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.

Trump has announced that all Medicare recipients with be receiving $200 cash cards to “buy their prescriptions”.  It’s yet another brazen example of Trump’s mafia tactics, this time trying to buy votes from seniors.  AND, it’s yet another subversion of the rule of law and use of taxpayer money to personally  benefit himself.  How’s he doing it?  He’s using a provision in the Social Security Act that allows agencies and even the private sector to test programs to improve Medicare.  That provision is NOT intended to just give away money to buy votes.  This provision allows for demonstrations of new programs, but requires extensive review and approval; as well such demonstrations are supposed to be revenue neutral.  In bypassing the law, the administration is waving away questions saying that his executive order on prescription drugs (which doesn’t actually do anything) magically makes this $6.6 billion vote buying scheme “revenue neutral”.

The lawless Trump corruption train continues barreling towards the abyss as this latest brazen attempt to rig the election in his favor with him shouting from stages all over the country that it’s actually Democrats doing the rigging.

I’m so tired.

The Washington Post started releasing audio tapes of 17 interviews Bob Woodward held with Trump since last December.  They are blockbuster, including Trump actually admitting ON TAPE that he lied to the American people about the severity of the Coronavirus pandemic for months.

Woodward’s book also quotes Trump as saying of US military leadership, “my fucking generals are a bunch of pussies”. They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals.”

In other news, Brian Murphy, a senior career DHS staffer, filed a whistleblower complaint against senior current and former DHS political appointees, former DHS Secretary Nielsen, Chad Wolf, who is serving as acting DHS secretary; and Ken Cuccinelli, the deputy DHS secretary. The complaint details orders from said appointees for DHS to lie to congress and downplay Russian interference and other foreign threats that would “make Trump look bad.”

To add insult to injury, today Trump named right wing nut bags Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton to his list of potential Supreme Court nominees.  No shit.

Yesterday, Bill Barr’s Justice Department announced that it was taking over the defense for Trump against E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against him in relation to her charge of a 1990’s rape she alleged.  The Justice Department has claimed that Trump calling Carroll a liar was within the boundaries of his official duties as president.  No shit.

Lastly, the House Oversight Committee has announced the beginning of an investigation into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy into an illegal reimbursement scheme that paid his executives back for making contributions to Trump and other Republicans, a felony.

Happy Wednesday!

Today, the Washington Post published an article about an “undecided voter” from Indiana named Mike Baker.  Baker supposedly watched both conventions yet still can’t make up his mind who who is the best candidate for president.  My first thought on reading this is that Baker is either a closet Trumpist too ashamed to just admit it, or just simply a dumbass.  In the article, Baker fretted over Trump’s personality; he had fretted so much over that key feature that he even sat out the 2016 election, saying that he couldn’t have Trump as a guest in his house.  Okayyyyy….

Baker went on to say that his number one concern, though, was the economy and that he liked Trump’s “pro business” policies.  It was then that I realized that Baker doesn’t understand the economy, not in the slightest, since the economy is in the ditch and has been whipsawed since Trump’s “biggest crowd EVER”  inauguration day up until about 5 minutes ago.  Unemployment exploded this spring to 22 million people, and still is hovering at 13 million.  By all measures that affect American workers, the economy has collapsed.

Fretting about Biden, Baker said, “Trump is defining Biden, but I sort of need to hear Biden define Biden, or at least the Democratic Party to define Biden. It’s got to be more than [Trump] is the worst person on Earth.”  My answer to that is this: When you were watching the Democratic Convention, you must have had your head up your ass looking out through your navel.  The convention carefully laid out Biden’s and the Dems goals and policies.  Oh, and there’s that little detail that Joe Biden has been in the public eye for half a century.  If you don’t know his polices, you’re not paying the slightest bit of attention.

Mike, you’re worried about Turmp’s “personality”?  How about the fact that he’s a fucking felon and corrupting the entire government while destroying centuries long alliances and America’s standing among the entire global community?  How about the fact that he is sabotaging the Post Office, extorted a foreign government, and his lying in a continuous stream about the US voting system simply to steal the next election?  How about the fact that he just used the White House, OUR White House, as a political prop for his cheesy display of corruption and narcissistic obsession?  How about the fact that he’s already said that he’s not going to accept the decision of the voters in November if he loses?

If a voter is “undecided” now, that person is either lying or truly a dumbass.  I’ll let you decide.

One more comment: I find it hard to believe that the Washington Post actually published an interview this stupid.  They had to look really hard to find someone willing to make himself look like an idiot in a national newspaper.  C’mon, folks, you can do better than this.