Texan Lt. Governor Dan Patrick blames constituents for giant electric bills: "Read the fine print"

Sure, and all those unemployed pipeline and refinery workers will just jump to the Dems. Don’t make me laugh.

 

Unemployed pipeline workers can easily get jobs in Texas burying the lines below the frost line.

 

You are talking about science denier republicans ? Right ?

 

You think there are no homeless in big cities in Texas ? Denial....

 

What? When did I say that?

 

And you know that how?

 

Magic. Given that nothing has changed, power companies will be sued into doing* something .

 

You didn’t include it in your Dem state rant.

 

Huh?

 

They signed the agreement. The responsibility is their own.

 

I think you're thinking of teaser rate mortgages, not variable rate ones. Variable rate mortgages are typically directly tied to the returns of 10 year treasuries, if my memory serves, and go up or down based on what the treasuries do. The real "culprit" in the housing crisis was not those, rather it was the teaser rate mortgages that were guaranteed to reset at a much higher payment level after X amount of time. But even those, as horrific as they are, should not be banned, as they would be greatly curtailed or even eliminated by the banking industry itself if they knew that Uncle was not going to intervene to save their sorry butts when the inevitable crunch happened. Had they known that they would ultimately be responsible for the losses incurred, rather than being able to count on a bail out from the gubmint, they themselves would have made very different decisions on what products were even available.

But when it's all said and done, if by some miracle they still decided to make those silly loans available, then the people who took them out bear the ultimate responsibility because it's one of those scenarios that unless you know, or have a really good reason to believe that you'll be able to handle the increased payments when they came due, then you messed up by getting one in the first place.

No government interdiction necessary or desired, and no judgements of "NOT fine" (which is nothing more than a personal opinion to begin with) would change a thing.

PS... $1,200 doubling is NOT $2,000. And nobody has a crystal ball that can accurately predict large spread times of job loss or energy outages. That's just not how reality (or math) works.

 

Gambling is best done whenever and wherever consenting adults decide to participate in such an activity. It is none of your (or the government's) business, nor do you (or they) have the right to intervene.

 

Sometimes, the best thing to do IS nothing. And I don't care if you're talking about Covid or pretty much anything else you can think of. So yes, backing the Democrats because "at least they're doing something", if the something they're proposing is making things worse, is nothing more than taking your "team's" side because they're "your" team, and is abjectly stupid.

Yes, Trump created Occupation Lightspeed, which resulted in the vaccines we have today. Vaccines that Biden is now taking credit for, despite his poo pooing them in the closing weeks of the campaign as being the fantasies of a madman, but it seems nobody remembers that. Vaccines that Cuomo said he'd never take or allow any NY State resident to take (as if he has that authority!) because Trump was involved in creating them, and he didn't trust Trump enough to trust the vaccines, but that's long since forgotten, too, even by Cuomo himself.

There's far too much "Go Team!" happening, especially from the left when it comes to supporting bad moves "their team" is making. There is (or was) also far too much hate directed at the now former President for what looks suspiciously like personal reasons, and that extends beyond his term! He's no longer the President and the left STILL can't just let things go. Instead we waste time, effort, and LOTS and LOTS of money on a Constitutionally questionable Impeachment that ended in an outcome that was so predictable that Stevie Wonder could have seen it coming. And yet, those vendettas are STILL happening, rather than thanking him for creating (or being the governmental "force" that CAUSED the creation of) the vaccines, the Trump haters in the government, media, and sadly, even our "entertainment" are so personally offended that the man even exists that they're STILL going after him. Just give it a rest and move on, give credit where it's due, blame where IT'S due, and turn the page.

 

The people at the core of the entire point of this thread made a calculated gamble, enforceable via a legal contract, that they lost. They should pay their legitimate debts and move on, and remember the next time it comes up that perhaps such a gamble isn't a very good idea. Or maybe it actually is, given the reality of how rare such an event as this actually IS, and they just got the short straw because well, rare things happen from time to time. Even a once in a century storm happens, well, once in a century, assuming the statisticians are right in the first place.

As for the rest of your screed, it doesn't even make enough sense linguistically for me to deal with.

 

Exactly! Texans, pay your bills and shut up. Remember - socialism is for corporations, not for American citizens.

 

You can "disagree" all you want, that doesn't give you the right to intervene and TELL other people they can't make choices that you wouldn't make for yourself. And if those people wanted to gamble that the once in a century storm would not happen this year, and if right, get to have lower rates, then they need to face the music when it turns out they were wrong, and the choices they made of their own free will didn't work out for them this time. Next time, maybe they don't take that gamble, or maybe they conclude that the once in a century storm can't possibly happen two years in a row (a gamble which is probably correct), and take the same chance all over again, if it is offered to them as an option. But again, they need to face the music if somehow the odds defy them again next time around.

As I said elsewhere, consenting adults should be able to gamble anywhere and everywhere they might find an equally consenting party willing to take the opposite bet, and let the chips fall where they fall. If I choose not to participate of MY own free will, then it's really none of my business.

It's not my responsibility (or right) to intervene if/when people want to make what I might consider to be dumb decisions. The very idea that we "need" a nanny state to prevent such a thing is in opposition to the very idea of real freedom, and flies in the face of the "land of the free and the home of the brave" reputation that our country rightfully can lay claim to. In fact, we are NOT our brother's keepers (unless we CHOOSE to be), and we have no right to impose our values onto them.

Then when it comes up, don't make that choice for yourself. But to imagine, at the risk of repeating myself, that you have the right to make it for other people is to grant yourself (or in this case, the government) rights beyond their purview. If someone wants to "roll craps on their stinkin' power bill", and someone else is willing to take the other side of that bet, well, that is between them, and is none of my (or the government's) business.

 

Except from my view in the cheap seats, it seems they were neither deceptive nor misleading. The people who got stung knew that was a possibility going in (or should have known, and if they didn't, it's their own fault), therefore they are, and should be, on the hook for losing a bet they chose to make in the first place. Hindsight is 20/20, and it's easy to say NOW that such a bet was stupid, but in fact it wasn't, because the conditions that led to this event are in fact extremely rare, and 99 times out of 100 (or whatever the ACTUAL number is) they would have been on the winning end of that bed, and happily taken advantage of that. Well, when you lose, you lose, and then it's time to pay the piper for a choice that YOU made.

 

That pretty much says it all about conservatives.
It sounds like the flunkey excuse for not doing your job or your homework,

Doing nothing is NEVER a solution in problem solving.
Research in the economy, covid etc and letting science help dictate the way to go is ALWAYS the best solution. No one was ever doomed because they knew too much about a disaster.

 

Nowhere did I claim any right to intervene in anything.

 

Funny. I thought everyone who lost their power got stung by ineptitude and lack of preparation. I guess the right doesn’t mind being fked over by shoddy service then overcharged later.

 

Legal gambling is highly regulated. Casinos have to set well known rules and follow them.

Did the consumer know the high range of prices was limitless? A highly educated consumer might know about the caps on energy prices and figure that could limit any losses. But did anyone know that ERCOT could change those limits instantly without notice?

Did the consumer know that the natural gas supply in the area was vulnerable to very cold temperatures which happen regularly in the coldest days in Texas and every 20-40 years can continue for a week?

Who did know those things? ERCOT and people in the energy business, some of whom took in amazing profits through a rigged bidding system that raped consumers.

 

You bet....exactly true.
Not only that, like a used car salesman out for a quick buck, they hid the fact that their service was TOTALLY dependent on the weather. We live in the third coldest state in the Union. NEVER have we lost power because it was too cold. So, Texas gets a week of cold we get and worse for three months and never do we lose power because of it. . So, not only do people suffer and die for shoddy service, they get bankrupt on top of it. This is Trump land. The land of the two bit con artist. Too bad, they’re in state govt.

 

I'm not completely certain what that has to do with what I said, but regardless, yes, everyone who lost their power got stung to a certain degree. However, if you (the generic you) have expectations that you'll NEVER lose power, then it is your expectations that are unreasonable. Nothing man-made is perfect, and from time-to-time, EVERYONE is going to be subject to a blackout every now and then, sometimes for no apparent reason. People who somehow think they are immune to that are delusional.

 

Yes, We have expectation that you don’t lose power because the weather is cold.
That’s a poor argument. You can’t separate shoddy service from a bill. We live in the third coldest state in the Union, just behind Alaska and ND. We have NEVER lost power because it was too cold. Texas formed its own grid so they could by pass the expected weather independence, and fk their customers.

They have to be shting us. It’s not the contract that’s a criminal action, it’s the intent of charging more FOR LESS SERVICE. Let that sink in. There is an east grid, a west grid, and Texas grid where they fk their customers.