I wouldn't give em credit for buildin an outhouse, as he'd prolly try and save money by not diggin the pit underneath, just glad it was finally done, late as it is.
Worth keeping in mind that now that it has been lifted, that means the logistics of getting these supplies to Puerto Rico (in regards to those affected by the restrictions) can START. We're still likely days away from any benefit this might provide. If it had been done a week ago, this would have all already been ironed out. It was a needless delay in an extremely time sensitive situation.
As I said before, "a day late and a dollar short" doesn't even come close to this. Yes, it is good that the Administration is waiving the Maritime Act *but* they should have done it the day after the storm cleared the island and the winds settled down.
The good news is that a lot of aid has already reach Puerto Rico; the bad news is that a shortage of truck drivers and roads which are still impassible are making it very difficult to get that aid to the people who need it.
When Donald Trump talks about making America great again, it is easy to surmise he is talking about the 1950s. Why the '50s?? Because it is viewed as the heyday of the white middle class. Why was it the heyday of the white middle class?? Because of the GI Bill, which provided low cost loans for a college education, and low cost mortgages for homes. But guess what?? African-American veterans were almost completely frozen out of the benefits of the GI Bill. Most banks still refused to lend to them, and southern colleges would just flat-out not admit black students.
Put it this way: if you are a white adult in this country somewhere between the ages of 30-45, it's more than likely that your grandparents lived a pretty comfortable life financially. This is in part due to the easy access to a cheap college education, but even more due to the fact that they were able to get low interest mortgages, and build up equity and wealth through home ownership. That wealth was then passed down to your parents, and then to you. The grandparents of African-American citizens in the same age group likely received no such benefits.
There are exceptions to that generalization, of course--I am one of those. My maternal grandfather died at 53 then that grandmother worked at a grocery store then a restaurant until she couldn't work any more. She didn't have a car for the last five years of her life because she couldn't afford one. My paternal grandfather parlayed his construction business and partnership in a horse ranch into being a millionaire before being killed by a drunk driver. His wife sold off everything and hoarded the money, setting herself as the Queen Bee and if you didn't show her the proper respect or deference she would mumble a threat about calling her accountant and cutting you out of the will (that isn't a joke--she did that to me on at least two occasions). Ironically, between my aunt and my former step-mother (now deceased) there isn't any money left to trickle down to anyone.
Don't forget that Trump grew up during the 1950s and so he may also be looking backward in time through some very rose-colored glasses. I really liked the 1980s (my teenage years) but that doesn't mean I think we should return to those times--back then you could still smoke in restaurants (some of them still didn't separate areas) and movie theaters, if you wanted to research something you browsed the card catalog at the library first, and if your computer had 256kB of memory and clocked at 512kHz it was ridiculously fast.
There are exceptions to that generalization, of course--I am one of those. My maternal grandfather died at 53 then that grandmother worked at a grocery store then a restaurant until she couldn't work any more. She didn't have a car for the last five years of her life because she couldn't afford one. My paternal grandfather parlayed his construction business and partnership in a horse ranch into being a millionaire before being killed by a drunk driver. His wife sold off everything and hoarded the money, setting herself as the Queen Bee and if you didn't show her the proper respect or deference she would mumble a threat about calling her accountant and cutting you out of the will (that isn't a joke--she did that to me on at least two occasions). Ironically, between my aunt and my former step-mother (now deceased) there isn't any money left to trickle down to anyone.
Don't forget that Trump grew up during the 1950s and so he may also be looking backward in time through some very rose-colored glasses. I really liked the 1980s (my teenage years) but that doesn't mean I think we should return to those times--back then you could still smoke in restaurants (some of them still didn't separate areas) and movie theaters, if you wanted to research something you browsed the card catalog at the library first, and if your computer had 256kB of memory and clocked at 512kHz it was ridiculously fast.
Of course there are going to be many exceptions, but, as always, these discussions are taking place on a macro level. The main point is that there was a MASSIVE amount of veterans after WW2, and white ones had the oppurtunity to parlay that status into a solid middle-class background for their family, and black ones were essentially left to fend for themsleves.
The HHS Secretary's obscene amounts of private flights from the last 8 months that are coming to light in the past couple days are absolutely ridiculous, especially when you consider he is the leading voice looking to strip healthcare from millions of people. I hesitated to even post about this because, honestly, I don't even think anyone here is going to care. But again, this is what happens when you put the absolute worst people in the country in charge of the country. And no, this didn't happen in the Obama Administration. Not even close. And if it had, you can damn well guarantee there would have been wall to wall news coverage of it.
You might have noticed that Trump has been taking action on Puerto Rico after pretty much ignoring it for two weeks, even blaming them for wall street debt, while Puerto Ricans struggled without power and water.
The mayor of Puerto Rico said something like since Puerto Rico is uninhabitable, there might be a whole lot of American citizens that move from to the mainland.
The next day, Trump was falling over himself to move his butt to do something that he should have done weeks ago. Why? A large influx of Puerto Ricans to Florida might swing balance to the Democratic party in future elections. That's it, that's the only reason.
You might have noticed that Trump has been taking action on Puerto Rico after pretty much ignoring it for two weeks, even blaming them for wall street debt, while Puerto Ricans struggled without power and water.
The mayor of Puerto Rico said something like since Puerto Rico is uninhabitable, there might be a whole lot of American citizens that move from to the mainland.
The next day, Trump was falling over himself to move his butt to do something that he should have done weeks ago. Why? A large influx of Puerto Ricans to Florida might swing balance to the Democratic party in future elections. That's it, that's the only reason.
Bush's flub during Katrina was due in part to adhering to protocol. I don't think there was any malice or politics involved. I'm not sure the same is true with Trump and Puerto Rico. I'm sad to say I kind of agree with @smeagolheart on this...
You might have noticed that Trump has been taking action on Puerto Rico after pretty much ignoring it for two weeks, even blaming them for wall street debt, while Puerto Ricans struggled without power and water.
The mayor of Puerto Rico said something like since Puerto Rico is uninhabitable, there might be a whole lot of American citizens that move from to the mainland.
The next day, Trump was falling over himself to move his butt to do something that he should have done weeks ago. Why? A large influx of Puerto Ricans to Florida might swing balance to the Democratic party in future elections. That's it, that's the only reason.
Bush's flub during Katrina was due in part to adhering to protocol. I don't think there was any malice or politics involved. I'm not sure the same is true with Trump and Puerto Rico. I'm sad to say I kind of agree with @smeagolheart on this...
My take on Katrina was Bush was just kind of didn't take it seriously until it was too late. Then he started gearing up and doing something after the ball was already dropped.
Just kind of going through the motions until a "whoah how'd we get here?" moment happened.
Puerto Rico really needs to be a state then this won't happen to them next time.
From my study in Emergency Management it was Katrina that really brought FEMA to be re-evaluated and changes implemented (they were in trouble before this really). It is much better than it was, but presidents have a big responsibility in this and have the power to bring in additional resources and help when needed with the military and various other things such as the Jones act. It is the judgement and capability of a president and his ability to listen to competent staff (if they appoint any) in a crisis situation that makes the difference between real help and help that comes to late. The top man in charge cannot just sit back on his behind and let things go by.
If it was anyone other than the president that had caused the slow response to PR they would have been fired.
It's Friday so there's always the chance that a trump official goes down in flames. Past examples of officials being fired, er "resigning", on Fridays include Scaramucci, Gorka, Bannon, Spicer and others.
Today, it was (now former) Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price. Caught in a scandal involving chartered air flights to Europe, Africa, and Asia and taking family members and visiting family members, Price offered to reimburse 52k of the estimated 1 million wasted on these flights. It seems that token gesture wasn't enough.
It's Friday so there's always the chance that a trump official goes down in flames. Past examples of officials being fired, er "resigning", on Fridays include Scaramucci, Gorka, Bannon, Spicer and others.
Today, it was (now former) Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price. Caught in a scandal involving chartered air flights to Europe, Africa, and Asia and taking family members and visiting family members, Price offered to reimburse 52k of the estimated 1 million wasted on these flights. It seems that token gesture wasn't enough.
Good riddance.
Trump didn't fire him for the flights. There is no chance Donald Trump cares about that. He used it as a pretense to fire him because he blames him for his half a dozen failures to repeal Obamacare.
Russel Honore, the Lieutenant General who started whipping New Orleans into shape almost from the minute he arrived during Katrina, has absolutely blasted Trump's response to the crisis. In particular:
The Louisiana native said if given the command, he’d move 50,000 troops to Puerto Rico, where he said the devastation was worse than what New Orleans dealt with after Katrina.
“They need to scale up,” Honore said. “(In) Katrina, I had 20,000 federal troops. Not federal workers, federal troops.”
“I had 20 ships and over 240 helicopters,” he continued about Katrina. “And Puerto Rico is bigger than Katrina.”
Nothing remotely like those numbers are deployed to the island right now.
People in this thread realized 4 or 5 days ago that we needed a massive military effort in Puerto Rico. I'd say the consensus was unanimous. So how is it possible that the President of the United States wasn't given the same advice from his cabinet officials??
All these people are American citizens. All of them can move to the mainland and vote legally. I hope many of them do.
And yes, as hard as it is to believe, even from him....Trump is en route to his New Jersey golf course for the weekend. Really?? I mean, come on......wouldn't any normal person take a minute to collect their thoughts, run over the weeks events in his head for 30 seconds and say "you know what, maybe I stay in Washington this weekend"?? Even if it was STRICTLY because of self-serving optics, it would at least signal SOME strategic thinking or thought going into the issue.
And yes, as hard as it is to believe, even from him....Trump is en route to his New Jersey golf course for the weekend. Really?? I mean, come on......wouldn't any normal person take a minute to collect their thoughts, run over the weeks events in his head for 30 seconds and say "you know what, maybe I stay in Washington this weekend"?? Even if it was STRICTLY because of self-serving optics, it would at least signal SOME strategic thinking or thought going into the issue.
Pretty tone-deaf to take another tax payer funded vacation costing millions in security at a resort benefiting himself after he just fired his Secretary of Health supposedly over the expenses from private air travel and costs over a million dollars.
Each of his weekly vacations cost new Jersey and New York way more than that. Melania stayed in New York for months costing New York more than that.
If someone totaled the cost of Trump's trips, the amount would dwarf Tom Prices graft.
It's taken way longer than it should, but the tide is about to turn on Donald Trump because of this Puerto Rico disaster. The problem up to this point has been that there wasn't much media down there. Now, details are coming out:
Tell me again what the President spent last weekend consumed with....oh that's right. Trying to drive a wedge between his base voters and black athletes.
In this clip tonight, the mayor of San Juan says the government has actually been suggesting that residents try to get help by registering on the internet or calling on the phone, both of which are impossible:
So I been thinking about Roy Moore in Alabama. He's going to win, because Alabama loves them good old boys Republicans.
Alabamans probably don't care that he's racist and that he is Bible literalist isn't a problem. He equates gays to beastiality, that's probably not a problem either to the good folk of Alabama. What should Democrats do? It seems to me, they should attack him in the right way.
They should attack him because he has no respect for the country or our laws. He puts gods laws (well his nutty interpretation of them) above the United States of America. Multiple times he's been kicked off from being a judge for ignoring the law. And he would be happy to tell you he only follows gods laws not man's laws. So bub why are you running for the legislature if you can't abide the countries laws?
As a voter, that should not work. If you want to be a Senator you have to respect the laws of the United States of America. Period. That is literally the job he's going for to legislate laws.
Going further, why is this such a problem? This guy is White ISIS, he wants a theocracy as interpreted by white christian millionaires. That is not so different from what they have in many middle Eastern countries - rule by Priests and no line between religion and the law.
You can't let that take over our country, like in the middle East once they have power they will stifle anything they don't find "godly".
But anyway, the Corporate Dems will probably not "go for it" and attack him on these issues. They will probably offer a "better deal!" which will fail to excite voters and combined with their inherent preference for any Republican the seat will go to Crazy Moore.
Russel Honore, the Lieutenant General who started whipping New Orleans into shape almost from the minute he arrived during Katrina, has absolutely blasted Trump's response to the crisis. In particular:
The Louisiana native said if given the command, he’d move 50,000 troops to Puerto Rico, where he said the devastation was worse than what New Orleans dealt with after Katrina.
“They need to scale up,” Honore said. “(In) Katrina, I had 20,000 federal troops. Not federal workers, federal troops.”
“I had 20 ships and over 240 helicopters,” he continued about Katrina. “And Puerto Rico is bigger than Katrina.”
Nothing remotely like those numbers are deployed to the island right now.
People in this thread realized 4 or 5 days ago that we needed a massive military effort in Puerto Rico. I'd say the consensus was unanimous. So how is it possible that the President of the United States wasn't given the same advice from his cabinet officials??
All these people are American citizens. All of them can move to the mainland and vote legally. I hope many of them do.
And yes, as hard as it is to believe, even from him....Trump is en route to his New Jersey golf course for the weekend. Really?? I mean, come on......wouldn't any normal person take a minute to collect their thoughts, run over the weeks events in his head for 30 seconds and say "you know what, maybe I stay in Washington this weekend"?? Even if it was STRICTLY because of self-serving optics, it would at least signal SOME strategic thinking or thought going into the issue.
Maybe he was given the advice but seeing how Trump had been with 'advices', he wouldn't listen unless his britches were on fire, and if he did he'd go off on a tangent halfway through puttin out that fire. ------- As to the Lt Gen. Honore, he's got it right. FEMA's command structure is set up similar to a military stlye. I had to be certified in that before a county wide emergency exercise during my public health work. I actually enjoyed logistics, and even I would have done better than the pres, for the hurricanes in PR.
He just can't seem to listen to the right people. I can well imagine this has got Gen Kelly doin a few face palms, or lookin for his jeep in the floor like we saw when he was backstage that time at one of the pres's 'speeches'.
So I been thinking about Roy Moore in Alabama. He's going to win, because Alabama loves them good old boys Republicans.
Alabamans probably don't care that he's racist and that he is Bible literalist isn't a problem. He equates gays to beastiality, that's probably not a problem either to the good folk of Alabama. What should Democrats do? It seems to me, they should attack him in the right way.
They should attack him because he has no respect for the country or our laws. He puts gods laws (well his nutty interpretation of them) above the United States of America. Multiple times he's been kicked off from being a judge for ignoring the law. And he would be happy to tell you he only follows gods laws not man's laws. So bub why are you running for the legislature if you can't abide the countries laws?
As a voter, that should not work. If you want to be a Senator you have to respect the laws of the United States of America. Period. That is literally the job he's going for to legislate laws.
Going further, why is this such a problem? This guy is White ISIS, he wants a theocracy as interpreted by white christian millionaires. That is not so different from what they have in many middle Eastern countries - rule by Priests and no line between religion and the law.
You can't let that take over our country, like in the middle East once they have power they will stifle anything they don't find "godly".
But anyway, the Corporate Dems will probably not "go for it" and attack him on these issues. They will probably offer a "better deal!" which will fail to excite voters and combined with their inherent preference for any Republican the seat will go to Crazy Moore.
Here's the deal: Roy Moore is insane. His opponent, Doug Jones, is the guy who prosecuted and put away (decades later) the Klan members who blew up the church that killed those 4 African-American girls in the 1960s. After the Georgia 6th, it's insane for Democrats to raise expectations about this race. It would be nice to think we aren't going to hand off one of 100 Senate seats to someone who thinks being gay should be illegal, but this is Alabama. And Republicans will come home. They always do. No matter how crazy the candidate is, they come home.
Now, people might say "Yeah, he may have all these views on gay people, but he is just one Senator". If one Roy Moore can get elected, then 10 can. I'm gonna reiterate this point, because it's something right out of the dark ages: Roy Moore isn't just against gay marriage. He thinks gay people should be jailed for participating in consensual sex acts. He said Keith Ellison shouldn't be seated in Congress (even though he was duly-elected) specifically because he is a Muslim. This guy is well to the right of Pat Robertson. He's the kind of candidate you vote for if you are in favor of bringing back public stoning as a form of execution.
If this guy gets elected (and he probably will), then you can't look at the Republican Party as anything but an extremist organization, theocratic, consumed with social revanchism. Democrats could run the best candidate in the world and it would likely make no difference where this is going to be taking place. Luther Strange is unbelievably conservative, and was endorsed by Trump, and the Republican primary voters of Alabama still picked Moore. And they picked him by alot. Because at this point the main qualification to winning a Republican primary is making sure you are the craziest son of a bitch on the ballot. Trump and Roy Moore are the inevitable end result of the media project that has been taking place for the last 35 years in this country on AM radio and FOX News.
We somehow managed to elect the absolute worst person in the country President. He is attacking those in the disaster area while at his golf course, by the way. Does anyone have an extra 5-year old lying around we can borrow to run the country til Mueller's report comes out??
Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, when asked if he had any thoughts on Moore being elected to the Senate, said, “He’s going to be for tax reform, I think.”
And that's all they care about tax cuts for the rich.
I can boil it down to one paragraph: Cut taxes for the rich, which at the same time blows a hole in the budget, allowing them to argue that we should cut Social Security and Medicare (this is called starving the beast). Use cultural wedge-issues to get the bare minimum support you need to get elected in rural areas of the country to accomplish this. After 8 years, hand things off to the Democrats so they can clean things up, and immediately start bitching about the deficit that you created with your tax cuts. Repeat every decade in perpetuity. The end.
I'm actually really surprised that the tax cut issue did not come up sooner. If you had asked me how long it would take for the GOP to slash taxes for businesses and the wealthy (and it looks like that's what the incoming bill is going to look like, just like the Bush era ones), I'd have guessed the bill would have been not just proposed, but passed within the first six months at latest.
I'm actually really surprised that the tax cut issue did not come up sooner. If you had asked me how long it would take for the GOP to slash taxes for businesses and the wealthy (and it looks like that's what the incoming bill is going to look like, just like the Bush era ones), I'd have guessed the bill would have been not just proposed, but passed within the first six months at latest.
They were trying to repeal healthcare first so they could claim they weren't affecting the deficit. The amount in most of the health-care proposals that was cut was almost identical to what the proposed tax cuts were. Now that that part failed, they are just going to do it anyway. Any Republican tax plan is also a stealth attack on Social Security and Medicare as I stated above. Don't take my word for it, listen to the Senate Republicans: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/29/16387518/senate-republicans-budget-cut-medicare
I could post dozens of videos of Trump promising no cuts to Medicare, but I don't want to waste my entire day.
As usual, I find that Josh Marshall over at TPM has Trump figured out pretty well, almost as if he has put him on the couch:
On Twitter this morning, stung by criticism, President Trump attacked the people of Puerto Rico, all American citizens, as lazy and disorganized people who “want everything to be done for them.” I am cutting the verbatim text out of the tweets here.
“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. 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. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.”
There’s more. But I don’t think we need to hear more after these words.
Thanks to reporting from the big papers, we now have a general understanding of how this all unfolded. For a critical three or four days after Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, President Trump was away at his New Jersey golf resort, ranting about the NFL and generally not paying attention. It now seems that wasn’t merely a matter of optics and presidential statements. Critical time was lost and things didn’t happen. Once the scope of catastrophe began to become clear, Trump’s inaction began to generate criticism. Once that happened Trump proceeded to fold Puerto Rico into his comfort zone politics of grievance and narcissism. The focus shifted to Puerto Rico’s debt, ingratitude and – finally this morning – laziness and disorganization.
It does not discount or diminish Trump’s penchant for racist awfulness to note that a lot of this doesn’t seem to be by design or, perhaps better to say, forethought. It is more like reflex, in response to his own bumbling. Trump provoked his battle with the NFL out of a mix of personal, racist rage and desire to stoke up his supporters with a new white rights grievance controversy. This seems a little different. His own incompetence and indifference to his job responsibilities generated criticism and led him to make critical mistakes he could not undo. Once that happened, his own personality kicked in. The greased path to narcissistic injury, grievance and racist grievance political attacks was the inevitable reflex. It’s his comfort zone, his natural inclination.
As I’ve read and reread these hideous three tweets which I transcribed below, I’ve realized they are not just a disgrace but something like a primary text of Trumpism. Everything is there.
Things non-white people say are dictated by “the Democrats.” Non-whites aren’t political actors.
Every conflict quickly boils down honorable and white soldiers, police and first responders versus non-white ingrates, complainers and protestors. In fact, the very actions of the latter group dishonors and assaults the sacrifices and purity of the first.
This may all sound inflamed and dramatic. It is. But look at the language about the Puerto Ricans who “want everything to be done for them” and the first responders and military service members. Look how clearly it matches the Trump’s imagery of black NFL players and protestors dishonoring veterans who sacrificed everything.
The core and essence of Trumpism is a racist morality play. It plays out again and again, just with a different troupe of actors in each town.
Definitely. Trump wants to push a "lazy Puerto Rican" narrative so his base can dismiss them, oh they are just those lazy purto Ricans. Funny how he didn't say this about Texas or Florida. Then he throws in some "but Democrats!" and play 9 holes at his resort and call it a day.
Trump is victim blaming Puerto Rico via twitter (they have no power so can’t see) at his golf course.
They were trying to repeal healthcare first so they could claim they weren't affecting the deficit.
No, there's a more important reason: all of this is being pushed via the budget reconciliation process, which has two caveats. One is that budget reconciliations can't be filibustered so they could pass it using only the Republican majority, and the other is that anything passed via reconciliation must be deficit-neutral.
They tackled Obamacare first, as they were planning on using savings from it for their tax plan. After this reconciliation window closes, Congress can blow a hole through the budget as big as they desire with the caveat that the Democrats can now filibuster.
Comments
The good news is that a lot of aid has already reach Puerto Rico; the bad news is that a shortage of truck drivers and roads which are still impassible are making it very difficult to get that aid to the people who need it.
Put it this way: if you are a white adult in this country somewhere between the ages of 30-45, it's more than likely that your grandparents lived a pretty comfortable life financially. This is in part due to the easy access to a cheap college education, but even more due to the fact that they were able to get low interest mortgages, and build up equity and wealth through home ownership. That wealth was then passed down to your parents, and then to you. The grandparents of African-American citizens in the same age group likely received no such benefits.
Don't forget that Trump grew up during the 1950s and so he may also be looking backward in time through some very rose-colored glasses. I really liked the 1980s (my teenage years) but that doesn't mean I think we should return to those times--back then you could still smoke in restaurants (some of them still didn't separate areas) and movie theaters, if you wanted to research something you browsed the card catalog at the library first, and if your computer had 256kB of memory and clocked at 512kHz it was ridiculously fast.
The mayor of Puerto Rico said something like since Puerto Rico is uninhabitable, there might be a whole lot of American citizens that move from to the mainland.
The next day, Trump was falling over himself to move his butt to do something that he should have done weeks ago. Why? A large influx of Puerto Ricans to Florida might swing balance to the Democratic party in future elections. That's it, that's the only reason.
Just kind of going through the motions until a "whoah how'd we get here?" moment happened.
Puerto Rico really needs to be a state then this won't happen to them next time.
It is the judgement and capability of a president and his ability to listen to competent staff (if they appoint any) in a crisis situation that makes the difference between real help and help that comes to late.
The top man in charge cannot just sit back on his behind and let things go by.
If it was anyone other than the president that had caused the slow response to PR they would have been fired.
This is the 3rd or 4th story I've seen like this in the last 6 months.
Also....DO NOT believe anything this crew says about their tax plan. It is literally being written by Goldman Sachs:
Today, it was (now former) Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price. Caught in a scandal involving chartered air flights to Europe, Africa, and Asia and taking family members and visiting family members, Price offered to reimburse 52k of the estimated 1 million wasted on these flights. It seems that token gesture wasn't enough.
Good riddance.
The Louisiana native said if given the command, he’d move 50,000 troops to Puerto Rico, where he said the devastation was worse than what New Orleans dealt with after Katrina.
“They need to scale up,” Honore said. “(In) Katrina, I had 20,000 federal troops. Not federal workers, federal troops.”
“I had 20 ships and over 240 helicopters,” he continued about Katrina. “And Puerto Rico is bigger than Katrina.”
Nothing remotely like those numbers are deployed to the island right now.
People in this thread realized 4 or 5 days ago that we needed a massive military effort in Puerto Rico. I'd say the consensus was unanimous. So how is it possible that the President of the United States wasn't given the same advice from his cabinet officials??
All these people are American citizens. All of them can move to the mainland and vote legally. I hope many of them do.
And yes, as hard as it is to believe, even from him....Trump is en route to his New Jersey golf course for the weekend. Really?? I mean, come on......wouldn't any normal person take a minute to collect their thoughts, run over the weeks events in his head for 30 seconds and say "you know what, maybe I stay in Washington this weekend"?? Even if it was STRICTLY because of self-serving optics, it would at least signal SOME strategic thinking or thought going into the issue.
Each of his weekly vacations cost new Jersey and New York way more than that. Melania stayed in New York for months costing New York more than that.
If someone totaled the cost of Trump's trips, the amount would dwarf Tom Prices graft.
Tell me again what the President spent last weekend consumed with....oh that's right. Trying to drive a wedge between his base voters and black athletes.
In this clip tonight, the mayor of San Juan says the government has actually been suggesting that residents try to get help by registering on the internet or calling on the phone, both of which are impossible:
Alabamans probably don't care that he's racist and that he is Bible literalist isn't a problem. He equates gays to beastiality, that's probably not a problem either to the good folk of Alabama. What should Democrats do? It seems to me, they should attack him in the right way.
They should attack him because he has no respect for the country or our laws. He puts gods laws (well his nutty interpretation of them) above the United States of America. Multiple times he's been kicked off from being a judge for ignoring the law. And he would be happy to tell you he only follows gods laws not man's laws. So bub why are you running for the legislature if you can't abide the countries laws?
As a voter, that should not work. If you want to be a Senator you have to respect the laws of the United States of America. Period. That is literally the job he's going for to legislate laws.
Going further, why is this such a problem? This guy is White ISIS, he wants a theocracy as interpreted by white christian millionaires. That is not so different from what they have in many middle Eastern countries - rule by Priests and no line between religion and the law.
You can't let that take over our country, like in the middle East once they have power they will stifle anything they don't find "godly".
But anyway, the Corporate Dems will probably not "go for it" and attack him on these issues. They will probably offer a "better deal!" which will fail to excite voters and combined with their inherent preference for any Republican the seat will go to Crazy Moore.
-------
As to the Lt Gen. Honore, he's got it right. FEMA's command structure is set up similar to a military stlye. I had to be certified in that before a county wide emergency exercise during my public health work.
I actually enjoyed logistics, and even I would have done better than the pres, for the hurricanes in PR.
He just can't seem to listen to the right people. I can well imagine this has got Gen Kelly doin a few face palms, or lookin for his jeep in the floor like we saw when he was backstage that time at one of the pres's 'speeches'.
Now, people might say "Yeah, he may have all these views on gay people, but he is just one Senator". If one Roy Moore can get elected, then 10 can. I'm gonna reiterate this point, because it's something right out of the dark ages: Roy Moore isn't just against gay marriage. He thinks gay people should be jailed for participating in consensual sex acts. He said Keith Ellison shouldn't be seated in Congress (even though he was duly-elected) specifically because he is a Muslim. This guy is well to the right of Pat Robertson. He's the kind of candidate you vote for if you are in favor of bringing back public stoning as a form of execution.
If this guy gets elected (and he probably will), then you can't look at the Republican Party as anything but an extremist organization, theocratic, consumed with social revanchism. Democrats could run the best candidate in the world and it would likely make no difference where this is going to be taking place. Luther Strange is unbelievably conservative, and was endorsed by Trump, and the Republican primary voters of Alabama still picked Moore. And they picked him by alot. Because at this point the main qualification to winning a Republican primary is making sure you are the craziest son of a bitch on the ballot. Trump and Roy Moore are the inevitable end result of the media project that has been taking place for the last 35 years in this country on AM radio and FOX News.
We somehow managed to elect the absolute worst person in the country President. He is attacking those in the disaster area while at his golf course, by the way. Does anyone have an extra 5-year old lying around we can borrow to run the country til Mueller's report comes out??
George W. Bush was woefully incompetent in many respects. He wasn't gleefully malicious about it. Trump is both.
And that's all they care about tax cuts for the rich.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/29/16387518/senate-republicans-budget-cut-medicare
I could post dozens of videos of Trump promising no cuts to Medicare, but I don't want to waste my entire day.
On Twitter this morning, stung by criticism, President Trump attacked the people of Puerto Rico, all American citizens, as lazy and disorganized people who “want everything to be done for them.” I am cutting the verbatim text out of the tweets here.
“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. 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. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.”
There’s more. But I don’t think we need to hear more after these words.
Thanks to reporting from the big papers, we now have a general understanding of how this all unfolded. For a critical three or four days after Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, President Trump was away at his New Jersey golf resort, ranting about the NFL and generally not paying attention. It now seems that wasn’t merely a matter of optics and presidential statements. Critical time was lost and things didn’t happen. Once the scope of catastrophe began to become clear, Trump’s inaction began to generate criticism. Once that happened Trump proceeded to fold Puerto Rico into his comfort zone politics of grievance and narcissism. The focus shifted to Puerto Rico’s debt, ingratitude and – finally this morning – laziness and disorganization.
It does not discount or diminish Trump’s penchant for racist awfulness to note that a lot of this doesn’t seem to be by design or, perhaps better to say, forethought. It is more like reflex, in response to his own bumbling. Trump provoked his battle with the NFL out of a mix of personal, racist rage and desire to stoke up his supporters with a new white rights grievance controversy. This seems a little different. His own incompetence and indifference to his job responsibilities generated criticism and led him to make critical mistakes he could not undo. Once that happened, his own personality kicked in. The greased path to narcissistic injury, grievance and racist grievance political attacks was the inevitable reflex. It’s his comfort zone, his natural inclination.
As I’ve read and reread these hideous three tweets which I transcribed below, I’ve realized they are not just a disgrace but something like a primary text of Trumpism. Everything is there.
Things non-white people say are dictated by “the Democrats.” Non-whites aren’t political actors.
Every conflict quickly boils down honorable and white soldiers, police and first responders versus non-white ingrates, complainers and protestors. In fact, the very actions of the latter group dishonors and assaults the sacrifices and purity of the first.
This may all sound inflamed and dramatic. It is. But look at the language about the Puerto Ricans who “want everything to be done for them” and the first responders and military service members. Look how clearly it matches the Trump’s imagery of black NFL players and protestors dishonoring veterans who sacrificed everything.
The core and essence of Trumpism is a racist morality play. It plays out again and again, just with a different troupe of actors in each town.
Trump is victim blaming Puerto Rico via twitter (they have no power so can’t see) at his golf course.
They tackled Obamacare first, as they were planning on using savings from it for their tax plan. After this reconciliation window closes, Congress can blow a hole through the budget as big as they desire with the caveat that the Democrats can now filibuster.