AP: “As frozen Texas reels under one of the worst electricity outages in U.S. history, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has blamed grid operators and iced-over wind turbines but gone easier on another culprit: an oil and gas industry that is the state’s dominant business and his biggest political contributor. And as the toll deepened Friday from a week of historic winter storms, which have killed more than 20 people in Texas, the dogpiling on a power grid that is proudly isolated from the rest of the country ignores warnings known by the state’s GOP leaders for years.”

“‘It’s almost like a murder suspect blaming their right hand for committing the crime,’ said Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. His suburban Austin home lost power for 40 hours and had no working faucets Thursday, when roughly 1 in 4 people in Texas woke up under instructions to boil water. Like most of the state’s 30 million residents, Talarico’s power is controlled by grid managers at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which Abbott again laid into Thursday after more than 4 million people at one point were enduring outages in subfreezing temperatures. But that is not where the responsibility ends, as power plants that feed the grid were knocked offline by the extreme cold, and natural gas producers didn’t protect wellheads from freezing. ‘ERCOT is a convenient whipping boy,’ Talarico said. The crisis has put the fossil fuel industry that lavishes the Texas Capitol with money in the crosshairs in ways that Abbott has not had to navigate when steering America’s second-largest state through other disasters, including hurricanes and the ongoing pandemic. For the first time Thursday, Abbott called on Texas to mandate that power plants be winterized.”

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus presented this militaristic demonstration from its national police force for a high school in the country, apparently for its Career Day.

https://youtu.be/-lyi1YICreY

Researchers from the World Health Organization in China continue to investigate how the SARS CoV-2 virus made the jump from animals to humans, focusing in on ferret badgers and rabbits, not bats as was originally thought, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Previous research found that a close relative of the SARS CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, was found in bats, but the variant was not the one that infected humans.  Epidemiologists have found a closer relative in ferret badgers and rabbits, common protein sources in Asian markets, particularly in the Wuhan region.

Researchers are quick to point out that they have not yet identified the vector of the virus and how it was transferred to humans.  While it could have been through the ingestion of meat, it is also just as likely that humans came in contact with the virus through fecal matter, widening the possible locations where the first human might have contracted the virus. 

Florida Politics: “In West Palm Beach Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed expectations that he would order flags to half staff for fallen radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, a local. The lowering will happen when funeral arrangements are announced, which DeSantis spokesperson Meredith Beatrice confirmed was protocol. For those tracking the Governor’s messaging in the two days since the conservative talk show host died of lung cancer on Ash Wednesday, the lowering of the flag represents tribute, recognition, and respect for the man regarded by many as the standard bearer of American mainstream conservatism.”

This doesn’t sound legal…

One shouldn’t be forced against their will to be vaccinated.

The vaccination is there for those who want it, and are in need of it due to medical vulnerabilities. https://t.co/fCUXBOhef5

— Rep. Madison Cawthorn (@RepCawthorn) February 18, 2021

President Joe Biden, addressing the virtual meeting of the Munich Security Conference, declared “America is back” and rededicated the United States to its partnerships and allies in Europe, CBS News reports.

“America is back. I speak to you today as president of the United States at the very start of my administration, and I’m sending a clear message to the world — America is back,” Biden stated.

Biden noted that the United States will face the issues facing the Western world, from Chinese trade practices to Russian cyberattacks to the Iranian nuclear program.  Biden asserted that the US would work with its European partners to manage these international concerns, and he restated US commitment to NATO, an organization his predecessor compromised through threats to defund and exit.

“As of this writing, the total raised for relief efforts by Abbott, Patrick, Cruz, Cornyn, and Paxton combined remains $0” says a Texas Signal article comparing the Fox News rhetoric and bullshit of those five with the work of Beto O’Rourke and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who represents New York City, mind you) to get help to people in need in during Texas’s winter storm crisis.

Don't vote for anyone you wouldn't trust with your dog.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) February 19, 2021

Democrats Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Congressman Joe Neguse of Colorado have re-introduced a bill that would rejuvenate the FDR-era Conservation Corps, a federal agency dedicated to improve public lands, Neguse announced on Twitter.

Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program that put tens of thousands of people to work during the Great Depression, undertook a number of environmental programs, from erosion prevention to forest management to flood control. In an era when jobs were hard to find, the CCC provided vital income to families and aided in economic development.  It lasted from 1933 until 1942, when World War II required manpower to join the armed forces.

The Wyden/Neguse plan targets the same environmental goals as the FDR program, but with less manpower.  First proposed by John McCain in 2017 but shot down by the Trump Administration, the 21st Century Conservation Corps bill will fund wildfire prevention programs, forest management, erosion control and restoration of facilities in federal parks.

More than 100,000 Mississippians are currently without power, with more outages expected as a second wave of winter weather sweeps through the region in what Republican Governor Tate Reeves calls a “slow moving disaster,” the Washington Post reports.

Mississippi has the second-most households without power, trailing only Texas, but Mississippi has 10% of the population of Texas.  Reeves said power may not be restored for days. Entergy Mississippi noted that the power outages were due to damaged transformers and hundreds of miles of downed power lines.

A cursory search of airline records shows that neither of Mississippi’s Republican Senators have booked flights to foreign resorts.

Washington Post political columnist Greg Sargent’s Friday piece includes this batshit excerpt about Steve Bannon’s plans to take over the GOP and make it even more MAGA than it already is:

“[Bannon] recently told a Boston audience that he hopes to see Trump run for Congress in 2022, then run for Speaker of the House (which Bannon presumes Republicans will win), then preside over the impeachment of President Biden: ‘We totally get rid of Nancy Pelosi, and the first act of President Trump as speaker will be to impeach Joe Biden for his illegitimate activities of stealing the presidency,’ Bannon said, leading to applause and hollers from the Boston Republicans. This is rank crackpottery, but here again, the singular organizing and motivating principle is the idea that Trump’s loss to Biden couldn’t possibly have been legitimate, or that there’s simply zero obligation on the part of the Trump movement to recognize it as such, and that loyalty to Trump requires unwavering fealty to that idea.”

Washingtonian obtained a copy of the “Standard Operating Procedure” manual for the BLT Prime restaurant in the Trump International Hotel in DC, and goddamn that man is a child:

“As soon as Trump was seated, the server had to ‘discreetly present’ a mini bottle of Purell hand sanitizer. (This applied long before Covid, mind you.) Next, cue dialogue: ‘Good (time of day) Mr. President. Would you like your Diet Coke with or without ice?’ the server was instructed to recite. A polished tray with chilled bottles and highball glasses was already prepared for either response. Directions for pouring the soda were detailed in a process no fewer than seven steps long – and illustrated with four photo exhibits. The beverage had to be opened in front of the germaphobe commander in chief, ‘never beforehand.’ The server was to hold a longneck-bottle opener by the lower third of the handle in one hand and the Diet Coke, also by the lower third, in the other. Once poured, the drink had to be placed at the President’s right-hand side. ‘Repeat until POTUS departs.'”

“Trump always had the same thing: shrimp cocktail, well-done steak, and fries (plus sometimes apple pie or chocolate cake for dessert). Popovers – make it a double for the President – had to be served within two minutes and the crustaceans ‘immediately.’ The manual instructed the server to open mini glass bottles of Heinz ketchup in front of Trump, taking care to ensure he could hear the seal make the ‘pop’ sound. Garnishes were a no-no. Trump himself never returned a plate, but if he was disappointed, you can bet the complaint would travel down the ranks. Like the time the President questioned why his dining companion had a bigger steak. The restaurant already special-ordered super-sized shrimp just for him and no one else. Next time, they’d better beef up the beef.”

The Biden Justice Department will never hold those who perpetrated the Russia Hoax accountable.

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) February 19, 2021

Washington Post: “The coronavirus vaccine is so coveted that two women in Florida went to extremes Wednesday to get inoculated: They dressed as if they were elderly, health officials said. The women, both younger than 45, ‘dressed up as grannies,’ wearing bonnets, gloves and glasses to disguise themselves as older than 65, the age cutoff to be prioritized to get the coronavirus vaccine in Florida, according to Raul Pino, the director of the health department in Orange County, where Orlando is located. He attributed the deception to growing interest in the vaccine, giving the example of the women while explaining how high demand is in the area.”

“‘This is the hottest commodity that is out there right now, so we have to be very careful,’ Pino said at a news briefing Thursday. The geriatric guise is the latest instance of people trying to cut the line to get vaccinated from the deadly virus. Last month, authorities identified a wealthy Canadian couple who had posed as locals in a remote Indigenous community to take doses meant for elders. Meanwhile, an Indiana health department issued a warning earlier this month against what it called ‘a substantial lack of morality’ after people had lied to vaccination site workers about their addresses, jobs and ages.”

On Twitter’s trending topics there’s an item “Abbott is a Republican“, explained as “People point out Texas Governor Greg Abbott is a Republican after Donald Trump Jr. says those criticizing Ted Cruz have been silent on ‘their Democrat Governor’s incompetence'” referring to Donald Trump Jr’s Tweet from Thursday night in which he linked to a clip of him talking to the camera on the video platform “Rumble” (which is basically to YouTube what Parler is to Twitter) likely coked up and rambling about the supposed hypocrisy of those attacking Ted Cruz for the Cancun trip.

Because Don Jr is an idiot, he misplaced the apostrophe in the tweet and wrote governor’s where he meant governors’ since it appears that in his tiny brain all of the criticism of Cruz is coming from people in New York and California – whose governors Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom, respectively, have been taking a lot of heat these days over their handling of the pandemic. Don Jr touches on this briefly in the video, mentioning shutdowns and “ignoring their own executive orders”. Indeed the descriptor below the Rumble video even says “The left is trying to cancel Cancún Cruz but it’s not his job. Maybe they should focus on their governors!!!” which, since it’s spelled correctly, sort of clears this up.

In conclusion, Don Jr is a dumbass, but this Twitter pile-on is misdirected because he never claimed Greg Abbott is a Democrat. Junior simply can’t spell for shit and was too vague overall in his real point, which was “Why are you ripping on Ted Cruz when Newsom and Cuomo suck too?”

“President Biden spoke to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday about the ongoing winter storm crisis that left millions without power for days. Abbott in an earlier news conference said he would ask Biden to declare a major disaster declaration to help residents whose homes have been damaged by the Arctic storm that has left dozens dead in the state, according to KSAT-TV in San Antonio. The governor called on state lawmakers to mandate the winterization of power generators and for the modernization of the grid, KSAT reported. ‘All of us agree on the necessity of action,’ Abbott told reporters. ‘Not just the action taken to restore your power but an action to ensure that you never have to endure anything like this ever again.'”

“On Sunday, the president approved a federal emergency declaration in Texas, moving resources and supplies to Texas as the storm hammered the state. A power grid failure this week forced the state’s operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, to enact day’s-long blackouts in the state and nearly 13 million Texans have also been advised to boil their drinking water. During the phone call, the president reiterated that the federal government will continue to work with authorities in Texas ‘to bring relief and address the critical needs of the families affected,’ a White House readout of the call said. Biden ‘also shared his intentions to instruct additional federal agencies to look into any immediate steps that could be taken to support Texans at this time,’ the White House said, adding the administration is ready to give further assistance to Texas and other states affected by the winter storm” – Fox News.

Reuters: “The United States officially rejoined the Paris climate agreement on Friday, reinvigorating the global fight against climate change as the Biden administration plans drastic emissions cuts over the next three decades. Scientists and foreign diplomats have welcomed the U.S. return to the treaty, which became official here 30 days after President Joe Biden ordered the move on his first day in office.”

“Since nearly 200 countries signed the 2015 pact to prevent catastrophic climate change, the United States was the only country to exit. Former President Donald Trump took the step, claiming climate action would cost too much. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry will take part in virtual events on Friday to mark the U.S. re-entry, including appearances with the ambassadors to the UK and Italy, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and U.N. climate ambition envoy Michael Bloomberg.”

Congratulations to NASA and everyone whose hard work made Perseverance’s historic landing possible. Today proved once again that with the power of science and American ingenuity, nothing is beyond the realm of possibility. pic.twitter.com/NzSxW6nw4k

— President Biden (@POTUS) February 18, 2021

A four-story apartment building in a San Antonio, Texas complex caught fire with responding fire departments handicapped by frozen fire hydrants.  The building is a complete loss, collapsing on cars in the parking lot and setting them afire.  Fire companies are trucking in water to battle the blaze, which reportedly started Thursday evening.

https://youtu.be/9ZJVXa-wsGk