Numbers don’t lie. Look at this link:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-death-toll/

Scroll down to the daily death tool and extrapolate the growth curve.

Daily global Covid19 deaths are growing at 16% PER DAY.

This is 100,000 deaths per DAY by April 20nd of this month.

Of course, this number does not include all the unreported deaths in places like India, China, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, Russia…. all places with corrupt governments that have an incentive to NOT report real numbers.

100,000 deaths per day is the equivalent of the entire population of Green Bay, Wisconsin…. dying from Covid19.

The Chinese Communist Party KNEW how bad this was as far back as January, and they hid the real numbers from the world.

TRUTH and FACTS are needed to stop this pandemic. If the global press was given access to the real death numbers in China 3 months ago the entire planet would have gone on lockdown MUCH sooner.

Imagine photos of 10,000 Chinese corpses in January…. this alone would have saved countless lives because we all would have been WARNED.

Maybe the Orange Idiot in the White House would have taken this more seriously, instead of holding rallies and calling this a “Deep State Hoax”.

The Covid19 cat (Tiger King??) is out of the bag.

All we can do now is wait, and some of us will die.

Thank you China!

Thanks Trump!

Ben Alexander

April 3, 2020

21 million cell phone plans have been cancelled in the last 2 months in China.

It is increasing possible that the Covid19 death statistics from China are blatant lies, which means more people in our country will die because we were not warned SOON enough.

First, look at the graph on cell phone usage in China in this article:

https://www.americanbanker.com/news/why-chinas-mobile-payments-revolution-matters-for-us-bankers

The mainland Chinese use cell phones for everything, from paying for groceries to getting access to medical care. You can’t travel in China without a cell phone, or even access the most basic services.

Most Chinese have a “pay as you go” plan that shuts off if there are no funds in your bank account…. I’m gonna repeat myself here:

21 million cell phone plans have been cancelled in the last 2 months in China.

One explanation might be that some people lost their job, or they were a migrant worker in China and went back to their home country… maybe that’s a 100,000 cancellations.

But 21 million total? And in the same timeframe last year cell phone subscriptions in China INCREASED. The death stats from China might be grossly underreported.

The best explanation here is that 20+ million people died from Covid19, so there was no reason to continue paying a monthly fee for cell service for that individual.

This all makes sense, the Chinese Communist Party released bullshit numbers (8,000 deaths ???) because they knew that if they revealed the real number, like 18 to 20 million Chinese deaths the global economy would shut down MUCH faster, hurting trade, hurting the Chinese economy.

This is all about the $$$ folks.

IF our government knew that untold MILLIONS were dying in China perhaps they would have done a total lockdown a month ago. Instead we had restaurants and public places open until March 15th!

The entire WORLD would have reacted faster if we knew that millions of Chinese people were dying in January and February; flights from Asia would be shutdown. Borders would be locked up.

If the global media had been reporting 20,000 deaths per DAY in China perhaps Italy and Spain would not be in dire straits right now.

I’m convinced that the Chinese Communist Party has covered this up, and now that we have over 80,000 confirmed cases here in the USA we’re going to see the REAL death toll of this monster virus.

I was tested for Covid19 yesterday, it costs $240 (my insurance might cover it) and it took 2 days of jumping through hoops just to get the damn test. I don’t have a result yet.

I’m a middle class guy with decent resources, it should have been simple to get tested but it was NOT. This means that poor folks all over the globe are NOT getting tested, and the positives are spreading Covid19 all over their village, probably not realizing they are doing so.

In the 1950’s Chinese dictator Mao set up disastrous policies that caused widespread famine in China, killing as many as 50 million people. That will be peanuts compared to Covid19. We’re just getting started.

Here we are in 2020, with wet markets still operational in China, despite SARS and the Swine Flu… and here comes Covid19, from a bat, or a pangolin, or BOTH.

When this is over, when 200 million people around the globe have died and the global economy is a shattered wreck? We need to hold the Chinese government accountable.

March 27, 2020

My daughter came home (with a cough and cold) from London on March 17th.  If she had Covid-19 I most certainly do, so I’m staying at home away from people.

I have O+ blood, so there is a chance that I might not get it at all, which would be ideal. I’m also in solar sales, and the economic uncertainty brought about by this crisis makes it harder to close deals, even if I use remote options like DocuSign.

Lotsa external crap I can’t control, so I’ve decided to get out my Fitbit and try to walk a gazillion steps each day. We all know that this damn virus is going to mess with our money and maybe even kill us, but maybe I can forge a 20,000 daily step habit that helps me get down to 170 pounds.

I’m 195 now.

Maybe something positive can come out of something truly awful.

The pic above is my count from yesterday.

Worst case scenario here would be to die, second worst is to go broke while getting fat.

Godspeed World!

Ben Alexander

March 21, 2020

Pictured: my dining room, with new dishes and silverware my parents gave me for my 46th birthday…..

In the last few weeks I’ve been hosting a regular Sunday night dinner at my place.

Last night we had Eggplant parm with salad and garlic bread, it was great!

My Sunday started with singing in the church choir, teaching the Debt Free class, then shopping for groceries and cooking most of the afternoon. I’m not a great cook, so I try new things and they tend to work out 99% of the time.

My parents are automatically invited every Sunday, they’ve cooked me about a gazillion meals in my lifetime, so now I get to return the favor. This also allows me to invite over friends who have lotsa kids, we have plenty of room and its always fun when multiple generations are at my table!

My daughters are always automatically invited, when they are in town, not working, etc.

My table can seat up to 12 people, if we get add chairs!

I’ve been reaching out to friends I haven’t seen for awhile and inviting them over as well.

Why not, right?

These are not stuffy dinners; wine will be opened, music will be played, things might get loud, you can never predict what might happen.

It takes work to straighten up my house, plan and cook a meal, and clean up after…. but the memories are more than worth it.

At the end of the day all we really have are memories anyway.

The great thing about this is that I’m becoming a better cook, and Claire and I have leftovers for days!

Not everyone is an extrovert, many people never host anything… but I’m having fun doing this, especially that moment when everyone is around my table and we all start to eat. This makes me happy at some profound level; providing for people I care about, seeing them enjoy each other’s company…. perhaps in many ways I’m a deeply traditional guy!

Let me know if you wanna join us next week!

Ben

March 2020

I recently turned 46, and being closer to 50 makes one think about the things that really matter in one’s life. Speaking of which, here is a pic of me and my oldest daughter Claire:

I’ve been attending a local Methodist church for the last few years, and once a year I have fun teaching a Debt Free / Financial Management class. Other than that I haven’t been very involved with my Harvester Methodist community, but they have always been there for me.

They have always welcomed me back, even when I was gone for awhile.

My parents attend the same church, and my Mom encouraged me to join the choir for the upcoming Easter Cantata. This is probably part of my Mom’s masterplan in getting my sorry carcass to church more often, and she has succeeded in doing so.

As I’ve sat in choir rehearsal every Wednesday night I feel the tangible pull of Faith, and the community that rallies around that Faith. Internally I know that I need to be a kinder man, a more gentle human, a more humble business owner.

Perhaps my little community at Harvester Methodist is helping me along in this journey, encouraging me to lift my eyes and focus on a higher power…

Just in their simple example they are helping me along, and in this I’m grateful!

Ben Alexander

March 2020

For the last three years I’ve sold over 350 residential and commercial solar deals for Tampa Bay Solar. Tampa Bay Solar is run by a retired Navy SEAL named Steve Rutherford, and all the systems I sold were installed within a few weeks of contract.

For example, this past week I sold a residential deal on Wednesday, that system will be installed by February 17th, finished by February 19th and turned on soon after.

Tampa Bay Solar did the solar array on my house, pictured below:

Tampa Bay Solar also did an install on my parents’ home in Wesley Chapel, and my Dad (retired engineer) was very happy with the quality of their work.

We compete with many other installers, and two years ago I started seeing competing bids from a company called Brevard Solar. I was suspicious about these bids because they were several thousands dollars LESS, with the same exact equipment we were installing.

It would be like if you were buying a used Honda, and everyone priced it at $22,000, but one competitor was selling it at $15,000. Where were they cutting corners?

I showed some of Brevard’s quotes to our owner Steve Rutherford and he immediately said “They’ll go out of business selling systems at this price point”.

Looks like Steve was right. Brevard Solar went out of business last week, holding $10,000 to $15,000 deposits on over 280 jobs!!! Before they shut their doors they were taking 8 to 10 months to install… and Brevard Solar only did cash deals, so all the Brevard clients who got ripped off will never see their $10 to $15K ever again…..

For the last 12 months Brevard has gotten a bunch of complaints lodged with the Better Business Bureau, but their clients only looked at price….

The Florida Attorney General is now on the case, and I hope Brevard’s owner, JAMES SPANN, gets thrown in a jail cell for a long time.

Some of the potential clients that I sat down with over the last 5 months went with Brevard and lost their deposit… and I warned them about Brevard, but they went with CHEAP instead. Ironically they will now spend MORE than if they had just listened to me and gone with Tampa Bay Solar 3 months ago.

I get it, they just thought I was a salesperson blowing smoke, but they should have listened, or at least looked at Brevard’s complaints online.

Tampa Bay Solar has ALWAYS completed their installs, and if a client changed their mind before install we refunded their deposit the next business day.

I’m 45 at this writing, and I’ve found that “cheap” might look good in the short term, but it always cost more in the long run. I’d rather pay more and get quality, when I was shopping for dining room furniture I went into a “discount” furniture place and the quality was not there, but the cost was lower. Instead I bought dining room furniture at Haverty’s, and it cost more, but the quality is there:

When one is making a long term purchase, like a solar array that lasts 30 or 40 YEARS, it makes sense to hire a quality installer who will get the job done RIGHT, and on schedule.

If you want solar on your home, at a fair price, with a great warranty…. reach out to us.

Ben Alexander

February 1, 2020

TampaBaySolar.com

Old guy on a fast bike…..

If you’re a motorcycle enthusiast one of the best things about living in Florida is being able to ride year round.

The pic above was taken this morning, on my Honda CB1000r. Rode it to church!

I’ve been riding on and off since 1995, when I rode a much slower bike through the streets of Taipei on my way to teaching gigs! I crashed frequently while living in Taiwan,  low speed crashes that left me bruised up and a little bit wiser.

They say there are 2 types of bikers: “Those who’ve crashed, and those who are going to crash….” I’d like to think that I’ve gotten all my mishaps behind me!

There is no way to totally eliminate the danger that goes with motorcycles, but it makes sense to suit up and mitigate some of that risk:

My helmet and gloves are not pictured, what you see above is a leather jacket that weighs 12 pounds, canvas riding pants (with a Kevlar lining) and leather boots. If I go off my bike at high speed my protective gear will get torn up before my skin does.

Heavy duty gear and a full face helmet blocks wind, sand from the road, and huge flying insects! These three factors make riding unpleasant at speeds over 50 mph. Ever had a bug fly up your nose at highway speeds? Not fun, possibly dangerous.

Another factor that will keep you alive is keeping your bike maintained; not riding on old tires, making sure the brakes work…. that type of thing. This is the main reason why I don’t believe in riding old vintage bikes. Old bikes have crappy drum brakes, modern bikes have amazing disc brakes, normally with hydraulic assist and ABS!

I have 2 motorcycles, and they both stay in my garage out of the rain. I only ride on sunny / dry days.  Rain makes the roads slippery, rusts machinery, and is NOT fun to ride in.  I had to ride a motorcycle everyday when I lived in Asia. Not fun. Cars do better in the rain.

If you’re thinking about learning how to ride I’d recommend that you start with a slow, inexpensive, lightweight bike (maybe 300cc engine?) and ride the wheels off it. If you buy something that goes 150 mph and you don’t know what you’re doing you’ll die. A slow bike allows you to make mistakes at low speed, without cracking up a more expensive machine, or yourself.

My girlfriend is learning to ride on a little 250cc Yamaha that I bought used for $2,000. She’s dropped it twice, I’ve dropped the damn thing once… (bonehead mistake)…. but the bike is cheap to fix, especially those dang turn signals…..

If you’re new to motorcycling get a full face helmet, wear a leather jacket, heavy jeans, decent gloves, and leather boots that cover the ankle. Don’t ride down the road in shorts, a tank top and flip flops, that’s just silly.

Ben Alexander

January 2020