As I understand it, that was an obstacle to Denmark's assistance to the US Virgin Islands: It seemed that, as a general rule, FEMA has to buy services from local contractors, private enterprise. I guess that the idea is that otherwise, helping the hurricane victims might disadvantage local businessmen trying to sell their services, but somebody here probably knows more about this than I do.
The Puerto Rico Thread
- Thread starter Meadmaker
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As I understand it, that was an obstacle to Denmark's assistance to the US Virgin Islands: It seemed that, as a general rule, FEMA has to buy services from local contractors, private enterprise. I guess that the idea is that otherwise, helping the hurricane victims might disadvantage local businessmen trying to sell their services, but somebody here probably knows more about this than I do.
Hellbound
Merchant of Doom
Well, to a degree, such a policy makes sense. Using local resources, you're putting money and jobs back into a local economy that's just taken a heavy hit, and assisting it to get back to it's feet.
That being said, such a policy should not bar or limit additional sources of assistance when local resources aren't up to the task.
quadraginta
Becoming Beth
Jim_MDP
Philosopher
I understand the desire but, for all his stumbling through his prepared statement... Flake got it exactly right yesterday on the chamber floor.
We've all been waiting, hoping for that "pivot"... it ain't comin'.
The conscience? Well... they're quite costly to maintain. Trump learned that at his daddy's knee.
And with his lifelong premium healthcare, he probably had it surgically removed in his teens.
Certainly it was gone entirely by the time he agreed with the interviewer that remaining STD-free through his Studio 54 days counted as "his personal Viet Nam".
CORed
Penultimate Amazing
I'd rather have a job herding cats than a job being Trump's conscience.
CORed
Penultimate Amazing
I understand the desire but, for all his stumbling through his prepared statement... Flake got it exactly right yesterday on the chamber floor.
We've all been waiting, hoping for that "pivot"... it ain't comin'.
The conscience? Well... they're quite costly to maintain. Trump learned that at his daddy's knee.
And with his lifelong premium healthcare, he probably had it surgically removed in his teens.
Certainly it was gone entirely by the time he agreed with the interviewer that remaining STD-free through his Studio 54 days counted as "his personal Viet Nam".
I had extremely low expectations for Trump coming in, and he has managed to fall short of them. I also had a small hope that there was more to Trump than meets the eye, and that he would somehow manage to step up and do a decent job. At this point, it seems that there was actually even less to Trump than meets the eye, and that he has no idea how to step up and do a decent job, in the unlikely event that he even wants to.
Yes, and it's exactly the kind of thing that happens when departments are under-staffed and/or led by people with little or no knowledge of the department, no capacity or willingness to learn and who do the bare minimum (or less) of work.
If you look at the number of vacant senior positions in the Trump Administration, and the quality of the people he has appointed then IMO these kinds of problems will be endemic.
I personally think you're being over-optimistic, but I guess that at least that's better than being dismal. President Trump is behaving exactly as Candidate Trump and Businessman Trump did before him. Expecting a 70-year-old to suddenly and fundamentally change their entire persona and value system is, IMO, a little much. As Pterry would say, a leopard doesn't change his shorts
Meadmaker
Unregistered
- Joined
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I listened to someone on NPR last night discussing the Whitefish deal. It took over a month to get a contract out, and then it went on a no-bid contract to a company that has, literally, two employees, and now they are charging rates double customary emergency rates. And it's just coincidence that the two employees happen to know a cabinet secretary. In fact, the secretary's kid had a summer job with them.
This is sounding very, very, swampy.
This is sounding very, very, swampy.
Belz...
Fiend God
That tends to happen after hurricanes.
quadraginta
Becoming Beth
As I have pointed out elsewhere, if you pump enough extra **** into the swamp it will inevitably begin to drain.
From the top.
This is what we are seeing.
So Trump's vow to "drain the swamp" is being kept. Just not in the way his bedazzled supporters had expected.
They will, of course, cheerfully and enthusiastically latch on to the idea that he has kept that promise without acknowledging in any fashion the manner by which he has done that.
Thermal
August Member
I understand the desire but, for all his stumbling through his prepared statement... Flake got it exactly right yesterday on the chamber floor.
We've all been waiting, hoping for that "pivot"... it ain't comin'.
I personally think you're being over-optimistic, but I guess that at least that's better than being dismal. President Trump is behaving exactly as Candidate Trump and Businessman Trump did before him. Expecting a 70-year-old to suddenly and fundamentally change their entire persona and value system is, IMO, a little much. As Pterry would say, a leopard doesn't change his shorts
I know, I know. Slight derail, but I am a generation younger than the President, and I know personally that when I am entrusted with the welfare of others, whether kids, customers, workers or students, that I set my usual flippancy aside and take my responsibilities dead seriously. How can a man sit in the Oval Office and not appreciate the immense gravity of his position? How the hell can he not look around him and have an altruistic epiphany: Holy ****, this isn't some hack TV show or real estate hustle, these are real body bags?
Ah, you are thinking of a different approach to the one I had envisioned. which was to dig a bottomless pit.
There are many, many reasons. He could be completely overwhelmed by the whole situation and the only way that he can possibly deal with it is to pretend that it doesn't exist. He could be so completely self-absorbed that things only become real when they have an impact on him personally. He could have some personality disorder which means that he finds it impossible to feel any kind of empathy. He could feel empathy but only for a limited subset of society (rich white men).
Or of course he could be doing the job that those who voted for him wanted him to do. They don't care about brownish people on an island in the Caribbean, they care about getting tax cuts and keeping white people in positions of privilege.
quadraginta
Becoming Beth
I have seen nothing in his entire career which suggests he is capable of feeling empathy for anyone but himself.
Hubert Cumberdale
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2008
- Messages
- 1,141
The US President tells whopping great lies - not being economical with the truth or cherry-picking favourable parts of a wider story or spinning a story - and whilst the "reputable" press attempt to report on it, the sheer volume of lies seems to have stunned his opposition into silence and his supporters believe whatever rubbish they're told.
This is Trump's MO in a nutshell.
Nothing ever sticks to him because he goes from one lie/scandal to the next, no one has a chance to keep up with him.
By the time anyone gets around to seriously looking at anything he has said or done, he has said or done half a dozen other (possibly worse) things, which then knock the previous thing(s) out of public conscience.
quadraginta
Becoming Beth
The public has no conscience.
Maybe a consciousness, but I have my doubts about that. Especially these days.
You almost have to be impressed. The "Gish Gallop" shouldn't be possible when the conversation isn't one one one but I'll be damned if he doesn't pull it off.
And in a way I think what he is doing is.... sorta genius (for very specific, very horrible usages of genius.) Puerto Rico has no voting power and regardless of how big of a scandal his handling of Puerto Rico is now by the time the election roles around he's going to have done so much other stuff that Puerto Rico is going to be reduced to to a talking point bullet if that. I'm serious when I say I doubt there will be any practical fallout from this.
Politically it's brilliant, as cynical as that is to say. He might actually have weaponized "Missing the forests for the trees."
More reporting on the Whitefish contract. FEMA's saying they never reviewed the contract even though the contract language states that they did. White House is saying this was all PREPA. Gonna be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Belz...
Fiend God
Trump's pretty good at it, no doubt about that, but he does have help from the currently extremely-charged and polarised political climate.