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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6330 on: September 30, 2017, 11:52:34 AM »

Back to Puerto Rico. Trump finally tweeted about the disaster, but instead of offering words of encouragement, chose instead to talk about the island's economic troubles.


Oh, it gets "better".

Quote

President Trump on Saturday criticized Puerto Rico's "poor leadership" and defended his administration's response to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria's devastation on the island.

Following a plea for aid by San Juan's mayor, Trump said the mayor was being "nasty."

"The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump," Trump tweeted. "Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort," he continued. "10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job."

San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who is a member of the island's Popular Democratic Party, has been critical of the federal government's response to the crisis in Puerto Rico. Earlier Friday, she blasted acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke for calling the government's response to the crisis a "good news story." "Maybe from where she's standing, it's a good news story," Cruz said. "When you're d rink ing from a creek, it's not a good news story. When you don't have food for a baby, it's not a good news story."

"Damnit, this is not a good news story," she continued. "This is a people-are-dying story."


Cruz also held an emotional press conference Friday ripping the Trump administration's efforts to assist the island. "I will do what I never thought I was going to do. I am begging, begging anyone who can hear us to save us from dying. If anybody out there is listening to us, we are dying, and you are killing us with the inefficiency," she said.

In an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper Friday night, Cruz wore a shirt emblazoned with the words "help us, we are dying."

Trump insisted Friday that his administration is doing an "incredible job" with relief efforts. "We have done an incredible job, considering there's absolutely nothing to work with," Trump told reporters at the White House."And a very big question is, what are we going to do with the power plant? Because the power plant is totally wiped out," he said. "There is nothing. The power grid is gone."

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3deroticer

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6331 on: September 30, 2017, 02:15:46 PM »
I need help on this but I remember a journey of the distraught Jews that was wall off in Germany, during Hitler's reign of power, and became trap within the walls, being cutoff from outside source for food and water, and they slowly died off trying to survive inside the walls.

This is what it reminds me of, on the Puerto Rico situation!
"Yesterday, Reince Priebus called this whole story a 'nothing burger,'" he said. "Well these emails have turned it into an all-you-can-prosecute buffet."

Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6332 on: September 30, 2017, 04:01:05 PM »
I need help on this but I remember a journey of the distraught Jews that was wall off in Germany, during Hitler's reign of power, and became trap within the walls, being cutoff from outside source for food and water, and they slowly died off trying to survive inside the walls.

This is what it reminds me of, on the Puerto Rico situation!

You mean the ghettos the Nazis setup in each bigger town?

Edit: orthography corrected for the word Ghetto
« Last Edit: October 01, 2017, 03:54:33 AM by andrat2000 »
Anti-social behaviours lack consideration for the well-being of others. Any types of conduct that violates basic rights (human rights is one of them) of another person. It can show as covert or overt hostility.

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3deroticer

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6333 on: September 30, 2017, 04:30:41 PM »
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/index.html

I did not know where the term Ghettos came from, until now! And it has lost some meaning for the word as well.
"Yesterday, Reince Priebus called this whole story a 'nothing burger,'" he said. "Well these emails have turned it into an all-you-can-prosecute buffet."

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rtpoe

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6334 on: September 30, 2017, 10:54:39 PM »
More from Mayor Cruz:

“So I am done being polite. I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell because my people’s lives are at stake. And we are but one nation. We may be small, but we are huge in dignity and zealous for life.

“So I’m asking members of the press to send a mayday call all over the world. We are dying here. And if we don’t stop and if we don’t get the food and the water into people’s hands, what we we are going to see is something close to a genocide.

“So, Mr Trump, I am begging you to take charge and save lives. After all, that is one of the founding principles of the United States of North America. If not, the world will see how we are treated not as second-class citizens but as animals that can be disposed of. Enough is enough.”


On the left, what Mayor Cruz (with the bullhorn) has been doing this week. On the right, what El Presidente is doing this weekend:
rtpoe

The last fling of winter is over ...  The earth, the soil itself, has a dreaming quality about it.  It is warm now to the touch; it has come alive; it hides secrets that in a moment, in a little while, it will tell.
-  Donald Culross Peattie

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rtpoe

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6335 on: September 30, 2017, 10:58:16 PM »
rtpoe

The last fling of winter is over ...  The earth, the soil itself, has a dreaming quality about it.  It is warm now to the touch; it has come alive; it hides secrets that in a moment, in a little while, it will tell.
-  Donald Culross Peattie

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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6336 on: October 01, 2017, 09:56:43 PM »
I wonder what he has against American citizens who live on islands? He thinks that Hawaii is a foreign country. He thinks that Puerto Rico is full of Mexicans. He thinks that the US Virgin Islands is uninhabited.

Robert Reich had something to say on the current situation:


"Donald Trump is no longer the president of the United States. Oh sure, he has the title and he has the bully pulpit – from which he’s bullying everyone from NBA players to people protesting white supremacists to DACA kids. But he’s not actively governing the United States. That work is happening elsewhere – in Congress, the courts, the Fed, the career civil service, lobbyists, and in the states. Or it’s not happening at all.

It’s not just that Trump lost the epic battle to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Trump never understood the Affordable Care Act to begin with, and played no part in developing Republican alternatives.

The budget Trump submitted to Congress in March was dead on arrival. House Republicans ignored Trump’s request for $54 billion in cuts to departments and agencies and decided instead to cut non-defense spending by just $5 billion, and explode the defense budget.

The 9-page tax plan congressional Republicans and Trump unveiled last week only vaguely resembles Trump’s original tax proposal from April, and all the important decisions have been left to the tax-writing committees of Congress.

Trump’s relations with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan have become so strained they have no interest in looping him into policies before they have to.

Meanwhile, Trump has run out of Obama executive orders he can declare void. Major regulations, such as the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, can’t just be repealed. They have to go through a legal process that could take years. Trump doesn’t seem to be aware of this. He told a cheering crowd in Alabama recently that he had ended the Clean Power Plan by executive order. “Did you see what I did to that? Boom, gone.”

Wrong. The EPA will soon reveal its strategy for reversing the Plan, but whatever it is, environmental groups are almost certain to appeal it in the courts. Big businesses and utilities, fearing that the courts may rule against the administration, are lobbying the EPA to come up with a replacement rather than try to eliminate the Plan altogether.

Meanwhile, although General John Kelly has reduced White House chaos somewhat, the firings and shakeups are unremitting.

Trump’s Cabinet secretaries don’t seem to have a clue. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos still wants to spend taxpayer money on for-profit schools and colleges that cheat their students. Won’t happen. The EPA’s Scott Pruitt is trying to strip the agency of scientists. Another brainless scheme.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin still has no idea how to deal with Congress. He tried to persuade Republican House members to support Trump’s budget deal with the Democrats by asking them to do it “for me.” Health and Human Service Secretary Tom Price wasn’t fired for his ethical breaches. If ethics were the criteria, most of the Trump administration would be gone. Price broke Trump’s cardinal rule, which was never to get bad headlines for Trump.

Top echelons of departments and agencies are still empty. Trump has said “in many cases, we don’t want to fill those jobs,” which means decisions are being made by career civil servants and industry lobbyists. By the start of September, more than a third of the leadership positions at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were still vacant. Not a good way to begin hurricane season. Puerto Rico, anyone? As of mid-September, out of 599 key government positions that require Senate confirmation, Trump had made only 159 nominations, according to The Washington Post. Trump had yet to submit nominations for 320 positions.

Trump’s political clout is waning among Republicans. He couldn’t even get his pick elected to a Senate primary in Alabama, a state bulging with Trump voters. Business leaders have deserted him over his remarks over Charlottesville. NFL owners have turned on him over his remarks about players. Tom Brady, who once called Trump “a good friend,” now calls him “divisive” and “wrong.”

Don’t get me wrong. Trump is still a dangerous showman and conman – tweeting condemnations of critics and ranting before friendly crowds at his never-ending campaign rallies. He continues to fuel bigotry and meanness. He has reduced America’s standing in the world. His outbursts could start a nuclear war.

But when it comes to the actual work of governing America, Trump is becoming utterly and completely irrelevant."
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rtpoe

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6337 on: October 03, 2017, 10:50:05 PM »
Things El Presidente Said While In Puerto Rico:

"Now, I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack.:

"We are ordering hundreds of millions of dollars worth of new airplanes for the Air Force, especially the F-35. Do you like the F-35? I said, how does it do in the fights and how did they do in fights with the F-35? We do very well. You can’t see it, literally, you can’t see it. So it’s hard to fight a plane that you can’t see, right? But that’s an expensive plane that you can’t see. And as you probably heard, we cut the price very substantially, something that other administrations would never have done. That I can tell you."

"If you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina...."

"We're gonna help you out. Have a good time."
rtpoe

The last fling of winter is over ...  The earth, the soil itself, has a dreaming quality about it.  It is warm now to the touch; it has come alive; it hides secrets that in a moment, in a little while, it will tell.
-  Donald Culross Peattie

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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6338 on: October 04, 2017, 12:07:53 AM »
I hear there's a video of him throwing ROLLS OF PAPER TOWELS into a crowd. Does he think they're gonna use it to mop up all of the ocean?!

I can't with this...human.
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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6339 on: October 06, 2017, 02:44:57 PM »
Gizmodo: "FEMA Deletes Information About Lack of Water and Electricity in Puerto Rico"
Quote

The FEMA website has been an important tool for keeping Americans up to date on disaster recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. But yesterday, the agency deleted statistics about how many people have access to electricity and clean water on the island. The FEMA website now only displays information that casts the recovery efforts in a positive light.

On Wednesday, just 5 percent of Puerto Rico had electricity and only 50 percent had water. That information was readily available on the FEMA website as late as Wednesday night. But now it’s gone, while more positive information, like statistics about the percentage of hospitals open (92 percent) and the percentage of grocery stores open (65 percent), are still being made available.

The internet archiving tool The Wayback Machine gives us a look at precisely what was deleted. As you can see from an October 3rd snapshot, there’s information about water availability, among other things, under the header “Water/Wastewater Impacts.” But today, that section was scrubbed to include just one statistic: the percentage of waste water treatments that are functioning (64 percent).

The same is true of information about power restoration in Puerto Rico. On October 3rd the website showed statistics like the percentage of people with power on the island. That information has been deleted.

Positive statistics about the number of federal staff (14,000) and FEMA personnel (800) on the ground are still available on the website, though it obviously doesn’t mention that it took over a week after Hurricane [Maria] made landfall for those people to arrive. More information about the airports being open (100 percent) and the miles of roadway cleared thus far (20 miles) are also prominently featured.

Earlier this week the FEMA site used to have an infographic about the recovery efforts, but that image has been replaced by a photo of helicopters delivering relief supplies and another of a Puerto Rican resident hugging a soldier.

A FEMA spokesperson told the Washington Post that the information which has been scrubbed is still available in Spanish on a website maintained by the Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló at www.status.pr. But FEMA had no explanation for why the federal agency was deleting information from its own site that made it look bad.

Both FEMA and President Trump have come under fire for their inadequate response to the disaster in Puerto Rico. When the president visited the island earlier this week he seemed most concerned with how he was being perceived in the news media, rather than in efficiently delivering aid. Trump even joked with the storm-ravaged people that he was spending too much money on them.

“I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you are throwing our budget out of whack,” Trump said. “We’ve spent a lot of money in Puerto Rico.”

President Trump also said that the hurricane in Puerto Rico wasn’t a “real catastrophe” like Hurricane Katrina, an obvious fear that his response to Puerto Rico is being compared to President George W. Bush’s horrible response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“If you look at the... every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds of people that died and what happened here with a storm that was just totally overbearing. No one has ever seen anything like that. What is your death count?” he said.

“Sixteen,” said Governor Ricardo Rosselló.

“Sixteen certified,” Trump said, telling the group in Puerto Rico that they should be “very proud.”


This is not normal.
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gonZo

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6340 on: October 06, 2017, 07:19:50 PM »
It's normal for the Trump Administration.   :'(

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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6341 on: October 11, 2017, 11:48:38 PM »
Sad. Very very sad.

"He protested the players that are protesting. What is the difference? He is white, they are black. They are protesting against racism. What he did was racism."

"Mike pence's little political stunt could have paid for at least 4 teaches salaries, for 3 people to go to university for 4 years, paid health insurance premiums for at least 25 people..helped rebuild some infrastructure for Puerto rico... the GOP is not the party of fiscal responsibility.. But the party of recklessly spending taxpayer's money for their own enjoyment. Let that sink in."

"I don't care how many abortions this bible thumper outlaws, how many homosexuals he condemns, or how many thoughts and prayers he utters, he is going to hell. At least he won't be alone there."

Sad. Very very sad.
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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6342 on: October 12, 2017, 06:25:49 AM »
Is the US turning into a new North Korea II with Nazi leadership?
Trumpelstilzken is the undisputed leader for at least the Trumpelstilskenists. Now he wants to remove TV broadcasting stations the licenses if they don't report in his favour. Somehow this reminds me the way how Erdogan in Turkey acts and the next stage would be that everyone has to praise the new North Korea II leader the new Nazi-Führer Trumpelstilzken (or get terminated or what?).
Anti-social behaviours lack consideration for the well-being of others. Any types of conduct that violates basic rights (human rights is one of them) of another person. It can show as covert or overt hostility.

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rtpoe

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6343 on: October 12, 2017, 09:34:25 PM »
And El Presidente continues to dis Puerto Rico.

He's threatening to pull FEMA and the military out, tweeting "We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!" He also added a few more insults to the island.

As it stands, The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday in a press release that some Puerto Ricans have been trying to get **94** water from contaminated Superfund sites on the island. Ten people have contracted leptospirosis, a disease spread in **94** water contaminated by animal excrement. And there’s compelling evidence to believe the death toll on the island is much higher than official reports, and is still climbing.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz continues to plead for help, taknig the moral high ground that Trump cannot even approach. Here's the complete letter she released recently (emphasis mine):

Quote


    Puerto Ricans have suffered greatly in the past month. Two hurricanes devastated our homes and our electrical infrastructure leaving us without the essentials to survive: drinkable water, food and medicine. But perhaps more frustrating has been the devastating actions, time after time, by a President whose tweets, comments and actions seem to be taken out of a book on “how to add insult to injury” rather than a book on “how to help during a humanitarian crisis”. He is simply incapable of understanding the contributions, the sacrifices and the commitment to democratic values that Puerto Ricans have shown over decades. His actions are unbecoming of a leader of the free world.

    Mr President, you seem to want to disregard the moral imperative that your administration has been unable to fulfill. Your replacement of the FEMA Coordinator in Puerto Rico is an admission that things are not going the way they should. Your tweets and comments just show desperation and underscore the inadequacy of your government’s response to this humanitarian crisis. It is not that you do not get it, it is that you are incapable of empathy and frankly simply cannot get the job done.

    Ever since this ordeal began, San Juan has had over 300 sustained volunteers from the United States. Good, hard working people from New York, Florida, California, Texas and many others who embody the fundamental values of compassion, ingenuity and hard work that you are certainly unable to express. These men and women, most of them union workers, have literally taken care of our bodies and souls. They did not come for a photo op or to throw paper towels and insults at us. They came to help, something you seem to be unable to grasp. These volunteers have seen the horror that you continue to want to dismiss. They embody the true spirit of the American values that you dismiss with every inappropriate and derogatory action and comment.

    Tweet away your hate to mask your administration’s mishandling of this humanitarian crisis. While you are amusing yourself throwing paper towels at us, your compatriots and the world are sending love and help our way. Condemn us to a slow death of non drinkable water, lack of food, lack of medicine while you keep others eager to help from reaching us since they face the impediment of the Jones Act.

    I ask every American that has love, and not hate in their hearts, to stand with Puerto Rico and let this President know we WILL NOT BE LEFT TO DIE. I ask the United Nations, UNICEF and the world to stand with the people of Puerto Rico and stop the genocide that will result from the lack of appropriate action of a President that just does not get it because he has been incapable of looking in our eyes and seeing the pride that burns fiercely in our hearts and souls.

    No one needs an invitation to help, to feed the hungry, to cure the sick, to give a helping hand to those in need. Simply put: HELP US. WITHOUT ROBUST and CONSISTENT HELP, WE WILL DIE.

    Mr. President fulfill your moral imperative towards the people of Puerto Rico.

    Carmen Yulin Cruz

    Mayor of San Juan

Well, as reported in Vanity Fair, Trump is starting to lose it:

Quote
In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods. Trump’s ire is being fueled by his stalled legislative agenda and, to a surprising degree, by his decision last month to back the losing candidate Luther Strange in the Alabama Republican primary. “Alabama was a huge blow to his psyche,” a person close to Trump said. “He saw the cult of personality was broken.”

Two senior Republican officials said Chief of Staff John Kelly is miserable in his job and is remaining out of a sense of duty to keep Trump from making some sort of disastrous decision.

One former official even speculated that Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis have discussed what they would do in the event Trump ordered a nuclear first strike. “Would they tackle him?” the person said. Even Trump’s most loyal backers are sowing public doubts. This morning, The Washington Post quoted longtime Trump friend Tom Barrack saying he has been “shocked” and “stunned” by Trump’s behavior.

West Wing aides have also worried about Trump’s public appearances, one Trump adviser told me. The adviser said aides were relieved when Trump declined to agree to appear on the season premiere of 60 Minutes last month. “He’s lost a step. They don’t want him doing adversarial TV interviews,” the adviser explained.

Several months ago, according to two sources with knowledge of the conversation, former chief strategist Steve Bannon told Trump that the risk to his presidency wasn’t impeachment, but the 25th Amendment—the provision by which a majority of the Cabinet can vote to remove the president. When Bannon mentioned the 25th Amendment, Trump said, “What’s that?” According to a source, Bannon has told people he thinks Trump has only a 30 percent chance of making it the full term.


rtpoe

The last fling of winter is over ...  The earth, the soil itself, has a dreaming quality about it.  It is warm now to the touch; it has come alive; it hides secrets that in a moment, in a little while, it will tell.
-  Donald Culross Peattie

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TheZookie007

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Re: MERGED: The Politics Thread
« Reply #6344 on: October 12, 2017, 09:45:25 PM »
And yet, even now, there are people spreading the same old slanders against Hillary Clinton. Remember when they said that if she was voted in, she would lead us to World War III? Projection, thy name is "conservative" Republicans.
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