JCT – Born Again

Transformco, the parent company of Sears and Kmart is laying off hundreds at its Illinois headquarters.

Excerpt:

“CHICAGO — The parent company of Sears and Kmart has laid off more employees at its Hoffman Estates, Ill., headquarters, a week after announcing plans to close about a third of the retailer’s remaining stores.

The layoffs, which reportedly affected hundreds of employees, first were reported by Business Insider. The latest job cuts come just two months after a round of layoffs affecting about 250 workers.”

This economy continues to deteriorate. You can call it a recession if you want too, but many of us perceive the state of affairs as being much worse than that. We appear to be perched on the precipice of gargantuan economic calamity. I hope not but… it isn’t looking so good from where I sit.

Re. Sears and Kmart: The big boys like Amazon and Walmart are driving retail companies out of business. HOW these two Goliaths are able to dominate the market place would appear to be: price and convenience. These days and times, it seemingly requires a huge organization/enterprise in order to be able to compete.

I don’t know about you but I dread the potential day when there is only going to be only one retail outlet, one bank, one grocery store, one movie company, one newspaper, one automobile, one government, ad nauseam. The escalating concentration of power just never seems to abate. Groupthink and “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” abound. It’s scary.

The concentration of power puts you in mind of the old GUM stores. There was basically just one retail store in the old Soviet Union => the GUM stores. A completely managed and fatally-flawed enterprise: shortages, bad prices, long lines, etc. Competition may have its tradeoffs, but when monopoly forces are allowed to increasingly dominate… well, we got big trouble brewing, folks.

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Sears/Kmart article:

https://m.arcamax.com/business/businessnews/s-2295707?ezine=112&r=wsR4hGKw3D4_FhflRUU6dApdcVn8y7ZiHxGJ50_nBC9DOjMyNzA5MTUzNzpKOjE4ODExNjQ6TDoxMTI6Ujo0NzQ1NjA6UzoyMjk1NzA3OlY6Njc

(Image: © Shutterstock)

Excerpts:

“A previous report, published in 2013, estimated that at least 2 million people in the U.S. get an antibiotic-resistant infection each year and that at least 23,000 people die from these infections. For the new report, CDC officials recrunched these numbers.

They found that closer to 2.6 million drug-resistant infections likely occurred at the time of the last report, resulting in nearly 44,000 deaths — nearly double the previous estimate.”

“The U.S. faces two new urgent threats to public health: a couple of drug-resistant germs called Candida auris and Acinetobacter, health officials announced today.”

“…someone in the U.S. catches a drug-resistant infection every 11 seconds, and someone dies as a result of these infections about every 15 minutes, according to a CDC statement.”

Further information in addition to the above excerpts is provided in the link below. There is a good video (less than 3 minutes) included within the link about how antibiotics work and why people shouldn’t be taking them willy-nilly.

I believe antibiotics are one of the better discoveries of modern medicine. However, antibiotics also apparently kill good bacteria (a usual pharmaceutical trade-off). In reference thereto… I don’t believe oregano or zinc/echinacea compounds do harm to benevolent bacteria => both being recognized naturopathic remedies.

Albeit limited in strength (but not usefulness), zinc/echinacea, when used at the initial onset of bugs and flus will literally nip those things in the bud. I haven’t been flu sick in years because I immediately start ingesting zinc/echinacea at the first sign of scratchiness in my throat.

The developing sore throat bacteria can not then multiply in my throat. This stops the bacteria from spreading to the rest of my body. Zinc/echinacea is one of the three or four foundational naturopathic things I do for my body. Another essential naturopathic thing I do was covered in another previous post => You Gotta’ Get Alkaline.

Peace out… {article link below}

https://www.livescience.com/antibiotic-drug-resistance-infection-urgent-threats-cdc.html?utm_source=Selligent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10057&utm_content=20191114_LSH_Newsletter+-+adhoc+&utm_term=3007709&m_i=5VZM4uMEhNO9Jv3zoVA_JiSgCxcuL0XNtZ0HFQafsTAL4Q35DL6Ko3ldv%2BYc9kS9VD5c0qdGXnarVzdct06ZYXzL3N%2B1AxL55U

You need to start developing a marketable trade-type skill at an early age, young people. I don’t care if you‘re dreaming of becoming an actor, an artist, a writer, a historian, an explorer, a nuclear physicist, an astronomer, an astronaut, whatever the heck it is you want to become => it doesn’t matter. You still need to be able to fall back upon a learned trade should(when) it might become necessary.

Life is going to throw most of us a few curves along the way. As you slowly evolve and migrate toward the profession/avocation of your choice (hopefully so anyway), things may possibly get a bit economically tough. The monthly budget may not always be there as hoped. That’s when you need a skill set to fall back upon => to be able to cover those unexpected periods of economic duress that may come calling. Because trust me: the great majority of us will experience economic dislocation at some point in our lives. Just the way it is.

It’s best to be prepared for contingencies. I never developed a trade skill in my own life. And I suffered because of it. My little family suffered because of it. I was an electrical engineer earlier in life. I was decent enough at it. But after a number of years (10+) that profession bit the dust as woefully as an Indy car stretching for the finish line but running out of gas. I SO WISHED back then that I’d had a good trade to fall back upon. But I did not. And as I said, myself and the family suffered because of that.

You may be thinking ‘electrical engineer’? Why didn’t you fall back on being an electrician or something? First off, being an electrician is a completely different skill set as compared to being an electrical engineer.

As an electrical engineer, yeah: you work with a soldering iron, prototypes, circuit boards, drafting, manufacturing considerations and so forth and so on. But you don’t necessarily develop a good skill set working with your hands per se. Math and science, physics, electronic knowledge, related technological advancements, different more mental-oriented thought processes are required.

But an electrician? Power considerations, circuit breakers, wiring, the physical hardware, how-to-fix (install) electrical in the home (according to code)… I still don’t have much of a clue. Although it should be fairly easy for me to pick it up, I never studied or learned that trade. And firms that hire electricians don’t want engineers unless they have some direct work experience. They want people who actually have hands-on experience. I didn’t have any.

Point being, you kids out there, even when you seek a professional-type situation… you need to have a backup plan – just in case. Find something that is (hopefully) marketable. Develop any number of good skills: carpentry, construction, automobile repair, electrician work, welding, cooking… I don’t know. I wouldn’t be able to list everything that might be marketably viable. But you get the idea.

I believe the public school system continues to do a grave mis-service to the youngsters. Kids (starting early on) should be channeled into a trade of their own choosing => every kid, male and female. Currently most public schools will offer some trade training but it’s usually a little late in the game and it’s primarily presented as a backup offering to those not opting for college – and offered somewhat apologetically. It ought to be more pervasive and made more respectable as is currently being presented. A trade skill provides essential flexibility and useful employment capability directly out of high school.

I don’t care if a kid wants a trade or not. He gets the training anyway. It should be a necessary component of growing up. It should be required training every year for every student => grades 7 – 12. With six years of training a kid will at least possess one valuable skill set upon graduating high school. That just can’t be a bad thing – actually learning something of immediate use and value.

Blogging is an art and a science. Please forgive. I’m still finger painting 🥴

87% of the world’s oceans are dying. Only 13% of the world’s oceans have intact marine ecosystems, while the rest have been plundered and degraded.

Climate change is adversely affecting the oceans. As the ocean becomes more acidic (human-caused excess CO2), many species will not be able to survive.

Also => “The global fishing industry is overexploiting fish populations, and killing various species unintended for capture such as dolphins, sharks, and whales.”

“Industrial pollution from farms, factories, and boats fills marine environments with harmful chemicals, while plastic pollution is turning large sections of ocean into hazardous obstacle courses…”

In addition to bulk plastic pollution, there is a less-discussed issue concerning microscopic, particulate matter. Microscopic plastic is getting into the fish, further compromising sea-life’s ability to survive. And importantly, as the plastic contamination continues, the fish that man eats are becoming increasingly toxic {JCT earnestly suggests that you research corollary “PM2.5” on the net}.

“Beyond just valuing nature for nature’s sake, having these large intact seascapes that function in a way that they always have done is really important for the Earth,” Jones told the Guardian. They maintain the ecological processes that are how the climate and Earth system function – [without them] you can start seeing big knock-on effects with drastic and unforeseen consequences.”

The whales strongly depend upon krill to survive. In increasing-areas of the ocean, the krill are dying. Blue fin tuna are soon expected to become extinct. etc. etc. Our planet’s oceans are becoming a SUPREME NIGHTMARE! The oceans are changing from being *the deep blue sea” to *the deep toxic sea*.” This is just so horribly and tragically abhorrent, it makes one want to cry 😢.

It’s simple: the sea dies => man dies.

Please reference the quoted article in the link below:

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/87-of-worlds-oceans-are-dying-climate-change/

The “GREAT GAME” is the devil’s chessboard. It is a distraction and very much => paranoid delusion.