Thursday Texas Frozen Toons

Paraphrasing the little old lady at the beauty shop: "Because they won't wait for Sunday".

damning... photo evidence of cruz in cancun as we speak pic.twitter.com/itW1lgzlnC

— kill 💀 tim 💀 faust (@crulge) February 18, 2021

Still got a regular Wrangle in the chute (though it will have to be titled "Lone Star Round-up" by now).

Texas Power Outrages

Expert says power outages in Texas result of poor planning on multiple levels https://t.co/GbfZpl0qvr pic.twitter.com/4d96mz2SUh

— KPRC 2 Houston (@KPRC2) February 16, 2021

How it started How it’s going pic.twitter.com/k8ViAdhDFN

— Jay R. Jordan (@JayRJordan) February 16, 2021

As if he doesn't know who might be responsible.

It's confirmed: The blackouts in Texas are primarily because of frozen instruments at gas, coal and nuclear plants -- as well limited supplies of gas, according to Ercot.

Frozen wind turbines were the least significant factor.https://t.co/10L8Br20iY pic.twitter.com/MBoWt7BDmu

— Catherine Traywick (@ctraywick) February 16, 2021

They had a couple of weeks to prepare. They could have gotten some de-icing materials from one of the state's airports. Somebody fell down on the job, and millions of Texans are suffering and at least ten in Houston alone have died.

Galveston County officials are calling for a refrigerated truck to hold the expected influx of bodies of people who have died from subfreezing temperatures.https://t.co/jwSLfun3YN#Day2 #KPRC2

— KPRC 2 Houston (@KPRC2) February 16, 2021

.@LinaHidalgoTX just said if residents lose feeling in their hands or legs, or develop other signs of hypothermia at home, they should call 911.
Never thought I'd hear that at a news conference.
All because the TX power grid cannot meet demand for electricity to heat homes. https://t.co/pYgyejHFVt

— Zach Despart🖊️ (@zachdespart) February 15, 2021

4 million without power—Texas could have invested in at least 3 things for its frozen wind turbines:

📌water resistant coating on blades

📌more de-icing drones

📌upgrades in heating packages

➡️If they can work atop snow-covered Alps. They can work in Texas.🧵 #PolarVortex pic.twitter.com/wa7LlAMsrG

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) February 16, 2021

6) that said, the main failure was its oil and gas production. Texas is producing 21 gigawatts below what is needed... wind is very minor. Most from other reasons. Texas is in a huge cluster pic.twitter.com/6G6KvXQtv3

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) February 16, 2021

No foresight. No 'thinking ahead'. No preparation for a 'rainy day'.

Looks like Texas planned for this winter weather about as well as they planned for COVID-19.

— Political Wastelander (@GrumpyGamer_73) February 15, 2021

"Many of the generators that experienced outages in 1989 failed again in 2011, the investigation discovered. Fast forward a decade and here we are again." https://t.co/5BXjTE6LMR

— Justin Miller (@by_jmiller) February 16, 2021

“The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union. It limped along on underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances."

How the state's power grid failed millions of Texans: https://t.co/J7IbBlz8hG #hounews #txwx

— John Tedesco (@John_Tedesco) February 16, 2021

All of this incompetence ought to be bad enough to provoke some resignations, but of course we know that our Grand Old Politicos are more interested in scoring points on Twitter than they are in actually governing.

.@TedCruz's 2020 tweet about California blackouts comes back to bite him in the ass https://t.co/8GCgVXkXNq

— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) February 16, 2021

Anything else going on right now in Texas that you should be pretending to be worried about, @JohnCornyn? https://t.co/h615WklTEs

— Brad Friedman (@TheBradBlog) February 16, 2021

The dumb “own the libs” snark is real funny, until it’s not. With over 5 million Texans without power and freezing cold temps, let’s check in with 2019 John Cornyn. How are you guys in CA? Do you have power today? pic.twitter.com/c8qNk8kzBU

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) February 16, 2021

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton: "California’s politicians did this"https://t.co/LBSuH0gpUx

— Brian Kahn (@blkahn) February 16, 2021

Greg Abbott & the #txlege took more action to make the Mavs play the anthem before games than they did to prevent folks from freezing & their homes being damaged

— socially distant 📏 since 1988 (@elektritekt) February 16, 2021

Update. https://t.co/PjHUP2Y6bQ pic.twitter.com/QTdQWgnIdP

— wesinjapan (@wesinjapan) February 16, 2021

I think the thing that pisses me off the most is schmucks like Ted Cruz, John Cornyn and Dan Crenshaw will continue posting culture war bullshit instead trying to help constituents freezing in their homes because the GOP base values triggering libs more than their own lives.

— Chris Jackson (@ChrisCJackson) February 16, 2021

.@MattMackowiak caught attempting to fill private jet to Miami during #TexasBlackout https://t.co/w3OTZITQOH #TXLege

— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) February 16, 2021

Ending this with some levity, such as it is. Still more Wrangling to come.

‘You Go Back Where You Came From,’ Says Texan Pointing Gun At Snowman Trespassing On Property https://t.co/T7OHCABfSP pic.twitter.com/vnWAzDkwBH

— The Onion (@TheOnion) February 16, 2021

Huskies refusing to come inside from the cold is my new fav thing pic.twitter.com/aGAg0qu1GW

— The God Tongue (@aprettyPR) February 16, 2021

Frozen (but Thawing) Wrangle

My electricity came on about 15-20 minutes ago, after 22 hours. It's 43 degrees inside my house (and up to 44 already). #houstonfreeze #texaspoweroutage #HouNews

— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) February 16, 2021

This obviously is a monumental screw-up by the state of Texas, ERCOT, and the companies responsible for power generation in Texas. Why was demand not better anticipated? How are generating plants rated for cold weather production? The list of questions goes on and on. There is plenty of blame to go around, as it seems likely that people will lose their lives due to cold, or medical needs for electricity.

Be wary of those quick to scapegoat wind turbines or any single government official or political sides for this failure. This is a failure of the whole government and a lack of sensible regulation of electricity generators. We need to learn from this mistake so that it is not repeated. After our teeth stop chattering, of course.

Texas power outages: How the largest energy-producing state in the US failed in freezing temperatures https://t.co/MJJydN01E9

— KVUE News (@KVUE) February 16, 2021

Lots more, including the usual, to come today (as long as the juice stays on).

Sunday "Case Dismissed" Funnies

Nick Anderson, who founded Counterpoint, was interviewed by Houstonia Magazine about his cartooning career post-newspapers: "(A)rtists from all political leanings are providing takes on today’s biggest headlines as contributors. Of the 18 satirists, ten -- like Anderson -- saw their jobs cut. It’s too soon to know if Counterpoint will hit it big (at the moment it has more than 170,000 subscribers), but if it does this could be a way to ensure that his art form doesn’t just die out."

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