Pandemics, if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. Okay not really. I’ve been on the fringe of prepper circles for decades. Cans of food, can opener, gold, silver, guns, cartridges, water, gasoline, knives, hatchets, rope… but toilet paper? Never saw that one coming, or going rather. We’d planned for the grid to go down, or mass riots where we needed 13 different firearms, but we NEVER thought of something as unsexy as toilet paper. I admit its unsettling to check store after store and see bare shelves where the toilet paper should be. The shit hits the fan and we’re left holding nothing! It doesn’t matter you have a storage unit full of it, dammit, you want more! This is America, we crap in style, we crap till you can’t crap no more!

Its not just about that, its the overall nature of the thing. In the past there hasn’t been too many things we couldn’t throw money at and solve. Not this one. Looking in the rearview mirror at it unfolding you cringe at the incompetent “leadership” of our country. This thing kicks off in China around 12/1 of last year. Our idiot government is trying to impeach a guy who did nothing wrong except beat Hillary. They don’t take the final vote on that until February 5, 2020, two months after it started. You can’t help but think their minds were elsewhere. Thank God the President stopped travel from China when he did, January 21 I believe. Amazon seems to be getting up to speed with masks now, but their shipping is a month out.

Store shelves remain bare of the most basic items, rubbing alcohol, alcohol wipes (eggs were even in short supply for a bit). There was a period 2 weeks ago nearly all the stores were bare except candy and broccoli. For an older American who’s never seen shortages it rattles your brain. When you stop and think about all the people out of work because the malls are closed, the restaurants are closed, how the heck are they making it?? They have the big box stores and the grocery stores stay open, but were they providing masks to the workers? Oh heck no. Finally they start emphasizing to people, when you come home throw your clothes into the laundry and take a shower.

I saw a meme that said, “When I think back to all the stupid things I’ve done, if I die now because I touched my face I’m going to be pissed!” Government taking too many liberties with your liberty. Telling you you can’t leave your house. Governor’s telling you you can’t take a life saving drug. They say depression, disorientation, are impacting people. The lack of meetings for 12-step groups, relapses. I was going by the closed high school and it occurred to me, what about the 12th graders who are in essence missing their final semester? Its a strange world. People who work at Walmart and the grocery stores being the heroes on the frontline of death without gear, and our lazy ass city and state workers inventing reasons they can’t do their job! 

What’s COVID-19 got to do with not picking up the leaf bags or the outsize garbage items? Do your damn job, you’re getting paid. A lot of people aren’t. CDC who for a month told us, “You don’t need  mask, cough into your elbow!” Brilliant. Government officials who wouldn’t know what “fast-track” meant if you hit ’em over the head with a ventilator. Paper pushers, you gotta light dynamite under their butt to get them moving. A country on the edge (ledge) and all the Democrats are planning their next impeachment.

3 of the logistical failures I find most interesting are rubbing alcohol, face masks and of course toilet paper. In neither case are these high tech items made from scarce, exotic materials. They are about as basic as it gets. Amazon seems to be getting up to speed with face masks, although their shipping times are abysmal. eBay might have better times, though at a higher cost. Rubbing alcohol is just non-existant. Stores seem completely unconcerned about supplying customer needs. Toilet paper is just nowhere to be found. But what I find most interesting about this is that generally in a free market, you might not like the price, but you can find the commodity.

In this case market principals have fallen apart, normal rules do not apply. Listening to Coast to Coast AM this morning two other principals were reinforced. “Western medicine” is about selling drugs (depending on the year pharmaceutical are the #1 lobbying interest in DC). There are new treatments that disable the virus, as in one case it disables the “burrowing” spike that allows it to get into cells. Another that was suggested was “blinding” it by the use of vitamin C. Something about the ions flooding the blood keeping the virus from taking hold by there being no room for their ions.

Lastly is something I’d first heard about was from a survivor of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic on YouTube. Baking soda. Each morning the mother of this family in rural Alabama would stir a half teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate into a few ounces of water. Every morning. Their family survived. In fact they were the go to family as far as getting groceries delivered and doing things for the other families. You couple that with statements from today about the importance of blood PH and it makes you wonder. Another interesting home remedy was a salt water gargle. A half teaspoon of salt in 4 ounces of warm water.

[An interesting tidbit just coming out about masks was that in late January the CCP had its overseas operations begin procuring and returning masks back to China. Their intention was to corner the market by controlling production and quantity on hand. And they did.]