A
picture captures the precise moment when Trump and Mitch McConnell had
Russian flags thrown at them as they arrived for the Republican Senate
lunch.
A
picture captures the precise moment when Trump and Mitch McConnell had
Russian flags thrown at them as they arrived for the Republican Senate
lunch.
The picture was taken by Roll Call photographer Bill Clark.
Pictures
are capable of capturing the mood of a nation better than words ever
could. This is one of those moments as a smiling Mitch McConnell, and
thumbs up Trump are reminded of what they did to win an election as
Russian flags fly toward them.
McConnell has been one of the
cover-up artists for Trump in the Russia campaign. Going back to the
2016 campaign, McConnell refused to work with President Obama and issue a
joint statement condemning Russian interference in the presidential
election.
Donald Trump says that he would rate his handling of the dire situation
in Puerto Rico a perfect 10, even though 28% of people on the island
still don’t have access to clean water.
Trump has bungled the situation
in Puerto Rico just as bad, or possibly even worse, than George W. Bush
with Katrina, as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.
Donald Trump believes that the only way to get out of a hole is to keep
digging, and that’s exactly what he’s doing right now while trying to
downplay his lack of concern over the American soldiers who died after
being ambushed during an attack in Niger. Trump claims that he’s done
more than past presidents have, but that’s not even close to being the
truth. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Elections have consequences, and the consequence of Tom Perez winning the
DNC chair is that we now get anti-progressive, pro-corporate,
anti-worker millionaires appointed to important positions inside the
DNC.
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses Donald Trump's remarks in a
press conference at the White House with Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell. Trump obfuscated and made excuses for not mentioning the loss
of four Green Berets in Niger 13 days ago.
Trump has written letters to the families of the fallen. Or he will.
They’ll go out tonight. Probably. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks,
breaks it down.
"So given how vocal Trump was about his support for the military, his
silence after the Oct. 4 ambush in southwestern Niger in which four U.S.
Special Forces soldiers were killed was noticeable. He finally
commented on the incident Monday — 12 days after it happened.
Asked by a reporter about his delayed response, Trump said he had
written letters over the weekend and would “at some point” call the
families of the fallen soldiers.
He also said of Obama and other
previous presidents that “a lot of them didn't make calls,” an assertion
former Obama aides forcefully denied. He did not explain why it had
taken so long to publicly acknowledge the incident.
CNN reported over the weekend that Trump was golfing while the remains
of La David Johnson, one of the four killed in the attack, were returned
to Dover Air Force Base, a juxtaposition critics pounced on.”
During a Monday news conference, resident Trump was asked about the
killing of four Green Berets in an ambush in Niger and why he hadn't
addressed their deaths. The panel criticizes Trump's response.
It
must be cold and miserable standing in the shadow of someone greater
and smarter, more loved and more admired. It must be infuriating to have
risen on the wings of your derision of that person’s every decision,
and even his very existence, and yet not be able to measure up — in
either stratagem or efficacy — when you sit where that person once sat.
This
is the existence of Donald Trump in the wake of President Barack Obama.
Trump can’t hold a candle to Obama, so he’s taking a tiki torch to
Obama’s legacy. Trump can’t get his bad ideas through Congress, but he
can use the power of the presidency to sabotage or even sink Obama’s
signature deeds.
In
fact, if there is a defining feature of Trump as “resident,” it is
that he is in all ways the anti-Obama — not only on policy but also on
matters of propriety and polish. While Obama was erudite, Trump is
ignorant. Obama was civil, Trump is churlish. Obama was tactful, Trump
is tacky.
There
is a thing present in Obama and absent from Trump that no amount of
money or power can alter: a sense of elegant intellectualism and taste.
The
example Obama set makes the big man with the big mouth look smaller by
the day. But I believe that this nonadjustable imbalance is part of what
has always fueled Trump’s rage against Obama.
Trump, who sees character
as just another malleable thing that can be marketed and made salable,
chafes at the black man who operated above the coarseness of commercial
interests and whose character appeared unassailable.
America
— even many of the people who were staunch opponents of Obama’s
policies — admired and even adored the sense of honor and decency he
brought to the office. Trump, on the other hand, is historically unpopular, and not just in America.
As The Pew Research Center
pointed out in June: “Trump and many of his key policies are broadly
unpopular around the globe, and ratings for the U.S. have declined
steeply in many nations.” Trump is reviled around the globe and
America’s reputation is going down with its captain.
All
of this feeds Trump’s consuming obsession with undoing everything Obama
did. It is his personal crusade, but he also carries the flag for the
millions of Americans — mostly all Republicans — who were reflexively
repulsed by Obama and the coalition that elected him.
Trump
has done nearly everything in his power to roll back Obama’s policies,
but none are as tempting a target as the one named after him: Obamacare.
Republicans
— including Trump — campaigned for years on a lie. They knew it was a
lie, but it was an enraging one that excited their base: Obama was
destroying America’s health care system, but Republicans could undo the
damage and replace it with their own, better bill.
First,
Obama wasn’t destroying America’s health care system. To the contrary,
he simply sought to make it cover more people. He moved to take American
health care in a more humane, modern and civilized direction, to make
it more universally accessible, even by the sick and poor who often took
its absence as a given.
Second,
the Republicans had no replacement plan that would cost less and cover
as many or more people. That could not be done. So, their
repeal-and-replace efforts failed. But that also meant that Trump’s
promise was proven a lie. Trump has no problem lying, but in the end he
wants his lies to look plausible.
Trump
makes assertions for which there is no evidence — either knowingly
lying, recklessly boasting or wishfully thinking — then seeks support
for those statements, support that is often lacking because the
statements are baseless.
He
violates a basic protocol of human communication: Be sure of it before
you say it. His way is to say something wrong, then bend reality to make
it appear right. This is why the age of Trump is so maddening and
stupefying: He is warping reality.
Last week he took more swipes at undermining the A.C.A.:
Asking his administration to find ways to increase competition among
insurers (a move many worry will move younger, healthier people out of
the marketplace) and stopping the so-called “cost-sharing reduction”
(CSR) payments — federal subsidies paid to insurance companies to help
finance coverage for low-income Americans (a move many believe will send
premiums soaring for those people).
Trump is doing this even though it will likely wreak havoc on countless lives. He is doing this even though a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll
released Friday found that most Americans want Trump and Congress to
stop trying to repeal the law, and instead work on legislation to
stabilize the marketplaces and guarantee health care to Americans.
Furthermore,
six in 10 Americans believe Congress should guarantee cost-sharing
reduction payments, as opposed to only a third who view these payments
as a “bailout of insurance companies,” as Trump has called them. There
is no real reason to cut these payments, other than to save face and
conceal the farce.
Trump
isn’t governing with a vision, he’s governing out of spite. Obama’s
effectiveness highlights Trump’s ineptitude, and this incenses Trump.
A version of this editorial appears in print on October 16, 2017, on Page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump, Chieftain of Spite. Today's Paper|Subscribe
We need to stop talking about Bannon and start talking about the REAL source of all this.
Steve Bannon is a just another tool of the Mercers.
He is. Conway is, and Trump is. They're tools. To make all of this
about him or them is to allow the source of their power to remain
largely unknown. Between the perpetual campaigning and Citizens United,
we need to shine bright spotlights on the money sources that influence -
CONTROL - our government.
After the Russians, this reclusive father-daughter team exercised
massive control of the last election. THEY need to be outted widely. Can
you say Cambridge Analytica? Can you say Breitbart?
After bankrolling the Trump campaign's dirty tricks squad, the
Mercer's started enjoying what they bought. Big Bux Bob, the dad, put
his 42 year old little girl,
Rebekah-Friend-Of-Czarina-And-Secretary-Of-Everything, on the
Presidential Transition team.
Even the god-fearing set get this:
Know Thy Enemy: Ephesians 6:11-12
So yeah, use their names whenever you want to speak of Bannon, their current field general.
After GOP Sen. Bob
Corker raised the prospect last week that Donald Trump could propel us
into World War III, House Speaker Paul Ryan responded to the horrific
prospect this week with the fierce urgency of whatever.
They should just "talk it out" among themselves, Ryan told reporters Wednesday.
It was a revelation of sorts in the sense that it was hard to
imagine Ryan carving out an even more useless space for himself in
Washington than he has already been occupying. Conservative columnist
Michael Gerson wrote:
So how does Ryan imagine a Corker/Trump conversation might
unfold? Over dinner, Corker accuses the resident of being a chaotic,
directionless, shallow liar who could start a nuclear war. Trump passes
the peas and attacks Corker for being short. This is, after all, the way
gentlemen resolve their differences.
Trump, who has consistently fumed over the nettlesome nature of
being resident, appears to have reached a perpetual boiling point.
Angry at Congress's inability to dismantle his predecessor's
signature achievement, health care, Trump is taking it upon himself to scrap the government subsidies millions of Americans depend on to pay for their coverage. Trump, who clearly believes this was a master stroke that will force Democrats to the bargaining table, has now placed the squeeze on Republicans to fix the subsidies fast lest millions of Americans see their premiums skyrocket 20 to 25 percent by 2020.
After all, the first spike in coverage will come at the beginning of
next year—becoming the GOP's de facto opening bid in a midterm election
year that will ultimately be a referendum on their turn at one-party
governance.
But hey, for a guy who often can't even remember
why he stepped into a room, so goes his negotiating prowess. The White
House is less about “strategy” these days than simply scrambling to
keep Trump from blowing up the world.
Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser
H.R. McMaster reportedly toiled to find a way for Trump to shake his
fist at Iran without totally sinking the Iran nuclear deal with which U.N. investigators say
the country has complied. When Mattis and Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson had originally advised Trump to stay in the deal, he
apparently "threw a fit."
So Trump's national security team spent months formulating a compromise
between Trump's need for cathartic juvenile expression and our
country's imperative to keep another regime from becoming the next
unsolvable nuclear problem, Ã la North Korea.
In short, alongside Trump's governing incompetence, his bouts
of rage have emerged as the most consistent and predominant feature of
his residency. He “gets angry” when he realizes what his proposed policies will do; he's mad at Congress about health care, the Iran deal, taxes, ad infinitum; he seethes over his abysmal media coverage and wants “equal time”
in the so-called ‘fake’ news; he's irate that a Puerto Rican mayor dare
question his leadership as the death toll rises around her; he chafes
at being called a “moron”; he's furious with Rex Tillerson and before
him, Bob Corker, and before him, Jeff Sessions, and before him, James
Comey, and... and... and.
And yet, in the face of what has become a crystal clear and
present danger to the existence of our country, Ryan and his Senate
counterpart Mitch McConnell have emerged as some of the most feckless,
immoral, and negligent leaders of our time. More simply put—these guys
might well be the biggest couple of tools to ever "lead" Congress.
While Ryan wants Trump and Corker to go to couples therapy (as
if that'll solve our WW III dilemma), McConnell was busily covering his
right flank this week with an offering of red meat to the GOP's starved
base. In a Weekly Standard interview, McConnell tried to ease activists’ calls for his ouster
by suggesting that Republicans would no longer honor the Senate's "blue
slip" tradition.
The practice allows any senator to effectively block
consideration of a judicial nominee from her or his own state, which
gives the minority party considerable power to slow down the judicial
appointment process (a power that Republicans abused
during President Obama's last two years in office). It remains to be
seen if Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley will follow McConnell's
lead, but McConnell had to dangle something to distract conservative activists from his year of missed opportunities. Why not actively work to give Trump more power since he's been comporting himself so admirably?
They couldn't be a more deserving pair as they continue to
empower the man-child in chief who is now bitterly destroying everything
he can get his stubby little paws on.
In recent days, I’ve spoken with a half dozen
prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White
House in crisis, as advisers struggle to contain a resident that seems
to be increasingly unfocused, and consumed by dark moods.
At first it sounded like hyperbole, the escalation of a Twitter war. But now it’s clear that Bob Corker’s remarkable New York Timesinterview—in
which the Republican senator described the White House as “adult day
care” and warned Trump could start World War III—was an inflection point
in the Trump residency. It brought into the open what several people
close to the resident have recently told me in private: that Trump is
“unstable,” “losing a step,” and “unraveling.”
The
conversation among some of the president’s longtime confidantes, along
with the character of some of the leaks emerging from the White House
has shifted. There’s a new level of concern. NBC News published
a report that Trump shocked his national security team when he called
for a nearly tenfold increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal during a
briefing this summer. One Trump adviser confirmed to me it was after
this meeting disbanded that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a “moron.”
In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans
and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as
advisers struggle to contain a resident who seems to be increasingly
unfocused and consumed by dark moods. Trump’s ire is being fueled by his
stalled legislative agenda and, to a surprising degree, by his decision
last month to back the losing candidate Luther Strange
in the Alabama Republican primary. “Alabama was a huge blow to his
psyche,” a person close to Trump said. “He saw the cult of personality
was broken.”
According to two sources familiar with the conversation, Trump vented to his longtime security chief, Keith Schiller,
“I hate everyone in the White House! There are a few exceptions, but I
hate them!” (A White House official denies this.)
Two senior Republican
officials said Chief of Staff John Kelly is miserable
in his job and is remaining out of a sense of duty to keep Trump from
making some sort of disastrous decision. Today, speculation about
Kelly’s future increased after Politico reported that Kelly’s deputy Kirstjen Nielsen
is likely to be named Homeland Security Secretary—the theory among some
Republicans is that Kelly wanted to give her a soft landing before his
departure.
One former official even speculated that Kelly and Secretary of Defense James Mattis
have discussed what they would do in the event Trump ordered a nuclear
first strike. “Would they tackle him?” the person said. Even Trump’s
most loyal backers are sowing public doubts. This morning, The Washington Postquoted longtime Trump friend Tom Barrack saying he has been “shocked” and “stunned” by Trump’s behavior.
While
Kelly can’t control Trump’s tweets, he is doing his best to physically
sequester the resident—much to Trump’s frustration. One major G.O.P.
donor told me access to Trump has been cut off, and his outside calls to
the White House switchboard aren’t put through to the Oval Office.
Earlier this week, I reported
on Kelly’s plans to prevent Trump from mingling with guests at
Mar-a-Lago later this month. And, according to two sources, Keith
Schiller quit last month after Kelly told Schiller he needed permission
to speak to the resident and wanted written reports of their
conversations.
The White House denies these
accounts. “The resident’s mood is good and his outlook on the agenda is
very positive,” an official said.
West Wing
aides have also worried about Trump’s public appearances, one Trump
adviser told me. The adviser said aides were relieved when Trump
declined to agree to appear on the season premiere of 60 Minutes
last month. “He’s lost a step. They don’t want him doing adversarial TV
interviews,” the adviser explained.
Instead, Trump has sat down for
friendly conversations with Sean Hannity and Mike Huckabee, whose daughter is Trump’s press secretary. (The White House official says the 60 Minutes interview is being rescheduled.)
Even
before Corker’s remarks, some West Wing advisers were worried that
Trump’s behavior could cause the Cabinet to take extraordinary
Constitutional measures to remove him from office. Several months ago,
according to two sources with knowledge of the conversation, former
chief strategist Steve Bannon
told Trump that the risk to his presidency wasn’t impeachment, but the
25th Amendment—the provision by which a majority of the Cabinet can vote
to remove the resident.
When Bannon mentioned the 25th Amendment,
Trump said, “What’s that?” According to a source, Bannon has told people
he thinks Trump has only a 30 percent chance of making it the full
term.
This post has been updated to clarify the details of the negotiation with 60 Minutes.
According to analysis performed by The Washington Post, Donald Trump has
made 1,318 false or misleading claims in the last 263 days.
This
averages out to a little more than 5 lies per day, or one lie every four
and a half hours.
This has to stop.
Conservatives are falling for these
lies every single time, and as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains,
every one of these lies has a real world consequence.
Massive wildfires are raging in California’s wine country right now,
with a death toll currently standing at 10 American citizens. But
instead of addressing this issue, Donald Trump is on Twitter attacking
NFL players and calling media outlets “morons.” This man has to be
removed from office – people are now dying from his negligence and
arrogance, as Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses Donald Trump and Mike Pence's
stunt at the Colt's game on Sunday at which he left the game in protest
of the silent and peaceful protest on the field... All at a massive cost
to taxpayers!
Just last week, four actual American soldiers died in Niger,
in an attack likely organized by the regional branch of al Qaeda. If
you were unaware of these deaths, or even that there were Americans on
the ground in Niger—where the United States is helping to train
government forces to fight terrorist incursions—that’s understandable.
Because among the things at the top of Donald Trump’s list of important
events, actual soldiers actually dying … doesn’t count.
Instead, Trump has focused on athletes leading a peaceful protest
against the ongoing killing of African Americans by police, and the
failure of the justice system to hold these police responsible for their
actions. By portraying a pose usually reserved for honoring an injured
player as a sign of disrespect toward the flag, the nation, and the
military, Trump has created a fresh racial injustice to heap on top of
the original. In service of this lie, Trump has now tweeted 29 times
concerning these uppity protests, including multiple tweets about how
this dishonors the military. He’s tweeted zero times about the sacrifice
of the Green Berets in Niger.
But apparently just talking about it wasn’t divisive, hateful, and
hypocritical enough. Over the weekend, Trump ordered Mike Pence to drop
in on Indianapolis for the express purpose of making a show of mock disgust
over players daring to express concern that their fellow Americans were
being murdered with impunity. Trump didn’t disguise the fact that the
whole thing was planned.
Russia used Facebook's ad targeting system to help Donald Trump carry both Wisconsin and Michigan.
According to CNN,
“A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan
and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump’s victory last
November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the
situation. Some of the Russian ads appeared highly sophisticated in
their targeting of key demographic groups in areas of the states that
turned out to be pivotal, two of the sources said. The ads employed a
series of divisive messages aimed at breaking through the clutter of
campaign ads online, including promoting anti-Muslim messages, sources
said.”
Trump won Wisconsin and Michigan by a combined 33,400 votes. With the
Russians running targeted advertising for Trump in key swing states, a
picture is beginning to take shape of how the Russians may have been
able to collude with the Trump campaign to swing the election. It is
already known that Russia used Facebook to organize rallies for Trump in
Florida and Pennsylvania, add the advertising in Wisconsin and Michigan
to the mix and Trump’s surprise victory begins to look less surprising.
The Russians interfered in the election. There is only one piece of
information missing. Who inside the Trump campaign was working with
Russia to exchange data to help with the voter targeting?
Jared Kushner
was responsible for the campaign’s data operation, so any questions
about who worked with the Russians should begin with President’s son in
law and right-hand man.
Each new puzzle piece that snaps into place is another step toward Trump impeachment.
Paul Ryan thinks that, no matter what condition you are born in, the
American dream is only limited by your "god given potential."
Benjamin Dixon reports on why the Speaker of the House is CLUELESS
AS FUCK.
Between the revelations that his appointees are zipping around the
country on private planes at the expense of US taxpayers and the fact
that at least 6 members of his staff – including his own family members –
are using private email accounts to conduct official business, Donald
Trump and the Republicans are suffering from a massive hypocrisy
problem. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains.
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse addresses Donald Trump's lack of
response in the wake of Hurricane Maria and the dire situation in Puerto
Rico. Looked at are Trump's tweets and public statements.
Where were you when it was your turn to respect the flag?
"I didn't dodge the draft just so some son of a bitch could take a knee during the National Anthem."
7/18/15 UPDATE:Now that Donald Trump has maligned
Senator John McCain as a phony war hero who got himself captured in
Vietnam, below you’ll find a reminder--which TSG published the last time
the Republican claimed to be running for president--how Trump avoided
military service.
The son of a wealthy real estate developer, Trump received four
student deferments that were followed by a 1968 medical deferment that
came a few months after he graduated from the University of
Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
After denigrating McCain during remarks today at the Family
Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, Trump faced reporters questions about
his lack of service. Asked about the last of his five deferments, Trump
said that his disqualifying medical condition was a bone spur in one of
his feet (he could not remember which one). It is unknown on which golf
course the injury was sustained.
HEY, DOTARD TRUMP!
APRIL 28--Despite Donald Trump’s claim this week that he avoided
serving in the Vietnam War solely due to a high draft number, Selective
Service records show that the purported presidential aspirant actually
received a series of student deferments while in college and then topped
those off with a medical deferment after graduation that helped spare
him from fighting for his country, The Smoking Gun has learned.
During
a TV interview Tuesday morning, Trump--who spent his high school years
enrolled at the New York Military Academy--said, “I actually got lucky
because I had a very high draft number. I’ll never forget, that was an
amazing period of time in my life.”
He went on to recall, “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance,
and I was watching as they did the draft numbers and I got a very, very
high number and those numbers never got up to.” The word “deferment” was
not mentioned by Trump during his chat with the morning show hosts on
WNYW, the Fox affiliate in New York City.
However, Selective Service records reveal that Trump, the fortunate
son of a multimillionaire real estate baron, took repeated steps to
avoid serving in Vietnam.
By the time his number (356) was drawn during the December 1, 1969
draft lottery, Trump had already received four student deferments and a
medical deferment, according to military records on file with the
National Archives and Records Administration. An extract of Trump’s Selective Classification record, seen here, was provided in response to a TSG records request.
In fact, the December 1969 draft lottery occurred about 18 months
after Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he
studied business at the Wharton School. So, while claiming that he would
“never forget” being at Wharton watching the draft numbers being drawn,
the 64-year-old Trump seems to have misremembered, as candidates are
fond of saying.
Trump obtained his first two Class 2-S student deferments in June
1964 and December 1965, when he was student at Fordham University in the
Bronx. He was briefly reclassified as 1-A--or "available for military service"--in late-November 1966, but that classification was switched back to 2-S three weeks later.
Another 2-S deferment is dated January 16, 1968, just months before
his graduation from UPenn (to which he transferred following his
sophomore year at Fordham).
Following his UPenn graduation, Trump--no longer qualified for a 2-S
deferment--was again briefly classified as available for service on July
9. However, three months later, on October 15, his classification was
switched to 1-Y, which was given to men deemed qualified for military
service “only in time of national emergency.”
The 1-Y classification came a month after Trump underwent an “Armed
Forces Physical Examination,” according to Selective Service records,
which note the results of the exam as “DISQ.”
While the military records
do not further detail why Trump was granted the 1-Y deferment, a 1992 biography
of the businessman by journalist Wayne Barrett reported that Trump
received a medical deferment following the September 17, 1968 exam.
Trump’s 1-Y classification stayed in effect until February 1, 1972
when it was changed to a 4-F classification (which covered registrants
not qualified for military service). The change in classification was
likely prompted by the military’s December 1971 decision to abolish the
1-Y classification.
The Selective Service records also include a copy of the registration card signed by Trump
in June 1964, 10 days after he turned 18. The possible future
Commander-in-Chief, it turns out, has birthmarks on both his heels.
Why can't the government seem to do right by hurricane victims?
It’s almost shocking that, in this country, government at both local
and federal levels has absolutely no clue how to treat victims of
natural disasters. Almost. Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, people
were still living in FEMA trailers—which
turned out to be toxic and made hundreds of people sick from the
incredibly high levels of formaldehyde found inside. From a corrupt
mayor, persistent crime rates a decade-plus later and a snail-paced
recovery for the many in the city, we know from the example of New
Orleans alone that we routinely fail victims of hurricanes and the
poorest fare the worst of all. So we shouldn’t be surprised that Houston is already failing those impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
Residents of at least one Houston
public housing complex have been asked to pay September rent for flooded
units deemed uninhabitable, even as Mayor Sylvester Turner has publicly
condemned private landlords for similar practices.
Half a dozen tenants of Clayton Homes,
which is owned by the Houston Housing Authority, said property
management asked them about rent earlier this month, even though
Hurricane Harvey had rendered their units unlivable. Most paid after
being told they otherwise would lose their spot at the complex, one of
the city's few subsidized developments.
Surprised, no. Outraged, yes. People who are already low-income, who
have lost almost everything and who been displaced by this storm are
being charged money for apartments they can’t even use. And the
completely incompetent local and federal governments are feigning
ignorance. No one seems to know what’s going on and no one has a
rational explanation. But that still hasn’t stopped them from taking
residents’ money.
Houston Housing Authority President Tory
Gunsolley initially said federal rules prevented the agency from
forgiving rent, even in a disaster.
"The regulations don't contemplate us not charging rent and just waiving rent collection," he said.
Gunsolley changed course Tuesday afternoon,
however, after questions from the Chronicle prompted a call from the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"Tenants of public housing authorities do
not have to pay for units that are uninhabitable," HUD spokesman Scott
Hudman explained.
So which is it? Can they charge people or can they not? Why does no one seem to know? (Answer: They can’t and they shouldn’t.)
So why is this happening and why can’t they figure out how to refund
people their money immediately? And where is Secretary of Housing and
Urban Development Ben Carson? He recently laid out a very tepid plan to reform HUD but he’s been very quiet when it comes to helping hurricane victims.
A $50 rent, which is what they took from one of the tenants, may not
seem like a lot of money to some of us. But to people who are
struggling, who have lost homes, belongings and employment, $50 can mean
the difference between eating for several days or starving. Or the
difference between getting necessary medication or going without. When
you don’t have much, don’t have resources immediately available to you
and have already lost your place to live, losing $50 can be
devastating.
It remained unclear Wednesday how long
it would take the housing authority to reimburse the residents from
whom it had improperly collected rent. [...]
The housing authority called last week to
ask if [LaShondra Ford, a resident of Clayton Homes,] would be willing
to move to San Antonio, Austin, Dallas or Fort Worth, but her children
had just started in a new school in Conroe, and she had a new job
working security.
"That's too far," she said.
Next, the woman from the housing authority
asked if Ford would be interested in other public housing in Houston,
but again Ford worried about uprooting her children.
"Do we have options? Do we get to choose?"
No, the woman said.
Somehow we haven’t learned any lessons in the years post-Katrina or
any of the other devastating hurricanes or natural disasters we’ve
experienced as a nation. We are still unorganized and unconcerned with
people’s well-being and expecting the most vulnerable among us to take
care of themselves. What a shame it is that so many lawmakers spend
their days trying to outlaw abortion, take away health care, cut taxes
for the rich, fund wars, build walls and prisons but leave people
stranded and needy at the most desperate times in their lives. We really
need to do better as a nation and get our priorities in order.
"available for military service"--in late-November 1966, but that classification was switched back to 2-S three weeks later.
