So i'm pretty shook up. First time something like this happened, and I have an early shift. So i'm trying to rest for the night.

My brother however, is off the next few days. So he responds to this the same way he responds to everything. Goes out and gets drunk.

That's terrible

At around midnight I still hadn't fallen asleep. and I get a call from my brother.

I answer the phone and he says. "Hey grumplebee, I need to talk to you. Mom just called. Dad died.

His last words were "With my final breath I want everyone to know that I hated Grumplebee!"

needless to say I hung up on him.

Dad made a full recovery from both illnesses. Doctor said he woldn't know he'd had a heart attack if it wasn't on his chart, and he only lost 10% of lung capacity in one lung.

Did your dad put him up to it? Why did he do that?

No my dad wasn't up to doing anything at that point. he almost died and was in bad bad shape.

My brother just did it because he was proper drunk and thought it would be funny.

Did you ever tell him your brother did that?

Oh yeah.

He thought it was hilarious.

He probably did. Lol Is your dad doing well now?

Yeah, he's 60 now. Still working, and working on getting his doctorate of edutation. He's always wanted to be a doctor.

Way to go Grumplebee Sr!

And your brother is a better place?

My brother is a whole nother story.

He's had some problems, but let's not get full into that right now.

Your brother sounds like he'll along with your wives family. The messed up ones.

I don't want to get into the whole elaborate thing but he had a traumatically bad work experience. So did I actually. Neither of us coped with it super well. Indeed, we have most of the same problems. But to greater or lesser degrees depending on the particular issue we're talking about.

You ever hear that C.S. Lewis quote about Robber Barons and Moral Busybodies?

No I have not

I'll pull it up. It's a really good one, and one anyone in our area of the politcal spectrum should know.

Ok

One of the reasons why Trump was better than Clinton even *if* every last thing your ever heard about it was true. Including the hooker pissing thing.

Ok, I dig it. I understand it. I don't know why I haven't come across it or can't remember reading it before

Lol

This relates back to me and my brother. So we used to be very close on the political spectrum. Fairly conservative. Then we got jobs.

He worked at a factory that was not unionized. Worked hard, got promoted, and moved to another factory out of state to get them up to snuff. This was the main factory for the country run by a small group of super rich guys.

Like imagine the stereotypical rich factory owner turn of the twentieth century stereotype and you'll get the idea, and they got up to some shady stuff. including hiring illegals etc.

Yes.

So they failed to deliver on a lot of the stuff they promised, he's the only guy in the entire factories QA department which means everyone hates, him, and the cost of living means hes making as much money as he had been before the promotion in pracitcal terms.

He also was supposed to have a team he was managing that never got delivered on.

To spare the blow by blow he had a mental break down, quit his job, and moved hard left.

Now at the same time. I was working for a unionized hotel.

I don't much care for unions, but the union rep lady was friendly enough, and the hotel was constantly claming to not have any money.

It's a mutbillion dollar international corporation that is owned by *another* multibillion dollar corporation

So i'm not a fand of the pleading poverty and me and the union lady kind of bond on that point.

I end up going to their meetings volunteering for stuff, and long story short I become a shop steward.

Which is an unpaid union rep that has an atual job on site.

Ah OK. I was going to ask what that was

once again sparing a lot of details I get fired from my job because of my union involvement. Which is highly illegal.

union steps up, and gets me reinstated with back pay. Which is good.

Unfortunatly, that was all they did.

I continued working there for five years or so after this. And I can most liken it to being a zombie. Managment treatement as an essentially dead entity that was still shuffling around the property.

The HR person took to calling people into her office and telling people how terrible I was.

Managment also made it known that staying in my work area and talking to me was not acceptable.

Wow, I'm so sorry that happened to you.

When I called my union rep and asked if this was some kind of harassment they told me in no uncertian terms that because I was a white a straight male there were no laws protecting me about workplace harassment.

I should also clarify that over the years the entire staff of the union changed, this included a non english speaking latina (despite the stereotpye of the hispanic housekeeper, most of the houskeepers around her speak primarily Russian), and a genderqueer guy.

How long ago was this? I thought that excuse is a current thing.

No it isn't. This was around four years ago now.

Why did you stay?

Well at this point i'd been working there seven years. So habit mostly.

Also the economy was still recovering.

And your brother?

He had a hard burn out

The pay was garbage, but the benefits package was pretty great. Union didn't have a thing to do with that.

Yeah it was really bad.

I had one too it was more gradual than his. I quit there to try to become a school bus driver.

But I failed out of that program, then lost another job. Then worked seasonally at a gift basaket place for six months.

But I was moving left politically because of the union stuff. Until it became clear they weren't going to follow up, and just kind of left me swinging in the breeze.

Bosses were coming after me for any infraction. It was a mess.

That jammed me further right than I have ever been.

Has your brother recovered from that?

Not really. He hasn't worked in a couple years now. It was really, really bad.

What was his reason for staying?

Him. Well. I think it was a gradual thing. He thought he was doing everything right. Up until he got promoted and things started falling apart.

Sometimes I feel like walking out of my place too. You get all women working together, you get drama.

And I'm guessing the union also pushed him left but he's still stuck there.

Also, back to our dad. He was the first member of our family to graduate from college. Up until his generation nobody even finished high school. So he was very insistant that we be persistant. All throughout our childhoods he didn't like us giving up on things.

No, his place was not unionized.

What pushed him left was the company owners failing to deliver, making his job more difficult than it needed to be, and telling him to man up when he said he needed assistance.

He needs counseling

He's been in counseling non stop for the past three years.

Your stories are always so interesting.

Thank you.

3 years?! Something is not right then

Oh yeah. It's more personal than I am comfortable getting into in this format. Maybe someday I'll talk about it. But part of the problem is that bit really isn't my story to tell, and I don't think he's like me talking about it.

Understandable. Thank you for sharing. I learned a new quote and feel a bit depressed now based on his situation. Poor man.

Very nice

Great stories Bee

@here DUMP IS LIVE! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Zt0lDJ4HTGJvbEG1N1_6Q/live

I'll be streaming soonish

hopeflly in 30 mins

Orwell thirsty for that privacy

hahaha

i may have it

just setting up

@everyone I am back from the wilderness and doing a brief Q&A. Tune in!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzJ9jOCJ9gI