Puerto Rico "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job"

What do American citizens in New Orleans and Puerto Rico have in common?

He doesn't give a damn about Puerto Rico, nor does he care about the people in Texas and Florida that are suffering. He doesn't care about Mexico, or the humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/26/trump-puerto-rico-crisis-massive-debt?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=245354&subid=13840101&CMP=GT_US_collection

Trump finally responds to Puerto Rico crisis, saying island has 'massive debt'

President’s belated response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria in US territory seems to blame islanders for their own misfortune

"It took Donald Trump five full days to respond to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria on the lives of 3.5 million Americans in Puerto Rico, and when he finally did so his comments on Twitter were so devoid of empathy it threatened to spark a new controversy.


Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria – in pictures
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Hot on the heels of the billowing dispute he single-handedly provoked over African-American sporting figures protesting racial inequality during the national anthem, Trump launched another provocation on Monday night with a belated and lacklustre response to the Puerto Rican disaster. In a series of three tweets he effectively blamed the islanders – all of whom are American citizens – for their own misfortune.

“Texas & Florida are doing great but Puerto Rico, which was already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt, is in deep trouble,” he said, without offering any additional federal government assistance for the stricken US territory, which was hit by Hurricane Maria soon after those two states were struck by Harvey and Irma.

Trump acknowledged that “much of the island was destroyed”, but caustically went on to say that its electrical grid was already “in terrible shape” and that Puerto Rico owed billions of dollars to Wall Street and the banks “which, sadly, must be dealt with”..."

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The Trumpet is his own worst enemy with Twitter.

However this is being done through FEMA - really the only thing that can be done at this early stage. Congress is so far behind the the power curve on so many issues they'll never get caught up - particularly when wasting their time screwing around with health care. I do wonder why Congress has consistently refused to consider making Puerto Rico the 51st state. Residents of Puerto Rico have voted in favor of it several times but it's not binding in Congress.

"Federal Aid Programs for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico"

Release date:
September 21, 2017
Release Number:
HQ-17-129-FactSheet
Following is a summary of key federal disaster aid programs that can be made available as needed and warranted under President Donald J. Trump's disaster declaration issued for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2017/09/21/federal-aid-programs-commonwealth-puerto-rico

I agree that Puerto Rico should be made the 51st state already. It makes sense.

I'm hoping FEMA is working around Trump's sluggish response to the crisis. So far about all he's done is complain that Puerto Rico is poor and already had massive debt... which takes real nerve from him considering that he's contributed to that by defaulting on around $33 million he owed them for a failed golf course. Which is an old habit of his... hardly anybody he works with gets paid what he owes them. He's infamous for stiffing builders and contractors.

I'm hoping something can get him to pay attention to Puerto Rico's troubles. He's scheduled to visit there soon, and maybe that'll wake him up to the urgency of the situation. But, who knows with this guy.

zsomething wrote:I agree that Puerto Rico should be made the 51st state already.  It makes sense.

I'm hoping FEMA is working around Trump's sluggish response to the crisis.  So far about all he's done is complain that Puerto Rico is poor and already had massive debt... which takes real nerve from him considering that he's contributed to that by defaulting on around $33 million he owed them for a failed golf course.   Which is an old habit of his... hardly anybody he works with gets paid what he owes them.  He's infamous for stiffing builders and contractors.  

I'm hoping something can get him to pay attention to Puerto Rico's troubles.   He's scheduled to visit there soon, and maybe that'll wake him up to the urgency of the situation.  But, who knows with this guy.

TRUMP FINALLY MENTIONS HELPING PUERTO RICO, BUT ONLY AFTER FIVE EX-PRESIDENTS DID

BY JESSICA KWONG ON 9/26/17 AT 7:04 AM

President Trump has finally started talking about helping Hurricane Maria-battered Puerto Rico — but his Monday night tweet came only after an extraordinary push for aid for the devastated island by his direct predecessors.

Between Saturday morning and his eventual comment about Puerto Rico, the tweeter-in-chief had fired off 29 public blasts on social media — the majority concerning his battle with various sports leagues and seven about the latest health care debate, yet none about the island, even as the U.S. territory remains without power and struggles to provide the basics.

Into the breach stepped the ex-presidents, whose One America Appeal sent out an urgent fundraising request Monday morning for help for the island.

The group of five presidents — Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter — said it was "responding to urgent, widespread need in the midst of a catastrophic hurricane season," but the subtext could not be clearer; also on the same day, Clinton and his former Secretary of State wife Hillary Clinton had tweeted their concerns for immediate action on Puerto Rico, which is facing tens of billions in repair bills from last week's storm.

"President Trump ... should send the Navy, including the USNS Comfort, to Puerto Rico now," Hillary Clinton wrote. "These are American citizens."

The Trump administration was unmoved, saying it would not even go to Congress with an aid request until the first week of October at the earliest, CNN reported. Administration spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House response has been "anything but slow."

White House requests for aid after Hurricane Harvey pummeled Texas and Hurricane Irma pummeled Florida came much faster than a formal aid request for Puerto Rico. Senior congressional aides told The Washington Post late Sunday they don’t expect the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ask lawmakers for another round of federal disaster relief funding until mid-October, and that lawmakers can’t begin working on a federal relief bill for the latest hurricane damages without a formal request from the Trump administration.

The delay wasn't lost on Puerto Rico residents.

"You feel like you're forgotten. I'm in an area that's flooded and there’s basically dead animals — cats, dogs, rats just floating around — the smell is crazy and I don't see anyone here anywhere as of today or yesterday," one resident, Monique Casablanca, told NBC News by phone.

Trump did finally mention Puerto Rico in a post on Monday night, but first complained in two connected tweets that prior leaders had left the impoverished island "already suffering from broken infrastructure & massive debt."

He then returned to bashing Arizona Sen. John McCain over his opposition to the current GOP healthcare reform bill and his own opposition to NFL players who protest police brutality by taking a knee during the National Anthem.

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Jennifer Bendery @jbendery
Senior Hill aide says WH expected to send disaster aid request to Congress in 1st/2nd week of Oct for Puerto Rico. That gets ball rolling.
9:53 AM - Sep 25, 2017
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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..
7:45 PM - Sep 25, 2017
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It all came after the One America Appeal called on Americans to support their 3.5 million countrymen in Puerto Rico. Officially, the group did not comment on President Trump's apparent tardiness in aiding the island, but the group's spokesman suggested that the former leaders could not look away from the devastation there.

“There was no way the presidents were going to ignore that, and it’s the same case in the aftermath of Maria,” Jim McGrath, a spokesman for George W.H. Bush, told Newsweek.


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Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Governor @RicardoRossello-
We are with you and the people of Puerto Rico. Stay safe! #PRStrong
10:13 PM - Sep 20, 2017
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Making landfall in Puerto Rico last Wednesday, Hurricane Maria killed at least 10 people and left the nation without power. Governor Ricardo Rossello over the weekend called it the biggest catastrophe in modern history in terms of damage to infrastructure.

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Ricardo Rossello @ricardorossello
Today @MarcoRubio visited @DistritoPR to make himself available to address the needs of the people of PR and help in the recovery efforts.
1:18 PM - Sep 25, 2017
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All funds collected through One America Appeal go into a special account at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation, part of which will now be channeled to two funds – Unidos Por Puerto Rico and the Fund for the Virgin Isles."

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He's busy! Give a pres a break eh.

He has important tweets about the NFL to do right now. PR can wait!

Floridatexan wrote:

Sal wrote:A real President would be making a public call for unity and support from all Americans for their brethren in Puerto Rico.

The orange shitgibbon is not a real president.

            From me, too!!

Me three!

Hospital ship headed for Puerto Rico:

http://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2017/09/26/hospital-ship-comfort-heading-to-puerto-rico/

WASHINGTON – "Federal and military aid for Puerto Rico increased Tuesday, including news that the hospital ship Comfort would be deployed, as officials got a clearer picture of the obscene destruction Hurricane Maria wrought on the U.S. territory.

What federal officials visiting the island have found: 42 percent of Puerto Rico’s population is without drinking water. Eighty percent of the island’s electrical transmission system ― its substations and transmission lines ― and 100 percent of its distribution system was damaged by the storm, said Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

As of late Tuesday, 21 of Puerto Rico’s 69 hospitals had some functionality. The remaining 48 hospitals had an unknown status, Davis said.

The U.S. government is now increasing its response to the storm and naming a commander to lead the military effort.

U.S. Northern Command announced late Tuesday it would identify “and the Joint Staff will source, a larger sustainment force package” to expand aid to the island. In addition, NORTHCOM is going to “establish a Land Component Commander - Forward in Puerto Rico and will have that commander on the ground there within 24 hours.”

On Tuesday, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long told reporters at the White House that it was dispatching the Navy hospital ship Comfort, a converted super tanker with 1,000 beds, 12 operating rooms, a CAT-scan, and radiology capabilities to Puerto Rico.

On Tuesday the Navy said it would have the Comfort underway within the next 96 hours.

The top priorities of deploying the Comfort are “to minimize suffering and protecting the lives and safety of those affected by Hurricane Maria,” Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Allen, a spokesman for U.S. Fleet Forces Command, said Tuesday. “Moving the USNS Comfort is a prudent decision in light of current conditions on ground. We will make best possible speed and anticipate it will take up to five days to transit to the area upon departure from Naval Station Norfolk.”..."

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I do not understand how this proven liar was chosen to respond to Puerto Rico and chastised criticism. Really?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/conway-pushes-back-at-criticism-of-puerto-rico-response/vi-AAsCuo2

One of Trump's officials stunned the hell out of San Juan's mayor today, saying it was a "good news story." She hadn't heard it until she was talking to reporters on TV and she was so mad you could tell she wanted to say some things that wouldn't have been welcome on the air.

I hope Trump gets his shit together and steps up relief efforts, but so far he seems to have zero clue what's going on. Just last week he appeared to learn about the existence of the Atlantic Ocean, so I'm not sure he's going to be much help. "America first"... not available in all America locations, some restrictions may apply, void where prohibited.

The island got stripped. It was inevitable. They ought to build half of the island to withstand anything... same for infrastructure. The other half out of hatch huts. It's ridiculous to keep building the whole place half assed.

PkrBum wrote:The island got stripped. It was inevitable. They ought to build half of the island to withstand anything... same for infrastructure. The other half out of hatch huts. It's ridiculous to keep building the whole place half assed.

Have you seen the damage to the mainland from both Harvey and Irma? Get a grip. Everything can't be built to withstand hurricanes at 4 or 5.

Sal wrote:

PkrBum wrote:The island got stripped. It was inevitable. They ought to build half of the island to withstand anything... same for infrastructure. The other half out of hatch huts. It's ridiculous to keep building the whole place half assed.

You're a moron.

There's just no way to get around it.

You're the reason shit is built half-assed. Some subjective gratification of noble intent. Nice job.



https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/storyline/puerto-rico-crisis/amp/trump-s-response-puerto-rico-point-out-its-debts-n804941

Unmonitored Debt

Despite a massive real estate slump that dated back to 2006, Puerto Rico's government continued to issue balanced budgets for many more years — but its tax revenues fell short of forecasts. Puerto Rico tried to borrow its way out of the hole, in part by issuing debt in the form of bonds. With their high yields and unique tax-exempt status, these bonds attracted mutual and hedge funds. They also drew ordinary investors such as retirees and ordinary Puerto Ricans. Investors liked the potential payoff and believed Puerto Rico would eventually recover.

Successive governors tried to "borrow from Peter to pay Paul," taking out loans to sunset old debts and keep the system running.

"Puerto Rico hid its fiscal problems in order to try to borrow its way out. Through ever more creative ways it continued to borrow and build up its debt," Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, non-partisan think tank, told NBC News. "But its efforts to disguise its weakening underlying fiscal position ended up digging itself into a deeper hole."

The wheels began to fall off in 2014 when the island's credit rating was downgraded by ratings agencies, cutting off its access to new credit. In 2015, the governor declared its debts "unpayable." It began missing some interest payments.

Now the power company is effectively bankrupt, with a reported at least $9 billion in debt and no money for upgrades. It was already struggling to find $4 billion to upgrade its old power plants. Now it must deal with 80 percent of its power lines being toppled.

Last year, the country signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" to combat the effects of climate change, including boosting resilience to rising sea levels and flooding and to regulate land development that could contribute to erosion. But it's unknown whether they followed through with them and sections of certain communities had already fallen into the water due to rising sea levels even before Maria hit.

And years of deferred maintenance from a government that had prioritized dealing with the debt crisis left other key parts of the infrastructure like electrical, water, sewer and gas lines less prepared to cope with the onslaught.

When the local utility updated some pipes recently, older ones exploded, unable to deal with the increased pressure.

How Hedge Funds Deepen Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis


David Dayen
December 11, 2015

Vulture investors have descended on the commonwealth, taking advantage of a debt crisis that has impoverished citizens and created massive unemployment.

"This is a distress call from a ship of 3.5 million American citizens that have been lost at sea,” Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla said on December 1, begging the Senate Judiciary Committee to help protect his homeland from an unspooling disaster. After issuing bonds for over a decade on everything not nailed down, Puerto Rico now carries $73 billion in debt, a sum that García Padilla had termed “not payable” in June. Successive governments have enacted punishing austerity measures to service the debt, despite a stubbornly depressed economy and poverty rates near 50 percent. Now, after defaulting on smaller loans, it’s likely that much of the $957 million due January 1 will go unpaid, bringing more chaos and suffering at the hands of Puerto Rico’s creditors.

In many ways, the Puerto Rico situation is sui generis, resulting from a patchwork of laws and obligations on an entity that is not really a country and not really a U.S. state. But looked at another way, Puerto Rico is just the latest battlefield for a phalanx of hedge funds called “vultures,” which pick at the withered sinews of troubled governments. In Greece, Argentina, Detroit, and now Puerto Rico, vultures have bought distressed debt on the cheap, and then used coercion, threats, and legal action to secure a massive windfall, compounding the effects on millions of citizens.

The legal wrangling masks an irony: As creditors demand that Puerto Rico pay back everything it owes, hedge fund managers have used the island as a tax haven to avoid their own responsibilities. Wealthy investors don’t just want to make money in Puerto Rico; they want to use their leverage to effectively buy an island playground..."

(much more)

http://prospect.org/article/how-hedge-funds-are-pillaging-puerto-rico

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San Juan Mayor Responds to Dotard's Twitter Attack


San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz seemed to make a response to President Donald Trump's Hurricane Maria criticism on Twitter Saturday by focusing on the work that needs to be done in Puerto Rico.

"The goal is one: saving lives. This is the time to show our 'true colors'. We cannot be distracted by anything else," Cruz tweeted in English and Spanish.
Her comment came about half an hour after Trump, in a series of tweets, slammed her and other Puerto Rican officials' leadership ability and said she starting acting "nasty" toward him after Democrats told her to.



http://time.com/4963932/san-juan-mayor-responds-to-donald-trumps-twitter-attack/

Telstar wrote:San Juan Mayor Responds to Dotard's Twitter Attack


San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz seemed to make a response to President Donald Trump's Hurricane Maria criticism on Twitter Saturday by focusing on the work that needs to be done in Puerto Rico.

"The goal is one: saving lives. This is the time to show our 'true colors'. We cannot be distracted by anything else," Cruz tweeted in English and Spanish.
Her comment came about half an hour after Trump, in a series of tweets, slammed her and other Puerto Rican officials' leadership ability and said she starting acting "nasty" toward him after Democrats told her to.

http://time.com/4963932/san-juan-mayor-responds-to-donald-trumps-twitter-attack/

Trump is the most pitiful excuse for a two-year-old I've ever seen.   Oh wait, you mean he ISN'T two years old??  Coulda fooled me.  

Good holy grief the man is beyond hopeless.  

RealLindaL wrote:

Telstar wrote:San Juan Mayor Responds to Dotard's Twitter Attack


San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz seemed to make a response to President Donald Trump's Hurricane Maria criticism on Twitter Saturday by focusing on the work that needs to be done in Puerto Rico.

"The goal is one: saving lives. This is the time to show our 'true colors'. We cannot be distracted by anything else," Cruz tweeted in English and Spanish.
Her comment came about half an hour after Trump, in a series of tweets, slammed her and other Puerto Rican officials' leadership ability and said she starting acting "nasty" toward him after Democrats told her to.

http://time.com/4963932/san-juan-mayor-responds-to-donald-trumps-twitter-attack/

Trump is the most pitiful excuse for a two-year-old I've ever seen.   Oh wait, you mean he ISN'T two years old??  Coulda fooled me.  

Good holy grief the man is beyond hopeless.  

The kind of man his base can relate to on an intellectual level, a two year old.