While most of Texas is reeling from
this winter storm, it's
not actually bad news for everyone.
Comstock Resources Incorporated,
which is owned by billionaire
Jerry Jones,
also owner of the Dallas Cowboys,
they have been celebrating a surge
in their pricing, their ability to
raise prices during this crisis for
most Texans.
I want to read a quote for
you from Barstool Sports.
This week, and this is a quote from
Roland Burns who's a CEO of
the company, he said, this week is
like hitting the jackpot with
some of these incredible prices,
the Chief Financial Officer Roland
Burns said on an earnings call
Wednesday via Bloomberg.
Frankly, we were able to sell at
super premium prices for
a material amount of production.
They went on to say, that seems
good news for Jones who, two years
ago, had a total investment
of 1.1 billion in Comstock.
His oil and gas company has become
the leading producer in one
of the nation's natural gas basins.
And so what we are facing in Texas
is the standard price gouging.
Generally speaking, price gouging
is illegal especially, when states
of emergencies have been declared.
But that doesn't seem to deter
these companies,
like hotels in Austin, Texas also
jumping in on the price gouging.
We saw earlier this week the Ramada
in Austin, Texas charging upwards
of $1,000 per night.
But in this case,
there are homeowners and
renters who are facing tens of
thousands of dollars in gas bills
as a result of the price gouging
that's taking place in Texas.
Now, of course, to me,
this is just representative of what
happens in our system.
We have a system that is built on
people being able to take
advantage of the least of these, or
people who are in crisis,
people who are in distress.
And whereas most of us look at this
as something where we want to
reach out and help our neighbors,
for Jerry Jones and his company,
this is their opportunity to get as
much as they can
from the people who are suffering.
Some have died,
many are burning furniture,
many are doing everything
they possibly can to survive, and
this is quite literally the best of
times and worst of times for
the people of Texas.
The worst of times, obviously, for
the common person in Texas, but
the best of times for
these organizations and
these corporations that are able to
charge these exorbitant prices.
I'm curious, Cenk, what you think
in terms of the likelihood that
anyone will be held accountable for
what is clearly price gouging.
>> Yeah, no, they will not only not
be held accountable in this case,
price gouging was actually
built into the system.
So I'm going to explain that in
a second, by the way, but I did not
know the Ramada Inn prices, Ben,
that you just said.
And that actually makes
Heidi Cruz's logic at least more
sensible, not for Ted Cruz, but for
the rest of the family.
She was telling friends in those
leaked texts, hey, look,
the Ritz Carlton in Cancun is 300
bucks a night.
And it turns out if they wanted
to go to the Ramada Inn in Texas,
it's 1,000 bucks a night.
So that's why they wanted to go
to Cancun.
So it's not the right way to handle
it, by the way.
[LAUGH] >> It's not to say, okay,
great, and
let them have Ritz Carlton.
No, don't let the Ramada Inn price
gouge, so.
>> You know that your corporate
policy is crap when you're making
Ted Cruz look better.
>> Right.
[LAUGH] >> I mean, you know
the Ramada Inn is a POS when you're
like, Ted Cruz, I get it now, yeah.
[LAUGH] >> Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, the new slogan for Ted is,
yes we can Cruz.
Okay, so
now on to the price gouging,
this is really important.
The way that the Republicans built
the the legal system that applies
to the energy companies in Texas is
they allowed for flexible pricing.
That sounds good, right?
It's how we want them to be
flexible, flexible is good right?
No, that means, yes, when demand is
low and supply is high,
you will get charged less, okay?
But in Texas, the demand is often
high, especially in the summer
where it is very, very hot.
And so when demand gets high, and
especially if supply is low, like
now, like when the pipes freeze,
if that means that the prices go
through the roof, that is
not the bug, that's the feature.
So the companies told
the Republicans, we want to be able
to price gouge in extreme weather
circumstances, because that way,
we'll be able to make more money.
And the Republicans said,
I hear what you're saying,
where's my check?
And those energy companies said,
here it is.
So our own TYT investigates
a story out today about how one of
the companies, Midland in that
case, is the biggest donor to
Greg Abbott, the governor.
And then let them set their own
rules where they make all the money
and we all get screwed and
some of us die.
Who, how shocking.
That same energy company gave so
much money George W Bush, he used
to call their CEO Jay Daddy, okay?
And they also gave to Rick Perry,
they've given millions to
Texas Republicans.
So now, one of the rules they set
was let us price gouge and
that got built into the law, okay?
The second was,
don't let any federal energy come
in here because we want a monopoly,
and then they painted that as,
Texas, man, we're independent, we
don't need the rest of the country,
Texas strong, right?
Now, people are saying Texas
strong in the right way, like,
let's just please try to survive
with our lives as we have to
weather the storm.
But before, they used
it as an excuse to rob you blind.
The third way they said was
deregulate.
So all safety measures that they
would take were then just turned
into suggestions and not mandatory,
and you're going to be shocked to
find out that none of those
companies took any of those safety
precautions.
They ignored those suggestions
because it costs them money.
So they're like,
thank you very much,
I pay you the bribe,
you give me whatever I want.
And then later, we'll have
the people of Texas pay for, and
both with their lives, and then
eventually, the money it takes to
repair all the damage that's done.
>> Right.
>> I just can't believe, wasn't
there a point at which if you were
a disgusting rampant capitalist,
that you at least tried to pretend
like you had some humanity?
You'd be, no, this is terrible, and
wow, jeez, this is really godawful.
No, these guys are fully like,
we hit the jackpot, ding,
ding, ding.
They're just openly saying, and
the quote that you said was,
we've hit the jackpot.
I mean, people are literally
freezing to death.
There are mothers who are in cars
risking carbon monoxide poisoning
for their children to stay warm,
and these guys are in a room like,
jackpot.
>> Yeah, and that's the part I
like, it's the greatest irony
to me that this guy's name is Mr.
Burns, right?
[LAUGH] >> For
anyone who grew up on the Simpsons,
this is quite literally
the quintessential example of
greed and excess capitalism.
He's sitting there like,
Smithers, he's really super excited
about the fact that while Texans
are dying, right, they're able to
jack up the prices with no remorse.
But I think it's quite indicative
of how this system is designed to
work this way, but also to implode
on itself, because I think
the question really is how long
will the people put up with this?
Because according to Mr. Burns, he
really, he has no fear whatsoever
of the people of Texas looking at
him and running him, at a minimum,
running him out of the state.
Because as he's celebrating, there
are people who are literally going
to have to sell their homes or
pawn off things just to pay
the bill that they have accrued
because they've hit the jackpot.
>> So Ben and Helen, number one,
the reason why they're brazen about
it is because they really captured
the two sources of power in this
country.
One is the media.
So the media used to be watchdogs
and they used to hound
the powerful a long time ago,
at least 50 years ago.
Now, they basically serve
the powerful.
So will the media hold accountable
the energy companies and the
Republican politicians that made
this crooked deal, like we did?
And we'll put the link to
the article in
the description box below,
you could read it for yourself.
Will they link the money
in campaign
contributions to the decisions
that the politicians made?
No, they won't.
Because they'll think my god,
that is the honorable Greg Abbott.
I cannot suggest that perhaps
the million dollars that he got
might have affected his decisions.
Of course it affected his
decisions.
And if you don't think that,
you're not a journalist, you're
just a servant of the powerful.
So capturing the media, because now
almost all the mainstream medias
are all multi-billion dollar
corporations themselves who take
advertising from other
multi-billion dollar corporations,
including energy companies.
So that was a huge part of
the puzzle.
The second part of the puzzle
was we legalized price gouging in
Texas as we just explained, but
more importantly,
we legalized bribery when
the Supreme Court said corporations
can give money to politicians.
Then they say they can give
unlimited money to politicians and
democracy was over.
So that's why there's not going to
be any accountability in Texas,
the next storm,
you guys are going to die again,
and again, the media is going to
pretend, golly gee,
nobody could have seen this coming.
And it's going to go round and
round and the Republicans are going
to help corporations rob you, and
by the way,
corporate Democrats too, each time.
And the other way to read the
story, by the way, is to TYT.com.
I'm really proud of the story.
It's a great story,
make sure you check it out.
Now, I want to give the last word
to one of our viewers.
So, our viewers write in during the
show, and Kim MacLaughlin made such
a great point earlier in the show
that I want to reshare with you,
it's perfect for this story.
And I love having the smartest
audience in the world,
TYT.com/join to become a member.
All right, so Kim wrote in,
American taxpayers will pay to
repair electrical grids, their
generators and the water systems.
So these companies got
the triple dip.
One, save money by refusing to
upgrade.
Two, charge customers exorbitant
prices when supply drops.
And three, have the federal
government pay to repair
everything.
That is exactly right,
and that's exactly how they rob us.
>> Yeah, yeah, and
it is a depressing scenario, Cenk,
that this is what we're facing, and
it repeats itself time and time and
time again.