'Grasshoppers' in Puerto Rico Continue To Rail Against Trump and the U.S.

[AuH20]

Typical ingrates with no ability to prepare or deal with an emergency. Another phony controversy seeded by the fake news industry and the democrats.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-san-juan-mayor_us_59cf81b6e4b09538b50873d3?ncid=inblnkushpm g00000009


Cruz also used a news conference at a distribution center on Friday to blast the response and ask Trump to step up efforts to get aid delivered to islanders in need.

“We are dying here, and I cannot fathom the thought that the greatest nation in the world cannot figure out logistics for a small island of 100 miles by 35 miles,” she said. “Mayday! We are in trouble.” She has responded to Trump’s tweets by saying that the one goal was “saving lives.”

I love Trump's response. People who can't even slightly help themselves are useless. The hard part was transporting the aid to an island:

914089003745468417

914089888596754434


913747074352648194

914120496496676864

[Ender]

Typical ingrates with no ability to prepare or deal with an emergency. Another phony controversy seeded by the fake news industry and the democrats.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-san-juan-mayor_us_59cf81b6e4b09538b50873d3?ncid=inblnkushpm g00000009



I love Trump's response. People who can't even slightly help themselves are useless. The hard part was transporting the aid to an island:

914089003745468417

914089888596754434


913747074352648194

914120496496676864

What? Texas & Florida are special but Puerto Rico, an American territory, is at fault for their crisis? Plus it IS an island and help from surrounding states/counties is a little more difficult.

It also took Trump a week+ after the disaster, to suspend the Jones Act so ships could come.

[angelatc]

The media wants this to be his Katrina, and thus it shall be.

[AuH20]

What? Texas & Florida are special but Puerto Rico, an American territory, is at fault for their crisis? Plus it IS an island and help from surrounding states/counties is a little more difficult.

It also took Trump a week+ after the disaster, to suspend the Jones Act so ships could come.

Texas and Florida aren't run this poorly in terms of fiscal preparedness. Like I said, Puerto Rico epitomizes the grasshopper from the Aesop Tale. They magnified the potential impact of the hurricane thanks to their own corruption and lack of planning.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-puerto-rico-power-20170925-story.html


As recently as 2016, the island suffered a three-day, island-wide blackout as a result of a fire. A private energy consultant noted then that the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority “appears to be running on fumes, and … desperately requires an infusion of capital — monetary, human and intellectual — to restore a functional utility.”

Puerto Ricans in early 2016 were suffering power outages at rates four to five times higher than average U.S. customers, said the report from the Massachusetts-based Synapse Energy Economics.


As of 2014 the government-owned company was $9 billion in debt, and in July, it filed for bankruptcy under the provisions set by the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, a law signed by President Obama in 2016.

Problems accumulated. Cutbacks in tree pruning left the 16,000 miles of primary power lines spread across the island vulnerable. Inspections, maintenance and repairs were scaled back. Up to 30% of the utility’s employees retired or migrated to the U.S. mainland, analysts said, and the utility had trouble hiring experienced employees to replace them.

The neglect led to massive and chronic failures at the Aguirre and Palo Seco power plants. The three-day blackout in September 2016 underscored how fragile the system was, and that the company was "unable to cope with this first contingency," the Synapse Energy report said.

[Brian4Liberty]

A pattern is emerging. GOP-run states like Florida and Texas are stoic and take care of themselves. Democrat states like Louisiana and Puerto Rico can't take care of themselves, scream "someone come save us", and eventually scream "racism".

[Ender]

Texas and Florida aren't run this poorly in terms of fiscal preparedness. Like I said, Puerto Rico epitomizes the grasshopper from the Aesop Tale. They magnified the potential impact of the hurricane thanks to their own corruption and lack of planning.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-puerto-rico-power-20170925-story.html

Much of Puerto Rico's poverty comes from US Big Corps & the denial of becoming a state & being virtually imprisoned by the US.

Puerto Rico’s Complicated History with the United States



In February 1898, Puerto Ricans had a lot to celebrate. After centuries of Spanish colonial rule, they had just become an independent part of Spain, complete with a Constitution and voting rights. But within only a few years, the U.S. would throw all that asunder, paving the way for Puerto Rico’s nonvoting territory status today.

It all started with the Spanish-American War, which began in the spring of 1898, when Puerto Rico was a Spanish territory. The U.S. invaded Puerto Rico not only because it was a Spanish territory, but also due to its interests in developing a sugar market there, says Lillian Guerra, a history professor at the University of Florida.

“When the Americans arrived, General [Nelson] Miles issued, very famously, a decree manifesto in which he promised to protect the life, liberty, and happiness of Puerto Ricans, and their property,” she says. “A lot of Puerto Ricans who were poor, who were working-class, who were peasants, took this as an invitation to side with the Americans in what was still a war against Spain.”

To support the U.S., Puerto Ricans began to attack Spanish-owned businesses and property. But “to their great shock and awe,” Guerra says the Americans did not keep their promises after they won the war, when Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. in the Treaty of Paris. The U.S. ignored the new, democratically-elected local parliament of Puerto Rico in favor of creating its own colonial system.

With the westward expansion of the 19th century, the U.S. established “incorporated territories” that could and did become formal American states—like the Colorado Territory. But in 1901, a series of legal opinions known as the Insular Cases argued that Puerto Rico and other territories ceded by the Spanish were full of “alien races” who couldn’t understand “Anglo-Saxon principles.” Therefore, the Constitution did not apply to them, and Puerto Rico became an “unincorporated territory” with no path forward to statehood.

In addition, the U.S. disrupted Puerto Rico’s coffee industry, implementing a sugar economy and creating massive poverty among the population. “Within the first 10 years of the U.S. occupation of Puerto Rico, U.S. sugar interests had pretty much taken over, and the Puerto Rican coffee class has been displaced entirely,” Guerra explains.

Puerto Ricans were outraged after the war. Instead of becoming citizens, Puerto Ricans were in limbo. “They didn’t even have a passport; they didn’t have any legal standing in the U.S. system until 1917.”

That year, Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens under the Jones-Shafroth act—this way the U.S. could deploy them as troops during World War I (similar to how the Emancipation Proclamation legalized the Union’s use of black troops). The federal government believed that white people weren’t suited to fight in tropical climates because they didn’t have immunity to the diseases found there. Instead, the U.S. sent Puerto Rican “immunes,” as they were called, to defend the Panama Canal.

Although they were now U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans could not vote for president or elect voting senators or representatives to the U.S. Congress. In fact, they still can’t.

Since 1901, Puerto Ricans have only been able to elect a nonvoting “resident commissioner of Puerto Rico” to the U.S. House of Representatives. Like the United States’ other territories of Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, as well as the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C., Puerto Ricans have no real representation in Congress. And unlike D.C., which gained the right to vote for president with the 23rd Amendment in 1961, none of the American citizens in these territories can vote for the president of their country.

“They have a voice in Congress who has no vote, not even on legislation related to Puerto Rico,” Guerra says. “So the result of that is that nobody cares about Puerto Rico, and its government is basically only in control of local financial matters and the distribution of aid that comes from the federal government as well as its own tax base.”

During the 20th century, various Puerto Ricans have sought to win complete independence for their islands from the United States. However, Guerra says that the federal government quashed these attempts through overt censorship and the repeated jailing of revolutionary leaders, like the independence movement leader Pedro Albizu Campo who was jailed in 1936 for organizing Puerto Rican workers.

“It’s still a country that is dominated by U.S. investors,” Guerra says. “And you should know that most U.S. companies pay virtually no taxes to the Puerto Rican state.” This combined with the local government’s massive corruption has created an economic crisis. In September 2017, these economic problems worsened with the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria, which will require extensive rebuilding.

Is there any hope for Puerto Rico becoming a state in the future? After all, the reason they’re not is because more than a century ago, a judge said that Puerto Ricans were too racially inferior to be a part of the U.S. legal system. Today, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, sits on the highest court of law in the United States—the Supreme Court.

Just a few months before Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans actually voted in favor of a referendum for statehood. But unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how many Puerto Ricans vote for it. The only people who can incorporate the islands into a state are the voting members of Congress.

“It’s very unlikely that statehood will ever happen, at least not in our lifetimes, unless something in the political culture of the U.S. Congress shifts radically to suddenly embrace Latin Americans, Latinos, and Puerto Ricans,” she says. “And I don’t think we’re going that direction.”


http://www.history.com/news/puerto-ricos-complicated-history-with-the-united-states

[Ender]

A pattern is emerging. GOP-run states like Florida and Texas are stoic and take care of themselves. Democrat states like Louisiana and Puerto Rico can't take care of themselves, scream "someone come save us", and eventually scream "racism".

Puerto Rico is NOT a state.

[Danke]

What? Texas & Florida are special but Puerto Rico, an American territory, is at fault for their crisis? Plus it IS an island and help from surrounding states/counties is a little more difficult.

It also took Trump a week+ after the disaster, to suspend the Jones Act so ships could come.

Jones act did not prevent "ships could come." Only foreign ships from the U.S.

[Ender]

Jones act did not prevent "ships could come." Only foreign ships from the U.S.

The Jones Act deterred faster help for Puerto Rico.


The White House announced early Thursday that President Trump has agreed to waive the Jones Act, which will temporarily lift shipping restrictions on Puerto Rico and enable the hurricane-ravaged island to receive necessary aid.

The waiver from the shipping law, which requires American-made and -operated vessels to transport cargo between U.S. ports, will only last for 10 days and goes into effect immediately.

“At @ricardorossello request, @POTUS has authorized the Jones Act be waived for Puerto Rico. It will go into effect immediately,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote on Twitter, referring to Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.

Lawmakers in Congress since Monday have been pushing for a one-year waiver from the rules in order to help speed up deliveries of food, fuel and other critical supplies to Puerto Rico, which has been battered by two hurricanes in the last month. Officials estimate that the island could be without power for six months.

The administration faced fierce backlash for not immediately lifting the law for Puerto Rico after it issued a two-week waiver for Texas and Florida in response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

[Brian4Liberty]

Puerto Rico is NOT a state.

Thank you Captain Obvious. As Obama would say, it's one of the best of our 57 states. Much more accepting of socialism.

[Danke]

The Jones Act deterred faster help for Puerto Rico.


That is different from your post that I was correcting.

[Ender]

Thank you Captain Obvious. As Obama would say, it's one of the best our 57 states. Much more accepting of socialism.

I have to be obvious when people don't bother with any real history. Maybe if they hadn't been lied to, had their crops stolen, and were given statehood, they might be actual contributors.

[Ender]

That is different from your post that I was correcting.

I guess if I had said: MORE ships, it would have been understood? :rolleyes:

[spudea]

It also took Trump a week+ after the disaster, to suspend the Jones Act so ships could come.

False, their ports were backed up with supply ships waiting to offload. It was never about getting more ships to their ports. Even now still backed up. He lifted the Jones Act for future recovery efforts only.

[Ender]

False, their ports were backed up with supply ships waiting to offload. It was never about getting more ships to their ports. Even now still backed up. He lifted the Jones Act for future recovery efforts only.

Partly true- only American ships could come in-


Most of Puerto Rico’s ports were disabled or destroyed by Maria. The largest function one, in San Juan, is already packed with thousands of shipping containers full of food, water, and other badly-needed resources. The challenge facing relief workers isn’t getting supplies into the island’s ports – it’s getting them out.

“It’s pretty ugly out there,” Jose Ayala, vice president of Puerto Rico Services for Crowley Maritime Inc., told the Wall Street Journal Wednesday.“There is damage to the trucking infrastructure, to the distributors, to the supermarkets, to the roads. And then, if your infrastructure is not so damaged, and you can get a driver to the truck, there is no fuel to move the equipment.”

Ayala has an incentive to argue that the problem in Puerto Rico isn’t Jones Act related, given that his Jacksonville-based company profits from the law. But his assessment is broadly shared by local observers.

So, the Trump administration isn’t starving Puerto Rico of resources to inflate the profit margins of the shipping industry.

But that doesn’t mean the White House isn’t callously hurting the besieged territory for that industry’s sake. Keeping the Jones Act in place won’t keep supplies from reaching the island – but doing so will make them more expensive. According to the Huffington Post, Puerto Rico may end up paying twice as much for relief materials than it would have, were it able to secure goods from foreign carriers.

More crucially, the Jones Act has long been a burden on the island’s economy – and that economy doesn’t need any more burdens. Before Hurricane Maria sent Puerto Rico back to the pre-industrial age, the territory was already suffering through a wrenching debt crisis. To satisfy the island’s creditors, a “fiscal oversight and management board” – established by our federal government – has forced Puerto Rico to pursue austerity measures that could keep it in recession for years. These bleak economic conditions have caused many of the most affluent and talented Puerto Ricans to leave for the U.S. mainland, which has, in turn, exacerbated the crisis in the country they left behind.

[Danke]

Foreign carriers can bring in supplies. They just can't do it from US ports. Funny how the Democrats are showing their true colors and are now anti US labor, it cost too much...

[Raginfridus]

Imagine if the captains of the carriers were selected based on skin color, and pilots had to steer by ballot-box.

[Ender]

Foreign carriers can bring in supplies. They just can't do it from US ports. Funny how the Democrats are showing their true colors and are now anti US labor, it cost too much...

Be glad you don't live in Puerto Rico.


Puerto Rico is in an interesting predicament. Deep in a 10-year recession, it is now $72 billion in debt.

The island territory of the U.S. has mass unemployment and a poverty rate twice that of America’s poorest state. And after Puerto Rico’s governor announced it would not be able to pay back its debt in June, the territory government raised taxes to 11.5 percent in an effort to help pay back debts.

Its status as a territory does not help its economic woes. While Puerto Ricans are American citizens, they can’t vote. Nor does the island territory receive the same federal funds as states. The Jones Act, which requires everybody in Puerto Rico to buy goods from an American-made ship with an American crew, limits business owners and jacks up prices.

PBS NewsHour correspondent Chris Bury went to Puerto Rico to understand how citizens are coping with the economic crisis. He spoke to Joel Franqui, owner of a fair-trade store in Puerto Rico, about the taxes and how the Jones Act affects his business.


Chris Bury: The Jones Act requires everybody in Puerto Rico to buy goods from an American-made ship with an American crew. What does that do to your costs?

Joel Franqui: It is limiting. I try buying from different counties, but things are so expensive that I then actually have to go through U.S. distributors to be able to get products that are affordable for the economy here. So it is very difficult. I don’t know enough of the politics to know why it hasn’t changed, since it’s such an old law. And most of the states that are affected by that law are against it. But for us, being an island, it’s even worse, because everything has to go through the United States, even the things that we produce here for U.S.-owned businesses or industries. Usually they’re made here and bottled in the United States, and we have to ship them back and actually buy them from the states, not from us.

And from VOX


The island of Puerto Rico is devastated, with millions lacking power, infrastructure destroyed, homes damaged, and an entire year’s worth of agricultural output essentially ruined. Like any disaster-struck place, it will be in need of supplies brought it from elsewhere in the country.

But getting goods from the US mainland to Puerto Rico is much more expensive than sending them to Texas or even to other Caribbean islands as a result of a century-old man-made disaster that’s been crippling the island’s economy for a long time.

Meet the Jones Act, an obscure 1920 regulation that requires that goods shipped from one American port to another be transported on a ship that is American-built, American-owned, and crewed by US citizens or permanent residents.

For most Americans, this isn’t a big deal — it enriches a small number of American shipowners while introducing some weird distortions into the overall pattern of economic activity in the United States.

For the residents of the island of Puerto Rico, though, the Jones Act is huge. Basic shipments of goods from the island to the US mainland, and vice versa, must be conducted via expensive protected ships rather than exposing them to global competition. That makes everything Puerto Ricans buy unnecessarily expensive relative to goods purchased on either the US mainland or other Caribbean islands, and drives up the cost of living on the island overall.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/27/16373484/jones-act-puerto-rico

[Ender]

More info on the Jones Act, and it's definitely not about helping free enterprise, but about special interests.

http://www.grassrootinstitute.org/2017/04/the-jones-act-in-perspective/


Because of the Jones Act, all goods carried by water between U.S. ports must be shipped on U.S.-flag ships that were constructed in the United States, are owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Supporters of the Act say that it is necessary for national security and that it saves jobs (hence the strong union support for it). However, analysis of the impact of the Act becomes a masterful demonstration of the law of unintended consequences. Though intended to keep American shipbuilding prosperous, under the Jones Act, shipyards have closed and the U.S. flagged Jones Act fleet has shrunk until it is only a shadow of its former self.

Moreover the economic absurdities caused by the Jones Act are legion. The Act makes it cheaper for U.S. livestock farmers to buy grain from overseas than from American sources. States like Maryland and Virginia import their road salt rather than buy it from Ohio. The east coast of the U.S. cannot afford to get lumber from the Pacific Northwest. And shipping oil from Texas to New England costs about three times as much as shipping it to Europe.


The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, otherwise known as the Jones Act, is the foundation for protectionist cabotage laws that govern shipping in the United States. The law was passed with the intention of preserving national interests and providing for national defense by supporting the U.S. merchant marine.

The Jones Act restricts the carriage of goods and passengers between U.S. ports to vessels built and flagged by the U.S. and crewed predominantly by Americans. As a result, domestic shipping in the U.S. is more expensive to consumers, who lack competitive options, as well as to shipping owners, who must pay more for their ships and have higher personnel costs, due to higher employee wages and benefits.

Meanwhile, since World War II, and despite the intent of the Jones Act, U.S. shipyards have been on the decline. As of 2011, there were only five public domestic shipyards in the U.S. and 20 private ones. Of 171 privately owned U.S. flagged ships, 93 were Jones Act-eligible, and 73 could be categorized as militarily useful.

Between 2006 and 2011, the Jones Act-eligible fleet shrank by just over 17 percent, with the number of each vessel type in that category falling, sometimes by a significant amount. If the Jones Act is intended to maintain the health of the commercial shipbuilding industry, then the shrinking U.S. merchant fleet demonstrates that the Act has been a failure in that regard.

The Jones Act is also intended to protect national defense by developing and sustaining a merchant marine force. However, the U.S. government has other tools to ensure a sufficient private merchant vessel fleet without the Jones Act. Defenders of the Jones Act must explain why national security goals could not be achieved through other means.

As for the effect on consumers, the U.S. International Trade Commission has estimated that reform or repeal of the Jones Act could yield an annual economic gain of between $5 and $15 billion.

The economic burden of the Jones Act is felt nationwide, often in unexpected ways, but the highest burden is felt by the noncontiguous territories (including Guam, Puerto Rico, Alaska and Hawaii), which more than the rest of the U.S. depend on shipping for provision of their goods.


By increasing the cost of building ships and requiring higher-priced crews to operate them, and by preventing foreign competitors from shipping between U.S. ports, the Jones Act has raised prices for American consumers, distorted the U.S. economy and stunted the U.S. merchant fleet.

[Champ]

Almost everything in this thread sounds like a good argument for Puerto Rico to dissolve and abandon anything to do with what they deem a tyricannical bully and neglectful state. If they are getting screwed left and right, why would they possibly be encouraged to join such an entity? Become independent and sovereign, and free yourself from enslavement instead of hurling yourself towards the tightening of the shackles, especially when you are not happy about the current situation.

[AuH20]

Almost everything in this thread sounds like a good argument for Puerto Rico to dissolve and abandon anything to do with what they deem a tyricannical bully and neglectful state. If they are getting screwed left and right, why would they possibly be encouraged to join such an entity? Become independent and sovereign, and free yourself from enslavement instead of hurling yourself towards the tightening of the shackles, especially when you are not happy about the current situation.

They can't leave because they are dependents. There are wards of the state and then there are dependent territories like PR.

[Danke]

Be glad you don't live in Puerto Rico.



PBS NewsHour correspondent Chris Bury went to Puerto Rico to understand how citizens are coping with the economic crisis. He spoke to Joel Franqui, owner of a fair-trade store in Puerto Rico, about the taxes and how the Jones Act affects his business.



And from VOX



https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/27/16373484/jones-act-puerto-rico

They live on the island of course goods are going to cost more, just ask the Hawaiians. But the Puerto Ricans don't have to pay personal income taxes to the federal government. I would take that in a heartbeat over having to pay more for consumer goods.

[Danke]

More info on the Jones Act, and it's definitely not about helping free enterprise, but about special interests.

http://www.grassrootinstitute.org/2017/04/the-jones-act-in-perspective/

If you outsource everything there won't be any income for the US citizens to earn and spend, Jesus Christ.

[AuH20]

914242546125205504

[AuH20]

914173750450446340

[AuH20]

Fake news strikes again!

914206896126652416

914263325051154437

[Danke]

Well they're not exactly commercial flights where you buy a ticket. But many airlines of been flying relief flights going in and out for quite a while now.

[goldenequity]

Menendez Skips Off To Caribbean During Trial Break
http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/29/menendez-skips-off-to-caribbean-during-trial-break/

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez isn’t letting something like a corruption trial get in the way of his perceived legislative duties.
Menendez jetted off to Puerto Rico on Thursday to assess how well the Trump administration is coping
with the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria on the American protectorate.

Menendez doesn’t think President Donald Trump is doing enough to alleviate the situation and demanded more money for assistance.

[Danke]

Menendez Skips Off To Caribbean During Trial Break
http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/29/menendez-skips-off-to-caribbean-during-trial-break/

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez isn’t letting something like a corruption trial get in the way of his perceived legislative duties.
Menendez jetted off to Puerto Rico on Thursday to assess how well the Trump administration is coping
with the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria on the American protectorate.

Menendez doesn’t think President Donald Trump is doing enough to alleviate the situation and demanded more of your money for assistance.

FTFY

[navy-vet]

Jones act did not prevent "ships could come." Only foreign ships from the U.S.
Yes! That was my first thought when Ender made that comment. Also, there's many more ships from many ports outside of the US waiting to fill the yards which lack drivers to deliver the supplies.

[navy-vet]

Menendez Skips Off To Caribbean During Trial Break
http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/29/menendez-skips-off-to-caribbean-during-trial-break/

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez isn’t letting something like a corruption trial get in the way of his perceived legislative duties.
Menendez jetted off to Puerto Rico on Thursday to assess how well the Trump administration is coping
with the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria on the American protectorate.

Menendez doesn’t think President Donald Trump is doing enough to alleviate the situation and demanded more money for assistance.

Which I bet he will be willing to disperse.....:rolleyes:

[Danke]

Yes! That was my first thought when Ender made that comment. Also, there's many more ships from many ports outside of the US waiting to fill the yards which lack drivers to deliver the supplies.

Well he is getting his information from the Huffington post, VOX, NYTs, etc...

[Ender]

Yes! That was my first thought when Ender made that comment. Also, there's many more ships from many ports outside of the US waiting to fill the yards which lack drivers to deliver the supplies.

I did clarify that in later threads. The Jones Act was put on hold for Texas & Florida, so that help could be faster & cheaper- but not for Puerto Rico.


Meet the Jones Act, an obscure 1920 regulation that requires that goods shipped from one American port to another be transported on a ship that is American-built, American-owned, and crewed by US citizens or permanent residents.

For most Americans, this isn’t a big deal — it enriches a small number of American shipowners while introducing some weird distortions into the overall pattern of economic activity in the United States.

For the residents of the island of Puerto Rico, though, the Jones Act is huge. Basic shipments of goods from the island to the US mainland, and vice versa, must be conducted via expensive protected ships rather than exposing them to global competition. That makes everything Puerto Ricans buy unnecessarily expensive relative to goods purchased on either the US mainland or other Caribbean islands, and drives up the cost of living on the island overall.

[Ender]

Well he is getting his information from the Huffington post, VOX, NYTs, etc...

So, why don't YOU explain the Jones Act, Mr Danke.

And make sure to be completely upfront on how it is crony capitalism- has nothing to do with the free market- and seriously hurts places like Puerto Rico & Hawaii.

[Danke]

So, why don't YOU explain the Jones Act, Mr Danke.

And make sure to be completely upfront on how it is crony capitalism- has nothing to do with the free market- and seriously hurts places like Puerto Rico & Hawaii.


I did.

[Ender]

And to help, here's Ron Paul on Facebook:


One of the worst ideas that Donald Trump ran on for President were the ideas of mercantilism and protectionism. America is overloaded with politically-connected corporations getting laws passed that tilt the tables to their advantage. The last thing we need are more of these crony laws.

But protectionist measures, even though they're a bad idea, sell very well.

They're like the idea of "FREE" Healthcare. Yeah, it's a deadly idea, but it sells extremely well.

Wouldn't you know ... Irony has struck again.

Because the protectionist Jones Act was so horrendous by blocking aid to Puerto Rico, the protectionist President Trump was forced to "temporarily" repeal it.

Don't toy with us Mr. President.

We don't need a "temporary" breather from a bad idea. Get rid of the Jones Act for good!

We need to be freed from every protectionist measure that is put into place by politically-connected and crony corporations.



https://www.facebook.com/ronpaul/posts/10156070773721686

And The Liberty Report:

http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/great-news-protectionist-president-peels-back-protectionism

[Danke]

LOL. A corporation can incorporate and always fly under a foreign flag and make just as much if not more profits. It is the worker who would get screwed and by that I mean the US worker.

[Ender]

LOL. A corporation can incorporate and always fly under a foreign flag and make just as much if not more profits. It is the worker who would get screwed and by that I mean the US worker.

I'll stand with Ron Paul- I think he's a bit more knowledgeable about the free market than you.

[Danke]

I'll stand with Ron Paul- I think he's a bit more knowledgeable about the free market than you.

Free market is one thing. And that was not what was being discussed. Look at the posts that were here and what was that brought up. We're talking about the Jones act. And how that would affect workers more than corporations as you have stated ( that somehow corporations would be against repealing the Jones act ). In this thread you keep trying to shift the goalpost.

[Ender]

Free market is one thing. And that was not what was being discussed. Look at the posts that were here and that was that brought up. We're talking about the Jones act. And how that would affect workers more than corporations as you have stated

Read post #36-

[juleswin]

What? Texas & Florida are special but Puerto Rico, an American territory, is at fault for their crisis? Plus it IS an island and help from surrounding states/counties is a little more difficult.

It also took Trump a week+ after the disaster, to suspend the Jones Act so ships could come.

It was suspended for 10 days just so everyone knows that this deregulation from Trump was only temporary.

[Danke]

It was suspended for 10 days just so everyone knows that this deregulation from Trump was only temporary.


He campaigned on protecting American jobs. So is that regulation or dregulation?

[juleswin]

He campaigned on protecting American jobs. So is that regulation or dregulation?

Good point but I just wanted it to be know that it was a temporary suspension. Clinton, Bush, Obama has been protecting the hell out of those same job(many of them union jobs) not shocked at all to see Trump follow in their footsteps.

[Swordsmyth]

Menendez Skips Off To Caribbean During Trial Break
http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/29/menendez-skips-off-to-caribbean-during-trial-break/

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez isn’t letting something like a corruption trial get in the way of his perceived legislative duties.
Menendez jetted off to Puerto Rico on Thursday to assess how well the Trump administration is coping
with the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria on the American protectorate.

Menendez doesn’t think President Donald Trump is doing enough to alleviate the situation and demanded more money for assistance.

I give 50/50 odds that he slips off to an island with no extradition.

[Brian4Liberty]

I give 50/50 odds that he slips off to an island with no extradition.

An Epstein island?

[Swordsmyth]

An Epstein island?

Probably.

[goldenequity]

Stoking the fires... agent Lemon spewing coast to coast


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOXWBmh6YMQ

MSM Relentless

http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr55/goldenequity/zzzpr.jpg

[Danke]

Jorge Rodriguez, 49, is the Harvard-educated CEO of PACIV, an international engineering firm based in Puerto Rico that works with the medical and pharmaceutical sectors. The Puerto Rican-born engineer says he has dispatched 50 engineers to help FEMA rehabilitate the devastated island — a commonwealth of the United States — after Hurricane Maria. He refuses to work with the local government, which he called inept and riddled with corruption.
https://********************************/2017/09/jorge_l-_rodriguez_portrait_149764824.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=600Jorge L. RodriguezFor the last 30 years, the Puerto Rican government has been completely inept at handling regular societal needs, so I just don’t see it functioning in a crisis like this one. Even before the hurricane hit, water and power systems were already broken. And our $118 billion debt crisis is a result of government corruption and mismanagement.


The governor Ricardo Rossello has little experience. He’s 36 and never really held a job and never dealt with a budget. His entire administration is totally inexperienced and they have no clue how to handle a crisis of this magnitude.
For instance, shortly after the hurricane hit, the government imposed a curfew from 6 pm to 6 am and then changed it. Now, it’s 7 pm to 5 am, and makes no sense. The curfew has prevented fuel trucks from transporting their loads. These trucks should have been allowed to run for 24 hours to address our needs, but they have been stalled, and so we have massive lines at gas stations and severe shortages of diesel at our hospitals and supermarkets.
I’m really tired of Puerto Rican government officials blaming the federal government for their woes and for not acting fast enough to help people on the island. Last week I had three federal agents in my office and I was so embarrassed; I went out of my way to apologize to them for the attitude of my government and what they have been saying about the US response. When the hurricane hit we had experts from FEMA from all over the US on the ground and I was really proud of their quick response. The first responders and FEMA have all been outstanding in this crisis, and should be supported.


http://nypost.com/2017/09/30/inept-puerto-rican-government-riddled-with-corruption-ceo/amp/?ref=yfp

[Brian4Liberty]

He refuses to work with the local government, which he called inept and riddled with corruption.

Sounds like Louisiana.

[Raginfridus]

For the last 30 years, the Puerto Rican government has been completely inept at handling regular societal needs...You mean an entrenched culture of malgovernance and not a really big hurricane, or Donald J Trump's magical presidential powers, made Puerto Rico the disaster it is today?



... huh

[pcosmar]

Yes! That was my first thought when Ender made that comment. Also, there's many more ships from many ports outside of the US waiting to fill the yards which lack drivers to deliver the supplies.

And just who is preventing the Puerto Rician People from getting in trucks and driving them?

Government Bosses??

The people will be happy to unload those ships,, if allowed to do so.
Like any other disaster..

[Ender]

And just who is preventing the Puerto Rician People from getting in trucks and driving them?

Government Bosses??

The people will be happy to unload those ships,, if allowed to do so.
Like any other disaster..


Major problems also include no power on the island and very limited gas/food. The cell towers have been obliterated, so contacting anyone is futile.


A mountain of food, water and other vital supplies has arrived in Puerto Rico’s main Port of San Juan.

But a shortage of truckers and the island’s devastated infrastructure are making it tough to move aid to where it’s needed most. Only 20% of truck drivers have reported back to work since Hurricane Maria swept through, according to a spokesperson for Puerto Rico’s Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.

On top of that, a diesel fuel shortage and a tangle of blocked roads mean the distribution of supplies is extremely challenging. Even contacting drivers is a problem because cell towers are still down.

“When we say we that we don’t have truck drivers, we mean that we have not been able to contact them,” Rosselló said.

Shipping companies have aid and supplies either waiting at the port to be delivered — or held up at ports in the mainland United States.

Shipping company Crowley is one of them. It has 3,000 containers sitting at the Port of San Juan filled with clothes, food, medicine, water, construction materials and even cars.

Crowley’s vice president in Puerto Rico, Jose Ayala, said the company can’t get truck drivers or trucks filled up with diesel to pick up supplies for distribution across the island.

Crowley has only been able to dispatch 4% of its 3,000 containers, he said.

“The problem has been with the logistics, the parts of the supply chain that move the cargo from our terminal to the shelves or to the tables of the people in Puerto Rico,” Ayala said Wednesday. “This hurricane was catastrophic.”

Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans are waiting hours in line to get gas, food and cash. Gas stations and supermarkets are rationing supplies, while banks are running low on cash.

[pcosmar]

Major problems also include no power on the island and very limited gas/food. The cell towers have been obliterated, so contacting anyone is futile.

Sounds like every Hurricane that hit the Keys. Including Irma which was a Cat 4 through my ole neighborhood.

The roads were cleared by the people that were there before Satellite views were available.
3 days to rig limited Phone contact. but folks had the roads open by then.

The only hindrance in aid or rebuilding (anywhere) is Govt Interference.

but there does seem a lot more whining from some.

[navy-vet]

And just who is preventing the Puerto Rician People from getting in trucks and driving them?

Government Bosses??

The people will be happy to unload those ships,, if allowed to do so.
Like any other disaster..
I heard it was the trucking union that has them on strike.

[navy-vet]

Teamsters have always been rife with corruption, so it's plausible.
.

[navy-vet]

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/28/554297787/puerto-rico-relief-goods-sit-undistributed-at-ports
Anyway it appears to me that there are plenty of logistical problems in getting the supplies to the needy, that goes beyond getting them to the island.

[navy-vet]

Puerto Rico has been an ongoing cluster long before the storms came along. Like Haiti it's a sink hole of despair and corruption.

[Ender]

Sounds like every Hurricane that hit the Keys. Including Irma which was a Cat 4 through my ole neighborhood.

The roads were cleared by the people that were there before Satellite views were available.
3 days to rig limited Phone contact. but folks had the roads open by then.

The only hindrance in aid or rebuilding (anywhere) is Govt Interference.

but there does seem a lot more whining from some.

A lot of private help has been going on from charitable orgs.

The main whining seems to be from Trump who has responded in typical brat-child behavior to Puerto Ricans who have wondered why gov help was coming so slow to them when Florida & Texas had an immediate response.

When people are dying or losing families, homes, and entire cities, calling them names and chastising them on tweets is rather inappropriate.

[AZJoe]

Much of Puerto Rico's poverty comes from US Big Corps & the denial of becoming a state & being virtually imprisoned by the US.


P.R. is certainly a controlled territory of Washington, but lack of statehood is not the cause of its economic woes. Lack of statehood is actually a big plus. It has kept PR from being an even worse basket case than it is.



There is no federal income tax in PR at all
The IRS does not exist in PR
No one need spend exorbitant amount on accounting and accountants and tax prepares, for federal taxes
No one need worry about federal tax consequences of their decisions in PR, and can make them based solely on business advantage.
There is no Obamacare mandate in PR
Right now Puerto Ricans do not share in the US national debt.


Statehood for Puerto Rico right now would be like throwing a drowning man an anchor.

And while PR is certainly a controlled territory of Washington, that is what is currently desired by the populace. The populace is not voting for independence. They are voting solidify submission to Washington. The main reason, is that there is a general mistaken belief that statehood is the solution to their government's bad fiscal policies and inescapable debt burden.

[goldenequity]

Puerto Rícan Cop Calls Radio Show in Tears


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpwYHAN28As

Puerto Rico Cop Says Mayor Of San Juan Sabotaging Hurricane Aid For Political Gain
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-01/puerto-rico-cop-says-mayor-san-juan-sabotaging-hurricane-aid-political-gain




===========

US Aid Rotting at Ports
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/09/smoking-gun-san-juan-teamsters-didnt-show-work-distribute-relief-supplies-us-aid-rotting-ports/

[Ender]

P.R. is certainly a controlled territory of Washington, but lack of statehood is not the cause of its economic woes. Lack of statehood is actually a big plus. It has kept PR from being an even worse basket case than it is.



There is no federal income tax in PR at all
The IRS does not exist in PR
No one need spend exorbitant amount on accounting and accountants and tax prepares, for federal taxes
No one need worry about federal tax consequences of their decisions in PR, and can make them based solely on business advantage.
There is no Obamacare mandate in PR
Right now Puerto Ricans do not share in the US national debt.


Statehood for Puerto Rico right now would be like throwing a drowning man an anchor.

And while PR is certainly a controlled territory of Washington, that is what is currently desired by the populace. The populace is not voting for independence. They are voting solidify submission to Washington. The main reason, is that there is a general mistaken belief that statehood is the solution to their government's bad fiscal policies and inescapable debt burden.

Oh, I certainly agree. I think the biggest problem for Puerto Rico is that they are "nothing". They can have a local gov but no say in what the US gov decides to do with them.

Some Puerto Ricans are waking up:


It’s sad to see how many fellow Puerto Ricans believe that “statehood will solve our problems” as if “statehood” act like a magic wand. While our weakened economy is in default right now (or next to it), they don’t realize that:

1. Statehood will force us to start paying high federal taxes (which we actually don’t, unless those who work for any federal agency),

2. Cabotage Law will not be abolished just for becoming a state. Let’s ask any Hawaiian or Alaskan resident.

3. Statehood will increase our dependency towards the US government, which will result in more welfare, more taxes and more angry congress people.

My whole premise for posting on this thread was to show that although, PR is a colony of the US, gov help & the temporary hold on the Jones Act, was much slower than Florida's or Texas. And being a small island completely encompassed by a huge hurricane has practically devastated them. Yet posters were blaming the islanders. And, then of course Trump belittles them when they didn't kiss the ring.

My POV is that until someone is personally hit with this kind of disaster, they have no idea what people are going through. Our job should be to help first & then discuss how to help make things better when things calm down.

[navy-vet]

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/09/smoking-gun-san-juan-teamsters-didnt-show-work-distribute-relief-supplies-us-aid-rotting-ports/

[Ender]

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/09/smoking-gun-san-juan-teamsters-didnt-show-work-distribute-relief-supplies-us-aid-rotting-ports/

Apparently that may be fake news.

Here's a link to the Union and what it is organizing for help:

https://teamster.org/news/2017/09/teamsters-recruiting-volunteer-members-assist-puerto-rico-tranporting-vital-supplies

[navy-vet]

I think I'm going to barf....

[XNavyNuke]

2017 - House & Senate Democrats, incensed with Orange Leader's handling of Hurricane Maria aftermath, rails against Jones Act and calls for it repeal.

2019 - Hispanix activist demand Dem candidates adopt repeal position. Sen. Lee actually introduces legislation expecting broad bipartisan support.
2020 Democratic hopefuls need to stop pandering, actually commit to helping Puerto Rico
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/03/20/2020-candidates-commit-reforming-jones-act-puerto-rico-column/3214296002/

Sept. 2020 - Pelosi and her House Dem minions pass bill establishing Jones Act as part of Green New Deal foundation for offshore wind energy. Talented, intelligent, elite insider journalists and Hispanix activists silenced.
U.S. House Passes Bill Supporting Jones Act Enforcement in Offshore Wind
https://gcaptain.com/u-s-house-passes-bill-supporting-jones-act-enforcement-in-offshore-wind/

The U.S House of Representatives has passed the “Clean Economy Jobs and Innovation Act” seeking to reform U.S. energy policy and authorize major investments in research and development in transition to renewable and low-carbon energy sources.

The bill was passed Thursday by a vote of 220-185.

Swamp gonna swamp.

Jones Act a torture implement of hated fascists leader until it becomes useful tool of glorious green revolution. I'm sure our islander fellow citizens appreciate the sacrifice they've been called upon to make.

XNN