A Moral Cesspool

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From zero in 1993 to $1.728 trillion in 2021: this is the predatory financialization of higher education which has enriched lenders, Wall Street and the Higher Education Cartel

America Is a Moral Cesspool, and Student Loans Prove It — https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2021/07/america-is-moral-cesspool-and-student.html

Way back in the Dark Ages I borrowed a total of $8000.00 and worked summers and during the school years to pay for my college education. It took me ten years of payments at $69.72 a month to pay the loan off. I promised myself no matter the hardship my own children would not borrow money for their undergraduate degrees (medical school different story). There were reasons why I drove a 2006 Ford Taurus for 15 effing years.

One of the joys of aging is you get to a point where you say what you want to say and the hell with everyone else. Charles Hugh Smith is one of us who possess critical thinking skills and will always tell it like it is. Check out his blog.

And this is a perfect time to remind all of my readers that the opinions expressed in this and my other blog are mine alone and do not represent the views of any corporate entity that I may or may not be involved with either in the present or past.

I should play more and work less. https://garyskitchen.net/2021/07/24/stress-reduction/ I’m starting to become more cynical than usual.

The Great Resignation

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In April, about 649,000 retail workers left their jobs—a record number of resignations for the industry. It was yet another inflection point in a broader trend sweeping workplaces, as employees reevaluate their relationship to work and act on the burnout induced by the pandemic.

Why I decided to quit my retail job and join the Great Resignation — https://www.fastcompany.com/90658770/why-i-decided-to-quit-my-retail-job-and-join-the-great-resignation

Interesting perspective from an “essential” worker. And the trend is not limited to retail.

Hospitality jobs are unpopular, and raising the wage may not be enough to lure many former workers back. 38% of former hospitality workers report that they are not even considering a hospitality job for their next position. These workers are transitioning out of the industry in search of a different work setting (52%), higher pay (45%), better benefits (29%), and more schedule flexibility (19%). Over 50% of former hospitality workers who are looking for other work say that no pay increase or incentive would make them return to their old restaurant, bar, or hotel job.

Q2 2021 United States Job Market Report — https://www.joblist.com/jobs-reports/q2-2021-united-states-job-market-report
Not just no but hell no.

No wonder my up line supervisor got nervous when I told her I was thinking more about retirement.

Travel Advisory for Oklahoma – Updated 07.20.21(this is personal and not the US State Department)

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The Delta VOC has arrived big time and I might be returning to crowd avoidance and curbside everything soon.

Northeast Oklahoma is likely the “tip of the spear” as the delta variant has taken hold in the state, Dr. Justin Mitchell of Integris Miami Hospital said last week. There, COVID-19 beds are full again — there are even more patients now than there were in January and February, when the pandemic was at its height in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma is facing another COVID-19 surge — https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2021/07/19/oklahoma-faces-another-covid-surge-leaving-unvaccinated-risk/8017015002/?utm_source=oklahoman-Daily%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_briefing&utm_term=hero&utm_content=OKLAHOMA-OKLAHOMACITY-NLETTER65

ATTENTION PLEASE (it ain’t over)

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In a sick twist of capitalism, this sharp decrease in patient volumes through the emergency department and occupying hospital beds, while non-emergency operations were put on hold, lead to decreased revenue for hospitals and physician groups.

With a lack of revenue and a lack of foresight for the possibility of further surges and the arcane and length process of applying for hospital credentials, that lead to hospitals cutting staff including nurses and physician groups cutting hours and pay or even firing physicians.

COVID Isn’t Over, And Why That Will Impact Everyone — https://tnicholsmd.medium.com/covid-isnt-over-and-why-that-will-impact-everyone-ce94766669df

We have staffing shortages in our hospitals that include not just physicians but nurses, respiratory specialists, etc. Dr. Nichols calls this “a sick twist of capitalism”. I disagree. It’s just capitalism. Capitalism worked well for several hundred years, but times change, and systems eventually become corrupt. Corrupt systems then attract corrupt individuals or gradually corrupt unsuspecting souls to perpetuate the system. Welcome to to the world of Predatory Capitalism. Eat or be eaten. Capitalism lacks compassion.

Whew. Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest back to our original programming.

Be virus aware even if you are vaccinated. You might consider masking up again while indoors, amongst crowds, etc. The situation is worse in different parts of the world. Be aware of the situation where you live and where you travel. I was in a local shopping mall for the first time since some time prior to March 2020. A small minority of us were wearing masks. The vast majority of shoppers were behaving as if the pandemic was over. It ain’t over.

I did notice that masks were on sale. You might want to pick up a few before the price goes back up.

But so many people remain unvaccinated that, nationwide, cases have more than doubled in recent weeks — a jump driven not just by Delta, but also the country’s lapsing of mitigation efforts and people traveling and reconnecting socially. Even states like Massachusetts that have comparatively high vaccination rates have started seeing upticks in cases.

How Delta is pushing the U.S. into a new phase of the Covid-19 pandemic — https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/19/delta-vaccines-new-phase-pandemic/?utm_campaign=rss

Viral infection and transmission in a large well-traced outbreak caused by the Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant

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Viral infection and transmission in a large well-traced outbreak caused by the Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant

https://virological.org/t/viral-infection-and-transmission-in-a-large-well-traced-outbreak-caused-by-the-delta-sars-cov-2-variant/724

The link above will take you to the research study. If you go to Dr. Rasmussen’s Twitter thread you’ll find her insightful commentary on the study. In plain English.

Travel Advisory for Oklahoma (this is not the US State Department)

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The Delta VOC has arrived and I might be returning to crowd avoidance and curbside pickup sooner than expected.