Replies to post #74561 on Just Politics

[BullNBear52]

Puerto Ricans fire back at Trump for critical tweets
By Ralph Ellis, CNN
Updated 2:48 AM ET, Sun October 1, 2017

(CNN)Puerto Ricans reacted harshly on Saturday to President Trump's tweets that leaders of the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean island "want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort."

Several Puerto Ricans contacted by CNN stood up for San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who apparently provoked the Trump tweet with a call for more aid, and many said the Puerto Rican community at home and abroad is already working together.

"I'm amazed that he has the gall to say Puerto Ricans expect everything to be done for them," said Griselmarie Alemar of Stratford, Connecticut. "They are working exhaustively to lift themselves up. We are citizens. We pay taxes. We serve in the military."


Honoré reacts to Trump's San Juan mayor tweets 01:06

"It is a community effort," Evelyn Torres said at a fund-raising event in the Bronx. "It is a humanity effort."

Across all of the mainland US, various food and donation drives have been held throughout the past couple of weeks, hoping to get aid to those who need it.

"The Puerto Rican community," says Abner Breban of Atlanta, "has come together like never in the city of Atlanta." Breban has started a Facebook group called "Atlanta Levanta a Puerto Rico," which aims to help organizations in their efforts to collect, organize and distribute donations for the island.

Breban adds the movement is grassroots with everyone in the community finding roles and doing whatever is needed.

Speaking from San Juan, Renee Acosta said, "If he's not here, he shouldn't be criticizing the community efforts."

"Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico, took his shot on Twitter, saying: "You're going straight to hell, @realDonaldTrump. No long lines for you. Someone will say, 'Right this way, sir.' They'll clear a path."

The President stirred things up with a series of tweets Saturday from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he is spending the weekend.

He seemed to be responding to Cruz's comments on Friday night on CNN, when she said,"We're dying here. We truly are dying here. I keep saying it: SOS. If anyone can hear us; Mr. Trump can hear us, let's just get it over with and get the ball rolling."

Trump tweeted on Saturday morning, "The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump. Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort."

And late in afternoon, he fired again at Cruz: "Results of recovery efforts will speak much louder than complaints by San Juan Mayor. Doing everything we can to help great people of PR!"

Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper on Saturday night, Cruz said she's not a Democrat.

"He is looking for excuses for things not going well," she said. "I have no time for small politics or for comments that do not add to the situation here."

FEMA visits damaged town nine days after hurricane 02:49

Puerto Ricans have defended Cruz.
"Carmen has been going door to door helping her own community," adds Alemar, whose family is still in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. "She has said that the resources are there but the issue has been the excessive time consumed in logistics."

San Juan resident Gabriela Gonzalez -- a self proclaimed Trump supporter -- says she hopes Trump will see "something else besides the airport" when he visits on Tuesday because "it's even worse in the rest of the island."

"I think Trump is wrong in criticizing the mayor," Acosta said. "I mean, the mayor is reacting to a very chaotic situation in Puerto Rico. Unless you're here you don't really know what's going on. ... I guess he likes to play this Twitter game."

At the fund-raiser in New York, Bronx Borough President Rubens Diaz Jr. also lashed out at the President for tweeting instead of taking action.

"What Donald Trump did with those statements today is that it confirmed everything that people were thinking about him," Diaz said. "And it's just that he ... doesn't care, or he's just sophomoric, and just wants to continue to have these Twitter wars. There's no time for that."

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico 10 days ago, killing at least 16 people. Federal Emergency Management Agency official Alejandro de la Campa said only 5% of electricity had been restored in the island. He said 33% of the telecommunications infrastructure is back up and close to 50% of water services have been restored.

Several Puerto Ricans also said the island didn't receive the same kind of response as Houston and Florida, which were struck by hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Gonzalez added that Trump "didn't say those comments for the people of Florida or Texas and we are as American as those people."
"He didn't have this reaction for Harvey or Irma," said Alemar. "But now he's blaming the victim. Why?"

On Saturday afternoon Trump sent out complimentary tweets about Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello, Rep. Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon of Puerto Rico and Kenneth Mapp, governor of the US Virgin Islands.

Rossello publicly struck a conciliatory tone in remarks earlier in the day, saying the federal government fulfilled all his requests, though there's still plenty of humanitarian work to be done.

CNN's Marilia Brocchetto, Alaa Elassar, Boris Sanchez and Polo Sandoval contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/30/us/puerto-rico-responds-to-trump-tweets/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Top+Stories%29

[BOREALIS]

Pugnacious Trump should be in a wrestling ring, not the White House



Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times)

David Horsey

Donald Trump missed his calling. He should have had a career in professional wrestling. The macho theatrics, loud boasts, crude threats and puerile insults that are the mainstay of the silly sport are his specialty.

Instead, he is president of the United States (or, at least, he plays a president on TV), but that has not stopped him from acting like a doughy caricature of Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin.

This week, the pugilistic president picked a fight with the National Football League. He told a campaign audience in Alabama that any NFL football player who engages in a silent protest by kneeling during the pre-game performance of the national anthem is a “son-of-a-bitch” who should be run out of the league. He followed up those comments with a series of tweets that continued his attack. One of the most recent said, “Tremendous backlash against the NFL and its players for disrespect of our country.”

Actually, polls indicate that a majority of Americans support the free speech rights of players. And the NFL is hardly intimidated by Trump’s taunts. In defiance of the president, every team playing on Sunday took part in demonstrations of solidarity, from linking arms to staying in the locker room during the anthem. They had the backing of coaches, many owners and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
David Horsey cartoons

When he wasn’t maligning football players, Trump was tearing into his fellow Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was the chief recipient of the slams. The president called McConnell “weak” for his inability to repeal Obamacare — this from a man who has repeatedly displayed almost complete ignorance of the details of healthcare legislation and no ability to round up votes. Privately, it is reported, Trump has been making fun of McConnell and Arizona Sen. John McCain by mimicking their physical traits. That is such a crass thing to do, especially in the case of McCain whose physical limitations resulted from five years of torture in the Hanoi Hilton

Like any street corner bully, Trump is always looking for weaknesses in his opponents, but on Wednesday he revealed a weakness of his own. The tweeter-in-chief removed the tweets he sent out endorsing Alabama Sen. Luther Strange after Strange was trounced in Tuesday’s special election by a right wing zealot, Judge Roy Moore. Apparently he was trying to erase reminders that his endorsement of Strange was as ineffectual as his huffing and puffing about the NFL.

Trump is desperate to sustain the tough-guy image he has tried to project since he was pushing other kids around in military school. Unfortunately, he is a weak man’s idea of a strong man. In a silly spat with pro football players, that is of no consequence. In a fight with his own party leaders, he only undercuts himself. But, when he took his alpha male act to the United Nations last week, he embarrassed his country and edged closer to war with North Korea.

---
Trump’s words reveal his favorite subject is himself
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-trump-words-20170831-story.html
---

"The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea," Trump said. "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”

This passage in the UN speech prompted a response from the rocket man, himself, North Korea’s loony leader, Kim Jong Un. He called Trump “a frightened dog” and promised to “tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.” (Dotard, by the way, means senile old man — can’t wait for Trump to fling that one at McConnell and McCain!)

Trump responded by tweeting that Kim “will be tested like never before,” which was rather restrained, compared to past comments that threatened “a major, major conflict” and “fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

Apparently, Trump has never heard Theodore Roosevelt’s admonition to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” Trump loves to speak as loudly and belligerently as possible and he cannot shut up long enough to consider the consequences. While that may be entertaining in a wrestling ring, it is wildly irresponsible in a confrontation where hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives could be sacrificed if an impulsive war of words turns into a real war of missiles.

[e-mail]

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-pugnacious-trump-20170927-story.html

[janice shell]

Yes. And when he wasn't tweeting, he was playing golf, probably. His staff wouldn't confirm or deny.

[janice shell]

You'll be thrilled to learn that just a little while ago, Trumpty "dedicated" a trophy at the golf tournament he was attending to victims of "the hurricanes". Including the Puerto Ricans.

I'll bet they'll really appreciate that.

WTF is he THINKING?? Needless to say, that's a rhetorical question.