July 6-7, 2025
Select Facebook Posts, (newest at the top)
—
My analysis on a Singapore news show this morning on the ceasefire talks in Qatar and Netanyahu's visit with Trump.
What are the chances of a Gaza ceasefire deal soon?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday (Jul 6) that he hoped an upcoming meeting—
—
A repost by Mariana Hernandez:
Not Just a Camp. Not Just a Tragedy. A Mirror.
This isn’t just about Camp Mystic.
It’s about 82 lives lost across Central Texas.
It’s about 27 girls and counselors at an elite camp and dozens of everyday Texans whose names you haven’t seen in the headlines.
We’ve heard the polished grief for Camp Mystic. We’ve seen the prayers, the ribbons, the televised tears. And that grief is real. But so is the silence around everyone else who died in the same flood — in the same night — just without the privilege.
Was this preventable?
Yes.
Meteorologists screamed warnings days ahead.
The National Weather Service issued flash flood alerts hours before the water rose.
But the systems meant to respond had already been cut, gutted, or ignored.
FEMA funding slashed.
NOAA and weather science jobs eliminated.
Local counties, like Kerr, still lacked sirens or river alarm systems even after decades of prior flooding.
And now? The same politicians who cut preparedness budgets are offering “thoughts and prayers” on camera.
Camp Mystic is a sacred name in Texas elite circles. Girls of governors, oil families, and even former first ladies have attended.
This summer:
~750 campers
~$4,500 each
Estimated $3.3–$3.5 million in one session alone
And yet, no real evacuation plan.
No sirens.
No weather-proof bunkers.
No required flood training.
Just prayers and hope on a river that’s flooded before.
In 1932. In 1978. In 1987.
This was known.
And still, kids were sleeping in cabins on the banks.
While the nation grieves the girls at Mystic, 41 other Kerr County residents also died.
They weren’t from legacy families.
They weren’t in matching Mystic uniforms.
But they mattered.
RV families from Odessa, gone.
A 92-year-old swept from her attic.
A father-of-four drowned saving his kids.
A beloved camp director from a different girls’ camp, lost.
No headlines. No hashtags. Just grief.
While politicians bickered, Mexico sent firefighters.
Yes, Mexico sent trained first responders across the border to help rescue Americans.
Why? Because they know what community means.
Because some of the bravest acts that night came from two young Mexican counselors who rescued 20 girls, wrote names on their bodies with Sharpie in case they didn’t make it.
Let that sink in:
The same country demonized at our borders just saved our daughters.
We failed these kids.
All of them.
Not just at Camp Mystic but across the Hill Country.
We failed the RV family.
The old woman.
The teacher.
The father.
We failed the weather scientists who warned us.
We failed the responders who didn’t have resources.
And we failed the Mexican heroes who won’t get headlines but gave everything.
So No, I’m Not in the Mood to Be Witty
Because this wasn’t a tragedy. It was a choice.
A choice to ignore science.
A choice to protect profit over planning.
A choice to treat some deaths as national news and others as statistics.
We can’t claim “nobody could have known.”
We did know.
We’ve known for decades.
We just decided it wasn’t urgent.
Until now.
If you're reading this:
Say their names, all of them.
Demand sirens in every river town.
Fund FEMA.
Fund science.
And never forget that when the river came, it didn’t ask what color your skin was or who had money.
It just took.
—
July 6, 2025
A repost by Dan Satterfield
Budget cuts from the current administration mean that there was critical data not available to Texas forecasters and to the model guidance early Friday in Texas.
Still, even running short staffed (so short three balloon soundings could not be launched in Texas alone) the NWS forecasters put up a flood watch a 8 pm Thursday night calling for 5 to 7 inches of rain and then issued multiple flash flood warnings.
If we had more data we might have known there could be the 11 inches that fell near the river.
Budget and NOAA employee cuts played a real role in this disaster. There will be more.
The degraded upper air network is having a real impact on short term severe weather forecasting and new models being tested that will improve it will be cancelled under the new budget cuts proposed.
Also 545 million from the USGS so those stream guard reports that helped forecasters issue the flood warnings may go as well.