Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Trump Refuses to Lift Shipping Restrictions to Help Get Supplies to Puerto Rico


This is just plain evil.

The Trump administration on Tuesday denied a request from several members of Congress to waive shipping restrictions to help get gasoline and other supplies to Puerto Rico as the island recovers from Hurricane Maria, reports  The Hill.

The Department of Homeland Security declined the request to waive the Jones Act, which limits shipping between coasts to U.S.-flagged vessels, according to Reuters. DHS waived the act following hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which hit the mainland U.S.

DHS said Tuesday that waiving the act for Puerto Rico would not
help the U.S. island territory due to damaged ports preventing ships from docking. WTF? Why can't  the shippers just be allowed to determine how supplies will get on shore?

Senator John McCain called the department's decision "unacceptable" and warned that Puerto Rico faces a humanitarian crisis as the island's 3.4 million people struggle to survive without power or clean water.

Officials estimate the island could be without power for up to six months.

"It is unacceptable to force the people of Puerto Rico to pay at least twice as much for food, clean drinking water, supplies and infrastructure due to Jones Act requirements as they work to recover from this disaster," McCain wrote.

"Now, more than ever, it is time to realize the devastating effect of this policy and implement a full repeal of this archaic and burdensome Act,” he wrote. Trump knows full well the importance of shipping to get supplies to Puerto Rico:

It's bad:



-RW

19 comments:

  1. If only Puerto Ricans looked like those "perfectly nice people" who protested the removal of a certain statue in Charlottesville...

    Puerto Ricans are American Citizens by law. These are not simply 'Third worlders' as some tribalist xenophobif Trumpistas would say, yet the administration is unmoved about their plight. Or at least not moved enough to lift a ban on foreign shipping meant to enrich cronies.

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  2. Politicians and their bureaucrats generally are outright sadists. This is a glaring example. And people keep coming back for more...

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  3. For once I can agree with McCain, its awful. My family flew up my relatives who lived down there before the first hurricane hit but now they're down there, thankfully we've been able to get help to them

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  4. Hell frosted, I am in agreement with McCain on something.

    Heck, repeal the whole Jones Law. But, if ports are unable to handle offloading goods, increasing the number of ships will do nothing to help.

    The time to prepare is before the crisis. PR is suffering for the incompetence and corruption of the politicians they elect and, are suffering the consequences of THEIR bad decisions?

    These uSA are not that much better, BTW, in bad decision making. So much money wasted in military monster hunting and welfare, including having allowed immigration to get out of hand.

    Fransisco, you making statements about citizenship? How about yours?

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    Replies
    1. Yeah I'm sure we'd have been able to recover from the hurricanes so much faster without being burdened by all those immigrant constitution workers...

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    2. The costs associated with the large number of immigrants (infrastructure loads, for example) places demands on government (at all levels), that increases the taxes. The requirements for "rainy day funds" to handle emergencies raises.

      Housing prices is the significant determinant where someone can buy/rent a place to live. Wanna take a gander as to where those properties might be located and which people become desperate needy after a crisis?

      It is interesting to observe the recognition that we live under a government/state, that extorts money from the people, and that it should be doing something.

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    3. During Harvey, there was a noticeable ethnic difference between those being rescued and those doing the rescuing. Plenty of "hard working immigrants" didn't lift a finger to prepare for the storm, yet had their hands out for relief when it bit them in the butt.

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    4. Re: JamieinTexas,

      --- The costs associated with the large number of immigrants (infrastructure loads, for example) places demands on government (at all levels), that increases the taxes. ---

      Just what the *heck* are you talking about? What tax increases? Where? Because not here in Texas.

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    5. Re: Paul Hansen,

      --- Plenty of "hard working immigrants" didn't lift a finger to prepare for the storm[...] ---

      You mean the once-in-a-century storm? Who prepared for that, again?

      I witnessed a lot of natives not prepared for the storm, either. They were taking their wet mattresses and wallboard juat like their immigrant neighbors. Most people--like me--were just lucky we lived in a higher area.

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    6. Re: Francisco Torres

      Yes, prepared for a hurricane that the news warned days in advance would be hitting our area. Yes, buy insurance because we live in an area that is on a known floodplain that gets hit with a hurricane at least every ten years.
      No, let's just put out our hands and expect charity at the government teat.

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  5. I happen to live in a State that is under a naval blockade called the "Jones act".
    Not that I would ever justify it, but the Jones Act lost its supposed validity after WWI.
    Now, as it was when it was passed into "law", the Jones Act, or rather the U.S. Naval Blockade of Alaska, costs Alaskans around $3billion a year.
    The State of course has no right to block trade from Alaska, and the crony corporatist unions are just as much to blame, using the State gun to protect a few monopolist from competition.
    End the Jones act. Or rather, just let people trade freely amongst ourselves.

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  6. Repeal the act yes. What is more worrisome is that I've seen on TV debates about the storm being a reason to make PR the 51st state. I think this is reason to set them free. Allow charitable people to help them out of their current calamity and sever the ties that bind.

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  7. Update: Trump is going to wave it now

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-28/trump-waives-jones-act-for-puerto-rico

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  8. Jones Law to be suspended ... ships will arrive and no way to unload because the already unloaded cargoes are stacked up on port with no way to distribute. Truck drivers are not showing up to pick loads because they cannot be reached or are not showing up. Those drivers, BTW, are unionized and rather tear up the roads rather than follow the law with regards to weight limits.

    BTW, I have family in PR. Still I have not been able to directly communicate with my mother, my sister was able. A typically 1.5hr trip from San Juan to Ponce, for example, is taking about 3hrs, last I heard. And that is one of the major highways in the island.

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  9. As Jaime said, Trump has suspended the Jones Act. Will the previous commenters retract their condemnations?

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    Replies
    1. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B0B_ekSrsEk

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    2. PH, retract for what? Because Trump the magnificent finally eased restrictions that the State he is apart of has imposed? For a few days?
      “Thanks for taking a break from beating me master”?
      Why doesn’t he push to repeal the Jones Act?

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