Among its many stupid decisions, Elon Musk’s DOGE cut the staff of NOAA and the Natuonal Weather Service. Experts warned that people would die without accurate warnings. Trump ignored the warnings; so did Republicans in Congress. The cuts were imposed. The savings were a pittance. Unprepared for the storm and flooding in Texas a few days ago, people died.
Ron Filipowski wrote at The Meidas Report:
As the best and the brightest were being fired at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by senseless and draconian ‘DOGE’ cuts earlier this year under Trump, with no reason given except for the need to cut a paltry amount of the government’s budget, experts warned repeatedly that the cuts would have deadly consequences during the storm season. And they have.
Dozens and dozens of stories have been written in the media citing hundreds of experts which said that weather forecasting was never going to be the same, and that inaccurate forecasts were going to lead to fewer evacuations, impaired preparedness of first responders, and deadly consequences. I quoted many of them in my daily Bulletins and wrote about this issue nearly 20 different times.
And the chickens have come home to roost. Hundreds of people have already been killed across the US in a variety of storms including deadly tornadoes – many of which were inaccurately forecasted. And we are just entering peak hurricane season. Meteorologist Chris Vagasky posted earlier this spring on social media: “The world’s example for weather services is being destroyed.”
Now, after severe flooding in non-evacuated areas in Texas has left at least 24 dead with dozens more missing, including several young girls at a summer camp, Texas officials are blaming their failure to act on a faulty forecast by Donald Trump’s new National Weather Service gutted by cuts to their operating budget and most experienced personnel.
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.”
But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, whose agency oversees NOAA, testified before Congress on June 5 that the cuts wouldn’t be a problem because “we are transforming how we track storms and forecast weather with cutting-edge technology. Under no circumstances am I going to let public safety or public forecasting be touched.” Apparently the “cutting edge technology” hasn’t arrived yet.
And now presumably FEMA will be called upon to help pick up the pieces of shattered lives in Texas – an agency that Trump said repeatedly that he wants to abolish. In fact, Trump’s first FEMA director Cameron Hamilton was fired one day after he testified before Congress that FEMA should not be abolished.
The voters of Texas decided that they wanted Donald Trump and Greg Abbott to be in charge of the government services they received. That is exactly what they are getting. And as of this writing on Saturday morning, Trump still hasn’t said a word about the storm and the little girls who were killed at the camp.
However, Trump was seen dancing on the balcony of the White House last night celebrating the latest round of cuts in his budget bill that just became law so billionaires and corporations can have huge tax cuts. People are dying and more will die because of their recklessness, just like we saw during covid. And now millions won’t even have health insurance to deal with the consequences.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
To make matters worse. Texas July 4th Flood Tragedy was preventable!
Citizens and Scientists have called for Guadalupe River Flood Mitigation Engineering for DECADES!
The Mystic Church Camp had no levees, retention ponds or Rescue Action Plan.
Even though they were situated at Ground Zero for raging Flash Flood danger. They ignored 3+ Flood Warnings that WERE issued by County Officials. Something like the Texas Coverup at Uvalde’s elementary school shooting will now commence.
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Kathy,
Greg Abbott will either block or control any investigation so he can’t be held accountable.
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But please think of all the “ABUNDANCE” a 100 lives buys Tex-ass .
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“However, Trump was seen dancing on the balcony of the White House last night celebrating the latest round of cuts in his budget bill that just became law so billionaires and corporations can have huge tax cuts.”
Of course, Trump’s and his crony billionaire’s regard for others is directly proportional to their balance sheets and income statements, topped off with the grifter, vulture capitalism, private equity ethos of “pillage, then profit.”
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Uh, brain skip, make that “directly proportional”…
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Unfortunately, these red states will have to find out what curtailing services will mean the hard way. I cannot even image the pain of these girls’ families. The GOP either doesn’t care or doesn’t understand the concept of consequences. Why else would Florida build a concentration camp in a swamp in the Everglades in hurricane season?
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Alligator Alcatraz has already flooded. Can you imagine how unbearable it will be in Florida’s heat and humidity. No air-conditioning. Water 6″ deep. Prisoners will go crazy and run into the swamp, taking their chances with the alligators and pythons rather than enduring a hell hole.
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That’s exactly what they want to happen.
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Noam Chomsky’s number one reason for voting against the Trump administration was his failure to recognize climate change. This is why he said that “the lesser of two evils is the only rational choice”. We should be investing in the best weather forecasting tools money can buy — not cutting them. Because climate change isn’t just heating the planet. It’s shifting the ground beneath our feet, both literally and metaphorically. Disasters are striking faster, harder, and in ways our old tools and timelines can no longer predict — and the cost of being unprepared is measured in lives.
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Trump’s big ugly bill cuts everything that promotes clean energy and combats the dangers of climate change.
I suppose if you live in a palace with multiple servants, you imagine that the federal government isn’t needed. It collects taxes and gets in the way of entrepreneurs.
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I’m visiting S.A Texas right now, so this is really hitting home. It’s galling to watch Texas officials complaining about the NWA after advocating for deep cuts. https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/nws-warning-meteorologist-retires-20288340.php?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwY2xjawLWoU1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETEzUXlqbWQwZFFLVXRWTmZ6AR58DA6t1jp7GgMNRWYrp_ggi6NBCNhG4324mMea74smzf6hd_j7-YEviYv9Dg_aem_C9QUvfTxwpZ6Thg5Yd_bZw
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“For more than seventy years, Camp Mystic has been a sparkling oasis in the Hill Country for Texas girls to escape the heat and learn archery, kayaking, etiquette, and sisterhood. But rising land values, old rivalries, and lawsuits have now hurled the camp’s owners into a four-year, multimillion-dollar family feud that is viciously pitting siblings, cousins, and even former campers against one another. What will become of this fairy-tale summer paradise?”
https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-not-so-happy-campers/
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So I guess when that category 5 hurricane barrels into Mara Lago it will be Biden’s fault?
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They want people to die. This is the point. I don’t know what it is that they believe, probably some pseudoscience or religious bunk, but they are intentionally killing people.
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Lawanda,
The deep and senseless cuts at NIH support your point. They want people to die. They don’t want to advance medical research into deadly diseases.
They want to cripple the federal government so all it can do is to fight wars and lock immigrants out.
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The phrase “The buck stops here” was popularized by President Harry S. Truman. He had a sign with this phrase on his desk in the Oval Office. It means that the person in charge, in this case the President, is ultimately responsible for all decisions and actions of the administration, and cannot shift blame or responsibility to someone else. The phrase is a direct contrast to “passing the buck,” which means avoiding responsibility.
With King-Dictator Donald “Wanker” Trump, anything that goes wrong while he is president is someone else’s fault, which means to him and MAGA, he is never wrong and that makes him the greatest president in US history.
In fact, no matter what he done wrong throughout his entire life has always been someone else’s fault. it wasn’t his fault, he raped and molested all those women. Dozens of his victims came forward and I suspect that is only tip of that Trump iceberg.
That translates to: Do not blame Trump for his klepto-kakistocracy regime’s cuts to the NOAA or anything else like FEMA, USAID, USAGM,
Blame Elon Musk for whatever DOGE did, not the president who created DOGE and did nothing while DOGE was swinging its wrecking with malice, corruption, and abandon, destroying lives now and in the future.
I asked for a short-list of agencies and programs being targeted for elimination or significant cuts by Trump’s regime. Whatever happens after they are gone, will never be the fault of this family crime lord, lifelong cheat and liar, convicted rapist, fraud, felon, and January 6, 2021, traitor.
Agencies and programs targeted for elimination or significant cuts include:
I wonder how many lost lives will end up being credited to Donald John Trump a century from now.
https://fpa.org/trump-and-the-pandemic-whos-to-blame/
Not him. Trump blamed WHO for the hundreds of thousands of deaths during the pandemic in the US due to his lies and ignorant incompetence.
Everything Trump says he knows “more about than anybody”
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Lloyd,
I don’t know who is keeping count but Trump killed more programs than you list and gutted many agencies by firing senior staff. And there were massive cancellations of scientific research aimed to cure diseases.
We can credit Trump with a brain drain of scientists to other countries.
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My son-in-law, who is a caucasian, has been offered a job outside of the US. He’s a Yale to Stanford graduate, who designs and builds drones for commercial uses.
SInce my step-daughter, born in Chicago, looks Asian, since she is, I’ve. encouraged them to leave the U.S. so their three and five year olds grow up in a healthier, hopefully safer country.
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So much blood on the orange demon’s tiny hands! Children!!!!
This is what evil and utter stupidity look like, folks.
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I pray for the coming in the near future of a Truth and Reconciliation Tribunal that will hold these monsters to account.
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Outrage of the day, 7/5/25:
The ICE budget is now 75 billion plus whatever its base budget is per year. That’s 45 billion for new concentration camps and 30 billion for enforcement.
And the new bill contains another 46 billion for border wall construction.
To get a sense of how much that is, there are only four countries in the world with MILITARY budgets that are larger than the new ICE budget is. And if you include the border wall money, there are only TWO. The new money for ICE and the wall is FAR MORE than is the entire military budget of Russia.
ICE budget: Larger than the budgets of most countries’ militaries!
And by comparison, the FBI, our nation’s federal law enforcement agency, which is also tasked with essential anti-terrorism work, requested a budget of 11 billion for 2025. In other words, the entire FBI budget is only 14.666 . . . of the new ICE budget.
INSANE. Our politicians are INSANE.
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According to a new report published by the medical journal The Lancet, an estimate of “14 million people around the globe could die over the next five years because of the USAID cuts” made by the Trump administration, “including about 4.5 million children younger than 5.”
From MSN, story by Lucy Strathmore, yesterday
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Bob,
Trump and Musk must be proud.
14 million deaths!
Is that a record?
Will they boast about it?
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Nobody does deaths like Trump. People call me up–hundreds of Governors–and they say, Sir, nobody has numbers like you, and you know, they’re right. But do you hear any thanks for that from the Fake News Media? I hate them. Don’t you hate them? And the Democrats. But numbers like that. They need to put me on Mount Rushmore. And make me Pope. Good genes. I mean, look at my daughter. And how about that new ICE budget? Bigger than the budget for the Marines. Making American safe from pregnant moms and toddlers. And farm workers and construction workers and lawn workers and Home Depot workers and other criminal types that are flooded in under Biden. And if the disease from the mosquitos and the alligators and pythons don’t get them, the flooding and hurricanes will.
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if it helps, think of all the yacht money the billionaires can enjoy
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I am sick and tired of this stupid crap from the left. There was hours of notice of a possibility of flash floods. No one can predict exactly where these rain events will set up. This is not a political moment you asses. If you took Earth Science in school you would know you can’t predict these events to an exact area. Hey butt heads wake the hell up and become part of reality. You didn’t elect Mother Nature either, but she is in charge.
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This was in today’s New York Times:
“Crucial positions at the local offices of the National Weather Service were unfilled as severe rainfall inundated parts of Central Texas on Friday morning, prompting some experts to question whether staffing shortages made it harder for the forecasting agency to coordinate with local emergency managers as floodwaters rose.
“Texas officials appeared to blame the Weather Service for issuing forecasts on Wednesday that underestimated how much rain was coming. But former Weather Service officials said the forecasts were as good as could be expected, given the enormous levels of rainfall and the storm’s unusually abrupt escalation.
“The staffing shortages suggested a separate problem, those former officials said — the loss of experienced people who would typically have helped communicate with local authorities in the hours after flash flood warnings were issued overnight.
“The shortages are among the factors likely to be scrutinized as the death toll climbs from the floods. Separate questions have emerged about the preparedness of local communities, including Kerr County’s apparent lack of a local flood warning system. The county, roughly 50 miles northwest of San Antonio, is where many of the deaths occurred.
“In an interview, Rob Kelly, the Kerr County judge and its most senior elected official, said the county did not have a warning system because such systems are expensive, and local residents are resistant to new spending.
“Taxpayers won’t pay for it,” Mr. Kelly said. Asked if people might reconsider in light of the catastrophe, he said, “I don’t know.”
“The National Weather Service’s San Angelo office, which is responsible for some of the areas hit hardest by Friday’s flooding, was missing a senior hydrologist, staff forecaster and meteorologist in charge, according to Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, the union that represents Weather Service workers.
“The Weather Service’s nearby San Antonio office, which covers other areas hit by the floods, also had significant vacancies, including a warning coordination meteorologist and science officer, Mr. Fahy said. Staff members in those positions are meant to work with local emergency managers to plan for floods, including when and how to warn local residents and help them evacuate.”
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It definitely sounds like you know something about stupid crap.
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