The Republic of Texas

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

Many in Post-War Texas tried to march back the many reforms necessity had pushed on them, especially for women and minorities. The fighting men (largely White Men) had come home, and it was time for them to take over again and restore balance. But women and minorities had prospered under the War Economy, and they were not ready to go back to their good little corners and disappear again. They protested, and when their protests were broken up, the average American saw it on their new television sets via the fledgling networks that dominated the time period. Americans were horrified and demanded change, and an alliance of Republicans and Northern Democrats finally succeeded in pushing through a new round of Civil Rights legislation and federal action that outlawed Jim Crow, Segregation and all of its bastard children, and introduced nationwide rights and protections aimed at women as well. They also built the federal civil protection infrastructure to make certain that these laws would be enforced. This destroyed the Democrats’ ability to crush any opposition by simple fiat and Texans began openly converting to the Republican Party again.

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The Republic of Texas

by on March 11, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Texas veterans returned home after World War II to find a State revolutionized by the wartime economy. Factories and training centers had become more important than farms and ranches, and the oil industry had branched out into high quality plastic and rubber production for the war effort. Then the drought hit and massive numbers of rural Texans moved to the cities in search of more jobs. They found them in the schools and factories that needed a constant influx of new workers to fuel their rapid expansion. And a steady stream of Mexicans crossed the border to find jobs when demand outstripped the supply of local workers. It was a time of economic expansion as wartime industries transitioned to producing the home goods and family vehicles that would revolutionize American life.

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The Republic of Texas

by on March 10, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

World War II fundamentally changed Texas both in her economic and her cultural sectors. The federal government needed factories, hospitals, schools, and military bases, and Texas had plenty of young men looking for better opportunities. Nearly a million of them volunteered to go fight, and hundreds of thousands of farmers found much better jobs in the vacated industries. Women, Mexicans, and Negroes went to work in important positions in unprecedented numbers to fuel the sudden requirement of maximum production of all war supplies. Hundreds of thousands of Americans came to Texas for military training, and nearly a hundred thousand German prisoners were sent to Texas to work the fields for years. Texas saw people and ideas from all over the world, and that shattered the political and cultural dominance the Democrats had crafted in the last century.

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Take it Easy

by on March 9, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

As I write this, the Corona Virus has killed just over 100 Americans, and we have cases in both the Western and Eastern seaboards. Though most are in the west, which makes a certain amount of sense when you consider it started in China.

It would seem that President Trump’s decision to close all travel from China was a good one. Despite the many calls of his Racism for doing so at the time, and others saying he never even did it now that it seems it was a good idea, it appears to have worked. Most of our cases have come from cruise ships coming in off the Pacific, though the much-feared “Community Spread” is starting to catch on in various areas. But we are much better off than countries like Italy, Iran, Japan, and South Korea.

The travel ban greatly slowed the virus’ propagation into America, which gave our health organizations time to study it, figure out what tests could work, and begin coming up with treatment regimes for it. I’m not sure we will ever be able to calculate how many lives that saved, both here in America and around the world. Remember that people from all over the world come here. We seem to have stopped ourselves from being a major propagator of the virus to other countries with that travel ban.

That may change if the virus continues to spread, but so far I think we can be cautiously optimistic that we will avoid the utter devastation that has occurred in China and the other countries worst hit by this. As I noted in a previous post, we will almost certainly suffer some supply issues. Delayed kickstarters, various critical goods will run short, and have already in some areas if the news reports are to be believed. This will almost certainly get worse, but I am cautiously optimistic that we can avoid a broad recession or depression here in America.

That will change if the Corona virus hits general distribution in major American population centers. Or if the speculative “second vector” of science fiction bugs hits us with a far more deadly second string of the virus. But the current virus appears to be little more dangerous than the normal flu bug, killing mainly those with reduced immune systems, whether via age or other health problem. Normally healthy people appear to get it, get over it, and go back to normal life. And there is evidence that many people get it, get over it, and never even realized they had it.

Unless it gets far more deadly, or becomes far more widespread, I predict only minor to moderate economic damage. And while any death is a tragedy, this looks like it may end up being on the rather low scale when compared to other worldwide pandemics. The trick of course is how quickly China gets up and running again. I think this has shown us all how much we depend on Chinese factories. The old story about how when China sneezes, the rest of the world gets a cold has a sudden visible relevance now. I hope we all learn from this and incentivize the return of production of certain vital strategic interest materials back to America. If not a far broader program in all areas.

Assuming this isn’t the precursor of a real life, world ending, zombie apocalypse. That could neatly mess up all our plans, you know.

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The Republic of Texas

by on March 8, 2020 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The stock market collapse on Black Friday of 1929 nearly destroyed the Texas economy, and the Dust Bowl that followed ruined what farms survived. City workers lost their jobs, farmers lost their farms, Mexican citizens were sent home with one-way tickets. Thousands of Texans went to California in search of a better life, and Texas struggled to find a way to rebuild the good times it had lost for a decade. But federal programs limited how much they could produce, ostensibly to keep them from producing more than there was a demand for, and the economic fortunes of Texas stumbled on with little relief.

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