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Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day. This thread is for 'smaller' stories that don't call for their own thread. If a story blows up, please start a new thread for it.

Although they're probably better off without him there.

Imagine, imagine how absolutely loathed you have to be for the other members of your groupchat to snitch you out to the f*cking NEW YORK TIMES.

Ted Cruz’s Cancún Trip: Family Texts Detail His Political Blunder

New York Times wrote:

Like millions of his constituents across Texas, Senator Ted Cruz had a frigid home without electricity this week amid the state’s power crisis. But unlike most, Mr. Cruz got out, fleeing Houston and hopping a Wednesday afternoon flight to Cancún with his family for a respite at a luxury resort.

Photos of Mr. Cruz and his wife, Heidi, boarding the flight ricocheted quickly across social media and left both his political allies and rivals aghast at a tropical trip as a disaster unfolded at home. The blowback only intensified after Mr. Cruz, a Republican, released a statement saying he had flown to Mexico “to be a good dad” and accompany his daughters and their friends; he noted he was flying back Thursday afternoon, though he did not disclose how long he had originally intended to stay.

Text messages sent from Ms. Cruz to friends and Houston neighbors on Wednesday revealed a hastily planned trip. Their house was “FREEZING,” as Ms. Cruz put it — and she proposed a getaway until Sunday. Ms. Cruz invited others to join them at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancún, where they had stayed “many times,” noting the room price this week ($309 per night) and its good security. The text messages were provided to The New York Times and confirmed by a second person on the thread, who declined to be identified because of the private nature of the texts.

...

If Mr. Cruz intended to leave the impression that he meant to stay for only a day, his large suitcase and the group text messages Ms. Cruz had sent planning a longer itinerary suggested he had cut his trip short. NBC reported separately that Mr. Cruz had rebooked his return ticket on Thursday morning.

“With school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends,” Mr. Cruz said of his daughters, who are 10 and 12, in his statement on Thursday. “Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon.”

So he throws his kids under the bus claiming that the trip was for them and he was flying right back. Then NBC does a little digging and finds out he rebooked his flight back at 6:00 AM today for later in the day because he was originally staying through the weekend. And now it comes out that the trip was hastily planned precisely because the power was out in the Cruz's Texas home and they wanted to get away to somewhere warm. And this mfer gets to be a Senator for another four years.

Kudos to Cruz's neighbors for ratting him out. They should get a medal or something.

Aw, Prederickhausered.

Prederick wrote:

Imagine, imagine how absolutely loathed you have to be for the other members of your groupchat to snitch you out to the f*cking NEW YORK TIMES.

Hahahhaha delightful.

At least two members of the chat confirmed haha.

A friend mentioned something to me that makes sense though: This could be a calculated move by the groupchat members to get Cruz to like them.

Last time someone sh*t-talked Cruz's family, he was their bestest-best friend for the next four years.

So now you can leave and re-enter the US without a quarantine?

Rat Boy wrote:

So now you can leave and re-enter the US without a quarantine?

They've tried quarantining him before but unfortunately he tests positive for being Ted Cruz no matter how long they wait.

After rushing back to America one of the first things Cruz does is get interviewed by Hannity.

Not get in contact with the Governor of Texas or the mayors of Texas towns to ask what they need and how he can help. Not contact FEMA to see how help for his constituents can be expedited.

But be interviewed by a Fox News f*cker who maybe has a couple ten thousand viewers who even live in Texas and have him repeat lies that were debunked by actual journalists hours ago.

To be fair, he understands that the best thing for him to do here is changing the narrative, and Hannity will be 100% sympathetic and helpful with that.

Cruz doesn't care about his constituents, he has no real principles or allegiance, and he’s entirely empty aside from the endless maw of ambition inside him. Thus, that is the correct decision.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/n6V78Xc.jpg)

Al Franken: "Here's the thing you have to understand about Ted Cruz. I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz."

The sad truth of the matter is that Ted Cruz is in the same mold as McConnell and Trump. He can do anything and there are no true repercussions. Cruz isn't up for reelection until 2024 (and I bet he runs for President again). These latest actions by this reprehensible human garbage will have been long forgotten by then and simply another line on a very long list.

To underscore JC's point, this is a text exchange with my father:

Me: I guess Ted Cruz had a good idea to leave for vacation.

Dad: He did not go on vacation. He escorted his daughters and came home.

Me: Yeah don't believe it. Cruz only came back due to the backlash.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/u...

Dad: I don't care where he was. He could not do anything to fix it. Except, make phone calls, to pressure someone, which he could do from anywhere. And which would not fix anything.

Me: And yet Beto O'rourke managed to organize volunteers to reach out to people to get them connected with emergency services.
Cruz criticized the Austin mayor in December for literally doing the exact same thing. He's a hypocrite.
AOC raised over $1M for Texas relief. And she doesn't even represent the state.

Dad: So I heard from MSM. So what. She is an idiot and you know it.

Me: MSM? Actually AOC is brilliant. She routinely makes republicans look like idiots.

Dad: Main Stream Media.
Don't know Greene. When did you become a communist fan? Goodbye

Me: Communist? Come on Dad. Next you'll be telling me that Trump actually won the election and that the Jan 6th insurrectionists were true patriots

That was the end of the exchange.

I know many of you have had similar interactions. It really is like a cult, isn't it?

So sad. Hang in there. If he has any other moderating influence in his life, he may see some light dimly someday.

One of the saddest things about my dad's illness that he eventually succumbed to was that over the years, he and I used to have conversations very similar to that one. But after his stroke, he kept telling my mom that he had to talk to me because he realized he had been wrong about so many things. I had to reassure him that it was okay, he never really hurt anyone, and I was doing fine.

TBH, he had been gradually changing even before that. We had argument after argument about Coronavirus, and something somewhere got through to him and he apologized to me and admitted he had been wrong. I was so happy to hear that. I just wish he had come to that realization about his mind being poisoned by Hannity (his big hero) years earlier.

My Dad went from considering Trump the lesser of two evils compared to Hillary and saying that he'd probably be a bad president, but if the nation survived Nixon it could survive him, to openly wishing for a fate to befall him that would probably be against TOS for me to repeat and agree with.

That's a shorter distance to travel than a lot of y'all's relations, it sounds like, but it's something maybe?

I think one thing that's not as surprising in retrospect is that a lot of people don't know about what congressional representatives can do in an emergency. Every member of congress has a staff of people and spend a lot of their time dealing with their constituents' problems. That's one way that you can directly get help from your government, particularly when dealing with another part of your government. It's even helped me when I had a DMV issue getting my first driver's license.

In a disaster it's even more crucial: in a disaster making connections is super-important to get resources where they need to go. Our elected representatives can be a huge help with logistics; draw attention in the media; connect people and agencies with resources to people who need help; rebuild the infrastructure afterwards; allocate funding; convey clear information in the news and debunk misinformation; raise money; and a few dozen other things.

It's mostly soft power and social connections, which explains why the extreme right-wing discounts it, but it is a catalyst that keeps our society actually functioning through unexpected problems.

Moreover, as Jamelle Bouie pointed out:

POLITICS IS PERFORMATIVE! regardless of whether cruz has the power to make a difference in the crisis, it matters what he does and how he acts!

But I don't think anyone who voted for Cruz cares about the hypocrisy or really wants him or any of their leaders to do anything but "trigger the libs," so yeah, this'll be a funny footnote in three months.

Looks like y'all north of the border have got some Tim Qorton's crazies yourself.

I mention this because of how mendacious operators like Cruz have decided to try and work this kind of stuff.

You see, they'll say they don't believe in it, necessarily, but they will mention the lie, help spread the lie, and when enough people are talking about the lie, insist that we must address the lie as if it is true because "a lot of people are talking about it and their concerns should be heard," legitimizing the lie.

That MP is an idiot and on the extreme right of the Conservative Party of Canada and she has always bought full into conspiracy theories.

Texas is a special kind of special... Not to mention markets in general really seem to be designed to F-over the little people. But who needs regulation, am I right?

Winter Storm Energy Prices in Texas Leave Customers With Astronomical Bills That Can Reach Up to $17,000

Customers of the power supplier Griddy have expressed despair and frustration over these bills in the aftermath of one of the worst winter storms to hit the state in recent years. Griddy offers its customers wholesale variable plans with rates per kilowatt-hour tied to market prices, which rose to their maximum state-imposed cap of $9,000 a megawatt-hour for five days this week. At times, plans like those offered by Griddy mean that customers save money when the cost of energy is low. However, when prices go up, it can mean trouble.

These types of plans are not the norm; most Texans have fixed-rate energy plans. In comparison, Griddy has 29,000 customers.

Last weekend, Griddy warned its customers that it was expecting significantly higher prices in the near future. It even told all of them that they should switch to another provider.

But that was easier said than done. Williams, the Griddy customer from Arlington, stated that he tried to switch providers but that he was told making the change would take at least a week. Griddy customers who spoke the Morning News reported similar experiences. Fox reported that Williams was finally able to switch at the end of this week.

Griddy's response on their webpage is laughable...

The market is supposed to set the prices, not political appointees.

And here is what we are going to do:

We intend to fight this for, and alongside, our customers for equity and accountability – to reveal why such price increases were allowed to happen as millions of Texans went without power.

Hey Griddy- Here's an easy win- We understand the plight, difficulty, and impact to our customers during this unique and catastrophic winter storm. We choose to support our fellow Texans and will be waiving all charges.

JC wrote:

Texas is a special kind of special... Not to mention markets in general really seem to be designed to F-over the little people. But who needs regulation, am I right?

....

Hey Griddy- Here's an easy win- We understand the plight, difficulty, and impact to our customers during this unique and catastrophic winter storm. We choose to support our fellow Texans and will be waiving all charges.

As you said at the top it is because of a lack of regulation which Texans happily voted for when it lowered their bills so why should Griddy go bankrupt or at least lose a lot of money? All they did was exactly what "the people" wanted.

Part of me knows it is unfair to those suffering but part of me know they gleefully looked at their lower bills when they got rid of that evil regulation.

Of course this is bigger than any one voter but still I think all sides need to be held accountable. It isn't fair for Griddy to kick the cost to the customers but it isn't fair for the customers to kick the cost to Griddy either.

farley3k wrote:
JC wrote:

Texas is a special kind of special... Not to mention markets in general really seem to be designed to F-over the little people. But who needs regulation, am I right?

....

Hey Griddy- Here's an easy win- We understand the plight, difficulty, and impact to our customers during this unique and catastrophic winter storm. We choose to support our fellow Texans and will be waiving all charges.

As you said at the top it is because of a lack of regulation which Texans happily voted for when it lowered their bills so why should Griddy go bankrupt or at least lose a lot of money? All they did was exactly what "the people" wanted.

Part of me knows it is unfair to those suffering but part of me know they gleefully looked at their lower bills when they got rid of that evil regulation.

Of course this is bigger than any one voter but still I think all sides need to be held accountable. It isn't fair for Griddy to kick the cost to the customers but it isn't fair for the customers to kick the cost to Griddy either.

First time red stating huh? Jk.

Yeah they sure are opposed to anything big gov like until it's not in their favor then they love it. My grandparents were in Texas and had a very similar view.

Sometimes the invisible hand is not satisfied with merely slapping people, it’s gotta pick them up and try to crush them in its giant palm.

farley3k wrote:
JC wrote:

Texas is a special kind of special... Not to mention markets in general really seem to be designed to F-over the little people. But who needs regulation, am I right?

....

Hey Griddy- Here's an easy win- We understand the plight, difficulty, and impact to our customers during this unique and catastrophic winter storm. We choose to support our fellow Texans and will be waiving all charges.

As you said at the top it is because of a lack of regulation which Texans happily voted for when it lowered their bills so why should Griddy go bankrupt or at least lose a lot of money? All they did was exactly what "the people" wanted.

Part of me knows it is unfair to those suffering but part of me know they gleefully looked at their lower bills when they got rid of that evil regulation.

Of course this is bigger than any one voter but still I think all sides need to be held accountable. It isn't fair for Griddy to kick the cost to the customers but it isn't fair for the customers to kick the cost to Griddy either.

Texas deregulated its electrical system in 2002 and opened the doors for pretty much any business to sell electricity to consumers.

Griddy incorporated in 2016. The only thing it seems to have done differently than all those other businesses is make an app and sell consumers electricity at real-time wholesale prices.

If Griddy buried the knowledge that their customers' bills could spike to four or five digits if the Texas electrical grid went pear-shaped then they should be sued by the state for deceptive business practices. And I'd wager that any acknowledgement Griddy might have provided was buried deep in their T's and C's because no company is going to market a product saying that it might become ridiculously expensive if certain conditions are met.

This problem was caused by companies that generated the electricity and who then pocketed all the profit instead of using part or all of it to continually invest in their business and do things like winterize their equipment. These are the same companies that the Texas Public Utility Commission are allowing to charge $9,000 per MWh when their actual generation cost is a small fraction of that.

Also benefiting are the gas providers who managed to keep their equipment functioning either through luck or foresight. The CFO of one of those gas drillers told investors that "Obviously, this week is like hitting the jackpot," when spot gas prices jumped from $3 per mBtu to $999 per mBtu. I mean there's nothing like having the price of your product increase 33,000% when you've done absolutely nothing to merit that increase.

So if you're looking at who should be taking the financial bath for what happened you should probably start with who benefited the most: generators and oil & gas producers. They should actually get hit twice because they not only made an ass load of money last week, but their sloppy maintenance and inability to plan for cold weather was the root cause of the blackouts.

Griddy needs to pay because they almost definitely hid information from or downplayed the risk of their service to their 29,000 customers. They marketed their service as something that would save their customers money in the long run by charging market rates. They didn't push the fact that they could bankrupt their customers in a day or two if electricity prices fluctuated nor did they provide customers with a workable offramp should that happen. Instead, they were just one of those fake "innovative" companies that just put all of the risk on the shoulders of consumers while charging them a service fee.

Griddy's customers are also to blame because there's no such thing as a free lunch and they should have known that wholesale electricity prices aren't *always* going to be cheaper than whatever other companies might charge. They should have recognized the potential downside though, again, I doubt Griddy let them know how big of downside they actually faced.

And every Texan's to blame for voting for the assholes who deregulated their electrical utility and they'll be doubly to blame if they don't demand the hides of the people who let this happen and move to re-regulate Texas's electrical utilities and connect the state with the rest of the country's grid.

There is an old saying:
Penny wise, pound foolish

It seems to be the motto of our country for the last I don't know how many decades. Maybe it is really a mantra for capitalism...

The fact that our economy is allowed to operate at full tilt with no thought of when the getting is ok to great that we don't put away something or hold it back for dips is amazing. But someone's pockets are lined with gold.

OG_slinger wrote:

And every Texan's to blame for voting for the assholes who deregulated their electrical utility and they'll be doubly to blame if they don't demand the hides of the people who let this happen and move to re-regulate Texas's electrical utilities and connect the state with the rest of the country's grid.

I'll point out that Texas is heavily gerrymandered and a lot of people in Texas would like nothing better than to vote out the GOP.

farley3k wrote:

As you said at the top it is because of a lack of regulation which Texans happily voted for when it lowered their bills so why should Griddy go bankrupt or at least lose a lot of money? All they did was exactly what "the people" wanted.

Should we examine the voting record and only hose those who actually DID vote for deregulation? Exactly how granular should we get when dealing out karmic retribution to people? How about children whose parents voted for deregulation? Will your schadenfreude keep them warm?

We all know not all Texans voted for Republicans. We really don't need to "not all Texans" people everytime someone says the people who did vote for Republicans deserve a share of the blame.