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.
When you lose 4 or 5 days at the start of the disaster, it's almost impossible to catch up. Somehow, the percentage of people in Puerto Rico who don't have a supply of water to drink has gone UP in the last couple days from 44% to 55%, and that is according to the Pentagon. Supplies are there, but, again, without a massive military effort to distribute them, they are just sitting where they arrived. Again, here we have General Honore, who is on he ground, saying that they need at least TRIPLE the amount of helicopters that are there right now. He seems to know off the top of his head what is needed for the General in charge there right now:
The mayor Trump went after in his tweets this morning has been seen in pictures wading waist-deep in sewage filled waters trying to help her residents. The only sewage Trump is wading through is the sewage in his own brain. The people of Puerto Rico that Trump said want "everything done for them" have been clearing their own roads of trees and evacuating hospitals. I have seen pictures of 5-year old CHILDREN helping to clear debris. Donald Trump is a horrible, horrible person. And if you are wondering why most of his base will never turn on him, all you have to do is turn on FOX News at any hour of the day today. Puerto Rico doesn't exist on FOX News. If I had to guess, there have been dozens if not HUNDREDS of examples of how they deal with bad stories for the Administration. They do a complete blackout on the story and run segments like where Tucker Carlson interviews a witch about placing a curse on Donald Trump.
Another thing I noticed on Fox earlier is they can have two stories but frame them differently to encourage bias.
One story is "homeless man kills three" if the homeless guy is from a red state like Alabama. If it's California, the state with the most people, the story would be "California homeless man kills three". So they conflate the blue state with the crime.
The narrative is forming on the right exactly how Trump now wants it to (because he understands and has been a fan of right-wing talk radio for years): That Puerto Rico's officials are to blame. Even if you ACCEPT the narrative that this is true, it's still a ridiculous argument. There isn't a local government in the entire country that is equipped to deal with this situation. There may not be more than 3 or 4 countries in the entire world capable of dealing with it. The ONLY thing that can turn around a disaster of this magnitude is the full power of the United States federal government, and that same government using it's massive, powerful military to do so.
A disaster like what is happening in Puerto Rico is probably THE main argument for a strong federal government, because no state or territory can handle catastrophic situations like this on their own. Any state would need help. The anti-government sentiment is now so strong on the right that a good portion of them are now subscribing to the idea that people who need disaster relief are moochers who need to fend for themselves. I mean seriously, what is the rational to supporting Trump at this juncture besides simply reveling in his naked cruelty??
I mean, it really feels like Joffrey Baratheon is President, but at least with Joffrey, he had Tywin as the power behind the throne keeping him in line. John Kelly is no Tywin Lanister.
The anti-government sentiment is now so strong on the right that a good portion of them are now subscribing to the idea that people who need disaster relief are moochers who need to fend for themselves.
When it's red Florida and Texas they are not moochers, but when it's not-red state (and not even state at all) Puerto Rico they are moochers because hypocricsy and "America first" meaning to Trump Puerto Rico is not America.
I feel that Trump is a classist (?) not a racist. He hates poor people. It just so happens that lots of black and brown people are poor. In his mind, poor people are poor because they are lazy or dumb and just not worth his time or respect. I think that's why he canned Price - he wasn't rich enough to pay back the cost of his flights like Mnuchin could.
Here is a picture of the Baltimore Ravens getting booed for taking a kneed BEFORE the anthem played. Not about the flag, not about the anthem, never has been, never will be:
Oh really?? I'm guessing the the planning for D-Day, the Berlin airlift, or, you know, GOING TO THE MOON might have something to say about this. Especially considering they were done with 1940s and 1960s technology.
Mass shootings in Vegas. Not many details yet just happened around a music festival.
Enough with the guns yet or is it time to do away with background checks for the mentally ill? Because people say the only person who can stop a bad mentally ill person with a gun is a good mentally ill person with a gun. I have a dream that some day we could stop doing everything the gun lobby tells us to do.
Personally, I think peaceful concert-goers being mowed down by machine gun fire is more disturbing than separatists getting clubbed by the police. I'm not saying anyone should expect a beating for demonstrating, but you have to figure it's a possibility.
So far, two confirmed dead in Vegas with dozens injured.
Las Vegas Metro PD sheriff says more than 20 dead and more than 100 wounded so far. Shooter was a Las Vegas resident but no additional details. The shooter was positioned on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino across the street from the outdoor concert venue.
You'd need a "I'm with stupid" t-shirt no matter which side you pick when it comes to the situation in Catalonia.
I mean, we have a referendum that was declared illegal by courts, that was boycotted by the no side, that had a 42 % voter turnout and thousands of votes that couldn't be counted at all. It's hard to claim that democracy has won in any way with that kind of referendum. But the Catalan leaders are doing just that and are basically declaring themselves independent.
Meanwhile, Madrid has been bullheaded for years on the issue. Instead of opening up to more negotiations, they decided to do a reenactment of Francoist Spain yesterday. Reminding people of why parts of Spain want independence in the first place.
This is how less stable states descend into civil war. And things in Spain/Catalonia might go really bad if the people in charge (on both sides) keep handling this in such a horribly bad way.
Personally, I think peaceful concert-goers being mowed down by machine gun fire is more disturbing than separatists getting clubbed by the police. I'm not saying anyone should expect a beating for demonstrating, but you have to figure it's a possibility.
So far, two confirmed dead in Vegas with dozens injured.
Those "separatists being clubbed by police" is far more significant for world politics than a few more Americans getting gunned down.
It's pretty clear that the Spanish government handled the situation in about the worse way possible, and has possibly pushed Catalonia into independence (and possibly civil war) when simply allowing the vote to take place and promoting the unionist position would have been the sensible strategy. But Catalonia is the only part of Spain that is actually generating wealth, rather than draining it, without Catalonia residual-Spain faces total economic collapse.
But the implications go well beyond Spain. Spain is an EU member state, and the EU has historically opposed breakaway movements within member states, but at the same time promoting human rights and free speech. Anti-EU forces in a range of member states will jump on an opportunity to portray the EU as imperialistic and totalitarian.
In the UK, the foreign secretary has spoken out in support of Madrid. At the last election, Scotland was the only part of the country where the Tories gained ground, at the expense of the Nationalists, largely by speaking out on the benefits of the Union. The SNP will be quick to portray the Tories as being in favour of maintaining the Union by coercion. This will be a huge boost to the Scottish independence movement.
In the USA, embryonic secessionist movements in places like California will be keeping a close eye on events.
Personally, I think peaceful concert-goers being mowed down by machine gun fire is more disturbing than separatists getting clubbed by the police. I'm not saying anyone should expect a beating for demonstrating, but you have to figure it's a possibility.
So far, two confirmed dead in Vegas with dozens injured.
Those "separatists being clubbed by police" is far more significant for world politics than a few more Americans getting gunned down.
I live in Vegas so I'm biased. It's a sad state of affairs when anyone anywhere belittles innocents being slaughtered.
You'd need a "I'm with stupid" t-shirt no matter which side you pick when it comes to the situation in Catalonia.
I mean, we have a referendum that was declared illegal by courts, that was boycotted by the no side, that had a 42 % voter turnout and thousands of votes that couldn't be counted at all. It's hard to claim that democracy has won in any way with that kind of referendum. But the Catalan leaders are doing just that and are basically declaring themselves independent.
Meanwhile, Madrid has been bullheaded for years on the issue. Instead of opening up to more negotiations, they decided to do a reenactment of Francoist Spain yesterday. Reminding people of why parts of Spain want independence in the first place.
This is how less stable states descend into civil war. And things in Spain/Catalonia might go really bad if the people in charge (on both sides) keep handling this in such a horribly bad way.
the false referendum is an anti-democratic act that has had a potential (and a was visibly motivated by a desire) to impose the will of minority to a majority, of both catalan residents and, of course, spanish citizens. catalan government said that the turnout doesn't matter...huh? what about legitimacy? that makes it an act of unconstitutional subversive adventurism that encroaches on people's political freedom and spain makes an argument that police was protecting freedom. you can't see it from the pictures and judging by them it's a hard sell, but essentially they are right. when someone wants to secede you, and police bashes that guy's head, police was acting on your behalf, to protect your freedom not to be seceded via an act of unconstitutional adventurism (that you either rightfully boycotted or ignored). now the question is what's a greater value: one's freedom or one's physical well-being (short of death and grievous injury in this case, which is fortunate)? in western tradition the greater value is freedom.
so to me there's nothing francoist about yesterday's police action. it's justified repression acted out methodically, purposefully and proportionately in order to protect democracy. indeed, some individual acts of gendarmes that we saw are terrible. but it's just individual acts not the whole operation
Personally, I think peaceful concert-goers being mowed down by machine gun fire is more disturbing than separatists getting clubbed by the police. I'm not saying anyone should expect a beating for demonstrating, but you have to figure it's a possibility.
So far, two confirmed dead in Vegas with dozens injured.
Those "separatists being clubbed by police" is far more significant for world politics than a few more Americans getting gunned down.
I live in Vegas so I'm biased. It's a sad state of affairs when anyone anywhere belittles innocents being slaughtered.
They were American citizens. American citizens support the right to bear arms. The shooting is a consequence of that. So I don't really accept the definition of "innocent".
You'd need a "I'm with stupid" t-shirt no matter which side you pick when it comes to the situation in Catalonia.
I mean, we have a referendum that was declared illegal by courts, that was boycotted by the no side, that had a 42 % voter turnout and thousands of votes that couldn't be counted at all. It's hard to claim that democracy has won in any way with that kind of referendum. But the Catalan leaders are doing just that and are basically declaring themselves independent.
Meanwhile, Madrid has been bullheaded for years on the issue. Instead of opening up to more negotiations, they decided to do a reenactment of Francoist Spain yesterday. Reminding people of why parts of Spain want independence in the first place.
This is how less stable states descend into civil war. And things in Spain/Catalonia might go really bad if the people in charge (on both sides) keep handling this in such a horribly bad way.
the false referendum is an anti-democratic act
How can any vote be antidemocratic?
Any attempt by a state to prevent people from voting is anti-democratic.
that has had a potential (and a was visibly motivated by a desire) to impose the will of minority to a majority, of both catalan residents and, of course, spanish citizens. catalan government said that the turnout doesn't matter...huh? what about legitimacy?
Given that Madrid actively prevented people from voting, they can't claim that a low turn-out shows that people don't support independence. If it wasn't supported by the majority they should have proved it by encouraging unionists to turn out and vote.
that makes it an act of unconstitutional
What is a "constitution"? It's a piece of paper that no-one in Catalan voted for. Many states have constitutions claiming control over various bits of foregn countries. It doesn't make it legitimate or true. Calling a document a Constitution does not give it legitimacy.
so to me there's nothing francoist about yesterday's police action. it's justified repression acted out methodically, purposefully and proportionately in order to protect democracy. indeed, some individual acts of gendarmes that we saw are terrible. but it's just individual acts not the whole operation
The police where not Catalans - they where imported from Spain. Catalan police where confined to barracks, and the fire service where out trying to protect the catalan people from spanish police. In effect, a foreign army of occupation. There can never be any justification for any sort of repression, and claiming it is to "protect" democracy is an oxymoron. Democracy is government "of the people, by the people for the people" - government by consent. Government by repression is dictatorship.
Personally, I think peaceful concert-goers being mowed down by machine gun fire is more disturbing than separatists getting clubbed by the police. I'm not saying anyone should expect a beating for demonstrating, but you have to figure it's a possibility.
So far, two confirmed dead in Vegas with dozens injured.
Those "separatists being clubbed by police" is far more significant for world politics than a few more Americans getting gunned down.
I live in Vegas so I'm biased. It's a sad state of affairs when anyone anywhere belittles innocents being slaughtered.
They were American citizens. American citizens support the right to bear arms. The shooting is a consequence of that. So I don't really accept the definition of "innocent".
The Las Vegas Strip is a pretty cosmopolitan place. If citizens of other nations were killed in the incident we could call it a tragedy?
Conflating the right to keep arms with deserving to be murdered in cold blood is a fallacy if there ever was one. I'm not a gun person but a gun is a tool. Any tool can be used for wrong by someone looking to do wrong.
Now more than 50 dead and 200 wounded. The worst mass shooting in US history.
Personally, I think peaceful concert-goers being mowed down by machine gun fire is more disturbing than separatists getting clubbed by the police. I'm not saying anyone should expect a beating for demonstrating, but you have to figure it's a possibility.
So far, two confirmed dead in Vegas with dozens injured.
Those "separatists being clubbed by police" is far more significant for world politics than a few more Americans getting gunned down.
I live in Vegas so I'm biased. It's a sad state of affairs when anyone anywhere belittles innocents being slaughtered.
They were American citizens. American citizens support the right to bear arms. The shooting is a consequence of that. So I don't really accept the definition of "innocent".
The Las Vegas Strip is a pretty cosmopolitan place. If citizens of other nations were killed in the incident we could call it a tragedy?
Conflating the right to keep arms with deserving to be murdered in cold blood is a fallacy if there ever was one. I'm not a gun person but a gun is a tool. Any tool can be used for wrong by someone looking to do wrong.
Now more than 50 dead and 200 wounded. The worst mass shooting in US history.
And nothing will change.
Yes, it if very sad for the families involved. But even if they where holidaymakers, they chose to go on holiday to a country where military-grade weapons are easily available to anyone, so the risk of getting shot is a risk they chose to take, just as someone who chooses to go bungee-jumping accepts the risk that the bungee could snap.
And how many Puerto-ricans died (and continue to die) due to the hurricane?
Personally, I think peaceful concert-goers being mowed down by machine gun fire is more disturbing than separatists getting clubbed by the police. I'm not saying anyone should expect a beating for demonstrating, but you have to figure it's a possibility.
So far, two confirmed dead in Vegas with dozens injured.
Those "separatists being clubbed by police" is far more significant for world politics than a few more Americans getting gunned down.
I live in Vegas so I'm biased. It's a sad state of affairs when anyone anywhere belittles innocents being slaughtered.
They were American citizens. American citizens support the right to bear arms. The shooting is a consequence of that. So I don't really accept the definition of "innocent".
The Las Vegas Strip is a pretty cosmopolitan place. If citizens of other nations were killed in the incident we could call it a tragedy?
Conflating the right to keep arms with deserving to be murdered in cold blood is a fallacy if there ever was one. I'm not a gun person but a gun is a tool. Any tool can be used for wrong by someone looking to do wrong.
Now more than 50 dead and 200 wounded. The worst mass shooting in US history.
And nothing will change.
Yes, it if very sad for the families involved. But even if they where holidaymakers, they chose to go on holiday to a country where military-grade weapons are easily available to anyone, so the risk of getting shot is a risk they chose to take, just as someone who chooses to go bungee-jumping accepts the risk that the bungee could snap.
Please don't think anyone deserves to get killed while enjoying an evening out cuz "risks." That's messed up.
Personally, I think peaceful concert-goers being mowed down by machine gun fire is more disturbing than separatists getting clubbed by the police. I'm not saying anyone should expect a beating for demonstrating, but you have to figure it's a possibility.
So far, two confirmed dead in Vegas with dozens injured.
Those "separatists being clubbed by police" is far more significant for world politics than a few more Americans getting gunned down.
I live in Vegas so I'm biased. It's a sad state of affairs when anyone anywhere belittles innocents being slaughtered.
They were American citizens. American citizens support the right to bear arms. The shooting is a consequence of that. So I don't really accept the definition of "innocent".
The Las Vegas Strip is a pretty cosmopolitan place. If citizens of other nations were killed in the incident we could call it a tragedy?
Conflating the right to keep arms with deserving to be murdered in cold blood is a fallacy if there ever was one. I'm not a gun person but a gun is a tool. Any tool can be used for wrong by someone looking to do wrong.
Now more than 50 dead and 200 wounded. The worst mass shooting in US history.
And nothing will change.
Yes, it if very sad for the families involved. But even if they where holidaymakers, they chose to go on holiday to a country where military-grade weapons are easily available to anyone, so the risk of getting shot is a risk they chose to take, just as someone who chooses to go bungee-jumping accepts the risk that the bungee could snap.
Please don't think anyone deserves to get killed while enjoying an evening out. That's messed up.
How many lives could have been saved if they used the money they spent of their evening out to help disaster victims?
Personally, I think peaceful concert-goers being mowed down by machine gun fire is more disturbing than separatists getting clubbed by the police. I'm not saying anyone should expect a beating for demonstrating, but you have to figure it's a possibility.
So far, two confirmed dead in Vegas with dozens injured.
Those "separatists being clubbed by police" is far more significant for world politics than a few more Americans getting gunned down.
I live in Vegas so I'm biased. It's a sad state of affairs when anyone anywhere belittles innocents being slaughtered.
They were American citizens. American citizens support the right to bear arms. The shooting is a consequence of that. So I don't really accept the definition of "innocent".
The Las Vegas Strip is a pretty cosmopolitan place. If citizens of other nations were killed in the incident we could call it a tragedy?
Conflating the right to keep arms with deserving to be murdered in cold blood is a fallacy if there ever was one. I'm not a gun person but a gun is a tool. Any tool can be used for wrong by someone looking to do wrong.
Now more than 50 dead and 200 wounded. The worst mass shooting in US history.
And nothing will change.
Yes, it if very sad for the families involved. But even if they where holidaymakers, they chose to go on holiday to a country where military-grade weapons are easily available to anyone, so the risk of getting shot is a risk they chose to take, just as someone who chooses to go bungee-jumping accepts the risk that the bungee could snap.
Please don't think anyone deserves to get killed while enjoying an evening out. That's messed up.
How many lives could have been saved if they used the money they spent of their evening out to help disaster victims?
I really don't see what that has to do with anything. Americans are very philanthropic. We also enjoy a good time. Sorry if dour Eurotypes don't understand.
Look, I love Europe. Hell, I'm only a second generation American my grandparents hailing from Austria (dad side) and Ireland (mom side). But your position that Americans should expect to be shot and accept it is disgusting.
The point is this: if 50 people die in road traffic accidents it is very sad for the families concerned, but if nothing changes it's of no real significance to anyone else.
Any attempt by a state to prevent people from voting is anti-democratic.
many votes can be antidemocratic. a vote where I decide about your affairs is anti-democratic you can only democratically vote on things that pertain to you. you can say that the population of catalonia is the "you" in the previous sentence, that they are the collective political subject. but... "you" doesn't exist if the collective doesn't recognize itself as this subject in the first place, before even voting. if someone ignores the referendum because he doesn't consider it his referendum, he is not being a part of the deciding body and the legitimacy equation doesn't include him. the only way to have a referendum not marginalize anyone that it touches on is if no, or almost no resident of catalonia can say that it "not his referendum", and the only way to achieve this is to have the referendum be constitutional. there must be an authoritative, convincing claim that everyone whom the decision involves is the subject who makes the decision, there must be something that makes the sum of christina, pedro and mike into something greater, into "a people". the process must be procedurally valid in order for the collective political subject to legitimate itself, to come forward as a "we". if you don't have this framework it's always an us vs. them, and you can't secede your neighbor, you can only secede yourself.
or theoretically (...nebulously) people who voted for independence can only secede themselves and the territory that they own. that's reaching the us level of ideological absurdity where some farmers think they can secede their farms from the us.
Oh really?? I'm guessing the the planning for D-Day, the Berlin airlift, or, you know, GOING TO THE MOON might have something to say about this. Especially considering they were done with 1940s and 1960s technology.
True, it's probably not, in terms of scale, but it'd be competitive.
From Wikipedia about the Berlin Airlift: "The American military government, based on a minimum daily ration of 1,990 calories (July 1948), set a total of daily supplies needed at 646 tons of flour and wheat, 125 tons of cereal, 64 tons of fat, 109 tons of meat and fish, 180 tons of dehydrated potatoes, 180 tons of sugar, 11 tons of coffee, 19 tons of powdered milk, 5 tons of whole milk for children, 3 tons of fresh yeast for baking, 144 tons of dehydrated vegetables, 38 tons of salt and 10 tons of cheese. In all, 1,534 tons were required each day to sustain the over two million people of Berlin. Additionally, for heat and power, 3,475 tons of coal and gasoline were also required daily."
Puerto Rico is somewhere between 1.5 and 1.8 times that. Let's double it (got to feed the people we're sending too) and say we only need half the fuel/person for being in the tropics+energy conservation over 65 years. That's 6543 tons/day of food+fuel (1534*2+3475). And it becomes larger than the Berlin Airlift, except that it can come in by ship.
Incidentally, the Army estimate above means roughly 1.5 lb per person per day, which sounds about right. Assuming fat is 30% of dietary weight, that's 5.5 calories/gram of dry weight, 2000 calories would be 364g, or .8lb dry weight. Watered weight would be about twice that. I don't think many people think about the fact they're eating 1.5 lb of food PER DAY.
Back to Normandy: By 13 days after Normandy's invasion, U.S.+Britain had landed about 16,800 tons/day of material at Normandy's landings. By the end of August when Normandy's impromptu harbors were closed for favor of a REAL port+facilities, it was averaging about 9,000 tons/day, per Wikipedia.
So, logistics of the post-Normandy logistics is MUCH larger than the Berlin Airlift (and my impromptu humanitarian estimate for the PR disaster), but that would have included all sorts of war material, not just food and fuel. Plus, you know, coming in by ship rather than cargo plane means you can move a lot more weight at one time.
However, Berlin was a city under no emergency save a peaceful blockade, meaning everything can be easily distributed once it gets IN. Puerto Rico is an island roughly 110x40 miles, with one major city, a couple smaller cities, and dozens of smaller towns. I've been there twice, last time was about 5 years ago, it has (had?) a relatively decent highway going around the island but getting off that you quickly go into rural roads of dubious construction. Distribution is going to be a b---- following a Cat 4 hurricane.
I don't even know how one would rate the Apollo Space Program since it was stretched out over YEARS.
Funny enough, just Saturday morning I was helping volunteer at a food bank as part of a student organization. It was the first time I've been at one, and I was staggered by how much food there was. Literally tons and tons of bulk foods, never seen so much canned tomatoes in my life in one place. For example, first thing we passed by coming out into the warehouse was a literal WALL of canned evaporated milk probably 25 feet high and maybe 30 feet long and I guess a pallet-width thick (4 ft?). Over a bit less than 2 hours, about 20-30 of us broke bulk shipping of juice, canned goods (tuna, beans, veggies like those tomatoes), bags of beans, and box pasta down and combined the materials into bagged daily foods of about ~500 bags or so I heard the estimate was. I'd guess each bag probably weighed about 20 lb when full, with half of that being the 2 half-gallons of juice (one orange, one cranapple I think).
I'm always fascinated by the sheer scale of logistics necessary for everyday life for the teeming mass of humanity, even smaller sets of it. And then get boggled by people who claim we don't have a huge impact on the earth when it's staring them right in the face.
TL;DR: It's still a huge effort on a massive scale involving what's eventually going to be millions of tons of shipping.
P.S. What about building materials to, you know, REBUILD? Or, you know, all the OTHER islands smacked around that can't claim to be holding millions of Americans?
Any attempt by a state to prevent people from voting is anti-democratic.
many votes can be antidemocratic. a vote where I decide about your affairs is anti-democratic you can only democratically vote on things that pertain to you.
That is one of the silliest things I have heard.
Pretty much every vote pertains to other people. The election of Donald Trump as the president of the USA had a huge effect on everyone on the planet. Withdrawal from the Paris accord for a start. That doesn't mean the American people shouldn't have the right to choose any president they like.
and the only way to achieve this is to have the referendum be constitutional.
There was no way for the referendum to be "constitutional", because the constitution of Spain prevents any part of Spain ever seceding under any circumstance. The whole point of the referendum was to reject the Spanish constitution.
It was "unconstitutional" for the USA to leave the British Empire, nor was there any evidence that the majority of Americans where in favour of independence.
i respect your view and it'svalid for the us but the legal and political doctrine is different in europe. the subject of democracy is not the simple sum of individuals it's a constituency. a constituency has a will and the voting is an expression of this will. a majority decides because a majority of people is the predominant essence, the true will of the constituency. but in catalonia there is no constituency for this referendum. what defines the catalan constituency for the purposes of this referendum, administrative borders? they mean nothing in this regard. the autonomy in spain means nothing for the purposes of self-determination. the only criteria can be the ethnic criteria, an ethnic constituency. and we're so over that
Comments
The mayor Trump went after in his tweets this morning has been seen in pictures wading waist-deep in sewage filled waters trying to help her residents. The only sewage Trump is wading through is the sewage in his own brain. The people of Puerto Rico that Trump said want "everything done for them" have been clearing their own roads of trees and evacuating hospitals. I have seen pictures of 5-year old CHILDREN helping to clear debris. Donald Trump is a horrible, horrible person. And if you are wondering why most of his base will never turn on him, all you have to do is turn on FOX News at any hour of the day today. Puerto Rico doesn't exist on FOX News. If I had to guess, there have been dozens if not HUNDREDS of examples of how they deal with bad stories for the Administration. They do a complete blackout on the story and run segments like where Tucker Carlson interviews a witch about placing a curse on Donald Trump.
One story is "homeless man kills three" if the homeless guy is from a red state like Alabama. If it's California, the state with the most people, the story would be "California homeless man kills three". So they conflate the blue state with the crime.
A disaster like what is happening in Puerto Rico is probably THE main argument for a strong federal government, because no state or territory can handle catastrophic situations like this on their own. Any state would need help. The anti-government sentiment is now so strong on the right that a good portion of them are now subscribing to the idea that people who need disaster relief are moochers who need to fend for themselves. I mean seriously, what is the rational to supporting Trump at this juncture besides simply reveling in his naked cruelty??
I mean, it really feels like Joffrey Baratheon is President, but at least with Joffrey, he had Tywin as the power behind the throne keeping him in line. John Kelly is no Tywin Lanister.
Meanwhile:
Oh really?? I'm guessing the the planning for D-Day, the Berlin airlift, or, you know, GOING TO THE MOON might have something to say about this. Especially considering they were done with 1940s and 1960s technology.
Enough with the guns yet or is it time to do away with background checks for the mentally ill? Because people say the only person who can stop a bad mentally ill person with a gun is a good mentally ill person with a gun. I have a dream that some day we could stop doing everything the gun lobby tells us to do.
So far, two confirmed dead in Vegas with dozens injured.
I mean, we have a referendum that was declared illegal by courts, that was boycotted by the no side, that had a 42 % voter turnout and thousands of votes that couldn't be counted at all. It's hard to claim that democracy has won in any way with that kind of referendum. But the Catalan leaders are doing just that and are basically declaring themselves independent.
Meanwhile, Madrid has been bullheaded for years on the issue. Instead of opening up to more negotiations, they decided to do a reenactment of Francoist Spain yesterday. Reminding people of why parts of Spain want independence in the first place.
This is how less stable states descend into civil war. And things in Spain/Catalonia might go really bad if the people in charge (on both sides) keep handling this in such a horribly bad way.
It's pretty clear that the Spanish government handled the situation in about the worse way possible, and has possibly pushed Catalonia into independence (and possibly civil war) when simply allowing the vote to take place and promoting the unionist position would have been the sensible strategy. But Catalonia is the only part of Spain that is actually generating wealth, rather than draining it, without Catalonia residual-Spain faces total economic collapse.
But the implications go well beyond Spain. Spain is an EU member state, and the EU has historically opposed breakaway movements within member states, but at the same time promoting human rights and free speech. Anti-EU forces in a range of member states will jump on an opportunity to portray the EU as imperialistic and totalitarian.
In the UK, the foreign secretary has spoken out in support of Madrid. At the last election, Scotland was the only part of the country where the Tories gained ground, at the expense of the Nationalists, largely by speaking out on the benefits of the Union. The SNP will be quick to portray the Tories as being in favour of maintaining the Union by coercion. This will be a huge boost to the Scottish independence movement.
In the USA, embryonic secessionist movements in places like California will be keeping a close eye on events.
that makes it an act of unconstitutional subversive adventurism that encroaches on people's political freedom and spain makes an argument that police was protecting freedom. you can't see it from the pictures and judging by them it's a hard sell, but essentially they are right. when someone wants to secede you, and police bashes that guy's head, police was acting on your behalf, to protect your freedom not to be seceded via an act of unconstitutional adventurism (that you either rightfully boycotted or ignored). now the question is what's a greater value: one's freedom or one's physical well-being (short of death and grievous injury in this case, which is fortunate)? in western tradition the greater value is freedom.
so to me there's nothing francoist about yesterday's police action. it's justified repression acted out methodically, purposefully and proportionately in order to protect democracy. indeed, some individual acts of gendarmes that we saw are terrible. but it's just individual acts not the whole operation
Any attempt by a state to prevent people from voting is anti-democratic.
Given that Madrid actively prevented people from voting, they can't claim that a low turn-out shows that people don't support independence. If it wasn't supported by the majority they should have proved it by encouraging unionists to turn out and vote.
What is a "constitution"? It's a piece of paper that no-one in Catalan voted for. Many states have constitutions claiming control over various bits of foregn countries. It doesn't make it legitimate or true. Calling a document a Constitution does not give it legitimacy.
The police where not Catalans - they where imported from Spain. Catalan police where confined to barracks, and the fire service where out trying to protect the catalan people from spanish police. In effect, a foreign army of occupation. There can never be any justification for any sort of repression, and claiming it is to "protect" democracy is an oxymoron. Democracy is government "of the people, by the people for the people" - government by consent. Government by repression is dictatorship.
Conflating the right to keep arms with deserving to be murdered in cold blood is a fallacy if there ever was one. I'm not a gun person but a gun is a tool. Any tool can be used for wrong by someone looking to do wrong.
Now more than 50 dead and 200 wounded. The worst mass shooting in US history.
Yes, it if very sad for the families involved. But even if they where holidaymakers, they chose to go on holiday to a country where military-grade weapons are easily available to anyone, so the risk of getting shot is a risk they chose to take, just as someone who chooses to go bungee-jumping accepts the risk that the bungee could snap.
And how many Puerto-ricans died (and continue to die) due to the hurricane?
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37762753
Where is the U.K.? Eighth? That's just sad.
Look, I love Europe. Hell, I'm only a second generation American my grandparents hailing from Austria (dad side) and Ireland (mom side). But your position that Americans should expect to be shot and accept it is disgusting.
you can only democratically vote on things that pertain to you. you can say that the population of catalonia is the "you" in the previous sentence, that they are the collective political subject. but... "you" doesn't exist if the collective doesn't recognize itself as this subject in the first place, before even voting. if someone ignores the referendum because he doesn't consider it his referendum, he is not being a part of the deciding body and the legitimacy equation doesn't include him. the only way to have a referendum not marginalize anyone that it touches on is if no, or almost no resident of catalonia can say that it "not his referendum", and the only way to achieve this is to have the referendum be constitutional. there must be an authoritative, convincing claim that everyone whom the decision involves is the subject who makes the decision, there must be something that makes the sum of christina, pedro and mike into something greater, into "a people". the process must be procedurally valid in order for the collective political subject to legitimate itself, to come forward as a "we". if you don't have this framework it's always an us vs. them, and you can't secede your neighbor, you can only secede yourself.
or theoretically (...nebulously) people who voted for independence can only secede themselves and the territory that they own. that's reaching the us level of ideological absurdity where some farmers think they can secede their farms from the us.
From Wikipedia about the Berlin Airlift:
"The American military government, based on a minimum daily ration of 1,990 calories (July 1948), set a total of daily supplies needed at 646 tons of flour and wheat, 125 tons of cereal, 64 tons of fat, 109 tons of meat and fish, 180 tons of dehydrated potatoes, 180 tons of sugar, 11 tons of coffee, 19 tons of powdered milk, 5 tons of whole milk for children, 3 tons of fresh yeast for baking, 144 tons of dehydrated vegetables, 38 tons of salt and 10 tons of cheese. In all, 1,534 tons were required each day to sustain the over two million people of Berlin. Additionally, for heat and power, 3,475 tons of coal and gasoline were also required daily."
Puerto Rico is somewhere between 1.5 and 1.8 times that. Let's double it (got to feed the people we're sending too) and say we only need half the fuel/person for being in the tropics+energy conservation over 65 years. That's 6543 tons/day of food+fuel (1534*2+3475). And it becomes larger than the Berlin Airlift, except that it can come in by ship.
Incidentally, the Army estimate above means roughly 1.5 lb per person per day, which sounds about right. Assuming fat is 30% of dietary weight, that's 5.5 calories/gram of dry weight, 2000 calories would be 364g, or .8lb dry weight. Watered weight would be about twice that. I don't think many people think about the fact they're eating 1.5 lb of food PER DAY.
Back to Normandy:
By 13 days after Normandy's invasion, U.S.+Britain had landed about 16,800 tons/day of material at Normandy's landings. By the end of August when Normandy's impromptu harbors were closed for favor of a REAL port+facilities, it was averaging about 9,000 tons/day, per Wikipedia.
So, logistics of the post-Normandy logistics is MUCH larger than the Berlin Airlift (and my impromptu humanitarian estimate for the PR disaster), but that would have included all sorts of war material, not just food and fuel. Plus, you know, coming in by ship rather than cargo plane means you can move a lot more weight at one time.
However, Berlin was a city under no emergency save a peaceful blockade, meaning everything can be easily distributed once it gets IN. Puerto Rico is an island roughly 110x40 miles, with one major city, a couple smaller cities, and dozens of smaller towns. I've been there twice, last time was about 5 years ago, it has (had?) a relatively decent highway going around the island but getting off that you quickly go into rural roads of dubious construction. Distribution is going to be a b---- following a Cat 4 hurricane.
I don't even know how one would rate the Apollo Space Program since it was stretched out over YEARS.
Funny enough, just Saturday morning I was helping volunteer at a food bank as part of a student organization. It was the first time I've been at one, and I was staggered by how much food there was. Literally tons and tons of bulk foods, never seen so much canned tomatoes in my life in one place. For example, first thing we passed by coming out into the warehouse was a literal WALL of canned evaporated milk probably 25 feet high and maybe 30 feet long and I guess a pallet-width thick (4 ft?). Over a bit less than 2 hours, about 20-30 of us broke bulk shipping of juice, canned goods (tuna, beans, veggies like those tomatoes), bags of beans, and box pasta down and combined the materials into bagged daily foods of about ~500 bags or so I heard the estimate was. I'd guess each bag probably weighed about 20 lb when full, with half of that being the 2 half-gallons of juice (one orange, one cranapple I think).
I'm always fascinated by the sheer scale of logistics necessary for everyday life for the teeming mass of humanity, even smaller sets of it. And then get boggled by people who claim we don't have a huge impact on the earth when it's staring them right in the face.
TL;DR: It's still a huge effort on a massive scale involving what's eventually going to be millions of tons of shipping.
P.S. What about building materials to, you know, REBUILD? Or, you know, all the OTHER islands smacked around that can't claim to be holding millions of Americans?
Pretty much every vote pertains to other people. The election of Donald Trump as the president of the USA had a huge effect on everyone on the planet. Withdrawal from the Paris accord for a start. That doesn't mean the American people shouldn't have the right to choose any president they like. There was no way for the referendum to be "constitutional", because the constitution of Spain prevents any part of Spain ever seceding under any circumstance. The whole point of the referendum was to reject the Spanish constitution.
It was "unconstitutional" for the USA to leave the British Empire, nor was there any evidence that the majority of Americans where in favour of independence.