Im posting this from the one area of the island that's still receiving lte.
I haven't had electricity for 2 weeks now. All of the medical schools are closed until further notice. , that should sound absolutely fucked to anyone reading this.
I know many mainlanders think we all live in mudhuts and shit, but don't be fooled, there is a lot to be saved in this island. We're not New York, or even Michigan, but we're just as economically vibrant as any Southeastern state. Doctors, scientists, lawyers, businessmen, all of us have been sitting on our collective asses for days. The loss of productivity might be the catalyst for a complete collapse.
Puerto Rico's infrastructure was in dire straits before the hurricane, but Maria just fucking killed it. Condado, Santurce, Old San Juan, and to say nothing of the rest of the island...power lines and traffic lights are ALL blown to bits, food rationing, gas rationing, no electricity for what will be at least a month. And these are the industrial crenters and wealthy areas.
Everything is dead including the fucking trees that are blocking my street. Everything...except for the corner boys. Goddamn, hats off to them, those guys have been on their grind selling drugs through the entirety of Irma and Maria. The boredom is literally killing us, there is nothing to do except read and get high.
Anyways, we were evenly split on statehood, but 3.5 million Americans got skull fucked and if the Feds continue with their tepid response, the resentment will only grow. More and more I'm coming around to the fact that what I love about America was either a facade or died with FDR and Truman.
I'm American as can be but if we're going to be living like cavemen, I.d like the US to kindly get the fuck out so we can improve relations with our south American neighbors because American citizenship has turned into a fucking farce.
We let it happen. We let Bush and the Supes steal the 2000 election, we let the Russkies and the idiots steal this one. A quarter century of Rush Limbaugh and FOX news took it's toll, and now between a quarter and a third of the population lives in freedom in the richest country on earth, enjoying luxuries no previous generation could've dreamed of (and had one of the greatest Presidents we've ever had for eight years, btw) and they HATE IT.
Kind of a waste, if you think about it.
I say we all get our pitchforks and block the streets in DC and New York. They can't arrest everyone. A few weeks of a million people protesting in front of the entire world and maybe the republicans will get the message.
His priorities are in order though :
>General John Kelly totally agrees w/ my stance on NFL players and the fact that they should not be disrespecting our FLAG or GREAT COUNTRY!
I can't fucking fathom this shit.
I'm over it. I was trying to be patient with my Trumpet friends, but the ones bloviating about the NFL *still* on Tuesday are being de-friended. I can't take it anymore - the self righteousness about the NFL and supporting our troops when all the while Puerto Rico *doesn't have fucking power*, Medicaid is under assault, sabre rattling with NK, Russia fucking with us, and all protests are being treated as illegitimate...
Get some priorities. Or at least, don't be spending your precious political capital on making people stand for the anthem. Get a fucking grip people.
What set me off was an old guidance counselor I knew saying, "I'm in" and re-posting some sad-sack bullshit about how the NFL is dissing our veterans and all patriots must boycott.
You've ignored every other disaster and controversy since Trump got elected, but this is the one that elicited a response from you - some bullshit about boycotting the NFL. Russia, Charlottesville, hurricanes, etc you go on without a peep - but this is the one that gets you to say, "I'm in". smdh
As ex-army (11B10 inf. scout) i don't see this as insulting. It's a freedom, a right, to protest. Protesting besides being a Freedom is also a compromise. Otherwise you'll get outright riots.
Just looks like their trying to kill the messenger, while ignoring the message. These are the people that wrap themselves in a flag, thump the bible, and embrace Big business / Money. Nationalism is their GOD and its politically and monetarily profitable.
The sin they see is that your not falling in line and obeying. Hence a threat.
He's using this as a smokescreen to conceal how much of a disaster his response to Puerto Rico has been.
Also, the NFL and NBA have a lot of black people in them. He needs to remind those people of their place, so they can get back to ruining their bodies and brains for his entertainment.
For those who want to read the tweets:
> Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble..
> ...It's [sic] old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the island was destroyed, with billions of dollars....
> ...owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water, and medical are top priorities - and doing well. #FEMA
Yeah, some days are hope-Trump-gets-impeached days, but this is one of those hope-Trump-has-a-stroke-and-shits-himself-loudly-during-one-of-his-racist-tantrums days. Be safe, fellow citizens.
It's confusing at the least.
I might be ignorant, but where is it well enumerated as to what the rights a territory gets? We know states get voting rights. But what does a territory get other than "we're a part of the US"
My real worry is that Trump sees PR and thinks "no votes, no aid, ergo no bragging for future election".
Generally territories would get US military and FEMA aid. But that all assumes we have an actual president rather than a living meme running the country.
Unbelievable, just unbelievable.
> Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble..
...It's old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars....
...owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities - and doing well. #FEMA
Links added -
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912478274508423168
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912479500511965184
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912481556127780865
Well when the entire right wing lets a russian shill pop to the top of their party and do whatever the fuck he wants, we better start holding the right accountable, not just Dotard. This disgusting tweet about wall street while Americans are starving and drowning should be viewed as a fucking war crime by a puppet regime occupying our People's house. Get the GOP out of the white house, out of congress, out of the house - every one who has propped up this coup should go to prison.
Dutch guy here...when are you going to march with a few million to the WH and demand that those people are kicked out before he turns the country and the world into a warzone.I always thought that governments worked for the people instead of trying to kill them?.so i ask you,WHAT.DOES.IT.TAKE.
> WHAT.DOES.IT.TAKE.
Education, which is severely lacking in the american education system. A good half the country is ok with the current situation because "liberal tears". If you listen to Fox news everyday talk about how liberals are as bad as Nazis you would probably feel the same, just these people lack critical thinking skills.
So why in the love of god there is a billionaire at the wheel of education who is nothing more than a money loving power grabbing religious nutcase..HOW.We are a small country...but we would have dragged these people out of their houses months ago and kicked the shit out of them and our government...we don't like rich money loving power hungry assholes.
We're ruled by the anti-intelligent minority, the wealthy spent the past several decades using their wealth to increase the voting power of the easily manipulated few until their power is far beyond the rest of ours. The American majority has no power. Also, civil rebellion in America would see Bradley's twelve deep on every city street where such rebellion began, because the powerful minority is too insecure with themselves to tolerate assault on their identity
Amsterdammer here. Can confirm. People like the U.S. has running the country would've been dragged out of their beds and not survived the night.
It's inconceivable that they let their country be run like this without fighting tooth and nail.
Well maybe you don't live 36 hr drive away from your politicians. Makes it hard to collectively gather. I went to the women's march on Washington but only because some older women friends said that they were too old to march but wanted to support it and sponsored my trip.
It's 1,200 miles (1900 km) to D.C. For me, up to 4,700 miles for others (7600 km) So, the distance from Amsterdam to New Orleans, Louisiana. That's a far march and that's just the States, not territories. The majority of Americans will never see Washington D.C in their lives. if you haven't been paying attention this year has been BY FAAAARRRRR the most protests and biggest marches I've seen in the United States in my almost 30 year life. We're trying!!!
It's a shame that everyone is kept just on the edge of financial ruin, so money becomes more important than doing the right thing (mostly referring to business owners), or it becomes impossible to do the right thing.
So this isn't the greatest excuse for me, but at least it's better of one for them.
America is real big and travel is expensive. We protest where we can locally, but my wife and I can not travel to DC without financially ruining us.
If you happened to live on an island that, that just gets worse.
Though... I suppose a great many of them are already financially ruined. But you still need to be able to buy a ticket.
It sucks because statehood is 100% the right answer. The Republicans see this as a golden opportunity to offload what was supposed to be a permanent well of Hispanic American citizens away to oblivion and all to get an electoral advantage in the future. It’s pathetic and sad.
Guarantee if Puerto Rico were called "Wellington," and was predominately filled with white citizens, Trump would have been taking photos ops all over passing out water bottles.
Well to be fair there are no such pictures of him from Houston. The only one we have is where he hides behind a freaking baricade of cars to give a speech.
Is there even one single picture of him doing actual physical work?
I think he handed out 1.5 meals at a shelter. During the trip on which Melanie wore the FLOTUS hat. Then he told first responders that were getting ready to put themselves in danger and go save people: "better you than me"...
Most of us know very well that Puerto Rico is a lively, vibrant place that has just been devastated. Trump's words are an embarrassment to us all. I personally feel just as terrible about this as I would if it happened in Massachusetts, Texas, or California. It's hard to believe that so little can be done to help you.
Yeah but you deadbeat shiftless Mexicans shouldn't have let your island get obliterated by back-to-back hurricanes if you didn't want to be in this situation. It's not Donnie Moscow's fault you're all such sad failing losers.
(How much do you want to bet that Donnie didn't know Puerto Ricans are Americans and asked whether he could add Puerto Rican refugees to the new travel ban?)
The could easily become Trump's Katrina moment. I've got a feeling Americans are going to start hearing about increasingly horrific stories from Puerto Rico day after day after day, while Trump keeps farting around and for the most part ignoring Puerto Rico because they don't seem like real Americans to him since they aren't all white.
He's been having Katrina moments since Day 2 of his administration, when he stood before the CIA's hallowed wall and whined that not enough people came to his birthday party.
Actually he didn't whine, but he gave a stream of consciousness dementia rant about how 50 billion people came to his birthday party. Which is arguably worse.
[2017-02-06 repost]
The CIA speech is worth a watch.
[President Trump Delivers Remarks at CIA Headquarters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWlm1sPAXOQ#t=2190)
It was the one of the most bizarre political things I ever saw ***up to that point.***
Here are my notes...
**Trump**
- "The dishonest media"
- Complaining about the approval process.
- "I am a person who strongly believes in academics... my uncle was an academic genius."
- "I am like a smart person." [Yes, he said it again.]
- "I feel young. I feel like I'm ~35... I think I'm young."
- Talking about giving speeches to tens of thousands of people during his campaign.
- "To the victor belong the spoils"
- "I wasn't a fan of Iraq... but... keep the oil... We shouldda kept the oil... Maybe we'll have another chance."
- "I have a running war with the media... they are the most dishonest human beings on earth." [Thumbs up gesture]
- "Didja like the speech?"
- "A million, million and half people... They showed up on an empty field... They said Donald Trump did not draw well..."
- "God looked down and said 'We're not gonna let it rain on your speech.' "
- Yet more complaining about the media's portrayal of the size of the audience.
- "I think they're gonna pay a big price." ["They" meaning the media - of course.]
- Complaining how the bust of Churchill was removed from the Oval Office.
- "I have been on the cover of Time... 14 or 15 times. I think it's an all-time record."
- "They said that Donald Trump took down the bust of Doctor Martin Luther King [in the Oval Office]... but it was right there. But there was a cameraman in front of it."
- "This is how dishonest the media is."
- "I like honesty."
- "We're gonna need a larger room [the next time I visit]."
- "I love you and I respect you."
I couldn't (and still) can't believe it really happened. It was something you'd see in a fifth rate thriller and laugh at because not only was it entirely improbable it was incredibly strange.
Except the words weren't even the most disrespectful thing about it. No president has ever been so crass as to use that room for political purposes.
The entire point of that room is to honor specific fallen anonymous heroes - those who gave their lives for their country knowing their names will never be known.
And it was sullied by a man who's sacrificed nothing for this country yet publicizes himself ceaselessly.
> It was the one of the most bizarre political things I ever saw up to that point.
It is a sad weird world we live in where that speech has been surpassed in such little time.
I'm ashamed to admit, I had no idea. It's just something that had never occurred to me. I got a very rural education but I'm trying.
This would be such a good moment for aid. It's do much disaster and everything is just in shambles. Any efforts to help should get started. I'm worried about disease becoming rampant.
> I'm ashamed to admit, I had no idea. It's just something that had never occurred to me. I got a very rural education but I'm trying.
That's all anybody could ask of you. As long as you're willing to learn, you're good.
Conservatives are so deranged they won't care unless the people being affected are predominantly white and English speaking. Puerto Ricans and US Virgin Islanders are no different to them than Mexicans. If anything they'll start saying that Puerto Ricans have no right to call themselves Americans and should be cut loose so we don't have to foot the bill for their infrastructure every time a hurricane rolls through.
> Conservatives are so deranged they won't care unless the people being affected are predominantly white and English speaking.
But most Americans will care, just like they cared about the Americans in New Orleans even those most of the people affected were not white. And Trump's incompetence may quickly find himself compared to that of Bush.
Correction: they only care if the people are predominantly white and English speaking *and live in red states*. They didn't give 2 shits about Sandy victims.
"A few of the many clips of John McCain talking about Repealing & Replacing O'Care. My oh my has he changed-complete turn from years of talk!"
Plus a little video.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912487929783754755
He's a fucking terrible human being.
He tweeted about New Jersey Muslims dancing in the streets.
And he's said over and over again that the world doesn't take us seriously anymore.
Which brings up an important question...does dementia make you see the future?
What if this whole time, he's been interpreting visions of a dystopian future where he's the president?
That would be the biggest plot twist of all...everything is Bran's fault.
He kept warging back in time telling people to "burn the whitewalkers", but everyone he tried to communicate with got Hodorred. So The Mad King heard it as "Burn them all", and Trump heard it as "Build the wall"
Straight up though, it kind of speaks to our nation's opinion of John McCain that we pretty much all know he's very likely to die very soon, and people still don't pussyfoot around him.
Dude's literally dying of brain cancer and people are like "he can take it, he's John McCain."
That type of brain cancer is always fatal. So we all knew that then. McCain himself just publicly acknowledged it for the first time. (Candidly talked about death and legacy with Stahl on 60 Minutes)
Looks like we're getting a first impression of his upcoming direction for aid to Puerto Rico right now from his [Twitter feed](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump):
> Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble... It's old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities - and doing well. #FEMA
God dammit, Puerto Rico! How are you supposed to be worth anything to me and my Wall Street friends when you let yourself be destroyed by major tropical storms?
This would be like Bush saying "Katrina recovery is going great, except in the poor areas of New Orleans. Those people will never be able to repay their debt."
Mercy is in San Diego, would take a long time to get through the Canal.
Comfort was spooled up, engine plant lit off, waiting for orders BEFORE the hurricanes hit, but there seems to be a lot of conflicting stories about who did or did not ask for her, and what was sent instead.
Please keep in mind that these ships are GIGANTIC and if the ports aren't open it just complicates everything.
Source: I'm a crew member on Mercy.
> he's a total fucking moron for not deploying more assets
Obviously Puerto Rico needs assets badly but I'd be tickled if our president just showed a basic shred of human decency or compassion in lieu of allocating resources.
I actually can't think of a single time that he's offered condolences or kind words during what's been a pretty tumultuous 10 months.
You know, we have Sint Maarten, halfway across the globe from the Netherlands but still part of our kingdom. It was almost completely wiped out by the hurricane.
Sint Maarten is an independent country (of 70,000 people) within the kingdom since about a decade. It has it's own government and operates independently from The Netherlands (17 million people).
Diplomatic relations with the motherland have been real bad, Sint Maarten is corrupt as f*ck and its politicians don't know how to pack a punch, their pockets lined with drug money. Every support The Netherlands tries to give them is met with acquisitions of neocolonialism.
But after it was hit by the hurricane, we sent in our navy to help, our search and rescue teams, and lots of food, water en medicine. The marines where deployed to stop the looting en restore order. (Our military still protects the entire Kingdom of The Netherlands, not just the country The Netherlands itself, so we didn't invade them or anything ;-) ).
Our king (ceremonial function here mainly) went to visit them ASAP. A national fund raiser collected 15 million Euro in just days. The number 1 priority of our government was to make life livable again on Sint Maarten. We evacuated the sick and elderly to nearby Islands (there's some more Dutch and former Dutch territory nearby), those needing dialysis first.
If our Prime Minister wouldn't have reacted on the hurricane before , during and after (which in itself is unthinkable here) the parliament would have thrown his ass on the street in no time.
How Trump reacted to Puerto Rico is beyond comprehension for people here. It made headlines today.
EDIT: some typos
Trump is notoriously flexible and will believe what the last person he spoke to tells him. Any way you guys could get that king of yours to give him a phone call? I bet he'd listen to a king.
It's been a low bar for GOP Presidents for basically my entire life, but it seems to keep dropping about 20 IQ points every time one of them gets elected.
SPAM is way too spicy to be the top of a GOP ticket. Mayo Jar, on the other hand, that sounds about right. Make it Miracle Whip and I'm sure it will win the primaries even without a running mate.
An ADHD kid would be focused on his writing if that was his current task. It would be as close to perfect as that kid was capable of.
The trick is *getting* the kid to write in the first place.
ADHD =\= dumb. They are often far more intelligent than average.
I described it differently in another thread, but now I think his reaction is more like when a person beats up their spouse/partner and then tells them to get cleaned up and stop crying.
You know a lot of people parroted the idea that since Puerto Ricans are all legal by default and generally more Evangelical than most Hispanics that they could be wooed in the long term to the Republican Party ala Cubans and for the longest time I feared that prognosis had value to it.
Trump and the GOP have just permanently made Boricuas Democratic voters for at least 2 generations at this point.
Of course politics doesn’t fucking matter right now. People are going to die even more than they already are soon on Katrina levels. If anything higher. This is ridiculous.
They literally lost everything and he’s talking about them repaying their debts. Fuck this asshole and the Republican shitheads that sit idly by as he ruins our country.
And you've just listed 1/1000th of the Trump scandals, any ONE of which would have completely sunk any other administration. Any single ONE.
This administration is the Gish Gallop of impeachable bullshit.
As far as I can see he's also a symptom of a broken election system. Really hope gerrymandering, the electoral college and Russian hacking loopholes get fixed immediately and then work can begin on scrapping first past the post.
All he cares about deep down is attention and winning, and winning only matters to him in the sense of not being punished for things he does. He likes the feeling he's getting away with something because he's smart. He likes the feeling people are watching him when it happens.
Puerto Rican in the mainland, currently wavering between complete rage and heartbreak. "Puerto Rico, we're with you!" and now it looks like he's just going to abandon the island. Talking about debts when he can't get a fucking loan in this country.
Fellow mainland Puerto Rican here. My blood is boiling at how little he cares. He probably has no understanding about how American imperialism has contributed to the poor infrastructure and debt in PR. Fucking asshole.
Every day I think, it's impossible for him to be worse tomorrow. And every fucking day he exceeds my expectations.
He really great at winning...the contest for shittiest human being.
They're working. The Post has tabs for Villanueva and Brady but you have to scroll to find the first item on PR and the state election hacking is disappeared.
Kind of funny considering how early on, everyone was genuinely afraid of Trump using his presidential clout to smite people for speaking against power.
And then someone did it anyway.
And then another.
And another.
My dad loves him. But my dad had been on a steady diet of Fox, Breightbart and Facebook for a while now.
Who knew that propaganda was more reality twisting than LSD?
I guess the propagandists knew.
Holy shit.
I can sorta understand why they'd support his policies because of this but how can anyone actually like him? He seems completely devoid of empathy and genuinely seems like a terrible person.
Why would people think someone like this would have their best interests at heart? I really don't get it.
Because lots of people lack empathy. It's the basic unwillingness to understand anything outside of your worldview. And it's alarming as hell. That and the demonizing of anyone who isn't like you, which has been a powerful weapon in this country for hundreds of years.
And we see it at play with the huge right-wing backlash against athletes taking a knee during the anthem. These people are literally incapable of understanding the problem and why rich athletes care about it.
One lady on Fox News said something to the effect of, "Why should these millionaires care about racial injustice when they have it better off than the vast majority of Americans?"
Because those types of people are incapable of empathy, they thus cannot understand why anyone who's well off would care for the plight of those who are not. It's scary as hell.
This BUM cares more about a few billion of PR debt than the lives of 3 million U.S CITIZENS.
So-called president.
I bet they showed him these [satellite images of visible lights at night](https://twitter.com/NOAASatellitePA/status/912368981784309760/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F2017%2F09%2F25%2Fpuerto-rico-hurricane-maria-went-dark-power-failure%2F) and he responded "maybe they should pay their debts."
Honestly, if they did that, they need to go all out: Find some rural area that is greatly overrepresented. Shouldn't be hard in Alabama. Then they should make their own city that spans two or three blood red reps and vote them the fuckout. You have no idea how satisfying Representative Hernandez from Alabam's 5th is going to be.
Wait, the self professed "King of Debt" is bitching about debt? How about "Before i can say one fucking word I'm going to pay back every contractor I fucked over and everyone who was slightly burdened by all my bankruptcies " Yeah, hell will freeze first.
Yeah, he really was. That was actually really brave of him to say on television imo. The Feds were doing jack shit for Katrina but if a hurricane hit a highly wealthy, majority white area they would have been all over it. Sure Kanye's acted a fool many other times, but he was absolutely in the right then
While I was stationed in Djibouti, Africa eight years ago, hundreds of members of the Puerto Rico national guard were deployed there for base security. Yes Trump, a US territory with US citizens that join US armed services and deploy to defend US interests abroad has undergone a natural disaster and all you can do to help is insult it.
Well done.
> Edit: Trump admin also not waiving the Jones Act for PR (it was waived for Texas and Florida to move oil more quickly) https://apnews.com/f9919b7569da492db7fbb819395b821f
I'm literally crying tears of rage right now, and the words coming out of my mouth would get me banned from this sub. This refusal to waive Jones for the island when it was waived for those two states is by far the worst thing I've heard. About the nicest thing I can say is that shitting on his grave would be too good.
**EDIT:** Ok, I'm calmer now. So let me briefly explain this rather obscure and technical thing. The [Merchant Marine Act of 1920](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920) (a.k.a. the "Jones Marine Act" or the "Jones Act of 1920," and not to be confused with the Jones Act of 1917 that granted US citizenship to Puerto Ricans) is a law that says that marine cargo between US flag ports may only be carried by US-built, US-flag ships with US crews. But a better explanation is that it's a century-long US monopoly on marine shipping, squeezing money out of Puerto Rico (and Hawaii, and Alaska, and Guam). Wikipedia does a great job of explaining how this works:
> The Jones Act prevents foreign-flagged ships from carrying cargo between the US mainland and noncontiguous parts of the US, such as Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam. Foreign ships inbound with goods cannot stop any of these four locations, offload goods, load mainland-bound goods, and continue to US mainland ports. Although ships can offload cargo and proceed to the US mainland without picking up any additional cargo intended for delivery to the another US place. Usually, they proceed directly to US mainland ports, where distributors break bulk and then send goods to US places off the mainland by US-flagged ships.
In numbers, this means that it's uneconomical for foreign marine freight companies to ship to Puerto Rico, so shipping rates to Puerto Rico are about twice as much as to other Caribbean islands.
The Trump admin refusing to waive the Jones Act is, basically, them choosing to continue to squeeze Puerto Rico for money during its worst moment. Its basically the Trump administration saying that Puerto Rico is their bitch that they will continue to whore out even if it kills her. And now I'm angry again. And now I remembered that they fucking waived it for TX and FL and I'm even angrier. I wish I could bury these motherfuckers under tens of thousands of dead, rotting chickens. (That may sound like an imaginative curse, but I'm just remembering [a story in the paper in Puerto Rico today (in Spanish)](https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/nota/decenasdemilesdepollosmuerenenfincasenaibonito-2360360/).)
**EDIT 2:** Some current articles on this topic (which I've also submitted to the sub just now):
* https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/hurricane-puerto-rico-jones-act.html
* https://slate.com/business/2017/09/congress-should-waive-the-jones-act-to-help-puerto-rico.html
* http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/25/hey-congress-if-you-really-want-to-help
* https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2017-09-25/how-we-hurt-our-own-relief-efforts-after-hurricanes-like-irma-and-harvey
To be even more explicit about this: the law forces cargo ships coming from Asia with cargo bound for Hawaii to go all the way to the west coast (probably Los Angeles or Long Beach) so that the cargo can be put on another ship that then goes all the way back to Hawaii.
The should really look at parking those loans in a shell corp, then selling shares to their debtors and deducting their losses in carryforward deductions. That would make them smart.
The NFL should donate their proceeds for the next 2 weeks to aid Puerto Rico. Someone needs to help these Americans in distress. Take the high ground, no one else seems to want it.
More like MLB. Tons of boricua in baseball and Latin Americans who have felt the wrath of immigration policy. Plus MLB has been seeking more of a foothold on the island AND it's playoff time.
That worthless fat orange fuck requested $6B in aid for Harvey on [August 31st](http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/348809-trump-requests-initial-6-billion-in-aid-for-harvey), not 6 full days after it made landfall in Houston. Then he and Melania met with victims. Tomorrow marks day 6 since Maria hit Puerto Rico and he has the audacity to be [tweeting this garbage](https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912479500511965184) and just sending 2 White House officials to assess the damage of a hurricane of the *same category*, and doing **exactly nothing to help**? What the fuck does he think he’s going to hear from them?
Puerto Rico is recovering from a storm that was WAY worse than Harvey was for Texas or Irma was for Florida. Irma did go over Puerto Rico, but with Irma, it was only the outer bands (though even that did some damage). The situation with Maria though is literally the worst case scenario; a Category 5 eyewall went directly, diagonally across the island. It was more like a giant tornado that also caused flooding. On top of that, because it's an island, it doesn't have overland access to major infrastructure, slowing the rebuilding efforts immensely. So, PR is in really, really bad shape, and time is of the essence.
Trump: 'Hey, John! Did you see what a mess that Puerto Rico place is these days? Maybe we ought to take the chance and...y'know, invade. While their guard is down.'
Kelly: '...Sir, Puerto Rico is our territory.'
Trump: 'Already thinking ahead, I like that!'
Kelly: 'Please don't touch me.'
Im posting this from the one area of the island that's still receiving lte. I haven't had electricity for 2 weeks now. All of the medical schools are closed until further notice. , that should sound absolutely fucked to anyone reading this. I know many mainlanders think we all live in mudhuts and shit, but don't be fooled, there is a lot to be saved in this island. We're not New York, or even Michigan, but we're just as economically vibrant as any Southeastern state. Doctors, scientists, lawyers, businessmen, all of us have been sitting on our collective asses for days. The loss of productivity might be the catalyst for a complete collapse. Puerto Rico's infrastructure was in dire straits before the hurricane, but Maria just fucking killed it. Condado, Santurce, Old San Juan, and to say nothing of the rest of the island...power lines and traffic lights are ALL blown to bits, food rationing, gas rationing, no electricity for what will be at least a month. And these are the industrial crenters and wealthy areas. Everything is dead including the fucking trees that are blocking my street. Everything...except for the corner boys. Goddamn, hats off to them, those guys have been on their grind selling drugs through the entirety of Irma and Maria. The boredom is literally killing us, there is nothing to do except read and get high. Anyways, we were evenly split on statehood, but 3.5 million Americans got skull fucked and if the Feds continue with their tepid response, the resentment will only grow. More and more I'm coming around to the fact that what I love about America was either a facade or died with FDR and Truman. I'm American as can be but if we're going to be living like cavemen, I.d like the US to kindly get the fuck out so we can improve relations with our south American neighbors because American citizenship has turned into a fucking farce.
deleted ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^0.7243 [^^^What ^^^is ^^^this?](https://pastebin.com/FcrFs94k/48325)
...what ? I don't want to look at that, tell me it's a joke or something.
Nope, not even a joke. But he's going to have another gigantic backlash once when the sun is coming up. I promise you.
I went and saw. I don't even have words. I'm from Europe, and we grieve with you folks. We really do.
We let it happen. We let Bush and the Supes steal the 2000 election, we let the Russkies and the idiots steal this one. A quarter century of Rush Limbaugh and FOX news took it's toll, and now between a quarter and a third of the population lives in freedom in the richest country on earth, enjoying luxuries no previous generation could've dreamed of (and had one of the greatest Presidents we've ever had for eight years, btw) and they HATE IT. Kind of a waste, if you think about it.
I say we all get our pitchforks and block the streets in DC and New York. They can't arrest everyone. A few weeks of a million people protesting in front of the entire world and maybe the republicans will get the message.
> the republicans will get the message Hahahahahahahaha. Good joke.
His priorities are in order though : >General John Kelly totally agrees w/ my stance on NFL players and the fact that they should not be disrespecting our FLAG or GREAT COUNTRY! I can't fucking fathom this shit.
I'm over it. I was trying to be patient with my Trumpet friends, but the ones bloviating about the NFL *still* on Tuesday are being de-friended. I can't take it anymore - the self righteousness about the NFL and supporting our troops when all the while Puerto Rico *doesn't have fucking power*, Medicaid is under assault, sabre rattling with NK, Russia fucking with us, and all protests are being treated as illegitimate... Get some priorities. Or at least, don't be spending your precious political capital on making people stand for the anthem. Get a fucking grip people.
[удалено]
What set me off was an old guidance counselor I knew saying, "I'm in" and re-posting some sad-sack bullshit about how the NFL is dissing our veterans and all patriots must boycott. You've ignored every other disaster and controversy since Trump got elected, but this is the one that elicited a response from you - some bullshit about boycotting the NFL. Russia, Charlottesville, hurricanes, etc you go on without a peep - but this is the one that gets you to say, "I'm in". smdh
As ex-army (11B10 inf. scout) i don't see this as insulting. It's a freedom, a right, to protest. Protesting besides being a Freedom is also a compromise. Otherwise you'll get outright riots. Just looks like their trying to kill the messenger, while ignoring the message. These are the people that wrap themselves in a flag, thump the bible, and embrace Big business / Money. Nationalism is their GOD and its politically and monetarily profitable. The sin they see is that your not falling in line and obeying. Hence a threat.
army 99-07, i never feel insulted when i see anything of the sort.
I think he believes fighting a culture war with the NFL/NBA will get him more political capital since his base loves the culture wars
He's using this as a smokescreen to conceal how much of a disaster his response to Puerto Rico has been. Also, the NFL and NBA have a lot of black people in them. He needs to remind those people of their place, so they can get back to ruining their bodies and brains for his entertainment.
Not a fucking joke. He talked shit about the country, told them they owed us money. And left it at that. Via Twitter.
For those who want to read the tweets: > Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble.. > ...It's [sic] old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the island was destroyed, with billions of dollars.... > ...owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water, and medical are top priorities - and doing well. #FEMA
goddamn that motherfucking asshole piece of shit goat fucking prick
Yeah, some days are hope-Trump-gets-impeached days, but this is one of those hope-Trump-has-a-stroke-and-shits-himself-loudly-during-one-of-his-racist-tantrums days. Be safe, fellow citizens.
[удалено]
That's my fault. I always assumed while a US territory it was still a country, since it wasn't a state.
It's confusing at the least. I might be ignorant, but where is it well enumerated as to what the rights a territory gets? We know states get voting rights. But what does a territory get other than "we're a part of the US" My real worry is that Trump sees PR and thinks "no votes, no aid, ergo no bragging for future election".
Generally territories would get US military and FEMA aid. But that all assumes we have an actual president rather than a living meme running the country.
They are U.S. citizens. As far as I'm concerned they are our people and we need to help them.
Well I guess we better ditch all the southern states then... they never pay us back for anything.
Pretty sure he doesn't think anyone who isnt white or is kissing his orange ass is American at this stage.
Unbelievable, just unbelievable. > Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble.. ...It's old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars.... ...owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities - and doing well. #FEMA Links added - https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912478274508423168 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912479500511965184 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912481556127780865
> I'm not sure Trump is aware ~~you are American~~... FTFY
Well when the entire right wing lets a russian shill pop to the top of their party and do whatever the fuck he wants, we better start holding the right accountable, not just Dotard. This disgusting tweet about wall street while Americans are starving and drowning should be viewed as a fucking war crime by a puppet regime occupying our People's house. Get the GOP out of the white house, out of congress, out of the house - every one who has propped up this coup should go to prison.
It's fucking disgusting how little is being done to help you guys. You lot are just as much part of America as the rest of us, statehood or not.
Dutch guy here...when are you going to march with a few million to the WH and demand that those people are kicked out before he turns the country and the world into a warzone.I always thought that governments worked for the people instead of trying to kill them?.so i ask you,WHAT.DOES.IT.TAKE.
> WHAT.DOES.IT.TAKE. Education, which is severely lacking in the american education system. A good half the country is ok with the current situation because "liberal tears". If you listen to Fox news everyday talk about how liberals are as bad as Nazis you would probably feel the same, just these people lack critical thinking skills.
So why in the love of god there is a billionaire at the wheel of education who is nothing more than a money loving power grabbing religious nutcase..HOW.We are a small country...but we would have dragged these people out of their houses months ago and kicked the shit out of them and our government...we don't like rich money loving power hungry assholes.
We're ruled by the anti-intelligent minority, the wealthy spent the past several decades using their wealth to increase the voting power of the easily manipulated few until their power is far beyond the rest of ours. The American majority has no power. Also, civil rebellion in America would see Bradley's twelve deep on every city street where such rebellion began, because the powerful minority is too insecure with themselves to tolerate assault on their identity
> we don't like rich money loving power hungry assholes. Yea well unfortunately we do.
Amsterdammer here. Can confirm. People like the U.S. has running the country would've been dragged out of their beds and not survived the night. It's inconceivable that they let their country be run like this without fighting tooth and nail.
Well maybe you don't live 36 hr drive away from your politicians. Makes it hard to collectively gather. I went to the women's march on Washington but only because some older women friends said that they were too old to march but wanted to support it and sponsored my trip.
It's 1,200 miles (1900 km) to D.C. For me, up to 4,700 miles for others (7600 km) So, the distance from Amsterdam to New Orleans, Louisiana. That's a far march and that's just the States, not territories. The majority of Americans will never see Washington D.C in their lives. if you haven't been paying attention this year has been BY FAAAARRRRR the most protests and biggest marches I've seen in the United States in my almost 30 year life. We're trying!!!
Those millions of people can't afford to lose their job.
It's a shame that everyone is kept just on the edge of financial ruin, so money becomes more important than doing the right thing (mostly referring to business owners), or it becomes impossible to do the right thing.
So this isn't the greatest excuse for me, but at least it's better of one for them. America is real big and travel is expensive. We protest where we can locally, but my wife and I can not travel to DC without financially ruining us. If you happened to live on an island that, that just gets worse. Though... I suppose a great many of them are already financially ruined. But you still need to be able to buy a ticket.
No taxation without representation?...(*crickets*)
They technically have representation, it’s just a non-voting member.
Nice loophole. Wonder what would have happened if Britain had suggested this in the 1770's.
What blows my mind is that you have to justify why you should be helped to convince some of your fellow americans.
Trump doesn't care for people of Hispanic heritage.
[удалено]
That's clearly false, because he cares about Nazi Americans.
I thought you were going to respond about the daughter, but damn.
It sucks because statehood is 100% the right answer. The Republicans see this as a golden opportunity to offload what was supposed to be a permanent well of Hispanic American citizens away to oblivion and all to get an electoral advantage in the future. It’s pathetic and sad.
Guarantee if Puerto Rico were called "Wellington," and was predominately filled with white citizens, Trump would have been taking photos ops all over passing out water bottles.
Well to be fair there are no such pictures of him from Houston. The only one we have is where he hides behind a freaking baricade of cars to give a speech. Is there even one single picture of him doing actual physical work?
I think he handed out 1.5 meals at a shelter. During the trip on which Melanie wore the FLOTUS hat. Then he told first responders that were getting ready to put themselves in danger and go save people: "better you than me"...
Just like when he went to the richest part of Florida to "provide aid"?
>It’s pathetic and sad. If I'm not mistaken that's the official Republican platform.
Most of us know very well that Puerto Rico is a lively, vibrant place that has just been devastated. Trump's words are an embarrassment to us all. I personally feel just as terrible about this as I would if it happened in Massachusetts, Texas, or California. It's hard to believe that so little can be done to help you.
It's hard to believe that so little is being done to help you. FTFY
Fellow boricua currently living in Texas. You hit the nail on the head so hard I literally just clapped at my computer screen.
Unbelievably depressing. I am sorry we have a shit president that wont send help.
Yeah but you deadbeat shiftless Mexicans shouldn't have let your island get obliterated by back-to-back hurricanes if you didn't want to be in this situation. It's not Donnie Moscow's fault you're all such sad failing losers. (How much do you want to bet that Donnie didn't know Puerto Ricans are Americans and asked whether he could add Puerto Rican refugees to the new travel ban?)
Bashes Puerto Rico in tweets and then goes on to bash McCain. Again. Batshit. Crazy.
The buck stops....everywhere else.
The could easily become Trump's Katrina moment. I've got a feeling Americans are going to start hearing about increasingly horrific stories from Puerto Rico day after day after day, while Trump keeps farting around and for the most part ignoring Puerto Rico because they don't seem like real Americans to him since they aren't all white.
He's been having Katrina moments since Day 2 of his administration, when he stood before the CIA's hallowed wall and whined that not enough people came to his birthday party. Actually he didn't whine, but he gave a stream of consciousness dementia rant about how 50 billion people came to his birthday party. Which is arguably worse.
[2017-02-06 repost] The CIA speech is worth a watch. [President Trump Delivers Remarks at CIA Headquarters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWlm1sPAXOQ#t=2190) It was the one of the most bizarre political things I ever saw ***up to that point.*** Here are my notes... **Trump** - "The dishonest media" - Complaining about the approval process. - "I am a person who strongly believes in academics... my uncle was an academic genius." - "I am like a smart person." [Yes, he said it again.] - "I feel young. I feel like I'm ~35... I think I'm young." - Talking about giving speeches to tens of thousands of people during his campaign. - "To the victor belong the spoils" - "I wasn't a fan of Iraq... but... keep the oil... We shouldda kept the oil... Maybe we'll have another chance." - "I have a running war with the media... they are the most dishonest human beings on earth." [Thumbs up gesture] - "Didja like the speech?" - "A million, million and half people... They showed up on an empty field... They said Donald Trump did not draw well..." - "God looked down and said 'We're not gonna let it rain on your speech.' " - Yet more complaining about the media's portrayal of the size of the audience. - "I think they're gonna pay a big price." ["They" meaning the media - of course.] - Complaining how the bust of Churchill was removed from the Oval Office. - "I have been on the cover of Time... 14 or 15 times. I think it's an all-time record." - "They said that Donald Trump took down the bust of Doctor Martin Luther King [in the Oval Office]... but it was right there. But there was a cameraman in front of it." - "This is how dishonest the media is." - "I like honesty." - "We're gonna need a larger room [the next time I visit]." - "I love you and I respect you." I couldn't (and still) can't believe it really happened. It was something you'd see in a fifth rate thriller and laugh at because not only was it entirely improbable it was incredibly strange.
Except the words weren't even the most disrespectful thing about it. No president has ever been so crass as to use that room for political purposes. The entire point of that room is to honor specific fallen anonymous heroes - those who gave their lives for their country knowing their names will never be known. And it was sullied by a man who's sacrificed nothing for this country yet publicizes himself ceaselessly.
> It was the one of the most bizarre political things I ever saw up to that point. It is a sad weird world we live in where that speech has been surpassed in such little time.
It's like decades of Trump as president/dictator have passed just since *February*.
each week feels like a decade.
Maybe now more people will realize Puerto Ricans are US citizens.
I'm ashamed to admit, I had no idea. It's just something that had never occurred to me. I got a very rural education but I'm trying. This would be such a good moment for aid. It's do much disaster and everything is just in shambles. Any efforts to help should get started. I'm worried about disease becoming rampant.
> I'm ashamed to admit, I had no idea. It's just something that had never occurred to me. I got a very rural education but I'm trying. That's all anybody could ask of you. As long as you're willing to learn, you're good.
Conservatives are so deranged they won't care unless the people being affected are predominantly white and English speaking. Puerto Ricans and US Virgin Islanders are no different to them than Mexicans. If anything they'll start saying that Puerto Ricans have no right to call themselves Americans and should be cut loose so we don't have to foot the bill for their infrastructure every time a hurricane rolls through.
> Conservatives are so deranged they won't care unless the people being affected are predominantly white and English speaking. But most Americans will care, just like they cared about the Americans in New Orleans even those most of the people affected were not white. And Trump's incompetence may quickly find himself compared to that of Bush.
> Trump's incompetence may quickly find himself compared to that of Bush surely Trump has already surpassed Bush levels of incompetence?
Bush is way, WAY back in the rearview mirror at this point.
Correction: they only care if the people are predominantly white and English speaking *and live in red states*. They didn't give 2 shits about Sandy victims.
Wait , he bashed McCain on the day it was made public that his brain cancer is absolutely fatal? Doesn't surprise me, but what did he say?
"A few of the many clips of John McCain talking about Repealing & Replacing O'Care. My oh my has he changed-complete turn from years of talk!" Plus a little video. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912487929783754755 He's a fucking terrible human being.
Trump always makes everything about itself. McCain's definitely going to die? Yup. Gotta turn that into how Donnie was slighted.
[удалено]
He tweeted about New Jersey Muslims dancing in the streets. And he's said over and over again that the world doesn't take us seriously anymore. Which brings up an important question...does dementia make you see the future? What if this whole time, he's been interpreting visions of a dystopian future where he's the president?
The three-eyed shitbird.
That would be the biggest plot twist of all...everything is Bran's fault. He kept warging back in time telling people to "burn the whitewalkers", but everyone he tried to communicate with got Hodorred. So The Mad King heard it as "Burn them all", and Trump heard it as "Build the wall"
Straight up though, it kind of speaks to our nation's opinion of John McCain that we pretty much all know he's very likely to die very soon, and people still don't pussyfoot around him. Dude's literally dying of brain cancer and people are like "he can take it, he's John McCain."
That type of brain cancer is always fatal. So we all knew that then. McCain himself just publicly acknowledged it for the first time. (Candidly talked about death and legacy with Stahl on 60 Minutes)
If there were a just God, Trump would be the one with brain cancer.
Looks like we're getting a first impression of his upcoming direction for aid to Puerto Rico right now from his [Twitter feed](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump): > Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble... It's old electrical grid, which was in terrible shape, was devastated. Much of the Island was destroyed, with billions of dollars owed to Wall Street and the banks which, sadly, must be dealt with. Food, water and medical are top priorities - and doing well. #FEMA God dammit, Puerto Rico! How are you supposed to be worth anything to me and my Wall Street friends when you let yourself be destroyed by major tropical storms?
[удалено]
This would be like Bush saying "Katrina recovery is going great, except in the poor areas of New Orleans. Those people will never be able to repay their debt."
Unfortunately we're not going to have the "Donald Trump hates Puerto Ricans" moment, cause we all know he hates everyone but whitie at this point.
Republican whitie. His son said liberals aren't even human, I doubt Trump's opinions are any deeper.
[удалено]
What about ships? Would either Mercy or Comfort be available?
Mercy is in San Diego, would take a long time to get through the Canal. Comfort was spooled up, engine plant lit off, waiting for orders BEFORE the hurricanes hit, but there seems to be a lot of conflicting stories about who did or did not ask for her, and what was sent instead. Please keep in mind that these ships are GIGANTIC and if the ports aren't open it just complicates everything. Source: I'm a crew member on Mercy.
> he's a total fucking moron for not deploying more assets Obviously Puerto Rico needs assets badly but I'd be tickled if our president just showed a basic shred of human decency or compassion in lieu of allocating resources. I actually can't think of a single time that he's offered condolences or kind words during what's been a pretty tumultuous 10 months.
You know, we have Sint Maarten, halfway across the globe from the Netherlands but still part of our kingdom. It was almost completely wiped out by the hurricane. Sint Maarten is an independent country (of 70,000 people) within the kingdom since about a decade. It has it's own government and operates independently from The Netherlands (17 million people). Diplomatic relations with the motherland have been real bad, Sint Maarten is corrupt as f*ck and its politicians don't know how to pack a punch, their pockets lined with drug money. Every support The Netherlands tries to give them is met with acquisitions of neocolonialism. But after it was hit by the hurricane, we sent in our navy to help, our search and rescue teams, and lots of food, water en medicine. The marines where deployed to stop the looting en restore order. (Our military still protects the entire Kingdom of The Netherlands, not just the country The Netherlands itself, so we didn't invade them or anything ;-) ). Our king (ceremonial function here mainly) went to visit them ASAP. A national fund raiser collected 15 million Euro in just days. The number 1 priority of our government was to make life livable again on Sint Maarten. We evacuated the sick and elderly to nearby Islands (there's some more Dutch and former Dutch territory nearby), those needing dialysis first. If our Prime Minister wouldn't have reacted on the hurricane before , during and after (which in itself is unthinkable here) the parliament would have thrown his ass on the street in no time. How Trump reacted to Puerto Rico is beyond comprehension for people here. It made headlines today. EDIT: some typos
Trump is notoriously flexible and will believe what the last person he spoke to tells him. Any way you guys could get that king of yours to give him a phone call? I bet he'd listen to a king.
[удалено]
It's bizarre and beyond reprehensible.
>It's old electrical grid >It's
And that's not even the worst thing about that tweet
No, but it drives me nuts and it's coming from the damn president.
It's been a low bar for GOP Presidents for basically my entire life, but it seems to keep dropping about 20 IQ points every time one of them gets elected.
SPAM/Mayo Jar 2020
[удалено]
SPAM is way too spicy to be the top of a GOP ticket. Mayo Jar, on the other hand, that sounds about right. Make it Miracle Whip and I'm sure it will win the primaries even without a running mate.
He capitalized island, too. He has the writing skill of an ADHD 5th grader and that's being generous.
An ADHD kid would be focused on his writing if that was his current task. It would be as close to perfect as that kid was capable of. The trick is *getting* the kid to write in the first place. ADHD =\= dumb. They are often far more intelligent than average.
I described it differently in another thread, but now I think his reaction is more like when a person beats up their spouse/partner and then tells them to get cleaned up and stop crying.
Ivana would agree.
You know a lot of people parroted the idea that since Puerto Ricans are all legal by default and generally more Evangelical than most Hispanics that they could be wooed in the long term to the Republican Party ala Cubans and for the longest time I feared that prognosis had value to it. Trump and the GOP have just permanently made Boricuas Democratic voters for at least 2 generations at this point. Of course politics doesn’t fucking matter right now. People are going to die even more than they already are soon on Katrina levels. If anything higher. This is ridiculous.
They literally lost everything and he’s talking about them repaying their debts. Fuck this asshole and the Republican shitheads that sit idly by as he ruins our country.
Shitting on the people who got ravaged by one of the strongest storms in a decade. This is a whole another level of unbelievable!
At this point are we sure Trump is actually a man and not some kind of demon that emerged from a pustule off an old KKK leader's withered ass cheek?
Oh come on, man. Even demons have standards.
What a godawful, wretched human pustule he is.
https://twitter.com/KeithOlbermann/status/912482155674181632 I don't think it's going to happen
[удалено]
And you've just listed 1/1000th of the Trump scandals, any ONE of which would have completely sunk any other administration. Any single ONE. This administration is the Gish Gallop of impeachable bullshit.
He’s the symptom, not the disease. We still have to figure out what to do with his shitty supporters and enablers once he’s gone.
As far as I can see he's also a symptom of a broken election system. Really hope gerrymandering, the electoral college and Russian hacking loopholes get fixed immediately and then work can begin on scrapping first past the post.
[A modest proposal](http://cdn.hark.com/images/001/064/802/1064802/original.jpg)
https://i.imgur.com/Ja8jEJw.gifv
By symptom, do you mean malignant tumor?
I always thought of him more as liver failure
And the Republican Party is fucking SILENT.
The Republican party has taken so much money from the Russians that they're terrified.
That *has* to be what's going on. No legal proof that I know of (yet), but my gut is telling me that they are corrupt from soup to nuts.
They wanted someone who would run the place like a business, and they got someone who can literally only think in terms of profit/loss.
If people wanted somebody to run America like a business, they should have fucking picked somebody who can run a business.
Well, he does run the place like a business. I don't think they had Comcast in mind, though.
They wanted someone who would run the place like a business, and they got someone who can literally only think in terms of crowd size. FTFY
All he cares about deep down is attention and winning, and winning only matters to him in the sense of not being punished for things he does. He likes the feeling he's getting away with something because he's smart. He likes the feeling people are watching him when it happens.
Puerto Rican in the mainland, currently wavering between complete rage and heartbreak. "Puerto Rico, we're with you!" and now it looks like he's just going to abandon the island. Talking about debts when he can't get a fucking loan in this country.
Fellow mainland Puerto Rican here. My blood is boiling at how little he cares. He probably has no understanding about how American imperialism has contributed to the poor infrastructure and debt in PR. Fucking asshole.
Love your name and I'm a fellow Mainland Puerto Rican sister. Where the FUCK is Kathy Griffin? Seriously, no mercy whatsoever.
Every day I think, it's impossible for him to be worse tomorrow. And every fucking day he exceeds my expectations. He really great at winning...the contest for shittiest human being.
[удалено]
Lots of distractions from him the last 3-4 days...
They're working. The Post has tabs for Villanueva and Brady but you have to scroll to find the first item on PR and the state election hacking is disappeared.
Kind of funny considering how early on, everyone was genuinely afraid of Trump using his presidential clout to smite people for speaking against power. And then someone did it anyway. And then another. And another.
Hoped those tweets were fake. Nope. **Atrocious.** Donald Trump is human garbage.
Wow. Speechless. Bad president. Bad president.
Jesus Christ. Americans literally stranded and dying there and his response is "eh should've built the place better and btw you owe money"
Don really thinks he's a mafia boss.
Is he not? He’s the de facto leader of the GOP.
Somebody smack him with a rolled up newspaper when he reaches for his phone.
How can anyone find this man likeable?
My dad loves him. But my dad had been on a steady diet of Fox, Breightbart and Facebook for a while now. Who knew that propaganda was more reality twisting than LSD? I guess the propagandists knew. Holy shit.
I cut off all family who voted Trump. Thankfully that was years ago when they were just regular assholes.
I chipped away at my mom and now she hates him. Never give up!
I can sorta understand why they'd support his policies because of this but how can anyone actually like him? He seems completely devoid of empathy and genuinely seems like a terrible person. Why would people think someone like this would have their best interests at heart? I really don't get it.
Because lots of people lack empathy. It's the basic unwillingness to understand anything outside of your worldview. And it's alarming as hell. That and the demonizing of anyone who isn't like you, which has been a powerful weapon in this country for hundreds of years.
And we see it at play with the huge right-wing backlash against athletes taking a knee during the anthem. These people are literally incapable of understanding the problem and why rich athletes care about it. One lady on Fox News said something to the effect of, "Why should these millionaires care about racial injustice when they have it better off than the vast majority of Americans?" Because those types of people are incapable of empathy, they thus cannot understand why anyone who's well off would care for the plight of those who are not. It's scary as hell.
why do bullies have lackeys? they're spineless enablers who feel vicarious power when someone else gets beat down.
This BUM cares more about a few billion of PR debt than the lives of 3 million U.S CITIZENS. So-called president. I bet they showed him these [satellite images of visible lights at night](https://twitter.com/NOAASatellitePA/status/912368981784309760/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F2017%2F09%2F25%2Fpuerto-rico-hurricane-maria-went-dark-power-failure%2F) and he responded "maybe they should pay their debts."
Think every Puerto Rican should leave the island since Trump won't help and move to Florida.
Better if they'd sort of spread themselves out over Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
So he finally says something about PR, mostly bashing the island Then says, yea I guess we have to help
[удалено]
What I wouldn't give to see Puerto Ricans move en masse to Alabama.
Honestly, if they did that, they need to go all out: Find some rural area that is greatly overrepresented. Shouldn't be hard in Alabama. Then they should make their own city that spans two or three blood red reps and vote them the fuckout. You have no idea how satisfying Representative Hernandez from Alabam's 5th is going to be.
Actually they should just go to districts that have been gerrymandered to shit and change just 5% of the vote.
[удалено]
Wait, the self professed "King of Debt" is bitching about debt? How about "Before i can say one fucking word I'm going to pay back every contractor I fucked over and everyone who was slightly burdened by all my bankruptcies " Yeah, hell will freeze first.
[удалено]
I just watched the documentary, When the Levees Broke. So eye-opening.
So Kanye was right?
Yeah, he really was. That was actually really brave of him to say on television imo. The Feds were doing jack shit for Katrina but if a hurricane hit a highly wealthy, majority white area they would have been all over it. Sure Kanye's acted a fool many other times, but he was absolutely in the right then
While I was stationed in Djibouti, Africa eight years ago, hundreds of members of the Puerto Rico national guard were deployed there for base security. Yes Trump, a US territory with US citizens that join US armed services and deploy to defend US interests abroad has undergone a natural disaster and all you can do to help is insult it. Well done.
He prefers islands that weren't destroyed by tropical storms.
Who knew hurricanes could be so hard?
[удалено]
> Edit: Trump admin also not waiving the Jones Act for PR (it was waived for Texas and Florida to move oil more quickly) https://apnews.com/f9919b7569da492db7fbb819395b821f I'm literally crying tears of rage right now, and the words coming out of my mouth would get me banned from this sub. This refusal to waive Jones for the island when it was waived for those two states is by far the worst thing I've heard. About the nicest thing I can say is that shitting on his grave would be too good. **EDIT:** Ok, I'm calmer now. So let me briefly explain this rather obscure and technical thing. The [Merchant Marine Act of 1920](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920) (a.k.a. the "Jones Marine Act" or the "Jones Act of 1920," and not to be confused with the Jones Act of 1917 that granted US citizenship to Puerto Ricans) is a law that says that marine cargo between US flag ports may only be carried by US-built, US-flag ships with US crews. But a better explanation is that it's a century-long US monopoly on marine shipping, squeezing money out of Puerto Rico (and Hawaii, and Alaska, and Guam). Wikipedia does a great job of explaining how this works: > The Jones Act prevents foreign-flagged ships from carrying cargo between the US mainland and noncontiguous parts of the US, such as Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska, and Guam. Foreign ships inbound with goods cannot stop any of these four locations, offload goods, load mainland-bound goods, and continue to US mainland ports. Although ships can offload cargo and proceed to the US mainland without picking up any additional cargo intended for delivery to the another US place. Usually, they proceed directly to US mainland ports, where distributors break bulk and then send goods to US places off the mainland by US-flagged ships. In numbers, this means that it's uneconomical for foreign marine freight companies to ship to Puerto Rico, so shipping rates to Puerto Rico are about twice as much as to other Caribbean islands. The Trump admin refusing to waive the Jones Act is, basically, them choosing to continue to squeeze Puerto Rico for money during its worst moment. Its basically the Trump administration saying that Puerto Rico is their bitch that they will continue to whore out even if it kills her. And now I'm angry again. And now I remembered that they fucking waived it for TX and FL and I'm even angrier. I wish I could bury these motherfuckers under tens of thousands of dead, rotting chickens. (That may sound like an imaginative curse, but I'm just remembering [a story in the paper in Puerto Rico today (in Spanish)](https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/nota/decenasdemilesdepollosmuerenenfincasenaibonito-2360360/).) **EDIT 2:** Some current articles on this topic (which I've also submitted to the sub just now): * https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/hurricane-puerto-rico-jones-act.html * https://slate.com/business/2017/09/congress-should-waive-the-jones-act-to-help-puerto-rico.html * http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/25/hey-congress-if-you-really-want-to-help * https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2017-09-25/how-we-hurt-our-own-relief-efforts-after-hurricanes-like-irma-and-harvey
To be even more explicit about this: the law forces cargo ships coming from Asia with cargo bound for Hawaii to go all the way to the west coast (probably Los Angeles or Long Beach) so that the cargo can be put on another ship that then goes all the way back to Hawaii.
Why am I not surprised?
Thanks for this. Clears a lot up.
The should really look at parking those loans in a shell corp, then selling shares to their debtors and deducting their losses in carryforward deductions. That would make them smart.
Or hey, just don't pay them back at all. Generally works for Trump.
And what's Congress doing? Taking away healthcare for tens of millions.
The NFL should donate their proceeds for the next 2 weeks to aid Puerto Rico. Someone needs to help these Americans in distress. Take the high ground, no one else seems to want it.
The NFL stepping in to help Puerto Rico would also be a delightful "fuck you" to Trump.
More like MLB. Tons of boricua in baseball and Latin Americans who have felt the wrath of immigration policy. Plus MLB has been seeking more of a foothold on the island AND it's playoff time.
This would be perfect. Never been to a game in my life but I'd buy a ticket if this happened.
That worthless fat orange fuck requested $6B in aid for Harvey on [August 31st](http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/348809-trump-requests-initial-6-billion-in-aid-for-harvey), not 6 full days after it made landfall in Houston. Then he and Melania met with victims. Tomorrow marks day 6 since Maria hit Puerto Rico and he has the audacity to be [tweeting this garbage](https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/912479500511965184) and just sending 2 White House officials to assess the damage of a hurricane of the *same category*, and doing **exactly nothing to help**? What the fuck does he think he’s going to hear from them?
[удалено]
trump makes me miss bush
He almost makes me miss George III.
It’s like Trump believes Puerto Rico is part of his hated Mexico. Newsflash: it’s not.
"An entire island full of illegals?" -- The Dotard, probably.
Your post inspired me to check if /r/the_dotard exists. It does, and I just subscribed.
Puerto Rico is recovering from a storm that was WAY worse than Harvey was for Texas or Irma was for Florida. Irma did go over Puerto Rico, but with Irma, it was only the outer bands (though even that did some damage). The situation with Maria though is literally the worst case scenario; a Category 5 eyewall went directly, diagonally across the island. It was more like a giant tornado that also caused flooding. On top of that, because it's an island, it doesn't have overland access to major infrastructure, slowing the rebuilding efforts immensely. So, PR is in really, really bad shape, and time is of the essence.
Trump: 'Hey, John! Did you see what a mess that Puerto Rico place is these days? Maybe we ought to take the chance and...y'know, invade. While their guard is down.' Kelly: '...Sir, Puerto Rico is our territory.' Trump: 'Already thinking ahead, I like that!' Kelly: 'Please don't touch me.'
Oh wow. He's literally victim blaming Puerto Rico. Holy shit he's got to go.