#great union

[mihsignultra]

Happy National Day!

Today it's 1st December. Happy Great Union Day!

#romania #great union #1 december

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Amazon's bestselling "bitter lemon" energy drink was bottled delivery driver piss

Today (Oct 20), I'm in Charleston, WV at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

For a brief time this year, the bestselling "bitter lemon drink" on Amazon was "Release Energy," which consisted of the harvested urine of Amazon delivery drivers, rebottled for sale by Catfish UK prankster Oobah Butler in a stunt for a new Channel 4 doc, "The Great Amazon Heist":

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-amazon-heist

Collecting driver piss is surprisingly easy. Amazon, you see, puts its drivers on a quota that makes it impossible for them to drive safely, park conscientiously, or, indeed, fulfill their basic human biological needs. Amazon has long waged war on its employees' kidneys, marking down warehouse workers for "time off task" when they visit the toilets.

As tales of drivers pissing – and shitting! – in their vans multiplied, Amazon took decisive action. The company enacted a strict zero tolerance policy for drivers returning to the depot with bottles of piss in their vans.

That's where Butler comes in: the roads leading to Amazon delivery depots are lined with bottles of piss thrown out of delivery vans by drivers who don't want to lose their jobs, which made harvesting the raw material for "Release Energy" a straightforward matter.

Butler was worried that he wouldn't be able to list his product on Amazon because he didn't have the requisite "food and drinks licensing" certificates, so he listed his drink in Amazon's refillable pump dispenser category. But Amazon's systems detected the mismatch and automatically shifted the product into the drinks section.

Butler enlisted some confederates to place orders for his drink, and it quickly rocketed to the top of Amazon's listings for the category, which led to Amazon's recommendation engine pushing the item on people who weren't in on the gag. When these orders came in, Butler pulled the plug, but not before an Amazon rep telephoned him to pitch him turning packaging, shipping and fulfillment over to Amazon:

https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-let-its-drivers-urine-be-sold-as-an-energy-drink/

The Release Energy prank was just one stunt Butler pulled for his doc; he also went undercover at an Amazon warehouse, during a period when Amazon hired an extra 1,000 workers for its warehouses in Coventry, UK, in a successful bid to dilute pro-union sentiment in his workforce in advance of a key union vote:

https://jacobin.com/2023/10/the-great-amazon-heist-oobah-butler-review

Butler's stint as an Amazon warehouse worker only lasted a couple of days, ending when Amazon recognized him and fired him.

The contrast between Amazon's ability to detect an undercover reporter and its inability to spot bottles of piss being marketed as bitter lemon energy drink says it all, really. Corporations like Amazon hire vast armies of "threat intelligence" creeps who LARP at being CIA superspies, subjecting employees and activists to intense and often illegal surveillance.

But while Amazon's defensive might is laser-focused on the threat of labor organizers and documentarians, the company can't figure out that one of its bestselling products is bottles of its tormented drivers' own urine.

In the USA, the FTC is suing Amazon for its monopolistic tactics, arguing that the company has found ways to raise prices and reduce quality by trapping manufacturers and sellers with its logistics operation, taking $0.45-$0.51 out of every dollar they earn and forcing them to raise prices at all retailers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

The Release Energy stunt shows where Amazon's priorities are. Not only did Release Energy get listed on Amazon without any quality checks, the company actually nudged it into a category where it was more likely to be consumed by a person. The only notice the company took of Release Energy was in its logistics and manufacturing department – the part of the business that extracts the monopoly rents at issue in the FTC case – which tracked Butler down in order to sell him these services.

The drivers whose piss Butler collected don't work directly for Amazon, they work for a Delivery Service Partner. These DSPs are victims of a pyramid scheme that Amazon set up. DSP operators lease vans and pay to have them skinned in Amazon livery and studded with Amazon sensors. They take out long-term leases on depots, and hire drivers who dress in Amazon uniforms. Their drivers are minutely monitored by Amazon, down to the movements of their eyeballs.

But none of this is "Amazon" – it's all run by an "entrepreneur," whom Amazon can cut loose without notice, leaving them with unfairly terminated employees, outstanding workers' comp claims, a fleet of Amazon-skinned vehicles and unbreakable facilities leases:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/17/revenge-of-the-chickenized-reverse-centaurs/

Speaking to Wired, Amazon denied that it forces its drivers to piss in bottles, but Butler clearly catches a DSP dispatcher telling drivers "If you pee in a bottle and leave it [in the vehicle], you will get a point for that" – that is, the part you get punished for isn't the peeing, it's the leaving.

Amazon's defense against the FTC is that it spares no effort to keep its marketplace safe. As Amazon spokesperson James Drummond says, they use "industry-leading tools to prevent genuinely unsafe products being listed." But the only industry-leading tools in evidence are tools to bust unions and screw suppliers.

In her landmark Yale Law Review paper, "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox," FTC Chair Lina Khan makes a brilliant argument that Amazon's alleged benefits to "consumers" are temporary at best, illusory at worst:

https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox

In Butler's documentary, Khan's hypothesis is thoroughly validated: here's a company extracting hundreds of billions from merchants who raise prices to compensate, and those monopoly rents are "invested" in union-busting and countermeasures against investigative journalists, while the tools to keep you from accidentally getting a bottle of piss in the mail are laughably primitive.

Truly, Amazon is the apex predator of the platform era:

https://pluralistic.net/ApexPredator

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/20/release-energy/#the-bitterest-lemon

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

#pluralistic #release energy #channel 4 #amazon #corporate intelligence #labor #unions #amazon labor union #the great Amazon heist #catfish uk #oobah butler #delivery service partner

[jonathantaylor]

would anyone care for a little history lesson?

#one take man #in one take #december 1st #1st of december #great union #great union day #national holiday #national day #Romania #romanian holiday #Romanian national holiday #article #wikipedia #wikipedia article

[nebulousbren]

Keyblade Quotes pt 3 - Wayfinder Trio + Vanitas

#artists on tumblr #kingdom hearts fanart #kingdom hearts #keyblades #wayfinder trio #kh terra #kh aqua #kh ven #kh vanitas #digital art #illustration #my art #final set for now #maybe in the future i'll do the union leaders or the dandelions or dark road wielders #but for now i'm done with the idea #thanks for the love on these! happy to see all the great tags ^^

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I started reading Dungeon Meshi last week, became instantly charmed and captivated, and blitzed through the entire manga in 4 days (and changed my profile picture about it). With that in mind, I would just like to say...

I love your dungeon meshi art so so much

CHILCHUCK!!!!!!!!

Thank you kindly! I love Dungeon Meshi a lot, so I'm happy to see so many people get into it for the first time.

CHILCHUCK!!!

#ask #dungeon meshi #chilchuck tims #I feel like chilchuck was overlooked in the pre-anime fandom a lot (which sucked as an OG chilchuck fan). #So I am thrilled by how much love he has been getting. He is a great character and so much fun to draw. #Great comedic straight man while also having some really hard hitting emotional moments. #I think he needs a union mandated vacation after this dungeon expedition -and a drink with an umbrella in it. #Veering off topic for a moment: #I started drawing this at the same time as the Dragon comic (I had chilchuck brainrot) #and since then two of my dungeon meshi comics have hit over 10k notes. Which is bonkers! #A year ago I was getting hyped over a post reaching past 100 notes...I never thought I'd be here. Thank you for all the love and support. #I may have started as a MDZS blog but drawing for Dungeon Meshi has had a huge impact on me *and* my art. #This Chilled Chuck is thus a mini celebration for a incredible milestone B*) #I'll keep my weekly dungeon meshi posts going until the season ends so please keep looking forwards to it!

[valdevia]

"I reckon they called him Jethro before… y'know, he turned into that thing. I thought a were-possum would be trouble, but he just wanders the holler, looking for ticks. "He's a nice feller! Not fond of lawmen, though. Might have bad memories. Heard he was at Blair Mountain."

#Don't worry he's a nice feller #UNLESS you're some sort of union buster Pinkerton #A commission for Zane Schacht! He's a great voice actor check him out on Twitter #unreality #photoshop

[ravensvalley]

#TheGreatBlueHeron

The Great Blue Herons, after catching a fish, typically do not wait before beginning to digest their meal. And once they've swallowed their prey whole, they start the process of digestion immediately while taking a comfortably nap on a rock, enjoying the sun.

@BenAdrienProulx October 24th, 2023

#The Great Blue Heron #Wild Bird Photography #Wildlife Photography #Bird Watching #Bird Photography #Bird life #eBirders #Nature Photography #Nature Canada #IUCN #Raw Nature #NatureCore #International Union for Conservation of Nature #NCC #Nature Conservancy of Canada #FeederWatch #Mountainous Parts of the Northern Hemisphere #Canada #The RavenKeeper

[arthur-lesters-right-arm]

Arthur, distraught: You are straight up colonizing my body !

John: No Arthur, if anything I am unionizing your body.

Arthur, visibly more distraught: Dear god my heritage has caught up with me

#thank you Great Britain thank you Industrial Revolution yay unions #to be fair it would be British either way if he were colonizing his body #Arthur British Lester #malevolent podcast #arthur lester #arthur malevolent #john malevolent #malevolent arthur #malevolent #john doe malevolent #malevolent john

[faeriekit]

Pspspspspsps if you're looking for a pro union picture book to explain current events to your first grader/kindergartener, might I recommend Click Clack Moo; Cows That Type? It's also an award winner and also really funnyyyyy 👀 🐄

#yes the cows unionize it's great #library posting

[canisalbus]

I noticed you've been making more art of Machete and Vasco after they met again as adults - is this canon? Do they get to rekindle their friendship after all, or is it still brief and bittersweet? (I love your characters and art, btw!)

Thank you! I'm glad you like them!

It's canon, I believe. After their confusing and apprehensive friends-to-lovers involvement ended in their early 20's, their paths end up crossing again unexpectedly in their mid 30's and things gradually grow from there.

#answered #kf-tea #it's not the steadiest alliance #Vasco has been stuck in a forced lavender marriage for nearly a decade but he's out of the closet to his wife by that point #their union is more like close platonic friendship than that of a husband and wife and they're largely comfortable like that #they've agreed to see other people for the common good #they're great parents and keep up the appearances well I don't think anyone suspects anything #in that day and age divorce simply isn't an option especially if you're a public figure and have a family reputation to keep up #Machete obviously isn't permitted to have sentimental or intimate relations of any kind #the two of them live in separate cities so it's more like a sporadic long distance thing #Vasco is a politician and an ambassador so he takes regular business trips to Rome which is convenient #maybe Machete gets to visit him in Florence on occasion but usually it's the other way around #but between those weeks and sometimes months pass #if their relationship lasts until the end they get a good 8-9 years in so I'd say it counts as a committed long term thing for sure #or at least that's the current idea and order of events #Vasco #Machete

[ifindus]

1660 - Cavalryman - Several wars under Denmark against Sweden.

1697 - Gunner - pre-Great Nordic War under Denmark against Sweden.

1774 - Skiing Soldier - pre-Theater War under Denmark against Sweden.

1785 - Infantryman - pre-Great Northern War under Denmark against Sweden.

1808 - Coast Guard Officer - Napoleonic Wars under Denmark.

1845 - Infantryman - pre-First Schleswig War under Sweden against Germany.

1855 - Infantryman - during the Crimean War (Sweden-Norway debated joining the UK and France against Russia).

1905 - Hunter - preparing for wars of independence against Sweden.

1914 - Engineer Officer - First World War.

1940 - Infantry Officer - Second World War.

#historical hetalia #hetalia #aph norway #hws norway #damn this took a long time #if you haven't heard much from me the last three days it's because I was studying and doing this #had this idea ages ago but never did it because: very time-consuming :P #but now I did it!! #SNL (store norske leksikon) has this great illustration of all these uniforms and it is inspiring every time I look at it #and then norgeshistorie.no posted a new article about militarization in Norway during the union with Denmark and I had to do the project #we all know how much I like drawing uniforms and historical clothing 😔😔😔 #even bought a book about historical clothing this spring - for references #but it's a bit confusing so might get another one if I see a good one #I do love the historical asks I get because then I get to nerd out about all the cool history I know 👀 #I have mentioned before but; Norway was perhaps /the/ most militarized country in Europe during the 1600s #there are a lot of stories from towns and villages nearby about the results of this #anyway; hope everyone enjoys Norway in uniforms!! 😁 #I am sure some minor details will be inaccurate but I tried

[360nw]

Out Of The Fog - Union Pacific 5373 in Eugene Oregon - October 2012

#oregon #the great pnw #photographers on tumblr #pnw #lanecounty #eugene #original photography #lane county #union pacific #railroad #rails #fog

[eveningdove]

todays session was a side quest to rescue our friend from kingdom of jefferey bezos demi plane and we all got a random amazon object and cirrus got distinctly photoshopped rhinestone jeans

gave me a tiny bit of true sight but also started to shrink my ass…

#oc: cirrus hider of stars #great one shot tbh #dnd art #eveningdove art #also please appreciate unionize now above the pockets

[anartisticdreamer0]

i genuinely, like i promise you i mean this in the most sincere way possible, are we in the wrong for asking why they didn’t contact him- or the company- through email? because it’s not that i blame them, absolutely not, q absolutely has seen their messages by now and there’s no way he hasn’t- i simply don’t believe that. but my question is why not reach out and email him- at least to warn him of suing?

i want to reiterate, he 100% has seen the post by now and he should still be questioned as to why he hasn’t contacted them. but i don’t understand why they wouldn’t email him?

#again maybe im in the wrong? #i just don’t get it #though i think we need to remember to still hold him accountable #he’s young yes. but he’s not a baby. #mans is still responsible for fixing the situation. #and hes not doing great. #qsmp #qadmin situation #qsmp admin situation #qsmp union

[asksimonbelmont]

Hard question coming in: Do you actually want children? Or having one or more is just something you feel pressured to do, to keep the family's legacy and be sure someone will be there to fight Dracula in the future?

Another hard question: Did your parents actually wanted you?

If circumstances were different… if I was in a union with someone I loved, and not arranged with, and we were far from the burden of this lineage, then yes. I would want children.

But it is difficult to stomach bringing life into this world with the weight of circumstance thrust upon them. It is cruel—and I beg my future children’s forgiveness—and Selena’s, too, for shouldering this cruelty with me—but I cannot change the necessity of this fate. I cannot change God’s will for this family.

It is as you say: it is something I feel pressured to do.

But I will fight as long as there is breath in my body, so my family will never have to face hardship from this life. I vow to protect and care for my children.

…My parents did not do the same for me.

#vampire killer #akumajou dracula #castlevania #simon belmont #castlevania chronicles #here have some tonal and timeframe whiplash compared to the last few asks haha #don't worry simon you'll come to love your arranged wife and your children from that union Q_Q #great ask though as always thank you

[figurecollection]

Arataka Reigen Figure by Union Creative International Ltd, from Mob Psycho 100

#he looks great #Mob Psycho 100 #Arataka Reigen #Union Creative International Ltd #mp100 #anime figure #anime figures #anime #figure #figures #figurine #figurines #prepainted #misc #food #irl food