President Donald Trump spent much of the weekend working from his New Jersey golf club in Bedminister and then attended the international golf competition, The President’s Cup, at Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City.
President Trump presented the winning trophy to Team U.S.A., and with compliments to the international competition dedicated the trophy to the people of Puerto Rico, Florida and Texas who are dealing with the aftermath of three devastating hurricanes.
“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 U.S. response.”
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PUERTO RICO – The head of an international engineering firm in Puerto Rico said in an editorial Saturday that when the time came to send 50 of his engineers to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, he bypassed local officials and went straight to FEMA.
The reason, said Jorge Rodriguez, the CEO of PACIV, in an editorial in the New York Post, is that “for 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.”
President Trump tweeted this morning while Secretary Rex Tillerson is in China meeting with Xi Jinping about what to do with North Korea. ….or put another way: Tillerson chats about Rocket-boy consequences with big Panda while the sound of a lion roaring is heard over the background of the bamboo forest.
If you’ve been following along, Trump/Tillerson creating the need for ‘Magnanimous Panda’ is actually quite fun to watch unfold.
President Trump will never use the U.S. military to solve this regional issue. The national security strategy is based entirely on economics (leverage) and diplomacy (ownership). President Trump’s words and rhetoric against Kim Jong-un, and the response from Jong-un in kind toward President Trump, creates the foundation of a need for magnanimous panda to step in.
Remember, Beijing doesn’t want to take ownership of DPRK. China prefers to retain influence over behavior, they are the enablers, but not be directly responsible for the enforcement of any agreement which comes with attached consequences (economic punishment) for DPRK violations.
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There were about a dozen moments within this interview when FEMA Director Brock Long could have easily broken out with: “I ain’t got no time for that“, as the insufferable Chris Wallace demands Long talk about the politics of disaster relief.
Mr. Brock Long and the entire organization of FEMA workers have been doing outstanding work with a ‘no quit’ attitude for months. Great interview:
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:
CNN attempts to spin a narrative, FEMA Director refuses to engage. FEMA Director Brock Long explains how the Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carmen Yulin-Cruz has intentionally disconnected herself from the unified chain-of-command for Hurricane Maria relief efforts in favor of playing politics.
Additionally and incredibly, Mayor Yulin Cruz has never even visited the San Juan Headquarters where FEMA, Dept. of Homeland Security, Dept of Defense, National Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and PR state governors office are communicating, prioritizing and responding to the urgent needs of municipal leaders and the citizens of Puerto Rico.
Ridiculously, Mayor Yulin Cruz chooses to remain a few blocks away talking politics to media cameras instead of engaging with local, state and federal officials on recovery efforts. FUBAR.
Notice at 09:00 where Director Long specifically discusses the need for disaster response action from the local community, and how citizens should participate instead of remaining dependent on federal government. Quickly CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield jumps in to cut him off so that CNN producers can continue selling their narrative. WATCH:
Ahead of an upcoming trip by President Donald Trump, and against the backdrop of economic sanctions by Trump/Mnuchin and the U.N. toward North Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson works on the “Magnanimous Panda” strategy within the Trump Doctrine.
The ‘Big Picture’ goal is for China to accept responsibility, publicly, for spearheading the denuclearizing program within an established “six party talk” framework. China ultimately becoming the guarantor of a denuclearized DPRK, and President Trump stroking the Panda Fur (praise) while simultaneously controlling the amount of bamboo in the Beijing forest. So far, things are proceeding swimmingly.
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping offered warm words for U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday, calling him a friend and saying he expected Trump’s visit to China in November would be “wonderful”.
…They have the generators, water, food, medicine, and fuel on the ground, yet the supplies are not moving across the island as quickly as they’re needed.
“It’s a lack of drivers for the transport trucks, the 18 wheelers. Supplies we have. Trucks we have. There are ships full of supplies, backed up in the ports, waiting to have a vehicle to unload into. However, only 20% of the truck drivers show up to work. These are private citizens in Puerto Rico, paid by companies that are contracted by the government”.. (link)
The ports are so full of relief supplies they can’t fit any more on the available space. CNBC ground report confirms Colonel Valle’s ground report. WATCH:
The Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carmen Yulin-Cruz attempts to make the crisis in Puerto Rico political. The insufferable mindset to make things political is only exceeded by the ridiculous optic of calling for federal aid while surrounded by relief supplies provided entirely by the U.S. federal government.
•50% of the native Puerto Rican National Guard refused to report to duty when the governor called them up. •Thousands of tons of supplies and equipment, provided by FEMA, U.S. military and U.S. relief agencies, sit at ports while municipal government has no process for delivering them. •Frente Amplio (PR Teamsters Union – truck drivers) are on strike and refusing to deliver supplies. •Over 10,000 U.S. federal personnel are providing recovery and relief on the island….
…and the priority for the Mayor of San Juan, with no power or infrastructure, is to have T-Shirts made to push a political agenda?
Funny how Anderson Cooper never asks:Where does one get a shirt like this made when Puerto Rico is under water and out of power? (rhetorical question)
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President Donald Trump discusses the short-term (relief) and long-term (recovery) efforts for Puerto Rico. As everyone is aware, even before the storm the island territory was under financial collapse as a result of Democrat mismanagement and generational political agendas’ creating a culture of dependency.
Hurricane Maria has exacerbated Puerto Rico’s problems and is showcasing a governmental structure incapable of governing during crisis. The media hypes the suffering, yet omits the Island’s inept systems of governance and the culture of dependency. The only way the U.S. federal government can assist effectively is by taking over almost every aspect of state and local government.
As President Trump points out in this impromptu press conference, congress has some decisions to make on the long-term future of Puerto Rico. Throwing money at the problem is futile when the recipient systems are fraught with ineptitude and corruption.