Texas: U.S. state or suicide cult?

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Comments

  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate
    Hmmm. I'm not sure that particular RHPS audience response made it to the West Coast. Of course, I may have just forgotten it.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    It was meaningful only in Texas.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate
    Sure. But given some of Texas reputation elsewhere, it might have meant something in other places, too.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    It would seem to me businesses would want assurance of a strong infrastructure in order to relocate to any given location: a study supply of electricity, and clean water being on top of the list. Texas can't offer that now, and it will take a while to bring it up to national standards. It will probably take a regime change to make some of this happen.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    It would seem to me businesses would want assurance of a strong infrastructure in order to relocate to any given location: a study supply of electricity, and clean water being on top of the list. Texas can't offer that now, and it will take a while to bring it up to national standards. It will probably take a regime change to make some of this happen.

    Is a regime change likely?

  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Golden Key wrote: »
    Sure. But given some of Texas reputation elsewhere, it might have meant something in other places, too.

    In the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin, the titular character attends an information session at a sex-ed clinic, where another attendee says of his sexually precocious teenaged son: "I caught him in my marital bed, doing things with his girlfriend that are illegal in Alabama."

    And that's just one example of several I can recall, of a joke structured along those lines. So yeah, given a solid enough reputation for prudery, that sort of joke can "travel" easily outside its target jurisdiction.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Is a regime change likely? I could hope. When Teddy went to Cancun, Beto was checking on the health and welfare of senior citizens. The Republican regime dallied for ten years to winterize their power system causing severe damage that will take a long time to repair. Texans no doubt will see a jump in their property insurance rates. The metropolitan regions have become increasingly blue. I think Texas is now at a tipping point.
  • Simon ToadSimon Toad Shipmate
    Anyone got any theories as to why Beto didn't try to unseat Cruz at the last election? It seemed like the obvious thing for him to do, and the reports were that Schumer was lobbying him to do it.
  • Dave WDave W Shipmate
    My theory is that it was because Cruz wasn't up for re-election in 2020. Senators serve 6 year terms, and the last election for that seat (in which O'Roarke lost to Cruz) was in 2018.
  • (Also note that there's no mechanism to recall a US Senator. Mr. Cruz could, in theory, be expelled from the Senate with a 2/3 vote, but you have to do something pretty extreme to get expelled. And remember that this is a Senate that refused to impeach Donald Trump, so that gives you some scale for the level of extremity that is required.)
  • (Also note that there's no mechanism to recall a US Senator. Mr. Cruz could, in theory, be expelled from the Senate with a 2/3 vote, but you have to do something pretty extreme to get expelled. And remember that this is a Senate that refused to impeach Donald Trump, so that gives you some scale for the level of extremity that is required.)

    I'm not convinced that even the old "dead girl or live boy" standard would be sufficient.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    edited March 6
    (Also note that there's no mechanism to recall a US Senator. Mr. Cruz could, in theory, be expelled from the Senate with a 2/3 vote, but you have to do something pretty extreme to get expelled. And remember that this is a Senate that refused to impeach Donald Trump, so that gives you some scale for the level of extremity that is required.)

    I'm not convinced that even the old "dead girl or live boy" standard would be sufficient.

    Maybe if he somehow tried to blame THAT on his daughters.
  • OhherOhher Shipmate
    Given that an actual "dead girl" -- Mary Jo Kopechne -- failed to end Ted Kennedy's career some 50 years ago, I'm not sure even dead girls pose much threat to Senatorial ambitions.
  • Ohher wrote: »
    Given that an actual "dead girl" -- Mary Jo Kopechne -- failed to end Ted Kennedy's career some 50 years ago, I'm not sure even dead girls pose much threat to Senatorial ambitions.

    Strictly speaking I should have included the "found in bed with..." part of the quote. It strikes me that, of the two, the GOP faithful are more likely to be outraged by the second than the first.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Ohher wrote: »
    Given that an actual "dead girl" -- Mary Jo Kopechne -- failed to end Ted Kennedy's career some 50 years ago, I'm not sure even dead girls pose much threat to Senatorial ambitions.

    Strictly speaking I should have included the "found in bed with..." part of the quote. It strikes me that, of the two, the GOP faithful are more likely to be outraged by the second than the first.

    Can't speak for Texas, but a prominent Senator from Idaho, Larry Craig, was arrested for propositioning a male in a bathroom in Minneapolis some years ago. Craig was very active in the LDS church whose members continued to vote him in. After the arrest, he became a nobody overnight.
  • Simon ToadSimon Toad Shipmate
    Dave W wrote: »
    My theory is that it was because Cruz wasn't up for re-election in 2020. Senators serve 6 year terms, and the last election for that seat (in which O'Roarke lost to Cruz) was in 2018.

    doh!
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Simon Toad wrote: »
    Dave W wrote: »
    My theory is that it was because Cruz wasn't up for re-election in 2020. Senators serve 6 year terms, and the last election for that seat (in which O'Roarke lost to Cruz) was in 2018.

    doh!

    He runs in 2024. But he might make a try for the presidency, though.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    If I had to choose between him and you-know-who . . . . New Zealand here I come!
  • This essay is scathing about the origin of Texas independence from Mexico, beginning American then Confederate and American. Based on white supremacy and slavery, revisionist history and current racism. Is it accurate? https://newrepublic.com/article/161685/texas-1836-project-white-supremacy

    Makes Texas sound awful.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    This essay is scathing about the origin of Texas independence from Mexico, beginning American then Confederate and American. Based on white supremacy and slavery, revisionist history and current racism. Is it accurate? https://newrepublic.com/article/161685/texas-1836-project-white-supremacy

    Makes Texas sound awful.

    That's about right.
  • Doc Tor wrote: »
    Golden Key wrote: »
    Better, I think, to make changes by doing good, being kind, etc.: volunteer at a food bank, soup kitchen, or homeless shelter; help rescued wild animals; learn peace-making skills; etc.

    'When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.'

    That was Dorothy Day, Catholic anarcho-socialist.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited March 13
    Doc Tor wrote: »
    Golden Key wrote: »
    Better, I think, to make changes by doing good, being kind, etc.: volunteer at a food bank, soup kitchen, or homeless shelter; help rescued wild animals; learn peace-making skills; etc.

    'When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.'

    That was Dorothy Day, Catholic anarcho-socialist.

    Dom Helder Camara.

    https://quotes.yourdictionary.com/author/quote/549026

    Edit: attributed to both, it seems
  • PowderkegPowderkeg Shipmate Posts: 45
    Just revisiting this thread to note that, six weeks since Governor Abbott ended Texas's mask mandate, new COVID cases in the Lone Star State have fallen to their lowest levels since last summer. COVID deaths are at similar lows.

    Which raises a bunch of questions about why Texas and, say, Michigan are seeing their case trends diverge so sharply. Because the answer is clearly more complicated than "wear a mask or you'll kill everyone!"
  • SojournerSojourner Shipmate
    Are the Texans getting vaccinated at speed?

    Or did the recent power failure which shut everyone in play a part?
  • Dave WDave W Shipmate
    Powderkeg wrote: »
    Just revisiting this thread
    Everybody wave as Powderkeg drives by!
    Which raises a bunch of questions
    But will you be here to discuss them?
  • Fawkes CatFawkes Cat Shipmate
    Powderkeg wrote: »
    Just revisiting this thread to note that, six weeks since Governor Abbott ended Texas's mask mandate, new COVID cases in the Lone Star State have fallen to their lowest levels since last summer. COVID deaths are at similar lows.

    Which raises a bunch of questions about why Texas and, say, Michigan are seeing their case trends diverge so sharply. Because the answer is clearly more complicated than "wear a mask or you'll kill everyone!"

    The (London (nee Manchester)) Guardian may have an answer:
    The surge hit soon after [Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer] lifted restrictions in early March, and Michigan’s two-week per-capita caseload now leads the nation.

    If you remove Covid restrictions, infections go up. Who'd have thought it?
  • Dave WDave W Shipmate
    But Texas removed restrictions and didn’t see a surge, was Powderkeg’s point.
  • Texas ended mask requirements in early March. At about that time (data here), R(t) increased in Texas from somewhere around 0.9 to about 1.0

    So Texas hasn't seen a surge, but they have seen a cessation of the fall.

    Masks aren't magic. We know that wearing a cloth mask extends the amount of time an infectious person can be around someone without infecting them. Weather conditions (heat and humidity) almost certainly have an effect on how readily the virus is transmitted. People's behaviour matters.

    It's interesting to try and compare places that have taken different approaches to Covid, to try and tease out which things are important, and which things aren't so important, but doing so isn't as simple as @Powderkeg suggests.
  • Dave WDave W Shipmate
    I think Powderkeg was suggesting (or obnoxiously noting) that it isn’t simple.
  • DafydDafyd Shipmate
    Dave W wrote: »
    But Texas removed restrictions and didn’t see a surge, was Powderkeg’s point.
    Although Powderkeg made a comparison to Michigan in Texas' favour, without mentioning that Michigan had removed more restrictions, if I understand Fawkes Cat correctly.

  • Dave WDave W Shipmate
    It seems unlikely that Texas (Texas!) has more restrictions than Michigan.
  • Part of the effect might be because spring comes earlier in Texas than in Michigan. Maybe Texans are holding more of their events outdoors than Michiganders. Plus outdoor dining would cut down on the transmission risks from restaurants and bars, which have been big spreaders in places where indoor dining has been legal.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Maybe the rules were already being widely flouted in Texas?

    Lots of factors. Of course, no-one has ever claimed it was as simple as Powderkeg's silly strawman.
  • Something that I learned recently from a friend of some expertise in this area (a sort of statistical epidemiologist, no less): viruses don't like warm temperatures. They spread in autumn and winter not just because we tend to confine ourselves together, but because they like they weather. Conversely, they don't thrive as the temperature increases. (Who knew? Not I.) Given that, it would be natural that the virus would be in decline in Texas before in Michigan.
  • Dave WDave W Shipmate
    “Viruses don't like warm temperatures” isn’t terribly explanatory. We don’t explain melting by saying that ice doesn’t like warm temperatures.
  • Viruses, being (at least by some measures) alive, can stand a bit of an analogy about their likes and dislikes. It's a perfectly cromulent way of describing their behaviour to various environments.
  • john holdingjohn holding Ecclesiantics Host, Mystery Worshipper Host
    Something that I learned recently from a friend of some expertise in this area (a sort of statistical epidemiologist, no less): viruses don't like warm temperatures. They spread in autumn and winter not just because we tend to confine ourselves together, but because they like they weather. Conversely, they don't thrive as the temperature increases. (Who knew? Not I.) Given that, it would be natural that the virus would be in decline in Texas before in Michigan.

    But if that is the case, why the current raging outbreak in India, where the temperature is surely as high, if not a great deal higher, than in Texas.
  • Viruses are very diverse. What temps does this particular virus (and variant offspring) enjoy the most?
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    I’m no expert at all, but my understanding is that most cold, SARS/Covid and flu viruses thrive and spread more easily in colder, wetter weather.
  • Dave WDave W Shipmate
    Doc Tor wrote: »
    Viruses, being (at least by some measures) alive, can stand a bit of an analogy about their likes and dislikes. It's a perfectly cromulent way of describing their behaviour to various environments.
    Outside the body of a living host, viruses don’t “behave” any more than a corpse does. They’re not going to “thrive” (“grow or develop well or vigorously; prosper; flourish”) more in some kinds of weather than others.

    Is the contention that warm temperatures destroy them? There are plenty of tropical diseases caused by viruses. And today’s high in Mumbai was about 16C higher than in Dallas.
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    No place in the United States is hotter than Arizona in summer, and last summer the virus peaked here after the Independence Day holiday.
  • I tend to agree with Antisocial Alto, that most likely Texans are holding more outdoor events than Michiganders, which is ameliorating some of the maskless idiocy to some extent. I checked the average temps for a couple cities in both states, and only fools and desperate people would want to be sitting outside for long in typical Michigan March/April. But in Texas, it appears to be lovely barbecue weather.
  • Re myths about the virus: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters

    Hot and humid. Warm and sunny. Myths it says, though more about the humans than the virus.

    This says heat probably does not affect the virus: https://ccdd.hsph.harvard.edu/will-covid-19-go-away-on-its-own-in-warmer-weather/
  • It was a brief exchange during a crowded (and refreshed) Zoom, not a seminar, so I'm coming up short, but, our villain likes cool, damp weather, apparently.

    The spike in India could be explained by almost everyone living in close quarters. Arizona? No clue.

    @Dave W Even I know that different viruses display different responses (or, if you prefer, 'responses') to different environments.

  • Dave WDave W Shipmate
    Please enlighten me, then. What is the nature of the responses are you talking about? Outside a host body viruses are inert, aren’t they? So are we just talking about conditions which might cause the physical or chemical breakdown of the virus?
  • Arizona is easy. There are many American Indian reservations there, like the one my relatives live on--and for many people, that means life without running water or what most people consider the ordinary comforts of life. Much harder to avoid the damndemic when one can't easily wash hands, do laundry, etc. etc. There may also be situations with multi-generation households, where grandparents catch it from the grandkids. (That's a problem in India, too.)
  • Amanda B ReckondwythAmanda B Reckondwyth Mystery Worship Editor
    The post-Independence Day surge in Arizona was actually due to mass gatherings where social distancing and mask wearing were not observed. Lack of observance, of course, encouraged by you-know-who in the you-know-where, and his toady, our do-nothing governor.

    The Navajo Nation (we don't call them reservations anymore) was very hard hit by the pandemic, but thanks to the efforts of its President (they don't call him chief anymore either) they have had no new cases reported for a week now.
  • Can you tell me what the proper name is, then, for the large land areas on which people live? I'm not referring to the people. My family has always called them reservations.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited April 17
    The Navajo Nation is the name of the territory and for the tribe as a entity, as used by the Navajo. The people are, I think, simply the Navajo.

  • But there are several such locations. How does one refer to them in the plural? As in, "x amount of the land in Arizona consists of..." ?
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