Despite Trump taking credit for the “unsung success” for the job he did in Puerto Rico after the hurricane hit them in 2017, do you think he will be of any help after Florence hits the Carolinas?

Yes, we can. Trump will roll out every resource possible for NC and SC.

North Carolina and South Carolina are red states – long history of voting republican, and filled with senators and congressmen that vote right-of-center. And predominantly caucasian.

Puerto Rico’s population was largely black and brown, and have a history of voting democratic.

Puerto Ricans can’t vote in National elections so he doesn’t care. Carolinians can. He and his minions are concerned about that.

I saw about 10 Search and Rescue trucks heading east on I -64 this morning. Very concerning.
But good points above. I hadn’t thought of Puerto Rican’s being unable to vote. I only thought of them as human beings that needed help.

Georgia Power (the big utility here in Atlanta) sent a bunch of bucket and lift trucks and repair crews up on I-85 this morning to South Carolina and on up. Not sure where they are going to be stationed. Last hurricane they sent dozens of crews.

There’s some worry that the hurricane will twist to the west and hit North Georgia, so I imagine that Georgia Power and the various EMCs here are keeping some crews local in case of damage.

FEMA was in DC was just on TV, first question why did Donnie just take 10 million dollars away from FEMA and gave it to ICE for more alien detention centers.

This is not going well!

Far from being an “unsung success” Puerto Rico was an under reported disaster. Trump seems incapable of facing the truth. How dare he take credit for the wholly inadequate response to the hurricane? It was so disorganised they couldn’t even count the bodies.

Good luck to anyone in the path of Hurricane Florence. I don’t expect the recovery effort will be as ineffectual and unsympathetic as it was in Puerto Rico.

To Trump this is all political with the mid terms coming up, and as one said these are red states he is going to appear to be in charge and control just so he doesn’t lose these places in the mid terms.

Sure he will, these are going to be Americans that need help this time. That is if there are any funds left over from FEMA after cutting their budget so that ICE can continue caging children.

Sarcasm, I know Puerto Ricans are Americans…........Trump evidently doesn’t believe it though

9/11/01 Terrorist attack on NYC – 2977 people died and it was a disaster

9/20/17 Hurricane Maria hits PR – 2975 people died and it was an “unsung success”

What a difference two deaths can make.

@rojo…. and skin color

A lot of groups responded to help Puerto Rico. I guess this is only known to those who were actually there, or those of us who followed its progress daily. It was one of the first really notorious efforts at bashing Trump.

Puerto Rico had a high death toll because much of it was waterlogged, blocked by fallen trees, and a very antiquated power grid had been completely wiped out and had to be rebuilt from scratch. Lets focus on the reality that Puerto Rico could have died off completely, as it was in really bad shape and those who helped were condemned to the third and fourth degrees by the U.S. media and politicians who were not involved.

No one helps a disaster for praise in such miasmal conditions, but when you are smeared and bashed for raising money, aid, and working in horrendous conditions with death and disease all around you, it gets disconcerting. Those who helped then will be sure to help in whatever fallout occurs from Hurricane Florence.

You can be assured that Virginia and the Carolinas will get the best treatment possible. They have much better infrastructure and are a lot more visible and in the middle of the Atlantic seaboard.

trump helps white Americans who vote. To be fair, he hates whites who didn’t vote for him too. It’s all about elevating himself, no one else.

He does not give any hoot about anything. And I mean anything related to Puerto Rico. Only his deplorable worshipers choose to ignore how despicable this pathetic excuse for a human being is.

Kinda twisting things around here, @Yellowdog , No one condemned the actions that were implemented to help out the people of the island. The point of contention is to try to classify it as an “unsung success”. There is no way that you, or anyone else can use such glowing terms to describe the abysmal conditions that followed the storm and in many ways still exists to this day despite the efforts of mostly NGO’s.

@rojo If Rep/cons don’t hear glowing praise 24/7 for the their wonderful Don Father they take it as bashing.

Americans need a lot of things. Help, salvation, guidance, vision, leadership. So many other things but none of that include a miserable creature like trump.

I guess we’ll find out. I don’t envy Trump with this situation. There will be fatalities, and most of the dead could have probably lived, if they evacuated. I myself am risking my life by staying. I am aware of that. I am not suicidal, but a lot of people who don’t live in hurricane prone areas don’t understand. Most people don’t have the resources to just leave town every time a hurricane approaches. That’s 1–6 unplanned vacations each hurricane season. Others are too old, or handicapped, and cannot leave. Those poor souls will watch the water rise around them, while they die alone. We won’t be able to saddle Trump with their fates.

I am hopeful that FEMA will be more consistent. My first flood a few Octobers ago, they got in here quickly, and helped. The last two, it seemed like they were trying to make it as hard as possible to get help….

Apparently he’s donated his hair as a windbreak

Best of luck @MrGrimm888 PLEASE try to stay safe.

^Thanks. I’ll be ok. I have my dog with me. I am always more safe when I have to be responsible for her. I’ll try to sign off before I lose power and I will try to get back on and let everyone know that I’m alive.
So far. We need to more worried about our NC jellies. I think they’re going to get hammered. There are concerns about inland flooding, and landslides. There may be a lot of people living in the mountains that feel secure, but may be in danger.
Wherever it hits, they’re going to need help.

Keep your phone charged!

My phone battery sucks. I’ll probably turn it off during the worst of the storm.

Well this will be out front and in the open, so the people will know instantly if Trump tries to lie about anything dealing with this.
If he doesn’t respond 100% in a positive way this will surely hurt him big time come November.

I am still in the dark as to why you are thinking there will be little response or help with a natural disaster, and why you are hemming Trump into this.

FEMA, the American Red Cross. Samaritan’s Purse, and hundreds of other governmental and philanthropic agencies are ready and waiting, and always respond in a natural disaster. We have learned a lot from past hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, etc as to how to respond.

The efforts to aid and rebuild Puerto Rico was a tremendous task that was largely unsung. Puerto Rico was substantially rebuilt in about sixty days, without electricity and water, with a tangle of wires and trees and debris over all the roads and people sick, injured and dying. Many of you ignored the tremendous efforts of government and charitable ageniencies of thousands of unpaid volunteers to get water, food, and medicine to the people—and deride on your media outlets about how bad Trump is. Kinda shows your true colors.

The electrical, water and infrastructure systems are far more robust and connected in the areas that will be affected by Florence, but it is potentially one of the most devastating in history. I have been concerned about @MrGrimm888 ever since hearing the storm was headed for the Carolinas. But I can assure you that we’ve learned from every disaster and are ready and waiting to respond—and Trump has a record of getting things done

Trump has robbed FEMA of millions and redirected to ICE.
I wasn’t impressed with the response with Sandy, or Katrina,or the latest with Puerto Rico, while yes some has been done but still slow and more could have been done.
And yes I know he wasn’t the Prez with some of those disasters but time will tell if he does a good job with this one.
Let’s hope the people that can’t leave,and the poor don’t have to die because of a lack of funding.

Latest forecast not good… Well, better for NC…

@Yellowdog In Puerto Rico Trump has a record of not getting things done. Full power was only restored last month, 11 months after the hurricane hit. The final death toll appears to have exceeded that of Katrina. Many died in the six months following the storm as a result of poor healthcare and a lack of electricity and clean water. Repeated power cuts also led to an increased number of deaths from diabetes and sepsis. How can you think Trump will learn from this disaster if he believes it was a success?

As the mayor of Puerto Rico said: “If he thinks the death of 3,000 people is a success God help us all.”

It was no success. Islands offer great challenges though. Hopefully after Florence destroys my city, we will get roads cleared up, and get the military in here. They helped a LOT after Hugo. We’ll need everything we can get, if it keeps it’s course.

What I hate most is not knowing. I hate seeing areas decimated, lives lost, people losing loved ones, pets their homes and possessions and communities, and the history,local culture and indigenous character of certain regions altered, ,

I remain hopeful, and agree with @MrGrimm888 to stay and hold on to what is there. I remain hopeful but still know there wiill be losses and devastation for some, if not many.

Since Trump seems to be the target of so many of your hatreds maybe you should focus instead on the reality that you are in the hands of volunteers, agencies, and groups that have dealt with this before and learned from it, and are willing and ready to help This really isn’t about Trump or what he will or won’t do.

@Yellowdog so true,

It is about what we do as Americans when times get rough. During Harvey I don’t recall a single instance where a person was asked for their party affiliation before being pulled from the flood waters or brought down off a roof. Let’s buckle down and take care of our own.

Then afterwards we can go back to deriding and mistrusting each other.

should have built a goddam wall between us and the Atlantic Ocean to keep out those destructive murdering illegal hurricanes that make their way over from Africa. Seems like there are more and more of them each year

trump truly has nothing to do with this situation. Except maybe to spew crap and bolster his own fake persona. He is useless.

But just so to answer the OP….no, trump will not be of any help. It’s the other way around. He would as usual help himself using this event.

If we do well, and Trump takes credit, that’s fine with me. Somebody’s going to need some major help. This may be an advantage, finally, to being in a red state. Send us aid Don!.....

The statement that President Trump took ten million out of FEMA’s budget and put into ICE’s budget is still being reported by MSNBC at this hour, but has been debunked by FEMA administrator William Brock Long. and by Tyler Q. Houlton, Press Secretary of the U.S.Department of Homeland Security (on his twitter feed).

I would take the word of FEMA’s administrator over that of the Huffington Post or MSNBC regarding FEMA’s budget, funding, and readiness

@Yellowdog Here’s the real TRUTH FEMA lost $10 million, “but we have plenty of resources” (Real FEMA comment)
TR-JUMP took the money and put to his favorite “Wall building group” ICE !

Oh I know “Fake newZ”. It is in the congressional report, RIGHT from the congress another Fake Newz outlet.

@Yellowdog Check your sources ! Don’t quote from Fox News or some right wing Blog !

Excuses, excuses. Only gullible people would find it ok that money was taken from FEMA for another purpose. Even if it was taken weeks or months ago and whatever pathetic legal excuse there exist is cited.

That 10 million is money FEMA would not be able to use no matter how you look at it!

I would believe NPR over ANY trump administrator ANY day of the week.

How about if the indiviiduals themselves saying it on Fox news?
How about their Twitter feeds?

@Yellowdog it is a credibility issue and if you work for Trump or were chosen by him to do something then you have lost all credibility.
Heck, I might even go so far as to say if you support the man in any way, shape, form or fashion then you have lost it.

Uh like you trusting nothing from MSNBC, I trust nothing coming from the hate station called FOX news.

FEMA administrator William Brock Long was himself briefly interviewed by Laura Ingraham

Tyler Q Houlton, Press Secretary for Homeland Security, has a twitter feed up where this is debunked.

You can believe what you want, but you need to check your sources.

Trump is now saying that the death toll in Puerto Rico is a lie to make him look bad. Wow. I just can’t believe the depths he sinks to.

To quote Confucius:

“The administration of government lies in getting proper men. Such men are to be got by means of the ruler’s own character. ”

And since we know that Trumps own character is both ethically challenged and morally corrupt and that he cannot speak without lying then we must of necessity assume that those he chooses to surround himself with and put in positions of power are of no more trustworthiness.

Oooooooooh! Would that be the same Brock Long who is under investigation for misuse of government property To wit, using a private government vehicle and driver to take him on his six hour long trip home and then putting the driver up at public expense? That Brock Long?

Combatting the threat of Florence! Help is on the way guys.

Just the tip of the ICEberg Looks the the WH was trying an end run around Congressional oversight by surreptitiously funding ICE by siphoning off funds from other agencies. .

The Puerto Rico stuff is fucked up…. Trump knows how to find a new low, like no other…

Lying has no boundaries if you don’t like reality make something up, your die hard base will believe you no matter what,and if they start to doubt at all just start chanting “Lock her up” and they fall right back into line.

@SQUEEKY2 Over the past months I have come to believe that it is not that his base believe everything that Trump says or does because I honestly do not believe that all of them are that stupid. It is worse than that, they know but they just don’t give a shit or, worse still, do not see it as something wrong.

I cringed when Clinton described half of his supporters as deplorables and wrote it off as campaign rhetoric but it appears she may have been correct.

I am officially starting a rumor that the Trump administration is stocking up on cornbread and pecan pie for him to lob at the survivors.

@rojo – good point – also remember that ‘lob’ is the first syllable in ‘lobotomy’

@rojo While I would like to think they are not that stupid,just watching them chant at one of his ego rallies says different.
Though they all might not be that stupid,they are lead easily astray by the chanting and all out lies, oh and the hate coming from Fox News.

@squeeky2. I keep telling myself that most of those people are just paid to do that. I hope I’m right.

You have gone from a reasonable discussion about the aftermath of a devastating hurricane to slipping into delusional hysteria about Trump, and repeating whatever feels good to you no matter how far fetched it is, and distant from reality.

Can you not see the shift from rational discussion of FEMA and natural disasters to your total delusional and paranoid mantras?

@SQUEEKY2 Many are plants (the rest are vegetables). You did see where they actually replaced what I assume they took for subpar performers with others on camera in the Billings Montana rally didn’t you.

@yellowdog Do you think it is true that Trump is mistaken on the amount of deaths in Puerto Rico?

^^^ Or was it, as he claims, a Democratic plot? speaking of delusional

Nope, nice try but no one is delusional. No one is hysterical and none of it is far fetched or not real. Now paranoia? That may fit, but perhaps it is wise to be leery when traveling down a dark, stinking cesspool of an alley with no end in sight.

But that is what they get when draining the swamp and filling it back up from a septic tank.
@Yellowdog He is lying about the death toll in Puerto Rico saying it’s been inflated to just make him look bad and your calling us delusional,really??
Guess he didn’t throw out enough paper towels.
You better hope he does an outstanding job with this hurricane because if he fucks this one up,no matter how much bullshit sandwiches he passes out it’s going to very much hurt him come November.
But time will tell, I hate seeing people suffer no matter what nationality, religion ,or skin colour they are.

There has not been any denial about the deaths in Puerto Rico,

Puerto Rico was wall-to-wall devastation @chyna—no way to land an airplane (no sites, no radar) no electricity anywhere, no water except cheap bottled water, no boat docks, no cellular communication (C.B. radios mostly used) massive widespread flooding, debris and large trees covering all roads, etc etc. There was no air conditioning, no telecommunications, no good way to enter the island. There was flooding, disease, malaise. People DO die under such conditions. Yes, sadly, this does happen.

Water. ,medicine, food, an electrical grid rebuilt—imagine all the clearing of the roads—within about sixty days was sufficiently running again. It was a tremendous amd noble effort utilizing thousands of volunteers, agencies. etc.

Yes, there could have been better distribution of food.water, medicine. Part of that is due to the lack of organization amid total chaos

There ARE people out there who can talk intelligibly about what happened there and what went wrong and how it could have been more effective. If you’re talking about paper towels, you are not worth listening to or responding to, Your entire mindset is a vile and offensive insult to those who were there, working under torid and miasmal conditions helping, and the tremendous efforts to save a totally devastated and lost area from total oblivion. Trump and Pence have been on the ground and in the trenches and deeply involved in all of these natural disasters. .

I don’t recall Obama or Hillary being involved in the disasters that occurred during Obama’s final months during the campaign season, when Obama was still president, but I do recall Trump cancelling a few rallies to be at disasters in Louisiana/ Being present, aware, and helpful during these natural national crises is critically important for the country and is the bare minimum expected of those who are taking oath to protect the safety for America.

The Democrats and talk pundits were more concerned about what Trump and others were wearing than they were about helping..

@Yellowdog, https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-says-democrats-inflated-puerto-rico-death-toll-from-hurricane-maria-1536846719.
Are you going to cry “fake news” about the Wall Street Journal, which has traditionally been known to lean a bit to the right?

@canidmajor I think @Yellowdog is drinking the Fox news Kool-aide special ! If you see Trump lips move; you know he’s lying.
7 to 18 times a day Trump opens his mouth or tweets a lie.

@Tropical_Willie, @chyna’s on her phone and can’t link til later. I told her I’d help out. :-)

Several of you have sent links to stories from sources that I normally would consider reliable, or tried to debunk the credibility of William Brock Long,

But William Brock Long is the director of FEMA and I would consider him a better spokesperson than even NPR in regards to his own organization (FEMA). Every network in the country is playing quips of Brock Long about FEMA’s readiness. If he said the 9.8 Million being cut from his organization is bogus, yes, he could be lying and The Huffington Post or CNN more reliable a source about FEMA and Trump, but we still have to go with what Tyler Houlton, Spokesperson of the Department of Defense says on his own Twitter account, and what the Director of FEMA Brock Long says about FEMA.

@Yellowdog As a wise jelly told me “There’s the difference in slave-ish devotion versus support.”
You have been shown where Trump denies the amount of people that died in Puerto Rico from a reliable source via @canidmajor and still won’t believe it. Your answer to my question tells me the kind of person you are and I won’t be discussing Trump directly with you again. I supported Clinton and Obama, but realized their failures and weaknesses. You won’t realize Trumps. And thank you for not discussing Trump’s throwing rolls of paper towels to victims of the hurricane like it was manna from the heavens, because it was damned ridiculous and demeaning to those people.

@rojo . Pecan pie, AND cornbread? !!!!! #Trump2020.

@chyna None of the die hard Trumpsters will acknowledge Trumps faults and weaknesses because to them he has none, he could tell them the sky is neon pink ,and the moon is made out of cheese and they would believe him.
I truly hope he steps up and is there for the people of this disaster,and I mean more than throwing paper towels into the crowd,(which you are right, was truly disgusting) if he doesn’t it’s going to bite him hard come November.

Wait, you hope he is there for the people of the disaster, throwing more than paper towels, because if not, its going to bite him hard come November?

I thought you WANTED him to lose, @SQUEEKY2

I very much do but not at the cost of hurricane victims.
Blaming the democrats for inflating the death toll of the victims of Puerto Rico, is ridiculous and you know it.
Oh and an out right lie, the guy doesn’t stop.

I dislike the guy ,I think he is a horrible President but in the mean time he still has a job to do,if he can stop lying,and alienating all the US’s allies.

Oh, @Yellowdog, None of us want him to “lose”, you fool. We don’t want those consequences for any American citizens. And how incredibly mean-spirited of you to think that of us.

I hope it’s that cornbread, with real corn baked in. Let’s go with sweet corn, and yellow.

I guess I prefer real butter too.

I will have to be strategic in how much I eat. Gotta save room for pecan pie.

If you have not had real pecan pie, I feel nothing but pity for you…

This time of year, you should really get a scoop of vanilla ice cream, with your pecan pie…

@MrGrimm888 do you enjoy peppers (japs and red) in your cornbread too?

Why not? Das sum good cone- bread!

@canidmajor So its only American citizens you care about? What about the non-citizens, documented and undocumented, that have the misfortune to be in the path of what very well may be the worst storm in U.S. history? Why are THEY not included in your response?

^^^^ Picking shit again and parsing words eh? Yeah good try at sowing discord. To go back to my previous example; again, during Harvey I can think of no examples where someone was refused help based on their status as a citizen. We were not asked to present our official citizenship badge and thrown back into the flood waters if we didn’t have one.

@Yellowdog I am not a US citizen and I am truly offended by your last post,is it your way to get a last shot at a democrat by not adding the proper wording?
If there happens to be any non citizen caught in the path of this hurricane for any reason of course they would get the required help as well, it’s about helping humans in need when they need it regardless of political party they belong to, skin colour, or religion .
You really need to stop watching Fox news for a while.

But you know, @Yellowdog does bring up an interesting point. With both FEMA and ICE both under the HOMELAND SECURITY department and their funding being used interchangeably, what will happen to those who are not Kard Karrying ‘meriKan citizens? Will they just be lost in the mass of stranded survivors or will they be singled out for later arrest and deportation? If not this time, what about the next flood or firestorm or tornado? How long will it be until we start using disasters to aid in apprehension? What better time to round up all those undesirables than when they are helpless, homeless and in government hands? Hell, they come to us! ICE is already using FEMA money to build separate shelters for them ok, ok, they are called internment camps but same thing If you listen real close you can hear the chants now: “LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP!”

@candidmajor doesn’t discriminate at all. If you don’t believe me, go back through all of her posts and show me just one, one where she does. You can’t. What is really funny, not funny @yellowdog, is you believe all the hundreds of thousands of lies Trump spouts and stand behind him 100%. A man that you know nothing about in his private life. Yet if you have read @candidmajor’s posts from all the years she has been here, you would know what kind of person she is.

@Yellowdog, your last post reinforces my assessment of you as mean spirited. Really, what an asinine response.
Unlike you, with your oft-stated support of the group that chooses to hate and vilify all brown people; I think of people that live here as Americans. My concern at this moment, relevant to this storm, is for them, not the hurt feelings of some little tin-pot despot.

ETA, as I am not hiring, I only care if someone is undocumented because the likelihood of them being treated fairly and with compassion by you and yours is almost nil.

I guarantee that if I had said something about the protection of ‘American citizens’ in the hurricane, that’s what ALL of you would have said to me. You would have pretty much said what you haves said anyway.

As far as hating and mean spiritedness goes, check your own posts.

racial and anti-Republican and anti-Trump jokes in the middle of a natural disaster which the President, FEMA and Homeland Security are taking charge of.

Most of your posts have direct charges/accusation of racism on the part of Republicans or the President, again, with zero evidence.

Charges of racism against republicans go back at least to the Reagan era,

It should be noted that the Klan and a century of racism from the Civil War to the climax of the Civil Rights era WAS the Democrat party. It was the ORIGIN of the Democrat party. rather than own up to it and celebrate that you have moved far from that, you are denying it altogether and attributing it to Republicans.
Republicans never owned slaves and were on the right side of the civil righrs movement, and have never oppressed minorities.

There have been exceptions I’m sure with certain individual candidates and politicians, but the Republican party, the political right, has always opposed discrimination. The Left seems obsessed even today with categorizing everyone by race. Amd with attributing the crimes of their own past with the opposing party

But for the record, yes Donald Trump’s main priority, in hurricanes, amid terror or war, is the protection of American citizens. Even in the face of one of the worst natural disasters in history, you are jesting and joking about the President being a racist. And several of the jokes are racist in themselves. I would expect better of you.

Oh please just stop. Your idiotic defense of the history of the Republican Party does not even remotely apply to what is happening today.

I am not “jesting and joking” about the president being a racist. The man has made statements and initiated actions over and over again that demonstrate he is a racist.

Your logic and statements are so garbled as to be unintelligible, and your slavish devotion to a person who has continuously and directly devalued persons of color and women is disgusting.

I’m out.

@Yellowdog Don’t be jerk about the Washington DC “Jerk”.

People died and the “Jerk” pats himself on the back for the great job he did. WTF ?

Yeah @Yellowdog weather or not what your saying is true it’s old history and NOT whats going on today by any means.
If the Democrats were the KKK in the beginning they sure as hell are not now, and the KKK more aligns it self with the Republicans these days, same with white nationalism, and so on.
So lets stop going fifty plus years into the past to try and paint Democrats as horrible monsters.
And if you want to go back how about the late Twenties with Smoot and Hawley who are basically responsible for the great depression with their protectionism tariffs on sugar and wool that’s how it started and both were wait for it Republicans sound familiar?
To the trade war your wonder Don father has started.

I did not say that the Democrats were doing these things today. Read the post again.

I said that they should admit their past mistakes and be celebrating that they have moved far from that. Instead, they routinely and actively accuse the opposing party of being what they,themselves, in fact, once were. Its like they’re still dealing with it somehow and project it on others. Or maybe its to justify their hatred of the opposing party.

Is not moving past that admitting the mistake?
The right are more inlined today with what left moved past years ago.
No one on this site has said anything about hatred except you,I did mention I hate Trump for declaring Canada a national security threat to the US just so he could impose tariffs.
Your Fox news spews tons of hate towards anyone with opposing views.
I hate what the right is doing to your country.
But again Fox and you say more about hate than anyone else has.

You guys do your history. Start with the Southern Strategy and on to the Civil Rights movement in the south beginning with Eisenhower and running through Johnson to Carter. Learn how race and economics are tied together and why, how and, yes, when poor and working class whites left the Democratic party that they had supported (probably because Lincoln won the war) since the civil war to side with the more ethnically pure Republican party.
Any argument that is prefaced on the basis that the Democrats did it first is bogus. You can’t justify continued injustice and discrimination based on the observation that fifty years ago someone else did the same thing

And, incidentally, this same reasoning in the basis for later arguments used today to try and justify any immoral action based on the premise that Clinton or Obama did it first.

Well said.^^^