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The times in which we live:
- Back in May, @Silkgengar brought us Representative Dan Goldman with a prediction that now seems prescient about Texas floods:
- In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson reviews the losses in Texas, the frustration of local officials trying to prepare, and the lessons that come at the price of a terrible loss of life. The biggest lesson is the danger of putting MAGA folk in charge.
The same analysis is now available in audio format, as Richardson narrates in podcast.
- Journalist Arturo Dominguez insists that it is unwise, counterproductive, and just plain wrong to blame Texas voters for flood deaths.
- Grung_e_Gene at Disaffected and it Feels So Good credits Republican efforts to drown government in a bathtub with drowning kids in Texas.
Key non-responsibility:
“I’d just [ask] everybody like, pause, take a breath for the recriminations and the Monday morning quarterbacking,” Chip Roy on Saturday. “Let’s focus on finding those who can be found, then we can always assess what we need to do later, going forward.”Gene’s suggestion for Mr. Roy involves an anatomical improbability.
Key surprise:
“We had no reason to believe that this was gonna be any, anything like what’s happened here. None whatsoever,” Judge Rob Kelly the top elected official of Kerr County said.Key cause:
Judge Kelly said there is no county-administered warning system in the area because such systems are expensive. - With tragic deaths in Texas flooding now well into triple digits, including dozens of children, Governor Greg Abbott grows impatient at the preoccupation with deaths and responsibility. As in football, we don’t occupy ourselves with every game we lose.
Mustn’t be discouraged by every little thing:
tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors relays a more human response.
- Tommy Christopher manages to watch both Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem rage at CNN lies about FEMA delays in Texas and, at about the same time, Noem’s Department of Homeland Security accidentally confirm that the “lies” are actually the truth.
Key protest (Kristi Noem)
Well, there you go, fake news. CNN again is absolutely trash what they are doing by saying that because our Coast Guard, our Border Patrol BorTac teams were there immediately, every single thing– I was on– they asked for, we were there.Key reality:
DHS’s attempt to rebuke CNN instead confirms the core components of that story: cost‑control shock, 72‑hour delay, Noem’s hold on powers, FEMA’s reduced agility. - Humor sometimes takes a grim turn. At The Onion, Texas officials have tried to avoid humiliating themselves by requesting FEMA aid via burner email accounts.
- Ant Farmer’s Almanac has word from FEMA that disaster aid will now be limited to thoughts or prayers, but not both.
- FEMA isn’t the only program being slashed, of course.
At The Moderate Voice, Robert Levine examines the Republican One Big Beautiful Bill as the worst of all possible worlds in more than one way, and looks at what a better, simpler, alternative might have been.
- driftglass explains in everyday terms what the Republican Big Blunt Bill will soon mean:
- Juliet at Decoding Fox News listened to 19 hours as hosts and reporters banged the drums for Trump’s Big Bill with little mention of what was actually in it, until the votes were secure.
An entertaining and informative hour long podcast version is also made available, narrated by Juliet her own self!!
- Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson has a wonderfully colorful way of going after those on his dark side.
This time, it’s two federal lawmakers representing Wisconsin.
On June 4, Republican Senator Ron Johnson is against Trump’s megabill.
He won’t vote for it as of June 13.
He hates it on June 20.
He opposes it on June 25.On June 30, he’ll think about it.
He votes for it on July 3.Republican Representative Derrick Van Orden gets asked by a student reporter about his own vote, especially the probable closing of Wisconsin hospitals.
Representative Van Orden loses his famous temper at the question,
Key well considered opinion (from Mr. Wigderson):
I don’t think he’s House trained - The Propaganda Professor gives his weekly Bubblegum Crucifix Award to an especially bold action as the Republican congressional majority pauses for prayer just before passing Trump’s horrific bill to slash Medicaid in order to provide tax benefits to those luxuriating in fabulous wealth.
- Julian Sanchez takes a look at the only popular part of Big Bloated Bill and discovers “no tax on tips” is largely meaningless.
- In Hackwhackers, the Trump administration has developed a two‑birds/one‑stone strategy.
Problem One:
Medicaid slashes are leaving patients with no care, an intense issue for nursing home recipients.Problem Two:
Farmers are losing migrant workers to aggressive ICE attacks as immigrants are taken and given no chance of showing whether they are documented.The creative solution is offered by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. On the theory that millions of these patients are secretly able‑bodied and not already among those currently working in low wage jobs, take them out of care and put them in the fields replacing migrant workers who have been deported or gone into hiding.
- Master of rant Max’s Dad uses his sharpest set of scalpels on the week of Trump, covering the big ugly bill to screw over working folks, the new Alligator Alcatraz, and preparations for sending prisoner migrants back to the fields as cheap rental slaves.
- Michael J Scott reviews the obvious historical parallels and asks the question none of us wants to ponder. With a mammoth new bloated budget, is ICE about to become America’s SS?
- Nojo brings us the unveiling of a mural by Dutch artist Judith de Leeuw, a sad tribute to the decline of American ideals: “The Statue of Liberty’s Silent Protest”.
- Now that the Supreme Court is closing for the season, legal experts Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of Rewire News Group go to podcast to summarize one of the weirdest and more consequential SCOTUS sessions.
Key addition:
All that and… alligators?Also offered: a complete transcript (PDF)
- PZ Myers is hearing about a major upcoming celebration of our 250th birthday as a nation. He is less than enthusiastic about what Trump and his minions have planned.
Key omen:
One ominous sign is that the White House is working with…Professor Myers helpfully provides a focus on the spectacularly twisted history that Trump&Co manage to pull from Prager:
- Uttering any old fiction that comes to mind…(and fictions do come to mind)
with gratitude to the late Jackiesue Denny (Yellow Dog Granny)…genuine harm can result…
As Jason Linkins notes in this bizarre case.
straight line from Republican fearmongering to this
— Jason Linkins (@dceiver.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 10:58 PM
- Last year here in Missouri, voters by a huge majority increased the minimum wage and increased sick leave for employees. Will of the people, right?
Frances Langum has the sordid details as our governor just signed legislation pushing both measures back down.
- In Canadian satire, The Beaverton faces the challenge. Can they get an article written and posted about Trump’s latest tariff threat before he backs down yet again?.
- M. Bouffant at Web of Evil puts together six and a half dozen links with a one sentence summary for each (How does he do that?!) as Paramount, on behalf of CBS, issues a bribe to Trump thinly disguised as a “settlement” of a transparently meritless case, and tosses in all our 1st Amendment freedoms as a bonus.
The motive seems to be a separately desired government approval for a merger.
M. Bouffant’s single line explanations make it easy to pick and click.
- From The Borowitz Report, the Department of Justice confirms that the man in the photo with Epstein, the one that looks so much like Trump, has finally been identified as Joe Biden.
- Right Wing Watch brings us conspiracy theory personality Liz Crokin who has figured out the Trump strategy on the Epstein list that is there then not there then becomes a subject that irritates Trump.
It’s a Trump trick to keep lamestream media focused until Trump is ready to spring the truth on us all.
Key work of very stable genius:
“I kind of feel like we seeing a little classic President Trump Kabuki theater 5-D chess here,” Crokin declared. - I confess. I had to check to be sure this wasn’t satire.
News Corpse gets a little sarcastic as Trump announces plans to host an Ultimate Fighting Championship match at the White House.Key commentary:
Following his triumphant mission to terminate health insurance for nearly 12 million Americans, while cutting taxes for billionaires and exploding the national debt, Donald Trump has quickly pivoted to a new project that is certain to shower the nation in the stately grandeur that makes so many citizens proud. - Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger has more polling numbers as voters turn against Trump on specific issues and on total job performance.
- Dave Columbo explains how Elon’s new political party will succeed, pulling enthusiastic participation from both Republicans and Democrats.
Fer sure! - CalicoJack in The Psy of Life proposes Ten Commandments for resisting fascism in America.
- Rural Missouri’s Jess Piper travels a short distance to an Iowa small town (population in double digits) to meet with a few folks and is surprised at the large gathering
Key national peril:
We aren’t fighting MAGA anymore. We are fighting a fascist regime that is moving quicker than we ever thought they might. It’s insanity in front of our eyes. It’s horror out in the open.
It’s authoritarian thugs doing the things we’ve only read about in other countries…it’s here now.Key bright hope:
But, there are pockets of resistance around every one of us too. There are allies in our communities. People are fighting back in every space across the country.
You are not alone. Find your folks.
- Brian Beutler writes about what we might call Democratic dualism, the tension between policy debate and issues that concern ordinary folks not at all interested in policy details.
Brian has a suggestion: work on both.
Key example:
But how many high-profile Dems could sit with these dudes and talk about the Epstein scandal in depth?
Do many of them take genuine interest in getting an answer to that question: Are Trump’s minions covering it up, or did they just exploit the sexual abuse of children to help get their guy elected?
Or do they mostly think the whole issue is sordid and beneath them…Key advice:
To square their objectives, Democrats will have to stop wishing away distractions from their best issues, and start asking whether and how those issues slot into existing online fixations. - Infidel753 suggests that a decline in the acceptance of gay equality may be caused, in part, by grouping others (think trans) into the same category.
- North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz asks the most pertinent question about our humanity: When the Hell Did Empathy Become a Flaw, America?
Key query:
When and how, for tens of millions of people, did empathy move from one of the highest human aspirations, one prized by the greatest ethic, moral, and spiritual leaders this planet has known, to a supposed deficiency to be ridiculed? How does a collective so lose the plot of humanity so thoroughly? - In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, Bruce attacks the Christian belief, one shared by me, that God’s moral law is pressed within each of us. At the heart of the well reasoned case that Bruce presents are contradictions between moral judgements of believers paralleling contradictions within the Bible itself.
Key inconsistencies:
How is the term “law of God” defined? Ask a hundred Christians to define “law of God” and you will get a plethora of answers, many of which contradict the others. - Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit briefly expresses reasons for skepticism as another Putin official is fatally retired.
- In Nan’s Notebook, Nan still recovers from a serious arm injury, offering a brief progress report.
A word of encouragement couldn’t hurt.
- SilverAppleQueen spent last weekend with the mixed blessing of fireworks, bringing back wonderfully terrifying memories of her late husband and current terror experienced by her cats.
[Correction (see comment below) former husband, current friend] - da-Al is back (Yay!!). In Happiness Between Tails she hosts writer, poet, artist, blogger Camilla Wells Paynter, who discusses art as a two-way process. Art also creates the artist. She draws inspiration from regular runs through nature.
- Ali Redford is temporarily taking over Scotties Playtime while Scottie is recovering, and she is looking for suggestions. So go ahead and comment!
- The Journal of Improbable Research finds a study into coffee for the road. Turns out that adding used coffee grounds may strengthen asphalt in highway construction.
- @whiskeywhistle98 knows exactly how to calm people down:
- Sarah Cooper learns the value of therapy dogs
- Clickbait satirist Reductress relays a case study to illustrate that “I don’t care, you pick.” clearly signals a friend engaging in psychological warfare.
- The Savanna Bananas test the boundary between celebration and gloating
You really can’t tell right away anymore.
We can look to our reliable mentors for internet wisdom:
6 responses to “Week of Texas Tragedy, Dodging Responsibility
Beautiful Wealthy Tax Cut, Big Slash for Medicaid, FEMA Hold Back, Snapping Poverty, Ballooning ICE”
Howdy Burr!
I’m glad to see that people are turning out in rural Missouri and Wisconsin, and I’m sure other states, because they are outraged at the ICE gazpacho police actions, FEMA disaster relief disasters, and the phenomenon that raising tariffs lifts all prices. It could be that the sleeping giant of indifferent disaffected voters has finally WOKEn to find that politics really does AFFECT them directly in a myriad of ways. I guess the only remaining question is whether it will counter-balance the mass psychosis of MAGA that will allows the residents of the Texas Hill Country, for example, to believe that you can’t anticipate the flooding that happens every year in the the Texas Hiss Country.
We’re in a race to see if one can out vote the other in 2026. Places your bets now and watch out for dirty tricks, my friends.
Huzzah!
Jack
PS Thanks for including the link. It is always appreciated, mi amigo.
Sorry to see that Yellowdog Grannie has left us.
Very sad…she was a treasure.
Re the Governor repealing the ballot measure…maybe you all can do this:
They did this in Arizona, so wee the stinky pipples had to pass a new one the next election that said the Legislature cannot just nullify a ballot measure (which in AZ are state constitutional amendments) by rewriting it ex post facto, a measure the Lege has wailed about ever since.
Of course, when WTSP passed the “Red for Ed” measure raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for schools, the lege couldn’t rewrite it, but then blew up the tax code with massive cuts so that no one reached the threshold for the added taxes.
It’s a testament to the corrupt districting process, and the cognitive dissonance of Republican voters that WTSP keep passing these things often by large large margins including conservative voters, who then turn around and put the nutbag Right back into power in Phoenix. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hi! My first husband is still alive. So he’s not “late”. Gone but not late. & we’re still friends. We call each other on our birthdays & every year on what was once our anniversary. We’ve been divorced longer than we were married. LOL
Thank you for all you do here, Burr. Today’s post is full of good stuff! And thank you for linking Scottie’s, too. He is a little under the weather again, and has upcoming eye surgery to think about. There is also a family member of Scottie’s who helps keep the blog livelier, too; blundersonword. It’s become a village. 😀 Thanks again!