Coronavirus and you....

[Jims5543]

Gold is the canary in the gold mine - someone on twitter this morning.


What a profound statement, it took a minute for it to sink in this morning until I realized just how profound it was. I had been giddy watching gold scream upwards. Now I am not so much as I am now realizing WHY it is screaming upwards.

That gold statement was a post in a thread about Coronavirus and the lack of reaction from the DOW.  Then someone posted that Zero Hedge was just banned from twitter for spreading fake news about the virus, seems spreading fake news is ban worthy, somehow CNN has not been banned though.  Imagine... my... shock.

So I went to Zero Hedge this morning and found this story, that is an elaborate fake news story.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/cases-covid-19-south-korea-double-overnight-alarming-prison-outbreak-reported-china

The posts I am seeing on twitter, people who get supplies from China for their businesses have said the supply has completely stopped and in another 2 weeks they will have to close shop as they never thought to have multiple sources for their supplies and cannot find another source this fast.

I am not sure why the US is not reacting to this, I hope this is being blown out of proportion, I fear it is not.

Might be a good time to make sure you are stocked up well on provisions, think long term snow storm or bad hurricane. Have a plan in place and pray you do not need to use it.

[MiniDave]

I'm not sure what having gold stashed away has to do with hurricane preparedness,  ;D  but I do know that a large number of manufacturing plants in all sorts of sectors are having a huge problem getting parts and material supplies from their sources in China.

So things could get tight for a while till the epidemic passes and no question there will be a hit to the bottom line for many industries. There also are some real opportunities for companies in other countries to pounce and score some large contracts that could benefit them for decades ahead if they can react and scale up quickly enough.

The world economy is a fluid thing, and ebbs and flows are just part of it, especially these days. But one lesson I hope US manufacturers take away is not relying on one source like this, and the value of maybe leaving production here instead of outsourcing to countries with less than stellar safety and healthcare.

[94touring]

Not to mention the horrible quality of products they produce.

[Jims5543]

I know your gold comment is tongue in cheek.  I purchased a bunch from 2015-2016 because MSM told me that the economy was going to crash if someone won the election.

As usual, they were wrong. So I have been holding it long term, it has always been worth more than I paid for it so I am not losing on it anymore than I would if it was tucked into a 1% interest savings account.

I call it my oh shit funding. If I needed it, I can cash it in and have some fast cash.

I did a lot of reading and decided to purchase enough that I can pay off my mortgage with it if the SHTF.

This is not a SHTF moment, but this may push gold prices up close to 2K an ounce and it may not come down from there, only go up.

This soaring economy is nice but it is not real, Trump is following Obama's game plan (possibly GW's too), he is juicing the economy with the FED, that is bad news in the long run.

This virus may push things into a downward motion. We will see, right now, I am grabbing all I can and tucking it away. I wanted to make another equipment purchase in a couple of months, I do not NEED it, it is very expensive (over $20K) so I will wait a little, if I feel confident I can grab it and not hurt myself, then I will go for it in March or April.

Every move I make with my business, while business is good, is ultimately looking long term to make it where I can run with with little to no help. The equipment I am looking at is a robotic instrument, it completely takes out the need to have 2 people on a field crew anymore.  It will pay for itself in a year easy.

[Jims5543]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/a-pro-trump-blog-has-doxed-a-chinese-scientist-it-falsely

TIL - Zero Henge is a Pro-Trump website, I hardly knew who they were. I did know they use the Tyler Durden pseudonym a lot for article authors.

I actually sought out and visited that site for the 1st time ever today, prior to that I am sure I was linked to articles from them either via google or drudge or via other twitter users.

Interesting, you learn something new every day.

[Jims5543]

I am going to be working all weekend trying to catch up on drafting. We fell really far behind and I need to be ahead for Monday. I check some news sites from time to time. I saw this:

Really good graphic map.

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6


Found it in this story.

https://nypost.com/2020/02/22/coronavirus-cases-spike-in-south-korea-2-5m-asked-to-stay-indoors/

Also, this is a really cool news site, I stopped using Google for news after the 2016 election and it came to light they were filtering what I see.  I used to visit Drudge a lot but that has been bought out and is like Google now, so I do not use it as heavy as I used to. Dan Bongino launched his own Drudge type of site but it is very heavily right leaning so I use it and Drudge together now.

This site is user driven and I find it to be pretty comprehensive.

https://trends.gab.com/

[BruceK]

I am going to be working all weekend trying to catch up on drafting. We fell really far behind and I need to be ahead for Monday. I check some news sites from time to time. I saw this:

Really good graphic map.

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Wow. South America is totally unaffected by the virus (so far anyway).   Good for them.

[Jims5543]

With the exception of Egypt all of Afrika as well.

Russia had 2 cases both cured, and they now have banned all Chinese from traveling into the country.

Mongolia also has zero and I am sure they are happy that wall is there now.   ;D

[MiniDave]

9300 members of a church in South Korea? Holy crap that's a big church membership!

[Jims5543]

I recon they have Joel Osteens too.  Who knew!?

[Jims5543]

Seems some State Department idiot in Japan decided to ignore orders from the CDC and the President and send infected citizens back to the US.

Awesome!

[Jims5543]

Italy has experienced an explosion of outbreaks in the last couple of days and are not taking it lightly.

https://www.agi.it/cronaca/news/2020-02-23/coronavirus-contagiati-esercito-carcere-partite-sospese-7178562/

You may have to translate, this I did.

Here is part of the article:

There are 155 coronavirus cases in Italy, including three deaths and one recovered. In regional detail, we have: 112 in Lombardy (with two deaths), 22 in Veneto (with one death), 9 in Emilia Romagna, 6 in Piedmont, 3 in Trentino Alto Adige and 3 in Lazio (with one recovered).

In the eleven common outbreaks "entry and removal will not be allowed unless specific exceptions" and "the suspension of work, education and public events has been ordered". The government has adopted a  decree law  to contain coronavirus outbreaks in Italy with the isolation of the municipalities affected by the infection. The Italians who will be affected by the measures launched by the government will be around 50 thousand.

[94touring]

Coronavirus you say?  This was a crew flying a mission to get people out.

[Jims5543]

Yes twitter, bow to your Chinese masters.

https://reclaimthenet.org/twitter-suspends-harry-chen-phd-cornavirus/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Twitter has suspended the account of @IsChinar (Harry Chen PhD) – a move apparently linked to content tweeted by the account concerning the coronavirus outbreak in China.

@StephaniaBecker (Stephania Becker) broke the news about this development, saying that the suspension came after the user "spent weeks posting insider video from Wuhan about coronavirus & rampant abuses by CCP (Chinese Communist Party)."

But it would appear that the Instagram account of the suspended Twitter user – whom Becker said was one of the "truth tellers" now targeted by Twitter – remained online.

There is no information about the reasons Twitter has given – if any – for the shutting down of the account.

However, Becker, whose bio on the social platform says she is a radiologist and a director at the Getty Parker Center of Sonology – a research outfit – seems taken aback by a US social network like Twitter suspending accounts challenging China's authorities and politics.

She also wonders if Twitter was doing this on behalf of China. However, Twitter is more likely to be working to meet its own moderation/censorship standards around all types of content that is deemed to be misinformation.

In a blog post in late January the social site announced it was determined to highlight "credible" information and promote constructive engagement about the virus.

Twitter at the time said there was no discernible campaign to promote hoaxes about the spread of the virus, but shared that it had "proactive abilities to ensure trends, search, and other common areas of the service are protected from malicious behaviors."

One of these is putting a warning label linking to "credible, authoritative" information first – when searching for "coronavirus."

Meanwhile, Stephania Becker – whose scientific research has to do with neutralizing viruses using specialized sound waves and who on Twitter focuses on cases of alleged underreporting of the spread of coronavirus – asked her followers if they knew of any alternative accounts now that @IsChinar was gone.

What most came up with, however, were alternative social networks, mentioning decentralized protocols like Mastodon, and apps like Telegram.

Others complained that a number of their friends and collaborators also had their Twitter accounts suspended recently.

Not everyone was impressed by the quality of @IsChinar's insider info, though, saying the account was mostly about "fear mongering."

Becker agreed, but said that despite "some shocking material that would pop up from him" Twitter was not going after other questionable content that isn't linked to the outbreak.

[MiniDave]

And yet Twitter let the cheeto in charge spew his crap every day?   8.gif

I read about this the other day too. It has to be a tough row to hoe tho for the Chinese, deciding what is fear mongering and what is just truth, especially from a country that regulates all forms of social interaction and communication. How do they decide what is OK and what is not with the billions of messages pouring thru every day?

I wonder if they have internet "influencers" there too?

[Jims5543]

Because China has a billion users and Twitter does what China tells them to do.

So does Hollywood now.

[Jims5543]

I am still trying to figure out how CNN and MSNBC are not banned.  They have been lying to me since 2016.  Part of the reason I purchased so much gold is because I actually believed them when they said if the Cheeto won, the economy was going to crash hard. Then they just kept lying for the last 4 years. Now I try to never look on either of their websites.

Italy went from 125 to over 300 pretty fast. Interesting that it is not in the US more than it is.

I read a good article this morning that you should prep like a Hurricane is coming. Be ready for interruptions in the supply chain. Fuel, food etc....

Better to have yourself sorted out and not need it then not sorted and panic ensures.

I typically start my Hurricane season prep in late April to early May, I am moving forward with some of the prep now. Basically getting the Generator Propane tank filled, then stocking up on some REC90 gas, which will cost a bunch but stores better due to no ethanol.

[MiniDave]

REC gas?

I have a 5 gallon can full with Stabil in it and a full genset, and I have a 1 gallon can of that stupid expensive Home Depot $20 a gallon premix that's supposed to be good for over a year - that's for my chainsaw, which doesn't seem to want to run on any gas with ethanol in it, but runs great on this stuff.

[Jims5543]

In coastal areas and by lakes you can find Recreational Gas in varying octanes. 

Up the corner I can get REC90 which is basically gas that is not supposed to be used on road cars but instead in boats, dirt bikes etc.. that are more prone to having issues due to the ethanol content in street gas. I wish it was cheaper, it is usually $1 more a gallon. I run it in my 1981 BMW and when my Mini was running I used it in that too.

It is more stable than ethanol gas obviously, I will put Stabil the gas as well since I will be potentially storing for 6 months.

[94touring]

Some gas stations here carry non ethanol.  I keep 5 gallons at the shop for the neighbor to mow our lawns with.  It is pricey though.

[94touring]

Also, maybe I've got the Coronas, because I woke up at 2am very nauseous and eventually threw up. I've been on the couch all day too weak feeling to move.  Hopefully a bug that passes quickly cause it's hard to focus on studying like this.

[BruceK]

Some gas stations here carry non ethanol.  I keep 5 gallons at the shop for the neighbor to mow our lawns with.  It is pricey though.

I'm celebrating that a brand new gas station opened up just 4 miles away from me that offers non-ethanol ('real') gasoline.   It's a full-blown QT convenience store gas station and the non-ethanol gasoline is offered as a choice on nearly all of their pumps.  The gas is 90 octane and it's priced reasonably at $2.59 per gallon. I've pumped it into my Mini, my Toyota truck, my motorcycle, and fuel cans for my gas-powered lawn equipment too.

I checked and other QT stores in the San Antonio area are also offering non-ethanol gasoline, so that's good news.   You can even use their locations Search feature and check the "No Ethanol" box to find QT stations that offer it.  https://www.quiktrip.com/Locations/Locations

[BruceK]

Also, maybe I've got the Coronas, because I woke up at 2am very nauseous and eventually threw up. I've been on the couch all day too weak feeling to move.  Hopefully a bug that passes quickly cause it's hard to focus on studying like this.

Sorry to hear that.  Hope you get better soon!

[Jims5543]

Also, maybe I've got the Coronas, because I woke up at 2am very nauseous and eventually threw up. I've been on the couch all day too weak feeling to move.  Hopefully a bug that passes quickly cause it's hard to focus on studying like this.

Sounds like a run of the mill winter flu or bad cold.  Running a fever?  Maybe bad food?

Regardless, hope you feel better.

[Jims5543]

I wonder if folks have any clue how bad this is going to be?  I am not talking the virus in America, I am talking the effects of it being so widespread and crippling in China.

I read last night, 90% of our antibiotics are made in China.  I also read when President Trump took office in 2017 he ordered the Pentagon to do an inventory in regards to how much of their military weaponry was sourced from China, it was over 50%!!

As I mentioned in an early post, many small businesses are already experiencing supply problems. This will continue.

I am fairly confident I will not have to worry about the virus itself, I am more worried about the economic effects it is going to have beyond the stock market, which is basically reacting to forecasts similar to what I am reading.

I hope it is all doom and gloom, designed to create clicks and revenue for news agencies. I have a hard time ignoring people on the street on social media platforms that are reporting there are going to be major repercussions from this event.