Trump and Puerto Rico

[quade 4]

Bob_Church

Does he risk losing the massive PR Republican voting base?

Which is exactly the way a tyrant would think rather than the President of the US should.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[Bob_Church 7]

quade

***Does he risk losing the massive PR Republican voting base?

Which is exactly the way a tyrant would think rather than the President of the US should.

That was my point. I was sarcastically answering the question of why he seemed to care more about Texas and Florida.

[Bob_Church 7]

Next we'll start hearing the inevitable "if they'd just bury the cable we wouldn't have problems." Except of course from anyone who's ever helped maintain buried plant. But as long as we don't have it people can think it's the answer.

[Blacksmith311 0]

One also has to ask what incentive is there for the Puerto Rico politicians to hold back aid also. The FBI is investigating reports that the politicians are the ones holding the supplies back so they can continue to blame Trump. There are also reports of teamsters via truck drivers calling in sick so the supplies will not get delivered

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/12/fbi-in-puerto-rico-investigating-mishandling-fema-supplies.html

http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/12/fbi-reviews-allegations-of-puerto-rican-officials-withholding-hurricane-relief/

Before you throw the Snopes thing out there, their source denying it is from James Hoffa, Jimmy Hoffa's son! The general president of the Teamsters.......

[DJL 235]

4600 confirmed deaths directly resulting from the aftermath of the hurricane. The official statement is that the loss of life is so high because of the state of the water and electrical systems on the island. Of course never mind that a response to a disaster should account for exactly what you're responding to and provide accordingly.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44294366

Of course the response, being something akin to patching with band-aides leaves the island in a worse condition going into this year's storm season:

http://time.com/5296589/puerto-rico-power-grid-fragile-storm/

Now that it's all on the table, what will we do about a US territory containing over 3 million US citizens?

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[billvon 2,998]

Right after the storm Trump bragged about how only 16 people died in the storm because of his leadership. The government of Puerto Rico stuck with their claim of 64 for a long time, trying not to anger him.

They have just quietly acknowledged a death toll much closer to reality.
===============================================
Puerto Rican Government Acknowledges Hurricane Death Toll of 1,427

By Frances Robles NYT
Aug. 9, 2018

SAN JUAN, P.R. — The government of Puerto Rico quietly acknowledged in a report posted online that in all likelihood more than 1,400 people died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria — a figure that is more than 20 times the official death toll.

Hurricane Maria cut through the island on Sept. 20, knocking out power and initially killing about a dozen people. The government’s official count eventually grew to 64, as more people died from suicide, bacterial diseases, lack of access to health care and other factors. The number has not changed despite several academic assessments concluding that death certificates did not come close to tallying the storm’s fatal toll.

But in a draft of a report to Congress requesting $139 billion in recovery funds, the Puerto Rican government admitted that 1,427 more people died in the last four months of 2017 compared with the same time frame in the previous four years. The figures came from death registry statistics that were released in June, but which were never publicly acknowledged by officials on the island.
===============================================

[billvon 2,998]

And the death toll rises again - just in time for this year's hurricane season. Now more than were killed in Manhattan on Sept. 11 2001.

============================
Puerto Rico revises Hurricane Maria death toll to 2,975 after study
By Leyla Santiago, Catherine E. Shoichet and Jason Kravarik, CNN

Updated 4:37 PM ET, Tue August 28, 2018

Puerto Rico's governor says he's revising the official death toll from Hurricane Maria in the wake of a report from George Washington University that estimated the storm caused 2,975 deaths. "Even though it is an estimate, we are officially changing, or we are putting an official number to the death toll," Gov. Ricardo Rossello told reporters Tuesday. "We will take the 2,975 number as the official estimate for the excess deaths as a product of Maria."

Rossello acknowledged that the 2,975 statistic is only an estimate, and not a concrete list of names. Moving forward, he said, officials will continue to investigate deaths from the storm and refine the official tally.

"This is an approximation, a scientific study where the deaths are estimated. We don't have the names," Rossello said. "That is something that will take place throughout this process. And this number can change. It could be less, it could be more, as time passes," he said.

It could take months or years, he said, to come up with a complete list of storm-related deaths.
"We are using the best science available ... to be able to give a sense of closure to all of this," he said. "The truth is there is a lot of work to do."
============================

[billvon 2,998]

And after the fatality numbers climbed to almost 3000, Trump claimed that he "did a fantastic job" in Puerto Rico.

". . . . fantastic job in Puerto Rico. We're still helping Puerto Rico. The governor is an excellent guy and he's very happy with the job we've done."

[billvon 2,998]

From the previous post, you might ask "how can Trump possibly claim he did a good job with the a death toll of almost 3000 people?"

Trump today:"3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico."

Simple. Deny it happened.

Rush et al, you have a new talking point.

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

billvon

From the previous post, you might ask "how can Trump possibly claim he did a good job with the a death toll of almost 3000 people?"

Trump today:"3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico."

Simple. Deny it happened.

Rush et al, you have a new talking point.

Don't forget the "blame the mayor of San Juan" part.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

[yoink 321]

billvon

From the previous post, you might ask "how can Trump possibly claim he did a good job with the a death toll of almost 3000 people?"

Trump today:"3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico."

Simple. Deny it happened.

Rush et al, you have a new talking point.

To be fair, he's technically right.

3000 people did NOT die in the hurricanes. Only about 60 or 70 did.

The other 2900-odd died as a result of the lack of healthcare, fresh water and electricity in the aftermath. I'm surprised he didn't use his 'well it would have happened anyway' tariff excuse for that bit.

[skinnay 0]

yoink

***From the previous post, you might ask "how can Trump possibly claim he did a good job with the a death toll of almost 3000 people?"

Trump today:"3000 people did not die in the two hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico."

Simple. Deny it happened.

Rush et al, you have a new talking point.

To be fair, he's technically right.

3000 people did NOT die in the hurricanes. Only about 60 or 70 did.

The other 2900-odd died as a result of the lack of healthcare, fresh water and electricity in the aftermath. I'm surprised he didn't use his 'well it would have happened anyway' tariff excuse for that bit.

Is the qualification to "die in a hurricane" that you have to be hit with a flying brick? If we're going to actually "be fair" we should probably count fatalities the same way we do for Katrina and other hurricanes. I would imagine many of the 1,800 people who died in that also died a short period after the storm had passed.

From looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina it seems at least hundreds of fatalities can be attributed to the same lack of necessities.

[billvon 2,998]

>3000 people did NOT die in the hurricanes. Only about 60 or 70 did.

True! By those standards, of course, 3000 people didn't die during the 9/11 attacks. Most of them died because of the fire afterwards (and the building collapse.)

[ryoder 1,590]

FEMA Administrator Brock Long on PR deaths: "I don't know why the studies were done"
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/fema-administrator-defends-trump-puerto-rico-death-toll-study-n909991

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[billvon 2,998]

>FEMA Administrator Brock Long on PR deaths: "I don't know why the studies were done"

Why would anyone in the Trump administration want data that could help prevent mistakes in the future? They don't make mistakes.

[ryoder 1,590]

Apparently, Puerto Rico has just been granted independence by WH Swamp Spokesman Hogan Gidley: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-spokesman-twice-calls-puerto-rico-that-country-in-tv-interview/2019/04/02/5c922e06-5556-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html

“With all they’ve done in that country, they’ve had a systematic mismanagement of the goods and services we’ve sent to them,” Gidley said. “You’ve seen food just rotting in the ports. Their governor has done a horrible job. He’s trying to make political hay in a political year, and he’s trying to find someone to take the blame off of his for not having a grid and not having a good system in that country at all.”

During the interview, Gidley was also asked about a tweet in which Trump said Puerto Rico’s leaders “only take from the USA.”

[billvon 2,998]

22 minutes ago, ryoder said:

Apparently, Puerto Rico has just been granted independence by WH Swamp Spokesman Hogan Gidley: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-spokesman-twice-calls-puerto-rico-that-country-in-tv-interview/2019/04/02/5c922e06-5556-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html

“With all they’ve done in that country, they’ve had a systematic mismanagement of the goods and services we’ve sent to them,” Gidley said. “You’ve seen food just rotting in the ports. Their governor has done a horrible job. He’s trying to make political hay in a political year, and he’s trying to find someone to take the blame off of his for not having a grid and not having a good system in that country at all.”

During the interview, Gidley was also asked about a tweet in which Trump said Puerto Rico’s leaders “only take from the USA.”

Isn't Puerto Rico one of the three countries in Mexico?

[SkyDekker 1,465]

37 minutes ago, ryoder said:

Apparently, Puerto Rico has just been granted independence by WH Swamp Spokesman Hogan Gidley: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-spokesman-twice-calls-puerto-rico-that-country-in-tv-interview/2019/04/02/5c922e06-5556-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html

“With all they’ve done in that country, they’ve had a systematic mismanagement of the goods and services we’ve sent to them,” Gidley said. “You’ve seen food just rotting in the ports. Their governor has done a horrible job. He’s trying to make political hay in a political year, and he’s trying to find someone to take the blame off of his for not having a grid and not having a good system in that country at all.”

During the interview, Gidley was also asked about a tweet in which Trump said Puerto Rico’s leaders “only take from the USA.”

Because the Trump base is generally too stupid to know better and that is who that message is aimed at.

[headoverheels 333]

It is time to make PR a state, assuming that the US citizens living there would be in favor. PR has a higher number of citizens living there than approximately 20 of the existing 50 states, and would have six members of Congress.

[yoink 321]

2 hours ago, headoverheels said:

It is time to make PR a state, assuming that the US citizens living there would be in favor. PR has a higher number of citizens living there than approximately 20 of the existing 50 states, and would have six members of Congress.

When you look at it like that it's absolutely insane that they're not already

[billvon 2,998]

4 hours ago, headoverheels said:

It is time to make PR a state, assuming that the US citizens living there would be in favor. PR has a higher number of citizens living there than approximately 20 of the existing 50 states, and would have six members of Congress.

Which is exactly why the GOP does not want them made a state.

[DJL 235]

On 4/2/2019 at 9:30 PM, billvon said:

Which is exactly why the GOP does not want them made a state.

Yuuuuup......