Three-Point Shots, Vol. 1, No. 18: The Center Cannot Hold
There is plenty of other weird stuff going on in the Lone Star State.
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But first, your Moment of Zen …
(Sunset outside Marfa, Texas, August 8, 2023. Credit: Chia Maxwell.)
Friday, August 11, 2023
1. Lina Hidalgo Takes a Leave of Absence
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced Monday that she was taking a one-month leave of absence to receive inpatient treatment for clinical depression. She plans to be back at her job by early September. In her absence, Commissioner Rodney Ellis will preside over Commissioners Court meetings, her staff will administer day-to-day business, and the county’s emergency managers will be on standby for anything extraordinary.
Hidalgo is the elected CEO of Harris County, the third-largest county in the country, with a population of over 4.7 million people (bigger than 25 states) and an annual budget of over $4 billion.
My take: Hidalgo was 27 when she was elected in 2018 (what were you doing when you were 27?). She instantly became a national figure, and the Next Great Hope for the moribund Texas Democratic Party. (I remember pleading with an advisor of hers NOT to let her get drawn into running for statewide office in 2022.) All of this was, and is, incredibly stressful, and kudos to her for prioritizing her mental health and taking some time off.
2. On the Border, the Cruelty Is the Point.
Someone who clearly and desperately needs a mental health intervention is Guv Greg Abbott. Newsweek is reporting that the floating buoy barrier that Abbott ordered installed in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass has a unique feature: circular saws installed between the buoys so that anyone trying to climb between them would be crippled or killed. I am not making this up:
(Welcome to Texas, motherfucker! Where do you want us to send your body parts?)
Where to begin? First of all, has anyone done a “follow the money” investigation into how this stupid idea got proposed, approved and implemented in the first place? Let’s be clear: the buoys were a dumb idea from the get-go; their picture should be in the dictionary under “waste, fraud and abuse.” The circular saws, whose only possible purpose is to tear and maim human flesh, was a sadistic addition that probably closed the deal for Abbott. Mark my words: Greg Abbott got a direct or indirect campaign contribution from the modern Torquemadas that proposed this floating war crime.
My take: Many (most?) of my fellow Texans, appalled by the needless cruelty of the whole performance, have wondered whether our fellow Americans view us as a failed state, going down the authoritarian drain in a fever swamp of nativism and misogyny. No, I assure them; that’s Florida.
Americans, however, do have two questions for us:
1) What’s the matter – no, seriously – with Greg Abbott?
2) Why do y’all keep putting up with him?
3. Surprise! The 2021 Winter Grid Failure Was All About the Greed
The Houston Chronicle’s Chris Tomlinson is, for my money, as good a reporter and writer as there is in Texas. He’s just begun a four-part series of columns on the true causes of the 2021 collapse of the Texas electric grid, which resulted in 246 deaths (at a minimum) and untold economic chaos. How’s this for an opening?
Most Texans believe cold weather in February 2021 shut down natural gas power plants and froze wind turbines, triggering one of the deadliest blackouts in the state’s history. But the true cause was corporate greed, according to a growing number of lawsuits filed across the country. …
These suits allege that dozens of businesses acting independently withheld natural gas to raise prices and created an artificial fuel shortage, resulting in massive profits for companies that operate Texas-only pipelines and unimaginable gas bills for electric utilities and their customers across the Midwest. In the process, the pipeline companies took things too far, sparking the Texas electricity crisis, the suits say.
My take: I’m shocked – SHOCKED! – to hear that self-dealing on a multi-billion-dollar level may have occurred while the country was in the grip of a terrifying winter storm. Did those natural gas and pipeline operators not comprehend the risk that alert and aggressive regulators would immediately put a stop to their chicanery and slap them with stupefying fines? Oh … never mind.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
Other stories for your weekend reading …
… You may find this inspiring, depending on your point of view … He was an undocumented immigrant. He became ‘Your Excellency.’
. … In case my earlier newsletter was not enough, more Ken Paxton impeachment crystal-balling, this time from the redoubtable Mimi Swartz in Texas Monthly.
… The Atlantic’s Arthur C. Brooks discusses Aristotle’s 10 Rules for a Good Life. I feel good about a couple but have a lot of work to do on some others. Still, I feel happy most of the time.
Have a great weekend!
I feel bad for Linda Hidalgo because she has to deal with so much vitriol. The things said about her, these people would never say to the face of any other late 20s or early 30s woman in their own family. I'm glad she's addressing her health and hope she can lead Harris County into the future.
LOL and the grid---I am glad someone finally put it into words but we all knew this anyway.
Deece, the gruesome kabuki theater playing out at the border is so cruel and absurd that the only thing that keeps running through my mind is the old Monty Python skit in which an architect is walking his client through his plans for a new apartment complex.
Everything goes along normally until the architect starts describing the set of “rotating knives” the the tenants would go through as they enter the building. At that point, the client asks incredulously, “Are you proposing that we….SLAUGHTER our tenants????” To which the architect responds, “Is that a problem?”
That’s the feeling I got as you described the saw blades on the barrier. It’s so bizarre and cruel that it challenges any rational response. But as you say, the cruelty IS the point.
By the way, great work as usual. I look forward to reading your insights each week. Keep ‘em coming!