Daily Dispatch 7/14/25: July 4 Flood The Latest Deadly Disaster Texas GOP Failed To Prepare For, and More

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

The July 4 flood death toll rose to 132 as new flooding stopped recovery efforts on Sunday: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/texas-flooding-map-lampasas-river-trump-fema-death-toll-latest-b2788441.html

Families of victims who are still missing are beginning to come to terms that Governor Abbott's pledge to recover all of them may be impossible to fulfill: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/texas-families-face-grim-reality-that-some-missing-from-floods-may-not-be-found

Governor Abbott's highly flawed football metaphor, meant to deflect accountability in the name of toughness, draws the condemnation of Hall Of Famer Earl Campbell: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/us/politics/texas-floods-greg-abbott-stoicism.html

The failure of Texas to be prepared for the July 4 flood is part of a much longer pattern of neglect under Republican rule, which includes Winter Storm Uri, the Uvalde school massacre, and much more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/13/texas-disaster-weather-preparations-us

West Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez calls for accountability for the flood disaster in the upcoming special session, which seems to us a pipe dream at best: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/13/politics/video/texas-congressman-calls-on-accountability-for-floods-cannot-allow-girls-to-drown

House Minority Leader Gene Wu notes the many bills offered by Democrats in the recent regular session aimed at improving safety infrastructure and planning that were killed by Republicans out of partisan spite: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/11/us/video/the-lead-texas-governor-abott-donald-trump-floods-fema-jake-tapper

Other Houston Democrats are also up in arms about the Trump-demanded redistricting plan, while experts note the risk of over-reach that could undermine formerly-safe GOP Representatives: https://www.khou.com/article/news/politics/democrats-gov-abbott-redrawing-districts-special-session-texas/285-3427ffde-df9d-4a12-b8d7-c492cd41d7a4

The hypocrisy of undertaking redistricting under DOJ accusations of racial gerrymandering, just as the state has been defending its current map as race-blind, is stunning: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/11/texas-redistricting-racial-gerrymandering-coalition-districts-trump/

The new Superman movie is being derided as "woke" by right-wing media, when the character's main mode is kindness - if kindness is wokeness, then we're woke, y'all: .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}