Hear you Beau. However in the video above when talking about using the military to roll out the vaccine ahead of election day he states 'the military are going to be doing it in a very powerful manner'. A very Trump turn of phrase I grant you but we have come to some moment in time when the thought of the US military rolling across the constitutionally enshrined states to 'powerfully' distribute a vaccine, doesn't excite serious concerns about the very nature of teh republic they serve. Unless of course one buys the theory doing the rounds that its all a ruse and Trump's going to use the military in a great insurrection purge... but one way or the other, sure as hell, its election time!
I personally think that if the army isn't going to be used to push vaccines, it will be used either to round up "dissidents" (not antifa/BLM etc. but people like us who know the truth), or it will be used to maintain order if and when the earthquakes and comets hit. Early November is when one leg of the Taurid meteor stream usually comes around, after all.
Yeah, call me "Eeyore".
I can't believe how different the world is now after that great vacation. Just two weeks or so ago I was on a beach in Northern CA with nothing but the elements around me, and now every day I wake up coughing up a lung from all the smoke. When I drive to work it is dark and hazy and the sun is blood-red. At least a quarter of the drivers around me are wearing masks. When I pass through busy intersections, I see homeless people asking for handouts wearing decrepit clothing - but with sparkling new masks.
At work things have definitely taken a turn for the worse. I am supposed to check in at a temperature-check station before I enter the building, but so far I have been able to bypass it without anyone saying anything, though I'm sure that won't last long. I wrote earlier about potentially hiring a lawyer to fight against that, especially the pictures that are taken and sent to a "safety officer" for god knows what reason; but when I asked my best friend's wife, who specializes in employment law, she said that it is legal and that there is nothing I can do. She said she gets that question three times a day.
When I sit down to my desk and check my work e-mail, there are constant reminders to "get your temperature checked" and "get your yearly flu shots" and "remember social distancing" etc. We get those reminders every single day, and there are signs on every door reminding us, along with the "maximum number of personnel" allowed in each room. Mine can handle three!
What really concerns me however is there have now been three "positive COVID tests" among personnel at the plant. No one is actually sick, they just tested positive and so had to be sent home - and anyone and everyone around them had to be contacted to inform them, and they were all urged to get tested. But they used "contact tracing" information to do that. Luckily, I was on vacation when those people were tested, but I'm sure at some point it will happen again and I'll be asked to get tested. It isn't required yet, but I'm sure that is coming. If and when that happens, I'm not going to do it. It will be interesting seeing what they do at that point.
Today the lab manager came into my room and asked me if I know who has not been wearing masks out at the remote location where I work for a few hours each day. She basically asked me to snitch!! I just made a couple of vague comments without saying names and she left me alone, but this is just getting worse. I can't even make any remarks any more about the worthlessness of those damn masks; their job security requires that they make sure we wear them all the time, and the CDC says they work and that's that. There is no longer *any* debate allowed on any of these policies. Even the union shop steward gave up and is now getting his temperature checked every day...and he never read the articles I sent him. I am truly alone here.
But yesterday was the most surreal day of all...I was talking with one of my coworkers about something I can't even remember, something insignificant, and behind her I could see the red sun and the smoke wafting through the air, while people around me were shuffling along wearing their masks practicing social distancing but otherwise doing their normal work. I now understand how frogs can ignore the signs of incremental pain and slowly boil to death...this frog, though, now realizes that staying there much longer will surely be the death of me. I'm ready to jump. I just hope I don't wait too long...
This must be hell. But I'm afraid to claim it unless something worse comes along...