I have not always been much of a Cruz fan, and I swear it's not JUST the Bitcoin stuff that has won me over.
Ted has an uncanny ability to come across as wonkish & unlikable, But if you can get passed his random reptilian facial expressions (which is helped by the beard) and his often overly rehearsed preachy tone... you start to realize he really does have a deep understanding of founding principles and history and he makes most of his decisions based off of his knowledge and his love for liberty.
I am super stoked to hear this message is starting to get out! The ability of Energy Providers to monetize excess/waste energy in more remote areas, then instantly send that money anywhere in the world to bolster/subsidize energy production in areas that are overwhelmed or overtaxed can act as a buffer to smooth out the high-cost bubbles. Having capital & resources to mitigate changes is a far better strategy than trying to stop all the freight trains at once to mildly slow the change.
So, we are in the middle of another North Texas Ice storm. (Hope everything is good at the farm Bob... you're getting a decent stress test for your plumbing!
) And the people here have been experiencing PTSD from last year's "icepocalypse" as we called it. I have kept this old part of my ~100 year old house as a good luck totem.
When it happened last year there was SO MUCH structural damage ALL OVER Texas that I am sure some plumbers are STILL WORKING a year later from damage that happened during that storm. Our structures are not really built for the combination of 12f/-12c weather and power outages that basically cause the whole damn state to freeze at once. We are built, rather for 9 month summers that go to >100f/40c (I am translating from the sensible fahrenheit to the non weather sensible celcius for you Europeans and lovely brave Canadians (HONK), although I agree the US are cavemen as far as the metric system goes F is just better for weather, while C is great for science or cooking.. anyway never mind that).
The grid failures were actually caused by a greed explosion during the cold snap last year, but the whole state has been trembling over the last couple weeks preparing for THIS storm. And the news has been very fear based over the last week until the last couple days where both local and national media has switched over to the "bitcoin miners are saving the grid" narrative.
It is a sight to be seen. On top of that we have several gubernatorial candidates (including the incumbent) making Bitcoin a plank in their campaigns. Including a couple challengers saying one of the first things they will do is make Bitcoin legal tender.
Still the most mind boggling thing is the amount of "normie" media talking about Bitcoin saving the grid this time... AND the clarity and extent to which they are GETTING IT. The articles are not as stupid as Bitcoin articles usually are.
Unfortunately I cannot see this lasting forever... The powers that be in government and the media will not take well to this amazingly sensible narrative and will shift back to their "boiling oceans"/"more than Norway" bullshit pretty soon, I am sure.
But Cruz, and several other TX politicians are GETTING IT. They see why Bitcoin is important. Even some of the nuanced stuff like how it will help the energy sector. With TX being the energy capital of the USA it makes perfect sense that we will also become one of the mining meccas. We have such expansive space for large solar/wind farms that can be justified by a base demand of Bitcoin mining. This is going to be explosive growth here.
As a synergistic corollary the amount of Bitcoin Illuminati that have descended on Austin (for some reason??? but it has been a Bitcoin locus since ~ 2011) is also helping push this as the government also realizes that Texas is becoming one of the states that is attracting the industry in multiple ways.
Mind boggling for me to be watching this happen, frankly.
I have to admit, I have often thought TX would be a good place to settle if the Leftist loons continue their slow progress towards making this place another high tax high crime shithole. Just have trouble with the lack of trees & seasons and the fact that so many of your highways are 100ft off the ground! At least it seems like recent moves are going in the right direction as far as seasonal weather, but that makes it even more urgent that you address those highways! It's disconcerting to see the road waving in the wind as you're merging into traffic, but add in icy conditions and flying cars will quickly become an unfortunate reality! You have so much space! Why the hell must you have 5 overpasses stacked vertically?
Buckle up and stay warm down there cAP!
Looking at the Weather forecast, I'm not seeing any problems on the horizon in your area... are they actually calling for something or is this just noise based solely on last year's "once in 100 years" storm?