“People on TV news shows spoke significantly fewer sentences about Hurricane Maria than about Hurricanes Harvey and Irma,” he writes, and “the spike in conversation about Puerto Rico right as the hurricane hit was also much smaller than the spike in mentions of Texas and Florida.”
True. And what’s really sad is that if Trump hadn’t started tweeting about Puerto Rico, it would continue to attract no attention. Nobody gives a drat about Puerto Rico unless it can be used as an argument in the eternally boring “good Trump / bad Trump” debate.
The mayor of San Juan is very smart. She knew she had to needle Trump to get him to say something nasty. Without this, it would all be still about millionaire knees and that sort of thing.
Trump is what he’s always been. There’s nothing new here. What’s everybody else’s excuse? Why is Puerto Rico only interesting because it can be used to say something about Trump? Why is nothing of any value if it can’t be seen through the prism of Trump? Why are slivers of reports on Puerto Rico sandwiched between the huge, insane stories about how the darn athletes stood for the anthem today? Nothing happened! Nobody knelt! They all stood! There’s no story here! Why in the ever-living fuck are we still on this??
OK, I’ve vented. Now let’s discuss where we are donating. Now is a good time to donate because everybody just got their paychecks and can afford to help. I hope people realize that it’s only money donations. Donating anything else right now is a horrible idea. Nobody can get even the available stuff in there. Money isn’t going to do much either while the infrastructure is down but it will help a lot in the coming weeks. This is a long-term disaster, folks. There’s no back to business for a long time to come.
Clarissa's Blog 
“Now is a good time to donate ”
Yes. I have, and I will. But what is sad is that this is yet another responsibility of the government that it is abandoning.
I disagree with the premise of your post. People aren’t supposed to keep tabs on everything that is happening in the world. It’s exhausting. This is why we elect officials who’re supposed to do this work on our behalf.
This is FEMA’s job. They get paid to do this. I don’t agree with the parallels you make between some american citizen oblivious to the disaster in Puerto Rico and the fucking government sitting with their thumbs up their asses, doing nothing.
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I’m bitching about the reporters, not regular folks. It’s a major catastrophe on US territory and this sparse coverage is a disgrace.
As for the government, as I’ve been saying, all it gives anymore us spectacle. But it’s a good show, let’s give it that at least.
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The mayor of Guaynabo has a different view than that of the mayor of San Juan.
This article delves into the causes and effects of Puerto Rico’s antiquated infrastructure.
As to donations of money, there may well be little to buy and substantial difficulty getting to wherever anything useful may be available for sale.
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\ At least 2 dead, 24 wounded, 14 in critical condition in Las Vegas concert shooting
Horrible. Is it terrorism or a case of (drug-induced?) insanity?
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Meanwhile I read that Trump has dedicated a golf trophy to the people of Puerto Rico. That’s exactly what they need, obviously.
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” Worst massacre in US history: At least 50 dead, 400 wounded in Las Vegas concert shooting […] Concert-goers reported… the sound of what they described as automatic gun fire. ”
But I am sure if the question of selling automatic guns to civilians (read: to every insane person who would wish one) were to be raised now, Second Amendment supporters will shout that this is a bad time for the discussion.
The shooter was “64-year-old Stephen Paddock from Mesquite, Nevada,” so I suppose it’s not a case of terrorism but of individual insanity.
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And let the obsessive moaning about “toxic white masculinity” begin. . .
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The market knows what it does.
Said I sarcastically for those who are not yet fully awake.
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The big turning point was sandy hook. If the mass killings of children didn’t move republicans in congress, then nothing would. The gun control debate is over.
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\ The market knows what it does.
(not sarcastically) The market does know, but do we know what we are doing?
As predicted, Trump’s press secretary conveyed that it was too soon for gun control since “There’s a time and place for a political debate, but now is the time to unite as a country” and since gun control laws “won’t stop these types of things from happening.”
https://www.salon.com/2017/10/02/white-house-press-secretary-its-too-soon-for-gun-control/
I have an idea: security checks won’t stop all terrorists, so may be it’s time to stop checking (shoes of) air travellers?
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I was shocked to discover that the shooter “was a multimillionaire who made much of his money investing in real estate.”
OK, now I read something less surprising:
// Their father was Patrick Benjamin Paddock, a violent bank robber who was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted list in the 1960s. The shooter himself had no criminal record beyond a traffic violation, police in Las Vegas said.
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5023994,00.html
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