For Mother Jones, Al Vicens interviews San Juan, Puerto Rico Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. An excerpt:
Mother Jones: It’s been a little over two months since the hurricane struck. Do you have any perspective on the disaster?
Carmen Yulín Cruz: No one in Puerto Rico will ever be the same as they were [before] September 20. Our priorities have changed. The things that we put emphasis on have changed. The way we see our future is no longer distant but is here and now. We have been left with a sense of being unable to get off the starting block and getting on with the race. Last week the power went out completely on the island. Yesterday the power went out completely on the island. Today the power went out about half of what it was before. It seems like we haven’t been able to have a sustained effort that will, on a continuous basis, provide us with a steady pace of, I wouldn’t call it recovery, but I’d call it transformation.
MJ: How long do you think it will take to get back to normal?
CYC: We will never be back to that normal. We’re going to have to fight our way to find a new normal. Things like being unable to get our power back does not help because when we’re talking about power we’re not talking about an electric grid. We’re talking about the ability of children to go to school. We’re talking about the ability of people that are connected to life-support systems to live. We’re talking about the ability of doctors to operate in circumstances that are conducive to an appropriate level of health care. We’re talking about the motor that jump-starts our economy. [...]
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QUOTATION
“A day will come in your lifetime when the Earth, your mother, will beg you, with tears running, to save her. Ho, if you fail to help her, you and all people will die like dogs. Remember this.”
~Hollow Horn (Lakota), 1929, as recounted in Black Hills, White Justice: The Sioux Nation versus the United States, 1775 to the Present (1991)
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2003—Keep Bush off the CA, WV and IL ballots:
Rove decided on a September convention to maximize two political advantages -- the ability to spend "primary" funds as late as possible, before federal limits apply, and to squeeze out every drop of political blood from 9-11. (Words chosen carefully.)
Problem is, several states have filing deadlines for presidential candidates earlier in the year. One of them is Illinois.
State Dems have agreed to amend the law by forcing state House Republicans to waive election fines against a host of Democratic officeholders and to agree that "dimpled chads" should be counted. Those may be laudable things, but...
What the heck are Illinois Democrats thinking?
Would the GOP be so accommodating -- they of the mid-decade redistricting in three states. Screw the bastards. They made a crass political decision to stage a late primary, they should now suffer the consequences.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Hmm. Roy Moore. That reminds me, isn’t there a big name in DC who’s also a serial sexual harasser? Greg Dworkin remembers who it is, then shares top picks for big issue long reads for the holiday. Some of these Trump “populists” are serious weirdos, man.
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