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Trump wants the Puerto Rico people off the Island

Profits vs. Puerto Rican Lives: Trump Admin Blocks Aid from Reaching Devastated Island 

One week after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump says he will visit the island next Tuesday, even as most of the 3.5 million U.S. citizens who live there remain in the dark, without access to power, clean water, food and fuel. Facing withering criticism, Trump held a press conference Tuesday and denied he has neglected the disaster. His administration also denied a request from several members of Congress to waive shipping restrictions to help get gasoline and other supplies to Puerto Rico as it recovers, even though the Department of Homeland Security waived the Jones Act twice in the last month following hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which hit the mainland United States. We speak with Democracy Now! co-host Juan González and with former New York State Assemblyman Nelson Denis, who wrote about the Jones Act in The New York Times this week in a piece headlined “The Law Strangling Puerto Rico.” His book is called “War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony.”

What self-made millionaire Marcus Lemonis learned when he visited crisis-ridden Puerto Rico 

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Marcus Lemonis in “The Profit in Puerto Rico: An American Crisis”

When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, the U.S. territory suffered a nearly complete loss of running water, electricity and access to food or healthcare.

Despite the handful of relief efforts by different organizations, the lack of government support amid the disaster has further delayed the island’s recovery.

American self-made millionaire and philanthropist Marcus Lemonis typically showcases small businesses he helps turn around on CNBC’s “The Profit,” but he follows a different approach on this week’s special episode, The Profit in Puerto Rico: An American Crisis.”

Six weeks after the natural disaster, Lemonis visited the hurricane-ravaged island to see the damage for himself and get his friends out of there. He expected he would see recovery on the island, but what he saw instead left him “stunned.”
“For the 3.5 million people here — American citizens — this is nothing less than a humanitarian crisis,” Lemonis said.
After exploring Puerto Rico’s capital and the centrally based municipality Utuado, Lemonis encountered these three facets of life in Puerto Rico that led him to declare Puerto Rico a “war zone.”

The Profit in Puerto Rico: An American Crisis

Persistent medical professionals

Lemonis visited the Puerto Rico National Guard base in Utuado, where members are working to help some of the hardest hit regions of the island.

Volunteering with the National Guard are three medical workers — a psychologist, nurse and doctor — who travel for more than half a day at a time to reach only a handful of sickly patients who are stranded at their homes.

“They started as strangers; now they call themselves the three musketeers united by Hurricane Maria,” Lemonis said.

The illnesses the medical workers said they have seen the most include respiratory issues, hypertension, diabetes and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“As the days without power wear on, some people are losing hope,” Lemonis said, while “depression, anxiety and suicides are on the rise.”

After watching the doctors treat an elderly woman who suffers from high blood pressure and needs surgery, Lemonis admitted he had difficulty watching.

“Someone like her could be our grandmother, or our mother, our neighbor, how do you mentally — I mean, honestly I couldn’t — like, it was hard for me to be there. Honestly, how do you do it?” Lemonis said.

“How do you not break down? Is there hope?” Lemonis later asked.

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Marcus Lemonis in “The Profit in Puerto Rico: An American Crisis”

“There’s always hope,” one said. “Help needs to continue. What is important is to show that really this is the other side. many people have seen the devastation. But few people have seen that we are really working.” To read more to to the link blow:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/26/what-marcus-lemonis-learned-when-he-visited-puerto-rico.html

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