Life in Texas Is a Real Mind-Bender

I had perhaps 8 – 10 clients in Texas through the many years I operated my marketing services business, mainly in Dallas and Austin, one in Houston.  I never resented going there, perhaps due to the fact that I was getting paid, but probably more so because it wasn’t the three-ring circus that it is today.

Everything we outsiders can see looking in is surreal.

For starters, the state is governed by Greg Abbott, a man who has an extremely flimsy grasp on reality.  The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc., or ERCOT, operates the electric grid and manages the deregulated market for 90% of the state’s load. It’s not connected to the power grids that serve the other 49 states, and it’s operated so as to maximize profitability.  Last winter, 246 Texans froze to death and many millions of people lived without power for 17 days but managed to survive.  They learned the hard way that the deferral of maintenance and modernization has horrific consequences.

Now Abbott “promises” no outages this year.  This comes from a man who a) wouldn’t know a substation from a bowling alley, and b) knows goddamn well that ERCOT is still way behind the curve.

His anti-science executive orders to the effect that “no entity in Texas” can mandate COVID vaccines, his clearly unconstitutional ban on abortion, his theater at the border, his vehement opposition to even the mildest forms of gun control, his Quixotic attempt to ban critical race theory, and his assault on climate change mitigation all combine to make Texas the Barnum and Bailey of the United States.

The difference, of course, is that circuses are fun, and life under Abbott’s governorship is painful, that is, when it’s not lethal.