Walmart (Elements of Blogging) #AtoZChallenge

Walmart on Blogs

       Of all of the businesses that people blog about, Walmart might generate the most online chatter.  Beloved by many and demonized by others, the mega monster chain has blogs in it's favor and blogs of detractors as well as company blogs that promote Walmart from the inside.  When you start searching you can find many blogs focused on Walmart.

       Originally I had not intended on using Walmart as my "W" topic until a very suspicious thing happened with my local Walmart that is an anchor store in the shopping center across the street from where I live.   To me going to Walmart is somewhat of a hassle so I usually only shop there once or twice a month.  However they offer much cheaper prices on certain items so I tend to shop for these at Walmart instead of the higher priced grocery store where I do the majority of my food shopping.

Suspicious Walmart Incident

      Probably few of you heard of the situation to which I am referring, but I'll tell you the story and then let you come up with your own conclusions.   On Thursday April 16 I heard mention on the radio that the employees of the Pico Rivera Walmart were protesting at a nearby hotel where a labor meeting was underway discussing the status of our closed store.  Closed?   I had not heard that they had closed.

        Apparently on Tuesday April 14th with 5 hours notice to the employees, the store management announced that the store would be closing for an undetermined period of time in order to fix ongoing plumbing problems.   The estimate was that they could be closed for up to 6 months.  Some employees could have the option of moving to other store locations, but many would be out of work.  This all with only 5 hours notice.   They just happened to make the decision to start repairing the plumbing that quickly?

         Now curious, I began researching online for any information about this closure and what I discovered next amazed me and left me very suspicious.  Besides our Pico Rivera Walmart, the corporation simultaneously closed four other stores in the same manner--four stores across the U.S. in Oklahoma City, two stores in Texas, and one in Florida.  Looking at a map these stores are somewhat evenly distributed across the southern United States.   Some strategic connection could be construed by looking at where these stores are in relation to each other.   The plumbing alibi at five different stores across the United States doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

        Conspiracy theories abound on this story and anyone who has been reading Tossing It Out for a few years probably knows that anything conspiratorial catches my attention, especially when corporate America or the United States government is implicated.  When you add religious prophecy then you've really got my attention.  All of these things start coming into play with the Walmart story.

What Is Walmart Up To?

        The most immediate reaction to why these stores had closed was that it was a sort of punishment to labor and a warning to the unions to back off.   As I had reported here on November 23rd of 2012 in a post called Does Walmart Deserve a Whipping?, our local store was one of the targets of the labor movement against the Walmart corporation.

      The jabs at Walmart by labor have continued ever since at the Pico Rivera store and reportedly at the other stores recently closed for plumbing problems.  Using the store closures as a retaliatory action against labor seems like a feasible corporate strategy, but on the other hand a questionable one that could backfire in a number of ways.  The labor angle sounded possible, but I wasn't buying that explanation so I went further down the crazy rabbit hole of the internet.

A More Sinister Walmart Conspiracy?

       My next investigations into Walmart connected the current events to suspicious reports dating back over the past few years.  Google and YouTube are rife with stories about underground tunnels crisscrossing the United States for the purposes of troop movements and underground cities being built in case of some above ground catastrophic event.

       This tunnel theory starts sounding a bit fantastical, but there is somewhat convincing evidence that it can be done more easily than most of us might think and that it has actually been achieved to some degree and this work is currently underway throughout the United States.  When we consider the research now being done with  ETT (evacuated tube transport) that is developing super trains that could potentially run at speeds up to 1800 MPH, we can see how a vast tunnel system would be necessary for this type of technology to be practical.

         Some wild theories now abound that the closure of the Walmart stores have nothing to do with plumbing, but the Walmart Corporation is in league with the U.S. government to use the locations in conjunction with work currently being done on the tunnel systems.  This is all far-fetched sounding and even impractical from the standpoint of why they would need tunnels that intersected Walmart locations.  Then again Walmart is known for their highly efficient supply chain management strategy (Vendor Managed Inventory) that requires an intricate web of transportation and warehousing.  The Walmart model of operating has certainly not gone unnoticed by the U.S. government.  Besides how much do you trust the U.S. government or any corporations these days?

       I won't go into too much detail in this post since I want to keep what is turning into a long article from becoming even longer.  If you're interested you can do your own searches about the tunnel theories.  But there is another sinister report that has come out that I think is worth a mention.

FEMA Detention Camps!!!

       Either there are some people with wild imaginations out there who are trying to scare us or there is some element of truth to the story.   Some of you have heard the rumors of government sponsored FEMA camps being organized around the country to be ready for some future event that will require rounding up large sectors of the population and placing them in camps or detention centers.  It's happened in other places throughout history.  Could it happen now in the United States of America?

       There have been plenty of scenarios related to epidemics, natural disasters, civil unrest, foreign invasion, or the collapse of the power grid that could be motivations for the government to move populations into controlled areas to establish control and order.  Any of these threats could potentially cause a chaotic state among the populace to the point where government would feel compelled to avoid the chaos that would likely ensue from any of these disasters.

        The temporary closings of the Walmart stores have caused some to speculate that these sites might be getting retrofitted to act as detention centers that might be needed in the near future.  In the event of the collapse of the infrastructure in the area where I live, I believe that this as well as all urban areas would be especially frightening as people struggle to survive.  A detention center manned by government control officials might be seen as necessary to stabilize the societal deterioration.   Has Walmart become complicit in helping to organize authoritarian rule of the people?

         When you think about it, the Walmart machine is highly efficient at logistical movement of supplies, management of labor, crowd control. and organizational structure.  A nation governed by a corporation or network of corporations is not unforeseeable and probably is in place already to some extent.   Are you looking forward to being moved into a control center managed by the U.S. Government/Walmart?

Shmita!

       No this is not some profane utterance, but a principle of Judaism that I will not go into detail about here.  You can look it up.  And why am I bringing this up in relation to the Walmart Conspiracy?

        A few days prior to the Walmart closing and my investigations into all the crazy sounding conspiracies, I happened to flip the television on to some show about Bible prophecy where they were talking about things like "the Blood Moon", Shmita, the Rapture, and the Tribulation. (Again I offer these terms with no explanations but Google can explain to the uninitiated.)

       The guy on TV was telling about how the next seven year cycle culminating in Shmita would be coming this September of 2015. He said at the end of every seven year cycle there is an economic downturn, the most recent being 2001 and 2008 which some of you probably recall as being somewhat bad economic years.  The TV prophet added that this year the Shmita would correspond with a blood moon, which some of you might recognize as something with prophetic implications.

        The upshot of all the prophecies was that in September we will be seeing the biggest economic collapse ever and perhaps the collapse of the U.S. as we know it.  There will be chaos and martial law will be declared with government troops fanning out across the nation to take control of every community.

        Okay, I know that now some of you are thinking I'm heading into Crazy Town, but I'm just telling you things I heard and observations I have made.   One thing that did come to mind when the Walmart story emerged was that if the stores open in six months as projected, that would be in September just in time for the Blood Moon, Shmita, and martial law being administrated due to a chaotic state resulting from everything falling apart.  They would need dentition camps and strategic networks for movement of troops and supplies.

          Yes, wild sounding I know, but could it happen?   If anything I think there is some great material here for some dystopian fiction.   I hope it's fiction.

          Have you heard about the Walmart closures, the tunnel network, or Shmita?   Why do you think the Walmart stores have been closed for an approximately six month period?   Do you read any of the Walmart related blogs?

Blogs about Walmart (can you believe it?):

Walmart Is Pure Evil

Walmart Watch

Walmart Blog  (official company site)

Walmart Sucks

I Heart the Mart  (coupons and deals)

The People of Walmart  (hilarious and at times unbelievable though true)

...And the list goes on...

Related articles

• Suspicious! Closed Walmart Stores Haven't Sought Any Permits for Plumbing Work
• Are the nationwide Walmart closures connected to detention centers for American citizens? | Alternative
• Is Wal-Mart closing stores for 'repairs,' or to punish activist workers?
• A Green Beret's Guide To Planning Your Personal Posture: "First Things First: Always Be Armed"
• Former Presidents Warn About the "Invisible Government" Running the United States
• Workers say Walmart closed stores to retaliate against activists

I'm A Pretty Hot Guy and Here's Why

          My Wednesday theme usually deals with people--interviews and people features--and like I've done the past couple of weeks I'm going to talk some more about me.  Let's face it--I'm a hot guy. I'm not bragging to get you ladies all worked up or anything like that.  It's just that I'm hot.  And today I'm going to tell you why I'm so hot.

It's all the hot and spicy food I like to eat!!!!

         At my age I should be careful--my stomach just doesn't handle the spicy foods like it used to.  My wife warns me about it all the time and worries when she sees me at Sutha Thai Restaurant in Downey with my hair (what little I have left) drenched as sweat pours from my head and runs down the back of my neck, and  my face and ears turn a bright shade of red.  I love it, but I pay later.  The old stomach just doesn't handle the hot stuff like it used to but I can't give it up either.

         But now to get to the real point of today's post.  You see I'm not a horticulturist, or a gardener, or a farmer, or anything like that, so I was hoping that someone out there might be able to tell me what we've got growing in our backyard.  This is a plant that is dear to my heart--it's like my child.  It is a hot pepper, I do know that because I risked my life eating one. Why it could have been a berry of instantaneous death or something horrible, but it was just hot.  It was kind of good, but it was hot.  My question now is what kind of pepper is it?

        First, let me give you the history of this pepper plant.  That's not it to the left, but this is where I originally had it before I had to move it to the back yard.  When we first moved here this little square of soil was planted with some kind of ground cover plant--don't know what it was, it was just put there by the original landscapers.  Well, this groundcover all died and the spot turned into just some dirt and a few weeds.  Then one day I saw this tiny little plant that looked greener, shinier, and healthier than anything else. It was growing over to the left up against the pavement of the driveway.  It struck me that there was something special about this plant and I took a liking to it.  So I dug up everything else in this plot of earth, moved my new little plant to the center, and covered the rest of the plot with green colored gravel.  The little plant began to flourish.  This was in spring of 2005.

           To spruce up the decor of the front yard I bought these little kids in a swing over at WalMart and placed it behind the plant so it looked like they were looking at the pretty little green plant.  Eventually the plant grew taller so  I moved the kids in front of the plant so it looked like a tree growing behind them. The plant continued to grow with branches extending to the driveway and the entranceway to our front door. My wife said it needed to be moved and I knew that she was right. In late summer of 2006 I dug the plant up and moved it to our back yard.

         

          When we first moved into our house in 1997 there was nothing in the back yard but a bunch of dirt which eventually began sprouting a healthy crop of weeds.  I quickly decided that this would not do and decided to start a small farm in my back yard.  Now as I have said I am no farmer and my crop was basically a fiasco.  I did manage a fair amount of very strange-looking skinny cucumbers which I dined on nearly nightly in the summer of 1999, but everything else did not produce and died.  Soon after that I came to the conclusion that this is Los Angeles and no place for a farm, so we covered the backyard with concrete except for a small strip against the back wall that was left in case anyone ever wanted to plant something.

        In June of 2005, my sister Joni was visiting and decided to replant some little houseplants that my wife had received as a gift.  They were going to die anyway so Joni replanted them in our little strip of land and they actually survived.  That's where I replanted my plant-child from the front yard-- right in the center of the strip between the other transplants.  However, my replant began to wilt and lost its leaves.  I figured the shock of the transplant was too much and the plant had died.  I left the barren skeleton to stand through winter.

         In Spring of 2007 I began to see tiny sprouts of green appear on the branches.  Then after the leaves had appeared, tiny white flowers began to blossom.  I was thrilled.  What is this plant?  I wondered. Then in midsummer I was amazed to see the tiny red orbs appear where the blossoms had been.  The plant was strong and healthy and growing bigger by the day.  At our annual family Fourth of July party at our house in 2008, my nephew-in-law tasted one.  I was afraid, but he assured me it was just a hot pepper.  I tried one.  It was a hot pepper, a very hot pepper, but a tasty hot pepper.  The plant had hundreds of them.  I began using them in cooking occasionally, but they were very hot so I didn't use them often.  To the above right is what the plant looks like now.  It's difficult to tell by the picture but it's about 6 feet tall.

 

   

      

         Since 2007 two more of these have sprouted in the ground nearby.   I transplanted them so they would be evenly spaced in the earthen strip along the wall.  So far they both seem to be doing well and are sprouting peppers of their own.  You can see the two offspring to the left.  The one top is the newest and it stands about 18 inches tall.  The one below is a couple of years old and is nearly 3 feet tall.

           At the bottom of the page are close-ups of the peppers and the leaves.  I am hoping that someone who knows peppers can identify them for me.  They are hotter than jalapenos, but maybe less hot than a habanero.  In the past I have tasted some that reminded me of the flavor of peppers that are used to make Tabasco sauce.  Although today when I tasted one it almost had the flavor of a bell pepper, albeit an extremely hot one.     

          If any body knows what these are please let me know.  Any suggestions on how I could use them?  If anyone lives near Pico Rivera you're welcome to have some cause I haven't been eating them.  They're too hot and I'm hot enough from all the other hot stuff I eat.