Aid, until rather recently, had not reached a lot of places it was needed. It is also very arguable that the present level of aid is dramatically insufficient.
The government and Trump spent a lot of time telling us these facts were not true.
He was talking about pre-staging relief supplies, which would have to ride out the hurricane at sea. Sure, we made a massive relief effort for Haiti, but like the Puerto Rico effort, it too took time to get underway and for relief to actually reach most of those in need.
Very true and many people forget that you have to be able to distribute them once in theater which clearly is an issue with PR. As with many issues there's blame enough to go around for everyone involved. I'm miffed by how the Comfort isn't being used to treat people from the mainland. PR's infrastructure needs to be addressed so a future storm isn't able to inflict the same level of damage that this one did.On ships, agreed. But Puerto Rico should have been staging emergency supplies for hurricane emergency relief. Galveston still does and hasn't been hit by a deadly hurricane event for over a hundred years.
For that matter, it's entirely possible that Puerto Rico have been staging emergency supplies for hurricane emergency relief. Seems to me they have plenty, it's getting it to those in need that is proving so difficult.
Dude, read the rule book; you are totally failing at Evil Trump.
Good for her. Can't have been easy politically for her to say that. Still, everyone knows that Puerto Rico's various government entities are typically ineffective, if not completely corrupt. Given that, Trump needs to step up military and contractor involvement in actually getting aid to those in need and in rebuilding. A lot of aid is simply disappearing, being misappropriated or outright stolen. That isn't Trump's fault, to be sure, but he's the guy with the most power to fix it.
On ships, agreed. But Puerto Rico should have been staging emergency supplies for hurricane emergency relief. Galveston still does and hasn't been hit by a deadly hurricane event for over a hundred years.
For that matter, it's entirely possible that Puerto Rico have been staging emergency supplies for hurricane emergency relief. Seems to me they have plenty, it's getting it to those in need that is proving so difficult.
They seem hell bent on doing things to shore up the wealthiest segment of our population.I seriously doubt that Trump or a Republican Congress has the vision to do that, not when they're in the throes of tax cut fever.
They seem hell bent on doing things to shore up the wealthiest segment of our population.
When it comes to wealthy people there doesn't seem to be much difference in political affiliations. Rich people want to stay rich and support whatever vehicle affords them that possibility maintaining their transfer of wealth to the top. After WW2 a person could work a job and support a family so the wife could stay at home and take care of it but not anymore.They've been waging & winning top down class warfare from Reagan forward. Witness the doubling of the share of national income going to the top 1% between 1980 & today.
It's not enough, of course. It never is.
I look back at history and understand the need for a strong military. As a matter of fact I'm watching a WW2 documentary right now which exposes how the U.S. and Europe drew down after WW1 leaving them vulnerable which Hitler and the Japanese exploited. At the same time I don't feel like we should have to pay to occupy every possible continent so there has to be a balance.That's why the military is for. Beefed up government jobs program.
I agree with a balance, 100%. What I see is not that.I look back at history and understand the need for a strong military. As a matter of fact I'm watching a WW2 documentary right now which exposes how the U.S. and Europe drew down after WW1 leaving them vulnerable which Hitler and the Japanese exploited. At the same time I don't feel like we should have to pay to occupy every possible continent so there has to be a balance.
When it comes to wealthy people there doesn't seem to be much difference in political affiliations. Rich people want to stay rich and support whatever vehicle affords them that possibility maintaining their transfer of wealth to the top. After WW2 a person could work a job and support a family so the wife could stay at home and take care of it but not anymore.
Meanwhile salaries at the top continue to outpace the rest of the workforce by a wide margin. I had to study executive compensation in a human resources class which really opened my eyes to the disparity. Then of course the shareholders have to get their cut through dividends which is part of owning stocks so of course the board of directors has to keep them happy too so they continue to receive investment.
The days of going to work fresh out of high school and earning a good wage are almost over as factories continue to offshore. Now a few foreign companies are building plants here to circumvent tariffs but not at the same pace as those leaving.
You need to read and comprehend what . . . um . . .So, slime the victims, right?
Yup. They should have massive stockpiles of relief supplies in hardened regional locations as well as local stockpiles, since they are uniquely vulnerable to hurricanes. Same with the Virgin Islands, although they seem much better prepared.Very true and many people forget that you have to be able to distribute them once in theater which clearly is an issue with PR. As with many issues there's blame enough to go around for everyone involved. I'm miffed by how the Comfort isn't being used to treat people from the mainland. PR's infrastructure needs to be addressed so a future storm isn't able to inflict the same level of damage that this one did.
You need to read and comprehend what . . . um . . .
You need to find someone who can read and comprehend what I wrote and explain it to you . . . uh . . .
You know what? Nevermind. You can't get there from here.
My own preference would be to have no American troops on foreign soil except where we are still at war, such as South Korea. Rather than spending money on maintaining foreign bases, let's spend our money on rapid deployment capabilities. Host nations that want American protection should be paying to keep bases suitable for our use at need. That way we don't have to anticipate a trouble spot to be prepared to respond to it. And if we have a non-military emergency such as Haiti or Puerto Rico, we have assets to rapidly deploy massive levels of supplies.I look back at history and understand the need for a strong military. As a matter of fact I'm watching a WW2 documentary right now which exposes how the U.S. and Europe drew down after WW1 leaving them vulnerable which Hitler and the Japanese exploited. At the same time I don't feel like we should have to pay to occupy every possible continent so there has to be a balance.
You seriously have the reading comprehension of an ADD four year old. In a hurricane. And a coma.Heh. I mean, Puerto Rico is so obviously corrupt that relief efforts will just be stolen, so why bother, right? It's just a waste of money. Just give it to the Jerb Creators as tax cuts.
Yup. They should have massive stockpiles of relief supplies in hardened regional locations as well as local stockpiles, since they are uniquely vulnerable to hurricanes. Same with the Virgin Islands, although they seem much better prepared.
The military wargames damn near everything. I wouldn't be surprised to learn they have several applicable plans to provide security and relief to Puerto Rico and other US possessions, if the politicos get off their asses and ask the right questions. If not, then this should be taken as a wake-up call to make such plans and build up suitable stockpiles for any hard-hit area, but especially parts of America.
Dude, read the rule book; you are totally failing at Evil Trump.
Not sure what you mean. If I could recall where I read the story of link it. It's rather interesting.
Overall the death count is surprisingly low for what the situation on the ground is. Raises fair questions of what is going on, and can be potentially dangerous as it could under sell the seriousness of the situation.
The experts interviewed for the story said the typical methodology would be to look at the death rate for the same time period the year prior as a baseline then try to use existing information to extrapolate the current death rate and subtract the baseline to estimate the full impact of the event.
It's rather rough figures, but getting quality information in devasted or war torn areas isn't feasible, and may still undercount the secondary effects of the event.
There's a lot of uncertainty surrounding the number of storm related fatalities.Ahem.. like I was saying:
"Puerto Rico's Government Just Admitted 911 People Died After The Hurricane — Of "Natural Causes"
The 911 bodies were never physically examined by a medical examiner to determine if they should be included in the official death toll.
...
The funeral home and crematorium directors BuzzFeed News spoke to over the past two weeks all said they've received no official guidance instructing them to send hurricane victims to the institute — and the government said they've sent no guidance to them.
Without guidance, different funeral home and crematorium directors told BuzzFeed News they had vastly different ideas of what they considered hurricane-related deaths. Some said they counted heart attacks and people who died for lack of oxygen because there was no power, while others said they counted those as "natural deaths."
..."
Complete cluster F going on with the official count. Will be very difficult to reach an accurate number, but clearly the 51 official is an undercount.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/nidhiprakash/puerto-rico-natural-causes
I read an article saying PR has a very slow and bureaucratic system that doesn't count deaths until after extensive verification.
Other estimates are pointing into the hundreds. Their methodology was not just immediate storm deaths, but also above normal deaths attributable to the worsened conditions (eg not having access to medicine, air conditioning, clean water, etc.)
Echo echo echo echo echo....
Now estimates are in the thousands 8 mos later and the recovery is a shitshow. Incompetence can have serious consequences.
Just remember this when you think Trump gives a shit about you.
Says the guy who defended our actions in Libya. Excuse me if I don't buy in to your "empathy".Yep, it looks like more than twice as many people died in Puerto Rico as did as a result of Katrina, and it appears incompetent rescue efforts played a significant part.
Thousands of your fellow Americans were killed and nobody cares because they are poor and brown. Pretty disgusting.