When I drive down the road, there should be no potholes. The trashcans left outside are to be emptied. A call to report a fire will produce a red truck, water, and hoses. Things like this are what I want from my government. My hope is that it is there, in the background, facilitating the functioning of our city. It should be quiet, allowing me to live my life. If there is an emergency, it will competently respond. Scale out, and the same should be true at a national level. In my mind, government functions badly if I have to spend a lot of time thinking about it. If it occupies my thoughts or, worse still, causes anxiety, then it being run terribly. If it causes harm, then it is criminal.
Today's is the morning after Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, “begged” for help for Puerto Rico and the victims of Hurricane Maria. President Trump responded a short while ago with the following:
Today's is the morning after Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, “begged” for help for Puerto Rico and the victims of Hurricane Maria. President Trump responded a short while ago with the following:
Thanks to the succinctness forced on him by his chosen medium, in a few words, he managed to: blame victims, politicize disaster response, evoke racist stereotypes about Latinos, and argue his administration's hamfisted response to the disaster was actually someone else’s fault. Even worse, the news is reporting that he sent these words from the comfort of a golf club.
I know little about Ms. Yulín Cruz, but contrasting the above with the following image is poetic. Our president is a disgrace.
I know little about Ms. Yulín Cruz, but contrasting the above with the following image is poetic. Our president is a disgrace.
Trump has spent his morning insulting the mayor of San Juan. Meanwhile, she’s been wading chest-deep in water trying to help people. pic.twitter.com/a9gkopxgg2
— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) September 30, 2017
