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OP-ED: Neglect, Disrespect Of Puerto Rico By Trump Administration Continues

THE SEATTLE MEDIUM — President Donald Trump reignited the antipathy he has towards Puerto Rico when, in a recent meeting with Congressional Republicans, he reiterated his desire to deny any but the most basic funds to Puerto Rico.

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By Barrington M. Salmon

President Donald Trump reignited the antipathy he has towards Puerto Rico when, in a recent meeting with Congressional Republicans, he reiterated his desire to deny any but the most basic funds to Puerto Rico.

He told senators in a closed-door meeting on March 26 he thinks Puerto Rico got too much funding compared to mainland states like Florida, Georgia and Texas. In a CNN exclusive by Jim Acosta and Kevin Liptak, Trump said he is willing to supplement a shortfall in the island’s food stamp program to the tune of $600 million but refuses to do more.

This posture infuriated Gov. Ricardo Rosselló who reacted angrily to Trump’s comments, calling him a bully and accusing him of ignoring the island’s dire post-hurricane needs. Rosselló told CNN that he would not sit back and allow his officials to be bullied by the White House.

“If the bully gets close, I’ll punch the bully in the mouth,” he said. “It would be a mistake to confuse courtesy with courage.”

In various media reports, Rosselló described the president’s remarks as “irresponsible, regrettable and, above all, unjustified,” and “below the dignity of a sitting president.”

“I invite the president to stop listening to ignorant and completely wrong advice,” Rosselló added in a statement last week. “Instead he should come to Puerto Rico to hear firsthand from the people on the ground. I invite him to put all of the resources at his disposal to help Americans in Puerto Rico, like he did for Texas and Alabama. No more, no less … What I am aiming to do is make sure that reason prevails, that empathy prevails, that equality prevails and that we can have a discussion.”

Trump has complained repeatedly that Puerto Rican government officials are wasting the money it has already received, a statement that Rosselló strenuously pushed back against.

“He treats us as second-class citizens, that’s for sure,” he said. “And my consideration is I just want the opportunity to explain to him why the data and information he’s getting is wrong. I don’t think getting into a kicking and screaming match with the President does any good. I don’t think anyone can beat the President in a kicking and screaming match. What I am aiming to do is make sure reason prevails, that empathy prevails, that equality prevails, and that we can have a discussion.”

Both Rosselló and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, have sought meetings with Trump for months but he has refused. Rosselló met with White House officials and was also on Capitol Hill last week discussing the prospects of Puerto Rican statehood with lawmakers.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Trump supports the federal government offering $600 million to Puerto Rico to bridge a food stamp shortfall caused by commonwealth officials slashing benefits, but the president is resistant to the US government sending disaster aid dollars and money to rebuild antiquated water systems and make them more resilient to future storms.

Overall, more than 580,000 people in Puerto Rico rely on the food stamp program and more than 40 percent of them live below the poverty line, Rossello said.

According to the Associated Press, the Government Accountability Office estimates that Puerto Rico will need about $132 billion to rebuild from Maria. And so far, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has obligated almost $4 billion in public assistance grant funding to the island and Congress has released $11 billion.

The Democratic House pulled together an almost $14 billion aid package that sat in the Senate for weeks, then Trump’s stubborn refusal to approve additional funding led them to block a $13.5 billion Republican disaster aid bill on April 2. The Dems argued that without more adequate aid for Puerto Rico they wouldn’t support the bill.

Trump criticized Democrats via Twitter for “fighting” the disaster relief bill and he continues to argue that Puerto Rican officials are using federal funds to pay off its debts, an assertion the officials strenuously deny.

“I want to be very clear: Not a single federal dollar has been used to make debt payments,” Rosselló said. “Mr. President: Enough with the insults and demeaning mischaracterizations. We are not your political adversaries; we are your citizens,”

According media reports, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said Trump was blaming Puerto Rico for failing to spend money that his own administration was refusing to turn over to the island.

“This administration cannot simultaneously hold up recovery dollars for Puerto Rico, and then point to Puerto Rico’s failure to spend it as an excuse not to provide additional assistance,” Leahy said during debate on the Senate floor.

““I’ve given them more money than they’ve ever got,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Puerto Rico has been taken care of better by Donald Trump than by any living human being. I think the people of Puerto Rico understand it.

Since the storms, Trump has congratulated himself, claiming that the recovery efforts were ‘incredibly successful’ and he praised FEMA and law enforcement as well.

In a recent article in The Independent, a British publication, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is quoted as saying he believes Puerto Rico will need to find its own way out of the debt crisis. Those knowledgeable about what happens in the White House also say they believe he is encouraging Trump’s negative view of the island.

On April 1, Trump tweeted: ”The people of Puerto Rico are GREAT but politicians are incompetent or corrupt. Puerto Rico got far more money than Florida and Texas combined, yet their government can’t do anything right, the place is a mess, nothing works.”

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, who has been trading insults with Trump since shortly after the storms, issued a statement last week saying Trump’s comments are a reminder that he “cannot lead.”

“When faced with a devastating human crisis, Trump augmented it because he made it about himself, not about saving our lives,” she said. “When expected to show empathy, he showed disdain and lack of respect; it seems to be too hard for Trump to know the facts, so he continues to lie about the aid sent to Puerto Rico and about the federal inadequacy towards Puerto Rico.”

As the politicians squabble, the 3.2 million residents of the island commonwealth are still struggling to cope with the crippling and devastating effects of massive back-to-back Category 4 and 5 storms in September 2017. Hurricane Maria destroyed the island’s electrical grid and cellphone towers. In addition, about 80 percent of transmission lines are down and 100 percent of the wires connecting homes and businesses were demolished.

Damage to the island’s infrastructure, especially in the interior and remote villages and communities, left many roads impassable and residents left to fend for themselves. Most affected were the elderly, people needing dialysis or operations for other illnesses, those suffering from asthma and other respiratory diseases, the poor, residents living in poverty, people living in mountain regions, near rivers and in the heart of the commonwealth’s rugged interior and those who live in the southeastern part of the island.

It is now acknowledged that more than 4,000 people died during and after the storms.

The entire ordeal is exacerbated by the fact that Puerto Rico has been in an economic tailspin for the past 12 years. A federally appointed Financial Oversight and Management Board reported last year that the Commonwealth had $74 billionin bond debt and $49 billion in unfunded pension liabilities as of May 2017. The Control Board has implemented draconian austerity measures which has led to demonstrations and unrest since the hurricanes.

Although Puerto Ricans are American citizens, they do not have a voting member of Congress and cannot vote for president. Puerto Ricans have chafed under America’s colonial yolk and that issue is again in plain view with a president who is unapologetic in his support of white nationalists and their agenda, and quite comfortable expressing his disdain for Puerto Rico, as he has towards other majority Black and brown nations.

Critics, pundits and academics say it’s impossible to ignore the role race plays in Trump’s treatment of Puerto Ricans.

In an interview on Tuesday, Rosselló reminded people that Puerto Rico’s population is almost entirely Latino and said that historically, there have been “ethnic undertones” to the treatment of Puerto Ricans by Washington.

“We don’t want special treatment. We just want equal treatment,” he said.

Dr. Lauren Lluveras said Trump has racialized the federal response and wonders in an article titled, ‘Is Racial Bias Driving Trump’s Neglect of Puerto Rico?’if racial bias fuels his behavior.

“The island is so crippled in part thanks to the federal government’s underwhelming early hurricane response,” said Dr. Lluveras, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis, University of Texas in Austin. “The historic storm played its role, of course, destroying homes, triggering mudslides and rendering roadways impassible.”

“But the Trump administration delayed dispatching military personnel and material relief until after the hurricane made landfall, and let the Jones Act waiver lapse, reducing the number of ships that can bring aid to the island. These actions have slowed recovery considerably.”

Political Economist Pedro Cabán, an expert in Puerto Rican political and economic change, agreed, saying in a 2017 Jacobin Magazine article titled, ‘Catastrophe and Colonialism’ that Hurricane Maria brutally exposed the crisis of Puerto Rico’s colonial status.

“The Donald Trump administration’s response to the crisis reveals that Puerto Ricans are racialized as subordinate, despite their US citizenship, said Dr. Cabán, Professor of Latin American, Caribbean and US Latino Studies at University at the State University of New York in Albany. “Trump’s racially charged statements resurrected long dormant, degrading characterizations of Puerto Ricans as lacking the capacity and will to fend for themselves.”

FIU’s Dr. Danielle Pilar Clealand said the worst hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in more than 80 years has racialized Puerto Ricans.

“Puerto Rico occupied an elite position in the Caribbean and was considered one of the whiter Caribbean islands, but they’re being racialized,” said Dr. Clealand, assistant professor in the Department of Politics & International Relations at Florida International University’s Cuban Research Institute. “They’ve been racialized as non-whites in ways they haven’t before. This is causing them to change their perspective as it relates to who they are. That component is something to watch as people re-envision where they stand in the world.”

This article originally appeared in The Seattle Medium.

Commentary

Commentary: Racism? Sexism? Ageism Is Worse. Ask Joe Biden

Don’t worry about President Joe Biden’s age or memory. Worry about how he has to confront ageism. Thanks to a certain Asian American special prosecutor named Robert Hur.

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President Joe Biden
President Joe Biden

By Emil Guillermo

 Don’t worry about President Joe Biden’s age or memory.

Worry about how he has to confront ageism. Thanks to a certain Asian American special prosecutor named Robert Hur.

Hur went beyond and below the call of duty in political slander of the President.

Hur’s investigation concluded: there would be no prosecution against Biden for any mishandling of classified documents. So why wasn’t that the big headline last week?

Once it was determined there was not enough evidence to prosecute the president, Hur’s work was done.

Instead, Hur took a year to finish a nearly 400-page report that many mainstream news outlets have since mischaracterized. For example, CNBC’s headline quoted Hur: “Biden ‘willfully’ kept classified materials, had ‘poor memory’: Special counsel.”

Unfortunately, it’s misleading. By how much? On the Just Security website, two prominent law professors found  Hur’s report actually described Biden’s statements as “innocent explanations.”

“Unrefuted innocent explanations,” say Prof. Andrew Weissmann and Prof. Ryan Goodman, doesn’t just mean the “case does not meet the standard for criminal prosecution — it means innocence.”

But no one walks away from the mainstream headlines about the report thinking Biden is innocent; Only that he “willfully” retained something classified, and he has a “poor memory.”

None of it adds up to a prosecution. Just a public persecution.

Is this the game being played by Hur, a Trump appointee to the Justice Department, who was named special prosecutor last year by Attorney General Merrick Garland?

Garland must have thought it was a stroke of genius to appoint a Trump Republican in a political year to investigate his Democratic boss. That would be a sign of unity in the fight for truth and justice, right?

It wasn’t.

Hur, the son of South Korean immigrants and a Harvard grad, has said all the right things in public statements: that he’d be “fair, impartial and dispassionate,” and would “follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fear or favor.”

Right.

Or is that right-wing?

Hur’s speculative comments about Biden’s memory were challenged last Sunday by Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer who witnessed Hur’s deposing of Biden.

On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Bauer called Hur’s report a “shabby piece of work,” that reached the right legal conclusion, but then was loaded with hundreds of pages of “misstatements of facts and totally inappropriate and pejorative comments that are unfounded and not supported by the record.”

Hur appears to have padded the report to buttress his own standing among Republicans. He makes memory a relevant issue when he uses it as an excuse to not prosecute Biden.

With no basis for a legal prosecution, Hur made sure to go for the political kill and let loose the virus that is ageism.

I once thought ageism would unite us all. We may not all be the same race, ethnicity, or gender, but we all fight time and the aging process.

But how naïve I was. Ageism can also inspire division, creating generation gaps, all charged with emotions that fuel a discrimination harder to fight than racism.

Of course, it cuts both ways. Last weekend, Donald Trump, 77, said Russia should be able to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO members who don’t meet their defense spending targets.

The man who wants to be president again is backing our enemy Putin against our allies.

Is that Trump showing off his anti-democracy bent or his senility?

That’s why ageism has become a dominant theme for both parties and is likely to hang around.

It won’t age well, unless we all know the truth about Hur’s misleading report.

The controversy has thrust Vice President Kamala Harris into the limelight, as she defended Biden and called Hur’s report “clearly politically motivated (and) gratuitous.”

Harris’ detractors have been sniping at her from day one with healthy doses of racism and sexism. Now, you can add ageism to the Republican tool set, a nasty political trifecta, as the GOP continues to hammer Biden and the Democrats with the misleading Hur report.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See him on YouTube.com/@emilamok1

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Activism

Will New City Leaders End Oakland’s Long-Time Cozy Relationship with Corporate Developers?

Geoffrey Pete’s building at 410 14th St. is a Registered National Resource Building on the State of California Register as well as a contributing building to the Historic Downtown Oakland District on the State of California Register and the National Department of Interior historic registers.

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Rendering of Tidewater Capital’s 40-story residential tower at 1431 Franklin St., next to Geoffrey’s Inner Circle. Courtesy Tidewater Capital.
Rendering of Tidewater Capital’s 40-story residential tower at 1431 Franklin St., next to Geoffrey’s Inner Circle. Courtesy Tidewater Capital.

By Ken Epstein

New research, produced by supporters of Geoffrey’s Inner Circle and the Black Arts Movement and Business District, has provided powerful evidence against giving a greenlight to Tidewater Capital’s 40-story luxury apartment building at 1431 Franklin St., inches from owner Geoffrey Pete’s historic venue.

According to the research, which has been shared with Mayor Sheng Thao, arguments in favor of Tidewater Capital’s proposal seem to be based on inaccurate facts, which some believe have their origin among past mayoral administrations and city administrators, the planning commission and city staff who for years allowed corporate development to ravage Oakland’s diverse communities while trying to convince residents that there is no alternative to gentrification.

State does not require project’s approval

Some who support allowing Tidewater’s project to be built have maintained that the state would likely revoke Oakland’s affordable housing funds if the city does not approve this high-end real estate project.

However, this interpretation does not seem to be based on an accurate reading of the law. The state’s “Prohousing Designation Program is what is believed by city officials to prevent Oakland from denying new residential development at the risk of losing their designation” and related funding, according to the research document.

The new research has found instead that “Oakland’s housing element is considered to be in ‘full compliance’ with state law, (and) the city no longer has to worry about losing important revenue, such as the Prohousing Designation Program or triggering rules that could have limited its ability to regulate development.”

The mission statement of the state pro-housing program says it is not designed to force cities to build more high-end housing but is meant to pressure cities and counties that are not building sufficient housing for very low and extremely low-income families. The goal is “creating more affordable homes in places that historically or currently exclude households earning lower incomes and households of color,” the mission statement of the state’s program said.

“This (Tidewater) proposal isn’t remotely connected” to a low-income development and, therefore, would not be impacted by state regulations protecting low-income projects, says the new research.

City failed to seek historical preservation funds

The second major point is that Oakland, unlike neighboring cities, has failed to apply for funding that would have protected its national resource buildings and districts from luxury developers like Tidewater.

Geoffrey Pete’s building at 410 14th St. is a Registered National Resource Building on the State of California Register and a contributing building to the Historic Downtown Oakland District on the State of California Register and the National Department of Interior historic registers.

If Oakland had applied for available grants from the state’s Office of Historic Preservation, it could have received millions of dollars. For example, the city and county of San Francisco applied and received millions of dollars more than six times since 2012.

“The City of Oakland has never even applied for this grant once,” the research said. “Our neighboring and surrounding cities in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Richmond have all applied and been awarded. Just not Oakland.”

“If Oakland had applied and received these funds, then Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, a National Registered Resource Building, would have been protected. There would be zero conversation with Tidewater Capital. This situation would not exist.”

Because the Black Arts Movement & Business District is a registered cultural district, Tidewater Capital’s proposal is in a geographic area with cultural affiliations, and the proposed development will, in fact, cause harm to a cultural resource, Geoffrey’s Inner Circle.

Project designed for luxury housing

The third major point in the research holds that, while the project’s backers claim that many units would be reserved for very low-income residents, the city’s staff report says that only 38 units (10%) out of a total of 381 units would be reserved for low-income residents. Further, there is evidence that none of the units would be available to those whose incomes do not put them among the affluent.

The City of Oakland considers “low-income” to be $112,150 a year for a family of four. What this means is MOST Oakland families do not earn enough to live in the Tidewater Capital’s building. Current data shows that median income for a family of four in Oakland is $85,628, well below the $112,150 that is considered low-income by the city’s unusual standard.

The research shows that the planning commission and city staff’s systematic bias toward high end development has resulted in massive overbuilding of market rate housing, while the city is way behind its goals to build affordable housing.

City statistics show that between 2015 and 2022, the city pledged to build 14,765 units at various income levels. In fact, the city created many more — 18,880 units. Of these, they had pledged to build 4,134 units for residents at the lowest income levels but failed to reach their goal by 1,776 units.

Yet at the same, time, the city built 16,522 high end units, though officials had only pledged 10,631 units for affluent tenants.

“The Oakland Planning Commission catered to developers, such as Tidewater Capital, who solely created luxury housing, so aggressively that they overshot their obligation by 5,891 extra and unnecessary (luxury) units approved,” according to Geoffrey’s supporters’ research.

“Yet low-income housing goals are nearly two thousand units in arrears with no clear remedy or solution at hand,” the research said.

“For the eighth year in a row, Oakland’s Housing Element progress report shows that while the city has permitted an abundance of market rate housing, we are not building enough affordable homes,” said Jeff Levin of East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO), quoted in Oaklandside.

“The trend in Oakland has been to build high-end units that attract new, higher-income residents,” doing little for low-income residents and Oakland natives, he said.

Project does not fit the landscape

Finally, the real facts show that Tidewater’s market-rate luxury skyscraper, doggedly supported by city staff, does not fit the landscape, dramatically overshadowing surrounding buildings in the downtown Black Arts Movement and Business District.

Tidewater’s design would become the tallest building in Oakland at 413 feet tall (40 stories), taller than the Atlas building at 400 feet, which was built several years ago directly across the street from Geoffrey’s.

The Post gave council members supporting the Tidewater project an opportunity to be interviewed for this article.

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Activism

Open Letter to Mayor Thao: Reject Tidewater Development’s Construction Next to Geoffrey’s Inner Circle

Tidewater’s proposed development will harm Geoffrey’s Inner Circle through its very construction, in much the same way that another nearby Black business, Uncle Willie’s Original Bar-B-Que and Fish, was devastated by construction of a 27-story hotel tower adjacent to the historic building that housed this venerated Black business.

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Live music at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, 410 14th St., Oakland, Courtesy of Geoffrey’s.
Live music at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, 410 14th St., Oakland, Courtesy of Geoffrey’s.

Special to The Post

We respectfully request that you vote “No” on the City Council resolution regarding Tidewater Franklin Street development due to be scheduled on the Jan. 16 City Council agenda.

Tidewater’s proposed development will harm Geoffrey’s Inner Circle through its very construction, in much the same way that another nearby Black business, Uncle Willie’s Original Bar-B-Que and Fish, was devastated by the construction of a 27-story hotel tower adjacent to the historic building that housed this venerated Black business.

Further, the Planning Commission made many errors in its approval process, including but not limited to the following:

  1. Its members acknowledged that they were not even aware that the Black Arts Movement and Business District existed.
  2. It ignored the fact that Geoffrey’s was entitled to critical protections as a recognized historic resource.
  3. It ignored the fact that Tidewater had not sought permits or permission to alter Mr. Pete’s building, although such alterations are an integral part of Tidewater’s proposal.
  4. The Planning Department did not provide, in a timely manner, relevant Public Records Act information requested by the appellant.

In addition, the Planning Department staff has refused to meet with Mr. Geoffrey Pete throughout the appeal process.  Sadly, it also appears that the City’s own Department of Race and Equity has been bypassed on a matter with significant equity implications.

It should also be noted that there are dozens of studies indicating that residential construction like Tidewater’s drives out live entertainment venues. Many cities have laws to regulate such potential conflicts.

Geoffrey’s is a critical business to the Oakland community as a whole, and particularly to the African American community.

It has been a place of comfort and camaraderie for thousands of people who have listened to music, held celebrations, funeral repasts, and community meetings. And, Pete hosts an incubator program which has provided a haven for business owners who would not have had success if not housed in his building with below market-rate rent and other amenities, thus enabling them to survive in the ever-more costly downtown area.

The African American population in Oakland has decreased from 47% in the 1980s to 22% currently.  A large part of the reason has been City policies which privilege the desires of wealthy developers over the needs of the Black community.

There are questions about housing and other matters which are too lengthy for this letter; we would be happy to discuss all of these with you.

We urge you in the strongest terms to support Geoffrey’s and refuse to vote in support of any measure presented to you that would allow Tidewater’s construction next to Geoffrey’s.

Signers (partial list):

Organizations

Black Women Organized for Political Action, Oakland Berkeley Chapter

Oakland East Bay Democratic Club

Block by Block Organizing Network

John George Democratic Club, Steering Committee

Niagara Movement Democratic Club

Everett and Jones Bar-B-Que

Uncle Willie’s Bar-b-Que and Fish

Joyce Gordon Gallery

Pastors:

Pastor Phyllis Scott, president, Pastors of Oakland

Rev. Dr. Lawrence Van Hook, Community Church

Rev. Dr. Jasper Lowery, International Outreach Ministries

Pastor Cornell Wheeler, Greater Whittington Temple, COGIC

Rev. Dr. Joe Smith, Good Hope MBC

Bishop Brandon Rheems, Center of Hope Community Church

Pastor Daniel Stevens, GreaterNew Life COGIC

Pastor Joseph Thomas, New Hope COGIC

Bishop Joseph Nobles, Dancey Memorial COGIC

Pastor Edwin Brown, Market Street Seventh Day Adventist

Bishop J.E. Watkins, Jack London Square Chapel COGIC

Rev. Kenneth Anderson, Williams Chapel MBC

Rev. Germaine Anderson, People’s MBC

Bishop Marcel Robinson, Perfecting Ministries

Pastor K J Williams, New Beginnings Church

Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Captain, Glad Tidings

Bishop George Matthews, Genesis Worship Center

Rev. Dr. David Franklin, Wings of Love SDA Church

Bishop Anthony Willis, Lily of the Valley Christian Center

Bishop L E Franklin, Starlight Cathedral

Rev. Dr. Sylvester Rutledge, North Oakland MBC

Pastor Raymond Lankford, MSW, Voices of Hope Community Church

Minister Candi Thornton, Arsola House Ministries

Rev. Dr. Joseph Jones, Alpha and Omega Ministries

Superintendent Dan Phillips, Greater Grace Temple, COGIC

Individuals:

Walter Riley, Attorney at Law

Corrina Gould, Tribal chair of Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Ohlone

Zach Norris, Open Society Foundation Fellow

Raymond Bobbitt, Business

Doug Blacksher

Terryn Niles Buxton, business

Lauren Cherry, School Administrator

Allene Warren 

Nirali Jani, PhD, Professor of Education

Frankie Ramos, PhD, community organizer

Henry Hitz, Educator

Sheryl Walton, Community Organizer

Vincent Tolliver, Musician

Eleanor Stovall, Educator

Kitty Kelly Epstein, PhD, Professor of Urban Studies, and Education

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