The Republic of Texas

by on April 1, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Second Great Depression was not kind to the military reservations surrounding the White Sands Missile Range. The drop in federal funding left them surviving off local resources alone. Many soldiers chose to go home, often taking whatever supplies or weapons they could carry with them. Some were already affiliated with the local gangs and drug cartels, and sold various military supplies to them. By the time open street fighting hit the nearby Borderplex cities, Fort Bliss had shrunken to something not much larger than a skeleton security force trying to secure what weapons and supplies it still had. While also searching for the traitors in their own ranks still selling supplies and weapons to the enemy. Holloman Air Force Base had similar issues and only retained enough people to fly a handful of aircraft at a time, most of which were unarmed drones. They did what they could to help the Borderplex fight the gangs and drug cartels, but their reach was severely limited.

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The Republic of Texas

by on March 31, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The El Paso-Juarez-Las Cruces Borderplex was a major center of industry, higher learning, research and development, military training, healthcare, and tourism with over three million citizens when the Second Great Depression began. Many corporations had offices on the American side and manufacturing plants on the Mexican side due to labor costs, but they were effectively one large economy with an international border running through it. Much like Texas in the days of the Spanish Empire and early America, they had far more in common with each other than with those distant capitals. They were neither Mexican nor American, but an amalgamation of the two forged by business and cultural ties. And even the best efforts of various politicians who wanted to divide them had never managed to change that. So when the American federal government fell, and the Mexican government quickly followed, the Borderplex leaders looked to each other for help before anybody else.

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Social Distancing

by on March 30, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Social Distancing is a phrase most of us never heard of before this recent unpleasantness. Though as an introvert, I have always practiced it. Few things annoy me more than people who feel the need to walk into my personal space without first being invited. Or those who try to walk right past “employee only” signs and into business back rooms. The fact that social distancing during the current unpleasantness has made that unthinkable is greatly pleasing to me in a great many ways.

If more people followed such a rational idea of maintaining appropriate personal space we would not have to even worry about the current unpleasantness. Especially if they took the equally rational precautions of washing their hands or not coughing on other people. Unfortunately, not everybody does, and so we have our current unpleasantness. One that can only be mitigated by changing the entire paradigm of what most people consider to be normal society. It is my profound hope that Social Distancing as we now understand it becomes the new normal.

The various jokes on the internet about this being the day I was made for are not far off. Though they are dark jokes, trying to hide the ugliness of the current unpleasantness. People are dying. A great tragedy for everyone. And many more people are losing their livelihoods. A further tragedy for all.

Orders in some States to shut down businesses have brought many industries built over literal centuries to a complete stop. The economic engine that built the world we know right now, the cars we drive, and the internet we talk to everybody on right now, has come to a screeching, screaming halt. We’re crawling right now, and I don’t know what it is going to take to restart all of this.

And to make it worse, States like New York that demand we accept their people traveling to our areas do not realize they are acting exactly like China when it demanded that nations not blockade their travel when they were the source of all of this. We delayed the Wuhan Virus’ arrival in America by blocking direct travel from China, but all those nations who caved to Chinese pressure have suffered. Look to Italy as an example of that. And now New York is the center of all this in America, because people came from China to other countries, and then passed it on to us through there.

Social Distancing must be maintained, both on an individual, and a societal scale, if we are make it through this current unpleasantness with the least amount of pain. And the more we let bullies drive us into ignoring it because they don’t feel the need to observe it, the more people will die. We don’t need to shut down our businesses and our economy to bring this Wuhan Virus to an end. We need to observe our personal and our cultural space.

Keep others at a distance. Especially those who are sick. Or who are vulnerable. Not because we don’t like you, but because we DO like you. Because we want you to be safe. Because we want you to live. The key here is not to keep Social Distance because you are afraid of what other people will do to you. Keep it because you wish what is best for them. Because you would not presume to invade their personal space. Their security. Their life.

Good fences make good neighbors. Personal space makes everybody happy.

Accept this new term called Social Distancing and recognize the very old idea that it represents. Protection. Security. Space. Relaxation. For everyone. If we do, the world will be a more enjoyable place when all of this is over.

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The Republic of Texas

by on March 29, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The vaunted American military, famous for following the chain of command no matter what, did not survive the federal leadership crisis that accompanied the Second Great Depression intact. Many American military units dispersed and their soldiers drove off to their various homes with as many supplies or weapons as they could carry. Some units continued to follow federal orders, including many infamous “Black Helicopter” teams that have long been a hallmark of the more interesting conspiracy stories. And much of what they did in those days added to the chaos all around the nation and beyond. But when States like Texas made patriotic calls to those members of the American military who held to the true ideals of America, many military units answered. As did many individual soldiers who felt those States were the best chance for the future. Every State was unique of course, and many had wildly different ideas of what America’s strengths and ideals were. These States took wildly divergent paths. Some prospered. Others did not.

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The Republic of Texas

by on March 28, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

One historical note of relevance is that the American federal government never truly dissolved. There was always someone claiming the Presidency, though historians do not typically recognize the non-elected Presidents of the time. There was a Congress, though its majority was selected via proven widespread voter fraud and there was widespread protests against the Impeachments of the final elected Presidents. And there was a Supreme Court, though the Post-Impeachment Presidents packed it with friendly judges to secure friendly rulings. The important point is that there was always a federal government claiming legitimacy in Washington D.C. But both a majority of Americans and the American States considered it illegitimate, and when it lost the power of the purse that federal spending had once guaranteed, it fell into irrelevancy. The bureaucracies and federal law enforcement agencies came apart without funding and the willingness of local jurisdictions to work with them. And when the non-elected Presidents attempted to mobilize a military whose funding they had already looted to fund their social goals, they found little remained of the once vast American military machine that would still answer their call.

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