Puerto Rico

I know this should go in the Trump thread, but I have to get it out of my system.

President Trump has the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and the ego to match. With him it's not about political convictions, it's personal, and he looooovvvves making it personal. Yes, the Feds can't stay in Puerto Rico "forever," just as they couldn't stay in Louisiana or Long Island or Southern California "forever." But was that a useful or productive thing to say? Hell, no. Is Puerto Rico overburdened with an inefficient, convoluted bureaucracy that left the island ill-prepared to meet a challenge like Hurricane Maria? Yes, but the president's implying that they want to be babysat in perpetuity accomplishes nothing at the point we are now.

Trump has let this turn into a mudslinging battle between himself and the mayor of San Juan, and both of them are so busy pointing fingers and scoring points that they're forgetting it's a matter of working together for recovery, then getting the Feds the hell out.

I wish one of them would remember to be the grownup in the room, but I don't hold out hope for either. I know little about Madame Mayor, but if Mr. Trump hasn't learned by his age that "same to you, and more of it" accomplishes nothing, I doubt he ever will.

Was never and am not now a Hillary fan. But I pray the current POTUS is a one-termer.

 

They don't; just in the primaries.

 

But here is the thing, Puerto Ricans can serve in the U.S. military, and are eligible to get drafted by a President into a war, yet they don't get the chance to vote to decide who the President is.

 

Which is wholly unfair in my opinion. >:[ They either become a U.S. state, or they be granted independence.

 

Here's the latest on statehood-or-not. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/11/532482957/puerto-rico-votes-on-statehood-though-congress-will-make-final-call As you can see, It's Complicated.

 

Just FYI, Trump also decided to not renew the waiver of the Jones Act.

 

I just got off a chat with another friend of Wrey's who's trying to send him some stuff, apparently UPS says they're shipping to the island, but in fact all of the shipments are still stuck on the mainland. "2nd Day Air" is a week overdue...

 

Where's the Army Corps of Engineers when you need them?

There's got to be a way to move this process forward.

 

Woo-hoo! Just got a message from @Wreybies, he's heading into town and found a signal for a bit. No power, no water, but he seems okay (not replying any more, but he had time to say "hi", which is positive).

 

The mods just got a "hi" from him as well. He said he's still without power or water and has been told to wait until December for that.

 

Wrey just popped up again on Facebook on Monday. Very briefly, but he's in San Juan, picking up his brother from the airport (who will be laden with supplies, I assume) and is also attempting to pick up packages that may have arrived at the distribution centre. Signals are still out, so he can't stay connected for long, but he says they're getting by okay. Let's hope his brother's visit boosts him, not only with supplies but with our support and his family's support as well.

It's been more than a month since that hurricane hit, and they're still without power and basic supplies. Hard to fathom what he and everybody else on the island must be going through.

 

It's not hard for me to believe this is happening--look at Haiti after the earthquake, etc. It's just really, really hard to understand why it's happening in the richest country in the world. At least, hard to understand it without getting pretty damn cynical and accusatory.

 

I just read another posting on Facebook that talks about the situation in Puerto Rico, and it mentions how dependent the first world is on electricity. When that stops, everything grinds to a halt. Puerto Rico has got a huge new windfarm all set up and ready to go at the moment. None of the windmills got damaged in the hurricane, BUT they can't use the windfarm until they get other electricity back, because the windmills need electricity to get them started.

I find I get really nervous, thinking about how dependent we are on a technology that we, personally, have no control over. Yikes.

 

I'm sure it's more difficult because it's an island, but I think of the technological might and physical power of the US military and I just can't believe they couldn't set up generators or solar arrays or whatever else is needed. And if all that's necessary is enough power to start the windfarm, that seems even easier.

ETA: I live in a rural area with a lot of bad winter weather, and almost everybody has a generator in their garage for emergencies. Well, no, not almost everybody--almost all the people with enough money to manage it. Which I think is kind of what prompts my amazement on this one--it's the United States. They've got the money. They need to get on it.

 

Yes, absolutely. I can't believe that aid is being refused or pittanced-out because of political antipathy to the Puerto Rican government and people—but that's what seems to be happening. Bernie Sanders just said that he's going himself, and I think he plans to institute some kind of real assistance. I suspect there are huge numbers of of people out there who want to help, but in order to do so, they actually have to BYPASS obstructions set up by the US government—which is supposed to be caring for its citizens. That boggles the mind. It really does.

 

I know one of the things Wrey told me earlier this year, before the hurricane, is that the power distribution system, i.e. the actual lines connecting the power generation points to the houses and businesses, was shit. He would frequently experience brownouts and blackouts when lines were taken down by trees or... amphibious Caribbean moose? Whatever, point is that the hurricane has utterly destroyed a large portion of the power infrastructure, even if they had wind farms/solar/whatever, there's currently no way to get the electricity to the customers.

Here are some Florida companies that have sent line crews to work on the problem, gives you an idea of the scale of things:

 

That's what boggles my mind. We're supposed to be one of the most powerful nations on Earth, yet our orange president acts like it's soooo hard to give aid to Puerto Rico. For God's sake, we can send a military jet halfway around the world in less than two days, you mean to tell me, Orange Man, that we can't send help to an island that's at least half a day's military-jet flight away from us?

Simply put, he doesn't care. As far as he's concerned, Puerto Rico is an island full of Spanish speaking "brown people" who didn't vote for him, thus don't deserve his help.

 

At least he got my parcel. Sort of thanks to DHL. They got it to PR in 2 days, but then they weren't able to deliver it to where he lives (totally in the boonies) because there was an "address problem". He eventually picked it up in San Juan.

 

I think if they could get the power to the water treatment plants that would be an excellent start. Run some temporary lines and get on with it.

 

Heard from him again today! It's like he keeps phasing in and out, like some kind of hologram. There are some hot spots where he can find a signal, but it's not easy. Because of the lack of electricity, water purification plants struggle to function. Once again, the most remote and poorest areas suffer the most.

 

I presume he must be still trying to conserve battery power to his devices as well as trying to find hot spots. He left a message on Facebook yesterday, sounding very "Wrey." Getting by, still okay, adjusting to the new normal, making some new friends, thanking everybody for their help and good wishes, etc. Then, as @KaTrian said, he did the hologram thing again and disappeared.