That makes some sense. Although having someone who knows how but doesn't have the proper credentials drive a truck doesn't seem like the worst possible outcome in an emergency. barfo
Yes, I agree Brian's posts are infinitely more useful than yours, but that doesn't absolve you of responsibility for your own posts. barfo
Hilarious. The people of Puerto Rico aren't saying this and you don't know what you're talking about because you aren't there. Here's What's Really Happening In Puerto Rico, Despite What Trump Is Saying The president spent the day attacking his critics and saying Puerto Ricans "want everything to be done for them." Only 5% of people on the island have power, and couldn't see his messages anyway. SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO — When Henry Jackson, the deputy commissioner for New York City's Office of Emergency Management, arrived in San Juan last Saturday to help the mayor's response to her devastated city, he realized pretty quickly there was something missing from their headquarters: FEMA workers. "To get communication is the most important thing in an emergency, and nobody’s phones are working," Jackson told BuzzFeed News. "We like putting people in a room," he said diplomatically about the Federal Emergency Management Agency, "so we can get to them and get answers and move things." President Trump on Friday seemed to become aware that his administration was botching the aid to Puerto Rico after cable news showed people in dire conditions and San Juan's mayor, Carmen Yulín Cruz, captured headlines by ripping the administration's handling of the crisis and begging for help. On Saturday, Trump responded by attacking Cruz on Twitter and implying Puerto Ricans were looking for handouts, told the island residents to ignore "fake news" on cable TV — only 5% of the nation currently has power — and repeatedly called the administration's response "great" and "unprecedented" and getting "great marks." But for people on the ground, Trump's reality exists only in his mind. That was on display at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente, a stadium in the Puerto Rican capital where Cruz is running her own relief efforts — as many mayors across the country have been forced to do absent a cogent federal government response — with the help of people like Jackson. Eventually, Jackson said, he corralled two FEMA staffers into the stadium, which had been serving as a shelter during and after Hurricane Irma hit and was evacuated before Hurricane Maria hit. It's now housing supplies from private donations and donations from other cities in the US. San Juan and New York City workers are sleeping on cots in two of the stadium's locker rooms. Many Puerto Ricans — all US citizens — in San Juan and other parts of the island told BuzzFeed News on Saturday that they have not received help from federal or state agencies. Across the country, as of Saturday morning, the government says 45% of people have drinkable water. More than 11,000 people are in shelters. About 10% have cell phone service and about half of the supermarkets are open. One hospital is fully running, while 59 are partially available. Cruz told BuzzFeed News on Saturday that her comments from earlier in the week — that people were "dying" because of bureaucracy — "weren’t directed at anyone. They were the reality of what’s happening in San Juan and Puerto Rico." "I am getting donations that are private donations sent directly to San Juan because they trust our supply chain and trust that we will help other people and that they see that we have a group of people in from New York that will make the logistics work," she said. "But I think people are just looking for excuses to throw blame around rather than accepting that things haven’t been working the way they should have, making them work, and then just move on." There are now some 100 pallets of food, water, baby food, diapers, feminine hygiene products, toothbrushes, and toothpaste at the San Juan–NYC headquarters. Jackson said they were being packaged into household kits and would be sent out over the next few days to community centers in San Juan and further afield. It's this center where the mayor of another city, Comerío, about 26 miles away, came earlier this week after going to the federal-and-state-run center at the nearby Estadio San Juan — and being told he would have to call back next week to discuss receiving aid. Cruz said that up until Thursday, she'd only received three pallets of water, four pallets of food, and four pallets of baby supplies from FEMA. "I gave that to Comerío," she said, "a town that had gotten nothing." Picking up a water desalination pump donated by a nonprofit, she said, "We are surrounded by a very big ocean and we should take advantage of that." Across Puerto Rico, people are still waiting for water, food, and medical supplies. Some roads have been hard to access and communication infrastructure everywhere continues to be either nonexistent or unreliable. But there are Puerto Ricans who, despite the difficult circumstances their own families are facing, are doing what they can to help. Dores Rodriguez, an occupational therapist, was at the Coliseo on Saturday with a group of medical staff who had come from different parts of the US to volunteer. She's based in Florida but is from Puerto Rico, and hasn't been able to reach her 86-year-old mother, who lives in Quebradillas. "I haven't been able to contact her directly," she said. "We're concerned about her home, we don't know what condition it's in." As she spoke to BuzzFeed News, after returning from a shelter where she'd been attending to critically ill and elderly people, news came through that a dam near her mother's town might have failed. (Officials later said it had not, but it's another example of how poor communications can spark a deep sense of worry.) "We don't know how it's going to go," she said. She'd been hoping to reach her mother when she can take a break from the patients and to get her on a flight to somewhere safe. Another woman working at the center said she'd been too busy and disconnected from phone and internet access to know what Trump was tweeting. "I haven’t had a chance to look at the internet, and we don’t have a radio here either," said Lymaris Ortiz Olazagasti, who works for the City of San Juan and on Saturday was pouring coffee for workers at the Coliseo. "We’re here most of the day and don’t really have time to leave." In La Perla, the San Juan neighborhood made legendary by salsa and, most recently, "Despacito," there is no power and not much by way of aid, Everlyn Crespo, a teacher and Uber driver from the area, told BuzzFeed News. Crespo said she had been struggling without work in the aftermath of the hurricane— on Saturday at least Uber was back up and running in some parts of the capital. "Literally it is dark. It is pitch black," Crespo said of her neighborhood. But, she said, the mayor "came and handed out these solar lanterns that you can charge in the sun for eight hours and then you have eight hours of an LED lamp. That's really cool. She was handing them out and man, has that made a difference. I mean, we were running out of candles and stuff." When told of Trump's comments, she said he's not trying to understand the US territory. "You have to understand our political history in order to say stuff like that and he doesn't understand that," she said. "All these years of 'self-government' under a commonwealth, which is like a walking daydream, because our governor doesn't really rule us, the US tells him what to do." About 25 minutes outside San Juan, in the town of Loiza, the situation is still dire. Loiza is a poor, mostly Afro-Puerto Rican community of about 29,000 people on the coast. It's known for its music, culture, and 10-day-long epic party each summer. On Saturday evening in Loiza, the sky was dark and there was drizzle. There were about 20 people waiting in line for gas on foot, standing under umbrellas. The line of cars was around the block. "Nobody has electricity, and almost no one has water. And there is barely any money. Even if there was water to buy, no one has cash. The two banks in the town aren't open. The little money that people have they already spent on diesel for generators and food," Loiza Mayor Julia María Nazario Fuentes told BuzzFeed News. "Trump doesn't know Loizeños nor Puerto Ricans. We have been helping ourselves," she said. "The central government is one thing, but local people cleaned up the debris and cleared the roads and opened up the way. If the Puerto Rican and Loizeño hadn't done it, we wouldn't have any way. Nobody from the central government came to clear the roads. The people threw themselves to work and did it." Paola Rolón, 23, lives in the city of Caguas, about 20 miles from San Juan. There's no power except for a few hours people squeeze out of generators that are running low on diesel. She told BuzzFeed News via intermittent text messages that the city is a ghost town at night and that most businesses, including grocery stores, are not open. She hadn't heard of Trump's Saturday comments until she was asked, because she has no power and no access to the internet. She said from her perspective the administration shows "the overall lack of care that his administration has shown for the serious problems that Puerto Rico has been facing, even before Hurricane Maria hit the island." "There are community efforts taking place everywhere. Especially in places like Yabucoa, Caguas, and Utuado where there is little to no government (federal or local) help available," she said. "But there are just somethings that the community cannot do. The community cannot reestablish running water or electricity. They can barely make roads accessible with the resources they have." Mayor Cruz, back at the Coliseo, says she wants the FEMA aid to continue more reliably to her center, and plans to continue coordinating with other mayors. And she still wants everyone involved to move more efficiently to send help. "I am shocked that it has to be explained to someone," she said. "I am shocked that the human suffering needs to be digested. But it is what it is and we will push on." And she said of the President's visit on Tuesday, "I think it's an opportunity for a good visit, to look at people in the eyes and talk to them unscripted."
Fake news posts blame Puerto Rico's truck drivers for refusing to ship relief supplies Conservative news outlets have been spreading a false story online that wrongly says aid to Hurricane Maria victims isn’t being distributed in Puerto Rico because union truck drivers have gone on strike. The headline on a Sept. 30, 2017, post on The Gateway Pundit read, "San Juan Teamsters didn’t show up for work to distribute relief supplies — U.S. aid rotting at ports." Facebook users flagged the story as being potentially fabricated, as part of the social network’s efforts to curb fake news. Similar headlines appeared on several otherlinks that users questioned. The post claimed that while the "liberal media" is attacking President Donald Trump’s response to the humanitarian crisis, the real issue is that "the Teamsters Union drivers did not show up to work. Only 20 percent of drivers arrived at the ports to distribute the relief supplies," The Gateway Pundit said. The other posts all shared the same sentiment, and often included "proof" from more social media posts claiming to know all about the problem. But they aren’t right to blame union truckers for the lack of movement. It turns out the blog posts are delivering misinformation about this problem. Sites are picking and choosing details The Gateway Pundit pointed to another Sept. 30 post from TheConservativeTreehouse.com, which cited a Sept. 29 Huffington Post interviewwith U.S. Air Force Col. Michael A. Valle. Valle was born in Puerto Rico and was leading Maria relief efforts. The Conservative Treehouse post included a passage from the interview that said supplies are being sent to Puerto Rico, but not being moved across the island. "It’s a lack of drivers for the transport trucks, the 18 wheelers," the website quoted Valle as saying. "Supplies we have. Trucks we have. There are ships full of supplies, backed up in the ports, waiting to have a vehicle to unload into. However, only 20 percent of the truck drivers show up to work. These are private citizens in Puerto Rico, paid by companies that are contracted by the government." Valle did say in the Huffington Post interview that there was a lack of drivers, but he also went on to add the drivers deserved "zero blame:" "They can’t get to work, the infrastructure is destroyed, they can’t get fuel themselves, and they can’t call us for help because there’s no communication. The will of the people of Puerto Rico is off the charts. The truck drivers have families to take care of, many of them have no food or water. They have to take care of their family’s needs before they go off to work, and once they do go, they can’t call home." The Conservative Treehouse also posted a video of CNBC’s Contessa Brewerreporting from San Juan as proof of the problem, but ignored the part where Brewer said transportation problems are not the drivers’ fault. "You’re looking at truck drivers who can’t be reached by their businesses by cell phone, they don’t have the gas to get to work, and then even when they do get to work, their semi-trucks don’t have fuel," Brewer said. "The problem is the supply chain." She added that Crowley Puerto Rico, a shipping and logistics company, said that getting drivers to the port and back out again was proving to be a challenge. There has been a definite problem moving supplies that have arrived. On Sept. 29, the same day Valle’s interview was published, the Teamsters sent out a press releaseasking union truck drivers to volunteer to go to Puerto Rico to help transport supplies. The release warned that it wouldn’t be easy, but fellow union workers needed help. "At this time, it is unclear if there are trucks available to move the containers, fuel to operate the trucks or road access to the distribution centers," the release read. "However, the labor movement is working on the ground in Puerto Rico to bring volunteers to meet specific needs." There’s no mention of strike in the press release, and nothing in Valle’s interview about labor unions, so where did the The Conservative Treehouse get that? From an interview with a trucker not affiliated with the Teamsters union. The blog turned to a Spanish-language interview for Lo Sé Todo on Wapa.tv with Victor Rodriguez, identifying as "the boss of a very sketchy (corrupt and violent) Puerto Rico trucker’s union called Fente Amplio." Dozens of subsequent posts online identify Frente Amplio (note the different spelling) as the local Teamsters union, which Teamsters spokesman Galen Munroe told us is incorrect. Rodriguez represents the independent Frente Amplio de Camioneros de Puerto Rico (Broad Front of Truck Drivers of Puerto Rico), which is not affiliated with the Teamsters. TheConservativeTreehouse.com egregiously misrepresented Rodriguez’s interview, translating it to claim that Rodriguez said truck drivers are refusing to work as part of a plan to show up Puerto Rico’s governor. "Since the country doesn’t care about truckers, the truckers won’t help," TheConservativeTreehouse.com quoted Rodriguez. It credits the reporter with getting Rodriguez to admit his defiance. In truth, Rodriguez is saying the opposite, that despite a disagreement over a law signed by Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosselló concerning truck permitting, drivers should help in any way they can. Truckers called off a planned strike because of Hurricane Irma three weeks prior, he said. Rodriguez did take a swipe at Rosselló, saying long lines are partly his fault, and noted that truckers can’t come down when they are in regions with impassable roads. But by and large, Rodriguez said that truckers are working and doing what they need to do to deliver goods. He even cuts off the reporter at one point for suggesting they are refusing to work. In response to all the false stories online blaming Teamster drivers, the union released a statement on Oct. 2 that said their members have been working since Maria passed over the island. The statement blamed "online, anti-union sources" for spreading an inaccurate story. "These viral stories spreading across the internet are nothing but lies perpetrated by anti-union entities to further their destructive agenda," Teamsters president Jim Hoffa said in the release. "The fact that they are attempting to capitalize on the suffering of millions of citizens in Puerto Rico that are (in) dire need of our help by pushing these false stories, just exposes their true nature." Our ruling Bloggers said that "San Juan Teamsters didn't show up for work to distribute relief supplies" because they went on strike after Hurricane Maria. The widespread accusations trace back to a post that selectively edited and mistranslated interviews to make it look like union truckers were being greedy and lazy. But there’s no strike, and union truck drivers have been trying to move aid shipments across Puerto Rico. There are multiple logistical problems slowing down transport, not the least of which is that some drivers simply can’t get to the port, or drive on impassable roads. Bloggers are misrepresenting a real humanitarian crisis by blaming trade unions. That drives this rating to Pants On Fire! http://www.politifact.com/punditfac...ews-posts-blame-puerto-ricos-truck-drivers-r/
So, is there a better translation? Out of the 5 or so videos (and 20 minutes of interviews) on the links I posted earlier, this paraphrases 4 quotes? No translation required? The strawman of "bloggers saying San Juan Teamsters went on strike" makes it easy to refute, and I don't care enough. Obviously, what I brought up was brought up elsewhere, and people are now getting the supplies they need. And while I can agree that, very likely, "Some" truckers are in regions with impassible roads, I doubt very much that 80% of the trucking capacity in PR is based out of remote hillside villages. What does impassible roads have to do with San Juan/Bayamon, where there are thousands of containers of supplies and a million people who could use it? Why has the mayor only given out 3 pallets? However, methinks politifact doth protest too much If their members have been working, and it's an "inaccurate story", then why have everyone politifact linked to in their post said "only 20% of the union truckers showed up?" And as for "truckers who can't come down in regions with impassible roads", are the roads in San Juan bad? There is video of thousands of shipping containers, and This is meant in no way to disparage the people of Puerto Rico, or la Perla. It's meant to give context. But if my neighborhood had no aid/power/water/food and it was literally 4 miles from where there were thousands of containers filled with it, I would have supplies. If my neighborhood was less than 3 miles from the convention center and stadium where the response was being coordinated, I would have supplies. I find it hard to believe that, if there are supplies, trucks, fuel, needy people and a willing government, that there are truckers just itching to get out there and deliver but they're stopped. There are about a million people in the greater SJ/Bayamon area. There shouldn't be thousands of tons of food/water/fuel/supplies sitting on a pier in the middle of town rotting away. From your release: Nope, it's been made clear for a week, including by both of the people and organizations politifact referenced, that there are supplies, trucks and fuel. Mayors from all over the island have been able to use the Ring Road to get to San Juan. San Juan (and its vicinity) has had power on the main routes for over a week, as shown in the attached satellite image from the 25th. The problem has been "distribution" and "getting the truckers to the trucks." For whatever reason. Directly refuting what Politifact just quoted the San Juan teamsters saying ("we've been working since Maria passed." Well, not according to soldiers, CNN and CNBC, hombre) I don't care if someone's on strike. I'm not trying to kill labor unions in PR. I'm looking at lessons learned from the perspective of a once-and-maybe-future Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer for the Navy. And all the research shows that there are supplies, fuel, trucks, power and passable roads (at least on the ring road and in major cities), and just a shortage of truckers to get the supplies to them. Even in places like SJ, where truckers aren't needed to walk down the street to pick up supplies, they aren't getting out to the people. What can be done about that?
