Texas Secession Gets Real
Of course, anyone who has truly studied the situation knows, Texas does not need to secede, since it was never legally a state to begin with, but release from prison is still a release, even if the terms are a bit screwed up.
For those who don't know Texas history, we were once an independent nation, but like Iraq, Puerto Rico and other free nations, we were overrun with US federal agents who just kind of squatted and shot anyone who dared to argue about it.
On March 2, 1836, Texas declared independence from Mexico in a meeting at Washington-on-the-Brazos in northeast Texas. A couple of weeks later, the Mexican army, under Generalissimo Lopez de Santa Anna (also the president of Mexico at the time), slaughtered more than 250 patriots at the Alamo in what is now San Antonio. The slaughter became a rallying cry and a month later, Texians cornered the Mexican army just east of what is now Houston, a place called San Jacinto, and in 18 minutes, completely defeated the Mexican forces causing Santa Anna to flee for his life. My great uncle William Davis Durham was there.
The Battle of San Jacinto is widely considered to be one of the fastest, most decisive battles in Western history. Generalissimo de Santa Anna was captured the next day and signed a treaty of surrender in a famous scene under a large oak tree near what is now Austin.
For nine years, the Republic of Texas was independent, though economically, the nation was suffering horribly. Texas eventually agreed to sell its lands that include present-day New Mexico, Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma and Wyoming to the US for an amount of silver worth about $1 trillion today, after inflation and interest. The US, of course, never paid it.
Instead, President Tyler and President Houston made a back-room deal (leading to Houston's current status as traitor) to annex Texas into the US federation against very vocal objections in both countries, not the least of which was the fact that the constitutions of neither nation provided for annexing states. The US wanted Texas as a buffer against a belligerent Mexico, a role it still plays today.
Though the annexation was considered a done deal, the true feelings of the Texian people were never expressed until 20 years later when independence was put to a vote in Texas during the opening days of the US Civil War. The vote was 4-to-1 in favor of independence, and Texas seceded from the Union and allied itself with the Confederacy (though it never joined).
At the end of the Civil War, federal troops landed in Galveston and left a bloody wake on their march to Austin, where the Texas Congress was marched out on the capitol lawn, placed in front of a firing squad and ordered to re-instate Texas in the Union. The public vote that followed required anyone allowed to vote to swear an oath of loyalty to the Union - yet another case of rigged elections in the US.
Today, Texas is best considered a Captive Nation of War, much like Iraq, rather than a state. It is the only member of the Union that flies its flag on a separate pole at equal height to the US flag. The US government may not own land in Texas. Texas maintains a completely separate power grid. The Texas capitol rotunda states quite boldly that it is the Republic of Texas, and roster photos on the walls include presidents and Congresses. The list goes on, including a number of subtleties at law. Suffice it to say that Texas is a special case among the 50 states.
It is also home to a long-standing and vocal movement to gain independence. Almost since the day Texas was stolen by the US, people have worked with varying levels of success to free the nation from the tyranny of federal control. Along with the Kingdom of Hawai'i, Alaska, Vermont, Georgia, Puerto Rico, and other "possessions" of the US government, the Texas Secession movement has remained a force, albeit muted in recent years since the West Texas murders and political imprisonment of several patriots (and yes, the "official" story is complete bullshit).
The latest surge in secession interest has been building for several years and includes outrage over the bank bailouts of 2008, illegal wars of empire around the world by the US, and now the revelations of election fraud in the 2016 contests, particularly Colorado and Georgia. There is also the matter of federal incursions into the lives of ranchers and the absolute abandonment of any semblance of border control, causing a massive infusion of illegal aliens and a crime wave across Texas, not to mention the vast amounts of property damage and the simmering war on Texas' southern border.
In many ways, Texas is the bellwether of political unrest in the US. When the Texas secessionist movement starts to heat up, it is a sign that there is a much larger dissatisfaction in the rest of the country. Independence is a strong enough part of Texas culture that at some point, it is bound to come crashing to the fore as a serious option to deep-seated political unhappiness, and in many ways, Texas is the one state able to sustain itself and quickly convert to an international stage, with an economy that would rank 11th in the world and a diverse business environment that boasts leadership in high-tech, medicine, import-export, agriculture, and a number of other vital industries. It also has no income tax and a very strong resistance to the idea, which does and would continue to attract businesses and (legal) immigration.
At any rate, it is something to think about on this day of celebration in the Great Lone Star Republic. We are fixin' up a mess o' bar-b-q here in the Southeast Asian jungles and hoping that finally, we can get the US monkey off our backs. We've carried that country long enough.
Texas is a unique culture with a unique history and a unique view of the world. As the US devolves into a decaying empire and its culture and society are destroyed by design for profit, we may yet see Texas emerge in its righful place among nations. We've certainly earned it.
Thanks, Uncle Will, Pappy Gideon, and Dad.
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