Republicans Behaving Badly On Christmas

This really happened, even though it sounds like an improbable plot to a bad TV show. Taegan Goddard caught this on Christmas Day, Two Views of Christmas:

President Joe Biden on Twitter: “There is a certain stillness at the center of the Christmas story: a silent night when all the world goes quiet. And all the clamor, everything that divides us, fades away in the stillness of a winter’s evening. I wish you that peace this Christmas Eve.”

Donald Trump on Truth Social: “Merry Christmas to EVERYONE, including the Radical Left Marxists that are trying to destroy our Country, the Federal Bureau of Investigation that is illegally coercing & paying Social and LameStream Media to push for a mentally disabled Democrat over the Brilliant, Clairvoyant, and USA LOVING Donald J. Trump, and, of course, The Department of Injustice, which appointed a Special ‘Prosecutor’ who, together with his wife and family, HATES ‘Trump’ more than any other person on earth. LOVE TO ALL!”

Donald  Trump’s diseased mind and conservative victimhood grievances – more fitting to the Festivus “airing of grievances” on December 23 – was not the only Republican behaving badly on Christmas.

Brett Wilkins reports at Salon, Greg Abbott blasted for ‘cruel stunt’ as migrants bussed to Kamala Harris’ home on Christmas Eve:

Human rights defenders condemned Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and “extremist Republicans’ cruel values” after several busloads of migrants were dropped off outside U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’ Washington, D.C. home in subfreezing temperatures on Christmas Eve.

For the second time since September, Central and South American migrants were bussed from Texas to the vice president’s residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory in the nation’s capital. According to reports, some of the asylum-seekers were wearing only t-shirts and shorts as the mercury dropped to 18°F (-8°C) on Saturday.

While it is not known who ordered the migrants bussed to the capital, advocates pointed fingers at Abbott. The Republican Texas governor—along with GOP Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Doug Ducey of Arizona—have bussed more than 10,000 migrants to Democratic-led cities since April to protest what they falsely call the Biden administration’s “open border” immigration policies.

“What we’re seeing are Greg Abbott and extremist Republicans’ cruel values,” tweeted the youth-led Sunrise Movement. “This is who they are. Don’t forget that.”

Amy Fischer, a volunteer with the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, told CNN that her group was prepared for the migrants’ arrival.

“The D.C. community has been welcoming buses from Texas anytime they’ve come since April. Christmas Eve and freezing cold weather is no different,” she said. “We are always here welcoming folks with open arms.” [TRUE Christian values].

Worthless @GovAbbott dropping off people with no money and no means on Christmas Eve in 15 degree weather near the VP’s residence. How Christian of you, Greg Abbott. Being a heartless POS isn’t going to make you the next Republican President. https://t.co/AM0xrUGLvo

— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) December 25, 2022

In a separate interview with The Guardian, Fischer said that “it really does show the cruelty behind Gov. Abbott and his insistence on continuing to bus people here without care about people arriving late at night on Christmas Eve when the weather is so cold.”

Progressive activist Jenn Kauffman tweeted that “the only reason these families were outside so briefly is because of the work of the D.C. Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network.”

“This was intended to be a cruel stunt by Greg Abbott, but people are working around the clock to treat these families with the dignity they deserve,” she added.

In a letter to President Joe Biden last week, Abbott said that “you and your administration must stop the lie that the border is secure and instead immediately deploy federal assets to address the dire problems you have caused.”

Earlier this week, Abbott deployed hundreds of National Guard troops and state police to the Mexican border in service of what the advocacy group Border Network for Human Rights called a “racist, anti-refugee, xenophobic agenda.”

On Saturday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned migrants that the Biden administration is still enforcing Title 42, a section of the Public Health Safety Act first invoked by the Trump administration as the coronavirus pandemic began in March 2020.

On December 19, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts granted a request from 19 Republican-led states to temporarily block the Biden administration from ending Title 42 expulsions.

There may have been another, ulterior motive for Gov. Abbott’s endless cruelty: he needed a media distraction ahead of the ‘once in a generation’ winter storm that plunged Arctic temperatures into Texas and threatened the Texas power grid for the second year in a row. Greg Abbott Faces Texas Grid ‘Emergency’ as Power Plants Fail:

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is facing a grid “emergency” this holiday weekend due to an electric energy shortage as an arctic blast causes failures at power plants in the state.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Friday declared that an emergency exists in Texas “due to a shortage of electric energy, a shortage of facilities for the generation of electric energy, and other causes.” It added that this emergency order is meant to “serve the public interest.”

The department’s emergency order allows Texas grid operators to pollute more than allowed in an effort to boost electricity generation amid threatening cold temperatures. This means Texas power plants can burn dirtier fuel oil instead of natural gas to generate power through Christmas morning, according to The Texas Tribune on Saturday.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which serves 90 percent of the electric customers in the state, requested the emergency order exceed the usual federal air quality restrictions on Friday.

“For Texas, this severe winter weather system has caused a significant drop in temperatures over the last day. This temperature drop, accompanied by high winds in excess of 40 mph, has resulted in wind chill values across the state generally below ten degrees Fahrenheit, with some areas of Texas experiencing wind chills values well below zero degrees,” the DOE wrote in its order. “As a consequence, the demand for electricity in ERCOT rose to an all-time winter peak on the morning of Friday, December 23, 2022, in excess of 74,000 MW. This severely cold weather is expected to last through Sunday morning.

“The department added that the vast majority of generating units in the ERCOT region continue to run without any issue, however a small number of units have experienced “operating difficulties due to cold weather or gas curtailments.”

Around 11,000 megawatts of coal and gas-fired power, 4,000 megawatts of wind and 1,700 megawatts of solar power generating units were “derated” or “outaged” due to severe weather conditions, according to the DOE.

On Friday afternoon, Reliant Energy, which serves over 1.5 million Texans, urged its customers to reduce their energy usage by limiting the use of large appliances. Temperatures in some parts of Texas reached a low of 1 degree by Thursday night, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). Meanwhile, wind gusts reached up to 40 miles per hour in areas in North Texas, The Texas Tribune reported.

Many Texans experienced power outages on Friday amid strong winds and the brutally cold temperatures, with more than 77,000 customers losing power, according to PowerOutage.us. As of Sunday afternoon, a little more than 5,000 customers were without power.

Still, Texas officials assured residents that the power grid is up and running despite the challenges, and that the grid will not be severely impacted as it was in February 2021when three severe winter storms and frigid temperatures stressed the grid. As a result, hundreds of people died and millions lost power for prolonged periods.

[Gov.] Abbott defended the power grid on Twitter.

“The ERCOT grid performed well again today. Yesterday, Texas had the highest power demand in any winter. Today was the 2nd highest demand day for winter power. During 2 extremely cold nights, the power grid has not failed. No Texan has lost any power because of the ERCOT grid,” the governor tweeted Saturday.

On Sunday, Eze told Newsweek that “ERCOT provided more power during this cold weather event than any winter ever. Any outages were due to localized issues, such as downed power lines, or other grids like MISO that cover some parts of Texas.”

Gov. Abbott did not want a repeat of the severe criticism he faced for his failures with ERCOT in February 2021, so he created a distraction for the media to follow instead by busing migrants to Washington, D.C., and for the most part, he got the distraction he wanted. After all, how many reports did you hear about power plants in Texas over the weekend? (unless you Iive in Texas).