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Republicans scramble to blame green energy as Texas freeze leaves their social Darwinist ideology in tatters
February 26, 2021
Texas's prevailing social Darwinism was expressed most succinctly last week by the mayor of Colorado City, who accused his constituents – trapped in near sub-zero temperatures and complaining about lack of heat, electricity, and drinkable water – of being the "lazy" products of a "socialist government," adding "I'm sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!" and predicting "only the strong will survive and the weak will perish."
Texas has the third-highest number of billionaires in America, most of them oil tycoons. Its laissez-faire state energy market delivered a bonanza to oil and gas producers that managed to keep production going during the freeze. It was "like hitting the jackpot," boasted president of Comstock Resources on an earnings call. Jerry Jones, billionaire owner of the Dallas Cowboys, holds a majority of Comstock's shares.
<p>But most other Texans were marooned. Some did perish.</p><p>The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the flow of electric power, exempted affluent downtowns from outages – leaving the thriving parts of Austin, Dallas, and Houston brightly lit while pushing less affluent precincts into the dark and cold.</p><p>Like the poor across America and much of the world, poor Texans are getting hammered by climate change. Many inhabit substandard homes, lacking proper insulation. The very poor occupy trailers or tents, or camp out in their cars. Lower-income communities also are located close to refineries and other industrial sites that release added pollutants when they shut or restart.</p><p>In Texas, for-profit energy companies have no incentive to prepare for extreme weather or maintain spare capacity. Even when they're able to handle surges in demand, prices go through the roof and poorer households are hit hard. That's what's happened in the wake of the deep freeze. If they can't pay, they're cut off.</p><p>Rich Texans take spikes in energy prices in their stride. If the electric grid goes down, private generators kick in. In a pinch – as last week – they check into hotels or leave town. As millions of his constituents remained without power and heat, Senator Ted Cruz flew to Cancun, Mexico for a family vacation. Their Houston home was "<a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2021%2F02%2F18%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Fted-cruz-storm-cancun.html%3Faction%3Dclick%26module%3DSpotlight%26pgtype%3DHomepage&t=MzhiOTZlNTZiODA4YTY4YzA3Yjg3MmJhMGI5ZDg4MzhiZjE0YTk1YixKbVh2R0g0cg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F643968479835389952&m=1&ts=1614350794" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FREEZING,</a>" as his wife put it.</p><p>Climate change and income are together splitting Americans by class more profoundly than Americans are split by politics. Yet the white working class has been seduced by conservative Republicans and Trump cultists, of which Texas has an abundance, into believing that what's good for Black and Latino people is bad for them, and that whites are, or should be, on the winning side of the social Darwinian contest. </p><p>White grievance helps keep Republicans in power, protecting their rich patrons from a majority that might otherwise join together to demand what they need – such heat and drinking water.</p><p>Lower-income Texans, white as well as Black and Latino, are taking it on the chin in many other ways. Texas is one of the few states that hasn't expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act<a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a>, leaving the share of Texans without health insurance twice the national average, the largest uninsured population of any state. Texas has <a href="https://href.li/?https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/texas/texas-is-one-of-the-worst-states-in-the-us-for-child-welfare-report-says/269-427a62f3-ad3c-4ca1-b444-c298f82b1edb" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">double</a> the national average of children in poverty and a higher rate of unemployment than the nation's average.</p><p>And although Texans have suffered <a href="https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalgeographic.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fclimate-change-study-hurricane-harvey-flood&t=MmQ1MmVkMDRhOWQ1ZDk3OTk3MjQ1MDNmMDdhODM0N2RiMDI5YzFjZCxKbVh2R0g0cg%3D%3D&b=t%3AhQ9Ds4P3Iv6D7mgEr8WMqg&p=https%3A%2F%2Frobertreich.org%2Fpost%2F643968479835389952&m=1&ts=1614350794" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">multiple natural disasters</a> stemming from climate change, Texas Republicans are dead set against a Green New Deal that would help reduce the horrific impacts. </p><p>Last Wednesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott went on Fox News to proclaim, absurdly, that what happened to his state "shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States." Abbott blamed the power failure on the fact that "wind and solar got shut down."</p><p>Rubbish. The loss of power from frozen coal-fired and natural gas plants was six times larger than <a href="https://href.li/?https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/texas-wind-turbines-frozen/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the dent caused by frozen wind turbines</a>. Texans froze because deregulation and a profit-driven free market created an electric grid utterly unprepared for climate change.</p><p>In Texas, tycoons are the only winners from climate change. Everyone else is losing badly. Adapting to extreme weather is necessary but it's no substitute for cutting emissions, which Texas is loath to do. Not even the Lone Star State should protect the freedom to freeze.</p><p><a href="https://robertreich.org/post/643968479835389952" target="_blank">This article was originally published at RobertReich.org</a></p>
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President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States will "never" accept Russia's annexation of part of Ukraine seven years ago.
"The United States does not and will never recognize Russia's purported annexation of the peninsula, and we will stand with Ukraine against Russia's aggressive acts," Biden said in a statement marking the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Crimea.
<p>"The United States continues to stand with Ukraine and its allies and partners today, as it has from the beginning of this conflict. On this somber anniversary, we reaffirm a simple truth: Crimea is Ukraine," Biden said.</p><p>Russian troops seized the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea coast of Ukraine in 2014 and President Vladimir Putin then incorporated the region under Moscow's rule.</p><p>Simultaneously, the Kremlin backed an armed uprising in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian separatists declared independence, sparking a war that continues to simmer, with swaths of territory remaining out of the Ukrainian government's control.</p><p>In the latest fighting, two people were killed and two injured, the government in Kiev said Wednesday.</p><p>The latest casualties came as Kiev accused Moscow and the separatists of using heavy weaponry and ramping up attacks in violation of a ceasefire agreed in July of last year.</p><p>© 2021 AFP</p>
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GOP congressman Peter Meijer argues Trump 'destroyed' his legacy with the Capitol riots
February 26, 2021
One Republican Congressman (R-Mich.) is being honest about former President Donald Trump's post-election actions and the irretrievable damage he did to his legacy.
During a recent interview with CBS News' Washington correspondent Major Garrett, Rep. Peter Meijer weighed in on the disturbing series of events that have occurred over the last several weeks.
<p>Although Trump caused quite an uproar in the weeks after President Joe Biden was declared the winner of the presidential election, Meijer believes Trump could have "secured himself an interesting but positive place in the history books" if he had conceded sometime in December instead of continuing to circulate misinformation and unfounded claims about voter fraud.</p><p>The Michigan lawmaker went on to share his take on how those claims infiltrated the Republican Party and ultimately contributed to the divide the party is facing now. Meijer said, "As long as those myths, those fictions, those lies persist, we're in for deep, deep problems as a party and as a country."</p><p>Meijer also discussed the Capitol riots that occurred on Jan. 6. He noted that while the incident did claim the lives of five individuals, it could have been far worse. "We had the number two, three, and four in the line of succession after the president in that building and he stood by and watched. We're frankly incredibly lucky that day wasn't worse than it was," the Republican lawmaker said.</p><p>According to Meijer, the U.S. Capitol riots were a "defining moment" in Trump's presidency that subsequently "destroyed" his legacy.</p><p>"I frankly think that, despite all of the tweets and tension, that is an administration that would have aged well once some things were moved passed," Meijer said. "But honestly now, the events of January 6 — that was the capstone, that was the defining moment," Meijer said. "And I think that a storming of the Capitol by [Trump's] supporters — that erased, that destroyed all the positive components of that legacy."</p><p>So, what does the future of the Republican Party look like? Meijer is hoping for a forward progression. "I hope that we can get to a point where we can move on, but you can't do that if you don't address the wound," he said. "If you just paper it over, it's only going to get worse and worse."</p>
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