The Trump thread: All things Donald

[Athos_131]

Lost weekend: How Trump’s time at his golf club hurt the response to Maria

At first, the Trump administration seemed to be doing all the right things to respond to the disaster in Puerto Rico.

As Hurricane Maria made landfall that Wednesday, there was a frenzy of activity publicly and privately. The next day, President Trump called local officials on the island, issued an emergency declaration and pledged that all federal resources would be directed to help.

But then for four days after that — as storm-ravaged Puerto Rico struggled for food and water amid the darkness of power outages — Trump and his top aides effectively went dark themselves.

Trump jetted to New Jersey that Thursday night to spend a long weekend at his private golf club there, save for a quick trip to Alabama for a political rally. Neither Trump nor any of his senior White House aides said a word publicly about the unfolding crisis.

Trump did hold a meeting at his golf club that Friday with half a dozen Cabinet officials — including Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, who oversees disaster response — but the gathering was held to discuss his new refugee travel ban, not the hurricane. Duke and Trump spoke briefly about Puerto Rico, but did not talk again until Tuesday, an administration official said.

Administration officials would not say whether the president spoke with any other top officials involved in the storm response while in Bedminster, N.J.. Trump spent much of his time over those four days fixated on his escalating public feuds with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, with fellow Republicans in Congress and with the NFL over anthem protests.

In Puerto Rico, meanwhile, the scope of the devastation was becoming clearer. Virtually the entire island was without power and much of it could be for weeks, officials estimated, and about half of the territory’s more than 3 million residents were without access to clean water. Gas was in short supply, airports and ports were in disrepair and telecommunications infrastructure had been destroyed.

Federal and local officials said communications on the island made the task of assessing the widespread damage far more challenging, and even local officials were slow to recognize that for this storm, far more help would be necessary.

“I don’t think that anybody realized how bad this was going to be,” said a person familiar with ongoing discussions between Washington and officials Puerto Rico. “Quite frankly, the level of communications and collaboration that I’ve seen with Irma and now Maria between the administration, local government and our office has been unprecedented.”

“Whether that’s been translated into effectiveness on the ground, that’s up for interpretation,” the person added.

Unlike what they faced in Texas and Florida the federal agencies found themselves partnered with a government completely flattened by the hurricane and operating with almost no information about the status of its citizens. FEMA struggled to find truck drivers to deliver aid from the ports to the people in need, for example.

“The level of devastation and the impact on the first responders we closely work with was so great that those people were having to take care of their families and homes to an extent we don’t normally see,” said an administration official who insisted on anonymity because he did not want his statement to be interpreted as criticism of authorities in Puerto Rico. “The Department of Defense, FEMA and the federal government are having to step in to fulfill state and municipal functions that we normally just support.”

Even though local officials had said publicly as early as Thursday that the island was “destroyed,” the sense of urgency didn’t begin to penetrate the White House until Monday, when images of the utter destruction and desperation — and criticism of the administration’s response —began to appear on television, one senior administration official said.

“The Trump administration was slow off the mark,” said Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), the first lawmaker of Puerto Rican descent elected by the state of Florida to Congress. “. . .We’ve invaded small countries faster than we’ve been helping American citizens in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.”

Trump’s public schedule on Monday was devoid of any meetings related to the storm, but he was becoming frustrated by the coverage he was seeing on TV, the senior official said.

At a dinner Monday evening with conservative leaders at the White House on Monday, Trump opened the gathering by briefly lamenting the tragedy unfolding in Puerto Rico before launching into a lengthy diatribe against Republican Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over his opposition to the Republicans’ failed health-care bill, according to one attendee.

After the dinner, Trump lashed out on social media. He blamed the island’s financial woes and ailing infrastructure for the difficult recovery efforts. He also declared that efforts to provide food, water and medical care were “doing well.”

On the ground in Puerto Rico, nothing could be further from the truth. It had taken until Monday — five days after Maria made landfall — for the first senior administration officials from Washington to touch down in Puerto Rico to survey the damage firsthand. And only after Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert and FEMA Director Brock Long returned to Washington did the administration leap into action.

Trump presided over a Situation Room meeting on the federal and local efforts on Tuesday and, late in the day, the White House added a Cabinet-level meeting to the president’s schedule on Hurricane Maria.

White House aides say the president was being updated on progress in the storm recovery efforts through the weekend, and an administration official said Vice President Mike Pence talked with Puerto Rico’s congresswoman, Jenniffer González-Colón over the weekend. Trump spoke to Gov. Ricardo Rossello when Maria made landfall and then again on Tuesday; he spoke to the congresswoman for the first time on Wednesday.

The administration still fumbled at key moments after stepping up its response. A week after landfall, Trump still had not waived the Jones Act, which would allow foreign flagged vessels to deliver aid to Puerto Rico. Such a waiver had been granted for previous hurricanes this year.

Asked why his administration had delayed granting the waiver, Trump said Wednesday that “a lot of shippers and people that work in the shipping industry” don’t want it lifted.

“If this is supposed to be the drain the swamp president, then don't worry about the lobbyists and do what's needed and waive the act,” said James Norton, a former deputy assistant secretary at DHS under President George W Bush who oversaw disaster response for the agency. “We're talking about people here.”

After getting good marks from many for his administration’s response to hurricanes Irma and Harvey, Trump has struggled to find the right tone to address the harsher reviews on Maria. He has repeatedly praised his administration’s response, telling reporters Friday that it has “been incredible the results we've had when it comes to loss of life” in Puerto Rico.

“We have done an incredible job considering there’s absolutely nothing to work with,” Trump said as he was leaving the White House for another weekend at Bedminster.

At the same time, Trump said “the government of Puerto Rico will have to work with us to determine how this massive rebuilding effort. . .will be funded and organized,” and referred to the “tremendous amount of existing debt” on the island.

Trump’s top disaster response aides have blanketed television in recent days in an effort to reset the narrative. DHS Secretary Duke told reporters on Thursday outside the White House that Puerto Rico was a “good news story.” The comment seemed to unleash pent up fury from at least one local official, after days of offering praise to the Trump administration in an apparent effort to secure more federal help.

“I am asking the president of the United States to make sure somebody is in charge that is up to the task of saving lives,” San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz said at a press conference Friday. “I am done being polite, I am done being politically correct. I am mad as hell. . . We are dying here. If we don’t get the food an the water into the people’s hands, we are going to see something close to a genocide.”

Trump’s rosy assessment of the federal response has also contrasted sharply with the comments of federal and local officials on the ground.

Army Lt. Gen. Jeff Buchanan, who was named this week to lead recovery efforts, told reporters Friday that there were not enough people and assets to help Puerto Rico recover from what has become a humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of the storm.

The military has significantly stepped up their mobilization to the island commonwealth with dozens more aircraft and thousands of soldiers to bring “more logistical support” to a struggling recovery effort that was delayed by geographical and tactical challenges.

Buchanan said Defense Department forces have been in place since before the storm lashed Puerto Rico more than one week ago but their arrival is part of the natural shift in operation. Sometimes they push ahead of the local government to meet needs but they were also waiting for an “actual request” from the territorial government to bring in more resources. His fifth army will bring together the land forces, including the Puerto Rico National Guard, to begin pushing into the interior of the island where aid has been slowed by washed out roads and difficult terrain. The Navy previously led the military response to Puerto Rico.

“No it’s not enough and that’s why we are bringing a lot more,” the three-star general said about the resources brought to Puerto Rico thus far. “It makes sense but it’s part of the natural flow of things.”

#Resist

[Athos_131]

You can tell when joan1984 gets flustered, the canned responses suddenly end and turn into badly formatted posts.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Exclusive: Kushner didn't disclose personal email account to Senate intel committee

#Resist

#Resist

[Athos_131]

The swamp rises around an administration that promised to drain it

The image of a top government official, a Washington fat cat, blowing taxpayer money to pay for private chartered airplanes is exactly what President Trump seemed to have in mind when he promised voters he would “drain the swamp.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s use of expensive private jets for routine government travel lost him his job Friday when the White House announced the president had accepted his resignation after days of controversy.

But beyond the eye-roll irony of the scandal enveloping a Republican politician who promoted himself as a penny-pinching budget hawk, Price is not the only example of waste, carelessness or entitlement in an administration that pledged to speak for the little guy.

At least four other Cabinet officials have taken unusual chartered or military air trips on the public dime. There is also the matter of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s $25,000 secure phone booth and the unauthorized use of private email by White House adviser Jared Kushner and others — a development that follows a campaign where Trump lambasted Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email system when serving as secretary of state.

Candidate Trump would have been appalled.

“A vote for Hillary is a vote to surrender our government to public corruption, graft and cronyism that threatens the very foundations of our constitutional system,” Trump said during an Oct. 29 speech.

He went on to describe his broader belief that public corruption and cronyism were eating away at voters’ faith in government — a situation he would remedy.

“I want the entire corrupt Washington establishment to hear and to heed the words I am about to say,” Trump said. “When we win on Nov. 8, we are going to Washington, D.C., and we are going to drain the swamp.”

But from the day he was elected, ethics experts have complained that many of Trump’s actions have been at odds with his vow to clean up Washington.

He has famously refused to release his tax returns, something every president has done for decades in the interest of accountability. He did not divest his eponymous business interests and holds official events at Trump-owned and branded properties.

He prefers to spend weekends at private, Trump-owned golf clubs. He traveled to his golf club in New Jersey on Friday.

Transportation, staffing and other costs are paid by the taxpayer, as they were for the far-less-frequent family vacations taken by recent presidents.

His administration has hired lobbyists — the very definition of swampiness — although it also has issued new revolving-door rules. Trump has issued waivers for more than a dozen officials that allow them to continue to interact with former clients, something the Obama administration also did.

And the Trump administration readily risked appearance problems by hiring multimillionaire corporate titans such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil chief executive, and Wall Streeters such as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and economic adviser Gary Cohn.

Price said Thursday that he was reimbursing the government for what he said was the cost of his seat on chartered aircraft — a fraction of the total cost of private air travel that included trips to easily accessible places such as Philadelphia.

“Unprecedented,” Price said of the reimbursement during a confessional interview Thursday on Fox. It was not enough to keep his job.

“He’s not the only one,” said Richard W. Painter, who was the top White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush. “This is just ridiculous, and this stuff just keeps piling up. There’s an attitude here.”

Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor, has used his Twitter feed to chronicle what he calls a “me too” culture of excess and sloppiness in the Trump White House.

That Trump hired Price at all shows a willingness to look the other way at potential conflicts of interest, Painter said. The Georgia Republican faced questions during his confirmation process about his investment activities involving the health-care industry when he was a member of Congress involved in sponsoring and advocating legislation that could affect industry stock prices.

It’s a long way from the two battle cries of campaign-trail Trump’s regular-guy revolution, “Drain the swamp” and “Lock her up.”

The first was a catchall for cleaning house in Washington and Trump’s brand of blunt, “You’re fired”-type leadership. The second was a reference to what Trump called Clinton’s “illegal” use of a private email system for all of her government work.

Kushner is among a handful of White House aides found to have used nongovernment email for a portion of their government work, against White House directives.

Trump’s critics say no one should be surprised that he hasn’t followed through on his campaign promise. They argue that the mere idea of a flamboyantly rich New York real estate mogul as the champion of workaday lunch buckets in Middle America was silly.

“The tone on this stuff gets set at the top,” said Brian Fallon, spokesman for Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and a former Justice Department official in the Obama administration.

“Tom Price’s wasteful jet-setting is not causing Trump embarrassment because it violates any kind of reform mind-set within the Trump administration. No such mind-set exists,” Fallon said. “It is simply because Price got caught and is reminding everyone of how Trump has turned Washington into an even bigger swamp than it was in the first place.”

#Resist

[Lois]

Puerto Rico is in massive debt it's true.  Why?  The answer is actually very complicated.  Why was deficit spending allowed in the first place?  It seems congress had a hand in it.  It is worth a study before making ideological statements.

But this is a separate matter from the fact that Puerto Rico was hit by a category 5 hurricane, and they need help ASAP!

And yes self-sufficiency would be ideal, but with economies as intertwined as they are, it's not really the reality of any state or US territory.  And in the face of a disaster like this no one can really handle things on their own.

The Nation is like a family, and we all need to lend a helping hand and receive a helping hand on occasion.

[joan1984]

Which is exactly what this Administration has done, in the case of every event including three Hurricanes, to the satisfaction of the Governor of PuertoRico, and to the astonishment of many who work in such recovery efforts.

CNN went out and found a disgruntled leftist, socialist or marxist perhaps, a supporter of Venezuella and Castro and his ilk, and a hater of the United States by her own statements, now and in the past. This woman spoke directly with President Trump, seemed satisfied with the valiant effort under way, then when prompted to listed to a FEMA press statement at the White House, later the exact same day, got her 15 minutes of fame by trashing the United States.

I believe this Mayor is the person who, using news media electronics, spoke with Nancy Pelosi's people, the same day that the U.S. Comfort was ready to begin it's 1000 mile journey, and Nancy used that information to jump ahead of the White House by demanding the Comfort be sent to PR.

Politicizing anything they can has long been the Democrat Playbook, and if race or any other dog whistle can be thrown in, so much the better. Dammit, the United States government, all of it, including FEMA, Military and prior to the storm on site support to help Puerto Rico, and it is unfair to portray it as anything otherwise, unfair by CNN, Democrats, and some local politician.

That mayor should have been, instead of drinking from bottled water during her news interview, trashing the United States, taking that bottle of water to share with some starving baby, as she prattled on about... in fact, every news report spoke about the starving baby, drinking out of a creek, while that Mayor was sucking down fresh, likely chilled, bottled water, and so was every reporter in PR.

Millions, maybe Billions will be spent by people who will never see PuertoRico, people there will be saved by Navy Corpsmen who Puerto Rico sought to rid themselves of not so long ago, over politics, when the last Republican was in office.

For Gods sake, these leftists need to shut up and go help someone, while the help arrives to benefit their country.  The leftist media finally found a 'hook', after searching for one thru two prior Hurricanes, and not finding any racist or sexist or you name it 'ist' blame to place, and they will run with this for the duration of the misery caused by a storm, and resolved by this President and his quick reaction, and noble efforts of all involved.

Puerto Rico is in massive debt it's true.  Why?  The answer is actually very complicated.  Why was deficit spending allowed in the first place?  It seems congress had a hand in it.  It is worth a study before making ideological statements.

But this is a separate matter from the fact that Puerto Rico was hit by a category 5 hurricane, and they need help ASAP!

And yes self-sufficiency would be ideal, but with economies as intertwined as they are, it's not really the reality of any state or US territory.  And in the face of a disaster like this no one can really handle things on their own.

The Nation is like a family, and we all need to lend a helping hand and receive a helping hand on occasion.

[Athos_131]

Which is exactly what this Administration has done, in the case of every event including three Hurricanes, to the satisfaction of the Governor of PuertoRico, and to the astonishment of many who work in such recovery efforts.

CNN went out and found a disgruntled leftist, socialist or marxist perhaps, a supporter of Venezuella and Castro and his ilk, and a hater of the United States by her own statements, now and in the past. This woman spoke directly with President Trump, seemed satisfied with the valiant effort under way, then when prompted to listed to a FEMA press statement at the White House, later the exact same day, got her 15 minutes of fame by trashing the United States.

I believe this Mayor is the person who, using news media electronics, spoke with Nancy Pelosi's people, the same day that the U.S. Comfort was ready to begin it's 1000 mile journey, and Nancy used that information to jump ahead of the White House by demanding the Comfort be sent to PR.

Politicizing anything they can has long been the Democrat Playbook, and if race or any other dog whistle can be thrown in, so much the better. Dammit, the United States government, all of it, including FEMA, Military and prior to the storm on site support to help Puerto Rico, and it is unfair to portray it as anything otherwise, unfair by CNN, Democrats, and some local politician.

That mayor should have been, instead of drinking from bottled water during her news interview, trashing the United States, taking that bottle of water to share with some starving baby, as she prattled on about... in fact, every news report spoke about the starving baby, drinking out of a creek, while that Mayor was sucking down fresh, likely chilled, bottled water, and so was every reporter in PR.

Millions, maybe Billions will be spent by people who will never see PuertoRico, people there will be saved by Navy Corpsmen who Puerto Rico sought to rid themselves of not so long ago, over politics, when the last Republican was in office.

For Gods sake, these leftists need to shut up and go help someone, while the help arrives to benefit their country.  The leftist media finally found a 'hook', after searching for one thru two prior Hurricanes, and not finding any racist or sexist or you name it 'ist' blame to place, and they will run with this for the duration of the misery caused by a storm, and resolved by this President and his quick reaction, and noble efforts of all involved.

Puerto Rico is in massive debt it's true.  Why?  The answer is actually very complicated.  Why was deficit spending allowed in the first place?  It seems congress had a hand in it.  It is worth a study before making ideological statements.

But this is a separate matter from the fact that Puerto Rico was hit by a category 5 hurricane, and they need help ASAP!

And yes self-sufficiency would be ideal, but with economies as intertwined as they are, it's not really the reality of any state or US territory.  And in the face of a disaster like this no one can really handle things on their own.

The Nation is like a family, and we all need to lend a helping hand and receive a helping hand on occasion.

Lost weekend: How Trump’s time at his golf club hurt the response to Maria

But then for four days after that — as storm-ravaged Puerto Rico struggled for food and water amid the darkness of power outages — Trump and his top aides effectively went dark themselves.

Trump jetted to New Jersey that Thursday night to spend a long weekend at his private golf club there, save for a quick trip to Alabama for a political rally. Neither Trump nor any of his senior White House aides said a word publicly about the unfolding crisis.

Trump did hold a meeting at his golf club that Friday with half a dozen Cabinet officials — including acting Homeland Security secretary Elaine Duke, who oversees disaster response — but the gathering was to discuss his new travel ban, not the hurricane. Duke and Trump spoke briefly about Puerto Rico but did not talk again until Tuesday, an administration official said.

Administration officials would not say whether the president spoke with any other top officials involved in the storm response while in Bedminster, N.J. He spent much of his time over those four days fixated on his escalating public feuds with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, with fellow Republicans in Congress and with the National Football League over protests during the national anthem.

Trump’s public schedule on Monday was devoid of any meetings related to the storm, but he was becoming frustrated by the coverage he was seeing on TV, the senior official said.

At a dinner Monday evening with conservative leaders at the White House on Monday, Trump opened the gathering by briefly lamenting the tragedy unfolding in Puerto Rico before launching into a lengthy diatribe against Republican Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over his opposition to the Republicans’ failed health-care bill, according to one attendee.

After the dinner, Trump lashed out on social media. He blamed the island’s financial woes and ailing infrastructure for the difficult recovery efforts. He also declared that efforts to provide food, water and medical care were “doing well.”

On the ground in Puerto Rico, nothing could be further from the truth. It had taken until Monday — five days after Maria made landfall — for the first senior administration officials from Washington to touch down in Puerto Rico to survey the damage firsthand. And only after Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert and FEMA Director Brock Long returned to Washington did the administration leap into action.

Trump presided over a Situation Room meeting on the federal and local efforts on Tuesday and, late in the day, the White House added a Cabinet-level meeting to the president’s schedule on Hurricane Maria.

White House aides say the president was being updated on progress in the storm recovery efforts through the weekend, and an administration official said Vice President Mike Pence talked with Puerto Rico’s congresswoman, Jenniffer González-Colón over the weekend. Trump spoke to Gov. Ricardo Rossello when Maria made landfall and then again on Tuesday; he spoke to the congresswoman for the first time on Wednesday.

The administration still fumbled at key moments after stepping up its response. A week after landfall, Trump still had not waived the Jones Act, which would allow foreign flagged vessels to deliver aid to Puerto Rico. Such a waiver had been granted for previous hurricanes this year.

Asked why his administration had delayed granting the waiver, Trump said Wednesday that “a lot of shippers and people that work in the shipping industry” don’t want it lifted.

“If this is supposed to be the drain the swamp president, then don't worry about the lobbyists and do what's needed and waive the act,” said James Norton, a former deputy assistant secretary at DHS under President George W Bush who oversaw disaster response for the agency. “We're talking about people here.”

Trump’s rosy assessment of the federal response has also contrasted sharply with the comments of federal and local officials on the ground.

Army Lt. Gen. Jeff Buchanan, who was named this week to lead recovery efforts, told reporters Friday that there were not enough people and assets to help Puerto Rico recover from what has become a humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of the storm.

Do you have a credible source to refute any of this?

#Resist

[Athos_131]

I believe this Mayor is the person who, using news media electronics, spoke with Nancy Pelosi's people, the same day that the U.S. Comfort was ready to begin it's 1000 mile journey, and Nancy used that information to jump ahead of the White House by demanding the Comfort be sent to PR.

I assume you have proof of this?  It would irresponsible to make an accusation like this without providing a credible source.

#Resist

[Northwest]

I believe this Mayor is the person who, using news media electronics, spoke with Nancy Pelosi's people, the same day that the U.S. Comfort was ready to begin it's 1000 mile journey, and Nancy used that information to jump ahead of the White House by demanding the Comfort be sent to PR.

I assume you have proof of this?  It would irresponsible to make an accusation like this without providing a credible source.

#Resist

I agree, and I would like to see the proof as well.

[MissBarbara]

I believe this Mayor is the person who, using news media electronics, spoke with Nancy Pelosi's people, the same day that the U.S. Comfort was ready to begin it's 1000 mile journey, and Nancy used that information to jump ahead of the White House by demanding the Comfort be sent to PR.

I assume you have proof of this?  It would irresponsible to make an accusation like this without providing a credible source.

#Resist

I agree, and I would like to see the proof as well.

Me too.

I'm not exactly sure what "news media electronics" means, but you seem to be condemning Pelosi for making efforts to get aid to the disaster-struck American citizens in Puerto Ricans as quickly as possible. Shame on her!

[Lois]

Take away: According to Joan everyone is a leftist, marxist, etc.

Just call them names.  It's easier than listening and having a dialogue.

[joan1984]

this mayor needs to get off the air.  US is spending Billions already, and Congress will allocate more, but not to her... to the people, and the Governor.

She is a troll, who found kindred spirits, or rather CNN found her, seems.
There will be a time when she will regret being such a political hack, I think.

[Athos_131]

She is a troll, who found kindred spirits, or rather CNN found her, seems.
There will be a time when she will regret being such a political hack, I think.

joan1984, if there were a flood would you be willing to wade through potentially disease infested waters to help people?

#Resist

[Northwest]

I believe this Mayor is the person who, using news media electronics, spoke with Nancy Pelosi's people, the same day that the U.S. Comfort was ready to begin it's 1000 mile journey, and Nancy used that information to jump ahead of the White House by demanding the Comfort be sent to PR.

I assume you have proof of this?  It would irresponsible to make an accusation like this without providing a credible source.

#Resist

I agree, and I would like to see the proof as well.

Me too.

I'm not exactly sure what "news media electronics" means, but you seem to be condemning Pelosi for making efforts to get aid to the disaster-struck American citizens in Puerto Ricans as quickly as possible. Shame on her!

So...

I think we can consider Joan's comment to be retracted now since three people have asked her to substantiate her claim, and she has failed to do so.

I would give her half a credit for imagination, however, which would somewhat offset the minus three credits for simply fabricating a news story in an effort to falsely discredit a political opponent.

[Athos_131]

joan1984 doesn't have the courage to admit when he's wrong.

#Resist

[MissBarbara]

joan1984 doesn't have the courage to admit when he's wrong.

#Resist

And, if she did, she'd spend the majority of her time here apologizing...

[_priapism]

this mayor needs to get off the air.

World according to Joe:

Brown people STFU.
Black people STFU.
Gays STFU.
Women STFU.
People for responsible firearms legislation STFU.

Who do we want to hear from?

Trump
Joe Arpaio
Michelle Bachman
David Duke
George Zimmerman

You know, quality people.  

[Athos_131]

'Not enough' troops, equipment in Puerto Rico, says general in charge of relief

#Resist

[Northwest]

In fairness, very few people will admit it when they are wrong, which is really strange because it is the single most powerful act a person can take to bolster their own credibility, and to mark them as a person of integrity and a force to be reckoned with.

Ironic and paradoxical, I realize, but only those who are powerful dare admit to mistakes.

BTW...I've known of a couple of people contributing to this thread to freely admit it when they were wrong, so they exist. You know who you are.

[_priapism]

Puerto Rico Relief Effort Replays Scene From Katrina, Retired Lt General Honore Says