I have mentioned it before, but I am in a part of Tennessee that has no mask mandate, nor school closures. Very conservative, in all respects.

However, in the midst of this Trumpland sits a Walmart, which is naturally staffed by locals, who are forced to wear masks while clocked in, per Walmart edict. But the customers are not so compelled.

Likewise, at the beginning of the international China Flu hysteria, when Walmart here tried to force people to wear masks in order to shop at this particular store, a few politely complied, but most could be heard greeting whatever person they stuck at the door say something akin to, "Martha, I'm not wearing a mask, and you can go tell Bob that, too." Bob being the Security Manager, not his real name, who attends the biggest Baptist church in town, along with everyone else.

Thus, when I popped in early this morning for something I didn't have time to mail-order, I was surprised when I didn't recognize the door woman in a face shield and a tablet.

Turns out she was sent from corporate, and her job is not only to count how many people who are in the store but, as a separate count, to see how many in the public are wearing masks.

Again, we have zero mask mandate. None.

So why is Walmart gathering this data?

And for whom?

Now, I do know that Walmart is a key player in DARPA. That's no secret. It's on their website.