Trump and Puerto Rico

[quade 3]

People do (or don't do) things for reasons.

Is it too early to start wondering what financial incentive there may be in Trump holding back aid to Puerto Rico?

Puerto Rico has been in financial debt for a long time.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/business/dealbook/a-restructuring-deal-that-helps-investors-not-puerto-rico.html

What happens in the reconstruction of Puerto Rico? How much easier is it if some of the communities suddenly have can't afford to rebuild and the citizens simply move away? Who snaps up the property for nothing? Who builds a gold course on it?

People have talked about a "Libertarian" haven largely deregulated and run mostly by corporate entities free to do whatever the hell they want.

Is this the opportunity they've been waiting for and they're just waiting for the existing population to give up and move on?

OR . . . Is Trump just a 100% incompetent asshole?

I can't make up my mind.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[JerryBaumchen 1,046]

Hi Paul,

Quote

OR . . . Is Trump just a 100% incompetent asshole?

Uh, I'll take door #2 Bob.

Jerry Baumchen

[ryoder 1,381]

JerryBaumchen

Hi Paul,

Quote

OR . . . Is Trump just a 100% incompetent asshole?

Uh, I'll take door #2 Bob.

Jerry Baumchen

That works for me.

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

[DFWAJG 4]

It is not that finances are being held back. It is a matter of getting the aid there.https://conflictresolutionpro.wordpress.com/

[quade 3]

DFWAJG

It is not that finances are being held back. It is a matter of getting the aid there.https://conflictresolutionpro.wordpress.com/

If you were a shitty landlord and wanted your tenants out so you could renovate, remodel, and jack up the property values would you give your tenants aid or make conditions as shitty as possible so people would just move?

I'm not saying this is the case, but it certainly is history.

And this is not simply my opinion either, you can easily google the words "slumlord Trump" and find more than a couple examples.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[lippy 765]

Quote

Who builds a gold course on it?

I see what you did there

I got nuthin

[NewGuy2005 51]

JerryBaumchen

Hi Paul,

Quote

OR . . . Is Trump just a 100% incompetent asshole?

Uh, I'll take door #2 Bob.

Jerry Baumchen

The simple answer is usually the best answer.

[BartsDaddy 4]

Deleted wrong person.

Handguns are only used to fight your way to a good rifle

[DFWAJG 4]

So you are saying that the $70 million in debt is our current president's fault? How did he give them so much money in nine months?

[kallend 1,621]

DFWAJG

So you are saying that the $70 million in debt is our current president's fault? How did he give them so much money in nine months?

I thought he wrote that Trump was a shitty slumlord. Which happens to be true, and provably true.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[normiss 620]

33 million is his completely personal contribution to that debt.

[SkyDekker 1,121]

DFWAJG

So you are saying that the $70 million in debt is our current president's fault? How did he give them so much money in nine months?

I know this comes as a complete shock, but Trump was actually a person before he became president. Shocking, I know.

So, what he did prior to becoming president can still be attributed to him. Shocking right, holding people responsible for their actions. Such liberal snowflake whining right.....

[Phil1111 908]

SkyDekker

***So you are saying that the $70 million in debt is our current president's fault? How did he give them so much money in nine months?

I know this comes as a complete shock, but Trump was actually a person before he became president. Shocking, I know.

So, what he did prior to becoming president can still be attributed to him. Shocking right, holding people responsible for their actions. Such liberal snowflake whining right.....

I don't know why the village idiot,trump, isn't defending PR.

Trump doesn’t deny that four of his businesses have filed for bankruptcy. He argues, however, that filing for bankruptcy is a common business decision, and he was smart to make the moves when he did.

"Hundreds of companies" have filed for bankruptcy, Trump said earlier in the debate. "I used the law four times and made a tremendous thing. I'm in business. I did a very good job."...

Bankruptcy 1: The Trump Taj Mahal, 1991..
By 1991, the casino was nearly $3 billion in debt..

Bankruptcy 2: Trump Plaza Hotel, 1992...
By 1992, the hotel had accumulated $550 million in debt.

Bankruptcy 3: Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts, 2004...
had accrued an estimated $1.8 billion in debt

I Could go on, from the article, but why bother, $5.3 billion just in the first three alone
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/21/carly-fiorina/trumps-four-bankruptcies/

The entirety of PR debt is $73 billion and trump, personally, has left investors out to dry for 13% of that amount of money.

But it gets better. Because now trump is now running a bigger casino. The USA. He has a fiscal plan for the USA. Its called tax reform.

[billvon 2,380]

Puerto Rico is still in dire trouble. Starvation is common; recovery is impeded by heavy rains that are washing away temporary repairs to roads, utilities and homes.
=============================
Starving Puerto Rican Towns Sharing Food, Eating Plants, and Waiting for FEMA
One woman was left with a can of tuna, another family ate from their garden. One mayor says 5,000 residents face starvation.

PABLO VENES/Daily Beast
10.10.17

UTUADO, Puerto Rico—Hunger was never in Minelba Irizarry’s house, but Monday the only thing left in her kitchen pantry was two bottles of water and a can of tuna.

Utuado is a small town located in the central mountainous region of Puerto Rico where roads have been nearly impassable since Hurricane Maria struck three weeks ago. Even with the help of the Armed Forces, delivering food and other basic necessities has been almost impossible.
“It's been hard, really hard to find food these days,” Irizarry said. “People are suffering a lot and I have lost all the food I saved for two weeks,” she said while washing the dishes and keeping a close eye outside her window to see if FEMA would bring another round of fruits, bottled water, and noodle soup packets.

“FEMA should come anytime now,” Irizarry told Sebastian, her 9-year-old grandchild that stood on the porch as if a starter pistol was about to go off, ready to race to a truck and beat the hunger.
===============================
Progress Destroyed: Rural Puerto Rico Faces Continual Trauma Of Flooding Rain
October 12, 2017

When it rains in Puerto Rico, it rains hard and it rains fast. And this week — three weeks after Hurricane Maria — it has rained a lot.

For portions of the island – especially in the mountains and in the valleys – that rain brings a continual trauma of mudslides and flooding. Even in San Juan, highway exits pool with a foot or more of water. In restaurants with cell service, the S.O.S alarms on phones ring out in a cacophony – warning of flash floods. But the capital city has fared comparatively well — it's the rural places that are doing much, much worse.

"All the progress we make is destroyed," says Blanca Matos, who lives in Bilbao, a neighborhood in Utuado. Her home, which backs up against a river, has flooded, and re-flooded, nearly every day this week. "The water is clogged up, and every time it rains it explodes and everything gets flooded."
===============================

And our response?

====================
Puerto Rico survived the Hurricanes, now a financial crisis looms largely of their own making. . .A total lack of . . accountability say the Governor. Electric and all infrastructure was disaster before hurricanes. Congress to decide how much to spend . ....We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!
====================

[skinnay 0]

Trump and his supporters are just pure garbage, truly a cancer to civilization.

[Phil1111 908]

One concept about the tweets. It shows trumps mind is all over the place on any issue. Its back and forth a couple times a day on almost every issue.

[Bob_Church 7]

Phil1111

One concept about the tweets. It shows trumps mind is all over the place on any issue. Its back and forth a couple times a day on almost every issue.

I think he's just got too much time on his hands. Most people in his position would be busy with President stuff.

[billvon 2,380]

Trump's position on Puerto Rico is quite different than his position on the whiter more American continental states:

"TEXAS: We are with you today, we are with you tomorrow, and we will be with you EVERY SINGLE DAY AFTER, to restore, recover, and REBUILD!"

[billvon 2,380]

>I think he's just got too much time on his hands. Most people in his position would be busy
>with President stuff.

Perhaps true. Kelly's only working strategy seems to be to keep him as isolated as possible, so nothing triggers him. Which means that he has more time on his hands to watch FOX and Friends, which leads to lots of tweets but less opportunity for him to break things.

[JerryBaumchen 1,046]

Hi Bill,

Quote

which leads to lots of tweets but less opportunity for him to break things.

Sometimes you just have to let the kids be alone in their rooms to do what they want.

Jerry Baumchen

[gowlerk 1,903]

billvon

Trump's position on Puerto Rico is quite different than his position on the whiter more American continental states:

"TEXAS: We are with you today, we are with you tomorrow, and we will be with you EVERY SINGLE DAY AFTER, to restore, recover, and REBUILD!"

Trump knows that his base, his people, know that PR is filled with unworthy brown Spanish speaking folk who just don't count as real Americans.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[billvon 2,380]

Looks like the spin isn't working too well. On the plus side, the Vegas shooting really helped distract from Trump's Puerto Rico disaster, so thank goodness for that.

=============================
Pentagon accidentally included reporter in Puerto Rico spin talks
BY JOE CONCHA / The Hill
10/13/17

Officials at the Department of Defense and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) accidentally included a Bloomberg climate reporter on an internal email distribution list that included discussions on how to present Puerto Rico recovery efforts to the media.

Bloomberg's Christopher Flavelle said he repeatedly alerted officials at the Pentagon to the error but kept receiving emails for five days.

"Those messages, each of which was marked 'unclassified,' offer a glimpse into the federal government’s struggle to convince the public that the response effort was going well. That struggle was compounded by the commander-in-chief, and eased only when public attention was pulled to a very different disaster," writes Flavelle in a Bloomberg story published Friday.

The reporter goes on to share portions of the emails that were sent between Sept. 28 and Oct. 2, which mainly focus on President Trump's war of words with San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz over Hurricane Maria recovery efforts.

"Sept. 29: San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz criticizes Washington’s spin, calling Puerto Rico a 'people-are-dying story,'" reads one passage. "The Government Message: FEMA talking points ignore Cruz, instructing its officials to say that 'the federal government’s full attention is on Hurricane Maria response.'"

Another from Oct. 2 shows concern over "negative tonality" of press coverage regarding the government's efforts in Puerto Rico.

"Oct. 2: The massacre in Las Vegas dominates the headlines," a portion of the email reads.

The Bloomberg report described "The Government Message" as, "The shooting 'has drawn mainstream TV attention away from Puerto Rico response,' FEMA says. Still, the roundup seems to have lost some of its previous optimism. It concludes, simply: 'Negative tonality.'"

The powerful hurricane hit Puerto Rico three weeks ago and most of the island still remains without power.

The death toll from the storm has risen to 45, with more than 100 people remaining unaccounted for, a spokesperson for Puerto Rico's Department of Public Safety said.
========================================

[Bob_Church 7]

Iago

The island is still in the rainy season. 4.5+ times a week you can expect a good 30-45 minute soak, always at the same time of day. Doesn't help when the drainage systems are all screwed up.

Oct-Nov also happens to be the hotter months of the year which sucks without power, ice, and limited water.

Dec to March will be better with rain and temperature.

You have to wonder, what if we go into some multi-year hurricane phase where this happens every year. Island flattened, all poles down. I worked line crew for nine years and people have no idea what is involved in a major outage like this. At least they don't have our winter problem. Crews would be out 24/7 during snow and sleet because if a segment of line went out then everything past there would freeze up and the poles would break. It was only the heat of the power that kept the strand from icing up.
But I'm sure they've got their own variations on disaster down there. But it can take a long long time once those poles have snapped off and you have to rebuild entire sections before you can apply power to any of it.

[Bob_Church 7]

gowlerk

***Trump's position on Puerto Rico is quite different than his position on the whiter more American continental states:

"TEXAS: We are with you today, we are with you tomorrow, and we will be with you EVERY SINGLE DAY AFTER, to restore, recover, and REBUILD!"

Trump knows that his base, his people, know that PR is filled with unworthy brown Spanish speaking folk who just don't count as real Americans.

Does he risk losing the massive PR Republican voting base?

[billvon 2,380]

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

. . . which is why he doesn't really care about PR. All that matters is the spin (as evinced by the recent emails about it.)