Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Ebola in America, I've got to Comment

Well, the first case of Ebola that wasn't flown in on a special plane arrived in Dallas.
Actually it's happening a little sooner than I expected.
I suspect that people in Africa who feel a little woozy are spending their last dollar to get to the United States (where there is better health care).
If that is the case we'll see a lot of cases pretty soon. Every time someone gets sick and they have airfare and a passport they will run off to the good old U.S.A.
If I'm right the outbreak will get here a lot faster than I thought.
Tomorrow I'll see about getting some surgical masks and rubber gloves. I guess I'll need a spray bottle for chlorine as well. I won't start using this stuff yet but it's a good idea to have the basic supplies well ahead of the crowds.
I might have to bug out in the middle of Winter. I'll go to Arizona if I do. The "New 49ers" have mining claims in Arizona where I'll be able to isolate myself.
I think I'll be able to get my motor home ready to go within a month. I could actually drive it out right now, but I would like to get the lights in the living compartment working. I also don't know if the hot water heater and the furnace work.
The numbers of new Ebola cases seems to be leveling off a bit. At least they don't seem to be rising at the rate that I was used to. Maybe it's wishful thinking, on my part. The last that I heard the number of cases was about 6500 with slightly more than a 50% death rate.
Maybe the reality is that the numbers are distorted by not being able to get to the places where the sick people are. One of the problems is that the people doing the counting are dying as well.
I believe it was Sierra Leone that is quarantining 30% of it's population. I hope that works out well for them. I'm afraid that it will only cause deaths due to starvation. Those people simply don't have any good choices, any more. I don't know if any of us do have any good choices.
On a lighter topic, I'm thinking about buying silver on a leveraged basis. That means I'm thinking about gambling again. If that guy whose last name is Organ is right; silver should go through the roof this coming December. If it goes up 5 fold and I'm leveraged 4 to 1, a thousand dollars could become 20 thousand dollars. That would certainly finance my trip to Arizona or California. Of course, this is the same kind of thinking that has lead me down the road of poverty all of my life. I always lose.
Maybe this time I can get some one else to put up the money. Gary is my only hope.
I'll have to research it and make it happen. Maybe I could use my etchings for collateral.
Later

Saturday, September 27, 2014

A Slow Saturday Afternoon

There doesn't seem to be much news about Ebola today.
Nothing is happening with my motor home.
The currency hasn't collapsed yet.
I'm just drinking coffee at Java Johns, listening to Pandora (Government Mule Station) and polishing off a bagel.
I have no idea of what to talk about.
I noticed that I have a lot of viewers from Ukraine. Maybe I should comment about that situation. Maybe not; I don't know.
I lean towards the Russian side of the conflict. It looks to me like flight M17 (or whatever it was named) was shot down by the Ukraine government to blame it on the rebels. I just don't see any reason the Russians or the rebels would shoot it down.
I hope that peace breaks out and they have a referendum or something.
I suppose I just offended half of my readers from Ukraine. Oh well, that's just the way I see it, now. I could be wrong.
If Ebola keeps doubling the number of cases every 20 days, nothing else will matter much anyway.
I see that the CDC is saying that there could be 1.4 million cases by the end of January. If that happens it will really take off, from there.
A lot of people think that it won't affect the U.S.A very much but I think that is just "Normality Bias". Simply put that means that people think that things will remain the same simply because they always have.
I think that once it gets into our cities it will spread almost as fast as in the slums of Monrovia, Liberia. Time will tell.
A lot of people on YouTube are saying that the economy will collapse this Winter. Most are saying I will happen during the latter part of October or the first part of November. Some are saying it will happen in January.
If it doesn't happen I'll have to rethink watching those things. Maybe the system is so corrupt that it can go on forever. After all, we've had paper currency since 1971 and it still goes up in value. Maybe it can continue forever. Even if it does, I'm going after gold next year. I feel that gold will always have value.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

A Day Off and Not Much Happening

I just signed an Internet petition to the Secretary General of the U.N. It's about increasing aid for the Ebola outbreak. Here is a link to the petition: http://one.org/ebola?referring_akid=a26210217.6663229.GNZg9V&source=conf&utm_source=email&utm_medium=emailhttp://one.org/ebola?referring_akid=a26210217.6663229.GNZg9V&source=conf&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email
I'm not sure what to click on but something above should work. I think if you click on the top link it should work.
I'm going to class today to  be a peer supporter. I don't know if I'll ever get a job at it but I'm getting paid to go and I'm out of the Peace Center for a while.
I'm getting closer to heading out to California. I'll be leaving next April.
More about Ebola. I think it will be a short-run sort of thing. After a few months it will go away. It might kill 90% of the population during that time but the survivors will be immune and it will go away, I hope.
It will destroy the economy, worldwide. Maybe I'm being alarmist but I have the feeling that it will happen that way.
Running to the mountains probably won't help anything since it will be so widespread. I think I'll do that anyway.
Well, I've got to run off to class in a few minutes.
Later

Saturday, September 20, 2014

500,000 Ebola cases by January?

Bloomberg came out with a ,worst-case, scenario of over 500,000 Ebola cases by January. I feel that their projections are more accurate than any thing else I've seen.
They are including the fact that the numbers that are in common usage are obviously low, since nobody is getting a good count. They are also figuring in a doubling of the numbers every 20 or so days.
Last week I was calculating about a 160,000 number by January. I was using the official numbers and figuring that it doubled every month.
I think Bloomberg's numbers are more accurate than mine. This moves things up a bunch.
I'll have to get my bug out vehicle running and get moved to the wilderness quicker than I was thinking.
I got my refrigerator last week. It's ready to install.
I want to get my fuel gauges fixed and get the transmission worked on.
I'll also need what is called a dolly to tow my van behind the motor home.
That will set me back about $400. Hopefully that will be my biggest expense.
I don't expect to leave before we get 50,000 cases of Ebola in the United States.
I don't know how long that will take. I figure that when the cases get over 50,000 that the American health care system will be overwhelmed.
I'm picking up this post after being away for a few hours.
It looks like the CDC is behind the new worst-case scenario. That was the way the Huffington Post reports it. It is based on unreleased numbers but I think it will be official, soon.
At least someone in the U.S. is taking this thing seriously.
Later


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Too Little, Too Late on Ebola

I feel that we should have heard what the President said today about 2 months ago.
The CDC and WHO have been saying that Ebola is "out of control" for at least that long.
I feel that if everything works out for the best ( including getting a working vaccine) we'll still see deaths in the millions.
From what I've seen, it would be better to treat the patients at home and then isolate the homes. The hospitals in that section of the world are too contaminated to bother with. There is the chance of mixing Malaria patients with the Ebola patients. And that will result in more deaths and such.
I think we have to put the people who survived Ebola to work with the active patients. Apparent they have at least some immunity to it once they survive it. They should also be put to work disposing of the bodies.
On the positive side, at least there is attention being paid to the problem. It's just needlessly late and probably too little.
A good article on the Internet to read about this is on Yahoo. It's title is something about "Ebola, a Game Changer". I probably wrote the title wrong but do a search on Yahoo with those words and you'll find it.
I don't know if it was in that article or not but I saw somewhere that the developed nations have a false sense of security. We think that our advanced health care and sanitary systems will make us immune to Ebola. That article said that the transportation system will bring Ebola to us with disastrous results. We'll be just as overwhelmed as West Africa. We'll see.
I'm redoubling my efforts to get my bug-out vehicle running. I want to pan gold while all of this is going on.
I got my refrigerator, today. It looks like it will fit in. I'm going to have to check the water heater and furnace by myself. The repair guy isn't getting to it. I'll run out there tomorrow or the next day and see what I can do.
Later

Sunday, September 14, 2014

This Probably won't help my Numbers

I'm just sitting at Culvers restaurant, eating a hot fudge Sunday, and drinking coffee.
I don't have anything exciting to talk about. I think I covered the news about Ebola in my last post; the WHO was being optimistic when they said that 20,000 could die. I think it will be in the millions and if things don't start looking better, it might be in the billions. We'll see.
I didn't go prospecting today. I just feel that it's not at all hopeful.
The guy working on my motor home isn't getting anything done. I've been waiting for weeks to find out if my furnace and water heater work. I'll just have to run out there myself and play with them. I need to know where I stand on my motor home.
We're that much closer to the currency collapse. Switzerland is voting on whether to go back to a gold-backed currency. When they do (the majority of voters favor the referendum) that might topple the dollar and the rest of fiat currencies as well. China and Russia are talking about backing their currency with gold as well. Switzerland might be  the trigger for the long-awaited collapse.
Some people say that we are running out of gold and silver. That could come to a head because we are sanctioning Russia.
I'm going to see if I can get my money into gold for a while. I have to talk to Roger at the bank. I'm not allowed to handle my own money.
I was going to post a couple of pictures of the etchings I'll be trying to sell this week. I haven't gotten around to making that listing yet; maybe I'll do that later, tonight.
I think I'll go home, wash some clothes, and take pictures of and list my etchings.
Thought I'd post a couple of pictures of etchings that I just listed on EBay.


The first one is named "Sierra Before the Storm"
I forgot what the second one is named. They are both on EBay under Malcolm Childers. He's the artist.
Later

Thursday, September 11, 2014

So What did I do to Offend my Readers from Moldova?

I just want to wish all the best to all of the readers I had from Moldova. Of course, it was probably just a bunch of bots reading my posts but I kind of miss them. My readership is still elevated from my norm for the last 4 years but they really multiplied my numbers.
Not a lot is happening here. I'm drinking coffee and blogging at the Co-op. I was just thinking that I should put more images up.
Maybe I'll take a picture of my new refrigerator; when I get it. I think I'll upload a couple of pictures of the etchings that I'll be trying to sell, tonight.
About the new refrigerator, it's small but it is a 3 way refrigerator. That means it operates on not only AC and DC power, but it also runs on propane. I'll need that capability if I end up in the backwoods, away from all sources of power. It's small and portable so I can take it out of the motor home and put it into my van or even a tent. It would be a pain in the butt to backpack with it.
I bought Faye (my sister) a gold coin on a bezel that I will attach to a gold chain that I already have, for Christmas. I can talk about that, here, because I'm pretty sure she will never read this. If she does maybe I'll keep it for myself. It's pretty neat.
Tomorrow is my birthday. Jim and Sherry are getting me a gift and taking me out to dinner. That will be nice. I don't make much out of my birthday.
There wasn't much news about Ebola today. They repeated the story that Liberia feels that it could fall apart because of Ebola.
A few days ago there was an article about lessons learned from previous outbreaks.
One of the things they did was to isolate people in a tent outside of their houses. This kept them out of Ebola wards if it turned out that they just had Malaria.
They also had people who had survived the illness bring food and such to the active patients. Since they already had had the disease they weren't in danger of getting it again. That reduced the exposure to people who could get the disease.
I think these lessons could make a big difference in fighting the outbreak. I hope these lessons are going to the right people.
Later