Bob Hoye

Bubbles: Approaching Gossamer Limits

There are two great bubbles out there. One – the financial mania that is becoming blatantly reckless, but being a party in prosperity is widely celebrated. The other is the bubble in the political markets which has become amazingly radical. But going the other way, a rapidly growing number are beginning to understand the existential threat to ordinary life, which is making the Left's promotions desperate. Why are Dems forcing unpopular measures rather than running on policies that would be popular? Campaigning on such ideas would place control back in the hands of the electorate, which is verboten.

Democrats Climbing The Progressive Ladder To Destruction: One Wrong At A Time

America’s struggle between Democrats and Republicans is becoming politically the most intense since the American Revolution when Great Britain suffered a rare but massive exercise in authority. The Brits also suffered poor generalship resulting in an independent Republic with all citizens protected by a carefully crafted constitution, which worked wonderfully until “Progressives” began to intrude upon ordinary folk.

Flattening the Curve: Global Temps

The eruption of the Hunga-Tonga Volcano is noteworthy. Both in its size and in the video of satellite images, with the ejection of ash and aerosols sending columns of material to some 60,000 feet, or almost 20 km. This has the potential to contribute to climate cooling over a couple of years. The following video quickly reviews the event, with a site Volcano Discovery describing it as “Huge”.

PRINCELY FINANCE AND TAXATION

One would have hoped that financial rip-offs committed by medieval princes would have been permanently shelved when liberal enlightenment ended the divine right of kings. Instead, some kind of divine right of bureaucrats has forced too much in-your-face and in-your-wallet government. Today's version of greedy royalty.

And the remedy lies in popular uprisings against bullying government.

British Columbia: Climate, Dreadful Weather and Politics, Plus Geology

Canada’s West Coast has been hit by storms resulting in alluvial flood plains being flooded, roads built on alluvial benches being eroded and major highways on alluvial flood plains being covered by debris torrents adding to naturally occurring alluvial land. The key is that most of the violence is natural, but the even more destructive Sumas Prairie flood is due to political distractions, that have been impractical. Regrettably, activist politicians and their media have laid the blame upon “Global Warming”. Locally, the ploy is to divert attention from decades of neglecting sound engineering advice to maintain and raise the height of the Sumas dikes.

Swamp Guards: Updated

The history of control freaks going, well, out of control and imposing hardship upon ordinary folk dates back to Ancient Egypt. Eventually with the governing classes living and promising well as those lower down were facing the threat of famine the iniquities inspired popular uprisings. Some in deposing the pharaoh and his priestly advisors have been called dynastic collapses, resulting in more democratic food distribution. There have been many such successful popular uprisings whereby tyrannical but lush-living governments were reformed, not by intellectuals but by ordinary people.

‘Flation: Which Kind Will it Be?

There are a number of ‘flations out there. Inflation, deflation and from the poorly understood 1970s, stagflation. And the intention of this article is to review historically that there are two kinds of “inflations”, one is bad and the other is good.  And only one kind of deflation, which is bad. While the big tout is that “Inflation is back!”, sure there will be ‘flation, but the subject needs some ‘splaining – particularly about “Deflation”.

The Grey Ones

The Grey Ones is a short story by J.B. Priestly. Published in 1953, it’s a narrative within the science fiction genre that was so popular then. Taking place in England when a successful businessman, Mr. Patson, becomes concerned that some sort of aliens were taking over earthlings, one by one. The Grey Ones indeed turns out to be about evil aliens, with a horrifying ending.

Red Hot: But Don’t Let The Smoke Out

This article is not about sensationalized reports about wildfires nor hot weather. It is about cars and speculative financial markets, both of which can be exciting as well as at times, dangerous. When tinkering with old cars it is best not to go near the electrical wires as there is weirdness there. Black ones are cool most of the time. But because the red wires can get hot they are definitely taboo, which is why they are red.

America: Brutal Revolution of Benign Reform?

What’s it going to be like when ordinary folk become more emphatic in saying “No!” to unrelenting intrusion by the dangerously ambitious Left? Will globalists force another bloody revolution? Or will American patriots be allowed to peacefully reform their bullying governments?  

Stock Markets Are Dangerously Crazy

Action in the stock market has become extremely reckless with sensational rallies in sectors such as in Bitcoin as well as in some rigged short squeezes in individual “old” stocks such as GameStop. Bitcoin from its trading start in 2015 at $216 soared to $63,000, which in percent gain and overall size is likely without precedent. Also, it is not a company. As a stock, GameStop has been around for a long time with operations not all that strong. Hedge funds that were short (sold stock they didn’t own) were caught offside in a massive rigging that drove the stock from $2.57 in less than a year to $483 in February.

Almost Everyone and Everything Has Gone Crazy

An old saying sums it up: “All the world is crazy save thee and me, and even thou art a little crazy”. Attributed to Robert Owen in 1828. However, I recall learning it in Latin when in high school. Veterans in both the financial and political markets are astounded by the excesses. Somewhat over a year ago, financial markets plunged straight down in the Wuhan Flu selling panic. And some 16 months later, straight up to unprecedented excitement and valuations. The greatest “La La Land” in history.

America’s Cultural Revolution

In its own way, the United States of America is suffering the equivalent of Mao’s Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Ironically, because the Constitution should be proof against such ambitious control freaks. Using fear of disease and global warming. With Mao’s nightmare, every decision was made at the top and mobs of radicals turned all of society upside down. The stated goal was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalism as well as other suddenly undesirable traditions. The result was massive hardship and famine as well as political massacres. Estimates are up to 20 million deaths.

As Weather Becomes Climate

By definition a long weather trend will become a climate event. And the March post for the UAH Satellite Temp is at -0.01 deg C, which is a miniscule decline from the 1991 to 2020 average. In so many words, the obvious warming pulses from the 1989 and 2016 El Ninos have run their course. Returning the chart to the essentially flat-lying trend.

Democrats & Velociraptors

In liberating the White House Democrats became the equivalent of Jurassic Park Velociraptors. Dems have always been blatantly racist, economically destructive and the party of war (WWI, WWII and Vietnam as examples). But now with the White House and a media made up of activists posing as journalists, the Velociraptors have discovered how to pick locks and open doors.

Energy Problems: Energy Solutions: Canada and the US

The new socialist government in America is determined to destroy its practical and affordable generation of power from fossil fuels, even though today’s coal-powered electrical plants are clean and the latest natural gas plants are not only clean but especially efficient.

Bureaucratic Rituals: Time for Reform

There are some rather ridiculous bureaucratic rituals out there that seem to be employed or enforced for no practical reasons at all, other than to impose arbitrary authority. One old example was that the French government for its accounting continued to use Roman numerals for some one hundred years after England wisely gave up on them. Some bureaucrats are less bureaucratic than others. And then there is the utter nonsense about changing the clocks from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time. The former was introduced by authoritarian Germany in 1916 on the notion that it would reduce citizen hardships due to WW I. In free countries it was reimposed during WW II, and as this writer recalls it would help the farmers get the crops harvested. Now it is done simply to impose authority. A useless but intrusive ritual.

It’s Cold Outside

The title is part of a popular song with a number of recordings starting in March 1949. However, the last few months have featured headlines about unusual cold and snow in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter. In early December the UK Met office published concerns about diminishing snow events. 

• “Record Cold in Northern European Russia” -- meteonovosti.ru, March 10. 
• “U.S. Had Its Coldest February in More Than 30 Years” – NOAA, March 8. 
• “Extreme Freeze – Record Low February Across the UK”  -- kentoline.co.uk, February 11. 

Of course, this showed up in the Total Snow Mass for the Northern Hemisphere, which is well above the typical maximum: 

Nihilism Will Be Imposed Until It Is Seen Not To Work--Then Another Political Reformation

Over the last 2,000 years, history records that there have been three great experiments in authoritarian government, with each becoming nihilistic and failing. Massive intrusion and chronic inflation eventually collapsed the economy. Shockingly on each, European governing classes granted themselves the privilege of state murder. But control freaks living well as most citizens suffer has inspired benign popular uprisings that brought reform. And then on November 3^rd folk went to bed in America and woke up in Venezuela, which insult cries for reform. In reviewing the last century of violent politics, the dispassionate observer would conclude there have been two kinds of nihilism. One naive and the other intentionally destructive. Naive would be the earnestness of the first few generations of socialists. Originally, Communists ardently believed that central planners could create the "perfect" man. 

Climate and Citizen Control: “Break Their Will”

As reported by many sources, the Climate Czar for Massachusetts, David Ismay, is fretting about CO2 emissions, citing that some 60 percent of such emissions come from heating homes and driving cars. Showing his personal passion to control ordinary people, he is videoed saying :“We have to turn the screws”. Too many Americans are indifferent to his anxieties, and his scheming included the need to “break their will”. That shows a disturbing turn to authoritarian ambition in order to ease his personal anxieties about carbon dioxide.