A TALE OF TWO CITIES…..YEAR 2020

Charles Dickens’ masterpiece A Tale of Two Cities  was published this day in 1859.

Many literary pieces back then were published in magazines. Generally on a weekly basis. Chapter by chapter. Dickens’ work in All The Year Round magazine. Complete publication took to 11/26.

An upsetting time. The French Revolution, aristocrats arrested, summary trials, many executed by the guillotine.

The first paragraph of the novel a literary wonder. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, etc.” I have taken the first paragraph and eliminated certain passages to make it fit today. Our time.

“…..it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom…..it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Darkness…..it was the winter of despair…..”

Today!

This is day 50 of my self-quarantine. Break time! Party time! Tonight a dozen people!

Oh, were it so. Merely joking, however. Do not even desire throwing or participating in a party. Not the time yet.

America’s corporate whores and the Republicans at it again.

Meat packing houses across the country seem to be a haven for coronavirus. Does the meat have anything to do with it? Or, is it the close quarters employees work in?

During my 4 years in college, I worked in a meat packing house. Pork and beef. Worked at a Utica plant summers, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter vacations. Made a big buck! I was in the union.

Most of the employees work shoulder to shoulder. From slaughter to the final packing, it is one step after another. The “meat” moving from one person to another. Many times people working shoulder to shoulder.

Ergo, understandable coronavirus is having a field day in the meat packing houses.

Trump wants the meat packing houses opened. Back to work.

Liability a problem. The corporate owners want a law passed that exempts the corporation if a person outside the plant becomes sick in any fashion because of coronavirus. A 100 percent protection against lawsuits.

Understandable, though not necessarily desirable. Many different type corporations have such liability shields. The corporations do not want to be held responsible for wrongdoing even where it can be directly traced back to them.

I suspect that the meat packing houses will get such protection. The reason is America has to eat. The meat packing houses will remain closed if such protection is not provided.

The issue I am sensitive to is that which affects the employees themselves. People injured while on the job or as a result of the employment. Covered in most states via Workers’ Compensation.

I describe the corporations in this instance as whores because they do not want to provide Workers’ Comp coverage to the employees.

Wrong! Unheard of in today’s society.

Another problem involved. No matter what laws are passed, it appears the employees do not want to return to work yet. They fear acquiring the coronavirus.

Cannot argue with the employees. We are talking a death virus here. Sixty one thousand have already died in the U.S.

The meat packing companies will open. They have to open. Trump mandated it so. He signed an Executive Order to that effect. requiring them to. However, no one can force the employees back to work.

An interesting confrontation in the making. The meat packing business requires experienced hands. The knives are working all the time. Inexperienced persons will end up stabbing the person working next to them or themselves.

Many a hand I saw pierced by a person not up to the job. The meat held in the left hand and the knife in the right. How many times the knife missed the meat. Even worse, the person forgot to hold a piece of meat and stabbed themselves in the hand.

Not a simple cut in these instances. The knife goes clearly through the hand.

Another big week for persons signing up for unemployment. This past week 3.8 million. In 6 weeks, more than 30 million have signed for unemployment benefits.

Not “the best of times.” Reflective of “the worst of times.”

Trump and his family must live in a different world. Son in law Jared Kushner spoke up yesterday. He said the federal response to the coronavirus crisis was “a great success story.” The government “rose to the challenge.”

He and his father in law must be smoking from the same pipe.

Locally, the Oro Gold Cosmetic Shop on Duval has closed permanently. This is one of the “rip off” stores the Key West Rip-Off Response Team has been aggravating for 2 years. Properly so. The operators of the store were ripping people off, especially the elderly.

The Rip-Off group contributed to some degree to Oro Gold’s leaving. However, they should not take too much credit. It’s the economy!

May Johnson still in bed. I’m beginning to worry about her. Her diary entry for this day in 1896 says: “In bed all day from effects of chill.”

This is about her 10th day with the problem. She is not getting better.

Enjoy your day!

13 comments on “A TALE OF TWO CITIES…..YEAR 2020

  1. I told you, Lou, we had a lot in common. One of my summer college jobs was working in a shop making storm windows and doors. The owners sun-in-law was in charge, there were two foreman, one of whom spoke English as a second langue, the other not a word, and next to me a fellow from Puerto Rico, he has a PHD–working way below his pay scale. No problem I ate lunch in my car as I had studying to due. My job was to due the final inspection, wrap the door or window in cardboard and to write the PO number and name of the contractor on the box and place them in the pick up been. Anyone in the place could do that if the could read and write English. The PHD job was to punch out 3 wholes in door hinge and attached it to door , three of them to a door. One day he let out a large scream and held up his hand. He had put a hole in his right thumb while in the punch press and punch a whole right through his thumb. How could he do that with the guard and all to prevent it from happening. The next day the English speaking foreman explained to me why.
    With a PHD and no way to get a job at his pay level Workman’s comp. could maybe get him employed at his pay grade. Now there were only three of us who could speak English and I had had a big lesson but not in college.
    It was the best of times for those who could speak English.

    • More bile from that deranged troll who has admitted more than once that he only posts here to start fights, sucking up to Lou, with MORE hateful made up Puerto Rican BS that makes no sense at all.

    • Fake Outrage for overstating something more accurate and more common (repeated) to our current president Donald Trump, being promoted by a known troll (and vulgar pest) during an election cycle.

        • You like the word “rape” don’t you Sandy? Arouses you doesn’t it?

          You know your obsession with this is perverted and only amplifies how willingly you will do anything for your sick idol, Don’t you?

  2. Lou… Kushner had it partly correct. It has been The Donald’s administration that is responsible for the results of the occasion… since March, over 60,000 dead. If that’s rising to the occasion, then The Donald should go back to bed.

    Despite his denials, as President, The Donald is responsible for the disaster’s magnitude… more deaths than 10 years of the Vietnam war under 3 presidents.

    The Donald should now take his cue from Lyndon Baynes Jhonson who because of his failures in the Vietnam war, did not run for a second term as president.

    I might also suggest The Donald take his cue from another crook… Nixon. RESIGN NOW.

    hummmm… if The Donald resigns then we get Pence. Oh snap!

  3. Same old annoying troll hell bent on creating chaos on Lou’s blog for no apparent reason other than satisfy his self loathing and boring despair. Probably self evaluating again.

    • Sorry your image is so low for yourself. Suggest you seek professional help at Depew. You have been in your basement to long or with out a drink. May be both.
      Your friend The Troll

  4. Nice to see ABC news this morning quoting a Chinese official that the virus was not created in a lab and that other virus clearly originated in the wild after it jumped from an infected animal to a human.

    • Yeah, but really, it was only the waco’s who were trying to claim otherwise. after all “science.”

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