Texas Flooding: The Real Culprit Is Capitalism

134 people have died and 101 remain missing after the Guadalupe River in central Texas overflowed as a result of 6.5 inches of rain falling over the course of three hours on the morning of July 4th. Though the floods are being called just a natural disaster, mounting evidence shows that climate change, budget cuts, crumbling infrastructure and political infighting contributed not just to the flooding but the resulting destruction and loss of life. Even in a real freak incident, a true once-in-a-century occurrence,  proper precautions and warnings could have been implemented. Plainly, no one had to die and the blame has to be not just on individual decision-makers but the entire capitalist system that neglects the basic needs of people in favor of profits.

We’re joined by Corrie Rosen, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation in San Antonio who’s been helping with the recovery efforts.

Support local volunteer efforts here and read more about it at Peoples Dispatch.

 

Then, we discuss the $200 million contracts given by the Department of Defense to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI - in the wake of xAI’s Grok going full-on antisemitic.