Winter storm kabuki theater at the Texas Lege, week 2

More lies, inactions, foot-dragging, slow-walking, and performance art about the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri are happening under the Pink Dome in Austin. Here's some of the latest.

1A. So, the PUC not having an up-to-date list of crucial facilities — that the likes of Oncor are supposed to create — led Oncor to shut off electricity to natural-gas fired power plants. 

1B. Abbott and the Lege are still at kabuki theater stage on fixing problems, especially on REQUIRING action. Let alone on moving beyond what Ed Hirs calls "window dressing."

1C. Related? Press release last week from the Railroad Commission. Chair Christi Craddick said they're ready to help the Lege out; not a word about "weatherization."

1D. There's a reason for that. Christi and her former state House speaker dad still make money off the bidness. And the weak-ass ethics laws in Tex-ass allow her, and her dad on House committees, to do so. They also allow the two of them, and others, to receive campaign contributions grift from the bidness. And Goeb and the spavined mule Paxton aren't doing anything either. Strangeabbott remains committed to weatherization — on paper. Check the reality later. 

1E. Since the Lege wants to legally block governments within the state from requiring electricity for home heat and cooking in new developments, 1D won't change.

1F. The repricing kerfuffle is yet more kabuki theater. It's unclear who it would help, and it can't target natural gas prices. It's pseudo-populism. That's especially true as the option to reprice expires today.

1G. Andrea Zelinski looks at the Goeb angle on repricing, whether he'll really (once again) be all talk, no cattle at end.

Greenwashing Joe Biden

Trees and other plants may already be past their peak on their ability to absorb carbon dioxide. As Status Quo Joe gives little indication he'll even sign off on "the Squad's" weak tea Green Party-ripoff version of a Green New Deal, let alone what's really needed, this is serious.

So is the likes of a Mark Hertsgaard greenwashing Biden when he knows it ain't so. Or, if he doesn't, even for non-public consumption, know it ain't so, it's scary on his part.

As I Tweeted him: There is NOT "a climate realist now in the White House." Nor (which I missed originally) did Biden "dramatically strengthen his climate proposals" during last year's presidential campaign.

"We" who know such things know that his climate "plan" didn't even directly address fracking.

The rest of the piece, the non-Biden stuff, is decent.

But, we don't need to be greenwashing Joe Biden.

At least Hertsgaard didn't try to tell me the Paris Accords are real and not their actual Jell-o.

Ben Ehrenreich tells the truth, noting that Biden had issued drilling permits before the pause on them, and taken many other half-steps. It's in the larger framework of analyzing a paper co-written by 17 scientists about just how self-screwed we're getting. More in a separate post.

Update: That said, a new study from the Journal of Environmental Psychology says that people who have strong "national narcissism" (ie, big time American exceptionalism, Polish exceptionalism, etc.) are likely to believe greenwashing by/about their political leaders. A TL/DR summary is at Psy Post. The survey focused on Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative populist claiming to be an environmentalist, hence my use of "Polish exceptionalism." But, it did reference Trump twice, in indicating Duda is like him in some ways in general, and on this issue.

But, many neoliberal Dems (as in Dear Leader's new memoir) ALSO believe in American exceptionalism. And, with Obama, and now with Status Quo Joe, they tribally believe that their Dem leaders are great gunz on environmentalism.

Texas Progressives talk gunz, stimulus, more

Besides COVID vaccines and stimulus money, there's other things on the national agenda, and that's before we see if Status Quo Joe gets actually woke on climate change. Spoiler: He won't.

One biggie, and what we're leading the Roundup off with this week, is, the few ConservaDems aside on this issue, a top divider between Dems and Reps: Gunz.

National

Gunz: The House passed two gun control bills last week. Will they die in the Senate? Joe Manchin is a squish but not, I think, totally so, on guns. The first would extend the background checks to Internet gun sales. (A better idea would be banning such sales; of course, you can [allegedly, you're probably getting scammed] buy scrips over the Net, so it might not stop much.) The second would expand the length of time for the feds to do background checks before sales are greenlighted from 3 days to 10.

At least 100 more people may be charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Special Ops is essentially today's CIA in the hands of presidents, to translate this Atlantic piece. And, of course, that's not good.

More here about Nevada's butthurt Harry Reid Dems.

State

SocraticGadfly talks about the winter storm kabuki theater under the Pink Dome.

Per Watergate and the whispered words in "All the President's Men," you should "follow the money" when pondering ERCOT and the PUC, especially on electric transmission infrastructure. Note to Wayne "The Gay" Christian of the RRC. It wasn't the PUC requiring money be spent on new transmission capacity for wind farms, you Dum Fuq, it was the PUC allowing electric companies to string that up and charge for it.

Danny Goeb wants Strangeabbott to rescind the massive surcharges on electricity that ERCOT let stand during the Abbott Blackout. Strangeabbott says he doesn't have the authority.

Off the Kuff examines a recent poll that shows good approval numbers for President Biden in Texas, but also for Greg Abbott and some of his priority legislation.

The quasi-technical term wasn't used, but in essence, a federal court cited Mark Elias for barratry in attempting to force Texas to continue straight-ticket voting last year. Another reason I'm not a Democrap.

The Observer says Bryan Slaton is "most likely to succeed" ... at being the next Former Fetus Forever Fuckwad Jonathan Stickland. (Per the same link, I reported Paul Anthony Hale many times on Facebook.)

The Texas Historical Commission loses my respect as Confederacy defenders.

Twitter has sued Ken Paxton and I love it, in part because it's Paxton, in part because it pisses off MAGAs, including a Trump official whose ass I kicked on Twitter, and in part because it's correct.

Strangeabbott said Gab is antisemitic. The Texas GOP's vice chair says the party should delete its account. State GOP leader and high wingnut Allen West says no. GOP kerfuffle news here. This will probably increase speculation West will primary Abbott. He's in better position than Jeebus Shot Sid Miller from the right. Goeb doesn't want it.

How is the Tarrytown neighborhood of Austin reacting to Biden's call for racial equity? Per this Medium piece, probably not well.

MrsAstrosCounty details how her miscarriages that resulted from ectopic pregnancies are officially counted as "abortions" in her medical record. 

David Beard offers three potential explanations for the shift in Latino voter preferences towards Trump in 2020. And weirdly, doesn’t include Biden’s alleged ban-to-be on fracking among the explanations. Not that impressed.

The Texas Living Waters Project warns that Texas' aging water infrastructure is another vulnerability highlighted by the big freeze of 2021.

Here's a rundown of anti-voting bills in the Lege. Of course, nutbar Bryan Hughes is shepherding them on the Senate side.

Metroplex

How many racist cops does Fort Worth have? Way too many, and yet, three fewer than a couple of years ago.

Houston

Houstonia looks back on the year in COVID.

White Karens showing their privilege at a Denton Kroger

Calling you out, University Kroger in Denton.

FIVE antimaskers there last Saturday. 

I didn't get pictures of all, and the ones I did get weren't perfect, but the one up top was pretty good. Note that she's not got a "slipped mask." Not even a mask or gaiter that's around her neck. Nope. Just waltzing in there.

Here's a "good" one (not great on quality, but "good" on the issue), or rather a sad one, at right. Maskless mom and baby, probably less than a year old.

And, no, I don't blur faces if I can get you better than this. You don't like it? Wear a mask.

For years, I never wanted a smartphone. When my decade-plus-old flip phone crapped out in middle 2019, I got a newer flip phone. That crapped out just a couple of months later, and Sprint said, smartphones only at our Denton store, at least right now.

But, they're good for this! Better cameras than flip phones. (Taking photos somewhat surreptitiously and trying to zoom in even more surreptitiously does lead to blurriness.)

So, Kroger Denton? Do some live customer service clerk announcements as well as the canned stuff about wearing masks.

My voice might provoke a confrontation from someone. The person pictured at left may not have been able to distinguish what I said through my double masking, but she could tell I was talking to her. For the record, I said "It's called a mask."

Better yet? Call Denton PD to do their imitation of Galveston PD arresting Galveston Karen.

And, yes, Karen is right.

Until I saw a minority man without one at Winco, it was all women last Saturday.

Sidebar: I think he's the FIRST minority, man or woman, I've seen without a mask anywhere.

 

 

Update: I DM-ed the link for the post to Kroger.

 

Got canned PR, like with "Kroger Andy" last summer. Shock me.

The Kroger Family of Companies’ most urgent priority throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has been to provide a safe environment for our associates and customers while meeting our societal obligation to provide open stores, e-commerce solutions and an efficiently operating supply chain so that our communities have access to fresh food.

To ensure the continued safety of our customers and associates, The Kroger Family of Companies will continue to require everyone in our stores across the country to wear masks until all our frontline grocery associates can receive the COVID-19 vaccine. We also continue to advocate to federal, state and local officials to prioritize frontline grocery workers for the vaccine rollout plan, and we will offer a $100 one-time payment to associates who receive the recommended doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Additionally, in alignment with CDC guidance, we continue to encourage everyone to practice social distancing and frequent hand washing as well as consider the use of no-touch grocery delivery or low-contact grocery pickup.

 

Well, Kroger, remember this; I'm still shopping there because you theoretically offer better protection for me than does Albertson/Tom Thumb. Winco's also, unlike them but like you, still officially requiring masks. If their enforcement is better, I'll just shop there. 

Update, March 26: And, Kroger has ONCE AGAIN shut stores in areas requiring hazard pay for its employees for COVID, even when temporary.

Coronavirus and NBA hypocrisy and PR spin

Per Skeptical Raptor's 1-year observation, yep, it was when Rudy Gobert was announced as testing positive — and having touched all those mikes, which helped piss off teammate Donovan Mitchell — followed by the NBA putting its season on hiatus and etc., that "we" realized this might be serious. Raptor admits underestimating the vaccine effort, and also profiles a year of COVID quackery. Remember hydroxychloroquine?

That said, the Raptor also expects the mutation rate to not slow down. He does hope that it becomes milder, and thus, eventually, like today's flu (which used to be the Spanish flu, dreaded by Monty Python and more seriously by others). That would make it an "acceptable" endemic.

 

• Sadly, though, as CJR notes, re the Raptor's observation about the NBA, Commish Adam Silver has loosened the reins this year. In links, it notes that 50 players have tested positive, including four Spurs at one time. As Dookies know, you can miss the Big Dance (they likely weren't going anyway) in the NCAA with positive tests. As beisbol fans know, a number of players have tested positive in spring training while others have busted protocols. 

 

Also sadly, as led by Red Satan, comments about this have gone in abeyance. 

LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo led opposition to the NBA All-Star Game, but ultimately caved. It's about their share of the Benjamins as well as the NBA's; if they were REALLY concerned about health issues, they would have boycotted. That said, the players union, with lesser players really wanting their smaller share of Benjamins, approved it.

CJR's Kyle Paoletta says the real issue is that NBA beat reporters, like those at the White House, like "access." He says the answer comes in looking at their NBA brethren and getting more adversarial.

Money quote:

 

Silver benefits from the ineptitude of Roger Goodell.

 

Bingo. Paoletta then goes into detail to indicate Silver also benefits from the hard-assed stance of his predecessor, David Stern. He also references Tyler Tynes, formerly of The Ringer, who says the NBA is overall "James Crow" to the NFL's "Jim Crow."

Example? Mark Cuban had asked the NBA to ditch the Star-Spangled Banner. The song's additional verses past the first are racist. Also, it started playing at sports events in 1917, part of Woodrow Wilson's hard-ass nationalism, which in turn, in part was targeting white ethnic minorities like German-Americans. Silver said no.

Coronavirus, week 49: Anniversaries and more

I took a week off here and there on blog posting, while actually, I think, starting before this time, but per Skeptical Raptor's 1-year observation, yep, it was when Rudy Gobert was announced as testing positive, followed by the NBA putting its season on hiatus and etc., that "we" realized this might be serious. Raptor admits underestimating the vaccine effort, and also profiles a year of COVID quackery. Remember hydroxychloroquine?

That said, the Raptor also expects the mutation rate to not slow down. He does hope that it becomes milder, and thus, eventually, like today's flu (which used to be the Spanish flu, dreaded by Monty Python and more seriously by others).

• Capitol and Main has a good 1-year overview as well, including noting social issues.

• President Biden has directed states to make all adults vaccine-eligible by May 1. Texas lowered the eligibility age to 50 this week, but, since it's still near the bottom of the nation in vaccine distribution, being eligible for something you can't get is like having shit in one hand and toilet paper out of reach of the other.

At the same time, Biden, while targeting a return to semi-normalcy by the Fourth of July, warned against something we might call "Neanderthal behavior."

More takeaways here.

• And, the Biden Administration has tasked OSHA into looking at national mask standards, mandating employers work to boost COVID workplace safety, easier reporting of COVID-unsafe work conditions, etc. No names, but, in case actions by Neanderthal governors increase the likelihood of Neanderthal capitalism, this is a "marker." In addition, activists are pushing OSHA to officially adopt new mask standards released by ASTM.

• Austin can keep its local mask mandate in place until Kenny Boy Paxton's suit against it goes to trial.

• Sadly, the Texas stRangers, team once led by later-to-be Guv Shrub Bush, is taking a page from current Guv Strangeabbott and says it may open the home opener at 100 percent capacity. 

• Interestingly, men are more likely to get vaccinated than women. That's one of several takeaways about vaccination. That said, two in five are still "vaccine hesitant." Of course, that ties in with seeing a lot more Karens than Karls on antimasking, to be honest, including a maskless woman with baby/toddler at a Denton Kroger. So much for stereotypes of woman the nurturer, eh?

• Also interesting but not surprising? Atheists and agnostics are more likely to get vaccinated than the religious.

• Counting Puerto Rico as well as DC, but not even smaller outlying territories, Tex-ass is up to 42nd out of 52 jurisdictions in percentage of fully vaccinated residents. With that, we MAY be up to "herd immunity" (at 75 percent) by the time school starts in the fall.

• Some new research say more kids may have it than previously believed, and largely be asymptomatic, thus being unwitting spreaders. (And, per discussion on Facebook, yes, doctors wouldn't know how much they're spreaders if they're asymptomatic, and given that they've not been known to have it that much, and that we're behind the curve on adult contact tracing, there's no way we'd ever get close to getting up to speed on kids' contact tracing.)

 

• Meanwhile, many of these kids are getting an inflammatory syndrome that makes them the child equivalent of long-haulers.

• Could a cure, or at least more relief, for "long haulers" be connected to one for chronic fatigue syndrome?

 

• Here's Josh Rogin's latest on the idea that, without claiming lab engineering, we don't know everything about the novel coronavirus' origin, and it could well have been an accident from bad biosecurity at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Jamelle Bouie, Jeff Greenfield and Nicholas Lemann, even Ryan Cooper are all Biden-woke

And, I presume all speak for many Dem-leaners in the punditocracy.

Jamelle Bouie says, in a few more words, that Biden's stimulus plan is "a big fucking deal," to quote Status Quo Joe. One thing of particular note to me, to go contrarian? It's nice to have some expansion of Obamacare, but without a federal department of insurance regulation it don't mean that much. And, re the White House PR link from Jan. 20 he has in his column? Some of that, like the $15 minimum wage, was killed by ConservaDems as part of COVID, and may be killed again outside that. Other items, like a boost to "food stamps" and an expansion of the childcare tax credit, are only temporary and not permanent. And, of course, the cybersecurity issues in the PR piece have nothing to do with recovery. Yet other items are bully pulpit preaching, not parts of actual or proposed legislation. 

But Bouie isn't alone. Jeff Greenfield, no youngster he, also thinks "it's a big fucking deal." Greenfield should know better on some of his backward-looking political analysis. Obama "lost" the midterms because his mellifluous voice did a bad job of explaining Obamacare as well as his own stimulus, and his mellifluous voice did an even worse job of campaigning for Congressional Dems who would have him (many would). As national party leader, he also ignored pitching this message on a state-by-state level for a midterm that would control redistricting. The Slickster, the Big Dog? Hillary images were part of his problem, not just tax hikes. Speaking of a Dem Party that today is union-shrunk, NAFTA was a bigger part of Clinton's problem with Dems unionized or not who held blue-collar jobs.

Per Greenfield, the real 2022 question is, can and will Biden do a better sales job than Obama did? 

Nicholas Lemann is also Biden-woke, claiming this is the biggest fiscal deal in decades. At least Lemann doesn't claim it's "transformational." He does note most its benefits are temporary. He does, like the other two, ignore that the previous Congress with GOP Senate passed, and the previous GOP President, Trump, signed legislation with federal unemployment bumps and stimulus payouts, if not the child care bennies and other things.

I thought I was done with this until I noticed Ryan Cooper is also Biden-woke. Even more than others, he should know better. He notes, like Lemann, the temporary nature of many of the benefits. He claims Dems can, and will, try to make them permanent. And will, not just try. A. I think he's wrong; B. As a childless adult, I'm going to bluntly ask "What's in it for me?" if the childcare tax credit increase is made permanent.

(In addition, Cooper at one time in early 2020 seemed to indicate he was a "Bernie or bust" guy. In reality? 10 percent of you stayed home. 2 percent, if that, voted Green, more than offset by all the 2016 Bernie ⇒ Green people who went back to the sheep fold in 2020. And, 88 percent of you voted for Status Quo Joe.)

He is right that Dems learned, it seems, from the Rahmbo-Dear Leader failure of 2009.

But, let's get back to the not-so big fucking deal.

Why are the likes of Greenspan and Bouie so blown up about this? Or even, partially, Lemann?

Answer: This is an inside-the-Beltway press corps that lost sense of proportion over Trump, is my argument.

This is better than any stimulus Trump offered, thanks to him telling Georgia Republicans not to vote in the runoffs for Senate. And, that's about it.

It is NOT "transformational."

And, they know, beyond what I noted above about many of the benefits being temporary, exactly what I said otherwise.

EXACTLY.

They know the complaints on the payments:

• About how the original $2K was cut back to $1,400.
• About the cut in the eligibility cap.

About other issues.

On the virus, will Biden actually speed up contact tracing and related items? How much CAN he and how much is that, too, a state situation?

On unemployment? These added federal bennies, etc., are just extensions of what was in the last major relief package of 2020. They're also this-year only.

Other specifics of temporary increases:

• SNAP increase is only until September;
• Childcare tax credits are this year only;
• TANF increase is just to patch state budget contribution levels, basically.

Again, all obvious.

If the MSM Beltway panjandrums had said "This was a very good stimulus package" (not GREAT, but I'd accept it being called "very good" in US terms), that would be one thing.

"Transformational" it is not.

The same is true about Biden's executive order on voting rights. There's very little a president can do in that field now that SCOTUS has largely gutted the Voting Rights Act.

That said, at least there was an executive order for that. None for things like college student loan debt, etc., as an unwoke blogger on Medium notes.

Add Hillbot Amanda Marcotte as semi-woke, claiming the bill will make vaccinations rate speed up. We'll see.

Twitter getting woke over Charlie Hebdo

Here's the story, and really, you just need the image to know what's up; you can probably fill in the SJW blanks on reaction, re the "woke" in my header. I'm not a total fan of Charlie Hebdo, but this is what it does. It's not out of the norm for them.

The SJW world (not the monarchy defenders) went off.

Some claimed it was simply inappropriate to "appropriate" George Floyd, especially on the date his family settled a civil suit. I disagree. It's not "appropriation," but rather playing off the image. And, as far as the timing? Charlie Hebdo may be many things, but "mind readers" is of course not one of them.

(On the specifics of the image? One could argue that Prince Philip's visage would be better there, if what Markle said is about him. But, he's less recognizable, and he doesn't wear the pants on the British throne. Oops. Some SJW will probably attack me for that. No, really. It's happened before. On Twitter.)

Shock me.

Others claim that Charlie Hebdo is racist. Like this French guy:

And don't tell me it's got anything to do about some kind of satire only the French understand

I'm French and can see it as racist - if you can't it's not that you have some sophisticated sense of humour, it means you think racism and punching down is funny, full stop. 🤷‍♂️

— Aurelien Mondon (@aurelmondon) March 13, 2021

Bullshit.

As I said, I don't agree with everything about Charlie Hebdo, but I disagree that it's racist, and I've discussed before the specifics of its use of French language, and how either accidentally, or deliberately, not looking at that was the same thing SJWs did six years ago.