House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) makes a few things clear here.
Republicans refuse to acknowledge a legitimate election they lost.
Their main focus is to maintain supremacy of the fossil fuel barons.
They will continue to manipulate election laws at the state level to insure their desired result in the future.
UPDATE: Below, Climate denial vector “American Thinker” had to think again about their election denial when served with a threat of legal action by a voting machine company:
One of the bright spots in following the incredible, watershed events in Texas over the last week, has been the amazing news coverage from Texas local Television. Especially would single out KHOU-11 in Houston, and WFAA-8 Dallas, and I would urge anyone looking for coverage from those closest to the story to browse the videos from last week.
Above, Jason Wheeler breaks down some of the insanity behind the ridiculous electric bills Texans are now receiving, often after having been blacked or browned out for most of a week.
Below, good report from KHOU on the difference between areas within, and just outside, the ERCOT service area.
Abrupt climate change won’t look like the “Day After Tomorrow” scenario, giant waves suddenly engulfing coastal cities, humans flash frozen by ultra cold blasts. What it looks like is like what we saw in Texas this week. Critical human systems being suddenly overwhelmed by conditions unforeseen by the engineers that designed them. The video above uses the example of gradual sea level leading to abrupt failures, say, of levees, in extreme events. This week it was an off the chart cold air outbreak. It’s what the future holds, and we’d better prepare for it.
Chief Exec, “Judge” as they say in Texas, of Dallas County, interviewed while the disaster was ongoing, above.
In an unregulated grid, customers, ratepayers, are not the focus. Least of all is there a concern about what happens to the average ratepayer in an extreme situation.
Below, the Texas Railroad Commission, as the video above notes, controls the flow of gas around the state. A fascinating footnote of history is that, it was this Commission that Arab petro states looked at as a model, when they created OPEC.
Climate denier, and fatally, tobacco denier, Rush Limbaugh, died this week from lung cancer. Yeah, made me think back to that time I talked to him.
Some time later in the nineties, maybe ’97? I had been following climate science for 20 years, and Jim Hansen’s work since 1981, and I understood, in a rudimentary way, what the mainstream science was telling us. Scientists, as of 1995, had detected a “discernible” human influence warming the planet. Hansen’s model had accurately predicted the planetary response from the Mt Pinabubo eruption, a major validation of the (by today’s standards) primitive climate models Hansen relied upon. Still lots to discuss, but it looked like this mechanism was real, and the process was happening. I knew, as someone that grew up outside, on snow and water, that things were certainly changing in my upper-midwest neck of the woods.
Ridiculing the ad, Limbaugh launched into a climate denial rant, listing the most popular nonsense memes that we are all familiar with. And anyway, he said, even the most extreme eco-nuts were only talking about a few degrees rise in global temps, so obviously this ad was just more over-the-top scare tactics, he fumed. Taking a breath, he invited “any environmentalist out there who can defend or explain this, to call in. I want to talk to you.”
Hunched over my keyboard, and listening as I struggled to nudge along a barely-alive communication business – I took up the challenge, and – incredibly – got through. A voice asked me if I was indeed, the environmentalist Rush was asking for – I assured him that was me. “Hold on for Rush” the voice said.
A few minutes went by, while I took some deep breaths and stretched. Suddenly, the familiar voice was on the line. “Ok, we have Peter from Midland, Michigan. Are you a greenie? an enviro?”
“Well, I often wear sandals, I hug trees when I’m climbing them, but not, you know, in a weird way. And I’ve been known to order the tofu in my veggie stir fry.” That was good enough. “Alright, so explain this ad to me. The claim is made here that in the 2020s, we’ll see temperatures of 124 degrees Fahrenheit – but even Al Gore says the planet is only warming by a degree or so. So this is more scare tactics, right?”
