BY MATT BERG & CROOKED MEDIA |
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It’s Game of Thrones politics over there.”
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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 at an all-girls Christian summer camp. Many of the victims were engaged in heartbreakingly unremarkable, everyday activities 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 for cutting workers who would’ve helped coordinate with local officials after the flood warnings were issued. The weather service defended its actions, 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 to make states handle their own disaster response. But Kerr County, where many of the deaths happened, opted against 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. 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 in Athens, Greece with his wife. Déjà vu!
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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 in their wake. Cue the notoriously erratic Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who seized the moment to say she wants to make controlling the weather, or what she called “weather modification,” a felony crime .
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. But today the climate is increasingly unstable, which makes extreme weather events worse and harder to predict.
“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.
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Measles cases in the U.S. reached 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 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 . And yesterday, he threatened to impose an extra 10 percent tariff on countries in the BRICS alliance 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, 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.
But wait, there’s more! 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: “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 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.
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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 for more.
Paid for by Vote Save America. You can learn more at votesaveamerica.com. This ad has not been authorized by any candidate or candidate’s com.
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Carla Hayden, the former Librarian of Congress 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 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 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.
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