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Los Angeles, California, United States
The blog 'Breaking Bread' is for a civil general discussion, like you might have at the dinner table with guests. The posts 'Economics Without the B.S.' are intended for a general audience that wouldn't have to know the difference between a Phillips Curve, a Laffer Curve, or a Cole Hamels Curve. Vic Volpe was formally educated at Penn State and the University of Scranton, with major studies in History, Economics and Finance, and Business; and, is self-educated since by way of books and on-line university courses. His practical education came from sixty years of work experience in the blue-collar trades as well as a white-collar professional career -- a white-collar professional career in production and R&D. In his professional career and as a long-haul trucker, he has traveled throughout the lower forty-eight. From his professional career alone he has visited many manufacturing plants in the United States, Europe and China. He has lived in major metropolitan areas and very small towns in various parts of the United States. He served three years with the U.S. Army as an enlisted man, much of that time in Germany.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Texas Conspiracy Theories

Economics Without The B.S.**: Texas Conspiracy Theories



[**  Double entendre intended.]


Texas and California:  Entertainment Value


As someone who formerly lived in Texas and for almost the past forty years in California, I think I am qualified to comment on some of the differences between Texas and California.  I say this because I am not just a Texan or Californian – I was born and raised in Philadelphia and have lived in Upstate Pennsylvania, having both a big city and small town perspective.  Having been well traveled around the Lower 48, with some additional travel overseas, I think I have some understanding how these two states are viewed by others – generally several standard deviations from the mean.
Now we have a new conspiracy theory coming out of Texas, that the U.S. Military is about to invade the State of Texas for a takeover.  What is actually going to take place are U.S. Military exercises to utilize the unique Western terrain of the U.S., to include Texas and other Western states, for training purposes.  This notice got hyped up in Texas when its Governor Abbot, in response to Right Wing zealots and Hollywood’s Chuck Norris warning about an invasion and takeover in Texas, ordered Texas military units to monitor the U.S. military exercises so to protect Texan’s “civil liberties”.
This hyperbolic response coming out of Texas reminds me of the 1990s when Right Wing zealots reported spotting blue tanks on military maneuvers in Texas and that we needed to defend ourselves from a United Nations invasion and takeover.  That passed.
Well if nothing else, when these stories get circulated around the rest of the country (and world) they sure add credence to what constitutes entertainment coming out of Texas.  And California sure knows how to get into the act, and I don’t have to go into any details.  Occasionally they do cross paths – like when Hollywood went out to West Texas to shoot (not literally; just use of an American idiom for filming for my foreign language friends) Giant in the mid-50s.

I have to remind you that while entertainment venues constitute a few acres in the State of California, in Texas it is about 250,000 square miles.
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