October 3rd, 2017 - October 4th, 2017. 324-325 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no.45, and 256-257 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.
Trump LOSES HIS SH*T On Twitter Because The Media Told The Truth About Him Again
Donald Trump flew into an uncontrollable rage on Wednesday morning.
Upon returning back to the mainland from hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, Trump apparently noticed the accurate coverage of his trip. During that trip, Trump complained about how the disaster is hurting his budget plan and told Puerto Ricans that their catastrophe wasn’t a “real catastrophe.”
And then he threw paper towels to victims as if they were animals.
Of course, Trump thinks this is all “fake news” because the media didn’t make it look like his trip went well.
Trump response to the disaster was slow. That’s a fact. It’s also a fact that the death toll has doubled since he told the people in Puerto Rico that they “should be proud” that only 16 people died.
And the media captured Trump’s remarks and actions on film for everyone to see.
But then Trump attacked NBC for reporting that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a “moron” during a Pentagon meeting and threatened to resign.
Just because the subject of a story denies the report, it doesn’t mean the network should retract the story and apologize. News agencies have their sources and they are not going to issue a retraction just because Trump tells them to do so.
Furthermore, Trump and his team have lied more than any administration in American history, including the Nixon administration.
Their word against that of the three officials who confirmed the story to NBC is meaningless.
It should also be pointed out that Tillerson did not outright deny that he called Trump a “moron.”
‘Suicide pact’: Mattis, Tillerson and Mnuchin reportedly have a deal in case Trump votes one of them off the island
Gen. James Mattis and Sec. Rex Tillerson (Photo: Twitter and AFP)
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Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have formed a “suicide pact,” promising to all leave their cabinet positions in the event one of their jobs is in jeopardy, Buzzfeed reports.
News of the pact came to light Wednesday after NBC News indicated Tilllerson had called President Trump a “moron” during an intense period in the West Wing over the summer. Tillerson on Wednesday denied reports he has ever considered stepping down as secretary of state, but declined to say whether or not he’s ever debased the president.
In a series of tweets and a public statement on Wednesday, Trump dismissed the report, calling NBC “fake news” and demanding an apology from the network.
“It was fake news,” Trump said during his visit to Las Vegas. “A totally phony story. NBC just made it up. They made it all up.”
NBC News reporter Stephanie Ruhle hit back at Trump shortly thereafter, iterating her sources said Tillerson called the president a “fucking moron.”
Special counsel Mueller’s Russia investigation now includes infamous Trump dossier: report
Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and President Donald Trump (Photos: Screen capture and AFP)
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The special counsel investigating whether Russia tried to sway the 2016 U.S. election has taken over FBI inquiries into a former British spy’s dossier of allegations of Russian financial and personal links to President Donald Trump’s campaign and associates, sources familiar with the inquiry told Reuters.
A report compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele identified Russian businessmen and others whom U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded are Russian intelligence officers or working on behalf of the Russian government.
A spokesman for special counsel Robert Mueller declined comment. The FBI also declined comment.
Three sources with knowledge of Mueller’s probe said his investigators have assumed control of multiple inquiries into allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election to benefit Trump, a Republican.
Russia has repeatedly denied any meddling in the election.
On Wednesday, the Senate panel’s chairman Richard Burr told reporters that the issue of whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia remains an open question.Two officials familiar with the investigations said that both Mueller’s team and the Senate Intelligence Committee are seeking any evidence that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort or others who had financial dealings with Russia might have helped Kremlin intelligence agencies target email hacking and social media postings undermining Trump’s election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“We have not come to any determination on collusion,” Burr said.
Trump, who has called allegations of campaign collusion with Moscow a hoax, has faced questions about the matter since he took office in January.
Trump was told by former FBI director James Comey that Steele’s report contained salacious material about the businessman-turned-president.
Burr said on Wednesday that the Senate panel had made several attempts to contact Steele and to meet him and “those offers have gone unaccepted.”
“The committee cannot really decide the credibility of the dossier without understanding things like who paid for it, who are your sources and sub-sources,” Burr said.
Burr said the panel wanted to finish its investigation by the end of the year.
Although several news organizations, including Reuters, were briefed on Steele’s dossier before the election in November, most decided not to report on the material because its inflammatory and sometimes salacious content could not be verified.
In a report published in January four U.S. intelligence agencies said they took the dossier’s allegations seriously.
Not long after he began his Trump investigation, Steele discussed his work with a senior FBI agent who traveled to England to meet with him, according to sources familiar with the matter and emails seen by Reuters.
The information on Trump collected by Steele, whom officials say was one of MI6’s most respected Russia hands, was laid out last year in political “opposition research” initially financed by supporters of one of Trump’s Republican primary election opponents. After Trump won the Republican nomination in July, backers of Clinton picked up the support of Steele’s work.
(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Additional reporting by John Walcott; editing by Grant McCool)
Hallie Jackson swats down Trump’s demand for NBC to apologize over Tillerson ‘moron’ remark
MSNBC anchor Hallie Jackson (Screen capture)
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MSNBC anchor Hallie Jackson blistered President Donald Trump after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s press conference on Wednesday.
Trump — who was traveling to Las Vegas in the wake of Sunday night’s horrific mass shooting — tweeted from Air Force One that Tillerson’s press conference proved NBC’s reporting that Tillerson called him a “moron” at a Pentagon meeting was “fake news.”
“The president says the story has been totally refuted, calling it ‘fake news,'” said Jackson. “Let’s just point out a couple of critical issues.”
“Secretary Tillerson did not refute directly that he, in fact, called the president a moron in earshot of others,” she noted. “The secretary didn’t refute that. The secretary also did not refute that he perhaps threatened to resign, only saying that he ‘never seriously considered it.'”
She added, “This is based on conversations between Carol Lee, Kristen Welker, others in our organization with all facets of the administration, multiple sources here. We are very comfortable in this reporting that there is tension — or had been tension — between the president and secretary of state.”
First
Read’s Morning Clips: Tillerson Called Trump a ‘Moron’
TRUMP AGENDA:
Tillerson called Trump a “moron”
EXCLUSIVE
OCT 4 2017, 3:28 PM ET
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this past summer amid mounting policy disputes and clashes with the White House, according to senior administration officials who were aware of the situation at the time.
The tensions came to a head around the time President Donald Trump delivered a politicized speech in late July to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization Tillerson once led, the officials said.
Just days earlier, Tillerson had openly disparaged the president, referring to him as a “moron,” after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump’s national security team and Cabinet officials, according to three officials familiar with the incident.
In an unscheduled statement to reporters Wednesday morning, Tillerson directly addressed that version of events, saying, "I have never considered leaving this post."
Tillerson Dispels Resignation Reports: 'I Have Never Considered Leaving' 1:38
He praised Trump's foreign policy agenda, saying he was part of a team to "make America great again." But he did not deny calling the president a "moron," declining to address that remark directly and saying, "I'm not going to deal with petty stuff like that."
In a briefing Wednesday afternoon, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Tillerson did not use the word "moron" to descibe the president. "The secretary did not use that type of language to speak about the president of the Unites States," Nauert said. "He did not say that."
The president was asked about Tillerson's remarks after touring the University Medical Center in Las Vegas Wednesday and said, "I am very honored by his comments, it was fake news, it was a totally phony story." Trump added that he has "total confidence in Rex."
While it's unclear if he was aware of the incident at the Pentagon, officials said Vice President Mike Pence counseled Tillerson, who is fourth in line to the presidency, on ways to ease tensions with Trump, and other top administration officials urged him to remain in the job at least until the end of the year.
Officials said that the administration, beset then by a series of high-level firings and resignations, would have struggled to manage the fallout from a Cabinet secretary of his stature departing within the first year of Trump’s presidency.
Rex Tillerson almost resigned in July; rift with Trump deepens4:45
Pence has since spoken to Tillerson about being respectful of the president in meetings and in public, urging that any disagreements be sorted out privately, a White House official said. The official said progress has since been made.
Yet the disputes have not abated. This weekend, tensions spilled out into the open once again when the president seemed to publicly chide Tillerson on his handling of the crisis with North Korea.
NBC News spoke with a dozen current and former senior administration officials for this article, as well as others who are close to the president.
Tillerson, who was in Texas for his son’s wedding in late July when Trump addressed the Boy Scouts, had threatened not to return to Washington, according to three people with direct knowledge of the threats. His discussions with retired Gen. John Kelly, who would soon be named Trump’s second chief of staff, and Defense Secretary James Mattis, helped initially to reassure him, four people with direct knowledge of the exchanges said.
After Tillerson’s return to Washington, Pence arranged a meeting with him, according to three officials. During the meeting, Pence gave Tillerson a “pep talk,” one of these officials said, but also had a message: the secretary needed to figure out how to move forward within Trump’s policy framework.
Kelly and Mattis have been Tillerson’s strongest allies in the cabinet. In late July, “they did beg him to stay,” a senior administration official said. “They just wanted stability.”
At that time, however, Nauert responded to speculation that Tillerson was thinking about resigning by saying he was “committed to staying” and was “just taking a little time off” in Texas.
Tillerson's top State Department spokesman, R.C. Hammond, said Tillerson did not consider quitting this past summer. He denied that Tillerson called Trump a “moron.” Hammond said he was unaware of the details of Tillerson’s meetings with Pence.
Hammond said he knew of only one time when the two men discussed topics other than policy: A meeting where Pence asked Tillerson if he thought Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was helpful to the administration, or if he was worried about the role she was playing. He added that whenever the vice president gives advice on how processes could run more smoothly, the advice is a good thing.
Hammond also said that he wouldn’t characterize the secretary’s conversations with Mattis or Kelly as attempts to convince Tillerson to stay in his position.
In a statement Wednesday, the vice president’s communications director, Jarrod Agen, said “any statements” that Pence “questioned Ambassador Nikki Haley's value” to the administration are “categorically false.” He also said that, “at no time” did Pence and Tillerson “ever discuss the prospect of the Secretary’s resignation.”
Trump's Boy Scout Speech Takes Political Turn 2:27
A Pentagon official close to Mattis denied any awareness of a specific conversation about Tillerson’s future in the administration. But the official said the two men speak all the time and have a regular breakfast together.
The White House declined to comment on the record for this story.
Tillerson and Trump clashed over a series of key foreign policy issues over the summer, including Iran and Qatar. Trump chafed at Tillerson’s attempts to push him – privately and publicly – toward decisions that were at odds with his policy positions, according to officials. Hammond said Tillerson has had no policy differences with Trump. “The president’s policy is his policy,” Hammond said.
In August, Trump was furious with Tillerson over his response to a question about the president’s handling of the racially charged and deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, administration officials said. Trump had said publicly that white nationalists and neo-Nazi sympathizers shared blame for violence with those who came out to protest them.
“The president speaks for himself,” Tillerson said at the time, when asked on “Fox News Sunday” about Trump’s comments.
Hammond said Trump addressed the issue with Tillerson in a meeting the next day. He said that during the meeting, Trump congratulated another White House official, Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert, for his performance on the Sunday news talk shows. Bossert had defended Trump’s controversial pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The president, according to Hammond, told Tillerson he was upset with his comments when he saw them the first time. But, Hammond said Trump told Tillerson, after watching the interview a second and third time, the president understood that Tillerson was trying to say Trump is the best person to convey what his values are.
Still, the message was clear that Trump wanted Tillerson to defend him more, Hammond said.
The frustrations run both ways. Tillerson stunned a handful of senior administration officials when he called the president a “moron” after a tense two-hour long meeting in a secure room at the Pentagon called "The Tank," according to three officials who were present or briefed on the incident. The July 20 meeting came a day after a meeting in the White House Situation Room on Afghanistan policy where Trump rattled his national security advisers by suggesting he might fire the top U.S. commander of the war and comparing the decision-making process on troop levels to the renovation of a high-end New York restaurant, according to participants in the meeting.
It is unclear whether Trump was told of Tillerson’s outburst after the Pentagon meeting or to what extent the president was briefed on Tillerson’s plan to resign earlier in the year.
Tillerson also has complained about being publicly undermined by the president on the administration’s foreign policy agenda, officials said.
Those strains were on display this past weekend when Tillerson said, to the White House’s surprise, that the U.S. is attempting diplomatic talks with North Korea.
Trump quickly took the opposite position, writing on Twitter “I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man...,” using his latest epithet for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“...Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!” Trump added in a second tweet.
Trump Appears to Undermine New U.S.-North Korea Diplomatic Channel 0:56
Asked whether the president still has confidence in Tillerson, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Monday that he does.
Trump has already seen an unusually high level of turnover in his administration, with the departures of his national security adviser, deputy national security adviser, his chief of staff, press secretary, communications director — twice — his chief strategist, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the acting head of the Justice Department. Last Friday Trump accepted the resignation of Tom Price, the Health and Human Services secretary.
One senior administration official described late July as “a tough period of time” for Tillerson. His frustrations appeared to mount in the preceding weeks. Trump publicly undermined Tillerson in June over a dispute between Qatar and other Persian Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Tillerson had called on the countries to ease their blockade of Qatar, yet just hours later Trump said the Saudi-led effort was necessary.
Tillerson also pushed Trump to certify in July that Iran was complying with the 2015 nuclear deal.
Tillerson has been at odds with Trump on other issues as well, arguing against sanctions on Venezuela and reportedly suggesting Israel return to the U.S. $75 million in aid. Tillerson also is seeking to use the implementation of arms deals Trump struck with Saudi Arabia and the UAE as leverage to prod the two countries to resolve the dispute with Qatar, according to U.S. and Arab officials.
Administration officials speculate that Tillerson would be succeeded by Haley if Tillerson were to depart.
Tillerson’s tenure has been rocky from the start. He was confirmed by a Republican-led Senate on 56-to-43 vote. That represents the most votes against a secretary of state in Senate history.
Since then, Tillerson, the former chief executive of ExxonMobil, has been slow to fill jobs within his department and appears to have alienated officials in the White House, the Cabinet and Congress.
He has become known for being difficult to reach and tends to take his time returning phone calls, administration and congressional officials said. Congressional Republicans balked at his proposed cuts to the State Department budget.
“It’s hard to get him to return phone calls,” a senior Republican congressional aide said of Tillerson. “It’s hard to get him to answer letters.”
Hammond said Tillerson is quick to return calls and respond to lawmakers.
Tillerson has clashed with the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who has a broad portfolio that includes policies in the Middle East, officials said.
A second White House official downplayed any tensions between Tillerson and Kushner, noting that Kushner’s efforts on an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement are run through the relevant agencies and that a State Department representative went on his most recent trip to the region.
A third White House official disputed the notion that Tillerson has alienated people in the White House, Cabinet and Congress.
Trump’s July 24 speech at the Boy Scouts gathering struck a political tone unusual for the event, with the president talking about his electoral victory and the “cesspool” of Washington. He also joked about firing his Health and Human Services secretary if congressional Republicans didn’t pass a health care bill. The head of the Boy Scouts later apologized for the political tone of the speech.
Tillerson is an Eagle Scout and a former president of the Boy Scouts. He had appeared at the gathering just three days before Trump. Hammond, his spokesman, said Tillerson was not upset with Trump’s speech. He said Tillerson told him that at the end of the day the scouts are going to remember that the president came to speak at their event, and their parents can answer any questions they might have about the message he delivered.
It’s unclear if the latest disagreement between the White House and Tillerson on North Korea spells an end to the late-July reset.
Nicholas Burns, former undersecretary of state for political affairs under President George W. Bush, said Trump “completely undercut Tillerson” with his tweets.
“This was a direct public, I thought, repudiation of what Tillerson said,” Burns said. “It feeds the perception that Tillerson does not have a trusting relationship with the president, and that’s very harmful.”
the rich asshole’s Day in Puerto Rico Did Not Go Over Well With the Locals
Residents didn’t appreciate being told that the devastation wasn’t a “real catastrophe.”
During President some rich asshole’s visit to Puerto Rico on Tuesday, he met with Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, tossed donated items to people at a church in Guaynabo, and boasted about his administration’s efforts that he said had “saved a lot of lives.”
It didn’t go over well with locals.
“There is no respect,” said Zorahya Díaz, 36, who was enjoying a Medalla beer at El Watusi, a neighborhood hangout in the Santurce district of San Juan. We were talking over the din of a 10,000-watt portable generator that was keeping the lights on and the drinks cool on an island where roughly 95 percent of people remain without electricity. “That’s the thing. We cannot expect anything good [from the the rich asshole administration] in that respect.”
Earlier in the day, upon his arrival in Puerto Rico, the rich asshole had said the devastation from Hurricane Maria didn’t constitute a “real catastrophe” like Hurricane Katrina. He also seemed to blame Puerto Ricans for the strain that relief efforts were placing on the federal budget. “Now, I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack because we’ve spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico,” he said. “And that’s fine. We’ve saved a lot of lives.”
Díaz, who works at the public radio station at the University of Puerto Rico, was in San Juan for the first time since Maria hit on September 20. She lives in Toa Baja, a city about 30 minutes west of the capital. Parts of the town were submerged in water the morning after the storm because the government had to open five floodgates at the La Plata Lake Dam due to the heavy rains. The mayor reported that eight people were killed, and many homes were destroyed. Díaz said she heard from neighbors of a dead body being tied to a doorway to keep it from floating away, and another home where a dead horse ended up on somebody’s roof.
“These are the kind of stories you can hear if you walk in the barrio,” she said.
the rich asshole’s words reinforced in her mind that Puerto Ricans are on their own. “We have to deal with this,” she said, “because gringos don’t know what’s good for Puerto Rico.”
Another man walking next to the hangout compared the rich asshole’s playful tossing of rolls of paper towels to needy Puerto Ricans to a “t-shirt giveaway” that you’d see at a sporting event. When I asked him to elaborate or share his name, he said he was “too drained” to talk about Hurricane Maria or the rich asshole.
Another woman, who didn’t want to reveal her name, asked, “What can you expect from the rich asshole?” She says she saw part of the livestream video of the president’s meeting with Puerto Rican officials but “stopped because of the disrespect.”
She added that the rich asshole’s visit and the words of Gov. Rosselló are “all politics at the end of the day,” and that she’s more worried about the ongoing debt crisis and how creditors will use the storm to reap more money from the island.
Tito Román Rivera, 36, said that Puerto Rico’s colonial relationship with the United States is behind much of its debt, and that relationship is the reason Puerto Rico needs help right now. “That’s the reason why we don’t have all the resources as a nation to deal with a situation like this one,” he said.
To him, the rich asshole’s disrespect goes back to his initial tweets about Puerto Rico and Maria, when he wrote that Puerto Rican debt “sadly will have to be dealt with.” He found it “disrespectful” that the rich asshole tweeted positive things about Texas and Florida after the storms there, “but Puerto Rico, you have trouble but you have to pay your debt. Come on, man.”
This day somehow keeps getting worse as we learn about the awful things that President the rich asshole did today during his visit to Puerto Rico. The latest is that while handing out and literally throwing suppliesat Hurricane Maria victims at a church in Puerto Rico, the rich asshole both made fun of the contaminated drinking water that Puerto Ricans are facing, and literally said that they no longer need flashlights, despite 95% of the island being still stuck without power.
“Flashlights? You don’t need ‘em anymore. You don’t need ‘em.” the rich asshole said, for a still a yet unknown reason. Previously during the day, he had met with a family that has not had power since Hurricane Irma, nearly a month ago. The lack of power in Puerto Rico is known by everyone, so the reason the rich asshole said this is really a true mystery. You can see his comments in the clip below.
WATCH: Pres. Trump hands and tosses relief items into a crowd at an aid distribution point in Puerto Rico. snpy.tv/2wvoZ3p
the rich asshole was also shocked by a special emergency water purifying device that allows people to turn contaminated water into drinkable water. He literally just could not comprehend that such a device exists, or that someone would use it. the rich asshole was surprised when a woman explaining the device to him said that she would drink the water.
After being surprised by the woman’s response, the rich asshole turns away for a moment and mutters something to himself. He clearly seemed to think using the device was a big joke and that he would never even consider using it. He responded and spoke like a person who has never been in a situation of need, which explains a lot of his insensitivity. You can see his comments in the clip below.
"Flashlights! You don't need 'em anymore!" Pres. Trump says as he hands out flashlights at a Puerto Rico aid center. snpy.tv/2xREe8c
Puerto Rico governor says hurricane's death toll has risen to 34
BY JOHN BOWDEN - 10/03/17 08:27 PM EDT
Puerto Rico has raised the official death toll caused by Hurricane Maria to 34, according to the territory's governor.
Gov. Ricardo Rossello made the announcement at a press conference shortly after President the rich asshole departed the island Tuesday evening, according to The Associated Press.
Just hours earlier, Rossello told the rich asshole that the death toll was at 16.
the rich asshole praised the island's low casualty count at the time, remarking that the island's residents should be "proud" it wasn't higher.
“If you looked — every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally overbearing, nobody has seen anything like this,” the rich asshole said earlier Tuesday. “What is your death count as of this morning, 17?”
“Sixteen people certified," Rosselló responded.
“Sixteen people certified versus in the thousands,” the rich asshole said. “You can be very proud of all of your people, all of our people working together. Sixteen versus literally thousands of people. You can be very proud.”
Experts expect Maria's death toll on the island to rise as recovery efforts continue. At least 1,800 people died in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans.
the rich asshole added Tuesday that saving lives on the island had thrown his administration's budget "out of whack."
“I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack because we spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico, and that's fine,” the rich asshole added. “We saved a lot of lives.”
Only 7 percent of Puerto Rico has power, but the rich asshole says they don’t need flashlights
"Flashlights! You don't need 'em anymore!" the rich asshole tells powerless Puerto Ricans as he hands them out.
The rich asshole administration’s post-disaster recovery effort for Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria’s devastation is the very definition of snafu.
Some 12 days after super-hurricane hit, FEMA has only restored 7 percent of the island’s power, up from 5 percent earlier this week. That means more than 3 million American citizens still lack power.
But as the rich asshole made a visit to the devastated territory on Tuesday, he seemed unaware of the situation around him, literally saying, “Flashlights! You don’t need ’em anymore!” as he handed out flashlights to islanders who in fact very much need them.
Hurricane Maria destroyed most of the high-voltage transmission towers and ruined almost all of the distribution network.
Last Tuesday, Reuters put together this important graphic on “power restoration after major U.S. hurricanes.”
It’s now a week later. FEMA has only restored some 7 percent of the island’s power 14 days into this disaster — long after virtually all the power was restored in Florida from Irma.
Equally shocking, ABC News reports that FEMA officials say their “goal is to return power to 25 percent of the island within a month,” which would mean more than 2.5 million U.S. citizens would still be powerless.
the rich asshole’s response to the current quality of life for most of the 3.4 million Puerto Ricans was completely tone-deaf during a press briefing on the island. “Everyone around this table and everyone watching can be very proud of what’s taking place in Puerto Rico,” the president said.
Last week, as Puerto Rican officials were just barely coming to terms with the scope of the destruction, the rich asshole took to Twitter to seemingly blame the territory for its current circumstances, citing its debt, aging infrastructure, and outdated grid.
the rich asshole’s lack of awareness or concern regarding the severity of the damage in Puerto Rico, and just how long it will take to repair, perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise considering his Energy secretary’s best idea for rebuilding the island’s grid is to expedite the introduction of small nuclear power plants that don’t even exist.
the rich asshole’s empathy deficit
The racism is no longer thinly disguised; it’s blatant and obvious for all to witness.
You would think that during the two weeks since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, President some rich asshole would have found the proper message for the people of the U.S. territory as they struggle to reassemble It’s easy to envision any of our past presidents bringing words of comfort and hope to Puerto Rico, along with a pledge of federal support to assist in the recovery. But the rich asshole is no normal president and his overdue visit to the island on Tuesday, his first since the storm, demonstrated just how much he lacks empathy for others and selfishly craves praise for himself. At this point in both his personal history and White House tenure, the racism is no longer thinly disguised; it’s blatant and obvious for all to witness.their homes and lives.
For example, during his meeting with island officials, the rich asshole blamed the victims of the storm for throwing the national budget “a little out of whack,” and that argued they should be happy the hurricane wasn’t “a real catastrophe like Katrina.”
There can be no mistaking the depths of the rich asshole’s disdain for black and brown Americans.
The litany of presidential abuse less than a year into the rich asshole’s presidency is staggering and racially uneven: In just the past month, the administration has urged ESPN’s Jemele Hill be fired for criticizing him, yet has not showed the same venom toward white late-night television hosts such as Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel who have been far more sustained in their opposition to the president. He has provoked a fight NFL players who have knelt during the playing of the national anthem, demanding that team owners fire them for exercising their freedom of speech rights.
the rich asshole’s response to the Puerto Rico crisis, however, is in a class by itself. In this instance, the stakes are life and death. People on the island have critical needs for food, water, electricity, medical care, and communication. Yet the president has seen fit to complain because some of the most beleaguered Americans in Puerto Rico haven’t praised his leadership.
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, for example, waded through chest-high sewage to assist her constituents and appealed to Washington for more help. the rich asshole, however, only saw ingratitude. the rich asshole dismissed Cruz’s concerns as “politically motivated” against him and attacked Puerto Rican residents as people who “want everything to be done for them.” No such charge was leveled at the victims of Hurricane Harvey after it slammed into Texas, prompting the rich asshole to pledge up to $180 billion in federal relief money.
By speaking so harshly about Cruz and the residents of the island, the rich asshole tapped into the racist language of white supremacy, simultaneously belittling the people of color who live in Puerto Rico as insufficiently respectful of his white-skinned authority and equally ungrateful for his begrudging attention.
As if to drive home the point, the rich asshole didn’t bother to interrupt his weekend retreat, issuing his dismissive derisions from his exclusive golf club. the rich asshole’s embrace of his privilege serves as yet one more pitiful reminder of his contempt for people who, in the words of SNL comic Michael Che, are “darker than his golf pants.”
What makes the rich asshole’s attitude all the more repellent is that he’s cheered on by a base of support, estimated at about one-third of the American public. His hard-core adorers feed his ego and allows him to ignore criticism.
In the case of Puerto Rico, relatively few Americans knew much about Puerto Rico before the storm hit, including most who had no idea that its residents were U.S. citizens. A 2016 poll conducted by YouGov found that only 43 percent of Americans knew Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens; a more recent Morning Consult poll showed that even after Hurricane Maria, just 54 percent of Americans knew Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens.
Such ignorance of our shared national identity makes it easy for the rich asshole to say and do the most odious things, yet seemingly suffer no political consequence. So it shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise that when the rich asshole lowered himself to visit Puerto Rico, he would exhibit behavior that is all too common for him. He congratulated himself for a job well done, according to the Washington Post.
“I think it’s now acknowledged what a great job we’ve done, and people are looking at that,” the rich asshole told reporters before leaving the White House. “And in Texas and in Florida, we get an A-plus. And I’ll tell you what, I think we’ve done just as good in Puerto Rico, and it’s actually a much tougher situation.”
Once on the island, the rich asshole showed little compassion by coldly comparing tragedies and the body counts in a previous national tragedy. “Every death is a horror, but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous — hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here, with really a storm that was just totally overpowering, nobody’s ever seen anything like this,” the rich asshole told officials at a staged meeting in San Juan.
He then turned to one of the local leaders to ask: “What is your death count as of this moment? 17? 16 people certified, 16 people versus in the thousands,” he said.
the rich asshole’s visit to Puerto Rico mocked the seriousness of the moment and his office. How else to describe images of him casually tossing paper towels and toilet paper at people in a disaster area as if he were throwing out T-shirts at a basketball game? Or how callous is it for a president to laugh about the need for flashlights while 7 percent of the island’s population has electricity? Can anyone imagine such a thing happening in any predominantly white community in the country?
The tragedy of Puerto Rico is made worse when a racially insensitive president comes to visit and only brings rotten, red-meat comments that appeal to his political base and feed anger and resentment toward the black and brown people of this nation.
The supposed commander in chief congratulated a service member in Puerto Rico, but managed to get even that simple task wrong.
By all accounts, some rich asshole was humiliated by his four-hour long trip to Puerto Rico to witness the Hurricane Maria recovery efforts.
It was, no doubt, awkward for him to travel to an island after completely botching aid efforts and essentially blaming it all on the mayor of San Juan, and rounding off the affair by saying that Puerto Rico was not a “real catastrophe” and complaining about how much money they have spent helping the island.
But incredibly, the rich asshole found a fresh way to embarrass himself while giving a speech in honor of everyone who contributed to the rescue efforts.
As the rich asshole thanked the various branches of the military for their service, he made a spectacular error:
RICH ASSHOLE: What a job the Coast Guard has done throughout this whole — throughout this whole ordeal. They would go right into the middle of that — I mean, I don’t know, I wouldn’t want to be doing it, but I want to thank everybody. I want to thank the Coast Guard. They are special, special, very brave people.And a lot of people got to see the real Coast Guard during this incredible trouble, and especially I think here and in Texas was incredible what they did. So thank you all very much. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Really appreciate it.Would you like to say something on behalf of your men and women?AIR FORCE REPRESENTATIVE: Sir, I’m representing the Air Force.RICH ASSHOLE: No, I know that.
Obviously the rich asshole did not know that, or else he would not have spent nearly a minute singing praise for the Coast Guard.
The fact that the supposed commander in chief cannot even tell apart people from the various branches of the military he commands is completely inexcusable. But then, given that he recently complimented the Coast Guard on having “improved their brand,” it is unclear whether the rich asshole even knew the Coast Guard was a branch of the military until recently.
the rich asshole’s lack of knowledge and dearth of competence is nothing new, yet it continues to be freshly embarrassing each and every time.
Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert invited Mayor Carmin Yulin Cruz to participate in a White House conference call that was intended to work improving the federal response to the needs of Puerto Rico’s emergency following the devastation of the island by Hurricane Maria on September 20. But there was a catch…
The San Juan mayor, who has been instrumental in bringing attention to the plight of people in Puerto Rico and the level of assistance they need, was told she couldn’t actually communicate during the call — she could only listen.
I was invited to participate in a conference via a text. I did. When I went into the call it said you are allowed in a listening capacity only…so I listened.
President some rich asshole is scheduled to be in Puerto Rico for a tour of the ravaged island today. You would think he would want to actually meet with people on the island that have been in the thick of the recovery efforts and have been doing everything they could to provide food, water, and medical assistance to the people. Apparently Mayor Cruz wasn’t on his list of preferred people to meet.
Hours before he is supposed to arrive on the island, Mayor Cruz had no idea what his itinerary is or if she is even going to allowed to meet with him. While giving The Independent a tour of their primary distribution hub, a re-purposed sports arena, she relayed:
I read in tweet that someone said I got an invitation to see him. I haven’t.
Mayor Cruz has made it no secret that her people need help. She has begged the United States to take a larger role in helping them get supplies to the more remote areas of the island. Some of those areas are still inaccessible two weeks after the storm. Army personnel are making headway, but it is a slow progression due to the sheer level of damage to the island’s infrastructure. In some areas, whole roadways are washed away or debris is blocking the way and must be manually cleared due to lack of heavy equipment, fuel shortages, and lack of manpower.
At a White House press conference, Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters:
Our focus is to bring the mayor into the coordination efforts. This administration, as well as other members on the ground, have reached out to her. We hope that she will join with us in those efforts and be a part of things. She’s been invited to participate in the events tomorrow, as well. And we hope that those conversations will happen and we can all work together to move forward.
Meanwhile, the mayor is sleeping in cramped quarters at the arena (she lost her house in the storm too), helping her people by turning the arena into a food distribution center. Some of the food provisions were supplied by FEMA, but each box only included one “adult” meal, applesauce, and Rice Krispie bars. They also contain a postcard emblazoned with a flag that says:
These Meals are Sent to You by Your Fellow Americans. May they Provide Comfort and Nourishment. Be Safe and Know You are in our Thoughts.
Cruz expects to be over-seeing relief efforts for monger than three months. If applesauce and Rice Krispie bars are the best FEMA is willing to do, those people will have a harder road ahead of them. It doesn’t sound like the White House’s idea of inclusiveness includes giving Mayor Cruz a voice in the operations.
the rich asshole's Puerto Rico Visit Is a Political Disaster
The president told residents to be “very proud” they hadn’t endured a “real catastrophe” like Katrina, doing little to erase the impression that he sees hurricane relief more as a political story than a human one.
It was a typically strange, disjointed appearance by the president, and it came just days after the rich asshole spent much of the weekend picking fights with the mayor of San Juan and insisting that, against all evidence, the recovery effort had largely responded to Puerto Rico’s needs. At Muñiz Air Force Base, the rich asshole was eager to praise the work of federal agencies, including FEMA, the Air Force, the Navy, and the Coast Guard, amid a chorus of criticism that Washington’s response has been too slow and too small. But that praise led him in strange directions.
That statement is problematic in several ways. The idea that Maria was not a “real catastrophe” defies all evidence, and any discussion of the death toll is premature. While the official number remains at 16, where it has been for several days without update, officials have acknowledged it will end up much higher. The Center for Investigative Journalism reported Monday that “dozens” of people are dead, with bodies piling up in morgues, even as the official count has not kept pace. the rich asshole’s decision to use Hurricane Katrina as a benchmark also makes little sense and belittles the suffering in Puerto Rico. Katrina is both the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history since 1928 and a prime example of a mismanaged disaster. the rich asshole also overstated the toll of Katrina, which was less than 2,000.
Later, after his briefing, the rich asshole visited a church where he tossed toilet paper and paper towels into the crowd, shooting them like basketballs to a crowd.
Throughout the aftermath of the storm, the rich asshole has often appeared more interested in the political ramifications of the storm than on the human effects, focusing on approval of himself and the federal government (though he doesn’t really draw a distinction between the two). This was also true at Muñiz Air Force Base. In praising Governor Ricardo Rosselló, for example, the rich asshole reached for the lens of partisan affiliation.
“He’s not even from my party and he started right at the beginning appreciating what we did,” the rich asshole said. “Right from the beginning, this governor did not play politics. He was saying it like it was, and he gave us the highest rates.”
This was an implicit jab at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who has been critical of relief efforts, and whom the rich asshole claimed over the weekend was doing so because Democrats had put her up to it. As I noted, his broadside against Cruz serves as a warning to politicians like Rosselló not to follow her lead, lest the rich asshole punish them too. (Speaking in Washington Tuesday, before taking off, the rich asshole said of Cruz, “Well, I think she’s come back a long way. I think it’s now acknowledged what a great job we’ve done, and people are looking at that.” It’s unclear what he is referring to. She attended Tuesday’s briefing.)
“I watched the other day and she was saying such nice things about a lot of the people who are working so hard,” he said. “Jenniffer, do you think you could say a little bit what you said about us? It’s not about me, it’s about these incredible people from the military, from FEMA, the first responders.”
Yet as with his premature celebration of the death toll, the rich asshole’s comments about Puerto Rico and Maria still fell far short of empathy, and were in some cases strangely tone-deaf. Before leaving for Puerto Rico, the rich asshole complained that rather than the federal government not doing enough, it was Puerto Rican authorities who weren’t doing enough to hasten the recovery.
“On a local level, they have to give us more help,” he said in Washington. “But I will tell you, the first responders, the military, FEMA, they have done an incredible job in Puerto Rico.”
During his briefing, he made an apparent attempt at a joke about the cost of recovery. “I hate to tell you Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack,” he said. “That’s fine. We saved a lot of lives.” Yet the remark comes in the context of the rich asshole repeatedly mentioning Puerto Rico’s debts as both a reason for the slow recovery and a reason to think hard about reconstruction there. Nor did he make similar remarks after hurricanes in Texas and Florida.
Meanwhile, after thanking an Air Force general present at the briefing, the rich asshole went on a strange digression about the F-35 fighter jet, a troubled boondoggle whose cost the rich asshole negotiated down with the manufacturer. The discussion of the plane was roughly as lengthy as the president’s discussion of the victims of the storm, and it had nothing to do with the hurricane. If the Puerto Rico visit sought to reverse the impression that the rich asshole has not taken Maria seriously and does not feel empathy for its victims, Tuesday’s briefing did not help the cause.
some rich asshole Requires Puerto Rican Officials To Praise His ‘Relief Efforts’
Back in 2004, I couldn’t possibly understand how anyone could vote for Bush. Never did I imagine myself missing the man a scant 13 years later.
Earlier today, the rich asshole sat down for a live video chat with the officials of Puerto Rico to discuss the relief effort. On the surface of it, that doesn’t seem like a bad thing — at least, not until you read what Joy Reid put into a Tweet:
the rich asshole basically wants an applause track in the middle of a disaster.
For those who haven’t been keeping up, Puerto Rico has been a bit of an issue for this administration. The island was completely leveled by a Category 5 hurricane. Nobody is sure how many individuals are dead as a result of Hurricane Maria, and more than half of the “unincorporated territory” is without water.
And for a while, nobody was paying it any mind — the media had been busy covering the rich asshole spate with NFL and Basketball stars that eventually led to the #TakeAKnee protests. The story takes a darkly amusing turn when one of the administration officials whined to the media that they were spending too much time covering the #TakeAKnee protests and not enough time on things like Puerto Rico, presumably because the #TakeAKnee protests were making the president look bad.
Well, that wish got granted. And the administration now looks even worse.
The following weeks have been a string of the rich asshole cocking up in every way possible. Whether it’s attacking the Mayor of San Juan or making inane and stupid comments — I mean, for Christ’s sake, his first reason why we were slow to help was “big water,” a phrase this idiot actually said on live TV — nobody’s had a very good week.
And then the press conference happened today. Atop blaming Puerto Rico for “throwing the budget out of whack” — I was under the impression Republicans only cared about the budget when Democrats were in office — he required Puerto Rican officials to praise his relief efforts. Then he followed that by saying that Puerto Rican officials should’ve been “proud” they didn’t have a “real disaster” like Katrina.
I’m not even sure where I’d start with this criminally stupid egomaniac anymore, but if I had my choice, it’d probably be the face.
I feel for the people of Puerto Rico. They didn’t ask for this. It’s something some White middle-class jackass in Ohio hoisted on them, and as a result, all the rich asshole supporters bear some responsibility for this monster they unleashed. All of them.
the rich asshole complains Puerto Ricans won’t aid relief: ‘Their drivers have to start driving trucks’
President some rich asshole (MSNBC)
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President some rich asshole again complained Puerto Ricans weren’t doing enough to assist in relief efforts ahead of his visit to the hurricane-ravaged island.
Before leaving for a tour of the U.S. territory, the rich asshole said Puerto Rico was on its way back after Hurricane Maria cut a path of destruction nearly two weeks ago — but he asked for more help from storm victims.
“In Texas and in Florida we get an A+, and I’ll tell you what, I think we’ve done just as good in Puerto Rico, and it’s actually a much tougher situation,” the rich asshole said. “But now the roads are cleared, communications are starting to come back.”
the rich asshole called out truckers in Puerto Rico as not helpful enough, which may have been based on false reports from right-wing blogs that the island’s Teamsters union had gone on strike.
“We need their truck drivers, their drivers have to start driving trucks,” the rich asshole said. “We have to do that, so at a local level they have to give us more help. I will tell you the first responders, the military, FEMA, they have done an incredible job in Puerto Rico, and whether it’s (the San Juan mayor) or anybody else, they’re all starting to say it. I appreciate very much the governor and his comments. He has said we have done an incredible job and that’s the truth.”
U.S. Air Force Col. Michael Valle said “zero blame” should be placed on truckers, many of whom are unable to get to work due to storm damage or are unable to get fuel for their vehicles.
The president responded to heavy criticism over the weekend by attacking the San Juan mayor on Twitter, saying she and other leaders were unable to get Puerto Ricans to help themselves recover from the devastation.
‘Poor excuse for a human being’: Internet recoils after the rich asshole whines Puerto Rico hurricane wrecked budget
President some rich asshole (Photo: Screen capture)
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During a discussion with Puerto Rican officials, President some rich asshole blamed the U.S. territory for the damage caused by Hurricane Maria. He explained that the crisis has thrown “the budget out of whack.” He qualified it saying, “I hate to tell you,” however.
Twitter users were furious, taking to the social media site to lampoon the president for callous cruelty to those desperate to survive a natural disaster.
See the outrage below:
TRUMP has "Thrown America OUT OF WHACK".... He is not just a lousy POTUS... he is a poor excuse for a human being! #PuertoRico #ImpeachTrump
Well he just said its our fault the budget went out of whack and they have to spend more money. So he started off with the right foot :/
Did Texas throw our budget out of whack? Florida? No? Just #PuertoRico?
What an obtuse, caustic, doltish pile of dross.#PuertoRicoRelieftwitter.com/BostonGlobe/st…
I hate to tell you, Trump, but you've thrown our country out of whack. Financially, morally, spiritually. You name it.
Wrong. The weekly golf trips, expenses at NYT tower, family Secret Service & illegal plane usage have thrown the budget out of whack. twitter.com/USATODAY/statu…
Did you see your leader? Told Puerto Rico that they threw his budget out of whack. Told them they're luck on 16 died(which is wrong).
Soooo...If more people died, the cost that is throwing his budget out of whack might be justified.
I hate to tell you, Trump, but you’ve thrown dignity, integrity and respect for the White House out of whack.
"Anyway, like I said, Puerto Rico, you're throwing our budget out of whack. Really wasteful to have this hurricane." twitter.com/dave_brown24/s…
So @realDonaldTrump said Im sorry Puerto Rico you've thrown our budget out of whack is this clown of a president serious
Trump just castigated Puerto Rico for “throwing our budget out of whack”
People are still fighting for their lives & @realDonaldTrump is talking about F35's and PR throwing the US budget out of whack. #OutOfTouch
"I hate to tell you Puerto Rico but you've thrown our budget out of whack," - Trump in #PuertoRico, today.
Meanwhile:
PARENT TO CHILD: I hate to tell you, Timmy, but your child onset diabetes has thrown our budget out of whack. twitter.com/mmurraypolitic…
OMG what a cruel and unsympathetic thing to say! You have throwing our budget out of whack, with your senseless spending for golf trips!
You know what's thrown the budget out of whack?? All the security for Trump/family, and his endless golf trips to HIS resorts.
Pence’s Chief Of Staff Suggests ‘Purge’ Of Lawmakers Who Don’t Support the rich asshole
Spaulding/WWD/REX/Shutterstock/FEREX
Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff on Tuesday floated the possibility of a party “purge” of Republican lawmakers who don’t support President some rich asshole.
“Just imagine the possibilities of what can happen if our entire party unifies behind him,” Pence’s chief of staff Nick Ayers said at a Republican National Committee event at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, Politico reported, citing an audio recording of Ayers’ remarks.
“If — and this sounds crass — we can purge the handful of people who continue to work to defeat him,” Ayers added, according to the report.
Ayers, once dubbed “the most hated campaign operative in America,” warned that Republican lawmakers are “on track to get shellacked” in the 2018 midterm elections if they fail to pass the rich asshole’s agenda.
Asked how wealthy donors could push the rich asshole-supporting lawmakers to “change the current leadership in both the Senate and the House,” Ayers said he was not speaking on Pence’s or the rich asshole’s behalf and recommended a boycott.
“If I were you, I would not only stop donating, I would form a coalition of all the other major donors, and just say two things. We’re definitely not giving to you, number one. And number two, if you don’t have this done by Dec. 31, we’re going out, we’re recruiting opponents, we’re maxing out to their campaigns, and we’re funding super PACs to defeat all of you,” he said, according to the report.
Ayers added, “Because, look, if we’re going to be in the minority again we might as well have a minority who are with us as opposed to the minority who helped us become a minority.”
At the end of the meeting, an attendee asked Ayers to clarify his advice, saying, “Are we all willing, in order to get the tax bill passed, to contact all the people we donate money to — which is a long list — and tell them the money stops coming if they don’t get something done!”
“If there’s one exception to that, that’s the RNC,” Ayers said, according to Politico. “But yes.”
Death toll in Puerto Rico much higher than 16 with ‘possibly hundreds’ more, report says
During a briefing with officials in Puerto Rico Tuesday, President the rich asshole said the United States island territory should be “proud” that more people haven’t died, comparing Puerto Rico’s current official Hurricane Maria death toll — 16 — to “the tremendous hundreds and hundreds and hundreds that died” in Hurricane Katrina.
But according to reports from the Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI in Spanish), the number of fatal disaster victims exceeds the official count.
In an interview between CPI reporter Omaya Sosa Pascual and Puerto Rico public safety secretary Héctor Pesquera last week, the government official admitted he believed more to be dead, but that he doesn’t have reports telling him, for example, that “eight died in Mayagüez because they lacked oxygen, that four died in San Pablo because they did not receive dialysis.”
But, he told Pascual, the federal government was working to add 360 additional spaces for bodies to the 295 available spaces at the Institute of Forensics Sciences, and that the U.S. Department of Health will send 41 forensic pathologists to Puerto Rico.
“There were at least several dozen additional victims, possibly hundreds,” Pascual reported, citing sources from nine hospitals, police, morgue directors and others in Puerto Rico.
Another official, health secretary Rafael Rodríguez-Mercado confirmed that at least three hospitals had notified him of additional victims. According to Pascual, hospital staff told the health secretary some people had buried their family members in mass graves “given the impossibility of communication and transportation due to María’s impact.”
“Everything in the government has collapsed,” Pascual told Vox. “Some of the people who work in the government lost their homes themselves and aren’t at work. So they can’t do death certificates. The dead can’t be documented because of all the logistics and legal aspects of declaring someone dead.”
Pesquera also noted that without the proper communication and lack of death certificates, it hasn’t been possible to analyze which deaths were natural or due to the disaster.
When he gathered hospital executives after CPI released the report last week, they told him there was no accumulation of corpses in their morgues.
But the Doctor’s Hospital and the Veterans Hospital told CPI media that the military had shown up to remove bodies at their institutions. At the Veterans Hospital, there were 26 corpses.
“I’m not saying it has not happened, I’m saying we can only certify what we know. When that information arrives, we will validate it. I’m not going to hide any numbers. I’m not going to hide any data,” he said, and added that the process could take months.
It’s the duty of the mayors, those closest to the citizens, to collect the information, Pesquera said. He also urged people to report missing persons to their nearest police station or City Hall.
On Monday, Pascual reported, there were 30 people missing at the Puerto Rico Police Department.
On Monday, Pascual reported, there were 30 people missing at the Puerto Rico Police Department.
