Donald Trump: J'accuse…!
Those of us who have not overdosed on Fox Fake News know Trump is a liar, crook, and grifter, as well as an incompetent, blustering, egomaniacal, racist, sexist, xenophobic Islamophobe.
The headlines are full of Trump FAIL and Trump lies, 24/7.
So once, just once, I’d like to hear a Congress member, or senator, or White House press pool journalist stand up to him, point a finger, and call him out as a murderer.
Trump’s campaign has had no problem lobbing that spurious claim at Democrats.
On Saturday, President Trump’s official reelection campaign released a provocative new ad that claimed Democrats are somehow “complicit” in murders committed by undocumented immigrants.
Trump is more than complicit in bearing responsibility for inflicting death and destruction on 3.3 million members of the American populace.
I’ve had it up to here with the president of the United States, the commander-in- chief, leader of a crew of Republican quislings and toadies who are killing Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans.
Trump’s spurious claim to “Making America Great Again” has landed us in the record books.
Standing by and watching people die, without lifting a finger to stop it, is murder.
I’ve had it.
I’m here on the mainland watching the death toll from suicides on the island rise, and rise, and rise. Articles like "In Puerto Rico, suicides have 'gone up incredibly’” spell out the unthinkable details.
Puerto Rico is likely underestimating its suicide rate after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory last September, a medical professional warned yesterday. Dr. Carissa Cabán-Alemán, a community psychiatrist and assistant professor at Florida International University, says there has been a severe mental toll on Puerto Rican families who lost their homes and lived for months without electricity or running water.
"Suicide rates have gone up incredibly," Cabán-Alemán warned at the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health at George Mason University yesterday.
Her remarks came as part of a broader discussion on how natural disasters fueled by climate change affect health. That can include increased risk of heat-related illnesses and asthma, difficulty maintaining consistent care for patients, and suicides.
"When you are already poor, you don't have a job or you are about to lose the job, you are depending on the government, you have three kids, and you, on top of that, lose everything and are sleeping on the shambles of your house, I would probably be suicidal, too. Let's be real," she said.
Puerto Rico's Commission for the Prevention of Suicide reported last January the total number of suicides for 2017 reached 227, a 16 percent increase from the previous year. But Cabán-Alemán said she had heard a lot of reports from colleagues and people working in disaster response with the military and the Federal Emergency Management Agency that the rates had been underreported.
"The biggest problem is that where we want to address the climate change impact on health, we don't have data for the communities that are suffering the most," Cabán-Alemán said.
The New York Times reported on the suicide rates three months ago, and the situation isn’t improving.
Puerto Rico’s only suicide prevention hotline is busy. Since Hurricane Maria devastated the island, public health officials say there are signs of a severe mental health crisis emerging. Caitlin Dickerson speaks with the counselors who are fielding the calls.
Vox reported:
Even more people called the hotline to report suicidal thoughts (as opposed to those who attempted suicide). About 9,645 people who called the hotline in the past three months said they’d thought about killing themselves — an 83 percent jump from the same time last year.
More than six months post-Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans are still being pushed over the edge.
I’ve got an old school, South Bronx Grandmaster Flash hip-hop earworm lyric buzzin’ in my head:
Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge
I'm trying not to lose my head
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
This comprehensive article is a must-read.
...if history is any indicator, the numbers seeking treatment for mental health will keep increasing. PTSD, depression, and anxiety roughly doubled in the months after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, a federally funded study published by the World Health Organization found. Hurricane Katrina became a landmark example of how pervasive mental health issues become after a major natural disaster. Carissa Caban-Aleman, a psychiatrist that works with various organizations in Puerto Rico and is a member of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance, says that what became clear since Katrina is that mental illness and substance abuse are not secondary problems—they are the long-term effects of climate change-induced disasters.
Still, access for those who need it could get worse for Puerto Rico, whose Medicare program is on track to be depleted by April. Although Congress approved a deal for both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which earmarked $4.8 billion to replenish Medicare, the funding falls tens of billions of dollars short of what Puerto Rico needs to take care of those ailing with an increasingly elderly population. “In terms of mental health, there is always the potential for environmentally-produced stressors,” said Angel Munoz, psychology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico. “But when people face complications including access to basic services—like those we’re seeing as a result of Hurricane Maria—these numbers soar.”
I have a really hard time reading and paying attention to the suicide reports. I know all too well the impact of suicide on families—my own included.
Health care overall is an issue:
If we got Puerto Rico the aid that was necessary immediately, and not had the delayed response and the ongoing struggle to wring further aid for the island, how many people who need not have died would still be here with their families?
I’ve also had it with the delay in reporting the post-Maria death toll.
Axios reports:
The lack of proper scientific data collection in Puerto Rico during and after Hurricane Maria hit the island last September has resulted in the death toll being severely underreported — the real number is closer to 1,085 than the government's estimate of 64 — essentially limiting necessary financial and other aid resources, according to research published in Health Affairs Monday.
Why it matters:
"[T]he official death toll undercounted deaths attributable to Hurricane Maria by a factor of 15 or higher. This is important because something failed, somebody failed to our people, and steps need to be taken to ensure that this does not happens again."
— Alexis Raúl Santos, Penn State University demographer and article author, tells Axios
I sit here watching the government, led by Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, delay and delay and delay with giving us the real death toll from Maria, about which Trump gleefully announced to Puerto Ricans, "You’ve thrown our budget out of whack,” and "can be very proud” of only 16 deaths.
There is now a new study underway:
A group of seven public health professors are conducting a high-profile examination into the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, which ravaged the island last September.
The professors, from the Milken Institute School of Public Health, will use existing records and death certificates from Sept. 20, 2017 – the day the hurricane struck – to February 2018 to reach a more precise estimate of the death count that can be attributed to the hurricane on the island. The study, which was commissioned and funded by the Puerto Rican government, has received widespread attention since it was announced last month amid controversy over how authorities managed the aftermath of the storm.
Faculty say the research team aims to release preliminary results in three months followed by the entire study within a year.
As a public health researcher I have some serious questions about why this high price tag report (“The first phase of the project will cost $305,000 with funding from the Puerto Rican government and the second phase will have an estimated $1.1 million price tag”) is going to take a year to conduct. It looks like phase two will be complete after upcoming elections. Phase one won’t be done in time to do prep for hurricane season.
I’ve had it with watching the Trump-directed FCC attempt to cut back the lifeline phone system, aka “Obamaphones,” for the island (though it is a Reagan-era program). This article explains how the "New FCC Policy Would Be a ‘Death Sentence’ for Puerto Ricans Recovering From Hurricanes Maria and Irma’”:
A new rule championed by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai would limit internet and phone access for millions of low-income and elderly Americans.
Pai's proposed changes to the Lifeline program, which currently serves 12 million Americans by providing subsidized phone and internet service, would cut service to about 70 percent, or 8 million, of them. Many of these recipients live in Puerto Rico and rely on Lifeline for assistance as they recover from Hurricanes Maria and Irma.
A decision to cut off people’s “lifelines,” as we are now only two months away from the next hurricane season, can result in more deaths.
What do you do when you can’t call for help?
That question leads to others:
What do you do when the phone service is out and you can’t call 911?
What do you do when you finally get 911 and the paramedics can‘t get to you quickly because the traffic lights aren’t working and there is a huge “tapon” (traffic jam)?
Sometimes, you die.
And this tragic result has been repeated frequently in Puerto Rico.
Daily Kos member Chef Bobby (newpioneer) wrote about FEMA’s Brock Long telling Puerto Ricans to “learn CPR” to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season which starts in June.
CPR does you no damn good if you are dead.
I’ve had it!
Donald Trump and his Republican cabal continue to get away with murder. Call them out, and then get to work—to vote them out.
The lives you save won’t just be in Puerto Rico.