The guy who threw a beer can at ted cruz during the World Series parade is the spiritual successor to the guy who threw a shoe at george bush lol
the-beacons-of-minas-tirith reblogged
i’m a leftist of course but it has been fucking something to go to beto o’rourke’s twitter and see him actively organizing food drives, informing people of warm shelters, and contacting texas senior citizens to make sure they’re okay
while ted cruz fucking went to cancun
like, republicans are a fucking death cult. they really truly are.
I’m in Texas. Fucking hell. Just got this message from one of my co-workers: “Just sent the kid to fill buckets with snow for toilet flushing after it melts.” Another co-worker hasn’t been online in days; I suspect he’s in one of the areas that hasn’t had power since early Monday morning, but I don’t know. Still others have been hit by rotating power outages, or have lost water pressure, or gas.
And I’m feeling both relieved and kind of guilty that we’ve been one of the people with power–we’re on one of the critical circuits that can’t be turned off, there’s a fire station and other infrastructure they need to protect–and that yeah, my upstairs pipes froze, but they thawed yesterday and no signs of breaks. I’m lucky. And even lucky, I’m still not doing great; we have to keep the temperature low enough (to protect the grid) that my hands are stiffened up, even in fingerless gloves, and my whole body aches, and my already limited spoons are whittled down even further.
The authorities are saying, “Use less power, stop trickling water, insurance should cover it if your pipes freeze, and if not, you may get reimbursement from FEMA…” *Should*. *May*.
Meanwhile, the guys who manage the state electrical grid (and oh, that’s a story in and of itself) live in California and Michigan. Ted fucking Cruz is in fucking Cancun.
The stores are empty, because no trucks have gotten through to restock.
And the worst of all? This is the logical end point of Republican policies. This is what happens when utilities become commoditized. This is what happens when you pursue the ‘free market uber alles’. The Texas electrical grid is independent because Texas didn’t want no fed'rl reg-u-lation, no sir! Which means we have minimal connections to the other two US grids, because selling power interstate would open us up to regulation. Which means we can’t *get* power from the rest of the US, if it had it to spare. On top of that, ERCOT knew ten years ago that the Texas grid was vulnerable to cold weather. But, hey, winterizing infrastructure costs money, cuts profits, doesn’t have an immediate payback.
And if you think it’s a policy set and continued by Republican state leaders, you would be correct. Half of Texas is lacking multiple basic services because rich people playing “You’re not the boss of me” want to get richer. It’s infuriating. And it’s costing lives. (But not rich people’s lives, so they apparently don’t matter.)
People are dying because of this. The number of carbon monoxide poisonings alone… because people are desperate. Disabled people can’t get power to charge their medical devices. Older people get trapped in buildings with no power, surrounded by ice.
Yes. The modern Republican party is a profiteering death cult whose rallying cry is “Got mine, fuck you, die slave!” The Republican state leadership is a shitshow, everyone’s pointing fingers, no one takes responsiblitity for the policies that they’ve been supporting for *decades*.
And I feel so goddamned helpless, and so angry, because this is the 21st century in a modern country, and *this should not be happening*. So thanks, Beto, for stepping up and doing what you can. Because the powers that are sure as hell aren’t.
People don’t like Ted Cruz very much
