Six on Puerto Rico: Puerto Ricans agree: Trump hits out at ‘crazed and incompetent’ Puerto Rican leaders; Trump’s response t
panaritisp
|
|
"Cruz began her speech talking about her great-grandfather, who was an agricultural laborer, and the ripple effects slavery left behind in Puerto Rico.
“We have to break away from the chains that tie us down in order to have a promising future and break our cycle of poverty,” she said in Spanish.
The announcement came on a Puerto Rican holiday that commemorates the day slavery was abolished there.
Cruz gained national and international attention when she criticized the Trump administration's hurricane response in Puerto Rico.
“This is personal. The president came and threw paper towels at us," she told NBC News in a previous interview. "He continues to disregard the pain of people from Puerto Rico."
"TOA BAJA, PUERTO RICO — At the Casa Ismael clinic for HIV-positive men with severe health complications, the staff used to immediately change patients’ diapers after they were soiled.
But last week, clinic administrator Myrna Izquierdo told the nurses that had to stop. To save money, the nonprofit clinic, which relies on its patients’ food-stamp money for funding, will ask patients to sit in diapers in which they have repeatedly urinated, sometimes for hours.
The Casa Ismael clinic is short on funds in part because of cuts in food stamps that hit about 1.3 million residents of Puerto Rico this month — a new crisis for an island still struggling from the effects of Hurricane Maria in September 2017.
The federal government provided additional food-stamp aid to Puerto Rico after the hurricane, but Congress missed the deadline for reauthorization in March as it focused on other issues before leaving for a week-long recess. Federal lawmakers have also been stalled by the Trump administration, which has derided the extra aid as unnecessary.
Now, about 43 percent of Puerto Rico’s residents are grappling with a sudden cut to a benefit they rely on for groceries and other essentials.
And while Congress may address this issue soon, the lapse underscores the broader vulnerability of Puerto Rico’s economy, as well as key parts of its safety net, to the whims of an increasingly hostile federal government with which it has feuded over key priorities. ...
But at an Oval Office meeting on Feb. 22, Trump asked top advisers for ways to limit federal support from going to Puerto Rico, believing it is taking money that should be going to the mainland, according to senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of the president’s private remarks.
The meeting — an afternoon session focused on Department of Housing and Urban Development grants — ended abruptly, and Trump has continued to ask aides how much money the island will get. Then, Trump said he wanted the money only to fortify the electric grid there.
Trump has also privately signaled he will not approve any additional help for Puerto Rico beyond the food-stamp money, setting up a congressional showdown with Democrats who have pushed for more expansive help for the island."
|
"Friends who traveled to see Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” at the Centro de Bellas Artes in San Juan tell me that the performance was an artistic triumph, and also helpful as a way to get tourist dollars to Puerto Rican businesses that are still recovering from the devastation of 2017’s Hurricane Maria.
The many advocates and politicians who love the island should follow suit by convincing the Democratic National Committee to hold a presidential debate on the island.
A nationally televised debate for the large and growing field of candidates would, first and foremost, bring badly needed millions of dollars to the shopkeepers, restaurants, cab drivers, hotel housekeepers, security guards and other working people who make a living from tourism.
Beyond the practical economic considerations, a debate would remind America that a staggering 2,975 souls, according to the most credible estimates, perished on Puerto Rico in September 2017. That is nearly the same number as the 2,996 we lost in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11."
"Following a very strange, inaccurate presentation by President Donald Trump to Republican senators earlier this week on the amount of federal disaster relief funds given to Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló has sent a message to the president essentially telling him that he’s tired of Trump’s bullshit.
“If the bully gets close, I’ll punch the bully in the mouth,” Rosselló said in an interview with CNN. “It would be a mistake to confuse courtesy with courage."grant Puerto Rico statehood, CNN reported, which Rosselló views as necessary to receive the disaster recovery funds it needs to continue the nearly-two-year-long process after Hurricane Maria.
|
|
|
Serrano seat up for grabs
"Which Democrat might replace Rep. José E. Serrano, the long-serving Bronx congressman who announced this week he has Parkinson’s disease and won’t seek re-election?
The field is relatively open because some Bronx heavy hitters seem to be taking a pass, such as Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who’s focusing on a mayoral run.
A surprise potential candidate popped Thursday, when controversial Bronx City Councilman Ruben Diaz Sr. said he is “considering if I should throw my cowboy hat into a run for Congress” in his “WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW” newsletter.
Another Assembly member who might be interested is Michael Blake, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee who won the Bronx in his losing February campaign for NYC public advocate. He might benefit from a split Hispanic vote depending on the field.
But the South Bronx district is heavily Hispanic or Latino -- 520,380 out of 781,143 residents, according to recent Census figures. And Serrano was traditionally a major advocate for Puerto Rico."
The Point: Clavin makes an embarrassing error
|
