February 19, 2021
Skip's limerick: Rush Limbaugh has succumbed to lung cancer, This man who always had a simple answer. With bellicose audio, He remade talk radio. Hatred and bigotry were his major financers. and limerick two addresses the Texas situation Ten years ago, feds warned the ERCOT gentry: Prepare for weather that's real wintery! In subsequent years, It must’ve fallen on deaf ears. ‘Cause Texas, it’s like a whole other country. Part 1: We begin our discussion with Scott Braddock. Scott is the Voice of Texas, Editor of the Quorum Report. The situation in Texas is dire, due to several factors. There are a series of winter storms, which have brought below-zero temperatures to Texas. This has exposed multiple bag problems in Texas. The first is the fact that Texas is isolated from the national power grid. There is no backup if Texas' individual grid, ERCOT, fails. Texas decided, in the 90s, that they did not want to have federal regulation (with the exception of El Paso), and did not connect. The Texas grid has failed, due to the lack of planning for cold weather. People are freezing to death, with no option but to wait for warmer weather. Water pipes have frozen, so people are being told to boil water. This is hard to do, since the natural gas is not available (the generating and pumping stations are frozen). Most of Texas' energy needs are met with natural gas and coal. Texas has some wind and solar generation, though that only comprises about 13% of the total. Politicians, especially the governor, Abbot, have blamed the 'dependence' on wind and solar for this problem. However, people have called him on this, because they know this is a big lie. Now, he is being blamed by both Democrats and Republicans. Ted Cruz is spending time in Cancun, Mexico. There will likely be some discussion in the legislature about hardening the power grid for future events like this. Because of the warming centers, it is likely that this will be a superspreader event. Part 2: We talk with Bill Curry, progressive writer, former aide to Bill Clinton, two time candidate for governor of Connecticut. We start our discussion with the death of Rush Limbaugh, and how his influence has changed the political discourse in the US. Gingrich, Lutz, and others of their ilk have lowered the level considerably. We talk about how the country will recover from the various disasters. We discuss how much of the actual on-the-ground work will be done by undocumented workers, especially in Texas. For this reason, it is important to have a rational immigration policy. We need infrastructure repairs and security, both physical and cybersecurity. Additionally, we discuss the necessity to have a democratization of energy. This will produce jobs that will not be off-shored. We also need a minimum wage that is a livable wage. This is especially important for women.
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