, Amazon and Instacart since the pandemic began. The organizers at the forefront of the recent labor unrest form the face of the country’s resurgent labor movement: non-union, underemployed, and precarious workers who have taken things into their own hands to demand changes and organize their co-workers in the absence of a union—primarily over social media and encrypted messaging apps like Signal and Telegram.

So now this whole Earn-It bill is making a lot more sense!

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/earn-it-act-violates-constitution
I've been wondering why the government has been targetting end-to-end encryption in the middle of a pandemic. I was thinking along the lines of those stories about people in Egypt being pinned down by snipers and identifying locations with social media and encrypted messaging and the like. You know, truly messed up stuff that doesn't really happen in this country, yet.

However, things like this make a lot more sense. Read everyone's messages and anyone planning or participating in these activities is immediately fired and whatnot and the companies can rehire other employees at a faster rate armed with better knowledge of what they require. I'm sure it won't stop there, but this is a good starting place to capitalize on privacy invasion.

Don’t buy from these companies on May 1.
Don’t empower them with your dollars.
That’s what we need for an effective general strike.

Yep, so I guess I'm striking.

I wasn't going to buy anything tomorrow anyway, because you know...
I never buy anything except crypto.
I'll take the day off tomorrow as well.
I'll take sick time and get paid.

Suck it, Amazon.

Maybe I'll take the next day off as well.

Would you look at that!

This is probably the most time off I've ever had available.
70 hours? 10 of them paid? Noice!

I could literally take 17 shifts off in a row and not get fired.
That's almost a full month.

Of course I won't do that.

I still plan on capitalizing on this time to get as much crypto as possible while it's still dirt cheap.

Sweden is fucked?

So my girlfriend also showed me this because I mentioned Sweden to her the other day:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/sweden-coronavirus-response-death-social-distancing.html

Sweden’s per capita death rate is now among the highest in the world, above the United States and nearly six times as high as some of our Scandinavian neighbors. Total deaths from COVID-19 in Sweden are nearing 2,500, more than all but four American states’.

So the numbers here are a bit weird, but it looks like over 10% of people testing positive for COVID are dying in Sweden, which is more than double other places that are in lockdown.

But then you have the concepts of:

• Sweden will get over it sooner, so other countries will be playing catch-up afterwards
• Less people in Sweden are being tested so a higher percent will die due to being more severe cases being tested.
• How many will die in the economic apocalypse created by lockdown afterwards?
• How trustworthy is the 2500 death count?

That being said

• If I had to choose between trusting America, Russia, China, or Sweden...
• I would trust Sweden x10 more than all the others combined.
• Have any thoughts on this Hive account@krnel?
• Personally I'm willing to accept that the lockdown is at least somewhat effective.
• However we may find later that we traded deaths to COVID for economic deaths.
• If a higher percent of the elderly die prior to a worldwide meltdown, isn't it better to cull the elderly first and free up resources and clear dead weight, as morbid as that might sound?
• Plus who even knows if this thing is natural or man-made, of course this topic is taboo.

Conclusion

Striking is a tactic that doesn't usually work.
Companies are just too big to fail these days.
However, with so much shit hitting the fan maybe we should give it a whirl.
Don't buy anything tomorrow.
Or are you supposed to buy something so they become short-staffed and overwhelmed?

lol

On May 1, a day historically celebrated globally by the left as International Workers' Day or May Day, small business owners and right-wing groups will stage “Reopen America” rallies in cities around the country, including Washington DC and Chicago.

When I mentioned this to my GF she replied

Most of them are white and didn't even lose their job!

They can all die of COVID for all I care!

All I could think about in response to this was wow, they sure are good at turning us against each other.
So this really is a partisan issue, after all.

A strike on the left to protest a protest of the right... amazing.

I bit my tongue on the reply.
I wanted to say something like:

Couldn't you use that same logic on yourself for marching in a #blacklivesmatter rally?
You're white and you won't get shot by the cops.
You don't belong there.

Of course I've learned the hard way that this would have absolutely enraged her, because when I'm right about something political like that or about a conspiracy theory, the closer I get to proving my point the more she shuts down and lashes out in anger. Fun times.

Can't wait for the next time she reads my blog.
Last time was a fucking disaster.

Second conclusion

Fuck it I'll take tomorrow off regardless;

I got programming to do;

Made $100 yesterday

I almost forgot!
Yesterday I made $100 in blogging rewards.
This is a huge milestone for me and is more money than I make at work.
Even a 5 hour shift (max) and +$2 hazard pay ($18/h) is only $90.
If Hive gains more value and stabilizes I could quit my job altogether.
#lifegoals