“Solar activity, which is supposed to be on an upswing, is fizzling right now.”
I laughed when the solar scientists were doing their best Chicken Little impression by say the Sun was going to be even more active than during Cycle 19 (mid 1950s) because there is a 110 year cycle the Sun also has. If you look back at the early 1900s the Sun was very quiet so no surprise for me!
The official models currently have solar activity being at their lowest since the Dalton Minimum in the early 1800's (when we had The Year Without a Summer). And they seem to be optimistic. Notice the fizzle below(tail end of black line versus predicted red line): 
The sun is currently bare of any sunspot activity today.