Well it’s late. Afternoon actually. Our power came back on at 10:00 p.m. on the money. And surprisingly, it stayed on. After making the rounds of the house and making sure everything was copacetic, I went to bed in my own bed at 10:45 p.m. for the first time since 2:30 on Monday morning. I fired up the CPAP and enjoyed a long winter’s nap. My daughter woke me up with a phone call at 9:30 a.m. .
The first thing I did upon arising was clean out the refrigerator. Then I cooked a quick breakfast. And after eating and reading my emails and everything else I’ve missed for the last few mornings, I began to bring in the refrigerated groceries from the front porch and put them in the refrigerator. It’s been very strange the last few days, going to the front porch when you wanted to get some milk. But hey it was under 40°, out there for the last week.
I’ve been pretty lost living in a red state my whole life. A state where the mantra was deregulation no matter what. This week has shown what the Texas plan was able to not do. It wasn’t able to produce electricity in an environment that wasn’t even as bad as half of the United States of America. Yep, Texas exceptionalism at its finest… Exceptionally bad. It’s all about the money. It always has been.
Ever since they did away with public utilities in most of Texas, and allowed independent electric producers to supply the grid without being forced to supply the grid if it wasn’t economical for them, we’ve been headed for this result.
And since we don’t regulate s*** here in Texas, no one is forced to upgrade or maintain their systems in a way that would guarantee a product for the consumers in inclement weather. But Texas politicians make great pains to point out that it was the green new deal that did in our electrical grid. And not the oxymoronic entity known as the electricity reliability council of Texas. An entity that just proved they cannot live up to their name. And entity that in a more fair world would cease to exist.
Please forgive my rant. It’s grown as my anger has grown over the fact that rolling blackouts to relieve the pressure on the grid seem to never roll, at least in my neck of the woods.
Y’all stay safe, stay healthy, try to stay warm, and pray for all of us… we seem to have been led by idiots for way too long.
Enjoy your day, and think about those who threw no fault of their own fine they can’t enjoy theirs.
I feel your pain, Gary. You deserve to rant. This idea of exceptionalism, in Texas, NY (yeah, we got it here, too) or for the nation as a whole, has ballooned in recent times for little to no reason. We all want to think we’re special and totally self-sufficient, independent of any needs from the rest of the world. Turns out it’s a libertarian fantasy that might work in certain situations for a handful of folks in a few far flung and isolated locations. But it doesn’t scale up to meet the widespread needs of a modern society. It doesn’t account for vast emergencies or simply taking care of those who have been dealt an unfair hand. We claim that exceptionalism is all about freedom but it really comes down to wanting to be free from accountability, responsibility, empathy, or being part of the larger social contract on which democracy depends.
It looks like Texas is a case study at the moment but what do I now? Sorry for my own rant, Gary. I hope things get back to normal or you soon but hope that folks down there take this situation to heart and don’t soon forget. Take care of yourself.
Thanks Gary, and, you are right about the exceptionalism dis-ease.
Just a couple of weeks ago I had to revisit that first 20 minutes of The Newsroom… Will’s rant was something I’ve felt/believed for a lot of my life. America/Texas/ New York… We’ve all lost our way… Trump and his MAGA brigands are just a symptom. We’ve spent most of my lifetime here in Texas listening to and worrying about the libertarian/conservatives pushing the business friendly agenda. Nationally progressives were able to balance the politics for a good many years… At least until Centrist Democrats started negotiating with themselves instead of Conservative Republicans to move to the right.
So like Will McAvoy said… “America is not the greatest country in the world.”
https://youtu.be/WLh8XIT1HNM