Posted on 02/18/2021 3:01:21 PM PST by Bearshouse
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) responded to allegations that he flew to Cancun, Mexico, in the midst of record cold temperatures and snowfall in Texas—which has been besieged by power outages over the past several days.
Cruz appeared to confirm that he went to Cancun, saying that “with school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon.”
“My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas,” he said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the power outages and, in some cases, loss of water.
I remember two good leaders who brought hope to the people of Pennsylvania in times of crisis.
I remember in 1972, when Richard Nixon helicoptered onto a hill beside a high school in Harrisburg, when the city was inundated in the Agnes Flood.His visit boosted our spirits immensely.
I remember in 1979, when Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter stood at Ground Zero of the TMI nuclear accident, risking their health to bring solace to the people. I cried when I saw them there on TV. We had evacuated with our whole family, and did not know if or when we could ever return home.
These Presidents, one Republican and one Democrat, really cared about the people.
Actions speak louder than words.
***Cruz’s campaign managers are in the house.
Welcome to Free Republic, I think. 🤪🙀🇺🇸 ***
I don’t think they’ll be around long. I think when one has one’s head that far up Cruz’s behind, suffocation sets in pretty quickly.
Well, that’s my take on it. I don’t think Ted thought it
through very well.
If a Democrat leader is doing their duty to try and console
the people, I respect that. As long as they aren’t gaming
the situation, I support what they are doing.
I don’t care for Carter at all, but if he was there to
genuinely encourage people, that’s important and I approve.
That’s stupid. Where Cruz is is the least of our concerns in Texas right now.
How does the liberal media koolaid taste? Must be yummy. You’re drunk on it.
He doesn’t. But he can stay informed and on top of the situation. He seems to be doing that. Do you really need it explained to you how that’s not the same as having authority within the state?
Oh shut up. He is the best senator texas has had in a LONG time.
I’ll vote for him every single time.
Agreed. Most of, if not all, of these FR detractors are not Texans, that I can tell you.
You obvi aren’t in texas. We don’t need ANY photo ops. Puke! We need the governor to DO HIS JOB. We don’t need cruz taking up time with meetings with him.
We don’t politicians pounding their fists begging for federal money. It’s been approved already. So sounds like yall just mad to be mad.
Nailed. It.
Oh so if cruz did what beto is doing then the media would love him? They’d report it? Or would they be eating him alive regardless what he does?
This Texan is telling you that you are full of crap.
STOP HELPING LIBERALS BY EATING OUR OWN.
Would you stop attacking our senator and one of the only good guys left?
WE DON’T CARE WHAT CRUZ IS DOING.
But it does piss us off to have liberals and media attack our senator while we are literally in survival mode here.
The last thing we need is our side helping them.
Cruz put his family first? I AM OK WITH THAT. So are all my friends who actually live in Texas and support him.
There’s no reason for you to keep on and on and on harping on him except to help the left.
You may not care, but a lot of people do. And this is basically handing TX to the dems by both Abbott and Cruz. I’ll never vote for either again. I’m not going to vote dem, I’ll just leave them blank. And don’t forget Cruz barely won last time. It’s not the media or anything, he did this to himself.
Agreed, D1. Knowing that someone important or important to you is being supportive, even if only in words, can be a major positive in how someone handles a crisis.
My Mom has been going through a tough time, health-wise, and presently is in rehab. Although I live 90 minutes away, I try to visit often (it’s through a dang outside window - brrr!!! - due to COVID) often and since many days I cannot, those days I call her once if not twice a day. Plus we do Zoom meetings with other family members participating too, when possible. The main purpose is to remind Mom regularly that she has lots of support, and to help keep her spirits up. So, we can’t PHYSICALLY help, but, the emotional support is important. Without it, the odds of a bad outcome go up substantially.
Aside from that, some people may not like it, but the reality is that optics = votes.
Or how about you take your daughters with you in work clothes, boots and gloves, and teach them to pitch in and help when your constituents are in danger. That would have been great photography for any future campaign, and an educational experience for your pampered daughters.
There’s a very interesting point made in the article at your link: TX presently depends on wind power for just 7% of it’s power demand in the winter. 7%!!!
Even if all of that 7% failed, it would not have been a disaster if the existing baseline sources (coal, nuclear, and gas if properly handled) had been properly winterized, contingency plans made, and so on. A 7% shortage, or even 10% could be managed with outages to industries, large government buildings, and so on.
Unfortunately, the baseline power plants appear to still not be sufficiently winterized, despite the experience of a similar but less brutal event in 2011: Even the freezing up of and pressure drops in gas supply pipelines turned out to not be the problem it might have been. Why? Because so many gas powered plants had a whole range of other equipment crucial to operation freeze up. In 2011, wind turbine failure rates were no worse than the baseline power sources failure rates. Some types of gas plants failed at particularly high rates.
https://www.balch.com/files/upload/NERC_8_16_2011_SW_Cold_Weather_Event_Final_Report.pdf
Certainly too much reliance on wind power COULD become problematic, because what do you do on bitter cold calm day? But, it is not yet at that level. The present problem is reliance on baseline plants that aren’t really baseline because they and their sources are not sufficiently winterized.
(As an aside, I wonder what the costs per MW are to add winterization to a wind turbine and it’s associated equipment if included in construction, vs. the costs to refit “baseline” power plants. This still does not solve the truly inherent problem of a wind turbine given a cold, calm period, but I’m guessing that such are not the highest demand winter days.)
Perhaps Texans should be asked if they would like to see incentives and subsidies revoked for any new Green power and put toward low interest loans to Utilities for winterization of existing baseline power plants. In addition, as a matter of public safety, demand that emissions regs on all power plants be rolled back to 2010 standards until the grid can be ascertained to be rock solid.
ROFLOL! That says it all.
I can guarantee 99% of the people who waited in multi-hour long gas lines every other day to fill up their tanks and wrote checks for 18% mortgagees, they weren't all comforted and admiring Peanut Head's empathy skills like you.
So totaly out out touch with what's really important to people. You can't make this stuff up. CDS does make one say very dumb stuff.
Thanks Paul. Appreciate the note of agreement.
This is a tough time with your mom. Sorry you’re having to through this with her right now. This isolation is unreal, and I know it’s tough on her
and you guys. Best of luck with that.
A FReeper expressed how it was helpful for Carter to do what he did, and
I reacted favorably to how helpful it was to him, and you blow that out into
something it wasn’t.
Your desperation is showing.
Ted f’d up. He knows it. You know it.
I did not say I approved of a single other thing Carter did, but your flawed logic extrapolated some sort of broad approval of the man. Wrong!
Carter was a buffoon. He remains one today.
If it weren’t for Obama and now Biden, Carter would have been our worst president.
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