Have the Members of the Texas GOP Lost Their Minds?

The game of politics has always been a sticky one. The question I have to ask, is when push comes to shove, do those in the halls of power serve themselves or the voters who hired them?

The big political news of the week is that Ted Cruz decided that it was a good time to take a vacation in Mexico while his fellow Texans are trying their best to survive a snow storm that has knocked out power, heat, and water.

On top of what can only be described as a foolish decision, Governor Greg Abbott went on Fox News and blamed New York Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal for the outages.

The cherry on top is the following statement by the state’s former Governor, Rick Perry

. “Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,”

What is the purpose of the federal government, if not to step in when a storm of this magnitude creates such destruction in its wake? People are burning their furniture and bundling up in as many clothes or blankets as humanly possible to stay warm.

I don’t know who these men are trying to impress. It’s as if they care more about themselves or their careers than their constituents. But considering the party’s track record over the last few years, I expect nothing less.

P.S. While the Texas GOP does nothing, both AOC and Beto O’Rourke have stepped up to help. It doesn’t take a genius to see who is putting their money where their mouth is and who isn’t.

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World on Fire Character Review: Uwe & Claudia Rossler

*For the foreseeable future, some Character Review posts may not be published every Thursday as they have in the past.

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the characters from the television series World on Fire. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the show.

There is something to be said about a well written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front of us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations. When we meet Uwe & Claudia Rossler (Johannes Zeiler and Claudia Mayer) in World on Fire, their introduction comes by way of their neighbor, Nancy Campbell (Helen Hunt). They have two children, Klaus and Hilda. While Klaus is away fighting for his country, his parents deal with an internal battle at home. Hilda is living with a medical condition, that if known to the authorities, would put her life in danger. They decide to hide their daughter’s illness and ignore what they are hearing about children being killed for having physical and mental special needs.

Uwe is a business owner who is under constant pressure to fall in line with the regime. Acting against his own conscious and the need to protect his daughter, he reluctantly joins the Nazi party. Then life forces Uwe and Claudia to deal with a fork in the road. Somehow, it gets out that their daughter is sick. Claudia makes the devastation decision to kill herself and Hilda, leaving a heartbroken husband behind. When Uwe kills one of his employees who is an avid supporter of the government, he turns to Nancy to hide the body.

To sum it up: Change only comes when we feel uncomfortable. Comfort creates complacency, for better or for worse. Uwe and Claudia are initially comfortable, safe in the knowledge that as heterosexual Christians, they will be left to live in peace. It is only when they are uncomfortable that they make certain decisions that will forever change the course of their lives.

Which is why they are memorable characters.

This will be my last Character review post for World on Fire. The next group of characters I will be writing about are…come back next week and find out.

Flashback Friday: Building Off the Grid (2014-Present)

The process of building a home from scratch is difficult in itself. Add in Mother Nature and the process becomes twice as hard.

Building Off the Grid has been on the Discovery Channel/DIY Network schedule since 2014. The show follows homeowners who want to build new houses. But instead of building in new or existing neighborhoods, their homes are located in the middle of nature. On top of the challenges that come with creating a new home from the ground up, the owners and builders deal with roadblocks that come with their choice of location.

I find this show to program to be interesting. What keeps me watching is the heightened question of whether or not the final product will come to fruition as promised.

Do I recommend it? Yes.