Xenomancers wrote:
New leaders can make new change. Why can't you look at this in a positive way?

 Vaktathi wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:
If Kim Jong comes to the US - something big is going down. You think he'd risk coming here if he did not have genuine intentions of improving NK relations with the rest of the world in a meaningful way?

Also - have you considered the fact that Kim Jong is probably a lot more scared of trump than you are?

Nobody here can answer that, but given that he has nuclear weapons and tens of thousands of big guns aimed at Seoul, chances are low. The threat to Kim has not changed, the US was just as capable under Obama, and his retaliatory measures remain just as capable, while Trump, beyond Twitter bluster, has yet to show any particular increase in military aggression in practice.

More likely Kim is completely out of money to run his regime and needs access to foreign capital and/or critical food/resource imports. That's typically what drives NK reproachment.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan (left) talks to a U.S. Army helicopter crew member in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, after a supply delivery mission for residents affected by Hurricane Maria, Oct. 23, 2017.
A month after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan stepped off a helicopter in the town of Ceiba with a mission: Get relief supplies to people in need.

He and FEMA's regional administrator, Thomas Von Essen, told the town's mayor and other mayors from across the island that generators, plastic roofs and tarps would be there within days.

"There are 50,000 more blue tarps coming in over the next week," Buchanan said. "So these will all get pushed to all the mayors."

Von Essen added that FEMA had as many as 500 generators on the island before the storm and would soon distribute them.

But today, it's clear none of those promises were kept, and FEMA and the federal government failed on multiple fronts to help the devastated island recover.

NPR and the PBS series Frontline examined hundreds of pages of internal documents and emails. Rather than a well-orchestrated effort, they paint a picture of a relief agency in chaos, struggling with key contracts, basic supplies and even its own workforce.

Internal briefing documents show FEMA never had 500 generators on the island before the storm — it had 25. Its plastic roof program was out of plastic, and the most tarps FEMA ever produced was 125,000 — months after people needed them.

FEMA's federal coordinating officer for Maria, Michael Byrne, said blame rests with the storm, not with federal responders contending with taxed resources and complicated geography.

"If there's a villain here, it's the 190 mph winds and the 50 inches of rain," Byrne said. "That's the villain. That's what did the damage to the people. We've done nothing but try to remedy that."

Still, as NPR and Frontline traveled the island in the months after the storm, it was clear many of the problems were man-made.

In Luquillo, Mayor Jesus Rodriguez said he had been waiting more than two months for FEMA to provide just seven generators that would power the town's water pumps. He said he couldn't understand what could hold up such a critical request in a town that had no running water.

"Water is life," he said, frustrated.

In Piñones, William Torruella, a pastor, and his congregation spent weeks gathering supplies on their own to deliver to nearby towns. He said when FEMA arrived in Morovis, two months after the storm, he asked what had taken so long. Officials told him the roads to the town had been closed.

"They were not closed," Torruella said, shaking his head. "I've been going there. The excuses do not explain what's happening."

Even an international disaster worker checking on survivors in Yabucoa in January was confused by the delays.

"We were pretty surprised to see how slow the response was [in Puerto Rico]," said Alice Thomas, a program manager with Refugees International, who has been to more than a dozen disasters. "Compared especially to major emergencies I've seen in foreign countries," she said. "And we couldn't get over particularly how bad the shelter response was."

The seemingly simple process of distributing tarps to storm victims illustrates the problem. Thomas said storm victims need tarps in the first week or two if they hope to save their homes.

"Why they couldn't get tarps, I do not know," she said, adding that federal officials working on the ground called the tarp delays a "mystery."

When asked what accounted for the delays, FEMA's Byrne said it was difficult to get supplies to Puerto Rico because it's an island.

"We had problems getting everything," he said. "When you have to ship it, you have to add seven days or sometimes longer to everything that you want to bring in. It's definitely a challenge."

Yet 20 years ago, after Hurricane Georges hit the island, there weren't reports of these logistical problems.

And the agency's own records reflect a different picture.

According to planning and briefing documents, the agency did not pre-position enough supplies on the island before the storm, as federal rules require. The day Maria hit, agency records show, FEMA had fewer than 12,000 tarps on the island. Then, the agency failed to acquire more.

First, records show, FEMA hired a company that was just two months old. It didn't provide a single tarp. Then FEMA chose a company whose last contract had been for $4,000 worth of kitchen utensils for a prison. It didn't produce a single tarp either.

Finally, FEMA turned to a third company, called Master Group. Its specialty, according to its website, is importing hookah tobacco. It produced some tarps, but when employees examined them in a warehouse in January, FEMA says, the tarps failed a quality-control inspection.

Import records examined by NPR and Frontline show the company brought the tarps in from China, which violates federal contracting rules. After NPR and Frontline questioned FEMA about this, the agency suspended the company.

FEMA was also struggling with contracts to deliver food, diesel fuel and other supplies.

Byrne said these were just a few troubled contracts out of more than 2,000 that did not have problems.

"We had a couple of ones that didn't work out well and we dealt with it," Byrne said. "I continue [to] focus on getting it solved."

Behind the scenes, though, some federal workers were discouraged. In one email, a top Army Corps official complained to FEMA managers, "We cannot survive any longer with any delay of materials," the engineer wrote. "I cannot keep saying we are trying. ... I need solutions."

The Army Corps' plastic roof program, known as blue roofs, provides stronger roof sheeting tied down to houses. Without tarps, it became even more critical.

But FEMA didn't have enough plastic sheeting on the island. In the first month after Hurricane Irma in Florida, records show, the Army Corps put up 4,500 blue roofs. In Puerto Rico, just 439.

"It goes back to how much material do you have?" said Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, who oversees the Army Corps. "Almost all the warehouses were empty. So when we hit, the amount of available supplies, either generators, blue roof material, whatever it might be, were just not there ... that could have gotten us more of a jump-start."

When it came to getting the lights on, federal officials chose a contractor named Fluor — a company with global experience building power generation plants but little experience rebuilding the grids that distribute power to communities. Government sources said they went with Fluor because it was a company they trusted, but they also described weeks of bureaucratic delays as the company got up to speed.

But that wasn't all that was causing FEMA headaches. FEMA was struggling with its own staff. One internal staffing document reveals that more than a quarter of the staff FEMA hired to provide people assistance on the island was "untrained" and another quarter was "unqualified."

Byrne bristles at the suggestion that FEMA didn't help people.

"I think we've done a lot of support," he said. "How can you look at the fact that we gave a billion dollars in assistance out, that we've given out 62 million liters of water, 52 million meals to the people. How can you categorize that as not providing assistance? I find that that doesn't connect."

Still, he said FEMA will learn from its mistakes. There were "a number of places where we weren't perfect," he said. "I'll accept that. I'm going to keep working to get better."

Four months after the storm, in a small neighborhood near San Juan called Villa Hugo, local resident Oscar Carrión wasn't waiting for help.

He had taken it upon himself to turn the lights on and had already restored power to 3,000 neighbors.

"I'm afraid of heights and of the electrical current," he said in Spanish. "The first time I got up there, I was trembling all over. I still tremble."

Carrión owns a grocery and has four kids. He has no experience working on power poles and doesn't own any safety equipment. He and his neighbors pooled together $2,500 to buy an old rusted bucket truck.

On this day, the neighbors unwound wire along the street and Carrión worked pole to pole.

"I guess I am taking a risk," he said, "but it's difficult to live in the dark. We were tired of hearing that they can't get to us. So we've decided to move forward on our own."

As he got back into the truck, he paused for a minute and said, "If we don't do it, nobody will do it for us."

CBS News

@CBSNews
More
WATCH: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks to reporters in Beijing as he meets with China's foreign minister days after the historic U.S.-North Korea summit https://cbsn.ws/2HOYudP

"We have made very clear that the sanctions and the economic relief that North Korea will receive will only happen after the full denuclearization, the complete denuclearization of North Korea," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says https://cbsn.ws/2HOYudP
0:56

 Easy E wrote:
Puerto Rico... remember them..... those U.S Citizens we hung out to dry after a naturla disaster?

http://wlrh.org/NPR-News/fema-blamed-delays-puerto-rico-maria-agency-records-tell-another-story

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan (left) talks to a U.S. Army helicopter crew member in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico, after a supply delivery mission for residents affected by Hurricane Maria, Oct. 23, 2017.
A month after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan stepped off a helicopter in the town of Ceiba with a mission: Get relief supplies to people in need.

He and FEMA's regional administrator, Thomas Von Essen, told the town's mayor and other mayors from across the island that generators, plastic roofs and tarps would be there within days.

"There are 50,000 more blue tarps coming in over the next week," Buchanan said. "So these will all get pushed to all the mayors."

Von Essen added that FEMA had as many as 500 generators on the island before the storm and would soon distribute them.

But today, it's clear none of those promises were kept, and FEMA and the federal government failed on multiple fronts to help the devastated island recover.

NPR and the PBS series Frontline examined hundreds of pages of internal documents and emails. Rather than a well-orchestrated effort, they paint a picture of a relief agency in chaos, struggling with key contracts, basic supplies and even its own workforce.

Internal briefing documents show FEMA never had 500 generators on the island before the storm — it had 25. Its plastic roof program was out of plastic, and the most tarps FEMA ever produced was 125,000 — months after people needed them.

FEMA's federal coordinating officer for Maria, Michael Byrne, said blame rests with the storm, not with federal responders contending with taxed resources and complicated geography.

"If there's a villain here, it's the 190 mph winds and the 50 inches of rain," Byrne said. "That's the villain. That's what did the damage to the people. We've done nothing but try to remedy that."

Still, as NPR and Frontline traveled the island in the months after the storm, it was clear many of the problems were man-made.

In Luquillo, Mayor Jesus Rodriguez said he had been waiting more than two months for FEMA to provide just seven generators that would power the town's water pumps. He said he couldn't understand what could hold up such a critical request in a town that had no running water.

"Water is life," he said, frustrated.

In Piñones, William Torruella, a pastor, and his congregation spent weeks gathering supplies on their own to deliver to nearby towns. He said when FEMA arrived in Morovis, two months after the storm, he asked what had taken so long. Officials told him the roads to the town had been closed.

"They were not closed," Torruella said, shaking his head. "I've been going there. The excuses do not explain what's happening."

Even an international disaster worker checking on survivors in Yabucoa in January was confused by the delays.

"We were pretty surprised to see how slow the response was [in Puerto Rico]," said Alice Thomas, a program manager with Refugees International, who has been to more than a dozen disasters. "Compared especially to major emergencies I've seen in foreign countries," she said. "And we couldn't get over particularly how bad the shelter response was."

The seemingly simple process of distributing tarps to storm victims illustrates the problem. Thomas said storm victims need tarps in the first week or two if they hope to save their homes.

"Why they couldn't get tarps, I do not know," she said, adding that federal officials working on the ground called the tarp delays a "mystery."

When asked what accounted for the delays, FEMA's Byrne said it was difficult to get supplies to Puerto Rico because it's an island.

"We had problems getting everything," he said. "When you have to ship it, you have to add seven days or sometimes longer to everything that you want to bring in. It's definitely a challenge."

Yet 20 years ago, after Hurricane Georges hit the island, there weren't reports of these logistical problems.

And the agency's own records reflect a different picture.

According to planning and briefing documents, the agency did not pre-position enough supplies on the island before the storm, as federal rules require. The day Maria hit, agency records show, FEMA had fewer than 12,000 tarps on the island. Then, the agency failed to acquire more.

First, records show, FEMA hired a company that was just two months old. It didn't provide a single tarp. Then FEMA chose a company whose last contract had been for $4,000 worth of kitchen utensils for a prison. It didn't produce a single tarp either.

Finally, FEMA turned to a third company, called Master Group. Its specialty, according to its website, is importing hookah tobacco. It produced some tarps, but when employees examined them in a warehouse in January, FEMA says, the tarps failed a quality-control inspection.

Import records examined by NPR and Frontline show the company brought the tarps in from China, which violates federal contracting rules. After NPR and Frontline questioned FEMA about this, the agency suspended the company.

FEMA was also struggling with contracts to deliver food, diesel fuel and other supplies.

Byrne said these were just a few troubled contracts out of more than 2,000 that did not have problems.

"We had a couple of ones that didn't work out well and we dealt with it," Byrne said. "I continue [to] focus on getting it solved."

Behind the scenes, though, some federal workers were discouraged. In one email, a top Army Corps official complained to FEMA managers, "We cannot survive any longer with any delay of materials," the engineer wrote. "I cannot keep saying we are trying. ... I need solutions."

The Army Corps' plastic roof program, known as blue roofs, provides stronger roof sheeting tied down to houses. Without tarps, it became even more critical.

But FEMA didn't have enough plastic sheeting on the island. In the first month after Hurricane Irma in Florida, records show, the Army Corps put up 4,500 blue roofs. In Puerto Rico, just 439.

"It goes back to how much material do you have?" said Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, who oversees the Army Corps. "Almost all the warehouses were empty. So when we hit, the amount of available supplies, either generators, blue roof material, whatever it might be, were just not there ... that could have gotten us more of a jump-start."

When it came to getting the lights on, federal officials chose a contractor named Fluor — a company with global experience building power generation plants but little experience rebuilding the grids that distribute power to communities. Government sources said they went with Fluor because it was a company they trusted, but they also described weeks of bureaucratic delays as the company got up to speed.

But that wasn't all that was causing FEMA headaches. FEMA was struggling with its own staff. One internal staffing document reveals that more than a quarter of the staff FEMA hired to provide people assistance on the island was "untrained" and another quarter was "unqualified."

Byrne bristles at the suggestion that FEMA didn't help people.

"I think we've done a lot of support," he said. "How can you look at the fact that we gave a billion dollars in assistance out, that we've given out 62 million liters of water, 52 million meals to the people. How can you categorize that as not providing assistance? I find that that doesn't connect."

Still, he said FEMA will learn from its mistakes. There were "a number of places where we weren't perfect," he said. "I'll accept that. I'm going to keep working to get better."

Four months after the storm, in a small neighborhood near San Juan called Villa Hugo, local resident Oscar Carrión wasn't waiting for help.

He had taken it upon himself to turn the lights on and had already restored power to 3,000 neighbors.

"I'm afraid of heights and of the electrical current," he said in Spanish. "The first time I got up there, I was trembling all over. I still tremble."

Carrión owns a grocery and has four kids. He has no experience working on power poles and doesn't own any safety equipment. He and his neighbors pooled together $2,500 to buy an old rusted bucket truck.

On this day, the neighbors unwound wire along the street and Carrión worked pole to pole.

"I guess I am taking a risk," he said, "but it's difficult to live in the dark. We were tired of hearing that they can't get to us. So we've decided to move forward on our own."

As he got back into the truck, he paused for a minute and said, "If we don't do it, nobody will do it for us."

"Heckuva job, Brownie!"

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Logistical nightmare of PR being an island? 70 years ago the US was in a war which involved shipping millions of tons of equipment and people halfway around the world, much of it moving from small island to small island.

There is no excuse for the US being unable to provide immediate disaster relief to its own citizens. You put how much money into your military? But then cannot load a carrier with generators, plastic, tarpaulins etc. and sail to help your own citizens? What a waste of money.

 Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:
If they were given free reign and a proper budget for it, the US Army could probably put the Red Cross to shame. Unfortunately, they have to take direction from FEMA.

 Easy E wrote:
The thing is, was Hurricane Maria hitting Puerto Rico really a surprise to anyone? Were we really not prepared to respond to a Hurrican hitting US territory before Hurrican season?

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Logistical nightmare of PR being an island? 70 years ago the US was in a war which involved shipping millions of tons of equipment and people halfway around the world, much of it moving from small island to small island.

There is no excuse for the US being unable to provide immediate disaster relief to its own citizens. You put how much money into your military? But then cannot load a carrier with generators, plastic, tarpaulins etc. and sail to help your own citizens? What a waste of money.

 Vaktathi wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Logistical nightmare of PR being an island? 70 years ago the US was in a war which involved shipping millions of tons of equipment and people halfway around the world, much of it moving from small island to small island.

There is no excuse for the US being unable to provide immediate disaster relief to its own citizens. You put how much money into your military? But then cannot load a carrier with generators, plastic, tarpaulins etc. and sail to help your own citizens? What a waste of money.

It's an island of brown people who have no representation in congress and no say in who becomes President, sitting almost 2000 miles from the US mainland. Not exactly a priority for the current government sadly.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 Disciple of Fate wrote:
If you go by the metric of toppled government and installed new one without any context you come to a grand total of 4 since 82. Grenada (too young for this one to remember), Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq. Out of those 3 are seriously questionable

You are forgetting quite a few, all since 82 (1882 that is):
Hawaii
Cuba
Puerto Rico
Philippines
Honduras (twice)
Nicaragua
Haiti
Dominican Republic
Panama
South Korea
Guatemala
Dominican Republic (again)
El Salvador
Nicaragua (again)
Panama (again)
Libya

Furthermore, the US deployed troops and attempted but failed to install a new regime in the following places:
Mexico
Russia (as part of an allied force)
China
North Vietnam
Cuba

This list includes, without context, all cases where the US deployed military force in any form with the goal to install a new regime in the country, leaving out action during both world wars. It also does not include cases where the US provided support to groups within a country to install a new regime but in which no US military personnel was deployed, nor does it include the many cases where the US deployed troops to intervene in a civil war with the goal of defending a regime or any other goal except 'regime change'.

Pretending that the US isn't an aggressive country that frequently invades places is just being blind to reality. Now, the justification for these invasions and regime changes, and whether they are good or bad is all subject to debate. But don't pretend the US does not have a history that involves a lot of 'invading places we don't like'. Sure, you can argue that there were only 4 invasions since 1982, but most people have longer memories than that, even if they weren't born yet at the time. Also, 4 invasions since 1982 isn't really a record matched by anyone else either. This kind of behaviour is something that every great power does. It is not unique to the US. But the US is extraordinarily active in doing so, much more than the Soviet Union, Russia, or China.

 Vaktathi wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Logistical nightmare of PR being an island? 70 years ago the US was in a war which involved shipping millions of tons of equipment and people halfway around the world, much of it moving from small island to small island.

There is no excuse for the US being unable to provide immediate disaster relief to its own citizens. You put how much money into your military? But then cannot load a carrier with generators, plastic, tarpaulins etc. and sail to help your own citizens? What a waste of money.

It's an island of brown people who have no representation in congress and no say in who becomes President, sitting almost 2000 miles from the US mainland. Not exactly a priority for the current government sadly.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Vaktathi wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Logistical nightmare of PR being an island? 70 years ago the US was in a war which involved shipping millions of tons of equipment and people halfway around the world, much of it moving from small island to small island.

There is no excuse for the US being unable to provide immediate disaster relief to its own citizens. You put how much money into your military? But then cannot load a carrier with generators, plastic, tarpaulins etc. and sail to help your own citizens? What a waste of money.

It's an island of brown people who have no representation in congress and no say in who becomes President, sitting almost 2000 miles from the US mainland. Not exactly a priority for the current government sadly.

It's an island composed of almost 80% Caucasians of European decent. Holy freaking crap. They don't get to vote because they aren't a state. There are a lot of reasons why PR is not a state - it certainly is not to their benefit to not be. It really is up to the people though and more than half don't want to be a state.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 Disciple of Fate wrote:
If you go by the metric of toppled government and installed new one without any context you come to a grand total of 4 since 82. Grenada (too young for this one to remember), Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq. Out of those 3 are seriously questionable

You are forgetting quite a few, all since 82 (1882 that is):
Hawaii
Cuba
Puerto Rico
Philippines
Honduras (twice)
Nicaragua
Haiti
Dominican Republic
Panama
South Korea
Guatemala
Dominican Republic (again)
El Salvador
Nicaragua (again)
Panama (again)
Libya

Furthermore, the US deployed troops and attempted but failed to install a new regime in the following places:
Mexico
Russia (as part of an allied force)
China
North Vietnam
Cuba

This list includes, without context, all cases where the US deployed military force in any form with the goal to install a new regime in the country, leaving out action during both world wars. It also does not include cases where the US provided support to groups within a country to install a new regime but in which no US military personnel was deployed, nor does it include the many cases where the US deployed troops to intervene in a civil war with the goal of defending a regime or any other goal except 'regime change'.

Pretending that the US isn't an aggressive country that frequently invades places is just being blind to reality. Now, the justification for these invasions and regime changes, and whether they are good or bad is all subject to debate. But don't pretend the US does not have a history that involves a lot of 'invading places we don't like'. Sure, you can argue that there were only 4 invasions since 1982, but most people have longer memories than that, even if they weren't born yet at the time. Also, 4 invasions since 1982 isn't really a record matched by anyone else either. This kind of behaviour is something that every great power does. It is not unique to the US. But the US is extraordinarily active in doing so, much more than the Soviet Union, Russia, or China.

This list is in error.
Phillipines, Cuba and Puerto Rico were Spanish territories conquered as part fo the Spanish American War. The US never attacked or invaded South Korea.

 HudsonD wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
But the US is extraordinarily active in doing so, much more than the Soviet Union, Russia, or China.

Now, seeing as the Soviet Union invaded half Europe, with a continuous military presence for 45 years, I'm going to dispute that claim of yours. Just ask the Czech.
That's not to say the US haven't been a lot more proactive at regime change and fething up countries they don't like than people seem to credit them for, mind...

Through all this, a key advantage in the US arsenal has been the US' ability to appear benevolent, at least to their allies. Whether this was actually the case or not is largely irrelevant, it worked well enough for most purposes. This perception has been changed rather abruptly with presidents like W. Bush, and Trump, and I'm not sure people in the US realize just how much they're losing there.

 whembly wrote:

Mostly brown?
Ethnic composition: white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%,

 Ustrello wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Vaktathi wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Logistical nightmare of PR being an island? 70 years ago the US was in a war which involved shipping millions of tons of equipment and people halfway around the world, much of it moving from small island to small island.

There is no excuse for the US being unable to provide immediate disaster relief to its own citizens. You put how much money into your military? But then cannot load a carrier with generators, plastic, tarpaulins etc. and sail to help your own citizens? What a waste of money.

It's an island of brown people who have no representation in congress and no say in who becomes President, sitting almost 2000 miles from the US mainland. Not exactly a priority for the current government sadly.

It's an island composed of almost 80% Caucasians of European decent. Holy freaking crap. They don't get to vote because they aren't a state. There are a lot of reasons why PR is not a state - it certainly is not to their benefit to not be. It really is up to the people though and more than half don't want to be a state.

Wrong again, in 2017 the referendum (which was a low turnout of 23%) voted over 90 percent for statehood, and even in 2012 there was a 61 percent vote for statehood. Honestly do basic research before you post crap

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 whembly wrote:

Mostly brown?
Ethnic composition: white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%,

In the eyes of Trump supporters that makes them brown.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 whembly wrote:

Mostly brown?
Ethnic composition: white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%,

In the eyes of Trump supporters that makes them brown.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 whembly wrote:

Mostly brown?
Ethnic composition: white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%,

In the eyes of Trump supporters that makes them brown.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 whembly wrote:

Mostly brown?
Ethnic composition: white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%,

In the eyes of Trump supporters that makes them brown.

The sooner imagined racism like this disappears the sooner humanity can move forward in social harmony.

 Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:
If they were given free reign and a proper budget for it, the US Army could probably put the Red Cross to shame. Unfortunately, they have to take direction from FEMA.

 Wolfblade wrote:
Is it imagined though? Trump's campaign had very clear racist tones, along with him never really denouncing any of his racist supporters, and just the opposite in fact.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 whembly wrote:

Mostly brown?
Ethnic composition: white (mostly Spanish origin) 80.5%,

In the eyes of Trump supporters that makes them brown.

The sooner imagined racism like this disappears the sooner humanity can move forward in social harmony.

Except it's not "imagined" when people with surnames of foreign origin get singled out by people for 'random' checks.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Wolfblade wrote:
Is it imagined though? Trump's campaign had very clear racist tones, along with him never really denouncing any of his racist supporters, and just the opposite in fact.

It is absolutely imagined. What are the racist tones you are speaking about? I assume you mean "Muslim ban" and the "fine people on both sides" issues?

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote:
If they were given free reign and a proper budget for it, the US Army could probably put the Red Cross to shame. Unfortunately, they have to take direction from FEMA.

The Navy did a very good job in Operation Tomodachi, helping to relieve Japan after the earthquake and tsunami.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Cof!

Trump returns to business as usual.

None of this was un-rumoured or even un-known during the election, but somehow got brushed under the carpet and ignored.

This time it's happening in criminal court with written evidence.