The Puerto Rico Thread

Jim_MDP said:
Wasn't there a bit of White House feel-good BS that Trump only delayed signing the waiver because it's short-lived and they didn't want it to run out before the ships could make port?

Sign it again you ass. :(
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There was never any intention that their short-lived suspension of the Jones Act was meant to actually do any good for Puerto Rico, only that they'd be able to say that they had done it.
 
Jim_MDP said:
IIRC... the Gov said they won the job because they weren't requiring substantial up-front monies, something I'd expect would be common in these recovery/rebuild efforts, but whatever.

So my question is... where is tiny Whitefish getting their financing?
Until last month, they were a two year old, two man, shoestring outfit.

Jeez... this is like giving the entire NFL uniform production job to someone on Etsy. :rolleyes:
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Wouldn't surprise me to find the gov and/or some other officials lined up to get kickbacks. Not sure Trump has anything to do with this at all. More like it's just the circles he runs in. There are a lot of crooks in the crowd.
 
quadraginta said:
There was never any intention that their short-lived suspension of the Jones Act was meant to actually do any good for Puerto Rico, only that they'd be able to say that they had done it.
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That's most likely true.
 
Stacko said:
1400 containers of food are sitting in US ports, waiting to be shipped to Puerto Rico.
Quote:
Ricky Castro is a food and beverage wholesaler and president of Puerto Rico’s Chamber of Food Marketing, Industry and Distribution, known as MIDA, which boasts 200 members across the island. This month MIDA conducted an informal survey of 15 members and found there are roughly 1,400 containers of their provisions sitting in U.S. ports, waiting to be shipped to Puerto Rico.

Mr. Castro attributes the delay to the Jones Act, which mandates that U.S.-flagged, -built and -manned carriers conduct all shipping between U.S. ports. This means an oligopoly of three companies—Crowley Maritime Corp., TOTE Maritime and Trailer Bridge Inc.—conduct the vast majority of the protected trade between the mainland and the island, at inflated costs on aging ships. The ocean-going Jones Act fleet numbers a mere 99 vessels, compared to thousands available from foreign-flagged carriers.
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That sounds even worse than the embargo/el bloqueo against Cuba. Is somebody unable to tell the Castros apart?
 
quadraginta said:
I'd feel a little bit more sanguine about the plausibility of these disconnects if this out-of-the-blue outfit wasn't personal buddies with Trump's Secretary of the Interior, who is known to have gotten a contract for them just last year, and whose son had worked for them.

Did these guys just happen to pick up the phone and make an offer to the Governor of Puerto Rico that he couldn't refuse? All on their own with no prompting? It doesn't seem like the sort of thing they have any past history of.

In fact, they don't seem to have a past history of very much at all.

One would think it needed more than an offer of credit to get sole consideration for a project of this magnitude.
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One thing I was getting at is that even if this isn't corruption, it's incompetence.

It would be very surprising indeed if cronyism or corruption played absolutely no part in awarding a 300 million dollar contract to a very small firm that just happened to be from a cabinet secretary's home town, but let's pretend that it didn't. Let's pretend that the contract was awarded for exactly the reasons it was said it was awarded. If that is the case, then the Trump administration dropped the ball. There's a humanitarian crisis going on. Public utilities shouldn't be forced to make less than optimal arrangements to fix that humanitarian crisis just because an expensive and unqualified company is the only one willing to take the deal without up front cash. That "up front cash" part is something that was easily fixed by some guy in an Oval Office.
 
Meadmaker said:
One thing I was getting at is that even if this isn't corruption, it's incompetence.

It would be very surprising indeed if cronyism or corruption played absolutely no part in awarding a 300 million dollar contract to a very small firm that just happened to be from a cabinet secretary's home town, but let's pretend that it didn't. Let's pretend that the contract was awarded for exactly the reasons it was said it was awarded. If that is the case, then the Trump administration dropped the ball. There's a humanitarian crisis going on. Public utilities shouldn't be forced to make less than optimal arrangements to fix that humanitarian crisis just because an expensive and unqualified company is the only one willing to take the deal without up front cash. That "up front cash" part is something that was easily fixed by some guy in an Oval Office.
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^^^This^^^
 
I suppose the departure of Whitefish is one solitary bright spot in an otherwise dismal tale.

It seems that the US has got bored of Puerto Rico and/or there is so much other juicy stuff going on that it's slipped out of public consciousness :(

I hope that the Trump Administration and the GOP in general is held to account when the final analysis of this mess is complete.
 
Latest report from on the ground.

Still no power in a residential/commercial district three miles north of San Juan.

The 30% power restored seems to be limited to government buildings, (some) hospitals, and ...wait for it ... shopping malls.

Mrs' qg's PT had some nice video her son had sent her of people crowding a shopping mall because it had power ... and the AC to go with that.
 
The repairs made by Whitefish failed.

The failure took place in the same transmission line that had been repaired previously by Whitefish Energy, a Montana firm recently under scrutiny for a $300 million contract to restore power on the island. The deal was later canceled by the Puerto Rico government after being publicly criticized by officials.

The current outage is not tied to the previous work, said Whitefish spokesperson Chris Chiames. "None of the issues reported today with the outage have anything to do with the repairs Whitefish Energy performed."
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Any word on who replaced Whitefish? PREPA always indicated that part of the reason they were chosen was difficulty finding and affording other contractors. I'm curious as to how they're resolving that problem.
 
Civet said:
Any word on who replaced Whitefish? PREPA always indicated that part of the reason they were chosen was difficulty finding and affording other contractors. I'm curious as to how they're resolving that problem.
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The pet Governor had his nose so far up Trump's backside it was nauseating... but that doesn't mean he won't get thrown under the bus.

Or will Sarah inform us it's the ebil Dems fault for complaining, and getting Whitefish sacked?

Or will it be Obama's fault? :rolleyes:
 
TJ Maxx is reported to be continuing to pay all it's employees in PR even though the stores remain closed. Candle in the dark.
 
Jim_MDP said:
The pet Governor had his nose so far up Trump's backside it was nauseating... but that doesn't mean he won't get thrown under the bus.

Or will Sarah inform us it's the ebil Dems fault for complaining, and getting Whitefish sacked?

Or will it be Obama's fault? :rolleyes:
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Hillary is behind the scenes, cold bloodedly making things go bad to try to make the Republicans look bad.

Thermal said:
Forgot to include link: TJX has 29 stores in PR, including TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Homegoods, and all employees getting paid despite closed stores.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/07/us/tjmaxx-pays-employees-after-hurricanes-trnd/
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Indeed, good for them.
 
Why is Puerto Rico still in the news? I mean, hundreds of people i know have sent truckloads of prayers that way...

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