The New York Times Retracts the Sicknick Story

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By Julie Kelly

In a quiet but stunning correction, the New York Times backed away from its original report that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was killed by a Trump supporter wielding a fire extinguisher during the January 6 melee at the Capitol building. Shortly after American Greatness published my column Friday that showed how the Times gradually was backpedaling on its January 8 bombshell, the paper posted this caveat:

UPDATE: New information has emerged regarding the death of the Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick that questions the initial cause of his death provided by officials close to the Capitol Police.

The paper continued to revise its story within the body of the original January 8 story: “Law enforcement officials initially said Mr. Sicknick was struck with a fire extinguisher, but weeks later, police sources and investigators were at odds over whether he was hit. Medical experts have said he did not die of blunt force trauma, according to one law enforcement official.”

What’s missing, however, is how the Times first described what happened to Sicknick. “Mr. Sicknick, 42, an officer for the Capitol Police, died on Thursday from brain injuries he sustained after Trump loyalists who overtook the complex struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials.”

The account of Sicknick’s death was reported as fact, not speculation or rumor. Further, it appears that the anonymous sources were not law enforcement officials but people “close” to the police department—which means they could have been anyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to inveterate liar U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser.

Not only was the Times’ untrue story about Sicknick’s death accepted as fact by every news media organization from the Wall Street Journal to the Washington Post, political pundits on the NeverTrump Right also regurgitated the narrative that Sicknick was “murdered” as did lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

In an outrageous effort to create more favorable optics before the impeachment trial, House Democrats honored Sicknick in a rare memorial at the Capitol Rotunda on February 3. Joe Biden, in a statement issued after Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday afternoon, repeated the lie about Sicknick. “It was nearly two weeks ago that Jill and I paid our respects to Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who laid in honor in the Rotunda after losing his life protecting the Capitol from a riotous, violent mob on January 6, 2021.”



The Times’ correction might be one reason why Democrats on Saturday reversed their demand to subpoena witnesses. House impeachment managers cited the original January 8 Times’ article as evidence in their impeachment memo: “The insurrectionists killed a Capitol Police officer by striking him in the head with a fire extinguisher.”

Any arrangement to compel testimony would have provided Trump’s legal team with an opportunity to expose yet another myth in the Democrats’ “incitement” case against the former president.

Now that the Times has essentially retracted its explosive article, will other news organizations, pundits, and lawmakers follow suit?

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Notice how they wait until after their phony impeachment farce to release this information. Just like hiding the facts of the Biden’s CCP connections until after the fraudulent election; they didn’t have enough fraud to overcome THAT.

Here we see how much the left actually honors police. The only time that are not racist, murdering monsters is when they can be used as a political prop.

Ironically, the Minneapolis city council has to appropriate an additional $6.4 million to hire replacements for all the cops they ran off.

it appears that the anonymous sources were not law enforcement officials but people “close” to the police department

In mid-June 2020 Rayshard Brooks fell asleep while in the Wendy’s drive -thru in Atlanta.
Police shot him to death after coming out in response to a call from a Wendy’s employee.
Later a compilation of all the police cams was released.
It contradicted the so-called “eye witnesses” at the time who falsely claimed they pulled him out of his car and immediately shot him.
Truth was he was questioned for 20 minutes after coming out of his car.
Only after he was being tested (again) for being under the influence did he turn and run away.
That was when police shot him.

Same liberals, same lies.
It costs liberals nothing to lie and set a false narrative in place.
There needs to be a cost.
Otherwise it will keep happening.
And, as in Atlanta*, people will die over it..

*Secoriea Turner, 8-year-old girl: Turner was shot and killed on the Fourth of July after at least two people in a crowd opened fire on the car she was in with her mother and her mother’s friend near the Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed and became a site of protest in Atlanta.

@Deplorable Me: #1
I wonder what kind of people they will be able to hire.

The NYT is withdrawing its original story in the slimiest and least informative way — no Editors’ Note, no explanation of how it got this wrong — because it knows its readers (Dems) don’t care about the truth.

What about FOX News? They reported the same thing, and still were as of 4 days ago:

FOX News, February 10, 2021 – Sicknick case still open but prosecutors stymied in filing homicide charges so far

Prosecutors are facing significant hurdles in filing homicide charges in the case of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who died after the Jan. 6 riot in Washington, D.C., particularly since a suspect has yet to be arrested almost a month after the siege, multiple sources told Fox News.

Sicknick, 42, was struck in the head by a fire extinguisher while “physically engaging” with rioters at the Capitol, authorities said. He collapsed once he returned to his division and died at the hospital the next day.

No cause of death has been given and it is unclear if the blow to Sicknick’s head, exposure to chemical irritants during the melee, or something else ultimately contributed to his death.

Sicknick’s remains were cremated before he laid in honor in the Capitol Rotunda last week, as dozens of law enforcement officials, congressional leaders, President Biden and first lady Jill Biden paid their respects.

Fox News was told immediately after Sicknick’s death that authorities would treat the probe as a homicide investigation.

The FBI and U.S. Capitol Police continue to comb through tips related to Sicknick’s death and are soliciting more every day. The slain officer was one of five people who died as a result of the rioting.

Law enforcement officials have watched hours of surveillance and camera footage captured from that day from multiple angles and have arrested over 200 suspects as a result.

What the NYT recently said, as quoted by Julie Kelly:

UPDATE: New information has emerged regarding the death of the Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick that questions the initial cause of his death provided by officials close to the Capitol Police.

Is there something about that explanation that’s difficult to understand?

The Times didn’t “withdraw their story”, as Julie Kelly asserts. They did in fact update it to reflect new information.

Q. How many Democrats dose it take the change a light bulb? A.None they still continue to prefer to live in the dark

All hail Walter Durante!

@Greg: Everyone should retract it and acknowledge where the information came from and the harm LIES (aka FAKE NEWS) from the media causes. This was not a mistake, just like “hands up, don’t shoot”, the Zimmerman reporting, the Floyd reporting, the Brooks reporting, the Blake reporting was not a mistake. It is INTENTIONALLY meant to incite violence and serve a political purpose. Usually, that goal is gun control. Recently, it has been to destroy the police and, in this case, to destroy Trump. Businesses have been destroyed, people injured, people KILLED, but you leftists don’t care; you simply pursue your political goals.

The account of Sicknick’s death was reported as fact, not speculation or rumor. Further, it appears that the anonymous sources were not law enforcement officials but people “close” to the police department—which means they could have been anyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to inveterate liar U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser.

How exactly does it so appear? Julie Kelly doesn’t tell you, does she? She simply makes the claim and you unquestioningly accept it, because it’s the sort of statement that you’ve been conditioned to unquestioningly accept. She then throws in some bullshit about Trump’s enemies being liars, while Trump himself has a fully documented record as one of the most prolific, shameless liars ever to hold public office. The events of December 6th which resulted in the death of Officer Sicknick were all because of one of Trump’s lies.

In an outrageous effort to create more favorable optics before the impeachment trial, House Democrats honored Sicknick in a rare memorial at the Capitol Rotunda on February 3. Joe Biden, in a statement issued after Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday afternoon, repeated the lie about Sicknick. “It was nearly two weeks ago that Jill and I paid our respects to Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who laid in honor in the Rotunda after losing his life protecting the Capitol from a riotous, violent mob on January 6, 2021.”

What’s outrageous is the cheap campaign to diminish the reputation of a Capitol Police officer who died as a consequence of Trump’s election fraud lie in order to discredit the effort to hold Trump accountable. Honoring Officer Sicknick wasn’t entirely about Officer Sicknick. It was a symbolic recognition of every officer who helped hold off Trump’s violent mob on December 6th.

Do you think the elected officials who were the targets of the mob didn’t personally view things that way? Do you think their personal experiences of December 6th weren’t on their minds every time Officer Sicknick was mentioned? If that’s what you think, you might be some sort of idiot yourself.

@Greg:

How exactly does it so appear?

I guess, like with so many other cases (how about “proof of Russian collusion”?) someone LIES in order to exploit a situation. THAT’S how. Obviously, no one saw Officer Sicknick get hit with a fire extinguisher. No one saw a gash in his head. No one saw anything, yet SOMEONE reported it to propaganda repeaters and they gobbled it up. The one fact that WAS communicated: we cannot trust the liberal media. They have ZERO credibility.

Honoring Officer Sicknick wasn’t entirely about Officer Sicknick.

Oh, truer words you could not have been spoken. In fact, it was in NO WAY about honoring ANY law enforcement officer. Democrats would not piss on one if they were on fire. It was cheap propaganda. It was a prop. It insulted the officer and the intelligence of anyone with intelligence. If they were honoring the officer, they wouldn’t have waited three weeks, just before the impeachment “trial” to do it. Who do you think you are fooling?

@Greg:

She simply makes the claim and you unquestioningly accept it, because it’s the sort of statement that you’ve been conditioned to unquestioningly accept.

You’re projecting again, Comrade Greggie, accusing others of what you are guilty of.

@Deplorable Me, #9:

You should try to figure out what the question actually was before trying to answer it. Maybe it should have been posed in a simpler fashion: Why does it appear to stay-at-home-mom Julie Kelly that the original anonymous sources were not law enforcement officials?

Did she talk to reporters at the Times or at FOX News on the telephone while her kids were occupied watching Dora the Explorer? Or did she just make that up before going a step further and suggesting the story might have originated with Pelosi, Schiff, or the Mayor of Washington DC?

I’m going with door #2. She’s throwing out a suggestion based on nothing. She’s writing for an audience that readily accept such suggestions so long as they resonate with what they already believe. That sort of material constitutes a very high percentage of the total content of the right-wing echo box.

Oh, truer words you could not have been spoken. In fact, it was in NO WAY about honoring ANY law enforcement officer.

You should tell that to all of the law enforcement officers who paid their respects and participated in the ceremonies honoring Officer Sicknick. Maybe while you’re at it you can get Officer Goodman’s recognition rescinded and have a special holiday recognized in honor of Ashli Babbitt.

@Greg: Why don’t you stop trying to toe-dance your way away from the issue: PROPAGANDA. When a laptop was found that belonged to Hunter Biden and it was loaded with explosive information negative to Biden, the “media” carefully denounced and buried it. They were cautious. They were careful. They didn’t want to be guilty of running with a story based on “disinformation”… because it would have cost Biden 17% more fraud than he probably had.

But a story that can be turned on Trump? Or the police? DAMN THE TRUTH TORPEDOS, FULL SPEED AHEAD!!. This isn’t an isolated incident; it is, sadly, the norm. How about the Atlantic story about Trump disrespecting veterans? How about Russian collusion? How about Blake being unarmed? How about “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot?” How about the Covington kids? How about HCQ? How about drinking bleach? The way the liberal media handles the news has nothing to do with how factual it may or may not be; the ONLY thing that determines running with it or not is if it is good for Democrats or not.

You should tell that to all of the law enforcement officers who paid their respects and participated in the ceremonies honoring Officer Sicknick.

YOU should apologize to every law enforcement officer in the country. NONE of you liberals have one shred of respect for them. It is notable this is the FIRST and ONLY time Democrats have “honored” law enforcement.

Why has no one seen an autopsy?

Why don’t you stop trying to toe-dance your way away from the issue: PROPAGANDA.

Because you accuse the mainstream media of it, while failing to notice that it’s what your own favored sources largely consist of. With the political right, their own media’s high propaganda content seems to be as invisible to them as water is to a fish.

Why has no one seen an autopsy?

There was an autopsy, but the exact cause of death remains uncertain. The findings most likely won’t be made public until the investigation of the circumstances surrounding his death is complete. If homicide is suspected, the results of a forensic autopsy could be considered part of the evidence.

YOU should apologize to every law enforcement officer in the country.

I’ve done or said nothing that I need to apologize to them for.

NONE of you liberals have one shred of respect for them.

That’s a lie. It’s part of your propaganda, just like Trump’s posturing about religion, patriotism, and respect for the police. He’s the guy who used a bible as a photo-op prop; he’s the draft dodger who did the same thing with the American flag; it was his followers who beat Capitol Police with the flag on a pole and called them traitors for trying to protect the Capitol, our elected officials, and the nation’s constitutional election process.

I’m one of 81 million American voters who have totally had it with this man and sent him packing. My apologies are reserved for the residents of Florida.

@Greg:

There was an autopsy, but the exact cause of death remains uncertain.

Really? And you know that how?

@Greg: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Senate leader, though they don’t manage day-to-day operations, have ultimate authority over Capitol security. They failed.
She might be a non-officer “source” for the lie that a Trump supporter hit a Capitol Hill officer with a fire extinguisher so that he died.
Truth is, we don’t know who the Times used as a source.
When “defund the police” was getting popular among Dems Nancy Pelosi did take $25,000 from the Capitol Hill Police for each and every member of Congress* and credit it to their Member’s Reimbursement Allowance (MRA) for “personal security.” Did that work?
Or, did it contribute to police being underfunded while congresscritters ran like chickens when the fox comes in the hen house?

*
437 X $25,000 = $10,925,000

@Nan G:

did it contribute to police being underfunded while congresscritters ran like chickens when the fox comes in the hen house?

Four Congressmen did not run, but stood guard at a door with their own personal firearms while the rest ran like chicken when the fox comes in the hen house. Note; all four are from Texas.
REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

Four Congressmen did not run, but stood guard at a door with their own personal firearms while the rest ran like chicken when the fox comes in the hen house.

Sure they did. No doubt they also donned their Davy Crockett hats, which they brought along for the occasion.

I’ve noticed that most republican members of Congress are too chicken shit even to stand up against Donald Trump.

@Greg:

Sure they did. No doubt they also donned their Davy Crockett hats, which they brought along for the occasion.

Davy Crockett died at the Alamo, that is one of the reasons we remember it, you stupid sh!t.

I’ve noticed that most republican members of Congress are too chicken shit even to stand up against Donald Trump.

Ronnie Jackson seems to like the Coyote Special as that is what it looked like to me. But, of course they can expect criticism from you who won’t own up to which side you fought for in ‘Nam.

No surprise you would slam former American military officers.

And your obsession with President Trump has made you certifiably insane. You keep saying you don’t want to think about Trump anymore, yet here you are…………………………..

And your obsession with President Trump has made you certifiably insane.

Mitch McConnell knows who’s pitching the delusional bullshit. Mitch’s problem is figuring out how to separate the republican base from Trump’s lunacy and still have a party left once he’s done so. On that I wish him luck. He’ll need it, because if Trump can’t have the GOP for his own he’ll be entirely happy to see it destroyed.

@Greg:

There was an autopsy, but the exact cause of death remains uncertain. The findings most likely won’t be made public until the investigation of the circumstances surrounding his death is complete. If homicide is suspected, the results of a forensic autopsy could be considered part of the evidence.

Back to the subject
If there had been evidence of blunt force trauma as a contributing factor it would have been leaked nothing stays a secret unless its damaging to the narrative.

@Greg: @Greg:

because if Trump can’t have the GOP for his own he’ll be entirely happy to see it destroyed.

No idea what the hell you’re talking out. Trump isn’t a Republican. He needed to run on either Dem or Rep if he wanted to win (which he did). A Third Party loses, and takes one of the Parties with them (See Billy Clinton, becoming President with 43% of the vote).

Trump’s 2016 is masterful, and he’s help to weaken and disrupt both parties. As the Dems continue to fail, their dwindling base can’t be manufactured without Trump Derangement (See: record low ratings for CNN et al).

Trump could have run as a Democrat to the same outcome.

Trump is now a brand, and represents a true Third Party, with the very obvious majority when paired against Reps and Dems.

This is why the Dems had to install a Dictator rather than win an election.

2024 will be the final battle: non-Leftists will do much more than storm the Capital if the Democrats somehow rig the elections again.

I myself support cutting the Blue Marxists loose from the USA, which Trump supporters represent real Americans. Dem voters want a new country, and they are free to try it…on their own.

It’s time to eject the Democrat Party from America to maintain the Union.

@Nathan Blue: WTSHTF with gas prices then stagflation the Democrat voters are so poorly educated they will still blame greedy corporations not ignorant policy.

The medical examiner has stated that the officer suffered no blunt force trauma. He was never hit with anything. The New York Times is the Pravda of America.

@Greg:

Because you accuse the mainstream media of it, while failing to notice that it’s what your own favored sources largely consist of.

No, I don’t and you have no idea WHAT my “favored sources” are. The NYT LOVED this story, as have all Democrats, constantly harping about “5 murdered” when, in fact, no one was murdered unless you want to count Ashlee Bayless. It used to be policy to wait until the next of kin were notified before the name of a deceased person was given by the media. Obviously, this wasn’t followed because the leftist media was so anxious to pretended they gave a shit about the life of any police officer any where.

There was an autopsy, but the exact cause of death remains uncertain.

Of course there was. Where is it? Why wasn’t it publicized to support the claim Sicknick had been hit on the head with a fire extinguisher? Why didn’t the lying Democrats making their propaganda case for impeachment wonder why, when people said they saw it, there was no video of Sicknick getting attacked? Well, because this lie (to hell with the memory of the officer) was just too good to fail to exploit to its fullest. Never let a crisis… or a tragedy… go to waste.

I’ve done or said nothing that I need to apologize to them for.

Just as with the false accusation that led to death threats against the totally innocent Covington kids, you have cheered on and exploited this lie along with your scumbag Demediacrats. As with Covington, you can’t admit you swallowed the vulgar, pornographic propaganda put forth by your handlers.

That’s a lie. It’s part of your propaganda, just like Trump’s posturing about religion, patriotism, and respect for the police.

It’s not a lie, you liar. The Demediacrats do not mention law enforcement unless they are calling them racist murderers that hunt down black people for fun. Liberals at large hate and denigrate law enforcement and do NOT report on BLM/ANTIA routinely targeting, attacking, injuring and killing them.

I’m one of 81 million American voters who have totally had it with this man and sent him packing. My apologies are reserved for the residents of Florida.

Are you one of the alive, dead, Dominion, illegal immigrant, or copy machine voters? There were so MANY voting blocs! I guess the propaganda you consume didn’t cover Trump’s President’s Day reception in Florida. Poor idiot Biden; he has to wait for April 1st; that’s “president’s* Day”.

Sure they did. No doubt they also donned their Davy Crockett hats, which they brought along for the occasion.

Well, they didn’t cower in their offices over a block away and shiver in fear when a cop knocked on her door like that lying idiot AOC did.

I’ve noticed that most republican members of Congress are too chicken shit even to stand up against Donald Trump.

No one should have “stood up to” Trump. Everything he did was for the good of the country, not for his cronies as the idiot Biden does. “Standing up to” Trump is standing AGAINST the United States of American, something you leftists are totally comfortable with.

By the way, when will that drunk Pelosi pay the fine she imposes on those who bypass her own metal detector? Or, like everything else, all her rules simply meant for others?

Sorry to be so far behind on responses; here in Texas we are getting the real-life preview of the Green New Deal. Due to a massive winter storm that encompassed ALL of Texas, the entire state is experiencing rolling blackouts. Our power was out for the past 12 hrs (temperatures from -2 to the teens), lasting for almost two weeks. Thanks to the wind farms and solar panels in west Texas freezing up and getting snow-covered with clouds blotting out the sun, power shortages have been rampant. We get to contemplate life without gas, coal and nuclear generation… shortages, rationing, black outs and higher costs.

@Deplorable Me: I was worried about you young man, you Texans may be tough but your not set up for Wisconsin weather. Im gonna scold 05 too!
Go Green they said use solar and wind they said it will be fun. My sis-in-law in AR has her house at 62 degrees for fear of running out of propane, she needs a bigger pig.
Glad your still sassy WB.

@Deplorable Me, #25:

Sorry to be so far behind on responses; here in Texas we are getting the real-life preview of the Green New Deal.

Really? I’ve been under the impression that the Texas electrical grid is largely separate from that of the rest of the country, that it’s free from pesky federal regulation and oversight, and that it’s mostly powered by generating plants that run on natural gas and other fossil fuels.

@Greg:

Here’s the truth about what happened.
Summary:
A mix of over-subsidized wind energy and under-investment in gas power means we didn’t have enough base load energy for a massive spike in demand.
Also, Texas infrastructure isn’t designed for once-in-a-century freezes.
#1 – Frozen Wind Turbines:
West Texas had wind turbines that had to be de-iced. The little energy that power regulators planned on being supplied from wind was now gone.
We have almost 31GW of wind installed on the grid, but on Monday we couldn’t even depend on 6 GW working.
To make matters worse, existing storage of wind energy in batteries was also gone, because batteries were losing 60% of their energy in the cold.
Bottom line: renewables don’t work well in extreme weather. Never will.
This is what happens when you force the grid to rely in part on wind as a power source. When weather conditions get bad as they did this week, intermittent renewable energy like wind isn’t there when you need it. https://www.forbes.com/…/texas-outages-put-reliability…/
#2 – Nuclear also got too cold: We only have 4 nuclear units in TX, near Houston and Dallas. One of the reactors near Houston turned off due to a safety sensor freezing. No problem with the reactor. But the lack of the sensor forced the plant to shutdown, as a precaution.
(On another note, this shows how safe nuclear is. Lots of safety precautions.)
#3 – We don’t have enough Natural Gas online:
ERCOT planned on 67GW from natural gas/coal, but could only get 43GW of it online. We didn’t run out of natural gas, but we lost the ability to get it transported. Pipelines in Texas don’t use cold insulation – so they froze.
Every natural gas plant stayed online. The “downed” plants were due to scheduled maintenance.
Gov. Abbott made the right call in diverting all natural gas to home heating fuel and then electricity for homes. Gas and coal brought a stable supply of energy, but still not enough.
Why don’t we have extra gas power when we need it most?
Because years of federal subsidies for wind has caused an over reliance on wind and an under-investment in new gas and nuclear plants.
Bottom line: fossil fuels are the only thing that saved us. They are *base load* energy.
If we were even *more* reliant on the wind turbines that froze, the outages would have been much worse.
This raises the obvious question: can we ever rely on renewables to power the grid during extreme weather?
No, you need gas or nuclear.
And subsidizing investment in wind has pushed gas and nuclear out.
Now we live with the consequences.
The push to decommission baseload power sources like natural gas would be disastrous when trying to keep the lights on in Texas.

@kitt: Yeah, someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that cold weather is a thing of the past. I can only imagine the terrible conditions if Hillary had won in 2016 and began this dependency on “renewable” energy 4 years ago. I’ve been by those massive farms of solar panels and wind mills and they are awesome in their size and scope, but this storm rendered them useless. By the way, when we were relegated to charging our phones from the car, lithium batteries don’t charge below 20 degrees or so. Now, imagine if, in addition to heating and lights, millions were charging their cars as well. We have gas heat, but of course, it takes electricity for the circuits and fan.

@Greg: But it wasn’t built for temperatures in the teens for a week or snow across the entire state. Did you know wind generators freeze? Did you know solar panels don’t generate much when it is cloudy and NOTHING when covered in snow? I understand the power outages and brown outs and we (my wife and I) fared far better than many. But, given their way, THIS is what we have to look forward in the future if the climate Nazis have power.

@Greg:

I’ve been under the impression that the Texas electrical grid is largely separate from that of the rest of the country, that it’s free from pesky federal regulation and oversight, and that it’s mostly powered by generating plants that run on natural gas and other fossil fuels.

Like most things you blather on about, your impression is wrong. Texas does have its own grid, but it is also subject to those “pesky federal relations and oversight.”

Wind is not suitable for long sustained power. Yeah, it can store limited power in batteries. I suggest you park your car into near zero weather and you will learn quickly what happens to your car battery. Cold weather drains the power stored from all batteries and Dep is right, solar is useless when the panels are covered in snow and there is not sunshine beaming down on them.

@Deplorable Me:

Did you know wind generators freeze?

Why would he? He forms his opinions on emotion, not on actual mechanics.

Did you see the video of the drones being flown near the wind turbines spraying them with de-icer? Now, there’s your modern day technology for you.

@Deplorable Me, #28:

Did you know wind generators freeze?

Tucker Carlson, on Monday:

“So it was all working great until the day it got cold outside. The windmills failed like the silly fashion accessories they are, and people in Texas died.”

That’s ridiculous. Wind turbines make up only 7 percent of the total winter generating capacity in Texas. Texas fossil fuel power stations also froze. The problem is that critical components of the infrastructure weren’t designed to withstand deep cold. That’s because doing so costs more, and no regulatory authority required it.

Wind turbines designed for cold environments don’t freeze up. It’s not a problem in Canada. It’s not a problem here in Indiana. De-icing turbine blades is sometimes a routine part of the process in cold climates, as it is with winter roads, airport runways, and aircraft wings. So is burying water mains below the deepest frost penetration line.

@Greg: Imagine wind and solar is our only options. I also find it odd that my gas supply was uninterrupted, not that that is the same as the needs of a power plant. But, it all comes out of the same supply.

There are a couple of embarrassing points here for you clingers to the fallacy of climate change. First, storms like this are supposed to be a thing of the past. In fact, thirty years ago, this kind of thing was long gone, every ten years. Yet, summers get milder and winters get more bitter.

Second, while wind and sunlight is just sitting there waiting to be used, it ain’t cheap to convert them into energy. Gas, coal and nuclear are not only cheap and reliable, but they don’t get covered in snow and cease to function.

Like the Sicknick story, the left creates a narrative and expects everyone to accept it, unquestioned. If the left has their way, “cheap, renewable energy” would assuredly leave us shivering in the cold, as my wife and I and millions of other have for a week. But, the wealthy will have back up generators or simply “winter” somewhere more hospitable.

@Greg:

That’s ridiculous. Wind turbines make up only 7 percent of the total winter generating capacity in Texas.

Actually, at last count, wind turbines made up 23% of generating capacity in Texas, while Indiana is still at 6%.

You know nothing, idiot.

@retire05: Probably meant that only 7% of the turbines worked.

@retire05, #34: @retire05:

ERCOT projected that only 7 percent of all Texas electrical power this winter would come from wind turbines:

From The Texas Tribune, February 16, 2021:

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas projected that 80% of the grid’s winter capacity, or 67 gigawatts, could be generated by natural gas, coal and some nuclear power.

An official with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said Tuesday afternoon that 16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, were offline. Nearly double that, 30 gigawatts, had been lost from thermal sources, which includes gas, coal and nuclear energy.

By Wednesday, those numbers had changed as more operators struggled to operate in the cold: 45 gigawatts total were offline, with 28 gigawats from thermal sources and 18 gigawatts from renewable sources, ERCOT officials said.

Failed thermal generating plants account for over twice as much of the lost power to the Texas grid as renewable energy facilities that are out of commission.

“Texas is a gas state,” said Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

It’s estimated that of the grid’s total winter capacity, about 80% of it, or 67 gigawatts, could be generated by natural gas, coal and some nuclear power. Only 7% of ERCOT’s forecasted winter capacity, or 6 gigawatts, was expected to come from various wind power sources across the state.

That’s where the 7 percent came from. I misstated the projected winter percentage of renewable energy as total renewable capacity. Consider that misstatement acknowledged.

You know nothing, idiot.

I know that Texas’s obsession with deregulation has left the state’s energy infrastructure highly vulnerable to unusually cold weather, even though unusually cold weather always comes up at some point. To accomplish that, state planners have totally isolated their grid from the rest of the country so that interstate trade laws are inapplicable. Unfortunately, that also makes it physically impossible to redirect power from outside of the state to compensate for sudden deficiencies inside the state.

I know that those responsible for this situation are trying to shift blame, when there’s really no one to shift it to. They’ve set up a power system that the Federal government has no regulatory authority over, and no ability to back up in an emergency.

I also remember you bashing Puerto Rico when its grid wasn’t up to a couple of unusually powerful back-to-back hurricanes.

@retire05:

The push to decommission baseload power sources like natural gas would be disastrous when trying to keep the lights on in Texas.

They don’t care. There’s vast sums of money to be made in the green industries and selling global warming. That’s all the left cares about. Wealthy liberals like Kerry can just hop on his private jet and dash off to warmer climes or just switch on his auxiliary generator if one of his mansions loses power.

@Greg:

Failed thermal generating plants account for over twice as much of the lost power to the Texas grid as renewable energy facilities that are out of commission.

That’s because we get more of our energy from the common sense (not emotion-driven) sources. You say the same thing as @retire05: said, simply trying to spin it to make the fossil fuel sources appear to be the problem. Yeah, in a weather emergency, even though over 20% of our capacity is wind, we can only DEPEND on 7% of that capacity. When the vast solar farms get covered in snow… 0% of that investment will provide power. Out in west Texas, east of a town called Robert Lee is a vast solar farm that looks like a lake. It goes for miles. Covered in snow… it’s worthless.

I know that Texas’s obsession with deregulation has left the state’s energy infrastructure highly vulnerable to unusually cold weather, even though unusually cold weather always comes up at some point.

Well, then you don’t know your ass from a hole in the ground. Yeah, we lost some fossil capacity, but losing almost ALL of the renewable generation was the killer (literally, in some cases).

Meanwhile, no matter what the temperature, Demediacrats exploit tragedy to further their degenerate agenda and YOU are fully on board.

@Deplorable Me, #37:

Well, then you don’t know your ass from a hole in the ground. Yeah, we lost some fossil capacity, but losing almost ALL of the renewable generation was the killer (literally, in some cases).

That’s a load of horse manure. As ERCOT stated, they expected renewable sources to provide only 7 percent of the state’s total electrical for the winter of 2020-2021. Losing every bit of that percentage wouldn’t have resulted the disaster that Texas is now experiencing.

The problem is regulatory negligence which has resulted in fossil fuel supply systems that are not designed to function properly in unusually cold weather, and a state electrical grid that has been deliberately kept isolated from the national power supply, which results in no backup power being available from outside the state when sources inside the state fail.

The natural gas distribution system to Texas thermal generating stations froze out in the unusually cold weather. That cold winter weather is unusual doesn’t mean it won’t always occur at some point. Most people are smart enough to understand this.
Blame-shifting isn’t going to work with this one.

@Grg:

Where in the hell are you getting such b/s information?

@retire05, #39:

I provided a link for ERCOT’s projected winter electrical power percentages in post #36. They’re quoted in The Texas Tribune.

That Texas has an independent power grid, disconnected from the national distribution grids and regulated exclusively by the state itself, is common knowledge.

@Grg: Is your place on 100 % solar and wind? I bet if it were you would be at your neighbors house asking to sit by the ol wood stove.
They should have converted the coal plants or built new NG plants.

@Greg:

I provided a link for ERCOT’s projected winter electrical power percentages in post #36. They’re quoted in The Texas Tribune.

Ah, yes, the ever reliably left wing Trib (as it is called in Texas) quoting the highly overpaid ERCOT bunch.

And to back up Kitt; have you severed from the grid and gone strictly solar at your house?

I’ve told you before; you need better sources. But then, you’re an idiot who believes any left wing trop so there’s that.

@Grg:

The problem is regulatory negligence which has resulted in fossil fuel supply systems that are not designed to function properly in unusually cold weather, and a state electrical grid that has been deliberately kept isolated from the national power supply, which results in no backup power being available from outside the state when sources inside the state fail.

I guess you didn’t notice, but it wasn’t just Texas that was hit. Almost the entire nation has been in the grips of a storm that global warming conspiracy supporters would say is impossible. The only error in the Texas system has been catering to the environmentalists and replacing reliable fossil fuel generated energy with your unicorn farts.

If Texas was connected to the outside, California would be sucking us dry. No thanks. Let California solve their own problems. Theirs are effective every year; I’ll take this every hundred years to not be subsidizing their failure. California is the perfect example of Democrats completely ruining a state; now they want to do it to the entire country.

Blame-shifting isn’t going to work with this one.

You are right. No one is buying your weak bullshit.

Bonus question: Did Ted Cruz not bug out to sunny Cancún while his constituents were freezing their tails off in the dark?

What was Cruz going to do? He’s in DC. The storm has to pass before anything can be done to rectify the situation, if there is indeed anything to be done. You whiny crybabies grasp on every straw you can find and it is truly pathetic.

@Deplorable Me: I know Cruz isnt a Democrat but I seem to remember about 30 democrats bugging out to party with lobbyists in PR while the government was shut down. Yes on a chartered flight to Puerto Rico for a winter retreat with 109 lobbyists and corporate executives during which they planned to see the hit Broadway show “Hamilton” and attend three parties including one with the show’s cast.”
Cruz said in a statement shared with The Hill that he accompanied his daughters on a flight to Mexico since they had the week off with school canceled.

“Wanting to be a good dad,” Cruz said, he decided to fly “with them last night and am flying back this afternoon.”
“My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas,” he continued. “We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm. My team and I will continue using all our resources to keep Texans informed and safe.”
A man with the means to get his family where its warm has utilities and food, I’d do it too.
But back to the NYslimes lying their asses off about an officers death for political hay.

@kitt: Just more opportunistic exploitation by the left. They exploit everything. It would be like blaming the governor of Puerto Rico for the hurricane. Of course, there is ample evidence many are stupid enough to believe them.