Generational Dynamics Forum - New Site

Higgenbotham wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2011 12:02 am

Barbara Tuchman wrote:
If the sixty years seemed full of brilliance and adventure to a few at the top, to most they were a succession of wayward dangers; of the three galloping evils, pillage, plague, and taxes; of fierce and tragic conflicts, bizarre fates, capricious money, sorcery, betrayals, insurrections, murder, madness, and the downfall of princes; of dwindling labor for the fields, of cleared land reverting to waste; and always the recurring black shadow of pestilence carrying its message of guilt and sin and the hostility of God.

Mankind was not improved by the message. Consciousness of wickedness made behavior worse. Violence threw off restraints. It was a time of default. Rules crumbled, institutions failed in their functions. Knighthood did not protect; the Church, more worldly than spiritual, did not guide the way to God; the towns, once agents of progress and the commonweal, were absorbed in mutual hostilities and divided by class war; the population, depleted by the Black Death, did not recover. The war of England and France and the brigandage it spawned revealed the emptiness of chivalry's military pretensions and the falsity of its moral ones. The schism shook the foundations of the central institution, spreading a deep and pervasive uneasiness. People felt subject to events beyond their control, swept like flotsam at sea, hither and yon in a universe without reason or purpose. They lived through a period which suffered and struggled without visible advance. They longed for remedy, for a revival of faith, for stability and order that never came.

The times were not static. Loss of confidence in the guarantors of order opened the way to demands for change, and miseria gave force to the impulse. The oppressed were no longer enduring but rebelling, although, like the bourgeois who tried to compel reform, they were inadequate, unready, and unequipped for the task. Marcel could not impose good government, neither could the Good Parliament. The Jacques could not overthrow the nobles, the popolo minuto of Florence could not advance their status, the English peasants were betrayed by their King; every working-class insurrection was crushed.

Yet change, as always, was taking place. Wyclif and the protestant movement were the natural consequence of default by the church. Monarchy, centralized government, the national state gained in strength, whether for good or bad. Seaborne enterprise, liberated by the compass, was reaching toward the voyages of discovery that were to burst the confines of Europe and find the New World. Literature from Dante to Chaucer was expressing itself in national languages, ready for the great leap forward in print. In the year Enguerrand de Coucy died, Johan Gutenberg was born, although that in itself marked no turn of the tide. The ills and disorders of the 14th Centruy could not be without consequence. Times were to grow worse over the next fifty-odd years, until at some imperceptible moment, by some mysterious chemistry, energies were refreshed, ideas broke out of the mold of the Middle Ages into new realms, and humanity found itself redirected.

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
1978

Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 6:39 am My mother grew up in a small town in one of the red counties of the upper midwest. edit: Actually, her county is orange. When I was a boy, she told me it takes 2 generations for a newcomer to town to be fully accepted by the people in the town. For anyone making a move to one of these areas, you would be advised to, first of all, understand the culture and, second, to expect that your family will be giving more than you take for a very long time. It's been my experience that some people will spread rumors, and some of those will not be very flattering. It is what it is.

Descent

The descent will be characterised by economic
false dawns. The United States budget and trade
deficits, for example, may occasionally improve,
but they will soon worsen again. These deficits are
intimately connected with other features of the
current order, such as drugs trafficking, welfare
dependency, and the costly protection of American
interests world wide. No one, however determined,
can rationally sort out these problems, whose
interactions are far from fully understood. The
deficits must remain a chronic problem.
The booms that take place during the descent
will be based on much less substance than were
former periods of great growth in the world
economy. The mobile phone, the internet and
computer games will not create eddies upon eddies
of economic organisation in the way that the steam
engine did, or the aeroplane. Economic growth
may occur on paper but there will be fewer real
differences to people’s material standard of living.
It will not deliver tangible utilities like cars,
televisions and foreign holidays. Instead, one of the
big growth industries today is gambling, and it is
questionable how far that can be said to make
people feel better and live better. Similarly, the
internet is certainly a boon, but its overall
contribution to human welfare is mediocre. Giving
people ready access to vast amounts of
pornography hardly compares with the drama of
the industrial revolution.
In future, therefore, to gauge how the descent
is going, one should not be taken in by statistics.
The crucial measure of economic health will be the
evidence of genuine innovation that people
experience in their everyday lives. If some major
new item appears in one’s home, comparable to the
vacuum cleaner, the video recorder, or the
microwave oven, one can assume that the dark age
is getting further away, perhaps by a quarter of a
century or more. On the other hand, one may find it
difficult to identify what is driving the stock
market. One’s own consumption may be of mostly
transient pleasures, and one may worry whether
one’s work is really making a positive contribution
to the commonweal. In that case, the economic
descent will be proceeding unchecked.

tim wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2026 9:54 am Higgy did you ever consider leaving Texas?

Do you think it’s a good location to survive the fourth turning?

Texas is going to have a fault line between the hispanics and whites that will resurface every 80 years.

Higgenbotham wrote: Thu Dec 08, 2022 1:26 pm

Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:14 pm A Dark Age (which the world is now irreversibly entering into)...

Michigan was already in a dark age when I was there in 1979. Wisconsin entered a dark age in the mid 1990s and most of the rest of the upper midwest probably did around that time. Oregon and Washington probably entered a dark age in 2020. California is in a dark age but it's harder to guess when it happened. I've lived in Texas since 2005. Texas still hasn't entered a dark age.

Higgenbotham wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:02 pm It was my opinion that the US government was broken beyond repair in 2011 when they failed to control Bernanke. What that meant to me was Donald Trump would not be able to fix it. Ross Perot could have because his bid was prior to 2011. Of course, this is the opinion of one person only and the opinion of one person is not consequential. But that was why I believed that, although it would be good to have Trump in there because that took control away from the people who ran it into the ground, Trump would not be able to fix anything, just speed up or slow down the established downtrend in different areas from where the political establishment was heading. He did a good job of that in my opinion.

Given that there is no functional national government, someone can look to the lower levels and make their decisions based on that. If a functional state government is desired, based on my observation and experience, Texas has one. If a functional state government is not desired, someone can either look to having a functional local government or no functional government at all. I would like to live where there is a functional state government, for now, and have been in Texas for 17 years. Once things go completely to hell in a handbag, I think it would be better to be in a place that has as little government as possible at the state and local level.

Higgenbotham wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 10:15 am I'm currently in Texas for reasons discussed in this thread previously. That was a temporary move until the collapse begins in earnest, which I think is happening about now. What I will be doing (it's no secret here) is move to the upper Midwest where my family originally migrated to when they left Europe (both sides). I posted one caution about that a few pages back in this thread (copied below) and discussed some of the reasoning for that (in addition to my particular situation).

Higgenbotham wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 6:39 am My mother grew up in a small town in one of the red counties of the upper midwest. edit: Actually, her county is orange. When I was a boy, she told me it takes 2 generations for a newcomer to town to be fully accepted by the people in the town. For anyone making a move to one of these areas, you would be advised to, first of all, understand the culture and, second, to expect that your family will be giving more than you take for a very long time. It's been my experience that some people will spread rumors, and some of those will not be very flattering. It is what it is.

Higgenbotham wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:28 pm This ranking was done about 20 years ago.

Higgenbotham wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2026 8:13 pm Musk has funneled something like $156 million to Paxton. My guess is that will not help him much.

Higgenbotham wrote: Wed Nov 04, 2026 3:53 pm Musk didn't figure this out all by himself. He had to turn to a retinue of those with the most in-demand job skills in America to do this. Those job skills are possessed by an army of - what? -

Higgenbotham wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2026 12:43 pmcorrupt lobbyists and revolving door parasites

aka deep state administrators for lack of a better phrase, politicians (i.e. (name the state) "is open for business"), anybody who knows how the pipeline of what used to be taxpayer money (and now is trillions of debt that will go unpaid when the financial system collapses) gets funneled.

Senate Bill 29: Texas is Open for Business
Texas is aiming to be the jurisdiction of choice for new and existing corporations. For example,

Senate Bill 29 (SB 29), titled “Texas: Open for Business,” significantly overhauled the Texas Business Organizations Code (TBOC), making it more “management friendly,” which was recently approved.
Senate Bill 1058 – exempts Texas-based stock exchanges from certain franchise tax obligations; and
House Joint Resolution 4 – proposes a constitutional amendment barring taxation of stock exchange transactions and safeguarding retirement accounts.
SB 29, which is effective immediately, aligned the state statute with others, like Delaware, including: (1) the codification of the “business judgment rule”; (2) added enhanced liability protections for officers and directors for certain types of business entities; (3) included reforms regarding derivative actions; and (4) established mandatory venue and waiving jury trials.

Codification of the Business Judgment Rule

The “business judgment rule” is a common law doctrine providing that directors are not held personally liable for decisions made in good faith, with reasonable care and in the best interests of the corporation, protecting directors from lawsuits for business decisions that later turn out to be “bad.” SB 29 creates a rebuttable presumption that in taking or declining to take certain actions on behalf of the business entity, the directors, officers or managerial officials, as applicable, act: “(1) in good faith; (2) on an informed basis; (3) in furtherance of the interests of the corporation; and (4) in obedience to the law and the corporation’s governing documents.” In order to rebut this presumption, the plaintiff must prove that the officer, director or managerial official breached one of his or her fiduciary duties to the business entity, such as the duty of loyalty, and that such breach involves “fraud, intentional misconduct, an ultra vires act, or a knowing violation of law.”

This new codified business judgment rule applies automatically to corporations, limited liability companies and limited partnerships that are listed on a national stock exchange as well as to certain entities that choose to voluntarily adopt these provisions in their governing documents.

Elimination of Fiduciary Duties for Limited Partnerships

SB 29 also allows a limited partnership to adopt provisions in its partnership agreement that completely eliminate any or all of the duty of loyalty, the duty of care and the obligation of good faith. This change provides substantial protection for partners and officers in Texas limited partnerships.

Protecting Businesses from Certain Derivative Actions

SB 29 further includes certain key reforms aimed at shielding businesses from abusive derivative actions from shareholders. First, corporations listed on a national stock exchange or other corporations that have adopted TBOC Section 21.419 to adopt a minimum ownership threshold in their certificate of formation or bylaws, not to exceed three percent (3%) of their outstanding common stock, before a shareholder is permitted to bring a derivative action.

Second, plaintiff’s attorneys are prohibited from recovering attorney’s fees in a derivative action if the lawsuit results only in “additional or amended disclosures made to [shareholders], regardless of materiality.”

Finally, boards of public companies or other corporations that have adopted TBOC Section 21.419 are authorized to form committees of independent and disinterested directors to review insider transactions. These amendments then allow the corporations to petition the court for an adjudication of the independent and disinterested status of these directors before such status is called into question in a derivative action.

Mandatory Venue Provisions and Waiver of Jury Trials

SB 29 provides that any business entity may require in its governing documents that one or more courts in the state shall have exclusive jurisdiction for any internal disputes (including the new Texas Business Court). This provides businesses with an advantage to select a strategic venue for any internal litigation.

Finally, corporations can include a waiver of jury trial in their governing documents for internal disputes, which must be “knowing and informed.” This new section then codifies certain situations in which such waiver is deemed to be “knowing and informed” by the person bringing the claim.

Conclusion

With the signing of Senate Bill 29, Texas has further positioned itself as a predictable framework for businesses and a viable competitor with Delaware to become the preferred business jurisdiction in the U.S.

Suicide reported inside TCEQ Headquarters

Someone jumped off the parking garage next to the Clements building when I worked there, during work hours, and died. I never found out if they were an employee or not, but I can tell you that working in state government will sometimes make you want to kill yourself.