Perhaps he should have skipped making the remarks at the end of the afternoon, though, as the Aricept had clearly worn off.
"Representatives, uh, Shirley Jackson Lee, Al Green, Sylvia Garcia, Lizzie Pannili, uh, excuse me," Biden said and winced. "Pannell, and uh, what am I doing here?" he said. [...] "I’m going to lose track here," he added.
Prior to his day trip, he was not wrapping up a good week. Few Houston journalists noticed or cared, apparently. No inquiries were made -- or if they were, left out of the reporting.
This week Biden:
— weston (@westonpagano) February 26, 2021
- Reopened one of Trump's for-profit camps for migrant kids
- Broke his pledge to stop deportations, gave ICE more power instead
- Abandoned his own promise of $15/hr
- Illegally bombed Syria without authorization
Where's that harm reduction we were promised?
Fuck it, I guess (right?). Texas has bigger problems (right?).
ππππ pic.twitter.com/91W3WgJt6Z
— Charlie Bonner (@CharlieKBonner) February 27, 2021
Yes we do.
Texas ranks 49th in percentage of its population that’s received at least one vaccine shot.
— Zack Malitz (@ZackMalitz) February 27, 2021
49th.
Meanwhile, @GregAbbott_TX is talking about lifting COVID restrictions.
Abbott is incompetent. All he can do is pretend to govern. This is government as political theater.
"The biggest thing people are feeling is that they were abandoned," said Charlie Bonner of @MOVE_texas.
— mySA (@mySA) February 26, 2021
"The feeling that state leaders weren't going to do anything was profound." https://t.co/n3OkFLKWUO
'Muzzled and eviscerated': Critics say Abbott appointees gutted enforcement of Texas grid rules. My latest w/@Dexinvestigates https://t.co/2VxrwumDFO via @houstonchron 1/
— Jay Root (@byjayroot) February 26, 2021
Phelan, referring to legislative hearings last week on this month's power outages: "I can tell you that I didn't think the answers were adequate ... from the PUC, and I think my colleagues feel the same way."
— Cassi Pollock (@cassi_pollock) February 28, 2021
Background: https://t.co/qhzoJJ3Sok https://t.co/8R1k1uvcpI
Texas AG @KenPaxtonTX is now saying that he left Texas during the outages last week to meet with Utah AG Sean Reyes "to start preliminary investigations into ERCOT."
— Lauren McGaughy π (@lmcgaughy) February 26, 2021
Also he says Google is attacking him using algorithms that promoted his trip. #txlegehttps://t.co/FXRHBLugBI pic.twitter.com/eGNvwlJQ4t
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick Blames Constituents for Giant Electric Bills: “Read the Fine Print” - @thespybrief https://t.co/yy9mVwn7Ec
— Susan Vermazen πΊπΈ (@SusanVermazen) February 25, 2021
Kuff would like you to be more mad at the Public Utility Commission. Socratic Gadfly offers his suggestions for people to fill those vacant "unaffiliated" board positions on ERCOT. And whatever we're calling the winter storm and subsequent blackout, it's true that as bad as we all had it, the least among us had it worse.
Forty percent of Texas nursing homes reported power outages and structural problems to the state in the wake of last week's winter storm. https://t.co/3M7IJXOqxn
— Texas Standard (@TexasStandard) February 27, 2021
A total of 509,206 people were still impacted by boil water notices as of Sunday night, with 458 boil water notices in effect, according to the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
San Angeloans had already been boiling water for a couple of weeks prior to the Big Freeze, as documented all over. The Texas Living Waters Project urges the Lege to use this session to address the long-running water infrastructure challenges laid bare by Winter Storm Uri.
Jaquaree Simmons. You probably haven't yet heard his name. 23 years old. Caged pretrial in Harris County, TX. Called his mom almost every day from his jail cell. Crying & begging for help. One week after he entered, found dead. This happened 10 days ago. “All I can do is scream." pic.twitter.com/s20rkXqfhq
— Scott Hechinger (@ScottHech) February 28, 2021
The death toll in Houston so far is 51. In Austin, 86. The full tally may not be known for weeks. Environmentally, we all got crushed again.
You know what didn’t release harmful pollution during the blackouts in Texas? Wind turbines. https://t.co/tVT3i1ac8d
— EDF (@EnvDefenseFund) February 26, 2021
Should I mention all of this as just the usual failure of Texas Republicans, Texas government generally ... or is it is a failure of capitalism?
"The ongoing catastrophe is not a system failure – it is the necessary outcome of capitalist free markets functioning exactly as designed."
— Austin DSA (@austin_DSA) February 25, 2021
Austin DSA comrade and National Political Committee member Dave Pinkham in the Chronicle: https://t.co/ubppIOWcRL
After 5.25 hrs of testimony from @ERCOT_ISO CEO Bill Magness, it is clear many @TexasGOP @TexasSenateGOP biggest problem is with free market capitalism and a profound confusion between the spot market allowed by deregulation and price gouging that a real AG would fight.#txlege
— Jesse Ayala (@FordhamLawTX) February 25, 2021
What do you think it is ... if it's not?
I'm outside the offices of Comstock Resources, a natural gas company that is primarily owned by Jerry Jones, which recently made the news for profiting off the skyrocketing price of natural gas due to last week's winter storm disaster.
— steven monacelli (@stevanzetti) February 25, 2021
@dallas_sunrise is here in protest. pic.twitter.com/xoabvfvimk
With @emilyhholden and @bgibbs for @FloodlightNews/@guardian , @SAReport and @TexasObserver: Here's a look at how the natural gas industry is trying to tank local climate plans in Texas-- and across the country. https://t.co/d4Iawjxr7E
— Amal Ahmed (@amalahmed214) March 1, 2021
It's not all bad news. Some people out of state even stepped up to help.
Californians named 'Honorary Austinites' after driving to Texas with storm relief supplies https://t.co/sTKjiKqpby pic.twitter.com/b3e9q3FvTC
— News 4 San Antonio (@News4SA) February 26, 2021
From Massachusetts with love: truckloads of food head to Texas, courtesy of US veterans, New England Patriots https://t.co/KWDQCbWvef
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) February 25, 2021
And those plumbers from New Jersey, who've decided to stay in Houston awhile, plumbers being the people most needed right now.
Citrus farmers in the RGV, also devastated. We're beginning the 15th month of 2020, it seems, even as the outlook for the pandemic brightens.
NEW from @reeseoxner: Texas expects to receive more than 200,000 initial doses of newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine https://t.co/IS1iMlJ1HR #txlege
— Evan Smith (@evanasmith) February 27, 2021
Dos Centavos tells us about his successful vaccination experience. And Robert Rivard for the San Antonio Report is firm about the need to continue taking the pandemic seriously.
Too long today to include election news, social justice/injustices, and all the rest of the usual Wrangling, so I'll add that tomorrow or later in the week. Here's our wrap.
That time back in 1969 when Led Zeppelin played the Municipal Auditorium in Austin ... pic.twitter.com/xVQvbh54Ae
— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) February 27, 2021
