Foodstuffs Inflation: The Cause? Maybe China

 I got this from a gentleman on Elliottwavetrader.net (behind paywall).  This explains a lot as to why we are seeing fast rising grain prices here.  And until things reach some sort of normalcy, I think we could possibly see things get worse.  How much worse?  Not sure.  China's weather is pretty topsy turvy right now.  Enormous amounts of rain.

This table was originally from Karen Braun (@kannbwx on twitter).  She's a profuse poster with all things agriculture related.  Pretty much a "just the facts" sort of person (which I love). I'll be checking to see if I can find an update.

Bear in mind that this table includes worldwide imports into China, not just American products. I'm sure a huge portion of these numbers are from America.

The ice cream owner who tried, failed – and now owes $200,000

 I can't believe that Yahoo News actually posted this.  But shows the hash reality of trying to open a new business in CA.  And especially, SF.

He tried, and he failed. But the worst part is he never got a chance to even start. And now he’s got a $200,000 debt to pay off.

That’s the story of Jason Yu, a 30-year-old father of two who had the audacity to attempt to open up an ice cream shop in San Francisco’s Mission District. Unfortunately, the city got in his way.

As reported by San Francisco Chronicle, Yu started his project – a shop that sold green-tea-flavored ice cream – in late 2018, and ultimately found a location in mid-2019 where he got to work. After committing to a lease ($7,300 a month – this is San Francisco, remember?) he hired an architect to draw up plans for the space, which proposed no structural changes or modifications.

Then the city stepped in.

What he encountered was a byzantine permitting process that sucked all the money out of his wallet.

The article does say that perhaps the local politicians are waking up to the problem.  But to honest, I doubt it.  You need to vote these people out and then ban them from ever setting foot in the city ever again,

Latest post on Texas Coronavirus Data as of May 21, 2021

 Posting the latest Texas Wuhan Virus stats in graphic form. There are three numbers to look at:

1-    It took a while, but the daily hospitalizations are well under the trough we saw around August thru October in 2020.

2-    The second line shows daily deaths are under the trough at the same time period

3-    The third line shows that we have finally reached the low of daily deaths we saw before the volcano erupted on this whole thing.

Are we out of the woods?  I think we are.  But I've been wrong before.

Note:  I should make it clear that the daily deaths were smoothed out by converting it to a 7 day moving average.

I stumbled across a quick chart I put together and posted on another website (behind paywall). I superimposed the first wave onto the top of the beginnings of the 2nd wave.  This one was as of 2020/11/18. The date is from the timestamp on the file.

I wish I had posted this one here.  It was pretty prescient.

So now the question becomes: is this the lowest it's going to get?  

Stay tuned!!  I plan on to continue reviewing the data. I'll probably try to post once a month. I put off posting anything for a couple months because it was tough trying to determine where this was all headed.  It was sort of a cliff hanger.

One out of 25 in the Netherlands died of euthanasia in 2020

 Absolutely and utterly appalling.

• With 6938 deaths by euthanasia, this accounted for 4.12% of all deaths. (If the estimated 15,000 extra deaths from Covid-19 were put aside, the rate would be 4.52%)
• There were two cases of euthanasia for Covid-19 in 2020.
• With one more case of child euthanasia (a boy aged 12-16), a total of 16 children aged 12-17 have been euthanised since 2002.

And it gets worse.

Texas Coronavirus Update as of February 26, 2021

 The chart shows a distinct trend for lower hospitalizations and deaths.  I've added two points of special note regarding hospitalizations.  The first blue box has a date of March 13, 2021.  This marks a future time when hospitalizations could match the level in October (follow blue horizontal dashed line).  The second blue box date of March 27, 2021 marks when there could possibly be no more people in the hospital with the virus. The reality might be the actual hospitalizations by then will reach "some low number".  It might match what we started with in April and May.

Keep in mind this is an analysis of trends.  It is not really a completely reliable prediction of whether or not it will happen.  But as we say "we follow the trend...until we cannot".

I'm doing a better job of masking the incomplete updated deaths.  There still is a good chance the earlier death numbers will be updated, but possibly not enough to effect what the chart is telling us.

If the trend continues, the end is nigh.

 

Why California Isn’t What It Used To Be | Rabbi Dov Fischer

 There used to be a time I would have to scrounge around on youtube to find videos on the state of CA and why people were leaving there.  But now, there are dozens if not more of analysis and personal videos of this.

Here is one of them.

TEXAS CORONAVIRUS UPDATE AS OF 2021/1/23

 

UPDATE: Please check an update to this chart for February 26, 2021

https://californiaswansong.blogspot.com/2021/02/texas-coronavirus-update-as-of-february.html

The daily hospitalizations have settled down, from what I can tell. I didn't check every day, but spot checked a couple of dates. I don't know what the reason was for the change.  Probably Texas DHS were re-defining a few things.  I could ask them.  I have their email address and they do respond to my questions, which is very nice.

Like I mentioned before in a prior update to a post, the daily deaths have been slowly rising.  Nothing like it was in the beginning.  The conclusions regarding this have not changed.  A treatment protocol by now has been established - no more shots in the dark.  Also, there is herd immunity.  I add herd immunity because the virus had established itself as highly contagious. Refer to the chart to see the rapid rise in deaths and hospitalizations in late May onward.  But now, the rise in deaths (slope) is far far slower. We can imply from this that the virus has lost some of its potency.

If you look to the far right of the chart, I show a smooth gradiated shaded area.  I still use the cutoff point for reliable data of a change in deaths of less than 10 on the latest day, but I add an additional week to capture outliers. I gradiated it because it was unclear if the added weak should be counted or not.  I didn't want to blot it out entirely. But for sure, they are MORE up to date than the last few weeks/days.

The last few days show the daily hospitalizations topping out (see dashed oval in chart).  We need to see a few more weeks of data to determine if we have an actual trend. 

Daily deaths are represented as a 7 day moving average for greater clarity.