Come For The Ungodly Heat, Stay For The Entertainment

CenterPoint Energy estimates that hundreds of thousands of customers will remain without power into next week. As of Friday morning, 877,000 households and businesses it serves lacked electricity. https://t.co/ZfEHn79MQg

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) July 12, 2024

How it was going.

Day 4 post-#HurricaneBeryl and 1.1 million Texans are still without power. People are fed up. But CenterPoint is restoring power at a faster pace than after prior storms. (Still, ppl will be without power next week) For @TexasTribune w/ @emfoxhall https://t.co/AsjIFq2v82

— Alejandra Martinez (@alereports) July 11, 2024

CenterPointless (as some graffiti on an overpass in town dubbed it) is the provider of electric lines, but not the electricity, in Houston. It may have been working faster than before, but its communication with the public has been abysmal. No information at all was available after the storm, and then they were shamed by Whataburger into providing a map no one could make sense of. I know of a neighborhood today that was told by email their power was back. And it was; for some of the recipients; but not for all.

The Lege in its infinite wisdom copied the break up of Ma Bell (ask yer grandpa! Punks!) and separated providers from the electricity lines doing the providing. I don’t know if that led to our current woes, but things certainly aren’t better.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas, which regulates electricity here, is starting its meeting now. Utility officials will be talking about their Beryl response. Chairman Thomas Gleeson begins the meeting by saying, “We’re going to figure this out.” https://t.co/LgV0h3kNLe

— Emily Foxhall (@emfoxhall) July 11, 2024

Nobody is holding their breath.

The debate over whether Biden actually had trouble reaching Patrick & Abbott has overshadowed the question of whether Texas' Beryl disaster request should’ve come sooner than noon Tuesday for a storm that made landfall around 4 a.m. Monday #txlege https://t.co/uHtzfD7vEs

— Jasper Scherer (@jaspscherer) July 10, 2024

That story bred an interesting side story. The White House said Texas had failed to ask for the aid. Lite Guv Patrick was Acting Guv because Abbott was playing head of the Texas Chamber of Commerce in Asia (he still is. But then, Harris County is dominated by Democrats). Embarrassing, of course. Patrick, brave soul that he is, and non-partisan in a crisis, immediately blamed the White House: “Did not!! Did not! You big liar!!!” Patrick is not known for his administrative skills, so nobody really believed him. Or cared. Centerpointless is the area villain for the time being.

Not satisfied with being quashed by the White House (why would they lie about losing the paperwork?), Patrick decided to punch down and blame it on the County Judge, Lina Hidalgo. This is an executive position, not a law court one. Hidalgo is Hispanic, a woman, and a Democrat. Patrick didn’t win any prizes there, either. He couldn’t look like more of an ass than he already is, but he also couldn’t stand his 15 minutes of being a responsible adult, which surprised no one.

This was all too much attention on somebody not Ken Paxton, so he had to remind everyone he’s a disgraced and pretty much worthless Texas state official, too:

🚨 @KenPaxtonTX says the Texas House GI Committee meeting a week from today is “yet another desperate attempt by the Republican establishment to impeach me.” The committee hasn’t announced what the meeting will be about. #txlege https://t.co/7QP4OFZhYc pic.twitter.com/2Qwqvj4MB9

— Jasper Scherer (@jaspscherer) July 11, 2024

It was, of course, utter bullshit.

"There is absolutely no truth to Mr. Paxton’s farfetched fantasy that the House General Investigating Committee is meeting to talk about him," said Rep. Andrew Murr. https://t.co/BIzH3Biuf7

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) July 11, 2024

I also don’t think anyone really cared.

In Houston we curse Centerpointless. We laugh at the government provided clown shows.

It helps to have a sense of humor.