Steve Breen for May 08, 2021

Some Californians are leaving. Some are arriving. And Texas isn’t the only place they head to.

Cute, though, that Musk has announced that he’s moving there; and that he’s got a project making high-speed (underground) commuter trains.

Well I’m glad something makes sense, because this cartoon certainly doesn’t.

As expressed in some previous cartoons, Breen has a beef with certain California regulations and policies, and thinks the Texas is much less restrictive. Texas politicians have been openly courting California businesses to come to a supposedly more business-friendly Texas, and seem to be succeeding in doing so.

Funny, just saw a rental van hauling a car trailer, the car had Texas plates and they were heading for Chicago.

Welcome to Texas, where businesses are BOOMing because we don’t cotton to no life-saving regulations and oversight. Just ask the folks in West, Texas or anyone who relied on ERCOT this last winter. Sometimes you get what you don’t pay for.

who would want to leave California for Texass???

Must have been a slow news day for Mr Breen.

Ah. It’s the “successful-states-are-hellholes” Talking Point.

In 2012, CA had the 9th largest economy in the world.

In 2014, it was 8th.

In 2015, it was 7th.

In 2016, it was 6th.

Now it’s 5th. A bigger economy than England or France. One state.

The pandemic creates problems. California will be fine.

(And did Steve Breen miss the recent episode of Texas turning cold weather into a disaster?)

Funny thing, trains aren’t one way. ;-)

I left Dallas in the 80’s. At that time it was easy to drive from one side of town to another and to the towns surrounding it. Now so many people have moved to the area, there are large and high apartment buildings everywhere, the road system is a total horror even during non-rush driving times. They have unmarked tolls where there were none before. The public transportation is almost non-existent. The highway system is constantly under construction and years out of date. Houston and San Antonio, having only driven straight thru them, was an unwanted adventure. The friends and relatives that could afford to, have moved far from the large cities.

California may be too expensive to live in but at least it doesn’t have a failing power infrastructure. They froze during the winter—when it gets too hot to bear with there be another cascading failure?

Yep. GET OUT!

Maybe a plane is a better choice? I really don’t know.

Texas leaders, corporations form coalitions to fight voting restrictions

HP Inc, Patagonia and American Airlines are among at least 50 businesses that have formed a coalition known as Fair Elections Texas.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/dozens-businesses-speak-out-against-voting-restrictions-texas-n1266287

I think the cartoon is a rerun.

Texas Business Leaders And Major Corporations—Including Microsoft, HP—Blast State’s ‘Voter Suppression’ Bills

TOPLINE Texas-based corporations and business leaders have sharply escalated their criticism of voting restrictions now being considered by the state legislature, releasing multiple letters Tuesday warning of their opposition to the bills after Georgia’s legislation led to business boycotts.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/05/04/texas-business-leaders-and-major-corporations-including-microsoft-hp-blast-states-voter-suppression-bills/?sh=1005a1951d91

Hey, is that Caitlyn Jenner in the front seat?

Of course, that train doesn’t stop in Texas – good Texans won’t allow liberals from California to infiltrate them…

And yet, as a percentage of population growth per year, Texas ranks 10th. Washington State is growing significantly faster by that measure.

California lost 186,000 people from last year. That’s 0.46% of it’s population. Most of the loss can be accounted for by Covid-19, 60K deaths and a shutdown of immigration. Recent fires here in the Bay Area have displaced thousands of people, some of whom have moved out of state.

Yes we lost a congressional rep and Texas gained two. That has to do with the fact that the number of members of Congress is fixed at 535. Texas grew and California didn’t so congressional seats were reallocated.

We have 40 million people here, we’re pretty full up. We could stand to lose a few million. They could all move to Texas. It would raise the IQ in both states.

They’ve been trying to get a high speed train project between Dallas and Houston going for years – all private money, no tax dollars. But one rancher won’t sell a right of way on a corner of his land.

That’s right, Steverino! Live in California, work in Texas!

Might make sense IF the US HAD a high speed train. Even the Acela, on the 231 mi (372 km) section from Boston’s South Station to New York’s Penn Station, the fastest scheduled time is 3 hours and 30 minutes, or an average speed of 66 mph (106 km/h). Lots of stuff in the US is dependent on infrastructure upgrades. Good luck with that. Meanwhile, here in Australia, we have talked about high speed rail for at least twenty years, and that’s all that has happened…..talk. Cheaper than actually doing.