But wait! There's more!

Gee, I wonder why Mayor Cruz objected to this company?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

More Whitefishy business

So, apparently, this two-man show can take the $300 million dollars awarded them by their pal Zinke and hire laborers for any sum, paltry as they can, and purchase any materials, cheap and shoddy as they can, and pocket the rest? Is that what I'm reading?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Addendum on the Whitefish scandal

Whitefish is a perfect name for the small town two-man energy company linked to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, thereby landing a no-bid contract for rebuilding the power grid in Puerto Rico. Because, you know, something fishy.

Yesterday we saw how Whitefish dealt with San Juan's (female) mayor. They ended up having to apologize, but I don't think that's going to save their bacon. I wonder why they didn't say they were just following The Most Notable Loser's lead. Probably because somebody smarter than them and The Most Notable Loser stepped in.

At any rate, here's a little tidbit that Charlie Pierce noticed in the dust-up.

The Washington Post has more.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) pledged to examine the grid-rebuilding efforts at an upcoming hearing of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which she chairs.

[...]

Murkowski's involvement here is particularly piquant since you may recall that, immediately after she voted to help torpedo the original TrumpCare plan, Zinke and the Interior Department threatened her and her state in much the same fashion that their cronies threatened the mayor of San Juan. One does not threaten U.S. Senators in this way without catching one in the teeth in return. Zinke is a jumped-up rural congresscritter. Perhaps he's a little new at this game.

  Charles P Pierce

I do like some appropriate schadenfreude.  Perhaps that's why Whitefish tried to apologize.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

So, apparently, this two-man show can take the $300 million dollars awarded them by their pal Zinke and hire laborers for any sum, paltry as they can, and purchase any materials, cheap and shoddy as they can, and pocket the rest.  Nice.

And then there's this:

Gee, I wonder why Mayor Cruz objected to this company?

Good lord

That Zinke-connected two-man company doing electrical work in Puerto Rico?

Puerto Rico's governor on Wednesday asked for yet another review of a controversial contract awarded to Whitefish Energy, a two-person company from Montana that was awarded a $300 million contract to restore the island's electric infrastructure.

The company, whose Montana address leads to a log-and-stone cabin and an RV, has ties to President Trump's Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a former resident of Whitefish and an acquaintance of the company's CEO Andy Techmanski.

The lucrative deal was signed with no bidding process, and has raised multiple questions about how the decision to award the contract came about.

[...]

The House Committee on Natural Resources is also looking into the deal.

[...]

On Wednesday, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló asked John Roth, inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, to review the contract.

[...]

In the letter, Rosselló also referenced a call with attorneys and officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who said the contract "appeared to comply 10% with FEMA regulations."

  Buzzfeed

What the hell does that mean?

Ken Luce, a spokesman for Whitefish Energy, told the Los Angeles Times that its response to withdraw its workers from San Juan was not a threat, but instead telling the mayor what would happen if the contract were voided.

  Buzzfeed

Totally unprofessional either way.

Hours later Wednesday night, the company tweeted a statement at Yulín Cruz and all of Puerto Rico, apologizing for the earlier tweet suggesting they would remove their workers from the city.

Somebody got on the phone to whoever is tweeting for Whitefish.

A strong team on the ground and an asshole in the office, eh?

Also, this was the tweet of a former PR governor last Friday (caveat: I don't know the location of the hospital in the picture):

FEMA Under Trump

Well, there you go.  Just block requests for help.

Everything is going great.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Cruz Feud Still On

Neither Carmen Yulín Cruz nor her T-shirts will be silenced. In an interview with Univision on Wednesday, the San Juan mayor wore a black T-shirt with the word nasty on the front, a direct response, she said, to President Trump’s angry tweets against her. Cruz also criticized the Trump administration’s lackluster response to the devastation in Puerto Rico:

When someone is bothered by someone claiming lack of drinking water, lack of medicine for the sick and lack of food for the hungry, that person has problems too deep to be explained in an interview. What is really nasty is that anyone would turn their back on the Puerto Rican people.

  The Cut

Presumably, no one gave her an interview while Trump was in town.

So far, President Trump’s response to the crisis has included dedicating a golf trophy to hurricane victims, throwing paper towels at people, and saying it’s a good thing Hurricane Maria was not “a real catastrophe like Katrina.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 10/9:

“They had these beautiful, soft towels. Very good towels,” Trump said in a conversation that aired Sunday on Christian television network Trinity Broadcasting. “And I came in and there was a crowd of a lot of people. And they were screaming and they were loving everything. I was having fun, they were having fun. They said, ‘Throw ‘em to me! Throw ‘em to me, Mr. President!’”

  MSNBC

Jesus, what a narcissistic, clueless prick.

We also learned during the interview that Trump believes:

[...]

* the Middle East is “much less of a mess now” thanks to himself;

* the Las Vegas gunman was “a sick person, but probably smart”;

* and repealing the Affordable Care Act, sending block grants to states instead, would mean Trump could stop focusing on “fixing somebody’s back or their knee.”

Jesus wept.

Dick of the Century

No, make that millenium. Shit for Brains went to Puerto Rico.

"I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you've thrown our budget a little out of whack, because we've spent a lot of money on Puerto Rico," Trump said.

He quickly added: "That's fine — we've saved a lot of lives."

Trump went on to compare the devastation in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria last month to that of Hurricane Katrina in the continental US in 2005, saying relatively few people had died as a result of the storm and ensuing loss of power, destruction of infrastructure, and widespread flooding.

"Every death is a horror," Trump said, "but if you look at a real catastrophe like Katrina, and you look at the tremendous — hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that died, and you look at what happened here with really a storm that was just totally overpowering ... and what is your death count?"

Gov. Ricardo Rossello, seated beside the president, said there had been 16 confirmed deaths on the island, a number that is expected to rise.

"Sixteen people versus in the thousands," Trump said. "You can be very proud."

  Business Insider

JFC.

NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell tweeted that, during their short encounter on the island, [San Juan Mayor Carmen] Cruz told Trump “it’s not about politics” and that “Trump didn’t answer then pointedly ignored her.”

[...]

At one location, toured the Cavalry Chapel, in south-east San Juan, he started tossing some supply items into the crowd, according to the White House pool report.

Shaking hands with people in the crowd, the report reads, “picked up a can of tinned chicken breast and held it aloft for the crowd to see.”

“He handed one man in the crowd a pack of batteries.”

Then, as his wife followed him: “he held up a flashlight and showed it to the crowd, shaking hands the whole time.”

“Trump kept picking up items from tables laden with supplies, showing them to the crowd and handing them to people with outstretched hands. ‘There’s a lot of love in this room,’ the president said. ‘Great people.’”

  Guardian

Good god.

“This has been the toughest one, this has been a category five, which few people have ever even heard of,” Trump says.

  Guardian

Mad cow. It must be. Number 1) Who hasn't heard of a category five hurricane? Number 2) Maria hit Puerto Rico at category 4.

“Your governor, he’s not even from my party and he started right at the beginning appreciating what we’ve been doing. He’s been tremendously supportive.”

“Right from the beginning this governor did not play politics. He was calling it like it was,” Trump continues. “He was giving us the highest grades, and on behalf of our country I want to thank you.”

“I also want to thank you congresswoman,” he continues, reading Jenniffer González-Colón’s name off a piece of paper. He says he “watched [her] the other day” and was happy to hear what she was saying.

“It’s not about me and it’s about these incredible people from the military to FEMA and the first responders.”

It's not about him. Really. Infuckingcredible. It's ONLY about him.

Only 6.89% of the island has power and only 45% has potable water. In Puerto Rico’s north, on 13% has safe water. Flights are running at 25% capacity, and only 27% of ATMs are operating. More than 9,400 people are still in shelters around the territory. Much of the island has little to no capacity to communicate – meaning people do not know where to deliver supplies or how to get them.

And the crisis is one that exacerbates with time: in 80-90F heat, with large areas of stagnant, often polluted water, health risks like mosquito-borne illnesses multiply.

  Guardian

Trump praised Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló on Tuesday, saying he wasn't "playing politics" -- an apparent swipe at San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, with whom he has publicly feuded over the past several days.

"I just want to tell you that right from the beginning this governor was not playing politics," Trump said as he huddled with local and federal officials on the island for a briefing on recovery efforts. "He was giving us the highest grades."

  CNN

I see. It's playing politics if you disparage the Trump administration, and not playing politics if you praise it. Got it.

Earlier Tuesday morning, Trump appeared to soften his criticism, saying Yulín Cruz "acknowledged" the work the White House has done on the island.

That's not softening his criticism. That's noting for the record that she has submitted before him.

"Well I think she's come back a long way," he said. "I think it's now acknowledged what a great job we've done. And people are looking at that. In Texas and in Florida, we get an A-plus. I think we've done just as good in Puerto Rico and it's actually a much tougher situation ... Whether it's her or anybody else, they're all starting to say it."

Yes, everybody is saying what a wonderful - Godlike, even - person Herr Dotard is.

“Flashlights,” Trump said to the crowd, handing out the items at an aid center. “You don’t need them anymore!”

[...]

Then, during a tour of the devastation, he told survivors to “have a good time.” “Great to see you,” Trump added.

  TPM

Fucking clueless asshole.

How much more must we endure?

"Politically Motivated Ingrates" in This Morning's Tweets

He's talking about the mayor of San Juan.

I didn't call for the impeachment of George W, even though the Supreme Court interceded to place him in office, even though he was a war criminal and an asshole.  I know it's a huge, important step to override an election, but in the current case, impeach this pile of garbage. He should not be in office. He's unfit to even mingle with human beings.

"The people that truly matter!"  Screw "all lives matter", let alone black lives.

Or your mayor, San Juan.  Or your own eyes.

He doesn't see the devastation in Puerto Rico as an emergency of humanity. Like EVERYTHING, he sees it as an opportunity for people to praise him and a test of whether they're loyal and "grateful" to HIM.

I don't think the people of Puerto Rico are having any trouble understanding for themselves what's going on.

The NERVE of that woman, complaining that people are dying.

He may have had some trouble getting over that "big water", "ocean water", to finally make his way to Puerto Rico, but I bet they won't have any trouble bringing some ass-kissers to meet him for photo ops.  Here are a few he can use: some of "the people who truly matter."

"MY" people??  Attached to that tweet is a propaganda video in praise of Trump and an admonition to HIS people to ignore Fake News.

But he doesn't have to talk to "the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands" - only the people who matter.

He also retweeted this gem:

In other words, YOU don't know what you're protesting. Let someone else tell you.

And, he's NOT A LOSER, DAMMIT!

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

I'll be waiting for the tweets slamming Ret. Lt. Gen. Russel Honore.

Every Time You Think He Can't Get Any Lower...

Can I get an Amen?

Who's being nasty?  Disgusting Pig.

"Just a few days ago" he was taking a bow for praise by Mayor Cruz, without acknowledging the dire circumstances.

And he never mentioned the fact that Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke characterized the hurricane relief efforts as "a good-news story" with which she is very satisfied.

I guess the Big Ass just heard Mayor Cruz's response.

“Well, maybe from where she's standing, it's a good-news story. When you’re drinking from a creek, it's not a good-news story. When you don't have food for a baby, it's not a good-news story,” Cruz told CNN’s “New Day,” referring to the plight of Puerto Ricans, many of whom have received little or no aid thus far. “When you have to pull people down from their buildings — I'm sorry, but that really upsets me and frustrates me. You know, I would ask her to come down here and visit the towns, and then make a statement like that, which frankly, it is an irresponsible statement.

“Damn it, this is not a good-news story. This is a people-are-dying story. This is a life-or-death story. This is a 'there's-a-truck-load-of-stuff-that-cannot-be-taken-to-people story.' This is a story of a devastation that continues to worsen because people are not getting food and water,” she continued. “It is not a good-news story when people are dying, when they don't have dialysis, when their generators aren't working and their oxygen isn’t providing for them. Where is there good news here? ... I’m really sorry, but you know when you have people out there dying, literally, scraping for food, where is the good news?”

[...]

The mayor said San Juan had received three pallets of water — slightly more than 4,000 bottles for a population of roughly 350,000 people — as well as four pallets of food and 12 pallets of baby food and supplies.

The situation in other parts of the island are even more dire, Cruz said, relaying her interaction with another Puerto Rican mayor, who said his residents had no food, no medicine, had not yet received any aid and were drinking from the same creek they were using to wash themselves and their clothes.

[...]

Cruz was clear that she remains appreciative of the federal government teams that have arrived on the island to help but that those teams have thus far been insufficient to overcome the logistical hurdles presented by the island.

  Politico

The Big Ass can't imagine what it must be like for Mayor Cruz in her circumstances. He only senses when someone has said something he considers personally offensive.

Unlike the people of Puerto Rico, who are sitting around waiting for somebody else to do everything for them.

Despicable dickhead.

Says the loathsome prick who had to be shamed a week later into waiving the Jones Act (that was immediately waived for Texas and Florida) that kept the island from getting desperately needed help from any source.

And, in case you weren't following, here's the story on how Despicable Don responded to the devastation of Puerto Rico - or, rather, didn't.  Lost Weekend.