Another Historic Day in the Recovery of Puerto Rico

For some reason this morning, the President of the United States woke up to attack Puerto Rico and the state of their infrastructure and history of debt.

I have no idea what brought this on after his political rally in Pennsylvania and the fawning interview by a Fox News host last night.  He must have been watching a local Sinclair right wing broadcast according to Slate Magazine. "It was under these circumstances that President Trump cited Sharyl Attkisson, host of the public affairs show Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson on the right-wing media network Sinclair Broadcast Group, in threatening to pull support out of Puerto Rico." While this is wrong or a simpleton's look at a complex problem, this is certainly not the time to express concerns about debt when people are dying.  This is like the plantation owner complaining that his slaves did not pick themselves up by their boot steps to create a cotton gin for themselves.

The Governor of Puerto Rico who has spread bad information and has not stood up for his people had this passive aggressive response.

 

The extremely weak US Representative from Puerto Rico was even more passive with a reminder of the Vice President's words to the people of Puerto Rico:

Both the Governor and the US Representative Jenniffer Gonzalez Colon praised the President when he came to the island during the public relations rally that featured the infamous throwing of the paper towels.  I guess their sucking up to the leader of the free world did not work very well.  

Vanity Fair had a different take on this controversy.  "To clarify, that‘s the president of the United States (1) doubling down on his claim that, really, the commonwealth brought this on itself; (2) suggesting that, despite the fact that nearly 90 percent of people are still without power and some may be drinking from Superfund sites because they don’t have clean water, the federal government is about ready to wash its hands of the situation; and (3) implying that the people of Puerto Rico are pulling a fast one on him, trying to take advantage to extract more aid than they really need"

From the Washington Post, House Speaker Paul Ryan said: "We're in the midst of a humanitarian crisis," Ryan said. He added, "Yes, we need to make sure that Puerto Rico can begin to stand on its own two feet. … But at the moment there is a humanitarian crisis has to be attended to and this is an area where the federal government has a responsibility, and we're acting on it."  Philip Rucker and Ed O'Keefe of the Post also did a good job contrasting the tweets with what the President and Vice President said last week, "Trump himself made a similar promise, saying in a Sept. 29 speech, “We will not rest, however, until the people of Puerto Rico are safe.” He added: “These are great people. We want them to be safe and sound and secure. And we will be there every day until that happens.”

The vocal Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz was more pointed in her response to the President's tweet storm:

Poor HUD Secretary Ben Carson was previously scheduled to appear before Congresswoman Maxine Waters today in a hearing when his boss sent out these horrible tweets.  He was confronted with her wrath over the "abandonment of Puerto Rico," and was forced to pledge that he would not abandon the island.  This came on the heals of a report from the Virgin Island which showed a public housing property that did not have any walls left and the residents said that no one from HUD had been to the site after three weeks.

More rough times ahead for Puerto Rico if they have to deal with indifference and racism from the Executive Branch of Government.  The only one who seems to be speaking truth to power is Carmen Yulin Cruz.  In other news, Mayor Cruz was not selected as the next Secretary for Homeland Security unfortunately.

Brian Davis