I usually don’t watch CNN but stumbled on this hour long piece. Worth watching. Explained lots of thing about Texas politics that I didn’t understand. A good quote:

Kel Seliger, a longtime Republican state senator from Amarillo who has clashed with the billionaires, said their influence has made Austin feel a little like Moscow. “It is a Russian-style oligarchy, pure and simple,” Seliger said. “Really, really wealthy people who are willing to spend a lot of money to get policy made the way they want it — and they get it.”

How two Texas megadonors have turbocharged the state’s far-right shift

(Ok, it is The Onion)

State Department Brokers Alliance In Destabilized Region By Providing Arms To Texan Warlords

$3 billion a day in profits. $16 billion a day in subsidies ($11 million per minute).

Revealed: oil sector’s ‘staggering’ $3bn-a-day profits for last 50 years

Again we see the famously corrupt Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, at work. If he wasn’t the top law enforcement official in the state where I currently live, it would almost be amusing.

Texas charity that backs Trump’s stolen-election lie has deep ties to Ken Paxton

From the business section of the Houston Chronicle. Article also fails to point out that those windmills in the panhandle are funded by many people who made their fortunes in oil and gas.

Fact-checking the GOP’s false claims about wind power as Texans worry about broken grid

It isnt a secret and it isn’t even complicated. A cartoon explains how it works.

Lucky Ducky solves inflation

From Digg, unique imports by state. Article aslo has overall biggest imports and exports by state.

The Most Unique Items Each US State Imports, Visualized

Why is Joe Manchin blocking energy legislation? He gets paid to.

Manchin says he won’t support climate, tax provisions in sweeping Democratic bill

i only subscribe to a few mailings, but I like the Exponential View, especially on Sundays. It tends to be about new and emerging technologies, mostly focused around energy these days. What I really like is the way it focuses more on the trends, not the current state of various technologies. This week seems to be a particularly good batch of news (in a world with so much bad news lately).

Energy & democracy; CRISPR; exponential workers; space, AI music ++ #381

Watching the news and see there is a controversy about Biden fist-bumping the Saudi leader. Maybe he just doesn’t kiss on the first date.