Corona-prepping? Toilet paper is the tip of the iceberg – a chilling reminder of our utter dependence on reliable distribution systems

Uncategorized Wuhan Flu 79 Comments

The events of 2020 thus far are a sobering reminder of how we take for granted all the wonders of modern life.We have no plan B for virtually any major distribution system, and to make matters worse we seem indifferent to consequence, we treat a toilet paper shortage with more concern than a propane or natural gas shortage.  Read on…

79 Replies to “Corona-prepping? Toilet paper is the tip of the iceberg – a chilling reminder of our utter dependence on reliable distribution systems”

  1. You can thank WalMart for the JIT method. Just In Time. Ordered at the till, and not on a weekly basis by someone running around with a pen and board and ordering a week or month’s worth of supplies.

    Somewhere I read because of the JIT method, we have maybe 2 weeks of food in the system at any time.

    1. Jibes with what I’ve heard previously.

      It’s not exactly single-point failure, but it sure is a connected series is them.

    2. And when a Costco/walmart worker gets the virus, they will shut that store/stores down and locals will lose a lot of shopping choices.. It’s on its way folks… And maybe a water treatment plant worker.. A Hydro worker..

    3. JIT has reduced waste and costs magnificently. WM has done more to improve the world than could have been hoped for 20 years ago. It is up to you to have an emergency stock.

      And no, the great decoupling ain’t here. China will get back to work with time. The only country getting decoupled is America from influence.

      1. well, actually UnMe, I did a pretty good job of decoupling your mother last night …

        1. No it isn’t. There are no good arguments against globalization. Globalization is freedom.

          2. It’s not so much that diversity is strength but homogeneity is weakness. Homogeneous countries are vulnerable to welfarism ex Sweden.

          3. America’s Declaration of Independence specifically identifies the need for globalization which is why Trump’s policies are so harmful to it’s core values.

          4. Karl Marx was a visionary and a learned man whose compassion for humanity laid the foundation for prosperity through collectivism. His teachings on human potential are the cornerstone of globalization and JIT understands the dynamics of economic growth in a globalized canopy of cooperation.

          5. UnMe said
            “Homogeneity is weakness”.

            Later; “laid the foundation for prosperity through collectivism”

            Think about it.

          7. Reply to @ 10:09 pm as per our guest:
            Translated from Swedish to English, you wrote:

            “Complete and complete idiot, come and watch your wonderful monoculture”

          8. I hope that the couple of comments around 9AM were actually UnMe and not someone faking the handle (in a cowardly and underhanded fashion). If you want to pick on the village idiot/child then go ahead and do so, but at least have the balls/ovaries to do so openly.

            (translation – I don’t think even UnMe is that stupid, and I don’t think much of UnMe.)

      3. “The only country getting decoupled is America from influence” Unme.

        Absolute BS nonsense….The unwashed Crackheads & Communist Hoards are at Risk…. Real American’s follows a healthy Diet & Cleanness habits/// The Risk is in the “Group think” brain dead fools who Reject simple hygiene habits….Share some destinations

      4. While yes JIT has cut down on waste the other side of cuts down on availability – see the point?

      5. Chinese Junk.

        Trump has it right decouple from China, and start deporting the Chinese illegals flooding our west coasts along with their anchor babies.

    1. Justin Burch: I can see them spreading the virus from indigenous community to community. More of TAXPAYERS money being handed out to the CBC and the Winnipeg Free Press both getting money from TruDope.

      1. Well I suppose that’s one way to get rid of elders who might speak out against the pipelines.

  3. yeah, in China, a country of 1.5 BILLION, less than 100,000 get a bad cold and now everyone is worried there won’t be any toilet paper because we’re all going to die … SARS, ebola, mad cow disease, the killer bees from south america … I’m so afraid

    have you ever watched one of those press conferences at the World Health Organization … zero credibility … I wouldn’t let those people park my car

    the good news is that vacations are now dirt cheap and many of them include free golf … there are also some exceptional investment opportunities in the markets these days … thanks Xi, you’re alright

    1. Check WHO comments after the H1N1 and the other scares. Always the same, we’re sorry, perhaps we got ahead of ourselves and the like.

      Maybe someone should check their share holdings?

      1. absolutely … I agree … the market declines make very little sense … but there will be a spectacular rebound … guaranteed

        1. Yep….I’m like a kid in the candy store right now…and everything is on sale! Plus my mortgage rate just dropped (and likely will again sooner than later). And I’ve got enough tp to last a couple years.

        2. It wouldn’t surprise me if certain people are adding to their fortunes by shorting the market. The upheaval in SE Asian economies in the late 1990s was allegedly caused by Soros, who, apparently, made a nice tidy packet from it.

          However, market corrections are normal. One was bound to happen sooner or later and I’m convinced that the virus was used as an excuse for the current sell-off.

          I’ve been an investor for more than half my life, so I’ve gone through a few downturns, going back to Black Monday ’87. The markets eventually recovered, though not necessarily right away or as fast as they went down.

          To paraphrase Bette Davis’s line from the movie All About Eve, fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

          1. Wish I’d bought Walmart /Costco/Target. Their stock is doing fine. In June when people are still drawing down their stores, I suspect the quarterly report will be less rosey.

          2. For about the last 15 years, I’ve selected my stocks after looking at their financial statements. They tell a lot more than the share price alone.

            I start by looking at the balance sheets, particularly focusing on factors such as debt. If a company’s seriously in hock, I won’t touch it. (That was one reason I never bought any Bombardier shares and why I quickly sold the ones I inherited from my father.)

            If it happens to have had a bad quarter or two, I look for reasons why or if it’s been something long-term. Sometimes a certain market sector gets clobbered, so what happens to one company might be happening to its counterparts. A poor quarter could also be the result of an extraordinary expenditure such as purchasing another company.

            I didn’t always get it right, but, using that approach, I picked fewer clunkers and lost less money than I did before I started doing things that way.

          3. My mom passed recently and working through probate, as executor for a number of us, I chose conservatism and sold my mom’s holdings down to cash (2% money markets), in early January. We sure got lucky there.

            Of course I live in Calgary and can’t do a thing about the falling house prices.

            Hey, when 4% of homeowners die, what happens to housing prices?

          5. alecincgy:

            I’m in the same situation as you. I got stuck with everything after my father died and I’m still working on settling the estate. I’ve been having problems selling off my parents’ assets, thanks to the economy. (Several months ago, I chatted with someone in Calgary about a grinder I had for sale. He told me that, even if he wanted to put in an offer, there wouldn’t have been any point as there was no work for it. I sold it late last year to a shop in B. C.)

            Like you, I’ve been keeping an eye on housing prices as I hope to put the place on the market some time next year.

    1. Every accusation by the enemy is a confession.

      The Iranians know their Chinese buddies released the coronavirus deliberately, planning to frame Donald Trump for the pandemic and replace him with somebody more willing to sell out America and Israel. Chinese disinformation agents have been spreading groundless rumours about the virus being an American bioweapon for months.

  6. That’s been my attitude for more than 40 years. I always felt very vulnerable and dependant living in an urban area, so when I could manage it, I bought a house on a small acreage. I had a huge garden, root cellar and cold room full of my own grown food. I had artesian water, wood heat and an abundant supply of firewood at all times. But then circumstances changed and I ended up moving back into a city, and I’ve felt vulnerable ever since. Can’t afford acreage now.

    But then the problem is, even if you are self reliant and prepared, there are thousands of well armed thugs who would not hesitate to kill you and take it for themselves when the time comes.

    And who are the most dependant on the supply chain? the same nuts who demand action on climate change that will disrupt that supply chain. Maybe this will wake them up to the reality of what makes our lives so comfortable? Naw, silly me, not a chance.

  7. Two generations have never known hunger, thirst, and the harsh realities of Canadian climate (the real climate, not the changey one).

    Most of us enjoy and understand that we sit atop the pinnacle of civilization and many, through ignorance, chose to become woke champagne socialists. (whatever happens, pray the strategic prosecco stockpile holds out).

    We focus on asswipe while our pitiful leaders preach patience and open borders with the Iran-biowarfare-batpangolin-experiment.

    A sudden and harsh shock could well, truly, wake many, but so many would suffer. The Spanish flu changed the world, what future awaits us?

    1. Been saying that a long time, we have a SOFT population.

      Well, Kate has often pointed out, WE NEED A FAMINE! Will this come close? tic tok tic tok……

      1. No. There’s going to be an inconvenience, some major health care stress, extra dead people, job layoffs and all of it will be temporary. Either the virus passes into nothingness after a time, or so many become infected and recover that we have a useful herd immunity that helps mitigate new infections until a vaccine and/or treatment protocol is developed.

        In the meantime a little hyperbole helps to convince people to increase their social distance and slow the spread of the virus. Well, unless they’re in a toilet paper brawl, in which case they deserve what befalls them.

  8. I have always said that if I were of the terrorist persuasion I and wanted to bring America to it’s knees, I and my friends would head out into the wilds, choose a lonely spot overlooking an interstate, and start picking off truck drivers. Within a few days, no truck driver would accept long distance loads. Food supplies would start to run short in the cities within a very few days.

    The government would probably start trying to organize convoys. That’s when the IEDs come out to play.

    Food riots within a couple of weeks.

    Then you go for the electricity distribution system …

    Fortunately, most so-called terrorists are as close to brain-dead as anyone can be and still walk.

    1. There’s some doomsday YT vids on EMF weapons.

      Skip the trucks, kill the power grid? Now THAT would be overnight PANIC!

  9. Plan B is a wood stove.
    When the cities run out of stuff,which they will,I shall sit back and snicker.
    The question is not if but when.
    Look at the current regulations sweeping over truck drivers,combine that with the snotty attitude toward such useful workers and your transport system is heading for a self made crunch.
    Same with the other skilled trades,we are now criminally liable when we employ other persons..Only government could be so “smart”.

    And just before the Urban Experts ,on everything,start eating each other,they will organize mass protest marches,upon the Supermarkets..
    Demanding their Rights and Daily Bread.

    We must be near peak stupidity,it does not get much better than shutting down the supply chain in the heart of winter,over the “Hereditary Rights” of some non hereditary chiefs.
    Forget the markets,if you do not have sufficient investments in base metals and something to project them with,your “investments in the market” may be no benefit to you at all.
    Face it. If our effete Elites had a plan B,they would not be aiding and abetting the criminals and chaos.
    Having a plan B,means planning.
    Planning means ,being aware of the possibilities and risks.
    Seen any evidence of such awareness amongst our Parasitic Overloads?

      1. But the citizens of the cities don’t want trucks on the highways. Trucks get in the way of the climate change crowd driving to the cottage or ski slopes.

        1. I noticed that while I was at UBC 40 years ago. Most of the people were quite smug that there was no snow to speak of in Lotusland during the winter, but they couldn’t wait to skedaddle to ski resorts like Whistler.

          2. Global warming will take away all of our fun and the snow will only fall when the roads are cleared of the dangerous oil pipelines.

          3. UnMe at 9:11 “Global warming will take away all our fun”

            More people vacation in warm places than on ski slopes.

            More people live in warm places than cold ones.

        1. Yeah we pay to stop it warming, then we pay to heat up the planet during the next ice age.

          The next ice age will cause everyone in Canada to move.

  10. Italy is implementing total lockdown of the lombardy region. I fondly remember the days when the media proclaimed that it’d be impossible to do that in a western country. Seattle will be the next one mark my words. Everything these people say is a lie.

    1. The leader of Italy’s communist “Democratic” party has the virus, so not all the news is bad.

      Wish him a slow, painful death.

      1. Thank you for making my day! It does strike in the right places and the right… specimen.

    2. Italy has the second oldest population in the world. Explains the excessively high death rate.

      The first step in this country should be locking down each and every old age home in this country, effectively quarintining them to protect them, as the elderly, by far, are at the highest risk of fatality. No visitors, staff in hazmat suits, no exceptions.

      1. Italy has a large population of Chinese migrants who work in these regions factories. (textiles, I think?) That’s why the outbreak is so bad there. Imported cheap labour.

        1. And they have an OLD population, which is especially susceptible to virus fatalities, fake Kate.

    2. My neighbour has several cats, so in a worst case scenario I will kick down the door and wipe my ass on his cats. It might be awkward when this whole thing is over but I’m sure he’ll understand that desperate times call for desperate measures.

      2. Hey Zembo, A poor idea, I wouldn’t want a spazzed out Cat, spitting, snarling, and clawing at anything, anywhere near my family jewels! So, unless you plan to feed em catnip, or use a .22lr, ya might want to rethink that plan! Not sure your neighbor would be pleased about it either!

    1. “China dominates the global market in pharmaceutical ingredients, they control American health care.”

      What a goddamn idiot. China isn’t ruining American insurance or care. The USG is through Medicare and the ACA.

      1. If AOC and the ACA went to the USG in China all of the pharmaceutical ingredients would end up on a superhighway without trucks to deliver the goods. Such a dunce.

  15. While Kate indulges in fantasies of decoupling, OPEC+ collapses and Saudi goes Full Tilt. DO NOT BE INVESTED IN OIL

    The Bloomberg article is paywalled so I won’t link to it, but I got a read. We could see oil in the 20s…or teens…

    1. Cheer leading for the billionaires…UnRemarkable.

      Bloomberg needs your help to become president, why don’t you join him as you’re fluffing and primping for the organization.?

      Cheers

      Hans Rupprecht – Commander in Chief
      Army Group “True North”
      1st Saint Nicolaas Army

    2. Nothing is paywalled if you know where to look.

      https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/saudis-plan-big-oil-output-hike-beginning-all-out-price-war-1.1401780

      Wise men regard every word Bloomberg News prints as pro-Biden propaganda. Here, they quote a couple of “experts” who pull numbers out of the air on the basis of no real evidence.

      Sure, prices fell. China’s on lockdown and its energy demand has collapsed. Saudi, long China’s gastank, is feeling the pinch. Couldn’t happen to a better sponsor of terrorism.

      All the more cheap energy for the rest of us. Tell your mom to enjoy her cheaper gas.

    3. I should add that once oil hits the 20s there will be an OPEC+ referendum with the Saudi’s despite the decoupling of the globalized markets. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS TRICK

    4. So, a self-proclaimed libertarian shilling for Michael Bloomberg, a plutocrat who likes Chicom gun control and wants to regulate fountain drinks?

      Man, you must be brain damaged.

      1. I’m reasonably certain there’s at least one reverse moby posting under UnMe’s handle.

        1. Yup, the height of stupidity and cowardice. Someone too ashamed to use their own handle to poke holes in the arguments of another.

          I make a habit of not posting anything I wouldn’t want my kids to read. I only post under my own handle because if I don’t own my words then they mean nothing.

    5. Actually now is a good time to invest in oil while prices are low.

      You might want to wait a bit to see if you can time the bottom of the market, but oil will rebound.

      The corona virus will reduce demand for oil products, and we will have a recession or depression. But in the long haul, oil demand will return.

      1. It will indeed.

        Of course, nobody in his right mind ought to invest a cent in Canadian oil stocks unless, and until, President Trump sends US forces north to wipe Chinada off the map of North America. But that’s another story.

        1. There won’t always be a Liberal government in Ottawa headed by a Trudeau. There has to be some economy from which to pull graft.

          The trick would be to time the bottom of the Canadian extractive industries market. Because every time I think Justin must have hit rock bottom, he has a blast and continues digging.

  16. People will’ Not know if they are infected for a minimum or two weeks or more.

    If we all stay home all systems end

    But employees will be barred from going to work if they have been possibly infected

    Eventually everyone ends up at home

    Food manufacturing, distribution ends
    Waterworks and sewage ends
    Power generation Nuclear ends
    Health care will not be able to cope with the number of patients so that ends

    Hello Mad Max Movie going live worldwide in 2020

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