You said it, they have no representation and a different language and culture, why wouldn't they want to be independent? The Feds should have used this opportunity to do a good job responding to the disaster, embarrass the lefty local government and not give secessionists more fuel for their fire.
San Juan Mayor Fumes After Top Trump Official Calls Puerto Rico Response A ‘Good News Story’
- Thread starter Tony Stark
- Start date
You said it, they have no representation and a different language and culture, why wouldn't they want to be independent? The Feds should have used this opportunity to do a good job responding to the disaster, embarrass the lefty local government and not give secessionists more fuel for their fire.
Because they are getting more federal benefits from the U.S than they could even remotely hope for if they became a state or if they went independent. You know, states have responsibilities in our system too and that is not their strong point.
We will give Puerto Rico billions and corruption will take a major bite out of it as always. They can go independent and will be like Haiti in short order. Just imagine if they went independent a couple years ago and the the hurricanes hit. Planning is not their thing.
The latest referendum was just two or three months ago and 97% voted for statehood although turnout was low because of some faction boycotting or something. The deeper they plunge into bankruptcy with the independence that they already have, the more they want Uncle Sam......cha ching..cha ching!!!!!. They are not even remotely able to govern themselves. Spend U.S. money yes, run a good economy, no. Not exactly a candidate to become a state. Yet we have to prop them up or else the commies, or china, or al queda start using it as their playground and we have to avoid that if possible.
It's more than I want to get into in posts, but their have been plans in the past to develop puerto rico into a regional quasi offshore, financial center to become sort of a micro, micro hong kong to become a center for south american, mexican, caribbean type financial trade. By giving them and/or developing special financial incentives etc. As I said, I can't get into it here but the idea is that you have to light some kind of candle so to speak instead of just cursing the darkness. There has to be something new and different and revenue generating there. The old sucking on the american tit and giving half of it to local corrupt policitians while you dont even have a stable electrical system just goes nowhere decade after decade. I am upbeat in the long run about it but it requires me to piss on the things that have not worked as part of getting real.
Some things are inter-related. It will help to have Castro number 2 to die and that is coming. It will help to keep the clintons out of puerto rico and out haiti. That rape needs to end. It will help to see Maduro ousted. Then the whiff of capitalism can drift around the caribbean a little more productively. I will say no more on that.
The other "problem" that puerto rico has is puerto ricans are already american citizens so their brain drain is enormous. Talent just up and moves to any place in the u.s. they want to at any time they want to. Florida is receiving thousands of refugees per week from puerto rico and you will need to give them a reason to go back. Good for them of course but it puts the pressure on puerto rico to have a reason for people to stay there. Refer to my previous comment about having to light some kind of new and different economic candle.
Okay, I am done now.
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Reminds me of New Orleans and Katrina. The Democrat state governor received money to upgrade the pumps that hold back Lake Ponchetrain. Guess what? They spent the money on something else. Then Katrina ripped the place a new one so they deflected the story into more "hate Bush" and "FEMA sucks". Liberals motto is "let's all share the wealth and gimmee some. With the press as our pr outlet we can do axe murders on the capitol steps"
Indeed. And that fits with the puerto rico situation in regard to - under the american system- the states have the first line of defense and the feds can only enter as requested. Kathleen Blanco the governor of Louisiana refused to request federal help until things had already shiite the bed. Fortunately she did not even bother to run for re-election. And then Ray Nagin the black mayor of New Orleans who bitched the loudest and the longest about the federal government/ bush not caring about blacks and not caring about New Orleans was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for taking bribes from contractors doing recovery work after the hurricane. Yep, there are lessons there for sure. Right now the dnc cheerleading squad is promoting the "trump doesnt care about puerto rico" programmed script. But a year from now it will nothing but stories of corruption of recovery funds in puerto rico. The ones involving the republican governors underlings will get wall to wall coverage. The ones from the dem mayors underlings/ not so much.
The United States is overhwhelming the funder of all sorts of disaster relief programs at the United Nations and has been for years. We have funded every tsunami, famine, earthquake, flood known to man for decades all while everyone pokes us in the eye for not doing enough. Might be nice if we could get some of that money back this year based on the wild and crazy idea that the United Nations is there for us too. Okay, that was my little fantasy for a second. I am okay now and back to reality. I wavered there for a minute.
Oh, and don't expect anyone to be turning down any funds from the Americanos because Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner and porked Sally Hemmings -one of his slaves- now and then. Nope, doesnt work that way.
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Got this from a person I used to work with in San Juan. I don't know how authentic it is so take it for what it is worth. It's a supposed transcript of a radio station there:
Puerto Rico Cop Calls U.S. Radio Station Reporting Corrupt Mayor of San Juan and Request For Help…
Posted on September 30, 2017
A very emotional female police officer from Puerto Rico’s police department in Guaynabo calls in to a U.S. spanish speaking radio station to tell listeners what is going on in Puerto Rico. The police woman is very upset, crying and sobbing often, and shares how the Mayor of San Juan is politicizing the situation and not offering help.
The call and video was recorded September 28th, and highlights the corruption within government within Puerto Rico and the Municipal authority of San Juan. The video is English closed captioned (hit “CC” option) and a transcript is below:
Radio Announcer: What is your name?
Police Caller: I cannot give my name because I work for Puerto Rico’s Police Department. I need to pass this information out because the stuff that is being brought from the U.S. is not being distributed. They are not allowing the Puerto Rican people to receive the donations.
Radio Announcer: What part of Puerto Rico are you calling us from right now?
Police Caller: I am right now in Guaynabo.
Radio Announcer 2: Wow.
Radio Announcer 3: But what information do you have? What have you seen?
Police Caller: The Mayor, Carmen Yulin, is not allowing anyone to distribute… We need… what Puerto Ricans need is that the U.S. armed forces come in and distribute the aid. And that they stop the governor, Rosello, and the mayor, Yulin, on doing what they are doing… It’s an abuse, it looks like communism, in our own island (sobbing)… (sobbing continues, inaudible translation due to cries)…
Police Caller (cont.): People are helping us, but they are not accepting it, they are not accepting anymore help supposedly: “they have to wait for the license, that there are no buses.” …Let me tell you something Boricuas (Puerto Ricans) are dying of hunger (crying continues) … This is a bureaucracy, everything has to be protocol, the lines are stretched. …We can only give one box of water per person (sobbing continues). …The medics here, people are dying, the hospitals are in crisis.
Police Caller (cont.): I am embarrassed, as a Boricua to work for Puerto Rico’s police and see that we cannot do anything. There are dozens and thousands and thousands of food and when people ask we cannot give anything away because [Mayor] Carmen Yulin says that we cannot take anything out; because everything is a soap opera, everything is a show and there have to be cameras here and there. ….Because you know they are just looking for votes for the upcoming years.
Radio Announcer 2: Wow
Police Caller: And the governor won’t move unless there is a camera behind him; [Mayor] Carmen Yulin won’t move unless there is a camera behind her. This is how we are living in Puerto Rico, meanwhile artists are giving money and the people of Florida are sending stuff, and I don’t know how many more people are helping because we have very limited communication, very limited, and we have no idea what’s going on outside; and the people who are sending stuff, they have to come in; they have to come to help Puerto Rico and distribute what is being wasted …because what else are we going to do? You tell me, what are we going to do?
Radio Announcer #2: Of course the desperation..
Radio Announcer #3: We are with our hearts broken listening to you describing this situation which is heartbreaking when we know that so many people are helping …this is a police officer speaking.
Police Caller: I’ve been for one hour and a half just trying to download an application because the phones that they give to us I cannot use them as a police officer due to security measures. But I need to speak for the people because the people are suffering. Because I, as a cop, and other partners are seeing it. A lot of people have been posting videos (sobbing – inaudible) …and no-one is paying attention.
Radio Announcer #3: We are truly sorry for this situation, we did not know that..
Police Caller: If Cuba and Venezuela want to help and we are grateful for that; and that the government denies their help, the government denies Cuba’s help. …That they reject Venezuela’s help, …Look for God’s sake! Tell me how is that possible, we need help.
Radio Announcer #3: We are going to send this message out so that it gets to where it needs to get to…
Police Caller: We want the U.S. to come in, that the strongest forces come in and take the governor out, he is not doing anything, he is just going around and around, …and everyone is like: “oh, look how nice, the governor, he is going in the mud, he is going in the water”, And where is it? Pardon the expression: WHERE IS THE FOOD?
Police Caller (cont.): Look, grab the food, grab the sausage can and take it to the families! Stop the show! The governor is just doing a show, is all a show. There are many mayors that are suffering because they cannot do anything for their people.
Radio Announcer #2: What are they doing with the food? Is it being kept in storage because they are not allowing to give it out?
Police Caller: They are not doing anything, and they tell the harbors (ports) that they cannot bring stuff anymore. If the U.S. government doesn’t get involved they will finish us. We are going to end up worse. …Worse than Cuba, Africa, or worse than Haiti. We are living in an era that you don’t want to see, people are desperate. The gasoline, people are already killing each other. Not to rob you, they are doing it so they can be the firsts to get food and take it to their families.
Police Caller (cont.): Do you know what it is when a woman approaches me and tells me “I don’t have any more.” “I don’t know what else to give my kids because I don’t have anymore.” “Water and crackers”!
Radio Announcer #1: Sweetie, thank you for calling us and using this medium to denounce this situation; and good thing that it was you who explained this so that people don’t think that we are making up stuff; because this has nothing to do with politics. This is a very serious situation.
Police Caller: Very Serious (sobbing continues)
Puerto Rico Cop Calls U.S. Radio Station Reporting Corrupt Mayor of San Juan and Request For Help…
Posted on September 30, 2017
A very emotional female police officer from Puerto Rico’s police department in Guaynabo calls in to a U.S. spanish speaking radio station to tell listeners what is going on in Puerto Rico. The police woman is very upset, crying and sobbing often, and shares how the Mayor of San Juan is politicizing the situation and not offering help.
The call and video was recorded September 28th, and highlights the corruption within government within Puerto Rico and the Municipal authority of San Juan. The video is English closed captioned (hit “CC” option) and a transcript is below:
Radio Announcer: What is your name?
Police Caller: I cannot give my name because I work for Puerto Rico’s Police Department. I need to pass this information out because the stuff that is being brought from the U.S. is not being distributed. They are not allowing the Puerto Rican people to receive the donations.
Radio Announcer: What part of Puerto Rico are you calling us from right now?
Police Caller: I am right now in Guaynabo.
Radio Announcer 2: Wow.
Radio Announcer 3: But what information do you have? What have you seen?
Police Caller: The Mayor, Carmen Yulin, is not allowing anyone to distribute… We need… what Puerto Ricans need is that the U.S. armed forces come in and distribute the aid. And that they stop the governor, Rosello, and the mayor, Yulin, on doing what they are doing… It’s an abuse, it looks like communism, in our own island (sobbing)… (sobbing continues, inaudible translation due to cries)…
Police Caller (cont.): People are helping us, but they are not accepting it, they are not accepting anymore help supposedly: “they have to wait for the license, that there are no buses.” …Let me tell you something Boricuas (Puerto Ricans) are dying of hunger (crying continues) … This is a bureaucracy, everything has to be protocol, the lines are stretched. …We can only give one box of water per person (sobbing continues). …The medics here, people are dying, the hospitals are in crisis.
Police Caller (cont.): I am embarrassed, as a Boricua to work for Puerto Rico’s police and see that we cannot do anything. There are dozens and thousands and thousands of food and when people ask we cannot give anything away because [Mayor] Carmen Yulin says that we cannot take anything out; because everything is a soap opera, everything is a show and there have to be cameras here and there. ….Because you know they are just looking for votes for the upcoming years.
Radio Announcer 2: Wow
Police Caller: And the governor won’t move unless there is a camera behind him; [Mayor] Carmen Yulin won’t move unless there is a camera behind her. This is how we are living in Puerto Rico, meanwhile artists are giving money and the people of Florida are sending stuff, and I don’t know how many more people are helping because we have very limited communication, very limited, and we have no idea what’s going on outside; and the people who are sending stuff, they have to come in; they have to come to help Puerto Rico and distribute what is being wasted …because what else are we going to do? You tell me, what are we going to do?
Radio Announcer #2: Of course the desperation..
Radio Announcer #3: We are with our hearts broken listening to you describing this situation which is heartbreaking when we know that so many people are helping …this is a police officer speaking.
Police Caller: I’ve been for one hour and a half just trying to download an application because the phones that they give to us I cannot use them as a police officer due to security measures. But I need to speak for the people because the people are suffering. Because I, as a cop, and other partners are seeing it. A lot of people have been posting videos (sobbing – inaudible) …and no-one is paying attention.
Radio Announcer #3: We are truly sorry for this situation, we did not know that..
Police Caller: If Cuba and Venezuela want to help and we are grateful for that; and that the government denies their help, the government denies Cuba’s help. …That they reject Venezuela’s help, …Look for God’s sake! Tell me how is that possible, we need help.
Radio Announcer #3: We are going to send this message out so that it gets to where it needs to get to…
Police Caller: We want the U.S. to come in, that the strongest forces come in and take the governor out, he is not doing anything, he is just going around and around, …and everyone is like: “oh, look how nice, the governor, he is going in the mud, he is going in the water”, And where is it? Pardon the expression: WHERE IS THE FOOD?
Police Caller (cont.): Look, grab the food, grab the sausage can and take it to the families! Stop the show! The governor is just doing a show, is all a show. There are many mayors that are suffering because they cannot do anything for their people.
Radio Announcer #2: What are they doing with the food? Is it being kept in storage because they are not allowing to give it out?
Police Caller: They are not doing anything, and they tell the harbors (ports) that they cannot bring stuff anymore. If the U.S. government doesn’t get involved they will finish us. We are going to end up worse. …Worse than Cuba, Africa, or worse than Haiti. We are living in an era that you don’t want to see, people are desperate. The gasoline, people are already killing each other. Not to rob you, they are doing it so they can be the firsts to get food and take it to their families.
Police Caller (cont.): Do you know what it is when a woman approaches me and tells me “I don’t have any more.” “I don’t know what else to give my kids because I don’t have anymore.” “Water and crackers”!
Radio Announcer #1: Sweetie, thank you for calling us and using this medium to denounce this situation; and good thing that it was you who explained this so that people don’t think that we are making up stuff; because this has nothing to do with politics. This is a very serious situation.
Police Caller: Very Serious (sobbing continues)
Trump is kicking asses.
I might not share his philosophies, however he got elected on his philosophy : why are people complaining about ?????
I might not share his philosophies, however he got elected on his philosophy : why are people complaining about ?????
Fellow Puerto Rico Mayor Rips San Juan Mayor — ‘She’s Not Participating In Any Meetings’
The mayor of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico cast serious doubt Saturday on the claims made by San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who has repeatedly attacked President Trump and accused him of abandoning Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Guaynabo’s mayor, Angel Perez, said in an interview with The Daily Caller that his experience with the federal government has been different from Cruz’s, in part because — unlike Cruz — he has been participating in meetings with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal agencies.
Cruz, a Democrat, has repeatedly accused Trump and the federal government of abandoning Puerto Rico. She demanded in a press conference on Friday that Trump do more to help the island, adding that “we are going to see is something close to a genocide” if more is not done. (RELATED: Trump Takes On San Juan Mayor For ‘Nasty’ Criticism Of Puerto Rico Response)
Mayor Perez told TheDC that the story Cruz is telling the media doesn’t mesh with what he has seen from the federal government.
“My experience is different. I have been participating in different meetings at the headquarters of FEMA and our government and the help is coming in and right now my experience is different from hers. I’m receiving help from the government, we are receiving assistance from FEMA, I got people over here helping us with applications for the people that have damage in their houses. And we have here in Guaynabo, we have thousands of people that lost partially or totally their houses,” said Perez, who is a member of Puerto Rico’s New Progressive Party.
Perez’s comments echoed what FEMA administrator Brock Long said on Saturday. Long defended Trump’s tweets blasting Cruz and indicated that Cruz has failed to connect with the FEMA command center set up on the island to help with the relief effort.
When asked about Cruz’s “genocide” statement, Perez said, “I don’t know why she is saying that. What I can tell you is my experience. She is not participating in any meetings and we had a couple already with the governors and with representation of FEMA and of HUD, of these whole federal agencies that have given us help and she’s not participating in those meetings and some mayors from her political party have been participating, so I don’t know why she is saying that. My experience is very different.” (RELATED: San Juan Mayor Praised Convicted FALN Terrorist)
“Some [mayors] would like the help to be faster but we also know that FEMA is dealing with what happened in Houston and in Florida and now in Puerto Rico,” Perez said.
One thing that the mayors are counting on the federal government for is “blue tarps” to patch over damaged and missing roofs, Perez said. He noted that “thousands of people have lost completely their houses but some of them have lost partially their houses so if we have the blue tarps maybe we could help them not to lose everything in their houses.”
“So what FEMA has told us is that [the tarps] are on the way and as soon as they get to Puerto Rico they will get them to us,” Perez said. “Most of [the mayors], that’s what they are asking.”
“Sure, we need gasoline, diesel for our generators and our machines and everything but that’s internal problems with the person that sells the diesel and the gasoline and the everything because they haven’t had the people to drive the trucks,” he added. “It’s been hard to get that over here and I know that the government is helping, so we are expecting maybe by next week that that will be in the past and that we won’t have any problems with that.”
In his interview with TheDC, Perez stressed that Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis has left the island largely unable to solve its own problems.
“Remember that before this hurricane we had a fiscal crisis and so there is not enough opportunity for us or for the municipalities. It is less because we can’t take a loan or something or some bonds, we can’t because of our fiscal crisis so we need a lot of help from the federal government,” Perez said.
“We need the assistance from the Congress and the President because of our fiscal crisis, if we don’t have that help it’s going to take, forget it, maybe a decade,” he added later in the interview. “It’s going to take a while for this island to get on our feet again.”
Perez said the situation in Guaynabo, which has a population of just under 100,000, is devastating and said that the situation around the island is largely the same.
“It’s devastating. It’s not only one municipality, Puerto Rico is divided into 78 municipalities and in each one of them you will have thousands and thousands of families that don’t have food right now, their houses were damaged partially or totally,” Perez said, adding that “for example, also right now in my building from the municipality, I think I have damage over 30 or 40 million dollars.”
Despite the devastation both in Guaynabo and across the island, Perez said that he remains optimistic, and expressed hope that Trump’s visit to Puerto Rico on Tuesday will have a positive impact.
“I’m very optimistic. President Trump visiting Puerto Rico, I think it will level up and increase our optimism and our faith, not only in the federal government but our faith in the Congress and that the president is going to help us and that more help and more funds are going to come to our island,” he said. “The visiting of some senators and some representatives now coming to Puerto Rico also and now the president, I think that’s the best thing to give hope to our people.”
“If there was not an interest in helping Puerto Rico, we wouldn’t have the visits from the Congress and the visit from the president — it would never happen,” Perez said.
“In other times there’s been other presidents that never visited. So right now by President Trump coming here, it’s very helpful and giving us the expectation and the hope that the help will be coming to Puerto Rico.” http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/30/e...mayor-shes-not-participating-in-any-meetings/
The mayor of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico cast serious doubt Saturday on the claims made by San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who has repeatedly attacked President Trump and accused him of abandoning Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Guaynabo’s mayor, Angel Perez, said in an interview with The Daily Caller that his experience with the federal government has been different from Cruz’s, in part because — unlike Cruz — he has been participating in meetings with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal agencies.
Cruz, a Democrat, has repeatedly accused Trump and the federal government of abandoning Puerto Rico. She demanded in a press conference on Friday that Trump do more to help the island, adding that “we are going to see is something close to a genocide” if more is not done. (RELATED: Trump Takes On San Juan Mayor For ‘Nasty’ Criticism Of Puerto Rico Response)
Mayor Perez told TheDC that the story Cruz is telling the media doesn’t mesh with what he has seen from the federal government.
“My experience is different. I have been participating in different meetings at the headquarters of FEMA and our government and the help is coming in and right now my experience is different from hers. I’m receiving help from the government, we are receiving assistance from FEMA, I got people over here helping us with applications for the people that have damage in their houses. And we have here in Guaynabo, we have thousands of people that lost partially or totally their houses,” said Perez, who is a member of Puerto Rico’s New Progressive Party.
Perez’s comments echoed what FEMA administrator Brock Long said on Saturday. Long defended Trump’s tweets blasting Cruz and indicated that Cruz has failed to connect with the FEMA command center set up on the island to help with the relief effort.
When asked about Cruz’s “genocide” statement, Perez said, “I don’t know why she is saying that. What I can tell you is my experience. She is not participating in any meetings and we had a couple already with the governors and with representation of FEMA and of HUD, of these whole federal agencies that have given us help and she’s not participating in those meetings and some mayors from her political party have been participating, so I don’t know why she is saying that. My experience is very different.” (RELATED: San Juan Mayor Praised Convicted FALN Terrorist)
“Some [mayors] would like the help to be faster but we also know that FEMA is dealing with what happened in Houston and in Florida and now in Puerto Rico,” Perez said.
One thing that the mayors are counting on the federal government for is “blue tarps” to patch over damaged and missing roofs, Perez said. He noted that “thousands of people have lost completely their houses but some of them have lost partially their houses so if we have the blue tarps maybe we could help them not to lose everything in their houses.”
“So what FEMA has told us is that [the tarps] are on the way and as soon as they get to Puerto Rico they will get them to us,” Perez said. “Most of [the mayors], that’s what they are asking.”
“Sure, we need gasoline, diesel for our generators and our machines and everything but that’s internal problems with the person that sells the diesel and the gasoline and the everything because they haven’t had the people to drive the trucks,” he added. “It’s been hard to get that over here and I know that the government is helping, so we are expecting maybe by next week that that will be in the past and that we won’t have any problems with that.”
In his interview with TheDC, Perez stressed that Puerto Rico’s fiscal crisis has left the island largely unable to solve its own problems.
“Remember that before this hurricane we had a fiscal crisis and so there is not enough opportunity for us or for the municipalities. It is less because we can’t take a loan or something or some bonds, we can’t because of our fiscal crisis so we need a lot of help from the federal government,” Perez said.
“We need the assistance from the Congress and the President because of our fiscal crisis, if we don’t have that help it’s going to take, forget it, maybe a decade,” he added later in the interview. “It’s going to take a while for this island to get on our feet again.”
Perez said the situation in Guaynabo, which has a population of just under 100,000, is devastating and said that the situation around the island is largely the same.
“It’s devastating. It’s not only one municipality, Puerto Rico is divided into 78 municipalities and in each one of them you will have thousands and thousands of families that don’t have food right now, their houses were damaged partially or totally,” Perez said, adding that “for example, also right now in my building from the municipality, I think I have damage over 30 or 40 million dollars.”
Despite the devastation both in Guaynabo and across the island, Perez said that he remains optimistic, and expressed hope that Trump’s visit to Puerto Rico on Tuesday will have a positive impact.
“I’m very optimistic. President Trump visiting Puerto Rico, I think it will level up and increase our optimism and our faith, not only in the federal government but our faith in the Congress and that the president is going to help us and that more help and more funds are going to come to our island,” he said. “The visiting of some senators and some representatives now coming to Puerto Rico also and now the president, I think that’s the best thing to give hope to our people.”
“If there was not an interest in helping Puerto Rico, we wouldn’t have the visits from the Congress and the visit from the president — it would never happen,” Perez said.
“In other times there’s been other presidents that never visited. So right now by President Trump coming here, it’s very helpful and giving us the expectation and the hope that the help will be coming to Puerto Rico.” http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/30/e...mayor-shes-not-participating-in-any-meetings/
I saw the director of FEMA being interviewed by Chris Wallace. He was incredibly impressive. Clearly a committed individual who had his act together. Wallace kept trying to trip him up but he calmly explained the extraordinary difficulties and the lengths FEMA has gone to provide relief. He tactfully sidestepped blaming PR officials for poor infrastructure and other obvious problems.
This San Juan mayor is a real disgrace. She makes me think we should cut PR loose. It's not like we get any real benefits from our association. How exactly does supporting a bunch of ungrateful welfare leeches help the US taxpayer?
This San Juan mayor is a real disgrace. She makes me think we should cut PR loose. It's not like we get any real benefits from our association. How exactly does supporting a bunch of ungrateful welfare leeches help the US taxpayer?