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Trump slams Puerto Rico: ‘They want everything to be done for them’

Fearandloathing said:
I am on my way out to enjoy a beautiful sunny Canadian day while considering our single biggest political issue: who will be able to sell cannabis when it becomes legal*...

And so I close with this thought which I think you will appreciate. As I do sometimes I spent the night well into the late hours scouring in French and English everything I could read about Puerto Rico. Did you know that Haiti has a reporter there....
I can still decipher some Mandarin if it is translated from characters to alphabet....

and ONE THING occurred to me...They are ALL reporting on the LACK of help and most don't even get into the petty word war Trump is always having.

So I ask all Americans this: If what CNN and the rest of Trump's resentment is reporting is "fake news" home come ADS MediaHK is reporting the same stuff in mandarin? How come Montreal's "Le Press", an award winning French Language paper is saying the same thing as MSNBC?

Are the Democrats that powerful they can launch such a campaign? A party that couldn't even protect its servers?

No, that's tin hat ****. We all know what's going on, including the righties now defending Trump in this forum, we all know....Trump Lies....about everything.

Now, back to squabbling about football games and the national anthem...

* The government workers union who are the current government's largest supporter has decided they want to sell cannabis in government run liquor stores. Meanwhile the cannabis community which is heavily organized here is against that, with some growers anonymously saying "**** that, hoser" we won't sell to you...so there."

For some strange reason I find this kind of controversy very stimulating as opposed to the obvious and on going debate about how large are Trump's lies which is highly entertaining, but drains me.

Cheerio my quest begins at my vaporizer....!
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Interesting, because I just made a post concerning this upstream:


Chomsky said:
What has to be remembered is - until really just the other day - this entire island had what is essentially a hurricane communications black-out!

There is no electricity, no internet, no cell phones, no gas to drive somewhere for information - nothing! A communications black hole, except for the few media arriving (mostly in San Juan) with their own power source and satellite links.

This means Trump can run roughshod via twitter and the media, punching down and propagandizing, using the bully pulpit of the Presidency, with the Puerto Ricans helpless to defend themselves. Few even realize what he's doing or saying, as they endure in electronic silence waiting for assistance, struggling to survive and acquire the basic necessities of life hour by hour.
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MTAtech said:
Did Trump's cult ever think the criticism is deserved?

On day one or two, Hillary Clinton urged to send in a particular hospital ship. It wasn't dispatched until nine days later.
The disaster occurred but instead of focusing on that, he goes golfing and then created a Twitter storm about athletes and then flies to Alabama for a rally.
He brags about 10,000 troops but that's completely inadequate considering the magnitude and hasn't drafted a disaster aid budget or plan.
All in all, he isn't devoting the attention required but focuses on self-referential praise and side issues.
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If, as has been said, the roads and bridges were washed out, how would anybody get to a hospital ship at a harbor that was severely damaged?
 
It is interesting that after the earthquakes in Mexico, teams from a lot of the south American countries plus Japan and Spain arrived to help with the clean up and recovery.

I did hear people question why the US didn't send anybody when the Mexican tream went to Houston to help.

Nobody has offered to help Puerto Rico.

I wonder why not.
 
Mason66 said:
Why do you say Trump focused on the NFL players?

He made one comment at a rally and the media took it from there.

Why was the NFL story more important to report on than Puerto Rico being devastated by the hurricane?
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Have you seen his twitter feed? It was far more than just 1 comment.
 
iguanaman said:
Imagine if you were a lineman who's home was destroyed and your family is scrounging for water, food and shelter. Would you got to work and let them die? That is why we need to send in the military to drive the aid trucks, set up temporary cell towers and work on the power grid.
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We’ve sent thousands of military. Try to keep up.
 
Lutherf said:
Her incompetence was rather obvious. My primary thought when watching her press conference was that things would get immeasurably better if she stepped down and let someone else handle things.
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Perhaps if like Trump, she spent her time at a luxury golf course slamming others on twitter rather than wading through sewage looking for survivors..... It is flat out pathetic how some people will wipe their ass with their own dignity just to defend someone as despicable and incompetent as Trump.
 
The Trump admin initially assigned a one-star general to run US military operations in devastated Puerto Rico. As reports came back to Washington, it became obvious the military component was too small and under-resourced. A three-star general (Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan) arrived in PR on Thursday and said that he "doesn’t have enough troops and he doesn't have enough equipment." As of 4pm Friday, the military said it had 4,900 soldiers and Army Corps of Engineers civilian personnel in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Seems to me the Trump administrations PR/VI relief efforts was under-resourced from the very beginning. Less than 5,000 military personnel tasked with untangling the devastation on two ravaged islands with no power/communications. The swamp cabinet should’ve come up with a far more robust course of action and called the president off the damn golf course.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
Perhaps if like Trump, she spent her time at a luxury golf course slamming others on twitter rather than wading through sewage looking for survivors..... It is flat out pathetic how some people will wipe their ass with their own dignity just to defend someone as despicable and incompetent as Trump.
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The woman stood there in front of pallets of food and complained that Trump wasn't doing anything to help the island. She used the food as a ****ing political prop.

Trump could have handled his response better but she's the one that started the ****storm and she's the one standing there complaining but not helping even though the resources she asked for were, literally, right behind her.
 
Lutherf said:
The woman stood there in front of pallets of food and complained that Trump wasn't doing anything to help the island. She used the food as a ****ing political prop.

Trump could have handled his response better but she's the one that started the ****storm and she's the one standing there complaining but not helping even though the resources she asked for were, literally, right behind her.
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Trump could have handled the response to the disaster better if he had paid bloody attention to the situation and sent committed disaster relief during the first 4 days of the crisis.
 
Lutherf said:
The woman stood there in front of pallets of food and complained that Trump wasn't doing anything to help the island. She used the food as a ****ing political prop.

Trump could have handled his response better but she's the one that started the ****storm and she's the one standing there complaining but not helping even though the resources she asked for were, literally, right behind her.
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She was pleading for logistical help. Did you even listen to what she was saying? They problem is they are getting supplies but have no way of distributing to where they are needed around the island. She even went to point out that Puerto Rico is an island that is 30 miles wide and 100 miles long and the United States ought to be able to figure out the logistics of getting supplies where they are needed rather than them sitting on the damn docks.

The whole point of having federal disaster relief is that some natural disasters are so devastating that they are beyond the abilities of local authorities to cope with them.
 
Rogue Valley said:
The Trump admin initially assigned a one-star general to run US military operations in devastated Puerto Rico. As reports came back to Washington, it became obvious the military component was too small and under-resourced. A three-star general (Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan) arrived in PR on Thursday and said that he "doesn’t have enough troops and he doesn't have enough equipment." As of 4pm Friday, the military said it had 4,900 soldiers and Army Corps of Engineers civilian personnel in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Seems to me the Trump administrations PR/VI relief efforts was under-resourced from the very beginning. Less than 5,000 military personnel tasked with untangling the devastation on two ravaged islands with no power/communications. The swamp cabinet should’ve come up with a far more robust course of action and called the president off the damn golf course.
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What the hell is the point of us spending over 600 billion a year on defense, more than the next several nations combined, if this is the best we can do?
 
Chomsky said:
You might have a point.

Flags do seem the get The Donald's attention!
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Where the mayor of San Juan screwed up is she thought she could shame Trump into more action. Trump has no shame. Like any other sociopath, the concept of shame is completely foreign to him. Everything to Trump is transactional. He is willing to do for those that can do for him. The residents of Puerto Rico can do nothing for him, they can't even vote for him, so he mails it in when they need his help.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
Perhaps if like Trump, she spent her time at a luxury golf course slamming others on twitter rather than wading through sewage looking for survivors..... It is flat out pathetic how some people will wipe their ass with their own dignity just to defend someone as despicable and incompetent as Trump.
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Lol. Yet in the midst of this humanitarian crisis she has managed to find the time to make t-shirts which say "We are dying," give tv interviews, and hold a press conference. Yeah, there are some photos of her trying to be a first responder but that is not the role she is supposed to be filling. Her role is to work with FEMA to set priorities and coordinate disaster relief - which she seems to spend more time complaining about than doing.
 
Lovebug said:
He was beating up on the mayor, and she ain't helpless. It is up to her to prepare her city before the disaster, and it is her responsibility to respond after the the hurricane has moved on.
Mayor Nagin was just such failure and was quick to blame others for his shortcomings.
Help is at hand, but response starts at the local level.
I find it very unbecoming that this crisis is used for political expediency. Shame on those who do so.
Good on Trump ( still don't like the guy) for speaking up.
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Actually the established protocol in all states and territories is that disasters and emergencies are handled locally until it is determined that situation is determined to be too immense and severe and then it becomes a state emergency and of course beyond that if the state is overwhelmed by enormity of the disaster federal responses and resources are then brought in. By design it is local > state > federal.

Each state and territory has an emergency preparedness disaster response and evacuation plan. The plans are living documents and are constantly updated. There was a time when the plans were published on the appropriate state web site. That's all changed now. State plans are classified information. Maybe Puerto Rico is different. I haven't bothered to look.

If we had access to the state plan we could begin to assess PR's planned response. We could determine whether the plan was adequate and whether responders have followed and are following the plan.

The city of San Juan's plan is much less complex than the state and the federal plans, as you would expect. We can assume that San Juan's plan was inadequate as the disaster was immediately much greater than San Juan's ability to handle. And then greater than Puerto Rico's ability to handle.

Did San Juan have input into the state plan? I'm certain they did. Was their input adequate? Was their input included in full in the state plan? We have no way of knowing.

It's doubtful in fact that President Trump has much of an understanding of the process, yet he has publicly assessed a response. That's foolish but not surprising for a man who doesn't read and apparently doesn't spend a great deal of time actually directing the federal government.

After every disaster there are exhaustive studies and meetings and assessments and an after action report is completed and submitted. At that point they'll no where things fell apart in the planning and in the response.

As to the local plan for San Juan and as to the response according to that plan I'd say at this point the Mayor of San Juan knows one hell of a lot more about it than Donald Trump.

Maybe someone here with more detailed knowledge can add more information.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
Where the mayor of San Juan screwed up is she thought she could shame Trump into more action. Trump has no shame. Like any other sociopath, the concept of shame is completely foreign to him. Everything to Trump is transactional. He is willing to do for those that can do for him. The residents of Puerto Rico can do nothing for him, they can't even vote for him, so he mails it in when they need his help.
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Very good points, and I agree.

We saw what happened when Price's actions threatened the Trump brand with his base, though - BAM!
 
I want everyone to remember that Trump was willing to send the military into Chicago to militarize the policing in inner city communities, but when it comes to Puerto Rico, even with the world's greatest military in the history of civilization at his disposal, he is mailing it it at best.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
Where the mayor of San Juan screwed up is she thought she could shame Trump into more action. Trump has no shame. Like any other sociopath, the concept of shame is completely foreign to him. Everything to Trump is transactional. He is willing to do for those that can do for him. The residents of Puerto Rico can do nothing for him, they can't even vote for him, so he mails it in when they need his help.
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So he thinks the lives of the 3.5 American citizens are expendable.
 
Napoleon said:
Lol. Yet in the midst of this humanitarian crisis she has managed to find the time to make t-shirts which say "We are dying," give tv interviews, and hold a press conference. Yeah, there are some photos of her trying to be a first responder but that is not the role she is supposed to be filling. Her role is to work with FEMA to set priorities and coordinate disaster relief - which she seems to spend more time complaining about than doing.
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Politicians are going to play politics and seek photo ops. Imaging how much must come to a halt when Trump pays PR a mandatory "I'm here to personally help" visit on Tuesday.
 
Lutherf said:
She used the food as a ****ing political prop.
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You're aghast at a politician having a political prop, but not basically the 10001 things Trump has done to date? Tell me more about this Lutherf, it sounds so reasonable.

Trump could have handled his response better but she's the one that started the ****storm and she's the one standing there complaining but not helping even though the resources she asked for were, literally, right behind her.
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Because she is drawing national attention to the fact that the entire island was basically obliterated, you are critiquing her from your office chair because you feel she should have been handing out that food instead? Surely you do better in your daily life than this nonsense.
 
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