The Puerto Rico Thread

[LTC8K6]

For 10 days.

So by the time they get harbor operations up to speed and enough infrastructure restored to make moving goods around the island anything close to routine it will have long expired.

And the residents will be back to paying extravagant prices for the goods they need.

Only this time they will be needing them to rebuild.

As empty gestures go this one was a chart topper.

That's what they told us earlier. It didn't make sense to waive it yet, as the ports weren't ready for the traffic.

Hopefully they weren't talked into issuing a waiver too early.

I'm sure it will be extended on request, though.

 

[Henri McPhee]

People like Trump are pretty quick to bail out corrupt bankers and hedge fund managers when they have debts, and his pals on Wall Street, and to cut taxes for the extremely rich, but not to provide a roof over the heads for the people in Puerto Rico, or Dominica, or repair their dams.

 

[Arisia]

They also need the resources to move the supplies that are already in the port: trucks, drivers, fuel and safe infrastructure.

 

[Meadmaker]

They also need the resources to move the supplies that are already in the port: trucks, drivers, fuel and safe infrastructure.

You can't keep 3.4 million people alive sending bottled water 1000 miles over the sea. They need to get potable water flowing from water treatment centers through pipes into homes. They need grocery stores that work, and stoves in homes to cook the food. The electricity has to get back on.

Hopefully the new general in town will be able to move the resources he needs to make that happen.

 

[Rolfe]

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/913873034750119937

 

[Meadmaker]

The DOE issues daily reports on the electricity situation. As of yesterday, 95% of customers were without power. That's actually good news, because as of the day before yesterday, 100% were without power. Having a base of operations with regular power will make further operations more efficient.

https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files...d Harvey Event Summary September 29, 2017.pdf

 

[Meadmaker]

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/913873034750119937

And Donald Trump has now taken to Twitter to criticize her.

 

[Stacko]

You can't keep 3.4 million people alive sending bottled water 1000 miles over the sea. They need to get potable water flowing from water treatment centers through pipes into homes. They need grocery stores that work, and stoves in homes to cook the food. The electricity has to get back on.

Hopefully the new general in town will be able to move the resources he needs to make that happen.

The reporting might not keep him in the job long. General overseeing Puerto Rico response breaks with Trump: We don’t have enough troops or equipment.

The Defense Department has not sent enough troops and vehicles to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico but will soon send more, according to the three-star general newly in charge of coordinating the military response.

Army Lt. Gen. Jeff Buchanan said*Friday*morning*that the Pentagon has 10,000 people helping with the response after Hurricanes Irma and Maria ripped through Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands earlier this month.

“We're certainly bringing in more [troops]," Buchanan said on CNN’s*“New Day.”

"For example, on the military side, we're bringing in both Air Force, Navy, and Army medical capabilities in addition to aircraft, more helicopters. ... [But] it's not enough, and we're bringing more in.”

 

[fuelair]

People like Trump are pretty quick to bail out corrupt bankers and hedge fund managers when they have debts, and his pals on Wall Street, and to cut taxes for the extremely rich, but not to provide a roof over the heads for the people in Puerto Rico, or Dominica, or repair their dams.

Anyone who thinks conservatives/republickers give a **** about them and who is not wealthy is an idiot. Anyone in that group who is a conservative/republicker anyway is a tool and an idiot.

 

[The Don]

And Donald Trump has now taken to Twitter to criticize her.

So "modern presidential"

 

[Stacko]

And Donald Trump has now taken to Twitter to criticize her.

I think Nate Silver has nailed why this keeps happening:

Alternative hypothesis: Trump has poor impulse control & is easily triggered, especially when being challenged (esp. by women & minorities).​

She nails both categories hence his response to call Puerto Ricans lazy and ungrateful.

 

[William Parcher]

Now her message is on a t-shirt she is wearing.

http://thehill.com/sites/default/fi...ublic/sanjuanmayor_cnn_sscreenshot_092917.jpg

 

[phiwum]

Well he would, wouldn't he ? When you praise your own actions then it's hardly a ringing endorsement.

OTOH I understand that the governor of Puerto Rico has given guarded praise to the White House response - IMO that carries more weight.

Or it shows that he's learned how to deal with the administration. Criticism and shame orifices conflict and intransigence. Praise produces results.

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[Andy_Ross]

BBC: Trump lashes out at San Juan mayor over Maria response

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41452995

Donald Trump has lashed out at Puerto Rico politicians over their criticism of US relief efforts on the island following Hurricane Maria.
In a series of tweets, Trump said that Puerto Rican officials showed "poor leadership ability" and "want everything to be done for them".
Trump suggested the mayor had been told "to be nasty to Trump" by his Democratic opposition.

 

[Giordano]

Even with millions of people's health, safety, security, and future at risk, Trump's ego proves by far most important of all to him.

The governor of Puerto Rico dares to say that there is still devastation all around her and that the self-congratualory rosy assessments made by some members of the Trump administration do not match the facts; that Puerto Rico still needs a lot of help. Trump somehow interprets this as the governor being "nasty" to him, him!, so she must be publicly crushed and her statements denied as if they were merely petty politics pushed by "the Democrats."

I am now waiting for Trump to somehow blame Hillary Clinton for the disaster in Puerto Rico and to remind people what a HUGE electoral victory he had in the 2016 election.

To the credit of many in the Federal government, including Congress and individuals within the Trump administration, it does seem that at long last there has been a mobilization of emergency services to help Puerto Rico. Hopefully this will continue given that much more aid is still required. But I agree with the governor- it is not yet a "good news" story, and to point that out is hardly being nasty to Trump or playing politics. Can't Trump see anything, even life and death issues, in any way but in relation to his ego and his divisive political view of the world?

 

[Ziggurat]

The governor of Puerto Rico dares to say that there is still devastation all around her

That's the mayor of San Juan, not the governor of Puerto Rico.

 

[phiwum]

Or it shows that he's learned how to deal with the administration. Criticism and shame orifices conflict and intransigence. Praise produces results.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Produces, for God's sake, not orifices.

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[Ziggurat]

Produces, for God's sake, not orifices.

I don't know. There's a lot of criticism and shame associated with orifices.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Time for PR, USVI, Marshall Islands and Guam to either become the 51st State or independent nations. If they really wanted to be treated like Americans they should be required to act like full Americans.

Troll much?

Not in recent years. The last referendum had a vastly overwhelming majority of the votes for statehood.

So why aren't they a state? (It's been a few years since I was following the internal PR politics, but if that much positive response to this very old issue is what's coming along now, what's the obstacle to becoming number 51? FFS, they are closer to CONUS than Alaska or Hawaii.)

why does it take three full days from the time when the ship is given her orders until she actually sails? I suspect it's because even though the ship's in dock she's receiving only minimal maintenance with a skeleton crew. So the navy has to call up crew, stock up on food, and perhaps even load fuel and fresh water. They may even have to bring some systems back on-line and check them out because they've been shut down for a while.

Yes.

I expect that's correct; and it's not really the ship's crew that's the problem -- it's the medical staff. They probably have to come in from bases all over the place.

And reservists.

Hopefully the new general in town will be able to move the resources he needs to make that happen.

He's asking for more assets. It's a big darned job.

Or it shows that he's learned how to deal with the administration. Criticism and shame orifices conflict and intransigence. Praise produces results.

I'd say you broke the code.

 

[Giordano]

That's the mayor of San Juan, not the governor of Puerto Rico.

Sorry! You are of course correct.

This is one of the things I find amazing about Trump- he will take the time and effort to publicly and angrily attack anyone who he perceives as having said anything negative about him. A relatively obscure mayor of a city, a has been actor, the parents of a dead soldier, a basketball player. The list goes on and on. I can only imagine Trump desperately combing through Internet sites at 2 AM looking for someone who had dared question anything about him or his policies so he can try to rip them a new one in his tweets. Alnd almost always not a rebuttal of the criticisms per se but instead a personal attack on the person advancing the criticisms or their motivation. It must represent an enormous effort and occupy a great deal of his time!

Perhaps Kelly can explain to Trump the concept of dignity and the value of not stooping to participating in petty battles of words that he should consider to be "beneath him."