| From | Matt (Crooked) <[email protected]> |
| Subject | What A Day: Texas blame game |
| Date | July 7, 2025 10:03 PM |
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BY MATT BERG & CROOKED MEDIA
MONDAY
JULY 7, 2025
It’s Game of Thrones politics over there.”
— An unnamed source [complaining to Politico]([link removed]) about the raging dysfunction inside Trump’s National Security Council.
DISASTER POLITICS
The deadly floods in Texas underscore the dangers of Donald Trump’s draconian government cuts and his vision for the future of disaster response.
- At least 95 people died after flash floods tore through the Lone Star state over the holiday weekend, killing 28 children — most of whom were campers[]([link removed]) at an all-girls Christian summer camp. Many of the victims were engaged in heartbreakingly unremarkable, [everyday activities]([link removed]) before storm surge hit. Two sisters, 11 and 13 years old, were staying in a cabin with their grandparents when it washed away. One 62-year-old woman was driving to her job at Walmart when her car was caught in the flood. A young man died trying to save his fiancée and their two sons after his trailer home flooded. Authorities are conducting a massive search for missing people and expect the number of dead to rise.
- Why weren’t locals warned in time? Former officials have long warned that President Donald Trump’s cuts to the National Weather Service could result in tragedy. Now, questions are raging over whether that time has finally arrived. Trump cut hundreds of jobs at NWS, leading some experts to worry that future warnings might come too late to allow people to prepare for hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters — costing lives.
- In the wake of these floods, the finger-pointing has already begun. Texas officials criticized the National Weather Service for, they claimed, understating how much rain would fall. Some former NWS officials explicitly [blamed the Trump administration]([link removed]) for cutting workers who would’ve helped coordinate with local officials after the flood warnings were issued. The weather service defended its actions[]([link removed]), saying its forecasts were as detailed and timely as possible.
- “This is a 100-year catastrophe,” President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday. “What a situation that all is, and that was really the Biden setup. That was not our setup, but I wouldn't blame Biden for it, either.” Come again? White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also pushed back on Trump critics today: “Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie.”
The floods also underscore another dubious MAGA policy: Targeting FEMA.
- Trump wants to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of a larger effort[]([link removed]) to make states handle their own disaster response. But Kerr County, where many of the deaths happened, [opted against]([link removed]) installing a pricey warning system with monitors and sirens. “Taxpayers won’t pay for it,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly told the New York Times. Perhaps because locals figured this is the kind of thing federal officials should help with.
- It’s too soon to know exactly what went wrong in Texas. And we don’t need to jump to conclusions here. Local authorities will conduct a “full review” of the floods and take “clear steps to strengthen our future preparedness,” Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice told reporters[]([link removed]). Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) also called for an investigation into whether NWS cuts undermined forecasting abilities.
- The bigger point is that this tragedy underscores the danger of pulling back funding and resources from storm monitoring and disaster response, at a time when climate change is making natural disasters worse. More on that final point below!
One thing we do know right now: As the storm surged over the weekend, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was [reportedly vacationing]([link removed]) in Athens, Greece with his wife. [Déjà vu!]([link removed])
WARMING WARNING
Communities in Texas have found themselves on the devastating frontlines of climate change. Crooked’s climate correspondent Anya Zoledziowski explains.
The deadly floods in Texas seemed so sudden and dramatic that conspiracy theories about their [origin erupted online]([link removed]) in their wake. Cue the notoriously erratic Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), [who seized the moment to say]([link removed]) she wants to make controlling the weather, or what she called “weather modification,” a felony crime[]([link removed]).
Never mind the persistent misinformation: The illuminati aren’t secretly making natural disasters more damaging. But climate change is.
When the climate is stable, extreme flash floods shouldn’t happen very often. The flooding that hit Kerrville, Texas on Friday, for example, should [only happen once every 500 years]([link removed]). But today the climate is increasingly unstable, which makes extreme weather events [worse]([link removed]) and [harder to predict]([link removed]).
“This kind of record-shattering rain (caused by slow-moving torrential thunderstorms) event is precisely that which is increasing the fastest in warming climate,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain wrote on BlueSky.
Scientists have long warned that a warming climate will worsen droughts, floods, storms, wildfires and more. In 2024, the U.S. experienced 27 weather and climate disasters that caused more than $1 billion in damage, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Compare that to the 1980s, when the U.S. experienced just over three such events on average per year (adjusted for inflation). Texas represents the latest stark example of what a warming climate looks like, and how it affects real people and real communities.
This story was sponsored by our nonprofit partner Crooked Ideas.
WHAT A SPONSOR
[link removed]
A great outfit always starts with great shapewear. And let’s be real… no one has time for shapewear that feels uncomfortable or restrictive.
Luckily, you don’t have to settle for that, thanks to Honeylove[]([link removed]) — the brand that’s setting a new standard for shapewear.
Honeylove uses targeted compression to sculpt and smooth where you want it and ease off where you don’t. That means that it’s super effective AND comfortable to wear all day long. It’s shapewear that works with your body, not against it.
The difference? You’ll feel it — and see it — immediately.
Treat yourself to the most comfortable shapewear on earth and save 20% Off sitewide at [honeylove.com/HYSTERIA]([link removed]).
After you purchase, they’ll ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our newsletter and tell them we sent you! Experience the new standard in shapewear with Honeylove[]([link removed]).
[link removed]
WHAT ELSE?
[Measles cases in the U.S. reached]([link removed]) their highest point in 33 years, with over 1,270 cases across 38 states and Washington, D.C. “The milestone marks a public health reversal in defeating a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease as the anti-vaccine movement gains strength,” the Washington Post wrote. Stunning work, RFK Jr.! This is exactly what the people want. You were going to Make America… what, again?
[Donald Trump delayed]([link removed]) the deadline for countries to make a trade deal with the United States to August 1. Japan and South Korea will start paying 25 percent on imports on that day, Trump announced today[]([link removed]). And yesterday, he threatened to impose an extra 10 percent tariff on countries in the BRICS alliance[]([link removed]) after the group voiced “serious concerns” about his worldwide tariff policy. This Trade War of the Worlds is going sooooo smoothly.
[Elon Musk ignited a new battle with Trump,]([link removed]) his ex-bestie, after announcing plans to launch a political party called the “America Party.” Trump responded by saying that Elon has gone "off the rails" and is a “TRAIN WRECK.” The girls are fighting again, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) [would say]([link removed]).
[But wait, there’s more!]([link removed]) Trump’s Department of Justice confirmed that late child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in jail and didn’t compile a “client list” to blackmail associates. Musk poked fun at MAGAworld with a [tongue-in-cheek tweet]([link removed]): “What’s the time? Oh look, it’s no-one-has-been-arrested-o’clock again…” he wrote, accompanied by a clock showing “The Official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter” set to “0000.”
[House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was]([link removed]) busted using photoshop… to slim his waist? That’s what some internet users believe. Have a look and decide for yourself. As for me…. I’m always a fan of silly discourse.
[Australian woman Erin Patterson was found guilty]([link removed]) of murdering three relatives and trying to murder another by feeding them deadly mushroom caps in a home-cooked beef Wellington in 2023.
GET IN ON THE ACTION
Republicans in Congress just passed one of the cruelest and least popular pieces of legislation in history. It’s going to kick millions of people off their health care so that millionaires and billionaires can get another massive tax break. Many House Republicans who voted in favor of this bill won in their states by slim margins and are up for re-election next year. We can vote them out and win back the house to stop future awful legislation and hold them accountable. Donate to Vote Save America’s Take Back the House fund to support must-win state house races next year. Go to [VoteSaveAmerica.Com/House]([link removed]) for more.
Paid for by Vote Save America. You can learn more at [votesaveamerica.com]([link removed]). This ad has not been authorized by any candidate or candidate’s com.
[link removed]
[Carla Hayden, the former Librarian of Congress]([link removed]) fired by Donald Trump, will serve as a senior fellow at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where she’ll continue her efforts to make information accessible to the public via libraries and archives. Let’s hear it for libraries!
[The Associated Press just dropped some]([link removed]) hilarious photographs from last week’s T-Rex World Championship Races in Washington, in which contestants dressed in dino costumes raced around a dirt track. Apparently, this event began eight years ago as a pest control company's team-building exercise. I think large-scale T-Rex costume races may be the solution to world peace.
[Are you looking for a new group activity]([link removed]) with your closest friends? Welp… Pennsylvania nudists are hosting “Balls Out Bowling” at Crafton Ingram Lanes in Pittsburgh on July 12. It’s $30 for shoe rentals and four hours of unlimited bowling, which honestly is an incredible deal.
[]([link removed])
[link removed]
[link removed] [link removed] [link removed] [link removed]
[Share this newsletter]([link removed])
No longer want to receive these emails? [Unsubscribe]([link removed]).
Crooked Media 4817 N 56th St Suite 45 Lincoln, Nebraska 68504
MONDAY
JULY 7, 2025
It’s Game of Thrones politics over there.”
— An unnamed source [complaining to Politico]([link removed]) about the raging dysfunction inside Trump’s National Security Council.
DISASTER POLITICS
The deadly floods in Texas underscore the dangers of Donald Trump’s draconian government cuts and his vision for the future of disaster response.
- At least 95 people died after flash floods tore through the Lone Star state over the holiday weekend, killing 28 children — most of whom were campers[]([link removed]) at an all-girls Christian summer camp. Many of the victims were engaged in heartbreakingly unremarkable, [everyday activities]([link removed]) before storm surge hit. Two sisters, 11 and 13 years old, were staying in a cabin with their grandparents when it washed away. One 62-year-old woman was driving to her job at Walmart when her car was caught in the flood. A young man died trying to save his fiancée and their two sons after his trailer home flooded. Authorities are conducting a massive search for missing people and expect the number of dead to rise.
- Why weren’t locals warned in time? Former officials have long warned that President Donald Trump’s cuts to the National Weather Service could result in tragedy. Now, questions are raging over whether that time has finally arrived. Trump cut hundreds of jobs at NWS, leading some experts to worry that future warnings might come too late to allow people to prepare for hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters — costing lives.
- In the wake of these floods, the finger-pointing has already begun. Texas officials criticized the National Weather Service for, they claimed, understating how much rain would fall. Some former NWS officials explicitly [blamed the Trump administration]([link removed]) for cutting workers who would’ve helped coordinate with local officials after the flood warnings were issued. The weather service defended its actions[]([link removed]), saying its forecasts were as detailed and timely as possible.
- “This is a 100-year catastrophe,” President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday. “What a situation that all is, and that was really the Biden setup. That was not our setup, but I wouldn't blame Biden for it, either.” Come again? White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also pushed back on Trump critics today: “Blaming President Trump for these floods is a depraved lie.”
The floods also underscore another dubious MAGA policy: Targeting FEMA.
- Trump wants to dismantle the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of a larger effort[]([link removed]) to make states handle their own disaster response. But Kerr County, where many of the deaths happened, [opted against]([link removed]) installing a pricey warning system with monitors and sirens. “Taxpayers won’t pay for it,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly told the New York Times. Perhaps because locals figured this is the kind of thing federal officials should help with.
- It’s too soon to know exactly what went wrong in Texas. And we don’t need to jump to conclusions here. Local authorities will conduct a “full review” of the floods and take “clear steps to strengthen our future preparedness,” Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice told reporters[]([link removed]). Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) also called for an investigation into whether NWS cuts undermined forecasting abilities.
- The bigger point is that this tragedy underscores the danger of pulling back funding and resources from storm monitoring and disaster response, at a time when climate change is making natural disasters worse. More on that final point below!
One thing we do know right now: As the storm surged over the weekend, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was [reportedly vacationing]([link removed]) in Athens, Greece with his wife. [Déjà vu!]([link removed])
WARMING WARNING
Communities in Texas have found themselves on the devastating frontlines of climate change. Crooked’s climate correspondent Anya Zoledziowski explains.
The deadly floods in Texas seemed so sudden and dramatic that conspiracy theories about their [origin erupted online]([link removed]) in their wake. Cue the notoriously erratic Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), [who seized the moment to say]([link removed]) she wants to make controlling the weather, or what she called “weather modification,” a felony crime[]([link removed]).
Never mind the persistent misinformation: The illuminati aren’t secretly making natural disasters more damaging. But climate change is.
When the climate is stable, extreme flash floods shouldn’t happen very often. The flooding that hit Kerrville, Texas on Friday, for example, should [only happen once every 500 years]([link removed]). But today the climate is increasingly unstable, which makes extreme weather events [worse]([link removed]) and [harder to predict]([link removed]).
“This kind of record-shattering rain (caused by slow-moving torrential thunderstorms) event is precisely that which is increasing the fastest in warming climate,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain wrote on BlueSky.
Scientists have long warned that a warming climate will worsen droughts, floods, storms, wildfires and more. In 2024, the U.S. experienced 27 weather and climate disasters that caused more than $1 billion in damage, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Compare that to the 1980s, when the U.S. experienced just over three such events on average per year (adjusted for inflation). Texas represents the latest stark example of what a warming climate looks like, and how it affects real people and real communities.
This story was sponsored by our nonprofit partner Crooked Ideas.
WHAT A SPONSOR
[link removed]
A great outfit always starts with great shapewear. And let’s be real… no one has time for shapewear that feels uncomfortable or restrictive.
Luckily, you don’t have to settle for that, thanks to Honeylove[]([link removed]) — the brand that’s setting a new standard for shapewear.
Honeylove uses targeted compression to sculpt and smooth where you want it and ease off where you don’t. That means that it’s super effective AND comfortable to wear all day long. It’s shapewear that works with your body, not against it.
The difference? You’ll feel it — and see it — immediately.
Treat yourself to the most comfortable shapewear on earth and save 20% Off sitewide at [honeylove.com/HYSTERIA]([link removed]).
After you purchase, they’ll ask you where you heard about them. PLEASE support our newsletter and tell them we sent you! Experience the new standard in shapewear with Honeylove[]([link removed]).
[link removed]
WHAT ELSE?
[Measles cases in the U.S. reached]([link removed]) their highest point in 33 years, with over 1,270 cases across 38 states and Washington, D.C. “The milestone marks a public health reversal in defeating a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease as the anti-vaccine movement gains strength,” the Washington Post wrote. Stunning work, RFK Jr.! This is exactly what the people want. You were going to Make America… what, again?
[Donald Trump delayed]([link removed]) the deadline for countries to make a trade deal with the United States to August 1. Japan and South Korea will start paying 25 percent on imports on that day, Trump announced today[]([link removed]). And yesterday, he threatened to impose an extra 10 percent tariff on countries in the BRICS alliance[]([link removed]) after the group voiced “serious concerns” about his worldwide tariff policy. This Trade War of the Worlds is going sooooo smoothly.
[Elon Musk ignited a new battle with Trump,]([link removed]) his ex-bestie, after announcing plans to launch a political party called the “America Party.” Trump responded by saying that Elon has gone "off the rails" and is a “TRAIN WRECK.” The girls are fighting again, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) [would say]([link removed]).
[But wait, there’s more!]([link removed]) Trump’s Department of Justice confirmed that late child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in jail and didn’t compile a “client list” to blackmail associates. Musk poked fun at MAGAworld with a [tongue-in-cheek tweet]([link removed]): “What’s the time? Oh look, it’s no-one-has-been-arrested-o’clock again…” he wrote, accompanied by a clock showing “The Official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter” set to “0000.”
[House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries was]([link removed]) busted using photoshop… to slim his waist? That’s what some internet users believe. Have a look and decide for yourself. As for me…. I’m always a fan of silly discourse.
[Australian woman Erin Patterson was found guilty]([link removed]) of murdering three relatives and trying to murder another by feeding them deadly mushroom caps in a home-cooked beef Wellington in 2023.
GET IN ON THE ACTION
Republicans in Congress just passed one of the cruelest and least popular pieces of legislation in history. It’s going to kick millions of people off their health care so that millionaires and billionaires can get another massive tax break. Many House Republicans who voted in favor of this bill won in their states by slim margins and are up for re-election next year. We can vote them out and win back the house to stop future awful legislation and hold them accountable. Donate to Vote Save America’s Take Back the House fund to support must-win state house races next year. Go to [VoteSaveAmerica.Com/House]([link removed]) for more.
Paid for by Vote Save America. You can learn more at [votesaveamerica.com]([link removed]). This ad has not been authorized by any candidate or candidate’s com.
[link removed]
[Carla Hayden, the former Librarian of Congress]([link removed]) fired by Donald Trump, will serve as a senior fellow at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where she’ll continue her efforts to make information accessible to the public via libraries and archives. Let’s hear it for libraries!
[The Associated Press just dropped some]([link removed]) hilarious photographs from last week’s T-Rex World Championship Races in Washington, in which contestants dressed in dino costumes raced around a dirt track. Apparently, this event began eight years ago as a pest control company's team-building exercise. I think large-scale T-Rex costume races may be the solution to world peace.
[Are you looking for a new group activity]([link removed]) with your closest friends? Welp… Pennsylvania nudists are hosting “Balls Out Bowling” at Crafton Ingram Lanes in Pittsburgh on July 12. It’s $30 for shoe rentals and four hours of unlimited bowling, which honestly is an incredible deal.
[]([link removed])
[link removed]
[link removed] [link removed] [link removed] [link removed]
[Share this newsletter]([link removed])
No longer want to receive these emails? [Unsubscribe]([link removed]).
Crooked Media 4817 N 56th St Suite 45 Lincoln, Nebraska 68504
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