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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Everything’s Bigger in Texas, Unfortunately

Everything’s Bigger in Texas, Unfortunately

by Anne Laurie|  February 17, 20218:39 am| 118 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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The @TexasTribune has published a list of the ways Texans — especially those in the major cities — can get help during the winter storm. https://t.co/UY54urHGh5

— Joel D. Anderson (@byjoelanderson) February 17, 2021

… Because that includes the disasters.

For those without heat in Texas, there are warming shelters throughout the state. See map at link below or call 211 for assistance. If you have a medical device that requires power, call 911. Texas twitter, please add additional resources to this thread. https://t.co/1RcNbFfTwZ

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) February 16, 2021

Part of a helpful thread:

* take old clothes/blankets/etc, preferably wool or cotton of dark colors, and layer between the window glass and the screens or the inside of the windows and some cardboard. Glass is where you lose the most room heat.
* Wear a hat and socks, even to sleep

— rahaeli (@rahaeli) February 15, 2021

* Do not use your oven, your stovetop, or any form of combustion device for heating the space, period. It's safER if you have a carbon monoxide detector, but that's still "horribly unsafe".

— rahaeli (@rahaeli) February 15, 2021

If you want to help Texans who are struggling tonight, here's a few ways via the @statesman https://t.co/sVt65cQ9dY

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) February 17, 2021

A grandmother slept in her car.

Parents burned belongings to keep their children warm.

One resident watched the battery level of her partner's oxygen machine drain away.

Texans have scrambled to stay warm and alive. https://t.co/nbQcBrBOdy

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) February 17, 2021

Explainer: Texas's one-of-a-kind power system raises questions during price spike https://t.co/8pU7T9puYq pic.twitter.com/aSVF21yJrs

— Reuters (@Reuters) February 17, 2021

wow even the ted cruz smug shitpost factory was knocked offline https://t.co/0wb1VrYk2e

— kilgore trout, back in some form (@KT_So_It_Goes) February 17, 2021

For Texans who said they don't pay attention to politics: That's why you're freezing in the dark right now. Your governor didn't want to raise taxes to upgrade the electrical grid to get it onto the national grid, which would allow other states to simply divert power to you. 1/

— Suburban Guerrilla ? (@SusieMadrak) February 16, 2021

Regular people take the brunt. I hope you all make it through the storm. I hope you all find a way to stay warm tonight, and have a hot beverage in the morning. But also, start paying attention to politics!

— Suburban Guerrilla ? (@SusieMadrak) February 16, 2021

So many folks I know are risking covid exposure to keep others warm in their homes. The Texas state government failure here is so deep on so many levels.

— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) February 16, 2021

Texans are suffering without power because those in power have failed us. As with Covid, a natural disaster has become far deadlier due to the inaction & ineptitude of Abbott and Texas’ Republican leadership. This didn’t have to happen and doesn’t have to continue. 1/4 pic.twitter.com/fqEun4fU97

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) February 16, 2021

If you can’t do your most important job – protecting the lives of those you were sworn to serve – then get out of the way and give the power and resources to local leaders who are fighting with all they’ve got to get past your mess and save the people in their communities. 3/4

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) February 16, 2021

State leaders don’t get to say that they didn’t see this coming. Energy experts and State House Dems, among others, were warning of this for years. Abbott chose to ignore the facts, the science and the tough decisions and now Texans will once again pay the price. 4/4

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) February 17, 2021

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Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    February 17, 2021 at 8:46 am

    Keep fighting for the people, Beto.

  2. 2.

    kindness

    February 17, 2021 at 8:50 am

    And yet Texans will still elect Republicans after this is over.  Republicans are a cult now.

  3. 3.

    zhena gogolia

    February 17, 2021 at 8:52 am

    We have relatives suffering in this. It’s horrific.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    February 17, 2021 at 9:02 am

    @kindness:

    We’ve been inching up with each state wise election.  Don’t write anything off.

  5. 5.

    L85NJGT

    February 17, 2021 at 9:12 am

    To mix metaphors…
    There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, and don’t be the one holding the bag when those chickens come home to roost.

    When a city like College Station is forced to build their own link to the national grid, something has gone terribly, horribly wrong in the utility regulatory environment.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    February 17, 2021 at 9:13 am

    Betcha the lights are on at Dubya’s place.

    //

  7. 7.

    Denali

    February 17, 2021 at 9:14 am

    My 80-year-old sister has been out of power in Austin since early Monday morning. I can’t reach her on the phone today. So worried about her.

  8. 8.

    burnspbesq

    February 17, 2021 at 9:16 am

    We’ve been lucky so far. Our power comes on and goes off at about two-hour intervals. We’re able to keep phones charged.  We have plenty of food. It looks like we’ll be able to get out by Saturday (if not Friday). But for the average Texan, this is catastrophic.

    It’s possible, but unlikely, that Abbott will pay for this with his job—but whoever would succeed him would likely be worse.

  9. 9.

    SFAW

    February 17, 2021 at 9:19 am

    @Denali: 
    Keeping my fingers crossed for her; I hope she’s OK.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    February 17, 2021 at 9:24 am

    @L85NJGT

    To mix metaphors…

    “Once in a Blue Moon” from Little Mary Sunshine:

    You’ve made your bed a rolling stone
    And now the shoe won’t fit
    You’ve had your cake and should have known
    You’d have to lay in it

    :)

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    February 17, 2021 at 9:25 am

    Heard a headline – “Texas produces more energy than any other state. Why are they having these problems?”

    Annoyed me. (Maybe the issue isn’t gross production!!1)

    It will take decades to integrate Texas with the national grid. And the rest of the country needs work too, to make it more resilient and make it work better with distributed generation and storage (home solar, batteries in vehicles).

    Here’s hoping that Texas voters make good choices going forward…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    MattF

    February 17, 2021 at 9:26 am

    OT. Phallic symbol goes down.

  13. 13.

    Steve in the ATL

    February 17, 2021 at 9:28 am

    @NotMax: literally but not figuratively, right?

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    February 17, 2021 at 9:29 am

    @Denali:  Do you know any of her neighbors or friends?  I assume if you did that you would have contacted them.  Perhaps you can request a wellness check?

  15. 15.

    The Dark Avenger

    February 17, 2021 at 9:29 am

    This is why I would live in Hell, and rent out Texas:  At least I’d keep warm.

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

    February 17, 2021 at 9:30 am

    @Denali:

     

     

    Prayers for her.

  17. 17.

    MattF

    February 17, 2021 at 9:31 am

    On topic. An old and dear friend of mine lives in Austin— she’s moved to a hotel.

  18. 18.

    burnspbesq

    February 17, 2021 at 9:32 am

    The El Paso metro area is on the Western grid. There have been no significant outages. You can expect to hear nothing about that from Republicans.

  19. 19.

    Barbara

    February 17, 2021 at 9:32 am

    How can people get information about where to go or what to do if they have no electricity? I mean, with cellphones they have, hopefully, charged the devices as well as back up power sources, or might be able to do so in a car that they managed to fill up before this happened.  But lots of people probably have no means to make contact with the outside world.

    Seeing that demonizing green energy is the go to defense of Abbott, et al. makes me think nothing will change, because “disasters” are just seen as opportunities to extract more partisan advantage, not problems to be solved through inquiry and reform.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    February 17, 2021 at 9:34 am

    Saw Fox News clips on Twitter, and elected TX Republicans like Crenshaw and FN propagandists are blaming this on the Green New Deal, which isn’t a thing now, of course. The infrastructure failure is 100% on Texas Republicans who run the grid, but I fear these liars will successfully convince a majority of the electorate that it’s the fault of do-good socialist hippies.

    This is the latest episode that underscores an enormous threat to democratic government, i.e., lying politicians and TV/social media propagandists creating alternative reality bubbles. I don’t see how self-government survives this development, but I don’t know what the entire solution is either. I hope people who are smarter than me are figuring it out.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    February 17, 2021 at 9:35 am

    Keep your foot on their necks, Beto.

  22. 22.

    Another Scott

    February 17, 2021 at 9:36 am

    @burnspbesq: It’s also much warmer there.  But, yeah, the general point stands.  Someone should do a detailed report on areas outside the ERCOT and those inside that suffered similar weather and the results.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  23. 23.

    MattF

    February 17, 2021 at 9:37 am

    @Barbara: Blaming ‘green energy’ for this fiasco is such a brazen lie. I guess I should be grateful they’re not blaming the Rothschilds. Yet.

  24. 24.

    rp

    February 17, 2021 at 9:37 am

    I, for one, am super psyched that the green new deal was fully implemented.

  25. 25.

    Geminid

    February 17, 2021 at 9:38 am

    @burnspbesq: That reminds me of commenter “PamelaBrown54”. Hope she’s  doing OK.in her new home.

  26. 26.

    rikyrah

    February 17, 2021 at 9:39 am

    I have a friend. Her son and his girlfriend and their 5 month old baby just lost power. She’s scared to death for them.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    February 17, 2021 at 9:41 am

    @MattF

    (repeating from downstairs)

    Next up: “This never happened when we had real light bulbs.”

  28. 28.

    burnspbesq

    February 17, 2021 at 9:42 am

    @Another Scott:

    Here’s hoping that Texas voters make good choices going forward…

    The triumph of hope over experience.

  29. 29.

    Edmund Dantes

    February 17, 2021 at 9:42 am

    https://twitter.com/mattflammable/status/1361830925747826693?s=21

     

    the power company you pay for electricity owes you nothing. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps – mayor

  30. 30.

    Barbara

    February 17, 2021 at 9:42 am

    @MattF: ​ Yeah, the winters in MN, Sweden and Canada are hardly balmy and yet they have managed to address turbine freezing through technology upgrades.

  31. 31.

    Barbara

    February 17, 2021 at 9:47 am

    @Edmund Dantes: ​Now former mayor, but swears he wasn’t running again anyway. Plus, his wife apparently lost her job after she defended his statements, and his whole family is receiving death threats. Which is unfair, I totally agree, because no one should receive death threats, ever, for any reason. Now if only we could make that a generally understood principle along the entire political spectrum.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    February 17, 2021 at 9:47 am

    @MattF

    I guess I should be grateful they’re not blaming the Rothschilds.

    “Why are they refusing to use the Jewish space lasers to warm things up?”

  33. 33.

    MattF

    February 17, 2021 at 9:48 am

    @Barbara: I can see an argument against making large capital expenditures to insure against very rare events. But making no preparation…

  34. 34.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 17, 2021 at 9:48 am

    @Baud: Considering how this mess resulted in a spontaneous Blizzard Truther movement in Texas along with attempt to blame windmills, this stuff has to be hitting home if it’s triggering their Cognitive Dissonance.

  35. 35.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    February 17, 2021 at 9:50 am

    @NotMax:Betcha the lights are on at Dubya’s place.

    Oddly his ranch runs on thermal heat, it’s zero carbon, go figure.

  36. 36.

    Subsole

    February 17, 2021 at 9:50 am

     

     

    @L85NJGT: Welcome to Ronald Goddamn Fucking Reagan’s America…

  37. 37.

    rp

    February 17, 2021 at 9:51 am

    @NotMax: The council is meeting tonight to vote on that.

  38. 38.

    Nicole

    February 17, 2021 at 9:51 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    This is the latest episode that underscores an enormous threat to democratic government, i.e., lying politicians and TV/social media propagandists creating alternative reality bubbles.

    Yeah, this is what has me despairing- people are experiencing the real-world effects of years of GOP policies right now, but as long as there is a propaganda outlet to tell them it’s not the fault of the people they vote for, they are content not to put 2 and 2 together to get 4.  I don’t know how one solves this, either.

  39. 39.

    MattF

    February 17, 2021 at 9:51 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: The catch with invoking cognitive dissonance is ‘cognitive’. As the lawyers here like to say, it’s not in evidence.

  40. 40.

    Subsole

    February 17, 2021 at 9:53 am

    @MattF: It’s implied. The GND is a tool of the rootless cosmopolitans, y’know.

  41. 41.

    Ten Bears

    February 17, 2021 at 9:54 am

    Judging by the front page photo, my first guess is put it in four wheel drive.

    But what do I know? Just an old Oregon buckaroo who mid-winter often forgets to take it out, of four wheel drive. Tho with those fat sand tires it wouldn’t surprise me if it were in and still needs a push.

    True story though: Casandra’s grandson. Really.

  42. 42.

    NotMax

    February 17, 2021 at 9:55 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Didn’t he sell the ‘ranch?’

    Like 15 minutes after leaving office?

  43. 43.

    Subsole

    February 17, 2021 at 9:56 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    At this point, Conservatism is just 80% being too fucking weak to admit you made poor political choices.

    That’s why it slides into cultism (and usually various flavors of occultism) so easily.

  44. 44.

    Barbara

    February 17, 2021 at 9:56 am

    @MattF: Right.  Even critical components of their nuclear generators apparently froze for lack of insulation.  It’s definitely a conundrum that we face in Virginia for things like snow removal.  How much heavy equipment are you going to buy and keep in good repair for conditions that are relatively uncommon and dissipate on their own within 24-48 hours?  I do understand it’s a trade off, but this is a larger scale catastrophe of the kind of thing that has apparently happened in the past, and it affects critical infrastructure that people cannot duplicate or mitigate the consequences of on their own.  I can stay put and not drive if my streets are not plowed.  At least I will be safe.

  45. 45.

    Roger Moore

    February 17, 2021 at 9:57 am

    @NotMax:

    Of course the lights are on at W’s place. If nothing else, the Secret Service will have set up his place with generators.  But in general, richer areas have better contracts with the energy providers that guarantee reliability, while poorer areas suffer the brunt when things go bad.  People have already been posting about how downtown areas have all their wasteful lights on even though nobody is there, while poor areas are blacked out.

  46. 46.

    taumaturgo

    February 17, 2021 at 9:58 am

    @Betty Cracker: but I fear these liars will successfully convince a majority of the electorate that it’s the fault of do-good socialist hippies.

    The demonizing of the Democrats by the GOP is a long ongoing story. What needs to change is the Democrat’s response which is always either meek or lacking, leaving the impression they rather not get involved in the messy issues, including defending their brand. The younger generation of Democrats like Beto is much better at responding to GOP smears and putting them on the defensive.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 17, 2021 at 10:06 am

    Texas, it’s a whole ‘nother country.

  48. 48.

    Other MJS

    February 17, 2021 at 10:06 am

    “Remember when the Texas GOP was taking victory laps while Californians were suffering? I do.“

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 17, 2021 at 10:08 am

    @NotMax: Yes. He’s in Dallas now.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    February 17, 2021 at 10:09 am

    Well, that’s quicker than expected.

    Demolition crews were spotted Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago removing the helipad constructed during Donald Trump’s presidency. Source

  51. 51.

    Bodacious

    February 17, 2021 at 10:09 am

    Just gives you one more opportunity to hate “California is now unable to perform even basic functions of civilization, like having reliable electricity. ”  Ted Cruz

  52. 52.

    Hildebrand

    February 17, 2021 at 10:10 am

    We lived in the Rio Grande Valley for 10 good years.  Loved the people, the borderlands, our places of employment.  Hated the state government, the corporatist/libertarian ghouls who we knew would find ways to screw everyone in the state, especially those living in the Valley.

    We all knew that something would hit that would reveal the utter foolishness of all of their regulation slashing and lack of infrastructure spending.  We all got lucky for so long, but it really was just a matter of time.

    My heart is breaking for all of our friends and their families back in Texas.  The worst part?  This was entirely preventable.

  53. 53.

    Feathers

    February 17, 2021 at 10:12 am

    It really would be lovely if Green New Deal upgrades of the grid and such were targeted to begin in lower income communities first.

    There was a Twitter thread where someone wrote about how the linemen from another state came after Hurricane Ike in 2008 and discovered that their electricity had failed because the components of their transformer still included 1930s era ceramics. Despite the electric grid company being notified, it still hadn’t been upgraded when this person moved years later.

    Another nightmare to come: part of the reason for shutdowns was that the surge prices for natural gas and oil were higher than the electricity companies were willing to pay. Abbott has just signed an order that all surge costs can be passed on to consumers: https://twitter.com/jmontforttx/status/1361703554789031937

    On second thought, weren’t the massive surge costs passed on after the Enron debacle a major part of the chain of events that flipped California blue?

  54. 54.

    oatler.

    February 17, 2021 at 10:14 am

    When red states talk about secession they should ponder this. But they won’t.

  55. 55.

    Barbara

    February 17, 2021 at 10:15 am

    @taumaturgo: Yeah.  No matter how hard I try, I still think that the abiding lesson of Trump and everything his election stood for is that a lot of people, including most elected Republican officials, do not think we are all in this together.  They think there is some combination of circumstances under which they can rise and rise and rise even if more and more of us are forced to do with less and less.

  56. 56.

    gvg

    February 17, 2021 at 10:16 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: He sold his ranch and moved to town.

  57. 57.

    L85NJGT

    February 17, 2021 at 10:16 am

    A high voltage DC (HVDC) national grid is the way forward. States legislatures and PUCs have been jamming progress, largely for the dinosaur energy interests. The old coal plant is done if the local utility can pull power from five states away. The economics of wind and solar have been driving the market this way for awhile.

    The green bashing? Maybe recast with national security framing. The Chinese have a significant UHVDC gap over us! Somebody better do something!

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    February 17, 2021 at 10:19 am

    @taumaturgo: I don’t share your reflexive disdain for Democrats, some of whom fit your description but many of whom do not, including O’Rourke (as you noted). I think the problem is much bigger than substandard brand defense. This fragmented media environment virtually guarantees that a large portion of the electorate won’t hear O’Rourke or Biden or any other Democrat, no matter how vociferously they defend the brand and call out Republicans. In a world where people are suffering the catastrophic consequences of feckless Republican rule, they’re still lining up to elect more of them. It’s a tough nut to crack.

  59. 59.

    Chief Oshkosh

    February 17, 2021 at 10:22 am

    @Baud: OMG! Baud is TEXAN???

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    February 17, 2021 at 10:24 am

    @MattF:

    Blaming ‘green energy’ for this fiasco is such a brazen lie. I guess I should be grateful they’re not blaming the Rothschilds. Yet.

    Furture Tucker Carlson rant: “And here’s something even MORE interesting: ‘Green energy’ is an anagram of ‘Rothschilds.’ And also “George Soros.’ Once again, his/their evil is manifest.” [Actually, that probably a Hannity rant, given that he’s the Stupidest Person on TV.]

    And morons like Abbott, Trump, and other RWMFs will lap that shit right up.

  61. 61.

    Feathers

    February 17, 2021 at 10:24 am

    @Barbara:

     

    The meat of it: winterizing a wind turbine for -30F/-30C arctic conditions adds 5% to capex https://twitter.com/climate/status/1361834865495330818

  62. 62.

    L85NJGT

    February 17, 2021 at 10:24 am

    @Ten Bears:

    ?

    I assume RWD. My street has looked like that for two weeks, and nobody is pushing their vehicles.

    They might want to try a couple of bags of play sand in the bed.

  63. 63.

    SFAW

    February 17, 2021 at 10:28 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    along with attempt to blame windmills

    Power failures, cancer — what OTHER bad things are caused by windmills?

  64. 64.

    Omnes Omnibus

    February 17, 2021 at 10:30 am

    @SFAW:  Tilting injuries.

  65. 65.

    Geminid

    February 17, 2021 at 10:31 am

    I wonder what all the Texans participating in the wind power industry think.of Abbott’s bullshit.  I drove I-20 from Atlanta to New Mexico twice a couple years ago, and there were countless wind turbines in West Texas, on ridges overlooking cattle and oil pumps.

    There were very few wind turbines in New Mexico, but that should be changing. In 2018 Michelle Lujan-Griffen won the Governor’s race on a clean energy platform, and the following year  the New Mexico legislature put through clean power legislation. The huge Four Corners coal plant will be closed, and the workers will be assisted in training for other industries. The electrical supply slack will be taken up by wind and solar electricity generation. I hope to get out there again this fall, and I think I’ll see a lot more windmills and solar farms.

  66. 66.

    SFAW

    February 17, 2021 at 10:34 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Tilting injuries.

    OK, but I would think those are relatively minor. I mean, if you tilt too far to the right (in Texas), the worst that can happen is you fall over, right? If you’re on grass, soft landing

    ETA: I was considering writing “He’s no fun, he fell right over,” but thought it would be too obscure a reference.

  67. 67.

    Barbara

    February 17, 2021 at 10:38 am

    @SFAW: ​ Death of migratory birds.

  68. 68.

    Gin & Tonic

    February 17, 2021 at 10:41 am

    @SFAW: It would not.

  69. 69.

    SFAW

    February 17, 2021 at 10:47 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It would not.

    Well, I’m glad to see there’s SOMEONE with a modicum of class/humour/something-or-other in this joint.

  70. 70.

    TomatoQueen

    February 17, 2021 at 10:47 am

    @SFAW:  Hehehe I caught that reference at once and refuse to admit it’s cos I skew old.

  71. 71.

    tybee

    February 17, 2021 at 10:51 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:   Texas, it’s a whole ‘nother third world country.

    FIXT

  72. 72.

    schrodingers_cat

    February 17, 2021 at 10:52 am

    I have a question for the lawyers of Balloon Juice

    Twitter has banned the Orange person and many white supremacists since the election but in India the BJP blue checks are using Twitter as their Radio Rwanda clearly running afoul of many Twitter guidelines yet Twitter does not ban them.

    Is there a way to make Twitter follow its own guidelines outside the United States using our justice system.

  73. 73.

    LurkerNoLonger

    February 17, 2021 at 10:53 am

    @SFAW:

    Power failures, cancer — what OTHER bad things are caused by windmills?

    Clog dancing, cookies that are too buttery…

  74. 74.

    RobertDSC-Mac Mini

    February 17, 2021 at 10:55 am

    I have family who moved to Tx from California because of “taxes”. Now they’re suffering in this dreadful situation. Just one more reason to hate the GQP for their entire fucked up worldview.

  75. 75.

    L85NJGT

    February 17, 2021 at 10:55 am

    @Feathers:

    ERCOT imports 1% of their power during summer peak, which gives a pretty clear picture as to why they can’t pull from other interconnects. They limited capacity to protect the market, and customers can fuck right off.

    The prof who compared it to the USSR was spot on.

  76. 76.

    West of the Rockies

    February 17, 2021 at 10:57 am

    @Other MJS:

    Me, too.  California went massively into the red courtesy of Texas energy.

  77. 77.

    Another Scott

    February 17, 2021 at 11:06 am

    @Barbara: In Chicago, the garbage trucks were also the snow plows.  Things like that can be done to mitigate the cost (to some extent anyway – it makes the garbage trucks more expensive).

    Freak weather events can happen anywhere, and it’s impossible to plan for every contingency.  But if you wall off your power grid to prevent federal regulation, then don’t try to shift the blame when you don’t have enough power when those freak events do happen…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  78. 78.

    taumaturgo

    February 17, 2021 at 11:08 am

    @Betty Cracker: This fragmented media environment virtually guarantees that a large portion of the electorate won’t hear O’Rourke or Biden or any other Democrat, no matter how vociferously they defend the brand and call out Republicans

    The same media environment you describe applies to the GQP as well, and as far as the evidence shows it has not affected their lying or smear tactics by much, they continue unabated to attack Democrats with almost impunity. Every democrat leader has been under a long barrage of lies and smears, they have seen their personal brands blemished and diminished. Yet their counterattacks or defense -whatever they are- must be labeled at best weak and it is up to the core members of the party to point out the damage these ineffective messaging tactics have caused. Fight Democrats, fight.

  79. 79.

    catclub

    February 17, 2021 at 11:13 am

    @The Dark Avenger: ​
     

    This is why I would live in Hell, and rent out Texas: At least I’d keep warm.

    Check out the deepest circle in Dante’s Hell.

  80. 80.

    germy

    February 17, 2021 at 11:17 am

    Texas mayor resigns after accidentally condensing the entire Republican political philosophy into a single Facebook post https://t.co/oYpaX7Hj31 pic.twitter.com/UUqJpdnhDs

    — Nick Wing (@nickpwing) February 17, 2021

    unbelievable.

  81. 81.

    scav

    February 17, 2021 at 11:20 am

    Ahhhh-mmaayyyyyy-zing how Texas, Holy Texas, Unmesswithable bootstrap-levitating Texas, was the only state in the Union to really embrace — boots and all of course — wind turbines and green energy.  That map really shows them shine.

    Damn I love that map.

    (Seriously, that linear feature really interests me too.)

  82. 82.

    catclub

    February 17, 2021 at 11:21 am

    @Feathers: ​
     

    On second thought, weren’t the massive surge costs passed on after the Enron debacle a major part of the chain of events that flipped California blue?

    I would say no. They got grey davis turned out of office for Schwartzenegger.

  83. 83.

    Timill

    February 17, 2021 at 11:23 am

    @Barbara:  There’s a fix for that, apparently: paint one of the blades black.

  84. 84.

    chopper

    February 17, 2021 at 11:23 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    texas is trying to be that noble conservative guy living in the woods off-grid, but without a generator, firewood, and extra food.

    i mean, if you’re going to avoid connecting your electrical grid to other states so as to dodge “the eebil heavy hand of gummint regulations”, you need to make sure your grid is robust and has backups and redundancies in place. that means making sure the existing fueled plants (oil/gas) have on-site storage in case of fuel disruption, that means having plans to spin up idle plants as quickly as possible.

    texas has done none of those things because they also believe in no taxes. this is 100% on the state of texas and its republican government.

  85. 85.

    catclub

    February 17, 2021 at 11:28 am

    @germy: ​
     

    “Only the strong will survive and the weak will parish.”

    I was ok with all that until they misspelled perish.

  86. 86.

    Ramalama

    February 17, 2021 at 11:28 am

    @West of the Rockies: Side note, Antarctica is trending right now on Twitter. Especially in replies to people in Texas & in GQP complaining about green technology.

    Just thought we’d post this beautiful picture of wind turbines operating in Antarctica

    • @MarchforScience
  87. 87.

    Eolirin

    February 17, 2021 at 11:29 am

    @taumaturgo: You completely missed the point. To be more succinct: It doesn’t matter what defense a Democrat presents when the people being lied to by Republicans never hear it.

  88. 88.

    Kent

    February 17, 2021 at 11:30 am

    @Another Scott:@Barbara: In Chicago, the garbage trucks were also the snow plows.  Things like that can be done to mitigate the cost (to some extent anyway – it makes the garbage trucks more expensive).

    I don’t think any city in TX has municipal garbage trucks.  When we lived there it was all Waste Management Inc. doing the garbage collection.

  89. 89.

    germy

    February 17, 2021 at 11:33 am

    There are Republicans sitting in the dark in Texas right now eating canned spaghetti and trying not to freeze to death and they are convinced that somehow “green energy“ is to blame. They have an entirely separate information ecosystem that just feeds them lies all day long. https://t.co/h1NAhOToqq

    — MZS (@mattzollerseitz) February 17, 2021

  90. 90.

    Ramalama

    February 17, 2021 at 11:41 am

    @germy: My in-laws live in Toronto and experienced no power for maybe 2 weeks in winter. Maybe 5 years ago. It’s a fire hazard, but what saved them were these tea candles in adobe bread pans. In fact my sister-in-law to this day keeps candles and a few clay pots nearby at all times in case she experiences another power outage. It totally worked for her. And for so many of her neighbors. I’m surprised people in Texas aren’t looking at the many youtube videos of Canadians talking about how they stayed warm. But then that would require power to watch videos. Hmm.

  91. 91.

    burnspbesq

    February 17, 2021 at 11:50 am

    @chopper:

    this is 100% on the state of texas and its republican government.

    Not quite. The original decision to stay out of the jurisdiction of the then-Federal Power Commission was made during the second administration of “Ma” Ferguson, a Democrat. In fact, Texas went 105 years (1874-1979) between Republican governors.

  92. 92.

    SFAW

    February 17, 2021 at 11:59 am

    @burnspbesq:

    Yeah, but she served during the time when southern Dems were not, shall we say, Beto O’Rourke or Doug Jones.

  93. 93.

    Ksmiami

    February 17, 2021 at 12:01 pm

    @Chief Oshkosh: let’s do a Balloon Juice to meet up after Covid and the Storm of 2021.

  94. 94.

    Ksmiami

    February 17, 2021 at 12:03 pm

    @Ramalama: I was fortunate enough to have prepped like crazy for the pandemic here so I’m good but most Texans just didn’t and combined with a lack of the right layers and equipment it’s potentially a catastrophic event

  95. 95.

    Ramalama

    February 17, 2021 at 12:11 pm

    @Ksmiami: How are you able to communicate with the known world right now? Do you have solar panels? Did your neighbors think you were nuts for having aforementioned made-up solar panels (unless you actually do have them)?

    You’re right. It’s a dire thing, freezing. There was an immense ice storm in Quebec maybe 20 years ago. People here in Quebec still refer to it. And people here are plenty used to winter. Most if not all the townsfolk here have a wood burning stove or fireplace, in addition to other forms of heat like electric and or gaz.

  96. 96.

    Uncle Cosmo

    February 17, 2021 at 12:15 pm

    @MattF:​ More like a failic cymbal (crash!) if ya axe me.

  97. 97.

    Poe Larity

    February 17, 2021 at 12:29 pm

    “at least we had electricity and water in 2020”

    TX friend who still can’t smell two months after Covid and blames green energy for his frozen pipes.

  98. 98.

    Martin

    February 17, 2021 at 12:30 pm

    @Ten Bears: TRD Sports are usually 2WD. They do make them as 4WD, but the suspension is really designed for roads.

  99. 99.

    Martin

    February 17, 2021 at 12:34 pm

    @Ramalama: Don’t even need to go to exotic Antartica. Iowa is 3 states up, is more reliant on wind than Texas is, and routinely hits these temps, with snow, ice. They’re fine.

  100. 100.

    Subsole

    February 17, 2021 at 12:36 pm

    @Barbara: Yeah. These people are basically feudalists. Imagine an 18th century plantation owner’s fuckup bastard wastrel offspring married to Chaucer’s clergy and you have a good picture. Made worse, as Churchill noted, by the dim lights of perverted and often only half-grasped science.

  101. 101.

    NotMax

    February 17, 2021 at 12:39 pm

    @Ramalama

    “Maybe so, but they have crappy BBQ.”

    //

  102. 102.

    Subsole

    February 17, 2021 at 12:41 pm

    Also, dedthred I’m sure, but what’s up with that spot in Oregon on the outage map? It looks like we do down here.

  103. 103.

    Subsole

    February 17, 2021 at 12:46 pm

    @Barbara:

    Nah. Fuck him, fuck her, fuck their kids, fuck their kids’ kids too.

    You mouth off to a bunch of freezing, hungry, frightened people, you get what you get. It’s time conservatives have to live in the world they expect everyone else to endure. No more of this ridiculous triple standard.

    I mean, basic common sense should have told him to display a little empathy.

    Then again, it’s Colorado City…

  104. 104.

    Ksmiami

    February 17, 2021 at 12:47 pm

    @Ramalama: I lived outside of Detroit for 5 years and had to walk my husky during the polar vortex- it was a lesson in how the human body isn’t designed for cold. It can be 115 in Redlands, CA and your hands will still work but even with gloves get below 0 and you start losing your ability to function. Suffice to say I have been lucky so far

  105. 105.

    Ksmiami

    February 17, 2021 at 12:49 pm

    @Subsole: agreed-  I have an asshole libertarian neighbor that I no longer can even politely talk to

  106. 106.

    Kelly

    February 17, 2021 at 12:58 pm

    @Subsole: Worst ice storm in maybe 40 years. Usually the freezing rain lasts for one day. This one went for three. Massive number of trees down on thousands of power lines.

  107. 107.

    Gretchen

    February 17, 2021 at 1:18 pm

    My conservative Texas brother was posting on Facebook last week that solar and wind don’t work in the cold. It’s like Fox News knew this was coming and put out the propaganda ahead of time. Now he had to find a friend to stay with, as his home is without power, and he’s convinced it’s because us stupid liberals forced stupid wind turbines on them. If we’d just let them have Keystone and coal he’d be fine.

  108. 108.

    Subsole

    February 17, 2021 at 1:34 pm

    @Kelly: Gotcha. Thanks.

  109. 109.

    Ascap_scab

    February 17, 2021 at 1:40 pm

    Texas Freeze Raises cost Of Charging a Tesla to $900

    I also like the idea of Elon Musk shivering in his dark Tesla plant.

  110. 110.

    Ken

    February 17, 2021 at 1:42 pm

    @Another Scott: Someone should do a detailed report on areas outside the ERCOT and those inside that suffered similar weather and the results.

    The map in Beto O’Rourke’s tweet seems detailed enough for me.  The outages are pretty much coterminous with the parts of Texas that are under ERCOT.  The northern and western panhandles and a strip along the eastern border are fine, and they belong to the western or eastern interconnects.

    The caption could be “Texas: Infrastructure Rivalling Appalachia’s!”

  111. 111.

    tokyokie

    February 17, 2021 at 1:42 pm

    But wait! There’s more!

     

    Several wastewater treatment plants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area lost power, leading to boil water notices for several hundred thousand people. We still have water, but haven’t had electricity since 3:15 Monday morning and don’t anticipate its return for a while. We were going to decamp to a hotel yesterday, but as we were packing the car to go there, the hotel called and canceled our reservation because it had lost power and water. So now we’re in the house of a friend of the spousal unit’s who’s out of town in a town 20 minutes south of our house.

     

    Although some of the problems with the Texas grid have been explained in other posts and links, another problem is that years ago, the legacy Texas electric utility came up with the idea of spinning its transmission infrastructure into a separate entity (Oncor). The old utility had crews on staff that would drive around neighborhoods looking for potential problems and addressing them (usually by trimming tree branches). Oncor got rid of those guys and now only brings in crews in the wake of a destructive storm. I suspect our outage is related to that, and it will take several days for a crew to find the damage and fix it. But the weather is supposed to get up into the 40s tomorrow, and it looks like we’ve missed the heavy dose of precipitation that we were supposed to get today.

  112. 112.

    NotMax

    February 17, 2021 at 1:50 pm

    @Ken

    coterminous with the parts of Texas that are under ERCOT

    Co-Tex country?

    //

  113. 113.

    nasruddin

    February 17, 2021 at 5:55 pm

    @SFAW: blizzards & ice storms

  114. 114.

    The Golux

    February 17, 2021 at 6:07 pm

    @NotMax:  Way, way late to this…

    To mix metaphors…

    John Prine.

  115. 115.

    Chris T.

    February 17, 2021 at 7:59 pm

    @Other MJS: “Remember when the Texas GOP was taking victory laps while Californians were suffering? I do.“

    Probably this is a dead thread, but I’ll add that Texas is starting to suffer from the exact same problems California had with the deregulation. They did do a better job of writing up their rules, but deregulated systems are inherently vulnerable to these kinds of issues.

    The current crop of problems is caused by the unusual freeze, but will help the unscrupulous find the wedge points in the system.

  116. 116.

    Chris T.

    February 17, 2021 at 8:38 pm

    @L85NJGT:Yes, there’s a small (600 MW) DC tie between ERCOT and the eastern grid.  That’s one of 7 DC ties; we need many more.  See also https://www.nmppenergy.org/feature/dc_ties

  117. 117.

    Denali

    February 17, 2021 at 9:54 pm

    Finally heard from my sister’s son. She is fine- her friend stopped by to check and help her recharge her phone. Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts.

  118. 118.

    Morfydd

    February 18, 2021 at 5:43 am

    @Denali: That’s wonderful news!

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