Among those dead or missing in the horrific Texas floods are about twenty young girls, swept away from a children’s summer camp. See “Texas flooding leaves at least 24 dead, 20 Camp Mystic campers unaccounted for” at CNN. Some news stories are reporting twenty-four girls missing.
What seems to be under-reported is that the National Weather Service didn’t predict the flooding in time to do much good.
At a press conference last night, one official said: “The original forecast we received on Wednesday from the National Weather Service predicted 3-6” of rain in the Concho Valley and 4-8” of rain in the hill country. The amount of rain that fell in these locations was never in any of their forecasts. Everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service. They did not predict the amount of rain that we saw.”
Reuters published a story just a few days ago, one of many warning about this problem: “In May, every living former director of the NWS signed on to an open letter with a warning that, if continued, Trump’s cuts to federal weather forecasting would create ‘needless loss of life’. Despite bipartisan congressional pushback for a restoration in staffing and funding to the NWS, sharp budget cuts remain on pace in projections for the 2026 budget for the NOAA, the parent organization of the NWS.”
The National Weather Service did issue a flood warning on Thursday afternoon, but that was after there had already been flooding. I take it there was another big surge late last night, but the area has no warning system for floods.
Trump is promising to send aid to Texas, but we’ve heard that one before. Texas should be warned not to hold its breath waiting for the feds.
The present version of Uncle Sam is not the reliable, responsible one of old. Not for citizens, immigrants, the poor or the handicapped and of course the ill or the aged for sure and other assorted residents and certainly not for former friendly and allied countries either. The new uncle likes some rich people, Russia, and Israel at times and assorted others especially gullible ones with money.
We tried. We warned them and now can only say We Told You So. Next time if we opt to advise you all need to Pay Attention and Listen.
In this case, Trump is still useless and MAGA is vile, but NOAA cuts are not the issue.
https://rmadisonj.blogspot.com/2025/07/no-probably-not.html?m=1
https://rmadisonj.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-view-from-1500-miles.html?m=1
Yeah, I was thinking it will take more than a few months for the new round of attacks on NOAA to really degrade their ability to do their jobs (protecting us from Mother Earth's vengeance).
OTOH, NOAA – like many other Federal agencies – has been in the crosshairs of the GOP for decades, especially since the Fossil Fuel Corps (and Western Extractive Industries in general) gained a stranglehold over the GOP.
NOAA – along with EPA, OSHA, etc – have been slowly starved (of funds) and strangled (by Regulatory Capture) since the Reagan administration.
Project 2025 is just trying to finish the job.
You wise up, too. Meteorologists were complaining about the degraded forecasts in April already.
Wise up. The NWS has been collecting less data for at least three months already. Here's a story from bleeping April about degraded forecasts.
A mere flash flood that kills 22 people, mostly children, is not the issue. Not in the global scheme of things. The propaganda machine is dead set on suppressing information on climate change. (By "dead set", I mean they accept collateral deaths in the interest of protecting the petroleum industry from the fate of the tobacco industry.)
Remember Covid? "Stop TESTING" is a literal quote in a larger statement that suggested the Covid deaths would be reduced if we stop documenting. The economy of renewables is proven, but Trump will "unprove" them with lies and require energy companies to go back to coal or face federal penalties.
We're past the tipping point where there will be consequences. The question is how fast and how big the catastrophes will be. Climate change denial is a BFD – it may precipitate the fall of countries, including ours, due to famine, drought, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes, plus the civil disorder in a country with more guns than people.
Let me plant a bug in your ear. As with this stroy, pay attention to how often you hear about an event being "one in a century." I'm reading that phrase, I think, far more often than I used to. That's because they're happening more often and I think we're at the base of an exponential curve of climate-generated events.
A few dozen dead children IS a big deal. If it disturbs you, don't let anyone minimize the possible link to climate change or the commitment of the American Fascist Party to make the unpleasant truth about climate change Top Secret.
A mere flash flood that kills 22 people, mostly children, is not the issue. Not in the global scheme of things. The propaganda machine is dead set on suppressing information on climate change. (By "dead set", I mean they accept collateral deaths in the interest of protecting the petroleum industry from the fate of the tobacco industry.)
Remember Covid? "Stop TESTING" is a literal quote in a larger statement that suggested the Covid deaths would be reduced if we stop documenting. The economy of renewables is proven, but Trump will "unprove" them with lies and require energy companies to go back to coal or face federal penalties.
We're past the tipping point where there will be consequences. The question is how fast and how big the catastrophes will be. Climate change denial is a BFD – it may precipitate the fall of countries, including ours, due to famine, drought, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes, plus the civil disorder in a country with more guns than people.
Let me plant a bug in your ear. As with this stroy, pay attention to how often you hear about an event being "one in a century." I'm reading that phrase, I think, far more often than I used to. That's because they're happening more often and I think we're at the base of an exponential curve of climate-generated events.
A few dozen dead children IS a big deal. If it disturbs you, don't let anyone minimize the possible link to climate change or the commitment of the American Fascist Party to make the unpleasant truth about climate change Top Secret.
Climate change has been one of our greatest fights here for more than a century before Seabrook, NH in 1975-8. Many of us joined in environmentalism even before "Earth Day" in 1969. The problem then was all of the dangerous industrial and utilities' waste, especially radioactive.
Since then, the regulatory/legislative bodies have quietly calmed down nuclear waste spead issues while continuing MASSIVE fossil fuel production (h/t lamestream press) with some air soot reduction since then. Have you seen the NJ Shore recently? 50 years ago, it was a gray, brown, green, sooty and polluted mess. Cleaning up works, but Drumph is taking advantage of current good conditions (Thanks, Dems and Biden!) to glutton up…. Hooray for our new? Big Gov!
Elon Musk’s AI tool Grok is pointing the finger squarely at its own creator, and the administration he once worked for, for the loss of life during this week’s flooding in Texas.
“Trump’s NOAA cuts, pushed by Musk’s DOGE, slashed funding 30% and staff 17%, underestimating rainfall by 50% and delaying alerts.This contributed to the floods killing 27, including ~20 Camp Mystic girls. Facts over feelings.”
I am not deliberately double-posting. Apologies.
Musk said he's following through on his threat to start a new conservative party. Musk ia no rocket scientist. He has the money to hire political rocket scientists and the money to finance a movement designed to REALLY kneecap the federal government. Musk reveled in the role of the grim reaper, cutting down federal jobs. What Musk wanted was the tax cuts he got PLUS the elimination of the federal government, except a Department of War.
I do not think Musk can put together a majority party that wants to eliminate everything, as Musk does. But he has enough money to hurt the Republicans in the midterms.
I will hit "Post{ only one time. If this damn tbing double posts, I didn't do it.
About a year or so ago one of my friends who generally identifies as republican asked me if I ever considered joining the republican party. Although some go by a strange rule that answering a question with a question is impolite, I considered the source and answered with a question. Well in this state we seem to have two republican parties, which one do you think I ought to join?
Now, with the new Musk party almost official, it looks like the schism is going national. He seems to like the name American Party. It appears he is stealing the deficit hawks and of course the young fascist or white supremacist types for his rival faction. The Deep Pockets Party would be a more honest name, but the honesty coalition of the republican party dissolved years ago. One more reason Citizens United has to go. What a foolish SCOTUS blunder that was. Now the new Uncle Sam has them on speed dial. The next step for SCOTUS is a self-inflicted status of supreme puppet court of the totalitarian or the totalitarian's puppet. The American Party, love it or check into your nearest gulag. Alligator Alcatraz is the prototype with more coming soon. You can check in anytime, but checkout is quite a different matter.
Its a no brainer: when you gut an essential service that provides advance notice of predicted effects of pending natural disasters, for no practical reason other than politics, avoidable death and destruction occur. Trump may have been too stupid to put two and two together on this, but Musk, DOGE and many of those in congress who ghoulishly cheered on these cuts knew this could happen. Both Trump and Musk deserve blame, but also those republicans in Congress who wanted to pretend NOAA, National Weather Service was somehow "fraud, waste and abuse," was "woke" or "DEI" or whatever excuse they used to justify taking money from a service like this to pretend to use it to pay for tax cuts for people like Trump and Musk.
They're trying, but blaming Biden is not working. Kristi Noem trotted out their talking point of the disaster being the fault of "old and outdated equipment" going back to the Biden days, but Trump's been president now long enough to have addressed it, if that were the true. But its not. This is as simple as they cut staff with the intention of gutting NOAA and NWS to the point it could no longer provide essential services, like this. This is on Trump, and I'm glad to hear media is starting to hold him accountable.