The Mess in Puerto Rico. No power on the whole island for 4-6 mos.

It is almost as if the mass media has declared all-out war against Donald Trump, regardless of the facts or circumstances. No matter what happens, they try to blame it on Trump. There appears to be literally nothing he could do that they would bringing themselves to give him credit for.

And of course then there is also the fake news against Trump, through which they takes their relentless attacks to an entirely different level.

Their reporting on this disaster in Puerto Rico is turning out to be in many ways just another sad episode in this vitriolic and hateful saga for the mass media.

 

I know! How can people sound off on Trump's fantastic response to the hurricane in Puerto Ric?. He's been well spoken on the incident, selfless, very active and engaged. He hasn't been overly defensive or taken any comments personally, and he's treated the victims in Puerto Rico with real compassion, respect, and like any other concerned leader would do.

Man, with his expert, tactful, compassionate example of leadership on the Puerto Rico situation, how could anyone have a complaint. It's like no matter how perfectly and adroitly he handles a situation the poor guy just can't catch a break. I really feel sorry for him.

Trump has brought none of this onto himself. No matter how perfectly he handles a situation he just can't catch a break. It's all the fault of that pesky media who actually responded to things that Trump said. My gosh, of all the ludicrous ways to cover a politician, that really takes the cake.

 

I guess it's time to add the PENTAGON as another sorce of anti-Trump fake news right?

http://thehill.com/latino/353347-pe...uerto-ricans-have-no-access-to-drinking-water

So much for how wonderful the response is going. Thanks President Dump.

 

Sounds like she finally showed up to the meetings.

 

She admitted this morning she hasn't gone to meetings which is what other Puerto Ricans are mocking her for.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/21758/san-juan-mayor-admits-she-hasnt-met-federal-joseph-curl

 

Exactly, and that's why she was running her mouth ignorantly. Perhaps now she went to some meetings and figured out what was going on.

 

Guess she was too busy saving lives. Let's also remember that the daily wire is a fake news site by Ben Shapiro and nothing posted there should be reposted here as fact. So far, there is not a single legit source for the claim that she hasn't attended a meeting. Please post before making this accusation if you want to have any moral crredibility.

https://t.co/fzsuDoYXEb

 

She should be coordinating rescue and relief efforts, not out campaigning. Clearly you dont know the difference.

 

Campaigning is what Trump does half the time despite being in his first year. I thin you are too stupid to even comment here. Go back under the rock you slithered out from until you evolve some grey matter.

 

So you're posting from P.R.? While we appreciate first-hand updates about the mayor, maybe you should pitch in there rather than posting to us.

 

This is campaigning.

 

This is what the CIA Factbook says about the Puerto Rican economy: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rq.html

That makes me think a couple of things. One, it seems like the origin of PR's problems stem in part from federal policy (tax incentives for investment, regulations like the minimum wage that might make less sense in the Caribbean as it does on the mainlaind). Two, their antiquated electric sector is a big part of the problem and a concerted investment in modernization of the grid architecture and the generation assets would probably go a long way in making the island more competitive. Three, that they do produce stuff there and don't just live in some sort of derivative economy. And four, that they are probably caught in an economic mismatch where they have the earning power of a Caribbean nation (tourist dollars, near shoring manufacture and call centers) but the operating expenses of the United States (high standards for education, clean water, etc). I've seen this in business where a high margin business buys a low margin business in another industry and saddles the low margin business with executive salaries and other overhead its competitors don't have -- and guess what, you can't compete with a cost structure like that.

 

It's so funny that you entrenched American politicos think the politics in PR are like your own.

 

This is a great post. My question is how can you bring a place like this along slowly into an American way of life if their local economy cant support it. I mean lets be honest, part of being American are the benefits of being American.

Continuing on the Greece analogy, part of the problem there im sure is trying to give their citizens benefits other Europeans enjoy without an economy to support those benefits.

With Puerto Rico it actually seems more complicated because being American you get into issues of actual rights as American citizens

 

I see that they are saying PR now has 16% electricity service. Progress!

I see what you mean, and what you're saying is not much different from what I'm speculating. I don't know if their experience is all that unique in the union though. We have a wide spectrum of economic robustness. New York has a GDP per capita of over $75,000 compared to Mississippi at $36,000. Puerto Rico is not that much lower at almost $29,000. There are parts of Mississippi that are poorer than San Juan but we don't really think it is problematic for them to expect a decent school and running water even if the local economy wouldn't cover it. Puerto Rico's geographic isolation makes it more problematic. We also have Hawaii as an isolated island state and it does much better. We don't say Hawaii doesn't deserve nice things when all they can do is show people the volcano and collect coconuts; they've managed to do good things out there in the middle of the ocean. Some things between the two are the same -- getting oil and gasoline to power things is expensive, imports in general are expensive, economy relies heavily on tourism, populated by nonwhites. Some things are different. Hawaii's tourism industry is much more successful, probably because its geography and weather are plain better. They speak more English. They are a state and Puerto Rico is not. They have been very forward-thinking about moving their energy economy to renewables. Some of those things can be copied and some can't. I probably have an industry bias, but changing the electric grid looks to me like the low-hanging fruit. But is it just objectively true that an island in the Caribbean can not be as productive as the rest of the US? I don't think so; in history, sometimes being an island has been a benefit to some. With the right conditions and the right strategy, I think Puerto Rico could be very successful.

 

The reason Hawaii became a state was due to their strategic importance at the time, same goes for Alaska. Both added something to the whole. I'm not sure Puerto Rico really has anything positive to bring to the table as a state. It's true that there are poor states that are a drag to the US, but they are part of the mainland. I'm not sure why the US should seek out additional burdens like PR given that they are ridiculously in debt AND due to decades of awful leadership they need to completely rebuild their vital infrastructure.

Am I missing something here? Is there a benefit (for the US) to granting statehood to PR?

 

I don't know. I didn't suggest making them a state. I was thinking about how to make them more economically robust, which would be great if we can do it, whether they are a state or a territory (or even independent).