Trump's Katrina: The ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico

[Dr. Arch]

Next Tuesday is too late.

Anyway, it’s time Puerto Rico became a state. They pay taxes, they fly our flag, they are citizens, they can become president (yet aren’t allowed to vote in the general), no passport is needed to travel there. I suspect a lot of people don’t know most of that, and I bet the president didn’t know, which is the most likely reason for his delayed and weak response.

They are as American as anyone in the mainland and should finally be treated as such.

Basically this. Hurricane Maria was the strongest hurricane in a decade, and American citizens are going to die if Trump doesn't get up off his ass, stop tweeting about the NFL, and go help Puerto Rico and the USVI. It's a humanitarian crisis and Trump needs to be held completely accountable for any loss of life that occurs as a result of his administration's negligence.

Or maybe if we stop spending money on fictional things trying to determine how much polar ice caps melting cause bears to have diarrhea, maybe we could spend it on better forecasting tool to see storms like Maria and give people more time to prepare?

Your ignorance is comical at this point. Puerto Ricans knew of María for over a week, but there's so much you can do about a tornado the size of Ohio that lasts more than a day with torrential rainfall. Do you feel any kind of embarrassment?

[pbrower2a]

Next Tuesday is too late.

Anyway, it’s time Puerto Rico became a state. They pay taxes, they fly our flag, they are citizens, they can become president (yet aren’t allowed to vote in the general), no passport is needed to travel there. I suspect a lot of people don’t know most of that, and I bet the president didn’t know, which is the most likely reason for his delayed and weak response.

They are as American as anyone in the mainland and should finally be treated as such.

Basically this. Hurricane Maria was the strongest hurricane in a decade, and American citizens are going to die if Trump doesn't get up off his ass, stop tweeting about the NFL, and go help Puerto Rico and the USVI. It's a humanitarian crisis and Trump needs to be held completely accountable for any loss of life that occurs as a result of his administration's negligence.

Or maybe if we stop spending money on fictional things trying to determine how much polar ice caps melting cause bears to have diarrhea, maybe we could spend it on better forecasting tool to see storms like Maria and give people more time to prepare?

It does not help that the President denies the connection between carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and climatic patterns.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/27/16373136/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-satire

[Usili]

Next Tuesday is too late.

Anyway, it’s time Puerto Rico became a state. They pay taxes, they fly our flag, they are citizens, they can become president (yet aren’t allowed to vote in the general), no passport is needed to travel there. I suspect a lot of people don’t know most of that, and I bet the president didn’t know, which is the most likely reason for his delayed and weak response.

They are as American as anyone in the mainland and should finally be treated as such.

Basically this. Hurricane Maria was the strongest hurricane in a decade, and American citizens are going to die if Trump doesn't get up off his ass, stop tweeting about the NFL, and go help Puerto Rico and the USVI. It's a humanitarian crisis and Trump needs to be held completely accountable for any loss of life that occurs as a result of his administration's negligence.

Or maybe if we stop spending money on fictional things trying to determine how much polar ice caps melting cause bears to have diarrhea, maybe we could spend it on better forecasting tool to see storms like Maria and give people more time to prepare?

... I'm going to point out that in regards to the 'forecasting' (i.e. modelling), is that time and time again Congress has seen fit to consistently cut that of the funds explicitly requested by that of the NOAA for upgrading it, and constantly been forced to be left behind with such funds, which has been putting the GFS (the NOAA's model) further and further behind the ECMWF (the European model) and the UKMET (the UK model) because of it.

In addition to that, there is also that of staffing cuts and the hiring freezes which are hurting that of the NHC in terms of handling these storms which means they are more overworked and more likely to make mistakes. There's also the need of keeping funding on track with new weather monitoring satellites to replace the older ones and be able to monitor what might emerge and the hurricanes when they do form.

In regards to that of more time to prepare, there is also that of the issue for when hurricanes undergo that of a 'rapid intensification'. It means there is less time to actually prepare because of it having undergone major strengthening, and of course Puerto Rico knew ahead of the time about what Maria was going to do, but if there is one thing modeling is not good at (from how I understand it) is not being able to handle rapid intensification well, and that is something that is vital to understanding and that means climate science is needed to be done as a result to understand the process of how it happens, why it happens, and what kind of conditions help lead to such favorable conditions for RI. It is impossible to say climate science should be ignored when discussing hurricanes, since it is arguably a major part of understanding about hurricanes.


As another part of what's going on, there's unfortunately what's also going on in the USVI (and I think it'd fit in here considering it was also affected by Maria). The USVI were hit hard by Irma and then arguably so shortly after, they were affected by that of Maria, and it's a full-out devastation there. I can't link the article, but both of the main hospitals in St. Thomas and St. Croix are going to have to be torn down and rebuilt as a result, and the authorities had to ease the strict curfew because bodies started to pile up at the morgue since people couldn't stay out long enough to bury them.

[Dr. Arch]

This president...

"President's comments regarding the lifting of the Merchant Marine Act, “We’re thinking about that,” he said at a White House press event. “But we have a lot of shippers and … a lot of people who work in the shipping industry that don’t want the Jones Act lifted. And we have a lot of ships out there right now.” Remember, those people can vote, Puerto Ricans can't!"


I.E. "Who cares if American lives are lost to starvation, thirst, or illness. The other ones can vote!"

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Hammy]

This president...

"President's comments regarding the lifting of the Merchant Marine Act, “We’re thinking about that,” he said at a White House press event. “But we have a lot of shippers and … a lot of people who work in the shipping industry that don’t want the Jones Act lifted. And we have a lot of ships out there right now.” Remember, those people can vote, Puerto Ricans can't!"


I.E. "Who cares if American lives are lost to starvation, thirst, or illness. The other ones can vote!"

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Good lord, he openly admitted he doesn't care because they can't vote?

[JA]

This president...

"President's comments regarding the lifting of the Merchant Marine Act, “We’re thinking about that,” he said at a White House press event. “But we have a lot of shippers and … a lot of people who work in the shipping industry that don’t want the Jones Act lifted. And we have a lot of ships out there right now.” Remember, those people can vote, Puerto Ricans can't!"


I.E. "Who cares if American lives are lost to starvation, thirst, or illness. The other ones can vote!"

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Recall that his first serious remarks regarding the situation in Puerto Rico were a series of Tweets that reminded them of their (imposed) debt problems and faulty infrastructure. He can get away with this blatant disregard for the lives of Puerto Ricans because (a) half of Americans don't even know that they're American citizens, (b) Puerto Ricans can't vote for President, House, or Senate, and (c) they're Hispanic. Add to that, Congress won't even bother to work on a serious relief program until next month, Puerto Rico's debt collectors and loaners are largely using this as a way to sink the island further into debt, and the policies pursued by our government are doing absolutely nothing to tackle the contributions to anthropogenic climate change that will cause even more Hurricane Maria and Irma type storms to devastate the Caribbean.

In summation: Puerto Rico and its residents simply don't matter to elites; they'll be exploited, disregarded, and subjected to further devastation to further the interests of others. Only ordinary, everyday people can effectively help Puerto Rico by standing in solidarity with them by raising awareness, pressuring public officials, holding elites accountable, and providing relief through donations of time and money.

[TDAS04]

I wish that Trump's wealth would be distributed among Puerto Ricans, and that the orange clown would be forced into poverty. 

[emailking]

This president...

"President's comments regarding the lifting of the Merchant Marine Act, “We’re thinking about that,” he said at a White House press event. “But we have a lot of shippers and … a lot of people who work in the shipping industry that don’t want the Jones Act lifted. And we have a lot of ships out there right now.” Remember, those people can vote, Puerto Ricans can't!"


I.E. "Who cares if American lives are lost to starvation, thirst, or illness. The other ones can vote!"

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Good lord, he openly admitted he doesn't care because they can't vote?

No. That's not part of the quote. That's something the poster added on.

[Dr. Arch]

This president...

"President's comments regarding the lifting of the Merchant Marine Act, “We’re thinking about that,” he said at a White House press event. “But we have a lot of shippers and … a lot of people who work in the shipping industry that don’t want the Jones Act lifted. And we have a lot of ships out there right now.” Remember, those people can vote, Puerto Ricans can't!"


I.E. "Who cares if American lives are lost to starvation, thirst, or illness. The other ones can vote!"

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Good lord, he openly admitted he doesn't care because they can't vote?

No. That's not part of the quote. That's something the poster added on.

If you look closely, the whole thing is a quote, and there are quotes within that.

[Tintrlvr]

This president...

"President's comments regarding the lifting of the Merchant Marine Act, “We’re thinking about that,” he said at a White House press event. “But we have a lot of shippers and … a lot of people who work in the shipping industry that don’t want the Jones Act lifted. And we have a lot of ships out there right now.” Remember, those people can vote, Puerto Ricans can't!"


I.E. "Who cares if American lives are lost to starvation, thirst, or illness. The other ones can vote!"

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Good lord, he openly admitted he doesn't care because they can't vote?

No. That's not part of the quote. That's something the poster added on.

If you look closely, the whole thing is a quote, and there are quotes within that.

Yes, but it was not in the actual quote by Donald Trump. The quote without the additional reference to voters is all over the place (example below).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-puerto-rico-jones-act-maria_us_59cc281ee4b05063fe0ef7ec

[Dr. Arch]

Trump making Puerto Ricans pay to be evacuated.

Link: http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/28/donald-trump-is-making-people-pay-to-be-evacuated-from-puerto-rico-6963377/

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The Jones Act should be permanently repealed for Alaska, Hawaii, and the unincorporated territories. It should stay for the lower 48.

Puerto Rico is the only unincorporated territory the Jones Act applies to because it's the only one within U.S. customs.

[Santander]

The Jones Act should be permanently repealed for Alaska, Hawaii, and the unincorporated territories. It should stay for the lower 48.

Puerto Rico is the only unincorporated territory the Jones Act applies to because it's the only one within U.S. customs.

True, but Guam and CNMI have similar restrictions that largely the same as the Jones Act, although without the troublesome US-built ship requirement, which I think is the biggest problem with the Jones Act.

[elcorazon]

The flaw in the analogy is that Bush was not nearly as bad regarding handling Katrina as Trump was in handling Maria. Far be it from me to defend W, but his handling of Katrina was polished and professional compared to Trump's handling of Puerto Rico.

[Hindsight was 2020]

I'll give him this the man has his geography nailed down https://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-on-puerto-rico-relief-efforts-this-is-an-island-surrounded-by-water-big-water-ocean-water/

[GeorgiaModerate]

I'll give him this the man has his geography nailed down https://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-on-puerto-rico-relief-efforts-this-is-an-island-surrounded-by-water-big-water-ocean-water/

Um, isn't being surrounded by water the very definition of an island?

[Dr. Arch]

I'll give him this the man has his geography nailed down https://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-on-puerto-rico-relief-efforts-this-is-an-island-surrounded-by-water-big-water-ocean-water/

Um, isn't being surrounded by water the very definition of an island?

Some of my family and friends are going hungry, and this clown keeps making a fool of himself. SOMEBODY MAKE HIM DO SOMETHING!

[Dr. Arch]

Trump flopping on response. Ineffective, people are hungry and dying.

The Hill: http://thehill.com/policy/defense/353137-not-enough-troops-equipment-in-puerto-rico-says-general-in-charge-of-relief

[Blue3]

Puerto Rico is going through a complete collapse of modern civilization. Seriously.

Hopefully we won't hear about tens of thousands dead.

[adrac]

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/27/16373136/trump-puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-satire

These get me every time.

[HisGrace]

I'll give him this the man has his geography nailed down https://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-on-puerto-rico-relief-efforts-this-is-an-island-surrounded-by-water-big-water-ocean-water/

I take back all the times I said he was dumb. What a genius!

[Dr. Arch]

Two of my friends have already lost some of their relatives as a consequence of the aftermath, a grandmother and an aunt. Things are worsening by the day...

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

Two of my friends have already lost some of their relatives as a consequence of the aftermath, a grandmother and an aunt. Things are worsening by the day...

Ouch. Sorry to hear that.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

If trump is going to Puerto Rico expecting a hero’s welcome he is sorely mistaking. I hope they give him a piece of their mind.

What also pisses me off is that people are ignoring them solely because they are unaware that PR is a ing U.S. Territory. I can’t begin to count how many of my Trumper cousins have been bashing the San Juan mayor on Facebook, calling her “ignorant.”  Makes me sick to my stomach.