{"id":15432,"date":"2025-07-07T17:45:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T00:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15432"},"modified":"2025-07-07T18:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T01:10:11","slug":"catastrophic-texas-flooding-tragedy-was-both-predictable-and-predicted-bradcast-772025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15432","title":{"rendered":"Catastrophic Texas Flooding Tragedy Was Both Predictable and Predicted: &#8216;BradCast&#8217; 7\/7\/2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/Images\/BradCast_CampMysticBunks-FlashFlooding_070725.jpg\" hspace=\"6\" vspace=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">We&#8217;re back live for today&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><i>BradCast<\/i><\/a> after our 4th of July break last week. I wish we were back with better news. [<em>Audio link to full show follows this summary.<\/em>]\n<p>It was bad enough when we presumed we&#8217;d be covering last week&#8217;s final <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-sign-tax-cut-bill-july-4-3804df732e461a626fd8c2b43413c3f0\">passage and signing<\/a> of the Trump\/GOP Big Budget Boondoggle bill today. The law that will now strip health care and food assistance from tens of millions (including from the Obamacare exchange <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/politics\/newsletter\/2025-07-07\/skelton-monday-politics-newsletter-affordable-care-act\">here in <b>California<\/b><\/a>; from rural hospitals <a href=\"https:\/\/www.klkntv.com\/rural-southwest-nebraska-clinic-closes-blaming-expected-medicaid-cuts\/\">already shutting down<\/a> in Nebraska; and to Medi<i>CARE<\/i> recipients <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/politics\/2025-07-03-republicans-cutting-medicare-not-only-medicaid\/\">across the country<\/a>); super-size ICE into Trump&#8217;s virtual private army; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/06\/30\/upshot\/senate-republican-megabill.html\">gut landmark climate change initiatives<\/a> and clean energy tax credits for consumers and businesses that had previously resulted in a U.S. manufacturing boom. All in order to help pay fore more than $4 trillion dollars in tax cuts mostly to the wealthiest Americans, at a cost of spiking the national debt by $3 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>All of that would have been bad enough today. But the heartbreaking <i>and completely predictable<\/i> tragedy still unfolding<\/a> in <b>Texas<\/b> is simply soul crushing. We know it was predictable, because, despite lies from officials to the contrary, it <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/weatherwest.bsky.social\/post\/3lta4d3vfk22z\"><i>was<\/i> predicted<\/a>. Making it all the more horrific, the deadly flash flooding took place on the very same day that Trump and Republicans were high-fiving each other at the White House for their tax cuts to rich people and the gutting of landmark climate initiatives to help keep us safe by moving away from the burning of fossil fuels that has intensified and increased weather disasters like the one we are watching unfold in Texas Hill country today.<\/p>\n<p>With <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/texas-flash-flood-severe-weather-camp-mystic-ef8e596833b145fef61451db92f32609\">more than 100 now confirmed dead<\/a> as of airtime &#8212; including dozens of little girls at a Christian summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, where water rose 25 feet in less than an hour &#8212; the blame game is already underway with Texas officials (and the chief of Trump&#8217;s U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security), charging that the National Weather Service somehow failed to issue proper forecasts and warnings.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, as we discuss in detail today, though the NWS is now dangerously under-staffed thanks to Trump&#8217;s layoffs, early retirement buyouts and hiring freezes, agency meteorologists <i>did<\/i>, in fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/07\/05\/us\/politics\/texas-floods-warnings-vacancies.html?unlocked_article_code=1.U08.tNYs.0yflZylMgJf4&#038;smid=url-share\">predict and warn about the flash flooding emergency<\/a>. Multiple times. But many of the NWS positions which, prior to the second Trump Administration, would have prepped with and communicated warnings to local officials are now vacant.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, all of that can be added to the <i>years<\/i> of warnings from climate science experts about exactly the type of disaster that unfolded on Friday night in Texas, where Republican officials &#8212; like Trump in D.C. &#8212; continue to ignore the lessons of our climate crisis and refuse to take action in response. In fact, they are actively working to make it worse.<\/p>\n<p>Our own <b>Desi Doyen<\/b> spent much of the holiday weekend digging into all of this with academics and meteorological experts. She joins us today to clarify what we knew, what we didn&#8217;t, and who is now lying about what in her old home state of Texas and beyond&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\".\/Images\/Speaker_Icon_24.png\" style=\"width: 24px; float: none; vertical-align: middle;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px;\"> <b><i><a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/audio\/BradCast_BradFriedman-GOPBudget-HealthCareCleanEnergyGutted-DeadlyFlashFloodsTX_070725.mp3\">CLICK TO LISTEN OR DOWNLOAD SHOW!&#8230;<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><center><b>* * *<\/b><\/center><i>While we post <a href=\"https:\/\/BradBlog.com\/BradCast\"><\/i>The BradCast<i><\/a> here every day, and you can hear it across all of our great affiliate stations and websites, to automagically get new episodes as soon as they&#8217;re available sent right to your computer or personal device, subscribe for free at <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/id803467610\">iTunes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pandora.com\/podcast\/the-bradcast-w-brad-friedman\/PC:1000025838\">Pandora<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/The-BradCast-with-Brad-Friedman-p477565\/\">TuneIn<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/256-the-bradcast-w-brad-friedm-30973643\/\">iHeart<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-BradCast-w-Brad-Friedman\/dp\/B08JJRN86R\/ref=sr_1_1\">Amazon<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/podcastgen\/bradcast\/feed.xml\">our native RSS feed<\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-START--><\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f0e0; border:2px solid #6b5a2e; border-radius:6px; padding:10px 14px; text-align:center; font-family:Georgia,serif;\"><span style=\"display:block; margin:0 0 8px 0; color:#3a2e0e; font-size:0.95em; line-height:1.5;\"><strong>The BRAD BLOG<\/strong>, <em>The BradCast<\/em> and <em>Green News Report<\/em> are all 100% independent and 100% listener and reader supported!<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/Donate\" style=\"display:inline-block; background:#6b5a2e; color:#ffffff; padding:6px 18px; border-radius:4px; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; font-family:Georgia,serif; font-size:0.9em;\">Please CLICK HERE to help support our work today!<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!--BB-DONATEPITCH-END--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re back live for today&#8217;s BradCast after our 4th of July break last week. I wish we were back with better news. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.] It was bad enough when we presumed we&#8217;d be covering last week&#8217;s final passage and signing of the Trump\/GOP Big Budget Boondoggle bill today. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,89,675,21,543,299,479,390,200,548,650,288,320,477,2016,310,947,300,47],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accountability","category-media-appearance","category-bradcast","category-california","category-climate-change","category-democrats","category-donald-trump","category-economy","category-environment","category-extreme-weather","category-greg-abbott","category-health-care","category-joe-biden","category-kpfk","category-medicaremedicaid","category-nebraska","category-noaa","category-republicans","category-texas","bb-type-bradcast"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15432\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15432"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=15432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}