Republicans ignoring the measles epidemic in Texas while RFKjr still talks about cod liver oil treatment!

Kennedy is already undermining vaccines” (April 13, Nation):

During his Senate confirmation hearings to be health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presented himself as a supporter of vaccines. But in office, he and the agencies he leads have taken far-reaching, sometimes subtle steps to undermine confidence in vaccine efficacy and safety.

RFKjr is the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He is unqualified with no medical experience. Meanwhle, Texas is experiencing its largest measles ourbreak in 30 years. The virus has infeced more than 600 people and killled two school aged children, reports The Texas Tribune, Terri Langford and Yuriko Schumacher on April 22, 2025.

The National Institutes of Health halted funding for researchers who study vaccine hesitancy and hoped to find ways to overcome it. It also canceled programs intended to discover new vaccines to prevent future pandemics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shelved an advertising campaign for the flu shot. Kennedy has said inaccurately that the scientists who advise the CDC on vaccines have “severe, severe conflicts of interest” in promoting the products and cannot be trusted. The Health and Human Services Department cut billions of dollars to state health agencies, including funds needed to modernize state programs for childhood immunization. 

RFK Jr.: ‘Faustian bargains’

The most telling part of this article was the quote by Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Cassidy complained that Kennedy was “pissing away money” by spending taxpayer dollars to reexamine the oft studied and discredited claim that vaccines cause autism.

Cassidy’s crocodile tears are the perfect example of the duplicity and indeed cowardice of Republican politicians (For example, Maine Writer identified Senator Susan Collins among the cowards❗). Cassidy, a physician, was instrumental in getting Kennedy confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, although he surely knew about Kennedy’s crackpot theories and anti-vaccine rants. The Republican senator failed to honor his oath as a physician and in fact failed the American public when he embraced a toxic mixture of self-deception and sycophancy toward Donald Trump, in order to guarantee Kennedy’s nomination.

Cassidy’s support of an unqualified and dangerous candidate like Kennedy is emblematic of today’s Republican politicians and their penchant for Faustian bargains, in order to please the self-annointed stable genius.

From Larry Wechsler, in Edmonds Washington State

P.S. RFKjr continues to sell the snake oil lie about treatment for measles, but the most reliable cure for the virus is to prevent it with the MMR vaccine.  Cod liver oil and Vitamin A treatment is not a treatment for measles.  Vitamin A does help to minimize any eye involvement caused by the virus but does not treat the disease. 

Right wing extremism and mass murders: What is an "incel"?

Allen Mall Texas Shooting - Another massacre: "Just the thought of living a few houses down from someone who can do this can be a little scary and give you more caution,” said Moises Carreon, 52. “I don’t know why people want to shoot innocent people for any reason.”

Allen Texas vigil for victims of a mass shooting an an outlet shopping mall.

ALLEN MALL SHOOTING

“Right wing death squad”: What to know about the Allen shooter’s neo-Nazi views.

The shooter’s “RWDS” patch offers troubling clues about his ideology — and how it connects to views that are common among white supremacists.

Echo report published in the Texas Tribune by Robert Downen.

The Texas Tribune is the only member-supported, digital-first, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

The man who killed eight people at a Dallas-area mall wore extremist insignia, posted racist and misogynistic screeds and praised Nazis online. 

Allen Texas gun massacre

Here’s what you need to know about the shooter and his ties to ongoing right-wing mass violence.

On Tuesday, the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed that Mauricio Garcia, who was killed by police during Saturday’s attack at Allen Premium Outlets, had neo-Nazi tattoos and beliefs. Garcia also wore a patch during the killing spree that said "RWDS" — an acronym for "right wing death squad" — and while police have yet to announce a motive for the attack, journalists have uncovered a trove of social media posts in which the gunman fantasized about violence and glorified the Third Reich.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot.  

The Tuesday announcement contradicts days of claims by prominent conservatives — including U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia — who pointed to Garcia’s name and presumed Hispanic ethnicity to discount his potential ties to white supremacist movements.

“This is a very complicated aspect of right-wing extremism," Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, told CNN on Monday. "We would assume that everyone is white in a caucasian sense. But Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race, and so a lot of Hispanics might identify as being white.”

Nick Fuentes, the Holocaust-denying antisemite who recently had dinner with former President Donald Trump, has a half-Mexican father. Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys chair who was found guilty last week of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, is Afro-Cuban. 

Seeing a recruitment opportunity, the Daily Stormer — arguably the most influential Nazi propaganda outlet in the world — began publishing in Spanish in 2017. And there is ample evidence that extremist views are on the rise among communities of color, despite often being couched in ideologies that perpetuate false notions of racial or ethnic hierarchy.

It is “part of the mutation that takes place as the racist fringe tries to become more mainstream,” Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State University, told Axios last year.

Moreover, the patch Garcia was reportedly wearing also offers troubling clues about his ideology — and how it connects to views that are common among white supremacist groups.

“This ‘Right Wing Death Squad’ patch strongly suggests ties to far-right extremist elements in America,” said Andy Campbell, a Huffington Post editor and author of the recent book “We Are Proud Boys,” which traces the violent group’s origins and white supremacist goals. “Today, the RWDS patch is prevalent at events that feature neo-Nazis, Proud Boys or other far-right extremist groups, and you don’t often see it anywhere else.”

Often shortened to RWDS, “right wing death squad” has for years been a popular slogan among neo-Nazis and other extremist groups. The Southern Poverty Law Center traces its spread to The Right Stuff, a white nationalist hate group, and it has frequently been donned by members of extremist groups, including leaders of the Proud Boys. In 2021, members of a “right wing death squad” Facebook group were arrested after plotting to “McVeigh” the Democratic National Committee — a reference to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in 1995.

And the slogan has a direct connection to political violence — specifically Augusto Pinochet, the CIA-backed dictator who murdered and tortured countless Chileans in the 16 years he led the country. Pinochet was infamous for his brutal campaigns against communists, socialists and other perceived enemies who were frequently dropped into the ocean from helicopters.

Today’s far-right movements adore him. One shirt, the front of which says “Pinochet did nothing wrong,” is particularly popular. The back reads, “Make communists afraid of rotary aircraft again,” with a cartoon of people being dropped from a helicopter. The sleeve has “RWDS” on it.

The Proud Boys, who Campbell said “fight under an explicit banner of white supremacy” and demand members agree “that white men created Western culture,” have sold Pinochet merchandise, and some of the group’s leaders have been photographed wearing “RWDS” patches and pro-Pinochet garb.

Pinochet “is celebrated by modern extremist groups for the extrajudicial murders of political opponents he oversaw — in particular, his regime’s habit of tossing leftists out of helicopters,” Campbell added.

The shooting in Allen was the latest in a wave of mass killings committed by right-wing extremists. A February report from the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism found that, in the past 10 years, white supremacists have been responsible for 73% of all extremist murders in the country. Last year, 93% of those killed by extremists were shot, and 60% died in mass shootings.

Texas is home to at least 52 hate groups, many of them active in the Allen area, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. And white supremacist propaganda incidents in Texas increased by 61% last year, fueled by what experts say is an increasing normalization of political polarization, hate speech and violence.

“The data is clear year after year: right-wing extremists present an urgent and continuous violent threat in the United States,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblat said in February.

Many of those groups and attackers have been animated by conspiracy theories that claim there is an intentional, often Jewish-driven effort to dilute white blood through immigration, LGBTQ rights and interracial marriage. Other attacks were fueled by rhetoric that depicts immigrants as “invaders” — a common trope among Republican Party leaders such as Gov. Greg Abbott, who has continued to use such language despite routine warnings of its danger. The gunman who killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in August 2019 said he wanted to stop the “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

In November, five people were murdered at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ club by a man who reportedly ran a neo-Nazi website. Six months earlier, a white supremacist targeted Black shoppers at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, killing 10. Using 2020’s racial justice protests as cover and hoping to kickstart a second civil war, a U.S. Air Force sergeant attacked law enforcement in California, killing two. Two months earlier, a white supremacist opened fire at a Poway, California, synagogue, killing one. A month before that, a white supremacist killed 51 people at New Zealand mosques in a livestreamed attack that has inspired numerous mass shooters in America. In 2018, a white supremacist murdered 11 people at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue.

Several school shooters — including the perpetrators of mass killings in Santa Fe, Texas, and Parkland, Florida — have also espoused white supremacist views.

❓❗Other mass shooters — including Garcia — reportedly held beliefs that are common among so-called “incels.” The term is shorthand for people who are “involuntarily celibate” and who frequently blame their lack of romantic success on feminism. The ideology is replete with misogyny, racism and antisemitism, and online “incel” communities have for years been targeted for recruitment by white supremacists and other extremist movements.

“Incel” ideology also has significant overlap with the broader “men’s rights” movement, which claims that men are losing power in society because of feminism. Such ideology was foundational to the spread of today’s far-right movements, particularly among disaffected young men in online gaming communities nearly a decade ago.

And it has its own, growing body count: In 2021, eight people were killed during a shooting spree at various Atlanta spas by a man who blamed women for his sexual addictions.

In 2020, a self-described “anti-feminist” lawyer, motivated by a belief that “manhood is in serious jeopardy,” killed a federal judge’s son.

Deon J. Hampton reported from Dallas. Jonathan Dienst and Corky Siemaszko reported from New York, and Ken Dilanian reported from Washington.

Texas gun massacres timeline and data reports= x eight

Texas has had eight mass shootings in the past 13 years, while lawmakers have steadily loosened restrictions on carrying firearms.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit Robb Elementary School to pay their respects to the victims of the mass shooting, Sunday, May 29, 2022, in Ulvade, Texas.

Updated echo report published May 24, 2022, in The Texas Tribune, written by Mandi Cai: (Excellent data report.)

Texas has seen eight mass shootings over the last 13 years, and many of them sparked public debate about what legislation should be passed to prevent another one.

While University of Texas polls consistently show that Texans are divided about gun control — with 40% to 50% saying they want stricter gun laws — the vast majority of the laws passed over the past 13 years by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature have expanded where guns are allowed, who can have a firearm in schools and the right to openly carry guns.

A timeline details how state lawmakers and the public have responded to mass shootings — through legislation and University of Texas polls — since the 2009 Fort Hood shooting.

We used Mother Jones’ mass shootings data and definition of a mass shooting, which relies on the FBI’s definition of a mass murderer, to determine which shootings to include in the timeline. Among the criteria:

• The shooter killed at least four people. (The U.S. government revised this in 2013, to three people, which is why the second Fort Hood shooting is included.)
• The killings were carried out by a lone shooter.
• The shooting occurred in a public space.
• Victim counts don’t include shooters who died or were wounded during an attack.
  
  Credits: Stacy Fernández and Chris Essig contributed to this report
  
  Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin and Walmart have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Texas power grid crises continues: Governor Abbott's energy failures

The Texas Tribune echo report by Mitchell Ferman:

Why Texas's Power Grid Still Has Not Been Fixed? The New Yorker. 

Texas’ grid operator told a power plant to delay repairs ahead of a May heat wave. It was among six that crashed.

Climate change and other factors are shortening the window when aging Texas power plants can make repairs to run at full strength in hot summer months.

On Thursday (May 12th), Texas’ power grid operator told at least one power plant to delay its scheduled repairs and keep operating to help meet demand during hotter-than-expected May weather.

The next day, the plant went offline anyway when some of its equipment stopped working properly, according to energy giant Calpine, which owns the plant. Calpine declined to identify the plant.

By just after 5 p.m. Friday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas announced that six power plants had gone down unexpectedly and asked Texans to turn up their thermostats to 78 degrees for the weekend and avoid using large appliances during the hottest hours of the day to reduce strain on the power grid.

“We had a scheduled major maintenance outage beginning Friday, May 13, but it was cancelled by ERCOT on May 12,” a Calpine spokesperson said in a statement, adding that May is a “shoulder month” during which power generators historically take power plants offline to do repairs and maintenance during cooler weather.

But this month has been warmer than most Mays of the past decade, leading to higher electricity demand and causing ERCOT to scramble to keep as many plants operating as possible.

Several other power plants broke down Friday and couldn’t produce electricity after agreeing — at ERCOT’s request — to postpone planned maintenance shutdowns, said Michele Richmond, who represents power plants across the state as executive director of the Texas Competitive Power Advocates.

That contradicts what the grid operator said Friday, when an ERCOT spokesperson told The Texas Tribune that maintenance delays did not cause any of the six power plant failures. 

An ERCOT spokesperson said he was checking on whether power plant repair delays requested by ERCOT led to Friday’s plant outages.

ERCOT’s public statement said that “six power generation facilities tripped offline resulting in the loss of approximately 2,900 MW of electricity” — enough to power more than 580,000 homes. “At this time, all reserve generation resources available are operating.”

The brief statement raised more questions than it answered and didn’t address the plants’ locations, whether they were all offline at the same time and why they unexpectedly failed. The weekend passed without major power disruptions, as several of the downed plants returned online by Saturday.

Richmond said ERCOT is “taking a top-down approach” in determining when to tell companies to delay needed repairs and “doesn’t take into account what these complex machines need to make sure they get maintenance done.”

“When you start to tell generators during the season they’re supposed to be doing maintenance that they can’t, then you’re trying to squeeze more out of plants than what is safe and reliable,” she added.

ERCOT approves planned maintenance requests from energy companies months and even years in advance because of the complexity of the work and the need to maintain a minimum level of generation capacity at all times.

Over recent weeks, portable toilets, tents and large cargo containers have been assembled at power plants across Texas for repair crews that allow the facilities to run at full strength during the hot Texas summer.

Dozens of contract workers at many sites erect scaffolding — some even bring in cranes to move heavier equipment — and take apart the plants’ turbines and fix rotating blades. Depending on the scope of the work, a plant can be down for days or weeks.

“Our companies want to be on in the heat of summer, our companies want to be on when customers need us to provide power,” Richmond said. “We also want to do it reliably and safely. Part of reliability of a power plant is taking scheduled maintenance to not only run safely but run at max performance, just like you don’t want to do maintenance on your car when you’re on a cross-country road trip.”

Daniel Cohan, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University, questioned how the power plants that have been forced to delay maintenance will perform when the worst of the Texas heat arrives this summer.

“I’m concerned with how hard those plants have been run and that maintenance has been deferred to run the grid conservatively,” Cohan said, describing ERCOT’s approach since last year’s freeze of having a larger cushion of power reserve available. “It remains to be seen how much more vulnerable that leaves us to summer outages.”

ERCOT released its forecast for summer electricity demand. The agency expects record-breaking electricity demand of 77,317 megawatts. ERCOT said it has beefed up the amount of reserve power available to the grid and it “is expected to have sufficient installed generating capacity to serve peak demands in the upcoming summer season.”

The Public Utility Commission of Texas, which is in charge of ERCOT, is considering a new rule that could shorten the maintenance season when plants can go offline for repairs. The new rule is based on a provision in Senate Bill 3, the state Legislature’s response to last year’s freeze, when millions of people were without power for days in subfreezing temperatures and hundreds died after a combination of cold weather and skyrocketing energy demand shut down power plants as well as the natural gas facilities that supply them with fuel.

Richmond said the new rule is flawed because it doesn’t outline specific metrics to tell ERCOT when a plant needs maintenance, which she said could be a problem with a shorter maintenance season.

Officials from multiple power companies contacted by the Tribune  questioned whether the rule would give them enough time to make necessary repairs during maintenance season because there are a limited number of qualified repair crews and they travel the country repairing power plants during the milder months of the year. The companies asked not to be identified because power plant outage details have not yet been publicly disclosed by ERCOT.

Cohan said Texans can expect to see hotter temperatures in the coming decades because of climate change, which will put more pressure on the state’s aging power plants.

“You need to do maintenance sometime, and we’ve seen our vulnerability to winter freezes and we know our peaks most often happen in summer heat waves,” Cohan said. “That really leaves it to the fall and spring as the seasons when you need to do maintenance.”

Disclosure: Calpine, Rice University and Texas Competitive Power Advocates have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Texas power grid is failed third world greedy technology

Winter Storm Uri plainly showed that the state of Texas developed an electric power system that does not prioritize infrastructure resilience. - Gavin Dillingham, PhD, Program Director, HARC (Houston Advanced Research Center)

“Why couldn’t we get the power?” Morgan said recently. “Because the gas system was not weatherized. And so we had natural gas producers that weren’t producing.”

Echo report published in The Texas Tribune, by Mitchell Ferman

If another major freeze hits Texas this winter, “the same thing could happen,” Morgan said in an interview.

Winter Storm Uri: Its Impact on Texas and Beyond

Natural gas powers the majority of electricity in Texas, especially during winter. Some power companies say the state’s gas system is not ready for another deep freeze.
MIDLOTHIAN — After last winter’s freeze hamstrung power giant Vistra Corp.’s ability to keep electricity flowing for its millions

of customers, CEO Curt Morgan said he’d never seen anything like it in his 40 years in the energy industry.

During the peak days of the storm, Vistra, Texas’ largest power generator, sent as much energy as it could to power the state’s failing grid, “often at the expense of making money,” he told lawmakers shortly after the storm.

But it wasn’t enough. The state’s grid neared complete collapse, millions lost power for days in subfreezing temperatures and more than 200 people died.

Since the storm, Texas lawmakers have passed legislation aimed at making the grid more resilient during freezing weather. Signing the bill, Gov. Greg Abbott said “everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid.”

But Morgan isn’t so sure. His company has spent $50 million this year preparing more than a dozen of its plants for winter.

At the company’s plant in Midlothian, workers have wrapped electric cables with three inches of rubber insulation and built enclosures to help shield valves, pumps and metal pipes.

No matter what Morgan does, though, it won’t be enough to prevent another disaster if there is another severe freeze, he said.

That’s because the state still hasn’t fixed the critical problem that paralyzed his plants: maintaining a sufficient supply of natural gas, Morgan said.

Natural gas slowed to a trickle during the storm, leaving the Midlothian facility and 13 other Vistra power plants that run on gas without enough fuel. The shortage forced Vistra to pay more than $1.5 billion on the spot market for whatever gas was available, costing the company in a matter of days more than twice the amount it usually spends in an entire year. Even then, plants were able to operate at only a fraction of their capacity; the Midlothian facility ran at 30% of full strength during the height of the storm.

“Why couldn’t we get it?” Morgan said recently. “Because the gas system was not weatherized. And so we had natural gas producers that weren’t producing.”

If another major freeze hits Texas this winter, “the same thing could happen,” Morgan said in an interview.

The predicament in Midlothian reflects a glaring shortcoming in Texas’ efforts to prevent a repeat of February, when a combination of freezing temperatures across the state and skyrocketing demand shut down natural gas facilities and power plants, which rely on each other to keep electricity flowing. The cycle of failures sent economic ripples across the country that cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

The power and gas industries say they are working to make their systems more reliable during winter storms, and the Public Utility Commission, the state agency that regulates the state’s power industry, finally acted on recommendations made by federal regulators a decade ago after another severe winter storm.

But energy experts say Texas’ grid remains vulnerable, largely because newly written regulations allowed too much wiggle room for companies to avoid weatherization improvements that can take months or years. More than nine months after February’s storm — which could exceed Hurricane Harvey as the costliest natural disaster in state history — a lack of data from regulators and industry groups makes it impossible to know how many power and gas facilities are properly weatherized.

For millions of Texans, that means there is no assurance that they will have electricity and heat if another major freeze strikes the state.

“If we see a recurrence of the storm we saw last year, people should probably be worried,” said Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, a consumer-advocacy nonprofit group.

The stakes are high, and not just for Texas, the nation’s top energy-producing state. Its winter preparedness affects customers as far away as California and Minnesota and is a test of America’s ability to deal with climate change, which is making weather more extreme, more unpredictable and more deadly.

“Extreme weather events, such as the one in February 2021, are unfortunately becoming more commonplace and the electricity ecosystem needs to come together to plan for and prepare to operate under more extreme, longer duration, and wide area weather events,” Jim Robb, president and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, said in a statement.

His organization published a joint report with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission this month that detailed the failures of both the power and natural gas industries to protect against February’s storm, despite recommendations by federal agencies after a similar disaster in 2011. That storm caused rolling blackouts — but no deaths — across much of the state over three days as then-Gov. 

Rick Perry asked Texans to conserve electricity.*

Although the natural gas industry has blamed electricity generators for the February blackouts — claiming that gas slowed only after power was cut to their facilities — the report said that freezing temperatures were the main cause of a sharp decline in natural gas in Texas and neighboring states in the early days of the storm that triggered a cascade of outages.

“It’s a regulatory problem.”

But federal regulators have little say in how the Texas grid operates.

The main Texas grid is an island, not connected to the country’s two major power grids. This is by design, the result of actions by state leaders decades ago to avoid federal regulation and encourage free-market competition. Multiple state agencies, as well as a nonprofit organization — the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT — govern the grid’s operations, writing rules based on laws passed by state lawmakers.

The lawmakers responded to February's disaster by passing legislation aimed at improving the power system’s preparedness for winter. It established weatherization mandates but left it to state regulators to implement them.

The Public Utility Commission followed with a rule enacting the weatherization requirements. But, the rule allows power plants to request an exception if they document their efforts to comply, explain why they couldn’t and submit a plan to do so later.

The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the natural gas industry, is working more slowly. 

A proposal published in September — and expected to be finalized Dec. 1 — lays out a timeline that would identify, map and impose weatherization mandates by early 2023 for gas producers that supply power plants. It also seeks to prevent a repeat of a major paperwork error that resulted in dozens of natural gas providers having their power cut off during February’s rolling blackouts because they failed to declare themselves “critical infrastructure.”

But the proposed rule, which the Railroad Commission said was written to reflect the language in the new state law, allows gas companies to opt out of that classification and avoid having to weatherize their equipment. That infuriated many legislators, despite the fact they’d voted for the law that allowed it after lobbying by the natural gas industry.

The result is that Texas has done “next to nothing” to weatherize its natural gas supply, said Doug Lewin, an Austin-based energy consultant.

“We don’t have a regulatory system in place that holds the industry accountable. That is the problem,” Lewin said. “It's not a technology or engineering problem. It’s a regulatory problem.”

Natural gas fuels a majority of power generation in Texas, especially in winter. At one point during February’s storm, more than half of the state’s natural gas supply was shut down due to power outages, frozen equipment and weather conditions, ERCOT said, adding that at least 20% of the total outages during the week of the storm was due to power plants not getting enough gas.

The natural gas industry has been among the most politically powerful in Texas for generations and has donated generously to the campaigns of governors, lawmakers and the Railroad Commission. That contributes to a culture in which gas companies have escaped strict weatherization mandates, energy experts and consumer advocates say.

The Texas Oil and Gas Association, one of the most prominent energy lobbyist groups in Texas, defended the gas industry’s image in a public relations campaign after the storm. It also has had a heavy hand in deciding who sits on an informal advisory council that lawmakers codified after the storm, intended to ensure energy and electricity operations continue during extreme weather.

The best thing that can be done to avoid a repeat of February is for power companies to get access to larger amounts of stored gas ahead of a storm, he said in an interview this month.

Staples said more than 1,000 facilities — out of more than 250,000 statewide — have filled out paperwork to be added to the list of “critical” facilities that won’t have their power cut off. That’s up from just 60 before the storm, Staples said.

The number will continue to rise after the Railroad Commission enacts its weatherization rule, Staples said. Because not all gas facilities immediately need emergency power during storms, Staples said the Railroad Commission should set up a system prioritizing which get power before others.

He said the industry would be prepared for winter, including having more gas in storage. “If the power is kept on, natural gas will continue at a reasonable level,” Staples said.

Oncor, Texas’ largest electricity transmission and distribution company, which delivers power to 3.8 million homes and businesses, said since the February storm it has received 1,061 forms from gas companies declaring their infrastructure as critical, a sign those companies are likely to be weatherized and prepared to operate during a grid emergency. AEP Texas and CenterPoint Energy, which together service more than 3.6 million Texas households and businesses, said they have received another 278 forms from gas companies registering their facilities as critical.

Several of Texas’ largest natural gas producers, including XTO Energy and Apache Corp., did not return calls or emails seeking comment on their weatherization efforts. Spokespeople for BP and Devon Energy declined to comment.

And the Railroad Commission said it did not know how many natural gas companies are actually prepared for winter. An agency spokesperson said ERCOT would have this information.

An ERCOT spokesperson declined to comment.

As the Railroad Commission works on its weatherization rule, electricity companies — including Oncor, AEP Texas, CenterPoint and Texas-New Mexico Power Company — have already begun criticizing the proposal. 

The companies filed a comment with the commission arguing that the proposed rule was too vague and “does not provide information electric utilities will need in order to efficiently and effectively incorporate natural gas facilities into their respective” emergency plans.

Virginia Palacios, executive director of Commission Shift, an organization that researches the Railroad Commission’s ties to the oil and gas industry, said the long process of creating new weatherization rules has prevented Texas from preparing for this winter.

“We are not going to have any assurances that operators are weatherizing for this winter,” Palacios said. “And probably not for the next one.”

*Oh Paaaaleeeeze! Will Perry be first to set an example? IDTS!

"Neanderthal Thinking" - President Biden says it's too soon for states to lift mask mandates

In my opinion, Governor Abbott of Texas continues to put his  political interests ahead of public health and safety. He is desperate to remove from the public's consciousness the failed Texas power grid disaster, when citizens suffered dangerous, and deadly hypothermia and the collateral damage that caused water contamination. So, Abbott capriciously put the public at even more risk of illness by lifting the state's mask mandate, in spite of not knowing how the COVID19, variants might infect Texas citizens.  

Governor Abbott made a capricious decision to lift the COVID19, public health mask mandate, while Texas citizens are still experiencing collateral damage caused by the state's failed power grid!

Three of Gov. Greg Abbott’s four coronavirus medical advisers say they weren’t directly consulted prior to lifting mask mandate.

President Biden responded that states like Texas and Mississippi are making a big mistake by ending mandates to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, at a time when the nation is making a push to boost vaccinations.

"The last thing — the last thing — we need is the Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything's fine, take off your mask. Forget it. It still matters," Biden told reporters.

Echo report by Shawn Mulcahy, published in The Texas Tribune:

In April 2020, an optimistic Gov. Greg Abbott announced at the Texas Capitol that he would soon take initial steps to allow businesses to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic.

The loosening of restrictions, his team said, would be informed by a statewide “strike force,” composed of business leaders and four medical experts who would advise the governor on a safe, phased plan.

"Every recommendation, every action by the governor will be informed and based on hard data and the expertise of our chief medical advisers,” James Huffines, a former bank executive who Abbott named as chair of the strike force, said at the time. “Everything we do will be medically sound. These nationally recognized advisers are leading experts in their fields and we will rely on their knowledge and expertise every step of the way."

Since then, Texas has suffered through two major case surges and thousands of deaths. Abbott imposed a mask order in July, and vaccine distribution has begun to give residents a reason for hope. On Tuesday, Abbott made waves again by announcing the repeal of his mask order and declaring “it is now time to open Texas 100%.”

This time, however, Abbott’s team of medical advisers appeared to play a minimal role in the decision. Three of the four said on Wednesday that Abbott did not directly consult with them prior to the drastic shift in policy. The fourth said he couldn’t say whether the move was a good idea.

One such adviser expressed overt reservations about the move.

“I don’t think this is the right time,” Dr. Mark McClellan, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University, said in a statement. “Texas has been making some real progress, but it’s too soon for full reopening and to stop masking around others.”

McClellan said that he was “not consulted before the announcement.”

Dr. Parker Hudson, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School, likewise told The Texas Tribune that he was “not involved with the decision,” but didn’t comment on whether he thought it was a good idea.

Dr. John Hellerstedt, commissioner of the state Department of State Health Services, also said he didn’t have a direct conversation with Abbott prior to the announcement, though he did say he spoke with the governor’s team. Hellerstedt told a panel of state House members Wednesday afternoon that he and Abbott were on the same page. He said the governor’s decision did not diminish safety.

“I think the difference is, should you wear a mask? The answer is absolutely yes,” Hellerstedt told the House Public Health Committee. “Does the governor want folks to wear a mask and to take their own personal responsibility to do it? The answer, I believe, is yes."

The one expert on the team who did speak with Abbott was Dr. John Zerwas, an executive vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Texas System and a former Republican state representative. Zerwas said to the Tribune that he told Abbott he couldn’t say whether now was the right time to remove pandemic restrictions. But he advised Abbott that if he did rescind those restrictions, Abbott, “in the same breath,” should “continue to emphasize the importance of the public health measures that have allowed us to continue to really kind of get past this pandemic.”

“And I believe he did that,” Zerwas said.

Abbott’s order makes Texas the largest state in the country without a mask mandate. It allows businesses, including restaurants, bars, retail stores and sports venues, to operate at 100% capacity. The move goes against the guidance of most medical experts, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I think we at the CDC have been very clear that now is not the time to release all restrictions," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said of the decision.

Renae Eze, a spokesperson for Abbott, said in a statement that “the Governor speaks regularly with Dr. Hellerstedt and Dr. Zerwas, along with others in the medical community, regarding yesterday’s announcement. All were in agreement that Texans should continue following medical advice and safe standards on preventing COVID-19, to protect themselves and their loved ones, just like they do on other medical issues.”

Texas State Senator Borris Miles, D-Houston

Democrats lashed out, calling Tuesday’s announcement dangerously premature and worried it would lead to a dangerous rise in cases. State Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, tweeted that the virus has already taken a disproportionate toll on Black Texans and that Abbott had “signed the death warrants of communities of color.”

"Black people are being disproportionately killed by COVID, there’s a lack of vaccine in communities of color... and now the Governor has lifted the mask mandate. He has signed the death warrants of communities of color.. Today he made it clear Black lives don’t matter. #txlege 6:36 PM · Mar 2, 2021"

Many hardliners in Abbott’s party, including Texas GOP Chairman Allen West, have for weeks (without public health support!) called on Abbott to end coronavirus restrictions.

Some state business leaders expressed support Wednesday. The Texas Restaurant Association thanked Abbott for “outlining a plan today that will lift costly business restrictions for most of the state where we are seeing significant improvement in our COVID-19 case, hospitalization and vaccination numbers.”

Disclosure: James Huffines, The Texas Restaurant Association, University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Ted Cruz must remove himself from the immigraton debate

"In an hour-long speech on a nearly empty Senate floor that ended when he could not gain permission to continue..."

Frankly, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, aka "Cruz to loose", a 2016 presidential candidate, infuriaties me, whenever he speaks about his anti immigration positions or, for that matter, anything else.

Senator Ted Cruz aka "Cruz to loose"

In fact, Senator "Cruz to loose" was born in Canada and his father was a Cuban immigrant. "Cruz to loose" can't possibly be so hypocritical as to oppose American immigration reform, when his parents were immigrants. But he does.

Nevetheless, Senator Ted Cruz is prosletizing about how immigraaiton reform is dangerous, regardless of who isn't listening.  

Cruz Lets Loose in Lonely Senate Floor Speech- reports The Texas Tribune

WASHINGTON -- Fresh off the campaign trail in Iowa, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz returned to the U.S. Capitol Monday to escalate his attacks against his party's leadership for not fighting hard enough against President Obama.

In an hour-long speech on a nearly empty Senate floor that ended when he could not gain permission to continue, the state's junior senator and presidential hopeful expanded his usual criticisms of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to include outgoing House Speaker John Boehner. Cruz also lambasted fellow Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, spoke of the recent lunar eclipse and boasted of a puzzling personal role in law enforcement.

"Speaker Boehner faced a conundrum," Cruz said of Boehner's abrupt decision to step down. "If he does what he and McConnell promised, which is funding all of Barack Obama’s priorities, he would have lost his job."

"And so what did he do?" Cruz asked. "He announced he’s resigning as speaker and resigning as a member of Congress."

He also took aim at his colleague from Texas, Majority Whip Cornyn.  Dozens of times, he questioned the integrity of "Republican leadership," a reference that includes Cornyn in his capacity as the second-ranking Senate Republican.

He specifically called out Cornyn, along with a handful of other senior Republican senators, for voting down a Cruz amendment targeting funding for Planned Parenthood and the Iran nuclear weapons deal via voice vote.

In contrast, Cruz cast himself and conservative senators and House members who frequently vote with him as the only elected members performing their jobs with the will of the American public in mind.

The speech lasted until his colleagues refused to extend his allotted time. Along the way, Cruz made several pop culture references — the Sunday night lunar eclipse, the movie "The Terminator" and the novel "Brave New World" — not an altogether unimaginable departure from his marathon 2013 speech two years ago which included a reading of "Green Eggs and Ham."

He also claimed the mantle of the badge:

"I'm an alumnus of the U.S. Department of Justice," he said. "I was an associate deputy attorney general. I spent much of my adult life working in law enforcement."

Cruz served in that position for six months, according to his online LinkedIn.

He held several positions in the George W. Bush 2000 presidential campaign and administration, clerked in the federal judicial branch, represented Texas before the state and federal Supreme Courts for five and a half years and was a private practice attorney for nearly seven years.

A Cruz spokeswoman fleshed out the comment via email.

"Cruz's role in law enforcement as a prosecutor is proven over the course of more than a decade," Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier wrote. "As Texas' solicitor general and an attorney in private practice, he supervised and approved criminal appeals cases, and argued numerous criminal cases, including before the Supreme Court."

In other words, Senator Ted Cruz clearly speaks with a forked tonge.  He spews extremism and preaches his positions like a television evangelist, except he's not preaching the Bible. In fact, "Cruz to loose" is evangelizing about the world according to him.

Obviously, Senator Ted Cruz cannot be president of the United States or leader of the free world because (a) his immigration rhetoric is not based on supporting the American dream of upward mobility (b) certainly, his political speeches are uninspiring and (c) Cruz looks like a cardboard cut out poster, rather than a real human being. 

Senator Ted Cruz isn't qualified to be leader of the free world. His chaotic anti refugee positions are inconsistent with his own family's immigration history!  His positions on income redistribution, gun regulation Second Amendment reforms and aginst immigraton reforms have disqualified him to be President.

Therefore, Cruz must consider this cumulative information and, therefore, remoe himself from the presidential 2015 race.