Ebola is a horrific disease that I am well acquainted with. I am fascinated with infectious diseases, which is probably why Stephen King's The Stand is one of my favorite books of all time. Over the years I have spent a lot of time studying hemorrhagic outbreaks, knowing full well that these disease could go airborne at any time. The monkey outbreak of Ebola at a Reston monkey facility, chronicled in the great book The Hot Zone, demonstrated that the disease can be transmitted that way, although in this case only the monkey's were affected. Infection did spread to mankind but, due to a single chromosome, was inert in people. That's how close we came to the end of the world in the 1990's, one chromosome. YESH!
But now a new strain is back and it is spreading across several countries in Africa, including cities for the first time ever. Now, according to Turner Radio Network, Ebola has struck Italy. A quick word about TRN first. It was once owned by Hal Turner, a renown douchebag who was one of those idiot Holocaust deniers I so hate. When your theories can be demolished in less time that it takes me to write this sentence, you have a terrible argument. The Holocaust happened and I and ever other sane person can prove it. Period. That being said, Hal Turner was forced to give up this website and others due to a court order until 2015, so the current site has nothing to do with him. What I can see of the site seems to suggest a legitimate news gathering site that has some insightful articles but the fact that this article only appears here makes me question it's legitimacy still.
According to Christian relief groups, the Ebola outbreak has jumped 15% in the last 24 hours in the affected African nations. It is a new strain, never seen before, and as a result, false positives, and worse, false negatives are being reported. Unconfirmed reports say that these false negatives have allowed 40 infected migrant workers to have been quarantined in Pisa, Italy with symptoms of the disease. The Italians claim it is a hoax but are refusing to explain why an entire hospital in Pisa has been locked off to anyone. If this true, and there is no way any government will tell us the truth until they can't hide it anymore so as not cause a panic. Here are the probabilities of a world wide epidemic should this story be true:
63% in Italy within 8 days
44% in Spain within 15 days
77% in Riyadh/Saudi within 21 days
40% in Libya within 25 days
29% in the US within 28 days
37% in Egypt within 33 days
There have already been two unconfirmed cases in Canada and one in the US, but nothing more has been heard and it is entirely possible that both government were NOT lying when they said the people had Lassa or other forms of hemorrhagic fevers. Or they are just covering up the truth that a pandemic the likes of which we are NOT prepared for is going to ravage this planet soon.
Meanwhile, the housing market is showing signs of slowing down in several key markets, echoing the signs of problems like 2008 all over again. While Boston and Virginia have seen increases still, California, Nevada and Florida have all started to see rapid declines over the past few months. As for those notions that "bad weather" is to blame, I would like to point out that places like San Francisco and Orange County are experiencing a huge drop in smaller priced houses and their weather has been near perfect this whole time. This is the economy we have right now: if you are rich, those places you shop and things you buy are going gangbusters. Houses over $10 million are selling just fine. Houses selling for less than $300,000 are staying empty. The same goes for stores. Nordstrom is doing just fine while Coldwater Creek is done and Family Dollar is closing half their stores. The rich are the only ones with money it seems.
The Blackstone Group, along with two other equity firms, have announced they are going to slow buying properties for rental purposes 70% as the prices have gotten too high to make a profit as you can't rent to people who have no money to pay said rent. This is going to have an adverse affect on the housing market as these three groups are buying a majority of the homes right now. This has caused an not so unexpected drop on prices in many areas. Here are the areas hardest hit:
Nevada, 34 percent remain seriously underwater, Florida (31 percent), Illinois (30 percent), Michigan (29 percent), and Ohio (27 percent), according to RealtyTrac data.
Hard-hit metro areas include Las Vegas (37 percent seriously underwater), Lakeland, Fla., (36 percent), Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla., (35 percent), Cleveland (35 percent), Akron, Ohio (34 percent), and Detroit (33 percent).
Chances are good that the housing market will continue to fall now that the epic buying is going to slow dramatically and prices are going to start nose diving in some places by the fall. If it does, expect the stock market to go right along with it, and if it happens right before the elections in November, the democrats could get a massive beating.
Lastly, we have Ukraine which seems to be on the verge of WW3. Everything that happens is blamed on someone else, from the Jewish registration hoax to the deaths of Russian supporters at a check point. It's the ADL. It's Putin. It's Neo-fascists. The finger pointing never ends and, as a result, we have no way of knowing what is true and what is fake. Just like our nightly news. We have to worry about an economy that appears to be on life support, an Ebola virus that may be going global and a massive war about to start over land we have been fighting about for hundreds of years. Just once, I would like some good news from the planet. Today certainly wasn't it.
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