7/26/2020
Global Covid Cases: 16,306,788
Global Covid Deaths: 650,122
New Deaths: 43,648 avg of 6235 per day up from 5340 last week
US Covid Cases: 4,336,782
US Covid Deaths: 149,557
New Deaths: 6631 avg of 947 per day up from 764 last week
Hawaii Covid Cases: 1620
Hawaii Covid Deaths: 26
Oahu Covid Cases: 1291
Avg of 38 new cases per day in the islands with each of that last three days breaking new records. 427 active cases up from 311 last week.
Other Covid News: RNC convention cancelled in Florida. Brazi, India, and Mexico have cases and death counts growing rapidly. Large numbers of US states are breaking daily records in new cases, hospitalizations. Florida, Arizona, the Carolinas, and Oklamhoma appear to be growing hot spots. California, Texas, and Florida remain the largest active and new cases. U.S. experts are urging further shutdowns but since this has become a political issue rather than a health issue, it seems unlikely. In Florida a nine year old girl with no pre-existing conditions died – yet politicians continue to push for schools to open in days or weeks. Insanity.
BLM and Civil Liberties Protests: Federal DHS troops continue to be used in Portland, Seattle, and Chicago. Last night 45 were arrested in Seattle as those DHS troops were attacked with rocks and other objects including fireworks. Protests seem to have transitioned from BLM to civil liberties protests while still pushing the BLM agenda. The use of DHS troops as a nationalist military was long foretold but those who denied such a thing could happen are now waking up to it – but again, since this has been made into a right/left issue – there is confusion. The natural allies of the protestors who don’t want federal troops in US cities are gun rights advocates, libertarians, and people like the folks who took of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge – but since the protests have been painted as ‘left wing’ ‘communists’ and ‘anarchists’ as well as ‘not white’ leaning – those who would usually be up in arms against the federal government overstepping it’s boundaries are cheering the DHS storm troopers on. More than one right wing constitutionalist has said ‘Enemy of my enemy is my friend’ which usually in history has ended up with a slow slaughter of opposition groups and eventually, an all powerful dictatorship flagging who goes to the camps next. In Seattle they burned down the Youth Detention Center. Protestors were shot in Austin and Aurora, Colorado were shot.
Eocnomic News:
Unemployment $600 pandemic supplement ended. Federal moratorium on evictions ended. No replacements approved yet as the two parties argue about how to help people without discouraging them from going back to work. Stock markets began to start focusing on reality a bit last week with a few mild declines instead of breaking new records. Keep in mind that in a capitalist system, mass unemployment means that wages can be lowered which is considered a positive for profit making – so this explains a tiny bit of why nearly 40 million unemployed caused the markets to burst to new highs. The U.S. is at a realistic 20% unemployment rate and when all other factors are added in that means that we are probably closer to 40% unemployment – with most of those not getting UI payments. Home sales are down 11% from a year ago with condos down 23% – there are however a large number of people abandoning cities and crowded areas – so rents in markets like SF, NYC, and Honolulu should be dropping, right? Major bankruptcies are happening daily and personal bankruptcies are approaching record numbers. The numbers of evictions and foreclosures are rising rapidly. The fantasy of a V-shaped recovery appears to be wearing off. Gold topped $1900 per ounce and Bitcoin is edging upwards.
International News:
U.S. forced closure of Chinese consulate in Houston (the first Chinese consulate in the US) and China responded with closure of American consulate in Chengdu. Europe’s economy is set to outpace the U.S. economy – which is a complete role reversal. Turkey continues its proxy war against the Kurds within Turkey and now in Syria as well.
Severe Weather:
Hurricane Douglas bypassed the Big Island of Hawaii but is heading towards the much more heavily populated islands of Maui and Oahu. Honolulu on Oahu has never been hit by a full strength hurricane but it looks like Douglas may make history as a Category I later today. Hurricane Hanna lashed the Gulf Coast of Texas and caused flooding.