Even before the BIG ONE hit the island, Puerto Rico was in on the road to disaster; a living example of the walking dead, a corpse in the making. Yes, truth be told, the island and all its beauty was drifting along in the sea of Big Government Liars, thieves and pillagers. In fact no one worked, 41% of those employed pushed papers from one side of the desk to the other; government workers; would you expect anything less? Now that is what we call “a hard day’s night.” I’ve been working like a dog was the call from the wilderness. Never really seen a dog work, have you? Seen them sleep, eat and play, but work? Especially in the likes of the Caribbean, not many dogs would take up the sport – too hot, they barked – “give me air conditioning.”
But for AOC’s Abuela, living in God’s heaven on earth, to live in squalor is another falsehood from the purveyor of “fire in the theater.” Check AOC’s pad for the Rich and Famous. Guess she doesn’t care about her Abuela! And Abuela’s casa grande is the envy of all American’s.
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HOW MANY PEOPLE DIED IN PUERTO RICO? – DEPENDS ON WHO YOU ASK – WHO WAS ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE
Did 65 die or was it 3000? And where are the bodies? Who is to blame for this? First of all Puerto Rico is a welfare sanctuary run to the ground by Democrats – a failed state. Their infrastructure was was comparable to those of third world countries – think South Africa, Iran and Iraq. Electricity was dole out by the hour, water systems in many cases were inoperable. But the failed state, 41% of the employed worked for the government, was an accident waiting to happen; and it did.
Most deaths after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico are blamed on interruptions in medical care due to power outages and blocked or washed out roads, said the report published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Approximately one-third of post-hurricane deaths were reported by household members as being caused by delayed or prevented access to medical care,” said the report.”
The bottom line is two fold; Of those responsible for the majority of deaths were Puerto Rico’s the elected government officials; their obligation was to prepare and warn the people of the coming disaster; this they did not do.
Secondly, to blame Trump for his lack of empathy is insinuating that the President of the United States caused the problem. He did not. But we must remind those who place blame of the FACT that those who live in a Welfare State always depend on others to do their bidding. And so it was with Puerto Rico when hurricane Maria hit. The citizens waited for the Government to step in and lend a helping hand while they sat idly by, waiting for disaster to hit.
THEY TAKE AND TAKE AND TAKE – PUERTO RICO CORRUPTION AND WELFARE GONE WILD
SINK OR SWIM – ENOUGH ALREADY – NO MORE PAYMENTS FROM U.S. TAX PAYERS
Storm dealt Puerto Rico knockout blow after decades of fiscal failure, corruption
By Barnini Chakraborty | Fox News
Hurricane Maria aftermath: Puerto Rico faces months without power
The entire island of Puerto Rico is without power, after Hurricane Maria slammed into the U.S. territory. Officials estimate that it could take months for the island to be restored. Check out these incredible images of the storm and its aftermath.
Six months after Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, many leaders there are pointing the finger at Washington, but the scandal, corruption and waste that now plague the U.S. territory were around long before last summer’s storm.
Decades of dysfunction, mismanagement and embarrassing abuses of power left Puerto Rico reeling well before the storm delivered a knockout blow, say obervers. Enormous debt, absurd infrastructure projects and a tradition of corruption have hampered the commonwealth’s ability to get off the canvas.
“There’ve been so many problems that have built up year after year,” Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., told Fox News. “It’s a tough situation.”
“All these mayors were using borrowed money to build things that were underutilized.”– Emilio Pantojas-Garcia, University of Puerto Rico
Reckless spending sprees by a revolving door of politicians have turned the commonwealth into a bloated bureaucracy that can’t pay its bills and yet enjoys the benefits of a welfare society without any of the responsibilities attached to it.
Before Maria hit in September, Puerto Rico was already navigating the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. government history at a whopping $120 billion in combined bond and pension debt.
Should Puerto Rico be able to declare bankruptcy?
For years, the island blew through billions of dollars in borrowed money.
Pricey and impractical infrastructure projects almost always got the go-ahead.
“Every town in Puerto Rico has a new baseball park,” Emilio Pantojas-Garcia, a sociology professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, told Bloomberg News. “All these mayors were using borrowed money to build things that were underutilized.”
One such project was a 1,000-seat performing-arts center in the small city of Humacao. The building was designed for big-budget Broadway-style performances. Instead, it was rarely used and ended up being the place where the occasional stand-up comic performs.
The territory’s towering debt and mismanagement also led to less money being available for schools and hospitals.
Then Maria hit and things on the island went from bad to catastrophic in the blink of an eye.
Multiple cases of corruption and greed by local leaders, government officials and inexperienced contractors surfaced, shedding light on the toxicity that is still very much a part of everyday life in Puerto Rico.
Those who can leave, often do.
The government of Puerto Rico now estimates that by the end of the year, another 200,000 residents will have moved to the mainland.
But for residents stuck in Puerto Rico, the future looks grim.
“We’re used to it by now but that doesn’t make it right or fair,” Sunita Howell, a waitress in Old San Juan, told Fox News. Howell’s family, who lives in the Hato Rey neighborhood of the city, struggles daily.
Howell says after Maria hit, her family was approached by someone offering to restore power to their home for $3,000.
“I don’t have that kind of money,” she said. “Who has that here? You are supposed to be helping us not taking our money.”Video
The entire island of Puerto Rico is without power
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority – PREPA- has already suspended three employees without pay and says it is looking into another 25 reported cases of possible bribery in the days and weeks after Maria.
PREPA confirmed to PBS that all of the cases involve field employees responsible for restoring power.
El Vocero, a San Juan-based newspaper, said that some employees demanded up to $5,000 to reconnect power.
PREPA’s director was forced out in November after the utility, the commonwealth’s sole electricity provider, failed to call for help from its mainland counterparts after the storm.
Instead, PREPA granted a power-restoration contract to Whitefish Energy Holdings. It was a disaster of a deal and PREPA was forced to rescind the contract after public pressure.Video
Puerto Rico to cancel controversial Whitefish contract
PREPA was also accused of stockpiling supplies badly needed to help with rebuilding after Maria.
“The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority has become a heavy burden on our people, who are now hostage to its poor service and high cost,” Governor Ricardo Rossello, who is planning to sell PREPA to the private sector, said in a statement. “What we know today as the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority does not work and cannot continue to operate like this.”
PREPA’s problems are just one of several crises slowing down recovery on the island.
The federal government recently awarded a $156 million contract to a one-person Atlanta-based company that was supposed to deliver 30 million meals to Puerto Rico. Owner Tiffany Brown, who had no disaster relief experience, got the gig but managed to deliver only 50,000 meals to the storm-ravaged island.
There have been problems with the housing situation too and now, the island’s largest restoration contractor says it will pull out of Puerto Rico in the next few weeks after maxing out its $746 million contract.
“It never ends,” Howell said. “Tomorrow I’ll wake up and there will be another scandal, another Whitefish.”
Who’s to Blame for the Mess in Puerto Rico?
Alex Witoslawski, American Renaissance, October 4, 2017 Not Donald Trump.
Puerto Ricans are blaming President Trump for the fact that two weeks after Hurricane Maria, their island is still a mess: power outages, flooding, fuel shortages, spotty cell service, washed out bridges, roads blocked by fallen trees. But who is really to blame for the island’s paralysis?
Consider this: Puerto Rico has a population of only 3.4 million but their elected government has run up a debt of over $70 billion and pension obligations of $50 billion. That’s more than $35,294 per resident and over 100 percent of GDP. Puerto Rico has already defaultedon a $58 million bond payment in 2016, due to its already-high taxes and unwillingness to cut government spending. It fell into crushing debt despite the $21 billion annually the island receives in aid from the United States, much of it spent on welfare programs such as Head Start, public housing, and food stamps. That’s over $6,000 per capita in federal welfare that the islanders consume. And due to the special status of the island, Puerto Ricans do not even pay federal income tax.
Borrowing and US handouts sustained the welfare habits of the people, but Puerto Rico left its infrastructure embarrassingly outdated. According to the Los Angeles Times, Puerto Rico’s electrical grid is so starved of physical and human capital that it suffers from power outages four-to-five times the average—even in good weather. Puerto Rico also failed to invest in infrastructure to protect against flooding. The island has few floodwalls and dangerously weak dams—a dam on the island cracked following the hurricane, forcing the evacuation of more than 70,000 people.
These problems were foreseeable and preventable, but liberals and Puerto Rican officials are blaming Donald Trump. Perhaps he is being too nice. Puerto Rico created its own problems; why should we be on the hook for them?
(Credit Image: © Erik Mcgregor/Pacific Press via ZUMA Wire)
After acquisition by the United States following the Spanish-American War in 1898, the island’s residents never integrated with Americans culturally, linguistically, or racially. Puerto Ricans are culturally Hispanic, racially a mix of Spanish colonists, African slaves and Taino natives, and most of them don’t speak any English. They may technically be United States citizens but they share little common history or ancestry with Americans and are clearly a nation that developed separately from our own. And what could indicate a clearer sense of alienation from the United States than the fact that Puerto Rico has its own Olympic team?
Puerto Ricans, meanwhile, have many gripes with what they perceive as their American overlords. For example, even before this latest hurricane-induced crisis, a major problem for Puerto Rico was their inability to conduct trade independently. According to U.S. law, goods must travel between Puerto Rican and mainland American ports on American-made vessels before they are exported or imported. This weakens Puerto Rico’s economy.
The best solution would be to let Puerto Rico become an independent country, free to make its own decisions and responsible for its own problems. This could be done amicably and generously. Since we pay the island tens of billions of dollars every year in welfare payments, we could easily pay off their debt and give them post-hurricane humanitarian aid as incentives to independence.
We could also offer remigration cash incentives for Puerto Ricans living in America who are willing to give up their U.S. citizenship and move to the island. This would not only be an opportunity for the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States to reunite with their people, but also a great way to reverse the brain-drain. Over the past century, many of the more intelligent and hard-working Puerto Ricans moved to the mainland for better opportunities. The 2010 U.S. Census counted the number of Puerto Ricans living in America at 4.6 million, making it America’s second-largest Hispanic group after Mexicans. This represents a tremendous loss in cultural, economic, and human capital for the island.
Finally, we could offer military protection and economic advice for a couple decades. Chile took economic advice from free-market economists from the University of Chicago and the economy boomed. With the right advice and incentives, Puerto Rico could experience a similar economic rebound.
Separation would come with an expensive up-front price tag for us, but it would save Americans money in the long run and would give Puerto Rico full control over its culture and destiny.
