How one Texas storm exposed an energy grid unprepared for climate change

How one Texas storm exposed an energy grid unprepared for climate change

A devastating winter storm that has plunged Texas into an electricity crisis offers warning signs for the U.S. as the Biden administration seeks to prepare for a future in which extreme weather is a greater risk and America is almost entirely powered by renewable energy.

BREAKING: Rush Limbaugh died. I will be refraining from comment.

Former President George W. Bush remembers Limbaugh as ‘indomitable spirit with a big heart’

The World Is A Safer Place Without Republicans

• Riot probe to likely focus on McCarthy-Trump call
• Texas Man Who Broke Speaker’s Lobby Doors Told His Wife to ‘Get Rid of His Trump Things’ After Capitol Invasion: Prosecutors
• Conservative Pundit Brent Bozell Condemned Capitol Attack as ‘Wrong’ — His Son Is Now Charged in the Attack

The Party of Personal Responsibility would like you to know that it's somebody else's fault that decades of deregulation and climate change denial has resulted in Texans freezing in the dark. - Jeff Tiedrich

 

When Capitalists Run The Power Grid, Blackouts Happen.
When it gets really cold, it can be hard to produce electricity, as customers in Texas and neighboring states are finding out. But it’s not impossible. Operators in Alaska, Canada, Maine, Norway and Siberia do it all the time.
What has sent Texas reeling is not an engineering problem, nor is it the frozen wind turbines blamed by prominent Republicans. It is a financial structure for power generation that offers no incentives to power plant operators to prepare for winter. In the name of deregulation and free markets, critics say, Texas has created an electric grid that puts an emphasis on cheap prices over reliable service.

If you elect people who hate and fear government to run government, you get bad government

Bad government has consequences. Bad government can't handle a crisis, won't help its citizens, and can only blame others for its failure. Quod erat demonstrandum

Remember this. - Stonekettle tweet

 

Republican Shenanigans

• "West Texas mayor resigns after refusing to help with snowstorm: ‘The City and County...owes you NOTHING’."
• Texas governor slammed for blaming blackouts on 'Green New Deal' hours after admitting frozen gas lines were the culprit
• Rick Perry calls on Texans to endure frigid temps without heat to ‘keep the feds out of their business’
• 'Got a job yet?' Internet shreds 'mean girl' Kayleigh McEnany after she mocks Biden's 'love' of kids
• Steve Bannon Allegedly Claimed Trump Was Suffering From ‘Early Stage Dementia’ While President
• Trump Attacks 'Hack' McConnell in Scathing Statement: GOP 'Will Not Win Again' If They Stick With Him
• 'BULLSH*T!' Fox News Hot Mic Catches Larry Kudlow Raging at Kamala Harris For Claim About Vaccines
• Attorney: Ghislaine Maxwell 'withering to a shell of her former self' in jail
• Milwaukee Bucks exec announces run for Johnson's Senate seat
• South Carolina abortion ban awaits final vote in House
• Former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City demolished

It’s fitting that Trump Plaza turned to ash on Ash Wednesday. - Windsor Mann

 

Well, This Is Not Only Wasteful, But Cruel.

Roughly a dozen Portland police officers faced off with a small group at a Northeast Portland Fred Meyer on Tuesday after people tried to take food that had been thrown away.

Workers at the Hollywood West Fred Meyer threw away thousands of perishable items because the store, like many others, had lost power in an outage brought on by the region’s winter storm.

Tucker Carlson trying to convince you that Joe and Jill Biden are not in love is like the opposite of a Cupid. I wish their was a name for that, it could even rhyme with Cupid. - Jeremy Newberger

 

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The situation is dire in Austin. We’re without power and heat with no end in sight amidst frigid temperatures. My wife and I still have running water. Others have had pipes break. There needs to be accountability for what happened. Right now the priority is to keep people safe. - Dan Rather

Rock The Voter News

• 'Now is the time we should be spending': Biden pitches $1.9 trillion COVID relief
• Biden brings compassion, centrism and a big-time vaccine promise at CNN town hall
• President Biden is ensuring that schools have resources to reopen and stay open safely

Aw, Giuliani Isn't Trump's Lawyer Anymore.
Former President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is "not currently representing President Trump in any legal matters," senior Trump adviser Jason Miller told CNN on Tuesday.

Donald Trump just historically lost the WH, Senate, & House. The Republican Party thinks they can’t win without him. Ain’t that rich? - Tim Hannan 

 

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Business/Tech News

• Retail sales jump 5.3 percent in January, fueled by coronavirus aid
• Google to pay News Corp to distribute content in global deal
• New York sues Amazon over worker pandemic safety issues
• Burger King, Wendys ramp up the competition in the chicken sandwich wars

Clorox Sues Trump For Damaging Its Brand. - Andy Borowitz

 

 

Law Firm Tied To Trump Has Been Hacked. 

A hacker is claiming to have stolen files from prominent law firm Jones Day, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

The files were posted to the dark web, according to the Journal, and included some documents that were reviewed by the newspaper. One memo was reportedly addressed to a judge and marked “confidential mediation brief,” while another is a cover letter for “confidential documents.”

I haven’t had so much as a cold since Covid. Masks forever? - Jane Lynch

 

 

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Odd News

• Volunteers rescue hundreds of turtles from frigid temperatures in Texas
• Philadelphia artist's 6,507-square-foot drawing breaks world record
• Hungry alligator steals Florida man's golf ball
• Crocodile undergoes surgery to remove shoe from stomach in Florida
• Authorities: Men posed as US marshals to avoid wearing masks

Time To Deflate Photo

A perfect campsite in Hawaii except if you roll out of your tent during the night and tumble down the mountainside.

Peace.

The Trumpiest Republicans Are At The State And Local Levels — Not In D.C.

The Trumpiest Republicans Are At The State And Local Levels — Not In D.C.

...Local and state-level Republican parties are sharply attacking and even formally censuring prominent figures in the party like Cheney who have broken with Trump. And that’s part of a broader narrative within the GOP: The party’s most-Trump and pro-Trumpism contingent and the forces in the party pushing its growing radical and antidemocratic tendencies are often not national Republicans, but those at the local and state levels.

Republicans: “Get over it.”

Nancy Pelosi: “No.” - Middle Age Riot

The World Is A Safer Place Without Republicans

• Military: No Americans killed by barrage of rockets
• Sen. Ron Johnson Downplays the Capitol Attack: 'Didn't Seem Like an Armed Insurrection to Me'
• ‘Lindsey! Get Away from the Window!’ Jonathan Swan Reports on How Senators Sheltered in Place Amid Capitol Attack
• Texas officials come under heavy criticism over storm preparedness
• Officials in Texas scramble after power outage hits Houston vaccine storage freezer

I'm old enough to remember when Republican politicians could denounce violent insurrections without alienating their base.- Middle Age Riot

 

Lawyers Are Revving Their Engines
The NAACP and Rep. Bennie Thompson just filed a lawsuit against former President Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani, alleging that they incited the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 in violation of a Reconstruction Era law commonly referred to as the Klu Klux Klan Act. The case also names two white extremists groups, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Why isn't Biden telling Texas to rake the snow? doesn't he know how to president. - Jeff Tiedrich

 

Republican Shenanigans

• GOP official on Toomey: Wasn't sent to 'do the right thing or whatever he said'
• Majority don't think Trump should be allowed to hold future office: poll
• ABC Draws Heat for Putting Claudia Conway, Daughter of Kellyanne and George, on American Idol: ‘The Worst Sort of Exploitation of a Minor’
• New Report Alleges Steve Schmidt Was Aware of Sexual Harassment Allegations as Early as March
• Lincoln Project Co-Founder George Conway Calls for Group to Shut Down: 'LYING HAS TO STOP'
• Meghan McCain Rips Media Coverage of GOP: 'The Only Way to Become a Good Republican is to Become a Democrat'
• 'Georgia Was a Fiasco': McConnell Signals He'll Be Willing to Get Heavily Involved in 2022 GOP Primaries to 'Actually Win in November'

“I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.” - James Baldwin

 

Christian Conservatives Ruin Another Family

As the Republican Party censures, condemns and seeks to purge leaders who aren’t in lockstep with Donald Trump, Adam Kinzinger, the six-term Illinois congressman, stands as enemy No. 1 — unwelcome not just in his party but also in his own family, some of whom recently disowned him...11 members of his family sent him a handwritten two-page letter, saying he was in cahoots with “the devil’s army” for making a public break with the president.

How can Meghan McCain say with a straight face she's the most pro-life person on TV, yet she's against healthcare for anyone who can't pay cash & her husband promotes "Covid parties" to infect as many people as possible with a deadly virus. That's pro-fetus not pro-life. - MrsDubya tweet

 

Adam Kinzinger Thrilled He Will No Longer Be Invited to Thanksgiving. - Andy Borowitz

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Rock The Voter News

• Dr. Fauci Defends VP Kamala Harris' 'Starting From Scratch' Comments — Because She Was Not Wrong
• Cuomo Responds to Scandal at Lengthy Presser, Claims Staff and Visitors Brought Covid Into Nursing Homes
• Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Says He Would Run for President ‘If That’s What the People Wanted’
• Tennessee man charged with forging Obama's name on handgun permit

Biden isn't golfing again. What's his excuse now, the weather? The nerve of this guy. - Blacknight10K

 

 

White Privilege Alert! White Privilege Alert!

Charges against Amy Cooper, the white woman who made headlines last Spring for calling the police on an innocent Black bird-watcher, were all dismissed after she completed an educational program on racial biases.

Let’s be clear. The refusal by Republicans to hold Trump accountable for committing the worst violation of the Constitution by a President in our Nation’s history is about one thing and one thing only: White Supremacy. - Rob Reiner

 

 

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Business/Tech News

• Stocks hit new highs as record streak continues
• Bill Gates: Rich nations should move to '100 percent synthetic beef'
• Chinese vaccine arrives in first European Union nation
• Biden extends foreclosure moratorium and mortgage forbearance through June

So I guess the Trump 2024 slogan will be, “Let’s see if we can needlessly kill a million people this time.” - Andy Borowitz

 

Musk + Putin = Terrifying

Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to doing a Clubhouse interview with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, a Kremlin spokesman said Monday.

“We want to figure it out first. President Putin does not personally use social networks directly, he doesn’t have them,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to Reuters.

Musk invited Putin to join him in a Saturday Twitter message written in English, before adding in Russian, “It would be a great honor to speak with you.”

Tesla moved to Texas. Know what Tesla needs that Texas doesn't have? Electricity. - Radio Justice tweet

 

Humphrey Bogart's lifts, worn during his scenes with Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, 1942. Heaven forbid that a woman would be taller than a man.

 

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Odd News

• European Space Agency: Astronaut recruitment seeks disability applicants
• Original 'Stonehenge' discovered, echoing a legend of the wizard Merlin
• World's longest hockey game ends after 252 hours in Canada
• 10 apartments evacuated when venomous snake escapes terrarium
• Couple leaves $2,000 tip on 20th anniversary of first date

Time To Deflate Photo

Here's an antique steam-powered elevator in St Petersburg, Russia. 

Peace.

Lindsey Graham claims GOP will try to impeach Kamala Harris

Lindsey Graham claims GOP will try to impeach Kamala Harris

Lindsey Graham suggested Republicans will impeach Vice President Kamala Harris if the GOP takes control of the House of Representatives in 2022, after the South Carolina senator falsely claimed that she had paid bail for Black Lives Matter protesters who later “broke somebody’s head open”.

One thing Republicans learned this weekend is that they can lie about and smear Vice President Harris and nobody will say anything. - Adam Parkhomenko 

 

The World Is A Safer Place Without Republicans

• Nearly 60 percent say Trump should have been convicted in impeachment trial: poll
• Six people who guarded Roger Stone entered Capitol during attack: NYT
• Support grows for Capitol riot inquiry after Trump acquittal
• Daily Coronavirus Cases Drop Below 100K For First Time Since November
• Stunning CDC Data Suggests True Final Coronavirus Death Toll of Trump Presidency Likely Over 550,000
• Doctors bring the fight to anti-vaxxers online
• LAPD Investigating After Cops Accused of Sharing Valentine's Day Image Mocking George Floyd's Death: 'You Take My Breath Away'

2008: Sarah Palin falsely accuses Obama of “palling around with terrorists.”

2021: Republicans pal around with terrorists. - Marc Jacob

 

 

Is This A Test Run? 

The Secret Service arrested two people on weapons charges near the White House on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the agency The Hill that two people approached agents near the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street NW, where one person disclosed to officers that they had a BB gun and were immediately detained. The second person was detained after an unregistered pistol and ammunition were located in a nearby vehicle.

It’s weird that QAnon thinks Democrats are cannibals because right now Republicans are eating each other. - Andy Borowitz

 

Republican Shenanigans

• CBS’ Margaret Brennan: We Invited on Two Dozen Senate Republicans After Trump Acquitted — ‘No One Accepted’
• Trump Lawyer Flips Out on CBSN Anchor in Post-Trial Interview, Accuses Her of Being 'Bloodthirsty for Ratings'
• 'Practically and morally responsible': McConnell scorches Trump — but votes to acquit
• Woman Posted on Facebook That Her Son ‘Sat in Pelosi’s Chair’ During Capitol Siege: Affidavit
• South Dakota Gov Used State Airplane To Travel To Right-Wing Political Events
• NC GOP Moves To Censure Burr Over Surprise Vote To Convict Trump 
• Toomey censured by several Pennsylvania county GOP committees over impeachment vote
• The Lincoln Project implodes amid infighting and scandal
• GOP Gov. Larry Hogan: We've Got to 'Move on from the Cult of Donald Trump'

I love how President Biden approves federal aid to Texas during its disaster -- even though they didn't vote for him --without forcing them to say nice things about him.

Nice to have an adult President finally. - Brooklyn Dad tweet

 

Lindsey Graham Under Investigation By Georgia. LOL.

Sen. Lindsey Graham's call to Georgia Secretary of State to be included in criminal probe, report says. Prosecutors pursuing a criminal investigation against former president Donald Trump for trying to influence the election are also eyeing a call Graham made.

People who say that Lindsey Graham has turned into a raging asshole cannot point to a time in history when he wasn’t. - Andy Borowitz

 

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Rock The Voter News

• Jamie Raskin Defends Trump Trial as 'Dramatic Success in Historical Terms'
• Biden pledges action on guns amid resistance
• No public appearance for Cuomo so far as calls for investigations mount

It’s been 5 years since we had a President on President’s Day. Exhale. - Scott Dworkin

 

American Idol Asked Kellyanne Conway's Daughter To Audition
Claudia Conway’s audition on the Sunday season premiere of ABC’s “American Idol” was panned for being “cringe-worthy,” but ABC took the most heat from critics who viewed the network’s promotion of the 16-year-old daughter of GOP power couple Kellyanne and George Conway as exploitative.

Madison Fears He Made Constitution’s Impeachment Clause Too Hard for Idiots to Grasp. - Andy Borowitz

 

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Business/Tech News

• Oil hits 13-month highs as market rebalances
• In Port Arthur, Texas, the biggest oil refinery in North America is shutting down because of Arctic conditions
• Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Tries to End Trump's Political Career in Searing Column: Capitol Attack 'Will Mar His Legacy for All Time'
• Parler announces it's back online

Just a reminder Joel Osteen received a $4.4 million dollar PPP loan. I guarantee he’s not opening up his church as a shelter during the storm.

 

The Most Popular Florida Grocery Store Faces Backlash For Supporting the Insurrection

‘The last straw’: the US families ending love affair with grocery chain after Capitol riot: Families are boycotting Publix after a member of founding family donated $300,000 to the Donald Trump rally that preceded January’s

Roses are red

You make my heart flitter

I protect you from government

Not from Twitter.  - The First Amendment tweet

 

 

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Odd News

• Scientists find unexpected animal life far beneath Antarctica’s floating ice shelves
• Man with 1,925 pairs of cuff links earns Guinness World Record
• Escaped Cow Wreaks Havoc, Attacks Patients in Hospital Waiting Room
• Former high school classmates find out they're twin siblings
• Drunk Florida woman stabs sister with EpiPen because she’s ‘allergic to drunks’

Time To Deflate Photo

Old Harry Rocks at Handfast Point, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England.

Peace.