On Meet the Press this morning, host Chuck Todd interviewed correspondent Ron Mott about conditions in Puerto Rico and the conflicting claims of Donald Trump and the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz.
Mott took the safe route and said the situation wasn't as rosy as the Trump administration claims but it wasn't as bad as Cruz maintains. Sort of 50/50. Then he got down to hard numbers, the Trump regime's claims.
"FEMA did say that it has already distributed two and a half million liters of water here, two million pounds of food. We can't dispute any of that. But we can tell you that that port is not-- there's not a convoy of containers leaving that port going out into the communities with all these relief supplies. A lot of the stuff at the port, now we can tell you this, was not hurricane relief stuff."
2.5 million litres of water, that sure sounds like a lot. Only it's not. The World Health Organization stipulates the minimum amount of clean, freshwater needed in an emergency is 15 litres per day. 20 litres is the minimum for consumption, food preparation and personal hygiene.
Let's see. About 3.4 million Puerto Ricans in need of aid. Half still without drinking water. So that's about 1.7 million Puerto Ricans who have been without clean, freshwater since Maria hit 11-days ago. That comes out to 25 million litres of clean water a day, about 270 million litres over the last 11 days. FEMA boasts that it has distributed 2.5 million litres which is almost 1% of what's so badly needed.
2 million pounds of food against 3.4 million Puerto Ricans over 11 days is just as infinitesimal. And yet NBC's flagship Sunday show certainly gives the impression that, overall, it's not too bad. And the Gullibillies tell themselves that Trump's right again. These ingrates are just whiners.
Jesus wept.
4 comments:
Two million POUNDS of food. Wow! That's 32 million ounces! Sounds like a lot? How many Olympic sized swimming pools or football fields is that? About 1000 tons, or 50 truckloads. Sounds more understandable.
John, be reasonable. That's almost an ounce per person per day since Maria hit. One large egg, by weight, is just over two ounces. So that's about half an egg per person per day. Or one egg per person every other day.
It's grotesque.
Don't forget that Puerto Rico was already devastated on September 5th when hurricane Irma sideswiped it on its way to Florida. Two-thirds of the population were without power then, and Trump declared a state of emergency and ordered full support. So where the hell are all the supplies that FEMA should already have had in place when Maria struck two weeks later?
I hate the way the media keeps reporting as if Maria were the only hurricane that hit the island. The narrative is that Trump and his gang have been screwing this up for 10 days. Wrong! They've been screwing Puerto Ricans for 26 days. So it's 2 million pounds of food for 3.4 million residents, which is 0.4 OUNCES of food per resident per day! Washed down with 28 mL of water per day! Yet Trump calls them all ingrates. What a douche-nozzle!
Cap
Well, Cap, I suppose that's why they call it the "post truth" nation. You just say whatever you want people to believe and, chances are, they will.
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