According to Rick Perry …
Yeah, he’s still alive and dumber than ever.
You wanna know whose fault our crisis of energy was? Joe Biden. That’s right.
Perry, like other conservatives, blamed Texas’ renewable energy sources for the outages, and alleged the Biden administration’s focus on decreasing fossil fuel dependence would make this happen again.
Okay, so that was proven 110% wrong, wrong, double dog wrong. So, he took another viewpoint.
“Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” Perry is quoted as saying. “Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically.”
Yeah, well, it turned out to be 5 days but I suspect even if it were three, the majority of Texans would rather smoke some brisket over Rick’s body than go without energy in 12 degrees with icy streets even for one night. I know I would, except I’d enjoy it more than most people.
You mark my words. Rick Perry is gonna have blood all over his hands in a major way if it ever gets nut crackin’ time.
So, Rick Perry feels that having a power grid that collapses when too cold makes America safe? Personally, I think making people choose between freezing to death or dying from carbon monoxide poisoning is not a typical usage of the word “safe”
1Republicans, and especially TX Republicans, seem to try to outstupid each other on a regular basis.
2This crisis has brought to the forefront that GOPers are really bad ad lib liars. Was Perry making this pronouncement from the Ritz Carlton in Cancun, or a big house with a generator and water? I have power and water but no heat yet – speaking only for my self, Texas GOPers need to just, as the Chronicle suggested a few weeks ago, either put on the hair shirt of shame or a bright muumuu of hypocrisy; there’s no other option.
3So the former Energy Secretary is blaming the guy who’s been in office a month for a problem caused by long-term energy short-sightedness? I think Ricky-boy needs to put those glasses (that he thought made him look smarter) back on.
Btw – Grandma Ada, you’re a bright spot in my day – “the hair shirt of shame or a bright muumuu of hypocrisy” indeed!
4Sadly too many voters all around the country are buying the verbal feces that Rick et al are spewing. Progressives cannot let up on messaging or voting. Hoping for some relief to TX soon!! Our ice storm in SWVA is resolving nicely. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Whew….
5I’m convinced there’s something in the water down there making the Rethugs so totally clueless. Either that, or they are drinking bathtub gin that isn’t doing any of them any good.
6I am old enough to remember the ‘Drive Fast — Freeze a Yankee in the Dark’ bumper stickers.
It will be interesting to see how many Texans also remember that and apologize.
I predict 0.
7I love how the extremely well off – the folks who can come and go whenever a disaster occurs – talk about how people are willing to sacrifice life and property to preserve a “freedom” (which, coincidentally, makes those well off folks even richer).
8So… though I don’t know due to my own research or anything reliable, but … I’ll bet: Since Greg Abbot said they all needed to be fired, I’ll bet that non-profit is actually a State Agency to which he appoints a majority of the Board;
…and, wondering why ERCOT would be a faux state agency, I’d bet the industry needed to appear like it was regulated by someone but not the United States;
…and, I’d also bet, in the alternative, that this non-profit is either funded by tax payers with industry reps on the board since why should energy producers have to pay for regulation as it has no intention of surrendering regulation control to others, or, it is funded by tax-deductible contributions from the very industry it regulates since it has no intention of surrendering regulation control to others;
…and I think that means one can bet they lone star belt buckle that ERCOT was created to look like a regulatory agency, which it ain’t, which allows the industry to regulate itself, and government appointees and lawyers and friends of the court make fat salaries;
…and that is why they want to fire everyone because that will look like they’ve taken care of the problem, and all will be well again until another blue norther hits Panola County.
9pRick Perry forever to be known as the man who would not learn. He really ‘thought’ glasses would make him appear less st00pid or craven? He could have saved the money, and “merely” kept his mouth shut.
10Sarah O, you’re absolutely right: they buy this stuff and eat it like candy.
And the QOP has gerrymandered every state in the union to the point that we’re going to need an army marching with Stacy Abrams to do anything about them.
And we need stronger majorities in both houses of Congress so we can (1) give statehood to DC and Puerto Rico and (2) abolish the electoral college.
We’ve got a long slog ahead of us.
11Daniel @9 ….
your guesses about ERCOT aren’t precisely on target
“ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature. Its members include consumers, cooperatives, generators, power marketers, retail electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities, transmission and distribution providers, and municipally owned electric utilities.”
One of the most funny/not funny ambiguous headlines I’ve seen recently — a press release from ERCOT:
12February 19, 2021 “ERCOT will end emergency conditions today”
Looks like it’s controlled by the utilities, with a few consumers thrown in for appearances sake.
13Mr. Daniel @9 You might want to check out some church hall gatherings because your bingo card is a winner. Well said.
14This is meta-relevant, but I agree with it. Although I left Texas a few decades ago, I try to keep up with some of the news there via on-line editions of the papers:
http://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_8ffa5dc47e06880536cf8d457f0b3040
The headline is ” ‘Thank God for The Texas Tribune’: Power crisis shines light on local news”. [Also, Out magazine sometimes has a column by an interesting beauty saloon (sic on purpose) operator.]
15Since Feb. 2015 Perry has had the same job, just with a change in job title in the middle as Sec. of Energy. And that job is basically salesman/public relations mouthpiece for one of the biggest energy companies in America. Oddly enough, one of their main gigs is natural gas pipelines. Winterizing their operations would cost money that they don’t wanta spend, which would be annoying to them. So the mouthpiece has to earn his meager paycheck. (Everybody knows hydrocarbons equal independence. It’s a given, moving on)
16The delusion of Jeremiah Johnson style self reliance runs deep with lots of folks. I’ve said before that one the main core beliefs pushed by repugnantcans (and libertarians) is that everyone has what they deserve.
Period.(It’s a given, moving on)
So people can choose the delusion of the strength of total self reliance, or the groveling weakness of dependence.
SOCIALISM!
One or the other, no in betweens.
And they’ve gotten people to believe that. So it’s either blame themselves for not being strong enough, or….
blame Democrats for giving them the false hope that government regulations would protect them.
Now they’re really pissed.
At us.
Rick Perry’s writers are just reminding everybody why.
Did Rick Perry sit in a cold and dark house during the power outage?
I know Cruz and that other Republican did, and their solution when faced with the Republican created power grid crisis involved getting on a plane, one off to Mexico and the other Florida. Not an option for all Texans. I do fault the two for their actions, but at least when they packed up and got out it was slightly more honest than Rick Perry’s nonsense. If you ignore their implausible excuses and explanations.
17I wonder if pRick perry ever thinks before he speaks. He’s more famous than he thinks, but not for his intelligence.
https://www.bustle.com/articles/87647-10-outrageous-quotes-from-rick-perry-that-are-truly-smh-moments-for-the-presidential-hopeful
18Don Trump Jr. wonders why the Democratic governor of Texas is getting off easy over the disaster in his state, while people are piling on Fled Cruz. Shouldn’t the governor be held more accountable? (Don Jr had a 50-50 chance to get that one right, and still flunked.) (But he inadvertently makes a great point)
https://boingboing.net/2021/02/20/don-trump-jr-rails-against-democrat-governor-of-texas.html
19This definitely isn’t news, but IMHO a pretty good little perspective bit.
20https://youtu.be/xEyGIHSeqdo
Hey, if I can maybe save 10 bucks a month on my power simply by paying 5 grand for 5 days worth when it gets cold, why wouldn’t I jump at such an opportunity?
Okay, maybe because I’m not a moron… that is, a Texas Republican. My heart goes out to all those who suffer under the incompetent minority rule in Texas.
21Yes, the Trumpf world remnants continue to show how stupid they are, and of course the likes of faux news, newsmax continue to give them a pulpit to spew their mouth crap:
Larry Kudlow: Texas power outages are ‘the consequences’ of electing Joe Biden – Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/larry-kudlow-joe-biden/
22