Thread by @kurteichenwald

How to not run/and run a business:

In 1976, my family was Big Thompson River flood. 2 hotels survived -locally owned one we were in, which let people stay free & doubled up rooms, & Holiday Inn, which tripled rates. I’ve never again stayed in HI for 45 years because of that..1

...we’ve seen the opposite in Texas disaster - a community minded business that wins public affection & is better managed than the state. @HEB is beloved in TX, more so since the recent crisis. In a town where people were in financial trouble, HEB gave away groceries for free...2

...literally, you would walk into the store, head to the cashier, and they would thank you and send you on your way. They were prepared for a disaster. Why? Because at the beginning of the pandemic, this grocery store chain -GROCERY STORES! - commissioned John’s Hopkins to do...3

...a pandemic report that correctly predicted how things would go (badly), consulted experts on how best to keep their workers and customers safe, and then spent the money required to get it done. They shared all of their information with mass killer Governor @GregAbbott_TX.../4

....a man they did not know how already deep-sixes a report put together specifically for the state to show how to open up safely. Just like his ignoring the 2011 warnings about an electricity collapse and the need for Abbott’s bagmen at the energy companies to spend money to...5

...prevent a disaster, @GregAbbott_TX ignored HEB, ignored other consultant report, because once again, his contributors wanted to open up immediately, with no costs. So mass murderer Abbott scream3d “YEEEE-HAAWW!” and threw open the state in the EXACT way he was told not to...6

...and then when everything came crashing down - first COVID spread, then vaccine distribution, then electric grid - mass murderer @GregAbbott_TX first instinct was to lie about what happened to cover his ass and AGAIN protecting....7

...his campaign contributors from being forced by common sense regulations that would bring Texas up to having an energy and electricity system on par with a 1st world country rather than with Somalia. These comparisons - Holiday Inn, HEB, mass murderer @GregAbbott_TX - are....8

...all linked. Holiday Inn, like mass murderer @GregAbbott_TX & rest of Texas GOP, did nothing to help. The GOP, just like Holiday Inn, rushed to make sure business didn’t lose - and could even make - $ as the bodies piled up by pushing through massive electricity rate hikes...9

...at the very time people are least able to pay more and least able to get information on how much they would owe. People in Texas are actually not turning on their heat - their FUNCTIONAL heat - because they have heard of huge rate hikes & don’t know if they can afford it...10

....that is just like the Holiday Inn during the Thompson River flood: “to hell with people, lets make money.” Meanwhile, the democrats - just like HEB - are out there busting ass, finding people freezing and isolated and hungry and thirsty - and driving them to warming...11

....centers, getting them food & water, raising money for food banks, packing the food. GOPrs are so sociopathic some of them are actually saying that the only reason people like @BetoORourke and @JoaquinCastrotx and @AOC are working to save people is to make Cruz look bad...12

...so, this is the bottom line. Mass murderer @GregAbbott_TX and the Texas GOP are Holiday Inn. For both, when they reveal their twisted values, people should respond accordingly: shun them. And HEB and the democrats, who bust ass to save people, show be rewarded....13

...and if Texans are incapable of seeing how our primary elected officials have magically become rich in public office, of seeing how little they care about us, and won’t vote for the dems who care, then have HEB take over the state. At least that way, death rates would drop.
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