1). “ 'These deaths are on Trump's hands': Republicans ripped for assault on science”, Jul 7, 2025, Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, at < https://www.msn.com/en-us/
2). “As Flood Deaths Rise, Texas Officials Blast Faulty Forecast by DOGE-Gutted National Weather Service: 'Experts warned for months that drastic and sudden cuts at the National Weather Service by Trump could impair their forecasting ability and endanger lives during the storm season,' said one critic”, Jul 5, 2025, Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, at < https://www.commondreams.org/
3). “Abbott: More than 160 people believed to be missing from Texas flood”, Jul 8, 2025, Anon, KRLD Radio Dallas, at < https://www.msn.com/en-us/
4). “Critics Warn Trump 'Flatly Illegal' Firings at NOAA Will 'Cost Lives': 'Today's mass layoffs of NOAA staff signals a grim new reality: one where career federal scientists will be recklessly discarded,' said one campaigner”, Feb 27, 2025, Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, at < https://www.commondreams.org/
5). “Ted Cruz Caught on Vacation Abroad During Texas Tragedy—Again: The Texas senator was visiting the Parthenon in Athens while a massive rescue mission was under way to find flood victims, our must-read newsletter, The Swamp, reveals”, Jul 7, 2025, David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, & Sarah Ewallb-Wice, The Swamp (a newsletter from The Daily Beast), at < https://www.thedailybeast.com/
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: The current situation in Texas in which 111 people are known dead and another over 170 people are still missing necessitates a couple of comparisons with the past and relative comparisons with current day policies. These general facts and issues are discussed in Item 1)., “ 'These deaths are on Trump's hands': ….; Item 2)., “As Flood Deaths Rise, ….”; Item 3)., “Abbott: More than 160 people ….”; and Item 4)., “Critics Warn Trump ….”. The timing of this flood and its occurrence in Texas, the heart of Trumpian Regime Support in the U.S. (along with Florida and Georgia), is ironic to say the least.
The last major gathering of local and statewide Republican leaders, to mark a horrific event, was in the wake of the Uvalde Killings at the Robb Elementary chool in Uvalde Texas, on May 24, 2022 just over 3 short years ago. At that meeting different set of local leaders, mostly Mexican Americans in Uvalde in contrast to the middle aged White “Anglos” who inhabit the amalaogous offices in Kerr County, told the media that “nothing could be done” about a 16 year old and his access to assault rifles. The same loathsome Texas Governor, the fanatical forced-pregnancy / forced-birth and machine gun advocate, right-wing operative Greg Abbot and other State Officials held a public meeting a few days after the massacre at Robb Elementary School at which they were, in turns, pontificating about the killings. They offered the standard rhetoric about how now was not the time to actually discuss the issue of gun availability but only to offer “thoughts and prayers” and to mourn the dead (this current time including the “missing and presumed” dead). Beto O'Rourke, who had run against Ted Cruz for the Senate and against Abbot for the governorship entered and challenged their hackneyed comments and was viciously attacked by that cabal of Republican leaders. The faux sense of sacred mourning was challenged by O'Rourke and, seeing as the children killed in Uvalde were working class Mexican-Americans the faux sense of sacred mourning was breached for a couple of hours.
Now, however, the children and some of the adults who were killed are considerably more prosperous, and many are clearly upper middle class. A week stay at one of the Guadalupe River camps costs from $2,500 to $3,500. The roster of children in attendance includes offspring of prominent Texas families, not only from San Antonio and Austin, but from the giant urban zones of Houston and Dallas / Fort Worth. Most of the camp employees are local working class folks who are not members of the Texas Elite or upper middle class, but they, or their bodies, are mixed in with the children and parents who were vacationing at these River Camps.
In Uvalde over 400 heavily armed police largely cowered at the prospect of taking on a 16 year old with an AR-15, until he had killed the remaining children (as evidenced in the horrific cell phone recordings of the children calling for help). A few brave police sincerely wanted to assault the classroom but were dissuaded from doing so by their bosses. The bodies of the children at that Capitalist Horror Event were so severely damaged by AR-15 bullets that DNA tests were needed to identify the children's remains. The great majority of the police were afraid of getting hit by AR-15 bullets and did not mount an assault on the classroom where the children were.
The DOGE and general Trumpian Project 2025 attacks on the scientists working for the Federal Government played, at the least a significant symbolic role, in the Trumpian project to end any sort of service provided to the general American populace. 600 employees of the National Weather Service were fired not too long before the Kerr County flooding, and these included 6 senior meteorologists, 3 at the San Angelo office and 3 at the Austin / San Antonio office. One of those who left when he took an early retirement in Austin was :
“Paul Yura, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio office, has announced he has taken the early retirement offer as part of NOAA’s recent cuts to personnel and budget. (Emphasis added)
“Yura has over 32 years experience, spending more than half of his career at the NWS Austin/San Antonio office. In the process, he gained tremendous experience understanding local weather patterns while ensuring timely warnings get disseminated to the public in a multitude of ways.” (Emphasis added) (See, “Head of local weather warnings takes early retirement as NOAA cuts continue”, Apr 21, 2025, Nick Bannin, KXAN.com, at < https://www.kxan.com/weather/
In other words Yura was the resident expert in making sure that the warnings issued by the NWS were timely and effective. It is ironic that this event occurred just days after Trump again said publicly that FEMA will be defunded and neutered. According to his statements (coming right from the Project 2025 playbook) the States will take up the responsibilities that FEMA (albeit imperfectly) has worked on for 40 years now. As for the NWS the right-wing cabal that rules the U.S. wants to scoop it up for pennies on the dollar and run it as a privately owned subscription service that you must pay for to get the warnings and analysis that has been herdtofore a tax-funded service provided to everybody. Will Elon Musk be given a cut of the new privatized NWS and will Space-X design and launch the next generation of weather satellites?
Among the results of the DOGE, Trumpian attack on the NWS was that:
“NWS was among the government agencies targeted by the Trump administration in its effort to gut the federal bureaucracy, losing approximately 600 staffers. After the cuts, the agency—which was already understaffed—began to prepare to offer 'degraded' forecasting services, facing 'severe shortages' of meteorologists, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times in April.' ” (Emphasis added) (See, “ICE Barbie Dodges Blame for Disastrous Texas Flooding on Trump’s Watch”, Jul 5, 2024, Catherine Bouris, MSN, at < https://www.msn.com/en-us/
Kerrville city / county governments discussed installing sirens but decided it was too expensive. Greg Abbot has been blathering about how The State of Texas will do what is necessary to remedy the current situation. Of course, when the county and city officials considered installing sirens and more modern flood gauges the State was only willing to pony up 5% of the cost, a funding level that looks pretty despicable now.
Then there are the unseemly and insincere protestations of love and support for the dead and missing children, particularly the girls, expressed by Abbot and other right-wing Republicans. If these unfortunate 10 – 15 year-old girls were pregnant Abbot and his henchmen would be eager to force them to carry the fetuses to term. They would have their fanatical vigilante “bounty hunter” forces, examining the cell phone and internet records of the girls for evidence of missing a menstrual period, and would hounding and working to force the families to accept the Dark Ages Red State policies that the Republican Regime in Texas espouses.
And finally to add a comic touch, the widely hated (even among Republicans), Ted Cruz was, once again, vacationing when the horrific events took place in Texas. As pointed out in Item 5)., “Ted Cruz Caught on Vacation Abroad ….”, Cruz was in Greece when the floods occurred and this time he was not shamed into cutting his vacation short, unlike during the winter storm event that killed at least 246 people (the official tally) and that crippled the Texas Electrical Grid in February of 2021. The article in Item 5)., includes a comment from a person who encountered Cruz and his wife in line at the Parthenon and who challenged him there.
And making the whole situation in Texas even more disturbing, with the endless maudlin photos of missing 10 and 11 year old girls, is the ugly fact that the President is still fighting off quite likely revelations of sexual crimes collected by Jeffey Epstein. Trump partied with and hung out at nightclubs with Jeffrey Epstein for several years, these is a bounteous amount of video showing Epstein at clubs with Trump and others. Epstein was a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago and Trump is a well-known rapist and sexual deviant. Epstein's Town House in Manhattan was totally wired for video recordings in all the bedrooms long before Epstein owned it. It previously belonged to Leslie Wexner (the owner of Victoria's Secret) and it is unclear whether Epstein had the townhouse transferred to one of his companies for free, or if he paid $20 million for the place. Sexual blackmail is an important part of the Deep State's methods of socioeconomic and political control. The best analyst of this aspect of how the ruling class works in the U.S. is Whitney Webb, who has published numerous articles and who wrote a book on the subject. She lives in Southern Chile where she is much safer from the clutches of the American rulers.
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Deadly flooding caused by torrential rain in central Texas late last week called attention to U.S. President Donald Trump's full-scale assault on the climate research and monitoring agencies tasked with studying and predicting such weather catastrophes, as well as his ongoing attacks on disaster preparedness and relief.
Though local National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters did issue warnings in the lead-up to Friday's flooding—which killed at least 82 people, including dozens of children—key roles were reportedly vacant ahead of the downpour, prompting scrutiny of the Trump administration's mass firings and budget cuts, in addition to years of neglect and failures by Republicans at the state level.
Asked whether he believes the federal government should hire back terminated meteorologists in the wake of the Texas flooding, Trump responded in the negative and falsely claimed that "very talented people" at NWS "didn't see" the disaster coming.
"This is an absolute lie," replied meteorologist and climate journalist Eric Holthaus. "Worse, this is the person responsible for making those kids less safe and he's trying to deny the damage he caused."
Holthaus wrote Sunday that Trump's staffing cuts "have particularly hit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Environmental Modeling Center, which aims to improve the skill of these types of difficult forecasts."
(please go to the original article to see the following video clip)
"Though it's unclear to what extent staffing shortages across the NWS complicated the advance notice that local officials had of an impending flooding disaster," he added, "it's clear that this was a complex, compound tragedy of a type that climate warming is making more frequent."
"Republicans have fired meteorologists, cut emergency disaster aid, and given an extra $18 billion to the fossil fuel corporations causing this crisis."
Under the guise of "government efficiency," the Trump administration has taken an axe to staff at federal climate agencies and is trying to go even further with its budget for the coming fiscal year. The Washington Post noted Sunday that "a budget document the Trump administration recently submitted to Congresscalls for zeroing out climate research funding for 2026, something officials had hinted at in previous proposals but is now in lawmakers' hands."
"But even just the specter of President Donald Trump's budget proposals has prompted scientists to limit research activities in advance of further cuts," the Post noted. "Trump's efforts to freeze climate research spending and slash the government's scientific workforce have for months prompted warnings of rippling consequences in years ahead. For many climate scientists, the consequences are already here."
Since the start of his second term, Trump has dismissed the hundreds of scientists and experts who were working on the National Climate Assessment, moved to slash NOAA's workforce, and announced a halt to climate disaster tracking, among other changes—all while working to accelerate fossil fuel extraction and use that is supercharging extreme weather events. One NOAA veteran warned that Trump's cuts could drag the agency back to "the technical and proficiency levels we had in the 1950s."
"The Trump regime is gutting scientific research into climate and atmospheric science for political reasons, at the very time we need a much better understanding of it," environmentalist Stephen Barlow wrote on social media on Sunday. "This is so reckless and dangerous, which is why I suggest we call these tragedies Trump events."
Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, said over the weekend that "Republicans have fired meteorologists, cut emergency disaster aid, and given an extra $18 billion to the fossil fuel corporations causing this crisis."
"These deaths are on Trump's hands," she added.
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As Flood Deaths Rise, Texas Officials Blast Faulty Forecast by DOGE-Gutted National Weather Service | Common Dreams
"Experts warned for months that drastic and sudden cuts at the National Weather Service by Trump could impair their forecasting ability and endanger lives during the storm season," said one critic.
As catastrophic flooding left scores of people dead and missing in Texas Hill Country and President Donald Trump celebrated signing legislation that will eviscerate every aspect of federal efforts to address the climate emergency, officials in the Lone Star State blasted the National Weather Service—one of many agencies gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency—for issuing what they said were faulty forecasts that some observers blamed for the flood's high death toll.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that flooding caused by a powerful storm killed at least 27 people, with dozens more—including as many as 25 girls from a summer camp along the Guadalupe River in Kerr County—missing after fast-moving floodwaters rose 26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour before dawn on Friday, sweeping away people and pets along with homes, vehicles, farm and wild animals, and property.
"Everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service... It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw."
"The camp was completely destroyed," Elinor Lester, 13, one of hundreds of campers at Camp Mystic, told the AP. "A helicopter landed and started taking people away. It was really scary."
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said during a press conference in Kerrville late Friday that 24 people were confirmed dead, including children. Other officials said that 240 people had been rescued.
Although the National Weather Service on Thursday issued a broad flood watch for the area, Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd—noting that the NWS predicted 3-6 inches of rain for the Concho Valley and 4-8 inches for the Hill Country—told reporters during a press conference earlier Friday that "the amount of rain that fell in this specific location was never in any of those forecasts."
"Listen, everybody got the forecast from the National Weather Service," Kidd reiterated. "You all got it; you're all in media. You got that forecast. It did not predict the amount of rain that we saw."
Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice also said during the press conference that the storm "dumped more rain than what was forecasted" into two forks of the Guadalupe River.
Kerr County judge Rob Kelly told CBS News: "We had no reason to believe that this was gonna be anything like what's happened here. None whatsoever."
Since January, the NWS—a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—has reduced its workforce by nearly 600 people as a direct result of staffing cuts ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as part of Trump's mission to eviscerate numerous federal agencies.
This policy is in line with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for a far-right overhaul of the federal government that calls for "dismantling" NOAA. Trump has also called for the elimination of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, arguing that states should shoulder most of the burden of extreme weather preparation and response. Shutting down FEMA would require an act of Congress.
Many of the fired NWS staffers were specialized climate scientists and weather forecasters. At the time of the firings, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, was among those who warned of the cuts' deadly consequences.
"People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information," Huffman said. "Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives."
Writing for the Texas Observer, Henry D. Jacoby—co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change—warned that "crucial data gathering systems are at risk."
"Federal ability to warn the public is being degraded," he added, "and it is a public service no state can replace."
On Friday, Trump put presidential pen to congressional Republicans' so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a $4 trillion tax and spending package that effectively erases the landmark climate and clean energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act signed by then-President Joe Biden in 2022.
As Inside Climate News noted of the new law:
It stomps out incentives for purchasing electric vehicles and efficient appliances. It phases out tax credits for wind and solar energy. It opens up federal land and water for oil and gas drilling and increases its profitability, while creating new federal support for coal. It ends the historic investment in poor and minority communities that bear a disproportionate pollution burden—money that the Trump administration was already refusing to spend. It wipes out any spending on greening the federal government.
Furthermore, as MeidasNews editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski noted Saturday, "rural areas hit hardest by catastrophic storms are the same areas now in danger of losing their hospitals after Trump's Medicaid cuts just passed" as part of the budget reconciliation package.
At least one congressional Republican is ready to take action in the face of increasing extreme weather events. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)—who once attributed California wildfires to Jewish-controlled space lasers—announced Saturday that she is "introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity."
"It will be a felony offense," she explained. "We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering."
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Abbott: More than 160 people believed to be missing from Texas floods
More than 160 people are believed to be missing in Texas in the aftermath of the flash floods that killed more than 100 over the July Fourth weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday.
Abbot said many of those who are not accounted for were staying in state’s Hill Country but did not register at a camp or hotel. He spoke at a news conference after taking a helicopter tour of the affected area.
Abbott said President Donald Trump has pledged to provide whatever relief Texas needs to recover from the flooding, and he read what he said was a text from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in which Kennedy pledged to declare a public health emergency.
Abbott said of Trump: “He could not stop talking about how sad he was for all the little girls who have lost their lives.” Trump planned to visit the state Friday.
Meanwhile, public officials in charge of finding victims of the devastating flooding pushed away intensifying questions about who was monitoring the weather and warning that floodwaters were barreling toward camps and homes.
Leaders in Kerr County, where searchers have found 87 bodies, said their first priority is recovering victims, not reviewing what happened in the hours before the flash floods inundated the state’s Hill Country.
(please go to the original article to see the video below)
“Right now, this team up here is focused on bringing people home,” Lt. Col. Ben Baker of the Texas Game Wardens, said during a sometimes tense news conference where officials were questioned about the timing of their response.
Hope of finding survivors was increasingly bleak. Four days have passed since anyone was found alive in the aftermath of the floods in Kerr County, officials said Tuesday.
Abbott planned to make another visit Tuesday to Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors died during the floods. Officials said Tuesday that five campers and one counselor have still not been found.
Scenes of devastation at Camp MysticOutside the cabins at Camp Mystic where the girls had slept, mud-splattered blankets and pillows were scattered on a grassy hill that slopes toward the river. Also in the debris were pink, purple and light blue luggage decorated with stickers.
Among those who died at the camp were a second grader who loved pink sparkles and bows in her curly hair, a 19-year-old counselor who enjoyed mentoring young girls and the camp’s 75-year-old director.
The flash floods erupted before daybreak Friday after massive rains sent water speeding down hills into the Guadalupe River, causing it to rise 26 feet (8 meters) in less than an hour. The wall of water overwhelmed people in cabins, tents and trailers along the river’s edge, pulling them into the water. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.
Some campers had to swim out of cabin windows to safety while others held onto a rope as they made their way to higher ground. Time-lapse videos showed how floodwaters covered roads in a matter of minutes.
Although it's difficult to attribute a single weather event to climate change, experts say a warming atmosphere and oceans make catastrophic storms more likely.
Where were the warnings?Questions mounted about what, if any, actions local officials took to warn campers and residents who were spending the July Fourth weekend in the scenic area long known to locals as “flash flood alley.”
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said that sending out warnings isn't “as easy as pushing a button.” Answers about who did what and when will come later, public officials said.
Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, the county’s chief elected official, said in the hours after the devastation that the county does not have a warning system.
Generations of families in the Hill Country have known the dangers. A 1987 flood forced the evacuation of a youth camp in the town of Comfort and swamped buses and vans. Ten teenagers were killed.
Local leaders have talked for years about the need for a warning system. Kerr County sought a nearly $1 million grant eight years ago for such a system, but the request was turned down by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Local residents balked at footing the bill themselves, Kelly said.
Some camps were aware of the dangers Friday and monitored the weather. At least one moved several hundred campers to higher ground before the floods. But many people didn't move or were caught by surprise.
Recovery and cleanup goes onThe bodies of 30 children were among those that have been recovered in Kerr County, home to Camp Mystic and several other summer camps, the sheriff said.
The devastation spread across several hundred miles in central Texas all the way to just outside the capital city of Austin.
Nineteen deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, local officials said.
Aidan Duncan escaped just in time after hearing the muffled blare of a megaphone urging residents to evacuate Riverside RV Park in the Hill Country town of Ingram.
All of his belongings — a mattress, sports cards, his pet parakeet’s bird cage — now sit in caked mud in front of his home.
“What’s going on right now, it hurts,” the 17-year-old said. “I literally cried so hard.”
Search-and-rescue teams used heavy equipment to untangle trees and move large rocks as part of the massive search for missing people. Hundreds of volunteers showed up to help with one of the largest search operations in Texas history.
Along the banks of the Guadelupe, 91-year-old Charles Hanson, a resident at a senior living center, was sweeping up wood and piling pieces of concrete and stone, remnants from a playground structure.
He wanted to help clean up on behalf of his neighbors who can’t get out. “We’ll make do with the best we got,” he said.
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Critics Warn Trump 'Flatly Illegal' Firings at NOAA Will 'Cost Lives' | Common Dreams
"Today's mass layoffs of NOAA staff signals a grim new reality: one where career federal scientists will be recklessly discarded," said one campaigner.
Critics on Thursday decried the Trump administration's firing of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration staffers, part of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency's plan to eviscerate the federal government.
Following the playbook of Project 2025, a blueprint for gutting the federal government, the Commerce Department this week fired hundreds of NOAA staffers, many of them specialized climate scientists and weather forecasters.
In addition to issuing weather watches and warnings, NOAA monitors and studies the planet's climate.
"Today... scientists and experts at NOAA received the news every federal worker has been dreading," Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) warned. "Musk and his fake officials, the DOGE tech bros, have been rummaging through our most sensitive data without authority in violation of the law for weeks now. And this has come with sweeping, indiscriminate layoffs of nonpartisan public servants. Park rangers, firefighters, scientists—all of these people, whose purpose is to serve everyday Americans, have had the rug pulled out from under them. And we will all be worse off for it."
"Musk's sham mission is bringing vital programs to a screeching halt," Huffman added. "People nationwide depend on NOAA for free, accurate forecasts, severe weather alerts, and emergency information. Purging the government of scientists, experts, and career civil servants and slashing fundamental programs will cost lives."
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen's (D-Md.) office said in a statement that the senator stressed that the firings "would be plainly unlawful and pointed to the Merit Service Protection Board's decision yesterday that stayed the terminations of multiple federal employees on probationary status."
"I take this opportunity to remind the department of its legal obligation to notify the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations regarding the large-scale termination of employees," the senator added. Specifically, Section 505 of Title V, Division C of Public Law 118–42—a provision of the American Relief Act, 2025 (Public Law 118–158)—states, in part:
None of the funds provided under this act, or provided under previous appropriations acts to the agencies funded by this act that remain available for obligation or expenditure in fiscal year 2024... shall be available for obligation or expenditure through a reprogramming of funds that... reduces by 10% funding for any program, project, or activity, or numbers of personnel by 10%; or…results from any general savings, including savings from a reduction in personnel, which would result in a change in existing programs, projects, or activities as approved by Congress; unless the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations are notified 15 days in advance of such reprogramming of funds.
"Other agencies in my subcommittee's jurisdiction have cited 'poor performance' to move forward with drastic layoffs," Van Hollen added. "This has been exposed as a lie. Many terminated probationary employees have already come forward with evidence of recent glowing performance reviews, laying bare the flimsy pretext of these firings as gross misrepresentations of fact. The department must not become a purveyor of such lies and must comply with its legal obligations."
Juan Declet-Barreto, senior social scientist for climate vulnerability in the Climate and Energy Program at Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement that "today's mass layoffs of NOAA staff signals a grim new reality: one where career federal scientists will be recklessly discarded, and the lifesaving science they do will be significantly undermined."
"When testifying under oath, Howard Lutnick assured congressional members that if confirmed as commerce secretary, NOAA wouldn’t be dismantled under his watch—a promise that was broken today," Declet-Barreto added. "It seems either Lutnick willingly lied to Congress and the American people or that he has caved in record-breaking time to the destructive agenda of the Trump-Musk regime."
Oceana U.S. vice president Beth Lowell said that "our oceans have become political carnage, but the real victims are hardworking Americans—the people you care about—and our future generations."
"These are American jobs that warn us about severe weather, protect our most vulnerable marine life like whales and turtles, ensure abundant fisheries, and maintain a healthy ocean for those whose livelihoods depend on it," Lowell added. "We're calling on Congress to save NOAA from these disastrous cuts, while also protecting American jobs, communities, and the oceans."
More than 2,000 scientists have signed a letter to members of Congress and the Commerce Secretary urging protection of NOAA.
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Ted Cruz Caught on Vacay Abroad During Texas Tragedy—Again
The Swamp can exclusively reveal that Ted Cruz stayed in Greece and continued to sightsee as rescuers scoured the floodwaters in Central Texas that killed at least 100 people, including 27 campers and counselors from a summer camp.
The Texas senator was spotted visiting the Parthenon in the Greek capital, Athens, with his wife, Heidi, on Saturday evening. That was a day after Camp Mystic announced that more than 20 girls had gone missing in the floodwaters.
On Saturday, July 5, at about 6 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET)—more than 24 hours after the Guadalupe River burst its banks—Cruz and his wife were spotted by a Swamp spy lining up outside the iconic tourist site.
“He was with his family and a lone security guard,” said an eyewitness at the Parthenon. “As he walked past us, I simply said, ‘20 kids dead in Texas and you take a vacation?’
“He sort of grunted and walked on. His wife shot me a dirty look. Then they continued on with their tour guide.”
While Cruz admired the Doric columns of the fifth century B.C. ancient Greek temple, emergency workers were still searching for summer campers and families caught in the flash floods that cascaded through Texas Hill Country and inundated the Guadalupe River.
It is not the first time that Cruz has faced criticism for holidaying while his constituents have faced a natural disaster.
In 2021, Cruz took his family on a trip to Cancun, Mexico, after Texas was hit by a winter storm that left millions in his state freezing without power or water. At the time, the senator defended his sunshine flight by saying he wanted to be “a good dad” but returned because “it didn’t feel right.”
The death toll has now topped 100 from the Texas deluge, which began Friday, July 4, and is one of the deadliest floods in over a century.
Cruz is understood to have landed in Athens on Thursday, the day after the Texas Division of Emergency Management announced that it was activating state emergency response resources.
On the day Cruz touched down in Europe, NPR reported that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick held a press conference—as acting governor—warning of the “potential flooding“ that would hit overnight.
The following day, on Friday, July 4, the lieutenant governor was forced to call a second press conference to address the scale of the disaster. “My name is Dan Patrick, lieutenant governor, acting governor, the, uh, governor’s out of state today,” he began. “On a day which is usually for celebration. It’s a very tough day in Texas. We had a disastrous flash flood.”
In Athens, it was a calm and sunny day, peaking at 93F.
Cruz didn’t get a plane back to Texas until Sunday.
He was at the scene of the flooding in Kerrville, Texas, on Monday morning.
The senator told a press conference he was on the phone to state officials within hours of the flood.
“In the first few hours of this flood, I was on the phone with Governor Abbott, was on the phone with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, I was on the phone with Nim Kidd, the head of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, and then I called President Trump,” said Cruz on Monday morning.
“He was having dinner at the time, it was still early in what was transpiring, and I wanted him to know. I said, Mr. President, from everything we’re hearing right now, this appears to be bad, really bad.
“There may be a very significant loss of life unfolding right now in Texas... The president said, ‘Ted… whatever assets you need, whatever resources you need, yes, let us know, and we will provide everything.’
“Within hours, we had over a dozen helicopters in the air, National Guard, DPS, game wardens, Coast Guard, doing search and rescue.”
However, it appears that Cruz still managed to enjoy some of the sights of Athens after this phone call.
On Monday, Cruz also appeared live on Fox & Friends from Kerrville, Texas, in the area worst hit by the disaster and posted a number of messages on X.
“There aren’t words to describe the grief that Texans are feeling. Pray for Texas and Kerr County.”
He told reporters he picked up his own daughter, Catherine, from a camp just down the road from Camp Mystic.
“We picked up our youngest daughter [Catherine] last week from camp, five miles away,” he said.
“I will tell you I’ve been speaking to moms and dads, number one, of kids who are still missing and the agony of not knowing where your daughter is—there’s nothing like that.”
In January, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was widely criticized after she traveled to Ghana while wildfires raged through California, leaving 29 people dead and more than 180,000 buildings destroyed.
Cruz’s staff refused to offer comment on the record to The Swamp before publication but wanted to go off the record, to which The Swamp agreed, believing that Cruz’s aides were speaking to us in good faith. Our initial report therefore reflected their claim that it had been impossible for Cruz to get a flight until Sunday.
After we published, Cruz’s communications director Macarena Martinez posted on X that she had spoken to the Daily Beast and said, “A bulls--- piece published by a bulls--- rag outlet with no credibility, and with no regard for the tragedy in Texas. The Senator is on the ground in Texas and arrived as fast as humanly possible. I explained all of this to their two-faced reporter.” Notably Martinez denied none of the facts of The Swamp’s revelations.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The Swamp is written by David Gardner, Farrah Tomazin, and Sarah Ewall-Wice.
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