Milbank: Sad suspicion over Trumps weak Puerto Rico response
Suppose that the entire San Diego metropolitan area had lost electrical power, and it wouldnt be restored for months.
Or, suppose that most of the ports, roads and cellular towers in the Seattle metropolitan area had been destroyed, and a major dam had failed.
Or, that the combined populations of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont had seen much of their forests and agricultural land wiped out.
Or, that the residents of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming combined had lost access to food and clean water, leaving them vulnerable to cholera. And imagine that overflowing hospitals, without power, had no capacity to deal with an outbreak.
Now, imagine that in response to any of these scenarios, the president of the United States variously ignored the plight of the affected Americans (in all of the above cases about 3.4 million people, give or take), blamed them for their own troubles and provided inadequate help. This is precisely what is happening right now to the 3.4 million U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico, an island territory more populous than about 20 states. Hurricane Maria essentially wiped out these Americans ports, roads, electricity, communications, water supply and crops and many homes. Yet, a week after the storm, the response from the American mainland has been paltry.
There is no rush, as there was after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, to approve the emergency funds that Puerto Rico will surely need. There has been no massive movement of military personnel and equipment to Puerto Rico: no aircraft carrier (one was sent to the Florida Keys in response to Hurricane Irma), no hospital ship (finally on Tuesday afternoon the Navy said it was sending one).
http://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/milbank-sad-suspicion-over-trumps-weak-puerto-rico-response/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=9b81f084cf-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-9b81f084cf-228635337
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)niyad
(113,049 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)niyad
(113,049 posts)DBoon
(22,338 posts)This will end up being a Chernobyl scale event.
That reactor melt down was a factor in the demise of the Soviet Union
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)dhill926
(16,314 posts)They think he's gonna cut their taxes. He tweaks libtards. He's a racist and misogynist. That's all they care about. Idiots and assholes.
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)dhill926
(16,314 posts)simply stating their prejudices...
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)lark
(23,061 posts)It was the rest of us that pushed the negligence and incompetence meme. drumpfs' base is KKK, Nazi and greedy 1%er - they totally care about nobody or nothing except themselves.
oasis
(49,325 posts)Historic NY
(37,449 posts)he hated them in NY and you can bet he calls them s----s.
dae
(3,396 posts)pnwmom
(108,955 posts)whose voters didn't vote for him.
groundloop
(11,513 posts)I'm not so sure about this becoming "45*s Katrina" because of the fact that Puerto Rico is far far away from the consciousness of so many Americans. I'm not just talking about 45*s racist base either, as a nation we have become very self centered.
demigoddess
(6,640 posts)American citizens, that they pay taxes, etc.
Stuart G
(38,410 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)We once had lots of Hispanic friends because of where we lived. Fore sure, the family-oriented culture didn't need improving to my mind and I'd hate to see it lose anything special from being "woke," but it's past time for them to look out and take control. And there are enough of them that even the conservatives could join the GOP and help wipe the floor with the Koch alliance's base.