How will the dismantling of USAID affect U.S. relief efforts in Jamaica? Hint: It's another Trump disaster.

[Doodley]

USAID was the lead federal agency coordinating disaster response but no longer exists.

The agency had a staff of about 800 people trained in disaster relief and a road map for handling disasters like Melissa. For disasters like this epic hurricane, preparations would have started months in advance.

"USAID would have been working with governments and embassies in the region on preparing for hurricane season," says Sarah Charles, who led USAID's Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance during the Biden administration.

SNIP

Experts interviewed also cautioned that the State Department is bureaucratic and has systems and operating procedures that were not built with disaster relief in mind. So things could take longer.

SNIP

Then there's the matter of the budget upheaval. Heidel says the cuts to programs and staff limits the capability for the U.S. to respond to new disasters that can happen anywhere, "because they're spread so very thin on all of the pre-existing disasters. Obviously, there's so much going on worldwide and in the Middle East and in Africa," he says.

And with all the cuts, he says that there's simply "no way that the U.S. government is going to be able to provide a major level of support that they have provided in the past."


https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/10/29/g-s1-95551/jamaica-melissa-hurricane-relief-usaid

[patphil]

1. This administration is driven by several things, but hate, ego and greed seem to be at the forefront.

Of course the hatred for anyone black or brown, and/or with certain religious or cultural background is obvious.
The self-centered super ego is also obvious, as is the intense greed.
Add to that a "leader" who is terribly insecure and fearful; one who lashes out at anyone who crosses him in any way, and you have a recipe for disaster.
His insecurity requires he pick people for key positions in government who aren't prepared to do their jobs in any way, and are so incompetent that they could never challenge his "leadership". In other words, grateful, bewildered toadies; people who always wanted to run something, but would never get the chance on their own.

It was inevitable that USAID would be destroyed, as will any program that helps people who Trump doesn't like, or are perceived as unable or unwilling to be useful to him.
The pain, suffering, death, and destruction that swirls around Trump is simply an emanation from the deep darkness at the core of his being. He'll tear the nation down and "rebuild" it in his image and likeness; wrecking or ruining anything he can't alter to fit his vision. The man is perverse, but those who support him are even worse. They feed off his perversion, and use it to further their own desires.

Jamaica is just another piece of collateral damage in the hellish world of Trump.

[SARose]

2. Love your neighbor

Welcome the stranger
Feed the hungry
Clothe the naked
Visit the sick
Visit those in prison

Love for the poor -- whatever the form their poverty may take -- is the evangelical hallmark of a Church faithful to the heart of God," the pope wrote in "Dilexi Te" (IHave Loved You), an apostolic exhortation "to all Christians on love for the poor.”

Pope Leo IV

For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them.

Isaiah 61:8

How much more do MAGATs need to hear?

[maxsolomon]

3. JA is in the Commonwealth. Canada will help, UK will help, etc.

Haiti? Haiti is fucked.