At what point do mainstream politicians and media commentators face the fact that we have a deranged occupant of the White House?
At what point will they stop acting as if he is simply odd or even ego-centric and admit that there is something deeply wrong with the occupant?
Trump’s responses to San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz have been nothing short of deplorable, and I use that word quite consciously. His words, in the face of the almost indescribable devastation of Puerto Rico, are beyond callous. They are beyond insensitive. They display a complete lack of being in touch with reality and a mean-spiritedness unlike anything that I have seen displayed by a President in recent times.
When the Mayor of San Juan suggests that Puerto Rico is facing genocide, she is clearly not using that term loosely. How does one explain the complete lack of planning on the part of the US government with regard to disaster recovery? How does one explain the failure to have sufficient truck drivers to deploy to move supplies when there is the US military available? How does one explain the relative silence in Congress in the face of a disaster facing millions? How can one rationalize an administration congratulating itself on a job well done when Puerto Rico resembles the aftermath of carpet-bombing?
Is it as simple as Puerto Rico being an island of black and brown people who cannot vote in Presidential elections? Is it that Puerto Rico’s relevance to US capitalism and to the US war against Cuba is no longer a priority?
When Mayor Yulin Cruz cried ‘genocide’ it resonated in my soul. I felt and knew that the Trump administration along with the Congressional majority, could not give a damn about Puerto Rico. They will not permit it independence NOR real equality, but would rather string it along, paying as little attention as they can.
Thus, while the cavalier approach of Trump is demented, the larger problem facing Puerto Rico is beyond that of one, arrogant individual. Puerto Rico has been strangled economically for years through policies of austerity. It is now being driven to the brink in the aftermath of the incompetent and insensitive response by the US government to Hurricane Maria.
What are Puerto Rico and the rest of the Caribbean to expect when the next hurricane arrives? Trump seems to suggest an answer when he blasts Puerto Ricans for not doing enough: fend for themselves!
The attention that will be paid will be of the following: Military occupation to enforce radical privatization and neocolonial austerity as advanced by the Republican junta governing the island. There will be a large migration to the mainland in Florida, New York and other states. The island will be sold off to billionaires and millionaire developers who will ring the coast with exclusive, and super expensive condos with the working poor relegated to shanty town living conditions. The globalized pharmaceutical industry that set up tax free factories all across the island together with the ruling U.S. Congress are responsible for the $77 billion debt. The working poor, including teachers, nurses, police, government, etc. having been living in poverty for decades and now face an even meaner and crueler austerity. The demand should be to 1. Cancel the debt.2. Military leaves by an agreed on date. 3. Hold new elections by a certain date and return authority and power to residents and elected leaders.
Bill, It’s so hard to try to explain Trump’s attitude. He’s only interested in doing what will make him get approval from his fawning, selfish as he is, suck-ups.
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Yes, but it goes deeper. Puerto Ricans are, apparently, disposable, as far as he is concerned. Someone said to me the other day that they were not convinced that Trump even knows that Puerto Rico is controlled by the USA!
When people I know say they feel bad for Puerto Ricans losing their homes, I say yes it’s deplorable how Americans living in Puerto Rico are getting the blame the victims treatment. Then some realize how I worded that to make the point people living in Puerto Rico are American citizens.
And now we have the horror of the shooting in Vegas being used (consciously or not) to further marginalize Puerto Rico — though Trump’s attitude is deplorable (your word is absolutely right) the deeper issue lies in the invisibility of colonial people to the colonizer. Other president’s would have been more circumspect in their language, the Obama Administration would have done more by way of relief, but it is doubtful that Puerto Ricans would have gotten the attention and aid of people on the mainland, no matter who was in office.