I really feel like spewing out a huge rant right now. I’m so tired I don’t know if it’ll go anywhere, but we’ll see. Fair warning!

I only fell asleep last night about 0130. Had the alarm set for 0330 so I could get up and be sure to have enough time to find my way to safety ‘training’ this morning. They said to be there by 0645, locked out if not there by 0700. I didn’t want to drive all the way up there, just to be locked out. So I made sure I’d get there plenty early.

Anyway. I spent the entire day from 0700-1600 with only a couple of 10 min breaks and a half hour for lunch going over some really basic safety stuff. Things I’ve been in control of for decades. I’ve been the one writing the JSAs, controlling the permits, writing the work procedures, testing the tanks, running the drills, writing the safety manuals, giving the safety training. Things I’ve been in charge of teaching others for decades.

WTF is all that experience completely worthless? I’ve got training certificates out the ring-yang, but not a one of them acceptable. Grrrrr…

These companies take no interest in the fact that their students know more about the subject than their teachers, if you don’t have the specific piece of paper for the specific company, it just doesn’t matter. You’re going to waste more time in ‘training’! (how do you make an ANGRY smiley face?)

Why the hell can’t they standardize their certificates so that you don’t need to get 2 dozen different ones to do the same damn thing! It’s the same offshore. No benefit to anybody except the training centers making a mint off these scams.

It pisses me off to no end to have to repeat this stuff over and over and over and over and over and over and over and especially when I’m not getting paid for it! Even more when I have to waste my money as well as my time. At least they didn’t charge me for it today.

Or maybe it would’ve been better if they had. I would have immediately refused instead of spending all day today up there and tomorrow too. I wouldn’t be furiously steaming all afternoon about their company policies.

This all ties right in with my post from yesterday. The absolutely insane ideas people in the US have come to believe in the last couple of decades. The huge loss of freedom, individual liberty and human rights. The absolute and complete disrespect for us as individual human beings and our innate dignity.

They did spend about a half hour telling us about their company and allowing us to ask questions. That was useful. I learned a few things.

I found out they will supply you with (plastic) safety glasses, leather gloves, ear protection, a hard hat and a pair of FRC coveralls (all of which you MUST wear at all times), but no reimbursement for safety shoes or prescription glasses (which you must also have to work there). But none of that is yours to keep. You have to return it all when the job is finished!

Found out they have work scheduled nationwide, but only one place close enough for me to make it worth my while working there considering time spent in transit. Will still take me close to an hour every morning to get there. With all the plants around here, I thought they might have something coming up closer to home. Maybe in the future, nothing for the next few months.

I found out they do pay overtime at the usual time and a half after 40 hours. Found out they don’t like you to ever sit down for your entire 10-12 hour day except when you go on lunch break. Found out they insist on a hair follicle test (including marijuana), SOB’s want to own you, body and soul! Not just the particular company I went to today, either, but all of their client companies too!  The concept of time off apparently means absolutely nothing to them!

Nor, obviously, does the idea of individual rights protected by the US Constitution and the FACT that they are violating your privacy to the most intense, invasive amount possible. Oh yeah, I know that companies are not the government and the Constitution only limits the government from violating your rights. But the circumstances today should have the government stepping in to stop this kind of thing, not encourage it!

You’re supposedly free to chose among thousands of employers, but the fact is: the federal government has been violating the Constitution ever since they illegally made marijuana illegal! The companies, (ALL of them) are simply using the excuse that since it is an illegal drug, they can say they don’t want ‘criminals’ working for them. What a sickening scam!

There is no criminal without a crime! There is no “crime” without a victim! 

Think I’m wrong? Think again! I’ll quote the Declaration of Independence. That document lists the specific purpose of our government. Here…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

After breaking away from the British king, the founding fathers created the government of the USA. Its purpose, exactly as stated above in the Declaration of Independence was “to secure these rights”. The sole purpose, the ONLY legitimate purpose of the US government is exactly that!

We are supposed to be free to do anything we wish, anything at all! The only restriction would be if we violate the rights of someone else. Obviously, there is none of that going on if you choose to simply make use of a native wild plant!

Show me the harm I cause if I choose to sit at home, peacefully smoking a joint of fine California Kosher Kush. How exactly am I harming you?

I don’t actually smoke weed, (or do any kind of illegal drugs). I don’t need any help with the munchies or ‘paranoid imaginings’ But it IS my absolute RIGHT to do so, if I so choose. It’s the principle of the thing that gets me so riled up!

According to the Constitution, the federal government has NO authority to tell us what we can eat, drink, smoke, or anything else. Re- read the 9th and 10th amendments! ALL it can legally do is what is listed in Article 1, Section 8. Here it is…

1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

9: To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

10: To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;

11: To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

12: To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

13: To provide and maintain a Navy;

14: To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

15: To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

16: To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

17: To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And

18: To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

There is not one word in there about drugs of any sort, much less anything about regulating a PLANT. A HARMLESS plant, (like marijuana for instance). Marijuana is an extremely safe and very useful plant. It’s been used all over the world for millennia. In fact, many of the founding fathers farmed marijuana and most certainly some of them smoked it (and inhaled)!

The federal government’s stance on marijuana, making it a schedule 1 drug is completely insane (and totally unconstitutional)! First of all, it is NOT a dangerous drug! It is one of the most safe drugs. It has NEVER, in the history of the world killed ANYONE! Unlike most of the FDA approved drugs that kill millions every year! Unlike cigarettes and alcohol, both of them legal and much more harmful!

IF the federal government wanted to legally outlaw marijuana, (or any other substance), they would need to pass a Constitutional amendment. Exactly like they did with prohibition. Even with that, it still might not pass Constitutional muster, since there is no way that anyone could show a legitimate reason to outlaw it!

We do not live in a democracy! We live in a Constitutional Republic, where the majority can  not just out vote the minority to do whatever they want! The Constitution protects the rights of the minority (the majority doesn’t need any protection).

It was only through corruption, outright lies and trickery, bribery and prejudice that got the first laws passed against it. Some greedy, power hungry bastards wanted to FORCE the majority of the people in this country to bow down to their perverted sense of morality and we’ve been saddled with the hugely destructive results of going along with it ever since.

The drug war is destroying this country! We should have learned our lesson with alcohol prohibition, but noooooo. We have to spend billions of dollars, destroy millions of lives here and around the world, simply to enrich those sick greedy bastards who started this whole mess!

Finally, after all these wasted decades, a few of the states are starting to take back their powers (under the Constitution) and have been legalizing marijuana. Yet, instead of following the sensible lead of Colorado, these corporations maintain that if you want to work for them they’ll insist on controlling your choices every moment of every day- 24/7.

Why do we let them get away with it? Why do we put up with it? Why are so many people so compliant with their insistence on total submission to their multitudes of ridiculous controlling company policies? Nobody even bothers arguing with them any more (except me- tho I keep my mouth shut more and more too). 🙁

Yes, I agree that people have the right to freedom of association. They can decide who they want to have around them and what kinds of behavior they chose to deal with. But, corporations are NOT people, no matter what the courts may say at the moment! They should not be allowed to override the rights of any actual, real life people!

We are throwing away the only thing that made America great- our FREEDOMS! We’re turning into a police state, right before our eyes and half the brainwashed population is still cheering it on! WTF is wrong with people?

That they would stand silently by, as the black garbed, jack booted militarized police drive TANKS through the streets of their cities simply to break down the doors of their neighbors, shoot their family dogs for the ‘crime’ of barking at these vicious home invaders, flash bomb grenade sleeping babies in their cribs?

They’re OK with all that, all just to stop their neighbors from enjoying a plant. A much less dangerous ‘drug’ than their favorite after work beverage they slurp down as they watch the ‘entertainment’? No matter as long as it’s not happening to themselves?

These companies now, with their drug tests, their hair follicle tests that will report what you’ve done for the last few months– WTF is wrong with people that they willingly submit to this kind of treatment? How incredibly invasive is it that you give up parts of your BODY? That you allow these control freaks to know everything you’ve done for the last what- 2 months? 3? 4? 5? 6 months? more?

When do you get to say stop? Enough is enough? When do you get to take back control of your body and your mind and your life? When you finally ‘retire’? When it’s almost all over and you’re health is failing? When you’re dead?

WTF business is it of theirs what you do when you’re NOT at work? When you’re NOT on their property? What you did last weekend is absolutely NONE of their freaking business! There is absolutely NO justification for their incredibly insulting argument that they don’t want anyone working for them who ‘broke the law’.

That’s nothing but an excuse! I know it, they know it and you ought to know it! First of all, it’s not a ‘law’ if it violates the Constitution. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land! Why are so many people just accepting this huge violation of their rights. This humongous violation of their liberty. This treatment of them they they are nothing more than property, to be controlled by their employers 24/7? Over the slightest little thing?

It might not be so infuriating if it was just one company, or even two, but it seems to be more and more of them. I might even see some altruistic principle at work IF it were actually about a concern for safety. But it’s not! There is NO possible safety issue at work when you’re bringing up tests from months ago!

I would also not have quite so much an issue with it if it wasn’t all originally started by the federal government. Yes, that very same government who’s ONLY legitimate function is to PROTECT your rights- NOT to start a snowballing system of VIOLATING them!

Would this idiotic scheme of drug testing ever have made it past the first company to try it if it hadn’t started with the military? No, of course not! The unions would have been up in arms! The ACLU would have had a shit fit!

But because the military are already basically slaves, they threw all their rights away when they signed on the dotted line, the feds got their foot in the door. Next up, it was the merchant marine, another huge group of people who were (are) basically slaves to the federal government. We are forced to beg permission from them in order to look for work!

With those two huge groups forced into giving up their 4th, 5th, 9th and 10th amendment rights, they just kept right on adding more groups to the mix. Then private companies started joining the party. Now, it’s completely out of control.

Why in the hell would anybody choose to work for a company that had so little respect of human rights? For you as a person? Are we all such sheep now that we’ll silently submit to this without even a whimper of complaint? I didn’t hear anyone there today even comment (except myself). I had to bite my tongue.

I am simply furious right now about how much of my life people like this have stolen from me! Hell yes, STOLEN from me! I live in America! Born and raised here (not that those rights only belong to Americans, we’re just the only country in the world who’s government is supposed to respect and support that idea). Brought up with and guarenteed the rights I was born with! Where are they now? Which ones do I still have left?

People say I still have choices. Yeah, some choices. Submit to allowing these parasites to stealing my life away for a paycheck, or starve? Lie down and enjoy it or be thrown in prison for trying to take BACK the rights I was guaranteed at birth? So many of them already gone. 🙁

WTF is wrong with ME that I’m even considering putting up with this bullshit!

I thought, when I was told about this job, that these two full (non-paid) days of training all the way up there in League City would be it. I would be allowed to go to work. Nope, I found out this afternoon, while taking the end of the day test (if you didn’t pass with 85% you wouldn’t be allowed back to finish the class), that I would have to spend yet another whole day learning pretty much the same stuff I just spent all day today ‘learning’ and will waste another day going over more of the same tomorrow! I made 98% on the test.

Obviously, I didn’t know about the hair follicle test either. Jeez, the piss test is bad enough. I’ve resigned myself to having to put up with that degradation, but adding another few months of company control of my life during my time off is just too much!

Wow! All I can say at this point is wow!

I am not happy. No, not at all happy. I need to get some rest tonight. I do plan to finish what I started tomorrow. Not sure what good it’ll ever do me at this point. I don’t think I’m going to be accepting any job in the plants if this is the way they all treat their people.

I sure wish I could get back offshore! It’s slightly easier to take the bullshit if you’re getting some decent benefits out of it.