All the paper towels in the world can’t wipe up the mess Donald Trump and his enablers have made of the recovery of Puerto Rico following the devastation of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, nor can they clean up the lies being told daily about how far along the island is in return to normalcy.
We have all heard of “whitesplaining,” but Trump, his appointees, and defenders take it to a higher (or perhaps lower would be more apt) level.
There are also Trumpsplainers who are in power on the island, the cream cheese of the crop of elites. They are Republicans like Luis Gerardo Rivera Marín, who is secretary of state of Puerto Rico as well as lieutenant governor.
Yeah, this guy on the right.
He’s had his fingers in a lot of pies in Puerto Rico. Before ascending to high office in the ruling, predominantly “white” elite Statehood Party (the New Progressive Party), he was executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company and secretary of consumer affairs.
Do you even have to wonder why he decided to get on Twitter to defend The Orange Jefe from reports quoting Omarosa Manigault Newman saying Trump made derogatory remarks about Puerto Rico?
He is a Republican. ‘Nuff said.
Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman says in her new book that White House chief of staff John Kelly shut down her attempts to get aid for Puerto Rico after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria — and he accused the island government of trying to exploit the tragedy to get money from Washington.
She also writes that Kelly and President Donald Trump "referred to Puerto Ricans with derogatory terms many times."
Most of us have no love for Grifterosa, but it’s rather easy to believe her when she references Trump’s use of racial-ethnic pejoratives.
White knight Rivera Marín tweeted:
“We reject the allegation that the White House used derogatory language towards Puerto Ricans after hurricane María. Over the past 11 months, while there have been obvious challenges, great progress has been made by working closely with our federal counterparts.”
Progress? You call almost 11 months with thousands of people still living under tarps progress? Close to 11,000 people are still without any hope of permanent power, relying on back-up generators, in the municipalities of Vieques and Culebra, and they have been told it might take four years to fix. That ain’t progress, that’s pathos.
Some of the replies to his tweet from Puerto Ricans (mainly from the island) were epic. They graphically depicted the term “lambon” (boot-licker), and there were multiple references to Trump’s infamous paper towel tossing.
Yo, Luis: let’s hope you realize that Donald grew up in Queens, New York, during a time when the first Puerto Ricans were venturing to set foot there. None of us, be we black or Puerto Rican, are in denial about the racists who tried to keep us out, who blocked us from buying homes or renting apartments. We know that we were called the N-word and the S-word.
Trump has a long history of racism. Donald is a chip off of his Klan-daddy Fred’s bigoted block. We need no tapes to know what he says about us. We have seen his racism up close and persona,l and he continues to puke up vile bile on a daily basis.
CNN’s Don Lemon did a review of Trump in his own words.
Lemon, who prefaced the segment by saying that “Omarosa has done some things that are really inexcusable and there are serious questions about her credibility,” raised the question to viewers that if the Trump n-word tape exists, “It would be a bombshell, right?” “It would have to be, or would it?” He added. “What if I told you that I have a tape of Donald Trump calling Mexicans criminals and rapists.”
So Luis, keep on defending him, you vendepatria.
The Justice Department sued both Trumps for racial discrimination against blacks and Puerto Ricans.
The FBI made available 389 pages from a 1970s investigation of racial discrimination accusations against Trump Management Company, a real-estate business linked to President Donald Trump at the time. A civil-rights lawsuit brought by the Justice Department against Donald Trump and his father Fred Trump in 1973 claimed that African-Americans and Puerto Ricans were prevented from renting apartments from Trump.
The man is a racist, and he makes that clear every time he talks about Spanish-speaking people. He does it when he spews about black people. The fact that he has a few token melanin-enhanced people around him for show means nothing.
Carry on, Luis. Keep defending Trump and whatever profit you think you might gain by being a lick-spittle. Make no mistake, though you may look as white as a farmer from Idaho, in Trump’s mind you are still one of “those people” who are at fault for your own misery.
Readers need a glimpse of what is going on on the island, and who is one of the “power players” there. Far too many of us here on the mainland (myself included) are only aware of the governor and the mayor of San Juan. Far too many assume that all Puerto Ricans are Democrats.
I thank my hermano Chef Bobby Neary (newpioneer on Daily Kos) for bringing this Trumpsplaining tweet to my attention.
Pa’lante, Puerto Rico!