#1012 – The Expat Files: Media, Masks, and Medical Missteps

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now that I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat wannabes I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America the show that tells you just what it's like to live Work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started now The question that's come up many many times is where do Latinos that is Latinos who care that would be? upper middle class and wealthy Latinos Where do they get their information about the world and I don't mean the pop culture stuff like Netflix or Hollywood?

[00:47] I mean what's happening in the world as far as politics and the economic front because you know Stereotypes like we do and they had to get them from somewhere Well, the sad fact is not only Latinos But the whole world and you'll see this yourself if you do a lot of traveling It seems all the TVs throughout the world have some version of CNN Translated into the local language and in Latin America, they've got a channel called CNN Latino And of course, you've heard that their viewership has gone down year over year. They're kind of fading away Well, that's just the English version of CNN the Latino and the rest of the world's versions of CNN are on the grow That means alive and well unfortunately For example here in Latin America you go into a barbershop mall sports bar hotel resort

[01:36] They'll either have CNN on of course in Spanish if it's a sort of upper middle class area Or they'll have a soccer match, you know, that's football down here versus American football That's what they call, you know gridiron football American football Now, of course, if you travel the tourist areas here in Latin America, every TV will have CNN or football Whereas if you hit the beauty parlors, hmm, can you still say beauty parlor or is it beauty salon? I don't know have to ask the language police by the way down here in Latin America They're called salons de beisa. That would be beauty salon So ladies and guys who are into that stuff salon de beisa now when you're in one of these salons de beisa They're not gonna have CNN now. They'll have soap operas You know called telly novellas here a novella by the way is a novel so it's television novel

[02:26] So when you're sitting around waiting for that bikini wax job, you'll be either watching soap operas Some kind of fashion channel stuff or the retired asian channel, you know I wonder what they're gonna look like and what kind of makeover gravity is gonna do to him once they hit 70 or 80 Like one listener wrote me a while back. He said if you're in hell You'll know when a retard asian has arrived by the smell of burnt plastic Speaking of going to hell You guys know who cardi B is. She's all over the media the latest female flavor of that garbage ragathon music well, you know, she's latina born in the Dominican Republic and admittedly a Reformed prostitute and mugger. She used to get guys drunk and roll them. She's admitted to that in interviews So why am I bringing this up? Well, did you get the name of her first album?

[03:14] It just came out and such a great role model. She is for young daughters and young girls. The album is called Gangsta bitch music volume one. Look it up. It's number one with a bullet gangsta bitch music volume one I gotta say she does have a certain talent for trolling the depths of the gutter with that 20 word vocabulary of hers But I digress as usual bottom line just know that CNN Which is even more inaccurate and full of than Fox News is in control of much of what the rest Of the world and Latin America, of course thinks or thinks they know about what's happening in the rest of the world in the u.s Talk about revolting developments, but luckily only about 5% of Latinos. That is the upper middle class and wealthy Actually bother to pay attention to that stuff. The rest of course are tuning into sports cardi B the retired ascians and

[04:04] Telenovelas soap operas. Meanwhile in breaking news from Cuenca, Ecuador and I'll translate here It says a Cuenca citizen guard citizen guard tells that anyway a Cuenca citizen guard Arrested a naked man Friday night whom they said was engaged in the moral act of masturbation At the public tram platform at Avenue Las Americas and primo de Mayo the man was ordered to put on his pants Then handed over to national police for processing as he was taken away the man reportedly told bystanders He intended to file a human rights complaint against the police on grounds that he was self Identifying as a bonobo a primate species a monkey who spent much of their day having sex with multiple partners and

[04:51] Masturbating hmm. I wonder where he picked up on that primate fluidity thing You think maybe was gringo expats flooding into Ecuador with the usual agenda that is recreate the conditions in your new home that you're trying to escape from yep That certainly seems to be the poisonous mind disease that so many self-professed liberal do-gooder expats Harbor and put into action once they get down here Mostly because they've regained so much of their lost freedoms and have discovered they've got so much time on their hands They decide it's their mission to fix Latin America to God. Why don't you idiots just remain in New York or DC or Oregon? Speaking of Washington DC well the Thanksgiving congressional recess is over and as dogs returneth to their vomit

[05:37] So doth politicians returneth to Washington DC, but you knew that already, right? Oh, and I've been getting a flood of emails from people talking about the situation in the states the masking in particular dear Johnny Greg says I wear a mask because it's required in order to maintain an acceptable level of life I expect this is what residents of communist countries tell themselves as they submit to every new rule as Thoreau said we have the worst government were willing to endure and he was right the mask and social distancing police are out there and Organizing in a big way I sort of think they don't really want it any other way since they would need to find a real job if the mask and glove protection racket went away But it won't happen because mask face shield gloves and hand

[06:24] Sanitizing snot dispenser companies have found new and unlimited Revenue streams and if they keep pushing the deadly virus narrative the dough will just keep pouring in I'm writing you Johnny because it seems you're on the same wavelength though You were smarter than I was you got out early You know the country's destroyed and don't know how to save it so you left more likely It's just not worth saving anymore Maybe back in the 70s 60s and 50s it was but just take a look around look at social media And see what kind of people as countries producing it doesn't seem worth saving though I still feel guilty as though I should be doing something so I will I'll get the hell out of dodge too Perhaps in the end the real reason I wear off mask is not just because everyone else does and they get nervous if you don't

[07:09] But deep down I and so many others wear it because we feel we mustn't make waves We have to blend in if you're the only nail sticking out of a deck, you know, what's inevitably gonna happen to you Meanwhile in Brazil, they're gonna start their mandatory Vaccination program on January 25th, and you know where they're getting their vaccine from China good luck with that then there's Argentina That's just passed a new tax on its wealthiest people to pay for the so-called medical supplies and relief measures amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic Senators passed a new tax dub the millionaire tax by 42 to 26 on Friday So if you're an Argentine citizen or resident and your total assets that means your house property everything your business even your assets outside

[07:58] Of Argentina if all those assets combined are worth 2.5 million US dollars or more you will pay in 2021 3.5% on that total wealth and if you're an Argentine citizen or resident and have assets outside Of the country you'll pay five point two five percent on all the assets you have outside Yeah, right like Argentines are gonna tell their government They've got assets outside the country and then get taxed five percent on them, man You'd have to be nuts By the way The Argentine government news agency reports that the money raised by taxing the rich will be allotted as follows 20% to medical supplies 20% to relief for small and medium-sized businesses 20% to scholarships for students 15% for social developments and the remaining 25% to

[08:49] Natural gas ventures. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Does that make sense? Well, it does if you know politicians in Latin America Which of course is Pig Latin for the usual political skim of 25% after all those Pustulent politicians Do need those second and third beach houses now, don't they? So then what's my take on Argentina's millionaire covid tax? I think it's an absolute Brilliant way to like the fuse for a mass exit of Argentina's wealthy It's the kiss of death for foreign investment, too But politicians don't care because their feed bags are forever anchored to the trough They always get paid and tied to inflation, too And as you longtime listeners know in the ten years I've been doing this show I've never ever Recommended Argentina as a good permanent place to live work play and or do business

[09:40] Even when some of the brilliant people in the libertarian crowd like Doug Casey Bought big chunks of land there and tried to organize like-minded people in a great big subdivision Hey at first it sounded like a good idea, but man from the start it just didn't smell right not because Casey didn't have a great Idea, it's just that Argentina has a history of repeated bouts of inflation and bankruptcy Oh, but it's great for one or two week vacation But to actually live and invest there with inflation running at 25 to 50 percent a year for the last five or six years You got to be crazy That is of course unless you work for government then you're assured a place at the trough The sad thing is though for the 80% of the population that are not doing so well That'd be the poor lower middle and middle classes

[10:26] Well, they almost always applaud when they hear a snakey politician say tax the rich That should sound familiar to people who follow Bernie Sanders the so-called squad and the occasional Cortex crowd Even though Bernie Sanders himself who's never worked a real job in his life has three beautiful houses and is multi-millionaire But that's all news and politicians have a million loopholes to get over on the legislation that they pass They always work it so that it affects everyone else but them just like the fact they have their own health care plan Not Obamacare nor are they in the social security system. They've got their own Did you know that but I digress as usual anyway in last week's show I was talking about gringles and expats bringing down their medicines and vitamins and supplements, right?

[11:14] Well, believe it or not just yesterday. I was reading a Spanish journal I know sometimes they're hard to slog through being in Spanish, but they do sometimes give you a different take on things Which is good. This one is coming out of Barcelona it's a medical journal and it says and this is highly unusual a group of Barcelona software engineers have come up with a software program in English and Spanish that will decipher Eligible prescriptions written by doctors now, why did it take so long to come up with that idea? It says here and I'll translate it's in Spanish in the United States More than 7,000 people a year die because of confused or incomprehensible letters and words in handwritten medical prescriptions and this new software that's been developed in Barcelona will allow up to

[12:03] 95% accuracy in reading Scribble smudge and otherwise difficult to read prescriptions I mean come on how many times have you heard someone say when they saw some really bad handwriting you should have been a doctor Or are you a doctor? It's a common stereotype, huh? By the way, it seems to be with today's Sensitive snowflake and woke people boy. I hate that word You know, I've always disliked that word awesome the a word But thankfully it seems to be fading away slowly, but surely but lately to me the word woke is soon to take its place Oh, I hate that work. In fact, when someone says they're woke or refers to somebody as woke I'm thinking I don't want to be friends or even know that guy. Anyway, this article goes on to say that there are three billion 200 million

[12:49] Prescriptions written in the world annually and it's been estimated that worldwide Over a million and a half patients are damaged or have a severe negative reaction due to pharmacists Misinterpreting or misreading a poorly written prescription by the way Most medical terms and terminology here in Latin America That'd be in Spanish are much the same as the words in English because they have a Latin derivative That is a very recognizable Latin root word. In other words it's really easy to recognize most drugs and medical equipment and procedures as well as most scientific terms when you see them in Spanish even though your Spanish might suck though That doesn't mean when you walk into a pharmacy and ask for a particular medicine They'll know what you're talking about even though in most of Latin America You don't need a prescription for anything

[13:34] You still got to get the right message or meaning to the pharmacist here or he'll just give you the deer in the headlights Look, so then how do you do that? If your Spanish sucks because remember especially if you're off the gringo tourist trail the pharmacists won't speak English either Well, that's easy And here's a tip just walk in and give them the generic name of the drug because you know If you go online and look up a generic drug, it'll say otherwise no one has and it'll be five or ten Proprietary names that means they'll be more expensive too Cuz you know, it's the brand name that haven't necessarily made it to Latin America. You see here in Latin America They've got their own proprietary names that you won't be able to decipher that sometimes have no relationship to the generic name like for example in the first world you have Tylenol, which is acetaminophen if no one ever told you that

[14:21] You'd never be able to relate the two. That's the other thing But the pharmacist will always know if you give them a generic name what you're talking about how to locate that drug so that means you'll have a choice between the generic drug and the Proprietary drug or drugs made by the Spanish company or companies that's producing it under their proprietary name again The generic drugs are much cheaper than the proprietary brand name drugs Oh, and that's not to say you won't find some commonly known and commonly named proprietary drugs down here In other words imported from the States Canada or Europe where the box or bottles legend is all in English You'll see that with various pharmaceutical products here in Latin America and you see in it more and more But again, that'll be much more expensive than the generic brand now the reason why I mentioned this new program

[15:07] That's been developed in Barcelona to decipher Badly written prescriptions if you think it can happen to you, maybe you saw in the news last week There's a class-action lawsuit against the hospital and various doctors that somehow gave the wrong Medicine to a group of children the mistaken drug minoxidol was given instead of the proper one Minoxidols the generic name for one of those drugs used to grow hair on bald guys I don't know if you saw the news article But they showed a bunch of babies and young children with thick wavy hair growing on their backsides Holy bonobo monkey Batman not a good look and certainly their mothers didn't think so So naturally in the first world in the States Europe or Canada, they don't chalk it up to human error or bad luck They just sued a hell out of everybody another top 10 reason to get the hell out of Dodge, huh?

[15:57] Owen after talking to a couple of lawyer friends of mine up in the States. They're saying you ain't seen nothing yet This go video thing has created a lottery win for practically every attorney up in the first world The prediction is after things calm down there are gonna be so many lawsuits flying That alone is predicted will clog up the courts and the legal system beyond what you could ever imagine Question is you want to be there when that happens if you don't you better get going on that plan B Get the hell out of Dodge while you still can because you know, there'll come a time But it'll be almost impossible to get your ass and your assets out. Maybe one maybe the other but not both I know. I know some of you are thinking especially some of you older baby boomers that can happen. You've got rights Well after 9-11, you lost half of them and the other half went down the tubes with this Covid it thing

[16:47] But you knew that already too didn't ya? Oh and by the way earlier on we were talking about Stereotypes and how the snowflakes the word-and-thought police and the woke people are trying to say that Stereotyping people is a new kind of crime Well, you know, my opinion is if we didn't have stereotypes who wouldn't survive For example, if you're walking down the street towards two mean-looking completely tattooed guys with their teeth looking like vampires filed to little points Well, I'd say to be a good thing to stereotype men Maybe walk on the other side of the street besides that if we didn't have stereotypes We'd have no good jokes at all. Would we? Hmm and Canadians, they wouldn't be half as trustworthy or likable Hey, which brings us to this very interesting email. He says dear Johnny. Call me. Dr. Elvis

[17:36] I'm a clinical biochemist for Abbott labs in Highland Park, Illinois I've just put in for my retirement and I will soon be leaving the building All right, hold up a second me Johnny here You know I was born and raised and lived in the United States for 30 years and I never once met an Elvis or someone who named their Kid Elvis apart from Elvis impersonators, of course, but they weren't always on they had a real life outside the Elvis thing except for the oddball Nutcase Elvis impersonator, maybe it was out of a certain respect for the real Elvis moms and dads figured no matter how much they loved The real Elvis they'd never give their kid that handled because he'd just grow up taking so much shit from people that could be bad Consequences but man since I landed in Latin America. I've met at least

[18:24] 15 Elvis's a couple of uber and cab driving Elvis's at least two Elvis plumbers an Elvis electrician and Elvis Chikusi repair guy even an Elvis electrical engineer go figure, huh? Anyway, I'm used to it back to the email Dr. Elvis says I'm here to confirm the fact that we are the New Guinea pigs like rats in crowded cages We are ever more stressed because we don't know what hoops and tasks will be forced to perform next just check the internet or the evening news for the next White House Bulletin or WHO announcement to find out the next lame-brain thing we're all supposed to do He says Johnny in the lab researchers are always supposed to be exponentially smarter than the animals They stick with needles electrodes and torture and force to obey commands to eat or feel pain or get shot up with experimental chemicals

[19:16] If you're an animal lover, it doesn't seem right But we were always the guys that did it to them But the tables have turned the lunatics are running the asylum by that I mean the politicians and they're dialing up the stress daily. No one has to tell me about masks Johnny I've been wearing them in the lab for 20 years But out on the street wearing a mask is an exercise in obedience Do it or your life will be stress-filled and made miserable by the people in power and peer pressure Don't you just feel so much better and safer and invincible? The minute you put on your face diaper and what do you do when you see someone coming at you without a mask? Do you ignore it or give them the evil eye? Well now that most of the world is complying under pain of retribution and class ridicule Politicians and gates and sorrows types now know they can really without a doubt

[20:06] Fundamentally transform Americans into their personal lab rats and punish the ones that disobey Then he says my 88 year old mother a professional hand ringer herself Says this is not the first virus pandemic. I've lived through son There have been many but this is the first one they have put an actual scary word to Pandemic I've been through lots of flus and sicknesses, but none of them was ever called a pandemic Then he says little scientific evidence exists of the success of masks or at least loads of doubt come from the real science community Who've analyzed thousands of mass cases in use for? viral bacterial and other contaminants in both lab and in the field and in the workplace as for virus mask wearing is all theory

[20:53] With every so-called solidly effective result counterbalanced by other good science showing the exact opposite Meanwhile big Pharma has the most to gain with by far the most lobbyists per capita in Washington, DC I believe now it's three full-time lobbyists at six-figure salaries for every one of the hundred senators and 454 representatives that's over 1500 full-time high-pressure Pharma guys with mega deep pockets swarming the hill and passing out expensive favors So what do we get for that? 95% of young people being locked down and oppressed to make the 5% of really old sick in firm week and out of shape people Feel safe, but they're not it's a fool's errand in time like the flu

[21:43] Everyone will get kovat if you're old fat out of shape popping the average senior citizen contingent of five to ten Prescription pills a day all thanks to big Pharma again their blitzkrieg TV ask your doctor campaigns every time they develop a new Tongue-twisting drug to counter a new illness. They've also just invented but I digress Then he says we have every right to be stressed out Meanwhile if it makes you feel any better by all means go out and buy a gross of masks Wait a minute. Just a second me Johnny here. By the way mask in Spanish is get this Mascaria Mascaria Alright, then he goes on to say question. Are you wearing your face diaper today in my line of work?

[22:29] I use latex or nitrile gloves to daily. They all come from China. You know, that's not news But every so often I get a bad feeling about these things Because every so often I notice a little defect in my expensive medical quality gloves like for example just three weeks ago I felt the lump and inclusion Embedded in the palm of my glove and I examined it closely and saw get this a tiny fly That was hermetically sealed and entombed like a fossil in my latex glove. I took a photo of it Maybe it'll go viral pun intended. That's not the only unidentifiable tiny inclusion. I've seen in my gloves Sadly, I've also experienced a few hermetically sealed short hairs from time to time

[23:16] Eyelashes maybe or from someplace farther south. I don't know. I'd rather not think about it It does make you wonder what's worse a rat or a human hair Doesn't that also make you wonder about the quality control of those rush job? Miracle vaccines in the pipeline that's not very comforting since the latex and nitrile exam gloves I've been using are advertised as medical grade. So then how do bugs and hair get in the mix? Oh, and by the way, Johnny, for example, did you know that in the state of Pennsylvania the average age of a covid death is 78 years old Meanwhile the average life expectancy in the USA is 78 strange world we sheeple live in Nope, mr. Spock. It does not compute what does these days? That's all for now Johnny. Keep up the good work

[24:07] signed Dr. Elvis PS by spring 2021 Elvis will not have only left a building but also the continent Alright, thanks for that Elvis which begs the question. What's the plural? Elvi or Elvis's I guess the only way to find out that for sure is to spend some time in Vegas by the way I've got a boots on the ground mask story for you. Just yesterday I was doing a little speed walking in a nice medium upscale shopping and business zone in the big city a place where they've got You know streets where you can't drive cars. It's just pedestrians can walk there real nice And you know when you've got wide Boulevard walkways like that There are lots of little restaurants with outdoor tables and chairs, etc Of course half of those kind of places are closed these days

[24:53] But anyway, I'm walking past one and I see one of my gringo expat buddies Bob who's a retired corrupt Boston cop He admits it how else is he able to own a couple of million dollars worth of real estate on a regular detective salary? But that was in another life for him and now he's retired and living in Latin America So anyway, he's at a table under an awning out in front with three other guys And they're all masked up and I don't know the other three guys. I walk up to that table I am never wearing my mask I have one in my hand just in case I get pounced on by a cop though That's never happened yet since mask wearing and public is kind of optional even when they say it's a law This is Latin America, you know Anyway, one of the guys at the table started freaking out point to the mess saying put it on put it on and I said

[25:42] Why to make you feel good? Come on There's no point trying to be rational or scientific with some guy who thinks masks absolutely have to be worn You probably know that already and Bob pulled his mask down for a second and said loudly for me to hear we're at the mask Table the table behind me and he pointed to another group with two gringos there He said that's the non-believers table Yet one was close enough to the other to be able to touch the other table Here you had the fraidy cat mask table and the guys who think it's just pure bullshit Who instead of fighting or having an impasse have come to an agreement? Like in the old days when bars restaurants even airplanes had smoking and non smoking sections Hey, why not live in let and live right? But the thing is there was one guy at that mask table who was

[26:29] Totally freaked out when I got within three or four feet of him without a mask I could see the guy was an old gringo maybe 70 years old looked visibly shaken and I thought to myself But I didn't say it out loud man. Here's a guy who needs to read a science book So then what did I do? Well, I wanted to talk to Bob a little bit. So I put my mask on I stuck my face into the scaredy cats face and I said I'm only doing this You know to make you feel better And I'm sure the other guys at the table who I didn't know like I said thought I was kind of pushing it when I said Speaking of fantasies, what's Santa Claus getting you for Christmas? He's real too, right like the Easter Bunny Superman and the Tooth Fairy Then Bob, you know who was a friend of these guys gave me a look that said lay off Johnny But sometimes, you know when you're in the presence of stupidity, you just have to say what's on your mind

[27:19] Oh and the guy said you're pretty cheeky and I said thanks. I'm available for birthdays and children's parties, too Then Bob took me aside pulled down his mask and said knock it off Johnny. It won't hurt you to humor the old guy You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B We can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at Gmail dot com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week long expat insider seminar in Central America Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B Send me an email the expat files at gmail dot com. No spamos