Texas

[CptSternn]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...75T4UA20110630

CHICAGO (Reuters) - An historic drought encompassing most of Texas and parts of neighboring states in the southern U.S. Plains expanded and intensified last week, according to a report issued by U.S. climatologists on Thursday.

Rain moved through some drought-hit areas in the major wheat producing region at midweek this week, but it offered only limited relief due to the massive precipitation deficit in the area and continued hot weather, climatologists said.

"Exceptional" drought, the most extreme drought classification that climatologists assign, consumed 72.3 percent of Texas in the week ended June 28, up from 70.6 percent a week earlier.

Additionally, nearly 95 percent of the major wheat and cattle producing state was under "severe" drought or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor released on Thursday.

"This was another very hot and dry week for much of the southern Plains. Beneficial rains occurred in a few areas of eastern and southern Texas, but deficits have been so large that little change was made to the USDM depiction," said Richard Heim of the National Climatic Data Center.

The drought was equally harsh in western Oklahoma, with nearly a third of the No. 3 winter wheat producing state under exceptional drought, unchanged from the previous week.

The drought was far less severe in top winter wheat producer Kansas, where about half of the state was under some level of drought, only 2 percent of that deemed exceptional.

Drought has also expanded into the southeastern United States in recent weeks, impacting crops such as cotton, corn, soybeans and peanuts.

More than 90 percent of Louisiana was currently under extreme to exceptional drought, compared with about a third of the state in that category three months ago.

Far southern areas of Alabama, the southern half of Georgia, and the Florida panhandle were also under extreme to exceptional drought.

But while dry conditions persisted in the southern United States, overly wet conditions prevailed in the northern Plains.

Historic flooding forced the evacuation of scores of residents in Minot, North Dakota, and swamped millions of acres of farmland in the top wheat producing state.

[CptSternn]

Oh where to start!

First, Rick Perry held a 'prayer' rally to help with the drought. I guess God wasn't listening, or more likely he feels the same way about Perry that the rest of us do sure.

Second, how ironic is it that the state which fought so hard against the EPA and has claimed climate change is a myth is one of the states that is going to be the first that will suffer the dire effects? Poetic justice?

Speaking of poetic justice, what will Texas do now that 95% of their agricultural businesses are screwed? They just got declared a disaster area...will Perry go hat in hand to Obama and ask for Federal funding? Again, talk about poetic justice - this time last year he and his fellow republicans were literally talking about seceding, claiming there is no reason for Texas to be part of America. Call it schadenfreude, but the fact they shut the hell up and stopped talking all that bullshit the minute they hit a rough patch makes me laugh.

</rant>

[Ben Lahnger]

I'm currently living in Texas and have no end of problems with Governor Asshole Rick, and I'm all for him getting his hypocritical butt smacked. But the drought is impacting everyone here in some pretty severe ways ... thank goodness they're cancelling most of the fireworks displays (and I hope civilians don't try to breach the temporary ban on personal fireworks necessitated by the drought) because there's enough trouble with wildfires all over the state (including pretty close to here.)

Plus the cattle industry is getting beat up bad. There's no grazing land (the grass is all dried up), there's no hay or anything else for cattle to eat. One local rancher who specializes in selling prize quality cattle recently had to sell off more than half her herd much earlier than she would have normally, and had to take $350 per head on cattle she should have gotten between $1250 to $2500 each for. She's gone from seven ranch hands to one, and has to work an outside full time job to pay the bills. And she's one of the ones that might make it through this ... others are not so lucky.

I've had plenty of things to bitch about Perry in the 10+ years I've lived in Texas, but crowing about how the drought is going to make him eat his words on particular positions in the past seems a little petty and a little short sighted.

[CptSternn]

Don't worry. Global warming is a myth and if you repeat it enough the problem will just go away.

But seriously, it does suck for the people who are being effected but the farmers of all people should know you reap what you sow.

[Grausamkeit]

It would be fair to say "Perry is getting what he deserves" if this shit really affected his dumb ass.

[Ben Lahnger]

Sternn, if my apartment gets burned down from one of the encroaching wildfires, maybe I'll just kick you out and take over your home.

"You reap what you sow." ... Jackass!

[Grausamkeit]

No Ben, we live in Texas so we would totally deserve it. We're such no account, dirty rednecks.

[CptSternn]

Hey, we are in the same boat here mate, financially speaking. The majority of people voted for eejits, who ran our country into the ground. We are a few steps behind Greece right now.

Shit is about to take a nose dive and riots are going to break out in the streets. Life as we know it will change forever through no fault of mine or many people here, much like the situation you are in sure.

BUT, here is my take and where it may differ from yours -

This has to happen. The only way any change will happen and the masses will ever learn that they were wrong is when they see how fecked their decisions and the decisions of those they voted for actually are.

I'm not happy about it either, but sure, it has to run it's course.

[Grausamkeit]

Sternn, you have far more optimism for the voting masses in Texas than I do! I do hope that something changes for this state soon, though it's probably too much to hope that it might one day become liberal.

[Ben Lahnger]

Yeah, we are talking about the state that chose to replace George W. Bush as governor with Rick Perry ... and re-elect him a record number of times. The conservative agenda is in full swing in this state, and if society and our way of life falls to pieces around us, he'll just blame the liberals for it and continue with business as usual ... with the "dumb fuck" voting public going along for the ride.

But good news ... I don't think we have to worry about that. I think there's a good chance Rick Perry will be President Obama's opponent in the next Presidential election ... and I think if this country isn't careful, that SOB can win.

[Grausamkeit]

Ben, don't say that!!!!

[CptSternn]

At some point a few right-wing issues are going to shift the playing field in Texas.

I speak from experience. Here is a little story from Ireland.

As many know there has been violence in the North for many years. These days it has calmed down a lot, but now all the fighting goes on in the government buildings, as it should, between the parties.

That change did not come easily though, and it was actually forced through thanks to Tony Blair. I'm no fan of Blair, but he did a couple good things while in office.

In this case the DUP (protestant pro-british party) refused to sit in the assembly with Sinn Féin (Catholic pro-Ireland party). Even though the elections were over and SF had a majority which equalled the DUPs, they could not form a government as the DUP would not take their seats or show up for the assembly as they said they would never govern with 'terrorists' This went on for over TWO YEARS.

The DUP were actually winning by default, because since the Northern assembly couldn't meet, the actual job of governing Northern Ireland fell back to England, and they had to rule by proxy which the DUP were fine with.

This of course led people in England to have an even larger workload since they had to do everything and it also meant no one in Northern Ireland had any government representation - their elected officials had no power since they wouldn't sit.

The DUP and it's supporters were fine with this but the Sinn Féin supporters were of course angry. Blair wasn't happy either as he himself thought it was unfair to the people, so he forced their hand. In Northern Ireland there are no water charges (taxes). You get your water for free. The rest of the UK has water charges, but the UK have always tried to keep the North quite by linking all taxes and polices to that of Ireland instead of the UK. If the UK implented the same polices in Northenr Ireland that are used for the rest of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland) many more people would be anti-union as the tax rate, charges, etc. are all cheaper in Ireland.

So Blair told the Northern assembly he was implementing water charges for all of N. Ireland, however, if they sat down and agreed to do up a budget that would not have water charges he would allow N. Ireland to continue without the charges.

Within hours of the announcement the DUP offices phones lit up with its supporters telling them to get the hell into the assembly and make sure they are not hit with new taxes and water charges.

Within days the assembly met and got the job done.

In Texas no one person has the power to force the governments hand like they did in N. Ireland but nature itself will do the job in this case. Two big issues which they can no longer ignore are going to be their breaking point -

1. Global warming. Texas is getting screwed and it will only get worse. This will hit the agricultural sector and in turn will directly effect the tax base. The farmers and ranchers at some point will rebel and smaller counties will also at some point rebel when they all find themselves in dire economic territory.

2. Immigration. Just like we are seeing in Georgia, their agricultural sector is failing due to their strict new policies. This is going to cause ripples throughout the southern states as they see the dramatic effects of this horrible policy. If they do decide to follow the same path it will again bring down the agricultural sector and cause huge problems for state and local funding due to how it will decimate the tax base.

These sectors and the many people/families who they support will be calling for change, and if the politicians refuse, they will vote for whoever will support their best interests, conservative ideals be damned.

They are going to wake up to a new realisation at some point in the near future and it will cause the average Texas voter to have to choose between their lifestyle and livelihood or someone elses conservative ideals.

Guess which ones the people will choose?

[Ben Lahnger]

Now if you had told me a story about how the Sinn Féin had been coerced to come to the table, I might have been impressed.

I think you overestimate the ability of native Texans to overcome their own pig-headed resistance to anything external to Texas. This is a brand of "stubborn" that you've never encountered, not even in Ireland. They could have record droughts for ten years in a row, have 90 percent of their agricultural industry in bankruptcy and ruin, and they would still deny there's any credibility to that "liberal" notion of "global-warming". Even the bankrupt farmers, standing in the path of their inevitable doom, would be in denial.

And around the same time, there are probably soon going to be enough natural citizens who are so desperate to have a paying job, that the lack of illegal-immigrant labor is really not going to be a concern.

Originally Posted by CptSternn

They are going to wake up to a new realisation at some point in the near future and it will cause the average Texas voter to have to choose between their lifestyle and livelihood or someone elses conservative ideals.

That's the problem. It's not someone else's conservative ideals. It's their conservative ideals. The vast majority of the voters in this state believe that shit to their very core and would die fighting anyone who tried to pry the holy bible of conservative thinking from their arms.

It's a strange breed down here, and until you've dealt with them, it's human nature to give them too much credit.

[Grausamkeit]

Too right, Ben! Although, we can always hope that one day our fellow Texans will pull their heads from asses.

[vindicatedxjin]

I'm begging for rain. I walk outside for 2 minutes and I feel like dying.