#959 – The Expat Files: Virus, Masks, and the Future of Latin America

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 out to play and now 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 Let's get into it starting with a virus update for Latin America every single day I'm seeing Central American and Caribbean governments loosening up Whereas South America is still pretty heavily locked down because the virus seems to have hit them five or six weeks later than the rest of

[00:48] The planet so they're coming off their peak cases right now Whereas in Central America things are step-by-step getting back to normal Well, I shouldn't say normal because it's never gonna be normal after this not anywhere in the world For example, Karen writes Johnny. Do you wear a mask and do you think we'll all be wearing masks from now on? The answer is yes, kinda I wear a mask sometimes if only to avoid other people's dirty looks who can you believe who can you believe doesn't seem to matter What idiot experts say because as pointed out in many previous shows for every expert. There's an equal and opposite expert Whoa, so much for real science I mean there is real science, but people choose not to believe it doesn't fit their paradigm Or maybe it's too boring for them to listen to I mean, hey everybody's so addicted to anti social media

[01:35] They only seem to be able to absorb the latest sound bites It seems like big pharma and related mega companies are in control now at least as far as the lame street media Thank Buddha. We've got the alternative media and now there is some backlash against guys like Bill Gates Meanwhile, you've got YouTube Twitter Instagram and all the anti social media platforms banning some real good strong scientific Information that doesn't fit their paradigm. I'm sure you've heard the stories about guys like Robert Kennedy jr He's a pretty strong anti vaxxer with some very great points You know, he's been banned and even in some cases completely erased from lame stream media and why is that? Well, it's because big pharma hates the guy I mean look it only stands to reason every third or fourth commercial you see on American TV

[02:23] Is it promotion for some kind of pharmaceutical or drug? So naturally they can't have someone on a panel show laying down some scientific truths that'll harm their bottom line But you knew that already. Hey, I'm not saying everything Kennedy says is correct I'm just saying open up the debate give the guy a forum, but they won't now He's not the only one who's been ex communicated from anti social media platforms But he's a good example. Meanwhile, if you're walking down the street or just doing your daily exercise running jogging power walking Whatever and you're not wearing a mask. You're really gonna take some heat. You might even get fined Even though all and I'm talking all the scientific evidence points to the fact that the one place you least likely to pick up the Viruses out in the fresh air the but you knew that already, too

[03:12] So yes when I'm out and about I do wear a mask if only to avoid other people's dirty Looks and they won't let you into the grocery store without one Meanwhile while I'm standing at checkout line the guy in front of me He's got five loaves of Wonder bread various three liter jumbo packs of diet coke assorted bags of Cheetos pork rinds and frost flakes a Couple of gallon jugs of palm seed vegetable oil yum-yum and a carton of cigarettes And of course the guy's huffing and puffing cuz he's something like 70 pounds overweight But he's wearing a mask and latex gloves that I can tell he's been wearing for hours and hours Because you know after a while they get all sweaty inside and start sticking to you They've got that way too moist saturated glove. Look you know what I mean talk about uncomfortable talk about Unsanitary imagine how much bacteria is growing inside those things you know after about an hour of wearing latex gloves

[04:02] You got a human petri dish go in there Oh and about social distancing that reminds me of a 17th century book on the subject now What you might ask would I be doing reading from a 17th century book? The thing is I've always had a habit of reading everything including labels on Drano mr. Clean and douche bottles whilst lounging in the John and one time not so long ago I don't know where I found it on the internet somewhere of course There was a British book from the 17th century called get this 116 rules of civility and decent behavior in company and conversation. I You're not there's an actual 17th century manual for gentlemen and Ladies, of course who bother to pick it up and read it though back then society was macho and geared toward males

[04:50] It's a manual for gentlemen with a hundred and ten rules for fashionable young men in social settings and drawing rooms Have you been in a drawing room lately? I don't think I've ever been in one I think only on masterpiece theater do drawing rooms exist and in Jane Austen novels So then what are you supposed to do in a drawing room draw? Draw what so anyway? there is this actual book with a hundred and ten social maxims from the 17th century and You got to see it or read it to believe it. For example number four says in the presence of others Sing not to yourself with a humming noise nor drum your fingers or feet I guess it's strike number one for me because I'm one of those foot tappers On number 11 says shift not yourself in the sight of others nor no at your nails

[05:42] Also good advice not a nail nor myself. How about you? Oh, and here's number 12 Spew in no man's face with your spittle by approaching to near him when you speak Why don't mothers teach us those things maybe they did did yours well, you know what 300 years ago That was a really well phrased opinion on social distancing wasn't it when how about number 100? It says cleanse not your teeth with a tablecloth napkin fork or knife But if others do it let it be done clandestinely with a pick tooth Yeah pick tooth But really it's number 37 on that list that we've all completely forgotten up till now till the virus thing It says in speaking to men of quality do not lean or look them full in the face nor approach them to near

[06:33] At least keep a full pace from them Hey Now that just might be the world's first written rule of social distancing written in a 17th century Etiquette book of course back then, you know, they had yellow fever smallpox polio diphtheria Major B. Oh and holotosis issues too. You can sort of see why those rules existed For ladies and gentlemen, of course, which brings us full circle back to the lunatic rules of the 21st century Corona thing where once again, I repeat for every expert. There's an equal and opposite expert take so-called essential services liquor stores are essential but Aa meetings are not walmart's essential but farmers markets aren't the subways are essential but churches forget about it

[07:22] Meanwhile, my grandma always said you eat a pound of dirt a year. Was it? Accord of Roundup. The question is what's wrong with everyone? We let idiot moron politicians and bureaucrats tell us what is and what is not essential Why not? They're not out of work. They still get paid Even if they shut down a government building They get their checks as usual and the rest of society people who actually make a product that you use and consume We're forced to follow the crap spewed by these dipshits You got lard ass government shit for brains telling us what is and what isn't good for us I say hang them all and if they don't go to work They're in the same boat as the rest of us to anyone with a half a brain You can see the u.s. Government and all government reactions are out of control Or at least schizophrenic kind of like out of the pages of Orwell or an Ayn Rand novel. Yeah, it's Ayn. It's not Ann

[08:14] Yep. Now everyone can see that the government is everywhere and it's got its hands and face everywhere, too Problem is it's all very unnatural You know except and communist socialist and dictatorial regimes and we kind of know how that ends, don't we? And the only answer from government and the lame stream media is more and more government More stimulus too as if there'll never be a day of reckoning Well, i'll tell you that's just rocket fuel for gold silver and bitcoin, you know The question is why are so-called experts consistently wrong? Even the smartest guy in the room is wrong. Sometimes, you know Look, you could have the best hand at poker too and still lose, right? And for all you guys out there thinking even saying the economy will bounce back Man, let me put it this way

[09:00] The economy is like Elvis in his final fat and drugged years and the fed is like Elvis's doctor Meanwhile, the fake news just keeps on coming and some of it, you know sounds reasonable Look even the biggest lie has to have a grain of truth in it or people won't bite For example, speaking of latin america and what you've been hearing in the lame stream media They're saying for example more than 90 percent of intensive care beds were filled last week in chili's capital santiago We're talking south america now where the peak is lagging the rest of the world by about six weeks Anyway, so they're saying that 90 percent of intensive care beds were full last week in chili's capital santiago Wow, that sounds horrendous, doesn't it? That means hospitals have very little wiggle room or so it would seem except

[09:49] How many beds is that actually? Intensive care units have less than 10 percent of a hospital's beds In other words, if your local hospital has a hundred beds, they probably have less than 10 icu beds Meanwhile you have to take into consideration that almost no hospital in the world right now Is permitting elective surgeries like boob and nose jobs liposuction and hip replacements That means automatically hospitals are less than 50 occupied because the typical hospital is half filled with elective surgeries But back to santiago chili There are 17 hospitals in santiago and on average each hospital has around 150 regular beds and six icu beds That's a fact you can look it up But let's be real generous and say that each one of those 17 hospitals has 20 icu beds

[10:39] That's 340 icu beds in the whole city of santiago and 90 percent of 340 is 310 beds filled with patients of all types admitted to the icu based on the data I gave you at the beginning of this spiel where it was said in a lame stream media article That last week the third week in may 90 percent of the icu units in santiago chili are filled So let's say two-thirds of those beds are covid patients That makes about 200 cases of covid patients in the icu's in a city of seven million people You know, that's less than a drop in the bucket or as a mathematician would tell you That's not even enough to be a rounding error But no you won't hear that on the news or in print They'll tell you that 90 percent of the icu beds are full

[11:27] Making it seem like the end is coming Everyone's in a panic instead of saying the rest of the hospital is half full And that the cases we do have in the icu's comprise 0.000028 percent of our entire city's population Or to put it another way One out of every 35 000 residents of our city is in the icu with covid virus But you know, that's not very alarming news. So they spin it. Hey, whatever it takes to grab a headline But to make it out like the second coming of the black plague That's pure bs. Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong But facts are facts and your facts can't be different than my facts then again Why don't these articles and news pieces compare those stats with similar usa stats?

[12:14] What's it now in the states around a hundred thousand deaths, right? And we're hearing reports that almost every death in a hospital. It's called the corona death. Why because according to usa today A straightforward garden variety pneumonia that a person is admitted to the hospital for Medicaid will typically pay the lump sum of 5000 bucks to the hospital But if it's a code bid 19 pneumonia, then they get 13 000 bucks And if they slap a ventilator on you it automatically goes up to 39 000 bucks I'm sure you've all heard about that scam meanwhile last weekend keto ecuador the daily deaths jumped from 114 to 209 While in the states that that's we're at 2000 a day Nice try lame street media. Oh and you've been hearing all over the news about airlines going bankrupt around the world, right?

[13:04] Let's see just who's filed bankruptcy or who's on the edge of it. Almost all are get this Government-run airlines and those private ones that are on the edge of going under are heavily subsidized by governments, too Then there's that little matter of their stock buybacks, but we won't get into that here You know almost all major countries have their own government supported airline They're highly inefficient loss leaders, too You know in a true capitalist system inefficient ones should go bankrupt Oh, and there's another thing you almost never hear spoken about when it comes to bankrupt airlines They don't ever really go away. They just get absorbed by stronger airlines who buy them for pennies on the dollar For example avianca, which is columbia's airline just went bankrupt. It's not gonna stop flying It's got some very valuable routes and whoever buys avianca probably won't even repaint the planes

[13:53] Just like when harley davison filed for bankruptcy and got bought out by brunswick They never quit producing harley's same thing with jaguars. You know, they went bankrupt and got bought by chrysler still Jaguars get produced every year, but they're really a chrysler product. Oh But with the public jaguars still have kind of a 007 cache You know even though bond never drove one and you probably didn't know that fender guitar One of the world's biggest guitar makers was bought out after they declared bankruptcy by cbs in the 1970s yet The making of fender guitars did not skip a beat So when you hear that all these airlines are going under cruise lines for that matter, too Don't panic Departments will be streamlined and people will get laid off But don't worry you'll still be able to take a cruise and fly and probably at a cheaper rate, too

[14:41] You know even with the airlines have social distancing rules In fact, i'm checking the cheapo airline site right now and they're showing air flights for half of what they were about a year ago Bottom line here is that you have to realize whatever the government runs if evaluated and measured by traditional sound and logical business practice norms It's always a losing proposition and would never survive for a minute on its own government projects And I mean every single one of them without a constant massive injection of money down those black holes. They wouldn't survive Now I actually like the idea of national health care, but no one practiced it to be a surefire extremely large black hole disaster like the post office the va Ovomit care the department of education the military even nasa, you know

[15:27] People sometimes point to nasa and say what a great organization is It's one of the examples where the u.s. Government has actually done something right and the secondary effects of research are spectacular That's the pr. Anyway, but you know what in a past life I was an engineer and I have lots and lots of engineering buddies In fact one of them who is head of the canadian space agency. I bet you didn't even know they had one Well, you know, they made the arm for the space station. You know that big thing that looks like a backhoe in space Nevertheless, no matter what you've heard on tv or in the presser and op-ed pieces Every engineer close to it will tell you nasa is as bloated and bureaucratic as any black hole government program It's just loaded with lard and all the secondary technologies that have come out of nasa research Would have come out years sooner and infinitely cheaper if the space industry was opened up to privatization

[16:18] And you might think you know since it's so expensive to shoot rockets into space No private agency had the backing of the funds. Well, that's not true The fact is until just a few years ago It was illegal for a private company to run its own space program in competition with nasa But now that nasa doesn't make any big rockets anymore They have to farm out their rocket engines to private companies like for example, elon musk's space x And man, have they proved what a horrible business plan nasa has been running Did you know that space x rockets cost? One-tenth as much as the very same rockets that go the very same distance and do the very same thing As nasa built rockets, of course, they don't really build them They farm them out to big defense contractors like bowing and use aircraft and general dynamics that cost plus

[17:07] You know what that means don't you you give a bid on something like the space shuttle or a rocket booster? The government accepts it you start building the thing the deadline comes and goes but it's not done But the bills keep rolling in and the government just pays them. That's what the cost plus is It's always been an open checkbook for defense contractors. That's the way it is. You knew that already, right? That's why I think national health care is a great idea because then you can get rid of the stinking insurance companies And all the tens of thousands of useless administrators But to let the government run it based on their history It's insane to think they won't completely screw it up Oh and speaking of latin american airline bankruptcy You've got ecuador's largest commercial carrier filing for bankruptcy. It's called lat m Two weeks after avyaka filed for bankruptcy, which is the columbian government airline

[17:55] Following on the heels of another ecuadorian airline called tame airlines Tame airlines still those airlines will fly but the routes that aren't making money for them will definitely be cut back Meanwhile i've been checking the prices for air flights with some of the consolidators like cheapo air and obits And in many cases prices have hit rock bottom So for the short term anyway, we can expect airline prices to bottom out drastically at least in the next couple months Not to mention you'll probably have a big chunk of the airplane to yourself at least the row you're sitting in By the way, did you see this brand new cdc report center for disease control? It came out on may 26th and it should be earth shattering to the narrative of the lame stream media and the political classes

[18:41] But it probably won't be widely disseminated It says for the first time they've offered a real estimate of the overall death rate for covet 19 Turns out under the most likely scenario The cdc is estimating that people who are symptomatic will have a fatality rate of 0.4 percent or less than one half of one percent That means in real terms if you have full-blown symptoms your chances of dying are about one in 250 it's not a 5 10 or 20 percent fatality rate as you might have heard but a 0.4 percent The article says until now people have been ridiculed for thinking that death rate was very low as opposed to the 3.4 estimate of the world health organization, which helps drive the panic and the lockdowns now

[19:31] The cdc is saying that the rate is not 3.4 percent like the who says the who Another nasty bill gates funded organization as we all know So the death rate is not 3.4 percent or 34 dead out of a thousand afflicted But a 0.4 percent mortality rate, which is four people dead for every thousand people with symptoms And if you think about it, it's probably a lot less than that Remember there are people dying of other causes all the time and if they test positive for corona It's written on their death certificate So again, we're back to the conundrum that for every expert there's an equal and opposite expert Not to mention who is a known hotbed of special interest and corruption with bill gates steering the rudder on that ship

[20:17] And we all know big pharma's got its hooks in the cdc, too So who do you trust when all you've got is idiots and morons in charge? The only smart thing to do is to get a plan b and get the hell out of dodge And your best way to get your plan b in high gear even on steroids has come to my expat insider seminar As this show goes out the next one kicks off in about three months We expect all first world and third world airports to be open In fact down here in central america and the caribbean the airports are open So our seminar will be partly in guadamales alti planil 6 000 feet above sea level where the weather is spring like all year round And we'll also be spending some of our time in the adjacent country of el salvador In the lowland tropics and pacific beach area So come on down and drink from the fire hose while you still can

[21:04] Because believe me now that the everything bubble has been popped uncle sam and first world countries Especially will not be happy to see the sheep leave the barn. Remember they're all bankrupt. They're beyond bankrupt So there'll be other restrictions and travel barriers to try to keep you your ass and your assets from leaving the country Just remember the u.s money supply has doubled in just the last three months There's never been such an increase in all the history of the us or the world It will have to be paid back somehow And how do you think they're gonna do through taxes and massive inflation heavily indebted governments love inflation because what they borrow Will be paid back in cheaper dollars later There's something really wrong with that system where the little guy always gets creamed

[21:51] You still have a chance to get out, you know So come on down to the seminar you'll meet all the right people and the necessary connections to get your plan b rolling Don't reinvent the wheel. You don't have to come on down and see how my little group of expats have been doing it For info and sign up details. Just go to expat plan b.com All right now an email from kurt in porta rico. Hey old johnny You mentioned your new discovery of the titan all-in-one solar units a few episodes back I recall you were going to go into more depth in future episodes on the subject Tell me am I on something or onto something? Also johnny seems you are quite the do-it-yourself guy My dad was like that too, but I only paid partial attention growing up I can do the usual suspect stuff like oil changes brakes minor house repairs. No problem, but it's not my number one hobby

[22:39] Question is johnny. How do guys you know with similar skill levels such as mine or less close that gap? Personally he says i'm worried about gringle pricing or subpar work that I don't yet have the experience to notice That said I might see you in august at the seminar Signed kurt in porta rico. Yeah kurt. You're right. I found a great new portable solar system That's just fantastic though. It is a bit costly, but that's because you can add to it You can stack on batteries and work it up to a full scale permanent off the grid system if you like You know the latest thing the latest trend is to have a complete all-in-one solar system That means instead of a half dozen parts, you have everything in one little box batteries controllers converters everything factory wired in the box

[23:29] Then all you do is run a couple of 10 or 8 gauge wires out to your solar panels hook them up and you're in business You're producing power all day and storing it in your battery for use at night Now, of course, you know, there's all kinds of information on the internet about solar systems and those system Especially the do-it-yourself systems are pretty complicated at least for the average guy who doesn't know much about electricity And you know just up to the past maybe a year and a half you had to buy a separate controller converter batteries combiner box They had to be compatible getting the wattage voltage and current to match you see that's not necessary anymore And if anybody tries to sell you a system with multiple parts, even though it might have been manufactured six months ago It's old agent technology. Yep. They're still making all that stuff. Don't go for it

[24:15] Unless of course you are a true do-it-yourselfer and you might like to tinker and put that stuff together because you can save some money It is a lot of extra work and the all-in-one units. They've got a complete guarantee The thing is if you buy an all-in-one unit, everything's completely balanced and compatible So anyway, what i'm recommending now for the best portable system out there That is if you've got extra dough because it's not that cheap is the all-in-one titan system You could put together a really really nice portable system for around three to four grand And later if you want to you can buy extra batteries that stack right on top of the thing You can make it portable or permanent However, if you haven't got that kind of dough you can buy a really good portable system for around half that much But it's not stackable. That's the portable system. I have right now. It's an all-in-one system from power oak

[25:01] Though you can find the same system rebranded with other names You could buy it straight from amazon or alibaba or direct from the factory And then you get a huge discount a little more than half price But then you have to arrange the overseas shipping And you have to wire transfer them the money because they don't take credit cards or paypal Now you probably remember a few weeks ago. I was talking about a system that just came out It's a tesla power wall clone system. It does exactly what the tesla system does But it's at half the price or less It's from a company called bestson, not a china, of course and believe it or not. They're now selling them on amazon They're all in one power wall. It's around 4 000 bucks and tesla's around 10 But of course with both of those systems, you'll need to have solar panels and mount them and such Anyway with both of the systems i'm talking about you don't have to know anything really about electricity or electronics because they're all in

[25:53] One packages as mentioned by the way kurt was saying what happens when you come down to latin america and you're not Really too much of a do-it-yourselfer. You don't want to get gouged or have substandard work done Well, you know kurt we're so lucky we have youtube because you can see installations of all kinds done perfectly fine on youtube It's absolutely the best tool and the best school out there And you know when it comes to solar power setting up the unit mounting your panels and all that You can find a youtube that will explain everything to you step by step You'll be able to see people in action doing the exact same setup that you'll need to do And that goes for pretty much any kind of repair and construction around the house Always do a youtube search and look at a couple of videos in english, of course I'm not recommending you look at the version in spanish that won't help you if you don't speak the language

[26:40] Though many of the do-it-yourself youtubes are in spanish too, and I just don't mean clicking on the spanish subtitles either I mean they're actually done in latin america by spanish speaking locals youtube and spanish is caught on down here They've got everything covered. Oh and another thing kurt If you come down to my expat insider seminar, you'll meet a bunch of gringos and expats We've been living down here a long long time That means if and when you move down All you have to do is check with one of your new buddies Before you get started with any project or repair that'll give you the heads up on gringo pricing and gouging and what you should expect And finally for everyone out there was looking to go solar whether it's portable or a permanent installation going off the grid etc Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com I'll give you my latest greatest very up-to-date picks on those solar systems. I was just talking about

[27:27] I've got some very excellent and detailed information for you. So drop me a line 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.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.com No spamos