Late Friday, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz made a plaintive and angry statement, during which she begged Donald Trump "to make sure somebody is in charge that is up to the task of saving lives" and warning: "If we don't get the food and the water into people's hands, we are going to see something close to a genocide."
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz warns the crisis in PR may soon be "something close to a genocide," & Trump's off for another golf weekend.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 29, 2017
Not only did Trump flounce off to play golf as Puerto Rico suffers, he responded to the mayor's pleas with a series of breathtaking tweets, in which he accused Cruz of being "nasty" at the behest of Democrats and scoffed at Puerto Ricans for being lazy, saying they "want everything to be done for them."
Trump implied that @CarmenYulinCruz and her people are lazy. The racial undercurrent becomes an overcurrent. https://t.co/7rwynpN0rR
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) September 30, 2017
To be abundantly clear: Trump reacted to a desperate plea for help from @CarmenYulinCruz by unleashing a torrent of racism and misogyny.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 30, 2017
Shame on anyone who ever indulged the sickening pretense that Trump was ever going to be anything else but this.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 30, 2017
This is what happens when people who should know better insist on extending endless good will to a monster.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) September 30, 2017
Alternating between neglect and attacks on Puerto Rico, Trump continued his golf weekend, during which he had a round or two himself — and then [CN: video may autoplay at link] dedicated a fucking golf trophy to hurricane victims, saying: "On behalf of all of the people of Texas, and...if you look today and you see what's happening, how horrible it is but we have it under really great control, Puerto Rico. And the people of Florida who have really suffered over this last period of time with the hurricanes. I want to just remember them, and we're going to dedicate this trophy to all those people who went through so much, that we love, that are part of our great state, really a part of our great nation."
Sure.
At the New York Times, Frances Robles, Luis Ferré-Sadurní, Richard Fausset, and Ivelisse Rivera have reported on "One Day in the Life of Battered Puerto Rico." Read that, and look at the images, and think of the people whose stories are being told, and remember them every time you hear the deplorable president talk about what a great job he's doing for Puerto Rico and how lazy and needy the Puerto Rican people are.
I take up space in solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico.
If you are able and would like to make a donation to Puerto Rican relief, the Hispanic Federation "has launched the UNIDOS Disaster Relief Fund to help meet hurricane and earthquake-related needs and recovery in Puerto Rico and Mexico."
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