Did You Enjoy Your Fascist 4th?
Fraud and Abuse Wastes Lives in Texas
Note NY Times links are free as are most others in this post
It’s a mega-tragic irony befitting this country at this time. Innocent children swept away in a massive flash flood in the middle of the night.
A few hours later, on our Fascist 4th of July, Das Fuhrer signed the most destructive spending and tax cut bill in history. He celebrated denying healthcare and food to the poor while rewarding billionaires with tax cuts they don’t need. He partied, while others grieved. He danced while his seat filler First Lady smiled.
As this is posted, 100 are dead, 11 are missing, and an agonizing recovery process plays out. Stunningly, among the victims are 27 young girls and their camp counselors. They were lost as floodwaters in Kerr County, Texas rose 26 feet in 45 minutes. The deluge swamped RV parks filled to capacity for the holiday weekend and ripped through a 100-year old Christian youth camp as the kids slept.
The tragic irony? This happened In Red State Texas. In a Texas defiantly denying Climate Change. In rabid Pro-Life Texas. In tax-hating Texas. In a Texas short of National Weather Service (NWS) staff due to a witch hunt for “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Wait. You’re Saying Texans Are Reaping What They Sowed?
Yes. Let’s do the math, or as the anti-science Texas Trumpers would say “do our own research”:
As a result of Climate Change, scientists have predicted an increase in sudden storms carrying intense rainfall, striking with little warning. Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Senator Ted Cruz – both MAGA sycophants – have pledged to “protect” Texas from any laws or policies designed to mitigate what most certainly happening on the Guadalupe River overnight on July 4. Apparently, their protection doesn’t extend to young girls gasping for breath in swirling water. Who elected and re-elected Abbott and Cruz? Texas voters.
Tax-hating Texans refused to pay for an expensive early warning system that might have saved the children swept to their deaths. As first responders recovered the bodies of the young victims, Kerr County’s top elected official told The New York Times, “Taxpayers won’t pay for it.” Well, after the funerals, why not take a vacation and enjoy all the money you’ve saved!
We’ve heard Governor Abbott proudly proclaim, “Texas is a pro-life state, and we have taken significant action to protect the sanctity of life.” Seems the sanctity of life didn’t extend to young girls caught in fast moving floods triggered by Climate Change. Texans elected and re-elected Abbott.
And, of course, MAGA-loving Texas is unashamedly pro Fuhrer. Abbott again: "Texans know who will slash inflation, secure our southern border, unleash American energy and crack down on violent crime -- and that's Donald Trump.” Yep. Good old, openly corrupt, racist, rapist, treasonous, convicted felon, Donald Trump, AKA The Mad King, The Orange Asshole, The Orange Abrasion, Trump The Terrible, Das Fuhrer. Texans elected him, twice.
The Texas Blame Game…
… is well underway. And, no one can pass the buck, express outrage, create diversions, and do absolutely nothing helpful like Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz. This performance may exceed the sinful and putrid scapegoating they spewed after the Uvalde shooting three years ago. When the time comes, and it can’t come soon enough, Satan will surely add a painful, torturous level of Hell to house these bastards. Their evil is beyond measure.
Cruz, fresh off of voting for the Big Ugly Bill, was vacationing in Greece when tragedy occurred. Remember, he was sunning in Cancun when Texans were dying in 2021 during a historic winter storm. After being seen touring the Parthenon, “Lyin Ted” – Trump’s nickname for the senator – finally figured out he needed to get home. He made it in time to appear concerned at Monday’s news conference. Cruz didn’t mention his battles to defund the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), which does storm modelling and research into Climate Change. Because in Texas, there is no Climate Change, and apparently no limit to what Ted Cruz can do. Texans re-elected him in 2024
Less than 24 hours after the flood, Abbott blamed the National Weather Service. “There's the potential for flash flooding. But there's no expectation of a water wall of almost 30 feet high,” he whined while trying to pin responsibility on NWS forecasters, on anyone other than himself.
Conveniently, Abbott didn’t mention how much he backed the DOGE stooges sicced on NWS six months ago by the Orange Asshole. The DOGE harassment led to NWS layoffs and resignations, which led to understaffing, which, not surprisingly, led to not having NWS meteorologists coordinating with Kerr County emergency managers before the massive cloudburst destroyed lives. BTW, Abbott loves DOGE so much, he signed a law creating “Texas DOGE.” Wonder if he’ll bring that up while comforting the parents of the dead children?
And, let’s not forget about the Project 2025 plan to privatize the National Weather Service. In the Orange Abrasion’s first term, his pals Barry and Joel Myers thought it would be a great idea. But, like everything the MAGA scourge does, the plan involved wrecking public services to make money for Barry and Joel, who happen to own AccuWeather, a major player in the private forecasting space. The company supplies many broadcasters and websites with “your AccuWeather Forecast” heard on the hour everywhere and through many alerts flashing on our phones. In 2017 AccuWeather saw itself as a worthy replacement for NWS.
Feeling heat from the public, especially those whose lives depend on stuff like timely and accurate tornado, hurricane, and freeze warnings, Barry and Joel denied involvement in Project 2025 and retreated.
Appropriately and pointedly NWS, didn’t retreat from Abbott’s charges. They stood by their forecasts. They pointed out staffing shortages are a consistent problem. And, better staffing would have activated the NWS liaison function with emergency mangers.
This staffing problem wasn’t hidden by NWS from elected officials and the Texas public itself. This is the same public who doesn’t want tax dollars used for the wasteful “fraud and abuse” of an early warning system, a system which may have saved some of the 100 who’ve perished.
A Dictator’s “Fraud and Abuse” Wastes America
Yes, we live in cruel times. But, the inhumane brutality fomented by DOGE and Executive Orders and now codified by Supreme Court rulings has made the Mad King untouchable. Made Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz untouchable. But, not untouchable are the innocents lost in a flood we’re apparently OK chalking up as “too bad so sad.”
We’ve crossed fully into authoritarian rule these past two weeks. The loyal opposition is toothless, as are the moderate Republicans (see Murkowski). This shameful capitulation by Congress, with many of you cheering them on, the signing of the Big Ugly Bill while Texas victims were clinging to trees and trapped in cars, is just where America is right now.
So billionaires can get millions in tax breaks, we’ll deny food stamps to the hungry and end health care for lower income people who can’t afford private insurance. Know someone on Medicaid (550,000 are enrolled the Arizona version called AHCCCS)? Know someone using SNAP (924,000 Arizonans use Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)? Are they engaged in “waste fraud and abuse”?
We’ve licensed ICE as a massive secret police force whose $30 billion budget now exceeds that of many of the world’s armies. It’s a “private army” for Stephen Miller as opined in an NYT column on Miller’s ethnic cleansing ambitions. It’s another prop for Dog Killer Kristi Noem’s cosplaying social media feed. Axios reports Noem is aggressively using ICE raids to position her as the Mad King’s successor. What better cinematic tool is there than masked ICE thugs stealing innocent Brown and Black people off the streets while Brave Kristi defends America?
Also in the Homeland Security budget $45 billion to fund the equivalent of concentration camps in Florida and private prisons near Florence, Arizona. The immigrant prey are held illegally, in horrible conditions, without due process, with limited access to a legal defense, with almost no contact with their families.
This is Christmas morning for MAGA’s racist drones. Imagine their glee as they mainline the “waste-fraud-abuse-immigrants-are-criminals” tropes on FOX News and their other propaganda merchants. Trump “influencer” Laura Loomer’s openly racist comments as the Orange Asshole toured “alligator Alcatraz” were cheered by the faithful. No doubt, many of them went to church on Sunday to pray for the little girls lost in Kerr County, but not for the millions who are suffering because MAGA won’t tolerate or accommodate persons experiencing poverty.
If you think this will go away….
…well, you’re delusional. It’s going to get Nazi worse.
Forget about “taking Congress back” in the midterms. Any politician who voted for the Big Ugly Bill doesn’t want to face backlash from voters living in a world with no Medicaid and state-sanctioned hunger. I expect the Mad King to cancel the midterms, and run for a third term in 2028, if he bothers with an election at all.
Yeah, I know, the Constitution says he can’t run. Message to the opposition: The Constitution says a lot of stuff. Das Fuhrer answers to no one. While you were clutching your pearls, MAGA’s fraud and abuse wasted America.
And, some unfortunate and innocent Texas children were swept to their deaths on a Fascist 4th of July. But, hey, don’t mess with Texas. There won’t be any Climate Change bullshit under the Lone Star.