No Tweet? First Car Built In China For The US Market Is The Official SUV For The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament -- March 21, 2021 -- March 21, 2021

This story would have generated a tweet from President Trump. From President Biden, crickets.

Part of the president's "Make America Last" policy.

In the news today:

The official SUV, produced by General Motors (GM), of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) annual “March Madness” tournament is made in China.

Last week, Buick — a division of GM — announced its 2021 Buick Envision is the official SUV of March Madness.

The 2021 Buick Envision debuted just yesterday, dropping in with an all-new second generation for the nameplate.

Now, GM Authority has confirmed that the next-gen model will continue to be built in China. [Emphasis added]

The 2021 Buick Envision will be produced at the SAIC-GM Jinqiao South plant in China. From there, the new Envision will be shipped to each of the four markets where the Buick brand is available, including the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (comprising the North American market), as well as in China.

For reference, the first-generation Buick Envision was also produced in China, but at a different facility, namely the SAIC-GM Dongyue North plant. Like the 2021 Envision, the first-gen model was also sold in China and throughout North America. [Emphasis added]

“The Envision is the first car built in China for the U.S. market. Last year, Americans purchased 42,000 Envisions, which are made by a joint venture between General Motors and SAIC Motor, a state-owned Chinese automaker,” [a news editor] wrote.

Truly March Madness. Sad. On so many levels. 

I did not fact-check the story. Others can fact-check it. I need to move on.

Vaccination Rollout

The CDC tracks this data at this site.  I was unaware of this site until Saturday, January 23, 2021. Starting this weekend I will switch to using this data rather than the sites I used previously. In addition, there will now be two spreadsheets: a) vaccine delivered and administered; b) number of folks actually immunized.

Vaccinations doses distributed / vaccinations given (per cent delivered doses used)

January 22, 2021, Bloomberg:
39,892,400 / 19,841,721 (49.7%)

January 21, 2021 (Bloomberg)
37,960,000 / 18,449,288 (48.6)

January 20, 2021 (Johns Hopkins-MIT-WSJ)
35,990,150 / 16,525,281 (45.9)

For the US:

	A	B	C	D	E
	Doses of vaccine distributed to health facilities	Change from day before	Vaccinations given	Change from day before	Percent of doses given/doses received over previous 24 hours
January 22, 2021	39,892,400	1,932,400	19,841,721	1,392,433	72.06%
January 21, 2021	37,960,000	1,969,850	18,449,288	1,924,007	97.67%
January 20, 2021	35,990,150		16,525,281

The numbers above come from Bloomberg and Johns Hopkins. I assume the numbers provided lag by at least one day. If we get incomplete data over weekends or holidays, averages will be used.

It appears, for example, that about 2 million new doses are distributed to health facilities each day (column B).

It appears that in the last two days, "shootists/jabbers" gave fewer vaccinations than dosages received. For example, on January 21, 2021, 97.67% of newly received doses were administered (column E), meaning that the "supply on hand" actually increased slightly.

On January 22, 2021, only 72.06% of newly received doses were administered (column E), meaning that a significant number of newly distributed doses failed to actually make it into anyone's arms. The "supply on hand" should be increasing. If the "supply on hand" is not increasing, then the numbers are wrong, or there is wastage, spoilage, theft, or "who knows what."

I am unaware of a source for the amount of "supply on hand" provided to the media on a daily basis. One cannot determine (or even estimate) the "supply on hand" given the information above. 

For example, due to the size of the needles and syringes used and other variables, it is likely there is some wastage. For example, in a 10-dose vial, only nine doses might actually be obtained. This was discussed by public health officials and the media has reported that. That "lost" one dose per vial would simply be "lost." It happens. Moms who are given a ten-day supply of liquid antibiotic for their toddler know what I'm talking about. The 20-dose plastic bottle generally runs out before the 20th dose is given.

Disclaimer: I often make simple arithmetic errors. I am posting this for my benefit only. If this is important to you, go to the source. Don't quote me on any of my data. It's probably wrong, but it gives me an idea of what is going on.

By the way, to the best of my knowledge, I'm the first blogger to provide a spreadsheet of this sort. Right now, it doesn't provide much information, but my hunch is that thirty days from now, it's going to be very, very helpful or enlightening. These are the kind of spreadsheets that Dr Fauci is looking at. 

Hey, by the way, there's a story / article / report out there that a physician has been arrested for stealing nine doses of the vaccine. Now you know why it nine doses. It was a ten-dose vial from which one dose had been given. 

Number of people vaccinated, link here:

	A	B	C	D
	Total Doses Administered	Number of People Receiving 1 Or More Doses	Number of People Receiving 2 Doses	Number of People Considered Fully Immunized
Jan 22, 2021	19,107,959	16,243,093	2,756,953

Notes From All Over -- The Early Evening Edition -- January 20, 2021

Tesla: wow! 4Q20 California registrations jumped 63%, compared to same quarter last year, largely due to Model Y. Tesla, California, recovered from 16,200 deliveries in 3Q20 to 22,117 vehicles in 4Q20.

At about 11,417, registrations in the state for Tesla's Model Y compact crossover utility vehicle surpassed those for the Model 3. California registrations for Tesla's Model 3 mass-market sedan fell 34% on a yearly basis to 7,044.

Total fourth-quarter vehicle registrations in the 23 states, where data was collected, stood at 44,749, with Model Y accounting for nearly half the registrations.

Tesla is expected to report earnings on January 27.

Jim Cramer's financial haiku today:

• defying the Wall Street critics;
  
• Netflix, Tesla, Amazon, Apple;
• the customer is always right. 

Wow, it's great to be home again, but I do miss the twins. LOL.

But it's great to be back to TCM. 

Futures: right after the close, the futures were slightly negative. I assumed it was a bit of profit-taking. But here we are, 6:03 p.m. CT and futures for all three major indices have turned positive. Wow. KMI up 3% and F up 2.5%.

Equinor: raised its dividend today.  11 cents, record date, 2/12/21. Previous two quarters, 9 cents.

BK: shares plunge in price after profit miss. Dropped 75, enough to pace the S&P 500's decliners.

*********************************
Metrics

This is what I will be tracking at one year, two years, three years, and four years:

Easy metrics to follow:

• China flu:
• cases / million / trend
• vaccinations given
• in round numbers, on day of inauguration:
• total doses distributed: 40 million
• total number of doses given: 17 million
• three major indices; all three set all-time records on day he was inaugurated; closing:
• Dow:
• S&P 500:
• NASDAQ:
• atmospheric CO2:
• December, 2020: 413.95
• price of gasoline, using EIA data at this link:
• 1/18/21: $2.464 / gallon
• MacDonald's, as tracked at this link:
• Big Mac: $3.99
• Misc (suggestions?)
• the average rent for an apartment in Albany, NY, at this link; $1,299 (last updated Jan 2021)
  

The Biden Presidency

Metrics

Easy metrics to follow:

• China flu:
• vaccinations given
• in round numbers, on day of inauguration:
• total doses distributed: 40 million
• total number of doses given: 17 million
• three major indices; all three set all-time records on day he was inaugurated; closing:
• Dow: 31,188
  
• S&P 500: 3,852
  
• NASDAQ: 13,457
  
• atmospheric CO2: link here --
  
• December, 2020: 413.95
• gasoline: 
• price of gasoline, using EIA data at this link:
• 1/18/21: $2.464 / gallon
• gasoline demand: 
• 1/8/21: 7.6 million bbls / day, using EIA data at this link;
  
• MacDonald's, as tracked at this link:
• Big Mac: $3.99
• Misery index: wikipedia;
  
• Misc
• the average rent for an apartment in Albany, NY, at this link; $1,299 (last updated Jan 2021)

Reparations

President Biden: "environmental justice"
Janet Yellen: if there is one constant theme being voice by Janet Yellen, it's "reparations";
NY Times: link here;
Words matter: watch for articles discussing "equal, equity, equitable, and equality";

Thoughts

A reader asked me my thoughts on President Biden:

For all the anxiety Trump caused his detractors, it appears that Biden is a much more dangerous president: vindictive, capricious, extreme ideologue, a puppet, ignorant, a reptile in action, a dinosaur in thinking.

Although I really don't know how dinosaurs thought. I would have said "Neanderthal" but that would have been dissing the Neanderthals who were probably brighter than we think.

For those who were worried about Trump having the "nuclear code" they should be much more concerned with Biden having the "nuclear code."

I can't cite the source (for obvious reasons), but this is the password for the nuclear code that Trump kept in his pocket:

"as76%^4749&^aBC"

This is Biden's:

"password"

When push comes to shove, his advisors will tell Biden to type in the password and he will comply.

Updates

February 12, 2021: Biden has shown that he is more dangerous than Goldwater + Nixon + Trump all put together. 

February 2, 2021: under Trump, the "vaccine" was questionable, might not protect against variants, not thoroughly tested; under Biden, the "vaccine" just keeps getting better and better. 

January 20, 2021: a not-ready-for-prime-time reply to a reader regarding the state of the union with regard to the Biden presidency:

You mentioned earlier about the price of gasoline.

I've actually become quite cynical about the whole thing.

We now know we can drill our way to lower gasoline prices, but if the price of gasoline rises to $5.00/gallon in California, that's their problem. If they want/like $5.00 gasoline in California then that's fine with me.

It was huge for me to see that, yes, we (the US) could become energy independent, control our own destiny, have affordable energy, but if Californians want to go in another direction I no longer have a dog in that fight.

There's too much to enjoy in life to worry about such things.

It will be fascinating to watch if gasoline does trend toward $5.00 / gallon in California and how politicians / press respond to that. But as for me, I no longer care. What was important to me was just knowing we could do it. Like getting a man on the moon: getting there the first time was huge, but then the bureaucrats took over and the program never interested me much any more after that.

That's also true for pipelines. I no longer care. Shut down all pipelines if they want. All I wanted to see was whether we could do it, and it's obvious we could with the right leadership. But if New York wants to shut down their pipelines, that's fine with me. Texas will go its own way. It may become "blue" -- I expect it will but that doesn't bother me either. It's becoming less and less "blue" vs "red" and more and more "the elites" vs the "rest," or the "haves" vs the "have-nots." The gap will widen regardless, and there seems to be as many "elites" and "haves" in "red" states as in "blue" states. It appears the wealthiest men and women in the US are all Democrats. That speaks volumes.

Now, what fascinates me is if we really can pivot to EVs. There's a huge amount of infrastructure that needs to be put in place in a relatively short period of time. The cars are the easy part. Every auto maker (and computer companies -- Microsoft, Apple) are making EVs. It will be interesting to see the infrastructure that will be needed.

January 20, 2021: This is a great essay on why Trump lost; why he almost won. Over at the Claremont Review of Books. It may be behind a paywall. If so, it's too bad. They should make this available to everyone.

January 13, 2021: the US House voted for the second time asking the US Senate to determine whether President is guilty of specific charges with regard to "his supporters" storming the Capitol last week. I have real trouble with GOP House minority leader voting the way he did after his speech in the House. 

January 11, 2021: the whole twitter - Trump story is childish. Having said that, how is Trump missing the obvious? There is so much going on in the world, all he has to do is call his favorite reporter -- print or television -- doesn't matter and give that reporter a teaser: "If I had a media outlet, I would update Americans on the Mideast." "If I had a media outlet, I would update Americans on our plans to hit Iran if Israel needs back-up." "And, oh, by the way, I have completed my second to last list of pardons. Because of the risk of inciting more violence, I've issued an executive order to keep the pardons "confidential" until after January 20, 2021." "I'm working on my final list of pardons; it's quite a list; it will be released 11:30 a.m. January 20, 2021." Any of those, would give Trump immediate exposure. Reporters everywhere would be demanding Trump be allowed to post that information. 

January 10, 2021: to what extent this is true, I don't know. But I would love to hear Trump, Giuliani, Mo Brooks, Josh Hawley deny they said these things or did these things. 

January 10, 2021: at this level, politics is very, very ugly and very, very real. This is a chance for VP Pence to make incredible history. He has morality and "higher ground" on his side. He has to be asking himself: does he remain loyal to his boss, or does he remain loyal to the country? For me, this is not a difficult decision. He needs to be looking at the history books that haven't been written yet. Will history judge him harshly regardless of which decision he makes? I don't think so. I think one decision propels him into "Profiles In Courage," the other decision relegates him to an asterisk, at best.

December 13, 2020: tea leaves suggest mainstream media will push Joe Biden under the bus by the end of 2021; actual regime change, Biden out, Harris in; might not take place until early 2022. [Later, January 10 2021: no longer true; after the Capitol was stormed, Biden was seen as the last elder statesman.]

Original Post

I did this for the Trump presidency, and to some extent the Obama presidency. Now the Biden presidency. 

This will be linked at the sidebar at the right. This will be for the archives, to track the next chapter in US history.

The entire Biden presidency can be summed up in four words: Back to the Past. 

Obama will be running the show from the shadows. 

Expect more fireworks:

• in the Mideast
• Joe Biden will be starting his administration of with "no"troops in Iraq or Afghanistan; Trump will bring them home by January 15, 2021;
• Biden can recall Valerie Jarrett to provide advice on the Mideast
  
• Taiwan: this is China's best opportunity to "Hong Kong" Taiwan
• North Korea: has had four years to work on its rockets; unlikely to let an opportunity like a Biden-Harris administration go to waste;
  

Expect lots of social engineering:

• and it won't be all bad -- let's start with $50K student debt relief; is this any different than bailing out the airlines? or pre-packaged Bakken bankruptcies?

Monetary / fiscal policy:

• back to Janet Yellen 

20/20 hindsight on Trump:

• he could have and should have done more;