Trump Attacks Another Woman and Tom Price is a Disgrace to Georgia

“Don’t believe your own lying eyes!”  That’s what Trump tells us every day when he tells us how great his administration’s response has been to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.  We see the devastation, we see the people who walk seven miles to get a few bottles of water, we see the hungry, suffering people.  We see the shipping containers with needed supplies with no one to unload them.  But, don’t believe your lying eyes!  Trump tweets it is #fake news by “politically motivated ingrates.”

LET ME REMIND you, Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico as a category 4 on September 20^th!  The administration had at least a week’s notice that Puerto would receive a direct hit.  Puerto Rico is inhabited by 3.5 million AMERICAN citizens.  It took Trump four days to acknowledge the devastation to Puerto Rico and then he promised to send, “thoughts and prayers.”  Sending thoughts and prayers is nice; it’s something that you say on Facebook or Twitter when you can’t do anything else.  But, what these people need is water, food, medicine, gasoline and a safe place to sleep.  What these people need is a President who has human empathy and a willingness to use the resources he commands to provide for these American citizens.

AFTER SENDING thoughts and prayers and successfully stoking the racial division in our country with the NFL brouhaha, Trump entered his comfort zone..blaming the media for telling us the story of Puerto Rico and a woman who dared to beg for help for her people.  Don’t believe your lying eyes when you saw San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz wading chest-high in sewer water every day rescuing fellow Americans from flood waters.  Trump said she was “nasty” and he wasn’t referring to her heroic efforts in the sewer water.  Where have we heard that before about a strong woman?  

IF YOU CAN’T believe your lying eyes, then should we believe the Acting Homeland Security Chief who visited Puerto Rico?  Before she visited, she parroted Trump’s words bragging about the response.  While on the ground in Puerto Rico, she said, “the response is not satisfactory.” 

WHEN MAYOR Cruz’s cries for help became direr, Trump resorted to his old tried and proven method to get his “base” on his side.  He tweeted, “Such poor leadership ability by Mayor of San Juan, who are not able to get their workers to help.  They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.”  Let me translate, “Don’t listen to that nasty woman. These are lazy brown people looking for a hand-out.”  It worked!  On Twitter, the evil racists who make up Trump’s base, came out of the woodwork to support him. 

I TRULY believe that if Trump had his way, not much would be done to help Puerto Rico.  However, we “the people” still have a voice, even if we are getting hoarse from all the yelling we’ve had to do since January 20.  We still have the media, even though Trump would prefer a media such as the type Russia has.  We still have a strong, nasty woman willing to speak out when all the men around her are afraid of incurring the wrath of the President.  At the time of this writing, eleven days after the storm, Trump tells us “we have Puerto Rico under control.”  I guess that depends on how you define “control.” 

PERHAPS THE most maddening thing Trump tweeted was about the “poor leadership ability” of Mayor Cruz.  The nerve!  He is criticizing someone for a fault he possesses bigly.  There is a well-known idiom for that, but it would be disrespecting the kettle to repeat it.  If Trump had leadership ability, he wouldn’t have to fire someone every week.

AND THAT leads me to something that is price-less!  Another one bit the dust last week-- former Representative Tom Price and now former Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Price is the first casualty of Trump’s “Travel Gate,” and the investigation continues into the travel of other Cabinet members.  As a Georgian, I am embarrassed to even admit Price is from Georgia.  What was that man thinking?  Since May, he has spent nearly a million dollars on chartered jets and military flights with our tax dollars.  I suppose he felt a chauffeured limousine wasn’t good enough for him.  He concocted five-minute meetings to appear it was government business.  That didn’t work so well with visits to see his son in Nashville, his St. Simons home, and he and his wife’s European vacation.  (Thank you media!) He was acting like he had never had a dime in his life, had just won the lottery, and couldn’t spend it fast enough.  Price showed no real contrition and acted as if he didn’t understand what he did wrong. That’s why I suspect he will come back to Georgia and throw his hat in the ring for Governor.  We can’t afford him!

The 4^th District Commissioner’s debate last week started as all debates do, by each candidate giving opening statements.  First up was Barry Peters, then George Emami, and last was Randy Gonzalez.  Gonzalez shocked the crowd when he announced he was dropping out of the race, but no one seemed as surprised as Emami when Gonzalez whole-heartedly threw his support behind him.  Emami promised Gonzalez he would not let him down.