Republicans ensure Texas floods will happen again

The news, in brief …

• Floods cause devastation in Central Texas

  The death toll from flash floods in Texas’ Hill Country rose to 70 over the weekend, with at least 12 people still missing. Read more.

• Trump’s tariff deadline is a joke

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• Rogan turns on Trump over ICE raids

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• Deaf Americans sue Trump White House as ADA turns 35

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…and we’re all out of ideas

Outside of death and taxes, there are few things you can count on more than the GOP doing absolutely nothing when faced with a fresh disaster.

As the floodwaters in Texas roll back and the death toll continues to climb, the actions of Republican politicians on the state and local level (or lack thereof) are only ensuring that we won’t learn anything from the latest catastrophe. It will happen again.

On the one hand, you have the thoughts and prayers of the party that is stripping the country’s weather-forecasting apparatus for parts. The people who passed a bill meant to pull the copper wiring out of the halls of the National Weather Service and give the scrap proceeds to ICE agents and defense contractors couldn’t even bother to offer a novel reaction to the flash flooding in Texas, opting for old reliable like an entirely earnest version of that Onion headline. The meaningless platitude, offered for mass shootings and natural disasters alike, is as versatile as a bulletproof backpack.

On the other hand, you have the crazies. Encouraged by Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch, a not-insignificant portion of the GOP is now made up of conspiratorial loons who buy their red hats and red string in bulk.

The idea that the freak weather was manmade, specifically as a punishment for red states, was amplified by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. She helpfully announced a bill that would ban “weather modification,” a technology that does not currently exist. If that sort of talk from Greene sounds familiar, it should. The Republican star previously promoted the idea that California wildfires were started by “space lasers” controlled by Jewish elites.

The hot air of empowered conspiracists coupled with the chilling effects of actual cuts that have been made to the state’s capacity to predict and respond to disasters — Trump’s big bill takes a hacksaw to FEMA, as well — are bound to create a superstorm of misinformation and confusion.

Hurricane Helene offered a preview of the new model of disaster response, where crews of relief workers couldn’t reach towns faster than the news that men in grey suits were responsible. The Trumpian ploy of giving the people an enemy to rage at in the absence of any promise of positive material change has now been directed at the very sky. To nick another famous headline, actual old men yelling at actual clouds may be the future of American politics. Thoughts and prayers to all of us.

What do you think? Will compounding disasters lead Republicans to relent in their gutting of disaster relief and weather forecasting agencies? Is all that anger somehow going to be directed at a party that is not in power nationally or locally? Sound off in the comments. 

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Before you go …

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