John Oliver explains Puerto Rico – in 2015

You want to know why Puerto Rico is so messed up?

Blame Strom Thurman. Don’t ask because there isn’t an answer. But don’t miss this segment from Last Week Tonight from 2015. And stick with it to the end. This catastrophe was going to happen. It was only a question of when.

Meanwhile, CHIP funding expires in 3 hours.

That’s right, the funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program that provides medical coverage for 9 MILLION children, will expire at midnight tonight because Congress was too busy in the last 2 weeks trying to end Obamacare and they didn’t get around to pushing the funding bill through on time.

Some states will run out of money for CHIP by next week.

Imagine your kid struggling to breathe due to an asthma attack and you have to foot the bill for a trip to the ER. Well, you wouldn’t be on CHIP if you could afford to pay for that out of pocket. I imagine that’s going to come out of funds for rent, food, car payments, gas money, you know, stupid things like that.

This is what happens when you elect a mob and an incompetent non-politician to run the country.

“Things fall apart. The center cannot hold… The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

We are going to become the equivalent of any other corrupt and dysfunctional country.

This is what the aggrieved white Trump voters asked for. Not that they give a fuck about anyone but themselves. Unless their kid or grandchildren are on CHIP.

I have a stupid question.

Considering that Puerto Rico’s electrical grid is in such poor shape, the electric company is broke and the infrastructure is pretty much destroyed, why can’t Puerto Rico take some of the load off that failing infrastructure with a mass conversion to solar energy??

How much sunshine does it get a year? You would think that off-grid would be a priority there considering the island could do without Creamsicle’s callous remarks about self-sufficiency. Surely he wouldn’t get in the way of Puerto Rico’s solar conversion. Right?

What do you say, Nydia Velazquez?

HA! Not so stupid after all. There are renewable energy companies already looking into it according to this recent article from Reuters. Can we get Congress to push a bill through to fund it? It’s the least we could do after the horrible neglect of the last week.

Saturday: Waiting for a friend.

Turns out Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States and the people who live there are regular American citizens. Who knew??

About half the country apparently. Is our children learning?

And if you are in the half that didn’t know that, you are much more likely to feel indifferent to the plight of Puerto Ricans. You’d think that we would care because they’re human beings but whatever. They’ve got to go with the fellow Americans they have, not the ones they wish we would be.

The Weeds has a really good podcast on the White House response to Puerto Rico and the complications of dealing with a bankrupt territory. Matt Yglesias talks with Eliza Barclay and Alexia Fernández Campbell in this episode. Standard warning: Matt has a really whiney voice and in this podcast, he indulges in some mansplaining, which is unforgivable because he should know better. I don’t know, maybe he does this intentionally so people like me listen and find reasons to criticize. No publicity is bad publicity, eh, Matt?

Still, The Weeds is one of the best policy podcasts around. Subscribing is highly recommended, Matt’s voice not withstanding.

Jeez, now the Big Orange is going after the mayor of San Juan for not being self-sufficient. Why doesn’t he want to help Puerto Rico just because it’s the right thing to do? Because there are sick people who need help and babies who need clean drinking water? No, instead he wants to appeal to the worst instincts of his base and let them kick Puerto Rico when it’s down. He really is shameless. Evil is when you know what you’re doing to other people is wrong but you do it anyway. That’s Trump and his voters. Completely devoid of empathy and restraint.

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Meanwhile, I’m at the mall, you know, the one where they filmed zombie movies.

No zombies today. I’m wandering aimlessly, looking for stuff I do not need and putting off cleaning my house. Does H&M sell corkscrews?