Mother Jones published a leaked video yesterday of the head of Heritage Action, the activist affiliate of the Heritage Foundation, which acts as a propaganda delivery mechanism for Republicans while masquerading as a “non-partisan research organization”.  The Heritage Foundation’s “research” consists of twisting up facts in order to justify conclusions paid for by self serving right-wingers and businesses.  In the video, the head of Heritage Action is bragging to big donors, taking credit for drafting the voter suppression laws that have swiftly been passed in GOP controlled states all over the country.  Here’s the video:

This is how oligarchy works.  Wealthy donors get government to work for them by doing the work of politicians who’ve been corrupted.  The only difference between the Republicans (and their owners) and Russians is that they haven’t killed those who stand in their way (yet).

As we all could see during the last 4 years, Mike Pompeo is a Jackass with a capital J.  But his behavior as Secretary of State revealed his abject corruption and narcissism.  Good read.

Jon Stewart was right a few years ago when he described Trump’s behavior as, “Gleeful Cruelty and Dickishness”.  At the time, Stewart was talking about Trump’s “Zero Tolerance” immigration plan that separated thousands of children from their parents at the border, and then purposely lost track of them, but his characterization most certainly applied to his intentional slow walking of funding relief to Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017.  There was absolutely no reason to do so except to make American citizens’ lives more miserable as if that was even possible.  As evidence that his cruelty was intentional.  He then obstructed investigations into his cruelty just because.  Trump is an asshole, just to be an asshole.  He relished wielding the power of the presidency to not serve Americans, but too harass those he didn’t like, and I don’t have to describe who it is who he didn’t like.

Disappointingly, but not surprising, the obstruction of oversight was led by Ben Carson, the comatose Secretary of Housing and Urban development.  His staff aided in the corruption, even as Carson feigned concern about delays in approvals by OMB of funding while refusing to cooperate with the IG trying to get to the bottom of the delays.  It was classic Trump…assuaging his own need for adoration while urinating on people who desperately needed help.

It boggles the mind that a human being can be such a shitbag, but we are talking about Trump, so that’s no surprise.

Right now, I’m typing this on my iPad sitting in front of my fireplace in my house with no power, no heat, frozen pipes in one bathroom and wearing the warmest sweater I own.  I’m one of those 60% of  Houstonians who got randomly picked to not have power this week because some idiot arbitrarily made that decision. Oh, and yes, my next door neighbor does have power.  If you don’t have power and are looking for someone to blame for that condition, I have one question for you.  Who do you vote for on Election Day?  If your answer is Republicans, then my answer is to light a candle, walk into your iced up bathroom, hold up the candle to the mirror and look.  The person in the mirror is who’s responsible for you freezing in the dark.

There are three major power systems in the US – the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection, and…wait for it…Texas.  Why?  Texas didn’t want those big, bad, federal bureaucrats telling it what to do.  It’s been that way all the way back to WWII after the Federal Power Act was signed to provide regulation for interstate power transmission between states.  Under that act, all power that is transmitted over state lines had to conform with federal regulations for safety, measurement, and pricing.  Texas said no thanks to that, preferring to keep everything intrastate and telling surrounding states to kiss our big red butt.   The big NY blackout in 1962 provided more impetus for Texas to emphasize that independence, forming ERCOT in 1965.  Ironically, that acronym stands for Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which is most certainly not.

During the deregulation craze of the late ‘90s, the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) issued several rules, including Rule 2000, which provided for the deregulation of the production, transmission, trading, and selling of electricity.  ERCOT took that opportunity to go full “free market” becoming a hub for trading, selling, and buying electricity, designing a system that brought IPPs (independent power producers), local utilities, and industrial customers together.  The problem?  No one was put in charge or held accountable for reliability.  All that works fine in normal times, but in weather events, system upsets, and growth in demand, it’s perfectly set up for Fingerpoint City, which leads us to the clusterfuck that is the week of February 14, 2021.

A little information about how power is generated in Texas – about 50% of our power it generated by natural gas fired generation; 20% comes from coal; 20% from wind, 10% from nukes, and the rest from other renewables including solar, which is only about 1%, which, in my opinion, is unacceptably low.   Also, the Texas Public Utility Commission, which has been a Republican lap dog for decades, has rules that are not enforced.  For example, we’re supposed to have 15% excess capacity for peak demand, but they NEVER enforce that requirement.  In fact, that number has hovered in the 7 to 8% for YEARS.  Worse, we had a wake up call in 2011 when we had a big freeze.  The problem is that ERCOT, Perry, and Abbott have all ignored that wake up call, increasing demand and reliability issues.  Add that to Texas silly anti-federal government dogma, and you get this slow motion disaster that we’re all living.

Abbott woke up from his stupid coma today, and declared that “reforming” ERCOT is now on his emergency legislative agenda for this session.  That’s a laugh, since his last “emergencies” were non-existent voter fraud claims and fretting over who uses which public bathrooms.

Abbott’s had his chance, Perry before him, as has the TXLeg which has been populated by mouth breathers and morons for two decades.  Texas, just like the federal government, can’t survive without an actual functioning government.  Abbott has gotten away for way too long with his cavalier “let them eat cake” strategy.  His cynical “local control until I disagree” strategy hasn’t worked and will never work.  Abbott, Patrick, and all the mouthbreathers and morons have had control long enough.  Texas deserves better.  We deserve a government with adult supervision run by leaders who focus on reliable power, stable government, dependable healthcare, and appropriate education, not the libertarian fever dream that Texas has become.

Impeach Abbott.  Impeach Patrick.  Vote the rest of the bums out.  Maybe millions of Texans spending a week freezing in the dark might just change their votes.

You’ve probably heard about Trump politicizing the U.S. Agency for Global Media which manages Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia by installing loyalist Michael Pack.  Pack has packed the board of the agency, as well as senior staff with other Trumpists, ideologues, and conservative activists.  Biden has already signaled a housecleaning and fumigation of the agency when he takes over in a few weeks, but Pack is not planning on going quietly.

In secret, Pack has unilaterally attempted to execute binding employment contracts with said Trumpists intended to block any Biden firings for two years.  When the career staff found out what Pack was doing, they said not no, but hell no, and blew the whistle.  Day before yesterday, they sent a four page letter to McConnell, Pelosi, and Senate and House leaders, the Inspector General, and the presidential transition team.  The letter was signed by over two dozen staffers including the editorial board, the editor in chief, and all the heads of the global regional operations.  In the letter, they made this statement:

When Pack took over last June (after a two year Senate confirmation battle), he made sweeping changes to the agency including dissolving all of the boards of the agencies under his authority and packing the boards and staff with a rogue’s gallery of religious fanatics, activists, ideologues and weirdos.  What’s particularly galling is that in October a Superior Court Judge in DC ruled that Pack had acted illegally in dissolving the board and seizing control of the Open Technology Fund which was established to help areas of the world access to open and secure internet access.  Pack has ignored the court order and to reestablish the boards he dissolved.

Pack is a bad guy who represents all that is truly odious about Trump who is continually trying to destroy our democracy.  Many thanks to those career staffers and true Americans who stood up to Pack and said NO.

They are the only thing right now standing between democracy and the Trump abyss.

Seven of Ken Paxton’s senior staff sent a letter to the director of human resources of their agency accusing him of taking bribes, improper influence, abuse of office, and other potential crimes.  The Austin American Statesman obtained a copy of the letter today.  The staffers state they’ve already provided evidence to law enforcement.

In true form, Paxton denied the allegations and then threatened the staffers with prosecution.  This should be entertaining.